|
Kumaton posted:The little touch of the frog with glasses and striped tie is so delightfully petty. Yeah, screw Harry Potter, it's Witch Girls Adventures' time to shine! And why do I care? 
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2016 02:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 23:23 |
|
|
 Pathfinder Bestiary: Carnivorous Blob to Crysmal Carnivorous Blob (CR 13 Colossal Ooze) An homage to a certain Cold War horror movie you might know of, the carnivorous blob is a giant red blob that rolls around and consumes any fleshy bits that happen to get in its way. Like the monster of the 1958 film, the carnivorous blob is vulnerable to the cold. Also like the monster of the 1958 film, "some sages" (the unnamed sages being a cliché from AD&D that also made its way into Pathfinder) believe that these oozes come to Golarion via meteorite. Being absorbed, constricted, or even just hit by the 8d6 damage pseudopod of a carnivorous blob also deals 1d4 Constitution drain, so good luck with that.  Catoblepas (CR 12 Large Magical Beast) The catoblepas comes to us courtesy of Pliny the Elder, everyone's favorite weird Greek uncle with a thousand stories to tell. Said to be a native of mysterious Ethiopia, the catoblepas was an ugly bull-like beast with a head so heavy it could barely pick it up. Depending on which Greco-Roman philosopher you asked, the catoblepas could poison you, turn you to stone, or outright kill you with either its gaze or its rancid breath. It is believed that antelopes of the genus Connochaetes, known as wildebeests or gnu, are the origin of the legend of the catoblepas, since they don't have murder-breath but do resemble bovines and keep their large and heavy heads to the ground much of the time as they forage. Fortunately for players, Pathfinder has taken the poison breath route with their catoblepas; less fortunately, it's also given them some new non-mythological traits that make them nastier foes. Not only are Pathfinder's catoblepas ravenous omnivores rather than herbivores, they are also sapient (5 Intelligence, so just below an ogre in IQ), actively enjoying bullying other creatures and even actively killing off large groups of small animals with their poison breath just so that other predators can't get anything to eat. A catoblepas will even pick a fight with something as big and nasty as a froghemoth or black dragon without any concern for the mismatch in power. The only thing you can do to keep one from picking a fight with you is to either run away or act in a submissive manner so that the catoblepas is assured you respect its authority. Centipedes With their numerous legs, slithering chitinous bodies, and large fangs laden with venom, it's understandable that some people have their phobia boxes checked pretty hard by centipedes. The two centipedes here are fleshed out versions of two of the "we only have room for this 1/2 HD man-sized centipede and a swarm, have some names with HD and size categories you can go stat up for yourself if you really want to" sidebar from the first Pathfinder Bestiary. The giant whiptail centipede (CR 3 Huge Vermin) is a giant carrion-eating centipede whose tails (actually modified legs if we're going to be pedantic about centipede biology, but whatever) deal nonlethal damage but also get instant trip attempts because they are long and whip-like, while the titan centipede (CR 9 Colossal Vermin) is a ridiculously massive predatory centipede that lives in the deepest jungles of the far corners of the map. Shame they're only CR 9, I could only imagine good things could come from having a titan centipede and one of the kaiju from Pathfinder Bestiary 4 getting into a fight if they were actually on even ground. Chaos Beast (CR 7 Medium Outsider [Extraplanar]) Chaos beasts were horrific writhing Things That Should Not Be from the plane of Limbo in AD&D's Planescape setting, appearing in constantly shifting guises anywhere from monstrous oozes to grizzled birds of prey without rhyme or reason, memorable enough that they made their way into the Third Edition Monster Manual. Here, they are sort of a monster without a home, keeping the Extraplanar subtype but not assigned to any plane and given an illustration not unlike any other number of slimy PB1 creeps like the shoggoths or gibbering mouthers. Indeed, the entire entry of fluff concerning them is two sentences long – one noting constantly reforming shapes, and one on the fact that all their attacks count as claw attacks even if they sprout something that looks like a mouth/stinger/whatever. Their trademark offensive move is still an infectious curse applied to their claw attack that, if the DC 17 Fortitude save against it is failed, deals a point of Wisdom drain per round and transforms the victim into a big goopy blob of shapeless sponge-like material. This removes any spellcasting or item use, reduces speed to 10 feet, and causes the victim to blindly attack anything near them, be it friend or foe. A DC 15 Will save allows the victim to keep their normal shape for a minute's time, but unless they shake off the disease with three consecutive successful Fortitude saves, their fate is ultimately to permanently become a spongeblob once their Wisdom score drains to 1. Charda (CR 7 Small Monstrous Humanoid [Aquatic]) The chardas are a completely new race for Pathfinder, though not one intended for player consumption for a variety of reasons that will become clear soon enough. They are reptilian humanoids with thick crocodylian scutes, four arms with very large talons, and snake-like heads that live in extremely cold subterranean rivers and lakes. Charda tribes are reclusive, rarely straying from small territories around their huts of rock and mud built either underwater or just on the shore. Charda society is a vicious one, with infanticide and cannibalism being regular fare, Aklo (the Lovecraftian language of things like aboleths and Great Old Ones) as their native language, worship of war and cold-themed deities being a must, social status being determined by how effective at physical violence one is, and assistance in battle being seen as dishonorable to both charda and target, all of which makes it kind of surprising that they are marked as being a Chaotic Neutral race. While the chardas have human intellects, they don't seem to have found any use for weaponry or tools, fighting with their bite and claw attacks. They also get an 8d6 cold damage breath weapon that can be modified to come out as either a sixty foot line or thirty foot cone.  Charybdis (CR 13 Gargantuan Aberration [Aquatic]) 60 feet (which should put it in size Colossal, but oh well) of mean, hungry, and slightly sapient isopod. As a bit of a wink and a nod to its Greek origins, the fluff states that sailors are so terrified of the charybdis that many of them believe that it is a singular beast created by an angry sea god, even though they are actually just simplistic ambush predators. Most charbdyis meals come in the form of sharks and whales, but they have learned that shipping channels happen to mean large groups of humanoids moving through on conveniently sinkable wooden ships, and thus often set up shop in straits and channels that are used for oceanic commerce. Since their bite and claw attacks only deal 2d8 and 2d6 damage respectively, charybdis mainly rely on their ability to create whirlpools to wear down ships. ...Wait, the whirlpool only deals 2d6 a round as well. gently caress. Chupacabra (CR 3 Small Magical Beast) The story of El Chupacabras, "the sucker of goats", goes back to the distant past of the 1990s, when Puerto Rico experienced a rash of sightings of a strange humanoid monster that looked vaguely like a Gray alien with digitigrade legs, spines down its back, and an arsenal of claws and teeth it used to supposedly exsanguinate local livestock. In the time since, the creature has been purportedly seen in other Latin and South American countries, and in the United States it has mutated into a hairless dog monster instead of a toothy Graylien for whatever reason. There's been a claim by professional skeptic Benjamin Radford that the entire Chupacabras flap originated with the 1995 horror movie species, which probably did indeed contribute but only as an augment of existing vampire lore and lingering Cold War-era conspiracy fears. But enough about that, on to the actual Pathfinder entry. The chupacabra (sans the ending S as per popular American parlance) here is neither a monstrous extraterrestrial nor a mangy mutt, but instead a creature that looks like an anthropomorphic iguana with particularly long fangs. They are primarily solitary ambush predators that leap from rocky outcrops or tall grass to grapple prey and pierce their necks, draining them of blood. The chupacabra's blood drain has the secondary effect of granting it the effects of the Haste spell for ten rounds per successful siphoning. Particularly fertile hunting grounds sometimes lead to chupacabras hunting in packs, which are bold enough to actively attack whole farms or groups of traveling humanoids. Some random mutant chupacabras have wings on their backs and like to try to carry off goats and small children. Cockroaches Giant cockroaches (CR ½ Small Vermin) are dog-sized cockroaches that typically only attack with their weak mandibles if they are either scared or starving. Also mentioned are the CR 1 Medium giant hissing cockroach, CR 3 Large venomroach, CR 6 Huge spitting cockroach, CR 9 Gargantuan sawback cockroach, and CR 12 Colossal dragonroach, but like with the first Pathfinder Bestiary's giant vermin entries these are only given a name, size, total hit dice, and Challenge Rating with no information or stat block to give any more context for their sometimes strange names. There are also cockroach swarms (CR 2 Diminutive Vermin [Swarm]), which are swarms of vicious flesh-eating cockroaches that swarm over prey – usually rotting meat, but they are said to be willing to attack things as large as elephants – and rip it to shreds. Crawling Hand (CR ½ Diminutive Undead) Severed humanoid hands that have been animated by a necromancer to do any number of tasks, most of which involve raking with their claw-like fingernails or choking someone. They are based on the classic D&D monster known as the crawling claw, which Paizo apparently didn't know was Open Game Content via d20 Modern's Menace Manual since they didn't use them straight up. One thing crawling hands have that crawling claws don't, however, is the ability to cast Locate Creature on a specific individual once they are anointed with a drop of their blood. A variant of the crawling hand also presented here is the giant crawling hand (CR 5 medium Undead), which is the human-sized hand of some colossus that has become particularly rank. This advanced rotted status means that using a non-reach piercing or slashing melee weapon on it forces a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid a spewing blast of pus that causes 1d3 rounds of nausea and 2d6 negative energy damage. Crypt Thing (CR 5 Medium Undead) Is it possible to have a non-evil undead? Apparently not in Paizoland, as the formerly True Neutral crypt thing of 1E's Fiend Folio, 2E's Monstrous Manual, and 3E's Tome of Horrors has been realigned to be Neutral Evil. Exactly why is baffling, because the crypt thing still has the same role here as it did in earlier editions. It's a skeletal undead created specifically to protect burial sites from interlopers of any stripe. A crypt thing sits motionless and inert most of the time, refusing to interact with others even if they attempt to address it personally. If the area or burial object it is said to guard (or the crypt thing itself) is attacked or otherwise disturbed, though, it springs to life and creates a 50 foot radius burst of energy that teleports anyone that fails a DC 16 Will save 1d10x100 feet away from the guarded area/object. If the interlopers resist the teleport burst but still don't get the hint, the crypt thing begins slashing away with its clawed fingers.  Crysmal (CR 3 Small Outsider [Earth, Elemental]) A psionic scorpion-shaped rock elemental that appeared in 1E'S Monster Manual II, 2E's Al-Qadim setting, and 3E's Psionics Handbook and SRD, the crysmal appears once again in Pathfinder Bestiary 2, albeit now with a bit of a facelift. Since the Pathfinder devs have an aversion to point-based psionics, the crysmal instead has become a casting creature that manifests spell-like abilities such as Detect Magic, Dimension Door, Mage Hand, and Touch of Idiocy. A crysmal can also launch its stinger as a projectile to deal 3d6 piercing damage to its immediate target and 1d4 piercing damage to all creatures in adjacent squares to said target. These are only defensive measures, however, as crysmals feed on gemstones and do very little else with their lives or their 6 Intelligence. If you say "hey, a gem-eating monster sounds like a way to be a poo poo about treasure," you're probably not wrong. Next time in Pathfinder Bestiary 2: D is for daemons, dragons, and drakes. Many monsters of this letter, bringing death in their wakes.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2016 21:07
|
|
|
Adnachiel posted:So basically, "they just can't now shut up". Yeah, the Steampunker niche seems to be just another way of enforcing the idea of "this is a nebulous pseudoscience gizmo that only works for its handler" that various other RPGs have also used, simply given an unnecessarily vague name to it. Dr. Demon posted:It's not that other people can't use their stuff - they just don't want to use it because that steampunk poo poo is embarrassing. wdarkk posted:They hurt their hands on the unnecessary gears.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2016 07:10
|
|
|
  Chapter 4: the Lands of Yrth, Part 1 – Megalos After being built up since the introduction, we finally get to dive headfirst into learning about the Megalan Empire. The banners of Megalos bear a great dragon upon them, which is meant to signify their power and status but is just as easily turned around to poke fun at their greed and sloth. Geography The climate and habitats of most of Megalos line up with that of western Europe. Wow, isn't that just convenient? There are a fair amount of rivers criss-crossing its length, as well as the huge Lake Styx and Lake Acheron, the two of which are the main barriers between Megalos and the Northlands. The fertile east and south and the dry but liveable west are all heavily populated, but central and northern Megalos are frontier wilderness that the empire technically owns but doesn't control in the slightest. History A lot of the history of the Megalan Empire was covered in the introductory chapter, but we get a refresher anyway. Simon Menelaus founded the city of Megalos and the Empire in 1200 AD with the explicit goal of world domination, easily gobbling up a lot of the Banestorm immigrants stuck in distress and disarray. The only two obstacles that seemed to be of any concern were the goblins, who were absorbed througha religious takeover, and the Knights Hospitallers in their citadel of New Jerusalem. Warlord Octavius Magnus convinced the Hospitallers that the savage Mohammedans to the south were a greater threat than the Megalan Empire could ever be, and a union of the two forced followed by the First Ytarrian Crusade began as a result. The Muslim tribes, in turn, threw down their plowshares and took up the sword, unifying their tribes into the three nations of al-Haz, al-Wazif, and al-Kard. As the Crusades waged on, al-Kard fell to the invaders and the other two Muslim nations were pushed back into holding their existing territory rather than gaining ground. Things seemed to be all sunshine and roses for Megalos for over a century. Then came the war against Thulin's Folk, the dwarves of Zarak. Not only did the dwarves prove more than capable of defending themselves, but the nobles of Megalos were too embroiled in a fight over who would get the dwarven territories and treasure once the war was over to notice that their greed was alienating the Knights Hospitaller. Realizing that this was a war for money rather than a holy war, the Hospitallers declared that they were taking their ball and going home, at which point the dwarves utterly smashed in the last remaining invaders. To make things even worse, the Northmen had been keeping an eye on all the events playing out in Megalos, and decided that it would be a great time to make raids in its northern reaches. The massive In the time since then, Megalos gained the island territory of Araterre, gained and then proceeded to lose the western land of Caithness, and lost Cardiel. Two more Crusades were attempted, both of which failed, and centuries of political infighting have no real end in sight. Emperor Diophrates XII is engaging in Caligula levels of indulgence and savagery, to the point that the Church is getting ready to excommunicate him, but he seems to have no care for their wishes or matters of rule. This has allowed various nobles to engage in tyrannical local rules or begin plotting the Emperor's downfall and their own rise to power, while the Empire goes to poo poo around them without anyone in power who seems to care. Society Megalan society is ruled by a feudal system beneath the autocratic rule of the Emperor. Its nobles are petty and vain, seeing the former territories of Caithness and Cardiel as lovely backwaters that they totally didn't need anyway – Cardiens even allow Muslim citizens and female warriors, how absolutely yokel of them. In game terms, this means that Caithnesser and Cardien nobles receive Reputation -1 (Too Tolerant of Inferiors) when dealing with Megalan nobles. Social Status The caste you were born in is probably the one you'll die in. Even great feats of valor usually won't bat an eye in Megalan society, though giving the nobility obscene shitloads of money can propel you into being an aristocrat. The social strata of the Megalan people has beggars and slaves at the bottom, serfs and urban rogues above them, villeins and townsmen above the last set, craftsmen, merchants, ship captains, and squires above that, governors, mayors, guildmasters/guildmistresses, and unlanded knights/dames above that, landed knights/dames and lesser barons/baronesses above that, viscounts/viscountesses and senior barons/baronesses above that, earls, counts/countesses, and marquesses/marchionesses above that, dukes/duchesses and princes/princesses above that, imperial consorts or heirs to the throne above that, and the Emperor at the top. Nonhumans One of the few areas where the Megalan Empire hasn't dropped the ball, most nonhuman races aren't discriminated against or unwelcome. Goblins and halflings are both common in Megalos, the former in the city and the latter out in the country, and there are a handful of elves where there are still untamed forests. Dwarves, though, have the memories of elephants and the grudge-bearing capacity of a hundred teenagers, and will never forget or forgive the unprovoked attack on Thulin's Folk. If dwarves are even willing to trade merchandise with Megalans, it is always of stock built to subpar standards (which still means pretty decently-made when it comes to dwarven standards, but still). Magic Megalos is wizard country. Even tiny villages have them, and at the top of the social ladder you have aristocracy that are either wizards, directly advised by wizards, or dead because they weren't smart enough to hire a wizard to keep them from wizard-induced death. Many of the nation's Emperors have also been powerful wizards, and Mage's Guilds hold a lot of political clout in the Megalan nobility. The Legions Megalos's Imperial Legions are the largest standing army in all of Ytarria. Each legion is made up of a mass of professionally-trained soldiers, commoners, and freed slaves that have all been trained in use of polearms, longspears, and crossbows. The fact that the Imperial Legions even allow serfs and slaves a chance at a free life makes the whole affair an enticing proposition in spite of the danger involved, and it is not uncommon for particularly driven commoners and former slaves to rise in the ranks and become officers that are below only their commander and the Emperor in military rank. The commander of a legion can be either a soldier or a nobleman's son whose family had enough money to get him the position, the former tending to be vastly more effective on the battlefield for obvious reasons, and in times of war each legion is assigned a group of knight cavalry and a corps of battle mages to augment their infantry. Particularly influential noble lords have their own private legions that they will sometimes fight each other with when they are having yet another squabble. This is technically illegal, but most of the time the governing forces turn a blind eye to private legion vs. private legion death matches. The Law Slavery, torture, and death are the most popular capital punishments in Megalos. If you're rich enough, you can bribe yourself out of pretty much anything short of treason. Slavery While it's technically prohibited for a Christian to enslave another Christian, that can be wiped clean with a convenient excommunication. As a result, many criminals, prisoners of war, and people who are politically inconvenient to someone in the nobility create a wealth of slavery that is widespread across the Empire. Most slaves are either owned by nobles for whatever whims they desire or toil in labor camps for mining, logging, or farming. It is illegal to free a slave without the express permission of the Imperial nobility, which is almost impossible unless you gut your way through the gladiator games or happen to have a lot of creative or magical talent. Megalan Arenas These are fairly common due to Simon Menelaus's whole Rome fetish. For the nobility, either hosting gladiatoral games or having your own sponsored gladiator is not just recommended, it's practically required to avoid being seen as socially inept. They tend to do all the bloody things that Roman gladiatorial games did, plus magic duels. Names in Megalos Human commoners have names that are typically either Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Norman in origin, with an epithet based on place of birth, occupation, or a physical or personality trait rather than a surname – some examples given include John o' the Lake, Merid Redlocks, Carre Half-Elven, and Adolph Ear-Puller. Goblin commoners still use goblin names, one of the only remnants of their heritage they have kept. Nobles of both species use Latin names with their fiefdom acting as their last name. The Ministry of Serendipity Because of course these assholes get a whole segment dedicated to them. You might recall that the Ministry of Serendipity is the group of fanatical jack-booted thugs who stomp down any attempts to introduce technology they don't like to Ytarria. While this is a fact, it's a fact that only the people oppressed by them and the nobility actually know. The Ministry's official purposes it to defend Megalos from extradimensional threats, and its actions and even the identity of its members are strictly on the down low. The Offices The Ministry is run by the Chancellor of Serendipity, under which there are three Captains of Serendipity. All four of these guys have their positions for life, unless they want to retire (and probably get put under suspicion by the very organization they once aided). The three Captains head the three specific offices of the Ministry. The Office of Acquisition is the Ministry's customs inspection wing who track down and take anything that happens to come through a new Banestorm when one pops up, the Office of Truths are the propagandists and brainwashers, and the Office of Records holds a vast library of all the knowledge that the Ministry suppresses. Dark Secrets The "dark secret" in this paragraph is that the Ministry is insanely paranoid and not actually all that loyal to the Emperor, which seems less like a dark secret and more really obvious. Serendipitous Games You can play members of the Ministry if you really want to, but for obvious reasons they are intended to be a villain for your campaign. "Ministries" of Other Lands The Ministry of Serendipity isn't the only group to check out weird things that pop out of Banestorms. There are also the Silver Hand in Caithness, the Chaplaincy of St. Andrew in Cardiel, the Office of Harmony and Thunder in Sahud, the Roving Inspectors in al-Wazif, and an unnammed shadowy group in al-Haz. This aside is probably more noteworthy for the fact that it actively addresses the whole "everyone is against guns" thing again, but this time doesn't point its fingers at the wizards. Instead, it suggests that there is a greater conspiracy afoot, one bigger than any of the separate nations. Different underground engineers have different opinions on who the conspiracy is; depending on who you ask, it's either some ethnic minority group, the Jesuits, the djinn, or the dragons.  Megalos, Capital of the Empire The seat of the nation and empire of Megalos is the city of the same name (which I'll refer to as Megalos City to avoid more confusion than need be). It is a bustling port city of 400,000 people, with a wide variety of human races and species all intermingling. It's also filled with all sorts of action: GURPS Banestorm posted:Megalos has never been peaceful. As the capital, it is plagued by conflict between court factions. Assassinations are commonplace, and the knights and men-at-arms of opposing nobles fight duels and brawls in the city’s streets. Corruption extends from the top to the bottom; the alleys hold cutthroats who would kill their mothers for two coppers. History Since it was founded by Simon Menelaus himself as the first stepping stone in his path to empire, Megalos City's history goes back all the way to 1200. It was a pretty big deal back in the day, with extensive sewers and city walls created by Menelaus II in 1290 AD and massive towers, marble architectures, and paved stone streets by the 1400s. Other big events in its history include the establishment of the Order of the Archangel Michael and purging of all non-Christians from the city in 1412, the design of a new palace in 1630 by Titus II, and the construction of a new city wall five miles past the original one by Metellus IV in the late 1800s. Layout and Architecture As noted before, Megalos City is a port city, with its heart surrounding the mouth of New River Jordan as it meets the Megalan Ocean. The area between the original city wall and its new wall host most of the well-to-do nobility, the Great Arena, and barracks for the First and Second Imperial Legions, while the areas within the old wall and either just inside or outside the new wall are where all the unsightly poor people and workers' guilds are pushed to. Government The Emperor is a hereditary monarch whose word is absolute, and all decisions come from either him or his retinue of high-ranking nobles and church leaders known as the Assembly. There is no local government beyond some civil service workers pulled from the Church and lower ranked nobles. Defense of the city is mostly in the hands of the city watch, who are decently paid but ultimately crushed by the nature of the city. Watchmen are kiss-asses to the nobles and accept any bribe because they know that to not do so would be flirting with the hangman's noose, and likewise are typically abusive to commoners as a way of letting off steam. Criminal investigations are handled by the Order of the Archangel Michael, and people who are indicted by them typically don't see the light of day ever again. The Emperor's personal guard is made up of reptile men dubbed the True Dragons. This rather odd arrangement is due to an event centuries ago when a shrewd Emperor freed a thousand reptile man slaves and told them to have their way with an island that the Imperial Legions had been unable to conquer on their own. Grateful for the seeming act of benevolence, the reptile men of that island have had members of their people loyally serve the Emperor as his guard ever since. The True Dragons are unwaveringly loyal to the Emperor, inured to bribery (and are allowed to eat people who attempt to bribe them!), and are baptized Catholics. The current leader of the True Dragons is Captain Ah'ziranthl Dgansis Rextlyin, a strong and scarred warrior who's been on the job for two decades at this point. Finally, there's the Emperor himself, Diophrates XII. Or at least that's who he looks like, but looks can be deceiving. Sixteen years ago, Grandmaster Jordan Siegebraker of the Knights Templar and an unnamed but influential Jesuit arranged to have Diophrates murdered by a demon. The demon, named Xuvutruobacaoly, turned out to be ridiculously powerful and also capable of transmuting himself and others. Xuvu took the form of the Emperor and reshaped the Emperor into his own demonic visage, killed him, and then framed the Emperor's head court wizard for the demon summoning. As a result, the official story of the whole event is that the duplicitous court wizard attempted a bid at power, but was stopped by Jordan Siegebreaker's valiant slaying of the demon in order to save Diophrates XII. Xuvu is an incredibly lovely ruler and hedonistic to a fault, but apparently the real Diophrates XII was garbage enough that nobody other than Captain Rextlyin finds anything odd about it. Factions While the Emperor is theoretically the most powerful man in Megalos City and the Megalan Empire in general, his power base is actually small and getting smaller by the year. An archbishop by the name of Sosius has been gathering up clergy who feel that it's probably a good idea to just axe "Diophrates" before he does even more damage with his thoughtless hedonism than he already has, while Diophrate's son Prince Miltiades and a large group of nobles who have pooled around him plan on doing the same thing for similar reasons. Jordan Siegebreaker and his Templars are the only people who aren't actively gunning for Xuvu's head, instead working to cover up the whole affair and keep the perceptions of the Emperor outside of Megalos City far brighter than they actually are. Citizenry Half of the population of Megalos City is human, and another 40% is a mixture of goblins and halflings. That final 10% is a clusterfuck of every other sapient race, and I do mean every one: even medusas, minotaurs, ogres, and orcs can be found in Megalos City. Almost everyone in the city is of the Catholic Christian persuasion, with anyone otherwise being either a visitor to the port or quietly keeping to themselves. Places of Interest Like politics? There's three spots you can head off to on your tour. The current Imperial Palace is a mishmash of architecture that looks aesthetically hideous, the Assembly Hall is a Gothic wonder, and the original palace of Menelaus is an aging and patched-over shadow of its former glory that acts as the headquarters of groups less important than the True Dragons, Emperor, and Assembly. If books are more your thing and you aren't a villein or lower on the social ladder, the well-crafted Imperial Library is decorated with unicorn and griffon statues and houses so many scrolls, maps, and books that you need help from a librarian to find most things. Sports fans can see the Great Arena, the Megalan knockoff of the Colosseum of Rome, which holds various gladiatorial spectacles and a biannual event called the Grand Elimination that involves 160 prisoners fighting to the death. Finally, while not exactly somewhere you probably want to go yourself, there are miles and miles of sewers beneath the city. The Midlands Hidelban Hidelban is a duchy littered with streams and creeks, as well as the clean and clear River Bressel. It provides a fair amount of the agriculture that feeds the Empire, but it has a darker side in that its Duke, a young man named Cuin, seems to have an insatiable appetite for more land and power that seems to be spurred on by his advisor, Lord Claudius Maskill. The truth is that Maskill is a 299 year old vampire mage that has made Cuin into his puppet. While once trapped away in the 1700s when a knight trapped him in a crypt surrounded by a stream, one drought and a curious girl breaking into his tomb was all it took to get him back into the game of being a monstrous schemer who plans on taking on the Emperor. Maskill suspects that the Emperor is a demon, because "evil knows evil" according to the text, and he might actually be able to pull it off; while only the first character with an actual stat block so far, he is one of the strongest overall, with 525 points to his name. Hunt Tower and the Emperor's Forest As the private hunting grounds of the Emperor and the traditional fiefdom of the princes of Megalos (since it's hard to raise a rebellious army when you don't have any sapient subjects in your land), the Emperor's Forest is a place where poaching is punishable by death and wildlife thrives. Hunt Tower is a five story tall stone tower that acts as both a hunting lodge and feasting hall where nobles get to feed on rare magical beasts. Hunt Tower is lead by the Imperial Huntsman, Marquis Honore Bourmont, who is probably the best unstatted NPC we've been told about so far because he has helping with Prince Miltaides's plans for usurping the throne by capturing and training monsters to attack the Emperor. Mehan The duchy of Mehan has grown rich on the trade and fishing from Lake Acheron, which it almost exclusively holds land around. Copper ore from the Whitehood Mountains, grains and mustard from fertile farms, and sheep's wool augment this already lucractive land. The city of Mehan itself also has the distinction of being the location of the elaborately-crafted St. Paul's Cathedral, where the Curia meets for its conclaves and various Catholics make pilgrimages to. Unfortunately for the pious folk, the heresy of the Manites has been quickly gaining hold in Mehan, which has the Mehanese archbishop Vittius in a fit of rage. The Northern Marches Leaving the cities and farming towns in the northern reaches of Megalos is a horrible idea, because nature has it in for you. Vast moors and pine forests are home to bears, boars, nightstalkers (giant nocturnal bears), treetippers (a fantasy name for the Pleistocene giant ground sloth Megatherium), and wolves, while its icy waters are home to sea monsters such as krakens. Azer A port city on the eastern island of Dyecastle, Azer is home of the Templar College of Battle Magic, where wizards of the Knightly Orders and the Imperial Legions are trained in the art of magical combat. There is also a large Jesuit mission on the college grounds, which was created as an attempt to learn of any weird magical traditions the Jesuits might have but ended up failing to open up their lips on such subjects. Kethalos The county of Kethalos is up in the northwest corners of Megalos and is built along the Johns River. The city of Kethalos probabl wouldn't look too out of place in Skyrim, with numerous timber buildings supplemented by a handful of stone ones and a large fishing fleet. Count Darius is a skilled knight who is famed for having driven back Northmen raiders in the 1990s, but is far better at fighting and hunting than he is at actually ruling. His lack of managerial skills have only emboldened the Northmen, who have begun to engage in more and more raids of towns on the northern fringe of the county. Myrdec This city is at the edge of the Yrth equivalent of the Arctic Circle and relies heavily on trade with the Nomad Lands and Sahud for its livelihood. Former merchant's guild leader Baron Walsham Markant has helped Myrdec become the prosperous hub of trade that it is, and under his benevolent leadership the largest population of Sahudese people outside of Sahud has grown up within the snow-flecked walls of the city. Unfortunately, some particularly racist Megalan merchants have become angry that a lot of business goes through the Sahud parts of town before their own, which has lead to increasing tensions: GURPS Banestorm posted:Attempts to intimidate the Sahudese traders verbally are met with feigned if polite incomprehension. The few instances of actual violence have been repelled by stunningly effective martial arts and occasional magic. The situation is on the verge of deteriorating into outright war. Teridar Teridar is a city known for hosting one of the few Thomasite hospitals in Ytarria, having mild winters thanks to its location nestled within a river valley flanked by a cove, and also having lots of slaves. Earl Sigmund Bonus uses his large slave population to both work one of the largest lumber operations in Megalos and host some of the most elaborate gladiatorial games outside Megalos City. The slaves are now plotting revolt, as the Earl's requests for freeing slaves that win in his gladiatorial games are being mysteriously refused by the Emperor time and time again. The City of the Dead Legends say that there is an island city of necromancers and undead monstrosities somewhere in the vast waters of Lake Styx. Does it really exist? Nobody knows, because no one ever comes back with proof and the only supposedly reliable records of the city are kept by the Ministry of Serendipity. The Southlands The Southlands enjoy a pleasant Mediterranean climate and fertile fields that allow cotton, grapes, and olives to grow easily. The Southlands also enjoy a lot of settled land and few dangerous predators. Basically, the Southlands are everything the Northern Marches aren't. Dekamera Yet another big, important port city, Dekamera enjoys trade with other parts of the Empire, Cardiel, and al-Wazif. That last one is rather surprising, as it is stated that the late Earl Gavin Magnus loved throwing his fleet of privateers right into Wazifi towns. His son, Taveon, was captured during one of these raids, and Magnus died before he was released. As a result, in spite of being treated as a guest rather than a prisoner by the Wazifi people and returned home after the Frontier Wars, Taveon hates the Wazifis and plans on starting the privateer raids back up again. Ekhans While the duchy of Ekhans has been made rich on cattle ranches, plantations, and vineyards, it has fallen on an unexpected blight in recent days. At least five dragons make raids on the vast cattle grazing grounds in the dead of night, stealing away the most healthy and valuable members of the herds. No one knows why they are doing this or even where their lair is, so it seems that the raids will continue for the foreseeable future. Min At the very bottom of the mainland holdings of Megalos, Min has the misfortune of being situated in rocky land that isn't conducive to farming and bordered by shallow ocean that cannot harbor large merchant ships. Its people struggle to survive on fishing, clam diving, and ranches that raise milkfish (manatees and dugongs). Min has also become a haven for pirates, as it is both a key staging point for raids of major shipping lanes and a convenient place to spend coin at the end of the day. Baron Martignac of Min allows the pirates to keep doing what they do because of the fact that their revelrous spending is helping his city and barony keep afloat far better than the nearly nonexistent aid from his Empire has. Serrun The hold of Archbishop Nikolai of Serrun, this city thrives thanks to its wildly successful vineyards and cotton plantations. The fact that is on a rocky cliff face means that its trade is mostly done overland rather than by sea. The greatest difficulty for Serrun is that Nikolai, for all his benevolence and devotion to the people, is currently heavily caught up in the politics of the Church over his hold. While the Archbishop's thoughts are elsewhere, the people's minds have been turned against Nikolai by Count Sergius of Shambray, a scheming power-hungry lord who seeks to take over much of the Southlands through subterfuge. Nikolai knows of Sergius's deceptive ways, however, and it is likely that the conniving lord will overreach his boundries sooner or later and be sent crashing down from the social ladder he's so desparately trying to reach the top of. Sho'joor Sho'joor was once a thriving port for anyone traveling through the southern sea between Megalos and the two Muslim nations, piracy has all but wrecked the livelihood of the city. The goblin duke Yivirrl of Sho'joor recently managed to acquire a minimum amount of aid from the Imperial Navy, but it's very much a case of too little and too late. All it would take to plunge the city into total poverty would be either one particularly huge pirate raid or the Emperor recalling the handful of ships guarding Sho'joor back to Megalos City. Zehan Like Sho'joor, Zehan is dying by a thousand cuts of piracy. The difference is that Count Aloysius has no faith in the Emperor and is instead appealing to sea elves, merfolk, and the proud sea warriors of Araterre in an attempt to find and crush the pirate strongholds once and for all. It is likely that if Aloysius manages to succeed in his hunt, Zehan's return to prosperity as a trade port will come with the side-effect of war with an angry Min.  Western Megalos Past Lake Acheron, the Megalan territories become less fertile, mild grassland and meadows and more a mixture of dry prairie and savannah. American bison, African antelope species, wild horses, and zebras all roam free on the great grasslands, and farmers rely on pecans, peaches, and wheat as their staple crops. Arvey Arvey sits in the foothills of the great Bronze Mountains, making it a key location for trade with the dwarves of Zarak. It is a city of stone and stairwells for streets, with lots of hills and steep inclines. Craine The wondrous marble and granite buildings of Craine are symbols of its opulence, a city built on trade with Caithness, the bounty of the River Conn, and massive ranches of bison, cattle, and sheep. The fiefdom that Craine sits upon is also the largest in western Megalos. Unfortunately, this also means that it was the easiest place to throw Megalan soldiers at al-Wazif, and the duchy has been sieged or even taken by Wazifi forces more than once in its long history. The warmongering Duke Bran of Craine is certain that al-Wazif will strike again, and wishes to instead strike first, but he is currently stalled by his own indecision over whether he should declare western Megalos its own nation and rule it as king or attempt to take over the position of Emperor and thus have all of Megalos under his thumb. Hyrnan Hyrnan was once a small duchy settled between the Blackwoods and Keyhole Bay. That is long in the past, however, as the fact that the Blackwoods have been actively growing threw it into being the staging grounds for discovering the mystery of the great forest's expansion. From the 1980s onward, attempts were made to cut through the great wilderness and find out what the hell was going on, but each time the Legions sent in would fall to disease, mysterious disappearances, and strange night terrors. It wasn't until two Legions with five times the normal amount of battle mages in tow entered the Blackwoods in 2002 that the problem would be solved. While they were struck by inexplicably fevers, voices in the night, and giant woodland beasts, they were simply too large to be overcome, and eventually found a huge elven village that had been deserted very recently. The village was burned and the trek back to Hyrnan was a peaceful one. This was proof that the dark elves had survived the first Banestorm and hid in the Blackwoods, but the truth of its ominous transformation is a bit more complicated. Even the dark elves are not sure of what the massive slime-drenched tree that grows in the Blackwoods' center is. It is alive, extremely powerful in its magic, and hateful of all living things, capable of fleshwarping and mind-tampering the native wildlife as its toxic influence spreads outward and increases the size of its dark forest. Of course, seeing as the dark elves are xenophobic assholes, nobody would probably believe them if they told anyone, so everyone thinks that the Blackwoods dilemna is their fault. The citizens of Hyrnan have become spiteful towards all elves regardless of their allegiance, and Duke Tunstall Dubhagain has continued to fortify the city with soldiers and mages to ward off attacks from the forest. New Jerusalem The Knights Hospitaller run this city, and under their rulership it has remained one of the most autonomous regions of Megalos. New Jerusalem may pay taxes to the Empire, but the Hospitallers only come when they are called if it is convenient of them, and they have technically never sworn fealty to the Emperor at all. Being a Hospitaller city, New Jerusalem isn't tolerant of anyone who uses magic, isn't human, or isn't a particularly conservative Catholic. Grandmaster Geoffrey Freeman wants to cave in some Wazifi skulls again in the near future, but he also realizes that it would probably go sour if he can't get an army together and the Hospitallers went in alone, so for now he whips up fervor in other Megalan regions while keeping his knights from jumping the gun. Quartedec This fiefdom is run by Earl Hadrian of Quartedec and is found in the far north of western Megalos. It is a land of marshes, pine forests, and icy mountains, right at the doorstep of both Zarak and the Nomad Lands. The Baran River, flowing out of the Bronze Mountains down to Lake Styx, was the sight of a major gold rush when humans of Quartedec learned of its rich panning potential in the 1980s. So much gold was taken that prices plummeted and the dwarves of Zarak were angered, complaining that the gold flowed from their mountains and was thus theirs. The dwarves have repeatedly attempt to buy the river from Earl Hadrian, to no avail, but mysteriously stopped in late 2004. They have instead begun to ask questions about Earth. Is it a coincidence that these questions started after they began digging heavily at the headwaters of the Baran River up in the Bronze Mountains? Probably not, but who knows. Raphael Raphael is an archdiocese that was only created in 1855 as part of the official border demarcation between the Empire and al-Wazif. As a result, many of its residents are of Muslim descent, and a few even keep to their religion and defend a handful of mosques that weren't torn down during the Christianization of the city. Most of the lifeblood of Raphael is through breeding and selling horses to Megalan knights and nobles or trading with al-Wazif, and the majority of the Empire ultimately ignores the city.  Yibyorak, the Goblin City History Five goblin clans settled at the mouth of the River Yvosek shortly after the first Banestorm. This settlement eventually became a town, then a city, and then the capital of an entire kingdom known as Yibyorak by 1175. This kingdom became a duchy of the Empire in 1229, and has since become a place of prosperity...most of the time. Every war with al-Wazif has seen Yibyorak's port being blockaded, and its people have taken to stockpiling their gains in order to avoid suffering too much during these conflicts. Layout and Architecture Yibyorak covers the two shores of the mouth of River Yvosek and the entirety of the rocky Memanjik Island. While humans have tried to force Yibyorak to fit the mold of Megalos City, its goblin architecture of adobe, brick and granite in labyrinthine patterns that twist and turn through narrow streets and disparate city walls refuse to give way so easily. The two greatest feats of architecture in Yibyorak are the immense Bajik Bridge, said to be able to hold a hundred full ox carts without so much as a stone quivering, and the Ekmekyk Channel, which was built in the 1990s to supplement already burgeoning ship traffic up to Lake Acheron. Government The duke of the Yibyorak duchy appoints a governor to rule the city, and under the governor is a set of five lieutenants. Each lieutenant oversees a section of the city referred to as a demesne, with the five sections being named after and corresponding to Clans Bojich, Bricik, Kurnjaych, Memanjik, and Saratlik, the five goblin clans that founded Yibyorak. A merchant guild known as the Yibyorak Merchant's Council also has a fair amount of sway in the government. It costs five Megalan pounds a year to have a seat on the Council. People of Yibyorak Yibyorak is 60% goblin and 30% human, with the rest of the population being primarily halflings and dwarves. It is also one of the few places in Megalos where there is a large Muslim population, most being merchants or descendents of merchants. Thanks to the goblins' love of magic, there are numerous practicing mages in the city, from street performers with minor tricks to extremely powerful wizards. Places of Interest The Ducal Tower of Yibyorak literally stands head and shoulders above the rest of the city's architecture, being an eye-popping twenty stories tall and hewn from gray stone in a combination of traditional goblin and Gothic artistic styles. While the duke's private residency is at the top of the tower, its lower floors have everything from shops and restaurants to civil offices and residential apartments. Another major landmark is Covik Park, a large swath of greenery in the middle of Memanjik Island that was created as a memorial to residents that died to a vast fire in 1864. Finally, there's the grand Yibyorak Market, split up into the Common Market and the Goods Market. The Common Market is a maze of streets choked with shops and stalls selling all manner of goods, while the Goods Market is effectively the first (and so far only) case of a stock market cropping up in Ytarria. The Brothers of Mercury While it may seem wondrous and about as perfect a city you can find in Megalos, Yibyorak has its flaws as well. The largest is the brothers of Mercury, a thieves' guild and cult to the Roman gods that ruthlessly runs the underworld of the city. Members of the Brothers carry a copper coin with the caduceus of Hermes/Mercury etched into one side, used as a symbol of their bond and loyalty. A goblin wizard name Shuuv'kopekk rules over the Brothers of Mercury and uses his powerful magic to provide boons in the name of the guild's god. Brothers are kept loyal both through the riches they earn and the fact that traitors are murdered in particularly gruesome and creative ways. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Island life with Araterre and company.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2016 10:23
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Well I know I've still got two books to finish up, and I will, but I've also gotten my hands on the finalized Beast: The Primoridal printing.  In other thread news, I believe MonsiurChoc mentioned the lack of availability of Ravenloft 3E books when he started his review of the series. It's worthy of note that Wizards of the Coats has started putting those out in PDF form at DrivethruRPG/RPGnow (only the core book so far), so if you're into that sort of thing you now have access to it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2016 23:49
|
|
|
Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Daemons to Dhampir  Daemons In the lore of Dungeons and Dragons, daemons are the Neutral Evil mercenaries of the Blood War, selling their services to demons and devils in their ceaseless conflict of Chaotic Evil vs. Lawful Evil out of base greed. During the Satanic Panic, they were redubbed the yuugoloth, just as the devils and demons became the Baatezu and Tanar'ri respectively, but they retained their -loth titles in Third Edition in spite of the other two reverting back to their original titles. Pathfinder's daemons are no longer mercenaries, but instead the ruthless forces of entropy that personify death through a specific manner. They seek only to bring death and ruin while hoarding mortal souls in their dread realm of Abaddon. The greatest of the daemons and their omnipresent leaders are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Having crawled their way up from humble daemons to god-like forces of destruction, the archdaemons Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War are said to eventually undo the multiverse itself before succumbing to oblivion in turn, bringing everything to nothingness. Legends also tell of the Oinodaemon, a fifth Horseman who is more powerful than even Death, but this is probably just an ancient superstition (spoilers: it's not, because the Oinodaemon/Oinoloth was in the Tome of Horrors, and you know what that means). Astradaemon (CR 16 Large Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Our first daemon is also one of the ones new to Pathfinder. The astradaemon resembles a freakish mixture of deep sea fish and humanoid skeleton, and represents death by negative energy and level drain. While particularly strong, they're also pretty one note: they like souls, a lot, and kill mortals to eat more souls. Spells such as Enervation, Vampiric Touch, Energy Drain, and Finger of death are in its repertoire of spell-like abilities, and all three of their melee attacks (bite, two claws, and tail slap) come prepackaged with a forced DC 25 Fortitude save to avoid getting a negative level when you're struck. It also, of course, has a save or die attack with the same DC if it has a foe grappled. The sucked out soul from this attack grants the astradaemon a +1 profane bonus to attacks, saving throws, and all checks per five hit dice of the slain creature, the effects lasting for a day. Cacodaemon (CR 2 Tiny Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar) Like other CR 2 Tiny Outsiders that have been in this book so far, the cacodaemon is meant specifically to be used as an Improved Familiar. The name cacodaemon was an ancient Greek term for evil spirits, and here it is represented by a toothy orb monster that totally isn't meant to evoke memories of something else with the same name. Cacodaemons sort of just pop up from the soul wells of Abaddon, not having any personification motif like greater daemons, and mindlessly float around looking for souls to eat. While the cacodaemon has no death magic of its own to get souls firsthand, it can swallow a soul of someone who has died within a minute's time and then puke it back up as a soul gem. Any Evil Outsider can eat a soul gem, which both grants fast healing 2 for a number of rounds equal to the Outsider's hit dice and damns the soul inside the gem to one of the lower planes. The cacodaemon's bite also leaks an easily resisted toxin that deals 1d2 Wisdom damage a day on a failed check. Ceustodaemon CR 6 Large Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) While the name may not strike you older D&D experts as familiar, I can assure you that this guy is one of the older edition's daemons and not a newcomer. You might know it better by its other name – guardian daemon. Guardian daemons, or yugoloth guardians, were a weird type of daemon/yugoloth that were Neutral with Evil tendencies rather than actually Neutral Evil, and were mainly summoned to defend something important. While the Tome of Horrors kept this distinction alive, in Pathfinder they have officially graduated to the Neutral Evil school of true daemonhood and received the moniker of ceustodaemon. Ceustodaemons are horned ape daemons that represent a Neutral Evil creature's death by suicide (presumably because personifying death by suicide in all alignments might be perceived as offensive), and are known for being particularly weak to summoning and binding spells. It is for this reason that many spellcasters summon them for various tasks. Ceustodaemons are ultimately as nihilistic as any other daemon, however, and seek nothing more than to figure out a way out of their service in order to kill their subjugator. Their spell-like abilities include Dispel Magic, Fly, Hold Monster, and Slow, which they use as utility spells to augment their vicious claws and teeth. Derghodaemon (CR 12 Large Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) One of the daemons that has been around since 1E's Monster Manual II, the derghodaemon is an insectoid monster with three legs and five arms. In Pathfinder, its death motif is death through violent insanity, such as being killed by an insane murderer or a rabid beast. A derghodaemon's typical combat strategy is to cast either Creeping Doom, Insect Plague, or Summon Swarm and then attack with its rending claws in tandem with its summoned bug buddies, as the derghodaemon itself is immune to damage from swarms. It can also make a horrific grinding noise with its chitin that forces any creature that hears it within a 30 foot radius to make a DC 20 Will save or suffer from the Feeblemind spell for as long as the derghodaemon keeps up the noise and stays in range, which may be for a while given that it can do so as a free action. Hydrodaemon (CR 8 Large Outsider [Aquatic, Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Another old timer that appeared in the same book as the derghodaemon, the hydrodaemon is a frog-like monster that is stated to be easily mistaken for a boggard if it wasn't for their dead, white eyes. They represent death by drowning, and they unsurprisingly like to try to drown their prey as a result. If some good grappling under the water doesn't work, they also have spell-like abilities that include Acid Arrow, Deeper Darkness, Control Water, and summon spells for another hydrodaemon or a Large water elemental, as well as projectile spit that forces a struck target to make a DC 19 Will save or fall asleep for six rounds. Leukodaemon (CR 9 Large Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Leukodaemons are the "deacons" Pestilences: not only do they service the horseman, they also embody the same form of death. They also resemble rotting satyrs with horse skulls and raven wings, so that's fun. Like their master, they wield a composite longbow that looses an eternal supply of arrows that force a struck foe to make a DC 19 Fortitude save to avoid being affected by the Contagion spell. They can also just cast Contagion at will as a spell-like ability, so the arrows seem a bit superfluous, but whatever. A leukodaemon that isn't in the mood for arrows or spells can belch out a cloud of black flies that deals 8d6 slashing damage upon immediate impact and then sticks around for 1d4+1 rounds, dealing 4d6 damage to anyone in the cloud and also forcing a Reflex save to avoid being sickened for a minute afterward. Anyone in a 50 foot radius of a leukodaemon suffers a -4 penalty to saves against disease as well. Meladaemon (CR 11 Large Outsiders [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) The jackal-headed meladaemons are Horseman Deacons like leukodaemons, but for Famine instead of Pestilence. A meladaemon's main arsenal is its spell-like abilities, which feature such classics as See Invisibility, Cause Fear, Deeper Darkness, Blight, Horrid Wilting, and Waves of Fatigue. Their claws also deal 1d6 nonlethal damage from hunger pangs on top of regular damage, and their bite is imbued with a supernatural wasting disease that deals 1d4 Constitution and Charisma damage per day on a failed save. Finally, meladaemons also have the ability Consumptive Aura, which radiates in a 20 foot radius and forces a DC 22 Fortitude save to avoid taking 1d6 nonlethal damage and becoming fatigued. Olethrodaemon (CR 20 Gargantuan Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) The mighty olethrodaemons are massive scaly orbs covered in horns and kept aloft by four elephantine legs, complimented by four arms ending in adamantine claws. They represent mass death through catastrophe, and aren't particularly subtle on that point. All olethrodaemons have only one aspiration in life, and that's to be the olethrodaemon that gets to eat the very last soul in the multiverse. On top of spell-like abilities such as Wall of Fire, Wall of Firce, Wall of Ice, Disintegrate, Wail of the Banshee, and Blasphemy, anyone swallowed by either of the olethrodaemon's two mouths takes 4d8 damage from the digestive grind plus 1d4 negative levels, and managing to cut through the resilient stomach wall (Armor Class 20 and 40 HP) still only has a 50% chance of actually getting you out instead of into one of its four other stomachs. As a final terrifying weapon in its arsenal, the olethrodaemon has a 3/day use breath weapon that blasts a shrieking pile of black soul-smoke in a 120 foot line or 60 foot cone, dealing 20d10 negative energy damage. Extremely powerful olethrodaemons are known as paragons and get a special bonus ability based on whichever Horseman they happen to serve. Olethrodaemon paragons of Pestilence afflict the Contagion spell with any of their natural attacks, paragons of War can grant any special weapon property of +2 enhancement or less to their natural weapons as a free action, paragons of Famine have a version the meladaemon's consumptive aura that deals 6d6 nonlethal damage and exhaustion rather than 1d6 and fatigue, and paragons of Death deal a negative level on their natural attacks. CR 10 Medium Outsider [Aquatic, Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) After several new daemons in a row, the squid-headed and lobster-clawed piscodaemon appears to give us the fourth and last daemon from the 1E Monster Manual II that made its way up to Pathfinder. Rather than getting into the whole symbolism business of most of their buddies' Pathfinder incarnations, piscodaemons retain their original D&D role as daemonic officers, leading armies hellbent on destruction. Piscodaemons' big ol' pincers deal an extra 1d6 bleed damage and triple rather than double damage on a critical hit, and their tentacles release a toxin that deals 1d2 Constitution damage and the staggered condition each round for 6 rounds. They deliberately target strong enemies with their toxin because they get a sense of joy by breaking the hardy. Purrodaemon (CR 18 Large Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Vulture-headed deacons of War. Purrodaemons are noteworthy for two things: the fact that they actually plan out their violent attacks, and that they can stab weapons into their flesh to give them magical powers. After a weapon's been jammed inside the purrodaemon for at least a day, it can be imparted with an enhancement of +4 enhancement or less. While the purrodaemon can have up to a dozen weapons stuck in it at once, only one weapon can actually be enchanted at a time, which is by default a +2 wounding halberd. These daemons also seem to be fans of the classic JRPG element triangle, as their spell-like abilities include Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, and Flame Strike. Thanadaemon (CR 13 Medium Outsider [Daemon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Thanadaemons resemble horned humanoid skeletons and are the deacons of Charon, the Horseman of Death. In spite of their appearance, who their master is, and the fact that they are literally boatmen of the River Styx, they are not the Charonodaemons/maennoloths of D&D; this is especially odd, given that Charonodaemons are actually in the Tome of Horrors and Pathfinder rarely passes up an opportunity to mine that vein. Regardless of that, as noted, thanadaemons operate skiffs along the River Styx and the other various pus-filled waterways of Abaddon, and they can be bribed to use their Greater Teleport- and Plane Shift (only valid in the Astral, Ethereal, and Evil-aligned planes)-capable boats to take you somewhere if you have at least 300 gold worth of gems. The problem with accepting this service is that they are deceitful and will typically "renegotiate the terms" and ask for more wealth once they have gotten their passengers partway to their destination and into a place that is particularly dangerous. In combat, thanadaemons have a gaze attack that induces fear for 1d6 rounds on a failed DC 21 Will save, energy drain at the same rate as the astradeamon on both their natural claw attacks and any melee weapon they wield, the ability to summon 1d4 hydrodaemons or another thanadaemon once per day, and spell-like abilities that include Animate Dead, Desecrate, and Enervation. Dark Slayer (CR 3 Small Humanoid [Dark Folk]) Dark slayers are another of the "dark folk" like the Pathfinder Bestiary 1's dark creeper and dark stalker, but is completely new to Pathfinder rather than a Fiend Folio alumnus like the other two. Dark slayers basically look like dark stalkers shrunk down to dark creeper heights, and are subservient to their taller brethren. Dark stalkers don't really care what happens to their slayer minions and will happily sacrifice them if it means gaining the upper hand in the situation at hand, an attitude that unsurprisingly breeds contempt in the slayers, many of whom wish to overthrow their handlers and lead a tribe of their own. The only thing besides killing that these shadowy humanoids find joy in is the investigation of magic items, which are typically tinkered with and either used up or broken within a short period of time. Dark slayers are masters at hindering enemies in combat, with +2d6 sneak attack, poison use, and an extra 1d6 damage with any melee touch spell or spell-like ability that deals HP damage being combined with spell-like abilities such as Bleed, Chill Touch, Daze Monster, Darkness, Death Knell, and Inflict Moderate Wounds. Killing a dark slayer causes it to explode into a 10 foot radius ball of light that deals 1d8 sonic damage and forces a DC 13 Fortitude save to avoid being deafened for 2d4 rounds. Death Worm (CR 6 Large Magical Beast) The death worm is yet another creature from the Tome of Horrors, but a special case in that it's one that was written exclusively for the ToH rather than a Third Edition conversion of an older D&D monster. It seems very likely that the death worm was based on the central Asian cryptid known as the Olghoi Khorkhoi ("intestine worm") or Mongolian Death Worm, an observation that Paizo Publishing seems to have also made given that the death worm is one of the entries in the cryptid themed "Ecology of..." book Mystery Monsters Revisited – both are desert-dwelling worms, both have venom, acid, and electricity in their arsenals, and both are...you know...called death worms. The big difference is that the death worm of D&D and Pathfinder is a whopper of a worm that reaches the length of an adult rhinoceros, while the Olghoi Khorkhoi is said to be a slightly more palatable length of a human arm. The death worm is a legendary and elusive beast that most city slickers claim is just a tale told by drunkards and braggarts. The legend is quite real, however, and extremely adept at disappearing from sight as it stalks prey in the deserts and steppes it calls home. Death worms are powerhouses given their Challenge Rating, with powerful jaws and toxin-coated skin that both impart a poison that deals 1d2 Constitution damage per round for 6 rounds, two different breath weapons to provide 4d6 electricity or 8d6 acid damage, and corrosive blood that deals 3d6 acid damage to anything metal. And as if that wasn't enough, the text helpfully tells us that there are rumors of even larger death worms out there – rumors that were confirmed in Mystery Monsters Revealed via the Tyrannosaurus-sized death worm leviathan. We'll meet her if I ever figure out a good format and manner to review the [x] Monsters Revealed series for these threads. Decapus (CR 4 Aberration) The decapus first appeared in the 1981 module Palace of the Silver Princess, later going on to become a monster of AD&D's Mystara, 3E's Tome of Horrors, and now Pathfinder's second Bestiary as well. It is an octopus-like creature with an ugly humanoid face that is as intelligent as the average human, though it doesn't really use that intelligence for anything more than its natural role as an ambush predator. Decapodes sit hidden in the branches of trees, using their ability to cast Minor Image at will and mimic the sounds of any creature they have encountered before to create traps for prey. Once in range, the prey is grappled with the decapus's ten arms and either strangled to death or moved into range of its widely grinning mouth to bite. The favored prey of the decapus is humanoids, with gnomes in particular being extremely tasty. Why?  Demons Kalavakus (CR 10 Medium Outsider [Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Big, muscular blue demons with lots of horns and spikes. They typically act as the guards of the harems of stronger demons or as slavers, and are indeed formed from the souls of slavers, so go out there and beat these weirdos up. It probably won't come as much of a surprise that on top of being really strong and having lots of natural attacks from their horns, jaws, and claws, kalavakus have spell-like abilities such as Command, Greater Command, Dominate Person, and Symbol of Persuasion. They can also perform "soul enslavement", which forces a DC 18 Will save to avoid suffering a -6 to all attack rolls and saving throws against the kalavakus that performed the act. Omox (CR 12 Medium Outsider [Aquatic, Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Made from souls who either destroyed something beautiful or desecrated something pure, omoxes are stinky ooze demons that slither around being gross and attempting to drown people. Cultists of the slime lord Jubilex will summon omoxes to watch over "sacred filth pools". Shemhazian (CR 16 Gargantuan Outsider [Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar]) A weird gigantic hybrid of lizardfolk, bear, wolf, and praying mantis that is born from the soul of a torturer or vivisectionist. Their gaze paralyzes and their bite deals 2d4 Strength drain, but their ultimate goal is always to mutilate and then devour their prey above all else. As a fun but ultimately inconsequential fact, their name seems to be evoking that of the Jewish fallen angel Shemyaza/Shemhazai. Vrolikai (CR 19 Large Outsider [Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar]) Remember the nabasu demon? No? Well, it was a demon from the 1E Monster Manual II that made its way into the Tome of Horrors and Pathfinder Bestiary 1 whose whole gimmick was leveling up by turning people into ghouls. The vrolikai is more or less a nabasu that has gone Super Saiyan: they turn purplish black, gain two more arms, grow a scorpion-like tail that forces a DC 27 Will save to avoid taking 1d6 Charisma drain and becoming confused for 1d4 rounds, and get a quintent of fancy +1 daggers that deal negative levels on a successful strike if the victim fails a DC 27 Fortitude save. Like their normal forms, vrolikais have a gaze attack that inflicts negative levels, but unlike nabasu the victims don't turn into ghouls, instead becoming juju zombies. What are juju zombies? Well, that's literally the whole rest of the book away, so sit tight on that one.  Denizen of Leng (CR 8 Medium Outsider [Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar]) While H.P. Lovecraft may be most famous for Cthulhu and his pals, he also created many weird creatures that only existed in the Dreamlands. One group of such creatures were the men of Leng, primitive satyr-like beings that were slaves to the great moon beasts of Nyarlathotep and dwelt on the deadly Plateau of Leng. In Pathfinder, Leng is adapted as a chaos plane, and the men of Leng are recast as sophisticated but violent Chaotic Evil slavers rather than slaves themselves. Their flying ebony ships sail through the planes in search of new and interesting species to enslave and magical treasures to barter for, and they typically wear garb that covers most of their extremities in a totally convincing attempt to pretend to be human. Denizens have a constant Tongues spell on, and are also capable of casting Detect Thoughts, Hypnotic Pattern, Levitate, Locate Object, Minor Image, and Plane Shift. If they want to hurt someone, their claws are sharp and their bite both deals damage and deals 1d6 Dexterity drain (lots of ability drain as opposed to ability damage in this bestiary, isn't there?). In turn, denizens of Leng are impossible to kill when they aren't on their home plane: they have fast healing 5 on any plane other than Leng, and if dropped to -10 HP they dissolve and then reform on Leng in 1d4 rounds. Destrachan (CR 8 Large Aberration) A confusing Neutral Evil eyeless dinosaur-thing that first appeared in the 3E Monster Manual. They kill with "destructive harmonics" (a breath weapon that can deal either 8d6 sonic damage or cause stunning for a round and deafening for 1d6 rounds), typically killing far more than they can actually eat simply because they are sadistic. The Pathfinder art for them gives them lamprey mouths, which is cool, I guess. Devils Accuser Devil/Zebub (CR 3 Small Outsider [Devil, Evil, Extraplanar, Law]) Zebubs look like the most emo tauric creatures, having the upper body of a fat baby and the lower body of a bloated carrion fly. They are created when devils torture a childlike innocent's soul into becoming a devilish creature. They act as spies or instigators that egg on petty sins into larger ones, but they're kind of dumb and typically get caught and slain in their own half-assed attempts to brew up intrigue. A zebub's bite inflicts a disease that deals 1d4 Strength damage daily as long as it remains in the victim's system, and its main supernatural ability is the power to act as a video camera for up to a day's worth of events that it can then "play back" in someone's mind at the rate of one hour per full round action. Belier Devil/Bdellavritra (CR 16 Large Outsider [Devil, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful]) A giant slug with three human heads on one end and a leech's head on the other. They can possess people to frame them for evil deeds. Handmaden Devil/Gylou (CR 14 Medium Outsider [Devil, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful]) Pathfinder Bestiary 2 posted:Known as handmaiden devils, Mothers of Pain, and Maids of Miscarriage, gylous attend to the whims and schemes of Hell’s few female overlords. Like manipulative matrons amid decadent mortal courts, these deceivers hide their fathomless evil beneath illusions of beauty, graciousness, and tradition.  " package is that they hate children and will literally stop everything that they're doing to go beat up babies if they hear one crying. Because childbirth is part of the natural female order, you see, and having no maternal instincts further shows this devil's corruption of the female ideal and...ah, gently caress this stupid monster, let's move on.Immolation Devil/Puragaus (CR 19 Large Outsider [Devil, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful]) Immolation devils like fire a whole bunch. Who would have thought, right? Unlike other devils, they forego any sort of scheming and thought and instead head straight for the burning and killing, leading infernal armies as powerful generals. They can cast spell-like abilities such as Fireball and Fire Storm, and thanks to the special quality Hellfire any fire damage they do is instead parted into half fire damage and half unholy damage. All in all, these guys really feel more like demons than devils, and really bland demons to boot. Devilfish The devilfish is a sea beast resembling a giant version of the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) that haunts the depths of the great oceans. The thing that makes them special is that they have fiendish ancestry, which both makes them sapient and gives them a bottomless well of hatred. Think about how creative and flexible real octopi are, and then imagine they also loving hate your guts and want nothing more than to see you die a horrible, agonizing death: that's the devilfish in a nutshell. Unfortunately, they didn't inherit any of their devilish forebearers' magic powers along with all that bad mojo, instead being forced to rely on their more mundane killing tools of seven tentacles, a beak laced with venom that deals 1d2 Strength damage per round for 6 rounds, and a nausea-inducing ink cloud.  Dhampir (Medium Humanoid [Dhampir]; CR by class level) In the folklore of the Balkan region of eastern Europe, vampire men are horny as hell and love to crawl out of the grave and try to have sex with mortal women. If this happens, the resulting pregnancy will end in either a stillborn child or a dhampir. Traditionally, the dhampir doesn't really have any vampiric powers or even supernaturally good physical traits; instead, the dhampir is rubbery (the vampire of south Slavic folklore is a gelatinous ooze until it has enough blood to reconstitute itself into a human shape), able to literally sniff out vampires, and can shoot a vampire with a gun and have it actually work. The dhampir seemingly inevitably becomes a vampire hunter and slays the kin of his father. Now remove of all that from your head, because none of it has anything to do with the dhampir here. Pathfinder's dhampirs take their cues from the half-vampires of Blade, BloodRayne, and Castlevania rather than those of folklore. They are supernaturally beautiful and graceful, which makes people hate them because clearly the only supernaturally beautiful and graceful creatures in Pathfinder are vampires. In spite of the drow-looking guy in the art, dhampirs are actually stated to look like "statuesque humans of unearthly beauty" who are sometimes pale or bruised-looking. Mechanically, dhampirs are a playable race that gets +2 Dexterity and Charisma but -2 Constitution, low-light vision and 60 feet of darkvision, a +2 to Bluff and Perception checks, a +2 to saves against disease and mind-affecting effects, light sensitivity, immunity to the effects of level drain other than the "you can be killed by level drain" part, and the ability to cast Detect Undead three times per day. The Pathfinder Advanced Race Guide further expanded the dhampir with some more toys, including alternate racial abilities to provide fangs or animal kinship, feats for various levels of blood draining power, and a vampire hunter archetype for the Inquisitor class called the Kinslayer. Next Time in Pathfinder Bestiary 2: D is for "D doesn't get another drat rhyme, I already did one". Dinosaurs, dragons, drakes, and also some things that don't have any scales on them at all are up in the second half of this long letter.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2016 02:56
|
|
|
Nessus posted:Austin is very liberal for Texas but is still in Texas. Steve Jackson himself also seems to be deep into the Discordian/weirdo western stuff ecology which tends to have strong libertarian biases of various sorts. And of course it's a product of the 80s, look at Ghostbusters - great movie, but frankly, Walter Peck was right. I can only assume that this is due to having other people who can look over your shoulder and say "hey, bud, think things through" as well as some self-restraint, which are both things Bellum Maga/Witch Girls Adventures don't have in their favor.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2016 09:11
|
|
|
 Chapter 4 Continued: Araterre The Principality of Araterre consists of the various large islands and island chains sitting south of mainland Megalos. It is governed and policed by the Megalan Empire thanks to its major Banestorm drop being a bunch of gun-wielding Protestants and ornery Jesuits that caused widespread panic and fear. Geography Most of Araterre is made up of subtropical to tropical islands that have been heavily deforested and used for sugar cane, tea, and spice plantations by French and Spanish colonists, so it is more or less Literally the Caribbean. The only exception is Bilit Island, which takes the role of the Hollywood jungle island with fierce wildlife and even fiercer locals. History Protestants and Jesuits came in the 1500s, Megalos got pissed, the Protestants were all but wiped out while the Jesuits fought so bitterly and tenaciously that their status as heretics was repealed fairly quickly, and in 1652 the region was declared a principality of Megalos. That's about the long and short of it. Oh, and some Balinese Hindus came in the 1800s and didn't get wiped out because they had fancy new crops to share, so there's that. Society While Araterre technically follows the same social rank conventions and such as Megalos, having its own prince and various aristocrats down the ladder, their power is hollow compared to their counterparts in the Megalan mainland. Instead, the merchants and the Church hold the biggest pieces of the pie across the principality. It's suggested that they are powerful enough that they could overthrow the monarchy entirely and become the next Cardiel or Caithness if they didn't hate each other so much that they'd never work together. Technology In spite of Megalan efforts to keep the world grounded heavily in the Middle Ages and its success at gun control, Araterre retains Renaissance-era ships, swords, architecture, and agriculture. Aralaise shipwrights and armorers are a pretty big deal, and keep the secrets of the crafting of their unique sea vessels and fencing swords pretty close to their chests to avoid foreign competition in said crafts. Nonhumans Sea elves and merfolk are both found in the waters around Araterre, but they're pretty much the only native nonhuman sapients. The Aralaise are made up of people who are either open-minded or keep their prejudices about other species to themselves in an effort to look welcoming, however, and other nonhumans are treated well when they come ashore. Goblin merchants in particular are common visitors. Magic Unsurprisingly, a group of formerly Protestant people who were attacked by a magic empire don't have great opinions about the wizardly arts. Who would have thought? The Jesuit and Thomasite clergy are pretty much the only people with a great working knowledge of magic in Araterre, and it's generally frowned out outside of the Church. The Law Legal practice in Araterre isn't all that different from in Megalos, though slavery has fallen mostly out of favor compared to imprisonment. Fencing And what would the not-Caribbean be without some buckling of the swash? Combat in Araterre is fast and maneuverable, as armor is impractical in the heat of its islands, and the weapons of choice are rapiers, sabers, and smallswords, as well as a few cases of the main-gauche and kris blade. The Aralaise even have dueling academies that teach weapon skills, Acrobatics, Cloak, Carousing, and Sex Appeal to their students. The Fiefdoms Araterre is divided into fiefdoms that make up either part of or the entirety of an island. They aren't really different from fiefdoms in Megalos, though the local lord typically has a private fleet rather than horse-mounted knights due to obvious reasons. Sauvons One of the two fiefdoms on the large Isle Entelle, Sauvons is both the capital and the cultural hub of Araterre. Combat in Araterre is fast and maneuverable, as armor is impractical in the heat of its islands, and the weapons of choice are rapiers, sabers, and smallswords, as well as a few cases of the main-gauche and kris blade. The Aralaise have their own dueling academies that teach weapon skills, Acrobatics, Cloak, Carousing, and Sex Appeal. Most of the population's food comes from the sea, either through fishing or Sauvons's numerous manatee farms. Prince Arnod de Sauvons rules from this city, for some measure of the word "rule". He's not particularly skilled at speech, and he cares far more about hunting and affairs with various mistresses than he does about governance. His wife, Princess Acarie, is the far more politically savvy of the pair, and was once ruthless in undermining anyone who could threaten her place in the system before she finally bore a son that secured her position for good. Sadly, the young Francois de Sauvons has always been gravely ill, and requires a retinue of healing wizards at his side at all times. Drift Abbey Drift Abbey was around before most Aralaise even came to Araterre, having been settled way back in 1175 by some Benedictine monks who happened to come across the island chain. It is now the headquarers of Andrew of Hidelban, Archbishop of Araterre. Andrew is rather different than his predecessor, Jacques-Jude LeBlanc: while he may not be as skilled in oratory or theological debate, he is nonetheless passionate about the faith, and also keenly aware that the Curia's insistence on keeping watch on the Jesuits is probably meant to keep the Aralaise Church and the Jesuits at odds with each other to avoid any political upheaval. While Jacque-Jude towed the line concerning the Jesuits, Andrew is convinced that if he can work with the Jesuits the two can break the great influence the merchants have in the court of the prince. Ansonne What was once the second mightiest city in Araterre is now known by the rather unflattering title "Wickedest City in Ytarria". The blame for this falls on the prince's younger brother, Duc Remis d'Ansonne, and his corrupt Wazifi advisor Jafar as-Siyassi. While claims that Jafar is a Hashishin, diabolist, or even a demon are probably overblown tales, it's true that he has been puppeteering the rise of the criminal underworld in Ansonne, flooding its streets with thieves and pirates of all stripes. He is also probably running a network of Wazifi spies throughout Araterre, though that one is less certain. It is also in Ansonne that we get our second actually statted NPC, the 208 point Catherine de Melies. An attractive woman whose mostly Asian heritage is contrasted by pale blonde hair, Catherine was once a favored mistress of the prince, but was kicked out when she proved unwilling to be subservient and silent when he eventually grew bored of her. She used the prince's parting gifts to pay for a fleet and a crew, making herself a self-styled pirate queen. She now loves striking blows to the royal navy of Araterre as her ships plunder the Eastern Isles. While rather waifish and only slightly skilled in knife fighting, she makes up for her lack of physical prowess with charisma, cleverness, a fair amount of ranks in the Tactics skill, and loads of money. The Ring Islands The Ring Islands get their shape from two meteor impacts in Yrth's deep past. These impacts also greatly affected the magic of the region, making it wild and unpredictable – you can start out an area that greatly boosts necromantic magic and cripples healing magic, and then just half a day's hike later be in a place where it's suddenly boosting fire spells and baning water ones. The islands are also home to ferocious monsters such as acid-breathing feral dragons, giant man-eating bats, tigers with chameleonic skin, and sea serpents. Even the mundane animals in the island chain are things that are exotic and frightening to most Ytarrians, such as pythons, crocodiles, and gorillas. The only permanent habitation in the ring islands are scattered pirate hideouts. Bilit Island An island of thick forests and semi-active volcanoes, Bilit Island is home to people descended from various Mesoamerican civilizations. While only at Bronze Age technological advancement, they are ferocious warriors aided by powerful wizard priests who sacrifice captives to various gods from southeast Asian and Mesoamerican cultures, demons, and Great Old Ones. To make things even worse on invading armies, the wilderness around the cities of Bilit Island are filled with violent monsters and giant reptiles that may or may not be dinosaurs. Even the Megalan Empire learned fairly quickly that it would probably be more beneficial to trade with the Bilit Islanders than attempt to conquer them, even with their xenophobia and various unknown taboos making life difficult on traders anyway. And trade they had: jade, obsidian, strange hides and feathers from local wildlife, mahogany wood, vanilla, capsicum-laden peppers, and chocolate are all unique exports from the southern island. They also have loads of gold in the biggest deposits outside of the dwarven lands. In return for their own goods, the Bilit Islanders typically demand wine or steel weaponry, the latter to augment their own arms of bronze and obsidian. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Civil war and Silver Hands in the land of Caithness, and also a longer entry than the one this time.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2016 02:53
|
|
|
 Chapter 4, Part 3: Caithness Populous, glamorous, prosperous, and stable: none of these words describe Caithness as a whole. What was once part of the Megalan Empire's western expansion is now a tattered mess of feuding baronies without a strong king to unify them, with a people-to-land ratio akin to Alaska. Geography While central Caithness is known for its gently rolling hills and forests, as you get closer to its borders there are adverse situations in every direction. Heading west leads to the edge of the Great Desert, in the east there are badlands with piss poor soil, to the north there are the imposing foothills of the great mountains of Zarak, and in the south is the vast Great Forest. The eastern border of Caithness is officially demarcated by the point where mana starts going from normal to low levels, but Megalan forces frequently gently caress around in the badlands anyway. Bridges and roads are lovely dirt tracks traveling large expanses of uninhabited land between small townships, and crops of wheat, rye, and barley are the main staples of the farms around said small townships. History Caithness of the late 18th Century is rather bluntly described as being mostly great for colonization with the exception of having "not enough mana, and too many orcs". Conall of Craine was the first Megalan to make a concentrated effort at colonizing the region in 1784, slowly but surely driving the orc tribes further and further west. Eventually, in 1812, the orcs were driven into the Great Desert and so thoroughly demoralized that they decided to cross the seemingly endless waste and find a new home far away from the invaders. The territory was officially made a Megalan county in 1822, only for Conall to rebel and declare himself king a scant four years later. His ally, Archbishop Constantine of Clixtus, similarly broke away from the Curia, which meant that Caithness was both spiritually and physically separate from Megalos. It wasn't long before the Curia and the Emperor of Megalos at the time got the Knights Hospitaller hooting and hollering about murdering heretics again and sent both them and the Legion flooding into the rebelling nation. Unfortunately for them, the battle mages of the Imperial Legions couldn't handle having to fight in low mana conditions and abandoned the Hospitallers to face a death of a thousand cuts from small but relentless Caithnesser guerrilla attacks. Things went back to normal fairly quickly after the initial chaos. Megalos and Caithness opened trade with one another, the Curia accepted the Church of Caithness back into their fold in 1844, and the dynasty of King Conall reigned supreme. This cheery movement forward lasted until 1975, when King Morill III died an unexpected death, leaving his son Conall VI king at a mere six years of age. The already headstrong nobles of Caithness ignored any orders from the child king or his mother, Queen Alys, and the stability of the nation began to roll downhill at an alarming rate. The final breaking point was when Deneral, a former lord who was exiled after a failed coup in 1994, used increased taxation in the region of Donlis as a rallying cry for yet another rebellion in 1999. Thus began the Caithness Civil War, a ferocious conflict between lords who shored up with either Conall VI or Deneral that has yet to end. Society Caithnessers as a whole are a society of strong-headed outsiders. They see Megalans as pretentious and decadent assholes (which is true, to be fair) and highly value physical pursuits and self-reliance. Social Status Caithness has the same feudal social ranks as Megalos, but also has a far greater acceptance of social advancement. Shows of intelligence and gumption are typically rewarded, and any freeman can potentially be knighted if their deeds are suitably brave and talented. The only particular difficult transition is becoming a lord, which requires the trust and acknowledgement of the King himself, a period of faithful service, and swearing loyalty to the King. Women in Caithness Caithness is one of the few places on Ytarria that has any sort of feminist views, and women are typically pretty accepted in any pursuit. Even the knighthood has an increasingly large number of women ever since Dame Devin of Fordham was knighted in 1934, and only particularly conservative outlets such as the religious order of knights known as the Dragons have withstood the march of time. Nonhumans in Caithness If they're Christian, most nonhumans are pretty well accepted in Caithness, especially hardy species such as halflings and elves. The only exceptions are orcs and reptile men – as both species have a large number of barbarians in the Great Desert, it's not uncommon for individuals to be lynched without qualm if they don't have a member another species on hand to both vouch for them and "chaperon" their activities. Magic in Caithness Any Caithnesser wizard has either worked their rear end off to be able to cast spells reliably even in the low mana conditions of the nation or parked their tower over the scattered handful of meteorite impact sites that create small pockets of normal or even high mana. Over the past decade and a half, the badlands near Megalos have slowly been shifting from low mana to normal mana for unknown reasons. While not enough people stick around in that area for it to have made an impact, it seems to indicate that something is beginning to shift in the seemingly set-in-stone nature of the mana zones ravaged by the Bane so long ago. The Law Caithnesser law isn't all that different from Megalan law, save for a greater emphasis on compensation over retribution. Fines to be paid to the victims or their families are preferred over death or imprisonment, and are sometimes very high if the crime is severe. If you can't pay for the fine outright, you get sold into slavery to the King, wherein your labor pays for the fine. Slavery Outside of the above case, slavery isn't common in Caithness. Slaves in private hands either willingly became slaves (for whatever reason) or are captured slaves such as orcs from raider bands. The Civil War If you have a nation wracked by civil war, you can be drat sure there's going to be a section of the text talking about that civil war, and here it is. While its name brings to mind violent combat and tragic loss of life, the Caithness Civil War is actually closer to the Cold War than most well-known Civil Wars in Earth history, with a lot of espionage, small-scale conflicts, and sabotage with only the occasional actual all-out battle. The lordings/baronies across Caithness have fallen in line surprisingly thoroughly given the whole hard-headed and independent nature of Caithnesser nobles: Deerwood, Durham, Fordham, Redhall, and Tacitus all have lords that have thrown in their lot with King Conall VI and his lording of Carrick, while Denton, Donlis, Ferrier, Oakwood, Sterling, and Wallace are all rebel holdings. The only holdouts that remain neutral are the ravaged land of Blythe, the archdiocese of Photius, the elven stronghold of Harkwood, and Simonton with its apathetic lord. On a species level, elves are extremely opinionated about their neutrality, dwarves want the king to reunify and rule over Caithness so they can get back to the business of trade, and halflings support whoever the local lord supports. The Royalists Carrick Since it's the seat of the crown, it's kind of obvious that Carrick would be a portion of Caithness still in support of its king. Kings have ruled from the castle overlooking River Conn and Carrick Town ever since the very first Conall left Megalos in search of fame and glory, and this long history has lead to a modern population of 20,000 city dwellers and over several hundred thousand peasant farmers that reap the bounty of some of Caithness's most fertile soil. Having a direct line of trade with mighty Zarak to the north probably doesn't hurt the lording's wealth either. Carrick Town plays host to the two organizations that work for the king as well. One, the Silver Hand, is a mysterious spy network that is spread across Caithness and may or may not engage in assassination attempts against rebels. The other is the far more open and well known Order of the Stone. A knightly order whose goals are the upholding of the chivalric code, loyalty to the king, and the suppression of chaos, Knights of the Stone are to expect no land or glory for their services and are typically idealists and romantics as a result. The Order is also particularly inclusive: men and women, humans and halflings, elves and dwarves, all are welcome within the fold. While Megalans treat the Order of the Stone as common filth daring to parade around as knights, Knights of the Stone have been known to trump Megalan knights in duels again and again. King Conall VI himself gets mentioned here as well, complete with a 303 point stat block. While that's a big number, most of it is in social skills of various stripes and a load of wealth; Conall VI's actual attribute scores aren't particularly special, nor are his combat skills all that well-honed. His description paints him as an unsurprising result of being a boy king who grew up to a man in unpleasant conditions, having thrown all of his devotion into his kingdom to the point that he is actually kind of socially awkward when working face to face, especially with women. His lack of a wife has greatly annoyed his advisers, who are sick and tired of being told that the civil war and the safety of kingdom matter more than having a woman with which to birth an heir to the throne. Allies see him as a goony but well-meaning ruler with a kind soul, while his foes feel he is an emotionally stunted man-child who clamors for far more power than he deserves. The Former Barony of Mershall While once its own lording at the far north of Caithness, Mershall is now technically part of Carrick, much to the consternation of some of its citizens. Zarakun traders frequently come to the region for its beer-friendly grains, timber, iron, and silver. Deerwood The heavily forested land of Deerwood is known for two things: plentiful game animals, and dangerous packs of angry gryphons that were introduced by the servants of King Morill three decades ago. It is lead by Dame Lorena of Deerwood, a Knight of the Stone and staunch supporter of Queen Alys and King Conall VI. As she has just reached age 50 but has never married, she has decided to name Sir Phillip of the Knights of the Stone as heir to the kingdom. Gossip hounds in Deerwood have been making false assumptions that this indicates an affair between Lorena and Phillip, and it's speculated that his eventual rise to lordship won't be taken in stride. Durham Durham is the youngest but most famed of the lordings of Caithness, having been created in 1926 when the legendary hero Peredur Orcslayer did exactly what his name says and cleared the territory of the last of the great hordes. Orclsayer's granddaughter, Bronwyn, is the current baroness of Durham and a loyal supporter of Conall. Conall has fallen madly in love with Bronwyn, but ever since her last husband died of cancer she's only had her mind on the civil war, and Conall's attempts to get her attention have been less than graceful. Baroness Bronwyn also happens to hold a great secret: she has been covertly aiding a massive firearms manufacturing operation deep in the most inhospitable reaches of her barony, a fact that would most certainly shatter the people's adoration of her rule and attract the vengeful eye of Megalos were it to ever become public knowledge. Fordham The northeastern lording of Fordham is a land of fields and forests that engages in heavy trade with Megalos. Lord Berd's loyalty to the King is only tenuous, as he's scared shitless of the idea of Megalos breathing down his neck if he were to become too involved with the ciivl war. Also major to the running of Fordham is the wizard defense manager Blake and his treasurer, Niall of Fordham. Niall is particularly interesting, and not just because he's another character with an actual stat block. Niall was Neil Shefford by birth, and was a normal everyday accountant in Chicago before being eaten up by a random tiny Banestorm while on a hike in 1993. After being found by Blake and given lodging in his tower, Neil learned Anglish, changed his name to Niall, and cozied up into a profitable living as being the money-changer for a wizard who knew absolutely nothing about finance and good business sense. Niall would love to get back to Earth, or at the very least advance the technology of Ytarria, but he knows that neither of these is all that likely. He's also so paranoid of the Ministry of Serendipity that he keeps a journal in English that he checks daily just to make sure his memories haven't been tampered with. Redhall An old and storied stronghold, the mighty red granite castle of Redhall has withstood the ages and weathered the storms of the past thanks to being in between stronger neighboring lordings. Unfortunately, it's now right up against the rebel lording of Sterling, and Lord Lathan Redbeard is considering defecting if the civil war continues to threaten his citizens and cut his beloved hunting trips short. Tacitus Another young lording that was gained during the final advances against the orcs, Tacitus is settled in the forests at the foot of the mountains of northwest Caithness and famed for its huntsmen and archers. Baron Elohar is a former knight and known for having friends in high places, as on top of King Conall VI he also has the allegiance of the mighty dwarf Fedor Ironthews of the dwarven city of Ginnrel.  The Sterling Rebels Denton Denton has lots of fertile fields and forests, but its citizens are wallowing in poverty thanks to the fact that Baron Cabble of Denton is a conniving money-grubber. Denton sees the civil war as a chance to expand his lands, and sees the rebel lordings as merely more land he can either squeeze resources from or potentially take over if the tides turn in that direction. Donlis For the place that sparked the entire Caithness Civil War, Donlis doesn't seem all that intriguing at first look. It's a backwater lording made up of marshes and bayous along the River Smoke, Donlis Town proper's wealth being made by boatmen who ferry goods downriver to Megalos. In 1999, the Silver Hand found evidence that Lord Marsden of Donlis was actually allowing swamp pirates to attack Megalan traders in exchange for a cut of their booty, which lead to Conall's increased taxation on Donlis as retribution. And, of course, that taxation was the wedge Deneral used to provoke the civil war in the first place. The civil war has actually caused Marsden to fight against the pirates now that they have started preying on local Donlis ships. Ferrier Ferrier is a lording at the edge of the Great Desert, supplied by sheep farms and underground aquifers that allow it to stay productive. The reptile men in the region have come to a sort of understanding wherein the are allowed to steal at least a few sheep every once and a while, but can never harm a human lest they suffer reprisal. Baron Nabbick of Ferrier doesn't actually care about the rebel cause so much as he just really wanted to be tax exempt and have greater financial control of his lording. Oakwood While a rather uninteresting general "forest and fields" part of Caithness, Oakwood is infamous for the vicious Lord Brance. The nephew of the former lord who died from illness in 1996, Brance is arrogant, violent, racist, and generally an unpleasant person. The halflings of Oakwood have turned to the Royalist cause and gladly act as spies, while the human subjects are preparing to overthrow Brance and replace him with someone who actually cares. Sterling In a sea of power-mongers, tax evaders, and general assholes, Sterling's Lord Towne stands out as being a genuinely idealistic man who believes that the rebellion is in the best interest of his people and honoring the memory of his late father, who Deneral claims should have been king in Conall's stead. Sterling is well known for its alcohol, particularly the barley beer Sterling Gold and clear whiskey Sterling Silver, both of which are sold for luxurious prices as far away as Cardiel. Wallace Another shepherding town on the fringes of the Great Desert, Wallace is famous for a large gold mine several days away. The mine seems to be subject to a dark curse, however: every time someone decides to strike it rich, they manage to haul out a large amount of gold, but then suddenly have all their workers disappear without a trace. Just what's down in the mines is a mystery, but some claims include reptile men, orcs, a dragon guarding its hoard, or even undead dwarves. Lord William of Wallace is another actually idealistic member of the rebellion, who joined out of resentment toward Connal for protecting the throne against Deneral in 1994 instead of helping the citizens of the far-flung Castle Defiant as they were besieged by orcs. Photius While technically in rebel lands, Photius is neutral due to the fact that it is the archdiocese of Archbishop Siccius and subject to the Church rather than to Caithness. Photius is known for housing one of the only two Hospitals of the Order of St. Alyce. The nuns of this order are known for being extremely competent healers, capable of performing what seem to be miracles that surpass even most healing spells. Also housed in Photius is the keep of the Order of St. George of the Dragon. Members of the Order, typically just called the Dragons, are basically Hospitallers but with magic: they bar women and nonhumans from their ranks, but are otherwise more or less the same. The order gots its name due to its founder being a dragon slayer by the name of Galen Dragonsbane, who slew two of the great beasts in the early history of Caithness. Like Photius as a whole, they are neutral in the civil war, as they are dedicated to protecting Christendom and Caithness rather than whoever happens to rule at the time. They are also rivals of both the Order of the Stone at home and the Knights Hospitaller abroad. The South Other than Photius, all of the lordings that remain neutral in the Caithness Civil War are found down south. Coincidence? You decide. Blythe While technically still considered a lording, Blythe is a dead land. A tribe of reptile men who had long had qualms with Blythe caught wind of the Caithness Civil War in 2001 and quickly moved their army in for an invasion, and cries for aid fell on deaf ears due to the greater chaos in the nation. all scouts have ever found have been razed towns, reptile men looters, and rare cases of human families that managed to survive by hiding out in the Great Forest. It is unlikely that Blythe will ever be rebuilt unless the civil war finally comes to an end. Harkwood Harkwood was dedicated to King Connal VI at the start of the rebellion, but things quickly changed when its army was slaughtered by Baron Cabble when passing through Denton. As more and more human citizens left for fear of their lives, elven warriors came out of the Great Forest in 2002, claiming that they were there to protect the remaining people of Harkwood from orcs and reptile men. While they have indeed helped against the raids, they have also woven their way into the lording's political structure as more and more immigrate from the Great Forest to Harkwood, and their leader Lleroflyn seems poised to become the new wife of Baron Fenmarc. The fact that elves usually never involve themselves in human affairs makes the whole matter confusing, and more than a few people suspect some ulterior motive. Simonton This lording's namesake is the last town on the westward journey of the River Smoke, as well as a major trade center for Caithness in general. Materials from Zarak, Megalos, and elven lands all come to rest here, as well as a fair number of goblins looking to make a new life of trade in a new land. Lord Walton of Simonton refuses to join either side of the Caithness Civil War: he doesn't trust Conall to have such good-natured motives as he claims, but he also hates Cabble and won't join the rebellion as long as he's part of it. The Great Forest In the deep past, before the Bane ravaged the land, the Great Forest was the southern tip of an even greater forest that also included the Blackwoods of Megalos. It is an exceedingly thick forest of fir, pine, spruce, oak, and elm, full of life such as deer, elk, wild boar, bears, wolves, and rare supernatural beings such as gryphons and unicorns. The sheer density of the forest and its dangerous wildlife tends to mean that humans avoid it, but that's definitely not true for other nonhumans: there are numerous elf villages, a clan of dwarves live in the gold-rich mountains in the center of the forest, gnomes dwell in the foothills to the south, and hobgoblin bands patrol the thinner areas of the forest. The only humans that regularly go into the Great Forest are hunters, fur traders, and prospectors, and even then they typically only go 10 miles at the most into the immense wilderness that stretches 600 miles long and 200 miles wide. There are also some people that have the foolhardy notion that the Great Forest could be partially tamed and cleared to create a new trade road from central and northern Caithness to al-Haz. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Sand, sultans, and sectarian conflict in the land of al-Haz.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2016 09:05
|
|
|
Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Dinosaurs to Elementals  Dinosaurs Allosaurus (CR 7 Huge Animal) After its discovery in 1877, Allosaurus briefly had a period of being a really popular "big, nasty predator" in media before being ultimately eclipsed by Tyrannosaurus rex and acting as second fiddle in popular fiction where both species appear. This is a bit of a shame, as Allosaurus and its kin aren't really all that close to the tyrannosauroids and have interesting traits of their own such as extreme jaw articulation, but it is what it is. Comparing the two mechanically in Pathfinder, you are effectively exchanging the rex's ability to swallow prey whole and deal lots of critical damage for Big Al's slightly higher speed and a claw attack that is augmented by the Pounce and Rake special qualities. Compsognathus (CR 1/2 Tiny Animal) Compsognathus is well known in the public consciousness for two things: being the size of a chicken, and appearing in the movie version of Jurassic Park: the Lost World. The only two interesting notes here are that it has a venomous bite that deals 1d2 Strength damage per round and that it has a swim speed. The former is a Jurassic Park legacy, while the latter is possibly based on someone doing their research about the fact that Compsognathus lived in what was an island chain during the Late Jurassic. These tiny saurians can be taken as familiars, basically granting Improved Initiative to their master. Parasaurolophus (CR 4 Huge Animal) A large hadrosaur with a tube-like crest. You can take it as an animal companion, but it doesn't really have anything noteworthy about its stat block, and its flavor text is literally two sentences long and only notes its weight, length, and that it's known for its crest. Tylosaurus (CR 8 Gargantuan Animal) Not actually a dinosaur, but instead the largest of the mosasaurs, a group of marine lizards that branched off from the varanids (monitor lizards). The text informs us that Tylosaurus are known to attack ships that they mistake for whales, but they surprisingly don't get the Capsize special quality. What they do get is a land speed of 20, which means that they're going to be scooting along the dirt at the same speed as a halfling, something that actual mosasaurs almost certainly couldn't do. Primal Dragons "True dragon" is a term for the chromatic and metallic dragons, right? Wrong, it turns out that there are even more groups of true dragons out there, and one of these groups are the primal dragons. Primal dragons have most of the same things associated with the other groups of true dragons: sapience, spellcasting, age categories, all that jazz. Their main gimmick is that they are all extraplanar dragons with elemental subtypes that live on the elemental planes. All but two of them are some shade of Neutral as well. Brine Dragon (CR 3 Tiny to CR 19 Gargantuan Dragon [Extraplanar, Water]) Lawful Neutral blue-green dragons with fish-like scales and fins that are native to the Elemental Plane of Water. Brine dragons aren't evil, but they're colossal assholes anyway, being selfish and power-hungry beasts that get depressed if they don't have a retinue of "lesser beings" to rule over. On top of an acid breath weapon, brine dragons are good at capsizing ships, have spell-like abilities that include Control Water and Horrid Wilting, their natural attacks shove salt and acid into wounds to force a Fortitude save to avoid being stunned for a round from pain, and the bite of an ancient or great wyrm brine dragon deals 1d2 or 1d4 Strength damage on top of their normal damage. CR 5 Small to CR 21 Colossal Dragon [Air, Extraplanar]) The blueish-white cloud dragons of the Elemental Plane of Air are free spirits that roam across the boundless skies in search of new and interesting things to look at, talk to, or collect. Their breath weapon replicates the Fog Cloud spell rather than deals damage, and they can also innately replicate a special variant of the Gaseous Form spell that allows them to retain their normal fly speed. They also produce thunder when they bite, dealing an extra 2d6 sonic damage, and have spell-like abilities that include Cloudkill, Fog Cloud, Solid Fog, and Storm of Vengeance. Crystal Dragon (CR 2 Tiny to CR 18 Gargantuan Dragon [Earth, Extraplanar]) These dragons are entirely made out of various colored gemstones, dwell deep in the Elemental Plane of Earth, and are our only Good primordial dragons. Unlike the stereotype of "stone = Law" you see with things like dwarves, though, crystal dragons are in fact Chaotic Good. They are obsessed with cleanliness for both their lairs and their crystal bodies, but at the same time are vain and quick to become violent when they perceive something as an insult to their Magma Dragon (CR 4 Tiny to CR 20 Gargantuan Dragon [Extraplanar, Fire]) Big, ferocious Chaotic Neutral dragons with black scales that constantly leak lava. Their actions are seemingly inscrutable to outsiders, with acts of violence or peace being impossible to predict by anyone but other magma dragons. The magma dragon's breath weapon is fire, but at ancient age this gets boosted with an extra 1d3 rounds of the damage after the initial blast due to it being sticky lava. It gets upgraded again when the dragon reaches great wyrm age, as once per day it can vomit lava that deals normal breath weapon damage but also instantly cools, entrapping the victim for either 3d6 minutes or until they break free. Their spell-like abilities are a similarly conflagrational mixture that includes Scorching Ray, Delayed Blast Fireball, and Wall of Lava, and they tend to have at least one of their Sorcerer spell slots filled up with the Grease spell as insult to injury. Umbral Dragon (CR 6 Small to CR 22 Colossal Dragon [Extraplanar]) While technically a primal dragon, the slimy, snaky Chaotic Evil umbral dragon comes the Plane of Shadows rather than any of the elemental planes. These merciless beasts eat ghosts and the undead, but will kill the living anyway because they are just that evil. Their breath weapon deals a special type of negative energy damage that acts normally against living targets but doesn't heal the undead, and their abilities are legion: immunity to energy drain and death magic, Ghost Touch on all their natural weapons at young or older age, a second 3/day breath weapon that forces a Fortitude save to avoid blindness for 1d4 rounds and 1d4 Strength drain for adult or older individuals, any kills it makes creating a shadow or greater shadow 1d4 rounds later in ancient or older individuals, 1 level of energy drain on bite or claw attacks at great wyrm age, and spell-like abilities that include Vampiric Touch, Shadow Walk, and Finger of Death.  Dragon Horse (CR 9 Large Magical Beast [Air]) The long-man/lung-ma, or dragon horse, is a wondrous horse from Chinese mythology that has the scales of a dragon, can swiftly race across the sky, and is believed to be an omen of good fortune and leadership. When it appeared in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons through the Monster Manual II, this was translated into the AD&D mindset by having the dragon horse be Goodly relatives of the kirin that are all for peace and happiness. In Pathfinder they lose the association with kirin, simply being weird sapient pacifist horse-things that freely travel between the Astral Plane, Material Plane, and Elemental Plane of Air. They try to avoid violence and even prefer to use nonlethal attacks on Evil mortals, though a creature with the Evil subtype gets the full brunt of their rarely seen violent side. The dragon horse's main weapon is a breath weapon that can shift to either replicate the Fog Cloud spell, whip up a severe wind, or deal 10d6 cold damage. Giant Dragonfly (CR 4 Medium Vermin) and Nymph (CR 3 Small Vermin) Giant dragonflies are found in and around swamps and marshes. Their dog-sized nymphs eat carrion and small animals of various stripes, while the adult forms specifically hunt warm-blooded prey. Boggards and other primitive swamp races often assign religious significance to specific colors of giant dragonfly. Drakes Referred to as "degenerate" versions of true dragons, drakes are vaguely pterosaur-like dragons with below-average Intelligence scores and none of the extreme powers and spellcasting that mark true dragons. Flame Drake (CR 5 Large Dragon [Fire]) The drake version of red dragons, known for being extremely violent and ruthless. They travel in packs that attempt to bully humanoid settlements into giving them lots of tribute, engaging in raids against those who resist. Rather than a true breath weapon, flame drakes instead can belch out the equivalent of a Fireball spell every 1d6 rounds. Forest Drake (CR 4 Large Dragon [Earth]) Atavistic green dragons. Forest drakes are more or less the same in attitude and action as flame drakes, to the point that some of their entry is just copy-pasted from the flame drake's flavor text. The only information new to forest drakes compared to the flame drake is that they love to eat elves and fey. Their vomit ball is an acid glob that deals 4d6 damage and replicates the Obscuring Mist spell on the impact site for 1d4 rounds. Frost Drake (CR 7 Large Dragon [Cold]) Atavistic white dragons, though they are blue in color.  Their entry is yet again a big copy-paste job with nothing really new, and their ball attack deals 7d6 cold damage and creates a 20 foot spread of slippery ice at the impact site.Sea Drake (CR 6 Large Dragon [Aquatic]) Unlike the other drakes, the sea drake has no true dragon immediately connected to it, and it is described as being an inbred beast rather than a degenerate one. Did a true dragon gently caress a sea serpent, and this was the result? Maybe, but nobody really knows. Sea drakes are solitary rather than pack hunters like other drakes, though they will band together to attack large prey or harass shipping lanes. The sea dragon's ball attack replicates the Chain Lightning spell.  Draugr (CR 2 Medium Undead [Water]) The draugr is an undead monster of Norse mythology, a bloated corpse that was often (but not always) associated with the sea. You may recognize them as being a thing you saw very, very often in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Here, they are pretty much what you'd expect, being angry Viking corpses that walk out of the sea to terrorize the living. They're big, beefy, and typically armed with large archaic weapons such as greataxes that nauseate those they deal damage to, but they aren't very bright. A variant, the red-eyed draugr captain, gets 3/day Obscuring Mist as a spell-like ability and deal a negative level when they deal melee damage. Draugr captains also often have levels in Barbarian, Fighter, or Rogue as an added incentive to worry about why one particular draugr in the encounter is described as having glowing red eyes. Dullahan (CR 7 Medium Undead) Traditional fairies aren't always nice, nor are they always pretty. Hell, they're frequently the opposite in both cases, which definitely applies to the terror that is the dullahan. It is a headless rider whose weapon of choice is a human spinal column, and when it comes riding into town death is sure to follow. Pathfinder's version is somewhat...less exciting. It's an undead from Hell, wields a +1 keen longsword that deals +1d6 cold damage, and can cast a special curse (DC 22 Fortitude save negates) that causes the victim to be staggered for 1d6 rounds, automatically suffer any critical hit for the next day, and automatically fail any Constitution check to stabilize while dying in the same time period. I can understand the change from Fey to Undead, but it seems like a huge lost opportunity to not have it flailing around someone's spine as a magic weapon instead of some dinky sword. Dust Digger (CR 4 Large Aberration) A monster from several AD&D modules themed around deserts and the Monster Manual II, the dust digger is a giant starfish with teeth that hides in the sand while waiting to ambush prey. Thanks to our good friend the Tome of Horrors, the dust digger appears unchanged in its description here, though the artist apparently didn't get the memo about it being a starfish-thing and instead drew it like the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi. As weird as a giant land starfish that acts like an antlion is, I wonder what it would be like if the Tome of Horrors had been stuffed to the gills with the really weird/dumb/hilarious AD&D monsters instead of the (admittedly sometimes still weird, dumb, and/or hilarious) ones it actually got. Imagine Pathfinder Bestiaries crawling with gello monsters, plush golems, saluqis, and stwinger faeries. D'ziriak (CR 3 Medium Outsider [Extraplanar]) Weird termite people from the Plane of Shadow, d'ziriaks create massive cities consisting of hives decorated with various alchemical and magical decorations. Unlike many natives to their plane, d'ziriaks have no shadow-related supernatural abilities. In fact, they have just the opposite, with the power to erupt into a light show once per day that forces a DC 13 Fortitude save to avoid being dazzled for a minute. Their bodies are also coated in multicolored runes that constantly emit a dim light in a 20 foot radius around them. D'ziriaks are a True Neutral race that prefers to engage in trade with outsiders rather than fight, selling particularly strange wares such as light beams woven into physical artwork.  Elementals Since there's only one entry in this letter, I figured I might as well shove it into the end of this post rather than have the next post cover even more letters than it already will. Ice Elemental (CR 1 Small to CR 11 Huge Outsider [Air, Cold, Elemental, Extraplanar, Water]) Ice elementals are found where the Elemental Planes of Water and Air meet, a rather breathtakingly described place where "giant icebergs careen off of world-high waterfalls into the open sky". Unsurprisingly, the ice elemental's natural attacks deal cold damage, but they also have the interesting effect of forcing a Fortitude save to avoid being staggered for a round from just how bitingly cold their cold is. The ur-cold. Lightning Elemental (CR 1 Small to CR 11 Huge Outsider [Air, Elemental, Extraplanar]) A vaguely humanoid storm cloud that constantly sparks with electrical discharge. They dwell within immense world-hurricanes that roll across the Elemental Plane of Air, and are known for being ridiculously violent: they are more than happy to die if they get a good fight in on their way out. If you are either wearing metal, wielding metal, or made of metal, the lightning elemental gets a +3 bonus to attack rolls and a +10 bonus to bull rush, disarm, overrun, and trip attacks against you. Magma Elemental (CR 1 Small to CR 11 Huge Outsider [Earth, Elemental, Extraplanar, Fire]) Magma elementals live on the border of the Elemental Planes of Earth and Fire, and tend to take on beast-like forms. Their main claim to fame is that they can turn all the squares they occupy into lava terrain once per day. Mud Elemental (CR 1 Small to CR 11 Huge Outsider [Earth, Elemental, Extraplanar, Water]) Natives to the meeting place of the Elemental Planes of Earth and Water. There's nothing really interesting about them to note. Next Time in Pathfinder Bestiary 2: F, G, and H are all a bit small, so in the next post we'll just cover them all. F is for fetchling, G is for gar. And H is for hippo, the cruelest by far.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2016 11:04
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Regarding Wicked Ways, this is reaching back a few updates but...am I the only one who noticed that the Japanese witch is a ninja, the Indian one is a snake charmer, and the African teacher is based on the only African myth every white kids learns about in elementary school? If a witch isn't white she's probably barefoot in a stereotypical ethnic costume. Mors Rattus posted:Good to know that if I am kidnapped and forcibly used as office furniture for two weeks, my abductor might face up to six whole months in wizard jail.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2016 04:37
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:This art and character/race design is better than this game deserves. Bieeardo posted:First edition Shadowrun did it. It was kind of funny to look at all those fantasy race dudes just standing there in their boxers. oriongates posted:I have no idea why an organic backpack requires six large paragraphs of explanation.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2016 00:06
|
|
|
Chapter 4, Part 4: al-Haz GURPS Banestorm posted:Al-Haz is Yrth’s greatest Islamic nation, and sees itself as a rival to Megalos for glory. It also views itself as the heart of Islamic orthodoxy. The mullahs of al-Haz teach that someday the faithful will conquer the world and convert it to Shi’ite Islam . . . but not yet. So yeah, al-Haz is The Shi'ia Nation, which means that there are tensions between it and its technical allies of al-Wazif (The Sunni Nation) and Cardiel (The Progressive Non-Denominational Muslim Nation).  Geography Most of al-Haz is vast savannah threaded with rivers, where Hazi peasantry grow large fields of grain and herd livestock. These great warm plains end at the Fence of God, a mountain range that is made up of fir and pine forests in the highlands and stands of cedar and olive trees in the foothills, to the west of which are arid badlands that few people inhabit. The plains are home to lions, jackals, wild cattle, antelopes, and elephants, a trio of creatures extinct on Earth in the form of the bushwolf (thylacine/Tasmanian tiger), paladin (Doedicurus), and strider (Phorusrhacos), and a Yrth-native tusked goat called the harding. The largest animals such as paladins and elephants are only allowed to be hunted by the Sultan himself. History In the time shortly after the first Banestorm, the fact that many mullahs and Islamic scholars had conveniently all been dumped in the same region meant that what would later become al-Haz was the site of the first two great Muslim cities: Gebel al-Hikmah and al-Ab'ra. These were soon followed by the holy city of Geb'al-Din in 1160, but even then the majority of Muslims in Ytarria were nomadic tribes lead by sheikhs. This changed with the invasion of the Megalan Empire and the formation of the sultanate of al-Haz in 1442, with the words of the mullahs outweighing the cries of many sheikhs that they had no desire for the shackles of empire. The primarily Sunni tribes of the north would rebel in 1444 and name one of their sheikhs as caliph of al-Wazif, followed shortly thereafter by the eastern tribes forming al-Kard in 1445. Modern al-Haz still sees its two neighbors as both betrayers of the Hazi cause and spiritually "polluted" by their non-Shi'ite ideals even after all the centuries that have passed since the Ytarrian Crusades. Society Social Status The lowest rung of the Hazi ladder is reserved for beggars and slaves of peasants, followed by fishermen and porters, then peasants and urban craftsmen, then tribal sheikhs and shopkeepers, then lesser mullahs, lesser pashas, and 'amirs, then middle-ranking pashas and merchants, then cadis and greater pashas, then the Great Judge of the Ulama and the sultan's extended family, then the immediate family of the sultan and the sultan's vizier, and finally the sultan at the very top. Pashas are the governors that perform regional administrative duties and have either gained their position through heredity or recognition of their own talents, and are referred to as being a pasha of one to four horsetails depending on their importance. Non-Muslims are only tolerated if they are Christian or Jewish, and even then they are subject to the jizya (an extra form of taxation) and are heavily persecuted (or even possibly lynched, if they happen to be openly prosyletizing) if the local pasha doesn't give them his blessing. Many Christian and Jewish Arabs have left al-Haz for Cardiel, because Cardiel is the only nation that is allowed to have any wholly good traits. Non-Humans There's no speciesism in al-Haz as long as the other species are Muslim, but for whatever reason there aren't really many non-humans around anyway. There are some dwarves and halflings in the coastal cities and a singular reclusive tribe of reptile men on the eastern plains, but that's it. Magic Hazis don't like magic. It is heavily suppressed and the use of magic in the holy city is blasphemy of the highest caliber. No sultan has ever had the balls to fully ban magic outright, however, which has lead to the creation of murderous vigilante groups such as the Balikites that perform the "duty" they feel the sultan won't. Warfare Al-Haz has a strong army of mostly mounted warriors, but they have no one to fight. Well, they could technically fight the Hashishin stated to be in literally every city of al-Haz, the Balikites of the badlands, or pirates to the south, but they are instead kept in reserve to fight "the infidel" if yet another Crusade happens. The current sultan also doesn't trust them at all, which has lead to military downsizing and a probable need for mercenary forces to augment the main army if said Crusade ever occurred. The Law Pain is believed to be the outlet for  The Coast Al-Ab'ra The largest seaport and second-largest overall city in all of al-Haz, al-Ab'ra is found at the mouth of the meandering Alhallahan River. Ceramics, glass, salt, and textiles are exported here to the other nations of Ytarria. There is also a collection of hashish black markets in the Al-Ab'ra underworld, the sale of which is so lucrative that gang wars will sometimes spill blood into the harbors and the local pasha of four horsetails no longer moves to anything about it after repeated assassination attempts against him. Al-Abyad A little city in the west, where the foothills of the Fence of God slope down to meet the sea. Harding and cattle ranches, wheat farms, and shipyards that build and repair vessels using the great cedars of the hill country are the city's livelihoods. The only passage through the Fence of God to the Lands of the Djinn to the southwest is through al-Abyad, and the passage is blocked to all but a few merchants favored by Pasha of Three Horsetails Ayyub ibn-Madawi. A man named Ghalib washed up in the city half a decade ago, claiming to have come through the Maelstrom from the Lands of the Djinn. People wrote him off as some random crazy person, but he shortly disappeared after he appeared, and ever since there have been strange sightings of a ghost ship that rises out of the sea and heads west toward the Lands of the Djinn. The Maelstrom A giant whirlpool and never-ending hurricane that float around the ocean south of al-Haz. It's extremely hard to predict the Maelstrom's movements, as it is made up of crazy chaos magic that allows it to move in the first place and thus baffles both traditional and paranormal prediction methods. The fact that the Maelstrom doesn't push too far to the coast of al-Haz means that ships heading from any of the regions to the north can enter al-Haz but can't make it further west to the Lands of the Djinn and beyond, nor can anyone from the west can head eastward to al-Haz in that direction. The Mountains Gebel al-Hikmah The capital of al-Haz, where Sultan Mamoun al-Mansur and his many viziers and concubines dwell in the luxurious palace known as the Blue Pavilion. Al-Mansur is known for his great love of polo, and frequently hosts lavish parties at matches between professional polo teams. The fact that polo team sponsorship also acts as political clout means that there's a lot of bribery, dirty deeds, and even murder behind the scenes. If you aren't Muslim or are a troublemaker, you aren't allowed into the city, and both the Sultan's guards and the 'amirs of the Ghazis of the Crescent Moon are at the gates to make that very clear. Geb'al-Din Geb'al-Din is the holy city that lies deep in the Fence of God. It is home to numerous mosques, including the Shrine of the Rock that houses the Ytarrian kaaba. While every Muslim in Ytarria is to enter the city in pilgrimage at least once in their life, any non-Muslim who attempts to enter the city or is even found close enough to see it is executed without trial. Unfortunately, there are infrequent outbreaks of "Pilgrim's Plague" (bubonic plague) in the city, which have never been quelled due to the fact that wizards aren't allowed into Geb'al-Din and thus can't magic away the problem. So far, outbreaks haven't occurred in tandem with a call to pilgrimage in fifteen years, but since it happened once it can surely happen again. Firuz While not official in any capacity, the handful of settlers who eke out an existence in the shattered badlands of the northwest call it Firuz. The land is made up of canyons, cliffs, and jagged hills that are plagued by constant drought and near-total lack of vegetation. Firuz is also where Balik Abdallah al-Firuz created the Balikite cult, which still has a powerful following in the region even after al-Firuz himself disappeared and hasn't been seen for decades. The fact that Firuz is a low mana region in an otherwise normal mana nation means that Balikites have a distinct advantage against wizards that attempt to hunt them down on top of their intimate knowledge of the region's treacherous terrain. The Plains Nomad Tribes Various tribes still roam the great plains of al-Haz even after its unification, living their Berber lifestyle to this day. The tribesmen are suspicious of stangers, but are nonetheless often contacted because their horses are the fastest in all of Ytarria and only slightly less hardy than the relentless steeds of the Northmen. Alhallabad While Alhallabad is already prosperous thanks to fertile land on the banks of the River Alhallahan, it is even more wealthy due to being the only city in central al-Haz and thus the place where the nomad tribes come to sell their horses and trade for various goods. Of course, since this is GURPS Banestorm and political intrigue is everywhere, this wealth has been broken due to the death of Pasha Alihaba al-Khalil during the last great Pilgrim's Plague outbreak. The three sons of al-Khalil have torn central al-Haz apart. Badem ibn-Alihaba al-Asadel is the current pasha, but only thanks to the sultan giving him the title due to him being the eldest of the three sons - he's decidedly average and only succeeds in his duties thanks to his clever and wise wife. The youngest son, Denyz ibn-Alihaba al-Hassan, is clever and loyal to the people of Alhallabad, and has been defensive in his maneuverings for the governing throne. Middle son Fadil ibn-Alihaba al-Azim, however, is dumb as a sack of rocks and extremely violent, planning to siege the city with his army of bandits, thugs, rebels, and Balikites after he failed to get anywhere politically thanks to everyone in the city hating his guts. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Al-Wazif, a place of political intrigue and internal strife. Who would have though, eh? Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Apr 23, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2016 03:35
|
|
|
Adnachiel posted:Wicked Wonder. (+1 to rolls when doing wicked deeds. If it’s a spell, they can spend a zap point to do +5 damage or make the spell permanent.)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2016 19:11
|
|
|
I know you compared it to Eberron, but Aethera is screaming to me "do you remember Spelljammer?!" And I mean screaming in the best of ways.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2016 08:21
|
|
|
Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Faceless Stalker to Gug Faceless Stalker (CR 4 Medium Aberration [Shapechanger]) The faceless stalkers (or ugothol, as they call themselves) were created as servants of the aboleth empire. They were abandoned when the scheme they were created for failed, and left without a home or a purpose the stalkers decided that the best course of action was to mope in caves and drink people's blood while torturing them. Faceless stalkers can shapeshift into any size Medium creature of the Humanoid type, but this process takes ten minutes of uninterrupted changing, is painful to the faceless stalker, and only bestows cosmetic benefits. Fetchling (Class Level-Dependent Medium Outsider [Native]) Fetchlings are former humans that were mutated by the energy of the Plane of Shadow, becoming monochrome other than their glowing yellow eyes. They like to stick their noses in interplanar political maneuvering and trade, but not much else is stated about them here, and even their entry in the Advanced Race Guide is more or less a longer version of discussing their love of politics and mercantile pursuits. Oh, and fetchling is kind of racist – they prefer to be called kayal, which is an Aklo word meaning "shadow people". As a player race, fetchlings get +2 to Dexterity and Charisma but -2 to Wisdom, darkvision and low-light vision, a +2 to Knowledge (Planes) and Stealth skill checks, have a 50% miss chance against them in dim light rather than the usual 20%, and have a slowly growing pool of spell-like abilities that starts with Disguise Self 1/day and gets the addition of Shadow Walk at class level 9 and Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow or Material Plane only) at class level 13. Giant Fly (CR 1 Medium Vermin) and Giant Maggot (CR 1/2 Medium Vermin) Pathfinder Bestiary 2 posted:Wholly monstrous, these disgusting creatures have been known to sometimes attack still-living foes, particularly when they are hungry or living creatures disturb their meals. Forlarren (CR 2 Medium Fey) Unlike many monsters of ye olde 1E Fiend Folio, the forlarren is a tortured soul that seems to come straight out of some "this ain't your daddy's roleplaying game!" fantasy heartbreaker. Specifically, they're a faun-like creature that is the result of a daemon raping a nymph. Forlarrens are so utterly misanthropic that they typically murder their own mothers before going on to lash out at anything and everything during their self-loathing lives. Rather oddly, in spite of changing them from True Neutral with Evil tendencies to full-on Neutral Evil, Pathfinder has given the forlarren a new special ability wherein she has to make a DC 15 Will save or become nauseated from pure remorse and grief for 1d6 rounds after killing a living being. The Pathfinder forlarren also has had her ability to cast Heat Metal as a spell-like ability boosted from 1/day to 3/day, and it can optionally be slotted out for another spell-like ability such as Chill Metal, Flame Blade, Flaming Sphere, Gust of Wind, Summon Swarm, or Warp Wood. Also, while not really relevant textually, Pathfinder definitely did a lot better job of making forlarrens look part daemon than the Tome of Horrors did:  Frost Worm (Huge Magical Beast [Cold]) Giant worms that radiate intense cold, the frost worms of the far north fear no other monster besides the remorhaz, which is smart enough to have a fire breath weapon in a realm of creatures with the Cold subtype. A frost worm is capable of entrancing prey as well, thanks to a noise described alternately as either a trilling or a keening. This forces a DC 18 Will save to avoid being fascinated for as long as the worm keeps up concentration, presumably reflecting the subject being lost in thought about what the gently caress a trill sounds like. Fungal Crawler (CR 3 Small Aberration) The fungal crawler is a subterranean giant cricket with sharp teeth and a coating of various symbiotic fungi. This symbiotic relationship grants them the immunities of the Plant creature type without any of its drawbacks, as well as the ability to subsist on ambient heat and radiation when fresh meat is scarce. It is possible to pseudo-domesticate and even train fungal crawlers as long as they are kept well fed, but they will turn on their "owners" as soon as the flesh stops flowing. It is stated that fungal crawlers are extremely adaptable and have variants with Fly speeds, Swim speeds, and even the Cold and Fire subtypes depending on what types of cavern they inhabit. Gar (CR 1 Medium Animal [Aquatic]) and Giant Gar (CR 6 Huge Animal [Aquatic]) Gar are described here as ravenous predators willing to eat anything up to their own body size, which amuses me greatly as someone who has a great fascination for and adoration of the alligator gar, which very much does not eat things as large as it is. Giant gar are as long as school buses and are said to be able to eat a horse and rider in a single gulp (ignore the fact that they can't because of how the Swallow Whole special quality actually works), and are found in deep rivers and lakes of far-flung places. Merrows, scrags, and sea hags sometimes keep giant gar as pets.  Giants Marsh Giant (CR 8 Large Humanoid [Giant]) Savage and ever-hungry giants found in brackish water marshes and swamps. Their specific tastes dictate that a creature is tastier the more violent and hard to kill it is, and they aren't above killing and eating their own family members if they seem particularly tasty. While they already look very Innsmouth as it is, there are some marsh giants that actually do get down and dirty with deep ones and give birth to what are called brineborn. Brineborn marsh giants have the Advanced template and get Speak With Animals, Contagion, Confusion, and Quench as spell-like abilities. Rune Giant (CR 17 Gargantuan Humanoid [Giant]) The charcoal-skinned and rune-covered rune giants are big on a level that few giants in D&D or Pathfinder manage to reach, standing a whopping 40 feet tall. The reason for this is that they were artificially created by some rear end in a top hat wizards in the distant past to act as a task force of slavers and slave drivers to put all other giant races under the wizards' heels. While this plan didn't pan out, the rune giants still remain in distant corners of the map, and other giants speak of them only in fearful tones around the campfire at night. In combat, the merciless rune giants wield both conventional weapons and the magical arts, being capable of casting spell-like abilities such as Charm Person, Mass Charm Monster, Dominate Person, and Demand. These spell-like abilities have a +4 to their save DC when used against other giants, and any time they are used the runes on the giant's body flash brightly and force a DC 24 Fortitude save to avoid a round of blindness. A rune giant can also "overload" these runes once every 1d4 rounds to produce an eruption of sparks that act as a 30 foot cone breath weapon that deals 10d6 fire and 10d6 electricity damage. Taiga Giant (CR 12 Huge Humanoid [Giant]) 20 foot tall gray-skinned giants of the north, the taiga giants are tribal beings that feed on mammoths, whales, seals, and walruses. They are known to use almost every part of what they eat, with the bone, hide, and sinew all going to service the tribe in some manner. They are also deeply spiritual and worshipful of their ancestors, innately capable of communing with the ancestors once per day to cast either Bless, Endure Elements, Protection From Evil, Protection From Good, or See Invisibility. They are also totally not XXL Magical Native Americans. Totally. Ignore the fact that later supplements even give them language and naming conventions based on the Inuit. Wood Giant (CR 6 Large Humanoid [Giant]) Like ents, only looking like blown up elves instead of tree people. While they first appeared in 1990's Monstrous Compendium 5 and are thus a legacy monster, I recall even one of Pathfinder's designers not caring at all about the wood giants, which greatly amuses me. Gloomwing (CR 4 Large Outsider [Extraplanar]) Coming from the 1E Monster Manual II, the gloomwing is a giant purple moth creature from the Plane of Shadow. It is the adult form of the tenebrous worm, a horrific murder-caterpillar that is actually more dangerous than its parent. The gloomwing acts much like the real world parasitic wasp, attacking out of a need to procure a safe home for its offspring rather than for a meal. To do so, it has a proboscis that deals as much damage as a greatsword, hypnotic wing patterns that force a DC 14 Will save to avoid being confused for a round if you look into them, and pheromones that force a DC 14 Fortitude save to avoid suffering -4 to Strength for the duration of the battle with this belligerent butterfly. A helpless or slain foe of size Small or larger can be implanted with 1d4 tenebrous worm eggs that hatch a day later; funnily enough, this was actually a fate only corpses suffered before Pathfinder. Go figure.  Golems Adamantine Golem (CR 19 Huge Construct) Big, bad, and  as all hell: a good description of the aesthetic you see when you face off against an adamantine golem. Your estus flasks and learning through repetition won't help you here, though. This monstrous metal titan deals 6d10 sunder damage to your armor on any critical hit, has 15 damage reduction that is only bypassed by epic damage, gets fast healing 10, and literally cannot be killed unless you either decapitate it with adamantine vorpal weapon or Miracle/Wish it away. Luckily for most people, the only person who can even create an adamantine golem is a level 20 Wizard who has to travel to the Elemental Plane of Earth to get two whole tons of pure adamantine, mithral, platinum, and gold. As with all golems, it has a bypass for its immunity to magic; in its case, Transmute Metal to Wood slows the adamantine golem for 1d4 rounds and allows adamantine damage rather than epic damage to bypass its damage reduction.Alchemical Golem (CR 9 Large Construct) A golem animated by elementals trapped in a formula of various alchemical formulae, with a lifeless brain in a jar plopped on for fun. Its slam attacks (with needles?) deal both their actual 2d8 bludgeoning damage plus a random effect of 1d6 points of either acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage, sickening for 1d4 rounds, or entanglement for 1d4 rounds. It can also deal a point of one of those energy types with any melee weapon it somehow wields, or lob a 60 foot range alchemical bomb that deals 8d6 direct damage of one of those energy types plus 1d6 splash damage. The Shatter spell bypasses the alchemical golem's magic immunity to deal damage as if it was a crystal creature. Carrion Golem (CR 4 Medium Construct) A smaller and grossly rotted version of the flesh golem. It stinks so bad that it has an upgrade of the Stench special quality that imparts nausea rather than sickness, and its slam attacks impart a specific disease selected by the golem's creator. A load of spells bypass the carrion golem's immunity to magic: Gentle Repose paralyzes them into helplessness for 1d4 rounds, Animate Dead makes its body parts rebel against each other and deal 1d6 damage per caster level, cold or fire damage spells impart Slow for 2d6 rounds, and electricity damage spells grant Haste for 2d6 rounds. Clockwork Golem (CR 12 Large Construct) While the artwork makes it look like something the dwemer of the Elder Scrolls universe would make, this golem is actually a humanoid-shaped pile of hundreds of gears underneath its nice amber metal shell. The golem can use its gears either offensively to deal an extra 2d10 slashing damage during a grapple or defensively as it transforms itself into a 10 x 10 or 5 x 20 foot wall, exchanging the ability to move for the ability to deal 15d6 slashing damage to anything passing through its occupied spaces. It takes a standard action to transform into the wall and a move action to transform back. Even a dead clockwork golem can still grind its gears on your face, though, as it explodes into a 10 foot burst of 12d6 piercing damage shards. Finally, for magic immunity bypasses, Rusting Grasp staggers it for 1d6 rounds and deals damage normally and Grease produces Haste for 1d6 rounds. Glass Golem (CR 8 Large Construct) Glass golems are typically found being created in desert regions, where the sand needed to create the glass they are hewn from is prevalent. On top of dealing an extra 1d8 bleed damage with its natural attacks, a glass golem can cast Spell Turning on itself for a round every 1d4 rounds, and if it is in bright light any onlooker needs to make a DC 16 Fortitude save to avoid being dazzled for a round. The exceptions to magic immunity for this patricular golem are that Shatter damages it, Keen Edge works on its natural attacks, cold damage spells Slow it for 3 rounds, and fire damage spells heal it for 1 HP per 3 HP of damage the attack would have dealt. There's a variant called the stained glass golem that gains a +10 to Stealth checks but is otherwise unchained, because everyone knows that stained glass is far more hard to pin down than translucent glass. Mithral Golem (CR 16 Huge Construct) As its name implies, the mithral golem is made entirely of the silvery metal mithril. Its entire gimmick is "gotta go fast": on top of having a move speed of 50 feet and a Dexterity score of 24 (which is colossal by golem standards), it's got all the big name mobility feats like Run and Spring Attack as bonus feats, gets one more move action per round than any other creature normally gets, and can become liquid for up to 10 rounds per day to flow through any crack or hole of any size. On the magic front, Slow spells remove its extra move action for 1d6 rounds, Haste heals 1d6 damage per caster level (to a max of 10d6 per cast), and any cold damage spell cast on a mithral golem while it's in liquid form deals 10d6 damage. Gray Render (CR 8 Large Magical Beast) One of those other monsters introduced in Third Edition Monster Manual that didn't get into the first Pathfinder Bestiary, and thus ended up here. Gray renders in D&D and Pathfinder are pretty much the same thematically, being weird gray ape-things that "adopt" a creature or group of creatures as their own charges. Gray renders eventually get tired of their current entourage and move to find new unsuspecting groups to claim as their own pets, but until then they actively give food to their adopted entities and defend them to the death. Mechanically, it's just a really strong monster with nothing all that noteworthy. Gremlins Just as Outsiders have their various clans such as demons, devils, daemons, demodands, and other things that don't start with D, so too do other creature types. The gremlins are one clan of fey that are unified by being small, preferring the Material Plane over the realm of the fey, and loving subterfuge, destruction, and mayhem. The mite from the first Pathfinder Bestiary is retconned to be the lowliest of the gremlins, having lost their love for chaos and entered a state of self-loathing. As a result, other gremlins hate them and will engage in extreme violence towards them. Mechanically, on top of all being fey, all gremlins have at-will Prestidigitation as a spell-like ability. Jinkin (CR 1 Tiny Fey) Jinkins are gremlins that look more or less like the sort seen in the famous 1984 movie, and are just as ill-tempered and destructive. They love attacking larger creatures by stealing items from them, pretending to retreat, and then leading the target right into a sneak attack or set of deadly traps. If six jinkins get together, they can take an hour to cast Bestow Curse on a willing or helpless target or curse a magic item. Dwarves find jinkins particularly loathsome, which isn't all that surprising given that dwarven crafts and magic items are a big deal. Nuglub (CR 2 Small Fey) Extremely violent gremlins with hunched backs, a coat of oily black fur, and three glowing blue eyes. Nuglubs find great amusement in murdering helpless victims in the dead of night and then watching as people descend on each other in paranoia as they try to find the culprit. These crimes are typically conducted either alone or with smaller and weaker species of gremlin, as multiple nuglubs in one place will inevitably fight for dominance and eventually cannibalize one another. Nuglubs get a trio of spell-like abilities that they can use once per hour rather than the usual x/day formula, as well, with Heat Metal, Shocking Grasp, and Snare. Pugwampi (CR ½ Tiny Fey) Pugwampis look like tiny gnolls that were based on chihuahas instead of hyenas, and are probably the only monster in Pathfinder's history to be stated to have a canonical love of poop jokes: Pathfinder Bestiary 2 posted:Pugwampis live in caves or ruined buildings, occasionally venturing forth to find victims upon which to inflict their sick senses of humor. Their “jokes” tend to involve spikes and excrement, or sometimes pits full of spiders or campsites that flood with swamp water. Certainly only the pugwampis consider their jokes funny. Vexgit (CR 1 Tiny Fey) These insectoid gremlins are the ones that adhere most tightly to the traditional WWII-era conceptualization of what a gremlin is. They absolutely love to tear at and tinker with mechanical objects until they either stop working or become deadly hazards for humanoids to deal with. On top of being able to cast Rusting Grasp and Snare at a 1/hour rate, they have special abilities that allow them to treat objects as if they were one category simpler for the purposes of how long a Disable Device skill use takes and the granting of a +10 bonus to Disable Device checks when six vexgits gather to perform one task. Grick (CR 3 Medium Aberration) Another 3E-introduced monster like the gray render, the grick is a giant, slimy worm with a quartet of razor-sharp tentacles around a beaky mouth. Other than their freaky appearance, they're aren't that complicated, being another in the litany of large physical combat-based ambush predators you find in any given cave in D&D/Pathfinder-land. Pathfinder has a new variant of the creature called the jungle grick as well, which gains the Advanced Creature template and heads for the trees, dropping down from tree branches or attacking from the undergrowth rather than hiding somewhere in a cave. Grig (CR 1 Tiny Fey) Gaining their name from an older English word for both crickets and a type of apple-loving fairy, the grigs of Dungeons and Dragons just combined both definitions of the word by having them be tauric fey with the upper parts of pixies and the lower parts of crickets or grasshoppers. They've been around since the 1E Monster Manual II, reappearing again and again through the AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual, 3E Monster Manual, and eventually right here in the PB2. While D&D's grigs were harassing little shits that loved to torment humanoids, Pathfinder has envisioned them as gallant little paladins that are more than willing to fight evil far beyond their size, with a love of the arts on the side. Of course, the fact that their quest to fight evil is also stated to be one to "vanquish ugliness" makes them sound horribly superficial, which is...I guess pretty faerie-like, actually. Grigs can rub their legs together as a standard action to create a sound that forces a DC 12 Will save on any creature in a 20 foot radius that hears it; since Otto's Irresistible Dance isn't Open Game Content, failure here means that the foe is staggered for as long as the grig keeps concentrating to keep up the effect.  Grindylow (CR ½ Small Aberration [Aquatic]) In British folklore, the grindylow is a nasty water spirit or fairy that uses its long arms to grasp at children near the edge of their watery lairs, pulling them in to drown and eat them. Charming, those Brits. Anyway, while that's the origin of the name, Pathfinder's grindylows seem pretty clearly based on the ones seen in the movie adaptation of the fourth Harry Potter book on an aesthetic level, looking too similar for me to call it mere coincidence. Like pretty much every Chaotic Evil race ever, grindylows love violence and suffering, harming beings above and below the waves as a favored pastime, even ganging up to attack groups as large as merfolk clans and ship crews. They also have an almost religious reverence for the octopus and an equally great hatred for the squid, seeing the latter as a twisted mockery of the former, and will go out of their way to kill and mutilate any squid they find. A grindylow's tentacles don't actually deal any damage like those of a proper octopus, instead allowing for a special trip attack as a swift action that gains a +4 bonus and can't be countered on a failure. Grippli (Class Level-Dependent Small Humanoid [Grippli]) A race of amphibian humanoids from the not so successful Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Cards series of 1982, the grippli were effectively created as the Good frog people to contrast the Evil frog people that were the bullywugs. They were rather elf-like not only in their tree-living primitivism, but also in the fact that they combined a ridiculously long lifespan (700 years) with a tremendously low birthrate (around six or so tadpoles in that span). In Pathfinder, they are rather simplistically described, with just two paragraphs here and a paragraph in the Advanced Race Guide that is literally just the same information from this title regurgitated in a slightly different phrasing. Namely, they live in trees in rainforests or swamps, are omnivorous consumers of both giant insects and fruits, live about 60 years, and love metal and gemstone objects from the outside world. As a playable race, they get +2 to Dexterity and Wisdom but -2 to Strength and have a climb speed of 20 feet on top of their 30 feet land speed, darkvision, a +4 bonus to Stealth in marshes or forests, and move at normal speed in inclement swamp or marsh terrain. Gryph (CR 1 Small Magical Beast) A four- to eight-legged cave-dwelling heron that injects its eggs into live prey's bloodstream? Must be from the Fiend Folio. While I doubt that many people were exclaiming "bring back the gryph!", it was OGC-ized by the Tome of Horrors, so it ends up here anyway. While the gryph of yore's eggs hatched days after their traumatic insertion, the one here in Pathfinder implants 1d4 eggs on a successful sting attack that hatch in 1d4 minutes. The ravenous chicks deal 2 Constitution damage per chick as they violently erupt from the unwilling incubator's body and fly away. Managing a DC 20 Heal check or casting a Remove Disease or Heal spell before the gryph eggs hatch stops the process. At that point you're pretty safe, as the implantation is a 1/day ability and gryphs aren't actually all that interested in long-term combat.  Gug (CR 10 Large Aberration) Like the denizens of Leng from earlier, the monstrous gugs are taken from Lovecraft's Dreamlands. They're Chaotic Evil, so you probably already get their general MO: they maim people, torture them, sacrifice them to dark gods, yada yada. They'll eat their sacrifices as well, though they also consume fungi, slime, carrion, and undead creatures. In spite of the text's claim that gugs can contort themselves to gain longer reach or move through "impossibly small passages", Next Time in Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Turns out that the bookmarks in the PDF version are broken, so this entry has less letters than what I'd last spoken. Next time is is H through K, but that's a story for another day. Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 19:51 on May 5, 2016 |
|
#
¿
May 5, 2016 08:10
|
|
|
Terrible Opinions posted:Gugs actually do have the compression special quality which allows them to squeeze into smaller than normal passages for their size. It is a universal rule though so they don't bother re-explaining it so they can maintain the holy 1 monster per page rule. oriongates posted:Of course, oMage's "flavor of the whatever" style magic isn't my personal favorite, I'm a mug bigger fan of GURPS Cabal which gives you an extremely flexible, but still thematic set of mystic associations that you could mix and match in a variety of very creative ways.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2016 19:48
|
|
|
 Chapter 4, Part 5: al-Wazif Geography Mostly plains and hill country, with very little forest and almost no non-rocky coastline. Native wildlife includes antelope species, bison, horses, striders, quail and grouse species, bushwolves, jackals, lions, and wolves. History Two years after the Shi'ites of the southlands created al-Haz, the Sunni tribes to their north gathered together for a grand fourteen day celebration and contest, in which the greatest men of all the tribes competed against each other to become the caliph of their own new land, al-Wazif. The Wazifis quickly became a bulwark against Megalos, forcing each of the Megalan Crusades to be brutal slogs through territories stacked to the brim with siege emplacements, wizards, and ghazis. In 1988, the death of Caliph Ishaq ash-Sharif and the rise of his son Hafsa the Scholar to the throne was seen as as a perfect opportunity by the war hawks of al-Wazif to suggest their own crusade. This war quickly became a quagmire of death and misery that neither the Megalans nor Wazifis took any grandure from, and peace was restored. The war hawks don't seem to have gotten that message, though, and continue to amass their armies for another holy war as soon as they get another chance under a new caliph. Society Social Status Wazifi social statuses are basically the same as those of the Hazis, just with Turkish names for positions of power rather than Arabic ones. Christians and Jews are treated better in al-Wazif than al-Haz, getting Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) instead of Social Stigma (Minority), and aren't at risk of horrible lynch mobs. The ruling caliph is Hafsa at-Talib ibn-Ishaq al-Wazif, or Hafsa the Scholar for short. Hafsa would rather be doing what his nickname implies and is a strict pacifist, both of which are traits that have made some in his court consider him a weakling, but he has ruled with shrewedness and unwavering dedication. His half-brother through one of their father's concubines, Emir Harun abd Ishaq, is by contrast a warmongering brute who was the instigator of the Frontier Wars. Hasfa and Harun are now barely speaking to each other at all, Harun seeing Hafsa's brokering of peace at the end of the Frontier Wars as yet more evidence of his pathetic weakness and Hafsa seeing Harun's bloodlust as insane and self-destructive. Harun is still building yet another army for another war against the infidel, but he's at least smart enough to realize that attempting to spark a civil war would just give Megalos an easy chance to steamroll over al-Wazif. Nonhumans Al-Wazif was never a land where dwarves or elves held native territory, so most nonhumans in its borders are halfling or goblin immigrants. They are mostly Muslim converts, and some are even well-respected mullahs and scholars. Magic Even the most conservative Sunnis see magic as useful, making al-Wazif a far greater bastion of the arcane arts than al-Haz. Any wizard must serve two years in the employ of the caliph, usually as a battle mage or artifact hunter, but are generously paid for their services. The Law Sharia is technically the cornerstone of Wazifi law, but heavy secularization has lead to rights of intercession by governors and the caliph when they disagree with the rulings of mullahs and generally more lenient sentences than al-Haz. Al-Wazif also permits alcohol use by Christians and Jews (but not public drunkenness) and unveiled non-Muslim women. Warfare The grand Wazifi army is made up of mostly cavalrymen, be they tribal horse warriors lended from sheikhs or members of the ghazi orders, with a sprinkling of infantry and wizards on the side. Mercenaries are well-paid and welcomed, but only if they can give proof that they are not Megalans.  Cities of al-Wazif As-Siyassi The capital of al-Wazif, and also one of the oldest human cities on Yrth, having been founded in 1074. Its outskirts are verdant fields of wheat and corn and sprawling orchards producing almonds, figs, olives, and peaches, while its bustling center is filled with universities, wizard colleges, and houses of art and philosophy. The patronage of Caliph Hafsa the Scholar has allowed these facilities to reach even greater heights, a new era of intellectual discourse between all faiths and creeds flourishing after the end of the Frontier Wars. As-Siyassi also plays host to the Great Games every spring, commemorating the election of the first caliph through various competitions from freestyle poetry contests, acrobatics, and chess to jousting, wrestling, and magic duels. The most famous competition is the Dare, wherein each competitor chooses some dangerous stunt to perform; the three examples given are riding a wild bull, axe juggling, and slaying a wolf bare-handed. Victory is determined not by actual success in the task, but by how genuinely the act is performed, and anyone who is wounded enough to require medical attention is given aid by physicians and healing wizards but is disqualified. The Dare continues from competitor to competitor until all but one has either dropped out or been too injured to compete. Foreigners and women are both allowed to participate in the Great Games, though in the case of the latter ultra-orthodox mullahs will sometimes raise a fuss. Winners of competitions get lavish prizes and honor, both of which carry great value in al-Wazif. Shaniyabad The largest of the handful of ports in the otherwise rocky coastline of al-Wazif, Shaniyabad benefits from sea trade, supplies coming down the river from Lake Bir Ma'jin and as-Siyassi, and the large quantities of silver, iron, and tin coming out of mines in the northwestern hills of the city outskirts. It also happens to be home of one of the requisite sources of political intrigue, its ruler Bey Hisham ash-Sharib. Hisham's whole deal is that he is self-absorbed and megalomaniacal, believing that he is destined to rule al-Wazif just because he won the Great Games when he was a young man and became relatively famous. His massive spy network is being run around the clock in an attempt to figure out how to murder both Harun and Hafsa in order to take the throne for himself, and he is stated to be actually fairly clever. Hisham's two great flaws are his overconfidence and his temper concerning the fact that he has red hair and green eyes that suggest he may have had a slave ancestor. Sa'Azraq Oh hey, another port city. This one is the only good harbor easy of Shaniyabad, but it's honestly not a trade hub due to offering little more than a safe port in a storm and local fishermen. It's also crimeland: GURPS Banestorm posted:Because of Azraq’s remoteness and proximity to Megalos, the people of its villages often fall prey to Christian slavers. Many a Muslim mother has seen daughters carried off while her husband was out fishing. Of course, at the same time, quite a few Muslim slavers use the area as a base for raids on Megalos. Gebel Thamad Gebel Thamad is the location of springs of water in an otherwise extremely arid region, which is what got it started up as a waystation on the way to the holy city. It eventually grew from a mere watering hole to a bustling trade stop, fueled both by carvans heading north and south and the loads of timber coming from the Great Forest. Academics have also been brought to Gebel Thamad by the strange ruins found in the Great Forest nearby, a citadel of wildly fluctuating mana levels covered with carvings in Arabic, Latin, and Norman French. While none of the academics have wrested its secrets from the ground yet, the text helpfully gives us the whole backstory on these ruins. This is Autheuil, the first human city on Yrth. It was a city created by humans from numerous nationalities and faiths, drawn together by their need to survive in the strange and dangerous wilderness that they were all dumped together in, and eventually aided by the elves. Some of the Normans eventually dabbled in dark magic and became increasingly paranoid and imperialistic, murdering Christian and Muslim dissenters alike and eventually falling prey to...something. It's unknown as to whether they were consumed by their own hubris and died in a chaotic magic accident or were slaughtered by the elves of the Great Forest. What is known is that the remnants of whatever fate befell Autheuil has created foul mana, inducing both the aforementioned wild fluctuations between no mana and very high mana at random and a strange undercurrent that slowly induces violence and bloodlust in both animals and sapient beings alike. More than a few attempts at looting the treasures of Autheuil have ended when the party members turned against each other and slaughtered one another in cold blood. There are also rumors of even darker things down in the ruins, from undead monstrosities to ancient magical weapons of war. Qazr as-Sawh The walled city of Qazr as-Sawh is the stronghold of Harun abd Ishaq and the site of numerous past conflicts with Megalos, being located near the northern limits of Wazifi territory. It is also a main source of trade with Caithness. Bannock A city that has gone back and forth between Megalan and Wazifi rule six times in the past two centuries. The latest case of turned allegiances has been different than the others, however, as the Frontier Wars brought many of the fanatical Kharijite sect from Qazr as-Sawh to Bannock. This has lead to a schism between the previously friendly Muslim and Christian communities of the city that threatens to break the peace. Pillars of Heaven A ton of giant stone pillars out in the badlands near the border of Caithness, the Pillars of Heaven are second only to the holy city itself in sacredness. It is here that Sufi mystics carve hovels out of the tops of the rock, dwelling in poverty as they contemplate on the nature of God and the universe. They only come down from their peaks if there is a lack of pilgrimage and starvation is close at hand from lack of supplies. The greatest of the Sufis of the Pillars is Rhazi as-Safa, a centenarian who legends state was anything from a governing bey to a legendary Great Games victor. Regardless of his distant past, the past few decades have seen adherents of Rhazi gather his wisdom into tomes that have made their way into many halls of learning, with Caliph Hafsa himself being one of the work's greatest fans. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: It's finally time for  ~Cardiel~
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2016 01:29
|
|
|
Crasical posted:You know, for all of it, the crunch, the rules weirdness, the everything? Despite the fact that it's honestly not a great system?
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2016 04:40
|
|
|
Chapter 4, Part 6: Cardiel [quote="]Bounded on the north and west by Muslim realms and on the south and east by ocean, Cardiel is a product of the Megalan crusades. First a land of Muslim tribesmen, then an Imperial province, now an independent country, Cardiel is a cultural hybrid. Though nominally Christian, it is the most tolerant of the countries of Ytarria, home to Christians, Muslims, Jews, and pagans alike. In addition to their religious tolerance, Cardiens are politically independent. Cardiel has no king; instead, the Cardien nobles choose a prince, reserving the right to depose him should the position go to his head.[/quote"] Ah yes, it is time for Cardiel , the wondrous multicultural democratic monarchy-ruled land that stands as a beacon of light in the darkness of the millennia-of-Middles-Ages world that is Ytarria. Geography Mild climate, rolling hills, good rainfall, and only a handful of woods. Truly a fitting habitat for the glorious patriots of Cardiel. History Cardiel began its life as al-Kard in 1445, lead by Sultan Said ibn-Mahmud. Of course, Megalos steamrolled them as soon as they had a chance two decades later, and quickly began installing Imperial rulers, sending in waves of colonists, and eventually declaring forced conversion to Christianity at the end of the sword to any remaining Kardis. Unsurprisingly, this threat lead to mass revolts, and Cardien rulers after the first decided that it might be better to practice tolerance. Centuries of tolerant rule, intermarriage between different faiths, and jolly cooperation created a cultural melting pot that declared independence from Megalos in 1784. Society Cardiel is ruled by a council of lords and a prince, the latter being a first among equals (that term is used almost exactly, the exact quote from the book being "first among proud well-armed equals") rather than an absolute ruler as in traditional feudal monarchy like in the rest of the Ytarria. There is also a commoner's council, selected from knights and freemen, the members of which technically have power or holdings but nonetheless have the ear of the prince and the council of lords anyway. Social Ranks Mostly the same as Megalos, save that there is no emperor and the prince is on the same level as the highest nobles. Nonhumans While the only long-term native nonhuman communities of Cardiel are a few elven communities along the cost, its cities are just as cosmopolitan as those in Megalos, with dwarves, goblins, orcs, reptile men, and more here and there doing various things. Magic Cardien wizards have all the freedom of a Megalan wizard, but none of the prestige, which I guess equates to them being more or less regular citizens when you think about it. Most non-magical Cardiens tend to look upon wizards as kind of weird and potentially dangerous everyday sights. Warfare Most conflicts in Cardiel are on a personal level than one of a larger scale, and are usually solved through either politics or espionage. Thanks to centuries of peace, its land forces are a roughshod group of two poorly-trained legions that haven't seen a lick of combat in their lives. By contrast, Megalan raiders along the river and coast have lead to the creation of a mighty navy, which is "inferior in numbers, but superior in skill and daring" to that of its former parent nation. The Law In Cardiel, slavery and torture are outlawed and freedom of religion is encoded in its legal fabric. Indeed, this is one of the few areas where the book is willing to criticize Cardiel as a whole as flawed, as rather than adopt a secular legal system (beyond the above points) there is instead an "each judges their own" mentality that has Sharia, Church canonical law, Jewish law, and various other religious legal practices all side-by-side on equal footing, which leads to problems when the crime happens to be inter-religious. The death penalty has also been replaced with the equally questionable punishment of the worst criminals being sent to act as test subjects for wizards, which often leads to death anyway.  The Regions of Cardiel Aliar One of Cardiel's premiere port cities, Aliar is the destination for Megalan merchant vessels looking for Cardien wine and wool. Its current leader is Count Faramon, an elderly Christian Arab who is rather bitter due to losing the past two elections for prince. As he sees the 25 year old Prince Anthemius Crivelli as the roadblock to his last chance at rule, Faramon has his extensive spy network shadow the young prince at all times, hoping to find evidence of some discretion that would get him removed from office. Alimar Alimar is another port city that is found lodged between a peaceful bay and the only great mountain range in the country, known for its exports of grapes, oranges, and sugar cane. There's also lots of manatee farms there, in case you forgot those were a thing. Alimar and Aliar have developed somewhat of a rivalry with each other due to the past few centuries of growth of the former from a backwater town to a bustling port city after the opening of Araterre to trade. Thanks to a large collection of elf communes nearby, Alimar is one of the few places where there is a large number of half-elves. The city's baron, Saywell, is even a half-elf. Saywell is competent but unsure of himself, which Prince Crivelli has preyed upon by pretending to be a friendly shoulder to lean on in exchange for support. Calder Calder is known for two things: lots of cattle ranches, and lots of politics. Baron Vincent of Calder was the prince from 1976 to 1990, becoming respected for his clever rulership and overhaul of Cardiel's roads to a state that rivals even the great stone pathways of Megalos. Vincent willingly stepped down from the throne in order to help further the growth and prosperity of his home city, but has recently been worried that the signs of amorality from Prince Crivelli may require him to take up the crown again. Hadaton As the capital of Cardiel moves with its prince, the home city of the Crivelli family now acts as the seat of the crown as well. Unlike the rest of Cardiel, Hadaton is heavily Catholic and rather socially conservative, treating non-Christians as second class citizens. Prince Crivelli himself isn't in the ranks of these conservatives, but he is a morally challenged and power hungry schemer who cares more about himself than his country. The fact that his entire freshly-appointed position rests on people believing his facade as the latest in the long line of tolerant "people's princes" that have ruled Cardiel for centuries means that any slipup could cause Crivelli's political power base to come tumbling down. Minder Minder is a farm-rich city with sugar cane, wheat, cattle, citrus, and olives as its primary sources of revenue. The Shipwright's Wood, one of the few large forests of Cardiel, is also found near Minder and allows for the building and repair of ships at its port. Baron Caius is impressively healthy for being age 79 and known for his honesty, integrity, and military knowledge. Nonetheless, he has grown particularly cynical about the field of politics, and his anger at the scheming nature of the current prince continues to grow. Another famed resident of Minder is the smith of a band of centaurs that settled just outside the city's walls. This unnamed smith is not only extremely talented at his craft, he knows the ins and outs of TL4 metallurgy, leading many to wonder just what else he might happen to know about post-Medieval technology. Ten-Tiri A primarily Muslim seaport in southwest Cardiel, sitting at the mouth of the Wadi al Fayd. It is one of the only places where the mild plains of Cardiel fade away to hot and dry savannah. Rather than the crops of the rest of the nation, its exporst are wheat, cotton, sheep, and goats. Baron Amalric ibn-John at-Ten-Tiri is loyal to his people and concerned for their welfare, winning all but one election in his political career, but has begun to be burdened by the pressures of recent border issues. Hazi Shi'ite mullahs have been crossing the river to preach the removal of Christians from what they still perceive as Muslim lands, which has offended both the Christian and Sunni communities of the city. Amalric is receiving more and more demands for action but is genuinely unsure of what he can possibly do that won't spark an international incident.  Tredroy, The City of Three Laws Perhaps one of the biggest parts of the entry on Cardiel is on something that technically isn't Cardien – not fully, at least. Tredroy is a big deal; hell, it even had its own sixty-eight page sourcebook back in the days when Yrth was the de facto setting of GURPS 3E's Fantasy book. Of course, now that it's in an edition where GURPS Fantasy is a generic fantasy sourcebook for utility reasons, and GURPS Banestorm is the one stop shop for all things Yrth. Well, the one stop shop other than GURPS Banestorm: Abydos. Or GURPS Martial Arts: Yrth Fighting Styles. Or Pyramid Magazine issue 22: Banestorm. Yeah, we'll choose to ignore those for right now, though I'm fairly sure I'll cover at least one of those later for very specific reasons. History Way back in 1180, some Christian fishermen decided to found a little village where the River Lorian and River Blueshoal forked. This village, called Paradin, quickly grew to have several hundred settlers within a mere handful of decades, and only continued to gain steam from there as both Christians and tribal Muslims came to live in what was becoming one of the region's great trade hubs. In 1496, Paradin gained the name Tredroy thanks to Cardien influence, wizards and regional governors alike coming together in 1524 to create a code of law for the unique city with the blessings of the Sultan of al-Haz, Caliph of al-Wazif, and Viceroy of Cardiel. Tredroy has withstood the chaos around it and only continued to grow more and more prosperous over the centuries. Second only to Megalos City in population, Tredroy is technically a city in three countries, portions of it belonging to al-Haz, al-Wazif, and Cardiel alike. Layout and Architecture As seen in the book image above, Tredroy is split up into three portions and an island. There are six bridges connecting the three parts of the city, but to get to the politically neutral Council Island you've got to charter a ferry. North Tredroy is the largest city of al-Wazif and West Tredroy the largest in al-Haz, but East Tredroy is only the third largest Cardien city, behind Hadaton and Aliar. North Tredroy is where you want to go to see the remaining structures of old Paradin, visit the academic or business districts of the city, or look into Tredroy's Jewish enclave, and is an eclectic mix of European and Islamic architecture both old and new. Heading into West Tredroy you get almost exclusively Muslim building design and population, as well as Tredroy's farms down on the south end. Finally, East Tredroy's got a lot of Imperial Megalan architecture and monuments, as well as the local Chinatown.  Government Most of the business of actually dealing with the day to day running of Tredroy and implementation of taxes and social services falls to the city council, seated on Council Island, while the three governors that sit in each of the sections of the city deal specifically with criminal affairs, keeping of the peace, and military matters. In East Tredroy there is a Cardien viscount appointed by the prince, the current holder of the title being a fellow by the name of Guillaume de Laney de Lurnan. His predecessor was Allan Micardene, a former merchant who took the position of both prince and viscount from 1990 to 2004. Guillaume is on uncertain terms with the prince, as he knows in rather certain terms that the death of Allan Micardene wasn't as natural as the public assumes, and the fact that Guillaume still attempted to run for prince even knowing of Crivelli's murderous traits makes him worry he might be a potential target if he ever stops being useful. Over in North Tredroy, the caliph's chosen emir rules. The current emir is Jannar abu Talha al-Paradin, who is still standing at age 130 because he's an extremely powerful wizard and what else do you do when you are an ancient and bored lord of the arcane arts. Magic can only sustain you for so long, however, and Emir Jannar knows he's probably in the last few decades of his life. This means his retinue of spies and aides are currently being used to find him someone who is best suited to lead North Tredroy after his death and recommend him to the caliph. West Tredroy has Pasha of Three Horsetails Khalid Abdallah ibn-ALi al-Paradin, the latest in a line of hereditary succession for its governing position. He's good at leading and very devout about his faith, but he's not actually all that shrewd, so a lot of the backdoor wheeling and dealing of politics fly right over his head. Finally, you've got the city council, thirty members strong. There are thirteen seats appointed by the city's various guilds, one appointed by each governor, four appointed by various religious authorities, and ten selected by the citizens themselves. An appointed member serves a year long term, while citizen-elected members have three years to their term. The laws of the respective governments of the three portions of Tredroy are what hold sway in criminal and religious matters, as well as a few unique laws for each. In West Tredroy, non-Muslims must wear white armbands and receive flogging if they are caught without them, in North Tredroy there is a tariff of 10% on any goods over a talent in cost, and East Tredroy has decreed that any slave who can cross the river to its lands are free under Cardien anti-slavery laws. The image above is an example of one of these daring bridge escapes.  Baron Adrien Dorilis While technically a sidebar in the Government section, it feels like I need to talk about this guy on his own terms. Adrien has been a lifelong friend of Viscount Guillaume, a trusted ally and confidant, and also secretly a monster. Oh yes. The real Adrien died of natural causes as a child; the thing parading around in his visage is actually a rather venerable (1,200 as of 2005) dragon called Dexnavi. Dexnavi appears in the ancient pre-Bane literature of the elves as a figure of wonder and terror, and while he certainly does have a massive hatred of elves and tends to like to find ways to have them turn up dead, his reason for interacting with humans is far more simplistic boredom. Human politics is a fun game to play when you've been spending centuries just sitting on your 42 foot long bulk, and the dragon's current pet project is seeing if he can manage to maneuver all of Tredroy into being its own city state before the current century's out. He's even already organized a plan for when Adrien needs to "die", preparing an actor to play the role of Adrien's long-lost, put up a big act about it, and then have the actor leave for Araterre while Dexnavi himself fakes his Adrien person's death and takes on the form of this new son. His stat block is 750 points, which makes sense because he's a giant fuckoff dragon. On top of having immersed himself in so much transmutation magic that he got Morph as an innate non-magical advantage and having all the physical and mental benefits of being a dragon, he has a laundry list of social skills and an insane number of spells ranging from simple things like Drunkenness and Warmth to a murder gauntlet of things such as Burning Death, Deathtouch, and Rain of Fire. Even his human form is a special "enhanced human" template that grants him almost the same level of physical attribute scores as his true form (though he didn't spend the points to be able to keep his breath weapon when going human, which is the one dragon feature I'd imagine wouldn't be an obvious tip-off due to physical abnormalities like wings and claws; oh well, his loss), meaning that anyone attempting to assassinate "Adrien Dorilis" will inevitably be surprised when he pulls out a Strength score of 22. While definitely intended to be the sort of big boss at the end of a campaign very much on the high fantasy end of Yrth's power scale, Dexnavi can be beaten – pride goeth before the fall, after all, and it's right there in his list of disadvantages. The Guilds Unsurprisingly given their ability to pick almost half of the city council's seats, the various guilds of Tredroy have a lot of power and influence. Any type of business related to a guild is under complete and utter monopoly. The largest guilds in the city are the merchants' guild and mercenaries' guild, both thousands of members strong. While not as large, the mage's guild of Tredroy is also extremely powerful, requiring everyone living in the city with even a modicum of spellcasting capability to be on their registry. On the down low, there is also a thieves' guild in Tredroy, as well as an infamous assassin's guild simply known as the Assassins. Not to be confused with the Hashishin, the Assassins typically works for the highest bidder rather than for an agenda like their Arabic counterpart. People of Tredroy Tredroy is an eclectic mix of Muslims, Christians, Jews (15% of the population, in fact, making Tredroy home to the largest Jewish community in Ytarria), Hindus, Confucians, Taoists, and pagans. On the species side, 90% of Tredroy is human, the rest being an unknown mixture of goblins and their kobold relatives, halflings, orcs, and reptile men. Out of the two most well known of the Elder Races, dwarves sometimes come to the city to trade but find Tredroy residents somewhat obnoxious due to their curiousity about a species rarely seen so far south, and elves avoid Tredroy like the plague due to the fact that they tend to end up dead in the river when they do show up. Places of Interest There are at least a few interesting locations in each of the three portions of Tredroy, as well as the obviously interesting place that is Council Island. The island plays host to the three story city hall and numerous offices of business and trade that are bustling with nearly eight hundred workers all day long. Up in North Tredroy, you have the Grand Bazaar, a hundred acre marketplace with a myriad of goods from numerous vendors. It is also the home of the Tredroy Mage's Guildhall, a manor house whose inner quarters are barred from entry by non-spellcasters by having all its doors sealed with the Magelock spell. West Tredroy has the Grand Mosque of Tredroy, with worship quarters capable of holding four thousand people, the office of the chief mullah of Tredroy, the largest Shari'a court in al-Haz, and an Islamic scholar's school. Finally, over in East Tredroy there is the great iron and stone edifice of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the Street of Artificers in Chinatown. The former is the office of Tredroy's archbishop, while the latter is a place where those capable of creating clockwork devices and complex toys show off their wares. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: What's that? There's places in Ytarria that aren't the Abrahamic lands? Crazy! In the next post, we cover the first half of these with Sahud, Zarak, and the Orclands. Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 05:05 on May 15, 2016 |
|
#
¿
May 15, 2016 04:43
|
|
|
Hell, I can't see it, and I'm the one who posted it. I didn't use any code outside of standard tags, and I can't notice anything that would actually cause that. Hopefully someone more tech-minded can figure out what I somehow messed up. EDIT: It's something in the Adrien Dorilis entry. It seems to almost be running up against a character limit, even though I'm not nearly at the board's per-post character limit. I'll keep prodding at it until I seem to find a solution. Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 15, 2016 |
|
#
¿
May 15, 2016 04:54
|
|
|
Midjack posted:I threw up a post to the qcs tech thread so hopefully zdr or someone will see it.
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2016 05:48
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah, I used to have all the Munchkin d20 books from when SJ Games was fire saleing them, and managed to sell them off last year at a profit, because people are coocoo for that game. potatocubed posted:I don't know, but I feel the same. I think in my case it might be because I got into Planescape via the Blood War card game, and the three illustrations I remember from that are Pazuzu, the marut, and the cat lord. For comparison (since it seems like I will be trapped in the purgatory of PB2 for who knows how long given my repeated depression-based hiatuses), here's how Pathfinder Bestiary 3 did their Cat Lord: 
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2016 06:20
|
|
v
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, way back when, I sat down and looked at the OGL of various d20 products with the curious notion of say, converting some of it to newer games, and SJ Games' was easily the most restrictive in regards to Product Identity, only following the OGL as much as it requires and basically restricting even rules text at times from usage seemingly arbitrarily. Compare and contrast with AEG, which has a similarly restrictive notion of what their PI entails, but also has a specific clause added that lets you rip their PI whole-hog as long as you aren't changing or building upon it - so you could use all sorts of PI stuff for Rokugan or Swashbuckling Adventures. This means its mainly just useful for mechanical elements, but if you want to use Porté Mages in your d20 book, you can as long as you follow the details of their OGL agreement. Which is pretty cool!
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2016 16:15
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:That being said, yeah, crowdfunding could solve a lot of their problems for later releases. I'm still waiting to see that Steve Jackson is working on Car Wars. I have the shirt and everything.  about new mutant autoduelists with their fox ears and their octopus tentacles, I tell ya what) with the notation "the next edition of Car Wars is coming!" at the end of every issue of Pyramid magazine for a decent number of months now, so that seems to indicate it's definitely moving somewhere forward.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2016 19:56
|
|
|
Break Time 1: Amelia Earhart and Flying Orcs You might recall that in the last update, I noted that I might look at at least one of the supplementary materials to GURPS Banestorm. I decided that before we head to the next set of nations, I'd give everyone a little break from nations and indeed hammer out a brief post about that supplement: "Whatever Happened To...?", a Pyramid magazine article by Andy Vetromile. Its entire premise is taking some people who famous disappeared without a trace and giving the explanation of "a Banestorm did it". Each entry is broken up into sections on playing around with these characters when they are still alive or after they have died off but left a legacy, and since there's no actual dates on the Banestorm timeline I'm going to be assuming that the legacy sections are the "here and now" of 2010 (not 2005, since the Pyramid issue was written five years after GURPS Banestorm, and the setting totally coincidentally happens to stick closely to its sources' publication dates) for the sake of simplicity. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan On July 2, 1937, famed pilot Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were caught in a small freak Banestorm that ripped their plane to shreds and threw them straight into the great mountains of Zarak. Miraculously, not only did they survive, but much of the meat of their plane did as well, the sight of which awed the tribal people dwelling in the mountain tarn they landed on. The hill folk were a collection of downtrodden exiles from human, dwarf, elf, and orc cultures, but under Earhart and Noonan they forged an actual identity as "the people of the Air Hart". The pilot taught the tribe how to create ziplines and primitive glider planes to master the rocky crags and vast chasms of their land. Even after her passing, the Air Hart tribe continue to build their gliders and consider themselves now a proud people separate from those nations that abandoned them to the wilderness, though they haven't become strong enough to not fear the potential reprisal were the wizards' councils of the lower nations to come in hopes of destroying their fantastical flying machines. Air Harts are willing to trade with anyone who actually manages to believe the legends of sky people in far Zarak, reach their inhospitable territory alive, and show them respect. The Escapees From Alcatraz One of the most infamous prison breaks of all time, Frank Morris and the brothers Clarence and John Anglin managed to break out of Alcatraz on June 11, 1962. Unfortunately, even San Francisco Bay can be struck by a Banestorm, and their escape from the Rock ended up leading to an entirely new incarceration. ...Or that's what I would say, at least, if it wasn't for the fact that Morris quickly grew to love Ytarria and its Medieval ways. He quickly rose to prominence as a renowned genius troubleshooter for everyone from orc tribes and thieves' guilds to nobles willing to get their hands a little dirty in the process. The Anglin brothers, by contrast, became merely Frank Morris's flunkies, "muscle" he could flex around when things got rough. A rift between the three eventually grew wider and wider until the Anglin brothers struck out on their own as petty bandits, eventually dying in a fight with some orc bandits. The fate of Morris himself after a sudden disappearance on his part is a far greater mystery. Rotting in some jail he himself helped make escape-proof during his time as a troubleshooter? Living in some secret hideout somewhere in the boonies? Six feet under? Nobody knows. Similarly, rumors fly that Morris had either a son or a daughter that he taught all his tactical secrets to, and every once and a while there will be a noble who claims to be from the line of Morris in an attempt to gain recognition. The Princes in the Tower Richard of Shrewsbury and Edward V of England were two brothers sent to the infamous Tower of London by their scheming uncle Richard III in the year 1483, never to be seen again by Earthly eyes. Turns out the reason why is that they were whisked away by a Banestorm to some small village in rural Ytarria. Their lasting legacy is the creation of the Great Hall, an orphanage and halfway house for those who have been left confused and alone by the Banestorms. Adherents of the princes of the Tower have spread and created more Great Halls in the centuries afterward, to the delight of peasantry and the disdain of Church members that found competition with these new havens as favored positions of refuge. Judge Crater An associate justice of the New York Supreme Court, Joseph Crater mysteriously disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930, after having dinner with a lawyer and his mistress, Sally Lou "Ritzi" Ritz. Literally walking into a Banestorm in the middle of New York City is probably the strangest case yet, and even stranger was the fact that he managed to be dumped in the middle of two tribal groups that needed an impartial arbitrator to stop a conflict they were having over marriage and property rights. Eventually, word of Carter's diplomatic skills spread from the tribe to merchants, and from the merchants to the cities and their lords. The New York City judge eventually became a well-respected legal counsel second only to the arbiters of Tredroy. His personal practice eventually took on proteges that have kept up a line of Carterian legal experts to the present, and while sometimes controversial due to its differences to the Medieval laws of Ytarria as a whole, most lawyers, judges, and legal scholars nonetheless respect the opinions Carter espoused. Break Time Thoughts This is exactly the kind of glorious/dumb poo poo Pathfinder should have more of. Some of the examples given aren't the most amazing, but the idea of having random famous disappearances be actually the result of the Banestorm makes perfect sense in universe and allows for playing around. Honestly, the author probably should have taken it further. Roanoke? Banestorm. Jimmy Hoffa? Banestorm. D.B. Cooper? Banestorm. Go whole hog, and also give them all effects as crazy as the Earhart entry.
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2016 03:34
|
|
|
After all the nausea-inducing horribleness of that last Beast post, the story of the rudest flyman is a soothing balm on the wound.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2016 18:32
|
|
|
Welcome back to the standard GURPS Banestorm power hour. As I said last time, my original plan had been to go through three nations in this post and then the other three in the next, but I decided after the spectacular post failure of last time to instead do three posts with two nations each instead.  Chapter 4, Part 7: Sahud Geography Located far away in the mysterious History The people of Sahud were plucked by Banestorms on both sides of the world, taking individuals from China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, Siberia, various southeast Asian countries, and pre-Columbian North America. For the first few centuries, all of these groups were nomadic tribes, though eventually they began to settle down and form governments. One guy eventually declared himself Heavenking, the divine ruler of all of Sahud, and for whatever reason everyone seemed to believe that made sense and fell in line under him. Sahud has had no major changes in government or altercations with other nations since, as its leadership is hyperconservative and obsessed with keeping stability over everything else. Sahudese noble in the Court of Heaven consider Zarak an old friend and treasured neighbor, the Nomad Lands and Orclands annoying barbarian neighbors, Megalos a good trading partner, Araterre a potential source of greater ship-building knowledge, and everyone else a bunch of irrelevant foreigners. Society GURPS Banestorm posted:Sahudese society has many rules, most of which can vary by location and the time of day or year. Visitors will no doubt find them bewildering, but may learn a few of the basics. The rules are strictest among the highest classes; non-Sahudese will find peasants relatively easy to interact with, if still sometimes baffling. It is possible for an intelligent foreigner to eventually understand the patterns of Sahudese society. However, it is hard to find a teacher in the first place. In Sahud, people are taught the rules while they are children, and making mistakes as an adult can cause loss of face. Thus, teaching the rules to an adult visitor is the same as treating him as a child. Status Sahudese social status is heavily stratigrified, imposed upon birth, and effectively dictates both your class and your profession from the day you're born to the day you die. On the very lowest rung are outcasts, beggars, and thieves, followed by servants, geisha, courtesans, and wanderers, then artisans, ninja, peasants, and weak wizards, then wealthy farmers, ronin, monks, craftsmen, and merchants, then samurai, abbots, and average strength wizards, then minor clan heads and minor high priests, then major clan heads, high priests, and powerful wizards, then imperial nobles and high ministers, then the Eyes of Heaven, and finally the Heavenking. Conforming to society is the best way to keep face, though there are "acceptable deviants" that are considered to be able to break rules but keep face due to how beneficial they are, such as women who are skilled enough and driven enough to break through the society's glass ceiling and become samurai. Social Interaction When two Sahudese meet, their interaction is all about their social status. You are expected to be polite to your superiors, while you can be a total rear end in a top hat to your inferiors. It is, however, considered crass to actively note someone's flaws, and it is instead most honorable and effective to be backhanded and catty. One major faux pas for anyone of higher class is to do something kind for an inferior with the expectation of getting something in return, as this is considered sinking to their level rather than having them kiss your rear end without coercion as they naturally should. Nonhumans Dwarves and the Sahudese have gotten along since they first met, and not just because they're neighbors. Their mutual "you like honor, I like honor, you like metalcraft, I like metalcraft, let's be friends" attitude has given them a lot of common ground and a codified system of trade and social interaction with each other. A handful of other species, from goblins and elves to orcs and halflings, also dwell within Sahud and are treated equitably as long as they have effectively shed their old culture and become truly Sahudese. Religious Practices For reasons nobody really knows, Sahud has spirits all over the place when they are absent in the rest of Ytarria. Everything from the largest river to the smallest stone has some spirit tied to it, and they are all seen as gods in the eyes of the Sahudese. Sahudese priests are more like paranormal lawyers than societal arbiters and spend most of their time bargaining with the spirits to make sure that the people of Sahud are still in their favor. Unsurprisingly, people the Abrahamic faiths think that Sahudese are weird and nonsensical pagan-likes at best and Satan worshipers at worst. Magic Sahudese mages are often powerful, but magic that has a lot of visible effects is considered dishonorable and socially inappropriate in all but base warfare, mage duels, or when used against criminals. Warfare As there are no forces that would wage a land war against it, Sahud has no army. Its nobles, however, frequently fight amongst each other in bitter and bloody warfare of two different types. One type, "high war", is a rigidly structured battle with a strict set of rules agreed upon by the two nobles that began the conflict. This is effectively war for face and face alone and doesn't actually threaten loss of land or life. "Low war", by contrast, is straight up ruthless conflict. Wizards, mercenaries, assassination, and pretty much anything else is allowed, and one side is almost always slaughtered by the other. Low war is only invoked for the most extreme of insults or during periods of economic suffering. While not warfare proper, it is also noted here that judo and karate is known by every noble and many commoners to at least some extent. The Law Acts of violence outside of war, theft, offending the spirits, offending the Heavenking, and cheating during a high war are all crimes in Sahudese society. Like everything else in Sahud, trials for legal action are all about face and political maneuvering, which means that commoners and foreigners are almost always at a disadvantage. Flogging and fines are the most common punishments, with death by lashing being the capital punishment. The Clanholds of Sahud Ah Clan Ah is lead by Naga-Go, an ancient dragon who eventually got tired of samurai trying to slay him and decided to integrate himself into Sahudese culture. As it is believed doing so is either insulting him or showing weakness through fear, other nobles don't let on that Dragon Head Naga-Go is literally a dragon, so many outsiders are shocked when they learn of the truth. As a merchant clan, Ah specializes in selling livestock and spices. Clan Ah is known to frequently hire ninjas to engage in character assassinations more often than literal ones, humiliating other nobles to break their face through tripwires, buckets of mud placed surreptitiously above doorways, faking assassinations with wooden weapons, or even using poisons that induce horrible stenches or vomiting rather than death. Nyodo The aggressive Clan Nyodo has a long history of bitter conflict and acts of aggression against its neighbors. The current Clan Head, Akiyasu, is attempting to move things further toward the politically manipulative standard of the rest of Sahud, but he is unsure of what to do with the clan's standing army if he does so, as unemployed soldiers are frequently troublemakers. His current plan is to just send them out into the Nomad Lands to fight the barbarians and hope they end up dying horrible deaths, saving him the trouble of having to figure out anything more complicated. Tsushuo After being nearly destroyed by the Nyodo during one of the latter's numerous low wars, the survivors of Clan Tsushuo left in exile to the lands of a clan known as the Akiuji in 1985. They returned in 1999, but the utter lack of face from nearly being murdered meant that the only person who could actually rule over the new Tsushuo was a young woman named Hanatatsu. While the elders of the Tsushuo have either faked their deaths or pretend to be gravely ill in order to hide from the public and avoid even more loss of fave, the 22 year old Hanatatsu is being pressured to find a husband and pop out an heir of the nearly dead clan's line. Yarohito The great silkworm farms of Clan Yarohito have made it exceedingly wealthy and in frequent contact with Megalos for trade. Clan Head Najimatsu is a mighty wizard and clever ruler who is merciless in his intolerance for the failings of others and dealing with those who attempt to force him to lose face. He is, however, a good Anglish speaker and actually engages foreigners on practical terms, which makes him the most likely ally for anyone from the Abrahamic lands heading into Sahud.  Kinkaku and Uulinn The capital of Kinkaku is one of the largest cities in Ytarria, rivaling Megalos and Tredroy. Sadahiro first declared himself Heavenking in the 1530s, raising a palace above a high mana hotspot on an nearby hill that came to be known as Uulinn, the palace-town of the Court of Heaven. It spreads along both banks of the River Ayakura near the base of the Sahudese peninsula, most of its buildings dating back to 1869 due to a great fire that ravaged much of the original city. Buildings with rice paper walls, rounded doorways, and flared pagoda-style roofs line twisted and crowded streets. Rising above it all are the massive stone walls of Uulinn, which almost none outside are allowed to pass through. Its innards house the Court of Heaven and the Heavenking himself. Government As foreigners are not allowed to enter Uulinn, some Megalans have taken to wondering if the Heavenking isn't just a figurehead effectively imprisoned by his own court. While saying such a thing aloud is a highly illegal and criminal offense, it's also actually the turth, as the Heavenking is unable to leave the grounds of Uulinn and the clan heads engage in most of the actual governance. The Heavenking can write any law he wishes, but their words never leave the palace unless the nobles of the clans agree upon the law and enact it. A law that has only one or two supporters is treated as a falsehood by a traitor who presumes to speak for the Heavenking, while one that has all but a few supporters is treated as the words of the divine mandate, and those who didn't agree with the law initially lose face. Three Heavenkings in Sahud's history have actually been women, but this fact is heavily censored, and it is another great social offense to use anything but male pronouns for any Heavenking even if one does happen to know the truth about these past rulers. The current Heavenking is a 56 year old man who is somewhat competent in figuring out laws for his own country and gathering favors that grant him greater power, but has gained such a dissociation from the outside world due to his life cloistered within Uulinn that he often wonders if the nations outside of Sahud are even real at all. The Four Eyes of Heaven The Four Eyes of Heaven are four powerful wizards who that are the direct attendants of the Heavenking and his ties to events outside of Uulinn, as well as both attendants and enforcers of the law. The youngest of the four current Eyes is Vision of Budding Flowers, a 33 year old woman whose raw magical power was strong enough that she easily netted her position. She is beloved by the commonfolk, strong but fair in her administration, and a master of Air, Communication, and Empathy college spells. Perception of Bountiful Growth is 60 years old and gained his position through the poisoning of his predecessor in a way that didn't kill him but made him lose a lot of face through his public vomiting. He is an aggressive political wheeler and dealer even by Sahudese standards and has begun to gain a twisted nationalism that brings a desire for conquest in the name of "civilizing" other nations. He has even begun plotting with King Durinann II of Zarak to consolidate the noble armies of Sahud into one national force and descend upon Caithness during its time of strife and civil war. Earth, Food, Illusion, and Creation spells are his specialty. Glimpse of Falling Leaves is a 54 year old woman who appears to be merely 25, thanks to her masterful manipulation of her own body through magic. She is also cartoonishly evil, as she is noted to be a sadist who got into her position by murdering her predecessor and is plotting to become the next Heavenking by force. She has mastered the Body Control, Fire, Healing, and Necromancy spell colleges. Lastly, there is the 90 year old Sight of Bone-White Snow, a frail old man who lives in a tower deep in the pine forests of far north Sahud. He is a cold pragmatist whose main goals are the preservation of the Sahudese way of life and the consolidation of his position until the cold hand of death finally takes it from him. His spell talents lie in the Movement, Protection and Warding, and Water colleges. The Trading Clans Clans that are heavily engaged in trade with other nations, such as Clan Ah and Clan Yarohito, have their own mansions and negotiation buildings in Kinkaku for the benefit of foreign travelers. Of course, the clan representatives working these compounds often have their own agendas in mind as well, and more often than not a seemingly generous extension of hospitality to a foreigner is actually intended to find out as much as possible about their own trading operations. People of Sahud 75% of the people of Kinkaku are some flavor of Asian, 10% of other human races, 10% halflings, and 5% a smattering of other species. A vast majority of the residents are Sahudese citizens, with a small Foreign Quarter being erected for foreign merchants and other non-Sahudese that have a permanent or semi-permanent presence in the city. Most of these merchants are Megalans, though there are also a decent number of Caithnessers and Zarakun as well. Places of Interest Perhaps fittingly, the Foreign Quarter is the first noteworthy place in Kinkaku that gets mentioned right after the population demographics. It is created in a mostly Megalan style, though there are also a few dwarven fort-houses as well. While there is no centralized bazaar, there are also numerous specialist shops lining the city's labyrinthine streets that can be combed to find numerous goods. On the academic side, there is the Noble and Beneficial Academy of Sahud, a school of learning for anyone from age 4 to 21 that has steep tuition fees, a 50% drop out rate for non-Sahudese students, and a curriculum that spreads over everything from social etiquette and Sahudese history to the martial arts. And, of course, there's obvious Uulinn itself. Only the Eyes of Heaven, clan heads, and the Imperial Guard are allowed to freely come and go. Anyone else is either killed on sight or captured and tortured out of the assumption that they must be a spy or assassin. Permanent residents are the Heavenking and his family and numerous families of servants, and the grounds outside of the mansions and servant quarters include a zoo, lavish gardens, hot springs, treasures, and magical laboratories.  Chapter 4, Part 8: Zarak Zarak: the word of the dwarves for both their kingdom and the great mountains above it, which they treat as one and the same. Their land is the most powerful nonhuman holding in all of Ytarria, a fact that the Zarakun take as a sign of pride. Geography While the dwarves consider all of the Bronze Mountains to be Zarak, some portions end up being officially under the ownership of other nations nonetheless. Most of the surface is jagged peaks and windblown passes that are dotted with warm and fertile valleys in between. Beneath the surface, however, the dwarves have created cities capable of holding thousands and numerous tunnels that can extend nearly half a mile into the earth, extending into various mines and mushroom farms. Massive hundred foot tall gates mark a few surface passages that the dwarves are willing to let other species know about (though there are numerous ones that are kept secret), outside of which are specially crafted trading towns that play host to any inter-species activity. History As one of the Elder Races, the dwarves and their kingdom have a history stretching back into the time before the Bane of the dark elves even took place. In millennia past, they kept to themselves, perfecting their wares and enslaving any unfortunate orc or elf that decided to enter their subterranean lands. Even the great war between the elves and the dwarves of 405 AD didn't truly shake them from their isolation. The only thing that truly changed their way of life was the Bane itself, which disintegrated hundreds of miles of the Bronze Mountains that had extended into what is now the Great Desert. The king of the day sent out spies to see why word from the southwestern parts of Zarak had dried up entirely, and reports back of strange monsters and remnants of elven magic heightened and already strong xenophobia. Even in the present day, dwarves consider the Great Desert a cursed and spiritually polluted land that they refuse to set foot in. The first human encounter with the Zarakun took place in 1235, when a Megalan scouting party ended up stumbling into dwarven outposts on the surface. Most were massacred, but eventually bloodshed turned to curiousity, and the Megalans offered a trade agreement with the Zarakun to end the violence between their nations. Since then, the dwarves have extended more and more trade routes to various human nations, but few ever leave their mountain halls, and even fewer humans have ever been allowed past the great gates. Most other species still see the Zarakun as a great enigma that may never be fully understood. Society Dwarves are all about tradition. Only when a tradition is thoroughly proven actively detrimental and harmful is it ever abandoned, and even then only tentatively. To the average dwarf, what worked for the ancestors should work just as well for future generations, and there's no reason to change what works. Social Status The Zarakun are lead by the seven kings under the mountain, one of whom is elected the High King of Dwarves. All dwarves acknowledge the authority of the High King, even those far away from Zarak itself. Below the kings and their clanfolk are the high crafters, the most skilled and respected craftsmen of the dwarves, who hold some of the greatest political power in all of Zarak. Below them are local governors, and below them the traders and soldiers, and just below them the merchants. A dwarven saying emphasizing the importance of the last three groups is "if you can't be skilled, be strong, and if you can't be strong, be rich". Normal dwarves that live underground are considered slightly more socially important than those that have chosen to live on the surface world, which are treated as being basically on the same social level as humans for their strange choice to leave the underground. Finally, at the very bottom are criminals, exiled dwarves, and slaves. The place of women in dwarven society is somewhat complicated. Below the surface world, dwarven women can hold a lot of power, as they are freely accepted as crafters or bankers. A fifth of the high merchants and all of the heads of the banks of Zarak are women, as well as many individuals working on the subterranean side of the trade business. There is sexual discrimination in that women are not allowed to be traders on the surface or members of the army, however, out of a belief that the protection of the species' reproductive success is too important to allow the dangers of the surface to threaten them. Non-Dwarves A handful of humans and gnomes are allowed to live in the valleys of the Bronze Mountains, usually specifically to be farmers that help increase the foodstock of the cities and towns below ground. Only twenty living non-dwarves who have been accepted into Zarakun society enough to be allowed to live underground – seventeen humans, two halflings, and a goblin. Beyond that, the only non-dwarven individuals in the subterranean lands are slaves. Slaves in Zarak suffer greatly, as they are seen as a tool rather than a living being and are only used for jobs that are seen as too uncreative for dwarves to perform. When they have outlived their usefulness and are no longer capable of performing manual labor, they are discarded, either through death or being left to fend for themselves in the wilderness of the mountains on the surface. Magic Dwarves excel in Earth and Fire magic, especially where it intersects with the creation of objects. Enchanted items are far and away the primary use of magic throughout Zarak. While there are some dwarven battle mages, there is a long-running disagreement between dwarf leaders over whether or not they should be just an average part of the Zarakun Army or made into their own corps. The Law Dwarven law heavily focuses on property rights and deference of younger individuals to their elders. Most crimes such as property destruction are punished be community service or fines, but violent crime is punished by having hte offender locked up in an unlit cavern for a month with only a limited supply of food. The most extreme offenders of dwarven law suffer the ultimate punishment through exile to the surface with the threat of death if they return. Warfare While its name implies a grandiose standing army the Zarakun Army is actually mostly just various units that do guard detail at every entrance to the underground. These units are trained in the use of axes, crossbows, and mauls, and are mainly there to beat up thieves and spies who are subsequently enslaved if they survive. The rare cases of actual invasion are met with all able-bodied dwarves down in the caverns taking up arms and defending their homes. Technology Dwarves are fascinated by the strange marvels spoken of by humans that come through the Banestorm, and newcomers are frequently interrogated if they can be found quick enough. Zarakun engineers even have steam engines and gunpowder explosives, though this is kept a strict secret due to the fact that the seven kings are well aware that Megalos finding out would mean both the end of trade and the Legion knocking down their doors. The Seven Brother Kings The leaders of the dwarves are known as the seven brother kings, though they aren't actually related at all and it's just meant to be symbolic. Each one is the leader of a specific clan with people who take on their leader's name (E.G., the dwarves in the clanhold of King Morkagast are known as "Morkagast's Folk"), and one king out of the seven gets chosen to be the High King, which means he has a bit more prestige and power. Each clanhold is autonomous but tied through dwarven brotherhood. King Ekarron III Ruling from the ancient clanhold of Ekarriel, Ekarron III is a relatively young dwarf at the age of 115. While known for his kindness, talent as a jeweler, and for being beloved by most other dwarves, Ekarron's current most defining trait is being scared shitless by Megalos. This fear has shaped his current policies such as cries for support of an organized battle mage corps and increased trade with other Ytarrian nations. Unlike many dwarves, Ekarron's Folk are talented woodworkers, cutting down trees from the forests at the edge of the Orclands and ferrying them underground to be carved into various tools and artwork. King Blainthir VII Blainthir VII is lovable and charismatic but dumb as a fencepost, which is why he prefers to have his administrators do the thinking for him; his current policies are a hatred of technology and elves and proud support of Megalos, but that will only last as long as the governors at his side hold those opinions. Many of Blainthir's Folk have become wary of the nearby fortress of Glimpse of Falling Leaves, believing that either she or some monstrous wizard-beast from her island has been behind the increasing amount of disappearing dwarven patrols outside of their clanhold. King Durinann II A once vibrant king who has become lazy and complacent in his old age. As his mines run dry and people begin to become uneasy, he has attempted to patch up the situation by becomking cozy with Perception of Bountiful Growth and Sahud by proxy. Most dwarves in Sahud are Durinann's Folk. King Ginnargrim III Ginnargrim has the misfortune of being the dwarf that leads the clanhold on the border of the Great Desert. While he is a talented wizard, craftsman, and administrator, Ginnargrim's youth and stuttering speech impediment have made many dwarves think he is less competent than he actually is, and many are longing for when one of his two sons is old enough to become king. Grinnargrim's Folk export silver and gray granite with red veins, but also imports a large amount of food thanks to its poor surface fertility. There is also an increasing number of attacks in its westernmost reaches by giant insects that seem to be strangely intelligent. King Morkagast Morkagast, son of Morthrinn, is a 173 year old dwarf who took the position of king just a decade ago after his father finally succumbed to a long-running illness. Rather paradoxically, he is simultaneously both the biggest supporter of technological advancement and a major supporter of Megalos. The clanhold of Morriel, the home of Morkagast's Folk, is a major exporter of copper and has one of the highest population of wizards in Zarak. King Solginyarl Solginyarl is an extremely conservative dwarf that hates Morkagast for his embracing of progressive technological movement, is extremely xenophobic, and disregards the ideas of creating a battle mage corps simply because that's never how things have been done. While the clanhold of Solginel stretches to border Caithness, Megalos, and Sahud alike, very little trade is performed due to Solginyarl being a big old racist. When there is trade done, it's usually iron, marble, and steel exiting and Megalan slaves entering. King Thransiravst Thransiravst is the leader of a productive clanhold whose people are well-fed, happy, and productive. He is one of the few pro-elven kings, as well as a fan of humans, but otherwise doesn't really hold any strong political opinions. The many exports of the clanhold of Thranel include green granite, gold, diamonds, and silver fox furs. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: It's time to loose the barbarians, as we're heading to the Orclands and the Nomad Lands.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2016 12:47
|
|
|
 Chapter 4, Part 9: The Orclands Geography The Orclands are mostly steppes and desert, with some scattered forests thrown in. It's a land of antelope, bison, wolves, and yaks, little rain, and not much to really speak of. It is more or less intended to be the Wild West of Ytarria, and most individuals of all species scrape by with Iron Age technology at best. History Before the dark elves' Bane, the Orclands were basically a place where some orcs and gnomes hung out doing tribal poo poo and nobody else really cared. Then, with the first Banestorm, the region was sprinkled with nomadic tribes of centaurs, giants, minotaurs, and humans. Oh, the humans... Remember how GURPS Banestorm posted:Over the next few centuries, people of Mongolian and American Indian descent began filtering into the Orclands from the northeast as Sahud became more civilized. These nomads quickly came to dominate the region, following the bison and antelope on their seasonal migrations.  The Orclands didn't actually become the Orclands until the late 1700s and early 1800s, when Megalans pushed huge groups of them out of what would become Caithness. These orcs pushed other species to the northern extent of the Orclands before things generally settled down up until 1985. This was the time when Castle Defiant, a citadel of Caithnessers in the southeastern Orclands, was overrun by orcs. Not just any orcs, though – these were orcs lead by outcast dwarves, because orcs on their own were not smart enough to ever assail such a fortress. The dwarven rogue Bulgaren and his band of angry orcs now hold court in the castle and use it as a place to raid more human villages and get more loot. The Orc Tribes There are twelve major orc tribes and many smaller ones, ranging in size from dozens to hundreds of members. Some of the example named tribes include the Blackskulls, Bloody Fangs, Carrion Eaters, Death Birds, and Poisoned Talons, with others being similarly "violent or grotesque". These tribes spend most of their time herding yaks or hunting bison, any time in between being spent either fighting someone or planning fights with someone. Betrayal and Honor Orcs "breed like locusts", scattering across the plains, and are just too drat stupid to understand what things like loyalty and trust are without learning it from some other species. Without this knowledge, orc tribes instead ultimately use how much you've destroyed as a measure of prestige and honor. Taking a life is more valuable than destroying an object, for instance, and an orc that razes a whole town and massacres its citizens is going to be fair more prestigious than someone who kicked apart some wanderer's donkey cart. Tribes rarely get larger than in the hundreds because eventually someone starts backstabbing someone else for orcish honor once a threshold is broken. Daily Life Due to the lifestyle of "destruction = honor", orcs rarely have more possession than some basic supplies, a yurt, their weaponry, and some stock in the communical livestock herd. Orcs are strangely progressive on gender, unlike many orcs in fantasy, as they see destruction as destruction regardless of who's doing it. Orc women even go into battle while pregnant and when raising their young. Magic Orcs don't typically pay attention to the signs of untapped magic potential, but those that learn it typically become strong members of their tribes with Making and Breaking college spells and various combat magic. Warfare Orcs love war. If they aren't fighting someone else, they're fighting amongst each other, and a tribe that is an ally one day may be an enemy the next. Chieftains are known for being literally unable to have extended alliances without a common enemy to prevent infighting. While orcs respect the warriors of other cultures, they nonetheless will try to destroy them if they feel threatened or wish to display more tribal honor. Government Tribes are ruled by a chieftain, who is basically the most violent orc around who carved a path of blood to the top. Their underlings follow their orders out of an acknowledged respect for their brutality and power rather than out of fear or abuse, though they are expected to be treated as expendable property anyway, lest the leader is seen as soft. Some humans, dwarves, and undead have been able to work with this power structure and take over orc tribes. Crafters While the act of creation rather than destruction is seen as dishonorable, orcs nonetheless realize that an army without weapons and armor isn't much of an army at all. Thus the rare orcish craftsman is given some leeway in the normal power dichotomy and allowed to make rather than break, though their work is usually shoddy and in need of constant maintenance. Other Races Humans As stated before, there are nomadic Native American and Mongolian humans found in the northern Orclands. While most are yurt-dwelling nomads that live basically like less violent and more technologically savvy versions of the orc tribes, there are also scattered villages near the coasts adn the forests. Regardless of which type of lifestyle they live, all are brought together through the threat of the orcs: GURPS Banestorm posted:Humans bear the brunt of any orc attacks, and those who live the furthest south are fierce and hardened warriors. They hold their own, despite orc breeding rates and ferocity, because they have better tacticians and more determination; a human tribe under pressure hangs together, while orcs are prone to in-fighting when they are either winning a fight or losing badly. Humans have learned to exploit orc psychology; for example, it’s usually worth the difficulty to kill an orc tribe’s leader, because his lieutenants will probably fall to fighting among themselves to succeed him, whereas a human tribe in the same circumstances might well swear revenge under an acknowledged heir. Unfortunately, orcs' near-constant breeding means they are singularly able to recover from anything less than than complete extinction. Outcast Dwarves The worst of dwarven criminals are usually thrown out into the Great Desert or the Orclands, and some of them end up finding their way into orcish society. Many become craftsmen, but others aim even higher, becoming powerful warriors or leaders. The situation with the Blackskulls tribe lead by Bulgaren is a prime example of what happens when orcs actually become organized under a competent leader, as they have made frightening inroads into raiding rural parts of both Zarak and Caithness. Giants Giants typically like to be left alone, but some have decided to live together in spite of themselves as a way to defend against potential orcish raids. Others expect their size alone to be good enough to scare away most orcs, while yet a few others still decide to fall into the orcish ranks. In spite of their discomfort at human and centaur presences, they will usually pitch in to defend the northern Orclands if a particularly large orc tribe decides to get rowdy. Centaurs Centaurs would rather go off and be alone, but there are too many orc incursions to allow that. Instead, their tribes are heavily interconnected, as well as connected with the human and giant settlements in the north as well.  Chapter 4, Part 10: The Nomad Lands Geography GURPS Banestorm posted:Megalans refer to the region north of the Whitehood Mountains as a land where huge hairy men and animals devour each other indiscriminately. As usual with civilized peoples' views of their less sophisticated neighbors, this is slightly over-simplified – but, in this case, only slightly. Geography Highland in the south, lowland taiga and plains in the north, all temperate or cold. It is an area where the mana frequently goes wild and there are larger prehistoric versions of animals such as beavers, bears, elk, and wolves, as well as monstrous legendary beasts such as gryphons, hippogriffs, and pegasi. History Very little is stated about the history of the Nomad Lands. Some Scandinavians of various sorts, Celts, and Mongols were dumped there, they were eventually attacked by Megalos and driven out of their homes, and then a warrior named Ross Gatecracker united a bunch of clans that pushed back Megalos so hard that they had to build the Emperor's Wall to keep the Northmen back. While some modern coastal Northmen have begun to trade with other nations, the vast majority are still either barbarian raiders that viciously attack Megalan settlements or mercenaries that sell their swords to the highest bidder.  Society Most Northmen are semi-nomadic, traveling to engage in raids or herd their livestock before returning to the village or hill fort of their clan/tribe. Some tribes and clans treat women as property, some are egalitarian and sexually equal, and some are even Amazon warrior groups. Som, but not all, tribes keep slaves, typically women taken in barbarian raids on Megalos. Social Position Each tribe is lead by a chieftain, sometimes instead known as a jarl. Beyond that, warriors, sailors, shamans, smiths, and skalds are all considered to be honorable professions for men, while hunters and gatherers are Status 0 losers that are considered to be necessary but dishonorable men. Women either have their husband's status in equal tribes or Social Stigma (Valuable Property) in misogynistic ones. Nonhumans The largest nonhuman group in the Nomad Lands are Thulin's Folk, the dwarves that dwell beneath the great Whitehood Mountains. They are lead by the venerable Thulin X, a 265 year old dwarf whose immense age rewards him veneration even by the High King. Thulin has grown to hate Megalos, and on top of refusing to trade with them in favor of sending caravans to the Northmen, Caithness, and Sahud, he even attempted to get the kings of Zarak to boycott the Empire entirely. There are also several giant clans up in the far north, which freely trade with the Northmen out of a mutual sense of understanding and respect from each group for the other's strength and straightforward no-nonsense approach to life. Thanks to the local wild magic, there are also a load of werefolk – that's werebears, wereboar, were-eagles, were-snakes, weretigers, and werewolves, which we'll learn about when we finally get to the next chapter – in the Nomad Lands, though they tend to stay far out in the wilderness due to all the superstitions that surround them. Magic When Northmen practice magic, it's typically in the form of rituals meant to invoke the elements, divine truth from the gods, or call on the elements. Healing magic is seen as effeminate and frowned upon, as is using magic to get the upper hand in direct melee combat. Non-shamanic local mages are referred to as "witch-folk" or "rune-carvers" and are typically seen as eccentric but ultimately honor-bound folk. Foreign wizards are almost always seen as suspicious and are sometimes directly challenged by witch-folk or shamans are "rivals" or interlopers. Northmen Religion The Northmen are pretty lax pagans, typically following Germanic or Norse deities. They acknowledge the God of the Abrahamic faiths, but don't see him as anything special or more powerful than their own panoply of deities or the deific spirits over in Sahud. It is believed that every man is marked with the Wyrd, an unknowable and unchangeable destiny that they all march toward with open arms, which is why so few Northmen fear death. The religious leader of a tribe or clan is known as either a shaman or a druid depending on whether or not the tribe in question is heavily Celtic. On top of having all that ritual magic knowledge, shamans engage in blessing warriors on the eve of battle, conduct marriages, perform animal sacrifices, and lay down the restless dead when they manifest. The Law Various tribes have varying social taboos, which aren't really mentioned in spite of the fact that you'd think that's what the section called "The Law" is here for. Matters that affect the entirety of the tribe are deliberated by the chieftain and his most trusted warriors, while interpersonal matters are solved either by a selected third party arbitrator or through a duel. Punishment for minor crimes comes in either financial compensation or public shaming, while serious offenses lead to death, slavery, or exile. Skalds Because of overall illiteracy beyond the use of certain symbolic runes, the Northmen have developed a strong oral tradition, emphasized most heavily by the presence of the skalds. They are not unlike the bards of the Abrahamic lands, being travelers that have expertise in music and the performing arts. A skald learns numerous ballads, folk tales, stories from foreign lands, genealogical trees, and clan histories that they augment with their own songs and poems that venerate new warriors and leaders of the present day. Skalds are considered divinely gifted, and benefit fairly strongly from it: not only do they have the Claim to Hospitality advantage in Northmen homes, it is considered a grave misdeed to kill a skald unless it is in an act of self-defense, netting the offender a hefty Reputation penalty. There is also a page of stats for a 313 point skald named Blind Lars. A middle-aged Northman with a tall but lean frame and flowing blond hair, he is a skilled traveler in spite of his blindness and has been to almost every corner of Yrth. When Blind Lars talks, people listen, and he is very rarely without traveling company. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: We finally end chapter 4 with a trip to the desert kingdom of the djinn and the realms under the sea. Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jun 2, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2016 18:17
|
|
|
 Chapter 4, Part 11: The Southwestern Wilderness The "Other" category for land portions. We're down to the parts where we don't even get the Geography and History sections, and even the Nomad Lands got those. The Great Desert It sure is a desert. Probably not all that great, though. The only things that live out in its mana-void and desolate stretches of shifting sands are monsters and tribes of traveler-eating reptile men. There are also scattered elven ruins from the time before the Bane scoured the landscape, which sometimes still have arcane lore stuffed in their depths. The Southern Plains Technically part of al-Haz on paper, but not in any real governing capacity, the plains west of the great mountains are home to nomadic Muslim tribesmen. Their existence is technically a Hazi state secret, as is the border with the Djinn Lands in general, but some Caithnesser merchant caravans and Cardien trade ships have managed to force their way around anyway and reached these tribes to trade with them for copper, ivory, and glassware. They'll tell anyone who wants to go to the Djinn Lands that they're crazy and need to go home immediately, though, as some things just aren't worth the risk even after you've braved the Hazi border patrols.  The Djinn Lands And speaking of the Djinn Lands, here it is, at least. Those scant few who have gone into this forbidding land of open desert, craggy mountains and wadis, and salt lakes and lived to tell the tale bring back stories that say the djinn are human – ridiculously powerful in their magic, beyond almost anything else known in Ytarria, but human nonetheless. Of course, the truth is more complicated. The Creation of the Djinn The truth of the matter is that in the time before the Bane, there was a strange sect of elf archmages in the southwestern forests that sought to shed the shackles of the flesh and become unto as gods (only not quite, because elf religion has no concept of deities). They certainly succeeded, but not to the extent they had hoped. While these elves had become energy beings with phenomenal power and dubbed themselves "Ascended Ones", they were ultimately still tethered to their meat suits, being forced to remain close to them in order to still draw out the mana of the land to fuel themselves. For centuries, they waited and watched, trying and failing to tempt elves and dwarves that traveled their way into a pact wherein the Ascended One would ride within their body. And, even as desperate as they were, no Ascended One would dare desecrate themselves by taking on an orcish vessel. Humans as Vessels The Ascended Ones' big break finally came through the Bane ritual and the first Banestorm. Muslim tribesmen that encountered the phantasmal elves called them djinn, as there was nothing else that came to mind to compare the strange entities to. The Ascended Ones found humans a bit homely but ultimately servicable to their causes and a handful of the humans found the Ascended Ones' offers to live together in immortality appealing, and thus a pact was formed. The two species merged into one, each Ascended one and tribesman fusing into a gestalt consciousness capable of immense magical power and truly became what is now known as a djinni. Most djinn are still practicing Muslims thanks to the curiousity and tolerance of their elven half, though a few have had their human half pushed to follow the path of secular thought by particularly pugnacious Ascended Ones. Effects on Mana Levels Ultimately, however, djinn are chained by their own past. The rituals used to originally create the Ascended Ones sapped the mana around their mummified elf corpses and continue to leech it from the very air they breathe to maintain the arcane link that allows their existence. They typically build their castles in nearby high mana areas but keep extensive wards and other magical defenses and a handful of mundane traps within the ancient buried ruins that house their original body, for destroying it would dispel the ritual and kill the Ascended One. Retinues The area around a djinni's castle is a community unto itself, made up of the descendants of servants that they have gathered over the centuries. These retinues are made up of craftsmen, warriors, entertainers, and concubines that are well-treated but ultimately seen mainly as pawns in the djinn's greater schemes. While djinn usually use magical contraception when engaging in "the pleasures of the flesh", some djinn-human hybrids have been born. While a few have arcane markings that show their heritage, most of these individuals are indistinguishable from a normal human wizard. Djinn Contests Millennia of being an energy being can sometimes be boring. That, along with the consideration of the limited real estate in high mana patches, has lead to the djinn often playing games with each other. Unfortunately for their warriors, these "games" are often war games, staging two armies against each other in blood-spewing competition. While this is ultimately not all that different from any other feudal nation in Ytarria and the warriors accept their place in the scheme of things, it is nonetheless disturbing when you realize how minor they treat the affair of having a whole troop of men march to their potential deaths. Other djinn contests will actually involve two of the djinn themselves or selected champions doing some sort of test of skill or athletic competition, which fortunately doesnt' lead to anyone's violent demise.  Chapter 4, Part 12: The Oceans The Ocean Environment Finally, we reach the ocean at the end of our chapter-long journey. Most of the ocean on Ytarria's continental shelf is warm, shallow, and filled with life. Vibrant coral reefs are found throughout Araterre, and throughout the region there are numerous fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. Beyond is the abyssal plain, a realm of shadow and strange creatures that are sometimes so freakish it's assumed they have to be magical in origin. The waters of the continental shelf are mostly normal mana with spots of low mana, while the abyssal plain is low to no mana with strange patches of very high or even wild mana. Adventuring Beneath the Waves Assuming you aren't playing a sea elf/merfolk/shark man party, how the hell do you work Ytarria beneath the sea into anything? Beyond some really crude diving bells, there's not any diving technology that gets past the Ministry of Serendipity, so that's right out. The answer is magic, of course, you silly. The Breathe Water spell lets you do the whole "not drowning: thing, while Swim and Walk Through Water are spells that get you past the issue of movement. The greatest challenge lies in water pressure, the continental shelf requiring Pressure Support 1 and the abyssal plain Pressure Support 2. There are no spells as-is that do this, so GURPS Banestorm handily offers that "Generous GMs" can optionally rule that Breathe Water comes packaged with providing Pressure Support 1 as well. The Sea Elf Tribes GURPS Banestorm posted:Of course, a water-breathing sibling species to an air-breathing, apparently-mammalian race makes little sense in scientific terms. The most likely explanation is that they were created by some very ancient act of magic. Magical origin or not, sea elves have been around since long before the coming of humans to Ytarria, and once had vast cities and farming towns all around the continental shelf. Unfortunately, their cities were built around high mana zones, and when the dark elves unleashed the Bane these were ripped to shreds its arcane feedback. Tens of thousands of sea elves died, and the species as a whole has never forgotten nor forgiven the worst of their land-dwelling cousins for that incident. The survivors were slammed all the way back to the Bronze Age and forced to adopt a nomadic tribal lifestyle. It's only recently that they've been able to sustain a population large enough to begin rebuilding settlements and advancing their technology once again. Yrth Dolphins Also known as "your reminder that this setting was originally written in the 80s". Sapient dolphins are probably Yrthian natives, but nobody's really 100% sure. They don't use technology or magic, they don't create structures or tools, and are pretty much just dolphins that happen to be able to hold a conversation. Most are friendly, but there are individuals that succumb to the same vices that any sapient species does. The Banestorm Underwater Just as Banestorms appeared above the waves, so too did ones below. One was so powerful that it never dissipated, instead becoming the source of power for the Maelstrom near al-Haz. The Maelstrom is so strong, however, that anything that gets teleported through it just gets ripped to shreds, save for the very rare sea monster that is so large and durable that it can get through battered but not broken. Merfolk The merfolk have a tribal culture that is either nomadic or village-based, with Stone Age technology that utilizes stone, bone, and seashells for crafting. While they are respectful of their village elders, merfolk as a whole are vain and self-absorbed, only sometimes making friends with other species. Those who have magical knowledge typically select spells from the Illusion or Mind Control colleges and use them either out of self-defense or just to amuse themselves (sometimes at the expense of others). Shark Men The shark men have an honorable warrior culture led by individuals that the Sahudese refer to as samurai. Their tribes have Stone Age technology and little knowledge of magic, seeing it as most likely dishonorable on the field of battle but at the same time useful on practical terms and sometimes pleasing to their eldritch gods. Almost all shark men are found off the coast of Sahud; those that aren't are almost always going to be exiles, who are dishonorable and often have no qualms about killing other sapients to eat them. Beyond the Waves? Nobody knows what's on the other continents of Yrth beyond Ytarria. Teleportation spells are out of the question, and a combination of ferocious storms and wild mana makes conventional or magical sailing tricky as well. Of course, in a metacontextual sense, there's the far simpler explanation that the writers of the setting wanted to give the Game Master the freedom to put whatever they want on however many other continents might exist. The game gives a few ideas as well, including a nation where goblins rule over a slave caste of humans, a continent the Banestorms never touched that is still ruled by elves, and a land of wild magic overrun with demons. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Chapters past 4 actually exist! Chapter 5 is all about characters, including dealing with advantages on a modern character entering a Medieval setting,
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2016 01:13
|
|
|
Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Hangman Tree to Krenshar Hangman Tree (CR 7 Huge Plant) What evil lurks in the hearts of plants? A lot, apparently, as this sapient willow tree is Neutral Evil and lives to kill. It utilizes its vines as nooses to wrap and strangle its prey. It can also release spores that cause those who fail a Will save to begin hallucinating and believe that the hangman tree is actually just inanimate and totally not moving its vines up to their neck. I'm not sure why it needs to be almost as smart as an orc to do this, or is Neutral Evil for doing a thing that carnivorous plants already do on a small scale, but oh well.  Hellcat (CR 7 Large Outsider [Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful]) Looking like an escapee from a metal album cover, hellcats are technically not devils, but it probably doesn't matter much when they have the same creature type, subtypes, and alignment. They are solitary hunters on the volcanic plains of Hell, killing for fun since Outsiders technically don't need to eat. The most important thing to remember about hellcats is the fact that they have human level Intelligence scores. They demand respect from others and will plan long and exacting revenge plots if they don't receive it, and both devils and mortal summoners alike get put on their poo poo list if they treat the hellcat like it is a mere animal. The hellcat's glowing red blood is a two-edged sword, becoming nearly invisible in bright light but making it unable to use darkness to its advantage. Herd Animals Real world herbivorous mammals that dwell in herds. Pathfinder Bestiary the first had bison and aurochs, so big bovine favoritism there. Here, instead, we have a caprine and a camelid. The camel (CR 1 Large Animal) reflects the dromedary camel, while the ram (CR 1 Medium Animal) is the American bighorn sheep. The camel gets a projectile spit attack that forces a DC 13 Fortitude save to avoid 1d4 rounds of sickness and teh ram gets a charge attack that boosts their gore damage from 1d4 to 1d8. Neither really has anything else to really note. Hippocampus (CR 1 Large Magical Beats [Aquatic]) Horses, but underwater. How majestic. Their presence in mythology as the chariot-pullers of sea gods or use in Medieval heraldry isn't really touched here, and instead they're just horses but for merfolk and nothing more. Hippogriff (CR 2 Large Magical Beast) While Harry Potter may have made them famous to a wider audience, hippogriffs have been around since the Classical era. The traditional meaning of the hippogriff in its earliest forms is lost to time, buy for Roman philosophers and Medieval thinkers it was either a representation of the nature of impossibility, the conquering power of love, or something in between. For Pathfinder's part, their hippogriff is an absurdist creature literally made by a wizard who thought it would be funny to blend griffon and horse together because they are natural enemies. They are territorial loners that fiercely protect their domains from each other while also being forced to contend with wyverns, griffons, and dragons, which all consider the hippogriff tasty prey. Hippogriff in turn prey on mammals such as coyotes and deer, but also require grass to help aid in digestion of their prey. And where can you find mammals of that size and grass together in abundance? Farms, of course, which is why livestock ranchers are swift to put bounties on hippogriffs when they move into more humanoid-heavy areas. For those who want to own a hippogriff alive rather than as a stuffed trophy, they are easier to train than griffons and fiercely loyal if taught right, being treated as Animals rather than Magical Beasts for the purposes of Handle Animal checks. An egg can go for 200gp and a trained adult can fetch as much as 5,000. Hippopotamus (CR 5 Large Animal) The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) is well-known by now for being a horrible temperamental murderbeast whose speed and ferocity surpasses its comically rotund appearance – this is reflected in the game by a 2d8 bite attack, access to the Capsize ability, and a base land speed of 40. Did you know that they secrete a natural sunscreen that also has antibacterial properties, though? The Pathfinder devs apparently did their homework on that, a they get a +2 bonus to saves against non-magical disease due to this "blood sweat". If common hippopotami aren't enough for you, though, stats are also provided for the behemoth hippopotamus (CR 10 Huge Animal), an elephant-sized hippopotamus that is also omnivorous. That's right, not only is it an extremely large hippo, it's an extremely large hippo that wants to eat you. That sure is some escalation right there.  Hound of Tindalos CR 7 Medium Outsider [Evil, Extraplanar]) The Hounds of Tindalos come from a Frank Belknap Long horror short story of the same name, eventually becoming associated with the shared Cthulhu mythos. Pathfinder's hounds are cruel, cunning, and merciless terrors that actively hunt those who break the boundaries of time and space, through either time travel, divination, or teleportation "without regard to how this movement impacts subtle magical currents in the multiverse". They are constantly appearing and reappearing, being capable of casting Greater Teleport once every round a a swift action and Plane Shift 3/day as long a the destination is at a fixed angle. Someone dumb enough to attempt to mind-read or telepathically talk to a hound suffers 5d6 nonlethal damage and 2d4 rounds of confusion. For its own offensive powers, a hound has biting and clawing attacks and a gaze attack that deals 5d6 slashing damage if you don't succeed a DC 18 Fortitude save. Rather strangely for a creature that has an active "gently caress the wizard" vibe to its flavor, hounds of Tindalos only have magic resistance 10 and have Dimensional Anchor as their only direct counterspell option. Howler (CR 3 Large Outsider [Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar]) I had originally thought that the howler was a monster created for the 3E Monster Manual, but rechecking it turns out that it was actually something back from AD&D's Planescape material. Go figure. Regardless of origins, these guys are weird emaciated monkey-cat things with skeletal heads and backs coated in quills that dwell in the Abyss. Like their devilish counterpart that is the hellcat, howlers hunt and kill prey just for the fun of it rather than to sustain themselves, but unlike the hellcats they have no sense of self-importance and status. Howlers are pure cruelty and savagery on four legs, none of that "desiring respect" business here. The howler's howl forces a DC 12 Will save to avoid succumbing to a pseudo-disease curse that deals 1 Wisdom damage per hour, and anyone that gets damaged by a howler's quills either in an offensive or defensive capacity needs to make a DC 14 Reflex save or have one of its quills break off in their flesh, which causes the target to suffer the sickened condition until someone pulls the quill out. Ifrit (Class Level-Dependent Medium Outsider [Native]) Remember the genasi of Planescape (and later the Forgotten Realms)? Well, they're back, now with convenient new names since the genasi weren't Open Game Content! The ifrit is the planetouched of fire, being born from the union of a humanoid and an efreeti or some other being of elemental flame. On top of being red-skinned, pointy-eared, and horned, ifrits are innately pyromaniacal, impulsive, and passionate about anything they believe in. Mechanically, they've got +2 Dex and Charisma but -2 Widom, darkvision, 1/day casting of Burning Hands, fire resistance 5, treat their Charisma as 2 higher for all Sorcerer spells and clas features if they have the Elemental (Fire) Sorcerer bloodline, and cast all Fire domain spellas with a +1 to their caster level. I'm guessing you can probably already surmise what the other three elemental planetouched are going to be like.  Inevitables Ah, the inevitables. The original "the universe is knocking, and it says you're gonna die" plane police from back in the first edition of Planescape. I like the inevitables, I really do. They and the modrons are some of the few times I've seen "Law = Robot" and not been inexplicably annoyed, though that could just be nostalgia talking. That's why it's kind of sad that they lose a bit of a their oomph here in PB2. The fact that the aeons, Outsiders who do the same thing but far more inscrutably due to being uncontrollable True Neutral forces of nature, are introduced in the same title sort of dampens the effect of "oh hey the inevitables are back". I'm not necessarily against two creatures holding the same niche at all, of course, it's just that it does make the inevitables feel a bit less impactful in this case. On the plus side, there's no anhydruts here since they weren't OGC. Arbiter (CR 2 Tiny Outsider [Extraplanar, Inevitable, Lawful]) Oh hey, it's an Outsider that is Challenge Rating 2 and size Tiny. Could this possibly mean the same thing that has meant every other time it's come up so far? Yes, of course it does. To shoehorn in the reasoning these guys would be improved familiars in the first place, the fluff behind these vaguely modron-looking floating eyebots is that they act like little shoulder consciences that keep you from straying too far into Chaos instead of being the defenders of a universal constant. Arbiters can always sense the direction (but not distance) of its nearest superior inevitable, release a 3d6 damage electrical burst in a 10 foot radius that ha the side-effect of stunning itself for a whole day, and cast Command, Commune, Detect Chaos, Make Whole, and Protection From Chaos as spell-like abilities. They also get a +4 to disbelieve illusions created by creatures of Chaos thanks to their special eye. Kolyarut (CR 12 Medium Outsider [Extraplanar, Inevitable, Lawful]) Kolyaruts are burly metal men in charge of dealing with those who break oaths and contracts. They prefer to wear concealing cloaks, cast Disguise Self, and pretend to be some weird mute wandering warrior until they have their prey in sight, at which point they reveal their true natures for shock value. Kolyaruts are also built with an expansive knowledge of mortal social customs and savoir-faire specifically so that they can be extremely Lhaksharut (CR 20 Huge Outsider [Extraplanar, Inevitable, Lawful]) Six-armed and vaguely angelic inevitables, the lhaksharuts are defenders of planar segregation. While regular planar travel doesn't get their attention, trying to link two planes together for the long term or attempting to invade another plane and conquer it gets them fired up. All lhaksharuts tend to have a very blunt approach to fixing these problems and aim to either break the object or kill the person that is keeping the planar link up. Their beatdowns involve four arms wielding weapons and two utilizing special generators that can shoot a 100 foot range blast of any type of energy damage for 10d6 damage of that type, a well a spell-like abilities such as Dimensional Anchor, Dimensonal Lock, Disintegrate, Shield of Law, and Wall of Force. You can attempt to negotiate with a lhaksharut on why linking two planes for a little while is a good idea, but you'd better have your argument written in triplicate if you want to have a snowball's chance in hell of actually convincing it. When not out on murder sprees, lhaksharuts maintain a system of informants throughout the planes, giving them treasures from those it has slain in exchange for information on any potential transgressors plotting to make a mess of things. Marut (CR 15 Large Outsider [Extraplanar, Inevitable, Lawful]) The marut is an inevitable that gets its name from a group of Hindu storm gods, and inherited from their mythological namesakes a penchant for wearing golden armor and the ability to wield the power of lightning and thunder, though the resemblance ends there. They are the inevitables that come to remind you that death is certain. Divine your own death to avoid it? That's a marut on your rear end. Become a lich? Marut's coming for you. Using magic to just keep youthening yourself over and over? You guessed it, marut comes a-knockin'. They rarely speak and seldom seek allegiances with others, instead preferring to act as ever-marching forces of nature that creep up on their victims sooner or later. Unlike other inevitables, maruts don't wield weapons, instead piledriving targets with their big onyx fists. On top of 2d6 slam damage, these punches can choose to either be a "fist of lightning" that deals 3d6 electricity damage and 2d6 rounds of blindness or "fists of thunder" that deal 3d6 sonic damage and 2d6 rounds of deafness. Maruts also have a catalogue of spell-like abilities that include Chain Lightning, Circle of Death, Earthquake, Fear, Greater Dispel Magic, and Mass Inflict Light Wounds. Zelekhut (CR 9 Large Outsider [Extraplanar, Inevitable, Lawful]) The most coppy of the planar cops, these clockwork winged centaur guys go out to hunt people who escape the justice of their society's laws. They don't actually care about the spirit of the law so much as the letter, which means that a zelekhut won't lift a finger against a tyrannical Lawful Evil society that is technically working within its own laws but will hunt down and execute the Chaotic Good local Robin Hood figure who managed to escape the hangman's noose at the last minute. Their weapon of choice are two chains fused into their arms that deal an extra 1d6 electricity damage on top of the normal injuries and trip attacks chains are used for, and their spell-like abilities include Dimensional Anchor, Dispel Magic, Fear, and Hold Person; in case you didn't notice, there's a trend towards movement lockdown SLAs for inevitables.  Jabberwock (CR 23 Huge Dragon [Air, Fire]) Pathfinder: a game where the nastiest critter in a book can be something from a nonsensical rhyme. Meet the jabberwock, the rabbit-toothed sewer of your demise and strongest monster in the whole of the Pathfinder Bestiary 2. This exceedingly ancient dragon comes from the primordial fairy realm, literally born from the mad dreams of the ancient fey gods, and seeks only to bring death and ruin to the Material Plane. The ancient form of magic item known as vorpal weaponry was forged specifically to cleave the seemingly impervious hide of the ancient jabberwock. Of course, even if a great hero slays the jabberwock, the fey gods will eventually slumber once more and dream of yet another one for future generations. I'm not sure where the jabberwock wins over the tarrasque in this same concept of "thing that appears once every few centuries and is extremely hard to kill", but I will admit that artist Eric Belisle does manage to give some savagery and menace to the beast without deviating too far from the classic Through the Looking Glass illustration. Mechanically, while not as impervious as the tarrasque, the jabberwock is nonetheless built like a tank. It's got immunity to fire, paralysis, and sleep, 30 resistance to every other type of energy damage except cold (which it has a vulnerability to), 31 spell resistance, and 15 damage reduction that is bypassed by (of course) vorpal weaponry. It has a panoply of natural attacks as befitting a dragon, shoots 15d6 damage fire blasts from its eyes, creates severe wind conditions due to its "whiffling" motion during any full attack action, and has the Burble. Oh man, the Burble. This is a concentrated blast of inhuman utterances and madness-tinged nonsense in dozens of languages spoken all at once, capable of being used once every 1d4 rounds. The Burble can either be used to force a DC 31 Will save to avoid being confused for 1d4 rounds or to create a devastating 20d6 sonic damage breath weapon. As you can see in that chunk of text up by the jabberwock's wing, some jabberwocks are dream-born with different elemental affinities, which changes their immunity, vulnerability, and subtype. Jellyfish Jellyfish are pretty interesting. Some are miniscule, others are immense. Some float around photosynthesizing with their symbiotic algae blooms, while others are active predators that can seemingly hunt in spite of their lack of a brain to coordinate themselves. Of course, the reason they're here is because of the stings. The giant jellyfish (CR 7 Large Vermin [Aquatic]) is an active predator like its vastly smaller box jellyfish cousin, prowling the open seas for things it can entangle in its tentacles and deliver a toxin that deals 1d4 Constitution damage per round for 6 rounds. Like other giant vermin, they also get a brief table noting the names and hit dice for variations that are somewhat bigger or smaller: the Small 2 HD death's head jellyfish, Medium 5 HD crimson jellyfish, Huge 12 HD sapphire jellyfish, Gargantuan 16 HD vampire jellyfish, and Colossal 20 HD whaler jellyfish. If you want regular-size jellyfish en masse, there's also stats for the jellyfish swarm (CR 6 Diminutive Vermin [Aquatic, Swarm]), a bloom of generic jellyfish that deal 1d4 Dexterity instead of Constitution with their venom. Jyoti (CR 9 Medium Outsider [Extraplanar]) If you asked me to imagine what the native race of the Positive Energy Plane wuld be, I probably wouldn't have guessed a bunch of anthropomorphic phoenixes. And yet, here the jyoti are. These avian xenophobes dwell in floating crystal palaces that dot their radiant plane of existence and are antitheist to a fault, spurning all gods and their followers as being distrustful at best. The only thing they hate more than the gods are the sceaduinar, Neutral Evil crystal bat people native to the Negative Energy Plane, and anyone even daring to speak their name in a jyoti's presence is likely to be assaulted. Of course, anyone in general is likely to be attacked in a jyoti's presence, as the species as a whole is very much the "our needs are the only important ones" selfishness-based interpretation of True Neutral. Jyoti have a breath weapon that deals 11d6 fire damage or 11d8 to undead, any weapon that is wielded in their hands gains the Ghost Touch magic weapon quality and deals an extra 1d6 fire damage, and they have Aid, Breath of Life, Cure Serious Wounds, Daylight, Dimension Door, Disrupting Weapon, Lesser Restoration, Mage Armor, and Searing Light as spell-like abilities. Kelpie (CR 4 Medium Fey [Aquatic, Shapechanger]) The kelpie is a beats of Gaelic folklore, a rather monstrous water spirit that can take the form of a horse or man and isn't shy about tricking humans into being a meal. That's pretty much accurate to the Pathfinder version as well. Its natural form is a slimy horse-headed humanoid with transparent skin that exposes its skeleton and organs...lovely. There's also a few added twists, like that communities near kelpie lairs (falsely) believe that kelpies can transform humanoids into more kelpies, and that kelpies sometimes pretend to be hippocampi and let other fey ride on them safely for no reason other than because they can. The kelpie's powers are the ability to shapeshift into a horse, hippocampus, or Small or Medium Humanoid, as well as a special version of the Captivate ability that allos it to ignore the "subject snaps out of the trance if they are in danger" clause as long as the danger is the threat of drowning.  Korred (CR 4 Small Fey) The korred, or korrigan, is a fairy from the folklore of the Bretons of northern France. You may have heard of these already if you are a fan of the Old World of Darkness, as some French-only WoD book had them as a kith for Changeling: the Dreaming and they were optioned as part of the 20th anniversary edition of CtD on its Kickstarter. You may have also heard of them from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, wherein they appeared in 1983's Monster Manual II. It was from there that they came to the Tome of Horrors, and from the Tome of Horrors to here. Most of the fluff Pathfinder has on them is based more on the mythological end of the spectrum: they're short, they're hairy, they're strong for their size (Strength 19!), and they like to celebrate around ancient standing stones called dolmens. The only big thing on the D&D legacy side besides the stats is that korreds hang around with satyrs (the 2E Monstrous Manual declared that they were literally dwarf satyrs). As for those stats, the supernatural powers the korred gets access to are Stone Stride (Tree Stride, but with rock), a 3/day special laugh that stuns creatures that hear it for 1d2 rounds on a failed Will save, and animate hair that can be used to entangle adjacent targets. Krenshar (CR 1 Medium Magical Beast) Okay, this is the thing I was thinking of when I thought the howler was introduced in the 3E Monster Manual. That wasn't the howler, it was the other skullface cat creature. Krenshar are only skullfaces part of the time, though. In fact, they normally look like a panther without any external ears, and specifically peels back the sin of its face as a way of freaking out prey and potential predator alike. There's an oddly thorough ecology section for these guys as well. Male krenshars will have face-offs wherein they bare their skulls at each other to see how backs down first, females do so to males to show they aren't receptive to mating, and the retraction method also used to scrape away gore and parasites after feeding. It's a shame that a lot of other creatures in here don't get the same pleasure on account of having longer stat blocks than the krenshar does, because there are some that definitely need it. Next Time in Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Leng spiders weave, and leprechauns brew. And there might even be a mongrelman too.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2016 00:24
|
|
|
Adnachiel posted:[*]Turning a mundane into ice cream and eating them, summoning giant fire-breathing grasshoppers to destroy a city, shrinking a mundane and turning them into a cigarette to smoke, turning a mundane into a pig, turning a mundane into a mouse, turning a grown man into a little girl, and turning a person into a house plant. – It's definitely something to see all the sins of the iconic antagonists actually laid out like that, don't feel bad about indulging yourself there at all. If anything, it's honestly a really good post for hammering home the dissonance between what's said in the world building and what actually happens when the authors are faffing about.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2016 17:03
|
|
|
Chapter 5: Characters, Part 1 Welcome, finally, to the chapter meant to be directly of use to players in creating their characters. I'm still genuinely unsure why GURPS setting books seem to like having the player information be after the GM information, especially when you have to go all the way to page 182 like you do here. Wouldn't it be more sensible to have that kind of thing up front and center like you see in most Dungeons and Dragons titles? Oh well, I don't work for Steve Jackson Games, so I'm sure there's some arcane methodology to this manner of layout that I'm simply not privy to. Starting Points Like 3E setting books before it, GURPS Banestorm provides a sliding scale of power levels – and, subsequently, point buy cost totals – that you can utilize in the world of Yrth. Just as the idea of setting books such as GURPS Banestorm in the 4E era quickly died out with the 4E era in favor of "pre-built genre toolkit" titles such as GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, GURPS Action, GURPS Monster Hunters, and the recently released GURPS After the End, so too did the idea of sliding point buy scales, those toolkit titles instead favoring a single power level. It's one of those little vestiges of the Third Edition mentality that stuck around for only a tiny bit of a time and stands out here like a time capsule. Regardless, the starting points are as follows.
 Designing Characters This section is basically "what traits should I/shouldn't I take on Yrth?", which is one of those things that's valuable to someone actually playing but not so much to someone just reading, so let's summarize it and move on. Advantages The big thing here is technology. Not only are you going to be spending points on the High TL advantage because your home Tech Level is suddenly super-advanced, but going out in the open with an AK-47 or an Abrams tank (assuming you somehow got an Abrams tank through a Banestorm anyway, just work with me here) means every archmage on the continent wants you murdered, mindwiped, or mindwiped and then murdered for good measure. Due to the lack of world-hopping in the setting, the world hopper advantage Jumper is banned, or simply has a -25 penalty to rolls if you are combining GURPS Banestorm and the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting. Power Investiture (basically D&D Cleric god-magic) is also verboten, as all magic on Yrth is either of the wizardly variety or a Mysticism power regardless of whether you are faithful or not. There are a few new advantages as well. Social Regard (Good Neighbor) is a social advantage that has people regard you as a great neighbor who they wish to be friendly with and do small favors for, while the rest are talents. A talent, if you don't know, is an advantage that grants a +1 bonus per level to a cluster of skills of a certain theme, as well as a +1 reaction bonus with a certain group of people. The talents presented here are Born War Leader (bonus to a number of soldiering and tactical skills and better reactions with soldiers and warriors), Close to Heaven (bonus to theological rituals of various sorts and exorcisms and better reactions with religious academia), and Halfling Ranged Weapon Talent (bonus to skills related to bows and all thrown weapons and better reactions with archers; can only be taken by halflings). Disadvantages No banned disadvantages, but a fair amount of new ones, all of which are social disadvantages in one of two categories. For new Codes of Honor that dictate certain actions you have to take, there's Arab (never ignore an insult to you, your family, or your religion, be hospitable and kind to guests in your house), Elven (don't do needless harm to nature, be beautiful and elegant in all you do), Halfling (be a stereotypical Tolkien hobbit), Northman's (be truthful and honor your promises, seek bloody vengeance in open combat for the death of someone in your family), Sahudese (always strive to preserve face, dedicatedly follow orders, respect your elders and the spirits), Stays Bought (never turn away from a job you've already taken money on), and Theatrical (the show must go on no matter what, and you can bend the truth but never outright lie when on stage). There are also new Social Stigmas, which influence what others think about you: Perceived as an Animal (you are a sapient animal but few people actually know that, so they are likely to treat you as they would a non-sapient member of your species), Barbarian (a variant of Minority Culture for someone who is "the other" somewhere else rather than a likely present minority), and Known Criminal (a variant of Criminal Record where you are actively branded with some mark or wound that says you are a criminal). Skills Alchemy and Chemistry are one and the same in the world of swords and sorcery that is Ytarria, Astronomy still follows the same rules as you'd expect in a non-magical solar system, and any other science skill gets rolled up into one primitive pseudo-scientifical practice skill called Expert Skill (Natural Philosophy). You also obviously won't be seeing skills for technology that isn't around on Yrth unless you decided to keep them on your high Tech Level character rather than handwave them away as being lost for whatever reason or retrained or whatever excuse you'd make. Oh, and in perhaps one of the few mechanical moments that makes me give a , the skill Exorcism suffers a -8 penalty, or -4 if you have the advantage True Faith. This is explicitly stated to be so that it's inferior to casting the Banish spell. So...why not just remove the Exorcism skill entirely if you are that determined you want wizards to be the best ghost busters and demon denouncers out there? Nonhuman Races While some of the species found on Ytarria that aren't humans were covered way back at the start of chapter 2, there are even more that apparently weren't special enough to be in the People of Ytarria exposé. Djinni (627 Point Template) The djinn are, as noted in the section of the Djinn Lands, actually a combination of a human vessel and a magic thought-elf called an Ascended One. The stats here specifically refer to the Ascended One, as the human part of the djinni is just a normal human wizard save for the addition of the Reprogrammable and Secret (Host to a Super-Powered Spirit) disadvantages. The Ascended One itself is a powerful being: small bonuses to Dexterity and Health combined with a big boost to IQ, Fatigue Points, and Hit Points, agelessness, no need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, immunity to metabolic hazards and most mind-affecting effects, incorporeality that is enhanced by still being able to affect corporeal objects with their touch, invisibility, and mind reading and possession powers. On the downside, Ascended Ones are isolationist, stubborn, and kind of dense when it comes to social interaction. While not an actual codified part of the template, all Ascended Ones are wizards and have lots of spells under their belt. Dolphins (92 Point Template) A sapient dolphin. They do dolphin things, but also sing long sea chanties in dolphin-speak and tell puns. Sea elves and merfolk are their friends, shark men are their enemies, and land dwellers think they're just regular dolphins. Mechanically, dolphins have a bit of a boost to Dexterity and Health and a large boost to Strength, have a great sense of direction and acute vision, can hold their breath for a decent amount of time, can use echolocation and ultrasonic hearing/speech, live somewhat shorter lives than other sapients, are impulsive and curious, have stone age technology, and have natural ranks in the Aquabatics skills. Gargoyle (5 Point Template) Gargoyles come from the desert world of Gabrook, just like goblins, hobgoblins, and kobolds do. Indeed, they even look like goblinoids with wings and scaly gray hides. Where goblins and gargoyles diverge even further than appearance is attitude, however: the latter are dim-witted layabouts that have eyes bigger than their stomachs, and few other species are willing to tolerate them. Some gargoyles find employment as thieves, but most are scavenging skulkers found either in the upper layers of densely packed cities or in the wild mountain ranges of Ytarria. The mechanics of the gargoyle involve a small penalty to Strength and IQ but a boost to Health, blunt claws, winged flight, damage resistance on par with an alligator or shark, excellent night vision, gluttony, ugliness, laziness, and a disdain for learning. A standard adult gargoyle is the size of a goblin, but those that survive to age 50 increase to human size, and the individuals that somehow manage to make it to a century old get to be Size Modifier +1 like giants. There are Strength and Damage Resistance increases with these size boosts, but just how much of a boost that is is left up to the Game Master rather than stated outright. Insect Man (29 Point Template) Remember the weirdly clever giant insects mentioned in the tour of Zarak? These are those. They actually look very human-like, face for their large bug eyes, bronze chitin, and antennae, so it's a mystery how the dwarves ever assumed they were regular insects. Another mystery is where they come from. It's believed that the insect men may have come from Gabrook, but the fact that they only appeared over the last ten years is particularly odd if that's the case. Regardless of their origins, the fact remains that the insect men are learning quickly, breeding quickly, and are coming ever closer to overrunning the dwarves on the edge of the Great Desert. Stats-wise, the insect men have Strength and Health +1, the same damage resistance as gargoyles, silent movement, and racial telepathy through their hivemind for benefits, but have the drawbacks of being mute, shy, dedicated to their colony, unattractive, and uncomfortable when not in a group. The warriors of the hive have a 25 point template that is slightly different, with +3 Strength and +2 Health but -1 IQ, slightly more damage resistance, four arms instead of two, poor hearing on top of their muteness, a few decades shorter lifespan than most sapients, and a total lack of free will. Intelligent Animals Some other sapients besides the dolphins of Ytarria show up here. Oddly enough, they are in a sidebar and declared to be optional parts of the setting, ignorable by "GMs who dislike talking animals". One can only wonder why the Ecco race didn't get the same treatment. Anyway, three of these guys, so let's go over them quickly.
 Medusa (139 Point Template) Medusas are an always female species that may or may not be actually one of the Elder Races of Yrth that just got written out of the history books. They resemble elf, orc, or human women with snakes instead of hair, and have a 50/50 chance of either having normal skin colors for their apparent species or having the same color patterns as their snakes spread across their body. Medusas, unsurprisingly, have a petrifying gaze, and it's this gaze that has led to the medusas living deep in the wilderness most of the time. Turns out that those eye beams are actually hard to control, and accidentally turning people to stone doesn't get you many friends. The medusa's petrifying gaze is straight up a normal "I make a Will check intentionally, you make a Health check in response, we see who wins" Affliction advantage in the standard racial template provided, which is stated to cover an experienced medusa. Medusas with less skill in handling their eye shots, however, suffer from having the Unreliable or even Uncontrollable limitations put on their petrifying gaze to reflect their lack of control. Other than her trademark ability, a medusa gets a small bonus to Dexterity, IQ, and Health attributes, an immunity to other medusas' gaze attacks, innate Magery, and a weak impaling attack with her snake hair that carries venom with it. A medusa's disadvantages are a dislike (but usually not outright intolerance of) other sapient species and the social stigma of being a monster. Octopus Folk (239 Point Template) A species human-sized octopus with human level intellects. Not much is known about them, as they tend to keep to themselves, but anyone trespassing near their lairs are typically warned off with sharp coral spears. They might be from Yrth, or they might have come in from Olokun, but nobody's really sure about anything with these guys. Their mechanics are pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an octopus, with a sharp beak that carries a mild toxin, eight arms, color changing and elasticity, ink cloud production, regrowth of lost limbs, and a big streak of curiosity. Sphinx (140 or 170 Point Template) Sphinxes hail from Loren'dil, the same land as the halflings, centaurs, minotaurs, and giants. Sphinxes have several different breeds, but all have the same general body plan of a human head on a big cat's body. Most sphinxes are leonine sphinxes, which have lion bodies and the wings of eagles on their backs, but there are also pantherine sphinxes (extremely rare, with black panther bodies and bat wings) and tigrine sphinxes (tiger bodies and no wings at all). Sphinx forepaws have slightly opposable thumbs, allowing them to have somewhat clumsy but nonetheless present manipulative capabilities. Sphinxes are clever and love to learn new things, but also suffer from a murderous hunger and loner attitude, which often come in conflict. A potential prey item can win their survival by intellectually stimulating a sphinx, and some villages have even taken to feeding sphinxes some of their livestock in exchange for use of the sphinx's wisdom as both an adviser and a judge. Sphinxes have a big boost to Strength and Dexterity and a small boost to IQ and Health, tough hides, sharp claws, good night vision, poor grip, curiosity (especially pronounced with intellectual pursuits), bloodlust, a solitary nature, and natural ranks in the Brawling and Running skills. Both leonine and pantherine sphinxes have winged flight for a maximum of 170 points, while the tigrine sphinx is the 140 point racial template due to a lack of that flying power. Spirits AKA the guys the Sahudese pray to. Spirits are found all over Sahud, manifesting as the genii loci of various things large and small. Spirits aren't so much a species as they are a state of being. All of them have the Spirit meta-trait, which means they don't eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, are ageless, and are invisible and incorporeal. Other mechanical traits are all "mosts" or "almost alls" rather than certainties: most spirits have a lower IQ attribute than humans but high Perception and Will attributes, a lot of them have Selfish and Proud disadvantages, and a vast majority of them have Dependency to whatever they are a spirit of. A sample template is given for a spirit of local springs, which has features such as water-only telekinesis (because this was printed before GURPS Powers, which would add the Control [Element] advantage to the game), the ability to heal blood and bladder disorders, and temperature control that only affects water. Troll (171 Point Template) Trolls resemble goblins brought up to the size of a giant, and are yet another species from the desert world of Gabrook. Strangely enough for being denizens of Fantasy Tatooine, trolls actively seek out wet, humid areas and are great swimmers. Those on Ytarria tend to live in semi-submerged caverns, deep and wet forests, under bridges, or in sewers, though the latter two locations tend to lead to them being hunted down by monster slayers pretty fast. Trolls are horribly violent misanthropes with everyone but their blood relatives, who they instead treat with care and will quickly avenge any harm done to them. Trolls have a lot going for them mechanically. On the plus side, they've got a big ol' Strength attribute boost, decent HP and Perception attribute boosts, small boosts to the Dexterity and Health attributes, extra land and water movement speed, a great sense of smell, the ability to hold their breath even longer than dolphins, clawed hands and sharp teeth, leathery hides for damage resistance, a high tolerance for pain, D&D-style darkvision, particularly long arms, wound regeneration that is bypassed by acid and fire (but not limb regrowth, as those are considered two different things unlike in D&D), immunity to disease and fear effects, the ability to eat almost anything, and natural ranks in the Brawling and Swimming skills. On the downside, though, they've got -1 IQ and are bloodthirsty, callous to the feelings of others, isolationist, gluttonous, curious, vulnerable to fire and dehydration. Oh, and they eat other sapients, which is kind of a big social faux pas if you hadn't heard. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: The other half of chapter 5, as I actually ended up nearly coming close to the post length limit. Cursed souls and templates for occupations are coming up.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2016 05:42
|
|
|
Lynx Winters posted:GURPS didn't stop making setting books, they just stop making softcovers of them when e23 took off. Age of Gold and Solar Patrol are real cool.  I have Age of Gold on the docket for a future review, and I plan on buying Tales of the Solar Patrol next time there's another GURPS book that gets released and I want to grab a few things from SJG together.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2016 19:27
|
|
|
Chapter 5: Characters, Part 2  The Accursed Sure, the Church may have ruled that medusas, sphinxes, and trolls don't have souls, but that's probably still better than being classed as one of the Accursed. These are the sapients that are seen as wretched souls wracked by a terrible curse at best and sinful, godless abominations at worst. Ghoul (15 Point Template) Ghouls are pale, toothy, hairless, and filth-covered humanoids sometimes incorrectly assumed to be undead. They aren't, and are in fact just a sapient race that happens to have a need to eat raw sapient flesh. While most ghouls haunt caves or the undergrounds of cities and prey on the dead, there are a few that have given the whole species a worse reputation by actively hunting and preying on travelers or the urban poor. There's an old myth that says ghoulism is contagious, but it's probably just a way to keep people from associating with them rather than actual fact. A ghoul's racial template provides +2 to Strength nad Health but -1 to IQ, are slower movers than most humanoids, have slightly thick and tough skin, dark vision, an immunity to disease combined with the ability to eat subpar meat, sharp teeth and claws, slightly quiet movement, natural ranks in Brawling and Stealth, a disturbing-sounding voice, ugliness, a reputation for being a filth-ridden people eater, and a diet limited to the raw flesh of sapients. Lycanthropes Not a species unto themselves, lycanthropes are instead members of any sapient species that suffers from a congenital magical disease that causes them to transform fully into an animal, both mind and body, every full moon. In spite of the picture the book provides, they don't have some beast-man form like werewolves in the World of Darkness or what have you: it's either all human or all animal, no in between; there are some that can learn to control their disease so well that they can remove the IQ score reduction and gaining of animal mental disadvantages, thus keeping their minds intact even in beast form, but even they can't take a hybrid form. Pretty much everyone sees lycanthropy as a curse for obvious reasons. The most common lycanthropes are werebears (turn into black bears), wereboars (turn into wild boars), were-eagles (turn into non-sapient and non-magical versions of the great eagle), weresnakes (turn into pythons), weretigers (turn into the bloody obvious), and werewolves (turn into timber wolves), but theoretically any animal can have a lycanthrope form. Mechanically, a lycanthrope is just a member of any other sapient species that buys the Alternate Form advantage with the Uncontrollable, Trigger (Full Moon), and Duration (One Night) limitations. Each one points to the GURPS Basic Set's short section on animal entries and states that your alternate form is that "animal template"...which would be fine, if it wasn't for the fact that the animal entries in the GURPS Basic Set are actually shortform stat blocks and don't actually have point costs, advantage adjustments, or other things that make up a useful template. Alternatively, the book says, you can look at the animal templates from GURPS Bestiary, which is a Third Edition book and thus you'd need to do a little legwork to convert it to 4E. Either way, you have a bit of extra homework to do, so good luck.  Vampire (100 Point Template) Vampires are an undead monster that can arise from any of the sapient species on Ytarria, resembling a particularly pale member of their species with long pointed canine teeth.. Vampires aren't necessarily evil, but they are always hunger-driven and more often than not rather amoral about their actions – the predator must hunt, after all, and sapients just happen to be the prey they're forced to take. A vampire can transmit vampirism through its bodily fluids, specifically forcing a Health roll to avoid contracting their curse with either a bite, a kiss, having unprotected sex, or having the victim drink their blood. Vampires with weak wills typically break down and feed indiscriminately, quickly drawing the attention of those that would kill them, which has the unintended side-effect of leaving only the strongest-willed and most clever vampires as the survivors. The smart vampire minimizes their chance of creating spawn, has a will of iron to press back the gnawing hunger until it is absolutely necessary to feed, and plots out the best routes in their home territory for stealth and evasion. The vampire template provides a big boost to Strength and HP and a decent boost to Perception, a lack of a need to breathe and immunity to any metabolic hazards, less damage taken from Piercing and impaling type damage, good night vision, agelessness, body fluids that deal 3d6 Toxic damage in the aforementioned circumstances (and can also be reduced to 1d6 damage to make the chance of the victim becoming a vampire extremely low, because the Health save for that is tied to how much damage dice were applied), sharp fangs that siphon blood, an inability to ever be truly killed unless specifically killed with damage dealt by fire or wood, a need to feed on a sapient being's blood at least once a week, a gnawing hunger for said blood as well, a lack of HP recovery unless it's either regenerating from a pseudo-death or taken by sucking blood, a fear of running water, and the suffering of 1d6 damage a minute if in sunlight.  Adventuring Character Templates Here come the occupational templates, ready and prebuilt for the player to peruse. Not gonna go into huge depth about them mechanically, as these things are meant to be somewhat modular pseudo-classes and all, but I'm at least going to give a basic description of each. Assassin (125 Point Template) You kill people for money or ideology. Lots of advantages and skills related to stealth, social interaction, and things that kill people swiftly and (usually) silently like poison, garrotes, and knives. Bard (150 Point Template) The traveling entertainers. The main Bard template is your non-magical "Face" archetype with a lot of social graces and various entertainment skills, but there's also a special 170 point variant called the Bard-Wizard for those who wanted a Bard closer to Dungeons and Dragons. They have Magery that is limited to requiring either singing or dancing to activate spells, and comes with basic knowledge of spells such as Haste, Itch, Lend Energy, Pain, and Spasm.  Never anger the song mage, lest he dance up a seizure on you.Battle Wizard (150 Point Template) More battle than wizard, these guys actually have a lot of options you'd associate with a knight, like horse riding, fitness, and swordsmanship. Of course, they do actually have a handful of spells to use as well, including Create Fire, Haste, Lend Energy, Minor Healing, and Shield, but they are more for a support position than the main brunt of their combat knowledge. While al-Wazif and Megalos are the nations most famous for their battle wizards, pretty much any nation that isn't actively thaumatophobic is likely to have at least a few. There are also wandering battle wizard mercenaries for those who aren't concerned about spending a little extra coin to help direct the flow of a battle. Bounty Hunter (150 Point Template) Those other guys who kill for money, only more in the open and somewhat more legitimately. The template's got a combination of advantages and skills that are focused on tracking, aggressive social interactions, stealth, and both lethal and non-lethal combat. Charlatan (125 Point Template) Basically a Medieval stage magician, the Charlatan occupational template can be used both for entertainers that play at being wizards or con artists that do so to prey on those who desire the aid of a magical individual. These guys are really good at both entertaining others, engaging in constant bullshitting, and being able to make a quick escape when things go sour. Courtier (115 Point Template) Some active servant of a noble court, such as a diplomat or a herald. Social skills out the wazoo, as well as some entertainment skills and even a bit of knowledge in combat with weapons associated more with the nobility such as sabers. Entertainer (50 Point Template) Like a bard, but less talented. Freelance Wizard (150 Point Template) Wizards that go around wizarding for cash. They have a fairly good number of spells, but only in one or two colleges, reflecting their nature as specialists who do a specific profession with their arcane arts. The specific types of freelance wizard specializations given in the template are Air and Earth with spells such as Earth to Air, Lightning, Purify Air, and Shape Earth, Body with spells including Clumsiness, Death Touch, Lend Vitality, Paralyze Limb, Spasm, and Wither Limb, Empathy and Mind with spells like Command, Forgetfulness, Hide Thoughts, Mind-Reading, and Sleep, Healing with spells that include Minor Healing, Major Healing, Purify Air, and Purify Water, Knowledge with spells such as Continual Light, Darkness, Mind-Reading, Sense Emotion, and Trace, and Water with spells like Breathe Water, Create Water, Destroy Water, Fog, and Shape Water. Healer (150 Point Template) Also known as hedge witches and physickers, healers are herbal remedy experts who also have some magic talents. This means that they have actual medical skills and knowledge of herbal pharmaceuticals, but also healing spells such as Lend Vitality, Minor Healing, Major Healing, and Sense Emotion.  Knight Errant (150 Point Template) A template shared by Christian knights, Muslim ghazis, and Sahudese samurai alike. This template makes you really good at both killing and not being killed, but also has a smattering of skills for the social graces. Martial Artist (150 Point Template) You are the one who is Kung Fu fighting. Or Judo fighting, as you can take ranks in either. There's also a few skills for weapons as well, and various martial arts techniques and feats of dexterity. There is a special lens, the Exotic Martial Artist, that is presented as well. This boosts the template cost to 250 and adds a bunch of wuxia stuff like extremely fast movement, extra long jumps, long lifespans, a sixth sense for danger, a chi blast attack, and various cinematic martial arts techniques. Mercenary (150 Point Template) The other other guy who kills for money. Mercenaries are soldiers for hire, and their stats reflect it, being more or less a knight with broader weapons training and the social skills replaced with survival ones. Merchant (110 Points) The folks who buy and sell goods. Lots of social skills, especially economically profitable ones. Michaelite (150 Point Template) As the occupational template name implies, this is usually for characters who are members of the Michaelites, though there are other unaffiliated proto-detective organizations out there as well. Michaelites are good at being sneaky, finding clues and sniffing out leads, interrogating perps, and getting into fistfights. Mystic (110 Point Template) Sufis, esoteric scholars, and weird desert hermits all fall into this category. They're good at religion and philosophy, reading others, wilderness survival, and sometimes a bit of combat skill in martial arts and/or staff-type weapons. Northman Barbarian Vikings. A template that's good for wilderness survival, water survival, and killing people. Peasant Hero (75 Point) Some farmer who got whisked way to adventure. Most of the class's skills and abilities focus on physical labor, farmwork, and animal handling, but there's also some upfront knowledge about common weapons of war to avoid having peasant heroes be useless at combat. Priest-Wizard (130 Point Template) A wizard from a Christian or Muslim priestly caste. On top of their people skills and religious training, the spells a priest-wizard can call upon include Apportation, Banish, Continual Light, Dispel Magic, Ignite Fire, and both Minor and Major Healing. Swashbuckler (150 Point Template) The dashing rogue who is good at fencing, seamanship, social interaction, and sexual encounters. Almost all swashbucklers are men at arms, romantic sailors, and light-hearted pirates from the Araterre region, though there are at least a few here and there elsewhere in the world. Underground Engineer (150 Point Template) These are the hidden cabals of people trying to bring about the Industrial Revolution in spite of the extreme dangers that involves. This template grants you Victorian era technological prowess, both in creation and utilization, but also means that there are a lot of angry wizards and the Ministry of Serendipity that want to either wipe your brain or just outright murder you and then break your fancy toys if you get found out, so it's definitely a case of walking the razor's edge if it's a player rather than an NPC using this template. Urban Rogue (150 Point Template) A template for any city-working criminal from a "gentleman thief" or spy down to the most gruff and uncouth of rabblerousing thugs. A lot of stuff for stealth, athletics, espionage, social manipulation, and killing here. Watchman (150 Point Template) Part of the town guard. This is a template that mostly focuses on combat and the more rough and tumble social interaction skills like Intimidation and Interrogation. Woodsman (150 Point Template) An occupational template that covers pretty much any wilderness-heavy occupation, from rangers patrolling a noble's forest and scouts to poachers and guerrillas. This one's got a ton of survival-related advantages and skills, obviously, as well as a bit of skills in utilizing various sorts of weaponry. Next Time in GURPS Banestorm: Dragons and krakens and reeks, oh my! We cover the bestiary chapter of GURPS Banestorm, the second to last in the book.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2016 01:01
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Hell, there was an entire tabletop game/setting about Southern Gothic posted either earlier in this thread or the last one. Believing in magic per se is more a ye old tymes stereotype, the more modern form is Christian hyper-fundamentalism - think banning Harry Potter because of witchcraft, for example. Of course, that was just my personal experience, and I'm sure someone else might be able to say differently, so take that with a grain of salt knowing it's just the sample size of a few podunk towns and an only semi-major city.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2016 03:14
|
|
|
Tasoth posted:Literally ConX. You are humans battling a Grey breeding plan that is trying to silence the psychic seepage of Humanity, Atlanteans that may or may not be hunting humans for sport, Saurians that are now just returning from a prehistoric religious war that got dragged out on account of time dilation, and human beings that have succumbed to the nearly sapient psychic miasma that humans have produced from their existence since the species began and become predators of various stripes. This is an actual plot hook in the September 11 sidebar of Conspiracy X 2.0.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2016 06:02
|
|
|
Pathfinder Bestiary 2: Lamia Matriarch to Mu Spore  Lamia Matriarch (CR 8 Monstrous Humanoid [Shapechanger]) An upgraded version of the lamia, with a snake body rather than a lion body below her human half. I'd like to say that this might be a reference to how the history of the mythological figure Lamia – or the lamiae, as even the singularity versus plurality varies across various tellings and reimaginings – is so convoluted and her appearance frequently varies from serpentine to generically beast-like to just humanoid. Of course, the actual reason they exist is probably because of the lamia noble, the serpentine lamia leaders that have been in Dungeons and Dragons since the 1981 Fiend Folio. Also, unfortunately, the lamia matriarch really doesn't have much going for her. Other than a few buffed numbers, she really isn't all that different at all from a regular lamia, with the same Wisdom drain attack, almost the same spell-like abilities, and no really snake-related powers. Not even a constrict! What a shame. Leng Spider (CR 14 Huge Magical Beast [Extraplanar]) Another one of the monsters of Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, the spiders of Leng are bloated purple arachnids that fought with the Plateau's "almost-men". In Pathfinders, they are similarly the enemies of the denizens of Leng, fighting against them as well as life on other planes in search of more and more slaves. Thankfully for everyone else, they are one of the very few extraplanar creatures out there that have no Dimension Door or Planeshift whatsoever, forcing them to rely on the portals of others for transport. Once they actually do get where they want to go, though, leng spiders are a terror to behold. On top of having massive spell resistance and fast healing 10, they have a venom that deals 1d4 Constitution damage plus the confusion status ailment every round for 6 rounds, can craft masterwork bolas and masterwork flails out of their webbing, and can cast spell-like abilities that include Charm Monster, Dispel Magic, Freedom of Movement, Insanity, Invisibility, and Mirage Arcana.  Leprechaun (CR 2 Small Fey) I'm fairly sure leprechauns don't need much introduction. These short and solitary trickster fairies have become more or less synonymous with Ireland and caricatured into oblivion, and have been around in Dungeons and Dragons for the majority of its history. And surprise, surprise, they show up again here. Leprechauns epitomize the obnoxious little Chaotic Neutral poo poo-goblins that so many non-Evil D&D fey are, with pastimes that include intentionally stealing objects specifically to lead the object's owner on a chase before throwing the object back to them, spreading false rumors about being able to cast Wish in exchange for gold in order to accumulate vast hoards of wealth in their hovels, and making forests seem haunted. Their spell-like abilities unsurprisingly include spells like Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, Invisibility, and Prestidigitation to facilitate these tricks, as well as a constantly active Shillelagh spell on the clubs they carry. Leprechauns also get a +4 boost to their caster level on all spells if they specifically cast them with the intent to deceive, humiliate, or trick someone. Leucrotta (CR 5 Large Magical Beast) A monster of Roman and Medieval bestiaries, the leucrotta (sometimes spelled with just one T) was first described by our old buddy Pliny the Elder, who stated it was a beast with the body and tail of a lion, the head of a badger, cloven hooves, and bone ridges rather than teeth, which was capable of miming human speech. This is all true in Pathfinder, but on top of that it is also said that leucrottas are hyena-demon hybrids, which I guess would explain why they are Chaotic Evil. Well, that and the fact that they were Chaotic Evil in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The two main things the leucrotta has on its side are a bite that ignores 5 hardness of any object and has Improved Crit, as well as Mass Suggestion on its sound mimicry. Leucrottas sometimes lead packs of gnolls or crocottas, the latter of which are stated to be dire hyenas with the Advanced Creature simple template added on. Locathah (CR ½ Medium Humanoid [Aquatic]) The locathah have been around since the beginning. Like, "the old-rear end OD&D white box" beginning. Specifically, they were part of the Blackmoor supplement, which also introduced the Assassin and Monk classes and rules for swimming and other underwater activities. They've always been gillmen, but their appearance has evolved somewhat over time: a stereotypical Creature from the Black Lagoon look back in OD&D, this sort of weird codfish look in AD&D, and a face and ornamentation clearly based on the lionfish from Third Edition onward. Unsurprisingly, the Pathfinder locathah looks a lot like the 3E Monster Manual's locathah, but with the neat added flair of having the weird knobbly chest and belly plating you see on a lot of seahorse species. Pathfinders's locathah have a rather  life: surface dwellers often loathe them because they can't tell the difference between the locathah and any of the myriad of evil fish people such as the sahuagin, so the locathah try to overcompensate by being ridiculously generous in their aid of air-breathing humanoids. Locathah clans will point out any local water hazards to passing ships, and some even lead you to sunken treasure for the nominal fee of some nice ceramic ware, metal weapons, or their favorite land snack of tubers. They are also extremely communical, going to almost suicidal lengths to save members of their clan if they are captured or attacked. The clan leader is a matriarch who acts as both chieftain and the only egg layer. Each adult locathah raises one of the matriarch's spawn at a time as their own. When not gathering or hunting for fish, crustaceans, shellfish, and seaweed with the aid of domesticated moray eels, locathah typically spend their time with their extended family or crafting tools and art with bone, coral, and stone. Some particularly assholish Evil seafarers are known to exploit the communalism of these fishfolk, capturing a matriarch in order to both lure in her whole clan for capture and have an ever-breeding source of new slaves. On the mechanics side, locathahs are far less interesting than they are on the fluff end of the spectrum, having slightly higher stats than humans in everything but Strength and Constitution, +2 natural armor to AC, 10 feet land speed but 60 feet swim speed, and no real special attacks or strange abilities to speak of. Most locathah don't have class levels, but they can indeed take them, and a tribe is stated to usually have two level 1 to 3 Fighters and a level 3 to 6 Cleric for the matriarch. It's a shame that after they got so much flavor spent on them, they ended up not even appearing in the "here are some Pathfinder Bestiary series monsters, now as player races!" book that was the Advanced Race Guide; the fishy role there was instead taken by the gillmen of The Inner Sea World Guide, which I find far less interesting since they are just humans with gills and webbed digits that come from not-Atlantis and typically serve either the aboleths or the Great Old Ones. Lurker in Light (CR 5 Small Fey [Extraplanar]) While they might resemble glowing pixies, lurkers in light aren't your typical D&D fey. Instead, these guys are horribly sadistic and violent, to a point that even some of the cruel fae of old Celtic mythology might be a bit skeeved out. These guys actually engage in humanoid sacrifice to open portals either for themselves or something they wish to summon. Lurkers have an abject hatred for anything that is connected to shadows or even just found in dark places, so subterranean species such as dwarves and gnomes get the vast brunt of their murderous rage, but their inscrutable methods are never truly predictable enough that anyone can claim to be safe. The lurker in light has a special poison dealing 1 Strength drain followed by 5 rounds of 1d3 Strength damage that it applies to weapons it wields, has the same light invisibility that hellcats have, a 1/day use of Dimension Door between and two locations that are in areas of bright light, spell-like abilities that include Blindness/Deafness, Dancing Lights, and Daylights, and the aforementioned ritual sacrifice. The ritual sacrifice must have humanoid victims, casting a Gate spell if the right number of bodies hit the floor. It takes five sacrifices just to open a Gate specifically for traveling through for a minute, while attempting to summon creatures requires a sacrifice for every hit die that the creature or creatures would have in total. Oh, and if you kill one its body turns to special dust that counts as 2d6 flasks of holy water.  Lycanthropes Lycanthropes are back, and they're not really better than ever because these are just the ones from the 3E Monster Manual that the first Pathfinder Bestiary didn't cover – there won't be any fully new lycanthropes until Pathfinder Bestiary 4. All of these are technically templates, but instead of actually showing a template they instead have a sample character and assume you're going to go back and read the lycanthrope rules from the Pathfinder Bestiary/SRD/wherever. Werebear (CR +0 Template) These guys hulk out into big ol' grizzly bears and are the only naturally Good lycanthrope. I've heard it said many a time that this is because of Beorn the bear shapeshifter from Tolkien's The Hobbit, and I'll assume that's correct rather than wrack my brains trying to figure it out otherwise (though, admittedly, lycanthrope alignment choices are usually arbitrary anyway). They are big, strapping musclefolk with red or brown hair in their humanoid form and tend to be isolationists. Most werebears will only actively engage in combat against Evil creatures in their territories, but some particularly ill-tempered ones will attack any aggressive trespasser, the most animalistic even eating transgressors.  The sample werebear is a level 4 Ranger. Wereboar (CR +0 Template) Crazy Chaotic Neutral pig people. They are fat and stocky in humanoid form, have large families, are so exceedingly bad-tempered and violent that even werewolves and weretigers tend to avoid them, and that's pretty much it as far as information given about them goes. The example wereboar's a level 2 Barbarian, and the stat block given already has the alterations for being in a Barbarian rage state because it's assumed that if you're fighting a wereboar they are definitely going to be activating that class feature immediately. Weretiger (CR +0 Template) Pathfinder Bestiary 2 posted:Weretigers in humanoid form have large eyes, long noses, and sharp cheekbones. Most have brown or red hair, though a few have white, black, or even blue-gray. Their movements appear careful yet casual, and a person observing one could easily assume he’s watching a skilled pickpocket, graceful dancer, or sultry courtesan. The only other things we're told about weretigers is that they are solitary and only meet to mate, and that they love to stalk and kill sapient beings because hey they're Neutral Evil. The sample one's a level 4 Rogue with a masterwork dagger, the better to gracefully dance into your spine with. Magma Ooze (CR 7 Large Ooze [Fire]) It's an ooze, but fiery! Any weapon touching these guys needs to make a DC 19 Fortitude save or take 4d6 damage, but they're weak to cold damage and are temporarily petrified by water, so presumably the best method of dealing with one is to just dump it in a pond or something. There are a few minor variants based on what type of rock the magma ooze spawned from: brimstone magma oozes are made from fiendish energy-tainted rock and get the Fiendish Creature simple template, crystalline magma oozes are made from heavy mineral-laced rock and have bubbles in them that pop on a melee attack to deal 1d6 fire damage to the attacker, and poisonous magma oozes are made from toxic metals and have a contact poison that deals 1d2 Constitution damage per round for 6 rounds. Mandragora (CR 4 Small Plant) The mandragora, or mandrake, is a plant in the genus Mandrogara or the species Bryonia alba. Unsurprisingly, its vaguely humanoid-looking root with hallucinogenic properties upon consumption happens to have inspired a lot of weird folk healing and occult lore around it. Probably the most well known is the idea that it screams when pulled out of the ground, and this scream can be dangerous or even deadly. Pathfinder's mandragora a horrid little fat tree-baby that has a 2% chance of being born if a demon's corpse or ichor provides nutrients to a mundane mandrake root. It is a violent Chaotic Evil monster that spends most of its time rooted in place but viciously attacks anything that gets close to its lair. The mandragora can indeed shriek, but only once per day, and it merely forces a DC 15 Will save to avoid 1d4 rounds of being nauseated. Its root-fingers also deliver a poison that induces confusion and fatigue for 4 rounds. This poison and the mandagora's sap-blood can be mixed with 1,000GP of alchemical ingredients to buff a casting of the Scrying spell, forcing a -4 penalty on the save to resist the spell. Megafauna Dinosaurs not your deal? Well, no worries, there's some prehistoric mammals here for your lost world perusal as well. Arsinoitherium (CR 7 Large Animal) While it looks vaguely like a rhinoceros with two huge horns side-by-side on the front of its face, Arsinoitherium was in fact closer to elephants, dugongs, and manatees. They're sadly not really much different than rhinos from a game mechanics perspective, dwelling on warm plains and having the combo of powerful charge and trample special attacks. That's a shame, as the Fayum and Aydim formations that Arsinoitherium fossils are known from would have been tropical forest and coastal swamps, and the species' legs seem to be built for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. A weird hippo-rhino living on the mangroves near the beach would definitely fill a less occupied niche in Pathfinder as far as I can tell. Glyptodon (CR 6 Large Animal) If I had started doing this review last year, I would have said that Glyptodon is one of the most famous of the glyptodonts, a group of creatures that were superficially armadillo-like but not actually that directly related. Good thing I'm in 2016, where we now know that glyptodontines were in fact armadillos. That makes describing them much easier. So yeah, Glypdoton was a cow-sized armadillo with a weird stubby pinecone tail. It is described here as being ill-tempered and often hunted to use its shell as armor. It defends itself with +12 natural armor and a pretty vicious (1d10 damage) pair of claw attacks. Megaloceros (CR 4 Large Animal) Megaloceros, also known as the Irish elk, was a large deer with ridiculously huge antlers that existed in northern Europe alongside woolly mammoths and other Pleistocene standbys. We aren't told anything about them besides their name and size by the absolutely miniscule flavor text provided, but I'd like to think that they are ridden into battle for no real reason other than that it looks cool and I remember the Megaloceros being a combat unit in some prehistoric animal-themed RTS whose name I forget. Megatherium (CR 5 Huge Animal) The largest of the ground sloths, Megatherium lived in Pleistocene South America alongside our previous page buddy Glyptodon. In spite of its impressive 20 foot length, huge front claws, and general potential for being interesting, all we get once again are its weight, length, and a single sentence on something else (this time that it can use its tail as part of a tripod stance, like a kangaroo). This is probably why it's a bad idea to dictate that you need to keep all of a monster's entry on one page and then shove two longform 3E/Pathfinder style stat blocks, two animal companion stat blocks, and art all on that same page. Turns out that ends up nixing how much space you have for flavorful things.  Mercane (CR 5 Large Outsider [Extraplanar]) Back in AD&D, there was a species of giant blue space elf merchants called the arcanes who were introduced in Spelljammer and later also appeared in Planescape. They returned in Third Edition, now with a new name of mercane as a presumed precaution against confusing "arcane" the race and "arcane" the magic type. Fast forward to Pathfinder, and the mercane are back, now with a new and more alien coat of paint on their physical design. Flavor-wise, though, they're still enigmatic interplanar magic item dealers. Mercanes have 3/day Dimension Door and Invisibility and 1/day Plane Shift for spell-like abilities, can make any one chest into a Secret Chest indefinitely (but it has to de-enchant the last one to enchant a new one), and wield masterwork falchions for self-defense. Merrow, Freshwater (CR 3 Large Humanoid [Giant]) and Saltwater (CR 6 Huge Humanoid [Giant]) The name of the merrows comes from a type of merfolk from Celtic mythology, which had beautiful mermaid women and horrendous fish-ogre men. In Dungeons and Dragons, they were merely amphibious ogres. And now, in the Pathfinder Bestiary 2, they have graduated to being close relatives of ogres that actually have superior stats. They also have no mentions of rape or incest in their entry at all, which makes them superior from Pathfinder's ogres in that way as well. Merrows are communal predators that attack in packs and share their loot and food equally, raiding villages on the shoreline in the dead of night. They're also ridiculously limber compared to ogres, with Dexterity 19 on the ogre-sized freshwater merrow and Dexterity 16 on the massive 20 foot tall whale-hunting saltwater merrow. Mihstu (CR 8 Medium Outsider [Air, Elemental, Extraplanar]) An Evil gas cloud from AD&D's Monster Cards series and the AD&D Monster Manual II, the mihstu popped up in the Tome of Horrors and thus made its way here. Mihstus seek engage in violence with misty made from their smoky bodies, rending at foes while lapping up 1d2 Constitution worth of blood every turn it has a foe pinned. The mihstu actually has no nourishnment gained from this and even spits the blood out a few rounds afterward, so it is written off as yet another case of Evil creatures doing Evil things in the flavor text. Mihstus will sometimes give information in exchange for interesting murder victims, so rakshasas, evil cloud giants, and other villanous Outsiders and extraplanar beings will sometimes team up with them.  Mongrelman (CR 1 Medum Monstrous Humanoid) Ah yes, the mongrelmen. Believe it or not, these guys were strangely popular back in the day. They first appeared in Zeb Cook's adventure Dwellers in the Forbidden City, which also gave us the yuan-ti and aboleth amongst other things, and then kept popping up in things like the Monstrous Compendium, Monstrous Manual, and even The Complete Book of Humanoids. Mongrelmen were outcast weirdos that resulted when a ton of different sapient species got down to loving and eventually created...these things. They even showed up briefly in the early 3.0 days of Third Edition thanks to the books Fiend Folio and Races of Destiny, and they were of course part of the Tome of Horrors otherwise they wouldn't be here. These days, though, I can't really think of anyone who nostalgically sighs and goes "man, remember the mongrelmen?" outside of a certain webcomic creator and Paizo. Mongrelmen in Pathfinder, like those that came before them, are weirdos that look like a patchwork of numerous races and live deep underground in order to avoid the numerous surface races that all shun them for being gross and ugly and maybe part of an enemy race even though they clearly look nothing at all like any single thing out there. While they live only around 35 years, mongrelmen are extremely hardy, hardworking, and docile, which makes many underground Evil races attracted to them as perfect slave labor. The mongrelmen almost never attempt to escape slavery, either, as they take a "this too shall pass" attitude to bondage. Mechanically, mongrelmen are extremely uninteresting as they have sound mimicry and nothing else to differentiate their stat block from any other number of hardy but uncharismatic Monstrous Humanoids. The Tome of Horrors actually provided a table of randomly rolled bonuses from a mongrelman's freaky features, and the only reason I can think of for excluding it in Pathfinder Bestiary 2 is someone freaking out that it would have broken the all-sacred one page per monster at max rule. Moonflower (CR 8 Huge Plant) A massive Audrey II-looking plant that is typically found in small clusters. While they are True Neutral rather than any flavor or Evil, moonflowers actively refuse to speak to those that can speak with plants, even Druids, but constantly telepathically broadcast mysterious signals to each other. Attempting to crash their weird telepath party results in one's mind receiving "an assault of horrible visions of terrifying junles filled with ancient, sentient, and malign plants". Plot hook or just a weird monster plant's way of punking eavesdroppers? You decide! The moonflower's big mechanic gimmick is that it has a special variant of Swallow Whole called Plant Prison. After swallowing someone, the moonflower pops them out as a large cocoon of vegetable matter that restricts movement and deals 2d6 bludgeoning and 2d6 acid damage per round and has a combo of 25 hit points and AC 15. If the creature inside the pod is size Small or larger and dies, 1d4 hours later a fully grown moonflower pops out thanks to the nourishment of pulped up flesh. Moonflowers can also trundle along at the speed of a halfling and release a 50 foot radius burst of light that forces a DC 20 Fortitude save to avoid 1d4 rounds of blindness. Mosquitos Few animals are as maligned and loathed as the mosquito: being loudly buzzing, blood-drinking (in the females, specifically), and potentially disease-carrying tends to do that. The giant mosquito (CR 6 Medium Vermin) ramps this up to an eleven by being a human-sized blood siphoning hellbeast that can murder a commoner in a round. Its 1d8 piercing damage bite attack simultaneously also deals 2d4 bleed damage, 1d2 Constitution of blood drain, a grab attack, and transmits malaria, which here is statted up as 1d3 Constitution and 1d3 Wisdom damage every day. These things are stated to naturally go after dinosaurs, dragons, and other particularly massive wildlife, but in civilized regions will lay waste to livestock and villagers. While they don't have full size range variants like some other giant invertebrates, there are two variants mentioned: the goblin mosquito (a giant mosquito with the Young Creature simple template) and the giant jungle mosquito (one with the Advanced Creature and Giant simple templates). Mosquito swarms (CR 3 Diminutive Vermin [Swarm]) have 2d6 swarm damage, 1d6 bleed damage, and malaria transmission, so just regular ol' mosquitos aren't necessarily pushovers either in the D&Dverse.  This art is from Pathfinder Presents: Mystery Monsters Revisited, not the Bestiary 2, but it seemed like a shame not to use it. Mothman (CR 6 Medium Monstrous Humanoid) When you think big name mystery monsters of the United States, you probably think of Bigfoot first, but for most Mothman probably isn't far behind. This frightful flying fiend supposedly menaced the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant during 1966 and 1967. While initial reports described it as a giant bird or a winged man – in both cases, the most striking feature was said to be glowing red eyes – pop culture evolution has turned it into a literal moth humanoid in a lot of depictions, and Pathfinder isn't the exception. The Chaotic Neutral mothmen here are just as mysterious as the supposed real life enigma, seeing themselves as agents of some mysterious higher fate that deliberately act out an unknowable agenda, often to catastrophic ends. What is the end goal? Who knows, it's possible that even the mothmen really know for sure. They can very easily veer wildly from a great ally to a terrible foe depending on what the circumstances at hand happen to be. The mothman has an array of natural spell-like abilities such as Detect Thoughts, Ghost Sound, Misdirection, Nightmare, Phantasmal Killer, and Project Image, but also has a unique spell-like ability called Agent of Fate. This is a 1/day special power that allows it to create any level 5 or lower spell of any sort as an SLA, but only so long as it is deemed to steer the flow of fate. Some specific examples given include using Rusting Grasp to weaken and destroy a structure that needed to cause a catastrophe (presumably referencing the Silver Bridge Collapse on December 15, 1967, after which the Mothman was supposedly never seen again) or cast Raise Dead to bring back someone with an important destiny. It also has a 30 foot gaze attack that forces a DC 18 Will save to avoid being shaken for 1d4 rounds; if you are already suffering from a fear effect, including the one this gaze attack brings, it instead deals 1d4 Wisdom damage. Mu Spore (CR 21 Colossal Plant) A monster from the Epic Level Handbook and thus the SRD, the mu spore is a rare, titanic, and extremely powerful plant 100 feet in length at the very least and coated in numerous tentacles that flail around its bloated gas-filled body. These massive fungal blimps only very seldomly venture forth from their cavern lairs to rain down death and consume all in their path. And when I say rain down death, I do mean rain it: every 1d4 rounds, they can send out an eruption of spores in a 100 foot cone that rip apart any non-plant in their path with 20d8 damage. Strangely enough, mu spores also have ridiculously high mental scores of 18 Intelligence, 28 Wisdom, and 29 Charisma, and since they are Chaotic Neutral they might actually be willing to discuss matters civilly and even share their huge ranks in Knowledge (Dungeoneering, Geography, and Nature) if you can figure out how to make first contact and convince them to stop being all apocalyptic and monstery. Next Time in Pathfinder Bestiary: We'll take a journey from N up to Q, with friends like the the qlippoth and old neh-thalggu.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2016 08:50
|
|
|
Drakyn posted:Paraworld, by chance? Ego Trip posted:The default player organization had a group of demon-fighting kung-fu bigfoots.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2016 03:17
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 23:23 |
|
|
Lynx Winters posted:David Pulver wrote the 2nd and 3rd edition BESM corebooks, so it's not exactly out of left field. He's also the author of GURPS Banestorm: Abydos, which is probably going to be going up after I finish the main GURPS Banestorm book due to it being one of the Yrth materials that actually has enough new stuff to it to discuss. I was also thinking of discussion GURPS Fantasy Adventures even though it's 3E rather than 4E, simply because one of the adventures is the somewhat cringey "Sahudese Fire Drill". Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jul 5, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2016 15:19
|
|