Lets Read Mythus pt 24

"On a lonely planet spinning its way to damnation amid the fear and despair of a lonely human race, who is left to fight for all that is good, pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver?"

A scholar of Mythus exegesis displaying best practise, yesterday

Such an introduction can only mean one thing: its time to continue the thankless self-inflicted swedge through the Advanced Mythus spell descriptions. Y U do this? In search of stuff that might be useful in games people actually play.

Today's main event is The Gygax Forgotten Classic, a flat race over pages 284-294 of the Dangerous Journeys: Mythus course.
Going: dull to middling.
Weather: overcast, dry.
Anticipated obstacles: opaque language, repetitive format, unintuitive mechanics, massive drinking.

Previously: Dweomercraeft (wizardin') and Priestcraeft (godbotherin').
Today: the filthy specialist matjickqkcks of Apotropaism, Astrology, etc.

As before, each grab bag of example castings covers Casting Grades I-V, with 3-5 example castings per level. Casting time is hidden away in the name of the spell, for which see LRM pt 23. Heka costs are as noted in LRM pt 22.

And with that: "Bog snorkels on gentlemen."

Apotropaism I

Abram's Safekeep Formula
Protects 1 small object from mundane damage (small fires, rot, being eaten by pests, etc.). Also makes it remarkably uninteresting to thieves or vandals, who have to make a DR "Hard" test vs. their Spiritual Metaphysical CATEGORY to notice it. Duration is 1 week/10 STEEP.
Semi-useful. Might steal. *gluk*

Iron Nails Charm
Enchants normal nails with warding aura.
Two crossed nails ward area against "...Netherrealm, malign nature and Evil creatures or beings..." (this particular recurring wordy mythus-ism will henceforth be denoted by the shorthand "[Team Evil]"). One nail can hold closed doors, windows and the like. Entering warded area or opening secured item requires DR "Hard" check vs. Mr Evil's Spirit TRAIT and causes 1d6+1 Physical damage.
Protection from evil with nice folkloric mechanic.

No Surprise Spell
Subject gains infallible spider sense to imminent danger for 5 minutes.
I honestly have nothing to say about this spell.

Protection from Fire Cantrip
Magickal smoke alarm, awakens from sleep if needs be. Thankfully only applies to uncontrolled fires. If subject is targeted by fire they gain a one-off +10 Avoidance bonus. Lasts 1 day/10 STEEP.
Semi-cool in a petty magic/cantrip way.

Safe Passage Ritual
Allows caster + 1 mate/10 STEEP to amble past natural hazards with ease (precarious pathways and aggressive animals are the cited examples).

Useful, if a bit "Screw your skills, I have Heka!" for my taste.

Apotropaism II

Harn's Hidden Passage Spell
Anyone within a 1-rod area centred on the caster vanishes from normal vision so long as they don't talk or do anything wildly conspicuous. True Sight casting and/or guard dogs negate. [Team Evil] have 1 DR penalty when attempting to target apotropaist using this casting, even if they spot him.
Quite cool. Not so much classic invisibility as a mobile "IGNORE ME!" field.

Protection from Deception Cantrip
Causes lies to sound grating to the ear. Criminal Activities, Mental and/or Deception are useless against this Casting, because phuq muggle skills. Visual deception like Sleight of Hand is not negated.
Detect Lie. Nothing more need be said.

Protection from Paralysis Charm
Grants Paralysis Resistance at 20% + 1/10th caster's STEEP + 1% per Heka spent. Test against DR "Moderate"(x2) in most cases. So, if you boost Resistance to even 50% only an Autofail on your roll = "Gak! I cannot move!" And this is another reason I hate Mythus' screwy take on d% mechanics.

Warning Alert Formula
Causes tinkling sound and silver glow to limn any [Team Evil] or hostiles who enter a 1-rod radius/10 STEEP centred on the caster or any point he designates.
Detect evil with a side order of detect hostility. S'ok I suppose.

Apotropaism III

Alchindus Sigil Formula
One shot anti-evil claymore. Causes 2d6+2 Spirit damage to the first [Team Evil], thief or desecrator to come within 1 ft/10 STEEP of the sigil.
No ruling on whether the sigil has to be in plain sight, whether it can be hidden away, or what.
Another guards and wards effect, though Unearthed Arcana's sepia snake sigil was cooler.

Eviltracks Agony Charm
Hammer nails into a hand-/footprint left by a [Team Evil] member to cause them 2d6+2 Physical damage (ignores armour). One nail per print. Other castings can enhance the damage inflicted or pin the bad guy in place.
Tin-eared name aside this spell is semi-cool. I remember a cheesy horror film (Warlock?) that used this gimmick to good effect. So bonus points for folkloric precedent.

Full Consecration Ritual
Wards a 1-rod radius against [Team Evil] for 5 minutes/STEEP. Malign gribbler with a Spirit TRAIT < the caster's STEEP shun the area. More powerful creatures can enter warded area, but take 2d6+2 Spirit damage.
Another variation of the protection from evil spell, as previously mythusized by Priestcraeft castings. Nowt to write home about in a game where Spirit = 6x(3d6) or so.

Unseen Sentinel
Forces a minor spirit to guard a 1 chain diameter area for 5 mins/STEEP. Spirit can only warn those who enter the area, and alert caster of intrusions.
So, an alarm system. *meh* We have these things called dogs...

Apotropaism IV

Invisibility to Undead
Does exactly what it says on the tin: da undead no can see you.
Unliving creatures (WT-? *gluk gluk*) are less affected. They can spot you and your delicious brainmeat/blood/lifeforce with 100% - apotropaist's STEEP vs DR "Hard".
Again with the non-intuitive probabilities Mythus? Seriously, FRO!

Protection from Drowning Cantrip
Magic life vest lasting 1 day/10 STEEP. Causes you to bob about in water, mud, quicksand, etc. If held under you do into suspended animation until a breath can be drawn.
S'alright. Might be worth a level 1 spell slot in a Classic game.
Usable content? Consume! *gluk gluk*

Protection from Fear Spell
Negates fear from any source. ANY source. The description is very specific about this:

Synonym abuse? Oh my yes. *gluk gluk*

Don't see what's inherently magical about negating fear, trepidation and apprehension; where I come from we have a wonder substance called 'alkyhol' with similar effects.
Reason Advanced Mythus Sucks #1,593: the game lacks any dutch courage and/or medicinal booze healing rules.

Apotropaism V

Abjure Spell
No, doesn't allow you to become an oathbreaker with impunity. Actually causes 5d3 each of P, M and S damage unless to anyone in the 1 foot diam./STEEP area of effect who doesn't truthfully announce their membership in [Team Evil].
No idea what's going on here. Some sort of "confess your crimes!" *slap, slap* thing going on?

Chant of Guarding Cantrip
Negates Heka-powered compulsion (Attacks to Control, -to Influence, etc) around the caster for 5 mins per 10 STEEP. Mundane forms of persuasion still work.
Alright counterspell to all the 'boogly-boogly, you must obey me' mechanics scattered hither and yon in Gradgrind's Piffledross. Dunno if I'd use it in a Classic game though.

Protection from Curses Spell
Negates the first Curse inflicted by [Team Evil] on subject. Max Casting Grade negated = caster's grade in Apotropaism.
Kinda handy. Might be adaptable to a Classic D&D game if your evil types use a lot of curses.

Astrology I

Astromancy Spell
Three paragraphs of 'goes nowhere fast' waffle wrapped around another uninspired 'clue me' spell. The caster has to reveal their plan to the GM, who determines likelihood of success based on a bunch of ass-pulled criteria and DRs.
Screw that! Dice for it.
This spell is bad, and those involved should feel bad. It is classic "How not to..." material.

Influence of Scorpio Spell
Detect precious metals in 1 rod/10 STEEP diam. General direction only, no clue as to relative values of detected loot.
Stealable. *gluk gluk*

Know Disposition Cantrip
Know alignment + detect reaction. Can be blocked by Castings or - probably - sheet lead.
Dull, and no mention of whether it is socially acceptable to *ping* people with such an intrusive spell.

Minor Horoscope Formula
Another vague-to-uselessness 'clue me' spell. Allows the GM to foreshadow coming events within a 1 week horizon. He can do this anyway, coz he's the GM!

Star Chart Place Formula
Psychometry on a place.
Affects 1 chain dia./10 STEEP. Caster picks up general impressions about things that happened in the location. Can be performed remotely at unspecified DR penalties.
Similar to the old AD&D psionic ability. May be of interest to others.

Astrology II

Best Time Formula
Cast the auspices for the most opportune time to do a thing. Can result in DR modification in your favour. So, time-constrained free Joss (Mythus probability-shifting Fate Points).
Thematically appropriate, but a bit bland as written.

Influence of Venus Cantrip
Short duration charm person effect which causes the target to become "...temporarily enamoured of the astrologer or another of the opposite sex..." Allows caster to manipulate target per the Magnetism K/S Area. Bit creepy in the date-rapey implication that "...the target will only vaguely recall the Influence of Venus Effect, and what transpired when it was active."
Erm, no.

Influence of Virgo Ritual
Grants a 20 point STEEP boost to a not-Astrology K/S area for 2 hours + 1hr/10 STEEP. Requires the subject to be within spitting distance of scholarly books or a living expert in the subject. On a Special Success 1d3 STEEP are retained permanently.
Free skill points. Why would you not cast this exploit as often as possible?

Star Chart Item Spell
Psychometry on an object. Success as DR "Moderate" Astrology checks grants impressions about the creator, how the object has been used, etc. Max checks: 1/10 STEEP. Failure = no meaningful impressions. Fumble = no impressions from this item ever.
More specific than the area psychometry casting above. May be semi-useful if you like that sort of thing.

Astrology III

Ascendant Cantrip
Allows the caster to have two Influence of castings active at once, rather than the normal restriction of one at a time only. Both expire when the shortest duration is up.
Meta-magic effect. Utility outside Mythus - limited.

Influence of Cancer Formula
Doubles healing rates for 1 day/10 STEEP. Negates Shock, soothes fear, and suppresses the desire to self-harm.
Handy long-term 'peaceful healing' effect. Might be useful for NPC hospitallers and general down-time healing in your game. *gluk*

Influence of Mars Spell
Grants 10 Physical Attribute points and +10 STEEP to one Combat K/S Area for 5 mins/10 STEEP. Special Success = 20% chance permanent +1 to a Physical Attribute, 80% chance +1 to Combat K/S Area.
Another 'spam this daily for great justice!' casting. Why spend hard-earned Accomplishment Points (Mythus XP) when you can just set easy-to-renew Heka on fire?

Know Truth Charm
Causes people to blow glue, sorry, glow blue in a 1 rod/10 STEEP diameter. A person's glow will turn black if they lie.
Area effect detect lie with nice FX. B+, would use. *gluk*

Astrology IV

Influence of Mercury Spell
Doesn't cause Mad Hatter-ish behaviour. Instead amps Mental Mnemonic Power (Int.) by +10 to a maximum of 40 for 5 mins/10 STEEP. No chance of permanent increase.
I'm not sure how/if modifying one's stats in Advanced Mythus modifies K/S Areas. I'll leave the full implication of such a cascading nightmare of char sheet adjustment to the reader... *shudder*

Influence of the Moon Cantrip
Creates a 1 rod radius/10 STEEP cloud of sleep mist. Eveyone in the area has to make a DR "Easy" test vs. Spiritual Psychic Capacity or spark out for 1AT/10 STEEP of the caster.
A non-HD-capped, area effect version of the classic D&D "You Win" button.

Kayyam's Wisdom Ritual
Has up to 4 effects, each of which takes 5 minutes to invoke.

1. caster renders himself immune to drugs which would impair Phys, Mental or Spirit.
2. caster can detect lies flawlessly.
3. caster can take ectoplasmic form.
4. caster can grant a Spirit bonus to 1 person/10 STEEP equal to 1/10th the Caster's Astrology which acts as Spirit armour. The caster gains a pool of bonus Heka = twice the Spirit points bestowed.

All this lasts for AT = caster's STEEP.
Medium-term buffing spell with an odd 'spooky spy form' side. No idea how this got past the Interesting Police. Possibly folkloric origin?

Astrology V

Aetherscan Cantrip
Caster is able to detect Aethereal creatures or Aethereal-influenced Heka for 1 AT/10 STEEP. Theycan also detect illusions as such with a DR "Hard" Astrology check.
Combined detect ethereal+illusions; might have some utility for an old school game.

Arago's Influence of the Sun Cantrip
Caster becomes a solar system. No, really. He radiates bright light in 1 rod diameter/10 STEEP and has small glowing planets orbit him. This bizarre effect causes 5d3 Physical damage per CT to all Undead and light sensitive creatures. Creatures not used to light are dazzled for 1d3+5 rounds after the effect ends.
I kinda like this as a replacement for things like sunray or daylight. The "Yes, in Mythus the universe really does revolve around the caster" factor is beyond parody though. *gluk* for several reasons then.

Influence of Gemini Spell
Magic walkie-talkie. Allows 1-way communication only. Duration: 30 seconds/10 STEEP, range: 1 league/10 STEEP. Can be intercepted by Castings or Telepathy.
Pretty *meh* variation on the various sending and message spells probably already present in your preferred game. Pass.

Mysticism I

Enough! I can take no more. Page 289 and the sheer drudgery of this tosh is forcing me to tap out.

"Screw you!" said my poor, suffering skullmeats "I didn't sign up for this sort of abuse."

Ye gods, is there anything more tedious to read in an RPG than spell/power descriptions, especially low-level ones? If there is, I can't think of it. Page after page of minor modifiers or petty exceptions to this/that/t'other rule. I know you need rules for spells -- otherwise it all degenerates into some sort of degenerate Forge-inflected Magic Tea Party (like Everway), and nobody wants that -- but there's simply no excuse for making the mystery and wonder of magic so. damn. boring.

Long story short: the Advanced Mythus castings are banal systematisation of the fantastic at its very, very worst. To paraphrase an old saw: "Magic system? There's no magic in it!"

Next Time: It all goes a bit bell-bottomed and patchouli-scented when we finally look at sample Herbalism and Mysticism castings. On the bright side: artwork by Gelon and Mitchell.

Pic Source: Dangerous Journeys: Mythus rulebook, the environmental graffiti website, teh intawubz

Lets Read Mythus pt 23

This week in Let's Read the Garynomicon we'll look at the sample Dweomercraeft (wizardin') and Priestcraeft (godbotherin') Castings on offer to players who foolishly assumed that Dangerous Journeys: Mythus was a complete game in itself.

Reading scores of Mythus spells castings descriptions: it'll do that to ya.

For those playing along at home we're starting on page 278 of the big brown book. Expect the usual acronyms, neologisms, and wordiness, and - for this week only - the introduction of an additional rule: drink once each time you've seen this somewhere before.


Sample Castings
Casting Grades (aka Spell Level in D&D-ese) I-V, 3-5 example castings per level.

Casting time is included in the name of the spell. This wouldn't be so annoying except that the text explaining required casting time isn't even listed in this chapter. The casting times are all the way back in the Mythus Prime section on p22! "Put magickal casting times in the magic chapter? Oh what a card you are my lad..." For the record:

Mythus Casting Times
Eyebite - instantaneous
Charm - 1 CT (3 seconds)
Cantrip - 5 CT
Spell - 1 BT (30 seconds)
Formula - 5 BT
Ritual - 1+ AT (5 minutes)

Oh, and the E/F/M notation that precedes the descriptive text of each spell. If you check Mythus Magick you discover it means "Effect, Force, Material". So "spell effect" in any game that got edited to make sense to the people of Earth.

Dweomercraeft I

Armor, Physical Cantrip
Anti-kinetic energy effect. Useless against Mental or Spirit attacks.
Costs the base 20 Heka + 1 per point of protection desired to to a max = Caster's Mental TRAIT. Lasts 50 minutes, or until destroyed.
Basically a fiddly combination of the D&D spells mage armour and stoneskin. Sucks.

Detect Heka Spell
*ping* presence, type, source and strength of Heka in a 1 Rod radius.
Detect magic, innit.

Reflections Spell
Basic scrying spell. Requires a reflective surface.
Spy on someone for 5 mins per 10 STEEP.
Difficulty depends on how far away they are and how well you know them.
Lead, stone and various dweomers block your tele-perving.

Trigger Effect Formula
Creates trigger for other magical effects. Used in conjunction with another casting. Description is gobbledegook.

"Whaaaa-?"

Remember the nightmare of nested effects that was 3E contingency? All that for 20 Heka. *shudder*

Wickaflame Charm
Spark 1 or more small non-magical flames in existing tinder. Range is 1 Rod per 10 STEEP.
Probably meant to be a "wave hands, lamps light" spell; actually an arsonist's charter.

Dweomercraeft II

Armor, Mental Cantrip
Anti-brainfondling defence.
35 Heka + 1 per point of Mental defence. Max = Mental TRAIT if caster is Full Practitioner Master Race, MRCap if Partial Practitioner Untermensch.
Otherwise as Armour, Physical Cantrip above.

Forcedart Charm
Creates a single "dart-sized missile of golden energy".
Dart does 2d6+1 per 10 STEEP Physical Impact damage at a range of up to 1 chain per 10 STEEP.
Hits unerringly, ignores physical armour. Muggles cri moar plz.
A magical missile you say? How unprecedented.

Heka Trap Spell
Magic landmine on on object that endures until triggered.
Say the wizard's chosen safe word or take damage = 3d6(+caster's MRCap+any extra he buys at 1:1 Heka). Damage is any non-continuing type.
Boring "gotcha!" version of a guards and wards effect.

Ritual of the Heart Ritual
Expend a week, Heka equal to 2xSpirit TRAIT and make a DR "Hard" Dweomercraeft roll to bind a 'mascot' or totem item.
Why would you want to do this? Refer to Mythus Magick for more.
This casting is one you may find familiar (pun intended, for once).

Dweomercraeft III

Armor, Spiritual Casting
50 Heka +1 per point of Spirit defence.
Doesn't prevent attempts to forge Spiritual Links, just grants ablative soul padding.
Otherwise as Armor, Mental casting.

Avoid Heka Attack Ritual
Grants an Avoidance roll (aka Saving Throw) against any one Heka-powered effect.
Base chance to avoid is the average of your Physical Speed scores + 10% of you STEEP in the skill used to create the effect. This chanced is then modified by arbitrary GM-fiat difficulty levels.
Don't waste your Heka.

Heka Darts Charm
Creates multiple darts (1 per 10 STEEP), each doing 1d6+2 Physical Piercing damage at a range of 1 yard/STEEP. Darts Strike unerringly and ignore physical armour.
Several magical missiles, eh? The innovation! It burns!!!

Implant Spell
Photographic memory of written text for 24 hours. Caster can duplicate anything memorized for the duration of the casting.
Semi-interesting, I might use that in a Classic game. Actual usefulness, is that you? *gluk gluk*

Dweomercraeft IV

Armor, Heka Cantrip
75 Heka +1 per point of anti-Heka armour.
Otherwise as Armor, Mental Casting.

Barrier Formula
Magical electric fence in 1 foot radius/STEEP.
Lasts 5 minutes per STEEP +5 mins per Heka spent.
Barrier causes 1d3+1 damage to any creature touching it. Physical beings take Physical damage, otherworldly beings and ghosts take Mental or Spirit damage.
A creature damaged must save or, sorry, wrong game make a DR "Hard" check against its PNPow (or MRPow, or SSPow *gluk gluk*): success = pass through barrier taking an additional 1d6+1 damage, fail = recoil.
Successive tests to push through the barrier are at DR "Moderate" for 2nd attempt, "Easy" for the 3rd.
Non-absolute protection from evil spell. May be of interest for your Classic game if you dislike the existing spell.

Mask Heka Spell
Renders the Heka aura of an object or area undetectable.
Up to 1 rod diameter per 10 STEEP. Permanent until dispelled.
Masking an area from Supernatural and Entital Heka requires additional castings.

Dweomercraeft V

Cloud of Magick Spell
Heka smoke bomb.
Lasts 5 minutes per 10 STEEP and makes everything in a 1 foot diameter per STEEP *ping* equally when detected for Heka.

Heka Bolt Charm
Straight line burst of Heka hitting every target in a line out to 1 furlong.
Does 5d6 Physical Piercing damage +1d6 per 10 Heka to a maximum of 10d6.
Hits unerringly. Ignores physical armour.
Wizard HAET queueing!

Invisible Alert Formula
Creates an alarm bubble up to STEEP feet in diameter.
Lasts 1 AT per STEEP + 1 AT per Heka spent.
Any physical thing ("...including gaseous liquid...") entering this zone of misanthropy alerts caster to "...direction of passage, point of breach, and who or what passed into or out of the sphere."
Might be useful for paranoid sleeping wizard, except: nocturnal animals exist, that is all.

Priestcraeft, General
Rites and rituals which affect only those who follow a particular ethos (white hat, black hat, one of Mythus' three shades of ambiguous hat), pantheon or religion.

Priestcraeft General I
Rites Ritual
Seven quasi-sacramental rites:

• Birth
• Death
• Marriage
• Separation/Divorce
• Acceptance of Ethos, Pantheon and Deity
• Service
• Penitence

Regular participation in these rites is required to keep in good standing with one's religion.
Basically the clerical ceremony spell from Unearthed Arcana.

Priestcraeft General II
Blessing, Minor, Spell
One-off +/-5 bonus to next die roll.
May only be cast on person who follows the same pantheon.
Yeah, the bless spell for a percentile system. It's even reversible.

Priestcraeft General III
Consecration Formula
Hallows a sacramental object or area so that any sacrilegious action or profane touch causes 1d3 Spirit damage to anyone not of the ethos. Damage from multiple acts of desecration stack.
A direct damage equivalent to the d20 SRD hallow spell?

Priestcraeft General IV
Blessing, Major Ritual
Negates opposing curses resulting from Grade I or II Castings, or grants +/-10 bonus to one die roll. Can also be used for non-mechanical social effect (blessing crops, animals, ships, etc.) if you want to burn Heka for the sake of seeing the peasants smile.
Additional subjects can be blessed in the face for 5 Heka each.

Priestcraeft General V
Guidance Spell
Allows the caster to bother Upstairs for advice, or to give good counsel to others in accordance with the tenets of their ethos, pantheon and religion. Anyone following the advice enjoys the benefit of the Blessing, Minor Casting.
A classic 'clue me' spell, with a minor mechanical benefit. Is a clue worth +65 Heka to you?

Priestcraft, Basic
Common spells. Less 'pastoral care' than General Castings.

Priestcraeft Basic I

Lightsee Charm
Causes 1 object per 10 STEEP to glow like a candle for 5 minutes per STEEP.
Renders books readable, dark passages navigable, etc.
Light is visible from 100 yards in darkness.
A less torch-negating light spell.

Prayer Cantrip
Increases the STEEP of one of the caster's K/S Areas by 10 for about 2 minutes.
Can be used to enhance caster's own Priestcraeft K/S for cheesy synergy shenanigans.
Half the Casting description is spent advising the GM to punish uses of this spell which are contrary to the ethos of the caster.
Interesting meta-magic effect, not sure if it would be back compatible to Classic games.

Produce Meal Ritual
Produces one typical priest's meal (as appropriate for the religion) per 10 STEEP.
So: 20 Heka/day, no expenditure on rations.

Pronouncement Spell
Caster spends 1 Battle Turn (30 seconds) pulling rank and proclaiming [preferred flavour of god] is on our side. The player is required to state exactly how 'we're right, they're wrong' today.
All within 1 chain radius enjoy/suffer a half-strength version of the DR modification granted by Joss in their support/opposition to the stated fact.
An actual worked example would have been helpful here.
Pronouncement can also compel agreement and obedience from any co-religionist with a lower STEEP than the caster. This lasts 1 AT per STEEP.
A supercharged version of command affecting a 40yd diameter? Not bad for 20 Heka.

Smokecloud Formula
Generates stable, non-moving incense smoke (complete with caster-selected scent) in 1 foot radius per STEEP.
The smoke lasts 1 AT per 10 STEEP and reduces visibility to 6 feet.
Fog cloud, sponsored by AirWick?

Priestcraeft Basic II

Healing, Minor Formula
Restores Physical damage: 2d3 damage per 10 STEEP of the caster.
Touch range, instantaneous effect.
CLW. That is all.

Heal Mental Damage Ritual
Restores Mental damage to someone other than the caster: 1d6 damage per 10 STEEP of the caster.
Touch range, instantaneous effect.

Meditate Spell
Allows meditating casters in a 1 square rod/10 STEEP area to gain the benefits of an hour of meditation in 5 minutes.
D&D4E style short rests: done first by EGG.

Rightcourse Cantrip
Divinatory casting which indicates whether a given course of action will result in transgressions against the ethos of the caster.
No idea why this has an area of effect, duration and range.
Spend 35 Heka to play "Mother may I" as an in-game effect? Not to all tastes. Pass.

Priestcraeft Basic III

Bounds of Action Charm
Restricts a physical target to a 1 rod radius area centred on their current location for 1AT per 10 STEEP.
There's a paragraph of rules about breaking free of this effect, but its limited to characters with a PMPow (aka Str) of 30+.
This is an interesting, pulpy variation on the old standby of hold person.

Enhance Spiritual Power Formula
Boosts the caster's Spiritual Mental Power and Spiritual Psychic Power to the maximum Capacity possible for each Attribute for a duration of 1AT/10 STEEP.
If no increase is possible then both Attributes are enhanced by +1 each instead.
Resembles nothing so much as the stat enhancing spells of the SRD.

Enlightenment Ritual
The player gets to ask the GM one "Yes/No" question about past events or contemplated activites, which must be answered truthfully.
Another "clue me" spell, one with echoes of the contact other plane Classic D&D spell.

Heka Defences Cantrip
Grants the target 1d6(+caster's SMCap if a Full Practitioner, SMPow only is Partial Practitioner) protection which wards against all damage types.
Otherwise similar to the Physical, Mental or Spirit Armor cantrips.

Priestcraeft Basic IV

Protection from Lightnings Spell
Generates a magical Faraday cage of 1 yard diameter/10 STEEP centred on the caster.
The spell dissipates _dice_ of electrical damage equal to the caster's STEEP (1/2 STEEP if a Partial Practitioner).
A nice counter-balance to the hair-raising (no pun intended) power of electricity in Advanced Mythus.

Sanctification Ritual
Can either double the damage inflicted by the Consecration Formula (above), or can be used to enhance a single consecrated object (for example, the priest's holy symbol). For each 100 Heka expended the sanctified object will cause 1d3 Mental and Spiritual damage on sight, 2d3 Physical damage upon touch, to any being of an opposed ethos within a 1 rod radius.
An interesting variation on clerical turning. Probably a bit number-crunchy for players of Classic games though.

Wound, Spiritual Charm
Causes Spirit damage of 1d6(+1d6 per 10 extra Heka, max added dice = 1/10th caster's STEEP) to one target within yards = STEEP.

Priestcraeft Basic V

Heal the Soul Spell
Heals Spirit damage: 1d6 per 10 STEEP (1d3 per 10 STEEP if Partial Practitioner).
The target must be of the same ethos as the caster.

Thunderbolt Cantrip
Calls a lightning bolt from the blue within 1 yard/STEEP.
This causes 5d3(x1d6 Exposure roll) Electrical Physical damage to the primary target and 3d3(x1d3) to all subjects within a 1 rod radius.
The accompanying thunder startles all creatures with a Mental Reasoning Power (aka Intelligence) of 10 or less; startled creatures run in panic for 1d3 Critical Turns (or stampede if animals).
A numerically fiddly version of D&D's call lightning spell with a nice panic!!! fillip.

Word of Command Charm
Causes 1 subject(+1/10 STEEP) within earshot to obey a single word command for the next CT.
This is the Classic D&D command spell, right down to the proviso that "Die!" results in auditors only appearing dead for one round CT.

-----

If you're at all familiar with any of the spell lists from Classic D&D your deja vu will be going nuts by now (feel free to drink until it abates). The Castings on offer indicate a typically Gygaxian folkloric implied setting; one where wizards lurk over scrying pools, sling various sizes and shades of burning arcane arrow, and leave cursed objects lying around, while priests alternately bless their flock and call high-amperage arcs from the sky onto the heads of the unbelievers, etc.

Some of the spell variations from the more familiar D&D norms are interesting (and the similarities are certainly not worth a lawsuit); it's just a shame the spell names are so, soooooooooooo tin-eared. Seriously, "Ritual of the Heart Ritual" is only the stand out offender in a full and busy field: "Summon Familiar" is quicker to say, conveys more information, and doesn't repeat itself in an awkward Dept of Redundancy Dept way. Once again Advanced Mythus reminds us that editing is not optional.

In the Small Mercies column of the ledger: at least the bad joke that was material components didn't make it into Advanced Mythus.

Next Time: Apotropaism, Astrology, Herbalism and Mysticism Castings.

Pic Source: teh intawubz

Lets Read Mythus pt22

Today's subject for dissection in the ongoing Let's Read Mythus debacle is Chapter 13: Heka and Magick. Please be warned that this post may contain higher than recommended levels of gibberish and is likely to induce second-hand outbreaks of:

The customary rules apply, with an additional fillip that one should also drink every time the reader is prompted to "buy our other book for full details of this". Because nothing builds bonhomie like a naked cash-grab.


Heka and Magick is a self-confessed crippleware chapter comprising pp276-294 of the Dangly Jibblets: Minkdust rulebook. The introductory paragraph admits that the Castings which follow are no more than "...a sample listing of basic Castings, sufficient to get your campaign off the ground." Where can you get the full skinny on casting in Mythus? Well, if you said in the Mythus Magick book (sold separately), then reward yourself with a drink.

So what do we actually get for our money? Two pages of poorly cross-referenced rules/notes text and a bunch of what anyone not being trollsued out of the industry by Lorraine Williams would just call 'spell descriptions'. Oh, and a new page header: a still life of a squished wizard amid the paraphernalia of his trade.

Insert your own "Caryatid squashed by the weight of verbiage" gag here

After a paragraph of shilling for the patch to this broke-ass 400-pages of half-a-game we jump straight into the subject of Heka (pron. HEE-ka). Two paragraphs rehash what we've already been told about half-a-dozen times now: that Heka works like magic electricity; that 'impure' versions of Heka -- variously called Baraka, Orgone or Mana (Mmmmm, thesaurus abuse! *gluk*) -- exist in worlds not as dominated by the Pure Spellcaster Master Race as is Aerth; that even unintelligent creatures can use Heka instinctively; and that Pure Heka is of three sorts: Positive (from the higher places and spheres), Negative (from the Other Place), and Mixed.

Yeah. So far this feels like what it is: a précis of something longer, more involved, and baroquely over-complicated.

Next up: Demographics of Heka. A paragraph spent explaining the prevelance of Heka-slingers in the populace. The figures boil down to 1-in-100 for people able to cast at all, with various sub-breakdowns for who can use what type of Heka; who draws their Heka from one, two or three Attributes; and who gets to be a touched-by-the-dice-gods Full Caster. This is dull stuff and probably billonga setting book, not rules chapter. A more practical use for this section would have been putting the bloody shifty, elusive rules for determining Full Caster-ness here.

Next is half-a-column on Types and Sources of Heka Energy, which starts with a seemingly unrelated paragraph about the nine Grades of Casting Power, and an aside that certain special Grade X castings exist and that these are on a par with Supernatural Castings of Grade I. Nope, not a clue. If you want to know more: cough up for Mythus Magick.

There's also a rehash of the three types of Heka (Preturnatural, Supernatural and Entital), which are entirely different from the three types introduced above. If you recall from way-back-when in LRM pt3 Supernatural and Entital are 1:10 and 1:100 Mega-Damage Heka.

And finally a list of things you can squeeze for Heka in the Mythus universe:

Sources 1-5 are pretty much what you'd expect: push button, recieve mana. But source 6 "Entital vegetable substances" confuses the bejaysus out of me. WTH is an Entital vegetable? Some form of otherworldly arcanocabbage? The freshly-peeled god-corpse of Nazi-fighting root veg Dr Carrot? No clue given. Oh look, they do give us a helpful clue as to which book to refer to...

After that particular unintended Mythusian mindscrew we're off again to half a page + a couple of big-ass tables regarding Heka from K/S Areas. This begins with the word "Imprimus" and goes downhill from there with a load of waffle on who can generate Heka from where, how fast, how much, and from which skills. Most of this is semi-familiar from other chapters, but I lack the will (or remaining SAN) to check if there are contradictions between blocks of text.

One thing that jumps out is a table that would have been useful, oh say, back in the damn skills chapter! To whit:

Idiot-savant version of a unified Heka Skills table I ranted about back here.

Now, so far as it goes that is a not-entirely-useless table. At least now -- nigh-on 180 pages after it might have first come in handy -- a player can see at a glance which K/S Areas grant Heka, how much and from what character stats. That might almost be called useful, at least for the purpose of buzz maintenance. *gluk*

And then you realise that thick block of text over there on the right is footnotes.

Yes, the true horror of this brute of a table only really bursts forth when you start digging into the notes. Most of the them either waffle on where a single terse sentence would suffice, or outright re-iterate things we were told back in the relevant skill descriptions. In the latter case "See description, pXXX" is perfectly sufficient.

Call me a grouchy infographics snob, but a case could be made that if footnotes take up more space than the table they accompany, then the way you are attempting to present your information is objectively not right. A first draft is supposed to look like a sharp-cornered, burr-edged, over-complex mess; a professionally designed tool for use in play is not.

A final squeezed-in section on Regenerating Personal Heka tells you how much Heka you get back per hour per skill from your K/S Areas, and also how much you gain back from Attributes, Categories and Traits. It is four paragraphs of word salad that looks like English at first glance only. The accompanying table is especially sad-making.

"Prithee good sir. Art thou shittin' me?!"

"Nay sir, I be not. Now draw forth thy slide-rule and get thee to reckoning."

Yes, excellent. No foreseeable problems with player rebellion here. An excellent response to the oft-heard lament that the AD&D Psionics rules were insufficiently fiddly.

And that's your lot on the subtle wonders and intricacies of Heka and Magick in Mythus.

Oh, wait. You want the mechanics for actually using Castings in play? In the Heka and Magick chapter? How precious. How quaint. Those are way back in the earlier Combat chapter, on p218. Which in turn requires reference to the Core Game Systems (chapter 11) and the K/S Area descriptions in chapter 10.

Hope you enjoy the delicious breezes kicked up by repeated thumbing through big fat books, coz you're going to be doing a lot of that. There's not even a single appearance of That Damn Table in the one place where it might have actually have been of some utility. Useless!

Sample Castings
After the seemingly unedited logorrhoeaic HØRF! that opened the chapter we turn with -- probably misplaced -- relief to the spell Casting descriptions which comprise pp278-294 of this slithey tome.

Sample Castings of levels I-V (Roman numeras as original) are given for the schools of Dweomercraft (wizarding), Priestcraeft (clericing), Apotropaism, Astronomy, Herbalism, and Mysticism, at a rate of several per level, which is nice.

"But Chris, you gormless knock-kneed bogmonkey," I hear you cry "Where are all the other types of magickqkck which the many, many K/S Areas of Mythus use? I count a mere six lists there."

Why yes, gentle reader. Although puffing itself as a game that presents nine, sorry, IX levels of magic in nigh-on a score of schools and traditions, the core Mythus book presents only samples of six schools, and only up to level V. As for the rest, they are found in a lost tome of eldritch lore entitled... yes, I think you can see where this is going... *gluk*

Although the vastly superior Imperial measures are used in all instances (I kid you not, there are ranges given in rods, chains and leagues in there!), there are a couple of gross procedural niggles even before getting into individual spell descriptions. The unexplained acronyms are annoying ("WTF is E/F/M? Any corresponding entry in the Glossary? Of course not!), and repeated inclusion of BHC (Base Heka Cost) that remain constant across all schools and levels but are not integrated into a single simple table is just an offence against good design.

Base Heka Cost -- Casting Grade

20 -- I

35 -- II

50 -- III

75 -- IV

100 -- V

That there: not flippin' rocket surgery!

Get past the Mythusisms of the layout and descriptions, and many of the Castings will look familiar to role-playing veterans, albeit with any sense of wonder and magic pummelled out of them by a leaden prose style. For example:

"Zzzzzzzzz."

Next Time: We grind the individual Casting descriptions for anything that might actually be of use in a Classic D&D game. It will be as glorious, life-affirming and full of colourful pageantry as Passchendaele. Oh, wait. That's not what I meant at all...

Pic Sources: the Dangerous Journeys: Mythus rulebook, the hark a vagrant webcomic, teh intawubz.

Truly Random Charges for Magic Items

Just a thought. Rather than generating the number of charges remaining when a wand (/rod/stave/misc. charged item) is discovered in play instead:

Pick (or roll) a number between 1 and 20.
Each time the wand is used, roll a d20.
If the number matches the pre-selected one, the wand is out of charges.

• If the wand was a looted object and/or previously used against the party by someone else, pick 2 numbers.  {reflecting depletion through use, duh.}
• If the wand was crafted by the wizard him/herself: pick 1 number, roll d30 when used.  {This incentivises crafting by PC wizards, and reflects a maker's mastery of his own creation. "I know every nut and bolt and cog; I built it with my own hands!"}

Why bother with this rules wrinkle rather than "xd10 charges"?

Because - contrary to what contemporary D&D orthodoxy would have you think* - magic is chaotic, unpredictable and will probably let you down at exactly the worst possible moment. This variant models the uncertainty of a world without fuel gauges on magic items.

In addition, it's engaging in play: every time a wand is used there's a chance (rolled by the user, no less!) that it blows a fuse and reverts from throbbing arcane phallic extension to useless decorative back-scratcher.

* Post-scarcity D&D? *pshaw* There's no way a plan that goes "bind the power of Kaos to bootstrap an industrial revolution" ever ends well.

Hat-tip: Zak S for Lucky Number Kung-Fu.

Bonus Factoid: According to the magic items chapter of the One True DMG (AD&D1E) there's a 1% that any wand discovered is rigged to 'backfire' when used. Whether this is due to malignancy on the part of the creators, or the innate perversity of magic, or just down to thaumic decay over time, is undisclosed. And quite what 'backfire' entails is left for the GM to determine. (cue evil laughter)

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Unrelated: Oh look. A DNDClassics pdf purchase site. Looks like WOTC decided to do the blindingly obvious after four years of fighting the tide. What was that line about even a stopped clock being right twice a day?

Mastering Forbidden Lore

As far as I recall the process of wizards forcing new forms of blasphemous eldritch lore into their bulbous craniums is almost completely handwaved in B/X-ish D&D. Fine by me; that just leaves all the more room for personal tinkering.

A wizard, yesterday

Here's my personal take on larnificatin' new spells, a sub-system more than a little influenced by the casting rules from good old "Chainmail".

Spell Mastery
Binding the power of Chaos to your will in new and interesting ways is a non-trivial endeavour. When a wizard discovers a new spell (on a scroll, in a spell book, graven into an arcane crystal, w/e) he must attempt to master it through successive castings.

Every time the wizard casts a spell he has memorized but not yet mastered, roll the following:

2d6 +Level +Int mod –Spell Lvl vs. TN 12

• Pass = Spell Mastered - spell takes effect. Wizard cackles like an agitated hen coop.
• Fail, roll 7+ = Partial Mastery - spell takes effect, caster enjoys cumulative +1 bonus to future mastery rolls for this spell. Wizard gloats.
• Fail, roll 3-6 = Not Mastered - spell fizzles. Wizard snarls and kicks handy apprentice/familiar/peon.
• Snake Eyes = "Oops!" - spell backfires horribly. Roll on your preferred spell misfire table.

Mastery rolls have an automatic +1 bonus if the wizard has already mastered a spell with a thematically related effect (suggestion, charm person/monster, dominate, etc.)

Degrees of mastery achieved over known spells should be noted in the player's grimoire:

[ ] = Not Mastered, [/] = Partial Mastery, [X] = Spell Mastered. 

Accumulated Partial Mastery bonuses can be represented with multiple slashes, thus: [///] = +3 bonus to mastery rolls for that spell.

Once a spell has been cranium-wrestled into submission a wizard can memorise and cast it per the normal rules.

Additional Wrinkles to the Rule

First level wizards start with mastery of their known spells (IMG: 1d6+Int mod of the spells from the starting list). This rules given above apply only to attempts to extend their mastery of magic beyond these rote-learned Old Reliables.

Rolls to master spells may be made between adventures. Each roll cost 100gp/spell level (to cover material components, consultation fees, thaumotropic drugs, and third party damages) and take 1 week.

When a new level is gained the player may attempt to master a number of spells of their choosing equal to their character's Int mod. After these rolls the player may also pick any one unmastered spell on their list, this is now wholly understood.

Until 9th level is attained only spells that the character can cast may be rolled for.  Wizards of levels 9+ can roll to understand and cast higher level spells. For example, an Int 16 W10 would have a chance of casting wish (10,+2,-9 = TN 10 on 2d6).

Spell Mastery rolls can also be used instead of the existing Rogue scroll use rules, or as a shortcut for mastering looted magic items through empirical experimentation.

I should probably include some form of rules for thaumotropic drugs that enhance mastery attempts. You know, stuff like Elric's Hellebore, a Skaven Grey Seer's warpdust, etc.

Oh, and this is the 200th post here at VoN. Go my lazy, wandering-off-for-months-on-end self!

Edit 22/01/2013:  Modified difficulty of casting without mastery. Thanks to -C for the catch.

Pic Source: teh intawubz

Subway Megadungeons

Here's a half-formed thought on megadungeon mapping. (albeit one that has probably already been done to death, then resurrected as a zombie thrall, turned by clerics, dispatched by adventurers, and then ground down for glue)

Need an megadungeon/underworld map quick? Use an underground map ('subway' in Western Continentalist).

• Each station marker is either a single isolated room, or a Dyson Logos/Dave's Mapper geomorph; 
• interchanges between lines are larger pre-planned clusters of levels; 
• the lines between stations are the seemingly endless tunnels, sewers, burrowings and wormholed cellars that give the undercity its intimidating scale. 
• The railway interchanges? They might be Saturday Night Specials, sealed sub-areas, or dimensional portals to other worlds entirely.

I've recently decided to expand the Vaults into a full-scale Tekumel-style underworld. Being an unabashed Englishman I've decided to use the classic London Underground map as the basis of my underworld.

Here's a spatially corrected version (created by Mark Noad) which combines the clarity of information of the classic Harry Beck schematic map with the spatial clarity of the 1930s geographic version.

The existing Vaults megadungeon will be roughly where the Bank-Monument interchange is. Lots of connections from there to as yet undefined areas underneath other parts of the Lost City of Nagoh. Some might spin off from Level 1 of the existing megadungeon, others from levels further down.

All I need to do is repurpose the exasperatingly familiar pale blue line of the River Thames as a canyon, rift, escarpment, or perhaps some sort of odd underground environmental anomaly, and Bob's yer muvva's bruvva: instant undercity ~and~ a schematic layout of the Lost City of Nagoh.

Yes, this is all very lazy DM. But I have good form for that. My world map? The Green Lantern map of Mosaic. My Sea of Os'r map? An old map of the Aegean Sea, flipped and rotated. It works for me. Less time wasted mapping = more time for play.

Pic Source: Mark Noad

The Whole Place is Infested with Buggerwumps!

Or, that time when emergent complexity generates more fun than you can eat.

Regular readers will know that I've a tendency to write silly open-ended placeholder names in my wandering monster tables. Case in point, the Masked Sleepers. Another case in point, the mysterious Buggerwump.

Note to the confused. This is a Buggerwump:

Art by Zak S. Name coined by crow. Originated here.

And this is its stat block:

Originated in White Dwarf #009 IIRC.

I don't know what the dice were doing the other night, but almost every time an encounter occurred up it came up as "7: Buggerwump". As the Stair Stalker Buggerwump is, by its very nature, a % in Lair: 100% beastie that meant each one needed a new staircase to lurk on. Me being a simpleminded creature, I assumed that the vast majority of these staircases had to lead somewhere.

Cue a smoke break for the players as I desperately thumbnail in a d12 "Where do these stairs go?" table, then chuck some dice at a page to generate new sub-areas using the Advanced Fighting Fantasy method, and then scrabble for the dungeon stocking table.

Of course, some of the new rooms were stocked with monsters, and - my dice being in full-on trollface mode - a disproportionate number of these rooms were inhabited by, yep, more Buggerwumps. Which meant more staircases. And more rooms. And more...

Before I knew it this one boring little cluster of empty rooms on the way to somewhere else was a mad Escher-channels-Piranesi mazework of scuzzy little sub-areas connected by a stupid number of twisting, overlapping, no-sense-or-logic staircases. The whole section - quickly dubbed The Labyrinth of Countless Stairs ("Of course it was here all along. Look, s'got a name and everything.") - echoed to the high-pitched "Blubalululup" cries of the resident Buggerwumps.

As time went on, the players got a bit weirded out by the situation ("Why are there so many staircases? And why are there nothing but these weird bloopy things living here?"), so they pressed relentlessly on in search of a way out. Of course, their charging from room to room went via the staircases, which provoked attack after attack from the (territorial) Buggerwumps as they went. Their reaction when they finally encountered a ramp leading upwards was just comedy gold ("Not a staircase? I call trap!").

Meanwhile I'm merrily rolling dice for the heck of it, making random "blubalululup" noises, and laughing myself breathless. Some days it's good to be DM.

My point? Not much. I just had a "I know! Right?!" moment about random generation and had to share. If nothing else I'll say thanks to Gorgonmilk Greg for making me look at the Stair Stalker again.

Pic Source: Buggerwump by Zak S. Stair Stalker nicked from Gorgonmilk blog.

Fungal Murderhobos of the Wilds

Hey you! Do you want to play a vicious bastard murderhobo who is also a giant toadstool? Sure, it might be a bit too weird for traditional tastes or insufficiently haut weird for others, but some people want to play a giant toadstool with an incomprehensible agenda, right? Beats playing another bloody elf, amirite?

Myconid Class/Race

Requirements: WIS 9
Prime Req.: Wis, Con
HD: d6
Attacks as: Cleric
Save as: Cleric
Weapons: any 1-handed weapon (melee or thrown missile)
Armour: leather, chain, shield

(or use the Mutant Class from the Mutants & Mazes chapter if you have access to Goblinoid Games damn fine Mutant Future retro-clone)

Oh come on, you know these guys. Big meaty ambulatory shrooms with humanoid limbs and eyespots; pacifist underworld hippies who just want to tend their fungus groves and groove on the communal telepathy spores.

Mycon adventurers are rare in the extreme. No one know why they arise, what their long-term aims are, or exactly what a giant fighting truffle wants with sacks of swag. Its theorised that they're an evolutionary (or possibly a psycho-cultural) response by the Myconid communal intelligences to the threat posed by surface-dweller incursion into the mythic underworld. But who knows what mushrooms think.

Whatever the cause, one of them has left the cave-commune and gone on a looting spree with a bunch of upworlders.

General Guff
Mycons stand about 5' tall and weigh 140lbs on average.
They 'speak' (well, communicate in a weird fungusy way) Mycon and hoot a pidgin Common through their creepy sphinctery mouth holes.
Mycons absorb nutrients through mycelial mass extruded from their footpads when at rest.
They don't sleep, but instead go into extended blissed-out trance/fugue states for 3-12 hours a day (random 3d4 per night). Sleep spells work on Mycons, and push them into this fugue state early.
Their flesh is delicious.

Racial Abilities
Myconids enjoy the following natural advantages:

• Move silently 2in6 (+1 at levels 4,6,8)
• Nightvision - see 60' in conditions of non-total darkness (as MF)
• Chemosynthetic diet - a varient form of Photosynthetic diet, involves the Myconid standing in a pool of biomass while they rest. Can derive sustenance from almost any old crap.
• Tireless - do not suffer from forced march/lack of rest penalties.

Weaknesses
Coming as they do from a world you may not understand, Myconids suffer a couple of minor hassles:

• Weak Eyespots ("Funglyboy no like sunlight!") - suffers -2 to hit and all checks in bright light (as Albinism drawback, see MF).
• Fussy About the Thermostat ("Funglyboy no like hot/cold!") - suffer +2 damage/die from extreme heat or cold (as Thermal Sensitivity drawback, see MF).
• Alienation ("Funglyboy no like lonely.") - if unable to meld with other Myconids over an extended period suffers fungus equivalent of depression (treat as if cursed, as the spell)

Although unable to cast spells Myconids do gain innate fungus-themed abilities as they advance in level.

Lvl XP       Abilities
1    0          -
2    2,500   Poison spores(1)
3    5K        Fungal rapport(2)
4    10K      -
5    20K      Hallucinatory spores(3)
6    40K      Fungal alchemy(4)
7    80K      Create fungal zombies(5)
8    160K    -
9    320K+  Sporelord of the Mycelial Underlands

footnotes
(1) as Poison Spores power (MF) - 1d6 damage in 10' radius 1/day. Increases to 2d6 dmg, 2/day at 5th level and to 3d6 dmg, 3/day at 9th.
(2) as Neural Telepathy power (MF) or tongues spell (LL), 1/day.
(3) as Mental Phantasm power (MF) or confusion spell (LLAEC), 1/day.
(4) may brew any potion it has previously ingested at zero cost, 1/wk. Yes, this includes poison.
(5) as animate dead spell, 1/day.

Unless otherwise noted rate of ability use increases +1/day per 2 levels after first gaining access to it.

Sporelord of the Mycelial Underlands (name level)
At 9th level a Myconid may establish a colony of their own sporelings in a warm, moist sheltered location cleared of hostile presences. If sufficient biomass is available the Myconid will take root and sporulate, generating 1d6x10 1HD myconid followers practically overnight. The colony will grow in a slow, inexorable, passive-aggressive manner so long as sufficient biomass is available.

Pic Source: Planescape Myconid Sorcerer by sebbythefreak

Small But Vicious Dog Steals Hearts, Humps Leg

Remember that ill-advised B/X-WFRP hack I wurbled about a couple of months back? Done (apart from the last few magic item and monster descriptions).

All the other WFRP-ish goodness - drugs, diseases, insanity, mutation, gunpowder, chaotic magic, dorfs with mohawks, hot pies, giant angry puffins and so forth - is in there. Heck, I've even included rules to model that special WFRP "gods hate you; failure is law!" atmosphere.

Have a download, see what you think (critique and comment welcomed and appreciated):

Small But Vicious Dog ver0.3: Cover and Contents page
Small But Vicious Dog ver 0.3: The Gubbins

Also useful:
Chaos Mutations compilation by Andrew Fawcett

Small But Vicious Dog is dedicated to:

Erin "Taichara" Bisson for giving me the idea with the FF Red Box Hack,

Owen "Coopdevil" Cooper - the psychopomp of the Brit OSR,

and

Kelvin "brainsplurge" Green for mooting the idea of a B/X-WFRP modcop in the first place.

Oh, while I was pecking away at SBVD I discovered Warheart, a WFRP-style mod for the d20 system. It's pretty cool, but you can't call it a *proper* WFRP clone: there's no ratcatcher career FFS! *Tsk* Schoolboy error.

Tangentially related: Seeing as my long-time favourites the Fimir are finally getting some love (both from the grassroots, and from the Evil Empire itself*) after 20 years spend in the Squat Zone, you might be interested in this: Mr Saturday's Fimir army for WFB.

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* GW shamelessly mining their old IP instead of having a single new idea? Nah, never happen. ;)

AtoZ April - Y is for Yew

Day 25, and migellito cunningly wrong foots me with that classic biology exam nightmare question "Discuss trees".

Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary Tree! -a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed.
[...]
...beneath whose sable roof
Of boughs, as if for festal purpose decked
With unrejoicing berries -ghostly Shapes
May meet at noontide:
-- Yew Trees, William Wordsworth

Uneasy lie the dead in the soil of the Wilds. Even those buried with all due ceremony sometimes return to haunt and harry the living. Since time immemorial the people of the Wilds have warded against the malice of the departed by erecting yew trees - renowned in both superstition and sacred lore for their connection with dead - at the entrances to graveyards and necropoli.

Over the long years of their lives these trees sometimes grow strange and active ...and more than a little house proud.

"Hoom-hoom-baroom-hoom. Get back in the ground you!"

The Warding Idho
The gnarled and ancients yews found at the entrances to graveyards have a curious habit of growing faces in knots and recesses of their broad boles. Locals will swear that particular faces are "the spit and image of old so-and-so, who died a few years back", and many come to regard the Idho as the caretaker of the graveyard it stands in. The presence of an Idho tree doubles the effectiveness of speak with dead spells, provided the interrogated dead is buried in the graveyard the Idho wards.

On rare occasions Warding Idhos have been known to rouse themselves to restore orderly peace to their homes. Funerals and sincere mourners have nothing to fear from the wrath of the Idho, but grave robbers and persistent vandals are terrorised and given a stern thrashing. Interloping undead are regarded as a significant annoyance, and will be forcibly returned to their rightful (dead) state with a minimum of fuss.

Treat Warding Idho as Treants able to turn undead as clerics of half their HD.

Pic Source
Samhain Yew Portal by Paul Atlas-Saunders

AtoZ April - T is for Thulsa Doom

Spot the real Thulsa Doom

Was ever a potentially great villain ever more let down by his appearances?

Skull face; laughs off sword blows; belittling monologues; overcomplex schemes; designated nemesis and arch-enemy of an barbarian Atlantean king. That's gold standard pulp background that is!

Thulsa Doom is probably the prototypical pin-up boy for the classic D&D lich look (although Sauron still has the edge in trappings and cronies). By rights Thulsa (or 'Thulses' to his friends) and not some Ruritanian neurotic in a tin suit, should have a lock on the Doom surname in pop-culture. Instead the vengeful hand of the serpent gods is little more than a pop-culture footnote remembered from some 70s comics. He's second in the skull-faced villain recognition stakes to Skeletor. Even Klytus steals his shtick!

I blame Milius and Kevin Sorbo ...and Dynamite Entertainment with their Imaro Doom comics. Although Thulsa didn't really help himself with his cat ventriloquism misdirection antics in The Cat and the Skull. Have some self-respect man!

Poor old Thulsa Doom. Is it any wonder that he retired from the villainy lark to write a gaming blog under an assumed name?

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JLCC:

The True Face of Thulsa Doom [Wondrous Item]
A full face skull mask with wickedly gleaming eye spots. Wearer must save vs. device or have their alignment changed to Ineffectual Overcomplicated Evil (or just Chaotic with trimmings in LL).

The True Face confers the following abilities:

• Wards its wearer from harm as a cloak of protection (randomly determine power)
• Hold person on all within earshot for as long as the wearer maintains a belittling monologue.
• Teleport 1/day, conditional on the wearer being able to move through a doorway.
• Lazer eye-beams! These cause a random effect generated on the Riskail Random Eyebeam Generator Table unless they are directed against snake cultists or a character who could be apostrophised as "black Conan". Against such wannabes and imposters the beams cause a well-deserved and agonising death, no save.

Skull-face Thulsa Doom: accept no substitutes.

I seem to have a thing for masks recently...

Pic Source
Odd Thulsa Out from Sherdog.net forum
Hero Pose Thulsa from Marvunapp.com

AtoZ April - R is for Ransack

Day 21^H^H 18, and it is time to invoke the power of Giant Frog!

Self-mobile bag of loot? Probably best to leave it to its own devices...

The Ran Sack [Magic Item/Trick]
A unique object (entity?) sacred to the enigmatic toad gods of Chaos. It takes the form of a self-mobile small sack made of frogskin. The Ran Sack crawls slowly (<30'/round) around the Vaults blithely disregarding the laws of nature and burping temporary objects and beings into the world.

Think of anything you like, the more outlandish and lolrandom the better. Sooner or later the ransack will spew up a protomatter version to make life a little more interesting for 1d12 rounds, perhaps longer.* The Ran Sack can disgorge living entities, impossible objects and non-physical magical effects if so desired.

* On a 12 the period of time for which the latest enigmatic horfing of the Ran Sack endures increases to 1d12 of the next higher bracket. Round > Minute > Turn > Hour > Watch (4 hour overland turn) > Day > Week > Month > etc. At the end of the allotted period the protomatter dissipates. No mortal magic can prevent this. Divine magic might, but the gods are loath to get involved in the antics of the toad gods.

Yes, you can put things in the Ran Sack. You can also root around in it. And it is large enough to put over your head. (I dare you... :) )

The Ran Sack has the self-preservation instincts of a dozy farm animal, but no real sense of intelligent thought. It can be destroyed by many of the same means as a normal sack. However the whimsical wrath of the toad gods will likely fall upon those who harm their favourite relic. (herald? avatar? plaything? pet?)

Sects and ideocults of the Wilds beyond the obvious Chaos cults would pay handsomely for possession of the Ran Sack. Some for its experimental value, others for its totemic nature. Of course, they'd likely also kill to prevent such a thing from falling into the hands of their rivals.

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Not Related:

Did you know the British Royal Mail had their own dungeon, and they decided they were bored with it in 2002.

"They were simple hipsters before the inexplicable power 

of the carmine oculus took possession of them.
We should probably kill them anyway."

Pic Source
Bowing sack of flour from Tall Grass Studios blog
Lamp guy in tunnel from silentuk.com

AtoZ April - Q is for Quarrel

Day 20, wherein your humble scribe match wits with the most inscrutable of Scribble tiles.

First an aside.

You know, among all the varieties of Classic D&D it was only BECMI that offered magical arrows/bolts the chance to be anything more than "slaying or '+n', your choice". The D&D Bumper Fun Book offered no less than a score of missile weapon properties (Missile Weapon Talents, pp243-244) with which to garnish your flying wooden sticks of death. There was still one oversight in the list though. Where was the quarrel of quarreling? A simple little one shot gag which causes the target to turn on his allies when it hits (save vs. spell/device negates).

Yes, I know it's a howler...

Waffle aside, on with the content.

Quarrel acrobats, yesterday.

Quarrel [wondrous item]
Individual 1' square panels of glass. Some are found mounted in windows, others shuffled in with job lots of valuable, but otherwise non-magical, glassware. Quarrels detect as magical but are just as fragile as normal glass. Each has a single inherent detection effects usable 1/day be someone attuned to the quarrel.

Sample Quarrel Powers (d12)

1	see invisible
2	see ethereal
3	see kirlian aura
4	as eye of magnification
5	predict weather
6	lens of read languages
7	clairvoyance
8	true seeing
9	as gem of seeing
10	Cavorite effect
11	visual psychometry
12	Cycling phantasmal force illusion of [GMs choice]

Self-Perpetuating Quarrel [creature]
If six quarrels are arranged into a cube and the correct incantations performed (research into the lost art of vitromancy will be required) a glimmering mist fills the box and the quarrel animates. Long, multi-jointed limbs of vitreous-looking ectoplasm coalesce from each of its eight corners. These limbs have immense strength and tireless endurance, but only manifest in the absence of sunlight.

There is a 90% likelihood that the creation will obey verbal orders given by anyone attuned to the individual quarrels that make up its structure. Some self-perpetuating quarrels (the remaining 10%) instead ignore their assemblers and storm off to further an undisclosed agenda.

Self-perpetuating quarrels usually seek to avoid conflict and will skitter away from aggressive opponents at up to 180'/round. If cornered they will hurl heavy objects or swipe at any who pose a threat to them. The pseudopod arms are powerful (attack as 6HD creature for 2d6 damage, 4 attacks/rnd, max 2 per target) and difficult to damage (AC5, require 10 points in a single strike to sever). The stubs of severed limbs will sprout two pseudopods (treat as severing the heads of a lernean hydra) in the following round. The box itself is flat panels of glass, exactly as fragile and vulnerable as that implies. Most attacks will affect the flailing arms and ectoplasmic integument, but a critical hit/natural 20 with a piercing/missile weapon will instantly destroy a quarrel, reducing the creature to shards of glass and a rapidly evaporating mist.

A self-perpetuating quarrel has the general immunity to magic typical of golems. Most spells will simply pass through its translucent form without effect. There are a few notable exceptions to this: any of the mage's hand series of spells allows the caster to control the gross movement, but not the fine manipulations, of the quarrel. Shatter (or a horn of blasting or similar sound-based attack) destroys it instantly. Glass like steel improves the AC of both the glass box and the pseudopod arms to 0. Fire does no damage to these creatures.

The self-perpetuating quarrel cannot communicate verbally, but makes expressive indicative gestures.

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Ha! 'Q' ain't so tough without his sidekick 'U' backing him up.

Pic Source
Glass cube by Larry Bell, courtesy of askart.com

AtoZ April - P is for Plenary of Polysyllables

P is for "putrescence" or "pandemonium" (Flynn) or "parallax" (Carter Soles).

"It's not the leering and winking of the moon I mind.

It's the sibilant whisperings underlying its blandishments..."

It is an open secret among the learned that the skies that whirl above the Wilds are full of secrets and strange wisdom mortal men are not fitted to know. But even among the sodality of squint-eyed sages and sleepless stargazers circulate stories of men who looked into the darkness too hard and too long.

Rumour speaks of deeper voids in the void of space where certain ill-omened stars shine either intermittently, or in colours visible only to those with correctly attuned sight. It is said (although said by exactly whom is disputed) that the flickering light of these unknown luminaries is hypnotic, and that extended study somehow conveys mind of the observer instruction from beyond the bounds of the world as we know it.

What is known for certain is that occasionally eminent astronomers disappear overnight; their notes destroyed or incomprehensible; their telescopes still fixed on empty areas of the night sky. Sometimes travellers matching - at least in some particulars - the descriptions of the missing men are seen traversing unsettled areas of the Wilds; at other times they are encountered lurking in the lowest stews and dives of the cities. None initiate communication and most shun human contact, but their repeated mumbling of a particular mantra ("Gli-oo-aff-cuff, gli-oo-aff-cuff, gli-oo-aff-cuff...") is noted.

Left untreated these unfortunates soon succumb to any one of a variety of misfortunes or infections. More than once a body garbed in academic robes has been found in some overlooked corner, seedbed to a fungal garden of unusual richness and variety. The fruiting bodies of these fungi are much sought after by the less squeamish among the wizardly fraternity.

Sources
Astronomer image from Cornell University Library Collection
Glyuathk'th is an original creation of 'Carcosa' Geoffrey McKinley.