In Hiding and Without Renown (Classes: Ironmonger and Journeyman)

 Armor

  Armor is simple. You have an AC (pronounced "Ahs"), which is 10 if unarmored, 12 if wearing a helm, 14 if wearing a cuirass or other armored shirt and a helm, and 16 if wearing lamellar and a helm. Normally to cast spells the aspects in the soul (housed in the organs) can't be entrapped in armor, but may be dignified by robes or other rich things

Class: Ironmonger

   Ironmongers have an unsavory reputation in Yarfu, though rumors say they are exalted abroad. Their loose order is united by one ambivalent decree, to go where the sun does not warm, and find who you are when no one is watching.
   Start with: an iron shortspear, an iron mask, an iron hammer and twenty nails-of-iron, a skull, a cosmetic kit, and a hood.

   Every template after the first, get +1 MD and +1 to-hit. (Beware, you don't learn any spells from leveling up. (This is the grindset class.))

• A: Cantrips
• B: Comity, Iron Spell
• C: Blood Eyes
• D: Residue
• E: Bounty

Cantrips: with a touch, you can sharpen a blade, sense a metal's purity, conjure a metal glove, or drive a nail. You can use the sling, throwing sticks, and any one-handed bladed weapon.

Comity: You know Kavetek, the language of Ironmongers, elves, giant ferrets, and barren fiends.

Iron Spell: When wearing anything lighter than lamellar, you can cast spells as long as you keep one hand free.

Blood Eyes: Iron suffuses your HP, strengthening its "degree". By pressing your tongue hard into the roof of your mouth, you can push your second eyes into place. They glow red, and pierce through the darkness like bulls-eyes, allowing you to see in the dark up to 60'. They are blinded by mist and fog.

Residue: your sweat is poisonous to non-ironmongers. Those who swallow a shot of it save with magical amulets or take 1d6 damage. Your mounts and lovers develop shallow scarring.

Bounty: as long as you carry at least four inventory slots of iron objects beyond the armor you wear and any weapons in your hand, you may reroll a single MD in every spell you cast.

 Inventory

   Inventory is simple. You have twenty slots. Some identical items can bundle (e.g. a quiver of arrows, a tranch of torches, a sac of ball bearings). Helmets and armored shirts each take up two slots, while lamellar takes up four. Otherwise pretty much everything is just one slot unless specified.

Class: Journeyman

   Strangers in the midst of the vo, and awkwardly received among the savadur. Journeymen are blamed for ancient wrongs, and they make the high and powerful feel guilty. They are considered to be of the race of man, more out of honor than conviction. 
   Start with: an extra two feet of height and five pounds of hair, an oversized spear, an empty skull-sized cage, a jug of houch, and a wheelbarrow (five slots, carries twenty when rolled) with straps to carry it over the shoulder.

• A: Physique, Food for Energy
• B: Comity
• C: Guise
• D: All Of The Rules

Physique: Your nails are like daggers. You can use all weapons and armor that suit your great size, and attack with +2 to-hit. You have a 4-in-6 chance of hearing remote sounds, and can smell blood up to 100' away, discerning between blood fresh, long-shed, that of a hot blooded fighter, or that of a personage or degree-strengthened ironmonger. 

Food for Energy: Get +1 HP when you eat something you find in a dungeon, abandoned hive, or other dangerous location. You can use this ability multiple times per day, but each instance must be more gross or more dangerous than the last. 

Comity: Normal retainers and followers in your employ get -1 morale. They see something in you that disquiets them, even if they followed you gladly before. Rodents, vermin, and other ratainers get +2 morale. You may squeak with rats as though you spoke their language. 

Guise: Like twisting into an acrobat's knot, you may take on a human seeming, including 2-in-6 chance of depicting a particular person, +1 with their clothes, +1 with their tongue, +1 if you know what they love most of all. 

All of the Rules: Your ancestors were made by the wizards of eld, set out for servitude and study. Those chains still connect you to magic, occultation, and the life after life, and you have become aware of the tug that always pulls you. You can grapple magic-users, ghosts, and apparitions from a distance of 100', and do not suffer penalties for any akhs you endure.
 

At the Last, Abundant Equipment for the Tomb (Classes: Fighter and Ranger)

HP and Saves

HP is a measure of your vital spirit (pronounced "hep"). Level 1 PCs start with 6 HP, which is reduced by harms and regained at a rate of 1d6 HP every sunrise. At 0 HP, roll on the Table of Consequences so secret and revolutionary, I haven't written it yet.

There are three types of saves, and they all start at +0.

• Talent: Physical skill.
• Favor: Divine grace.
• Magical Amulets: efficacy of charms and icons.

To test with a save, roll a d20, plus the bonus, and try to get a 13 or higher.  

Class: Fighter

In Yarfu, the bow is the prince of all weapons. Note with pride the fighter's facility with it. Vo men are sought for formal armies in each nation-state, standardizing the more diverse martial traditions that precurse them.
Start with a horn bow and arrows, a spear, a helmet and chain shirt, a tin of pink poppies, a fierce mask, and a bright blanket.

• A: Comity, National Pastime
• B: Captain
• C: +1 attack
• D: Hot Blood

Comity: You know how to use all weapons, including the bow. If you own a magical bow, you are brothers with all other true warriors who carry one. No one can punish you for winning a fair fight against another archer, and you are entitled to what they carried into that fight. You get +4 to-hit with all weapons, and when unarmed.

National Pastime: You are proficient in the fighting style of your people, and honor or shame them by your deeds. Here are some nearby styles:

• The fighters of Faras are dartiers, and their javelins throw a foe off-balance (reduce AC by 2 for a round)
• The maidens of Sawl are moirologists, and when their morale would fail them they keen, slowing or severing the spirit of the undead.
• The knights of Qusair are soldiers, and when they lay low a foe they can attack another one immediately with the fallen enemy's own weapon.
• Zanquecant People are ambushers, and when striking an enemy's flank with an axe, they get an extra attack.
• The Savadur Pacoste Clan are witches, and their charges ignore all resistance and immunity to damage.
• The Savadur Saritur Clan are totemists, and when wearing scale armor they can leap 16 cubits horizontally or 8 cubits vertically.

Captain: No matter now indifferent or cruel you are, you can always find a number of 1 HD Fighters equal to your level in a community.
Hot Blood: You get +4 HP and are immune to the cold, capable of lending that warmth to [level] snuggle pals. Those who drink your blood feel your emotions.

Origins and Speech

• Vo Wanderer. You speak your national language and one other language of your choice.
• Vo Citizen. Decide if you're a nationalist. If you are, you speak your national language, get +2 reaction when receiving reward, position, etc from the nation-state, and get -1 reaction with vo whose nations aren't allied with yours in the war. If you're not a nationalist, you speak your national language and a local language you can use to exclude anyone from more than 100 miles away.
• Savadur Priest. You speak a national language and a dialect of Kha (called, for obscure historical reasons, by ranking. You speak First Kha, Second Kha, etc., up to the Eighth Kha.) Dialects near in number are easier to understand. Kha has no written form, save heraldic strangifiers painted on walls or stamped in armor to You get -1 reaction with Savadurs of other clans.

Nearby languages:

• Crocodolean: spoken by people of the nation, and therefore skeletons, scarab swarms, garden ogres, and crocodiles.
• Abydor: spoken in Abydor, and therefore by Turgid Bastards and gliding lizards. Hostile to Crocodole.
• Vezan: spoken in Vezan, and therefore by temple ogres, rams, rock baboons, and rebel dogs. Hostile to Crocodole.
• Zaun: spoken in Zau, and therefore by Visceral Bearers, aubade fey, and shaggy dingoes. In a compact with Crocodole.
• Koumoulen: spoken in Koumoul and therefore by Wasting Bearers, rock baboons, and maned wolves. Unaligned.
• Tremanian: spoken in Tremanan and therefore by cometary ogres, scrub flies, and pangolins. Hostile to Crocodole.

Class: Ranger

There are many undeveloped places in Yarfu, rugged terrain haunted by the dead. The realm of mankind is narrow, and a rugged few resist the press of chaos on its borders.
Start with a khopesh, a machete, 40' of rope, a portable tent, a tinderbox, climbing gear, a Douglas gray cloak, and four javelins.

• A: Turn Undead, Ranger
• B: Comity
• C: Apotropaic Trophies
• D: Kingsfoil

Turn Undead: You get +2 to-hit and +2 damage vs undead creatures, and undead foes have -1 morale.

 Ranger: You are trained with snares, melee weapons, and the use of slings and javelins. Each overland turn, pick one of the following:

• Forage: gain +1 ration from biting heads off lizards, enticing snowlice with drops of blood, sucking on that secret herb, exc.
• Survey: +1-in-6 chance of detecting hidden or secret features.
• Scout: +1-in-6 surprise chance for you, -1-in-6 surprise for encounters.

Comity: You now qualify for one of several societies of rangers. In Yarfu, there are three of note:

• The Tatouet. Claim to be descended from ancient rebels. They mark their chins with ink and tattoo dots onto their arms and legs. When in a desert region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.
• Maa Kheru. Claim to be of a hereditary line descended from Saver Heol, despite membership based on skill and achievement. They know the name of the secret herb. Wear golden jewelry in brow piercings and oiled dark boots. When in a scrubland region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.
• Plijet Hudjefa. Mostly linger and stare with sinister intention and foreign moustache. When in a tundra region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.

Apotropaic Trophies: Keep a record of every type of creature whose blood, flesh, or other leavings you've incorporated into your amulets. Add+2 to any saves made to resist such a creature. For human types, the bonus rather applies to the traps and hazards of their hive or other home complex.

Kingsfoil: a sweet lie has swept Yarfu, one that organizes its many people into a tight handful of nation-states, languages, and destinies. It is a reality the unpainted border denies, and in your dreams you practice the liberator's perfect blow. Deal +3 damage to serpents and those who claim dominion over more than one hive.

Gloggies Nominations 2025

 This year, the Gloggies follow a democratic process, in which members of the community are called upon to nominate the posts that stuck with them and inspired them, for later voting and accolade.

I really appreciate the community events that come up in the GLoG server. Despite owning the server, I'm the author of very few of these events, and it's the work of civically-minded luminaries like Vivanter, or Hilander with his GLoGmas hosting, or Locheil with their GLaugust MCing, that make these events so vibrant.

To select my nominations, I scrolled through blog posts made so far this year and clicked on some of my favorites, the ones I kept thinking about since they were posted. If you read every blogpost in my glog server, you would be reading about three a day, and I know I ended up reading only a fraction of them. So as you are reminded of some of the best-appreciated blogposts, I'd recommend maybe looking at a post from someone you don't normally follow and commenting on their work. Certainly we have many great names who have come to grace the server who were not well-known a year ago.

Nominations

Best Dungeon Post: Alxin Lake Caravanaserai, by Locheil. This great scenario shows the strength of Eil's writing and her attention to detail. The whole thing fits together as a mystery, a dungeon, and a story on its own.

Best Class Post: The Ichabod, by TheFirstGokun. An example of his easy and evocative style, and a character type I would love to see explored in a campaign.

Honorable Mention: A trio of classes from Locheil's bespoke single-level cloak-and-sword class bandwagon. Vivanter's Academian (neat worldbuilding, full realization of concept), TheisticGilthoniel's Huguenot (charmingly direct translation of history), and The Spaniard, by SunderedWorldDM (needs no explanation). Bandwagons like this really show the strength of collective creativity, and I think these classes are better than the sum of their parts because of how they all eventually relate to each other.

Best Monster Post: The d666 Monster Generator, by Louis and Locheil. Really fun to play around with, and created some really cool creatures.

Best Rules Post: The 2 Arbitrary Beings Who Are Exes Table by Louis. There were a lot of one-neat-trick posts this year, and this one was my favorite.

Honorable Mention: Esprit, recorded here by Lexi. While this was a hallmark of Locheil's bandwagon, I think the mechanic itself is just rock-solid.

Best Lore Post: Arise, Ye Wretched by Occultronics. Her bombastic and vital Hex setting takes a lot of the footwork, creative energy, and enthusiasm that I previously associated with Josie's ancient settings and puts it in this whole other milieu that just works so well. Sometimes it feels like a more grounded and modern setting can trade off with storytelling possibilities, but this just doesn't feel like it's the case here. Seems really fun.

Honorable Mention: I'll Have You Die for This! by Locheil. A trademark wit shows his trademark wit.

Best Theory Post: Firearms in Dungeon Crawls, by G. R. Michael. Just spitting the facts. In the past, I've complimented Michael's settings sense of materiality, and this is a good example of the mastery of basic facts that makes a DM seem authoritative to the laity.

Best Non-Dungeon Adventure Post*: I made this category separate from the others because I didn't know where to put those adventures that weren't per se dungeons, and it felt weird to place them under Rules or Other. I nominate The Heart of Communication by Regalia. Great execution on concept and thematic consistency, and some really fun details. I love Wolphelia d’Ream, the literal wolf who is the fourth most eligible lady in the region.

Best Other Post: the Spiceomancy Trading Card Game, by TheFirstGokun. Not only impressive for the art put into it and the special touches, but for showing the power of imagination. You could keep clicking the generator until you owned every card, you could could neglect to delete cards you trade away. But that would suck and you don't do that.

Honorable Mention: Anybody Remember the Gallon Man? by Mergo-Kan. When I was making the first draft of my noms, I knew that the Craftsman was going to be my nomination for Other, and as I was scrolling through I made Anybody Remember the Gallon Man by honorable mention. Then I noticed that the Craftsman was actually from 2024, which meant that for the ten minutes or so before I remembered the card game, Gallon Man was my #1 choice for miscellaneous glog posts in 2025.

My Conduct Can Want No Vindication (GLoG Class: Princess)

It is a tricky class to write. You want it to be social, but at home in dungeons and adventure situations. You want it to be capable, though it draws from a character type known for restraint. So it's tricky.

art by Arthur Rackham

Princess

Start with fine outfit (2 slots), knife-fan, monogrammed kerchief, silver mirror, candelabrum, pint of wine, velvet coinpurse, and Political Prospects. Each level, get +1 WIS.

A: Innocence, Command

B: Token

C: Soprano

D: Diplomacy

Innocence: each slot of finery or culturally significant attire gives you +2 AC, up to the point of equaling plate armor. If you take no dramatic action, no one will harm you worse than dragging you around by the arm. If you fight non-lethally, so will your adversaries. If captured, even scoundrels will spend a long time wheedling and threatening before harming or executing you.

Witches and demons are immune to Innocence.

Command: when not in immediate conflict, you can issue a demand for some kind of accommodation or favor and it will be received favorably, met according to what the target thinks is reasonable. You can use this ability only up to [template] times on the same target (undifferentiated squads and staffs count as the same target) before they sneer at your impetuosity.

Token: by conferring a kerchief or maunch on an ally, you empower them to act on your behalf, both politically and dramatically. If you spend a combat round intent on the willing bearer of your token, you can basically take an extra turn for them; moving them, having them strike a foe, etc.

The token must be prominently displayed and if lost the effect ends. Other PCs will probably be cool about the arrangement, but NPCs might expect some kind of alliance or favor in return.

Soprano: your singing is sweet and clear. In dungeon areas, it can summon an immediate random encounter with a minimum reaction roll equal to [template]x2

Diplomacy: as your envoy, the bearer of your token benefits from your Innocence ability when without armor and you may issue Commands through them. 

 

d12 Political Prospects

1. Single parent is the ruler of a small kingdom. They are evil and have opposite politics to you.

2. Parent and viperous step-parent rule a small kingdom. Step-parent wants you out of the way.

3. Loving parents rule a small kingdom, deep in debt to a witch, fallen chosen one, or dragon.

4. Loving parents driven from their small kingdom in a coup, slumming it in the hinterlands.

5. Loving parents rule a small kingdom despite being hopeless judges of character, trying to marry you off to a shitty baron.

6. NEVER RIGHT EXCUSE. She is a matte black +1 seax, with a hilt of damascene gold and colorful and distracting ribbons of fabric hanging from the pommel. Hates bullshitters and wormtongues, and will whisper to you, lambasting the phonies and suggesting that they'd be more useful in twain.

7. Parents murdered by conquering barbarian. Their former vassals seek to use you to retake the small kingdom.

8. Loving parents lead a complicated aristocratic elective monarchy. Always wheedling to the vassals.

9. Decent parent serves as figurehead of popular government that seized power 15 years ago. Desperate to use you to solidify their position.

10. Loving parents, uncommonly just and humble rulers of a small kingdom but about to combust due to an affair or guilt of a great crime.

11. Pragmatic parents rule a small suzerainty in fief to a hostile culture group, plotting rebellion.

12. Evil yet loving parents rule a small kingdom, running it into the ground and making you a political pariah.

Homo Ferox (GLoG Class: Assassin)

 The man who everyone wants to kill will only die by mistake. Whoever wins the hate of their people must have cruel guards and impervious safeguards, else they would have been taken away from life long ago. Sometimes, the mistake that kills them is the presence of someone who could not have intentionally gotten into the right position, but finds themselves in it now. A man sits in a restaurant and decides to hide a bomb on the sixth floor instead of the first, and his mark survives. Another man sulks in a restaurant because his mark got away, and he looks up to see that same mark in a stopped car, and so he gets his second chance.

Part of an assassin GLoG class bandwagon. Yo.

-ASSASSIN-

Start with a fold-out knife, petard, highly illegal thief's rope (50'), discrete cap and coat, and one really big time-delay bomb. At each level, get +1 to-hit or DEX.

• A: Infamy, Luck
• B: Improvisation
• C: Patience
• D: Old News

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,

And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;

He knew human folly like the back of his hand,

And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;

When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,

And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

- Epitaph on a Tyrant, W. H. Auden

Infamy: By lucking into success precisely once, you have cut a clean line between your life before the kill and after. Authorities will hunt you, even if the leader you killed was their state's enemy. Such is life in this bitch age. Revolutionaries and creatures of the margins will assume you must be a high-level character, not to be trifled with lightly.

Luck: You have a pool of up to three Luck Points, which can be spent to reroll a failed attempt at moving quickly, sneaking, fast-talking, or searching; or to cause someone (of the DM's choice, usually a random civilian) to happen to be passing by; or to make it so an NPC recognizes you. You start with two Luck Points, because you spent one happening to be able to kill your famous mark. Recover a Luck Point every time the DM thinks you're screwed, or when you participate in the killing of a monstrous leader.

Improvisation: You have developed an instinct for sudden and shocking violence. Whenever you roll initiative, you can take an action, like attacking someone or running for it, before the combat starts. If that action is to attack someone unaware they're in danger, you automatically hit.

Patience: Spend a few days conferring with your contacts to establish where and when in the next couple weeks your target will come from their stronghold. Learn a bit about the guards and measures they will bring with them, and about their itinerary. There is a 2-in-6 chance that there are no trivial changes that threaten to scuttle your plan of attack.

Old News: The authorities you bested no longer hunt you; other authorities no longer fear you. This is just as you come into your own training the next generation of stupid daredevils. Your maximum number of Luck Points increases to six. They can be spent to aid an ally or protege you've prepped to do anything you can use them for; to tell if someone is hunting for you; or to reroll a save vs magic, explosions, and gunshot or stabbing-related wounds.

Those Things Which Happiness Distract Us From (GLoGtober 2024)

Acrostic GLoG class for GLoGtober 2024.

Edward Penfield

Bought Death

Commencing Skill: 1. Archaeology, 2. Glassblowing 3. Camels
Devices: gauzy cloak (as leather), worn staff, necklace of ineffectual charms, and a Nameless Wonder.

• 1: equipment slots +1, Intentional Hostage, Jacinth Eyes
• 2: find secret door +2-in-6, Kismet
• 3: grapple +2, Lacuna
• 4: HP +2, Mirage

Intentional Hostage: As long as you serve him, you are immune to other charm effects, suffocation, and swarms. Whenever you find a magic scroll, potion, or similar item, there is a 2-in-6 chance he will claim it and give you a different one, of similar power. All blunt weapons are loyal snakes in your hands, and magic blunt weapons are venomous.

Jacinth Eyes: They itch. You can glimpse fortune and misfortune. With a round of careful staring, you can sense if someone is cursed, or it they've hidden valuables on their body. If an ally would be the target of a critical hit, you can anticipate it and take the blow for them.

Kismet: In the wilderness, ask for an object and throw away valuables worth ten times what you ask so that no one will ever find it. Then, dig a hole. Your request will be granted.

Lacuna: With a minute of quiet begging, you can turn into [level] slots of red sand for any duration that you specify. After the specified duration, a random mote of sand grows back into you. Your belongings all transform with you, except for sufficiently powerful magic items or banes of your master.

Mirage: In the wilderness, ask for an oasis (50 gp), a village (100), a city (300) or other negotiated point of civilization and throw away the proper fee so that no one will ever find it. On the horizon, your request will be granted. Any inhabitants are his servants as well, but though most are less powerful they consider themselves of a separate and higher order than you, and always will.

Nameless Wonders (d12)

1. Opalescent belt. Converts sunlight into nourishment through pins along your waist.
2. Proven blade. Always lands blade-first when thrown. 1d4 damage, and attack with advantage if thrown while charging.
3. Quiver of sandstone arrows. Six. Utterly shatter against stone or metal targets, releasing the acid-jaw beetle within.
4. Red sash. Magic projectiles fired at you stick harmlessly to the silk, transfixed like stars in the heavens. Wizards will be able to identify your allegiance on sight if they spot the sash.
5. Secret name. Overheard when your death was paid for. Can be used to intimidate his other servants.
6. True death mask. Half-finished clay. Those who don it resemble you. When you don it, resemble a freakish (but anonymous) beetle-dame.
7. Unproven blade. Always lands handle-first when thrown. 1d4 subdual damage, and can be tossed to allies with no risk of harm out to 30 feet.
8. Vicious dog. Floppy ears and lanky build. The only one who may ever tolerate you.
9. Wax seal. The first thing you attach it to belongs to him. A most complicated sigil, but you can draw it without lifting your pen from the page.
10. Xenomorphic idol. When upended, makes a constant rainmaker sound. When fed, dances around.
11. Yellow cloak. Glistens in the midst of riches, and becomes powerful camouflage in treasuries, including inside dragons, fine coffins, and the Unsinking City of Altunsehir.
12. Zombie shoes. The first time you die, after 1d4 Turns you awake, mental stats halved. Slowly, slowly rot. At that point if you remove the shoes you shrivel up and fully cease.

Small Evidences (GLoG Hack + Scenario)

 A Halloween ago, I began a short-lived play-by-post game with G.R. Michael, HalflingTrouble, Josie, Locheil, Mergo-Kan, and Renfield. The curse of PbP games prevented us from getting very far, but I was proud of the prep I did, and have eventually decided to share it here. The work is incomplete, because I knew that if the PCs came to a dungeon, for instance, I would have plenty of time to flesh it out due to the nature of asynchronous communication.

The players were enticed by the premise of a "spooky Victorian glog play-by-post game." The player's handbook I offered them included many small hints about the game and how it would work, the sort of almost-jokes that DMs get very attached to. Like when you choose a background for your character, the Urchin background promises to have a "secret benefit" that would be revealed later. The Scholar class lets you attain various seemingly unhelpful Fields of Study like Anatomy and Orientalism, but each Field actually directly corresponds to one of the six types of creature you're likely to encounter in the game. In the equipment list, you might see a Bodak camera and think it's just a stupid D&Dified reference to a real-life camera featured in Dracula. But it also serves a secondary purpose to blind vampires. So if you think about it hard enough, I'm some kind of genius.

You can look at the hack (with my comments added in the janky form of google doc comments) HERE.

The format of the scenario was a small sandbox, the Swiss canton-like region of Avenir in a Victorian Europe-like Europe where all the countries had slightly stupider names. The party sought the missing Doctor Temperli, a professor of New Sciences at Mittenberg University. The region was small, made up of a six-by-six grid of ambiguously-sized squares that they could traverse at a speed of 1d6 squares per day (conveniently variable due to terrain and weather), no diagonal moves allowed.

Just as Switzerland is culturally influenced by French, German, and Italian neighbors, Avenir had three major towns, each culturally related to Lence, Almegh, and Reme. The most beloved part of the game seemed to be a chart I made to describe the nation-states around Avenir:

Hair/Sterotype/Attire/Folkways/Hat Shape

• Linch: Much, brown/Sullen, small, funny, syphilitic/Tight leather, buckles, floppy hats/War, horse marriage, wine, war/ɷ
• Almish: Wiry blond/Stingy, fierce, canny, syphilitic/Vests, sacks, puffy shirts, grease/Long knives, clockwork, gender/Δ
• Remic: Curly black/Loud, shallow, noble, syphilitic/Red aprons and hats, riding boots/Earthworks, dance, self-education/η

(and further afield-)

• Brutish: Dirty blond/Perfidious, rich, rude, syphilitic/Suits, lace, memento mori/wagers, industry, extortion/♖
• Iberish: Salt and pepper/fanatical, vengeful, sexy, syphilitic/half-capes, sequins, sackcloth/Bloodsport, charity, cattle/ሎ
• Vespian: Sandy blond or sandy pepper/cavalier, simple, contentious, typhoidious/Buckskin, Pistolas, Gloves/Cavaliers, expeditions, elections, sewing/൧
• Kaptev: Much, black/Inspired, insular, stupid, syphilitic/Pastels, sash belts, fur hats/Science, tenant farming, assimilation/፴ 

Just as Victorian novellas requre an abandoned castle, evil Catholic-themed monastery, and decadent palace, it had those things too. Each square on the map had a landmark and potential encounter, as well as some kind of clue to the past and whereabouts of Temperli or to the types of monsters that inhabited Avenir.

The encounter table is notable. It's a d6/6 table, where the first d6 roll tells you what kind of monster table you're rolling on and the second is the exact encounter, with better outcomes resulting from higher total rolls. So in theory rolling a 1 (vampire table) is the worst and rolling a 6 (angelic intervention table) is the best. Some dungeons and overland squares had items or events which could mess with your rolls, giving you a different kind of encounter with the same 2d6 total if possible, such as a holy relic that made the encounter roll prefer angel encounters. This encounter table was intended to drive a lot of the story, so I'll reproduce it in total here.

Random Encounters

1. Vampire
   2 council of vampires
   3 vampiric agent, in disguise, seeking to kidnap a victim for the cloister.
   4 oddly driven wolves
   5 drunken monk, genial and misleading
   6 driver, giving notice the monastery is a patron of adventurers. May offer a ride.
   7 peasants, fearful of strangers but well-armed with folk charms against vampires
2. Ghouls
   3 ghoul platoon, seeking a suitable spouse for the Secret Master
   4 near-literal flood of rats, fleeing adversaries of the ghouls. Where there are rats, the area is safe from ghouls
   5 virtuous magic user hireling with ghoul fever
   6 drunken boneyard singing of the damned
   7 sated ghouls seek work as laborers and retainers
   8 skeleton gives dire warning. Clarity based on reaction roll. Roll on this table next encounter
3. The Monster (Frankenstein dealio)
   4 the monster, wantonly wrecking peasants
   5 minor mockeries (as zombies) doing work but with a hair trigger temper
   6 new doctor, selling new cures with new and wild side effects
   7 two Brutish resurrection men, Morris and McCab
   8 the doctors— an alchemist of old science and a kaballist of new faith— seeking their Monster
   9 the monster, wetly and sadly stitching herself
4. Werewolf Aristocrat
   5 werewolf forlornly hunting
   6 werewolf snacking on a new victim
   7 wolves, displaced and harried
   8 shifty servants seeking their master
   9 wolf hunters, resolute
   10 aristo’s priest and friend
5. Vampire Hunters
   6 bitten and delirious hunter, Valentin Fack. Son of hte devil, he has a bible tattooed on the back of his hand. Sympathetic and intuitive, easily wounded. His family is secretly a court of devils.
   7 suspicious investigator duo-- the short one Maxime Beyeler and the tall one Elijan Arbenz. Arbenz is a conformist, reliably but uncreative, secretly dreams of seeing the world and slowly dying inside.
   8 amphibious hunter— hunts ghouls, werewolves, or new life
   9 kindly elder gives haven to party
   10 triumphant mob led by a hunter
   11 vampire hunter mobile base
6. Angelic Intervention
   7 dreams of a glowing woman giving a part-muffled warning. Have vision of next random encounter, and win initiative automatically.
   8 glowing woman leads you to a dying commoner in need of warmth and aid. Will gratefully vouch for PCs later if helped, even offering to lodge them if they are ever in their square.
   9 glowing woman leads to another encounter, roll advantage on reaction
   10 glowing woman leads you to Heinz Nimrod, monster hunter
   11 glowing woman leads you with sudden alacrity to the object of your journey.
   12 glowing woman offers a gift or blessing to each of you

Each of the major genre of monster would have a long list of weaknesses, quirks, and abilities. I didn't finish them all, but here's an example:

Vampires: HD 4+. F5 R 3 W 2. C 15, +2 to-hit

• Can turn into elemental dust, taking a full round.
• Can turn into a large bat, owl, rat, or bat.
• Affinity with creatures of the night.
• 5-in-6 chance of successfully sneaking up on a sleeping person and sucking their blood, -1 for each countermeasure. If those they feed on ever die, they become a vampire.
• Perfect Darkvision
• When slain, go as dust to a coffin full of desecrated earth to rejuvenate.
• Some vampires have class features
• do not eat, cast no shadow, in the mirror do not reflex, show up not in photos
• Cannot transgress thresholds
• In the daytime, cannot change shape or use class abilities.
• Must be carried over running water, and to touch it destroys them
• Cannot get within 5 feet of garlic flowers, crucifixes, wild rose branches, or mountain ash.
• Sacred bullets inflict bleeding wounds, as do stakes through the heart and decapitations.

I didn't have all the details about the plans of these six groups, but here's some of what I did have:

• The vampires seek to turn Temperli into their ancient progenitor demon Turst, seeking the raiments of his ancestor Rolan. The abbot wields a tongue of flame which makes people solatics, the opposite of lunacy.
• The ghouls seek the flesh of Old Gargy [a giant trapped underground] for an eternal feast. The Secret Master [their leader] seeks also a consort to birth a dragon with [the sentence cuts off there]
• The prince has lived as a werewolf for most of his life, bitten as a boy by his uncle Retho Wolfli, a burgomaster of Chavornay. His cruel twin brother (and estate guardian), Waldemar, throws a nonstop fete to distract him and stalks about to blacken his brother's name out of mad depravity.

And here's the dramatis personae:

• Abbot Riccardo Sturzenegger- vampire magician. Passionate and devoted, heart broken by ancient jilting. Miserable. Seeks to regain his lover and sire, Rolan Temperli.
• The Secret Master- athletic and folksy ghoul. Lacks sophistication and easily fooled. Out of her depth.
• Doctor Alexander Bontravail- ivory tower intellectual. Alchemist finding it hard to cope with these conditions
• Doctor Shiri Chertok- one of those woman doctors, a student of miracles and the names of god. Has been everywhere, but lacks real connections. Seeks something to live for, now that this has gone bust.
• Prince Nordin- werewolf aristo. Bubbling with love of life, but so quirky he doesn't easily fit in. Finds it difficult to conform to the measures he must take to avoid hurting anyone.
• Prince Waldemar- Nordin's evil twin brother and trustee of the estate

That's pretty much it. Please look at the linked hack above if you haven't already. I'll end by posting a couple floorplans I found that would have formed the basis of a couple of the dungeons:

Meeting of Four Lives (GLoG Class: Archer)

In certain uncertain times, the archer was a strange talisman. They enjoyed a sort of elite status in wartime, but were often drawn from the remote and lonely parts of the land, where to hunt was the lifeway. To kill from a distance is a powerful thing, and some say that our species became fully human in developing our brains to calculate the subtleties of throwing projectiles. To kill from a distance is a powerful thing, for that is what kings fear and what is murmured in the pubs and meeting halls of discontented yeomen.

As they say, the highest head may fall to the man who wields the bow.

art by Ernst Stückelberg

Class: Archer

+1 to-hit per level

Starting Items: 7' yew bow stored in a linen bow bag, jerkin of dusty lincoln green, quiver of twenty-four bodkin arrows with your signature crest and fletching (d6 damage), pen knife (d4 damage), a kettle helmet (AC 12), a dozen bowstrings squirreled away in the rest of your pack

• A: Four Lives, The Telling
• B: Air Time, Heavy Draw
• C: Grip Strength, Twenty Brothers
• D: Split Shot, Border Broken

Four Lives
You are not like other soldiers. You are the boundary stone between two fraternities— the world and its enemies. There are rites no one taught you, that no one else will ever see. You dispatch Death, and he reports on you. While in good standing, you can hear hollow spaces and always find good game. If you lose your good standing, someone will come to take your bow and middle fingers.

The Telling
Specify a dime-sized spot in space. Aim for one turn, then release on the next turn. Your projectile goes unerringly towards that spot.
In combat, you make ranged attacks with advantage.*

Air Time
By firing at extreme arcs, you can fire off attacks delayed by up to three rounds. With good planning, you can fire off three shots that all strike the same spot in the same round.

Heavy Draw
No one can draw your bow except archers of your level or better. You can fire arrows weighed down with ropes, bombs, or other things that normally wouldn’t fly.

Grip Strength
Your hands count as steel when it would be convenient to you.

Twenty Brothers
You know the slanders to mutter to your arrowheads to make them quarrelsome. They stick in your target, giving -1 to AC and saves per arrow sticking in them. Each arrow they may tear out in the midst of battle costs 1 hp.

Split Shot
By spending an extra 1d6 arrows, turn your normal shot into a 60’ line attack or 40’ cone of arrows

Border Broken
When the sun rises and before it falls below the horizon, you have twelve Judo Points. As you gain this ability, choose one of the Four Lives:

Cat: spend Points to add to rolls to sneak, to climb, or to snap.

Branch: spend Points to add to rolls to resist sunder attempts, to remain rooted, to navigate, or to bend without breaking.

Quarry: spend Points to add to rolls to throw someone, to dress a wound, or to slip out of grasp.

Man: spend Points to add to rolls to hit a target. One of the two fraternities embraces you and one rejects you. You are now like other soldiers.

Items Known to Archers

1. Sheath of 24 Broadhead Arrows- deal 1d8 damage. Dames don't like it when you call em broadheads.
2. 8 Cruelly Barbed Arrowheads- if you use these to hunt, lose your good standing. Causes constant bleeding, cannot be easily removed
3. Thick Quarterstaff- 1d10 damage, but slow.
4. 4' Horn Shortbow- fires less far, but better suited to riding. Allows for a Parthian shot as you retreat.
5. Caltraps- strung together in an irregular web for swiftness of deployment and removal. Called by hand-to-handers and cavaliers "caltrops."
6. Soldier's Rosary- shortened, to allow for quicker prayers.
7. Ring Bow- a bow with a small ring in the bowstring where an arrow would normally be nocked. This bow is paired with nockless, tapered-back arrows so that foes cannot collect the arrows to fire them back.
8. Flip Brassard- a hand tab designed to protect the hand from being hit by the string, equipped with a hinged buckler that can slot into place when the bow is set aside.
9. 5' Ash Recurve Bow- you could talk all night about relative draw strengths and so on, but for game purposes this is just as good as your yew bow, just a bit shorter. 
10. Trollhair Drawstring- never needs to be replaced and cannot be cut, except by a red-hot knife.
11. Homemade Flute- if you could make this, you know how make an arrow that screams.
12. Horn Armguard- works no better than a leather one, but swaggalicious.

*- thanks to Luna of Carrion Gods and their playtester for suggesting this.

Case Study: Brother GLoG

 I'm fond of saying that that each campaign should have its own ruleset, even if it's just a couple house rules you tack onto your favorite retroclone or GLoGhack. I also like to say that it's good when the ruleset, setting, and campaign format are enmeshed together. To try to give a practical example, I here attempt to record my thinking for a game I hope to run in the future.

Brother GLoG

Talking to my brother, we decided that it would be neat if we could play some kind of casual tabletop roleplaying game together. It's been a while since it was just us, and I like running dungeoncrawls but don't usually get the chance, while he is interested in playing dungeoncrawls but doesn't usually get the chance. However, there are big constraints on running a duet game any time in the next few years. We're both busy people, and between his job and parenting he can't reliably set aside time to come over and play. So any game we play would be best served by being something I could bring over to his place and run in desperate snatches between child-related interruptions, or while walking around the neighborhood.

The physical constraints of being something that I can carry around are big ones. I'm thinking of trying to fit most of my notes into my phone and sticking any maps or character sheets in a binder. For the dice, I'm imagining one of those hard, transparent plastic deck boxes, sealing inside a d20 and four differently-colored d6s. That way, I can just shake the box and look down it.

I don't want to go towards an ultralight ruleset for this project. I want to track things like dungeon Turns, torch durations, inventory, and other classic dungeoncrawling concerns. That's where a lot of the dungeoncrawling game is for me. For the ease of cultural touchstones, I think I'll focus my worldbuilding concept on a fantastic reimagination of Rennaisance Italy, one of my brother's most beloved historical periods. We can semirandomly generate more of the region in a country-as-dungeon format as we find the need. At first, I'll just put the PC(s) in an area near to the Incandescent Grottos (but Italian), Little Snake's Man's Cave, and the Meal of Oshregaal(io).

In theory, I could use some kind of B/X chassis, but it's been a while since I've run GLoG, and its class design, which features discrete and weighty abilities, appeals to me. (I may soon write a manifesto on the importance of weighty choices.)

Following with this goal, and hoping to eschew extra numbers, I plan to follow in the footsteps of Numbers Aren't Real's G20 and have primary attributes simply be ability modifiers, with no scores numbering 3-18. I'll also cut down the primary attributes into four scores for the same reason:

Fate: to spell saves

Luck: AC, getting picked on by the DM, XP modifiers 

Arete: to hit and damage, languages known  

Bravery: to HP, reaction and loyalty rolls, breaking down doors

To make a character, you roll a d6 for each primary attribute (which I will call ideals from this point on.) On a 1, it's -2. On a 2, it's a -1. On a 3 or 4, it's +0. On a 5, it's +1. On a 6, it's +2. Then, roll a d20 to determine your upbringing:

1-7 Subject: +1 Fate. Cannot ride horses or read 

8-13 Citizen: +1 Luck. Endless rivalries.

14-16 Foreign: +1 Arete. No legal standing. 

17-20 Noble: +1 Bravery. Endless obligations.

You start with 6 HP, 10 AC, equipment based on class, and a number of gold florins equal to what you rolled for your upbringing. All of this, including reaction rolls and saves and so on, are old hat for me and very little cognitive load.

Initiative: each round, the player declares what he wants his party to do, and the DM adjudicates it. Generally, ranged attacks and pikes strike first and spells go off last. Normal weapons deal 1d6 damage.

Combat: Actually, since I want to cut down on unneccessary rolling, screw AC, maybe I should try out oddomatic combat. Maybe all attacks hit outside of extreme circumstances, and you ignore damage rolls equal to your luck bonus or bonus from your armor. Let's go with that. This means that if there are 4 PCs and they all attack, my brother can just shake the plastic dice box once and get all four attacks

Armor: A shield negates damage rolls of 3. Fabric armor negates damage rolls of 4. Chain armor negates damage rolls of 5. Plate armor negates damage rolls of 6. Sometimes monsters or freaks will roll multiple damage dice. Armor negates all matching dice rolled.

Inventory: I kind of want to just say each PC gets 5 "equipped" slots and 15 "stored" stots. That's a lot of items for one person to track, so we will have to see if it works out.

Saves: You add the relevant ideal to a d20 roll, typically vs. 13.

Level up: at the rate of a BX fighter. Get +1 to saves and +1d6+Bravery HP.

Languages: I'll make my brother name and describe nearby countries as they come up, and say what monsters are famous for originating there. Thus a language is born. Quantum languages will be in play.

Format: as a frequently-interrupted dungeoncrawl, I don't want to plan too much for long downtimes except what can be done over discord between sessions. This is why I think I can probably manage something as complicated as B/X-style XP distribution can be-- it won't be reckoned during the face-to-face interaction. The classes will be designed with ease of memory in mind, and won't have a lot of dice pool mechanics. For simplicity, the only extra resource to track should be spells. I'll precommit that the mage class(es) will just have a number of spells per day, and magic dice will be absent. As cool as they are, and as central to GLoG, we won't remember how many dice were spent after weeks between sessions. We're more likely to be able to just tally spells as they are cast.

Starting Character Types

Magic weapons will only bear a mercenary, knight, slayer, augur, or angel to wield them, unless specifically for another type or something. No armor for mages or augurs. Dogs need armor that suits them. Multiclass freely, but you can only have four templates unless you do something crazy.

Try to infer why I went with some abilities and not others.

Mercenary (start with colorful leather armor, three torches, and a sword OR a pike and knife.)
A: +1 damage with weapons. You can treat your Fate as your Luck for saves, and vice-versa.
B: Appraise item value on sight. May break your weapon or armor to negate a d6 of damage.
C: When you lay low a foe, you may use an unused d6 in the dice box to attack someone else.
D: Determine an ethos. Your hirelings and retainers fall back on this ethos if they fail morale saves, and you can make a Luck or Fate save to get a hint, a feeling of certainty, along the lines of that ethos.

Knight (start with chain armor, a shield [with your arms], a lance, a charger, a misericorde, and a code)
A: +1 damage with melee weapons. When you charge or run someone down, roll an extra d6 of damage.
B: Even monstrous foes will try to treat with you, take you hostage rather than kill you, etc.
C: Your lance deals 4d6 damage on the charge.
D: You may take attacks meant for others nearby after seeing the results of the dice.

Slayer (start with a knife, a knife, a dagger, a swordbreaker, a theatre mask, a hood, and rope)
A: When you stab someone in the back, they make a Luck save or die.
B: When you wear a ceramic or wooden mask, no one can tell who you are. Climb silently and capably.
C: Climb at running speed. When you stab a monster in a vulnerable area, it must make a Fate save or suffer a dismemberment.
D: When you make a creature's face into a mask, it serves as a good disguise. If they weren't a humanoid you may need to add prostheses to be convincing.

Mage (start with a polearm, a signet ring, a crowbar, a lamp, and a mirror)
A: Cast 1 spell per day.
B: Cast 3 spells per day. Make scrolls.
C: Cast 6 spells per day.
D: Cast 10 spells per day.

Augur (start with three torches, a sharp knife, a drill, fabric regalia armor, and a holy symbol)
A: You can interpret horoscopes, predict the weather, assuage the undead (opposed 2d6 Fate saves), and slaughter kine for omens.
B: Cast 1 spell per day.
C: Cast 3 spells per day. Make curse tablets.
D: Cast 6 spells per day. Meditate for prophecies.

Angel (start with a charred scimitar, a flower, wine, and a harp)
A: Speak with plants and ark-descended animals. +1 damage with weapons.
B: Cast 1 spell per day. Immune to paralysis. Eyes like searchlights in the darkness. 
C: Cast 3 spells per day. You may attack a foe in melee twice, but they simultaneously get to attack you once.
D: Cast 6 spells per day. By meditating, you open your first eye and see through hidden corners, revealing hidden doors and secret passages.

Genius (start with a book on three topics of your choice, a telescope, a crossbow, bolts, hammer and chisel, a vial of acid, and a shield)
A: Detect construction tricks and understand art by scrutinizing an area. Sense your way in the dark.
B: Can direct labor to take half the time. Reduce the chance that the party is surprised by 1-in-6.
C: In combat, coach an ally to give them +1d6 damage.
D: Construct war machines of incredible potential. Discern between a room that is empty and one where the inhabitants are silent.

Dog (start with a collar. You're a special canine humanoid creature with clumsy hands and speech, like a mole in Redwall.)
A: Your bite deals damage like a weapon. You have impeccable smell out to 60'.
B: Detect air currents. Dig at crawling speed.
C: May enter a barking frenzy. Foes get -1 morale and you get +1 to all ideals. On a damage roll of 6, knock a target prone. If you get a 6 on a prone target, tear their throat out-- they must make an Arete save or die.
D: Track by smell at an arbitrary distance. Attain an instant canine spy network in any city or town you visit.

Producing Nothing By Accident Save Themselves (GL𝚫G Class: Fighter)

Hello again.

This "delta" class was designed to fit in with systems like B/X where there is still some slow form of advancement, and the cost of certain moves reflect that. If circumstances should make a requirement cheaper, that's absolutely fine. It was also designed with a "normal" campaign in mind, where a party of multiple PCs are going on adventures and delving into dungeon spaces together, so progressing along the path of the Conjurer is intended to dovetail into normal activities and into the downtime and management of gradually leveling D&D characters, as well as provide a few mysteries to unravel. The class is meant to try to "solve" some issues that can come up with delta advancement while inventing a satisfactory martial delta class. It does so by leaning into the numinous quality of fictional martial arts. Treat Adverse Conjuring moves as being magical in nature, and all that that implies.

This is a way of living and a way of killing. It is most often practiced by the destitute, the damaged, and the desperate, but being rich is no excuse. Adverse Conjuring is the art of perceiving something's purpose and reversing it. The purpose of a human being is to create life and nurture it.

The fighting moves of Adverse Conjuring cannot be done with a sword, unless it is a very strange sword. They can be done with the body. They can be done with a weapon descended from a tool— a flail, a knife, a warhammer, a staff.

Basic moves can be learned by any journeyman who is initiated into Adverse Conjuring. Specialist moves can be learned by any Conjurer who is taught by a mentor. Chaperon moves can be learned by any Conjurer who teaches others. Immortal moves are shrouded in mystery.

𝚫 - Initiation

Suffer a great loss, then in your despair crush something worth 100 gold coins. Spread its dust over a page and begin to write, letting your unconscious nature take hold of the quill. This becomes the first page of your fighting manual. If the great loss is reversed, start again.

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a journeyman and learn basic moves.

Basic

𝚫 - Black Bear Style

Crawl into the body of a creature that was slain by weapons, sleep the night, and crawl out. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and your fingers count as crowbars

𝚫 - Yuda's Eager Animus

Spend 500 gold coins to have a stone folly built in some defensible place, and fill it with warriors made of sticks or stacks of grain. Meditate in the folly overnight. If the folly is ever torn down, start again.

+1 to hit and untrained militias get +1 morale. They sometimes grin and don't know why.

𝚫 - Last Lunge

Slay an opponent while one of you is fleeing. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and you can do a forced march for an extra day before needing rest

𝚫 - Adverse Tool Art

Slay ten dangerous creatures with ten implements that have never taken a life before.

Weapons you wield deal at least 1d8 damage as long as you aren't speaking. If they do less because they're in poor condition, you can at least sunder them for one good strike.

𝚫 - Adverse Body Art

Slay a creature with a weapon, then slay another such creature with a tooth, claw, or other natural defense, then slay another such creature unarmed. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

Your unarmed strike deals 1d6 damage. You can use any part of the body to strike.

𝚫 - Shuddering Elk Style

Spend a week and 200 gold throwing coins into the air and attempting to slice two in half with the same stroke. The first time you succeed, each coin turns into a gib of flesh.

At the start of a combat, you may scream in a special way so that blood leaks down your throat. During that combat, if your first melee strike each round would slay a foe, make a free attack against another foe. 

𝚫 - Eribo's Potent Resort

Let an enemy attack you three times before striking back, then slay them. Bury their weapon. If the weapon is recovered, start again.

You may take a penalty to an attack roll to get a corresponding bonus to your damage roll. If the penalty is more than 5, rolling a natural 20 is not an automatic success.

𝚫 - Vool's Iron Enlightenment

Learn the recipe for the salve against iron, hidden away in libraries and the minds of balking sages. Concoct the salve with ingredients worth 1,000 gold coins. Cover your body and leap into a vat of liquid-hot iron.

If the salve was properly made and applied, you survive unharmed. Emerge with a tranquil form— eyes that cannot betray age nor lies, hair full and strong, perfect stillness, and +2 Wisdom.

𝚫 - Kestrel Stride

Spend three days whispering spells into bird-skin boots worth 200 gold coins.

Run along vertical surfaces for up to 15 feet, then jump in any direction.

𝚫 - Whispered Warning Compact

Help a ghost or other spirit find their eternal rest, or bottle an imp and reduce its fat to fluid and drink it.

When in an established marching order, you can move from the middle to the front or the back in an instant as soon as initiative is rolled.

𝚫 - White-Tail Deer Step

Spare a foe, then later suffer an attack from them. Steal and wear their belt, or make one from their remains.

When lost, reduce the chance of getting ambushed by 1-in-6. You can ditch the belt by the way, the spell doesn't need you to wear it constantly.

𝚫 - Eribo's Levity

Spend a month meditating on the movement of fish or of birds. Encode the results into your fighting manual.

You can swim with a weapon in your hand and light armor on without penalty.

𝚫 - Second Initiation

Find a mentor. Suffer under their tutelage for at least a full season. Fulfill the task they give you upon your leaving

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a "brown sash" and learn specialist moves.

Specialist

𝚫 - Aligning Adverse Purpose

Find a blacksmith who will teach you for a full week. At the end of that time, create a weapon.

+1 to hit and you can serve as a blacksmith. You can use Adverse Conjuring moves with swords you create.

𝚫 - Yuda's Energetic Apprehension

Intuit a grand ritual that requires materials worth 4,000 gold coins, one week, and a place where many have died.

Meet Death. It is like the first meeting of long-time long-distance friends. +1 to hit and mercenaries get +1 morale. You sometimes grin and don't notice.

𝚫 - Cougar Forms

Wrestle a predator larger than you into submission. Encode your findings in your fighting manual.

+1 to hit, and +5 movement in pursuits. You can run on all fours even with your hands full.

𝚫 - Conjure Breath

Swallow a magical creature whole.

+1 to hit and your spit flickers in unwholesome air, warning you of subtle gasses and poisons.

𝚫 - Possum's Hindsight

Construct a Gate of Hate over the course of a month with magical materials worth 4,000 gold coins. Enter it, then return alive.

+1 to hit and when you trigger a trap, you may make a free attack against it

𝚫 - Detect Unseen

Spend a week in the untamed underworld, listening carefully.

+1 to hit and when you can't see you can attack adjacent foes without penalty

𝚫 - Obverse Body Art

Undergo an obscure surgical procedure that only the old-time shamans know. It will entail a week of recovery, and costs 2,000 gold coins— a traditional price that was more than a king's ransom when it was set.

You are given a small bag, made from some internal organ and containing strange organic shapes, arcane sands, and buds which make you numb in certain parts of your body when you touch them. By consulting the bag, you (the PC) can learn any detail of yourself that could be found on your character sheet, taking any numbers as intuitive and difficult to articulate but precise in understanding.

𝚫 - Communion of the Rotting Elk

Slay two creatures in one instant with Shuddering Elk Style. Collect 200 gibs of flesh from 200 different creatures and leave them as a gift in the forest. 

Your patron will speak with you. If you survive, your flesh is enchanted. Each time you slay a creature with Shuddering Elk style, you can make a new attack again and again as long as you keep slaying. Those who can detect magic see you as possessing necromantic energy.

𝚫 - Vool's Name

Build a tower as high as you can, worth at least 10,000 gold coins. Let lightning run through it to strike you. The scream you make has a familiar cadence to it.

Grow up to seven grasping tendrils. Bleed navy blue blood. You become immune to lightning thrown by less powerful beings than yourself. (Everyday lightning angels have 6 HD)

𝚫 - Reverse Body Art

Conduct a grand ritual that spans three months and dozens of accomplices, costing at least 20,000 gold coins, spanning a miles-long occult shape. You need not attend to the ritual every day, but must maintain oversight between any adventures, and you must be in the center of the occult shape when your day of glory arrives.

Acquire a monstrous form— much taller, oddly textured, joints rearranged, hair melting into something else, and +2 Strength. You can use weapons designed for larger creatures and count as an angel, dragon, or demon when convenient.

𝚫 - Condor Step

Fall 100 feet and survive.

Double jump

𝚫 - Adverse Body Alignment

Slay a 4+ HD creature with a weapon, then slay another such creature with a tooth, claw, or other natural defense, then slay another such creature unarmed. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

Your body deals 1d8 damage when used to attack.

𝚫 - Catch Death

Seek the woman who offered the wineskin to Vool and learn its secret.

When struck by a killing blow, you have a [damage]% chance of ignoring all harm and negative effects by grabbing your escaping spirit and swallowing it. Bleed neon green blood.

𝚫 - Third Initiation

Find students. Make them suffer under your tutelage for at least a season. Give them tasks as they leave. One must succeed and another must fail.

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a master and learn chaperon moves.

Chaperon

𝚫 - Manatee Maneuver

Oversee the construction of well-engineered defenses worth at least 5,000 gold coins, study the work, and encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and when convenient you count as riding a camel for purposes of speed, overland travel, mass, etc.

𝚫 - Mustang-Footed Launch

Lead an army with expenses equaling at least 2,000 gold coins per month into a battle to the death, then collect objects belonging to the fallen and bury them near your home.

+1 to hit, and a single kick can jam a door open or shut as with an iron spike

𝚫 - Adverse Profanity Art

Forge an evil, intelligent magical weapon worth at least 6,000 gold coins. If it is destroyed, start again.

+1 to hit and your palms and heels count as holy symbols

𝚫 - Yuda's Folly

Construct an academy worth at least 30,000 gold coins, dedicated to the teaching of Adverse Conjuring. After a season, encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and students get +1 morale. 1d6 level 0 students will arrive each month as long as you have capacity for more.

𝚫 - Name Fear

Bring 12,000 gold coins in tribute to the Queen within the Gates of Hate— a traditional price that was less than a scribe's yearly wage when it was set.

+1 to hit and monsters you fight have a maximum morale of 9. You know the name of fear.

𝚫 - Wield Death

Find the person behind the person behind the person who made you suffer your first great loss and put them into your power.

When a longtime friend, party member, or true innocent dies despite your attempts to aid them, your weapons and eyes glow and you do double damage.

𝚫 - Eribo's Gift

Save Eribo

You can see HD.

𝚫 - Dancing Elk Style

Flense the flesh from your head and somehow survive for 1 hour

You are immune to the negative effects of flensing your head. Each time you slay a foe in melee, you can give a rattling shriek to fly up to 30 feet to strike at another foe.

𝚫 - Divine Nature

Remake the throne of Idi. This takes 4,000 gold coins in materials and 10,000 gold coins in research. If it is resundered, start again.

Sense when your name is spoken. Bleed neon pink blood.

𝚫 - Synthesis Body Art

Slay Vool and embed the gem. For reasons that will become clear, this will cost at least 40,000 gold coins.

Acquire an androgynous, immaculate form. +2 Cha.

𝚫 - Wolf Spider Sprint

Wrap a Conjurer's body in fine wrappings worth 4,000 gold coins. Bury them in a box worth 4,000 gold coins. If they were alive at the time, defeat their shade.

As long as you run at full speed, you can run up walls and along ceilings. Sharp turns would be an issue for you. If you defeated their shade, get +1 Dexterity.

𝚫 - Besting Yuda

Trick a student of at least half your level into striking you with a killing intent. Best them. Encode your findings in your fighting manual.

You take minimum damage from falling.

𝚫 - Refute the Socratic Method

Destroy your fighting manual. Drink deadly poison but somehow survive. If you start a new fighting manual, start again. Your body deals 2d6 damage, exploding. Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may not refer to yourself. You may learn immortal moves.