Under the Evening Moon I Keep on Killing Mosquitoes (Cloak and Sword Scenario)

An introductory adventure for any number of Cloak and Sword PCs, that should be a good start to a long campaign or a simple one-shot. The DM should be explicit that conflict between PCs is likely and remind them not to optimize the fun out of it. They may then make the classic joke that anyone who gets their PC killed in the most spectacular and stylish way gets a bonus level for their next PC.

When making characters for the scenario, the DM tells the players that their characters have been condemned to death by the crown, and that they should decide for themselves what crime they have been condemned for, whether they are guilty, and who they might blame for their arrest. However, it is their good fortune to have been entrusted to the mysterious Lord D'Reveville, who holds a grand ball for the condemned and always pardons one, sparing them and absolving them of their crime.

Treated courteously by their captors on the way to Reveville, every PC who is not an out-and-out chansel is offered a choice— if they agree to abide by the rules of courtesy in the lord's house, to not attempt an escape by violence or vandalism, and to injure no one in a dishonorable way, they will be given freedom to move within the palace, allowed to carry their arms, and participate fully in the festivities in their honor.

The Host- D'Reveville. A stalwart lord trusted by the king for decades. He is an elfin-featured fay of the satisfaction at revelation of a secret. The secret he nurses best is his resentment of the king, and he intends to use his pardon this year in the way he thinks will most likely result in the king's assassination, though he is too cautious to explicitly offer a quid pro quo.

While in his palace, he can move as fast as the wind and knows the movement of all notable figures. He will not break his word or act improperly. He is beautiful, an inhuman mystery who always seems about to unmask, even when his face is uncovered. If his palace burns, so does he.

Upon arriving at the palace, the prisoners are given quarters commensurate to their station, fine clothing and their effects, and some time to rest. The lord visits them and shares that his daughter and two other maidens will be using this ball as their official "coming out" into polite society, and reminds them of their oaths. To those who have not taken the oath, he reminds them that there are many guards and high walls, and that they will be watched carefully. The prisoners have the night to rest, plan, and size each other up.

The Grand Ball

During each event, each PC can either participate directly and squeeze a quick task in on the side (e.g. spying on someone else, conspiring, searching part of the palace), or shirk the event and perform up to two tasks. When participating, each PC or group of PCs has a 3-in-6 chance of being engaged by a random Chance Encounter. When performing another task, they have a 1-in-6 of running into a Chance Encounter, and are automatically spotted unless they have taken precautions. Many guards ring the perimeter and the main areas, so assume they notice anyone's presence at an event or along an obvious escape vector. Two guards follow any prisoners who haven't sworn an oath of good conduct at all times.

D6/d10 Chance Encounter

Roll a d6 when you just want a prisoner, a d4+6 when you want someone else, or a d10 when it could be anyone. If an encounter doesn't seem physically possible, have them emerge from a secret passage or have the Host arrive in a jumpscare.

1. The Angel- Michel. A pacifistic detenu desperate to win the Host's favor and get out of this situation, but afraid to promise too much. Certain that if he can stick around long enough, his star will rise. Condemned for refusing conscription during an invasion. Family D, Virility C. Hard preference for killers.

2. The Diplomatist- Fortimond. A charming people-pleaser. Wishes there was a way to cooperate his way out of this. Remembers an old story about a secret tunnel out of the palace. Condemned on trumped-up treason charges by his elder brother Fortilinus. Family A-, Virility W

3. The Spaniard- Jualome. Hates everyone here, and would really like an honorable reason to puncture a couple Frenchies on the way down. Actually very perceptive and witty. Condemned for serial murder after breaches of dueling etiquette. Family D+, Virility Q. Soft preference for Spaniards.

4. The Wolf- Jezebel. Energetic, but in this situation frantic. Cannot help being friendly, cannot help standing out. She seeks vindication, the acknowledgement that it is not fair that she was put in this situation, even if she is not spared. Condemned for grand fraud following a disastrous investment scheme. Family C-, Fertility M. Soft preference for men.

5. The Sorcerer- Job. Straightforward and hard-working Huguenot rustic, overwhelmed by all this splendor and popery. Wants to see you all burn. The only one of the prisoner NPCs not trusted to keep an oath of good conduct, and laden down with chains. If ever freed, knows the Grace Ignite. Condemned for heresy. Family F-, Fertility J (but chaste). Hard preference for non-nobles. Soft preference for Huguenots.

6. The Duelist- L'Haineuse. A swordswoman always masked in thick iron. Unbeknownst to anyone here but the Host, she is his bastard daughter, and wishes to kill the Debutante to impress him. Poor conversationalist. Framed herself for murder to get here. Family B, Fertility N. Hard preference for women.

7. The Debutante- Mensante. Beautiful young woman, the daughter of D'Reveville and a mother recently deceased. The beneficiary of numerous tutors, she is a polymath and insightful study. Lacking experience and companionship, she desires greatly to leave her father's unfulfilling guardianship. Ultimately, she wants to kill her father in revenge for her mother. Family B, Fertility B.

8. The Lush- Aursia, a close friend of the Debutante. Confident and self-directed, she is cripplingly dependent on the Host's Oakwood brandy, and though she is quick to offer love, she cannot be constant. Family C+, Fertility K. Hard preference for men.

9. The Wallflower- Eorda. Practical, but definitely a third-string debutante. Unrefined and likely to believe lies. Family C, Fertility U.

10. The Captain- Couldred. Long-time undramatic captain of the guard of the Reveville estate. Grim and proper, she senses that the Host no longer takes her into his confidence, not knowing that this is because he seeks to destroy the king, while she is a great patriot. Family F+, Fertility A (somehow). Soft preference for anyone with a pulse (touch-starved).

Event Itinerary

This itinerary describes the default actions of the NPCs, so change them as you will. Don't feel the need to describe every character's actions all the time, but be free with it, especially when PCs are paying attention to them.

Games: An abrupt start with the lord, prisoners, captain, and various minor guests. Charades, yes-and-no, and other parlor games. The Diplomatist and the Angel attempt to play earnestly. The Sorcerer uses the games to make politically insensitive jokes. The Spaniard, Wolf, and Duelist stand around awkwardly. If the players really want to play out a couple rounds of yes-and-no, have the lord do some foreshadowing with his answers: a portrait, a tunnel, a spy.

Presentation: The three maidens are presented in identical off-white gowns, with no indication of which is the lord's daughter. Fanfare as the band strikes up, and drinks are dispersed. The Duelist spots the Debutante and flees to the library, overcome with anger. The Wolf tries to talk the Debutante into intervening on her own behalf. The Spaniard feigns interest in the Lush in order to make a scene and have an excuse to duel someone. The Diplomatist comforts the clearly nervous Wallflower. If PCs want to get positive attention from a maiden, they will have competition. The Sorcerer stands at the edge of things and pretends everybody stinks. The Angel approaches the least-busy looking PC and asks if they'll collaborate to find a way out of here. The Captain and the Host keep an eye on things.

Open Mingling: The Debutante comforts the Lush, and the Wallflower swoons over an uninterested Duelist. The Sorcerer brokers an alliance with the Spaniard. The Diplomatist inspects the garden. The Wolf begs for clemency from the Host before despondently trying to provoke someone into insulting her so she can duel then and increase her chances. Everyone else sort of floats around and tries to enjoy themselves.

Dancing: The maidens give their first dance to whoever has made the best impression on them, but PCs can wheedle at the last moment. If you have your first dance with a maiden, you both save or hold Esprit for the other, and the maiden gets -2 to saves vs love. Each dancing PC has a 1-in-6 chance of bumping into the Spaniard due to his unfamiliar dancing style, for which he will challenge them to a duel.

Dinner: Everyone has a tense meal— niçoise salad, roast cauliflower, and eel de parsley, paired with an exquisite 1474 Cerevino white. For desert, blueberry souffle, fresh berries, and a 1608 desert red. The Duelist stares daggers at the debutante.

Meander: The guests perform a digestive constitutional. Maidens infatuated with anyone will exhort them to attempt escape. If she is not infatuated with anyone, the debutante will try to convince a PC to try to kill her father. Meanwhile, the Duelist follows her, waiting for a chance to make an attempt on her life. The Spaniard contrives an excuse to duel the Captain, and if he survives, he retrieves the key to the Sorcerer's chains and frees him to start burning the palace down.

Speeches: Everyone present is invited to give a short speech on any topic they like. The Sorcerer gives a speech on why being catholic is gay, but is cut off. The Diplomatist speaks on the value of discretion. The Angel speaks on the nature of harmony. The Debutante compares those who make their own fortune with those who rely on their ancestral name. The Host offers a cryptic parable that sounds like it summarizes the events of the night.

Imprisonment: The prisoners are returned to their cells, and the host announces who he shall spare. If the PCs have gotten to this point, they're probably in serious trouble. The end!

Palace Layout

Among countless bechambers, hallways, and other features, the palace has the following locations:

Ballroom: Site of the majority of events, where NPCs can usually be found when they're not specifically somewhere else.

Feast Hall: Site of dinner and speeches

Cellar: Where the wine is kept, as well as bricks and mortar. A recently redone section of wall covers up an alcove containing a model of the palace, covered in the Host's blood and arcane writings. Anyone magical or possessing a college education can decipher the writing to learn that this was the site of a ritual binding the Host to the palace; damage done to the building is done proportionally to him, and his perfect knowledge of where people are does not extend past its walls.

Garden: Exquisite topiary, a beautiful gazebo, and austere statues of the great investigators of history— Elijah and a priest of Baal measuring the flames of their pyres, Thomas inspecting Jesus's wounds, and Friar William of Bookman. Probing the wound in Jesus's hand presses a hidden switch, which sends a rumbling thrum through the ground…

Oubliette: Just a hedge wall out from the garden is a deep hole in the ground, with a knotted rope bolted next to it for climbing in and out. Unless distracted, the Host will sense if people are messing around in the hole and come to call them back. One brick is carved with a message "ToM PoINts tHE WAy," If the hidden button in the garden has been pushed, a small lid pops open, leading to a secret tunnel that lets out in a lime kiln a quarter mile outside the palace.

Eyrie: Various messenger pigeons. One, just arrived, bears a message from Olivia of Monfor, the queen's handmaid, accepting the Host's offer of an exchange of information and asking to set up a covert rendezvous. To agents of the king, this would be taken as evidence of treason.

D'Reveville's Chambers: Hidden in his bedframe is a journal, evidently started somewhat recently. In addition to some so-so poetry, he expresses regret about an old pact he made with a fay of the winter court, granting him power but making him obedient to everyone who knows his first name, since he believes in time he would have accumulated that power on his own.

Library: Portrait on the wall that much resembles the Host. Small inscription reading "Medouin L'Fay, first lord of Reveville. By a chair sits a book on the D'Reveville family (frequently studied by the Debutante) providing a family tree from the first fay given form through the ages, though none of the lords are listed as having more than one child, nor a mother, until Melien married Mendred to sire Mensante. If the Host is addressed as Medouin, he must obey all commands but will quickly try to kill the offender and regain control if not prevented. If addressed as Melien, he is not compelled as this is just his latest alias, but he will be aware of what they are attempting and make sure to punish them.

(Satisfying deus ex parabola's Glaugust prompt "Random Encounter Table: Dangerous Badass About To Be Executed" and Gokun's prompt "Debutante ball encounter table".)

Tolkenor, the Border Isle

 It is a time of concord. It is a time of discord. Peace has finally come between the thousand warring lords of Alba, but it was not won through friendship. A warlord holds the pope for a hostage, and all the great isles hold their breath. Meanwhile, hundreds of unemployed retainers and thousands of disloyal soldiers turn to brigandry on the waves or the hardscrabble life of the wanderer, as news of wealth and horror from farther and farther lands marks a new age of conquest, expansion, and misery.

Shadow Hunters (1972)

(This regioncrawl was written to accommodate the Masters of the Strait gloghack)

Click here for the regioncrawl, or read on for some reflections on it.

rare photo of Errol Flynn playing a pirate

Reflections:

• As always, I'm glad I included the little details that make the relationship between the ruleset and the world strong-- making sure to include dogs if there's a dog language PCs can learn, exc. But I could have gone a lot harder in that, and it would have gone well I think.
• As a setting, Tolkenor has plenty of danger, wonder, and political-dramatic potential, but it lacks an overarching crisis that makes everything doubly precarious and animates all the best settings. A massive invasion, or outright domestic crisis of some sort.
• Perhaps more overt risk to the life of piracy, or the end of nobility or something. Inspiration from the source material. Why isn't a snooty bureaucrat on the brink of gathering a massive fleet to shoot every outlaw in the head with a cannon?
• Glad I have those little harbor marks on the border connections between land and ocean. That's a step over previous efforts.
• There should be way more connection between regions. PCs following each lead should feel blown around.
• There should be way more interactivity. More buttons that make regions explode, or move, or something. I've done better at that before.
• If I was about to run a Tolkenor campaign, I'd put more work into making a generator for making regions on the fly. Like Josie's stocking procedure, but with a table of elements and themes particular to the setting.
• Coming up with spirits on the fly on a per-region basis is fine, but if spirits are going to be local powers, I'd like some of them to feel as present as some of the political powers. That would give priests and religious events a feeling of actuality.

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:

Scenario: the Redoubt of the Storm-Laden Princess

Succession-anxiety roils under the skin of society. We are accustomed to peace and have forgotten the value of harmonious prosperity as it is hollowed out in its own name. Our ancestors felt fear, knew it in the sharp edge of their minds, when the killers that ruled them set to feuding or when their future master was unknown. Many were accustomed to horrible news from afar, followed by cruel acts done along the roads and fields where they had lived their whole lives. 

You can understand why a common person 500 years ago might be invested in the peaceful transition of power, even if their tyrant otherwise had very little to do with them. The center can twist the edges of things.

An Empty Feast (Scenario)

"Feasts" for GLoGtober 2022

This small scenario is designed to be easily slotted into any settlement with a ruler, and should be modified to fit the setting into which it is placed. It relies on a proactive DM who constantly asks "what clever thing could the antagonist do now?" and "what boneheaded thing could another NPC do now?"

By custom, travelers are allowed to sit at the lord's table and partake of his hospitality. No one will tell the PCs, but they have come at an inauspicious time. It will certainly not seem that way. Servants laden with great hobtrays of pie, honeyed pears, dandelion cordial, beetroot and tuber stew, mineral wines, hot spiced ale and hot spiced apples, and sprigs of mint hustle to and fro.

And yet all fear the worst. By ancient accord, the lord invites the sorceress of the monument to all great events as a formality. Horror of horrors, she has actually shown up for this feast. Local peasants know she brings famine and winter, and local aristocracy know she brings delay, ruin, and war.

After a hearty greeting and warning to avoid her, the party will be feted and feasted to their heart's content. Alas, during the merriment and glee of after-dinner parlor games, one of the lord's knights (Movahi, the denial knight. Or, a hand sable) is found killed, a deep stab wound in his throat. The lord commands the exits sealed until the murderer is found, pretending he does not already know the devil-sent sorceress has wronged him so.

What Is Actually Happening
One of the lord's knights, Sir Uq, recovered an ornate dagger in battle. Intending to bring it as a gift, he has unknowingly fallen prey to its curse. While so afflicted, he will periodically turn into the anti-paladin Artoblax, and she will murder a knight if she can before rebecoming Sir Uq. The deceased knight may later rise as a minor servant to do her bidding, and this will continue until they eventually kill everyone in the castle except the sorceress, or until stopped by the party.

All the rest is emergent from the PCs and NPCs. Natural clues suggest themselves-- someone recalls seeing a woman they've never seen before flee the scene of a murder with a bloodied weapon, Sir Uq's whereabouts are never accounted for during a murder, the rising dead suggest the supernatural is afoot, Uq is carrying around a weird dagger all the time now, the sorceress seems mostly uninterested in events.

The dagger is a lacquered misericord named Uncaring Earth. Its owner transforms periodically into a woman with wine-dark hair and dark puissance, unaware of their horrible fate.

The presumed procession of events is that knights will keep turning up dead, slain by Artoblax, until either stopped by the PCs or until an unruly gang of the lords cousins witch hunt their way out of the problem. The PCs will not be initially allowed to escape this situation, but if they somehow manage to flee this will make them highly suspicious to stupid and powerful people.

Inhabitants of the Castle

• The Lord and his immediate family
• His 3d8 useless cousins and relations. Ready to form the basis of a nobler form of angry mob.
• His staff of 20 servants, so busy with their duties that they can't stop for long.
• The sorceress of the monument. An immortal with spells like STILL and FORGET and BURY and REAVE. You may have met her before. She recognizes what is happening because it was she who forged Uncaring Earth long ago. She knows she is in no danger and is not in the business of saving others.
• Uq, the beloved knight. Chequy argent and azure, a Cockerel proper. Cursed by Uncaring Earth. Attended by five ride-or-die hobbit squires. Friendly and proactive, and will be heartbroken to learn of his horrible fate.
• Wields the +1 cruciform sword Qayus. Those who swear by the blade by abide the terms of their surrender.
• Adgai, the holy knight. Gules, on a bar or a Key gules. Humble, sometimes severe. Will take his cues from the lord and stay out of the way. His guest is Izceud, a cleric from foreign lands, whom he is trying to drill about theology. The cleric, more of a clerk, humors his questions by feigning spiritual knowledge.
• Wears the White Favor Cockade. Negates the first curse that afflicts the wearer, then immolates like paper over a candle.
• Eprebon, the knight prosperous. Sable, a Skeleton proper grasping a Flail gules handle pointed sinister-chief-wise and head pointed to base. Unattended, but greases the palms of the lord's staff to ensure he's taken care of. Players may suspect him because he talks with a rich person voice. Knows the feats of all his fellows.
• Wields enough gold to make a peasant a baronet, or a third-degree mason.
• Cijaejo, the knight of the vow. Per fess argent and vert a leafless tree Sable. Enjoying a yearlong vow of silence. As time goes on, may come to learn something incredibly important. No, he does not consider writing to accord with the strictures of his vow.
• Armored with poverty, which if you think of it is the greatest object of all.
• Ivna, the legacy knight. Vert, a chevron argent. In chief, three Plates. Proactively tells you that she couldn't have done any horrible crime because of how great her bloodline is. Very suspicious of this commoner witch. Nevertheless obliges all request for help from her lessers.
  
• Wears the shrunken relic-head of her line's great founder, who was master of the Swans to the great king Schmarlemagne. Ancient beings consider this a big deal.
• Apoudaq, the feral fool. Argent, a shield of Apoudaq inverted (purpur, a Lion couard, tongue vert). A penitent who was stripped of his title and honor after rebelling against the lord when his uncle tried to usurp the throne. Base and abrasive, but decent. A good tracker. Attended by two elves who are definitely not his lovers.
• Carries the Token of the Elf"friend", which confers a +1 reaction bonus with woodland creatures.

If the party manages to resolve this issue, the Lord will grant them a tax holiday as well as one of the fallen knight's notable items. If there is a living knight, they will also grant a significant item to the party in thanks.

If the party screw this situation up too much, there will be just enough chaos and rioting for the local bandit duchess to don a set of potmetal plate, declare herself a Black Knight, and go a-conquering.

(Both outcomes may occur.)

The Holiday One-Shot

1. Find a random map of a small dungeon. One from an old game you ran, or one of Dyson's Delves.

2. Tell the players that the Krampus has stolen all the village children and only they can get them back.

3. Use the following encounter table:

d8 Holiday Encounters

     1. The Devil (Dutch)

     2. d4 magi

     3. Little elves

     4. Herodian baby-hunters

     5. Mari Lywd (seeks food and booze, foiled by riddles and songs)

     6. Father Christmas (roll a d9 for alignment signified by robe color. May have a gift for every PC)

     7. IDF Merkava (crew of 4)

     8. Angel

4. Put the Krampus at the end of the dungeon. HD equal to the party's total levels. Uses a whip and horns or tries to scoop someone up in his sack.

Scenario: the Refutionary

 Exercising the old brain-muscles with a short scenario. This is meant to take place over a few months of downtime, perhaps while the player characters are pursuing their own domestic projects. The structure of the scenario involves two sets of progression: one is time and the other is escalation. If the PCs don't interact much with events, they will eventually become unavoidable. If they brutishly slay their way through the initial stages, matters will escalate. I also want to practice building in the potential for catastrophe.

Timeline

A stranger came to your island in the latter days of the winter, not noble or wealthy but with a strange assurance of import. A magician, some said. A refutionary, he said-- someone hired to defend someone in legal disputes. He says he is a Canuanite, and that's why his law is not our law.

If a player character is a person of repute, he will beg their hospitality for the year. If they refuse, he will find hospitality from another house or live in the wilds, and the PC's business enterprises will suffer a divinely-ordained freak accident. (Socu-worshipers are pretty much obliged to oblige him.)

Come spring, strange folk will come to the island, having chartered the skimp Storm's Eye. Their skin is the pallor of ash, they wear dark robes, and their intense mien is unlike any found in known society. They announce every movement before them make them, and are clumsy, yet the cloy of magic is heavy on them. They seek the refutionary, offering payment to those who assist them. If the refutionary is a PC's guest, he will beg sanctuary against them, claiming they seek an item in his rightful possession. If asked why they seek him, they claim he stole an article of their faith. Both parties will be as vague as possible. 

The object is the Eye of Aygerim, a ball of cinnabar that the refutionary inherited from his mother. He is aware that it can be used to occult objects, hiding them to be retrieved later. It essentially functions like a bag of holding, if a bag of holding sent your gear to god's storeroom for the endtimes. He does not know that it contains a trapped giant, Körwşi, who will be freed if the orb is broken open.

• If the PCs assist the refutionary: the strange folk will make one major attempt to steal the orb, and if that fails they will flee the island and its justice. 
• If the PCs accede to the strange folk: the refutionary will flee if possible but will not initiate violence, and can be manhandled into giving up the Eye before going out to the wilds to live in isolation. When they have the Eye, the strange folk depart on Storm's Eye.
• If the PCs don't conclusively assist one or the other: the refutionary will have been able to escape to the wilds and live in hiding, with the strange folk staying on the island to seek him out. 

Come summer, a sinkhole tears apart a shepherd's field (temporarily imperiling a pair of adorable sheep.) Below is a heretofore unknown complex, and won't someone go down there and check it out? Even if the PCs don't want to enter this spooky dungeon, ask if they want to play the 0-level gravediggers and clowns that get stuck with it. 

This "complex" was an ancient headwoman's hall, its semi-labyrinthine layout a result of inferior architectural methods requiring many load-bearing walls. (For layout, overcomplicate a map of a a PC's or player's home.) Fossilized wooden beams still bear simple depictions of mountains, winged serpents, and seaborn rafts. Stony bones of two figures, huddled together. A bone knife. The tatters of a strange knitten tabbard that once held polished bronze discs. 

The basement of this complex is an open space, containing many basins of faintly glowing green goo. You really have to weave around these basins to get across the room, not what you'd want to do while someone threw stones at you. I don't know what this goo does to you, but I know it requires a save vs. death.

This, with more goo

• Inscribed on a faded tapestry over the far wall is the spell NAPALM RAIN, a curse of mass destruction. If the refutionary is still alive, the PCs may find him here with a small pile of rocks, trying to decode the spell's contents. If the PCs try to deny him access to it, he will occult it with the Eye and try to negotiate with them, casting the spell blindly if violence seems inevitable.
• If the strange folk are still on the island, they will linger around the sinkhole on the assumption it may have something to do with the refutionary. They will recognize the tapestry's power, and if they can acquire it the most morally dubious (but not outright antagonistic) port the islanders know of will be blasted to ruin by fiery flames.

Come autumn, the strange folk return, Storm's Eye full of partisans and and Becalmer, a line-zoa containing a prominent agtree judge and her family. They come to seize the Eye or anything discovered in the underground complex through traditional law. The line-zoa cannot legally port without permission of the island, since it is a war-ready vessel.

The agtree judge, Uden Baptizer, is widely recognized as impartial in matters of justice, though she has a tendency to exile those who attempt to subvert her.

• If the refutionary is still alive, he will offer his services as a defendant and defense. The strange folk have recognized legal documentation of the Eye's significance to them, and have a religious mandate of stewardship of truly dangerous artifacts. Their case may be harmed by their previous actions in the scenario.

• If forced to give up the Eye, the refutionary will first break it.

Escalation

• If the refutionary dies: two of his lovers, basically unaware of each other, separately arrive the next season to avenge him and figure out what he was trying to do with the Eye on this island. A hard task, since he was just trying to lay low and procrastinate.
• If the strange folk die: The port of Posmatrač, which apparently has been sponsoring the strange folk's order, begins conducting war raids against the island. Most of their fleet are unarmored rebgraves, but they have access to certain weapons the strange folk sought to hide from the world: a great lens that uses sunlight to boil zoas, an aquatic vampire, and a basketball-sized orb of uranium. Their delegations will also take the role of the strange folk in future seasons.
• If Körwşi is unleashed: he will act like he owns the place and issue orders to the PCs and other leaders. A succession of wacko mercenaries will turn up on the island to make trouble and eventually fight him.
• If Körwşi is killed: Wow! You did it! His skeleton hatches from his body and sprints into the ocean. His flesh becomes lions that flee into the wilderness. His eyes shoot away and become patches of quicksand. Only his heart will remain.
• If an island is destroyed by Napalm and the perpetrators are Socu Worshippers: a sect of Guian priests will come in secret to the island to work revolution.
• If an island is destroyed by Napalm and the perpetrators are Dodkulists: An embargo is placed by most major Dodkulist ports on the perpetrators. The next conclave of priests (held every ~5 years) will meet to decide whether to extend the embargo and whether other actions must be taken.
• If Uden Baptizer is killed: the apparent perpetrator is exiled in the eyes of devout members of the agtree sect. While in a center of Socu's faith, there is a 50% chance each season that someone will challenge you to a duel, diminishing by 10% for each duel or court case won.

Characters

Teodor, Refutionary: Malsani Barbarian 1. (fights perfectly in darkness, reads lips, and signs, master economist, can speak to trees, sleep comfortably in all circumstances, doesn't understand war, hatred is infectious to him, doesn't understand sexual reproduction, faceblind)

• Bears the Eye of Aygerim (domain: perspective.)
• Carries copious amounts of kruber, a strong dill beer.
• Only weapon is a kirpan with "votelain" inscribed in silver on the blade; this is an archaic/legal term meaning comfort or ease.
• has a wire brush for personal grooming.

The Order of the Eye is of occult origins, but claims to have studied miracles in God's whirlpools for well over a thousand years. They set themselves against Resativa, a body of unconscious beliefs which people have little power to change and which promote egocentrism. They come from the Vergarites, but are not initiated into the deeper mysteries of that sect.

They tend to leave out the tale of their origins, for it betrays their great weakness. Concealed beneath their robes, each has a great eye filling their chest, and it is this eye which controls their body, save for their head and neck which is controlled by their heads. This is why they narrate their actions and are seen as clumsy-- their head must tell their chest-eye what is before them. Each carries a walking staff to feel their way forward as well, but are careful to conceal this intent from outsiders.

Each member of the order is tyrannously strong (Str 18, etc.), but in combat take penalties for being blind, even as their head mutters directions.

ThAKNHSThA, Abbess of the Eye: Sanx Cleric 2/Magician 1. Hers is a common acronymic name. It is short for "The arm knows not how sure the aim." Knows the spells Eye Lasers, Snakelike Jaws, Viscerakinesis, Iconoclasm, and Jeremiad.

• She possesses, and is willing to distribute as bribes, the following items: an immaculate cutting sword with a mosaic hilt and a blade with a cinnabar groove, a mercury thermometer(!), a faience gaming board, a jug of milky wine that induces a death-like sleep, 150 gold coins with intricate claimshell inscriptions, and godparentage (ocean/witch).

Uden, Islam, Sezim, and Udeno; acolytes of the Eye: Damdar or Sanx Cleric 1/Magician 1. Know the spells Eye Lasers, Snakelike Jaws, and Iconoclasm. 

• Among them they possess five staves, two board-shields, three bronze-and-leather caps, two balsam gaming boards, 8 chunks of cinnabar, and 43 gold coins.

Körwşi, the Flesh-Rimed Beholder: Nephil 3/Juggler 2 (obsession: mourning). Was imprisoned by the ancient wanderer Aygerim, with whom he did battle. On his heart is tattooed the image of his partner, who was killed in the Titanomachy. Ever since he died, the beholder swore that nothing good was left in the world. He remembers on which island his tons-heavy armor and spear are, and may trade their location as a bargaining chip or send any peons acquired to seek them out.

Mega, lover of Teodor: stats as Teodor. The youngest of ten older siblings, all of whom would avenge him. In fact, given his mouth they probably expect to avenge him at some point.

Safira, lover of Teodor: Malsani green pilgrim 1. Good at working up domestic animals into a frenzy.

GLoGtober #31: Candy

In accordance with the post-a-day challenge by SunderedWorldDM, whose dreams bore the Orbseeker and whose deeds send the world shuddering. Thank you for writing this year's prompts. I look forward to next year.

art by John R. Neill

The Pumpkin Knight

This is an adventure, or a series of adventures. It is also a spell that can make you a better person. It is also a character. That character is the Pumpkin Knight. The way you start the spell is by putting him in your next game on or after Halloween. 

Anywhere in your weekly game is fine, but in the woods halfway between town and the dungeon would be ideal. He is clad in blackmetal plate and carries lance, shield, bow, and knife, and has three wrung-neck fauns draped over his charger. He carries a pumpkin. He proves arrogant and hateful, obviously strange, and will antagonize the party throughout the session.

Someone (anyone) will tell the party that he is the pumpkin knight, and he can be sated by being given candy. Make sure to include the opportunity to get some that very session. If he is not sated by the end of that session, he will have to reappear after next halloween. If he is...

The second year, whatever game you are running, the party is transported to the same location where the pumpkin knight first appeared in your game. He will recognize any players from last year (not necessarily PCs), but they might not recognize him right away. He wears his pumpkin as a helmet, and where before he was ruled by wrath, he is now ruled by sorrow. He has only two wrung-neck fauns on his diseased horse. The pumpkin knight feels as though he is dying, and is starting to note that he is disjointed in time. He will recognize any harm he's done to the players in the past, but knows not but the behavior that will renew their wrongs. Like last year, he can be sated by candy.

If he is, he will not reappear until the third year, when this third party finds themselves in the same location as the last two years. The pumpkin knight is dying. His head is a pumpkin, his armor sagging into his rotting body. For a mount, he has only a dead faun. He will forswear all candy, for deep down he knows one more jump will kill him and his delerium leads him now not towards wrath or sorrow but joy. The knight will attempt to aid the party in their mission. If he is given candy despite his protests, he will fall apart and reveal a content infant curled around a small pumpkin, as well as any treasure you deem appropriate.

Each year, for the spell to work you must internalize how the players interact with the pumpkin knight. Think deeply about it, and be intentional about returning to their relationship a few times in the year. What did you approve of? What do you forswear? 

More facts about the Pumpkin Knight

1. He gives his name as Sir Wrothnaught, but is just as likely to rattle off his "arms"-- "Per-chevron purpure and sable, on a bend or, two reindeer's heads gules."
2. In the woods is a simple grave, far from any trail. This is the grave of the pumpkin knight, and destroying it will totally kill him. You must include this, even if it never comes up.
3. After the first year, the party may meet a middle-aged woman named Sevrine. She hates and hunts the pumpkin knight, for filling her head with ideas that could never come true. This part is optional.
4. Each year, consider incorporating something that you fear or resent from the real world in the person or aura of the Pumpkin Knight. For example, this year I might have him breathing poisonous fumes and infested with some dread disease.

GLoGtober #27: Villains

In accordance with the post-a-day challenge by SunderedWorldDM, whose dreams bore the Orbseeker and whose deeds send the world shuddering.

Two Villains

The first, a mummy, name unknown. Wrapped either in intricate bandages or an overlong shroud. Just a total unit, utterly unkillable. It assumes that the divinity promised to it after death failed somehow and that it is literally in Hell. Cannot be harmed as long as it wears its bandages.

The second, a necromancer. Acts as a Virgil-esque psychopomp to the mummy, playing into its delusion. Uses it as a hitman against those who have wronged him. This Virgil is weak, for he was once a lich on another plane, but greatly weakened in his reanimation here. He desperately desires social station and power, but his obvious egomania turns off anyone with good sense.

The phylactery is cleverly hidden in a local temple's cemetery, in a repository where they keep the texts it is forbidden to destroy because they contain a name of god. The repository is guarded by a golem (who is kept there for the same reason). The phylactery is magically protected and cannot be destroyed by most means. Throwing it in a volcano should still work, but will definitely get you cursed by the god whom you have profaned. If the head priest of the temple learns the phylactery's true nature, she will immediately organize a ritual to deconsecrate and destroy the thing, which will not get anyone cursed. This must take place precisely an hour after sunset, and Virgil will attempt to stop it with all the force he possesses.

Virgil will primarily take aggressive actions by sending the mummy to perform messy killings, and the party may learn something is wrong when their party is interrupted by intense violence. Virgil will do his best to adapt to the actions of the party, gluing the bandages in place if he learns that they have discovered the weakness. His base is whatever small-to-medium dungeon you have prepped, or else a rented floor of a local hotel. As time goes on, his servants from another plane will arrive looking for him, but will almost categorically refuse to believe that this petty sorcerer is their god-king.

d6 Potential Servants

1. a barrel full of choking zombie hands
2. two bumbling ghouls, one tall and one fat
3. a band of giant crustaceanfolk, intelligent but out of their element
4. the local constable, convinced he is her reincarnated lover
5. swarm of vampire mosquitos
6. invisible servant who will spy on the PCs and report back

Mummy: 8 HD. Dodge 0, Block 0. STR 17, 1d6 choke OR magic stare to make someone go limp as long as the mummy maintains eye contact. Uses this ability to escape grabs. The mummy is putrid and targeting it with magic causes a cloud of disease (pick your favorite) to erupt 10' in all directions.

Virgil: 2 HD. Dodge 2, Block 0. STR 14, 1d8 hewing spear. Only 2 MD but knows all the cool necromancy spells. 

Scenario: The Surrender of Lischon

 This is a scenario for up to ten first-level characters, set at the end of a war in the ancient history of Mesomergos. It is meant to be played with Vain the Sword, but any other dungeon game will do.

Players build their characters as normal, but take on the role of one of ten central figures during the surrender of the city of Lischon by the Duke Shan to invading forces. Over the course of the scenario, PCs will cause problems for each other as they wrestle to decide under what circumstance death is preferable to surrender. Each character starts with some kind of asset, whether it is additional items, magic, or even small dungeons that they can hole up in.

The titular surrender is underway when the scenario begins, and though it is almost impossible to turn the war around, that option is technically available, though sections with titles like "Crushing Resistance" and "Attempts to Flee the City" imply the difficulty in trying. What's more, as the invading forces encounter more resistance and inconvenience, their ire increases.

Click for link

"The Surrender of Lischon" is 13 pages, with one title page listing the cast of potential PCs, two quickly summarizing play for a DM, and ten one-page character prompts, including three dungeon maps by Dyson Logos, used under a commercial license.

Scenario: The Child You Have Got With Me

(CW: the sorts of things they write ballads about)

 Many tales of myth and folklore are premised on victimization. This structure can be difficult to adapt to roleplaying games because players dislike being forced to “lose” and because the way that folkloric characters respond to victimization is outside most people’s frame of reference.

One of the most pervasive themes of the Child Ballads is sexual violence, a typical depiction can be found in “Gil Brenton.” Our heroine has a romantic encounter with the titular character, in a passage where consensuality can only be inferred. She then demands from him gifts, a common motif that we as moderns may not be familiar with. The hope is that with a token you could prove an encounter had happened and legitimize it with marriage. 

Interrogating these tropes of the past is a worthy endeavor of the present, from both an artistic and gaming perspective. How we do so should be deliberate, and requires the collaboration of everyone at the table.

The Child You Have Got With Me

art by Wylielise

Premise: You are a pregnant, wronged woman seeking justice— not in the form of violent reprisal, but in getting the security that the man who wronged you took away. Sometimes this will look like getting him to marry you. Other paths to justice will usually have other sacrifices. You can kill him and take his gold, and that may be enough to get by, but you will not be welcome in your home.

Victory is getting justice for yourself and/or your child.

Stalemate is punishing either the man who wronged you or the world that created this toxic dynamic.

Failure is for neither you nor your child to be safe, regardless of whether you survive.

It is up to you to decide whether you want to actually be a mother, but there are both physical and social dangers to doing otherwise.

To generate a scenario for The Child You Have Got With Me:

• Assign roles: one DM (ballaDMaster), one Wronged Woman, the rest her Sympathetic Accomplices.
• Here is where everyone agrees on how frankly to portray the cruelties of the world.
• The Wronged Woman rolls or chooses the Man Who Wronged You
• A Sympathetic Accomplice rolls or choose a Hope. (If there are no Accomplices, the DM rolls.)
• Each Sympathetic Accomplice rolls or chooses a Sympathy
• The players make their characters
• The DM rolls two Complications.
• Finally, the DM sets the scene and the quest begins.

d6 The Man Who Wronged You

1. A wild shade, reckless and dangerous. Knows a trial of dedication that can turn him into a good man
2. The faceblind king of the land, paranoid of adultery
3. A mercenary rake, without moral qualms
4. The merchant or baron who holds your family’s land in fee
5. A monstrous creature who lives in a place it was forbidden for you to visit
6. Your own brother, returned from over a decade at sea

d6 Hopes

1. The ghosts of your tormentor’s former lovers or inconvenient infants
2. The poison rose tree, which can safely end a pregnancy
3. A supernatural figure who will act as godparent. Their aid is freely given, but would change both you and the child
4. The sympathetic mother of the man who wronged you
5. There is a piece of lore to command the man who wronged you— his name, or an item he prizes above all
6. A witch who lives in a remote location, and has taken a vow of vengeance against the world

d6 Complications

1. You have nowhere to stay and winter is creeping in.
2. Your seven brothers, eager to help, (if reckless), have been locked away
3. You have been cursed to obey all commands
4. Someone who should have been on your side is set against you
5. The man who wronged you is set to marry another
6. An odious guardian is set to restrict your actions

Generating a Wronged Woman:

First, create a character as normal. In addition to starting equipment, you possess a token from the man who wronged you. If you would start with any money, it is lost. Finally, two of your inventory slots are taken up with the nascent child. Every week, this increases by one until nine slots are full (possibly over-encumbering you). 

• After the third slot is filled, your pregnancy is obvious at a glance. Most intelligent foes will do their best to avoid seriously hurting you.
• After the fourth slot is filled, you cannot safely wear armor, except for cloth and fabric armor.
• After the sixth slot is filled, you cannot safely travel by foot. Distances of less than a kilometer at a time are okay, as is hitching a ride on a cart.
• After the eighth slot is filled, the DM (ballaDMaster) secretly gives a 50% each week that the child will be born on the most inconvenient possible day of that week.

Other players generate character as normal, likewise losing any money. Then, they roll or choose a sympathy, a reason to join in your quest from the table below. Introduce these characters one at a time in descending order, as the Wronged Woman tells each of her plight. 

d6 Sympathies

1. You are the Wronged Woman’s loving sister. You fear your own marriage prospects should things go poorly.
2. You are the Wronged Woman’s absentee father or uncle. You fear the scorn of the world.
3. You are the Wronged Woman’s childhood friend. You hate the man who wronged her with overriding passion.
4. You are but a humble peasant, but you know wrong from right. Despite this, you are easily cowed by anyone of higher station.
5. You are an errant wanderer. You have sworn to obey all women, but otherwise regard these events with detached chauvinism.
6. You are the Wronged Woman of yesteryear, dealt cruelties you cannot bear to see done to someone else. Start with a token from the man who wronged you.

Auto-generate a scenario: