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Table of Contents Tales of the Latter Earth

Character Creation

The Rules of the Game

Magic and The Arcane Traditions

The World of the Latter Earth

Creatures of A Far Age

112

Creating Your Campaign

152

Factions and Major Projects

260

Creating Adventures

278

Treasures and Rewards

310

Legates and Heroes

328

Arts of the Gyre

338

TALES OF THE LATTER EARTH The stars gutter and the skies fade and the earth grows weary with years. Ages of men and of Outsiders have ascended and been forgotten, and only the bones of their cities and the dust of their dreams remain upon this tired world. The Legacy of their laws is woven deep now, the edicts of dead gods and fallen sorcerer-kings made to trace patterns of power we no longer understand. We are heirs to their unseen empires. Yet our kings are beggar-princes at best, and our sages but stumbling children. So deep is the past of Latter Earth that no one truly understands what has gone before or can lay sure hands on the Legacy we have inherited. We wield strange powers we no longer comprehend and summon forces that were never meant for our petty purposes. We live in a world haunted by those who came before us, and we suffer for the sins of their dead. Our kingdoms struggle to survive in this mismade world. We toil with muscle and the work of beasts rather than the strange devices of sorcery our ancestors wielded, and our lives are ones of simple labor. Sages have preserved inscriptions of the ancient mechanisms, but their subtle arts no longer work in this decayed age and the Legacy has changed from the days when they were still of use. Nothing is sure any longer save for the strength in a human arm and the sharpness of an iron blade. Our armies grip spears where our ancestors wielded suns. Humanity has not always been the master of the Latter Earth. In former ages Outsiders came from the skies to be lords over us, changing our world to better suit their purposes. We were forced below, into the earth to dwell within the Deeps, and the world was made hollow with our delving. Only after long ages were our sorcerers and heroes able to drive out the interlopers. The remnants of their rule remain on the surface, arratus of strange plants and terrible beasts and wastes that choke a man with their noxious vapors. Sometimes these Outsider lands still hold a scattering of the old lords, bitter and hateful against their usurping slaves, and sometimes they come out to punish our lands. We, too, have changed with the eons. Both the Outsiders and ancient sorcerer-kings worked changes on humanity, forming some among us into other beings more suitable to their ends. Some of these changed ones remain allies to their human cousins, while others nurse only the fury of ancient instinct or present bitterness. Some have their own kingdoms and domains in distant parts of the world, and some hide in nighted places where they can better prey on us. They are the hands of the past, the living relics that often work us woe.

Yet we are not content to struggle with the past and its changed children. We must also war against each other in the present, princes and lords vying over rulership of some miserable spit of land or patch of blood-soaked earth. Some fight over the rich tombs of the ancients, while others bloody each other out of pride, ambition, or the simple pleasure of conquest. A strong king brings peace to his people, but his neighbors will ever be jealous of that strength. Heroes are needed to fight in defense of their homes and their lords. We have heroes still. Men and women graced with no more than courage and resolve may yet rise to light a new age with the fire of their example. Some may yet even rise to become Legates, blessed with a direct link with the Legacy and the gift of its superhuman powers. A Legate may be wicked or just, selfish or compassionate, but they all bear the strength of the ancients. The warriors among them strike like the fury of the storm and Legate-sorcerers invoke marvels out of a forgotten age. The greatest among them might cleave armies with their naked blades or call up cities from a barren waste. Yet one need not be a Legate to be a hero, nor wield the powers of the ancients to give precious help to the present. Throughout the Latter Earth there are countless lands and people in need of help. Defense against the depredations of monstrous beasts, protection from the anger of the Outsiders, wisdom to defeat wicked lords and mend bloody quarrels… a brave heart and a strong arm can never be useless in this world. Even those who care little for the troubles of others will find profit in daring the black delvings of the Deeps and bringing up the treasures of the past from the grip of the once-men who yet hold them. Terrible wildernesses of alien beasts and strange flora still shroud the ruined cities of the Outsiders, and brave explorers can weight their horses with gold if they can find safe paths through these desolations. The world is wide, and strange wonders await over each new horizon. This is the Latter Earth but it is not the end of days. Our ancestors rose and fell ten thousand times, and we can rise yet again. Our lands are impoverished and our people are hard-pressed by their own folly and the shadows of a bottomless past, but we have courage still. There have been ages of darkness worse than this, and dawn came again when they passed. The stars gutter and the skies fade and the earth grows weary with years, but it has not ended yet. There is time enough for new heroes to rise from the ashes we have inherited. Will you be among them?

Heroes of a Twilight Age Worlds Without Number is a fantasy role-playing game set in the far future of the Latter Earth, after innumerable eons of human history, alien rule, and unfathomable arcane evolution. The players take up the role of adventurers in this fading age, raising sword and sorcery against the foes of humanity and the obstacles that hinder their own ambitious aims. Many will perish on the spears of bitter rivals, be rent by the talons of monstrous beasts, or fall prey to their own reckless daring. Others, however, may yet live to obtain a name more glorious than kings.

What Do You Do In This Game?

The characters in Worlds Without Number are assumed to be budding adventurers, men and women who have particular talents suitable to a life of daring exploration, bloody battles, or ruthless intrigue. They are skilled and competent practitioners of their particular specialties, but all of them are acutely mortal, and a too-ready recourse to their blades is likely to get them killed early in their career. More experienced and skilled heroes have less to fear from an unlucky spear-thrust, but even the most veteran hero must be wary of a quick death in the face of numerous foes. A gritty life of swords and sorcery awaits them. Every hero in the game has some sort of goal or ambition. It may be an honest and simple desire for wealth beyond their dreams of avarice, or it might be a quest to avenge himself on a tyrannical lord, or it could be a dream of establishing a new nation for her exiled people. A hero may never live to see their ambition become real, but every PC has some sort of goal to drive them, even if that goal may change over time. Some heroes pursue their goals through scavenging the remnants of a more glorious past. The ancient Sorcerer-Kings raised mighty cities and wrought wondrous marvels, many of which are still functional enough to be precious to modern humanity. Adventurers willing to plumb their ruined cities or search their ancient strongholds can come out bearing a king’s ransom on their backs, or discover artifacts that could shift the balance of power among nations. Given the perils awaiting in such places, however, there are always far more who go in than ever emerge again. Others delve into the depths, exploring the ancient subterranean Deeps that once incarcerated humanity during the age of the Outsider lords, the aliens who once ruled the Latter Earth. Many of these Deeps were never opened after the Sorcerer-Kings overthrew their masters, and the bones of their inhabitants now lie tangled with the common trinkets and tools that have become precious to their heirs. Monstrous Outsider beasts and maddened automatons still lurk in the darkness, as well as the degenerate and crazed remnants of the original human prisoners.

A few heroes are even bold enough to venture into the howling wastelands of the arratus, the desolate xenoformed territories poisoned by the Outsiders to make them more homely to the aliens. The hideous flora and fauna that infest these places are lethal to humans, but the treasures there are often richest from the difficulty of reaching them. Ancient human cities or Outsider strongholds are sometimes buried in the heart of an ancient arratu, their wealth preserved for the heroes brave enough to dare their poisoned streets. Yet ruin exploration and expeditions into the wilderness are not the only adventures to be had. The lands of the Latter Earth are a patchwork of young kingdoms, savage tribes, and sullen empires, all of them with their own quarrels and ambitions. Adventurers often find themselves enlisted by the powerful to carry out their more dangerous tasks, and can easily be drawn into the intrigue between rival powers. A hero who dreams of forging their own empire can hope to achieve it with enough coin, enough friends, and enough luck. Nations are always rising and fading away in the roil of the present day, and there are less likely kings to be found than a cunning and successful hero. Exploration and intrigue are paths for pursuing a hero’s ambitions, but an accomplished adventurer must also deal with the simple human challenges of life in a hard and half-tamed world. There will always be petitioners seeking the help of the strong, injustices to pique a hero’s ire, and calamities that threaten people and places they care about. The Latter Earth is old and careless of its inhabitants, and many terrible things come to pass for want of brave souls capable of forestalling them.

How Does This Game Play?

Worlds Without Number is based on an “Old School Renaissance” rules chassis strongly inspired by the classic gaming books of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Tom Moldvay, and Zeb Cook. The roots of this system date back to the very earliest days of the hobby. There are millions of people worldwide who understand the basic outline of the system, and this enormous well of familiarity is one of the main reasons I chose it as a base. The system in Worlds Without Number has received years of effective use and playtesting in the form of its compatible sci-fi sister game, Stars Without Number, and I’m confident that the great majority of readers will find it a perfectly solid, playable, effective framework for their sword and sorcery adventures. Even so, I understand that a good many readers will have their own preferences in game systems, and may have a different rule system in mind for running their campaigns. This is perfectly reasonable, because ultimately, Worlds Without Number is more about supporting a style of gaming than a particular system. This game is built from the ground up to support the GM in running

a “sandbox” style of campaign, one where the thrust of the action is entirely dependent on the ambitions and goals of the players. The tools in this book are built to support this play style no matter what game system is being used. Modern gamers may be unfamiliar with sandbox-style tabletop gaming, as it’s a style that has fallen partially out of use since the early days of the hobby. The earliest campaigns were almost all sandbox-style, with rotating troupes of PCs venturing around a shared campaign landscape and plunging into whichever adventurous opportunities seemed most appealing. Contemporary gaming tends to favor “story arc” style campaigns, where the PCs are faced with a pre-ordained series of challenges and plot points that they must negotiate as best they can. These story arcs can come to very different conclusions based on the actions and choices of the PCs, but the campaign is fundamentally about a single, particular plot and the PCs’ engagement with it. It’s a style of gaming that allows for precise story beats, unified themes, and a lot of other qualities that many gamers enjoy a great deal. Sandbox gaming offers pleasures of its own, however, and some of them are harder to find in modern story arc campaigns. A sandbox campaign focuses around the goals and ambitions of the PCs rather than a pre-existing story. The GM provides the PCs with interesting situations and opportunities, but it’s up to the PCs to decide which of them they want to engage with and what hooks they want to pursue. At the end of every session, the GM asks the players what their goal for the next session will be, and the preparation they make for the next evening’s game will be based on that goal. Sandbox campaigns offer endless surprises and freshness to the GM. Even they don’t know what’s going to happen in each session, because there’s no plot they need to follow and no need to worry about the PCs doing

the “right thing” to “move the adventure forward”. Each session is simply an opportunity or a situation; it’s up to the PCs to make the most of it, and if they fail, well, they can try something else. The campaign is about the things they want it to be about, when they want it. They’re never locked into a particular story arc and never compelled to stick around a tedious situation, so there’s much less chance of the GM finding the party bored with a campaign thread that’s overstayed its welcome. Some GMs are intimidated by this style of campaigning because they don’t feel confident in their own preparations. If the players can go anywhere and seek anything, they reason, don’t they have to build an entire world out before the first session? Isn’t that a crushing amount of creative work, the vast majority of which will never become relevant to the players? Worlds Without Number is designed to allay this concern and give the GM the tools, methods, and procedures for reducing the preparation to a manageable amount of work. This book will show you how to build out the bare skeleton of your campaign setting, establish only the parts that actually matter in play, and handle the session-by-session administration and prep work necessary for actually running the game. You’ll never have to build more than a single game session ahead of your players, a prospect that can make sandbox gaming even easier on a GM than story arc gaming. After all, you’ll never flesh out a five-session plot only to find the players getting bored halfway through the arc. Now that you understand both what heroes are intended to do in Worlds Without Number and what a GM can expect to find in this book, it’s time to start your hero’s career. With luck, discretion, and the right amount of boldness, it may yet prove to be a long and glorious one. Lacking these qualities… well, there’s a reason that character creation is at the front of the book.

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CHARACTER CREATION The first step in playing Worlds Without Number is to roll up each player’s character, or “PC”. While it’s possible to play the game with just a single player and a game master, or “GM”, it works best with a group of three to five players and a GM. A solitary hero is hard-pressed to survive the myriad perils of Latter Earth, and a number of trustworthy companions are needed if a hero is to have much chance of victory. It’s generally best to make characters together with the others in your group, so as to make sure everyone’s hero is the sort to play well together. PCs don’t always have to like each other, but if they can’t trust each other to watch their backs, their adventures are apt to end in swift and unhappy ways. The character creation below assumes your heroes will be adventuring in the world of Latter Earth, as described in the chapter starting on page XX. Readers who have an interest in the setting’s particulars can page forward and look it over before continuing. Those who just want to get started creating their adventurer can continue on below.

What Players Need To Know

Your character is an adventurer in the ruins of the Latter Earth, a world set unfathomably far in the future. Untold eons of human and alien development have come and gone, and you and your companions are natives of a now-savage and primitive world built on the grave of the past. Magic exists in the form of ancient relics, enigmatic powers that respond to the correct rituals, and creatures fashioned by inexplicable sciences. Sorcerers cultivate the scraps of understanding that they have preserved in order to wield these powers, and the occasional eruptions of ancient, twisted magic are a hazard in many places still. Most nations on Latter Earth are feudal or monarchic, ruled over by some tyrant with the strength to maintain order or some military elite capable of protecting their charges from the perils of monstrous foes and jealous neighbors. Some dynasties are ancient bloodlines of magically-blessed nobles, while others are no more than this season’s bandit king and his henchmen. The common folk survive as best they can, making the bargains they must with their lords in exchange for protection and some semblance of law. Technology is primitive, with brute force and the occasional windmill or water mill powering the little industry that exists. The natural laws of physics have been so corrupted by prior eons of meddling and their accrued changes known as the Legacy that more advanced technology is unreliable at best. This capriciousness has all but extinguished scientific curiosity or technological advancement among the people of Latter Earth, as what use are such studies when the subtler laws of nature are always uncertain?

In this world, your hero seeks adventure. Whether fighting against the constant peril of monstrous creatures, defending communities from the depredations of their neighbors, delving into the ancient Deeps that humanity once occupied, or exploring the trackless wilderness of an Outsider-altered Latter Earth, there is treasure, glory, and terrible death to be found by the brave. Your hero may have had a very mundane past. Perhaps they were no more than a peasant girl who tired of her little village, or a young sailor who wants better pay for his courage than a sea captain can offer. Yet your hero has some sort of knack or capability that marks them out as being fit for adventure, whether that’s a gift for violence, exceptional talent at a skill, or some modicum of magical prowess. Your hero must, however, have a purpose. They must have some goal or direction for their ambitions, because Worlds Without Number is a sandbox-style game where the PCs will be the ones to decide what kind of adventures are sought. If you don’t have a goal, you won’t be able to contribute to that direction. And not least of all, your hero must be able to cooperate with the rest of the group. Loners and troublemakers work well in novels but terribly at the table; be good to the other players, and make someone who will actually participate usefully with everyone else. Adventuring is dangerous, and going it alone is a recipe for swift death. With these things said, it’s time to start making your character.

Legates

The rules in this section describe the creation of normal PC heroes. They might be gifted swordsmen, capable young wizards, or talented thieves and explorers, but they are fundamentally normal human beings. They lack the link with the Legacy that makes for the superhuman powers of a Legate. In the example campaign world of the Latter Earth, a heroic PC can hope to become a Legate only after reaching the peak of their potential. Only after exhausting the limits of normal human capacity can they gain the recognition of the Legacy and inherit its gifts. In other campaign settings, superhuman heroes such as Legates may not exist at all. In a sword & sorcery pulp setting, it might be entirely inappropriate for heroes to ever become so personally mighty, while a high fantasy setting might make such divine strength more available to PCs. Assuming Legates exist in your campaign, the rules for advancing in their powers appear in the deluxe version of Worlds Without Number on page XX.

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Summary of character creation spread

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Attributes A hero’s native capacities are their attributes, each measured on a scale from 3 to 18. A score of 3 is as deficient as it’s possible to be while still being functional as an adventurer, while an 18 reflects a degree of development that’s close to a human’s peak potential. To generate a hero’s scores, roll 3d6 six times, assigning them in order to the character’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You may then change one attribute of your choice to 14, because your adventurer has to be unusually good at something to have made it this far in life. Clement GMs may optionally allow players to put their rolled scores in any attribute they wish. Other groups may prefer to let the rolls stand in order, to encourage players to try out unexpected character concepts. If you dislike random generation of your hero’s scores, you may instead put the following scores wherever you wish: 14, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 7. If you assign scores, you cannot replace one of them with a 14. Once you’ve generated your ability scores, record the modifier for each of them. Thus, a score of 5 would have a -1 modifier and a score of 18 would have a +2. If your attribute changes later in the game through rolls on your background’s Growth table or development as you advance in experience, remember to change the modifier if necessary.

Attribute

Affects…

Strength Lifting heavy weights, breaking things, melee combat, carrying gear Dexterity Speed, evasion, manual dexterity, reaction time, combat initiative Constitution Hardiness, enduring injury, resisting poisons, going without food or rest Intelligence Memory, reasoning, intellectual skills, general education Wisdom Noticing things, making judgments, reading situations, intuition Charisma Force of character, charming others, attracting attention, winning loyalty

Attribute Score

Attribute Modifier

-2

4—7

-1

8—13

No Modifier

14—17

Rolling a Hero’s Attributes

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Skills Your hero’s particular proficiencies are called skills. Every hero can at least attempt to do almost anything, whether or not they’re particularly expert at it, but a hero with the right skill will have a much easier time finding success with their efforts. Of course, some particularly esoteric challenges, such as magic theory or advanced mathematics, might be impossible to attempt without the right skill. Skills are measured on a ranking from level-0 for ordinary practitioners up to level-4 for the best of the best. Novice adventurers will begin play with skills of level-0 or level-1 as determined in the next section, where you pick or roll your hero’s background. Skill Levels Level-0

An ordinary competence at the skill as might be had by a common practitioner

Level-1

A veteran professional at the skill, one noticeably better than most

Level-2

One of the best in the city at the skill, a veteran and talented master of it.

Level-3

One of the best in the kingdom, an inspirational master at the skill

Level-4

One of the best in the world, able to push the skill to its physical limits

Skill Checks

When a hero attempts to pull off some feat of exceptional expertise, they must make a skill check. The player rolls 2d6 and adds their relevant skill level to it and the modifier of their most pertinent attribute score. If they have no relevant skill at all, they subtract 1 from their roll. If the total is equal or higher than the check’s difficulty the attempt is a success. If less, then either they fail, they succeed in a way that doesn’t help them, or cruel fate intervenes to spoil their effort. The particular attribute used with a skill check will vary with the situation. Lifting a heavy rock might be a Str/Exert skill check, while running a marathon might be more a Con/Exert check. The GM decides when the case is ambiguous. In the same fashion, if two different skills might be applicable to a check the player can choose which of the skills to use. Some skills can’t even be attempted without at least level-0 skill, if they’re particularly obscure or specialized undertakings. Any hero can climb a cliff or try to fashion a good wooden spear, but only someone skilled in Craft could hope to forge a complex suit of armor. Skill checks are only meant for unusual or exceptional challenges to a hero. Tasks that are common to their background never require a skill check.

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The Skill List Administer: Keep an organization running smoothly, scribe things well, plan out logistics, identify incompetent or treacherous workers, analyze records or archives, or otherwise do things that an executive or middle-manager would need to do. Connect: Find or know people who are useful to your purposes, make friendships or social acquaintances, know who to talk to to get favors or services, and call on the help or resources of organizations you belong to. Connect covers your PC’s ability to find the people you need, though convincing them to help may require more than this. Convince: Persuade a listener that something you are saying is true. Naturally, the more implausible the claim or more emotionally repugnant it is to them, the more difficult it is to persuade them. Furthermore, how they act on their newfound conviction is up to them and their motivations, and may not be perfectly predictable. Craft: Craft or repair goods and technology appropriate to the PC’s background and society. The Craft skill can be used for a wide range of artisan pursuits, though a GM is within their rights to keep the PC from building complex things that are too far away from their past background and experience. Exert: Run, swim, climb, jump, labor for long periods, throw things, or otherwise exert your physical strength, stamina, and coordination. Even a PC with poor physical attributes might have a good Exert skill reflecting athletic training and expertise in making the most of their available talents. Heal: Treat wounds, cure diseases, neutralize poisons, diagnose psychological health issues, and otherwise tend to the wounds of body and mind. The Heal skill cannot cure lost hit points directly, but it’s a vital skill in stabilizing Mortally Wounded allies or ensuring clean recovery from grievous injuries. Know: Know matters of history, geography, natural science, zoology, and other academic fields appropriate to a sage or scholar. While some sages might specialize in particular fields, most learned men and women in this age have a broad range of understanding, and will rarely be unable to even attempt to answer a question relevant to this skill. Lead: Inspire others to follow your lead and believe in your plans and goals. Manage subordinates and keep them focused, loyal, and motivated in the face of danger or failure. A successful leader will keep their subordinate’s faith and confidence even when reason might make the leader’s plan appear questionable at best. Magic: Cast or analyze magic and know things about famous mages or notable magical events. Classes that can’t cast spells obtain only intellectual and scholarly benefits from this skill.

Notice: Notice small details, impending ambushes, hidden features, or concealed objects. Detect subtle smells, sounds, or other sensory input. Notice cannot be used simply to detect a lie, but keen attention can often discern a subject’s emotional state. Perform: Sing, act, dance, orate, or otherwise perform impressively for an audience. Compose music, plays, writings, or other works of performance art. Most performers will have a particular field they excel at, though polymaths might exist if the PC’s background is appropriate for such versatility. Pray: Peform the clerical rites of your religion, and be familiar with the gods, demons, and taboos of major and minor faiths, and identify iconography and persons of religious importance. Pray also helps you know the state of local faiths and the important persons in their hierarchies. Punch: Fight unarmed or with natural body weaponry. Punch, kick, grapple, or otherwise brawl without the benefit of man-made tools. This mode of fighting is inefficient at best without some special Focus to improve it, but it’s reliably non-lethal. Ride: Ride an animal, drive a cart or carriage, or otherwise deal with land transportation. This skill also includes competence at mount care and tending, basic cart or carriage repair, judging good horseflesh, and other skills appropriate to a beast-rider of whatever society the PC comes from. Sail: Sail or repair a ship, build small craft, navigate by the stars, read sea weather, manage sailors, and otherwise conduct the business of a professional mariner. This skill may apply to more esoteric means of vehicular travel in some societies. Shoot: Fire a bow or crossbow or throw a hurled weapon. Maintain ranged weaponry and fletch arrows. Sneak: Move silently, hide in shadows, avoid notice, pick pockets, disguise yourself, pick locks, defeat traps, or otherwise overcome security measures. Stab: Fight with melee weapons or throw a hurled weapon. Maintain and identify weaponry. Survive: Hunt, fish, navigate by the stars, mitigate environmental hazards, identify plants and wildlife, and craft basic survival tools and shelter. A PC’s Survive skill is most pertinent to the environments in their background, but the basic principles can be applied in all but the most alien environments. Trade: Buy and sell at a profit, identify the worth of goods or treasures, deal with merchants and traders, find black-market goods and services, and know laws regarding smuggling and contraband. Work: This skill is a catch-all for any profession that might not otherwise merit its own skill, such as a painter, lawyer, farmer, or herdsman. The precise skill it represents will vary with the PC’s background.

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Backgrounds Every hero comes from somewhere, and the particular past of your PC is their background. Very few heroes come immediately to their ultimate calling of sorcery or swordplay, and even the most resolute hero is likely to have had some more mundane place in life before taking up their grand ambitions. In this section, you’ll determine what this past might have been. A background is simply a thumbnail description of the kind of life your hero led before becoming an adventurer. Each entry on the table below offers a different possibility, and you can either roll or pick from the list. Within these categories you should feel free to decide how exactly they relate to your hero. For example, someone who rolls or picks a “Scholar” background might decide that they were an unsuccessful apprentice mage, frustrated with their uselessness until they took up a sword. The specific details of your past background are up to you, provided the GM finds them reasonable. The specific interpretations of your background will depend on the campaign setting you’re using. If you’re playing in a desolate desert kingdom, a Sailor background might not make much sense. Talk with your GM about such details when you make up your hero’s past. If you want a background not listed here, work with your GM to choose Growth and Learning tables that fit your concept and use those as you would a listed background.

Backgrounds and Skills

d20 1

Background Artisan, blacksmith, tanner, carpenter

Barbarian, savage hermit, wild man

Carter, hauling goods or riding post

Courtesan, harlot, artful companion

Criminal, thief, con man, burglar

Gain the background’s listed quick skills. Choose this if you just want the common skills of the role and don’t want to bother more with it. Or…

Hunter, trapper, lone hermit, or recluse

Laborer, skilled or unskilled urban worker

Merchant, trader, peddler, or shopkeeper

Pick two skills from the background’s Learning table, except for the “Any Skill” choice. Choose this if you have specific preferences for your PC’s skills. Or…

Noble, spare son, exile, black sheep

Once you’ve rolled or chosen your background, you get the free skill associated with it at level-0 proficiency. After that, pick one of the three options below and continue on to choosing a character class.

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Gaining Skills and Attributes

When you roll or pick a skill, you gain it at level-0, reflecting a basic, ordinary proficiency at the skill. Level-0 is sufficient to earn a living with a skill or be counted a normal practitioner of it, but it’s no particularly remarkable talent. If you roll or pick the same skill again, it becomes level-1. Such skills are well-honed and mark you out as a veteran with noticeably superior talent to the ordinary run of those who use the skill. You cannot pick a skill a third time. If you roll it a third time or are forced to take it by some Focus or other trait, you may instead pick any other skill you wish, gaining it at level-0 or improving it from level-0 to level-1 if you already have it. No novice hero can have a skill above level-1. Only experienced adventurers can develop such mastery. If you roll randomly on the Growth table and get an attribute bonus, you may use it to raise an attribute and potentially improve its modifier. Bonuses to Physical attributes may be applied to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution, and bonuses to Mental attributes can be added to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. No attribute can be raised above 18, but a +2 bonus can be split between two different attributes.

Nomad, raider, tribal wanderer

Peasant, farmer, rural laborer, serf

Roll three times, splitting the rolls as you wish between the Growth and Learning tables for your background. Choose this if you don’t mind accepting the dice’s decision in exchange for an extra skill or a chance at improved attributes.

Performer, bard, dancer, singer

Physician, village healer, healer-monk

Priest, monk, nun, holy hermit

Sailor, bargeman, fisherman, pirate

Scholar, sage, apprentice mage

The “Any Combat” pick can be used to choose either Stab, Shoot, or Punch, while an “Any Skill” roll lets you chose any skill you wish. All new skills are gained at level-0, but if you pick or roll the same one more than once, they can be improved.

Slave, indentured laborer, runaway prentice

Soldier, bandit, mercenary, guardsman

Thug, ruffian, gang member, village bully

Wanderer, exile, explorer, traveler

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Artisan

Your hero was a crafter of some variety, whether a blacksmith, carpenter, shipwright, weaver, or a maker of more exotic goods. In humble villages an artisan is most likely to make the bulk of their living by the same subsistence farming as their neighbors, but in towns and cities they might be full-time professionals, perhaps belonging to some guild or brotherhood specific to their craft. While an artisan’s Craft skill is chiefly applicable to those works related to their background, they often know enough or can improvise sufficiently to make competent efforts at other types of work.

Barbarian

Your people or past were counted savage even in a world as brutal as this one. Primitive hill tribes, hardpressed jungle clans, or simple frontiersmen too long out of contact with a more sophisticated civilization might all qualify for this background. You know how to live without the comforts a softer and more pacified people might require and you have a ready acceptance of violence that can keep you alive where others might perish. Still, the material privation of your life does not mean you are necessarily stupid or unadaptable, nor that you lack your own forms of culture.

BARBILLO 6.34 wide 4.84 high

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Craft-0

+1 Any Stat

Connect

+2 Physical

Convince

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Craft

Trade-0

+2 Mental

Craft

Connect-0

Exert

Any Skill

Know

Notice

Trade

Free Skill

Growth

Survive-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Any Combat

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Exert

Any Combat-0

+2 Mental

Lead

Notice-0

Exert

Notice

Any Skill

Punch

Sneak

Survive

•13

Carter

Overland transport is hard and dangerous, and it requires an equally hard breed of men and women to carry it out. Carters might be caravan workers hauling precious goods over hundreds of miles, or independent shippers running a cart between isolated hamlets, or they might be messenger riders risking grave peril to deliver small packages. A carter may be a low-born peasant, but he might end up seeing more of the world than the gentry of his homeland. These far-traveled haulers commonly learn quickly how to handle themselves in perilous circumstances.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Ride-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Craft

Connect-0

+2 Mental

Exert

Any Combat-0

Connect

Notice

Any Skill

Ride

Survive

Trade

Courtesan

Your hero made a profession of companionship, whether carnal or otherwise. Common street harlots or rented boys are by no means unknown among adventurers, but there are also exquisitely polished courtesans and graciously platonic artists of song, dance, and cultured companionship. Some have wearied of the particular strains of their work, while others mean to take advantage of their special talents in smoothing the social interactions of an adventuring party with an often-suspicious world.

Free Skill

Growth

Perform-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Any Combat

+2 Mental

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Mental

Convince

Notice-0

+2 Physical

Exert

Connect-0

Connect

Notice

Any Skill

Perform

Survive

Trade

Criminal

Some would argue that all adventurers are criminals sooner or later, but your hero made it their profession from an early age. Con men, charlatans, fraudulent merchants, pickpockets, sneak thieves, impostors, footpads, and ne’er-do-wells of every description often filter into the adventuring lifestyle, if only to ensure that their travels take them well away from the sites of their former activity. Given the general unscrupulousness, quick wits, and daring required of a successful criminal, many make excellent adventurers. Other less gifted examples make excellent corpses.

Free Skill

Growth

Sneak-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+2 Mental

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Connect

Connect-0

+2 Mental

Convince

Connect

Exert

Any Skill

Notice

Convince-0

Learning

Sneak

Trade

Hunter

Both primitive tribals and bored nobles require hunts for their table and their pleasures, and such efforts often require professional hunters to help in the work Hunger or greed has also been known to send poor peasants into the game preserves of their lords or deep into dangerous wilderness. A few hunters are actual gamekeepers employed to ward off poachers, and a few are simply hermits who have no love for any company but their own. The marksmanship and stealth of a well-practiced hunter tend to be useful skills in an adventurer’s line of work.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Shoot-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Physical

Exert

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Heal

Survive-0

+2 Mental

Notice

Sneak-0

Exert

Ride

Any Skill

Shoot

Sneak

Survive

14•

Laborer

In the villages and rural regions of the world, the vast majority of the populace are simple peasants. In the cities, the great mass of unskilled workers are laborers instead, day-workers and unskilled help employed by the artisans and craftsmen of the town. Their lives are hard, precarious, and unpromising, but the chance to live in a city and the opportunities for wealth and status it offers are enough to beguile many poor village lads and lasses. In the absence of a lucky break or fortuitous apprenticeship, some laborers find themselves willing to risk the life of an adventurer rather than endure their poverty meekly.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Work-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+1 Any Stat

Any Skill

Quick Skills

+1 Any Stat

Connect

Connect-0

+1 Any Stat

Convince

Exert-0

Exert

Craft

Any Skill

Exert

Ride

Work

Merchant

Merchants range from the gilded merchant-princes of the great trading cities to the humble peddlers who roam between villages with packs full of sewing needles, tin pans, belt knives, and other household needs. Trade is a dangerous thing in this world, constantly subject to the rapacious demands of lords or the brutal exaction of bandits, and few cowards take up the work. Merchants with a particular fund of courage and an exceptional appetite for gold might even become adventurers, the better to obtain capital and contacts for their work.

Free Skill

Growth

Trade-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Administer

+2 Mental

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Mental

Connect

Convince-0

+2 Mental

Convince

Connect-0

Connect

Craft

Any Skill

Know

Notice

Trade

Noble

Nobility is a quality that varies from culture to culture, some bestowing it for personal virtue, others to particular bloodlines, and some to those who fulfill specific roles in the culture. Whatever the particulars, your hero was of the noble caste of their home, one of the elites who governed and ruled. Alas, some circumstance has driven you out of your former place, forcing you to seek companions in adventure and make your own way in the world. You may no longer have the dignities and advantages of your former rank, but you at least have the benefit of its education.

Free Skill

Growth

Lead-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+2 Mental

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Mental

Connect

Connect-0

+2 Mental

Convince

Connect

Know

Any Skill

Lead

Notice

Ride

Administer-0

Learning

Nomad

Some peoples are forced to travel far to find their sustenance, whether they are beast-riders, drivers of great wagons, or simple masses of people walking from one waystation to another. Their native land may not be rich enough to support them and their herds for long at any one place, or some shifting peril might require them to be constantly on the move. Nomads are often mistrusted by settled folk, as it’s all too easy for them to commit some depredation before moving out of reach of reprisal, but their skills at riding and surviving harsh environments are of use to any adventurer.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Ride-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Exert

Survive-0

+2 Mental

Lead

Any Combat-0

Exert

Notice

Any Skill

Ride

Survive

Trade

•15

PEASANTILLO 6.34 wide 4.84 high

Peasant

A peasant’s life is never easy, though in some lands it’s a kinder fate than others. Even in the richest states, however, a peasant’s life is often marked by hunger, poverty, and a constant struggle to obtain the very minimal necessities for life. Most are accustomed to a world in which anything they can’t personally grow, make, scavenge, or steal is something they won’t have. Such ruthless resourcefulness and tolerance of pain and toil are useful qualities to any adventurer… and there are enough of them that a few who perish in some trackless waste are no grievous loss to their lords.

Performer

Singers, dancers, musicians, actors, poets, orators, and all other entertainers and edifiers might be found in this background. In a world such as this one, there are precious few who can earn more than the barest living off their art, and those who prosper are inevitably the ones who can cozen and beguile some rich patron into favoring their efforts. Even a wandering bard reliant on the generosity of taphouse keepers and bored yeomen must have a way with people, and this skill at managing their affections is often useful for an adventurer.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Exert-0

+1 Any Stat

Connect

+2 Physical

Exert

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Craft

Sneak-0

+2 Physical

Notice

Survive-0

Exert

Sneak

Any Skill

Survive

Trade

Work

Free Skill

Growth

Perform-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Any Combat

+2 Mental

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Exert

Convince-0

+2 Physical

Notice

Connect-0

Connect

Perform

Any Skill

Perform

Sneak

Convince

16•

Physician

Healers are needed in any society, and your hero was one such physician. In a town or city, they might have been a classically-trained professional, versed in subtle arts of medical horoscopes, therapeutic gemstones, and the imbibing of precious metals, while a village healer might simply know the proper use of herbs, sutures, and splints. Adventuring bands always prize the help of a trained healer, whatever their background, and many consider it an essential to have someone in the party capable of patching up a bleeding ally or treating a fevered friend.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Heal-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Mental

Craft

Know-0

+2 Mental

Heal

Notice-0

Connect

Know

Any Skill

Notice

Convince

Trade

Priest

Priests run a wide gamut in this world. Some live as moral exemplars for their flock, teaching them of the ethical demands of their religion and encouraging them in their faith. Others are simple spiritual technicians, performing rituals to propitiate and coax their god with no concern for anything but the correct execution of the rite and the timely receipt of payment. Adventuring priests often tend more toward the latter, assisting their companions with their prayers and expertise in handling people. A few priests even have magical powers, either given to them by their deity or learned as part of their youthful training.

Free Skill

Growth

Pray-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Administer

+2 Mental

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Know

Convince-0

+2 Mental

Lead

Know-0

Connect

Heal

Any Skill

Convince

Pray

Sailor

Your hero was a sailor, a voyager on the salt tides or deep rivers of their home. They might have be captain of a ship of their own, or a bargeman on the great rivers, or a simple seaman willing to take ship with any craft that would have him. Some nations might even have ships of a more than nautical nature, aircraft or stranger things in need of a trained crew. Whatever their usual berth, sailors are accustomed to lives of sudden peril and hard labor, and the self-sufficiency forced by a life on the waves is often useful to an adventurer.

Free Skill

Growth

Sail-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Craft

Exert-0

+2 Mental

Exert

Heal

Any Skill

Notice

Notice-0

Learning

Perform

Sail

Scholar

Dedicated scholars are few and far between in this world, but your hero is one of those rarities. Either through noble birth, a wealthy background, or dedication to some institution of knowledge, your hero has had the opportunity to become immersed in a life of study. You may have a particular field of focus, but scholarship in this age is a broad undertaking, and every scholar is expected to know something of the natural sciences and the nations surrounding their home. Given this education, those scholars with the daring to become adventurers can find themselves called upon to perform highly perilous field research.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Know-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+2 Mental

Heal

Quick Skills

+2 Mental

Craft

Heal-0

+2 Mental

Know

Administer-0

Connect

Notice

Any Skill

Perform

Pray

Convince

•17

Slave

Slavery in this world varies from the pampered life of some favored house slave to a short, brutal existence in the mines and manufactories. It’s not unknown for the same slave to experience both ends of the spectrum as their charm fades or financial need forces a slimming of the household staff. In some lands a former slave can have hope of attaining honor and status, while in others they might expect an even worse state, without even the assurance of sufficient bread for their labor. Runaways, rebels, and ex-slaves are all well-represented among the desperate class of adventurers.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Sneak-0

+1 Any Stat

Administer

+2 Physical

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Any Skill

Survive-0

+2 Mental

Convince

Exert-0

Exert

Any Skill

Sneak

Survive

Work

Soldier

Mercenary, regular soldier, temple knight, monastic defender, village militiaman, or savage raider; whatever the specifics, your hero made their living by war. You may have wearied of the endless killing, or lost your former employer, or simply became dissatisfied with the meagre rewards offered for your shed blood, but whatever the cause you have decided to take up an adventurer’s life instead. Every group values the help of a strong sword arm, even if you may have developed skills far different from that in pursuit of your trade.

Free Skill

Growth

Any Combat-0

+1 Any Stat

Learning Any Combat

+2 Physical

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Exert

Exert-0

+2 Physical

Lead

Survive-0

Exert

Notice

Any Skill

Ride

Sneak

Survive

Thug

A soldier belongs to some larger organization, whereas you were simply a thug. Whether a village bully, street ruffian, assassin, bandit, outlaw, or neighborhood enforcer, you got what you wanted through the strength of your right arm. Not every ruffian is a simple criminal, however, and it may be you were a protector to your family or gang, or a defender of your neighborhood against hostile outsiders or an oppressive lord. Necessity or ambition has turned you to an adventurer’s life, however, and your combination of raw violence and calculated social expertise is likely to be useful in the trade.

Free Skill

Growth

Any Combat-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Mental

Any Combat

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Connect

Convince-0

+2 Physical

Convince

Connect

Exert

Any Skill

Notice

Sneak

Survive

Connect-0

Learning

Wanderer

Some people simply have no home, and your hero is one such unfortunate. You may have been driven into exile by hostile neighbors, or a turn of political fortune, or a crime you may or may not have committed. Your former home might have been destroyed by enemies, or transformed by events until it no longer had a place for you. Whatever the particulars, you journey for your own reasons and seek whatever it is you hope to find in this world. Adventurers often have a tolerance for such vagabonds that is not to be found in more settled society.

Free Skill

Growth

Learning

Survive-0

+1 Any Stat

Any Combat

+2 Physical

Connect

Quick Skills

+2 Physical

Notice

Sneak-0

+2 Mental

Perform

Notice-0

Exert

Ride

Any Skill

Sneak

Survive

Work

18•

Choosing a Class While a hero’s background defines their upbringing and common profession, a class determines what special skills and abilities they use to succeed in their adventuring. Not everyone has a class; most people are just ordinary men and women who might be soldiers, thieves, nobles, or other ordinary professions. A PC is rare in that they have the seeds of true greatness within them, and the potential to vastly exceed the power of their ordinary peers. There are four classes available in the game. You should pick the one that provides the kind of tools you want your hero to use while adventuring. Experts are masters of non-combat skills, such as stealth, medicine, diplomacy, and other practical talents. While any hero can become quite skilled in such undertakings, an Expert learns these skills faster and can use them more effectively than other classes, often succeeding where a different hero would surely fail. Mages include not only classical wizards but also those heroes who rely on supernatural powers for their usefulness, such as magical healers, ascetic unarmed combatants, and supernaturally wise sages. Each Mage belongs to a specific magical tradition which defines their powers and indicates any special taboos they must respect. While their arts are powerful, mages tend to be frailer and less combat-capable than other heroes.

Warriors fight, using sword or bow or fist to overcome their enemies and survive the violence they might inflict. Combat is a dangerous undertaking in this game, and death comes easy to every hero. A Warrior has the tools to survive mistakes that would prove lethal to other classes and to overcome foes in combat that might otherwise prove too much for less martial heroes. Adventurers are the class for those players who can’t quite decide, or who have a concept that mixes elements of more than one class. An Adventurer can choose two of the other classes above and mix them together, gaining some of the benefits of both at the cost of never being quite so capable with either sphere as a full practitioner would be. Each class comes with a table that indicates the class’s hit dice, attack bonus, and which Focus picks they gain. Your novice hero will usually begin the game at first level, so you’d use the first line on these tables to mark down your hit points and attack bonus and to indicate how many Foci you can pick. Each of these details is explained later in the chapter, on page XX. When picking a class, don’t feel obliged to choose one that fits naturally with your background. Instead, choose one that suits how you want to play. You can always explain later how your hero came to the new trade.

The Expert Your hero is an expert at some useful skill. Thieves, diplomats, healers, scholars, explorers, artisans, and other such heroes should pick the Expert class if they wish to focus on developing their special skills and performing tremendous feats of mastery with them. Experts gain the widest variety of non-combat skills and are the quickest to learn more of them. An Expert has an uncanny knack for wielding their skills successfully at a crucial moment, whether or not it’s a skill they’ve taken for their specialty. Once per scene, Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

Focus Picks

1d6

1 Any + 1 Expert

2d6

+1 Any

3d6

4d6

5d6

6d6

7d6

8d6

9d6

10d6

+1 Any +1 Any

+1 Any

the Expert can reroll a failed non-combat skill check, gaining a second chance to yank victory from the jaws of otherwise certain failure. Their natural focus on personal development and determined refinement of their skills bleeds through even into those talents they don’t make their special domain. Experts are also capable combatants, fully able to hold their own in the midst of a murderous fray. It’s not unknown for some Experts to specialize in professions related to martial pursuits, such as an assassin who relies heavily on their superb powers of stealth and deception to reach their unwary foes.

Class Ability: Masterful Expertise

Once per scene, the Expert may reroll any non-combat skill check as an Instant action. This allows the Expert to make a roll and then immediately use this ability if the resulting total isn’t good enough to succeed. In cases where it matters, the better of the two rolls may be used.

Class Ability: Quick Learner

When you advance a character level, you gain an extra skill point which may only be spent on gaining or improving non-combat skills. You may save this point to spend later if you wish.

•19

The Mage Your hero wields arcane powers and otherworldly arts in the service of their ambitions. Some Mages are taught in formal sorcerous schools, while others gain their education from the careful instructions of a wizened master. A few who practice more primal traditions might even awaken spontaneously to their power, obtaining strange abilities without any formal education at all. Every Mage belongs to a particular magical tradition, one which describes the nature of their powers and the breadth of their capabilities. The Magic chapter beginning on page XX lists the various traditions described in this book, but more doubtless exist and several might be specific to the particular campaign world you are playing in. If playing a Mage, consult with your GM to find out which traditions exist in your campaign setting. Not all magical traditions necessarily involve classical spell-flinging and conjury. Some traditions are much more physical in nature, granting the practitioners remarkable bodily prowess or unique magical gifts they can exercise. Some Mage traditions involve no spellcasting at all, restricting their focus entirely to the strange arcane gifts their forebears have developed. While these spells and occult powers are impressive, they tend to come at a cost. A Mage must spend so much time focused on their studies and training that they have little time to master any other art. They are notably weak combatants with little ability to survive hardships that would merely wound or weary a Warrior. In addition to this, many traditions have their own specific limits on practitioners. Initiates of the High Mage tradition, for example, cannot cast their spells while wearing anything heavier than normal clothing, thus making it impossible for them to wear armor and still wield their spells. The hindrances of some traditions extend beyond physical limitations to social penalties or difficulties in dealing with mundane humanity; a necromancer may have impressive powers of magic, but they are often unwelcome in civilized lands and are sometimes subject to the panicked justice of frightened locals and their lords. Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

Focus Picks

1d6-1

1 Any

2d6-2

+1 Any

3d6-3

4d6-4

5d6-5

6d6-6

7d6-7

8d6-8

9d6-9

10d6-10

+1 Any +1 Any

+1 Any

MAGECLASS 2.92 W 5.04 H

The ways of magic tend to be specific to settings in a way that swordplay or skillful arts are not. Your GM may disallow certain Mage traditions or partial classes based on the particulars of their own campaign world or the specific sort of game they want to play. Some campaigns set in historical periods or very low-magic worlds might not include Mages at all, leaving heroes reliant on the strength of their own arms and the cunning of their own native wits.

Class Ability: Arcane Tradition

The Mage may pick one magical tradition to represent their occult powers, as listed in the Magic chapter on page XX. This tradition may give them a number of additional benefits and restrictions.

20•

The Warrior The Warrior is a hero born to the blade, a man or woman gifted with a superb capacity for physical violence. Savage barbarians, hardened mercenaries, courageous young farm boys, and ordinary laborers who just happen to have an undiscovered capacity for massive bloodshed all might qualify as Warriors. Warriors have more hit points than heroes of other class, and are capable of surviving wounds and hardships that would kill an ordinary man. They’re also gifted with a superior attack bonus, and a native ability to inflict more damage than other PCs. They even have the ability to ensure a hit or force a miss by an enemy once per scene, making them lethal foes to common combatants.

Class Ability: Killing Blow

Whenever a Warrior inflicts damage with any attack, spell, or special ability they may add half their character level, rounded up, to the damage done. This damage is also added to any Shock they may inflict.

Class Ability: Veteran’s Luck

Once per scene, as an Instant action, the Warrior may turn a missed attack they have made into a hit. Alternately, they may turn a successful attack against them

Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

1d6+2

1 Any + 1 Warrior

2d6+4

+1 Any

3d6+6

4d6+8

5d6+10

6d6+12

7d6+14

8d6+16

9d6+18

10d6+20

+10

+1 Any +1 Any

+1 Any

into a miss, also as an Instant action. Only one exercise of this ability is possible in a scene, either to force a miss or ensure a hit on a foe; both options may not be exercised in the same fight. A Warrior may use this ability with crew-served weapons they are assisting in firing. This ability cannot be used to negate environmental damage or damage done to a vehicle or mount they are riding.

WARRIORCLASS 6.34 W 5.04 H

Focus Picks

•21

The Adventurer Not every hero is perfectly reflectd by one of the three main classes, even with the wide latitude of concepts each one allows. For those heroes that straddle the roles, there remains the class of Adventurer. An Adventurer picks two of the three main classes to reflect their own particular talents. A spell-slinging swordsman might choose to be a Partial Mage/Partial Warrior, while a stealthy assassin might be a Partial Expert/Partial Warrior, and a grifting mountebank-wizard might be a Partial Expert/Partial Mage. The player should pick whichever pairing serves best. The adjacent tables provide the hit dice, attack bonus, and foci picks gained by each of the three possible pairings. Thus, a first level Partial Expert/Partial Warrior would roll 1d6+2 for their hit points, have a +1 attack bonus, and pick three Foci: one expert, one warrior, and one free pick. Adventurers tend to have a wider range of abilities than a more focused PC, and the extra Focus pick can make a significant difference at low levels. The absence of the strongest class abilities of Experts and Warriors make a difference in the longer run, however, and a Partial Mage will never attain the same magical power in their tradition as a focused specialist.

Partial Expert

Partial Expert/Partial Warrior Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

Focus Picks

1d6+2

1 Expert + 1 Warrior + 1 Any

2d6+4

+1 Any

3d6+6

4d6+8

5d6+10

6d6+12

7d6+14

8d6+16

9d6+18

10d6+20

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

1d6

1 Expert + 1 Any

2d6

+1 Any

3d6

4d6

5d6

6d6

Partial Mage

7d6

8d6

9d6

10d6

A Partial Warrior gains certain of the benefits of a full Warrior, including the improved hit die and a somewhat improved attack bonus. They do not have the Veteran’s Luck special ability or the Killing Blow power, however, and must trust to their own talents to land blows and crush their enemies.

+1 Any

Level

Partial Warrior

+1 Any

Partial Expert/Partial Mage

A Partial Expert is treated just as a full Expert, including gaining the benefits of the Quick Learner ability. They do not have the Masterful Expertise ability, however, as they lack the determined focus of a specialist. A Partial Mage is treated as a Mage, and gains the Arcane Tradition ability, allowing them to pick a magical tradition for their powers. That tradition’s abilities will be more limited for Partial Mages, however, as described under each of the arts. It’s even possible for a PC to pick the Partial Mage class twice for two different magical traditions, gaining portions of both arcane powers. They then use the usual full Mage chart for hit dice, attack bonus, and Foci, and the table on page XX if both partial classes cast spells. A Partial Mage must adhere to the restrictions and limits of their magical tradition in order to use its abilities, regardless of whatever other partial class they may have.

+1 Any

Focus Picks

+1 Any +1 Any

+1 Any

Partial Mage/Partial Warrior Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

Focus Picks

1d6+2

1 Warrior + 1 Any

2d6+4

+1 Any

3d6+6

4d6+8

5d6+10

6d6+12

7d6+14

8d6+16

9d6+18

10d6+20

+1 Any +1 Any

+1 Any

22•

Choose Foci Once you know your hero’s class, you can choose their Foci, special knacks or talents that your hero has developed. Foci generally come in two levels; the first time you pick it you get the first level of the Focus, and the second time you choose it you gain the benefits of the second level. Once a Focus has been bought up to its maximum level, it generally can’t be picked again. Sometimes the same Focus can be taken more than once to apply to different skills, such as taking Specialist twice to apply to both Sneak and Know skills. Many Foci grant a bonus skill. You gain this skill at level-0 if you don’t already have it, or level-1 if you already have it at level-0. If you already have it at level-1, pick any other skill except Magic. If you earn a Focus later in your adventuring career, you instead improve the skill as explained on page XX. Every PC can pick one Focus of any kind representing past experiences or native talent. This free Focus doesn’t necessarily have to have anything to do with your class; a Mage might actually be a vicious knife fighter with the Close Combatant Focus, or a Warrior might be exceptionally Cultured. Aside from this free Focus, a Warrior or Partial Warrior can pick one Focus related to their martial background, and an Expert or Partial Expert can pick one Focus related to something other than combat. In ambiguous cases, the GM decides if the Focus really does relate to their class.

Alert

You are keenly aware of your surroundings and virtually impossible to take unaware. You have an instinctive alacrity of response that helps you act before less wary persons can think to move. Level 1: Gain Notice as a bonus skill. You cannot be surprised, nor can others use the Execution Attack option on you. When you roll initiative, roll twice and take the best result. Level 2: You always act first in a combat round unless someone else involved is also this Alert.

Armored Magic

Usable only by Mage heroes who would otherwise be prevented from casting spells or using arts while armored, this Focus reflects special training in channeling magic through the obdurate and hindering materials of conventional armor. Level 1: You can cast spells or use arts while wearing armor that has an Encumbrance value of no more than two. You can use a shield while casting, provided your other hand is empty for gesturing. Level 2: You can cast spells while wearing armor of any Encumbrance. You’ve also learned to cast spells while both your hands are full, though not bound.

Armsmaster

You have an unusual competence with thrown weapons and melee attacks. This focus’ benefits do not apply to unarmed attacks or non-thrown projectile weapons. This Focus’ bonuses don’t stack with Deadeye or other Foci that add a skill’s level to your damage or Shock. Level 1: Gain Stab as a bonus skill. You can draw or sheath a Stowed melee or thrown weapon as an Instant action. You may add your Stab skill level to a melee or thrown weapon’s damage roll or Shock damage, assuming it has any to begin with. Level 2: The Shock from your melee attacks always treats the target as if they have AC 10. Gain a +1 bonus to hit with all thrown or melee attacks.

Artisan

You have considerable gifts as a crafter and know numerous secrets for employing arcane salvage and magical materials. You are able to create mods for equipment even if you are not an Expert, as per the rules on page XX. Level 1: Gain Craft as a bonus skill. Your Craft skill is treated as one level higher, up to a maximum of 5, for purposes of crafting and maintaining mods. Mods you build require one fewer unit of arcane salvage, down to a minimum of one. Level 2: The first mod you add to an item requires no Maintenance and only half the silver piece cost usually required. This benefit is in addition to the benefits of installing a mod in masterwork gear you build. You automatically succeed at any attempt to build masterwork gear appropriate to your background or past practice, and once per month you can reduce a created mod’s salvage cost by one further unit, down to a minimum of zero.

Assassin

You are practiced at sudden murder, and have certain advantages in carrying out an Execution Attack as described in the rules on page XX. Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. You can conceal an object no larger than a knife from anything less invasive than a strip search. You can draw or produce this object as an On Turn action, and your pointblank attacks made from surprise with it cannot miss the target. Level 2: You can take a Move action on the same round as you make an Execution Attack, closing rapidly with a target before you attack. You may split this Move action when making an Execution Attack, taking part of it before you murder your target and part of it afterwards. This movement happens too quickly to alert a victim or to be hindered by bodyguards, barring an actual physical wall of meat between you and your prey.

•23

Authority

You have an uncanny kind of charisma about you, one that makes others instinctively follow your instructions and further your causes. At level 1, this is a knack of charm and personal magnetism, while level 2 might suggest latent magical powers. Where this focus refers to followers, it means NPCs who have voluntarily chosen to be in your service. PCs never count as followers. Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. Once per day, you can make a request from an NPC who is not openly hostile to you, rolling a Cha/Lead skill check at a difficulty of the NPC’s Morale score. If you succeed, they will comply with the request, provided it is not significantly harmful or extremely uncharacteristic. Level 2: Those who follow you are fired with confidence. Any NPC being directly led by you gains a Morale and hit roll bonus equal to your Lead skill and a +1 bonus on all skill checks. Your followers and henchmen will not act against your interests unless under extreme pressure.

Close Combatant

You’ve had all too much practice at close-in fighting and desperate struggles with drawn blades. You’re extremely skilled at avoiding injury in melee combat, and at level 2 you can dodge through a melee scrum without fear of being knifed in passing. Level 1: Gain any combat skill as a bonus skill. You can use knife-sized thrown weapons in melee without suffering penalties for the proximity of melee attackers. You ignore Shock damage from melee assailants, even if you’re unarmored at the time, but invoking this benefit disrupts any spellcasting you might do that round due to the need for violently active evasion. Level 2: The Shock damage from your melee attacks treats all targets as if they were AC 10. The Fighting Withdrawal combat action is treated as an On Turn action for you and can be performed freely.

Connected

You’re remarkably gifted at making friends and forging ties with the people around you. Wherever you go, you always seem to know somebody useful to your ends. Level 1: Gain Connect as a bonus skill. If you’ve spent at least a week in a not-entirely-hostile location, you’ll have built a web of contacts willing to do favors for you that are no more than mildly illegal. You can call on one favor per game day and the GM decides how far they’ll go for you. Level 2: Once per game session, if it’s not entirely implausible, you meet someone you know who is willing to do modest favors for you. You can decide when and where you want to meet this person, but the GM decides who they are and what they can do for you.

Cultured

Through wide travel, careful observation, or extensive study, you’ve obtained a wide experience of the cultures of your region and an ability to navigate their customs, laws, and languages. You know what to do and say to impress others with the reasonableness of your wishes. Level 1: Gain Connect as a bonus skill. You can speak all the common languages of your native region and convey at least basic information in the uncommon or esoteric ones. You can learn a new language with only a week’s practice with a native speaker. Once per game day, your polished ways automatically gain a modest favor from an NPC that would not put them to significant expense or risk, assuming the NPC isn’t hostile to you. Level 2: Once per game session, reroll a failed social skill check as you use your cultural knowledge to push your interlocutor toward the desired result.

Die Hard

You are surprisingly hard to kill. You can survive injuries or bear up under stresses that would incapacitate a less determined hero. Level 1: You gain an extra 2 maximum hit points per level. This bonus applies retroactively if you take this focus after first level. You automatically stabilize if mortally wounded, provided you have not been incinerated, dismembered, or otherwise torn apart. Level 2: The first time each day that you are reduced to zero hit points by an injury, you instead survive with one hit point remaining. This ability can’t save you from large-scale, instantly-lethal trauma.

Deadeye

You have a gift with ranged weapons. While this talent most commonly applies to bows, it is also applicable to thrown weapons or other ranged weapons that can be used with the Shoot skill. For thrown weapons, you can’t use the benefits of the Armsmaster focus at the same time as Deadeye. Level 1: Gain Shoot as a bonus skill. You can draw or ready a Stowed ranged weapon as an On Turn action. You may use a bow or two-handed ranged weapon even when an enemy is within melee range, albeit at a -4 hit penalty. You may add your Shoot skill level to a ranged weapon’s damage roll. Level 2: Once per round, you can reload a crossbow or other slow-loading ranged weapon as an On Turn action if it takes no more than one round to reload. Gain a +1 bonus to hit on all ranged attacks.

24•

Dealmaker

You have an uncanny ability to sniff out traders and find good deals, licit or otherwise. Even those who might not normally be disposed to bargain with you can sometimes be persuaded to pause and negotiate, if you have something they want. Level 1: Gain Trade as a bonus skill. With a half hour of effort you can find a buyer or seller for any good or service that can be traded in the community, legal or otherwise. Finding a marginally possible service, like an assassin willing and able to target a king, or some specific precious ancient artifact, may require an adventure if the GM allows it at all. Level 2: Once per session, target a sentient who is not just then trying to kill you or your allies and make a request of it that it can comprehend. If it’s at all plausible for it to make such terms, it will do so for a price or favor it thinks you can grant, though the price for significant favors might be dear.

Developed Attribute

Your hero has a remarkable degree of development to one or more of their attributes. This may be derived from an eldritch bloodline, native brilliance, or sheer, stubborn determination. This Focus cannot be taken by heroes with the Mage or Partial Mage classes. Level 1: Choose an attribute; its modifier is increased by +1, up to a maximum of +3. The actual score does not change, but the modifier increases, and may increase again if later advancement improves the attribute enough. You can choose this Focus more than once to improve different attributes.

Diplomat

You know how to get your way in personal negotiations, and can manipulate the attitudes of those around you. Even so, while smooth words are versatile, they’ll only work if your interlocutor is actually willing to listen to you. Level 1: Gain Convince as a bonus skill. You speak all the languages common to your region of the world and can learn new ones to a workable level in a week, becoming fluent in a month. Reroll 1s on any skill check dice related to negotiation or diplomacy. Level 2: Once per game session, shift an intelligent NPC’s reaction roll one step friendlier if you can talk to them for at least thirty seconds.

Gifted Chirurgeon

You have an unusual gift for saving mortally-wounded allies and quickening the natural recovery of the wounded in your care. Level 1: Gain Heal as a bonus skill. You may attempt to stabilize one Mortally Wounded adjacent person per round as an On Turn action. When rolling Heal skill checks, roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die. You heal twice as many hit points as usual when applying first aid after a battle, as described on page XX.

Level 2: Your curative gifts are little short of magical. You can heal 1d6+Heal skill in damage to an adjacent wounded ally as a Main Action. Each such application of healing adds 1 System Strain to the target, and the gift cannot be used on targets already at their maximum System Strain.

Henchkeeper

You have a distinct knack for picking up lost souls who willingly do your bidding. You might induce them with promises of money, power, excitement, sex, or some other prize that you may or may not eventually grant. A henchman obtained with this focus will serve in loyal fashion until clearly betrayed or placed in unacceptable danger. Henchmen are not “important” people in their society, and are usually marginal sorts, outcasts, the desperate, or other persons with few options. You can use more conventional pay or inducements to acquire additional henchmen, but these extra hirelings are no more loyal or competent than your pay and treatment can purchase. Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. You can acquire henchmen within 24 hours of arriving in a community, assuming anyone is suitable hench material. These henchmen will not fight except to save their own lives, but will escort you on adventures and risk great danger to help you. Most henchmen from a civilized society will be treated as Peaceful Humans from the Bestiary section of the book. You can have one henchmen at a time for every three character levels you have, rounded up. You can release henchmen with no hard feelings at any plausible time and pick them back up later should you be without a current henchman. Level 2: Your henchmen are remarkably loyal and determined, and will fight for you against anything but clearly overwhelming odds. Whether through natural competence or their devotion to you, they’re treated as Martial Humans from the Bestiary section. You can make faithful henchmen out of skilled and highly-capable NPCs, but this requires that you actually have done them some favor or help that would reasonably earn such fierce loyalty.

Impervious Defense

Whether through uncanny reflexes, remarkable luck, supernatural heritage, or magical talent, you have natural defenses equivalent to high-quality armor. The benefits of this Focus don’t stack with armor, though Dexterity or shield modifiers apply. Level 1: You have an innate Armor Class of 15 plus half your character level, rounded up. Level 2: Once per day, as an Instant action, you can shrug off any single weapon attack or physical trauma inflicted by a foe. Environmental damage, falling damage, or other harm that couldn’t be forfended by strong armor cannot be resisted this way.

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Impostor

You are exceedingly skilled at presenting yourself as something you are not, including disguises, voice mimicry, and lightning-fast wardrobe changes. Some impostors rely on the acting skills of Perform, while others lean more to the nefarious tricks of Sneak. Level 1: Gain Perform or Sneak as a bonus skill. Once per scene, reroll any failed skill check or saving throw related to maintaining an imposture or disguise. Create one false identity of no great social importance; you can flawlessly pretend to be that person, such that only extremely persuasive proof can connect you with it. You can change this identity with a week’s worth of effort in building a new one. Level 2: You can alter your clothing and armor such that a single Main Action lets you swap between any of three chosen appearances. In addition to your original false identity, you can establish a new false identity in each city or significant community you spend at least a week in.

Lucky

Some fund of remarkable luck has preserved your life at least once in the past, and continues to give you an edge in otherwise hopeless situations. This luck does not favor the already-blessed; this Focus can only be taken by a PC with at least one attribute modifier of -1 or less. Level 1: Once per week, a blow or effect that would otherwise have killed, mortally wounded, or rendered helpless the PC somehow fails to connect or affect them. The PC makes any rolls related to games of chance twice, taking the better roll. Level 2: Once per session, in a situation of need or peril, the PC can trust to their luck and roll 1d6. On a 2 or more, something fortunate will happen to further their goal, provide an escape from immediate peril, or otherwise give them an advantage they need, if not immediate victory. On a 1, the situation will immediately grow much worse, as the GM sees fit.

Nullifier

Something about your hero interferes with easy use of magic on them. It may be a strangely powerful birth blessing, a particular supernatural bloodline, or simple occult incompatibility. This Focus cannot be taken by Mages or Partial Mages. Level 1: You and all allies within twenty feet gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws against magical effects. You can feel the presence or use of magic within twenty feet of you, though you can’t discern details about it or the specific source. The first failed saving throw against a magical effect you suffer in a day is turned into a success. Level 2: Once per day, as an Instant action, you are simply not affected by an unwanted magical effect, even if it wouldn’t normally allow a saving throw.

Poisoner

You are a skilled poisoner, capable of compounding toxins out of readily-available flora and minerals. It takes an hour to brew a poison, and you can keep as many doses fresh as you have levels. Blade venoms take a Main Action to apply and last for ten minutes or until a hit or Shock is inflicted, whichever comes first. Detecting poisoned food is a Wis/Notice skill check against 10, or 12 if they’re not suspicious. One dose can poison up to a half-dozen diners. Level 1: Gain Heal as a bonus skill. Gain a reroll on any failed saving throw versus poison. Your toxins inflict 2d6 damage plus your level on a hit or Shock, with a Physical save for half. Your incapacitating or hallucinogenic toxins do the same, but those reduced to zero hit points are simply incapacitated for an hour. Level 2: You are immune to poison and can apply a universal antidote to any poisoned ally as a Main Action. Any attempt to detect or save against your poisons takes a penalty equal to your Heal skill. Your ingested poisons count as an Execution Attack against unsuspecting targets, as per page XX, with Heal used for the Physical saving throw penalty. Such poisons can be non-lethal at your discretion.

Polymath

You have a passing acquaintance with a vast variety of practical skills and pastimes. Note that the phantom skill levels granted by this Focus don’t stack with normal skill levels or give a skill purchase discount. Level 1: Gain any one bonus skill. You never take the -1 penalty for attempting a skill check untrained, and you can attempt even those skills that would be impossible for an untutored person to essay. You never suffer the -2 hit penalty for lacking an appropriate combat skill. Level 2: Once per day, you can remember some trick relevant to the task you are attempting, allowing you to roll a check as if you had level-2 skill in it.

Rider

Anyone with any level of Ride skill can fight competently on horseback or keep their mount healthy. You have an almost supernatural bond with your steeds, however, and can push them beyond normal limits. Level 1: Gain Ride as a bonus skill. Your steeds all count as Morale 12 in battle, use your AC if it’s higher than theirs, and can travel 50% further in a day than normal for their kind. You can intuitively communicate with riding beasts, gaining as much information from it as its intellect can convey. Level 2: Once per scene, negate a successful attack against your steed as an Instant action. Once per scene, reroll any failed Ride skill check. You can telepathically send and receive simple warnings, thoughts, and commands to and from your steed so long as it’s within two hundred feet. You can so bond with one steed at a time, taking an hour to do so.

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Shocking Assault

You’re extremely dangerous to enemies around you. The ferocity of your melee attacks stresses and distracts enemies even when your blows don’t draw blood. Level 1: Gain Punch or Stab as a bonus skill. The Shock damage of your weapon treats all targets as if they were AC 10, assuming your weapon is capable of harming the target in the first place and the target is not immune to Shock. Level 2: In addition, you gain a +2 bonus to the Shock damage rating of all melee weapons and unarmed attacks. As usual, regular hits never do less damage than this Shock would do on a miss.

Sniper

You are an expert at placing a thrown knife or arrow on an unsuspecting target. These special benefits only apply when making an Execution Attack with a bow, hurlant, or thrown weapon, as described on page XX. Level 1: Gain Shoot as a bonus skill. When making a skill check for a ranged Execution Attack or target shooting, roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die. Level 2: A target hit by your ranged Execution Attack takes a -4 penalty on the Physical saving throw to avoid immediate mortal injury. Even if the save is successful, the target takes double the normal damage inflicted by the attack.

Specialist

You are remarkably talented at a particular skill. Whether a marvelous cat burglar, a famed athlete, a brilliant scholar, or some other savant, your expertise is extremely reliable. You may take this focus more than once for different skills. Level 1: Gain any skill as a bonus, except for Magic, Stab, Shoot, or Punch. Roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die for all skill checks in this skill. Level 2: Roll 4d6 and drop the two lowest dice for all skill checks in this skill.

Spirit Familiar

You have a minor spirit, devil, construct, magical beast, or other creature as a devoted companion. While its abilities are limited, it is absolutely loyal to you. Level 1: Choose a form for your familiar no smaller than a raven nor larger than a human. It has the statistics and abilities of an entity created by Calculation of the Evoked Servitor on page XX, but may be summoned or dismissed as a Main Action, appearing within melee range of its owner. It has no need for food, water, or sleep. If killed, it vanishes and cannot be re-summoned for 24 hours. Once per day, it can refresh one point of Committed Effort for you. Level 2: Pick two benefits from this list for your familiar: A) it has hit points equal to three times your character level, B) it gains the ability to attack with a hit bonus equal to half your level, rounded up, doing 1d8 damage on a hit with no Shock, C) it gains a +1

skill check bonus and can apply it to a range of situations equivalent to one normal human background, D) it can adopt a normal-seeming human shape as an On Turn action, E) it can fly at its usual movement rate, or F) it can communicate freely in any language you know. This level may be taken more than once, adding two additional options each time.

Trapmaster

You have uncommon expertise in handling traps and snares, both mundane ones and the magical perils sometimes found in Deeps or the lairs of sorcerers. You know how to quickly improvise traps with materials you commonly carry. Level 1: Gain Notice as a bonus skill. Once per scene, reroll any failed saving throw or skill check related to traps or snares. Given five minutes of work you can trap a portal, container, passageway, or other relatively narrow space with foot snares, caltrops, toxic needles, or other hazards. Non-lethal traps cause the first victim to trigger it to lose a round of actions while dangerous ones inflict 1d6 damage plus twice the character’s level, with an appropriate saving throw for half. Only one such improvised trap can be maintained at a time. More fearsome traps may be laid with congenial circumstances and the GM’s permission. Level 2: You know secrets for unraveling even magical traps or arcane hazards that would normally require a wizard to dispel them. Once per scene, your efforts count as an Extirpate Arcana spell against the trap or hazard, cast at twice your level, with any relevant skill check being Int/Notice or Dex/Notice.

Unarmed Combatant

Your empty hands are more dangerous than swords in the grip of the less gifted. Your unarmed attacks are counted as melee weapons when it comes to binding up opponents wielding bows and similar ranged long arms, though you need at least one hand free to do so. Level 1: Gain Punch as a bonus skill. Your unarmed attacks become more dangerous as your Punch skill increases. At level-0, they do 1d6 damage. At level-1, they do 1d8 damage. At level-2 they do 1d10, level-3 does 1d12, and level-4 does 1d12+1. At Punch-1 or better, they have the Shock quality equal to your Punch skill against AC 15 or less. While you normally add your Punch skill level to any unarmed damage, don’t add it twice to this Shock damage. Level 2: Even on a miss with a Punch attack, you do an unmodified 1d6 damage, plus any Shock that the blow might inflict on the target.

Unique Gift

Your hero has some unusual ability or magical knack that can’t be adequately described by an existing Focus. This choice is a catch-all meant to represent a special power that’s in some way worth a Focus pick.

•27 The exact effect of the ability should be defined by the player and the GM together, working out some result that seems fair and reasonable. This will vary from table to table and from campaign to campaign; an innate ability to breathe water is little more than a novelty in a desert setting, while a campaign based on piracy in an endless archipelago might make it far more significant. As with any power, the group should be willing to reconsider the gift if it turns out to be exceptionally weak in play or a stronger power than was anticipated.

Valiant Defender

You are a bodyguard, shieldbearer, or other gifted defender of others, accustomed to the roil of bloody battle and desperate struggle. Level 1: Gain Stab or Punch as a bonus skill. Gain a +2 on all skill checks for the Screen Ally combat action. You can screen against one more attacker per round than your skill would normally allow. Level 2: The first Screen Ally skill check you make in a round is always successful. Gain +2 AC while screening someone. You can screen against foes as large as ogres or oxen.

Wayfinder

You have an astonishing sense of direction and spatial intuition, one that never leads you astray. Level 1: You are always aware of your location and the direction of north, assuming north exists in your context. You never become lost and can always find your way back to a place you have been. You can always find your way to any city or place that you have some form of directions to. If you are teleported against your will, you don’t know your location until you can find a landmark you recognize. Level 2: Your acuity allows you to ignore difficult terrain, moving through debris and climbing at your full movement rate. You maintain a perfect mental map of your known surroundings, one sufficient to navigate them blind. When traveling overland, your group’s movement rate is 50% faster than normal.

Whirlwind Assault

You are a frenzy of bloody havoc in melee combat, and can hack down numerous lesser foes in close combat… assuming you survive being surrounded. Level 1: Gain Stab as a bonus skill. Once per scene, as an On Turn action, apply your Shock damage to all foes within melee range, assuming they’re susceptible to your Shock. Level 2: The first time you kill someone in a round with a normal attack, either with its rolled damage on a hit or with the Shock damage it inflicts, instantly gain a second attack on any target within range using any Ready weapon you have.

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Final Touches (Full text later) Pick one skill of your choice to reflect your hero’s past interests, talents, or professional work, gaining it at level-0 proficiency. If you already have this skill at level-0, it becomes level-1. You cannot use this free pick to improve a skill that’s already at level-1. Spellcasting Mages begin play knowing a number of first-level spells equal to two plus their Intelligence modifier. These spells may be chosen from any spell list available to them. A novice High Mage, for example, would pick first-level spells from the High Magic spell list, while a new Elementalist could pick them from either the High Magic or Elementalist spells. Characters begin with the knowledge of their native language, Trade Cant, and fluency in additional ones based on their Connect or Know skill levels. Level-0 in either grants one more language and level-1 grants two. Thus, a PC with Connect-1 and Know-1 skills would start fluent in their native tongue, Trade Cant, and four additional languages of their choice. Increasing Connect or Know skills later can allow them to learn one more language for each level they gain, as can spending a few months immersed in a culture. Page XX gives a listing of the tongues common to the Gyre region of the Latter Earth.

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Equipment Packages To determine your hero’s starting equipment you may pick a suitable package from the selections below. Optionally, you can roll 3d6 x 10 to find out your PC’s starting silver and purchase items individually from the section starting on page XX. As a matter of simplicity, it’s often easiest to simply pick a serviceable package and perhaps swap out an item if the GM thinks it’s reasonable. PCs are assumed to have an ordinary suit of clothing and such small personal effects as anyone would carry on their person. Such things do not count against the Adventuring Peasant

hero’s Encumbrance, as explained on page XX, though a spare set of clothing kept in a backpack would do so. The equipment packages include the Encumbrance cost of each item. Remember that armor must be worn Ready in order to do any good, and weapons that are kept Stowed will take an extra Main Action to get ready for use. Backpacks and other storage gear generally counts as Stowed unless the hero wants to tie it loosely and thus be ready to drop it at a moment’s need… such as when they may need to outrun a slower compatriot.

Enc

Ranger or Archer

Enc

War Shirt (AC 11)

Buff Coat (AC 12)

Large Shield (AC 14 when held)

Bow, Large (1d8 damage, no Shock)

Light Spear (1d6 dmg, Shock 2/AC 13)

20 arrows & quiver

Dagger (1d4 dmg, Shock 1/AC 15)

Backpack

Hand Axe (1d6 dmg, Shock 1/AC 15)

Rations, 1 week

Backpack

Mule and small cart

Cooking utensils and 1 week of rations

Tinder box and 3 torches

Waterskin

Tinder box and 3 torches

20 silver pieces in cash

Armored Warrior

5 total

Enc

Roguish Wanderer

Enc

Pieced Armor (AC 14)

Buff Coat (AC 12)

Large Shield (+1 AC when wearing armor)

Small Shield (+1 AC when wearing armor)

Short Sword (1d6 dmg, Shock 2/AC 15)

Dagger (1d4 dmg, Shock 1/AC 15)

Throwing Blades, 5 (1d4 dmg, no Shock)

Backpack

Tinder box and 3 torches

Rations, 1 week

Waterskin

Tinder box and 3 torches

Grappling hook and 50’ of rope Mage, Healer, or Scholar

2 total

Gentry Wayfarer

Enc

Buff Coat (AC 12)

Daggers, 2 (1d4 dmg, Shock 1/AC 15)

Small Shield (+1 AC when wearing armor)

Staff (1d6 dmg, Shock 1/AC 13)

Short Sword (1d6 dmg, Shock 2/AC 15)

Backpack

Lantern, tinder box, and 2 pint flasks of oil

Rations, 1 week

Writing kit & 20 sheets of paper

Waterskin

Rations, 1 week

Fine suit of clothing carried in the pack

Waterskin

Writing kit & 20 sheets of paper

Healer’s pouch

20 silver coins in cash

80 silver pieces in cash

3 total

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Example Character Creation

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Blank Character Sheet

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Equipment, Armor, and Weaponry There are countless different currencies in the Latter Earth, some familiar enough and others largely incomprehensible to outsiders. In most regions, however, some variety of metal coinage is used. While it lacks the flexibility of Outsider scrip or the occult power of crystallized logoi it can be minted by any local lord with a furnace and a hammer. Many do, and the finer points of coin purity, weight, and value are of keen interest to merchants the world over. For most adventurers, however, a coin is a coin. Copper coins are the daily-use money of urbanites, where village folk more often trade goods and services through a complex but well-understood balance of favors done and owed. Silver coins are for larger purchases, while golden coins are the currency of rich merchants, nobles, and others who deal with great affairs. Silver is the usual currency of record, with the prices of most expensive goods given in silver pieces. Amounts in gold are often considered more honorable, and so a lord’s income or a king’s reward will often be phrased in terms of gold coins, even if ultimately paid in silver. Common Exchange Rates 1 gold coin

10 silver coins

1 silver coin

10 copper coins

Buying Equipment and Services

The following tables give the common prices for assorted goods, weapons, armor, and services of interest to adventurers. These prices are usually significantly higher than those that would be paid by a reasonably well-connected local or native; adventurers and other wayfarers tend to pay a premium for their gear. A prudent, patient native might pay half as much for many of these things. Most of the equipment listed can be acquired in any decent-sized market town or city. Truly costly items of several thousand silver pieces or more may require special contacts to purchase in a timely fashion, or else the patience to wait out the equipment’s construction. In villages and other rural areas, much of this gear will be unavailable at any price. The village guardians might have a few spare spears or battered buff coats to sell at a stiff mark-up, but hurlants, war-horses, chain hauberks, and other expensive, specialized gear is unlikely to be available save by pure luck and much silver. Hirelings and other servants are most easily found in towns and cities as well, though a village may have a few strapping lads willing to risk their necks for more silver than they’ll see in half a life. If those lives are cut short, however, don’t expect replacements to step forward.

Encumbrance There is a limit to the amount of gear that a hero can comfortably carry. While a GM is perfectly justified in deciding to handle the matter loosely, and to just eyeball a reasonable maximum for the party’s allowed gear, some prefer a more organized system. Encumbrance is measured in items. Most ordinary objects that can be comfortably carried in one hand count as one item. Two-handed weapons, heavy objects, or unwieldy things count as two, or sometimes even more in the more extreme cases. Very small objects do not count as items unless carried in unusual numbers. Normal clothing being worn does not count as an item. Gems, jewelry, and other small objects usually aren’t tracked as items, though every full 100 coins counts as one item. Bulk goods such as rations, torches, oil flasks, or the like can be bundled together, with three of them counting as one item. Such carefully-packed bundles require a Main Action to break open if the PC wants to get at the contents, however. A hero can carry a number of Readied items equal to half their Strength attribute, rounded down. Readied items include worn armor, carried shields, weapons sheathed or at the ready, or anything else the PC wants immediate access to. PCs can use Readied items as part of whatever action they’re doing without taking any extra

time to draw them, dig them out of a pack, or get them ready for use. Thus, a hero with a sheathed sword that is Ready can draw it as part of the attack they’re making, and a hero with a Readied magical potion can quaff it without spending any extra time finding it in his pack. A hero can carry a number of Stowed items equal to their full Strength score. Stowed items are tucked away in packs, carefully organized in pouches, and otherwise stored so as to be as compact as possible. A hero who wants to use a Stowed item needs to spend a Main Action digging it out before they can employ it. Characters can push their limits by carrying more than is comfortable. An extra two Readied or four Stowed items can be carried, but this slows them down; their Move action allows them to move only 20 feet instead of 30. A further two Readied or four Stowed items can be carried beyond that, but that slows them down to 15 feet per Move action. It’s assumed that the heroes have sufficient packs, sacks, pockets, and pouches to actually carry all of their gear. While a PC might have enough Strength to cart around a dozen pieces of adventuring gear, if they don’t have a backpack or some other way of actually storing these things, the GM may not allow them to do it. In the same vein, some relatively light objects that are very bulky or awkward might count as several Encumbrance points.

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Adventuring Gear

Most of the equipment listed below is largely self-explanatory. The prices given are average for adventurers in most urban areas, though acquiring some of the objects may be more costly in less prosperous surroundings. Some groups prefer to have less fine-grained tracking of a party’s resources and would rather not record each torch and flask of oil. Those who would prefer to be a little more general can instead use the adjacent gear bundle options, assuming the GM permits it.

Gear Bundles

Depending on the tastes of the group, some parties might enjoy tracking every torch and carefully weighing their resource expenditures on perilous expeditions. Others prefer to gloss over the details. The “gear bundle” options below cover all the non-weapon, non-armor gear expected of a particular role and the usual encumbrance weight of it all. The specific contents of each bundle are as broad as the GM finds reasonable for the role. A GM who prefers exact accounting can disallow bundles. Gear Bundles

Adventuring Gear Item

Cost

Enc

Arrows, 20

2 sp

Backpack

2 sp

1§

Boots

2 sp

1§

Candle

1 cp

Cart, one-horse

50 sp

N/A

Clothes, common

5 sp

1§

Clothes, fine

50 sp

1§

Clothes, noble

500 sp

2§

Cooking utensils

4 sp

Crowbar

4 sp

Firewood, one night's fire

2 cp

Flask, metal, one pint

3 sp

Item

Cost

Artisan’s Equipment

Enc

50 sp

Criminal Tools

100 sp

Dungeoneering Kit

200 sp

1,000 sp

Performer’s Implements

100 sp

Wilderness Travel Gear

100 sp

Noble Courtier Outfit

Beasts and Transport

The animals below are generally similar to those known in contemporary Earth, though subtle changes in behavior or physiology are common. Some nations have access to exceptionally swift flying beasts or remarkable airships surviving from former days, but the availability of such exotic modes of transport is at the GM’s discretion.

Grappling hook

5 sp

Hammer or small tool

2 sp

Healer's pouch

5 sp

Item

Hurlant bolts, 20

20 sp

Horse, riding

200 sp

Iron spikes, 10

1 sp

Horse, draft

150 sp

Lantern

10 sp

Horse, battle-trained

Mirror, hand

10 sp

Mule

30 sp

Oil, one pint

1 sp

Cow

10 sp

Paper, 10 sheets

1 sp

Ox, plow-trained

15 sp

Rations, one week

5 sp

Chicken

5 cp

Rope, 50'

2 sp

Pig

3 sp

Sack

1 sp

Dog, working

20 sp

Shovel, pick, or similar tool

4 sp

Sheep or goat

5 sp

Tinder box

1 sp

Torch

2 cp

River ferry, per passenger

5 cp

Waterskin, one gallon

1 sp

Ship passage, per expected day

2 sp

Writing kit

3 sp

Carriage travel, per mile

2 cp

Rowboat

30 sp

Small fishing boat

200 sp

* the item is effectively weightless in modest numbers § the item doesn’t count for encumbrance purposes while being worn # can be bundled in units of three for the same encumbrance, with a Main Action to break open a bundle to get at the contents

Beasts and Transport Cost

2,000 sp

Merchant ship

5,000 sp

War galleon

50,000 sp

34•

Hirelings and Day Labor

The party may find it useful to employ temporary labor in their adventures, either for extra warm bodies in combat or for the special talents the hireling might bring. Adventuring hirelings will demand at least a halfshare of treasure in addition to their daily pay and will undertake no risks that their employers don’t share. Their combat statistics will be as normal for their type, usually equal to a common human soldier for most. After a particularly dangerous adventure, the hireling must make a Morale check; on a failure, they decide the adventuring life is too risky, and will no longer accompany the party. On the rare occasions that a competent mage can be found willing to hire out their services, they almost never have spellcasting abilities beyond that of a first or second level Mage. Most communities have a limited number of men and women willing to risk an awful doom while adventuring. If the party makes a habit of returning without their employees, the GM may well decide that no further locals are willing to sign on. Non-adventuring hirelings who are employed to guard the party’s residence, haul their equipment on expeditions, work on their behalf, and otherwise conduct normal business will require no more than their daily wage. If they can’t go home at the end of the day, food and fit lodgings must be provided as well. Where it matters, common hirelings can be assumed to have a total +1 bonus on relevant skill checks.

Services and Living Expenses

Heroes who are sufficiently established as to have their own homes or businesses can live comfortably on their own resources. Other PCs, however, must pay for their keep when not out adventuring. Impoverished lifestyle costs cover only the bare minimum of food and a mostly-dry squat to sleep in. Heroes who can afford nothing better suffer a -1 penalty to all social skill checks due to their unkempt state and must make a Physical saving throw each night to benefit from the usual nightly decrease in System Strain. Common lifestyle fees for an adventurer usually cover adequate food and a shabby private inn room. No penalties or benefits are granted by living this way. Rich lifestyle costs generally include a rented townhouse, a small staff of servants, and social entree into high society circles that are forgiving of the noveau riche… at least, as long as their coin remains good. Noble lifestyles provide the very best the community can offer in fine lodging, luxuriant food, sycophantic servants, and the provisional friendship of useful parasites. Once per game session, the PC can ask a favor of a hanger-on in their retinue, who will perform it if it is not more than mildly humiliating, dangerous or illegal. Aside from these weekly lifestyle costs, some other services often required by adventurers are listed. Individual circumstances and the quality of the help hired may drastically increase these fees, and bribes are not always successful in buying forbearance.

Hirelings and Day Labor Item

Cost/day

Bard of Small Repute

2 sp

Common Prostitute

2 sp

Dragoman or Skilled Interpreter

10 sp

Elite Courtesan

100 sp

Farmer

1 sp

Guard, ordinary

2 sp

Guard, sergeant, for every ten guards

10 sp

Lawyer or Pleader

10 sp

Mage of Minor Abilities

200 sp

Mundane Physician

10 sp

Porter willing to go into the wilds

5 sp

Porter only for relatively safe roads

1 sp

Navigator

5 sp

Sage, per question answered

200 sp

Sailor

1 sp

Scribe or Clerk

3 sp

Skilled Artisan

5 sp

Unskilled Laborer

1 sp

Veteran Sellsword

10 sp

Wilderness Guide

10 sp

Services and Living Expenses Item

Cost

Impoverished lifestyle, per week

5 sp

Common lifestyle, per week

20 sp

Rich lifestyle, per week

200 sp

Noble lifestyle, per week

1,000 sp

Magical healing of wounds

10 sp/hp*

Magical curing of a disease

500 sp*

Lifting a curse or undoing magic Casting a minor spell

1,000 sp* 250 sp*

Bribe to overlook a minor crime

10 sp

Bribe to overlook a major crime

500 sp

Bribe to overlook a capital crime

10,000 sp

Hire someone for a minor crime

50 sp

Hire someone for a major crime

1,000 sp

Hire someone for a capital crime

50,000 sp

* These services are rarely available without personal connections or doing special favors, and many communities may lack them entirely.

•35

Armor

While some martial adepts or tradition-bound sorcerers shun armor, most adventurers find it necessary to put something solid between them and their enemies. Armor must be worn as a Readied item, counting against the hero’s encumbrance limit. Each type of armor grants a different base Armor Class to the wearer, making it more difficult for enemies to land a telling blow. This Armor Class is modified by the wearer’s Dexterity modifier and by any shield they might carry, as described below. Multiple suits of armor do not stack; only one can usefully benefit a wearer at any one time. A hero wearing no armor at all has a base Armor Class of 10, modified by their Dexterity modifier. If they pick up a shield they can improve this to either AC 13 or AC 14, depending on the size of the shield. Light armor may be decidedly heavy, but it is loose and flexible enough to offer minimal hindrance to the wearer’s actions. Some varieties are also discreet enough to be worn politely in common society. Medium armor is significantly noisier and more overt; it cannot be worn discreetly and applies its encumbrance as a penalty to any physical Sneak rolls made by the wearer. Heavy armor is the thickest, toughest panoply available on the market, and its bulk and noise make its encumbrance apply as a penalty to Sneak or Exert checks made by the wearer. The armors listed on the table are simply some of the most common harness to be found in the Latter Earth. Enchanted and exotic panoply can be found in many places, some of which is scarcely recognizable as armor. Shields come in two general varieties. Small ones, often made of metal, can be strapped to the wearer’s arm and allow them to hold and manipulate objects with that hand. Larger shields require the use of a gripping hand, but are usually of cheaper, lighter wood. A small shield user has a base AC of 13, while a large shield user has a base AC of 14. Unlike other armor, however, if the user is already wearing equal or better armor the shield grants a +1 bonus to their AC. Shields allow the bearer to ignore the first instance of Shock they might otherwise suffer in a round. War shirts are nothing more than blessed shirts, lucky cloaks, auspicious warpaint, or whatever tokens of martial victory are favored by the poor and humble of a given culture. While they may look like nothing but normal clothing, their war-luck is still sufficient to interfere with a spellcaster’s abilities should they try to wear one. Buff coats are long coats of thick, supple hide, sometimes worn to cushion the bite of heavier armor and sometimes sported as ornamented street clothing for the gentry who can afford such luxuries. Linothorax armor is a stiffer armor of glued, layered cloth, often as elaborately decorated as the arts of its maker allow. A war robe is a catchall term for various outfits involving layers of reinforced cloth or leather. Bits of metal, layers of thick hide, or weaves of tough cordage might all go into the various layers of the suit, making it a very heavy, if effective, piece of equipment.

Armor Light Armors

Cost

Enc

No Armor

None

N/A

War Shirt

None

Buff Coat

50 sp

Linothorax

20 sp

War Robe

50 sp

Pieced Armor

100 sp

Mail Shirt

250 sp

Cuirass and Greaves

250 sp

Scaled Armor

500 sp

Mail Hauberk

1,000 sp

Plate Armor

2,000 sp

Great Armor

4,000 sp

Small Shield

20 sp

Large Shield

10 sp

Medium Armors

Heavy Armors

Shields

Pieced armor is assembled of a thicker or more durable chestpiece and piecework limb armor. While less effective than a proper cuirass and greaves, it’s often the best that scavengers or poor adventurers can get. Mail shirts are usually of iron or steel wire, though bronze and other more exotic materials are not unknown. Such shirts cover only the vitals of the wearer, but are much less burdensome than a full hauberk. Cuirass and greave armor reflects those different designs that rely on solid metal plating over the wearer’s vitals along with lighter limb armor. Scaled armor includes both armor of metal scales on a flexible backing, brigandine, jacks of plate, and other armor made up of small, connected plates that cover most of the wearer’s body. Most are noisy, heavy suits, albeit flexible ones. A mail hauberk in the listed style covers not only the wearer’s chest, but also their arms, with a long skirt extended to the knee. As with a mail shirt, the padding beneath the armor is sometimes so thick as to qualify as protective gear in its own right. Plate armor is an extremely expensive suit of tailored metal pieces that cover both the vitals and the limbs of the wearer. Great armor is less finely tailored, relying instead on stacking layer upon layer of mail, plates, hide, cloth, and other protective materials until a suit almost too heavy for movement is finally assembled.

36•

Weapons

The tools of a bloody trade are familiar to most adventurers. While some Vowed or trained pugilists might scorn the use of material weapons, most sentient combatants must rely on something better than their natural gifts. Each of the weapons on the adjacent page has a listed damage it inflicts on a successful hit, an amount of Shock inflicted on a miss to targets with an AC equal or less than that given, and a particular attribute relevant to the weapon’s use. That attribute’s modifier is applied to all hit rolls, damage rolls, and Shock inflicted by the weapon. If more than one attribute is listed, the wielder can use whichever one is better. Using a melee weapon without at least Stab-0 skill inflicts a -2 penalty on hit rolls, as does using ranged weapons without at least Shoot-0 skill. Thrown weapons can be used with either. Ranged weapons have both short and long ranges listed in feet. Attacking a target within short range may be done at no penalty, while hitting a target at long range is done with a-2 penalty to the hit roll. Two-handed ranged weapons cannot be used while an enemy is locked in melee with the wielder, and even one-handed or thrown weapons suffer a -4 penalty to hit in such circumstances. Some weapons have additional unique traits, perhaps being particularly slow to reload, or requiring two hands to wield correctly, or being easily hidden in common clothing. The GM might choose to apply these traits to improvised weapons snatched up by the PCs if any of them seem appropriate. Axes given here are those fashioned for war; lighter and more agile than their working cousins, though still capable of hacking through a door or hewing a cable if needed. War axes are big enough to demand two hands for their use. Blackjacks include not only obvious weapons loaded with sand or iron shot, but any small, stunning fist load. A blackjack or other small fist load is easily concealed as some ornamental component of ordinary clothing. Bows cover everything from the small self bows of horse archers to the man-tall longbows wielded by foot archers. Larger bows are more cumbersome and impossible to shoot from horseback, but usually have superior strength. An archer with a Readied quiver can load a fresh arrow as a Move action each turn, or as an On Turn action if they have at least Shoot-1 skill. Claw blades are the sharper kin of fist loads, being small blades or finger talons that are easily concealed or disguised as metal ornaments. While they are vicious weapons, they can’t be usefully thrown. Clubs, staffs, and maces are of much the same genus, though the latter is usually made of metal. While fully capable of killing a man, a careful user can usually avoid inflicting lethal injury. Crossbows come in heavier varieties than the one listed, but such slow, bulky arbalests are rarely in the hands of adventurers. Reloading a crossbow of this size takes a full Main Action, but due to the simplicity of their

operation, someone without Shoot-0 can still use them at no unskilled hit penalty. Daggers come in ten thousand varieties, but the listed kind is a common fighting dirk, big enough to push through light armor while remaining small enough to be discreetly hidden. Stilettos and similar armor-piercing daggers aren’t usually effective as thrown weapons. Halberds and other polearms can be somewhat awkward in narrow spaces, but remain popular military weapons in some armies. The statistics given here can be used for fauchards, bills, voulges, spetums, bardiches, glaives, guisarmes, guisarme-glaives, glaive-guisarme-glaives, and similar weapons. Hammers listed here are the fighting variety, narrow-headed and made for penetrating or shocking heavy plates of armor. Hurlants are a wide range of ancient and modern projectile weapons that launch specially-prepared charges through various means, both sorcerous and semi-scientific. The tremendous accumulation of ancient Legacy manipulations intended to disarm subject populations and restrict advanced weaponry to a given age’s ruling caste has made it very difficult to create firearms, as most conventional chemical or magical reactions are specifically disrupted by the Legacy. Hand hurlants are usually pistol-sized, most often carried by the wealthy as a single-shot opener at the start of hostilities. Long hurlants are rifle-sized weapons favored by elite snipers and assassins who don’t expect a need for a second shot. Great hurlants are usually eight feet long and a hundred pounds in weight, and launch tremendous bolts that can transfix even monstrous targets. Those able to afford their use generally mount them on ships, gun carriages, or on important fortifications. Hurlants are too expensive and difficult to craft to be practical as widespread military weapons in most regions. In some areas, even hurlants fail to function correctly; a GM who prefers not to include them can simply disallow them in their own campaign region Spears, and their longer cousin the pike, are common military weapons throughout the Latter Earth. Lighter spears are effective thrown weapons, while heavier two-handed versions penetrate armor well. Shields can be an effective weapon when used to bash or pummel an enemy. If used as a weapon or as part of a dual-wielding attack, a shield grants no AC or Shock protection benefits until the wielder’s next turn. Swords are common sidearms throughout the Latter Earth. The expense of forging a large blade makes it a symbol of wealth and status in many cultures, and its convenience makes it a favored arm for street wear. Throwing blades are small leaves of steel that are not terribly useful as melee weapons but are easy to carry discreetly in considerable numbers. The unarmed attack given here is a common punch or kick, unimproved by a Vowed’s arts or a Focus. Unarmed attacks add the assailant’s Punch skill to the damage roll as well as the attack roll.

•37 Weapon

Dmg

Shock

Attribute

Range in Feet

Traits

Cost

Enc

Axe, Hand

1d6

1/AC 15

Str/Dex

10/30

10 sp

Axe, War

1d10

3/AC 15

Str

50 sp

Blackjack

1d4

None

Str/Dex

S, LL

1 sp

Bow, Large

1d8

None

Dex

100/600

2H, R, PM

20 sp

Bow, Small

1d6

None

Dex

50/300

2H, R, PM

20 sp

Claw Blades

1d6

2/AC 13

Str/Dex

10 sp

Club

1d4

None

Str/Dex

10/30

T, LL

Club, Great

1d10

2/AC 15

Str

1 sp

Crossbow

1d10

None

Dex

100/300

2H, SR, PM

10 sp

Dagger

1d4

1/AC 15

Str/Dex

30/60

S, T, PM

3 sp

Halberd

1d10

2/AC 15

Str

2H, L

50 sp

Hammer, Great

1d10

2/AC 18

Str

50 sp

Hammer, War

1d8

1/AC 18

Str

30 sp

Hurlant, Great

3d10

None

Dex

600/2,400

FX, SS, AP

10,000 sp

Hurlant, Hand

1d12

None

Dex

30/60

SS, AP

1,000 sp

Hurlant, Long

2d8

None

Dex

200/600

2H, SS, AP, PM

4,000 sp

Mace

1d6

1/AC 18

Str

15 sp

Pike

1d8

1/AC 18

Str

2H, L

10 sp

Shield Bash, Large

1d6

1/AC 13

Str

Shield Bash, Small

1d4

None

Str/Dex

Spear, Heavy

1d10

2/AC 15

Str

10 sp

Spear, Light

1d6

2/AC 13

Str/Dex

30/60

5 sp

Throwing Blade

1d4

None

Dex

30/60

S, T, N

3 sp

Staff

1d6

1/AC 13

Str/Dex

2H, LL

1 sp

Stiletto

1d4

1/AC 18

Dex

S, PM

10 sp

Sword, Great

1d12

2/AC 15

Str

250 sp

Sword, Long

1d8

2/AC 13

Str/Dex

100 sp

Sword, Short

1d6

2/AC 15

Str/Dex

10 sp

1d2+Skill

None

Str/Dex

Unarmed Attack

Weapon Traits Some of the weapons listed above have certain specific traits that affect their use. 2H: Two Handed. The weapon requires two hands to use in combat. Ranged two-handed weapons cannot be fired effectively while an enemy is within melee range. AP: Armor Piercing. This weapon ignores non-magical hides, armor and shields for purposes of its hit rolls. FX: Fixed. The weapon is too heavy and clumsy to use without a fixed position and at least five minutes to entrench it. L: Long. The weapon is unusually long, allowing melee attacks to be made at targets up to 10 feet distant, even if an ally is in the way. Even so, the wielder still needs to be adjacent to a foe to count as being in melee with them for purposes of forcing Fighting Withdrawals, disrupting large ranged weapons, or similar maneuvers. LL: Less Lethal. Foes brought to zero hit points by this weapon can always be left alive at the wielder’s discretion.

N: Numerous. Five of these count as only one Readied item. PM: Precisely Murderous. When used for an Execution Attack, the weapon applies an additional -1 penalty to the Physical save and does double damage even if it succeeds. R: Reload. The weapon takes a Move action to reload. If the user has at least Shoot-1 skill, they can reload as an On Turn action instead. S: Subtle. Can be easily hidden in ordinary clothing or concealed in jewelry. SR: Slow Reload. It takes a Main Action to reload this weapon. SS: Single Shot. This weapon takes ten rounds to reload, and the reloading effort is spoiled if an enemy melees the wielder. T: Throwable. While the weapon can be used in melee, it may be thrown out to the listed range as well, albeit it does no Shock in that case. Throwing a weapon while a foe is in melee range applies a -4 penalty to the attack roll.

38•

THE RULES OF THE GAME (Intro text here.)

•39

SYSSPLASH W 8.63 in H 11 in

40•

Scenes, Turns, and Durations Most time can be tracked relatively loosely during play but sometimes it becomes important to know how long it takes to accomplish a particular activity, or how long a magical effect can be trusted to last. The scene is the basic measurement for most effect durations. A scene is simply one general event or activity. A single fight is a scene, infiltrating a smuggler’s warehouse is a scene, negotiating with a merchant prince is a scene, and so forth. So long as the PCs are doing the same general thing in the same general place, it’s usually a single scene. Most scenes last no longer than fifteen minutes or so, though some stretch is possible at the GM’s discretion. Many powers and abilities are listed as lasting for one scene; this means that when the PCs trigger them while doing something, the effect is going to last for as long as they keep up their current activity. If it runs particularly long, however, a GM is justified in letting these effects run out partway through.

Sometimes it’s important to track the time of a more complex operation, like exploring a Deep or navigating the trackless depths of some ancient ruin. In such cases, the turn is a common measure of time. Each turn lasts ten minutes and is equivalent to one scene for those situations when it matters. GMs use turns to track exploration usually, so as to keep a firm grip on light sources running out, unplanned monster encounters, movement speeds, and other important elements of delving into pits of ineffable darkness. Situations that don’t require this degree of carefulness with time-tracking can generally be glossed over as taking so many hours or however many days they might require. GMs are advised to keep a calendar on hand, however, and mark off time accordingly when the PCs are at their adventures. A land that seems to dwell in ageless indeterminate summer can sometimes lack a little something in verisimilitude.

Saving Throws Adventurers tend to face horrors of innumerable varieties, from the festering poison that smears some Deep-dwelling degenerate’s bone spear to the shadow of falling stones from above to the bite of some devil-wizard’s hideous sorcery. In order to avoid perishing to such dooms, they can attempt a Saving Throw. A saving throw is a chance a hero has to avoid some particularly grim outcome. To make a saving throw, the subject rolls a d20 and tries to roll equal or higher than the relevant saving throw score. There are four different kinds of saving throws. Evasion saves are made to dodge hurled perils, take cover from explosions, pull back from sudden pits, and face other challenges of nimbleness and reaction speed. Evasion saves for PCs are equal to sixteen minus the hero’s level and minus the best of their Intelligence or Dexterity modifiers. Thus, a third-level hero with an Intelligence modifier of +1 and a Dexterity modifier of -1 would have an Evasion save of 12. Mental saves are made to resist mind-affecting magic, disbelieve illusions, throw off intangible magical afflictions, and other tests of willpower or force of character. Mental saves for PCs are equal to sixteen minus the hero’s level and minus the best of their Wisdom or Charisma attribute modifiers. Physical saves are made to resist poisons, diseases, exhaustion, bodily transformation, or other taxes on the subject’s physical strength. Physical saves for PCs are equal to sixteen minus the hero’s level and minus the best of their Strength or Constitution modifiers. Luck saves are for occasions of blind random fortune, where no quality of personal strength or cunning can help the hero. The GM might call for a Luck save

when it really is nothing but sheer good luck that a hero might avoid some danger. Luck saves for a PC are equal to sixteen minus the hero’s level, unmodified by any attribute. Note that saving throws are meant to be last-ditch chances to avoid the worst of unusual perils or uncommon dangers. You can’t make an Evasion saving throw to dodge a sword stroke; that’s what the hit roll is for. It’s up to the GM to decide whether a particular danger might allow a saving throw or not.

•41

Skill Checks Most characters are skilled, competent men and women who are perfectly capable of carrying out the ordinary duties of their role. Sometimes, however, they are faced with a situation or challenge beyond the usual scope of their role and the GM calls for a skill check. To make a skill check, roll 2d6 and add the most relevant skill level and attribute modifier. If the total is equal or higher than the check’s difficulty, the check is a success. On a failure, the PC either can’t accomplish the feat at all or they achieve it at the cost of some further complication to the situation. The GM determines the specific outcome of a failure. If the character doesn’t even have level-0 in the pertinent skill, they suffer a -1 penalty to the roll. In the case of particularly technical or esoteric skills they might not even be able to attempt the skill check at all. Some checks might be suitable for more than one skill. A javelin-throwing contest might use Exert for being an athletic contest, or Shoot for involving a ranged weapon, or Stab for using a muscle-powered thrown weapon. In such cases the PC can use the best applicable skill. In other situations, a skill might seem peripherally relevant; trying to find the damaged component in the ancient magical engine before it explodes would certainly be Magic, but a GM might also let Notice or Craft be applied, as a skilled craftsman or sharp-eyed observer might be able to recognize signs of damage. In such peripheral cases, the check difficulty usually increases by 2. Skill Check Difficulties 6

A relatively simple task that is still more than the PC would usually be expected to manage in their regular background. Anything easier than this isn’t worth a skill check.

A significant challenge to a competent professional that they’d still succeed at more often than not.

Something too difficult to be expected of anyone but a skilled expert, and even they might fail.

Only a true master could expect to carry this off with any degree of reliability.

14+

Only a true master has any chance of achieving this at all, and even they will probably fail.

Particularly helpful or hostile circumstances might give a bonus or penalty to the skill check. As a general rule, extremely bad circumstances or tools would apply up to a -2 penalty to the skill check, while a very good situation or the perfect set of tools might give up to a +2 bonus to the roll. Usually, no combination of modifiers should add more than +2 or -2 to any given skill check.

When To Call for a Check

The GM calls for skill checks, but they should only be called for challenges that fall outside the PC’s background and common experience. A PC with the background of a sailor should not be rolling skill checks to dock a ship or navigate to a commonly-known destination. As a general rule of thumb, if failure at a particular task would make the PC seem notably incompetent at their role in life, then they shouldn’t have to roll a skill check for it. In addition, if failure or success at a check really doesn’t matter in the game, if it won’t produce some interesting result either way, then a check shouldn’t be made. Even concept-related feats might require a skill check, however, if the situation is especially bad or the circumstances particularly hostile. The sailor might have to make a Sail skill check to dock a ship if they attempt it in the middle of a gale wind, and a noble might have to make a Connect skill check to find shelter with an aristocratic relation if they’re currently wanted by the Witch-King’s inquisitors.

Aiding a Skill Check

Sometimes one PC will want to lend a hand to another as they attempt a difficult feat. To do this, the player first describes what sort of action they are taking to help their comrade. If the GM agrees that their effort makes sense and would be helpful, the player then rolls a relevant skill check against the same difficulty as the original check. If it’s a success, the other PC gets a +1 bonus on their roll. Multiple PCs can try to help, but the acting PC can’t earn more than a +1 total bonus. The helping skill doesn’t necessarily have to be the same skill the PC is checking. If a player can think of a way to help a Sneak check with Convince, then so be it.

Opposed Skill Checks

Sometimes a PC wants to accomplish something that another character wants to prevent. Sneaking past an alert guard, winning an archery tournament, or besting a squamous monster in a tentacle-wrestling competition might all be opposed skill checks. In such cases, all participants roll their relevant skills and the highest score wins, with ties going to the PC. To make the NPC’s roll, check their listed skill bonus; they can add it to any skill check appropriate to their role or profession. If the NPC has no reason to be particularly good at the challenge, they simply roll 2d6 and add nothing. In most cases, the relevant skills are obvious. A character trying to skulk past a vigilant guard would be rolling their Dex/Sneak against the guard’s roll, while one trying to out-tentacle a monster would be rolling Str/Exert. When in doubt, the GM decides which skill is most applicable.

42•

Combat A hero’s trade being what it is, it’s to be expected that the PCs might find themselves locked in bloody battle. The rules below explain how such frays are to be managed, but every hero must remember well their own mortality. Even a veteran hero may fall to the spears of a sufficient mob of foes, and novice adventurers run the risk of death from a single sure stroke of a blade.

Rounds, Initiative, and Surprise

Combat and other time-sensitive situations are broken into rounds, each of which is roughly six seconds in length. During a round every participant gets to take a turn, after which a new round begins. The order of action is determined by Initiative. To determine initiative, each side rolls 1d8 and adds the highest Dexterity modifier in the group, assuming they have any. The side with the highest roll goes first in whatever order the members choose, and then the other sides act in their respective order. The PC party wins any initiative ties. At the end of the round, it cycles back to the first group and repeats accordingly. Optionally, some groups prefer to use “individual initiative”, with each participating rolling their own initiative roll and going in order. This takes a little longer and can complicate party plans that require each member to act in a particular sequence, but it also mitigates the risk of the group being overwhelmed by foes before anyone can act. The choice of which version of initiative to use is up to the GM. In some cases a group may be ambushed or surprised by a foe. The more alert the targets, the more difficult it is to ambush them; a group of heroes prowling through a Deep is going to be much more difficult to surprise than one having dinner in a tavern. Generally, if the group is alert for danger an ambush has to either crash down on them suddenly or come from an angle or location they never suspected. If the GM decides that surprise is possible, an opposed Wis/Notice versus Dex/Sneak skill check should be rolled. If the attackers win, they surprise the targets and get a full round of action to themselves before initiative is rolled and the combat progresses as usual. An ambush might also provoke a Morale check in undisciplined or unmilitary targets at the GM’s discretion.

Actions in Combat

When it’s a given participant’s turn in combat, they can take their action. There are four different kinds of actions in combat or other time-sensitive situations. Main Actions are actions that take up most of the actor’s round. Attacking someone, manipulating some device, applying first aid to a downed ally, casting a spell, or other complex actions that would take several seconds to perform are all Main Actions. A participant gets one Main Action every round.

Move Actions involve moving up to the participant’s normal movement rate. Thus, a normal human with a movement rate of 30 feet can move up to that distance with a Move action. Climbing, swimming, crossing difficult terrain, or other challenging movement usually is only half as fast as normal combat movement. A participant gets one Move action per round, though they can also choose to spend their Main Action taking an additional Move action if they wish. A combatant in melee who moves away from their enemy must take a Fighting Withdrawal action or suffer a free attack from all enemies in melee with them. A Move action must spend all its movement at once; it cannot split it around a Main Action. Thus, it’s not possible to move 10 feet, shoot a foe with a Main Action, and then dive another 20 feet behind cover. On Turn Actions are quick, simple acts that take very little time and focus to perform, such as falling prone, saying a few words, reloading a bow from a Readied quiver, drawing out a Readied object, or similar things. A participant can only perform an On Turn action on their own turn, but they can do as many of them as the GM thinks is reasonable. Instant Actions are so fast and simple that the participant can use them at any time, even when it’s not their turn. They can even use them after the dice have been rolled, delaying their use until they’re sure the action is needed. Instant actions are generally related to special powers and abilities, like a Warrior’s Veteran’s Luck class ability or certain magical arts. If multiple Instant actions are triggered at the same time, they execute in whatever order the GM thinks is most reasonable. There is no limit to the number of Instant actions a participant can take. This section includes a list of common combat activities and their respective action types. If a PC wants to do something different, the GM should simply pick an action type for it that seems to make sense.

Attacking a Foe

When a combatant wants to harm an enemy, they need to make a Hit Roll. An attack usually counts as a Main Action and the assailant must be close enough to actually hit the target with whatever weapon they have to hand. To make a hit roll, the attacker rolls a d20 and adds their relevant combat skill, their class attack bonus, and their relevant attribute modifier. If they lack even level-0 skill in the weapon being used, they suffer a -2 penalty. Any other situational modifiers or penalties are also added to the roll. If the total is equal or greater than the target’s Armor Class, then the attack hits and damage is rolled. If less, then the attack misses. A missed melee attack may still inflict Shock damage, if the weapon has a Shock rating and the target’s Armor Class is low enough.

•43 To roll damage, the attacker rolls the weapon’s listed damage die and adds their relevant attribute modifier and any bonus from a magical weapon, Focus, or other special benefit. The damage is then subtracted from the target’s hit points. If the target is reduced to zero hit points, it is either dead or mortally wounded. Generic NPCs with no name worth remembering are usually dead on the spot. PCs and NPCs significant enough to deserve characterization are instead Mortally Wounded. Some attacks may not be lethal in nature. If a non-lethal attack reduces a target to zero hit points, the attacker can choose to simply have their victim be unconscious or helpless, unable to act and reviving ten minutes later with one hit point. Attacks that are psychic or emotional in nature may reduce their victims to helpless shock or numbing confusion when they bring them to zero hit points, likewise incapacitating them for ten minutes. Unarmed attacks can always be non-lethal at the attacker’s discretion. Attacks with blunt and relatively forgiving weapons such as batons, staves, or clubs might also qualify, though it may take a Str/Stab or Dex/Stab skill check against the target’s Morale score to see whether that last blow pacified them or accidentally knocked their brains out. In ambiguous cases, it’s the GM’s call as to whether damage is or isn’t non-lethal.

Hit Roll Modifiers

The table below notes some common cumulative hit roll modifiers. GMs should use them as general guidelines when applying their own adjustments to hit rolls for circumstances not listed on the chart. Circumstance

Mod

Shooting at a distant prone foe

-2

Shooting or meleeing an adjacent prone foe

Melee attacking while prone

-4

The target is at least half behind cover

-2

The target is almost completely in cover

-4

Thrown attack while being meleed by a foe

-4

Shooting a bow while being meleed by a foe N/A Note that no penalty is given for shooting or throwing a weapon into a melee. It’s assumed that PCs have worked together enough to coordinate such attacks and avoid getting in each other’s way. A PC whose combat style is built around ranged attacks can easily end up frustrated by the rest of the party if they have to spend extra effort on special Foci or accept hit penalties simply because the rest of the group prefers to fight up close.

Shock Damage

Some melee attacks inflict Shock, the inevitable harm that is done when an unarmored target is assailed by something sharp. Shock for a weapon is listed in points of damage and the maximum AC affected. Thus “Shock 2/15” means that 2 points of damage are done to any target with AC 15 or less. More heavily-armored targets are immune to the weapon’s Shock. Assailants add their weapon’s attribute modifier to Shock, along with any magical bonus to the weapon and any damage bonuses that are explicitly noted as adding to Shock. Other damage bonuses do not increase Shock. An attack never does less damage on a hit than it would do in Shock. Thus, if an attack that would normally do 4 points of Shock to AC 15 hits a target with AC 13 and rolls a 3 for damage, 4 points are done instead.

Dual-Wielding Weapons

PCs who wish to wield two one-handed weapons at once may do so if they have at least Stab-1 skill. Doing so grants them a +2 bonus to damage rolls, albeit not to Shock. They suffer a -1 penalty on hit rolls, however, due to the extra complication. Only one weapon may be used to attack in any given round, but either one may be used. Unarmed combatants cannot dual-wield.

Shoving and Grappling

To shove a target or force them back, the attacker must first hit the target normally for no damage and then succeed in an opposed Str/Punch or Str/Exert skill check. If the attacker succeeds in the skill check, the target is forced back up to ten feet or knocked prone. To grapple a foe, the attacker must first hit with an unarmed attack, doing no damage, and then both must make opposed Str/Punch skill checks. If the attacker wins, the defender is grappled and remains that way until released or until they spend a Main Action and succeed in a new opposed check. An attacker can grapple only one target at a time, though multiple attackers can cling to the same luckless defender. In such cases, the defender’s single skill check is compared against all of their foes. While grappling, neither attackers or defenders can move from their current location, nor can they fight with anything but unarmed attacks. At the end of each round in which a defender remains grappled, they suffer damage from each attacker as if hit with an unarmed attack from each foe grappling them. If the attacker wishes to move the target, they must spend a Main Action and succeed in an opposed Str/ Punch skill check. If they win, the target is either moved ten feet along with them, or thrown five feet and knocked prone. If they lose, the defender breaks free. These rules assume both targets are man-sized. Grappling or shoving significantly larger but still humanoid targets is done at a -2 penalty on all skill checks by the attacker. Doing so to creatures only barely plausible for such manhandling is done at a -4 skill check penalty.

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Execution Attacks

A target that is completely unaware of danger is vulnerable to a quick and bloody death, no matter how great their martial prowess or how thick their armor. An Execution Attack gives an assailant an opportunity to slay a foe with a single well-placed arrow or blade. Setting up such an attack requires a full minute of preparation. Archers, gunmen, and other ranged attackers must spend it judging distance, wind, and details of aim, while melee assassins must use it to drift up to the target and position themselves in the exact right place for the attack. Melee assassins must use a weapon for an Execution Attack, unless they have such special training as to make their unarmed attacks unusually lethal. If the target is spooked, the opportunity is lost. Once the preparation is complete, the assailant may use a Main Action to attack. The target’s Armor Class is irrelevant, assuming the attacker is using a weapon that can hurt the target. A melee Execution Attack will always hit. A ranged Execution Attack requires a Dex/Shoot skill check against a difficulty of 6 for a point-blank shot, 8 for one at the weapon’s normal range, and 10 for a shot at extreme range. A Warrior can use their Veteran’s Luck ability with this skill check, but it only allows a reroll on a failed check rather than forcing an automatic hit. If the Execution Attack hits, the target must make an immediate Physical saving throw at a penalty equal to the attacker’s combat skill level. If they fail, they are Mortally Wounded on the spot, or knocked unconscious if the attacker was using a plausibly non-lethal weapon. If they succeed, the weapon still does its maximum damage. Attacking an unconscious or incapacitated target will always leave them Mortally Wounded.

Common Combat Actions

The actions below include some of the more common actions a participant might take during combat. The GM can make individual judgements about other types of activities that might be attempted. Make a Melee Attack Main Action The combatant attacks an enemy within melee range, rolling a normal hit roll and inflicting damage on a successful hit. Most melee attacks inflict Shock damage on a miss, if the target’s Armor Class is low enough, and no successful hit does less damage than the weapon’s Shock would have done on a miss. An attacker’s weapon must be Readied in order to attack with it. Make a Ranged Attack Main Action The combatant fires or throws a Readied ranged weapon at a target. The combatant can’t Make a Ranged Attack with a two-handed weapon such as a bow if there’s a enemy armed with a melee weapon within melee range; it’s too easy for the assailant to hinder the use of a bow. One-handed ranged weapons and thrown weapons can still be used, albeit at a -4 penalty to hit.

Make a Snap Attack Instant Action A combatant with a Ready weapon can rush their attack, sacrificing accuracy for speed. The combatant must still have their Main Action impending or available. As an Instant, they can sacrifice it to Make a Melee Attack or Make a Ranged Attack against a foe in range, whether a snap shot with a bow or a quick thrust at an adjacent melee foe. This attack takes a -4 penalty to its hit roll. If multiple combatants decide to make Snap Attacks at the same time, they are resolved simultaneously. Snap Attacks are normally only possible for PCs and other very well-trained or talented combatants. If an opponent isn’t significant enough to have been given a name, they probably shouldn’t be using Snap Attacks. Make a Swarm Attack Main Action A group of creatures can mob a single mighty opponent. Each assailant takes this action and targets a foe within range, doing no immediate damage. At the end of the round, one of the assailants makes their attack and gains a +2 bonus to hit and +1 bonus to damage for each associate that’s still alive, though this damage bonus can’t cause the attack to inflict more than its usual maximum injury, nor does it add to Shock. Swarm Attack treats its target’s AC as 10 for Shock damage purposes and ignores any Shock immunity granted by shields or Foci. No more than eight foes at most can mob an enemy at once. Cast a Spell Main Action An arcanely-gifted PC can cast a spell as a Main Action. If they’ve suffered any hit point damage this round, drawn or sheathed an item with their spellcasting hand, or have been severely jostled or otherwise pushed around they cannot take this action. If they suffer hit point damage while casting, such as by someone who has held their action to attack at that moment, the spell fizzles uselessly and the spell slot is wasted. Charge Special A combatant can make a wild charge before hurling a weapon or crashing into a foe, moving up to twice their normal move in a straight line before making a melee or thrown attack at +2 to hit. The charging attacker must be able to move at least 30 feet to get the requisite momentum and suffers a -2 AC penalty for the rest of the round. Charging takes both their Move Action and Main Action for the turn. Shatter a Shield Main Action To shatter a shield, the attacker must be using an axe, a mace, a Focus-improved unarmed attack, or some other crushing or hewing attack. The maneuver requires a successful hit roll and then an opposed Str/Stab skill check between the attacker and the defender, with the defender gaining a +1 bonus on their check. No damage is done, but if the attacker wins then the shield will be broken. Magical shields cannot be broken this way. Patching a damaged shield takes a scene’s work and Craft-0 skill.

•45 Screen an Ally Move Action The PC physically blocks opponents from attacking a chosen ally who is within ten feet. Until the PC’s next turn, enemies who wish to make a melee or ranged attack against the screened ally must succeed in a successful Str or Dex-based opposed skill check against the PC using the combat skill applicable to their weapon; on a failure, the attack roll is automatically directed toward the screening PC, who ends up adjacent to their ally. A PC can screen against a number of attackers in one round equal to their combat skill; thus, Stab-2 lets them block two attackers. PCs with level-0 or worse combat skills can’t effectively screen. Multiple PCs can try to screen the same ally; in such a case, the attacker’s skill check is compared against all blockers and the lowest-rolling successful blocker is attacked. PCs can only screen against foes and attacks they could plausibly physically block. Total Defense Instant Action As an Instant action, the combatant focuses on nothing other than avoiding knives, arrows, hurled crystalline spears, or other perils in the vicinity. Using Total Defense costs the user their Main Action for the round, and cannot be used if they’ve already employed their Main Action. They become immune to Shock damage for the round, including from Swarm Attacks, and gain a +2 bonus to their Armor Class until their next turn. Run Move Action The combatant moves their normal combat movement rate, which is 30 feet for most humans. If they’re climbing a surface, swimming, or navigating extremely rough terrain, this movement rate is halved, and they might have to make an Exert skill check to achieve even that. Prone characters crab along at half this rate. Make a Fighting Withdrawal Main Action The combatant disengages from any melee foes around them. They don’t actually move away, but they can now get away from their assailants without giving them a free melee attack. Usually, this means the combatant uses their Move action to get clear, because if they just stand there the enemies might choose to re-engage them. Use a Skill Main Action The combatant uses a skill that could be plausibly applied in a few seconds. An Int/Heal or Dex/Heal skill check to stabilize a wounded comrade is one such potential use, as is turning a creaking engine wheel, shouting out a stirring rallying cry to timorous NPC allies, or anything else that might be done quickly.

Ready or Stow an Item Main Action The combatant draws a weapon, extracts an item from their backpack, digs a potion out of a belt pouch, or otherwise moves an object around on their person. They can Ready an item this way or Stow it. Reload a Weapon Main Action The combatant reloads a weapon like a crossbow or an ancient projectile launcher with a Readied magazine or a quarrel from a Readied quiver. Bows can be reloaded as an On Turn action, assuming the archer has a Readied quiver and Shoot-1 skill; otherwise it’s a Move action. Drop an Item Instant Action The combatant drops something they’re holding. They can do this Instantly at any time to free up their hands. Pick up an Item Move Action The combatant can scoop an object off the floor if they have a free hand, leaving it Readied in their grip. Stand Up Move Action The combatant gets up from a prone position, gathering any dropped belongings. Most characters that have just been revived from unconsciousness must get up before they do much else. Go Prone On Turn Action The combatant falls flat, forcing distant ranged attackers to take a -2 penalty to hit them. Adjacent melee enemies find them an easier target, however, gaining +2 to hit. Hold An Action Move Action By choosing to Hold An Action, the combatant can delay taking the rest of their actions until later in the round, activating them as an Instant action. Thus, a hero who wins initiative might use their Move action to Hold An Action. Later in the round, as an enemy rushes around a corner, he may Instantly elect to use his Main Action to Make A Ranged Attack with his readied crossbow. If acting in response to someone else’s impending action, the held action is resolved first. Delay an Action On Turn The combatant simply chooses to delay the remainder of their actions this turn until after a particular other participant has acted. Such a pause may be needed for some tactical plan or to respond to a particular enemy’s action. Unlike Hold An Action, however, they cannot suddenly choose to act earlier than their chosen place in the turn order; they must wait until the participant they chose has acted before using whatever remaining actions they may have for the turn.

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Examples of Combat Combat in Worlds Without Number is based on a rules chassis that dates back almost fifty years, but some readers may still be new to it, or a little uncertain of the tweaks and options that the game adds to the classic fundamentals. The following are a few examples of how these rules work in practice.

Our Heroes

The characters in these examples are ordinary, first-level adventurers fresh into the trade. Having met on a caravan trip into Llagis, they’ve resolved to work together to find a better fortune than they’ve been granted thus far. Zenobia is an embittered Adunic clerk let go from the retinue of her beggar-noble employer after the money finally ran out. An Expert in cadging a living any way she can, she wears a buff coat for armor and bears a short sword and a selection of knives, which she uses effectively with her Stab-0 skill. More nimble than most with a Dexterity of 14, she has an effective Armor Class of 13 while wearing the coat, counting the buff coat’s value of 12 plus her Dexterity modifier of +1. When she fights with the sword or daggers, her attack bonus is +0 for being a first-level Expert, +1 for her Dexterity, and +0 for her Stab-0 skill, for a total of +1. She adds that +1 Dexterity modifier to the damage dice or Shock of both sword and dagger, as both can be used with either Strength or Dexterity as the modifier to hit and damage, depending on which is better for the wielder. Kham is a great bull of a man, a back-country Warrior from Emed-Kist with mighty thews and empty pockets. His wealth all went to his harness, which includes pieced armor, a sturdy longsword he uses with Stab-1 skill, and a stout large shield. His Strength of 18 is tremendous, but he’s a little clumsy, with a Dexterity of 7. His effective Armor Class is 14 from the pieced armor, +1 for carrying a shield, -1 for his Dexterity modifier, for a total of 14. His hit bonus with the longsword is +1 for being a first-level Warrior, +2 for his Strength, and +1 for his Stab-1 skill. His damage and Shock with the sword are also boosted by his Strength modifier. Sarra is a Llaigisan hedge-witch driven out of her village on the death of her much-despised mentor, though her powers as a Mage are very real. Proud of her occult arts, she shuns armor, as she can cast no spells while her limbs are profaned by its coarse mundanity. She carries a staff, though she uses it chiefly for driving off exceptionally importunate beggars and starving dogs as she lacks any combat skill at all. With no unusual Dexterity, her Armor Class is 10, for being a normal unarmored person. If driven to use the staff in combat, her hit bonus is +0 for being a Mage, +0 for her attribute modifier, and -2 for lacking even level-0 combat skill, for a total bonus of -2. It does its normal, unmodified 1d6 damage and Shock of 1/AC 13.

The Mean Streets of Gathis

The trio wander onto the wrong street in Gathis one night and are set upon by four half-starved thugs. Sickly, unarmored and carrying nothing more than knives, the thugs have AC 10, four hit points each, and do 1d4 damage with their daggers and a Shock of 1/AC 15. In a city like Gathis, a few more bodies in the street will pass without comment in the morning. As everyone involved was half-expecting trouble, there is no chance for surprise. Each side rolls 1d8 for initiative, adding the best Dexterity modifier of their side. The GM decides the thugs have no particular nimbleness, so rolls 1d8 for a result of 5. The heroes roll 1d8 and add Zenobia’s +1 Dexterity modifier to it for a result of 7. The heroes go first. Zenobia is first to act, deciding on her course of action while the other two players are still mulling their options. She uses her Move action to close with a thug and stabs at him with her Readied short sword, rolling 1d20 and adding her hit bonus of +1, and rolls an 8. Because that’s less than the thug’s Armor Class, she misses. The sword’s Shock value is 1/AC 15, however, which means she still inflicts Shock on him because his AC is less than that of the dagger’s Shock value. She inflicts 1 point of damage from the sword and +1 from her Dexterity, for a total of two points. The wretched hooligan yowls as she carves a divot in his beard. Kham decides that the fight will be much shorter if he thins the enemies early. He uses his Move action to close with the nearest thug and then makes an attack with his longsword, which he has Readied as part of his encumbrance. He rolls 1d20 and adds his +4 hit bonus to the result, unluckily getting a 9. He decides to use his Veteran’s Luck class ability to turn that miss into a hit, however, rolling 1d8 for damage and adding +2 for his Strength, doing 6 points of damage. This reduces the thug’s hit points to zero, and as he’s a mere common goon he dies instantly, gurgling out his life. Sarra decides that hacking up thugs is no part of her role in the group, and uses her Move action to get behind Kham and Zenobia. Her Main Action is given to Total Defense, improving her AC by 4 for the rest of the round and making her immune to Shock. Because the thugs have lost their first comrade, the GM rolls a Morale check for the group on 2d6, getting a 10. This is higher than the thugs’ Morale score of 7, so they turn to flee in a reckless, undisciplined panic. The goon engaged with Zenobia turns his back on her and runs; because he doesn’t spend his Move action making a Fighting Withdrawal, Zenobia gets a free attack on him as he flees. His death is certain, as even if she misses the Shock of her sword will be enough to cut away his last two hit points. The two surviving footpads race down different alleyways, yelping like scalded dogs.

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Village Fisticuffs

Kham finds himself in a Thurian village, squaring off with the hamlet’s strongest farm boy in a “friendly” sparring bout. The lad’s broad as an oak tree, with eight hit points, an unarmored AC of 10, and a +2 bonus to hit and 1d4 damage with his fists because the GM decides that sounds about right for a small village’s best pugilist. Kham is without his armor or shield and lacks even Punch-0 skill; despite this, his Warrior hit bonus of +1 and his Strength modifier of +2 cancel out the -2 penalty for fighting without a skill, giving him a total of +1 to hit. If he lands a blow, he does 1d2 damage unarmed, +2 for his Strength modifier. Having no special Focus or talent in unarmed combat, his fists do no Shock. Initiative is rolled, and the lad rolls a 6. Kham also rolls a 6, but has to apply his -1 Dexterity modifier as a penalty, so the boy goes first. The lad rolls 1d20+2 to hit and gets a 9. Normally an unarmored man has an AC of 10, so it would miss, but clumsy Kham’s Dexterity penalty means that the haymaker lands. The GM rolls 1d4 for damage and gets 4; Kham’s down to 4 hit points after that wallop. Kham retaliates, giving the bumpkin an elbow for a roll of 13 on his 1d20+1 hit roll. He rolls 2 on his 1d2 damage dice, but his great Strength increases that to 4, and he loosens the boy’s teeth and drops him to 4 hit points as well. Staggered but unbowed, the villager misses his next punch with a roll of 6. Kham’s blow goes wild as well, but he triggers his Veteran’s Luck to turn it into a hit, doing 4 points of damage once more and dropping the big fellow into the dust. Because the two were fighting with non-lethal weapons and not trying to kill each other, the boy is just winded rather than dead, and in ten minutes or so will regain one hit point and be able to function more or less normally as he buys Kham a round at the village alewife.

A Fearsome Foe

The heroes are in trouble now. They’re face to face with the bandit chief who rules this Deep, an expert combatant with four hit dice, 20 hit points, a +5 bonus to hit with his sword, a Shock score of 2/AC 13, and an Armor Class of 14 with his buff coat and large shield. If they hadn’t lured the rest of his men away with a distraction further down the tunnels, they’d be swarmed by now. Luckily, the heroes won the initiative. The heroes have been working together long enough to have built tactics for a situation like this. Sarra moves in first, her staff up and prodding at the chief to open up his guard. She uses the Make a Swarm Attack action, doing no damage but setting her allies up for a better attack. Kham follows up, using his Move action to Screen an Ally for Sarra and his Main Action to Make a Swarm Attack as well. Zenobia goes in directly for an attack, rolling a 15 and getting a lucky short sword hit in for 1d6+1 damage, with a roll of 5. The chieftain’s down to 15 hit points.

Now the two heroes who made a swarm attack can choose one of their number to make a hit roll, gaining +2 to hit and +1 to damage for every other ally who took the action. Kham is the obvious choice, so he rolls to 1d20+4 to hit for his sword, +2 for Sarra’s help, for a total of 14. That’s just enough to hit the chieftain, and he rolls 1d8+3 for damage, rolling a whopping 11 points. That’s more than the weapon’s maximum without the Make a Swarm Attack bonus, however, so it’s capped at 10 points. That still leaves the chieftain down to a mere 5 hit points. The furious chieftain whips his blade at the unarmored Sarra to cut her down, but Kham’s Screen an Ally action forces him to make an opposed Str/Stab check against Kham. The GM decides the chief can apply his skill check bonus to the roll, but his 2d6+1 gets an 8, while Kham’s 2d6+3 gets a 10. His attack is redirected at Kham. The chief rolls 1d20+5 to get a 16, enough to hit the Warrior. Worse still, he rolls an 8 for his sword’s damage. Kham would be mortally wounded by such a blow, but he triggers his Veteran’s Luck to negate the hit, letting it glance off his shield rim and miss his head by a hairsbreadth. On their turn, Sarra and Kham repeat their actions; one more hit from the huge Kistian will probably drop the villain. Zenobia helps with another attack of her own, rolling a mere 6 to hit this time. She tries to apply 2 points of Shock, since her shortsword can do so to AC 15 or less, but the bandit chief ’s shield negates the first Shock he’d take each round and blocks the sword. Kham rolls his swarm attack with Sarra’s help and once again hammers the knave, though he rolls a mere 4 points of damage. The chieftain is left with a single hit point between him and a gory end. The GM knows the chieftain is a canny survivor. He could probably kill Zenobia or Sarra before he died, if that big ox doesn’t get in his way, but if Kham drops his big blade and goes in with a knife and Zenobia joins him with her pigsticker he’s going to die from the Shock no matter what happens. Rather than face death, the chieftain uses his Move action for a Fighting Withdrawal to step back from the three, uses Total Defense to hide behind his shield, and swears he’ll tell the heroes where he buried his loot if they spare him….

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Injury, Healing, and System Strain Despite the aeons of meddling and corruption, the Legacy has still conferred a certain degree of health and recuperative ability on the humanity of the Latter Earth. While this hardiness is a subtle quality, the natives of this age can recover with unusual quickness.

Mortal Wounds and Stabilizing

A creature reduced to zero hit points is dead or dying. Ordinary NPCs or unremarkable creatures will generally die on the spot. PCs and those NPCs important enough to have deserved a name will be Mortally Wounded. A Mortally Wounded creature is helpless, unable to do anything but scream, writhe, or lie unconscious. At the end of the sixth round after they were downed, they will die. An ally can attempt to stabilize a Mortally Wounded companion. Doing so is generally an Int/Heal or Dex/ Heal skill check, requiring a Main Action. The difficulty for this skill check is 8 plus the number of full rounds since the target was downed. If the healer lacks any useful medical implements, the difficulty for this skill check is increased by 2. Only one ally can try to stabilize a target in any given round, though others can attempt to aid their skill check, and a failed check can be re-attempted the next round. Once stabilized, the target recovers with 1 hit point after ten minutes of rest, and can rise and act normally thereafter. They count as Frail, however, and will remain Frail until they have had at least a week of bed rest. Frail PCs cannot heal damage through natural healing and will die immediately if brought to zero hit points again. A physician can try to remove the Frail condition with an hour’s work and a skill check against difficulty 10. They only get one chance to remove a given Frailty.

Natural Healing

A wounded creature recovers its level or hit dice in lost hit points after every night’s rest, assuming they’re properly fed and can get decent sleep. At this time they also lose one point of accumulated System Strain. Creatures that are Frail do not recover hit points this way, nor do they lose System Strain.

Magical Healing

Some healers have access to abilities that automatically heal hit points, such as a Healer’s arcane arts or the vitality-transmitting spells of a Necromancer. Other PCs might have elixirs of health, artifacts that cure injuries, or other sources of magical healing. A character healed by any amount of magical healing automatically loses any Mortally Wounded or Frail qualities and can immediately rise. A downed hero at zero hit points who gets 3 points of healing from a magic potion, for example, can immediately get up on their next turn and return to the fray without any frailty.

First Aid

The powerful vitality of the people of Latter Earth can be complemented by skilled medical attention and the use of numerous herbs, compounds, and other “mundane” techniques. By spending a few minutes tending an ally, a healer can cure 1d6 plus their Heal skill in points of damage. They suffer a -1 on this roll if they have no Heal skill, perhaps doing no good at all. Each such application of first aid adds 1 System Strain to the target, but it can be repeated for a wounded ally as often as the healer and the subject’s System Strain allow. A single ten-minute turn or scene is usually sufficient to apply as much first aid as the party wants to apply. First aid can restore lost hit points to a Frail PC, but it cannot get rid of the Frail quality itself.

System Strain

Most forms of healing and certain other magical powers add to a target’s System Strain. System Strain is a measure of how much stress the target’s body is under, and how profoundly it has been taxed by magical energies, hunger, privation, and forced healing acceleration. A character’s maximum System Strain is equal to their Constitution attribute. Thus, someone with a Constitution of 13 could accumulate up to 13 points of System Strain. This strain is generally lost at a rate of one point for every night of good, refreshing sleep. Healing often adds to a target’s System Strain, whether as first aid or as the effect of some magical power. If the target is already at its maximum System Strain, it can’t handle the additional stress and gets no benefit from the effect or attempting healing.

Poisons and Diseases

When a character is struck by some poison, they generally get a Physical saving throw to avoid its effect, or at least mitigate its harm. Particularly powerful poisons might apply a penalty of up to -4 on this check, while weak toxins might grant a bonus of up to +4. The exact effect of a failed save will be listed by the poison. Diseases also generally allow a Physical saving throw, but are significantly slower in onset. If the first saving throw is a success, the target has avoided infection. If it’s a failure, the disease begins to take hold. The victim can make further saving throw attempts at weekly intervals, generally, with a certain number of successes sufficient to throw off the disease. Each failed save tends to make things worse, however. The disease listing will indicate the consequences of an insufficiently vigorous resistance. Those with the Heal skill can tend the sick, granting a bonus to their saving throws equal to twice their Heal skill, or +1 in the case of a nurse with Heal-0 skill.

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Example Poisons and Diseases

Some toxins and afflictions are common enough that a GM might have use for them in their own campaigns. Deep Filth: A catch-all for the various decayed and semi-functional toxins found on traps or in ancient ruins. While originally extravagantly lethal, most have now degraded considerably in effect. On a failed Physical save, weak Deep Filth removes half the victim’s current hit points, rounded up, while a strong variety of Deep Filth leaves them Mortally Wounded. Blade Venom: Another general category of tarry toxin meant for application to weapons, blade venom goes stale a scene after it’s applied. Most add 1d8 damage after the first hit or Shock they make, though on a hit roll of 1 the user accidentally nicks himself with it for 1d8 damage. It’s seldom for sale as it spoils quickly, but where it can be found it goes for about 50 silver a dose on the black market. Food Toxin: These poisons are meant for slipping into food and drink, and are usually almost tasteless, requiring a Wis/Notice skill check against difficulty

10 to detect. Assuming most of a dose is consumed, there’s no effect on the initial failed Physical save, but half an hour later the subject suffers 1d10 damage. Every hour a fresh save is made; on a success the poison stops and on a failure another 1d10 damage is taken. A dose sufficient for one person costs about 100 silver on the black market. Ruin Fever: A disease carried by numerous vermin of the Deeps, a creature bitten by such a beast or one who handles its remains risks infection. While infected, System Strain cannot be recovered and each failed daily-interval save adds 1 point of Strain. Those forced above their maximum will fall unconscious and die of the fever in a day. Two successful saves will throw off the fever. Blasphemer’s Pox: A unique curse-plague sometimes encountered by those who profane divine altars or holy relics. If infected by a failed Physical save, the weeping, luminescent blue pustules it produces apply a -1 penalty to the subject’s Charisma and Constitution modifiers. While it does not worsen, it can be cured only by a blessing from a priest of the offended deity or a magical means of disease curing.

Overland Travel PCs can generally travel for ten hours a day in most seasons, the rest being absorbed in rest, camp construction, and incidental activities. For each hour of travel they can cross as many miles of a given terrain as listed in the table. This travel presumes that the PCs are moving directly toward their destination and not taking any particular time to scout the area for points of interest or investigate their surroundings. This rate of travel also assumes average walking or wagon speeds; horses can be used by their riders for quick bursts of speed to chase or avoid others, but don’t increase the average travel rate much. The roads of the Latter Earth are seldom safe, and even less secure are the trackless wilds surrounding them. For every day of travel and every night of camping outdoors, the GM rolls one die for a wandering encounter check, as explained on page XX. The die used will depend on the terrain, with safer or more peaceful lands using a larger die size. On a 1, the PCs come upon creatures or a situation that requires their attention. Assuming it’s not an ambush or a sudden encounter in an obscured area, the groups usually encounter each other at maximum sight range. An opposed Wis/Notice check can be used to determine who spots who first; PCs who get the edge can usually avoid the other group automatically if they have sufficient cover. PCs traveling with a caravan or riding a well-stocked travel wagon need not concern themselves with details of food, drink, and shelter, but PCs who plan on making an overland expedition without these ready comforts should consult the rules for overland exploration on page XX for details on the supplies and difficulties involved.

Terrain Type

Miles per Hour

Plains or savannahs

Light forest or desert

Dense forest or rugged hills Swamp or marsh

1.5 1

Mountains or arratu wastelands

0.5

There is a road through the terrain

Foul weather, mud, or heavy rain

x0.5

Deep snow on the ground

x0.1

Sea Travel

Granted fair winds and an absence of sea monsters, a ship can usually manage about six miles an hour of travel when under sail, and can sail around the clock if far from coasts and other perils. Oar-powered galleys average the same speed, but are heedless of the winds. An ordinary crew can only row for eight hours a day, however. Encounters at sea are rarer but potentially more hazardous; the GM should roll daily and nightly checks on 1d10 or 1d12. On a 1, some creature has come across the ship, a troublesome wind or storm has sprung up, something has been damaged on the ship or gone awry with the crew, or otherwise complicated the vessel’s journey. Some such encounters can be overcome with a good plan and a decent Sail skill check, while others may require bloodier answers.

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Wilderness Exploration and Expeditions Heroes are inclined to venture into the wilds for their own purposes, chiefest being the gathering of loot and glory. Unfortunately, such expeditions are dangerous, difficult, and oftimes costly in support and supplies. Once a GM has drawn up a hex map with the tools on page XX, these rules can be used to handle the actual exploration. Magical devices or special circumstances might alter these rules, allowing swifter movement, faster surveying, or better supply. Of course, should these magics be lost halfway through a trip, the consequences can be dire.

Exploring a Hex

To lightly explore a standard six-mile hex for points of interest takes a full day of scouting. If the terrain is especially rugged or concealing, such as a range of mountains or trackless swamp, this time is doubled or tripled. This much time is sufficient to find most major points of interest that the GM may have placed in the hex. It won’t necessarily catch small features or provide a detailed survey of the terrain.

Supplies for Adventuring

When venturing into the untamed wilderness, a group is going to need certain supplies. Fire, water, shelter, and food are the four most critical. In some places, some of these supplies may be easily acquired along the way, such as fresh water from a river the PCs are following, or shelter when the climate is warm and pleasant around the clock, but usually some kind of provision will need to be made for bringing or gathering these things. Food is measured in days of food per person. Each day’s needed food counts as one item of encumbrance, though they can be packed snugly together as weekly rations that count as four items instead. Some magical items or Mages might be able to create food; a party who relies entirely on such things had best hope nothing happens to their literal meal ticket. Water is also measured in days of water per person, each unit counting as one item of encumbrance. Exceptionally hot or dry climates may require multiples of this to avoid dehydration or overheating. Shelter means adequate clothing for the climate and some kind of tent or lean-to to protect from the elements while resting. Characters with Survival-0 can put together a minimal lean-to of boughs and branches in wooded areas, but in places of torrential rain, fierce

Supply Encumbrances Type

Enc

One day of food or water

One week of carefully-packed food

One night’s load of fire fuel

One day’s fodder for a horse or large beast

One day’s fodder for a mule or small beast

Daily water for a large beast

Daily water for a small beast

snows, or other extreme conditions it may prove more difficult. Lack of shelter can make it impossible to rest comfortably, or even threaten a PC’s life. Fire means fuel sufficient to cook food, dry wet clothes, and warm PCs after they’ve stopped moving for the day. In most places it’s easy enough for even the least wood-wise PC to scavenge enough dry wood or twigs to get a minimally sufficient fire going, but voyages into a land devoid of woody vegetation can mean trouble. A load of dung cakes, charcoal, or other fuel sufficient to keep a group warm for an ordinary night counts as four items of encumbrance.

Pack Animals and Porters

Pack beasts can carry a certain amount of items of encumbrance, assuming they’re packed carefully. Professional porters are also common hires for adventurers, though they generally refuse to enter dangerous ruins. Most beasts of the Latter Earth can survive on nightly browse and brief water stops for the duration of an expedition. In barren lands, food and water must be packed in for the beasts as well as the humans. During combat, porters will hide or fight as normal humans to defend their lives. Pack beasts might panic if not calmed by a handler’s successful Cha/Ride skill check made as a Move action, usually against a difficulty of 8 or more. Carters, nomad riders, and other professional stock handlers always succeed at these calming checks barring the most unusual circumstances.

Pack Animals and Porters Type

Enc

Riding horse or warhorse, with rider

Riding horse or warhorse, pack only

Heavy pack horse

Mule or donkey

Professional porter

Two porters carrying a shared litter

At need, a healthy horse can be butchered into 30 days of rations, and a mule or similar-sized beast into 15 days. Preserving this meat takes time and fire, as explained in the Foraging section.

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Starving, Thirsting, and Freezing

If the PCs don’t have enough food, water, warmth, or shelter, bad things will start to happen. Each day without these necessities will apply the following penalties. System Strain is gained. If this would put the PC over their maximum, they must make a Physical save or die by dawn if not fed, watered, and sheltered by a rescuer. On a success, they’re helpless until death or rescue. They can’t recover System Strain, gain nightly hit point healing, refresh Committed Effort, or restore expended spells until they’ve had a day of proper food, water, and warm sleep.

Privation Penalties Circumstance

Sys. Str.

First day without enough food

Consecutive day without food

First day without enough water

Consecutive day without water

Night without adequate shelter or fire

Harsh night without shelter or fire

Foraging

PCs who find themselves low on supplies or lacking a particular resource can take time to forage the surrounding terrain. It’s assumed the group sticks together during this process, sacrificing efficiency for security. They can split up if desired, but each group then risks encounters. Some supplies can be gathered as normal parts of travel. If passing through ordinary, non-arid, non-barren terrain it’s assumed the PCs can refill their waterskins whenever they wish and can scrounge enough dry firewood as they walk along to have an adequate campfire. Foraging requires either a half-day or a full day of effort. The group’s most apt member makes a Wis/Survive check against the difficulty listed on the table, and on a success earns 1d6 units of forage plus the sum of the group’s Survive skill levels, to a maximum of 10. Those without the skill at all subtract 1 from the total. Each forage unit is worth either a day of food for a person, a day of water for a person, or a night’s firewood for the party, and the group can decide how much of each was found after the roll is made. PCs who are barbarians or other natives of the wilds never find less than two units of forage, barring extreme situations.

Wandering Encounters

PCs risk encountering trouble in their expeditions. Every so often, a Wandering Encounter check die should be rolled by the GM, with example probabilities on the adjacent table. If the GM rolls a 1, something comes up. A GM should roll an encounter check… Once per day of travel and once per night of camping outdoors. Such encounters will commence at the terrain’s usual maximum sight range, with a Wis/Notice opposed check to see who first spotted who. Once per foraging attempt. Whether a half-day or a full day, one check is made per attempt, per foraging group. If the group forages all day instead of traveling, the daily travel check above is omitted. The precise nature of a Wandering Encounter will depend on the terrain and the GM’s preparations. A pack of bandits might lurk along a trade road, while a rampaging monster might roar through a deep wilderness. These encounters fit the logic of the situation, not the levels of the PCs, so a swift retreat may be in order.

Foraging Type of Foraged Terrain

Diff

Woodlands or areas of heavy vegetation

Mountains, scrublands, savannahs

Deserts, badlands, or normal barrens

Arratus or barely human-survivable lands

A full day foraging rather than a half-day

-2

Each successive day foraging the same hex

On success, 1d6 units of forage are found, plus the total Survive skills of the foragers. Those without even level-0 skill in it subtract 1 from the total found. Foraged food is unpreserved and will spoil in three days. Smoking or drying it requires use of a day’s worth of firewood and a half-day’s labor. Any reasonable amount of forage can be preserved with a single half-day’s work.

Wandering Encounter Checks Type of Terrain

Chance

Dangerous wilderness area

1 in 6

Area of civil unrest or heavy banditry

1 in 6

Ordinary trade road

1 in 8

Well-policed trade road

1 in 10

Borderlands or rural back country

1 in 8

Ordinary wilderness

1 in 8

Not all Wandering Encounters are hostile or involve combat, however. A pompous noble might be clearing rabble off the road in front of him, or a woodsman might be found with a broken leg, or the bandit crew might be carousing and willing to have visitors join in. In general, they’re simply situations, creatures, or events that the PCs will need to react to, even if that reaction is simply to duck back behind the brush and put their spurs to their horses.

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Site Exploration Sooner or later the heroes are almost certain to plunge into a freshly-unearthed Deep, ancient ruin, Outsider outpost, bandit fortress, or other place of peril and mystery. While the details for actually creating such a site are explained in the adventure creation chapter, this section gives guidelines for running the exploration of the place. These rules are meant for tracking adventures in a dangerous, hostile site where perils could spring up at any moment. They’re not meant for casual exploration of some bosky glade or city street, and in such cases the PC actions can just be followed scene-by-scene as usual. It’s important that GMs understand the purpose of the Wandering Encounter checks in a site. They’re intended to put constant pressure on the party to get in, accomplish their purpose, and get out before they’re worn down by encounters or the natives realize that they’re being invaded. Not all Wandering Encounters are hostile, but each is a risk of pointless fighting or sudden alarm. Note that some groups will prefer to do things more loosely than is prescribed here. Issues of resource management and measured risk aren’t as interesting to these groups, and they’ll instead prefer to use something more like the simplified rules given in this section.

The Order of Play

At the start of each turn after the PCs enter the site:

•

Roll a Wandering Encounter check if necessary. On a 1, the encounter will happen at some appropriate moment this turn.

•

The PCs decide what they want to do this turn, be it move into a new room, carefully search their current location, fiddle with some object they’ve found, or something else that takes ten minutes.

•

Tell them the result of their actions, whether that’s a first-glance description of a new room, notice of the hideous abomination that’s rearing up before them, or the explosive detonation of the crystal they just experimentally hit.

•

Start over from the top, assuming their actions have consumed a full turn, until they withdraw from the site or it becomes safe enough to stop counting turns.

Timekeeping in the Ruin

Once the heroes intrude on a ruin, Deep, corrupt noble’s mansion, or other potentially-dangerous site the GM starts tracking time in turns. Each turn counts as about ten minutes or one scene. Members of the party can generally do one significant thing per turn. Different party members can be doing different things in the same turn, such as one of them picking a chest’s lock while the others ransack the room for hidden valuables. The point of tracking turns isn’t to have a minute-by-minute tally of PC activities, but to have a rough measure of how much activity they’re engaging in in the ruin. The more they do and the longer they stay, the more likely that they’ll run into Wandering Encounters or the natives will have time to realize that intruders are present. Eventually, the PCs need to either pull back or clear the site entirely of its dangerous inhabitants.

Movement and Fleeing

For the simplified diagram sites built by the procedures on page XX, movement between rooms of interest just takes one turn. Once inside a room or location, PCs move at their usual movement rate. If forced to flee, the party needs to decide how exactly they’re retreating, and what measures they’re taking to dissuade pursuit: blocking doors, throwing food to slavering beasts, dropping treasure, jumping from windows, or other means of retreat. In some cases, this alone will be enough. The GM may decide the pursuers have no reason to chase them beyond a certain point.

Example Time Costs in Turns Activity

Turns

Move from one room of interest to another

Pick a lock or disarm a trap

Get in a fight with something

Perform first aid and looting after a fight

Search a room carefully

Have an extended parley with inhabitants

Jury-rig something or work a complex device

Time a torch lasts until burning out

Time a filled lantern lasts before burning out

If their foes are determined, the PC with the best Dex/Exert skill makes an opposed check against the pursuing group. They get a +1 on the roll if the PCs are fewer in number than the pursuers, and possibly another bonus if their escape plan is good. The group with the slowest member takes a -2 penalty to their skill check. On a success, the PCs eventually outpace or lose their pursuers. On a failure, they’re caught somewhere along their escape route. A successful escape usually takes up one turn worth of time and leaves the PCs in whatever location the GM decides they’ve eventually fled to.

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Encounters and Surprise

Usually, PCs are sufficiently alert when exploring a site to avoid any chance of surprise, barring a set ambush. If they burst in on the natives suddenly, however, the loc als might be too stunned to act for a round. If the GM thinks this is possible, give it X-out-of-6 odds and roll it. If the PCs run into a Wandering Encounter in a room, the creatures will enter through one of the available entrances. In the corridors outside, they’re usually 2d6 x 10 feet away when first spotted or heard, assuming there’s enough space for such a distance.

Light, Locks, and Searching

A torch or lantern will cast usable light in a thirty-foot radius. Objects outside this range are too indistinct to be made out in the typical stygian gloom of a Deep. Locks, discovered traps, stuck doors, and other obstacles usually take a full turn to pick or pry free. Most locks or small traps can be defeated with a Dex/Sneak skill check. The difficulty begins at 8 for a fairly good lock or average needle trap. If the PC is in a panicked haste, an attempt can be made as a Main Action at +2 difficulty, but failure means the lock’s jammed against further attempts. Failing to disarm a trap usually sets it off.

Remember to make a reaction roll when PCs encounter creatures, as explained on page XX. Not every group of Deep denizens will immediately lunge for their weapons when they spot intruders. Usually, there’s a brief, tense moment of recognition when the PCs encounter creatures, just enough time for a reaction roll and a chance to size up the odds of diplomacy. The GM should always give the PCs a chance to parley or run when encountering creatures unless the situation makes that completely impractical. To search a room, the PCs need to spend a turn and describe just what it is they’re searching: whether they’re looking under beds, pushing over the big iron cauldron, knocking around the chimney with a pole, or so forth. If they search where the GM knows something is hidden, they find it automatically. If they don’t mention it, the PC with the best Wis/Notice skill then rolls a skill check at a difficulty chosen by the GM. If it’s a success, the group happens to search where the hidden object is concealed and will discover it. Other PCs can aid this skill check as usual.

Wandering Encounter Checks

Every so many turns, a GM should roll 1d6 to check for a Wandering Encounter. On a 1, the PCs will run into one at some point during the turn. The frequency of the check will depend on how vigorously alert and organized the site’s inhabitants are. The actual contents of the encounter are decided when the GM puts together the site with the tools on page XX. Not all encounters involve running into creatures. Some are mere events or situations that fit the site. In the same vein, not all encounters are necessarily hostile, either. reaction rolls should be made for all creatures.

Simplified Ruin Exploration

The rules on these pages are meant to create a tense expedition into the site, with the party constantly forced to weigh the advantages of plunging deeper with the risk that they’ll be worn down by foes before they can escape the site. It requires tracking time, light sources, and other resources fairly carefully, but it rewards good judgment with successful mission completion or plundered loot and punishes imprudence with the risk of death. Not all groups are interested in that sort of play, however, and some don’t find any pleasure in tracking turns, minding light sources, or worrying about Wandering Encounters. Such an approach is a perfectly reasonable one and much in line with certain styles of play. For these groups, the GM can drop the timekeeping and just maintain the usual scene-based structure of play. Each room or location of interest counts as its own scene for purposes of fighting, searching, or meddling with the contents, and the PCs shift to a new scene each time they venture into a new place within the ruin.

When to Roll an Encounter Check Type of Location

Turns

Alerted site with organized defenders

Every 1

Unalert site with organized defenders

Every 2

Site with no organized or active defense

Every 3

Site with very few mobile inhabitants

Every 4

Abandoned or disused nook in a site

Every 6

A Wandering Encounter check is made only when the PCs do something that might attract attention, or when they pause in a single location for an unusually long time. PCs that avoid slowing down and that keep their actions discreet can escape any risk of such encounters. PCs in such groups are assumed to have adequate light sources unless there’s some reason they shouldn’t. The typical adventurer’s gear bundle from the equipment list has all the requisite tools necessary for ordinary dungeoneering, and it’s not necessary to track each picklock, crowbar, or torch. Abuse or loss of these items, however, might make them unavailable until replacements are obtained.

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Character Advancement When characters accumulate enough experience points, they advance a character level. New PCs start out at level one and the most experienced, capable heroes in the kingdom might reach level ten. Advancing beyond such prowess is the realm of the Legates, a matter discussed more fully in the deluxe edition of this book.

Gaining Experience Points

To advance in capability, PCs need to earn experience points. Once they accumulate enough experience, they can advance to the next character level, representing the sharpening of their skills and the heroic veterancy that comes of surviving perils and dire challenges. There are many different things that can earn a hero experience points, and the kind of activities and goals that reward them will vary with the kind of campaign you’re playing. The GM should make clear to the whole group what kind of things earn the PCs experience in their game. For some games, success might lie in plundering forgotten hoards or clawing wealth from the hands of desperate patrons. Other games might reward the PCs for achieving personal goals, whether or not there was any money in it. Some might even award XP only for spending gold, requiring every PC to recklessly waste their wealth before gaining a level. It’s up to the GM to pick a method that fits the group’s tastes. The table below indicates how many experience points need to be earned before a PC can advance to that level. Once the requisite number of XP are earned, the hero gains their new level and all the benefits. Note that this table makes for a relatively fast progression through the early levels of an adventurer’s career, before slowing drastically at higher levels. A group that prefers a different pacing might alter the chart to suit their own tastes. In general, you can assume that one “successful” gaming session should usually earn you about 3 XP. Character Level

Total Experience Required

11+

Special

Advancing Past Tenth Level

By default, it’s assumed that heroes stop advancing at tenth level. That pitch of power is as much as a mortal can attain without tremendous luck, hideous pacts, uncanny natural gifts, or other special advantages. GMs who want to take their heroes beyond tenth level can consult the Legate rules in the deluxe version of this book.

Benefits of Gaining a Level

Once a PC has been awarded enough experience points to reach the next level, they immediately gain the benefits of advancement. No special training or practice is required as their abilities are assumed to have been honed by their past adventures.

Roll Additional Hit Points

First, they become harder to overcome in combat. To determine their new maximum hit points, they roll the hit dice for their class and level as given on the chart in the character creation chapter, adding their Constitution modifier to each die. If the new total is no greater than the old, add one point to the old total and record it instead. Thus, a Warrior who reaches third level and who has a +1 attribute modifier for their Constitution would roll 3d6+9 to find their new hit point total. If they already had 15 hit points and rolled a 12, they’d instead record 16 hit points as their new total.

Improve Attack Bonus

A PC’s base attack bonus improves according to their class and level, as given on the chart in the character creation chapter. Warriors rapidly gain new skill in martial undertakings, while other classes might need to advance considerably before their prowess improves.

Improve Saving Throws

The PC becomes more capable of evading chance harms and perils. Their saving throw scores decrease by one, making it easier to succeed on saving throws by rolling equal or over it. As a first level character has saving throw scores of 15, reaching second level would lower them to 14, modified by attributes.

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Gain and Spend Skill Points

They become more capable with their skills. A PC gains three skill points they can spend on improving their skills or save to spend later. Experts and Adventurers with the Partial Expert class option gain an extra bonus point to spend on a non-combat skill. Skills that are gained or improved immediately on gaining a level are assumed to have been perfected over the past level and require no training time or teaching. If you save your skill points to spend them later then you’ll need to find some teacher or other explanation for developing them. It doesn’t take more than a week to refine your new ability, but you can’t usually spend your points mid-scene to develop a heretofore-unmentioned expertise with hurlants. The cost for improving a skill is listed below. Every skill level must be purchased in order; to gain level-1 in a skill you need to pay one point for level-0 and then two points for level-1. A PC must be the requisite minimum level to increase a skill to certain levels. Less hardened heroes simply don’t have the focus and real-life experience to attain such a pitch of mastery. A PC cannot “partially buy” a skill level. If they don’t have enough skill points to buy a new level, they need to save them up until they can. A PC cannot develop skills beyond level-4. New Skill Level

Skill Point Cost

Minimum Character Level

Adding New Spells and Arts

Some Mage classes automatically acquire new spells as the fruits of their recent researches. Partial Mages learn them just as full Mages do, but an Adventurer PC with two Partial Mage classes must pick one or the other for the purposes of gaining new spells each time they advance a level. High Mages can pick any two High Magic spells they are capable of casting, adding these spells to their spellbooks. Necromancers and Elementalists may pick only one, but may make their choice from among High Magic spells or those New Magics unique to their particular tradition. In addition to this, Mages may sometimes pick a new art, as given in the class charts for each magical tradition. Adventurers with two Partial Mage classes gain these bonus arts from both traditions, though the new picks must be made from arts allowed to that class. Thus, a Partial Necromancer/Partial Elementalist who reached third level could pick one new Necromancer art and one new Elementalist art, but they could not pick two from the same tradition.

Purchase Improved Attributes

A veteran adventurer may have trained or honed their natural abilities well enough to improve one of their six base attributes. While even the most determined development isn’t enough to turn complete ineptitude into gifted competence, a hard-working adventurer can hone their existing strengths considerably. The first time a PC improves an attribute, it costs 1 skill point and adds +1 to an attribute of their choice. The second improvement to their attributes costs 2 skill points, the third 3, and so forth. Each improvement adds +1 to the attribute, potentially improving its modifier. A PC can only ever make only five such improvements total; not five per attribute. PCs must be a certain level before purchasing the third, fourth, or fifth attribute boost. No more than five attribute boosts can ever be purchased by a PC. Attribute Boost

Skill Point Cost

Minimum Character Level

First

Second

Third

Fourth

Final

Choose New Foci

Finally, the PC might be eligible to pick an additional level in a Focus. At levels 2, 5, 7, and 10 a PC can add a level to an existing Focus or pick up the first level in a new Focus. If this is the first level they’ve taken in the Focus, they might be granted a skill as a free bonus pick, depending on the Focus’ benefits. During character creation, this bonus skill pick is treated like any other skill pick. If the Focus is taken as part of advancement, however, it instead counts as three skill points spent toward increasing the skill. This is enough to raise a nonexistent skill to level-1, or boost a level-1 skill to level-2. They may do this even if they aren’t high-enough level to normally qualify for a skill level that high. If the skill points aren’t quite enough to raise the skill to a new level, they remain as credit toward future advances. If applied to a skill that is already at level-4, the PC can spend the three skill points on any other skill of their choice.

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Modifying and Customizing Equipment The ancients left a host of wondrous materials and enigmatic artifices in the ruins of Latter Earth, and the best of the modern crafters have learned how to make the most of these ancient relicts. Exceptionally talented NPC crafters, Experts, and Partial Experts are able to use this salvage to create modifications to gear, provided they have the requisite Craft skill. Unfortunately, these ancient leftovers are finicky, fragile, and subject to decay and decalibration if not carefully maintained by a competent crafter. If left long enough, they often decay to uselessness, and even a relatively short period of neglect can make the item they’re used in useless until they’ve been properly maintained. As such, modified equipment is rarely for sale on the open market, as uneducated owners aren’t capable of maintaining it properly. Neither are they often found in ancient salvage, as such a long period of neglect usually ruins them. Most often, they are the customized works of expert crafters, made for their own use or the use of a skilled ally. Any Expert or Partial Expert PC with at least Craft-1 skill, or any PC with the Artisan Focus, can modify equipment with ancient salvage. Their crafting background does not need to precisely match the gear they’re modifying; the basic principles of using ancient salvage are the same among all disciplines.

SMITHILLO

Making Modifications

Many modifications require ancient salvage. While salvage usually takes the form of ancient super-materials and wondrous substances in the Latter Earth, more traditional fantasy settings might instead use precious magical monster parts, legendary jewels, or other occult substances with magical properties. To simplify tracking, it’s assumed that any piece of ancient salvage can be used to make any particular modification. Modifying a piece of gear requires the usual tools necessary to create or repair the gear in question. Modifying a sword requires access to a forge, modifying a suit of linothorax armor requires sewing implements, and so on. It also usually requires a large number of expensive supplementary materials. Mods can be removed, but their materials cannot be salvaged. Modifications have a minimum Craft skill required. An Expert crafter with inadequate skills can’t install such a mod, though they can maintain it. It takes one week to install a modification per level of Craft skill required. Thus, if the modification requires Craft-2 skill to create, it takes two weeks of work to properly install it. An assistant with at least Craft-0 skill can halve this time, and if the crafter does nothing but work, eat, and sleep, it can be halved again.

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Maintaining Modifications

The main reason modifications are not more widespread, aside from the rarity of usable ancient salvage, is that they require regular maintenance by a skilled crafter. Calibrating rituals, proper preservative oil application, counteracting thaumic stress points, and other skilled labor must be done if the modification is to continue functioning. An Expert or Partial Expert crafter has a Maintenance score equal to the total of their Intelligence and Constitution modifiers plus three times their Craft level. Thus, an Expert PC with an Intelligence modifier of +1, a Constitution modifier of +0, and the Craft-0 skill would have a Maintenance score of 1. PCs with no Craft skill can’t maintain modifications, nor can those without full or partial Expert classes. Mages who wish to create similar marvels must build them from scratch as magic items. A crafter can maintain a number of modifications equal to their Maintenance score without cutting into their adventuring time. It’s assumed that it’s done during downtime and pauses. The work requires no particular special materials or expenses. If they don’t adventure or do anything but work, they can double their Maintenance. If a modification goes without maintenance for 24 hours, it stops working and no longer grants its benefit. If it’s unmaintained for a week, the entire item becomes too dangerous or fragile to use. Lack of maintenance for years or ages may result in complete item destruction. A maintenance backlog can be cleared by an hour of work by a crafter capable of maintaining it. A crafter who builds a mastercraft item from scratch, as explained on page XX, can tune it to better support their modifications if they wish. The first mod they add to such an item costs twice as much in arcane salvage and supplementary costs, but requires no maintenance.

Example Modifications

The mods listed here are merely some of the possibilities for using ancient salvage or large amounts of costly mundane materials. These mods are almost never available on the open market due to the rarity of usable salvage and the difficulty of maintaining the gear. Acquiring the salvage needed to make them usually means finding it as part of an adventure, receiving it in payment from a patron, or setting out on specific expeditions to find it. Multiple modifications can stack, but cannot increase a hit or damage bonus above +3, or a skill check bonus above +1. Magical and masterwork weapons and armor can be modified, but mods can’t improve them above this cap. Arrow Storm (Craft-2): A bow or other projectile weapon automatically generates its own ammunition, albeit the conjured projectiles vanish a round after firing. This mod does not increase reload speed. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces. Assassin’s Trinket (Craft-2): A one-handed weapon is modified to adopt the shape of some item of jewelry or adornment. It can be shifted to or from this

shape by the owner as an On Turn action. Cost: One unit of salvage and 1,000 silver pieces. Augmented Gear (Craft-1): A tool, medical kit, or other item of equipment is improved for a specific purpose chosen at the time of augmentation. Skill checks made for that purpose gain a +1 skill bonus with the item. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces. Automatic Reload (Craft-2): A hurlant can be modified to reload itself, if ammunition is available. Once per scene, a man-portable hurlant can be reloaded as an On Turn action. Cost: Two units of salvage and 10,000 silver pieces. Customized (Craft-1): The weapon or suit of armor has been carefully tailored for a specific user. When used by them, they gain a +1 to hit with the weapon or +1 Armor Class with the armor. This mod doesn’t work with shields. Cost: 1,000 silver pieces. Flying Razor (Craft-1): A throwing weapon is imbued with various esoteric materials, allowing it to return to the hand of its thrower after each attack. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces. Harmonized Aegis (Craft-3): A suit of armor is altered to harmonize with the dangerous sorceries of allied casters. Provided the wearer and the caster have had ten minutes to coordinate the protection, the wearer is unharmed by the caster’s harmful spells for the rest of the day, even if caught in their area of effect. Cost: One unit of salvage and 10,000 silver pieces. Long Arm (Craft-2): A ranged or thrown weapon is modified to double its normal and maximum ranges. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces. Manifold Mail (Craft-2): A suit of armor is augmented to allow it to shift its appearance to any of five or six pre-set choices, mimicking normal clothing or other armor types as an On Turn action. The armor’s Encumbrance is not altered. Cost: One unit of salvage, 5,000 silver pieces. Omened Aim (Craft-2): Occult components improve a ranged or thrown weapon’s targeting, adding +1 to hit rolls. Cost: 4,000 silver pieces. Preserving Grace (Craft-1): A suit of clothing or armor is specially altered to preserve the wearer. Once per week, when the wearer is Mortally Wounded, they will automatically stabilize. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces. Razor Edge (Craft-2): A weapon has been given an improved edge or shifting weight system, adding +2 to the damage and Shock it does, albeit requiring far more care. Cost: One unit and 5,000 silver pieces. Tailored Harness (Craft-2): A suit of armor is altered to perfectly fit a single wearer, decreasing its effective Encumbrance by 1 for them and increasing it by 1 for others. This change does not count for the Armored Magic Focus. Cost: 5,000 silver pieces. Thirsting Blade (Craft-3): A weapon is imbued with a fated inclination to harm, adding +1 to hit rolls. Cost: Two units of salvage and 10,000 silver pieces.

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Building and Crafting Gear It’s not unknown for PCs to want to fabricate their own equipment, or earn some money with mundane skills, or make a desperate effort to jury-rig some critical piece of equipment just before calamity overwhelms them. While such ambitions aren’t always practical, the guidelines here can help a GM sort out these goals.

Crafting New Equipment

Assuming a PC has the tools and workspace to fabricate a piece of equipment, they can generally do so. Raw materials for the equipment will cost half the usual retail price, and then some time must be spent crafting the gear. No skill check is needed to simply craft the objects if they are of a kind appropriate to the crafter’s background or habitual work. If the crafter is making something unusual for their skills, a skill check at difficulty 7 for simple objects, 9 for demanding works, and 11 for things only a specialist ought to be able to make might be required at the GM’s discretion. Small, simple equipment such as knives, spears, bundles of torches, cloaks, sacks, or the like takes about an hour to make for each piece or bundle of six simple objects such as torches. Items that requires significant craftsmanship to make an adequate item, such as most clothing, leather armor, blunt weaponry, movable furniture, saddles, or other objects that require skill but not particularly lengthy effort can be made with one day of work per item. Objects that are particularly large or that require very careful construction to make, such as large tempered blades, ox-carts, hourglasses, metal armor, or the like require one week of work to complete. Crafters in a hurry can make an Int/Craft or Dex/ Craft check against difficulty 9 to halve the time involved. If the crafter has an assistant with at least Craft-0 to help them, the skill check is made at difficulty 7. On a failure, half the raw materials were ruined and no speed gained.

Crafting Masterwork Equipment

A PC with a background as a weaponsmith, armorer, or other maker of a specific type of goods can attempt to make a masterwork piece of equipment. The raw materials for such an undertaking cost ten times as much as the retail price of an ordinary item and the time needed to build it is twice as long. At the end of that period, the crafter makes an Int/ Craft or Dex/Craft skill check against difficulty 10. On a success, the piece is a masterwork. On a failure, the item is no better than an ordinary item. Masterwork weaponry grants a +1 bonus to hit rolls with the item. Masterwork armor counts as 1 fewer point of Encumbrance, down to a minimum of 1 point, albeit not for purposes of the Armored Magic Focus. Masterwork items of other kinds may grant similar minor benefits at the GM’s discretion.

Jury-Rigging Equipment

Adventurers have the habit of needing the most unlikely objects at the worst possible times. It’s not uncommon for them to need to jury-rig together a piece of equipment on short notice. If the materials they have to work with don’t seem completely inadequate to the GM, the crafter can make an Int/Craft or Dex/Craft skill check at a difficulty ranging from 7, for something that seems crude but plausible, to 10, for a jury-rig that stretches the boundaries of plausibility. The time taken is five minutes for small, simple objects, fifteen minutes for ones that would normally require some craftsmanship, or an hour for large objects or those that would normally need careful construction. If the time is taken and the skill check is a success, the crafter has a usable item that will last at least as long as is needed for the particular purpose they jury-rigged it for. Its ramshackle construction will tell, however, and it will never work for longer than a day before falling to irreparable pieces.

Building Structures

PCs who want to oversee the construction of buildings and other large structures can use the price lists given on page XX to get an idea of the cost. If a PC is capable of personally overseeing the undertaking, these prices can be decreased by 10% due to saved labor and the avoidance of wasteage. The time to build these structures will depend on how much help is available. Assuming all the needed resources are on-site, one skilled worker can build 100 silver pieces worth of the structure for each day of labor. Thus, a building worth 10,000 silver could be constructed in ten days by a team of ten skilled laborers. Unskilled laborers or those with no experience in construction are worth only twenty silver pieces of completed work per day. Large, complex structures built with less than 20% skilled labor may be less than perfect in execution.

Working as a Crafter

PCs with salable professional skills can try to make some money by plying their trade, but this is a difficult undertaking. Few local crafters will have any interest in dealing with a potentially unreliable adventurer, and local guild laws and customs may flatly forbid strangers from working in a trade. Often a PC will have to make do with piecework and under-the-table help given to employers who are in no rush to pay them. A PC with Craft or Work or some other salable skill can generally make one silver piece per day per skill level, to a minimum of 1 silver piece. The longer such work goes on, however, the more pressure they’re likely to feel to join whatever guilds or social circles control the business in the area.

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Quick Reference Sheet (Important rules summary goes here)

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MAGIC AND THE ARCANE TRADITIONS The magic of Latter Earth is born from the Legacy, the accumulated mass of arcane laws and thaumic energies that have accrued over fathomless eons. From its first crude beginnings in the Highshine emergency recovery nano-systems of the ancient past to the modern alterations laid down by the conquering Outsiders and their vengeful usurpers, the Legacy and its magic has existed as a tool to serve the purposes of Latter Earth’s masters. Primitive societies might try to define the Legacy as a “nanite cloud” or a “malleable energy field”, or some other technical description. It is more than that. It is the product of sciences and enlightenments utterly unfathomable by the modern dwellers of Latter Earth, and it has less relation to the crudity of a 25th century nanite swarm than a silicon chip has to a grain of sand. Its functions may as well be credited as magic, for in a very real sense that is what they are. The Legacy has been influenced over the ages by the rulers of Latter Earth. New processes have been established, old ones deprecated, new limits placed on old powers and old powers transformed into newer, more serviceable functions. The incomprehensible science of the former ages was able to tune and adjust the Legacy, though rarely with perfect precision; just as they desired to change it to suit their purposes, former users had placed barriers and complications against undoing their own changes. Often the new masters had to make compromises in their plans in order to route around some old forbiddance. The end result has been chaos. The natural decay of the Legacy has combined with the confused scrawlings of unnumbered eons to produce a power that is capricious, decadent, and unruly in the hands of Latter Earth’s present occupants. Ancient magics no longer function as they once did, and new sorceries are tremendously difficult to devise. The power to actually amend the Legacy has been almost entirely lost to this world’s modern inhabitants. This decay is a torment to present-day wizards. The ancient magical techniques recorded in the most venerable grimoires no longer work as they once did, and alternate methods must be salvaged from the footnotes and digressions half-mentioned in these texts. Wizards may spend their whole lives simply trying to find a working substitute for some process that is vital to an ancient spell, conducting dangerous and difficult experimentation to feel out the technique. Success is rewarded by powers that may have been sleeping for an age. Failure, in the worst case, is punished by deaths so terrible that only a wizard could die of them. Yet despite these hardships, mages persist on Latter Earth. These scholars and gifted souls yet seek to unravel the secrets of the Legacy and learn the methods by which its powers can be harnessed and invoked. The process is intensely laborious, requiring years of study and practice to master the trigger incantations, somatic gestures, psy-

chic configurations, and ritual keys that patch together a usable effect. Whole traditions of sorcery have developed, with mentors passing on their wisdom to new generations of wizards, hoping that those who come after might be able to drag more from the darkness of the past.

Mages on Latter Earth

Sorcerers have a varied reception among the nations of Latter Earth. In some they are accepted as skilled artisans with talents that are useful to society as a whole. In others they are counted as nothing more than dangerous lunatics who’ll inevitably plunge their neighbors into some hellish nether-dimension with their crazed fumblings. There are elements of truth to both opinions. Most mages are trained into specific magical traditions. These traditions were formed at some ancient date by like-minded wizards who shared a similar goal or perspective on the Legacy, and their teachings have been passed down to the present day through formal magical schools or a tradition of master-pupil teachings. There are considerable advantages to having trained assistance in the research and development of new magics, to say nothing of the practical benefits of a live-in servant, so few accomplished wizards have been wholly without apprentices. Some of these masters are just, fair-minded men and women who require nothing more of their pupils than diligent study and honest labor. Others have less pleasant uses for their apprentices, and very final roles for those who fail to prove useful. Other traditions have established magical academies for their pupils, usually with the patronage of the local nobility. In exchange for this generous tolerance such academies usually serve as training-grounds for mages dedicated to the service of their patrons, or those who pay a tribute of service as part of their tuition. The advantages of having a force of trained mages on hand are considerable, but some nations are reluctant to establish such a potent power center outside their own governing class. A few wizards are even self-taught, having come to their powers through the study of old grimoires and personal experimentation. Such prodigies are exceedingly rare, however, as the slightest mistake in magical training can result in a hideous death. Only the truly brilliant or remarkably lucky can hope to self-study their way to occult power. The magics practiced by PC wizards are not the only sorceries to be found in the world, however. Throughout the Latter Earth there remain innumerable small sects, isolated traditions, and mad geniuses possessed of secrets and methods long since lost to wider knowledge. There are sorcerers who can perform with ease such feats as would dazzle a traditional mage, yet it is not uncommon that these feats should come at a terrible price. Not all paths of magic are paid for with simple study, and the cost can be more than a wholly human heart can bear.

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MAGICSPLASH W 8.63 in H 11 in

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Spells and Arts

The ancient invocations and sorceries of yore are known conventionally as spells, each one ranked in power from level one, the relatively weakest, to level five, the most potent. There are hypothetical and legendary incantations supposedly of sixth level or higher, but such remarkable magics are not discussed in this book. The common corpus of ancient spells is known as High Magic, a collection of scores of different invocations that all have been inherited from the deepest past. A separate body of sorcery known as “New Magic” exists in the form of jury-rigged enchantments cobbled together out of the very limited understanding of modern mages, but this form of magic tends to be extremely specific to individual casters and exceedingly difficult to develop. Only the most brilliant and determined mages can ever salvage a novel yet useful new spell out of the mysteries of the past. In this book, a collection of several dozen High Magic spells are recorded. These are by no means the only spells extant but they are some of the most common. Careful researchers and bibliographers suspect that there may be as many as two hundred functional spells surviving from former ages, though some of these produce effects that are seemingly impossible to detect or entirely useless to modern sorcerers, and others may be no more than New Magic passed off by their developers as something more antique. The reluctance of wizards to share information on their available magics makes such categorizing a difficult prospect. High Magic is extremely powerful. While the effects are rarely long-lasting, even the weakest rank of spells is capable of killing people outright, enslaving their thoughts, or conjuring perfectly convincing illusions. The most potent spells can destroy several city blocks, translate the caster over hundreds of miles of distance, or halt time temporarily. There are High Magic spells that create effects modern sorcerers do not understand, but there are no High Magic spells that create only petty effects. It is this very power that makes High Magic so difficult to use. Even the most accomplished mage of the modern day can’t channel more than five or six spells before the eldritch energies exhaust them or burn out their vital forces for a time. A mage capable of hurling three High Magic spells in a single day is considered exceptionally capable. Most novices or modestly-talented wizards can’t manage more than one before requiring a night’s rest to recover from the strain. Innumerable generations of mages have struggled against these limitations, forming a host of unique magical techniques and quasi-spells built from their knowledge of High Magic. These New Magic “arts” are unique to each tradition of magecraft, building on insights and training techniques specific to that tradition’s education. Most of these arts are much easier to use than High Magic, and many traditions are capable of a considerable range of magical effects without ever calling on a true spell. Others have developed New Magic incantations

related to their tradition’s special focus. Such customized magic is useless to other practitioners outside the tradition, as they don’t have the necessary grounding to understand it.

Preparing and Casting Spells

Each High Magic practitioner must first learn a spell before they can cast it. They may be taught by a mage who already knows the spell, even if they’re from a different tradition, or they must find a grimoire laying out the fine details of the incantation. New Magic spells specific to a tradition cannot be learned by mages outside that tradition. Learning a spell requires one week per spell level, less one week per level of the learner’s Magic skill, down to a minimum of one day. At the end of this time the student will either have mastered the contents of a written copy of the spell or created such a copy from their master’s tutelage. They must continue to retain access to this written document if they are to prepare the spell later, as it is an actual thaumaturgically-attuned artifact in itself. Without its formulae, attunement tables, and enchanted diagrams the mage will be unable to prepare the spell for later use. The full collection of these documents is generally known as the mage’s “spellbook”, though some texts actually take the form of teaching artifacts or physical models. A mage must be able to actually cast the spell in order to learn it. A novice mage can cast only first level spells, so they can learn only first level spells as well, even if they somehow come into possession of a grimoire with a more potent incantation. They’ll need to wait until their own enlightenment is sufficient to cast the spell before they can finally master it. Once the spellbook is prepared, the mage must perform the necessary attunements and propitiations to prepare the spell for casting. The number of spells a mage can prepare at once varies with their experience level, from as few as three at first level to as many as twelve when at tenth level. The mage may prepare any spell they have in their spellbook; there’s no obligation to prepare a certain number of low-level spells should the mage wish to fill all their available “slots” with their most powerful magics and run the risk of lacking some lesser, yet more useful spell. Preparing a new set of spells takes an hour, and can only be done after a good night’s rest, when the mage’s mind is most fresh and malleable. Once spells have been prepared they remain so indefinitely until replaced with a different set of magics. Once a set of spells is prepared, the mage may then cast them at their leisure. Casting a spell usually requires a Main Action and at least one free hand, along with vocalizations at least as loud as clear normal conversation. The arcane gesticulations and vocal incantations are quite obviously occult to any onlookers, but it’s usually impossible to tell which spell a mage is casting merely by looking at them.

•63 Casting a spell requires focus and undisturbed concentration. If a mage has taken hit point damage or has been severely jostled in a round, they cannot cast magic that round. Thus, a mage who acts late in a round runs the risk of being hurt and having their concentration spoiled, thus forcing them to do something other than cast a spell when their turn comes around. High Magic cannot normally be cast while wearing armor or restrictive clothing. The profane materials, restrictive fit, and unsalutary occult configurations of armor spoil the necessary flow of energy, as does the bulk and clumsiness of a shield. The same hindrances usually also spoil the use of any arts the tradition may teach, and not just spellcasting itself. A mage can cast only so many spells each day before needing a full night’s rest to recover. Novices can cast only one spell, while masters can manage six. The spell to be cast may be selected from any prepared by the mage; the same power can be used to invoke a mighty fifth-level spell or a relatively modest first-level incantation. The same spell may be cast more than once, if the mage has multiple castings left for the day. Adventurers who take the Partial Mage class are more limited than more focused specialists. They are able to cast fewer spells each day and the maximum level of spell they can cast is also significantly lower as compared to an equivalent full Mage. The total spells they can prepare for the day are also often somewhat fewer than that of a full Mage. When they cast the spells, however, any level-based effects also use their full level, so a third-level Partial Necromancer’s invocation of The Coruscating Coffin does 3d8 damage, just as a full Necromancer would. Adventurers who take two different Partial Mage classes use the table on page XX to determine how many spells they can prepare and cast each day. A dual Partial Mage can prepare and cast spells from either of their traditions. While they can cast slightly fewer spells per day and have a slightly lower maximum spell level, they have a wider choice of arts and a broader pool of spells to choose from.

Arts and Effort

Arts are those special magical techniques and abilities taught by a particular magical tradition. These are much less powerful than actual High Magic spells, and often produce relatively minor, even trivial effects. Even so, they may be used with far more facility than the mighty spells of ancient days and their practical utility is a blessing to modern sorcerers. Each tradition has a list of available arts, though additional techniques might exist in far lands or isolated sub-sects of the group. A mage can pick one or more arts from this list as they rise in character level, while some traditions automatically grant certain arts to all members. Once picked, an art cannot be exchanged; the occult attunements involved are final and permanent.

Arts are fueled by Effort, a representation of the mage’s available focus and magical energy. This Effort is separate from the power used to cast spells, and a mage who has exhausted his spells for the day might still have a considerable fund of Effort left. Effort is deployed and regained much more quickly than spellcasting slots. Effort is measured in a score equal to one plus the mage’s Magic skill plus the higher of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Adventurers with the Partial Mage class have an Effort score one point lower than full Mages, though never less than one point. Healers, Vowed, and other Partial Mage classes have this decrease already factored into their listed Effort calculation. Using Effort requires that it be Committed. The Effort is sunk into fueling the power, but will return automatically once a certain time has passed. There are three durations for which Effort is Committed, and each art indicates in its description how long the Effort must remain Committed to trigger it. •

Commit Effort for the day to trigger powerful arts. One point of Effort is invested in the power and returns the next morning after the mage has had a good night’s rest.

•

Commit Effort for the scene to trigger more modest abilities. One point of Effort is invested in the power, but returns as soon as the scene is done.

•

Commit Effort indefinitely to activate a persistent, lasting ability that keeps active as long as you keep one point of Effort Committed. You can reclaim this Effort at any time as an Instant action, immediately turning off the art. This Effort can remain invested indefinitely even while you’re asleep or unconscious provided you have a few minutes to prepare things properly before falling asleep. If you’re suddenly struck unconscious or killed any such powers immediately end.

Whenever Effort is Committed, only a single point is required. A very few powers might require more than one point to be Committed, but if so, it will be specified in the ability. Each tradition has a separate pool of Effort; there is Necromancer Effort and High Mage Effort and Healer Effort and so forth. An Adventurer who picks two different traditions has two different pools of Effort, neither of which can be used to fuel arts from the other.

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Dual Partial Mage Traditions

Some Adventurer PCs are adepts of two different magical traditions, such as a Partial High Mage/Partial Necromancer, or a Partial Elementalist/Vowed. The rules for these combinations are a little bit different, as mixing two spellcasting traditions creates a little more aptitude for sorcery than merely mixing in a martial Warrior’s training or learning the non-spellcasting magical arts of a Healer or Vowed. Dual-spellcasting Adventurers have a wider range of arts and more prepared spells than their more focused peers, but they have slightly fewer spells usable each day, and they never attain mastery of the most powerful spells. A PC who chooses two Partial Mage traditions for their Adventurer uses the adjacent table for hit dice, attack bonuses, and Focus picks. If the two Mage traditions are both spellcasters, they don’t use the Partial Mage tables listed under each tradition to determine their allowed spells per day and preparation limits, Instead, they use the adjacent table to find out how many spells they can cast each day, how many they can prepare at once, and what the maximum level of spell they can cast might be. Spells can be prepared and cast from either of their partial traditions, so a Partial Elementalist/Partial Necromancer could prepare or cast High Magic, Elementalist, or Necromancer spells with their allowed slots. Thus, a 1st level Partial High Mage/Partial Necromancer could prepare up to three first-level spells and cast one of them each day. He could pick two arts from the High Mage list, because that’s what a first level Partial High Mage can pick, in addition to one Necromancer art, because that’s the allotment a novice Partial Necromancer gets.

Partial Mage/Partial Mage Level

Hit Dice

Attack Bonus

1d6-1

1 Free +1 Free

2d6-2

3d6-3

4d6-4

5d6-5

6d6-6

7d6-7

8d6-8

9d6-9

10d6-10

Focus Picks

+1 Free +1 Free

+1 Free

PCs with Dual Spellcasting Traditions Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

As per both partial classes, gaining each level’s art picks as usual.

High Magic Spell List First Level Spells Apprehending the Arcane Form

See magic for 15 minutes per level, while also seeing in the dark

Cognitive Supersession of the Inferior Orders

Telepathically bond with an animal, which obeys but won’t fight

The Coruscating Coffin

Do 1d8 dmg/level to a visible target, save for half. 1 HD foes die.

Damnation of the Sense

Take control of one sense of a target for a scene on a failed save

Decree of Ligneous Dissolution

Destroy all non-magic plant-derived matter in the target area

The Excellent Transpicuous Transformation

Turn one target per level invisible for an hour per caster level

Imperceptible Cerebral Divulgence

Detect a target’s surface thoughts and get answers to questions

Ineluctable Shackles of Volition

Enslave a target’s mind, leaving them visibly dazed but obedient

The Long Amber Moment

Put a willing creature into temporary invulnerable stasis

Phantasmal Mimesis

Create an independently-functional illusion in the target area

Velocitous Imbuement

Augment the movement speed and options of one target/level

Wardpact Invocation

Make a target partially weapon-immune or make a weapon useless

The Wind of the Final Repose

Put living targets of 4 HD or less to sleep within the area of effect

•65 Second Level Spells Calculation of the Evoked Servitor

Summon a magical familiar that can’t fight, but obeys all other orders

Casting Forth the Inner Eye

Scry a distant location through a luminous or reflective surface

Conjunction of the Inexorable Step

Teleport a creature or loose object to a visible non-dangerous place

Decree of Lithic Dissolution

Destroy all non-magic stone, earth or non-metal minerals in an area

Extirpate Arcana

Dispel magic in a twenty-foot radius on the target point

The Inexorable Imputation

Make a statement; listeners believe it unless impossible or abhorrent

Jade Palanquin of the Faceless God

Summon a floating palanquin that can bear heavy burdens

Mantle of Disjecting Dissection

A willing target is mantled in blades, harming those who get close

Prudentially Transient Abnegation of Life

A willing target at zero hit points appears to die, but later revives

Resounding Temporal Echo

Give targets an extra Main Action for a short time for System Strain

The Verdant Vallation

Create a solid wall of plant life; it persists if planted in good earth

Visitation of the Clement Clime

You and three allies/level become immune to natural heat or cold

Third Level Spells Adopt the Simulacular Visiage

Transform a target into a chosen humanoid shape until the next dawn

Conjunct the Vital Viscera

Merge living creatures to share hit points or body parts

Exhalation of Congelating Cold

Freeze a target area, doing 1d6 dmg/two caster levels, with save

Foresightful Apprehension

Divine the most likely outcome of an action in the next five minutes

Glass Chimes of the Bamboo Terrace

Summon chimes for long-distance messages or 3d6 area damage

The Howl of Light

Cause an explosion doing 1d8 dmg/level in a large area, with save

Phobic Storm

Terrify foes within forty feet, forcing Morale checks and damage

Scorn the Fetters of Earth

You and an ally per level can briefly move through the air

The Torment of Tumefaction

Curse a foe with hideous disfigurements that hurt them if they act

Touch of Elucidating Intagibility

Touch a barrier to see through it or make it briefly intangible

Vallation of Specified Exclusion

Draw a line that bars targets of a particular obvious type or kind

Fourth Level Spells Calculation of the Phantasmal Eidolon

Summon an obedient magical servitor that can fight for the caster

Contingent Excision of Arcana

Cast the spell to later dispel magic as an Instant action once

Disjunctive Temporal Reversion

The target can redo their current round’s actions; can cast Instantly

Evert the Inwardness

Summon contents from a container or viscera from a living creature

The Grinding Geas

Bind a target to obey a command or suffer a terminal disease

Obnubilation of the Will

A helpless target is made an intelligent slave to the caster’s will

Ochre Sigil of Juxtaposition

Swap targets between a current place and a distant prepared one

Pierce the Pallid Gate

Create a short-ranged gate between two near known locations

Sigil of Aeolian Auctoritas

Create a blast of air or control weather in the nearby area

Fifth Level Spells Abdication of Temporal Presence

Stop time for 1d4+1 rounds, though you can’t affect the world

Banishment to the Black Glass Labyrinth

Exile targets to an extradimensional prison-maze for a time

The Dazzling Prismatic Hemicycle

Blast targets in a 100 foot cone to inflict random gruesome effects

Deluge of Hell

Do 1d10 dmg/level in a huge area, but risk taking a quarter of it

The Earth as Clay

Mold and shape natural stone and earth in a very large area

Invocation of the Invincible Citadel

Create a force-shield bubble as an Instant action

Open the High Road

Create a temporary gate to a prepared distant target point

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Spells of the High Mages Abdication of Temporal Presence

Level 5

The caster and up to one visible ally per caster level briefly step outside of the conventional flow of time, the rest of the world freezing around them. These subjects can take 1d4+1 free rounds of actions, but they cannot physically affect the world or move any object they were not carrying at the time they cast the spell. Any spells the caster or other allies cast can affect only their own group, and not those entities still in the normal flow of time.

Adopt the Simulacular Visiage

Level 3

A brief incantation transforms one visible, willing target per caster level into a perfect simulacrum of any humanoid creature the caster has seen before, whether a specific individual or a general type. No special abilities are granted by this transformation, but the target will perfectly resemble a chosen individual, including in voice and scent. Their non-magical clothing will transform to whatever clothing is appropriate to the target, and they will gain an intuitive ability to speak and understand the target’s native tongue. The spell lasts until dawn of the day after casting it, whereupon the targets and any transformed clothing revert back to their original seeming.

Apprehending the Arcane Form

Level 1

The mage opens up their mind to the presence of occult energies. For fifteen minutes per character level, they are capable of seeing active magical effects, curses, enchantments, or other dweomers as colored auras or patterns of light. They may identify magical items and get a one-sentence description of their purpose or most significant powers, and may get more sophisticated answers with successful Wis/Magic skill checks at difficulties of 8 or more depending on the subtlety of the enchantment. Mages with prepared spells are visible to the caster, though which spells the subject might have prepared is not knowable. As a side effect of this spell, the ambient thaumic currents cast enough quasi-light to allow the caster to see normally even in perfect darkness.

Banishment to the Black Glass Labyrinth

Level 5 Aimed at a visible point within three hundred feet, the spell affects all creatures except the caster within a tenfoot radius of the target, translating them into a lightless extradimensional maze of endlessly tall obsidian walls. The maze is infinite, featureless, and empty. Transported creatures get a Mental saving throw to end the spell, re-appearing one round after it was cast. Those who fail their save get to make an additional attempt once an hour afterwards. Creatures with five or fewer hit dice cannot

attempt these saving throws and are trapped forever unless the mage is killed or ends the spell. Time passes normally while trapped, and creatures snared within may rest, fight, or starve as their situation and wills so recommends. Dead or escaped creatures appear in the nearest clear space to their original departure.

Calculation of the Evoked Servitor

Level 2

This spell conjures up an intelligent familiar for the caster, one with one hit point per caster level, an AC of 14, a ground movement rate of 30’ per action, saving throws the same as the caster, a +0 skill modifier, and no effective attack. The familiar always adopts the same shape for the same caster, though the initial casting can set this to any shape the caster wishes provided it’s no larger than a small human. The familiar retains a telepathic connection with its creator and will obey any command it is given, including suicidal ones. It can perform any action that a competent human servant could. If the familiar is slain, it fades away, but can be called forth again by the spell. The familiar retains its memories of what happens while it’s summoned, and can develop its own personality in time. The familiar remains in existence until dawn following the spell’s casting or until dismissed by the caster.

Calculation of the Phantasmal Eidolon

Level 4 The caster conjures up a semi-real phantasmal creature in any shape or appearance they desire, provided it is no larger than an ox. The servitor is as intelligent as a human and will obey the caster with fearless and suicidal devotion, having 4 effective hit dice, 20 hit points, AC 15, a movement rate of 30’ per action, a +1 skill modifier, saves of 13+, and a +6/1d8 damage melee attack with 2/ AC 15 Shock. As the creature is partly phantasmal, the damage it inflicts cannot kill a subject, but only knock them unconscious for an hour before they awaken with 1 hit point. The caster may pick one special quality for the creature when it is summoned: the ability to fly at a rate of 30’/move, the perfect duplication of a particular person they’ve seen, the ability to form a telepathic speech connection with the caster, or the ability to effectively use normal weaponry and armor. The servitor lasts until destroyed or the dawn after the spell is cast.

Casting Forth the Inner Eye

Level 2

A pool of water, mirror, open flame, polished crystal, or other luminous or reflective surface is used to peer at a distant location. The location must either be within one hundred feet per caster level or be a location the caster has physically occupied before. The caster perceives the location as if he were standing at the targeted point with-

•67 in it, seeing and hearing events there as if he were present. This spell cannot scry locations that have been magically warded, and scrying the same location repeatedly is hindered by the resonance created by the spell. The spell cannot perceive the same area twice within the same week, or position its target point so as to overlap a prior area with its perceptions within that time. If a target present in the area has more hit dice than the caster has levels, they get a Mental saving throw to get an uncanny sense of being watched, something that will alert those cognizant of this spell. This spell lasts until the caster performs some action other than focusing on the scrying.

Level 1 The mage targets a visible, normal, non-magical animal or insect, obtaining temporary control of the beast and the ability to share its senses. The animal gains a telepathic bond with the caster, obeying any non-suicidal command and allowing the mage to perceive everything it perceives. The beast will not fight for the caster, but can perform complex actions entirely out of character for it while under the mage’s control. The mage must focus to share the beast’s senses, requiring a Main Action and leaving the mage unable to act physically while so focused. The spell lasts until the mage releases the beast, it is dispelled, or it is cast again. Level 3

The caster renders the forms and life energy of up to one visible subject per caster level into something plastic and transferrable. Hit points, poisons, and diseases can be transferred from one creature to another, if both are willing or helplessly bound, healing up to the maximum allowed hit points of the target creature. Body parts can be exchanged or gifted so long as each subject retains at least half of their original corpus. A willing target can even be absorbed into the body of another subject of the spell, disappearing into them until the spell ends or they choose to spring back out, fully-equipped. Assimilated subjects can continue to see and hear what goes on outside their carrier. A given subject can absorb up to five other human-sized targets. The spell lasts until dispelled, released, or one hour per caster level has passed, though transferred hit points or afflictions do not return to their original subject. If a subject is killed while “borrowing” another’s body parts, those parts do not return.

Conjunction of the Inexorable Step

Contingent Excision of Arcana

Level 2

A visible target within a hundred feet is immediately teleported to any visible, solid resting point within a half-mile, provided the target point has enough room to accept them and it is not a position of imminent physical peril. Unattended objects can be translocated by the spell, but they can be no larger than a horse. Unwilling

Level 4

The caster sets up a triggered resonance of dispelling magic which may later be invoked as an Instant action. Until the next dawn, the mage may negate magic as if with an Extirpate Arcana spell as an Instant action. Once this negation is triggered, the spell ends.

The Coruscating Coffin

Cognitive Supersession of the Inferior Orders

Conjunct the Vital Viscera

creatures targeted by this spell may make a Mental saving throw to resist; on a success, it is the caster who is transported to the intended destination instead.

Level 1

A thaumic discharge is focused on a single visible creature within one hundred feet per caster level, wreathing them in a lethal mantle of crackling energy. The target suffers 1d8 damage per caster level, with a Physical save for half. Targets with only 1 hit die will inevitably be slain regardless of the damage done. The spell cannot be blocked by non-magical intervening barriers, provided the caster can see the target with their unaided vision.

Damnation of the Sense

Level 1

The caster targets a visible creature within two hundred feet. The target gets a Mental saving throw to resist; on a failure, one sense of the caster’s choice is entirely under the caster’s control for the rest of the scene, while a success leaves them bound only for the next round. Any false impression may be given, or any true one concealed, and a creature may be left effectively blinded or deafened. Distracting tactile sensations can force the victim to make a Physical saving throw in order to act each round. Blinded creatures can’t make ranged attacks and roll all melee hit rolls twice, taking the worst result. If a creature thinks itself in mortal peril its excitement allows it to make a Mental save to throw off the spell at the end of each round.

The Dazzling Prismatic Hemicycle

Level 5

A blinding fan of impossible colors cascades over all targets in front of the caster in an area equal to a cone a hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide at the end. Each creature within that area must make a Physical saving throw; those who fail roll 1d6. On a 1, they are unharmed, on a 2 they collapse into a handful of dust, on a 3 they fall unconscious for an hour, on a 4 they go violently insane for the next hour and attack all around them, on a 5 they turn to stone, and on a 6 they become utterly enthralled to the caster’s commands for the next hour, as if under the effect of an Ineluctable Shackles of Volition spell.

68• Decree of Ligneous Dissolution

Level 1

Wood, linen, cotton, rope, and other plant- or fungus-derived matter is annihilated by a wave of entropic force that washes through an area near the caster. The mage targets a point within one hundred feet per caster level and designates a number of 10-foot cubes within that area equal to or less than their caster level. All non-magical plant matter within that area immediately erodes away to dust. Enchanted objects of plant matter cannot be affected, but ordinary plant-based clothing, bows, or wooden-hafted weapons will be destroyed. If used against plant-based monsters, the spell does 1d10 damage per caster level, with a Physical save for half.

Decree of Lithic Dissolution

Level 2

Stone, earth, sod, sand, or other largely mineral material is reduced to a faint spray of fine dust by this sorcery, though metal and enchanted objects are unaffected. The caster nominates up to one 10-foot cube per caster level in a visible area within one hundred feet per caster level, causing all such stone or mineral material within the cubes to disappear. Such rapid destruction may well cause larger structures to collapse as well.

Deluge of Hell

Level 5

The caster unleashes a consuming destruction on a visible point within three thousand feet. A torrent of eldritch ruin rains down on everything within up to a two hundred foot radius per caster level, inflicting 1d10 damage per caster level with a Physical save for half damage, and automatically killing all targets with 4 or fewer hit dice. This damage is sufficient to destroy any wooden or lightly-built stone structure and will seriously damage even fortifications. The caster can tighten the radius down to a minimum of 20 feet, but cannot be selective about targets within that area. This spell is extremely hazardous to the caster; they must make a Mental saving throw on casting it or suffer a quarter of the damage inflicted, rounded up.

Disjunctive Temporal Reversion

Level 4

The caster may invoke this spell as an Instant action on any single creature within one hundred feet. Time is rolled back slightly, allowing them to replay their current round of action as if it never occurred, though all involved retain a memory of what originally happened. This spell is only useful on targets that are currently taking their round’s actions; once they’ve finished for the round and another creature has started acting, it is too late to benefit from this spell. If the target is unwilling to roll back their action, they may make a Mental saving throw to resist the spell.

The Earth as Clay

Level 5

The caster molds the soil and stone of the land around them, raising hills, digging trenches, or forming simple structures out of extruded bedrock. Once cast, the mage may psychically mold the terrain within three hundred feet per caster level, shifting it slowly over the course of an hour to form whatever shape they desire out of it, provided the material used can actually maintain such a shape. Simple buildings and walls may be created out of bedrock or available stone, and tunnels and caves may be shaped up to 50 feet down from the caster, while hills may be raised up to 200 feet above the prevailing grade. This spell cannot work within a thousand feet of stone or earth that has been significantly worked by intelligent creatures, though the use of this spell by the same caster doesn’t count as working the earth on further castings.

Evert the Inwardness

Level 4

A single visible target is selected, whereupon whatever contents that target may possess are extracted and placed in the caster’s hands. If used on a cabinet, backpack, pocket, or other such container it can be no larger than an armoire, and the caster can choose whether or not to receive any particular object from inside it, being instantly appraised of its contents when the spell is cast. If used on a creature, it attempts to tear out the subject’s innards; if the subject has equal or fewer hit dice than the caster, it must make a Physical save or die instantly. Whether or not it perishes, it suffers 1d10 damage per caster level, with a Physical save for half.

The Excellent Transpicuous Transformation

Level 1 The mage chooses up to one visible willing target per caster level provided they are within 100 feet, though afterwards the targets can separate freely. The targets and all they wear or carry become perfectly transparent. Missile attacks against invisible foes are largely impossible, and melee attacks against them usually suffer a -4 penalty to hit rolls. The spell lasts for up to an hour per caster level, but it breaks if a subject performs some violent motion, such as running, attacking, or casting a spell. Once broken for one subject, it breaks for all.

•69 Exhalation of Congelating Cold

Level 3

The caster invokes a gust of deepest winter on a point within one hundred feet per level, freezing everything in a radius up to ten feet per caster level. All liquids freeze solid down to a depth of two feet and all living creatures not impervious to arctic cold must suffer 1d6 damage per two levels of the caster, with a Physical save for half damage. Those who fail their Physical saves are numbed by the cold and lose their Move action each round for the next 1d4 rounds. The frozen area warms again at the usual rate for the surrounding environment.

Extirpate Arcana

Level 2

The caster sweeps away all unwanted magical effects and enchantments within a twenty-foot radius, centered on any visible point within one hundred feet per level. If the magical effect was cast by a creature with equal or fewer hit dice or levels, the effect is negated automatically. Otherwise, a contested Int/Magic or Cha/Magic skill roll must be made, with higher-leveled caster gaining a +2 bonus on their roll and the dispeller winning any ties. This spell is not strong enough to permanently suppress standing magical effects, and requires the aforementioned contested roll to have any chance to even temporarily suppressing them. If successful, the effect is negated for 1d6 rounds. If cast on a very large enchantment, only the portion within the spell’s zone of effect is suppressed.

Foresightful Apprehension

Level 3

The caster probes the near currents of fate to discern the likely immediate outcome of an action. The caster describes a particular action they or a comrade intend to presently undertake, whereupon the GM tells them what is most likely to happen in consequence within the first five minutes after the action, as the GM thinks it most probable. This spell cannot be used more than once a week on the same general topic.

The Glass Chimes of the Bamboo Terrace

Level 3

This spell calls forth a floating set of colored glass chimes. The caster alone may strike them, producing sounds of great subtlety and penetration. The caster may allow anyone in the desired range to hear the music, or may make it inaudible to anyone save specific targets within range. Such is the expressiveness of the chimes that those who hear them may instantly understand the caster’s desired message, however abstract. If the caster strikes the chimes violently as a Main Action, they may shatter them, causing a deafening clamor that does 3d6 damage to all non-deaf targets within forty feet except for the caster. The maximum range of the chimes is ten miles per caster level, and they persist until shattered or the scene ends.

The Grinding Geas

Level 4

A single visible living creature is struck with a grim geas, forcing it to comply with a particular command or else suffer a progressively-worse affliction. The caster may lay one single-sentence command on the target that is neither suicidal, indefinitely imprecise, nor likely physically impossible for them to comply with. Thus, the caster could geas a man to kill his son or never seek to harm his lord, but he could not reasonably command a peasant to become king or bind someone to forever after comply with a master’s arbitrary commands. If the target then defies that geas or unreasonably delays its execution, they suffer an agonizing progressive wasting disease that will inevitably kill them in 1d6 weeks, applying -2 to their hit rolls and -1 to skill checks for each week that passes and halving their maximum hit points. If they again begin complying with the geas afterwards or if the curse is lifted, the disease halts and reverses itself at the same rate it progressed. An active target can make a Mental save to resist this spell, but they cannot if they are restrained, unconscious, or otherwise subdued. The curse lasts until dispelled or the caster lifts it.

The Howl of Light

Level 3

A flattened disc of tremendous heat, sound, and shock is triggered at a visible point within fifty feet per caster level, erupting in a twenty-foot radius eight feet in height. Everything within the area suffers 1d8 damage from flame, concussion, and sonic shock per caster level, with an Evasion save for half. If used in a space less than 40 feet in width, the explosion is channeled through adjacent spaces and passages for an additional 1d6 x 10 feet.

Imperceptible Cerebral Divulgence

Level 1

The mage focuses on a visible living creature within 100 feet per caster level. For the rest of the scene, they immediately receive an impression of the target’s surface thoughts and interests, understanding them regardless of any lack of a shared language. The caster may ask one question of the target’s memories per caster level, but doing so risks breaking the spell; the target can make a Mental save before answering each question and the spell ends if the save is successful. These questions can only query memories, not compel any exercise of judgment or extrapolation. This spell is very subtle in its casting, and can be invoked without any visible gestures or audible incantations.

Ineluctable Shackles of Volition

Level 1

The mage targets a visible living creature within 100 feet. The subject must immediately make a Mental saving throw at a penalty equal to the caster’s Magic skill or become enthralled to the caster’s will. Such victims will obey any physical commands issued by the caster, bar-

70• ring ones that seem suicidal or patently meant to result in their murder. The caster cannot order the creature to answer questions or perform acts that require independent judgment, nor to use non-physical abilities or spells, but it will fight for the caster or to defend its own life. Enchanted victims appear torpid and dazed, and will act only to defend themselves or satisfy their needs. The spell lasts until dispelled, or until the caster dies or releases them. Every time this spell is cast, however, all prior subjects get an immediate unmodified Mental saving throw to throw it off. If the creature has more hit dice than the caster, it gets an unmodified saving throw to end the effect the first time each day it’s ordered to do something it finds strongly objectionable.

The Inexorable Imputation

Level 2

The caster makes a single one-sentence statement as part of casting this spell, a process which is subtle enough to appear as no more than ordinary conversation. All who hear the caster speak within a forty-foot radius must make a Mental saving throw or come to immediately believe the statement is true unless it seems physically impossible to them or it is emotionally intolerable to believe. The listeners must be able to understand the caster’s language, and the caster may exempt up to two targets per caster level from this delusion when casting the spell, so as to avoid beguiling their companions. The spell’s effects linger for one hour per caster level, after which the believers will be no more persuaded of the fact than events or their own common sense would allow.

Invocation of the Invincible Citadel

Level 5

The caster hurls up a magical shield that is impervious to almost all hostile powers. Unlike most sorceries, this spell can be cast as an Instant action, and immediately creates a transparent bubble of force around the caster with up to a twenty-foot radius. Entities and forces outside the bubble cannot penetrate it, and the interior remains a warm, breathable, safe environment regardless of the exterior. Those within the bubble can pass out of it, but they cannot then return within. The bubble can be dispelled by appropriate magics, but other enchantments and attacks cannot harm it, nor can magical effects or material objects pass through it from either direction. The spell lasts until the caster departs from the bubble.

The Jade Palanquin of the Faceless God

Level 2

This spell calls forth a floating palanquin of ornately-carved green stone. A slim three-foot-tall statue of a faceless entity stands at the center of the platform, while four slender pillars rise at the corners, the roof and sides being draped by metallic golden cloth. The palanquin itself is twelve feet long and eight wide, with room enough for several people to sit on it. It floats at shoulder-height

above the ground or a liquid surface below. It does not move of its own, but may be pulled along by even one human-sized bearer. The total burden on the palanquin cannot exceed more than two thousand pounds, or it sinks to the ground. It lasts until dusk, dawn, or until the statue of the god is struck or insulted, whichever comes first.

The Long Amber Moment

Level 1

This spell may be cast as an On Turn spell, provided no other has been cast this round, and targets a single willing or helpless creature the caster is touching. The subject is shifted out of the flow of conventional time, freezing and being limned in a pale sepia light. They and all their carried possessions are rendered impervious to all non-magical harm and are frozen in temporal stasis until the spell ends or is dispelled. Enchanted creatures are quite light, counting as only four items of Encumbrance due to their unwieldiness. The spell ends when the mage releases it, or up to a maximum of one day per caster level. If cast on himself, the mage cannot end it before the full duration expires.

Mantle of Disjecting Dissection

Level 2

A visible willing creature within thirty feet is surrounded by a whirl of razor-sharp energy shards. Anyone who attempt to touch the target or make a melee attack against them must make an Evasion saving throw or suffer 1d6 damage plus the caster’s level before resolving their attack. The field of blades is indiscriminate and will affect even allies trying to touch the target. The blades remain as long as the target gives up a Move Action each round in order to avoid disrupting them from within, up to a maximum of one scene.

Obnubilation of the Will

Level 4

This spell can only be applied to a helpless or restrained living victim, who gets a Mental saving throw to resist it and be ever after immune to its effects. On a failure, the target becomes hopelessly subject to the caster via a series of psychic fetters, obediently carrying out their will. The target must be able to understand the caster’s wishes, but will obey them to the best of its intelligence, capability, and initiative. They must make a Mental saving throw to resist performing even suicidal acts. The spell lasts until it is dispelled or the caster releases the target. A caster can have no more creatures under this spell than twice their level or hit dice; if this number is exceeded, the earliest thrall is freed first.

•71 The Ochre Sigil of Juxtaposition

Level 4

This spell is cast in two parts, each of which must be cast separately, though such paired use counts as only a single spell slot. The first casting inscribes a palm-sized seal of ruddy brown radiance on the ground beneath the caster. The second casting will immediately switch all creatures and objects within ten feet of the caster with all creatures and objects within ten feet of the original sigil. The caster may refrain from swapping certain targets as they wish. Only portable objects are swapped; any object too heavy for the caster to lift or secured in place remains unmoved. Unwilling targets get no saving throw if they have four or less hit dice; others can make a Mental save to resist juxtaposition. The maximum range of the sigil is one mile per caster level. An unused sigil dissipates in one day.

Open the High Road

Level 5

The caster carves open a metadimensional gate between their present location and a pre-set target point. Attuning the target point requires an hour of effort, after which this spell will unerringly open a portal to it from a distance of up to one hundred miles per caster level. The portal is large enough to admit a cart and wagon and will remain open for up to one minute per caster level, ending when they pass through it. The gate is one-way, only allowing transit from the caster’s location to the target point. Only living creatures and the vehicles they drive and objects they carry may pass through; atmosphere and other environmental phenomena remain on the far side of the gate. Only one target point may be prepared for this spell at a time.

Phantasmal Mimesis

Level 1

The mage creates a phantasmal seeming at a visible location within 100 feet per caster level. The illusion can occupy a number of 10-foot cubes equal to the caster’s level and can include visual, audible, olfactory, and even tactile elements. If onlookers have no reason to believe the illusion is false, they will unconsciously move and perceive so as to conform to its apparent physical qualities, halting before walls, reeling from imagined blows, and seeing their clothing burnt by phantasmal flames. The illusion will behave and act on its own in accordance with the caster’s intentions for it, but it cannot go more than a hundred feet from where it was conjured. Phantasmal monsters fight as if they were the caster and do no more than 1d8 damage per hit, while phantasmal perils do no more than 1d8 damage to creatures affected by them. Foes brought to zero hit points fall unconscious and wake up ten minutes later with 1 hit point. Creatures convinced the illusion is false can make a Mental saving throw each round to reject its psychic influences, becoming immune to its effects. The illusion lasts until dispelled, the caster drops it, or this spell is cast again.

Prudentially Transient Abnegation of Life

Level 2

This spell may be cast as an Instant action, even if another spell has been cast the same round, and targets either the caster or a willing visible target. The subject must have just that moment been reduced to zero hit points by an injury for the spell to take effect. When it does, the target suffers dramatic and ostentatiously obvious death, with mortal blows cleaving them asunder or flames burning them to ash. They are dead to all mundane or magical examination. Up to two hours later however, at the target’s discretion, the various remains of the target flow back together and restore their body with two hit points per caster level and two additional System Strain points gained. If the target’s remains are intentionally scattered over at least a thousand square feet, however, this restoration cannot come to pass, and they perish instead.

Phobic Storm

Level 3

A wave of numbing terror sweeps over all enemies of the caster within forty feet. They must immediately make a Morale check at a -1 penalty, with failure causing flight. Those who succeed at the check suffer one point of damage per caster level from demoralization and despair, with those brought to zero hit points instead regaining one hit point and fleeing. This spell has no effect on creatures that feel no fear or that have a Morale of 12.

Pierce the Pallid Gate

Level 4

The caster opens a short-ranged spatial rift between two points within one hundred feet per level, provided they can see or have physically occupied both points at some prior time and provided the two points are at least twenty feet apart. The rift forms a gateway that connects the two points, one large enough to drive a cart through, and allows subjects on either side to see through and pass through the gate. Ambient environmental qualities such as liquids or atmospheres will not pass through the portal; only intentionally-directed creatures and objects will transfer. Once the creature has passed through a portal, it cannot pass through again until its next turn. The portal remains open for up to one round per caster level, but can be shut as an Instant action by the caster. Creatures partially in a rift when it closes are spat out on the far side.

Resounding Temporal Echo

Level 2

The caster imbues one visible ally per caster level with a burst of tremendous speed as their localized time begins to flow more rapidly. For 1d4+1 rounds, all subjects get an extra Main Action during their turn. This Main Action may not be used to cast spells or use Arts. This spell severely taxes those who take advantage of it, adding 1 System Strain for each round in which the recipient takes the bonus action.

72• Scorn the Fetters of Earth

Level 3

Touch of Elucidating Intangibility

Level 3

The caster and up to one visible ally per caster level are briefly granted the ability to move in three dimensions, being able to walk and run upward into the air as easily as along flat ground. For the rest of the scene, those affected can move in such a way, remaining suspended in the air after their movement for the round. When the spell ends, either naturally or upon being dispelled, all affected targets float gently to the ground. Optionally, the caster can instead use this spell on one visible flying creature per caster level, which must make a Physical save at a penalty equal to the caster’s Magic skill or be forced to land as they had fallen half the distance they had descended. For the rest of the scene, such creatures remain grounded and unable to fly.

The caster touches a solid non-magical barrier when casting this spell. A 10 foot cube of the barrier then becomes perfectly transparent to the caster, allowing them to see and hear whatever lies on the other side as if it were well-lit and visible. Optionally, the caster may make the barrier insubstantial for one round per caster level, allowing anyone to pass or shoot through it from either side. The barrier always appears solid and opaque from the other side, even while the caster is peering through. If someone is caught within the barrier when it becomes solid again, they’re spat out on the nearest clear side and suffer 2d10 damage. The spell ends when the caster ceases to touch the barrier or immediately after it has been made insubstantial.

Sigil of Aeolian Auctoritas

Vallation of Specified Exclusion

Level 4

A fierce gust of wind may be conjured in a line a hundred feet long and thirty feet wide. All creatures of man-size or smaller must make Physical saves or be bowled over and blown back thirty feet, losing their next round’s Main Action and suffering 1d6 damage. Light wooden constructions or similar structures are flattened by the wind. If used outdoors, the spell can instead control the local weather, transforming the quarter-mile around the caster into any climate found normally at that location at any point during the year. The spell cannot summon a tornado or other extreme weather, but it can call rain and conventional storms sufficient to cause flooding in areas prone to it. The gust of wind is instantaneous, but the weather change lasts for one hour per caster level before reverting to its natural state.

The Torment of Tumefaction

Level 3

A single visible living creature is smote with a hideous curse of torment. Boils erupt all over their body, blood weeps from their orifices, tumors engorge their flesh, and all of their hair falls out almost instantaneously. If they perform any vigorous physical action save movement they incur two points of damage per caster level from the effects of the curse, damage which can be suffered no more than once per round by a target. A creature may spend its Main Action to attempt a Physical save to throw off the curse and return to a glabrous normalcy, but on a failure, the curse remains for the rest of the scene. If the creature has fewer hit dice than the caster has levels, a single failed save means the curse lasts indefinitely, until dispelled or the caster releases them.

Level 3

The caster must form some sort of line as part of this spell’s invocation, either with dropped powders or a trace drawn in the dirt or a more permanent inlay into a floor. In extremis, the caster can make such a line as part of a Move action, tracing it out or scattering powder as they go. The line itself may be no longer than twenty feet per caster level, and may be straight or curved as the caster wishes. Once it has been drawn, this spell may be cast, empowering the line with the ability to ward off a particular target and prevent them or their powers from crossing or being made to cross the line, as if it were a physical wall. The caster can nominate any kind of target to be warded that could be distinguished without need for knowing their thoughts, such as “humans” or “non-humans” or “men wearing the livery of the baron”. The barrier extends a hundred feet upward and ten feet downward and blocks any attack or magical power used by those warded. If the excluded creatures are attacked or targeted by powers from the other side of the barrier, however, the entire field shatters. The barrier lasts until dispelled, the caster drops it, or until one hour has passed per caster level.

Velocitous Imbuement

Level 1

Unlike most spells, this one may be cast as a simple On Turn action, targeting up to one visible willing creature per caster level within one hundred feet. Enchanted creatures become incredibly fleet of foot, doubling their usual ground movement rate and becoming capable of running up walls and across ceilings without falling, provided they end their round upright on a navigable surface. They may also move away from melee opponents without needing to make a Fighting Withdrawal to avoid a parting attack, and may pass through and around armed foes who do not completely physically block their path. The spell lasts for the remainder of the scene and adds 1 System Strain to those who take advantage of it.

•73 The Verdant Vallation

Level 2

A vast wall of thick, heavy vines and other plant life blooms from a visible point within one hundred feet per caster level. The wall is ten feet high and one foot thick and runs for twenty feet in width per caster level. The vine wall can be shaped as the caster wishes within the spell’s area of effect, so long as it’s contiguous, and may be laid horizontally if a bridge or roof is desired. Enemies must inflict five hit points of damage per caster level to cut a man-sized hole in the vines, and they must be using weapons or means that could actually cut through a wooden wall to do any meaningful harm. The vines may be optionally covered in long, vicious thorns to discourage climbing, inflicting 2d6 damage on any creature who tries to climb over it. If the vine wall is summoned from earth that could plausibly support plant life, it remains until dispelled or until it dies naturally. If called from bare stone or other infertile soils, it withers away to dust at the end of the scene.

Visitation of the Clement Clime

Level 2

The caster and up to three visible allies per caster level are shielded from the excesses of hostile elemental energies, becoming immune to mundane extremes of heat and cold and natural acids or electrical discharges. Against magical harm of this nature, they automatically take only half the damage they normally would, or none if they make a successful Physical saving throw. This spell lasts for one hour per caster level.

Wardpact Invocation

Level 1

This spell may be cast in two different forms. If it targets a creature within 200 feet, the target becomes partially immune to physical weapons; any weapon hit on them requires the attacker make a successful Physical save or the hit is negated. This effect lasts for one round per two caster levels, rounded up, and can’t target the caster. If it targets a visible weapon within two hundred feet, that weapon is rendered entirely harmless and unable to inflict damage for the rest of the scene, with no saving throw. The spell may only affect a given target or weapon once per scene and natural body weapons aren’t affected.

The Wind of the Final Repose

Level 1

The mage designates a visible point within two hundred feet. A silent, invisible burst of soporific influence erupts from that point, targeting all living creatures within a twenty-foot radius. All such targets with 4 or fewer hit dice within that area fall unconscious instantly, and can be roused only by damage or by a Main Action used to kick them awake. If not roused, they revive at the end of the scene. Entities that do not sleep are immune to this spell.

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High Mages A High Mage is the product more of a philosophical tendency than a specific magical tradition. There are countless magical orders that embrace the principles of this path, whether they are the austere master-and-pupil instructors of the Eightfold Lineage, the formal magical schools of the Sodality of Wisdom, the unstructured teachings of hermit-sorcerers to their apprentices, or a host of other organizations named and unnamed across Latter Earth. High Mages are united not by an organization, but by the belief that true power and enlightenment lies in the High Magic of the ancients, and that a wizard of sense will direct their efforts towards unearthing, understanding, and mastering these lost arts. New Magic is a waste of valuable time and effort, a mere fumbling with ill-understood tricks when a mage ought to be spending their labors in better-comprehending the deeper principles behind the magic of old. High Mages are skilled at the production of magical Workings and the development of arcane devices and standing enchantments, but they rarely ever attempt to devise New Magic. Instead, they work to unearth lost spells of High Magic and expand their own grimoires with more of these potent sorceries. To this end they have developed numerous arts that help them control and focus the powers of High Magic. Experienced High Mages can mold and adjust their spells in ways that other wizards cannot hope to achieve, and they are exceptionally skilled at resisting, undoing, and discerning the magics of others. Because of this aptitude it is common for High Mages to be credited as the “orthodox” magical practitioners of many nations, with their way of doing things taken as the generally correct way for a wizard to conduct their business. Some High Mage organizations push this even further, using their influence to outlaw or suppress rival traditions in their pursuit of arcane lore.

All High Mages gain Magic as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if was already level-0. Every High Mage is well-educated in the principles of magic as understood by the sorcerers of Latter Earth. High Mages can prepare and cast High Magic spells, and have a number of arts dedicated to improving their use of these incantations. As usual for spellcasters, they cannot wear bulky clothing or armor while casting or using arts, nor use shields. Mages who have trained to overcome these limits with the Armored Magic Focus have more latitude. High Mages conduct extensive experimentation and study as part of their daily activities. This relentless focus helps them master High Magic spells without needing the outside help of tutors and discovered texts. Each time they advance a level, they may pick two High Magic spells from the list in this book to add to their repertoire. These spells must be of a level they can cast. High Mages also gain arts specific to their tradition. At first level, a full High Mage picks two arts and a partial picks one. As they gain levels and experience, they’ll learn additional arts from the adjacent list. Once picked, an art cannot be changed.

Full High Mage

Partial High Mage

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

High Mage PCs may choose to have been taught by a lone practitioner of the tradition, or they may decide to be part of some larger organization of mages that exists in the campaign world, either as a newly-released apprentice or a less-successful student who seeks a new path. If the GM doesn’t have any particular magical lineages in mind for their campaign setting, the player should feel free to make up their own and credit their PC as a newly-graduated initiate in the occult arts. Provided the GM thinks the player’s creation is reasonable and appropriate for the setting, it can be added in as another element to the campaign.

High Mage Benefits

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Any Two

Any One

Any One Any One Any One Any One

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

Any One

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Arts of the High Mages

High Mage Effort is calculated as usual, with each PC’s maximum being equal to one plus their Magic skill level plus the better of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Partial High Mages have a score one point lower than this, albeit not less than one.

Counter Magic: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action when a visible enemy mage casts a spell. Both of you make opposed Int/Magic or Cha/Magic skill checks; if you win, their spell fizzles and is wasted. This art only works on actual spellcasters and not creatures that merely activate magical powers. You can use this art no more than once per round. Empowered Sorcery: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to re-roll any variable die roll associated with a spell’s effects, such as a damage roll; take the roll you prefer. Hang Sorcery: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action when casting a spell. The spell does not go off, but remains “hung” and waiting to be triggered as an On Turn action, with details of targeting and effect determined at that time. Damage does not disrupt a hung spell, but no additional spells can be cast until the hung spell is released or allowed to dissipate. Inexorable Effect: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to force an enemy to re-roll a successful saving throw and take the worse result. You may use this art only once per scene. Iron Resolution: Commit Effort for the day when injured or disturbed in combat; you may make a Physical saving throw to resist spell disruption and ignore the damage for purposes of spellcasting. Preparatory Countermagic: Commit Effort for the scene when you are affected by a spell you have prepared, including when you are standing in the area of effect of one of your own damaging spells. You are unaffected by the spell’s direct effects. Psychic Conversion: Once per day as an On Turn action, expend one spell-casting slot to remove one point of accrued System Strain and regain two lost hit points per character level. Restrained Casting: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action when casting a High Magic spell. You may do so in perfect silence and without need for somatic gestures, though damage will still disrupt the casting. Retain Sorcery: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action after casting a spell; it does not count against your casting limits for the day. You can use this art no more than once per day, and the stress of using it prevents you from casting another spell before the end of your next turn. Sense Magic: Commit Effort as an Instant action; while it remains committed, you can visually perceive magical energy and get a one-sentence description of the effect of any standing magics or magical items you inspect. The ambient magical energies in most

areas allow you to see clearly even in conditions of perfect darkness. Suppress Magic: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action and target a visible or known magical effect within one hundred feet. The effect is suppressed as if by the Extirpate Arcana spell for 1d6 rounds plus the caster’s character level. Spells cast by more powerful casters may not be successfully suppressed, as noted in the spell description. The caster can attempt to suppress an effect only once. Swift Casting: Once per scene, you may Commit Effort for the day to turn a spell that normally requires a Main Action to cast into an On Turn action. You can cast no other spell this round. Ward Allies: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to omit up to six allies from the effects of an area-effect spell you cast, allowing them to avoid any damage or other negative effect that would be directly produced by the spell. This does not protect them from indirect consequences, however, such as destroying the building they are standing in.

High Mages in Other Worlds The High Mage is a default baseline magic-user in most campaign settings, easily reflavored as the most traditional sort of wizard in a world. While they lack the specialized talents of more conceptually-focused wizards, they have arts that help them excel at using conventional magic.

76•

Elementalists The long eons of the Legacy have ravaged the natural laws of Latter Earth. Simple properties such as electrical conductivity, steam pressure, chemical reactions, and other qualities now no longer behave as they once did and react in unpredictable and unreliable ways. Sages have demonstrated how some physical reactions that should be necessary for basic human life no longer function outside of living organisms, suggesting that entire swaths of fundamental reality are being supported as special-case exceptions by the power of the Legacy. The intellectual ancestors of the Elementalists attempted to deal with this chaos by returning to the basics; not the reactions of combustion or the elemental chemicals, but the classical elements of earth, fire, wind, and water. These substances were thought to be the key to the unfathomable changes of the Legacy, as they were simple enough to avoid the decay of complex machines and devices, yet complex enough to behave in a logical way rather than as the chaotic matter of subtler chemical compounds. Elementalists thus seek to use New Magic to control these elements, adapting fragments of High Magic spells and dimly-understood aspects of the Legacy to control their creation and manifestation. By using the classical elements as subjects for their magic, the Elementalists believe that they can eventually understand the logic of the Legacy, and perhaps even learn to control it, enforcing a new, stable implementation of natural law. Of course, not all Elementalists are fired by this high zeal. Many simply find the practical uses of flame, stone, water, and air to be beneficial for their own ends. The fiery rebuke of a master Elementalist can scourge whole towns, and even less talented mages can work wonders in helping others deal with physical obstacles.

All Elementalists gain Magic as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if was already level-0. A firm grounding in the arcane science of Latter Earth is necessary to master their particular arts. Elementalists can prepare and cast High Magic spells in addition to the New Magic spells specific to Elementalists. Some of the latter are given on the following page, but others doubtless exist. As usual for spellcasters, Elementalists can’t cast spells or use arts while armored or holding a shield. Elementalists are not as talented at general High Magic research as High Mages are, but their studies still bear fruit in time. Each time they advance a level, they can pick a new High Magic spell or a New Magic Elementalist spell to add to their spellbook. They must be able to cast the spell to add it to their selection. Elementalists gain the Elemental Resilience and Elemental Sparks arts as part of their basic training, and may pick one additional art from the adjacent list. Further arts are learned as they advance in character level, as given in the tables below. Once chosen, an art cannot be changed.

Full Elementalist

Partial Elementalist

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

Some Elementalists learn at the feet of wizened masters, while others belong to formal schools that teach the art for the benefit of their patrons. A PC might be one such student, or some scientist-sage who has developed their arts in pursuit of some deeper understanding of the Legacy and its impact on physical laws. Outside of their formal organizations, Elementalists often find much to discuss in their occult studies, though differences of opinion regarding the “correct” operation of unaltered reality can sometimes cause bloody disputes.

Elementalist Benefits

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Elemental Resilience, Elemental Sparks, and Any One

Any One

Any One Any One Any One

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

Elemental Resilience, Elemental Sparks, and Any One Any One

Any One

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Arts of the Elementalists

Elementalist Effort is calculated as usual, with each PC’s maximum being equal to one plus their Magic skill level plus the better of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Partial Elementalists have a score one point lower than this, albeit not less than one. All Elementalists learn the Elemental Resilience and Elemental Sparks arts as part of their basic training. Other Arts may be chosen normally afterwards. Elemental Resilience: You are unharmed by mundane extremes of cold or by heat less than that of a furnace. You suffer only half damage from magical or extremely intense flame or frost attacks. Elemental Sparks: You can conjure petty amounts of flame, water, ice, stone, or wind, sufficient to do small tricks, chill drinks, light candles, or do other minor things. Conjured substances last no longer than a scene, and conjured water cannot lastingly quench thirst. This art cannot actually be useful in solving a problem or overcoming a challenge more than once per game session.

Other Elementalist Arts

Beckoned Deluge: Commit Effort for the scene as a Main Action to conjure a considerable amount of water at a visible point within fifty feet per caster level. This water is sufficient to drench one 10-foot cube of matter per character level, making mundane bowstrings useless, extinguishing flames, and inflicting 1d6 damage per caster level on fiery supernatural creatures. This water persists indefinitely after its conjuration and is sufficient to hydrate ten people per caster level. Earthsight: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. For the rest of the scene, you can see the outlines of solid objects even in perfect darkness, and can peer through a number of feet of earth or stone equal to your character level. Elemental Blast: Commit Effort for the scene as a Main Action to hurl a blast of some elemental force at a visible target within fifty feet per character level. The attack is made normally with Magic as the relevant combat skill, albeit with bonus to hit equal to your character level. On a hit, the attack does 1d6 damage plus your character level. The blast may have collateral effects on inanimate objects in the case of hurled fire or a torrent of pressurized water, but any conjured matter vanishes at the end of the round. Flamesight: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. While the Effort remains Committed, you can see thermal gradients sufficient to distinguish surfaces and living creatures, even in perfect darkness. Optionally, you may cause your own eyes to cast a light sufficient to illuminate your surroundings clearly out to a range of 30 feet.

Pavis of Elements: Commit Effort as an On Turn action to conjure an elemental barrier around yourself. The barrier improves your Armor Class by +4 and remains as long as the Effort remains Committed. This bonus stacks with other effects, but cannot increase AC above 18, regardless of the combinations. Petrifying Stare: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and target a visible creature. The creature must make a Physical save or become partially petrified, losing its Move action for a number of rounds equal to half your caster level, rounded up. Flying creatures are forced to land by this art and swimming creatures will inevitably sink to the bottom. Rune of Destruction: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and target an adjacent solid surface. A glowing rune the size of a handprint forms on the surface and persists for one hour per caster level. Any creature who gets within two feet of the rune will trigger it, causing it to explode in a five-foot radius with an elemental force of your choice and suffering 2d6 damage plus your caster level. Creatures already within five feet of the rune when it is laid will not trigger it until they re-enter the area, nor will the caster trigger their own runes. Runes cannot overlap their area of effect. Steps of Air: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action and target a visible ally; for one round per caster level, the target can fly at their usual movement rate. If the art ends while they are still in the air, they descend harmlessly to the ground. This art may also be used as an Instant action to negate falling damage for any single target. Stunning Shock: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and target a visible creature within fifty feet per caster level. The target creature must be wearing or holding at least a pound worth of conductive metal or be considerably dampened. An electrical bolt leaps from the caster to stun the target, causing them to lose their next Main Action. A Physical saving throw can mitigate the effect, causing the target to lose their Move action instead of their Main. A creature can be targeted only once per scene by this. Thermal Shield: Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action to immediately negate one instance of fire or frost damage to any single visible ally or object. This defense lasts only long enough to nullify the single instance of damage.

Elementalists in Other Worlds The wizard who specializes in a particular variety of elemental magic is a familiar fantasy trope. If you want to create such a specialist in a different campaign setting, you can do so by giving the Elementalist a few more art and spell options specifically flavored for that element and forbidding them from taking arts or spells related to other elements.

78•

Elementalist New Magic As with other specialist traditions, the Elementalists have been able to devise a number of New Magic spells in line with their particular specialties. Only Elementalists may learn or cast these sorceries.

Aqueous Harmony

Level 1

The elementalist and up to a dozen allies are charmed with powers of water-breathing, a tolerance for the pressure and cold of the deeps, and the ability to see through water as if it were well-lit air. Ensorceled beings may move freely while in the water at their usual movement rate and their attacks and projectile weapons are not hindered by the medium, nor are their possessions soaked or damaged. The spell lasts for one hour per caster level, but will not naturally end so long as a subject is still at least partially submerged. Only the caster or magical dispelling can stop it under those circumstances.

Flame Scrying

Level 1

The elementalist becomes aware of the approximate locations of all open flames within thirty feet per caster level. They may choose one of those flames as a focus for the scrying, allowing them to see and hear everything around the flame as if they were present. The spell’s duration lasts for as long as the elementalist remains motionlessly focused on it; during this duration, they may switch their focus between the various flames in range as they wish.

Elemental Favor

Level 1

The elementalist makes a direct appeal to a non-magical mass of earth, stone, water, flame, or air no larger than a ten-foot cube. At the end of the round, the mass will move or reshape itself within that space as the elementalist requests, maintaining its new form until the end of the scene. If its new shape is one that is stable without magical help, it can be told to remain in it after the spell is finished.

Elemental Spy

Level 1

The elementalist enchants a stone, ounce of liquid, flame no smaller than a candleflame, or a particular plume of smoke or incense. For one day per level, so long as the charmed object is not destroyed, dispersed, or consumed, they can as a Main Action see and listen to anything around the object as if they were standing there.

Boreal Wings

Level 2

The elementalist chooses a visible ally within one hundred feet; the target becomes capable of swift and easy aerial travel, flying at twice their usual movement rate. If

the spell ends or is dispelled while aloft, the target descends gently to the earth. This spell lasts for one scene, though casters of fifth level or more can make it last an hour, and those of eighth level or more can make it last until dawn or dusk, whichever comes next.

The Burrower Below

Level 2

A passage is carved through natural stone or earth, forming a tunnel up to twenty feet long per caster level and up to ten feet wide and tall. The caster can cause the earth to compress and pack itself so as to stabilize the tunnel even in very sandy or burdened soil, or they can allow it to collapse naturally if burdened by some large structure or unstable surroundings. This spell can function against worked stone, but the length of the tunnel is much shorter, being only two feet per level. Magical stone or earth cannot be altered by this spell. The caster has basic control over the direction and interior features of the tunnel, and can form stairs or other simple structures within it.

Flame Without End

Level 2

A sample of flame no larger than the caster is made effectively eternal. It no longer consumes the object it burns, though it can still be used to burn or heat other things, and it resists all extinguishing save being buried or wholly immersed in water. The elementalist can temporarily extinguish it at will. A number of such flames can be created equal to the elementalist’s level; beyond that, special ingredients and fuels are needed that cost 500 silver pieces per flame. If used as a weapon, it adds +2 damage to a successful hit, albeit nothing to Shock. The flame lasts until dispelled, extinguished, or the elementalist releases it.

Pact of Stone and Sea

Level 2

The elementalist chooses earth, water, fire, or wind when casting this spell and selects a visible target to be affected. For the rest of the scene, the target is immune to injury caused by mundane manifestations of that substance; stone weapons don’t harm them, water doesn’t drown them, fire doesn’t burn them, and wind doesn’t topple them. This affects secondary effects of the material as well; a fire-pacted mage couldn’t be boiled in a pot, and an earth-pacted one won’t be suffocated if buried alive.

Elemental Vallation

Level 3

A wall of a chosen churning elemental force can be called up by the elementalist. The barrier is ten feet long per character level, with a height of ten feet and a thickness of one foot. The barrier must rest on solid ground but may be bent or shaped as desired so long as no part of it

•79 is more than two hundred feet from the caster. Earthen walls are impervious to anything but mining-appropriate tools or rock-shattering strength, taking 20 HP of damage to knock a man-sized hole in them. Fire walls inflict 3d6 damage plus the elementalist’s level on anyone who passes through them. Water walls spin and hurl creatures of ox-size or less who pass through them, ejecting them at a random point on the far side of the wall and doing 2d6 damage from the buffeting. Air walls are invisible, inaudible, and twenty feet in height; those who cross them suffer 1d6 plus the elementalist’s level in electrical damage. The walls vanish at the end of the scene.

Like the Stones

Level 3

The elementalist charges their physical shape with the qualities of a chosen element for the rest of the scene. In all cases, they need not breathe and become immune to poisons and diseases not already present in them. If stone, they automatically stabilize at zero hit points and ignore the first three points of damage from any source of harm. If water, they can pass through any aperture a mouse could get through. If air, they can fly at their usual movement rate and gain a +4 Armor Class bonus against ranged attacks. If fire, they inflict 1d6 damage to all creatures in melee range at the start of their turn each round and become immune to heat damage.

Wind Walking

Level 3

A visible target creature and their possesions are briefly transformed into a misty, insubstantial cloud. Only sources of harm that could conceivably disrupt a cloud of mist can harm them, and until the spell’s end they may pass freely into any area that a vapor could reach. They may move freely in all three dimensions at their normal movment rate, though they cannot physically manipulate objects. The spell lasts until the end of the scene or until the target or the caster choose to end it.

Calcifying Scourge

Level 4

A visible target within one hundred feet must make a Physical saving throw or be turned to stone. Any size of living creature may be so transmuted, though inanimate objects larger than a cart cannot. Objects being held or worn by someone else get a Physical saving throw made by their user. The calcification remains until dispelled or the caster undoes the magic, but if the object or creature is damaged in the meanwhile, it may end up being harmed or killed on its restoration. If the Physical saving throw is made successfully by a creature, the target is temporarily slowed, losing its Move action for the next 1d6 rounds.

Elemental Guardian

Level 4

The elementalist imbues a human-sized mass of earth, water, fire, or air with a crude awareness and an eagerness to defend them. Whatever the substance used, it now has 4 HD, AC 15, a Move of 40’/action, a +1 skill bonus, saves of 13+, Morale of 12, and a melee attack of +6/1d10 with no Shock. If called from earth, it has 6 hit dice, albeit its other stats don’t change. If called from fire, it does 5/- Shock damage. If summoned from water, it has an AC of 18, and if called from air, it can fly at its usual movement rate. It has a human degree of intelligence, can communicate with others and manipulate objects, and serves with suicidal devotion. Only one elemental guardian can be summoned at any one time, and if destroyed, a new one cannot be called that same scene. A guardian persists until destroyed or until the dawn after they have been summoned.

Fury of the Elements

Level 5

A combination of molten rock, searing pyroclastic winds, and superheated steam erupts forth to ravage a chosen target point within two hundred feet per caster level. The cataclysmic ruin smites everything within thirty feet of the target point for 10d10 damage, destroying all conventional structures. The zone of devastation then moves 60 feet in a random direction at the start of the next round, blasting everything in its path. The zone will continue to wander in this fashion for 1d6 rounds in total before dying out. The molten remnants of the spell remain after this duration, a hazard for whomever enters the area for the rest of the day.

Tremors of the Depths

Level 5

The elementalist calls up a deep, rolling tremor from within the earth, centering it on a visible point and affecting all structures in a radius of up to five hundred feet. This spell’s effects are slow, requiring five minutes to fully manifest, but they can successfully topple or destroy any structures, tunnels, or caves within the affected area unless such structures are magically reinforced. The effects are negated if the spell is dispelled before it fully manifests.

80•

Healers Every culture has need of physicians and menders, and it is no surprise that many of them would turn to magic for this need. Healers are those adepts of curative sorcery who focus on mending wounds, purging diseases, and preserving the lives of living creatures. They are very rarely the only medical specialists in their native society, but their remarkable powers are in high demand wherever they are found. Healers do not practice High Magic or other forms of conventional spellcasting. Instead, their training revolves around specific techniques for mending damaged living tissue and the neutralization of diseases and toxins. Conventional medical treatments that revolve around the germ theory of disease and ancient commonplaces of physiology aren’t always reliable or valid in the lands of Latter Earth, and so magical techniques are sometimes necessary to achieve what antibiotics or surgical intervention could accomplish in a former age. Not every aspiring physician is cut out to be a Healer. Channeling the magical energies requires the right traits, and those without these native gifts can’t hope to be trained successfully. Those with the right magical potential can look forward to a position of respect and reward from most societies. The actual training of a Healer is often left to a master-apprentice relationship, with likely candidates serving out a period of instruction and field practice before being freed to make their own way. Richer or better-organized societies might establish special schools for Healer candidates, often patronized by the very nobility they will later be expected to serve. Religious orders are another major source of Healers, as many monasteries and seminaries are ideally positioned to identify compatible candidates early in their careers. In some nations, the very role of a Healer is considered a fundamentally religious one, with the powers they wield being special gifts of their patron deity. Such Healers are often called upon to act as priests as well. Partial Healer Level

Arts Gained

Healing Touch and Any One

Any One

3 4

Any One

7 8

Any One

9 10

Any One

HEALERILLO H: 4.85 W: 2.93

Healer Benefits

The Healer class exists only as a partial class, to be taken by an Adventurer along with another partial class. Thus, a Partial Warrior/Partial Healer might be a grizzled combat medic, a Partial Expert/Partial Healer might be an erudite physician gifted in both mundane and magical healing methods, and a Partial Necromancer/Partial Healer might be an adept of life and death. All Healers gain Heal as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if they already have it at level-0. A basic grounding in mundane healing techniques is necessary in order to learn their more sophisticated magical arts. Healers do not learn how to cast spells. Instead, they focus on their special arcane healing arts. Wielding these arts usually requires nothing more than touching the target and concentrating on the desired effect, and the process is direct and simple enough to perform even when burdened by armor or carrying a shield. These arts are usually quite subtle, and don’t produce visible or audible indications of their use. At first level, a Healer gains the Healing Touch art and can pick one more of their choice. As they advance in levels afterwards, they can learn new arts. Once chosen, an art is permanent and cannot be exchanged.

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Arts of the Healers

Healer Effort is calculated with Heal rather than Magic, with each PC’s maximum being equal to their Heal skill level plus the better of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers, to a minimum of one point. All Healers are trained in the Healing Touch art, but may develop other techniques with time. Healing Touch: Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action; for the rest of the scene, you may heal 2d6 damage plus your Heal skill to a touched ally as a Main Action. This healing adds 1 System Strain to the target each time it is applied.

Other Healer Arts

Empowered Healer: Your Healing Touch becomes more powerful, adding your level to any healing. Facile Healer: Your Healing Touch ability is improved;, and you no longer need to Commit Effort to activate it. Far Healer: Your Healing Touch ability is improved, and may be used on a visible target within ten feet per character level. Final Repose: Target a visible living creature and Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action. For the rest of the scene, they take a Physical saving throw penalty equal to your Heal skill. If they are reduced to zero hit points before the end of the scene, they die with no chance for stabilization or revival. Healer’s Eye: Commit Effort as an On Turn action; while the Effort remains committed, you can use a Main Action to visually detect diseases and poisons, diagnose creatures flawlessly, perceive their physiology, and learn their current hit point totals. As a side effect, you can detect living creatures by sight regardless of available light or obscuring mists. Limb Restoration: Only expert healers can master this art, which cannot be learned earlier than 8th level. You must Commit all remaining Effort for the day, a minimum of one point, to regenerate a missing limb or organ for a target you are touching, or efface some dramatic scar or other physical debility. The target’s System Strain is automatically maximized. Purge Ailment: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action. An ally you are touching is cured of one poison or disease. Creatures killed by poison can be revived by this art if it is used within one minute of death. Magical poisons and diseases may require a Wis/ Heal or Cha/Heal skill check against a difficulty of 8 or more. At seventh level, you need only Commit Effort for the scene to use this ability. Refined Restoration: You and up to a dozen allies you tend before they sleep will all lose 2 System Strain from a good night’s rest instead of 1. Revive the Fallen: Only expert healers are capable of mastering this art, which cannot be learned earlier than 8th level. Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action to revive a recently-slain living creature that

you are touching. This ability must be used on a target within one minute per caster level of their death, and will not work on a corpse that has been dismembered, incinerated, or otherwise disjected. The target’s System Strain is automatically maximized and they’ll be unconscious for twenty-four hours after their restoration before awakening with 1 hit point. Swift Healer: Your Healing Touch ability is improved, and may be used as an On Turn action once per day per character level, though not more than once per round on any given target. The Healer’s Knife: Your Healing Touch ability is altered, and may be used to inflict damage to a living target instead of healing it. The damage done is equivalent to the healing that would normally be done, albeit you receive 1 System Strain instead of the target. Using this power in melee requires a successful Punch attack with a hit bonus equal to your Heal skill, with the damage added to any done by the blow, or simply touching an unwary target. Ranged use with Far Healer is impossible with this art. Tireless Vigor: Commit Effort; while it remains Committed your need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep does not grow further. You may exert yourself tirelessly and regenerate 1 lost hit point per hour. Vital Furnace: Your tremendous life energy can be used to instantly regenerate any non-mortal wound you have received. Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to negate the damage from an injury you just received that did not reduce you to zero hit points. Aside from this ability, you automatically stabilize if reduced to zero hit points and awaken ten minutes later with 1 hit point. This ability cannot undo damage you intentionally inflict on yourself via some power or magical exchange.

Healers in Other Worlds The classic “cleric” or “priest” concept could be replicated by using Healer in conjunction with Warrior for the armored fighting-cleric or a different flavor of Mage for the robed spellcasting priest. The former might pine for some of the wider variety of spells often given to such clerics in other role-playing games, but a GM might be best off just adding the most characteristic of those powers or deity-specific gifts as optional arts the PC can pick. However it’s decided, a GM should be careful not to make magical healing the only source of quick hit point recovery in their campaign unless they want every party to require a Healer or the equivalent. The first aid rules on page XX should allow a party without a Healer to still recover after a fight, even if it’s less efficient than a magical healer and not practical for use mid-combat.

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Necromancers The Legacy has changed much in the eons that have passed since humanity first obtained its power, but death remains the common fate of all. Whether king or peasant, all must find the grave in time. Necromancers are those sorcerers who are not satisfied with this finality. Through study of ancient records and the examination of the countless fragments of healing magic and restorative arcana that still persist in the Latter Earth, they have concluded that at one point in the past, humanity was immortal. The Legacy once preserved all the children of Earth from their final dissolution, and only through the malice of the Outsiders and some unfathomable historical change was this blessed state ever undone. Necromancers are determined to restore this lost immortality. Some seek it only for their own selfish purposes, while others wish to make war on Death itself and drive it out of the world once more. The ancient powers that once granted every human a perpetual life of vigor, health, and happiness must be renewed once more, and all the corruptions and bars that banished that state must be undone. The path to this immortality is regrettably laden with corpses. Only by studying death itself and examining the intricate relationship between the Legacy and unliving flesh can the deeper secrets of life be unlocked. Some zealous Necromancers are inclined to unlist unwilling “volunteers” for this work, while others content themselves with the naturally dead and the remains of those who cannot object. Skilled Necromancers are able to imbue corpses with a semblance of life, evoking ancient Legacy protocols to call back shadows of intellect or echoes of former identity. Actual full restoration of the long-dead is considered the hallmark of true arch-mastery of this tradition, but only a Legate-Necromancer is ever apt to have that kind of power.

All Necromaners gain Magic as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if was already level-0. The arts of life and death require a proper education in the occult to practice correctly. Necromancers can prepare and cast High Magic spells in addition to the New Magic spells specific to Necromancers. Some of the latter are given on the following page, but others doubtless exist. As usual for spellcasters, Necromancers can’t cast spells or use arts while armored or holding a shield. Necromancers are not as talented at general High Magic research as High Mages are, but their studies still bear fruit in time. Each time they advance a level, they can pick a new High Magic spell or a New Magic Necromancer spell to add to their spellbook. They must be able to cast the spell to add it to their selection. Necromancers can pick an art specific to their tradition from the adjacent list. Further arts are learned as they advance in character level, as given in the tables below. Once chosen, an art cannot be changed.

Full Necromancers

Partial Necromancers

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

Unsurprisingly, Necromancers have a checkered reputation among people. Their life-prolonging research is eagerly sought by the rich and powerful, but also often outlawed on the basis of their supposed depredations and the worries of anxious heirs. Some more broad-minded or amoral polities allow Necromancers to operate openly, but usually a considerable amount of discretion is necessary. A Necromancer PC was likely taught in secret by a mentor who either posed as a High Mage or kept his powers entirely hidden. Some nations do have actual open orders and schools of necromancy, however, though such organizations tend to be havens for the worst impulses of the tradition, where the most ruthless and savage of sorcerers rise highest in the hierarchy.

Necromancer Benefits

Level

Max Level

Spells Cast

Any One

Any One Any One Any One Any One

Spells Prepared Arts Gained

Any One Any One

Any One

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Arts of the Necromancers

Necromancer Effort is calculated as usual, with each PC’s maximum being equal to one plus their Magic skill level plus the better of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Partial Necromancers have a score one point lower than this, albeit not less than one.

Bonetalker: You can see and communicate with any undead creature, regardless of a shared language or the creature’s natural state of invisibility. By Committing Effort for the scene you can sense the surface thoughts of any visible undead, including an impression of any commands or behavior it has been ordered to carry out. Unintelligent undead will not attack you or your companions unless specifically compelled to do so by a command or a master. Even intelligent undead will generally pause at least for an initial parley before attacking. Cold Flesh: You no longer require sleep and feel pain only in an abstract sense. You can suffer no more than 1 point of damage from any given instance of Shock and you have a natural Armor Class equal to 13 plus half your level, rounded down. Consume Life Energy: By making a Punch attack or using a melee weapon you have spent at least an hour properly consecrating, you can absorb a portion of the damage you inflict on others as healing to yourself. For each successful attack you make with such implements, you heal 1d6 damage, up to a maximum of the damage done by the attack You cannot drain more life than the target has remaining hit points. False Death: Commit Effort as an Instant action; while it remains Committed you appear dead to all mundane examination. You cannot move while “dead”, but can perceive your surroundings normally and do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or perform other bodily functions. Poisons and diseases do not progress in you while you are “dead”. You can maintain this state of death for up to one day per level before needing at least an hour to recover. Gravesight: Commit Effort as an On Turn action; while it remains Committed, you can see the life energies of living creatures around you as various glowing patterns, regardless of the mundane illumination available. You can perceive sicknesses, poisons, and other physical qualities on sight. As a side effect of this ability, you can see normally even in perfect blackness. Keeper of the Gate: At your discretion, creatures within twenty feet of you per character level that are Mortally Wounded will die instantly and cannot be revived by magic or medicine. Conversely, you can Commit Effort for the day to automatically stabilize them, increasing their System Strain by 1 point. This benefit cannot aid creatures that have been dismembered, shredded, or otherwise suffered unsurvivable injuries.

Life Bridge: You can transfer life force between willing or helpless participants. Commit Effort for the day; for the rest of the scene, you can shift hit points from one willing or helpless living creature to another as a Main Action, provided you are touching both. You can shift enough hit points to kill a donor, but you can’t give more to the recipient than would refresh their maximum allowed hit points. Master of Bones: Undead must roll twice to save versus your abilities or spells and take the worse roll. You may Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action to negate any single attack, magical power or spell an undead uses against you. Undead with more than twice as many hit dice as you have levels cannot be foiled this way. Red Harvest: You are empowered by death. As an Instant action, whenever a creature with at least one hit die perishes within fifty feet of you, Commit Effort for the day to gain hit points equal to twice their hit dice. This bonus can increase your hit points above their normal maximum, but any excess is lost at the end of the scene. Unaging: You no longer naturally age, and will remain perfectly hale and vigorous up to your species’ natural maximum age plus 20% per character level, after which you will collapse into dust and decay. Immortality beyond this point is possible, but generally requires consistent supplies of life energy, occult materials, or other difficult-to-acquire or morally questionable materials. You also become immune to poisons and diseases. Uncanny Ichor: Your blood is not like the blood of normal beings. Predators find it nauseating and will not bite you unless provoked. Unintelligent predators will not consider you edible. This ichor is reluctant to leave your body, and cutting or stabbing injuries can Mortally Wound you but cannot result in your death unless you are dismembered by your assailants or suffer catastrophic physical damage. Unliving Persistence: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action to automatically stabilize when Mortally Wounded. You may use this ability to benefit others if you are able to touch them. This ability cannot save a subject that has experienceddismemberment, incineration, or other extremely final deaths.

Necromancers in Other Worlds Death wizards are a mainstay of fantasy literature, and the Necromancer can work well for adding such flavor to different campaign worlds. They don’t necessarily need to be naturally malevolent casters, however; it’s quite possible to build a more morally-neutral broker of life energy or undead-hunter with this class. You can drop the class in whenever you need some mechanics to represent such mages.

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Necromancer New Magic As with other specialist traditions, the Necromancers have been able to devise a number of New Magic spells in line with their particular specialties. Only Necromancers may learn or cast these sorceries.

and physically real until dispelled or the necromancer drops the effect. A necromancer can maintain only one such disguise per level, and it does not work on sentient unwilling targets.

Command the Dead

Augment Mortal Vitality

Level 1

The necromancer exerts their will over a number of hit dice worth of undead equal to twice their character level. These undead must be visible and within one hundred feet of the caster. Undead get a Mental saving throw to resist this binding, at a penalty equal to the caster’s Magic skill. Creatures only partially-bewitched by the spell due to their excess hit dice merely stand dazed for a round. Those fully within the hit die cap who are affected become suicidally loyal to the necromancer until they are released by the caster. Regardless of how often the caster uses this spell, they may have no more than twice their level worth of hit dice bound at any one time, with the oldest-enchanted being first released.

Query the Skull

Level 1

This spell requires a corpse with largely-intact organs of communication. The corpse cannot have been dead for more than one day per caster level. Once sorceled, the corpse will answer up to one question per caster level, with the caster understanding the answers regardless of the creature’s natural language. Corpses are laconic, and generally answer in no more than one or two sentences; their replies will be truthful, but tend to be literal and they have no power to hypothesize or make judgments. This spell may not be used twice on the same corpse.

Smite the Dead

Level 1

The necromancer conjures a blast of dispelling force at a point within one hundred feet per caster level, affecting an area up to 20 feet in radius. All hostile undead within that area immediately suffer 1d10 damage per caster level. Undead with hit dice equal or less than the caster’s level must make a Physical save or be destroyed outright. The necromancer may Commit Effort for the day immediately before casting this spell; if so, its casting does not count against the Necromancer’s available spell slots for the day.

Terrible Liveliness

Level 1

A necromancer can give an undead creature the semblence of a healthy, normal living being with this spell. The target appears as it did in life, at any point in its lifespan that the necromancer so desires, and is capable of performing all normal human activities that its cognition allows it to perform. The spell uses the creature’s nature as a template for its effects, so the disguise is tangible

Level 2

The necromancer may refine and enhance the natural flow of vitality within a willing visible target. For the rest of the scene, all Physical saving throws they make gain a bonus equal to the necromancer’s Magic skill and they automatically stabilize when Mortally Wounded. Once during the scene, as an Instant action, they can immediately heal from all damage inflicted by an injury that did not Mortally Wound them. The recipient of this spell gains one System Strain.

Enfeebling Wave

Level 2

A wash of debilitating force erupts in a 20-foot radius at a visible point within one hundred feet. All living creatures within the area must make a Physical saving throw or for the rest of the scene their movement rate is halved and they must make all attack and damage rolls twice and take the worse result. If the save is successful, these penalties apply only to their next turn.

Final Death

Level 2

The necromancer curses one visible target per level. For the rest of the scene, these targets cannot recover or gain hit points and will die instantly if Mortally Wounded. After each failed instance of healing, a target can make a Physical save to throw off the spell.

Raise Corpse

Level 2

The necromancer targets a mostly-intact skeleton or corpse, imbuing it with a semblance of life. Whatever the creature’s attributes were in life, it now has 1 HD, an AC of 13, a Move of 30’/round, a +0 skill bonus, saves of 15+, a +1/1d6 unarmed melee attack, and a Morale of 12. Such corpses may be equipped with weapons or armor. Its decay or dissolution immediately ceases, and it becomes suicidally loyal to its creator. The corpse has no natural volition, but will obey commands with a human degree of intelligence. It has only vague memories of its prior life, and while it may retain human tics or habits it had in life it can answer only the simplest and most self-evident questions. Damage to a corpse can be repaired only by casting this spell on it again, which restores it to its original “health”. The corpse continues to exist until it is reduced to zero hit points or its creator releases it. A necromancer cannot have more active subjects of this spell than their character level.

•85 Compel Flesh

Level 3

A visible living creature or physically-bodied undead within 100 feet is ensorceled by this spell, their flesh and bones becoming temporarily enthralled to the caster’s will. The target becomes paralyzed unless commanded by the caster as an On Turn action; once given a command, their body will dutifully carry it out on their next turn. The user’s mind is not affected by this spell, so they cannot be made to cast spells, answer questions, or perform other intellectual tasks, but they will fight, move, and perform other non-suicidal physical acts as normal. The target may make a Physical saving throw at the start of each of their turns to throw off the effect, but they will inevitably suffer one point of damage per caster level with each attempt as their flesh writhes and tears. If not thrown off earlier, the spell lasts until the end of the scene.

Festering Curse

Level 3

The qualities of a corpse are forced upon a visible living target. The subject begins to rot, fester, and decay in whatever ways the necromancer thinks appropriate. Food tastes like ashes, water does not quench thirst, and their body is numb to all physical pleasures. They suffer a -2 penalty to all social skill checks due to their repugnance. This transformation does not inflict physical injury, but it makes the target’s life an utterly joyless misery until it is dispelled or the necromancer lifts the curse. Creatures with more hit dice than the necromancer has levels can make a Physical save to resist the curse.

Forgetting the Grave

Level 3

A necromancer can temporarily suspend the mortality of a willing target within sight. For one round per Necromancer level, the creature simply cannot die, no matter how drastic their injuries. Those reduced to zero hit points lose their Move action each turn but can continue to act otherwise; if such a target is damaged yet again, they must make a Physical saving throw each time or become incapable of movement until healed. At the spell’s end targets reduced to zero hit points are Mortally Wounded; those that have been dismembered or otherwise slaughtered beyond the hope of survival die instantly.

Boneshaper

Level 4

The clay of flesh and bone run obediently to the will of the necromancer. Whether living or undead, a willing or helpless victim under the effects of this spell can be reshaped into any roughly-equivalent form with an hour’s work. Limbs can be added or removed and existing tissue can be recolored, retextured, or rearranged to the necromancer’s wishes. Perfect imitation of a particular creature requires a Dex/Magic skill check against difficulty 10. This spell is limited in the physical changes it can effect; a bonus of +1 can be added to modifier of Charisma

or a physical attribute at the cost of a -1 penalty to the modifier of one of the same attributes, to a maximum of +2 or -2. This spell lasts until the necromancer lifts it or it is dispelled.

Raise Grave Knight

Level 4

The corpse used for this spell must be of a relatively powerful creature with at least four hit dice or levels. The result is much like that of the Raise Corpse spell, but this undead servitor is much stronger, with 4 HD, AC 15, a Move of 40’/action, a +1 skill bonus, saves of 13+, Morale of 12, and a melee attack of +6/1d10, assuming it doesn’t use a normal weapon. It is fully intelligent and self-willed, albeit utterly devoted to its creator, and it remembers a significant amount about its prior life. A grave knight regains all lost hit points at dusk each day, assuming it’s not destroyed. A caster may have only one grave knight active at a time, and one that has been reduced to zero hit points is destroyed and cannot be revived.

Call of the Tomb

Level 5

The necromancer invokes the inescapable urge for self-dissolution within the substance of all that exists, amplifying the weight of their own mortality. All enemy creatures within forty feet are affected. Targets can make a Physical saving throw to resist, in which case the effects last only one round, otherwise lasting for one round per caster level. During this time all attacks made against the victims automatically hit and all damage dice they suffer are maximized. Any special defenses they may have against mundane weapons or certain types of injury are negated while the spell is on them.

Everlasting

Level 5

The spell may be triggered as an Instant action by the caster, imparting a burst of unquenchable life force to all allied creatures within 50 feet. For the next five rounds, no affected ally can be reduced below 1 hit point, regardless of the damage inflicted upon them. At the end of the spell’s effect, the caster’s own life energy is exhausted, leaving them with only 1 hit point. A creature can benefit from this spell no more than once per day.

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Vowed Innumerable sects of bodily adepts can be found throughout Latter Earth, each determined to master the hidden capabilities of their body and spirit. Some focus on a religious or philosophical dedication to the task, while others see only practical benefit in honing their bodies to a pitch of superhuman prowess. These “Vowed” are those men and women who have attained some measure of success in their quest. The ancient Legacy was tuned to provide numerous benefits and augmentations to human beings. Despite the interference of the Outsiders and the inevitable corruption of eons, some threads of this ancient power still remain, and the Vowed practice secret techniques for awakening this power within them. Not all of these sects do so through innocent means of meditation, training, and diet. Some employ terrible rituals of blood and unclean sorcery to imbue their adepts with supernatural power, while others have made certain pacts with Outsiders or stranger entities in order to get the help they need to awaken their strength. Savage brawlers and bestial warriors are as often found among the Vowed as are serene ascetics and philosophers. Vowed sects are commonly found as guardians to some powerful organization, perhaps as royal guards or temple defenders for a faith. A few are wholly independent orders, perhaps dedicated to some religious or philosophical quest or else a secular power that the locals look to for defense and lordship. Occasionally the lines blur, with temple priests becoming mundane lords as well as spiritual leaders. Vowed are usually trained in monasteries or retreats dedicated to that purpose. A strict hierarchy of masters and disciples is common to most sects, and many members might spend their entire lives laboring on behalf of the sect’s faith or political interests. Some Vowed are

knocked loose from their former homes by the vagaries of chance, however, and must set out alone to avenge a ruined monastery or slain master… or escape the censure of instructors who find them unfit to represent the order to the outside world.

Vowed Benefits

The Vowed class exists only as a partial class, to be taken by an Adventurer along with another partial class. Thus, a Partial Warrior/Partial Vowed might be a hardened temple warrior-monk, a Partial Expert/Partial Vowed might be a sage teacher of religious or philosophical truths, and a Partial Elementalist/Partial Vowed might be a mountain sage who wields the elemental forces of nature in conjunction with his practices of bodily purification. All Vowed gain a non-combat bonus skill appropriate to their order, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if they already have it at level-0. Orders that focus on physical training might grant Exert, while scholarly ones might give Know, religious ones Pray, or occult sects grant Magic. You may pick whatever non-combat skill suits your order, assuming the GM finds it reasonable. Vowed do not learn how to cast spells. Instead, they refine their inner powers and physical capabilities. These arts are too precise and delicate to bear the encumbrance of heavy clothing, armor, or shields, and cannot be used when so burdened. The Armored Magic Focus can mitigate this, but Vowed are all trained in effective unarmored defense techniques. At first level, a Vowed gains the Unified Style, Unarmed Might, and Unarmored Defense arts, in addition to one more art of their choice as given on the adjacent list. Further advancement will grant additional arts, though once chosen they cannot be changed.

Partial Vowed Level

Punch Hit Bonus

Punch Damage

Punch Shock

1d6

1/15

Unified Style, Unarmed Might, Unarmed Defense, and Any One

1d6

2/15

Any One

1d8

2/15

1d8

2/15

Any One

1d10

2/15

Any One

1d10

3/15

Any One

1d10+1

3/15

1d10+1

3/15

1d10+2

4/15

1d10+3

4/15

Arts Gained

Any One Any One

Vowed in Other Worlds Bare-knuckled fighting monks and prowling ninjas are commonplaces in some campaign worlds, and the Vowed can be used to represent both archetypes, as well as any other that your specific setting might require. The particular flavor of a given unarmed combatant can be adjusted by the other partial class they take, such as ninjas perhaps picking up the stealth and subterfuge skills of a Partial Expert, or a grimly determined order of guardian monks taking the Partial Warrior class. Monks with exceptionally strange powers may have additional art options.

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Arts of the Vowed

Vowed Effort is based on the skill they chose to represent their order’s main focus of study, whether Exert, Know, Magic, Pray, or some more esoteric skill. Their maximum Vowed Effort is equal to this skill level plus their best attribute modifier, whatever it may be, to a minimum of one point. All Vowed automatically gain the Unified Style, Unarmed Might, and Unarmored Defense arts as part of their basic training. Unified Style: When making attacks that use the Punch skill, your class hit bonus can be no worse than that of an Expert of your same character level, as noted on the Vowed class table. At third level, any attack using the Punch skill counts as a magic weapon against foes immune to mundane steel. Unarmed Might: Your unarmed attack damage increases as you gain levels, as noted on the chart. You may add your Punch skill to the damage done by these attacks as usual, but Foci such as Unarmed Combatant that replace or improve your usual Punch damage do not apply to you. Unarmored Defense: When not wearing armor or using a shield, your base Armor Class is equal to 13 plus half your character level, rounded down.

Other Vowed Arts

Brutal Counter: Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action after resolving an enemy melee attack against you, whether it hits or misses. You may make a free physical attack against your assailant, using either a normal attack or some other offensive ability that takes no more than one Main Action to execute. You cannot use this art more than once per any given attack, but you may use it while performing a Total Defense. Faultless Awareness: Your awareness is such that you cannot be surprised, and will even wake from a sound sleep in time to respond normally to some imminent peril. Hurling Throw: After you make a successful attack, you may Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action. The target must make a Physical saving throw or be thrown up to ten feet in any direction, falling prone on landing and suffering the damage rolled for your attack. If the Physical save is successful, the target simply takes damage as normal. This art can be used only once per round on any given target, and the target must be no larger than an ox. The Inward Eye: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. For as long as it remains Committed, you are mystically aware of your surroundings with a sense equivalent to normal eyesight regardless of darkness, obscuring mists, or your actual eyes being closed or blinded. Leap of the Heavens: Commit Effort for the scene as a Move action to leap up to your full Move action horizontally or half that vertically. You may also

Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action to negate falling damage, no matter the distance. Master’s Vigor: Your body retains its vigor and youthful vitality to the full normal span of your life. You regain two lost hit points per hour due to your natural restorative powers. Mob Justice: As an Instant action, Commit Effort for the day to become impervious to the swarm attack maneuver as described on page XX. Your assailants cannot use this maneuver against you for the rest of the scene, and you become immune to Shock as long as you remain in melee with at least two foes. Making use of this benefit disrupts any spellcasting you may attempt, however, due to the violent motion required. Nimble Ascent: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. For the remainder of the scene you may move up vertical and overhanging surfaces and across difficult terrain at your full movement rate with no chance of slipping or falling, provided the surface is not glass-smooth or enchanted. You require only one free hand to cling to a wall or ceiling. Purified Body: You may Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to cure any disease or poison currently affecting you, or instead to negate any need for sleep, food, water, or air for the next 24 hours. Revivifying Breath: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action to restore hit points equal to 1d6 plus your character level. This healing does not increase your System Strain. This ability may be used on your turn even when you are at zero hit points, but in such a case it Commits all your remaining Effort for the day. You may use this art only once per scene. Shattering Strike: Commit Effort for the day and take a full round of motionlessness to prepare. On the next round, as a Main Action, your unarmed attack can shatter a wooden door, wooden wall, or other similar object up to a depth of one foot per level and a width sufficient to allow a man-sized creature to pass through. At fourth level this ability improves to affect even a stone wall and at seventh it can affect even a metal wall or solid iron door. The blow is useless against a target that can move, but against an immobilized creature the attack does 1d12 damage per character level. Style Weaponry: Pick three general classes of weapons, such as “swords”, “bows”, “axes”, “daggers”, or the like. When using weapons of those classes, you may use Punch for hit rolls instead of Stab or Shoot. Your Punch skill does not add to the damage done by these weapons, however, though the benefits of Unified Style apply to their hit rolls. Unobtrusive Step: You not only possess a considerable skill for disguise and obfuscation, you can become extremely hard to detect. Once per scene, you may Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to reroll a failed Sneak skill check or skill check related to impersonating someone else.

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Developing New Spells It’s a normal inclination for both GMs and players to want to add new spells to a mage’s repertoire. Spell research is a normal pastime of almost all mages, and it’s a useful sink for the money that the wizard might have earned in their adventuring. GMs should generally be willing to let PC wizards come up with new spells, provided they fit the tone of the campaign. High Mages very rarely create New Magic spells. Their time and effort is spent unraveling the secrets of the past and trying to discover lost High Magic sorceries. Where an Elementalist might spend her time patching together fragments of other sorceries to create a spell, a High Mage would be poring over ancient books, searching for leads to new avenues of research and mentions of magic now lost to the world. Mechanically, it works out the same way; the Elementalist will eventually develop a New Magic spell of her own, while the High Mage will piece together a lost High Magic spell that fits his own desired effects. To research a new spell, the wizard’s player first writes up the spell they want to develop. The GM then checks the spell against the guidelines given below, adjusting it where it’s necessary. If it passes, an appropriate level is assigned to the spell and the PC can begin the magical research process. Researching a spell requires a properly-equipped laboratory, raw materials, and time. The laboratory must be established in a secure, serviceable room or building. A lab sufficient for researching a level 1 or 2 spell can fit into a room, one for a 3rd level spell can fit into a house, one for a 4th level spell can fit into a wizard’s tower, and a lab suitable for devising a new 5th level spell needs its own subterranean research complex or similar edifice. The cost for the lab is given on the adjacent table; this does not include the price for the building itself. The necessary materials for a lab can generally be acquired in any major city, provided it’s not hostile to sorcerers. The raw materials must also be purchased in a city or gathered from ransacked lairs by adventurers. They include occult materials, esoteric creature body parts, specialized lab equipment, and obscure monographs and grimoires. These materials are used up in the process of research. The time required for researching a spell varies with its complexity, as given on the table. A wizard can halve this time by spending twice as much on raw materials, and adventuring for certain lost grimoires or special ingredients might further decrease the time required. A wizard can adventure and perform other tasks during their research time, including the development of Workings or the construction of magical items, but they can’t simultaneously research two spells at once. Wizards kept entirely away from their labs for weeks or months at a time might suffer a halt to the work until they can get back to it.

Spell Research Spell Level

Lab Cost

Materials Cost

Time Needed

100,000 sp

50,000 sp

1 month

250,000 sp

100,000 sp

2 months

500,000 sp

200,000 sp

4 months

1,000,000 sp

400,000 sp

8 months

2,500,000 sp

800,000 sp

2 years

Once the lab is established, the raw materials gathered, and the necessary time taken, the mage makes an Int/Magic skill check against a difficulty equal to 10 plus the spell level. If they have apprentices to assist them, they can add +1 to their skill check. Specialist mages researching New Magic in their own field add an additional +1 to the skill check, so an Elementalist researching a New Magic spell of elemental nature would get the bonus, as would a Necromancer researching a spell about undeath. Special resources or uniquely apposite grimoires gathered on an adventure might add an additional bonus to the roll. If the roll is successful, the spell is perfected and added to the caster’s grimoire. They can teach it to other wizards if they wish, or keep it to themselves. Specialist magic can only be learned by wizards of the same tradition; if they took the spell research skill check bonus, it’s a specialist spell. Spells devised by High Mages are almost inevitably rediscovered High Magic and can be learned by any mage capable of casting such. If the roll is a failure, the wizard has a choice. They can abandon their research and start over from scratch, expending new resources and time, or they can roll on the formula flaw table. This flaw becomes part of their spell, as adjusted by the GM. Some flaws might not be problematic at all; a spell only ever designed to affect the caster isn’t much hindered by only being usable on willing targets. Other flaws might make the spell worthless or force the PC to start over. If the caster decides to live with the flaw and continue research, they can spend half the required research time and make a new skill check at a cumulative +1 bonus, with no need to spend additional resources. A determined and unlucky mage may repeat this process several times, accruing new flaws each time and increasing their bonus until they eventually come up with a functioning spell. It may be so gnarled by flaws as to be scarcely recognizable as their original intent, but they can add it to their grimoire all the same.

•89

New Spell Criteria

When planning out your new spell, you should keep the following basic principles in mind. They are not iron laws to be followed in all situations, but a spell that breaks one of these rules should be inspected very carefully. Don’t worry about trying to balance spells for the abstract masses; worry about balancing them for the specific people and situations at your table. If you know that a particular player is a bad match for a particular spell effect, then don’t approve it, even if the effect itself seems innocuous. Spells should not substitute for other classes. If a spell gives a mage the combat prowess of a Warrior or substitutes for an arbitrary selection of skills, it’s too much. For specific groups, make sure that a spell doesn’t substitute for the main concept of another PC in the party; if another PC’s concept is that of a gifted musician, don’t allow new spells that make the wizard a supernatural singer. Keep a special eye out for summoning spells, as any summoned creature that’s remotely comparable to a same-level Warrior needs to come with serious drawbacks in usability or duration. Spells should not offer simple numeric bonuses. A spell might add a bonus to hit rolls or damage rolls as a minor consequence of its effect, but a spell fundamentally made to increase a score or add a bonus to something should not be approved. Magic is meant to create impossible effects and alter the ground rules of a situation. If it simply amplifies the existing abilities of the group, it changes nothing in actual play. Spells should not offer cheap and easy combat damage. No mage can cast very many spells each day, but it’s important that the combat spells they do have be heavy, loud, clumsy things rather than easy magical bolts of unavoidable damage. Area-effect spells should not normally be able to exclude friendlies from their damage. If the spell’s damaging effect is clean and simple, it should only affect one target. Think of mages as artillery rather than snipers; when they hit something, they tend to hit everything around it, too. Spells should not create permanent magical effects or valuable matter. Any lasting changes the spell creates need to be sustainable by the existing situation. Growing plants in earth is one thing, but growing them on bare rock is something that should be a temporary effect. Creating rocks isn’t much of an issue, but creating lumps of gold shouldn’t be a persistent change. Spells that buff a target shouldn’t last more than a scene. This rule is somewhat looser, as buff spells that are intended to make the target viable in a hostile environment, such as water-breathing or cold-climate survival, might last for a full day. Their purpose is to make an adventure possible, so making them last as long as the adventure is reasonable. Buff spells that add new powers or benefits to a target shouldn’t last longer than a scene, however, or else they tend to turn into permanent powers that just happen to cost a slot.

d10

Formula Flaws

The spell can only target the caster.

The spell only works on willing targets.

Your prior work is mistaken; the formula is not changed, but you don't get the cumulative +1 bonus on the research roll for this or prior research continuations,

The spell can only target people other than the caster.

The spell is unusually slow, taking at least a Main Action to cast, or two Main Actions over the course of two consecutive rounds if it already takes a Main Action to cast.

The spell is very draining, exhausting two spells worth of energy for the day instead of one.

The spell inflicts a severe backlash on the caster, adding 1d4 System Strain to them. If this maximizes their System Strain, they fall unconscious for ten minutes and can't cast this spell again until some System Strain is lost.

The spell is more difficult than it seems, being one level higher than expected. This doesn't increase the research costs or time, but if you can't cast a spell of that level, the entire project fails.

The spell is simply unreliable in its effects; whenever it's cast, roll 1d6. On a 1, the spell fizzles uselessly and the casting slot is wasted.

The whole effort was a tragic mistake. All progress and research materials are lost and everything must be done over from the start.

Spells should not be petty. Latter Earth does not have much in the way of “trivial” magic spells, and cantrips that perform some minor change should not be allowed unless you want to change the general flavor of magic as a whole. Every spell should do something big, with even the smallest damaging spell capable of killing someone and the least magical effect having some degree of wonder about it. Steal spells from existing games. You can usually borrow spells from other old-school games or the classic TSR role-playing games of the eighties and nineties with impunity, but halve their levels to figure out where they’d fit in Worlds Without Number. Thus, a 9th level spell in the original game might be a 5th level spell in this one. First-level spells should be upgraded if you import them, because most 1st level spells are too weak to fit well in this world. Keep in mind the other principles on this list when importing spells, however, as other games rarely follow all of them.

90•

Building Magical Workings As potent as the Legacy is, it can be no surprise that various sorcerers and artificers have channeled it into useful edifices and standing magical effects. In the jargon of wizards, a Working is any stationary, persistent magical effect or structure, such a magical ever-flowering spring, an array of heatless eternal lamps, or a persistent curse that blights all within its reach. Unlike a conventional magical item, a Working cannot be moved from its set location, and unlike a spell it will normally persist until damage or thaumic decay finally disperse it. Workings come in five commonly-recognized tiers: trivial, minor, major, great, and supreme. Trivial Workings might be some minor magic like an enchanted light source, while a supreme effort might transform a whole city into a flying metropolis. While lesser Workings are still possible for skilled and erudite mages of Latter Earth, supreme Workings are too mighty to be accomplished by anyone short of a Legate. Examples persist from the former ages of the world, and surviving supreme Workings can be wonders renowned throughout whole nations, but they are beyond duplication by conventional sorcery. A Working requires a skilled mage, a great deal of resources, and a considerable amount of time. Details can vary based on the arcane suitability of the landscape or especially powerful, useful components, but even a trivial Working is no minor labor. To create the Working, the architect must first be a spellcaster of at least 6th level, whether a full Mage or a Partial Mage. Mage classes that do not cast spells cannot normally create Workings, as their magic is insufficiently flexible. Less-accomplished spellcasters also lack the practical experience necessary to mold the powers. The architect then decides what exactly the Working should do. The table on the opposite page gives examples of different Workings and the effects they might produce. The player involved discusses any custom ideas with the GM, using the examples as guidelines. A single Working may involve multiple effects, but they should be closely aligned; enchantments that provide a magical spring, hot water, enchanted lamps, and a pleasant climate might all be established as part of the same housekeeping Working, but placing a ward against devils and a magical garden at the same time might not be so plausible. The GM then decides the total difficulty of the Working by adding up the difficulty point cost of each element of it. The adjacent table gives common ranges for each degree of difficulty, and the GM should pick a number that sounds right; the pettiest of petty Trivial magics might be 1 point, while something that could maybe even be Minor in strength would be 4 points. The total cost of the Working is whatever element costs most plus half the rest, rounded up. Thus, if some 10-point major effect also had a 3-point trivial effect and 8-point minor effect bundled with it, the whole would have a difficulty of 16 points.

Magical Working Costs Degree

Difficulty Points

Area Affected

Difficulty Multiplier

Trivial

1-4

Room

Minor

4-8

Building

Major

8-16

Village

x16

Great

16-32

City

x64

Supreme

N/A

Region

x256

This difficulty is then multiplied by the area the Working will affect. If the magic spring merely pours a small stream of water into the kitchen cellar, the area might only be that of a Room; if the stream was meant to provide a moat around a wizard’s keep, it would affect a Building, or perhaps even a Village-sized area. If the spring was to irrigate miles of surrounding countryside, it would affect a whole Region, and would probably be a great Working to boot, if not supreme. The difficulty total is multiplied by the given multiplier of the biggest area affected, so if the 16-point example above affected the whole wizard’s tower, its final difficulty would be 64 points. The architect must then demonstrate that they can actually design such a Working. A given designer multiplies their character level by their Magic skill level times two. Thus, a 6th level High Mage with Magic-3 skill would have a total of 36. If this total is equal or greater than the Working’s difficulty, they can establish it alone. If it’s at least half the difficulty, they can build it if they can find other mages to help them and make up the missing points. If it’s less than half the difficulty, the whole enterprise is too difficult for them to envision. If the Working is designed properly and enough help is had, it can be constructed at a cost of 50,000 silver pieces per point of difficulty and a time cost of one month, plus one week per five points of difficulty or fraction thereof. If the cost is doubled, the work can be done in half this time. Note that this construction only applies to the magical components of the Working; if the mage means to enchant a wall, the wall must already be built. A mage can generally adventure and do other things while completing a Working, but if they are taken away from the site for too long, the work may halt in their absence. While Workings are generally very durable, intentional sabotage of critical points or the slow decay of ages can end up corrupting or destroying them, sometimes with catastrophic results. It is for this reason that many of the Workings found in ancient Deeps or forgotten ruins are dangerous or perverse, and many nations that could at least theoretically afford the construction of Workings avoid making use of them.

•91 Type

Example Elements of a Working

Trivial

Bar ordinary vermin from the area

Trivial

Create lights, or illusions that are obviously illusions

Trivial

Destroy wastes, dusts, or other nonliving matter

Trivial

Heats or chills things within normal climate ranges

Trivial

Preserve foodstuffs indefinitely

Trivial

Provide cooking heat in specific places within the area

Trivial

Provide plumbing or ventillation, assuming water and air supplies exist

Minor

Communicate between points in the area

Minor

Create convincing illusions that are still disproven by close interaction

Minor

Create guardian entities of limited intellect equivalent to a 2 hit die combatant

Minor

Create water or a common inedible material

Minor

Improve natural healing within the area, doubling natural System Strain and hit point recovery

Minor

Inflict minor damage on targets that trigger a trap or are struck by defenses, 1d6 to 2d6

Minor

Maintain the area magically, repairing wear and minor damage over time

Minor

Provide simple motive force for an existing object with basic controls, though no intelligent response

Minor

Sustain a livable temperature in the area despite any normal exterior climate variations

Minor

Ward off a single type of intruder that can be described in no more than a sentence. Such targets must make a Mental save to enter

Major

Create foodstuffs that sustain the eater even if they later leave the affected area

Major

Create guardian entities with some modest special abilities equivalent to a 4 hit die combatant

Major

Create illusions so perfect that close interaction just grants a Mental save to realize their nature

Major

Grant compatibility with an environment to all occpuants, like underseas, lava pits, or freezing heights

Major

Immunize occupants from the effects of diseases

Major

Induce a subtle mental influence to subjects that fail a Mental save, causing them to do or not do something unless it is hazardous to them

Major

Inflict significant damage on a target, 4d6 or 5d6

Major

Provide motive force for an existing object in a complex way, with intelligent adherence to its purpose

Major

Sustain a certain number of inhabitants without need for food or drink

Major

Teleport things within the affected area according to its rules

Major

Ward off several types of intruders as per the Minor effect, or make the ward so strong against a single type that it must be suppressed if they are to enter

Great

Create a powerful guardian with several impressive magical powers and 8 or more hit dice

Great

Create some moderately valuable material

Great

Distort internal spaces, shrinking or expanding them by up to a factor of 20

Great

Induce a powerful mental influence on targets that fail a Mental save, even a complex command

Great

Inflict lethal damage on a target, 8d6 to 10d6, or a save-or-die effect

Great

Ward it so tightly that only particular subjects are allowed to enter, while others must suppress the Working

Supreme Affect the flow of time within the area Supreme Utterly mentally enslave subjects, perhaps even without a Mental save, forcing them to comply with a certain intent even if it's suicidal Supreme Generate a small army of 2 hit die guardians to defend it Supreme Imbue a structure or area with the ability to fly freely Supreme Implant an artificial mind in a structure to control and monitor it

92•

Creating Magic Items The forging of magical artifacts is not unknown on Latter Earth, though the ease of the process varies greatly from place to place. Some regions are largely desolate of the subtle thaumic currents and special environments needed to set an item’s enchantments, while others are particularly friendly to the process. A GM will have to decide on their own whether their campaign setting will allow mage PCs to create magical items. Unlike Workings, which are comfortably stationary, a portable magic item directly increases the power of the bearer when they’re out adventuring. Allowing the creation of magic items lets the party convert treasure into direct personal power, which increases the consequences should they find “too much” treasure in their ventures. If magic items can only ever be found, salvaged, or created by specialist mages who are no use at adventuring then the GM has a much better grip on power inflation. Conversely, a lot of GMs and Mage players are very fond of creating their own magical devices, and may not be satisfied by the use of Workings alone. For most campaigns, a middle ground is recommended. All permanent magical items are difficult to make. Even if the item is nothing more than a tankard that keeps its contents perpetually chilled, making that tankard is every bit as difficult as forging an enchanted sword. As a consequence, very few sorcerers bother to make petty items; if it’s going to be as hard to make a trifling token as a significant one, why make trifles? Magical items are exceedingly expensive to build. The rare components, expensive rituals, and costly processes involved eat up vast amounts of silver and great labor on the part of the mage. These components must be bought at some major city or salvaged from the Deeps or ruins that the PCs are exploring. They form many of the same components that are used in building Workings or researching new spells, so the same general pool of magical components can be used for any of those purposes. Magical items are also complex and difficult to create. A novice mage cannot fashion them and even an expert might find it difficult to get an item to come out just right. Flaws can creep into the construction process, forcing the PC to either start over or cope with an item that isn’t exactly what was intended.

Creating the Item

To build a magic item, the player first describes what it is that the item is supposed to do. The player might want to build an item from the Treasures section of this book, or one from another old-school game, or perhaps one completely of their own devising. It’s up to the GM to decide whether or not the item fits with their campaign and is an acceptable introduction. For item designs, it’s recommended that the GM be careful not to allow magic items that simply solve whole categories of problems. A set of magic earplugs that make it impossible to hear lies may seem clever, but it also immediately solves any challenge revolving around detecting deceit. Boots that grant perpetual flight, apotropaic wands that banish specific types of creatures, and other items that simply remove certain problems from the party’s concerns should probably be denied. Even if they’re charged or limit-use items, they’ll probably be available whenever the party really needs them, which means those challenges that would otherwise be the most critical become the ones they most easily bypass. A GM should also be careful about items that simply add bonuses to the PC’s rolls, whether skill checks or combat rolls. Magical weapons and armor do exist, and there are some items that do simply add numbers to the PC, but these should be avoided in other cases. There’s a reason that most veteran Warriors are eager to find a magical weapon; such a weapon simply makes them better at their most important function. If other items exist that simply increase critical numbers, then the other players will feel obligated to hunt them down. If the item’s concept passes muster, the GM should compare it to the adjacent table to see what kind of price and minimum creator level should be required to make it. Spellcasting wizards can generally make any kind of magic item, while non-casters such as Vowed or Healers are usually restricted to making items appropriate to their particular concepts, whether those are magical scriptures or healing elixirs. A GM should always feel free to adjust prices and difficulties to reflect their own sense of what’s appropriate for their campaign. In addition to the minimum level and money involved, permanent magic items always require at least

Magic Item Creation Costs Creation Difficulty

Creation Cost in SP

Creation Time

A single-use item, such as an elixir

8-10

500-5,000

1 week

A multi-use item that still contains limited charges, such as a wand

9-11

10,000-50,000

1 month

A low-powered but permanent magic item, such as a Sword +1

25,000

1 month

A significant item that creates a situation-changing effect

100,000

3 months

A powerful item or one with multiple significant abilities

500,000

6 months

Type of Item

•93

one adventure to acquire the necessary components. The wizard will have researched the item sufficiently to know where they need to go and what they need to fetch, but it will always be dangerous and difficult to do so. Very capable underlings or hired adventurers might be able to fetch the required component, but it’s up to the GM whether such efforts are successful. From a GM’s perspective, this required adventure is to ensure that a wizard who makes a permanent magic item provides at least one session worth of adventure grist in exchange for the new gear, and it also ensures that not too many permanent magic items will be made unless the party agrees to constantly be out adventuring for parts. If the creator is capable, the coin is at hand, and any adventuring components have been fetched, the mage can attempt to make the item. They spend the time given on the adjacent table and then make an Int/Magic skill check against the appropriate difficulty. If they’re making a batch of limited-use items, such as a batch of magic potions, they can make two doses for a +1 difficulty or four doses for a +2 difficulty. If they have an apprentice to aid them, they can add +1 to their skill check. If the check is a success, the item is made. If it’s a failure, they have a choice; they can start over from the beginning, spending the money and time anew, though not needing to repeat any adventure the item might have required. They can then make a second attempt at creating the item. If they are reluctant to do this, they can roll on the Item Flaw table, suffering that hindrance to the item’s eventual effect as adjusted by the GM. If that flaw isn’t intolerable, they may spend half the gold and time they originally took to make another skill check to make the item at a cumulative +1 bonus. They can repeat this process, adding a new flaw each time and paying half the original coin and time, until they either succeed or the flaws become intolerable. A mage can generally keep adventuring while crafting a magic item, as the work doesn’t eat up all their spare time. Particularly massive or powerful magic items might require the use of a dedicated laboratory, forcing the wizard to remain there while the work is underway lest the process be spoiled. Any special tools or resources such a laboratory requires are assumed to be part of the item’s creation cost.

d10

Magic Item Design Flaws

The magic item can only be used by the first person to touch it after creation.

The item's magic can only affect the bearer or user.

The item actually has the exact opposite effect as the one intended for it.

The item is very slow to activate, not taking effect until the round after it's triggered or used.

The item is very loud and visually showy when deployed, and continues to be loud until it's no longer used.

The item will only benefit or function for a given user 1d6 times before becoming inert for them thereafter.

The item becomes non-magical if the creator dies.

The item drains the user's life force, adding one System Strain the first time it's used each day. It won't function without this drain.

The item bonds to its users; if separated from the item, the user gains one System Strain each day until the item's destroyed or recovered. The item forms only one bond at a time.

The whole plan was flawed from the start. All time and resources spent have been wasted, and everything must begin again from scratch.

94•

THE WORLD OF THE LATTER EARTH he Latter Earth is unknown in its whole; some sages would go so far as to say it is unknowable due to the existence of the Iterums and the chronospatial damage inflicted by the decaying Legacy and the spite of the ancient dead. Even so, something can be said about some of it, and this chapter will discuss what a GM must know in order to set a campaign within it. Those desirous of more may consult the Atlas of the Latter Earth.

•95

96•

Of Former Days The region now known as the Gyre is a relatively isolated segment of the greater continent of Gyaros, once held under the rule of the mighty Hepatizon Throne and its Brass Hegemony, but now a troubled welter of quarreling subject-states and trackless arratu wastelands. The formerly docile subject states now have no fear of the seemingly-indifferent Reaping King, and concern themselves with the inevitable struggle over which is to be the new hegemon of the Gyre. Records of this region are relatively well-supported, extending back for some two thousand years to an indeterminate period during the rule of the Sorcerer-Kings. These ancient lords had risen from the Deeps with their subject peoples once the rule of the Outsiders had been cast down, and throughout the Latter Earth they formed the nuclei around which new nations formed and grew. Their mighty sorceries and Deep-born kindred soon overwhelmed the remnant bands of surface-living human rebels and Outsider colonies that yet remained. More than two thousand years ago, the whole of the Gyre was under the rule of the heirs of the Sorcerer-Queen Voth. The Vothite Empire was one born of terrible mental sorceries, with its nobility divided into “thought-houses” dedicated to the furtherance of specific ideals or aesthetics. Their struggles were expressed in the form of arcane persuasions and elegant works of alien art, artifacts and spells that could bend the minds of onlookers into agreement with the values of the thought-house that constructed them. The whole of the Gyre was riddled with grand monuments, cerebral mandalas, and infectious meme-chimes, all beneath the implacable will of the Mentarch. Even war lost its old trappings as the Vothite houses battled with symbols and artifacts to sway the opposing force, until one side came to see the transcendent correctness of the other and joyously joined with them in pursuit of a magnificent truth. Vothite commoners were considered little better than animals, too stupid and imperceptive to truly apprehend the deep truths that each thought-house pursued. Their thoughts were transparently obvious to the least Vothite noble, but the mind-influencing magic used by the nobility was less effective against subjects that had not been exposed to the same complex inventory of symbolism and philosophical thought that the gentry of the thought-houses embraced. The rare commoner who was deemed capable of appreciating the deeper truths of reality was skimmed off by some ambitious thought-house, while rebels and malcontents were identified at a glance and disposed of with great rapidity by mind-shackled enforcers. The Vothite Empire fell some two thousand years ago to a revolution from within. The precise mechanism of this fall is unclear at this late date. Some records suggest it was the product of a renegade thought-house that

rejected Vothite philosophy, while other artifacts imply a commoner rebellion that was somehow invisible to the Vothite nobility until it was too late for their enforcers to crush it. Some credit the interference of Outsider remnants, believing that they aided the rebels in order to eliminate the threat that the Vothites presented to them. A few even believe it was a relatively peaceful transition initiated by a thought-house that successfully imposed its will on the other Vothite nobility. After an uncertain transition period, the next major hegemon of the Gyre was the Vothite Republic, a polity that seemed chiefly united in its absolute rejection of mind-sorcery of all kinds. The remnant thought-houses were either exterminated, dissolved, or driven into provincial exile as refugees or hidden cells. The various groups of commoners that had once made up the Empire were now left chiefly to their own devices, with minimal control exerted by a central government that could require very little of the provinces that they were not already inclined to offer. It was during this period that the Anak threat to the south became more pronounced. Several southern border provinces of the Empire were entirely destroyed by the Blighted or by the unchecked expansion of arratu land, and it was only after the loss of a considerable portion of the old Empire that the remaining provinces were convinced of the necessity of more active support. Together, their resources stopped the Anakim at the southern border of the Emedian province of EmedDar, setting the stage for an unending cycle of periodic Anakim invasions and constant border fighting. This uneasy state of affairs persisted for centuries, the Republic never mustering the strength to truly drive back the Anakim and never quite allowing the Blighted to consume another state. The limited political capital possessed by the central government was constantly invested in getting the various provinces to continue their military contributions, leaving them practically independent for all other purposes. Petty wars between the states sapped the Republic’s vitality, and such disruptions as the Rule of Shun, the Perfected Circle, the Free Cities Compact, and the Time of Three Senates limited its cohesion. Old Vothite infrastructure and the Workings of prior ages of sorcerer-kings were left to slowly decay and be forgotten, casualties of the constant, grinding expense of the war with the Blighted and the struggle to hold the Gyre together. Matters changed a thousand years ago, when the immortal Reaping King crossed the Carceral Sea and made his landing on the Republic’s northern coast. The origins of his power were complex, but are not pertinent here; it is enough that he landed with several thousand devoted followers and the dread might of the Black Brass Legion. The Legion was unstoppable, rolling over the northern provinces league by league. While the numbers of

•97 these manlike automatons were never great, no ordinary army had a hope of victory against them, and the few military resources that the Republic possessed that might have stood a chance were immured on the southern border, fighting the Anakim. The advance of the Reaping King was slow and methodical, culling out portions of the Republic, establishing his own followers as governors, and ensuring the docile obedience of the new lands before advancing further south. At times he even supported Republic troops against the Anakim, all the better to ensure that the Gyre did not collapse completely before he could take control of it. His final victory came some eight hundred years ago, when the last Senate of the Republic voted to accept his rule. Resistance was pointless by that time, with the very existence of the Republic hinging on the Reaping King’s forbearance and the protection of the Black Brass Legion. With the dissolution of the Vothite Republic, the Reaping King was the unquestioned immortal ruler of all the human lands of the Gyre. His rule was a relatively light-handed one. Tributes of labor and goods were exacted for his grand capital of Ka-Adun, and a quota of slaves were required to staff his human armies and serve the noble families of his first followers, but such demands were considerably less than what he could have extracted from the beaten Vothites. The governors of the provinces were allowed a relatively free hand with their people, provided the growing citystate of Ka-Adun received its expected tributes, and the strength of the Black Brass Legion ensured a modicum of peace on the border and between the states. The Reaping King remained a mystery to most, however, dwelling always within his folded palace in vast Ka-Adun and communicating with the outside world through slave-officials and favored Adunic nobles. His wives were in the thousands, but only a handful ever saw him, and no true progeny were ever recorded. Only on certain ritual occasions were even the nobility permitted to gaze upon their lord, and the commoners were allowed to know him only by the commands he handed down. It was not until two hundred years ago that the Reaping King’s rule was truly shaken. One of the periodic Anak invasions erupted from the south, but this time the Black Brass Legion was present only in trivial numbers. The pleas from the viceroy of Emed were ignored, and his entire province of Emed-Dar was wiped out by the exultant Blighted. Only the desperate efforts of the warriors of Llaigis, the followers of the Sixteenth Prophet, and the hastily-gathered forces of the other provinces were able to hold the Anakim back from further conquests. The questions that flew north to Ka-Adun never received useful answers. In desperation, the provincial governors curtailed their tributes to Ka-Adun, pleading the necessities of war; when no chastisement came, this curtailment became permanent. The rulers obeyed the other commands that came from the Hepatizon Throne, but their traditional attendance at the Reaping King’s

court was gradually omitted, and in time even their lesser obediences were performed less fastidiously. This abandonment came to a head a hundred years ago, when a new Anak invasion was repelled without the slightest help from Ka-Adun or the Black Brass Legion. Infuriated by the neglect, the lords of the remaining provinces resolved to treat the Hepatizon Throne with the same indifference they had received. A few maintain polite fictions of submission, but they no longer pay the slightest attention to the wishes of the Reaping King, and King in turn no longer sends them commands. Were it not for Ka-Adun’s importance as a port on the Carcereal Sea and the taxes he takes from goods traded there, it is questionable whether he could maintain even the populated zone of his capital city. As it is, countless noble houses of the Hegemony have been thrown into dire poverty as their provincial lands are confiscated and their traditional tribute neglected. For a century they have dwindled, making do with what resources they have, until now only a handful can still maintain some pretense of their former wealth. Hegemonic nobles without such fortune have found themselves reduced to serving as advisors, tutors, and the occasional hiresword for provincial lords. The remaining open province surrounding the massive megalopolis of Ka-Adun is now a welter of petty warlords and desperate robber-princes, plundering their neighbors for the wealth to continue on a little longer. Forty years ago a tide of war swept over the Gyre states, each of them snapping at the others to become the new hegemon of the region. The results of this Autumn War were singularly inconclusive, with borders shifting somewhat but nothing more accomplished beyond a great loss of life and a seeding of grudges. The struggle was over within a year, but it was enough to leave the successor states licking their wounds and plotting to better their position. Now, a new season of war is feared to be at hand. The Anakim have been quiet, perhaps too quiet, and their attention has been distracted by the crusaders of their cousins in Sarul. The successor states eye each other warily, wondering which of them is to be first to declare war, and which of them might be the first to perish. And in the north, the Reaping King sits silent in his folded halls, the Black Brass Legion never departing far from the megalopolis. It is an uneasy season for all in the Gyre, and there is little that promises a kinder age to come.

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The Nations and Features of the Gyre The following pages describe the major nations of the Gyre and their qualities. Aside from the great human polities of the region, however, there are a number of points of interest to be found. In addition, numerous small arratus, minor ruins, forgotten citadels, or Outsider enclaves can be found throughout the Gyre, unremarked here but of great significance to their near neighbors. The Ashblight: A vast southern arratu that extends into the ancient lost provinces of the pre-Hegemony Gyre. The Anak hordes that crushed Emed-Dar poured out of the Ashblight and the losers of their endless quarrels inhabit it still. The craggy terrain is dominated by monstrous fungal growths that exhale choking, ash-like spores that root in the unfortunate or unprepared. The monstrous fauna of the arratu is a mix of amorphous, tentacular Outsider beasts and luckless native creatures that have been colonized by the fungus, thus rendered immortal and insane by the parasitism. The Black Spine: A towering mountain range that marks the western edge of the Gyre. The vast height and near-impenetrable wall of the mountains catches the western rains; were it not for the constant venting of the Font on the eastern side of the mountains, much of the Gyre would be a desert. The Black Spine is riddled with ancient Outsider facilities and Sorcerer-King outposts. The danger of their high peaks makes mining or herding too perilous for ordinary souls to attempt. The Blind Marsh: A product of the Black Spine’s rain-catching and a constant outflow of water from the mountain range’s roots, the Blind Marsh is a boggy Hell of voracious plants, venomous beasts, and amphibian abominations. Scholars believe it was once a coastal stronghold of the Polop, and some of those Outsiders and their ruins may lurk there still. The Carceral Sea: Like most seas of the Latter Earth, sailing far on the Carceral Sea is tremendously dangerous. Huge Outsider sea-monsters prowl the waves, many of them as intelligent as humans in their own way, and the vicious Polop are jealous of intruders into their domain. Unpredictable ocean currents, lethal atmospheric disturbances, and blindly dangerous megastructures only compound the risk. Sorcerously-augmented ships might have some chance of making it across the sea, but the traders and pirates that ply the northern coast seldom dare to lose sight of land. Emed-Dar: Once the jewel of the southern provinces of the Hegemony, Emed-Dar was overwhelmed by the Anak two hundred years ago. Its fertile fields, beautiful cities, and peaceful villages were annihilated, and it was only by a desperate struggle at the

Usuldarum River that the forces of Llaigis and the remaining Emedians were able to hold the line. The Anak have ruled Emed-Dar ever since, occupying themselves chiefly in murdering each other and raiding the surrounding lands. Despite the long arm of the Ashblight that has spread into Emed-Dar, much of the land remains rich and good, should the Anak ever be driven back into the arratu. The Font: A tremendous megastructure that predates even Outsider rule, the Font is a mile-wide well of perpetually-overflowing water, the drainage rolling down the eastern slopes to eventually form the headwaters of the Usuldarum River. Numerous broken control structures ring the Font, with evidence of ancient tubing suggesting that the Font was once the main water source for some long-vanished megalopolis or far-buried Deep. Lost Emed: Emed-Dar was not the first part of Emed to be lost. In the early days of the Vothite Republic, before a stable confederacy could be achieved, Anak raiders from the Ashblight succeeded in rolling over the ancient province of Emed-Mar.The destruction of certain Vothite Workings there and the last desperate efforts of the Emedians caused an ecological eruption that turned much of the area into a steaming jungle of viciously dangerous plants and native fauna. To this day, countless Maran cities and towns remain lost within the green shadows of the place, their relics guarded by Maran automatons, furious shades, and those Anak jungle clans that have learned to adapt to the environment. The Mirewash: The waters of the Usulmot River flow into this depression, swelled by the runoff from the Black Spine. The marshy bog has always been a favored retreat for rebels and refugees from the Reaping King’s rule and today its seclusion serves to cloak a considerable number of fallen Hegemony officials and beggar-nobles. Many family treasures and stolen goods are carried to the Mirewash, but few come out without bloodshed. The Plains of the Iron Sky: This great arratu has been partially dislocated from the surrounding reality; the sky within it is a perpetual shade of dull iron and the air is an unbreathable, choking haze like that favored by certain Outsiders. Only adventurers with special tools or sorcery can venture within to plunder the ruins that dot its gray, waterless sands. Not all of those ruins are human, and sages suggest that one of the ruined cities within the Plains was actually translocated from a different world. The Rebel Coast: Once part of Ka-Adun’s administrative sphere, the cities of the Rebel Coast split off over a century ago to make their own way. That way consists largely of intercine warfare, piracy, and a kaleidoscopic shift of rising and falling princes. The

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coastal cities send considerable trade to the First City of Ka-Adun, but the inland princelings and the machinations of the rival cities keep the coast in a constant state of low-level turmoil. The Sisters: A refuge for the boldest and maddest of the Gyre’s pirates, those seamen skilled enough to cross the narrows from the mainland without incident will find a few small, thickly forested islands and the single ramshackle town of Spray to serve their needs with whatever might be available. The “uninhabited” islands are favorite refuges for wizards and worse, their lairs made in the ancient ruins that are common there. Indeed, the arratu on the largest isle appears to be a festering mass of heaving alien life that’s completely overgrown the miles-wide top of some ancient, sunken megalopolis’ highest tower. The Tombwater: The depth of the Tombwater is unknown, but scholars agree that somewhere at the bottom, some ancient pumping device is forcing a river’s worth of water up to the surface. Most credit the mere as a fallen-in Deep, the miles-long tunnels and galleries of the ancient working now filled with dark, silty water. Explorers along the southern coast of the Tombwater have found numerous surface ruins from the age of the Sorcerer-King, and some villages of demihumans or exiles have made homes out of these remains. The White Waste: The climate of the Gyre is fairly temperate, being cooler in the north and somewhat

hotter in the south, but the White Waste is an anomaly created by the ancient Working at its heart. Within its zone of effect the temperature is usually below freezing, with occasional thin snowfalls or white-out blizzards sweeping across the barren land. Most believe the disruption to be produced by some damaged ancient xenoforming Working, but a few claim that the waste is a product of an ancient Sorcerer-King’s experiment gone awry. Whatever the cause, only the desperate venture into the Waste, and then only to plunder the frozen dead of the installations and small Deeps that can be found beneath the snows.

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Emed-Kist A loosely-bound monarchy, Emed-Kist is ruled from the city of Medek, where the Great King deals with the numerous barons, earls, and dukes that hold ancestral fiefs throughout the kingdom. The lords are constantly conniving to weaken royal power, while the king relies on the merchants and commoners to give teeth to his pronouncements. Emed-Kist was once the backwater frontier of the kingdom of Emed-Dar, a loose patchwork of tribal chieftains, isolated ethnic groups, Darian colonial towns, and villages of arratu-reclaimers, with a not-inconsiderable fragment of Old Vothite nobility who had fled their falling empire. When Emed-Dar was drowned under the Anakim hordes two hundred years ago, vast numbers of refugees flooded into the eastern frontier, overwhelming the existing structures of authority. The Kistian refugees coalesced around a minor cadet branch of the Darian royal house, elevating its patriarch as the first “Great King” of Emed-Kist. The Great King claims nominal rule over all of former Emed-Dar, but in practice, his authority extends only to the Kistian borderand that, only to a degree. The former tribal chieftains, Vothite thought-houses, provincial governors, and minor ethnarchs were raised to noble ranks commensurate with their influence, and their traditional lands assigned to them as royally-granted fiefs. Ever since then, the old nobility of Emed-Kist have waged a halfhearted struggle against royal authority while jealously guarding their ancient privileges and the autonomy of their fiefs. The refugee Darians had no particular loyalty to these new lords, and the villages they founded and the towns they swelled had a much deeper tie to the king than to their nominal local overlords. Numerous royal rights and protections were granted to them, limiting the degree to which their lords could tax them, enlist their labor, or conscript them for war. As a consequence, the lords rely chiefly on their own ancient kindred, enlisting them as soldiers and officials in their domain. This leaves the heirs of the Darian refugees with little prospect of advancement outside of mercantile wealth or service to the king, leaving it the present case that hardly any feudal officials are Darian, and hardly any royal servants are of the Old Kistian peoples. This tension can occasionally erupt into violence. Some fiefs are relatively calm, with the Darians and the native locals forced into cooperation by external threats or reconciled by a skillful lord’s rule. Others are bitter, sullen places with a restive Darian population under the hard hands of a lord and people who view them as little better than colonial invaders. While the combined military strength of the lords and their kin-armies is vastly greater than any of the standing forces of the Great King, their ancient grudges and the shared hostility of the Darian commoners keeps them nominally subject to the will of the throne.

Population Approximately1,000,000 humans and demihumans. The capital of Medek has perhaps 50,000 citizens. Government Great King Syet Lun rules through vassal dukes, marquises, counts, and barons. Towns and cities are held directly of the king by chiefs and mayors. Problems Border raids from Sarulite bandits or the Anakim of Emed-Kist are common perils. The feudal lords are constantly quarreling over land The Darian-descended newcomers and the native Kistians dislike and distrust each other Names The non-Darian peoples have their own name customs which often vary considerably from those below. Male: Suen, Lauw, Kham, Wan, Kang, Tuok, Shway, Kwo, Sam, Zan, Bo, Pak, Hun, Gyat, Kin, Byet Female: Kata, Jena, Jaia, Zaia, Sami, Pai, Zena, Kaia, Ji, Kanna, Hana, Fei, Ani, Dani, Juni, Chana Family Names: Gow, Lyak, Tau, Jwei, Kej, Lien, Mak, Dek, Seng, Zju, Myan, Kwai, Xong, Jiet, Kyan Character Concepts Darian freebooter, Fallen noble heir, Rebel Kistian, Mercenary sellsword, Disgraced official, Displaced refugee, Wandering troubadour, Runaway peasant Every fief of Emed-Kist has its own ancient traditions, customs, and quirks, kept fastidiously by the natives and respected only at convenience by the Darians dwelling there. In the rare harmonious domains, the two groups mingle socially and may even live together; in others, there are Darian villages and native villages, and their interactions are at arm’s length. Most of the market towns and major cities are populated chiefly by Darians, and it is through this influence that they control much of the liquid wealth of the kingdom. The great vassals are perpetually annoyed by the fact that most trade towns are direct vassals of the king, and not the local lord. The present Great King is gravely worried about this division in his kingdom. He would like very much to pronounce a grand crusade of reconquest into Emed-Dar, there to reclaim the lost kingdom and unite his bickering people in a shared dream of their former glory. This plan has considerable support even among the native lords, for they imagine that the Darians may then all go back to their own country. Despite this, the Great King has been unable to quell the grudges and mistrust among the feudal lords, and any great commitment of military force into Emed-Dar would leave the state easy prey for an attack by Llaigisan warlords or a greedy Vothite Senate.

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Ka-Adun Ka-Adun is a city and a province both, the former so vast that it is almost the province itself. When the Reaping King landed in the ancient port city a thousand years ago, it was little more than the crumbled remnants of some ancient Vothite coastal garrison. By the time he finished his conquest of the Gyre two centuries later, it was a vast metropolis that has only grown in the centuries since. The heart of Ka-Adun is the “First City”, the original port on the Carceral Sea. Almost all the remaining inhabitants of the city dwell there, with food grown in cleared areas of the new city or sent down the mighty Usuldarum River as payment for foreign goods. It is the last outpost of true authority for the Brass Hegemony, and the nobles and officials who rule there do so with desperate vigilance. Beyond the First City is the legacy of a thousand years of tireless construction by the automatons of the Black Brass Legion and uncounted slave laborers. Mile upon mile of paved streets and pale buildings and endless tunnels and vaults all stretch out for leagues in every direction, encasing the earth in structures of stone and alien metal brought up from the Deeps. This “new city” was intended for the Welcoming, a promised time of greeting when the kindred of the Reaping King will come to take possession of the entire continent. No such kindred have ever come, and few seriously believe they ever will. The Reaping King orders the Legion to raise new structures but the artisans who design them and the human laborers who remain to toil do so only for the sake of their pay and the hope of security. The vast majority of the new city stands wholly empty, with pockets of bandits, monsters, rebels, and worse making petty baronies and miserable dominions in palaces and gardens meant for those who will not come. The Black Brass Legion shows no interest in such intruders, too absorbed in the work of further construction. Every month, a welter of trading vessels make port in Ka-Adun. Most are coasters from along the Rebel Coast to the east, taking produce and plunder to the markets in order to trade under the eye of nominally neutral masters. More precious by far are the Yellow Ships that come at unpredictable times in a season, bearing wondrous goods from across the Carceral Sea. The delicacies, fabrics, mechanisms, grimoires, and priceless raw materials they bring draw merchants from throughout the Gyre and the interest of wealthy grandees from every corner of the realm. The men of the Yellow Ships go veiled and silent, communicating through manlike slaves that speak their thoughts. To rob them is punishable by a hideous death at the hands of the Hegemony. The great city of Ka-Adun does not absorb the whole of its province, though it is intended to eventually do so. Outside the new city, noble estates and grand retreats were built in former centuries for the refreshment of Adunic nobility. Since the collapse of the Hegemo-

Population Perhaps 500,000 people still remain in the province, a quarter of them packed into the First City, another quarter in various pockets in the new city, and the rest in the remaining rural area of the province. Government The Reaping King is silent in his folded palace. Currently, the Grand Censor Euphon leads the strongest party in the First City’s political mire. Problems Rebels and worse are forming small statelets within the empty structures of the new city. Ka-Adun has a noble class far too large to be supported by the commoners without oppression. The Reaping King seems totally indifferent to his own government, leading to chaos in the palace. Names Male: Arcadius, Constantine, Damianus, Demetrios, Phocas, Valens, Basil, Alexios, Belisarius Female: Ariadne, Eulogia, Eudokia, Irene, Sophia, Zoe, Thekla, Theodota, Helena, Anastasia Family Names: Komnenos, Phokas, Cydones, Lascaris, Psellos, Dalassa, Prodromus, Xiphilinos Character Concepts Beggar-noble scion, Out-of-work clerk, New city robber, Escaped slave, Coastal pirate, New city builder, Urban merchant, Impoverished functionary ny, these estates have become strongholds for desperate beggar-princes, ones who no longer receive their largesse from the Reaping King nor the fruits of their expropriated provincial estates. They maintain the old elegance of Ka-Adun with grim determination, many refusing to accept the present situation as anything but a temporary inconvenience to be remedied when the Reaping King finally sees fit. In the meanwhile, they collect “taxes” from their serfs and plunder each other in the name of fairly sharing the wealth due to the nobility. Many employ devices or Workings created during the height of the Hegemony and poorly maintained since. The numbers of magical disasters and unplanned arcane events in KaAdun dwarf those elsewhere. The broken nobility rule over a common populace that once made their living as servants to the great or laborers on their vast estates. Many are gone now, having fled into the Rebel Coast in hopes of better prosperity or perished to banditry or plundering. Those that remain are left to either huddle in the First City under the eye of the Reaping King’s chief servants or to seek the patronage of some beggar-prince who has the strength to protect them from his foes. Many are disappointed in their search.

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Llaigis Grim Llaigis is a half-tamed land of wild hillsides, trackless forests, pockets of arratu badlands and the looming peaks of the Black Spine to the west. Throughout the past two millenia it has always been a backwater land for the desperate and the strong, its few cities built on the bones of prior civilizations and its farming hamlets hemmed in by perils. Llaigis offers little to those living there. Its fields are unremarkable, its forests dangerous to exploit, and its hills not unduly burdened with riches. Its isolation, however, has made it a favorite refuge for exiled sorcerers, fallen nobility, and unacceptable cults. The ruins these refugees have left behind often contain precious remnants from a former age, and so relic-plundering has provided the Llaigisan people with rare opportunities for riches. For all else, the people of Llaigis turn to steel. They fight each other for the meager wealth of their fields and mines when they cannot find more profitable work fighting for foreigners willing to pay for their savage strength. Llaigisan sellswords and mercenary bands are found throughout the Gyre in the employ of any master who has the silver and bread to hire them. While they are a brutal lot even by the standards of the Gyre they are not ignorant of military discipline or incapable of subtle tactics. The ordinary Llagisan farmer knows as much of a warband’s work as most common soldiers elsewhere. The folk of Llaigis sharpen their skills not only on each other, but on the grim foes that emerge from the south and the ruins of Emed-Dar. The Anakim who destroyed that nation make a habit of raids north into Llaigis, and every savage warband must be turned back with blood and steel. The arratu that have festered in Emed-Dar send their own share of abominations to harry the people of Llaigis, and the considerable stretches of their own infected lands add to the burden. In such a harsh land military might is the final justification for any ruler. Each patch of land has its baron, chieftain, prince, duke, pontiff, headman, or autarch to claim it, and each one proves his claim by the number of warriors he can direct into battle. Those warriors must be fed, of course, and so heavy taxes and cruel exactions are commonplace among the peasantry. Many such serfs yearn to be accepted into a lord’s retinue and win a place in the warband, but a lord can afford to accept only the best warriors into their service. King Hulit in the great, vile city of Gathis is the foremost of these warlords, with a legion of warriors ten thousand strong to carry out his will. While his might is more than a match for any single rival, there are enough great lords in the country that he cannot act with complete impunity. He makes bargains with his subordinates, trading them license to act as they wish in exchange for obedience in matters important to him. He rose to rule the city by his cunning, but he fears his son lacks the wit to keep it once he is gone.

Population Approximately 800,000. Gathis, its largest and most decadent city, has 40,000 inhabitants. Government King Hulit of Gathis is the foremost of a half-dozen kings, princes, and primates. In practice, the law belongs to whatever warlord is nearest to hand. Problems Llaigis’ government is unstable and constantly subject to disruption by ambitious warlords. Anakim and monsters from Emed-Dar are forever crossing the southern border. Numerous vile cults and loathsome groups operate with relative impunity within Llaigis’ borders. Names Male: Goruk, Hroth, Lagan, Gurm, Narhak, Kroth, Yarog, Bolg, Yirn, Jagan, Mirtok, Fulvik Female: Sarra, Tarsha, Miluni, Haru, Nira, Laheli, Bolga, Guthli, Jireela, Minna, Hejati, Kalana Family Names: Rare outside of membership in some important dynasty or clan. Most distinctions are by epithets or places, where it matters. Character Concepts Untamed barbarian, Decadent thief, Grizzled mercenary, Hard-bitten village defender, Reclusive hunter, Abandoned concubine, Former cultist, Warband survivor, Ruin robber, Escaped slave Gathis itself is a city that feeds on the wealth its soldiers bring it, either as tribute from its subject settlements or as silver brought from foreign paymasters. Filthy delights and abhorrent pleasures are to be found there, along with rare delicacies from afar and plundered opulence from ages past. Gathis makes little itself, but it feeds on what its people bring it. Gathis, like most of the cities in Llaigis, is built atop a buried and ruined city of ages past, presumably one of the cities of the Rule of Shun that ended more than a thousand years ago. That grim sorcerer-king’s land extended over much of present-day Llaigis and his places of power can still be found deep in the forests and hills. While generations of Llaigisan adventurers have plundered many of these sites, there are always new ones being discovered in some hidden copse or revealed beneath a hollowed hillside. More than the past lingers in Llaigis, however. With the warlords so indifferent to any matters but their own advantage, Llaigis is a fertile ground for the planting of unseemly cults and dark conspiracies. There are many groups operating in the country that would never be tolerated in a more orderly realm, and sometimes the lords themselves find uses for their dark arts.

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New Voth New Voth is a land lavishly endowed with the trappings of rule. Ancient ruins of the Vothite Empire lie beneath the foundation stones of Republic-era structures, and atop them stand the palaces of the Hegemonic governors that once ruled this land as regents for the Reaping King. Now all those old lords are gone, and New Voth’s people are eager to regain their former place in the world. New Voth is the sole significant republican state of the Gyre. All of its neighbors are under the hand of oligarchs, warlords, or hereditary nobles, but in New Voth alone the Senate can be found as proud representatives of their fellow citizens. Each of the hundred and one districts within the borders grants full suffrage to every land-owning citizen and the right to choose their representative Senator every four years. As any proud Vothite would tell you, it’s only natural that the Senators so elected should be the richest and most influential people in their home district, or the favored choices of those men and women. Admittedly, their interests are perhaps better-protected than those of the common citizenry, and the consequences for opposing these favored candidates can be very unfortunate, and some senatorial seats are practically the hereditary property of certain powerful dynasties, but still, they serve at the leave of the people. The Vothites are proud of their civilized and educated populace and their fierce independence from any outside rule. They were the last to bow to the Reaping King’s legions at the Hegemony’s rise to power, and the first to refuse him tribute when the Legion no longer came. They deplore the hidebound classism of the Thurians, the brutality of the Llaigisans, and the blood-consciousness of the folk of Emed-Kist. There is little doubt in New Voth that their own ways of self-reliance, industrious effort, and determined personal improvement are the best. To the Vothites, personal self-determination is something sacred. They have inherited a horror of all mind-influencing sorceries from their imperial predecessors and even today, the proven use of telepathic or mind-bending magics is a capital crime. In the same vein, New Voth and Sarul are the only provinces of the Gyre where privately-owned slaves are outlawed; in Sarul because the Church assumes its parishoners would inevitably use slaves as occasions for sin, but in New Voth because the people consider it an unforgivable crime against freedom. The Vothites did relatively well in the Autumn War forty years ago, and popular feeling still believes that the ancient Republic should be reformed, whether by diplomacy or steel. Only the fear of uniting their neighbors in an alliance against them currently stays their hand. The love of independence and free thought has spawned numerous small communities of like-minded men and women, along with communes, social pacts, religious retreats, and other self-chosen settlements. Some

Population Around 1,500,000 total inhabitants, with the capital city of Clarum holding 150,000, the second-largest city in all the Gyre. Government A hundred and one senators make laws to be carried out by functionaries and bureaus they appoint, but these agents are often pawns of the magnates Problems A senatorial faction wants to increase its influence by conquering new districts from surrounding lands Slave traders are furious at their inability to travel in New Voth with their stock, and demand concessions. Popular feeling is for war with their “backward and wicked” neighbors to impose republican government Names Male: Brogimar, Domnu, Epon, Olor, Mertom, Tecto, Rigos, Volcan, Marku, Torix, Maros, Taskos Female: Adia, Camma, Inda, Mara, Epona, Manisa, Sibylla, Teria, Beka, Milya, Xanthe, Korai Family Names: Ankyra, Gordon, Clow, Konion, Angra, Bedu, Midai, Vanak, Attis, Secrops, Lycas Character Concepts Badlands prospector, Runaway foreign slave, Debt victim, Aspiring entrepreneur, Political party agent, Ambitious peasant, Ignored Hegemonic noble heir, Freedom fighter are established on philosophical grounds, while others are simply towns where the locals think new profit is to be had. A surprisingly large number of Vothites are arratu settlers, willing to risk death to tame the wastes. In many ways, New Voth is a gold rush nation, one eager to burst free of a thousand years of alien rule. Strangers and expatriates are welcomed so long as they offer something to their neighbors, and the broad tracts of land once held by absent Hegemonic nobles are being thrown open to new settlers. Old ruins once sealed off by cautious Hegemony governors are now open to plunder and explore, and the arratu wastes that former viceroys found unprofitable are now being parceled out to newcomers willing to risk their unearthly perils. Yet this new exuberance comes with an equal measure of roughness. The losers in this great game are given little mercy, and a man without silver in his pocket or a friend to hold him up has little hope for help. The strong are eager for workers and serfs, and while slavery is forbidden in New Voth, the employment of rough-handed “persuaders” is easier to hide. On the frontiers of New Voth many things are done that are not in accordance with the laws, and there are few officials or senators interested in righting such wrongs without being paid for it.

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Sarul Sarul is a great rarity; a nation composed almost entirely of Blighted. Most of the natives are Anakim, savage warborn Blighted imbued with an intrinsic hatred of humanity and brutal instincts of violence, cruelty, and malice. Others are different breeds of Blighted, those crippled and maimed by ancient curses or magical alterations that make it all but impossible for them to live peacefully in human lands. All, however, are devotees of the nameless Bleeding God, an ancient deity promulgated by the Sixteenth Prophet some two hundred years ago, when the Anakim swept over Emed-Dar and threatened to destroy all the western Gyre. The prophet’s tremendous martial prowess and invincible charisma formed the seed of Sarul, and it continued to expand until his death some thirty years later. Its borders have been relatively stable since then, despite the constant attacks by the Anakim of Emed-Dar and the uneasy peace Sarul holds with Emed-Kist. The Bleeding God’s teachings are simple: he is the only true god, all thinking life is wicked and deserving of damnation, and it is only by the Bleeding God’s self-sacrifice and love that any are spared from eternal suffering. The Blighted are cursed with evil hearts, perhaps, but they are not fundamentally different from baseline humans and no more damned than their brethren. By faith in the Bleeding God and obedience to his teachings both baseline and Blighted may be forgiven their evils and saved in the world to come. As a consequence, it is the Church that rules Sarul, from the village priests and priestesses to the Bishop-Generals that rule cities and the mighty Red, White, and Black Pontiffs who are chosen from among the bishops. The command of a cleric is law to the commoners, and a predictable amount of corruption, wickedness, and selfishness comes from this authority. The Church itself expects as much due to its theological principles, and so the Inquisition within its ranks never lacks for work. Sarulite law is brutal and direct. Much petty crime that would bring severe punishment in other lands is held lightly here; brawling, mugging, minor theft, unlawful adultery, and public disturbances are met with on-thespot beatings or fines and then dismissed. Serious crimes such as murder, rape, maiming, blasphemy, treason, or assault on a cleric are answered by summary execution, usually carried out by the nearest available Church crusader. These judgments are not always fair, proven, or merited, but the Church is convinced that only through merciless law can any kind of peace be kept in the nation. Outside scholars argue over whether or not they are right. The villages and towns of Sarul are crude, poor, and dangerous. Fistfights and bare-handed robbery are common, advanced learning is a province almost exclusively of the clergy, and many of the cities and towns are built in the ruins of earlier, more materially advanced civilizations. Bandits and worse are common on the roads.

Population Approximately 400,000 Anakim and other Blighted. The capital of Uzag has 20,000 residents. Government The Red, Black, and White Pontiffs of the Church of the Bleeding God are the absolute rulers of Sarul, their personal identities known to few. Problems Corruption within the Church is a constantly-fought menace at all levels of the organization. The Anakim of Emed-Dar hate the Sarulites as traitors and rivals for control of the southern Gyre. Blighted within Sarul can cause significant problems due to their own cursed needs or psychology. Names Male: Abdi, Arakhu, Balasu, Anshar, Dakuri, Izdu, Gamil, Kha, Kullani, Makru, Suzub, Urukh, Zabu Female: Belit, Shala, Kishar, Aralu, Mylitta, Rubati, Gula, Damkina, Sunat, Serua, Zirra, Sarae, Kalu Family Names: Largely unknown. Individuals may have epithets of their role, church rank, father, clan, or village when a distinction must be made. Character Concepts Secret unbeliever, Crusader sent wandering, Blighted seeking refuge, Escaped criminal, Framed innocent, Adventurous Anak peasant, Cleric out to convert, Merchant adventurer, Hunted infidel While the Blighted of Sarul are lacking in the civil arts, no one disputes their terrifying martial prowess. The crusaders of the Bleeding God are some of the most fearsome cavalry troops in the Gyre, many of them still riding the fanged coursers of their tribal ancestors. They fight constantly with warbands from Emed-Dar, Blighted bandits and renegades within Sarul, and the least of them is a hardened veteran of war. Their Blighted instincts of warlike aggression have been channeled and directed by the Church, and they fight with a combination of joy and pious cruelty that disquiets even their allies. There are very few baseline humans or demihumans in Sarul. The Anak urge to kill baselines can only be shackled by the laws of the Church, not erased, and human visitors are advised to go cloaked and avoid dealing with those Anakim not verified in their ability to control their innate Hate. The continued company of a crusader or other Anak in authority is advised for such safety as it can bring. Visitors who do not share the faith of the Bleeding God are counseled to be strictly silent about matters of religion. While unbelievers and backsliders are by no means unknown within Sarul, any cleric who suspects a stranger of spreading a false faith will act accordingly.

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Thur Thur is a land of fragile wealth and delicately-balanced prosperity. Numerous ancient Workings still function in Thur, survivals from the age of the Vothite Republic. While relatively delicate and in need of regular maintenance, their distance from the capital in New Voth spared them from much of the violence of war and allowed their Thurian caretakers to profit from their ancient power. These Workings provide raw energies of heat, light, and motion to their attached factories and infrastructure. Every town of significance is built around such a Working, with the factories and pumping stations at the heart of the town and the residential quarters encircling them. Great buried leytubes snake outward to surrounding villages and estates, providing smaller measures of energy to light heatless lamps at night and provide hot running water and smokeless warmth to those wealthy enough to afford a connection. The great engines and factories of Thur are capable of producing large amounts of consumer goods, granted sufficient raw materials imported from New Voth, Ka-Adun, and Emed-Kist. The standard lifestyle of a Thurian commoner is as comfortable and well-fed as a knight of Emed-Kist or a Llaigisan slave merchant. Many sophisticated goods are made in Thur, including most of the functioning hurlants found in the Gyre. Ruling over the common laborers and countryfolk of Thur are the Gentry, a class belonging to the Great Guilds that command Thur. These Guilds are heirs to the maintenance workers who kept the Workings running, and their de facto control of Thur’s wealth has ensured their domination over the military powers of the state. The High Masters are in charge of each guild’s affairs, and every five years they elect one among them to serve as Grand Master and first among equals. Many of these Guilds no longer have any functioning arcanotechnical knowledge, their arts having decayed under the shifting of the Legacy or the Workings they once kept having since been lost. Even so, tradition and their entrenched political power have kept the Guilds in firm control of Thur, with every position loftier than a village clerk being filled by one Guild member or another. Membership in the Guilds is not hereditary. Every Gentry candidate must successfully graduate from one of a number of elite schools originally founded to pass on the arcanotechnical arts. Certain Guilds will accept recruits only from certain schools, and the loftiest and mightiest will accept only from the best of them. While a Guild member might expect to find a place for one or perhaps two of their children, only extensive connections and dearly expensive bribes can ensure that all of a family’s children have a hope of joining the Gentry as well. The schools are hotbeds of politics, treachery, and the occasional assassination. Rivals are expelled via blackmail and bribery, and unworthy candidates are passed through with enough “encouragement” from a patron.

Population Approximately 1,200,000. Its capital of Highbridge has a hundred thousand permanent residents. Government Grand Master Ellia Grinton of the Hydrotheurgic Guild leads the High Masters of Thur. Other senior guild members act as officials, mayors, and chiefs. Problems The Gentry schools are increasingly corrupt, with rankings and expulsions bought and sold. The Workings the nation relies upon are very vulnerable to sabotage and focused attacks. The damage of the Autumn War forty years ago has caused serious infrastructure problems. Names Male: James, Edward, Thomas, Henry, Theodore, William, Philip, Cuthred, Hugh, Owen, Harold Female: Mary, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Anne, Emily, Gwyn, Felicia, Penny, Susan, Olivia, Morwen Family Names: Usually by place or an ancestor’s trade, such as Cooper, Smith, Witch, or Watermaster. Foreign names from immigrants are not unknown. Character Concepts Expelled school candidate, Workings maintenance mage, Ambitious guildsman, Hard-used common laborer, Demimonde denizen, Immigrant with something to prove, Fugitive debt-slave Even so, sometimes a remarkably talented commoner might be allowed to enter one of the lesser schools. Unsurprisingly, many outsiders would love to live in Thur, enjoying the comparative luxury and comfort of the land. Thurians are very selective about who they allow to settle permanently, however; adventurers and travellers can pass through with minimal difficulty, but winning permanent residence requires the patronage of the Gentry, and that kind of favor never comes cheap. Foreigners with business in Thur are given passes at the border, and the Gentry are not gentle with interlopers who are found without those documents or who have overstayed their allowed time. Alas, Thur’s prosperity has been on a steady downward slide since the Autumn War forty years ago, when Vothite armies sacked several important border cities and destroyed their Workings. The remaining facilities can barely keep up with the current load on them, and outages of light and heat are becoming more common. Without the material comforts that have kept them docile, Thurian commoners are beginning to blame the Gentry for failing at their ancient duty, and accusations of “power theft” and “energy hoarding” are beginning to inspire anger among the populace.

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The People and Languages of the Gyre Most of the inhabitants of the Gyre belong to one of five different major ethnicities, all derived from different mother-populations that emerged from the Deeps at the end of Outsider hegemony. While all of these peoples had their own tongues, customs, and ancient culture, the ensuing thousands of years have largely effaced these old ways, leaving only small tokens behind in the surviving populace. Aside from the five major groups, there are dozens of smaller ethnic groups that derive from surface populations of rebels, Outsider servants, or escapees from the Deeps. Most of the original stock has melted away into the surrounding population, but in isolated areas or frontiers such as Emed-Kist there yet remain a considerable number of these minor populations. Those that derive from Outsider servants are often considerably changed from human baselines, not uncommonly to demihuman degrees of difference. This difference is often the only thing that has kept them from being assimilated into the surrounding population, so the surviving groups tend to be those that had least occasion to mingle with their neighbors or conquerors. Among the five major groups there is relatively little ethnic feeling or solidarity compared to the ties of place and province. A Vothian official in Ka-Adun will care far more for the interests of his peers in the First City than the well-being of his kinsmen in New Voth, and a Khalan in Emed-Kist will fight her own kind at the command of her lord without much concern. Shared ethnicity can be a convenient point of sympathy when two people wish to interact, but it does little to hinder competition or existing loyalties. The minor groups tend to have a different mindset. These small populations simply could not have survived as they did without a keen sense of their own difference and the importance of preserving their own identity. They often refuse to marry outside their own kind and will commonly prioritize the interests of the group over those of outsiders. A steady state of friction with the surrounding majority populations is common, though most long-standing communities have worked out methods of dealing with these strains. Many such small groups survive by being especially useful to the majority in some way, often employing any unique graces they have in the service of the local rulers. Their leadership cultivates patronage relationships with important local powers, and it’s common for the resident duke or local war chief to have them under their personal protection… in exchange for proper tribute.

Major Ethnicities of the Gyre

The five different major groups are found throughout the Gyre. Some may be more densely represented in some nations than others, but seldom would they look out of place in any cosmopolitan center.

Vothians are the people that emerged from the Deep known as the Well of the One Thought, a folk originally led by the first Mentarch of the Vothite Empire, the dreaded Imperator-Queen Voth. They’re found largely in New Voth, with considerable populations of Hegemony servants and officials in Ka-Adun. Refugee thought-houses from the fall of the Empire also left groups of them to be found in Emed-Kist. “Vothian” is the ethnic name they go by; citizens of New Voth or the prior Empire are distinguished as “Vothite” regardless of their bloodline. Vothians tend to be tall, slim, and paleskinned, with black hair and blue eyes. Khalan are the people of the Black Crucible, a terrible punishment-Deep established for unfathomable reasons by the Outsiders. The awful scars that the Deep left on the people and their customs have largely dissipated in the ensuing ages, but unwary adventurers still sometimes stumble on ancient Khalan ruins and the hideous engines within. Some postulate that the excesses of the vile Rule of Shun derived from study of these things. Most Khalan are found in Llaigis, though they are known in Emed-Kist, and a few Vothite river-villages are of their kind. They are a large, broad, bronzed people in the main, with dark or red eyes and hair that ranges from black to various dark hues of red. A few Khalan bloodlines are unusually small, however, rarely exceeding five feet; most think them the heirs of some special-purpose sub-group. The Lin are derived from the people of the Tin Mirror Sky, a false-world Deep fabricated by the Outsiders. The experiment appears to have been loosely monitored, and an unusual number of ancient Lin escaped to add their numbers to the rebels and hunted survivors of the surface world. They once formed the aristocratic elite of Old Emed, with lesser cadet houses as governors in Emed-Kist. When Emed-Dar collapsed, the rush of refugees has left Emed-Kist well-populated by their kind. They are a somewhat short, compact people with skins that range from ivory to dark gold, black hair, and almond eyes that are usually black. Some surface-tribe admixtures have left certain lines with pale hair or light eyes. Olok are the folk of a broken Deep, the Downward Tower, that was disrupted in some Outsider quarrel unintelligible to humanity. Cast on the surface before the fall of Outsider rule, they were harried in a desultory fashion but left largely alone until the eventual fall of alien rule. They concentrated chiefly on the northern coast of the Gyre, forming the original population of the modern state of Ka-Adun. They were the folk the Reaping King first met on his landing, and so formed the backbone of the Hegemony’s aristocracy and laboring classes. They are a very dark-skinned people for the most part, with dark, tightly-curled hair and matching eyes. The marks of their time spent among surface tribes sometimes emerge in different colors and textures of hair or different shades of eyes.

•107 Osrin are the people of modern Thur, having derived mostly from the labor-Deep known as the Turning Vault. When their endless labors on behalf of the Outsiders ended, they emerged into a Gyre that had already been largely dominated by those Deep-dwellers who had emerged earlier. As such, their main population is found mostly in Thur, though considerable numbers of smaller groups are found in almost every other land as the descendants of unsuccessful independent city-states or colonial outposts. They are a folk of average stature, with skin colors ranging from pale cream to ruddy or olive hues. Their hair color is blond or brown, with blues, greens, and hazels most often found for eye colors.

Languages of the Gyre

Each of the five major groups had their own native tongue in the days gone past. Scholars and Deep-raiders sometimes study the written form of these languages to better understand the inscriptions they find, but none of them are spoken today save in the most venerable cultural rituals or by the most zealous enthusiasts. Sages refer to them as Ancient Vothian, Ancient Khalan, and so forth. Trade Cant is a language favored by merchants, adventurers, and travellers, being a pidgin of various tongues found throughout the Gyre. While it has no status as a literary language and scarce any as a written one, a speaker of Trade Cant can generally convey basic ideas and important wishes to most cosmopolitan people in the Gyre, or conduct sophisticated mercantile exchanges with a fellow speaker. Old Vothian was the lingua franca of the Vothite Empire and its subject peoples in the Gyre, gradually supplanting the ancient versions of their own speech and shifting their subjects’ tongues in turn. It’s found on many ancient Workings of the Empire and early Republic, but it is not spoken save by erudite scholars, who often use it as a common language between them. Modern Vothian is the common tongue of the present-day New Voth; while influenced by its neighboring languages, its speakers can often get the general gist of the older tongue. Brass Speech is the tongue of the Hegemony and its servants, being spoken as a mother tongue in Ka-Adun and among the nobles and elites that once served the Hegemony. Aside from being a spoken language, it is found in many Hegemony-era books and inscriptions meant for the use of the Reaping King’s loyal servants. Emedian is the former language of Old Emed, and by extension much of Emed-Kist. Derived from Ancient Lin, it was a poetic tongue of sophistication, grace, and nuance, and it has never lost its reputation as a tongue of literary importance, even during the rule of the Vothite Empire. Thurian is the modernized form of Ancient Osrin that serves as the common tongue of Thur. That nation alone can maintain any effective printing industry, and so popular pulps, newspapers, and extensive arcanotechnical documentation continues to be produced in Thurian.

Llaigisan is a smoothed-over Ancient Khalan, with extensive loans from Emedian and Old Vothian. Considerable amounts of Ancient Khalan vocabulary were excised over the years as being incompatible with peaceful sleep by those familiar with the terms. Anak Speech is the local language spoken by the Anak tribes of the wastes and the people of Sarul. Its roots lie in the servant-speech of the Outsiders who created the first Anakim, and it has nothing to do with any of the modern human tongues. It is crude, simple, and direct, unnuanced in anything but its vocabulary for violence. The Church of the Bleeding God that rules in Sarul finds it necessary to use Old Vothian as its clerical language in order to discuss more sophisticated ideas. Predecessant is a particularly rare and esoteric language known only to the most determined scholars and the most rapacious adventurers. It is the original language of the Reaping King and his first servitors, preserved only in a handful of documents and found on certain strange structures and occult inscriptions within the new city of Ka-Adun. Most believe it to be a language from over the Carceral Sea, spoken by whatever powers sent the Reaping King forth. Preterite is not so much a language as a code, an ancient method of directly communicating with the Legacy. It is impossible to learn Preterite as a mere tongue; scholars can spend their entire lives trying to define the magical and metaphysical significance of a single Preterite glyph. Any mage or learned scholar can recognize the existence of Preterite markings, but even magical spells of translation are useless in giving anything but the crudest, most superficial translation of their meaning. Their presence is usually an indication that the Black Gate to an Iterum is near to hand, or some similar Legacy-working of unearthly power. Outsider tongues are largely incomprehensible to humans, and usually impossible for them to physically produce. Abased is a patois that survives in certain places, a more easily-vocalized pidgin used by many Outsider species of the Gyre region in order to command their slaves. It exists now chiefly in the books of scholars and the memory of adventurers who must often interact with Abased inscriptions in the ancient Deeps. Among the demihuman peoples of the Gyre, the languages spoken are usually those of the surrounding majority. Those descended from some cohesive cultural group may still preserve their ancestral speech, but many of these groups never had one to begin with, being created out of another group’s population, and the “ancestral speech” of two different populations may have been entirely different. Some scholars maintain that the “Recurrent” spoken by some of those transhumans known as “elves” is evidence of a unified origin for that demihuman species. Others believe that the “Deep Speech” of the Outsider-engineered “dwarves” is more a consequence of their intimate involvement with the Legacy and its impact on their communication rather than the result of any unified origin.

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Faiths of the Gyre Every nation in the Gyre has their own selection of favored deities, some shared between peoples and others unique to particular nations, provinces, or even individual cities or villages. Most of these gods are of little interest to adventurers, and a GM who wants to detail them for additional setting flavor can use the tools on page XX. Other gods, however, are more pertinent to an adventurer’s ambitions. They either offer services of special interest, goals that adventurers could either further or oppose, or they are major political authorities in certain areas. The faiths described below are but a few of these.

The Brass Cult

The Reaping King never required formal worship from his subjects, but it was inevitable that some among them would seek to give him the honors due a divinity. Veneration of the King became a mark of nobility and membership in the Hegemonic elite, and even today many elaborate Brass Cult temples can be found in places that were once important to the Hegemony’s aristocracy. Since the Reaping King went silent, the cult has become convinced that inadequate worship and reverence is the cause for his seeming inaction. They loudly preach submission to the Hegemony and return to a strict obedience to Hegemonic officials, a plea that commonly falls on deaf ears. Even so, the Brass Cult is still in possession of substantial wealth and arcane resources given to it by noble believers, and they are able to reward cooperative lords and work vigorously against open enemies of the Hegemony. Most of their aristocratic clergy seek only the stabilization and strengthening of the remaining Hegemonic authority in the Gyre, and will commonly employ adventurers to carry out tasks toward that end.

The Servants of Shun

The Rule of Shun was a centuries-long secessionist movement during the Vothite Republic, during which much of modern Llaigis was taken over by the devotees of a latter-day Sorcerer-King known only as “Shun”. While his bloody kingdom was eventually crushed by a Republican army, his worshipers persist even into the present day in modern Llaigis, New Voth, and Emed-Kist. The Rule of Shun was infamous for its biological experiments and mutated abominations. Modern devotees pray to Shun for deliverance from sickness and injury, and seek his favor in order to gain physical might and martial prowess. The clergy of Shun are privy to many techniques from the fallen Rule and are marvelously effective healers and augmentors. All of them, however, are sworn to aid Shun in being reborn into this world, a process that requires numerous ancient artifacts and a vast supply of “raw materials” from believers and their prey. Once this is done, believers are convinced that they will be the elect of the new age and appointed to rule over the lesser, inferior breeds of the present day.

The Old Lords

Dreaded servants of the ancient Outsiders and their alien gods, the worshipers of the Old Lords are convinced that the rule of the alien tyrants was actually an era of order, harmony, and peace, and that it was only through the treacherous machinations of wicked humanity that the era was ever lost. They blame every modern suffering on human error and point to the vast megastructures of the Deeps as proof that the Outsiders had the power to grant humanity all they could ever desire. Records of suffering, torment, and cruelty are dismissed as Sorcerer-King lies. This faith is usually found in small cells centered around an ancient Outsider control unit or fabrication node, one powered by various rites of submission and sacrifice. The cultists tend to credit any cruelty it inflicts as no more than just punishment for human wickedness, and are rewarded by the goods, powers, or augmentations that the ancient artifice bestows on them. Sometimes actual living Outsiders, particularly Tuhulot, can be found as high priests of these cells, using them for their own purposes and rewarding them for their slavish obedience.

The Golden Path

This faith is convinced of the eternal recurrance of the soul, that every creature is incessantly recycled by the Legacy into new incarnations of suffering, attachment, and loss. Only by liberating the self from any attachment to the world and conducting special rites of disentanglement may a soul be permitted the peace of final unity with the cosmos… or final extinction, depending on the sect’s particular interpretation of their doctrine. The Golden Path has temples that follow the teachings of a host of different “Liberators” who are supposed to have escaped the cycle of life and death. Their doctrines vary from place to place, but their dedication to eliminating suffering makes them a major source of Healers, and numerous temple-schools of the faith instruct candidates in those arts. Extremists of the faith, known commonly as “Wheelbreakers” are convinced that only the destruction of the world can cut short the suffering of existence, and their zealous pursuit of complete nullification of all extant reality has caused more than a few disasters.

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The Bleeding God

Devotees of this faith flatly refuse to recognize the deserved divinity of any other god; to them, the name of their deity is simply “God”, and they distinguish him as the Bleeding God only when they must be clear with nonbelievers. Their church rules the nation of Sarul, but other branches can be found in other nations, usually minor missionary churches and local cells. Outside of the theocracy of Sarul, the only authority is a given nation’s Pontifex, and many regions have more than one of them due to disagreements on theological or political matters. The Bleeding God is depicted as the sole creator, ruler, and judge of the world and the font of all virtue and meaning. Sentient life is hopelessly deficient in virtue, being inescapably wicked and deserving of eternal suffering. The Bleeding God accepted this just punishment on behalf of creation out of love for what he had wrought, and so believers may be redeemed by accepting his sacrifice and striving to follow the teachings of his prophets. Compassion, courage, mercy, truthfulness, and self-discipline are prized by followers. While the ethical standards of the faith are attractive to many, and its promise of an eventual afterlife of joy to faithful believers is appealing, its contempt for human virtue and strict moral demands makes it an unpopular faith in most areas. It’s found most often among Blighted, outcasts, and the lowest social rungs, who find the idea of an all-powerful god that actually cares about their existence to be an exciting novelty.

The Seers of Voth

While worship of the first Mentarch of the Vothite Empire was proscribed during the thousand-year rule of the Republic, it didn’t stop a variety of refugee thought-houses, wary provincial villages, and secret Republic cells from maintaining their rites. With the fall of the Republic and the religious tolerance of the Brass Hegemony, it grew back into a faith that has congregations in almost all the cities and major towns of the Gyre. Voth is held to be the arch-architect of the Gyre, the fathomless mind that set in motion all that has come to pass. Any suffering or misery is the result of deviation from Voth’s great plan and any personal problems can be overcome if the petitioner finds the correct course of action that Voth’s omniscience would direct him to take. Believers work on behalf of Voth’s clergy, carrying out their directions and paying tithes in exchange for oracular knowledge, secret guidance, and practical advice. Even nobles have considerable use for a Seer advisor, as their information networks can often supply any deficiencies of their magical foretelling. Every provincial district has its First Seer to direct and coordinate individual temples, with the First Seers gathering from time to time to further the plans of their enigmatic mistress. These plans are not always salutary for the subjects, though the Seers insist that all must be done lest something worse happen.

110•

Outsiders and the Arratus The aliens that formerly ruled the Latter Earth are innumerable and at least partly indescribable. The conquered world was host to thousands of different alien species, each with their outposts, consulates, and garrisons bent on maintaining their control over humanity and its Legacy. There is no doubt that a considerable number of them would have been just as glad to eradicate the entire species, but the power of the Legacy made such measures impractical; too drastic a genocide risked triggering ancient defense protocols that may have been too much even for the conquerors to have overcome. As a consequence, the Outsiders settled in for an ages-long occupation, punishing, consuming, or “improving” the humans in their charge as they saw fit. The Deeps ensured that the populations were easily controlled, and the rebel surface tribes and the limited number of human directly in service to the Outsiders were of little consequence. During this period the chief interests of the Outsiders lay in their own obscure quarrels and intercine struggles, with wars fought occasionally by human slave armies or Blighted servitors. When the rule of the Outsiders finally collapsed, whether from their own conflicts, the rebellion of the first Sorcerer-Kings, or from some unknowable decision to depart, the remnants left behind were swiftly slaughtered by the avenging human survivors. Those that survived retreated to their best-hidden or most strongly-fortified fastnesses, there to seethe in bitterness. Due to the constant splintering of Iterums, the Outsiders of most iterations of Latter Earth cannot even hope to flee the world. They are trapped forever in the home of their mortal foes. Outsiders hate humans, for as much as a human emotion can describe their attitudes. Some hate them for what they did, others hate them for what they are, and a few hate them for what they might yet become. It is not impossible for an Outsider to form a working relationship with a human, and indeed, some modern communities still have secret ties to Outsider patrons, but such arrangements are almost always born of desperate mutual necessity. A few Outsider species are rumored to have a more benevolent attitude toward humanity, and some might actually be well-disposed toward them… or feigning it for some more awful end. There are three major species of Outsider found within the Gyre, along with more than a dozen lesser species that have been identified in certain remote regions.

Jikegida, the Parasites

Known as the “Stickmen” by some, the Jikegida are an emaciated-looking, bipedal, four-armed humanoid species that stands approximately seven feet tall. They have a chitinous, plate-like outer integument, seven long, slender talon-fingers on each arm, and a long, flat, beetle-like body surmounted by a head with bulging black eyes and mandibular jaws. Due to their reproduction method,

many of them have incongruous body parts or features from their host progenitor, such as human-like faces, furred pelts, pawed feet, horns, or human hands. The Jikegida are semi-immortal once mature, but require immobilized or helpless warm-blooded hosts to reproduce. The larva is implanted along the spinal column, putting the host in a torpid daze that continues while the larva swells to fill their abdominal cavity and digests the less-important tissues of the host. Within a week, surgical removal is impossible without killing the host, and only powerful healing magics have any chance of saving them. After a month, a juvenile Jikegida emerges, killing the host, and then grows to full maturity over a period of five or six years. While any warm-blooded host of sheep size or larger will serve, Jikegida spawned from intelligent, neurally-dense hosts such as humans are more intelligent, bigger, and stronger. The Jikegida favor the use of crossbow-like launchers and other mechanical weapons, as their thin limbs are relatively weak compared to human arms. Their social life revolves around pheromonal exchanges and scent “debates” that resolve theoretical questions of philosophy and ontology that humans can barely categorize, let alone fully understand. As far as human scholars can tell, the Jikegida consider humanity to be nothing but “philosophical zombies”, false machines of flesh that only seem to have emotions and desires, and so are fit only for use. A Jikegida nest is usually built of lightweight plant materials unless they have access to their ancient construction-shells or Blighted slave laborers, whereupon they favor smooth stone buildings with hexagonal masses of shapes and passages. Their technology is usually slightly better than that of nearby humans, but a few of them have access to marvels inherited from their once-dominant ancestors.

Polop, the Sea Kings

The “seamaws” or “fish devils” are never found far from water. A Polop can usually breathe air for as much as a day, but dry climates and extended periods outside of water or away from their life-support equipment doom them to a suffocating death. Most appear as horse-sized, vaguely sexapedal shapes with glabrous, scaled skin, huge, unblinking eyes and a maw of fanged teeth. Their body plan involves six clusters of locomotive and manipulatory appendages evenly paired along either side of their body, each cluster consisting of two to four crab-like legs that end in small “hands” of curved chitinous material. Flexing these limbs and the thin integument between them propels them rapidly underwater, while land movement leaves them in a vaguely centauroid posture, leaving two clusters free to manipulate tools. The Polop are the unquestioned rulers of the Carceral Sea around the Gyre. Coastal raids by Polop harvesters are a commonplace, and every fisherman knows to sail

•111 only in daylight hours, when the fish devils are quiet. Even so, colonies of Polop have been found in the Blind Marsh, the Mirewash and the Tombwater, with some reported around the Font. Even the Usuldarum and Usulmot rivers have known local infestations of these Outsiders. The Polop eat humans. As far as scholars can understand, they find humans to be delicious, but the act of eating them is some sort of religious or philosophical statement of species superiority. “We Who Eat” is the Polop term for themselves, and it’s true that Polop biology appears capable of consuming almost any living creature without ill effects. Some Polop trench-cities contain extensive human breeding pens where captive populations are raised as meat stock. Most humans, however, are eaten shortly after they are taken back to the city. While Polop will eat dead flesh, they find it more satisfying to consume sentient creatures aware of their fate. Polop magic and technology are sophisticated in matters of life support, live-coral construction and the mental domination of monstrous sea life, but their underwater existence leaves them with few high-temperature or high-energy resources. Their great trench-cities are built in the lightless depths, illuminated by phosphorescent masses, while colonies nearer the surface are fabricated of bubbles of pressure-tight coral lattices.

Tuhulot, the Ones Outside

The “folded men” are some of the most alien of Outsiders. They manifest as human-appearing entities but their motions are utterly wrong. Limbs jerk in non-Euclidian ways, voices manifest without moving lips, and their “walk” is a hideous shamble of twitching limbs like some ill-managed puppet. This is because the Tuhulot is not fully present; it is interacting with this world through a single facet of its being, and the interface is inevitably crude. At some point in the unfathomable past, humanity locked the entire Tuhulot species away in some sort of alternate dimension. Only through ages of ferocious effort have they been able to penetrate this far back into our reality and the manifestations they have formed are the best they can do until the remainder of the seal is broken and they can fully incarnate in this world once more. This freedom can be obtained only by destroying certain ancient relics, disrupting certain ancient control sites, and extinguishing certain critical human bloodlines. The Tuhulot are desperate to escape their prison and return to their former rule, and they will do anything to advance this goal by so much as a single step. Tuhulot are never found in groups. They operate as kingmakers and manipulators, using their uncanny powers of spatial and temporal perception to provide information and backing to their agents. They are extraordinarily difficult to kill, though a successful destruction of their manifestation will seal that particular Tuhulot away from the world for some indeterminate age. They are terrified of this fate, and will bargain richly to save their own “lives”.

The Arratus of the Outsiders

In the ages of their control over humanity it was inevitable that the Outsiders should have tried to xenoform the Latter Earth to better suit their wishes. Despite their control of the surface, the Legacy made this process very difficult; xenoforming engines and curses of transformation were contained and suppressed. A frigid atmosphere of liquid methane might spread for miles around a Quhal ice-spire, but six miles from the center point it would be suddenly halted by the Legacy, unable to so much as chill the neighboring terrestrial atmosphere. If the icespire were to be destroyed, the entire atmosphere might be reverted back to Earthly norms in a matter of days, though the damage the methane did may or may not be swiftly repaired. An arratu is one such xenoformed area. The closer it was to the terrestrial norm, the less likely the Legacy was to forcibly deconvert it, so the Outsider engineers tended to make their changes in small increments. Many of these arratus were so palatable to the Legacy that they continue to persist even in the absence of their makers or the destruction of their original central nodes. Within these cursed lands there can be found abominations both earthly and otherwise, some dependent on the special environment of the arratu even to exist. Most surviving arratus have a human-breathable atmosphere, though it may be toxic over a period of long exposure. The flora and fauna within are usually wildly different from terrestrial varieties, being alien colors, strangely configured, or exceptionally vicious. Monsters from the arratu may roam outside its boundaries for hunting purposes, but few can survive extended absences from its alien vapors and strange radiations. With long ages or favorable conditions, such an arratu can spread of its own, gradually expanding to devour the surrounding lands. Within the arratus are found ancient Outsider ruins and the forgotten remnants of human cities overrun by the wastes. The difficulty and danger of penetrating deep into such lands keeps these ruins unusually well-preserved from scavengers, and particularly bold adventurers make a point of exploring arratus in search of these lost troves. These explorers often fail to return. Especially brave settlers or wretched penal slaves are sometimes sent to de-convert an arratu, sowing certain terran plants along its borders and raising certain native animals that assist the Legacy in rectifying the wastes. Through generations of effort, this can gradually shrink the arratu until it is entirely gone. With sufficient arcane power and the right artifacts, large stretches of arratu can be deconverted in a matter of moments. Of course, employing such powers often requires the discovery of the arratu’s origination point and the defeat of whatever defensive measures the makers originally put in place.

112•

Iterums, the Echoed Worlds As the Legacy holds within it the raw descriptive encoding of innumerable possibilities, the application of sufficient energy to its patterns can create splinters of alternate reality. These Iterums echo the baseline worlds they emulate but each has its own independent substance. Some Iterums are as small as rooms, while others are so vast as to be full-scale replicas of the Latter Earth itself. An Iterum usually shares the physical laws of its parent world, though arcanists of sufficient learning and ability to manipulate the Legacy may introduce changes. Errors in this process can produce catastrophes on a literally global level; more than one Iterum has been generated as an unsurvivable hellscape of twisted monstrosities when its creator desired only to make a paradise. An Iterum’s history splinters off at the point of its instantiation. While it may have been called into existence with a full panoply of inhabitants and sentient minds, the events and activities that go on from the point of creation are be unique to each individual Iterum. Even those inhabitants who somehow manage to journey into the Iterum’s past, before its supposed time of creation, find only a copy of the people and events that led up to its eventual divergence. The only conventional way to cross between Iterums is through those portals coded by the Legacy to admit cross-reality traffic, the infamous “Black Gates” that connect specific realities. Powerful sorceries can also reach through the barrier between worlds by relying on the Legacy and its universal connection to all Iterums and all possibilities. Through the correct incantations and the appropriate thaumaturgical implements, entities from foreign Iterums can be called forth as servants, agents, or occasionally as gods. Such summoning powers are as capricious and dangerous as is all High Magic, and the decay of the Legacy has put many foreign Iterums out of the reach of modern sorcery, leaving only the stranger and more dangerous ones in common reach. Every Iterum has its own identifying code. The Iterum described in this book is coded as “108 Triumphant Void”, the last ideogram’s translation being disputed by those few scholars capable of analyzing the Preterite glyphs that encode it. Some have translated it as an now-unknown place-name or personal name, while others would read it as “Consumption”, “Undoing”, “Negation”, or “Completion”. These names and their accompanying arcane coordinate glyphs are important in summoning magics, and numerous examples of other Iterums and the names given them by their creators are preserved in ancient texts. This Iterum, like many others, is a vast one. It encompasses the entire Latter Earth and appears to be a relatively late splintering of the timeline, perhaps dating to the final years of the downfall of the Outsider rule of the planet. It is unclear what provoked the creation of this Iterum; some say that in its parent reality, the Outsiders

were successful in crushing the rebellion, and this world was splintered as a refuge in which their efforts were in vain. Others suspect that this reality is one created by the Outsiders themselves, in which they did not suffer the complete extermination that they experienced in the parent Iterum. The truth is largely unguessable, as not even the name of the parent Iterum of 108 Triumphant Void has survived into the present day. As implied, the denizens of an Iterum can splinter further iterations, some larger than the parent itself. Because of this, it is clear that the true Latter Earth, the First World of ancient origin, is now hopelessly lost somewhere back along the path of forked possibilities. The inhabitants of 108 Triumphant Void are thus trapped within the boundaries of their Iterum. While they may roam the whole of the Latter Earth and ascend to the very limit of its atmosphere, the stars beyond are nothing more than lights in the roof of the world, images calculated into reality as part of the Iterum’s creation. Only by tracking backward through the innumerable sharded possibilities of their parent Iterums could an explorer hope to somehow find the First World, and without knowing even the code for this world’s parent Iterum the first step on such a journey is impossible. There are arcane cosmographers who devote their scholarly lives to mapping out the known connections between Iterums, identifying parent and child worlds and tracing the links of Black Gates and summoning incantations between them, but even those sages have never managed to find a provable path to the First World where they may ascend once more to the stars. For most inhabitants of the Latter Earth, the existence of Iterums is of little importance. They are Hells, or Heavens, or fairy-tale worlds, or the muttered hair-splittings of useless old scholars. This world is as real as anything and its people as substantial as anyone could be. They have no interest in what could have happened in other possibilities; their concern is for their own lives and loved ones, and that is enough. For sorcerers and heroes, the matter is not so simple. Expert mages have means to create Iterums of their own as Workings, albeit rarely ones larger than a room, or perhaps a building. A few nurse mad dreams of calving off entire nations to be their devoted slaves and worshipers, studying means by which the creation process can be corrupted and shaped more to their liking. Ancient Iterums can be found in many places, most serving as pockets in which some long-dead wizard was conducting their own unfathomable experiments, while others were fastnesses for Outsiders, exiled nobility, or fallen peoples. A few seem to have been created to suit their progenitor’s aesthetic tastes or artistic visions. The Black Gates that connect these worlds to 108 Triumphant Void are usually obvious, but a few are so well-concealed that a traveler can pass through without even noticing their translation.

•113

Iterums in Play

For a GM, Iterums serve as a simple in-world explanation for any differences or modifications you may choose to make to the default setting. If you prefer to shuffle nations around, rewrite the past, add or subtract sentient species, or adjust other elements of the default game you can simply set it in your own Iterum and not worry about “contradicting canon”. While you could certainly do the same to 108 Triumphant Void, many GMs feel more comfortable in clearly distinguishing their own work. Iterums also serve as “planes of existence” for the summoning of strange creatures or the machinations of invidious extraplanar entities. Many fantasy games all but require the existence of demons, angelic powers, extraplanar abominations, or other beings native to entirely different worlds. Iterums can serve as those worlds, providing a convenient source of strange beings and intrusive entities for your heroes to encounter and your sinister sorcerers to summon. Iterums can function as convenient dungeon sites as well. The rules of reality within such an Iterum might be such that strange Workings or warped natural laws prevail, and the architecture and contents of the place could be impossible under conventional physics. Such Iterums can be as large as they need to be for the GM’s convenience. Some could be no more than handy pocket labyrinths to entertain the heroes for a session, while others could be big enough to hold all of Averoigne or contain an alternate-world nation tuned to a particular genre or flavor that might not fit with the rest of the campaign. Most players honestly won’t care much about Iterums or worry over the consistency of their details. Give them a “real world”, a selection of alternate planes, a few dungeons that don’t seem to respect conventional laws,

and that’s a sufficient campaign setting for their interests. Their main use is for the GM, so that they might have a coherent in-universe explanation for providing those elements to their own campaign creations.

114•

CREATURES OF A FAR AGE (Chapter intro here) This section will include tools for creating monsters and other inhabitants of the GM’s campaign.

•115

BESTIARYSPLASH W 8.5 in H 11 in

116•

Creating Monsters and Foes The first step in creating a hideous beast or assigning statistics to some human foe is identifying the particular role they need to fill in your world. What exactly do you need this creature to be? Is this supposed to be some horrifying hell-beast that’s devoured a legion of would-be hunters, or do you just need a stat line for an ordinary village guardsman? In a sandbox campaign, monsters and enemies are not measured in the context of the party. Just because the heroes are green novices at their trade doesn’t mean that a monster is going to be any less ferocious, and by the same token a band of hardened veterans won’t find their enemies suddenly gaining expertise to keep up with them. The creatures of a sandbox campaign don’t care what your party’s level is. Instead, foes in a sandbox campaign are scaled to the world they live in. They have the hit dice, attack bonus, special powers, and general ferocity that makes sense for their place in the world. A village guardsman is rarely ever going to have more than one hit die and a monstrous hell-beast will rarely ever have fewer than eight or nine. The opposite page includes a list of example stat lines for various kinds of people and creatures. These are not universal truths for every being in the campaign setting, but they’re good baselines for what to expect from a given creature. As a first step in building a creature a GM should pick the stat line that fits best the type of foe they need, and then modify it to suit their own purposes. Note that there’s nothing stopping you from putting a guaranteed party-slaughterer in your campaign. If the situation logically requires that such a creature be present, then it ought to be there. If logic requires its existence, however, you should take pains to ensure that the PCs are not forced to actually fight the thing. They need to be able to get forewarnings of its presence, or opportunities to flee it, or some means to negotiate with it or hide from it. It’s not unfair to populate your world with the creatures that ought to live in it, but it’s decidedly unfun to shove hapless PCs face-first into certain death. The table of example stat lines has several columns, each one listing a particular statistic for the creature. Hit dice are a measure of the creature’s general power, not unlike a level rating for PCs. For each hit die a creature has, it rolls 1d8 for its hit points. Most ordinary humans have only one hit die, while veterans of bloody struggle or ruthless court intrigue might have two, or three, or even more for the most heroic among them. AC is for the creature’s Armor Class. The higher this number, the harder it is to meaningfully hurt the thing. Monsters and wild beasts have an Armor Class appropriate to their agility and the toughness of their hide; 12 or 13 for quick things with leathery skins, up to 15 for very well-armored beasts, or even up to 20 for things with supernatural hardihood. Humans and other sentients usually have whatever Armor Class is granted by the

armor they wear. Some creatures have an “a” annotation with their AC; this just means that the creature wears armor and the AC given is what their usual armor is worth. Atk is the creature’s usual total attack bonus for its hit rolls in combat. For most creatures, this is equal to its hit dice, possibly with a bonus if it’s well-trained, exceptionally vicious, or supernaturally powerful. Some creatures have more than one attack, indicated by an “x2” or “x3” notation. This means the creature can attack two or three times with a single Main Action, directing them all at a single creature or splitting them up among nearby foes within reach. Dmg is the damage done by a successful hit by the creature. If the listing says “Wpn”, then it does whatever damage is usual for the weapon that it’s wielding. A creature will never do less damage on a hit than it would do with its Shock score, if Shock would apply to the target. Shock is the Shock damage inflicted by the creature and the maximum AC it affects. Thus, “3/13” means that the creature inflicts a minimum of 3 points of Shock damage on a miss to any foe with an AC of 13 or less. “Wpn” means the usual Shock damage of the weapon being used is applied. Exceptionally powerful or savage creatures might automatically apply Shock regardless of the AC of the foe; such creatures have a dash listed for the maximum AC, such as “3/-”. Such damage is always applied unless the foe is entirely immune to Shock. Move is the distance the creature can move with a single Move action. Some creatures may fly, others swim, or still stranger means of locomotion may apply depending on the beast’s nature. ML is the creature’s Morale score. Whenever a Morale check is forced by a situation, the creature must roll 2d6. If the total is greater than its Morale score, it loses its taste for the fight and will retreat, surrender, or otherwise take whatever actions seem best to get it safely away. Inst is the creature’s Instinct score. When confused, infuriated, or goaded in combat, it runs the risk of behaving according to its instincts rather than martial prudence. The details of Instinct checks are explained on page XX. Skill is the creature’s total Skill bonus for any skill checks it makes that are in line with its talents and abilities. If the creature ought to be good at something, it can add its Skill bonus to the base 2d6 skill check. If not, it adds +0, or might even take a penalty if it seems like something it would be exceptionally bad at doing. Save is the saving throw target used by the creature whenever it’s called upon to make a Physical, Mental, Evasion, or Luck saving throw. Unlike PCs, creatures only have a single save target, usually equal to 15 minus half its hit dice, rounded down. Thus, a foe with 3 hit dice usually rolls 14+ to succeed at any saving throw. This score can’t be less than 2+, as a 1 on a saving throw always fails.

•117 Normal Humans

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Peaceful Human

Wpn

30'

15+

Thug or Militia

13a

Wpn

30'

15+

Barbarian Fighter

13a

Wpn+1

30'

15+

Veteran Soldier

13a

Wpn+1

30'

15+

Skilled Veteran

15a

Wpn+1

30'

14+

Elites or Special Guards

18a

Wpn+2

30'

14+

Knight or Minor Hero

18a

Wpn+2

30'

13+

Warrior Baron

18a

Wpn+3

30'

12+

Barbarian Warlord

16a

+10 x2

Wpn+4

Wpn+4/-

30'

11+

Mighty General

18a

+10

Wpn+4

Wpn+4/-

30'

11+

Major Hero

18a

+12 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

30'

10+

Great Warrior King

18a

+14 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

30'

Petty Mage

10a

Wpn

30'

14+

Tribal Shaman

10a

Wpn+1

30'

13+

Skilled Sorcerer

10a

Wpn

30'

13+

Master Wizard

Wpn

30'

11+

Wpn

30'

10+

Spellcasters

Famous Arch-Mage

Mages generally have the spellcasting abilities and Arts of an appropriate mage tradition equal to their hit dice Normal Animals Small Pack Predator

1d4

1/13

40'

15+

Large Solitary Predator

1d8

2/13

30'

13+

Apex Predator

+6 x2

1d8

2/13

40'

12+

Herd Beast

1d4

None

40'

14+

Vicious Large Herbivore

1d10

1/13

40'

13+

Elephantine Grazer

2d8

None

40'

12+

Unnatural Entities Automaton, Humanlike

Wpn

30'

14+

Automaton, Laborer

1d6

1/13

30'

14+

Automaton, Military

1d10+2

4/15

30'

13+

Automaton, Warbot

+12 x3

1d12+5

9/-

40'

10+

Slime or ooze

+6 x2

1d8

1/-

20'

12+

Predator, Small Vicious

1d4

1/13

30'

15+

Predator, Large Vicious

+7 x2

2d6

2/15

40'

13+

Predator, Hulking

+12 x2

2d6+3

6/15

30'

10+

Predator, Hellbeast

+12 x4

1d10+5

9/-

60'

10+

Unnatural Swarm

+6 x3

1d6

1/-

30'

13+

Outsider Warbeast

+10 x2

2d6+4

7/15

40'

11+

Legendary God-Titan

+20 x3

2d10+5

10/-

40'

118•

The Blight and Its Consequences In the age of the Latter Earth, manipulation of the mental and biological substance of living creatures has been a commonplace for all recorded history. From the most distant day of the Terran Mandate through the rule of the Outsiders and the rise of the sorcerer-kings thereafter, there have always been artificial and arcane ways to mold the offspring of living creatures and imbue them with qualities chosen by the artificer. As with any mortal power, this ability has been richly abused. The Blight is not a single process or a specific curse. It is the term used to refer to the afflictions resting on those scarred by the malice of ancient god-mages, brutal tyrants, Outsider scientists, or sheer magical mischance. It wears many faces and is expressed in many ways, all turned toward the purposes of the creator and all indifferent to the suffering of those who bear it. Many monsters and implacably hostile sentient species are the direct result of the Blight. Many creatures that make no evolutionary sense are products of the Blight, created in order to serve purposes that no longer obtain in the Latter Earth. Others are penal beasts shaped from the losers of wars, fallen noble houses, criminal families, disfavored polities, or those prey to the whims of some long-lost Imperator. Intelligent Blighted usually have minds severely influenced by their curse. Martial species might have a psychopathic indifference to the suffering of others, while slave-species might find it emotionally traumatic to refuse orders. Spite-born monsters might feel visceral pleasure at torment and killing, while implement-races might be unable to feel joy at anything but their task. Blighted societies are always marked by such mental burdens. The Blight is not perfectly consistent in its effects. While the Anak are a species of savagely violent humanoids, not every Anak is driven by the same inexorable impulse of rage and hatred for humanity, nor is every hulking Drudge equally given to stupid docility. The fate of such sports is rarely a kind one in a world little-equipped to distinguish them from their brethren. Given the nature of players, it may be that some of them will want to cure a creature’s Blight or reverse the effects of some particularly heinous curse. Such work is always difficult, demanding, and dangerous; to undo the Blight in a creature is to rebuild its mind and body from the ground up, altering it in a way just as profound as the original inherited change. Still, particularly heroic adventurers might be willing to go to the extremes necessary to find the keys needed to unlock these ancient shackles. As the GM, you can use the Blight to explain the existence of monsters that otherwise would be very difficult to justify. Creatures of sheer inhuman hatred, monsters that feed on terrible things, and beasts that have purposes utterly inimical to humanity could all be Blighted creatures born of some ancient curse or a forgotten god-emperor’s dream.

What Was the Creator’s Intent?

Decay: The changes were not Blighted at first, but time and decay of the Legacy has fouled them and made them a burden.

Error: The creator never intended for things to work out as they have, but was either blind to the consequences or mistaken in them.

Hedonism: The creature provided some aesthetic or sensory pleasure in its new form, despite the cruel burdens of its shape.

Mischance: There was no single creator, as the Blight was a consequence of a magical accident or unexpected environment.

Punishment: Its ancestors offended a godlike entity that laid a scourge on them and all their heirs.

Sadism: The creator simply found it funny or enjoyable to condemn the creature’s lineage to everlasting suffering.

Spite: The creature was a weapon against the creator’s enemies, and its own survival or happiness was of no importance.

Utility: The creature’s lineage was meant to perform a kind of labor, and molded to that end with no concern for its own well-being.

d12

Example Blighted Qualities

It can’t control a violent or destructive impulse.

It sickens normal creatures or has some other negative effect on them when in proximity.

It’s unnaturally repugnant or ugly.

It’s stupid, feeble, clumsy, or otherwise physically or mentally debilitated.

It has a loathsome craving or impulse that drives its actions.

It’s helplessly obedient or submissive in a way that causes it misery.

It’s shape has been altered to be useful for its purpose, though burdensome to it.

It suffers constant pain or discomfort of some sort, whether intense or minor.

It can reproduce only under difficult to obtain circumstances.

It xenoforms its surroundings to suit some long-dead creator’s native world.

It has an intrinsic mental illness.

It must pursue a goal that is now impossible.

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Monster Shapes and Appearances If you don’t already have a clear idea of what your monster should look like, these tables can offer some suggestions. First, find out what animal it most resembles. If you need to fill in details of the creature’s appearance, use this as a baseline default. Next, roll or choose its basic body plan. Intelligent creatures usually have some manipulatory appendages, but they don’t necessarily have to be bipedal. Then figure out how the creature hunts in its natural habitat, if it’s not intelligent and thus capable of farming or herding its prey. For monstrous creatures, you might also roll or pick to find out why it hasn’t denuded its surroundings of food and starved to death yet, or why it hasn’t destroyed the local ecology with its depredations. Lastly, you can spice this basic plan up with rolls or picks from the characteristic body part table below. Feel free to mix in insectile parts on a basically serpentine creature, or blend in exotic elements into a conventional mammal. Between Outsider interference and the caprice of sorcerer-kings, all manner of forms are possible. d10

How Does It Usually Hunt?

Stealthy stalking and ambush of its prey

It steals the kills of other creatures

d12

What Kind of Animal Is It Most Like?

Apish: Distorted humanoid outlines

Arachnid: Webs, many limbs, many eyes

Avian: Feathers, beak, talons, light weight

Beetle-like: Rounded body and armor

Canine: Muzzle, tail, paws

Equine: Hooves, speed, manes

Feline: Fangs, claws, litheness

Piscene: Goggly eyes, scales, fins

Reptilian: Frills, side-slung limbs, scales

Serpentine: Limbless, venomous, slim

Ursine: Broad body, thick hide, claws

Wasp-like: Wings, narrow thorax, sting

What Is Its Basic Body Plan?

Limbless, amorphous, or a tentacular mass

2-3

Bipedal, generally upright

4-7

Quadrupedal, perhaps able to rear up

Sexapedal, perhaps with wings and legs

It hunts in packs or family groups

It uses some unnatural power to catch prey

A partnership with another kind of beast

It requires very little food for survival

It feeds on carrion and the very weak

It’s poisonous and repels its predators

It chases down its prey in open pursuit

It eats something other creatures can’t

It disguises itself as something harmless

It’s newly introduced in the area

It blindly eats whatever it encounters

It doesn’t need food in a normal sense

It lures in its prey with some kind of bait

It exists in symbiosis with something else

Why Isn’t It Dead Yet?

Characteristic Body Parts or Creature Elements d12

Mammalian

Insectile

Reptilian

Avian

Piscene

Exotic

Thick fur

Compound eyes

Poisons

Feathers

Scales

Tentacles

Tail

Stings

Slitted eyes

Beak

Bulging eyes

Sacs

Paws

Mandibles

Fangs

Talons

Fins

Wheels

Hooves

Spinnerets

Scaled skin

Light body

Suckers

Balloons

Hands

Swarms

Silence

Songs

Tentacles

Tendrils

Fangs

Membrane wings Draconic wings

Bright colors

Pincers

Launchers

Claws

Egg sacs

Thick hide

Sharp eyes

Rubbery hide

Treads

Visible ears

Blood-sucking

Crawling

Eggs

Huge maws

Jets

Stenches

Parasitizing

Cold-blooded

Diving

Water jets

Secretions

Leathery hide

Larval forms

Camouflage

Flocks

Slime

Translucence

Bat wings

Leaping

Crushing jaws

Regurgitation

Spines

Alien smells

Horns

Numerous legs

Wall-climbing

Guano

Mineral deposit

Unliving matter

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Monstrous Drives What makes a creature monstrous is not necessarily what it is, but what it does. Something about the creature’s behavior or wants is anathema to human interests, and its activities bring misery, suffering, and death to the people around it. It may be that your “monster” isn’t particularly dangerous to humanity. It may just be an odd creature that exists in a particular environment, of no special danger to humans who don’t get in its way. There’s a great deal of fun in creating strange beasts for a campaign world, and there’s nothing wrong with making the occasional creature like this. Even so, the usual point of making monsters for a game is to make problems for the players. Ravaging beasts, hideous raiders, sinister and insidious threats from within… these sort of creatures spark the conflicts, problems, and complications that make for usable adventure grist. The table on the facing page gives twelve different kinds of malevolent drive that might motivate the creature. Bestial entities might not be capable of pursuing the more intellectual forms of evil listed there, but intelligent monsters will carry out their purpose with every ounce of wit they have. Monsters usually have some magical or unnatural power useful in fulfilling their drive, such as those discussed on page XX.

When choosing a drive, it’s important to tie it back to the creature’s origins and nature. Beasts formed or warped by the Outsiders might have any kind of malevolent purpose, having had it impressed upon their psyche by their embittered alien creators. Entities forged by other groups or by the whim of nature will likely have drives related to that group’s purposes or the circumstances of the natural accident that created its kind. A GM may want a monster to be somewhat ambiguous in its moral status; maybe terrible in some ways, but the kind of creature that the party could negotiate with or at least tolerate that it live. The awfulness of the drive can be toned down in such cases to a nastiness that is bearable by the players. A good deal of judgment is necessary in hitting this golden mean, however. The GM will have to keep in mind that some kinds of activities may be utterly intolerable to the party, and they might not find that out until after the adventure is underway. A monster’s drive should likely be horrible, but it’s important to be careful when selecting the details of that horror. A GM should likely stay away from overtly sexual forms of monstrousness unless their group is explicitly on board with those elements in their games. Very few players are interested in participating in that kind of magical realm without clear advance sign-on, and there are plenty of other ways for a being to be awful.

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Monstrous Drives

Conquest: it needs to destroy all rivals and interlopers within its territory, which must expand with the creature's increasing might. This may be a very literal form of conquest, with the beast seeking to kill any intruder within its realm and probing outward constantly to seek new land. It may also be social or metaphorical, with the creature seeking to become the exclusive power within a social sphere, profession, guild, or skein of relationships.

Construction: it has to build something that can cause problems for humans. It might be driven to create elaborate nests, forced to foment treacherous schemes against humanity, made to build large civil structures in awkward places, manufacture a particular sort of good beyond all need, generate a toxin or miasma, xenoform terrain to fit its alien creator's home world, or some other act of troublesome creation.

Consumption: it needs to eat something that is either difficult to acquire, greatly troublesome to humanity, or magical or metaphorical in nature. It might consume loving relationships, eat youth, dine exclusively on traitors, be impossibly gluttonous, devour magical items, or need special alchemical mixes.

Deception: it must feign some harmless or innocent guise, fitting in perfectly as its adopted role. Animals may seem to be some different, more docile creature, while intelligent beings may masquerade as humans or adopt some specific social role. It must kill whatever it would replace, and destroy anything or anyone that might threaten to reveal the truth about it, showing the reality of its nature only when it feeds or enjoys the benefits of the role it has adopted.

Defilement: it must degrade and destroy those things that give hope or meaning to humanity. Corrupting religions, poisoning food crops, curdling familial love, inducing leaders to become tyrants, and withering bonds of loyalty might all be tools for such creatures. Most of them will have a particular type of good thing that their powers and nature enable them to debauch.

Destruction: it must destroy something that is useful or necessary to humans. It might blindly slaughter livestock beyond all hunting need, instinctively seek the destruction of man-made edifices, have an inherent compulsion to destroy loving relationships, eat metal tools and weapons, consume the health and luck of its prey, or otherwise take away something that humans need.

Domination: it needs to win the slavish submission of its chosen prey. Rather than killing them, they must be reduced to helpless obedience to the creature's needs and wishes. Animals may terrorize sentients until worship or tribute is offered, while intelligent beings might use social tools or threats to force compliance. Weaker creatures of its own kind might be treated with similar brutality.

Parasitization: it has to subvert and suborn humanity or something humans rely upon. This may be a physical act of parasitization on a human host, or it may be a more metaphorical leech, taking advantage of some quality of human society to feed and shelter it. Parasitized hosts may be hollowed-out skinsuits, helplessly enslaved victims, willing but foolish co-conspirators, unwitting cattle, or humans who can provide some special service or quality the creature craves.

Predation: there's something that it absolutely must hunt or kill, and pursuing them is a need at an instinctive level. This is usually something problematic for humans, such as a compulsion to hunt humans, specific types of people, livestock, particular demihumans, people who have committed a particular type of act, those who trespass on its territory, or some other type of victim.

Reproduction: it has some unique or difficult condition for reproduction that it must satisfy, such as needing large amounts of a particular substance, a properly-built nest, a difficult-to-win mate, a helpless parasitized host, the brutal conquest of its rivals, or even some magical or esoterically metaphorical condition. This condition causes problems for humanity around it.

Sadism: it was created not necessarily to kill its prey, but to torment it. Terrifying taunts, senseless cruelty, and abominably awful methods of harm are employed instinctively by this creature, and it will always prefer to leave its prey alive until every ounce of resistance has been wrung from it. It receives great delight from the suffering of others.

Theft: it has a compulsion to steal something that humans need in order to hoard or use it itself. It may compulsively steal and collect gold and other shiny objects, plunder food, carry off large amounts of some socially-necessary good, or have magical means to take away intangible qualities or social relationships. It should often be possible to recover the lost traits if the creature is subdued.

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Uncanny Powers and Abilities A basic stat line for a creature can make it a challenge in combat, but foes who can do nothing but stab, bite, claw, or shoot can become a little stale in play. More significantly, the unusual powers a creature possesses can often be the very things that make it an interesting element of a situation, allowing it to change the environment or shift the circumstances in ways that the PCs may not be equipped to handle. Even perfectly normal humans might have “powers”, in the sense that they may have specialized forms of magic, unique martial techniques, or other focused abilities that can be represented by powers. Arch-arcanists and veteran heroes might all have their own selection of special tricks to bring out, ones that the PCs may never have seen before. These abilities are usually unique to the NPCs, as they might require sacrifices or special circumstances in order to acquire them that the PCs aren’t equipped to make or find. The abilities a PC gains as they develop their powers are simply one set of arts and talents in the Latter Earth, and not all NPCs will share the same rules for their own powers. For a GM, there are two classes of powers to keep in mind when building a creature. Combat powers are those abilities that are likely to come out in a fight, the special abilities and unique martial talents that might make the creature an unusual handful during a clash. Situational powers are less combat-specific abilities that are still likely to play a role in how the creature acts or how it carries out its ambitions.The same power might have both combat and situational uses; the ability to implant overwhelming psychic urges could be handy both in a fight and when manipulating hapless NPCs in a noble’s court. When building a creature, start with its monstrous drive or the basic role it’s meant to play in the world. In some cases, the creature’s native abilities will be sufficient to allow it to pursue its drive; if it’s a creature born to tear humans asunder, a high attack bonus and multiple attacks may be all it needs to do its job. If it’s a psychic assassin programmed to fight a war that ended aeons ago, however, it may need some more esoteric powers to carry out its purpose. In the same vein an ordinary village guardsman or common sorcerer might not need any special tricks, while some martial virtuoso or alien wizard might need some unique abilities to exhibit their specialness. First, pick a power that will let them pursue their drive or demonstrate their nature. This power should be very characteristic to the creature or NPC; it should be something that really makes clear what the entity is about. This may be a situational power, if the creature’s drive is more abstract or non-martial in nature, or it might be a combat power if you want to emphasize the creature’s ferocity or the peril it presents.

Point Total

The Creature’s Degree of Power

Perfectly ordinary beast or person

Minor hero or significant mage

Minor magical beast or construct

Species of magically-potent sentient

Significant magical beast or being

Major hero or famous mage

Hero of a magically-potent species

Regionally-significant magical beast

Legendary magical beast

Legate or famous major hero

Imperator or other demi-divine being

Second, pick another power that fits the creature’s idiom or purpose. If the initial power you chose was a combat power, pick a situational one, or vice-versa. The goal at this point is to give the creature something remarkable it can do both in and out of combat. Third, decide whether or not you need this creature to be a major combat foe. If you foresee a fight with this thing being a major event in an evening’s play, you may wish to add one or two more combat powers to its selection, each preferably of a different kind or flavor. More than three powers are rarely useful because most fights will be resolved before a whole host of abilities can be trotted out. Even so, if you foresee the creature lasting a long time in a fight, you might add a further power or two. The tables that follow offer some suggestions for various kinds of combat and situational powers. Combat powers are given a point cost to reflect their general puissance; this is by no means a scientific measurement, but it can help give you a rough idea whether you’re giving a weak or potent ability to a creature. For combat powers, you can use the above guidelines for determining how many total points of abilities you might add to a creature. You can ignore these guidelines whenever you have a specific need. For situational powers, no point totals are given. These abilities are as strong as they need to be to let the creature fulfill its purpose. The specific details of how far they stretch should be chosen based on the creature’s overall power; a minor being’s mind-bending powers might extend to only one person at a time, or last only a day and a night, while some arch-abomination might be able to beguile half a city for the rest of their lives.

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Damage Infliction Powers The creature hurls bolts of energy, wields eldritch forces, or has a remarkably unpleasant bite. As a Main Action, it can target one or more foes with some power that inflicts direct damage. In the case of venomous bites or blighting bolts of cursed energy some additional penalty might be applied, taken from the example debilitating effects later in this section. In such cases, whatever hit or save requirements that are applied to the damaging power should be applied to the debilitating power as well. Most creatures should not have special powers that do more dice of damage than the creature has hit dice. Thus, a beast with 5 HD probably shouldn’t be doing more than 5d6 damage with its flaming breath, unless you have an especially good reason to make it so. Most damaging powers require the creature’s Main Action to trigger them. If they can use it automatically in addition to its normal activities, the power is worth an additional 2 points. A creature usually needs no more than one damage infliction power, though exceptionally powerful creatures might have one ability that works to hit a single target and another, weaker attack that affects an area. Whatever energies or forces the creature uses to hurt targets should be in line with its own nature. A martial hero might deal a crushing overhand blow, while a psychic mind-devourer might inflict lethal emotional trauma on a victim.

Points

Damage Infliction

A power does damage equal to a normal weapon blow

A power does damage of about 3d6

A power does damage of about 6d6

A power does damage of 10d6 or more

-1

The power only works in melee range

-1

The power's damage allows a save for half

x1/2

The power's damage allows a save for none

The power's damage is done to multiple targets

The power's damage is ongoing, repeating in full or part for several rounds

-1

The power's damage requires a hit roll

The power can be used once per round as an On Turn action

Points

Movement Powers

Flight ability at its movement rate, including the ability to fight on the wing

Passes through any solid object

Ignores a type of solid barrier substance

Extra Move action each round

Movement increased by 50%

It makes Fighting Withdrawals as On Turn actions

Can leap its full movement rate

Can swim, climb, or navigate some other usually-troublesome medium at full speed

It can teleport at its movement rate

Can teleport long distances through shadows, flame, or other characteristic substances

Gets a free Instant Move action when some characteristic event or circumstance obtains

It can split its Move action’s movement around its Main Action

Movement Powers The creature has a special movement ability uncommon to its nature. Any ordinary animal might have a movement rate of 40’ per Move, or even 60’, but this creature has a degree of speed or supernatural agility that is remarkable for something of its kind. These movement powers aren’t meant to assign costs to a creature’s natural mode of movement. Birds don’t need to allocate points to flying, nor do fish pay to swim. Some traditions of lightly-armored warrior NPCs might have picked up tricks from this list, or mounted knights and heroes might have some power here so long as they remain safely on horseback. Sorcerers and arcanists might have mastered some of the more esoteric means of locomotion.

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Debilitating Powers

Self-Augmenting Powers

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Situational Powers

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Contextualizing Your Monsters The Latter Earth is a world at the end of countless aeons, a realm crushed beneath the burden of innumerable lost empires and forgotten civilizations. More conventional fantasy campaign settings often have a similar weight of age behind their present days, with glorious past kingdoms providing much of their current magic or present problems. A GM often wishes to contextualize their monsters, making them feel part of this ageless past. The key to connecting a creature to the world is to give it context. A creature cannot borrow any sense of external meaning or significance without some kind of externality to connect to it. By itself, a dog-beast with an insatiable craving to betray and devour its owner is no more than a whimsical inversion of the loyal hound trope. If it bears the milky jade eyes of the agents of the Eternal Revolutionaries, that mere oddity now makes sense; of course a creature fashioned by a throne-breaking rebel uprising would behave in such a way. The players may know nothing of the Eternal Revolutionaries. They may not ever learn anything about them, or they may not connect the similarities between the jade eyes of the dog-beasts and the perfect jade spheres they discover in the defiled resin sarcophagi of the emperor-wasp hive they’re exploring. This is perfectly acceptable, so long as you know about the connection. If the players end up caring about it, they can investigate the matter and you can develop the connection as deeply and in as much detail as your adventuring sessions require. If they never bother, you don’t need to waste your time elaborating on the link. Whenever you create a new creature, give it some kind of link to its context. Identify the civilization or group that created it, or tie it to a particular ancient site, or weave it into the society or development of the local human communities. Connect it to something the players do or could theoretically care about. If you give your creatures some kind of coherent context within your world your players are going to notice it, even if they never probe the details of those connections. Monsters have consequences, and those consequences should show in the world. It’s all too easy to plant some hero-butchering abomination half a day’s stroll from a border village and never think about how it might interact with the locals. A simple “It eats them.” may be perfectly true, but how do the local humans deal with that? Do they try to placate the thing, or hunt it, or avoid its territory? Is this some inherited curse, an ancient problem that’s existed for so long that the community’s society has healed up around it and formed some kind of mechanism for dealing with it? It may be that the way humans deal with a type of creature is deeply connected with some past situation. The villagers might shun the monster’s territory and have a taboo against trying to hunt it because in ages past, it was actually a slave-abomination raised by a wizard in

order to protect their lands from a now-long-dead enemy. The truth might have been forgotten since then, only for the PCs to discover scraps of lore that hint not only at the truth, but at the mechanisms by which control over the creature can be regained. The adjacent tables offer some suggestions of ways to contextualize a creature, with details and connections that can be applied to tie a beast more tightly to your world. The tables are generally written to apply to particular places and situations; the locals in a different place might have a completely different reaction or relationship to the creature. Even so, a GM might take the hints from these tables and spin them out further in their campaign, creating traditional responses or socially-entrenched reactions that are common throughout a domain.

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One-Roll Monstrous Context d4

How Much Local Contact Does It Have?

How Did the Monster Arise?

It’s a relict of the malice of the Outsiders

It’s the product of human sorcerer-kings

It’s an accident of magic or nature

It’s a decayed form of something once noble

d12

What Is Its Connection With the Past?

It’s a servant of a long-dead religion

It’s obedient to a long-gone political group

It’s meant to target a perhaps-vanished foe

It needs an environment that is now rare

It’s accepted by certain ancient defenses

It serves an alien or vanished aesthetic end

The locals have no idea it exists

Its home was a place that is now gone

The locals make wild guesses and myths of it

It seeks something that has since been lost

They’ve had a few significant encounters

It seeks victory in a struggle that is now over

They know it’s there and a little of its wants

It’s only part of something, the rest now gone

It’s a regular threat they need to deal with

It serves an urge that no longer makes sense

They know its nature and needs very well

It was sacred to some group that is now lost

How Do the Locals React To Its Drive?

d20

A Twist To Its Activities

They try to placate or appease its hungers

Its activities are very useful to some group

They try to kill it, actively hunting it down

It’s currently hurting an unsympathetic group

They avoid its territory out of spiritual fear

It responds to certain ancient codes

They accept a certain amount of loss from it

It targets a group the PCs count as friends

They build countermeasures against it

It’s friendly to those sharing its tie to the past

They try to contain it within a certain area

A byproduct of its activities is very valuable

They try to use it against their enemies

It has some devotees or cowed minions

They worship it or take it as a leader

It hates something the PCs have or relate to

It was formerly benevolent or useful

d10

What Scars Has It Left Here?

A victim plots a desperate act of revenge

People think its victims somehow deserved it

Killing it would cause some dire consequence

Land has been made worthless by its threat

It’s being hunted by something even worse

A local hero has been slain by it

It has regular cycles of activity and torpor

Local clergy have been shown as helpless

It has some defensible reason for its acts

A local lord has lost much wealth from it

It protects or spares its willing subjects

The poorest have suffered most from it

Someone is profiting by its depredations

A great plan for the future was ruined by it

The locals believe something very false of it

A venerated tradition was defiled by it

Its damage is insidious and slow to be seen

A vital good or resource was spoiled by it

Hunters quarrel over who is to claim it

Many widows and orphans of its hunters

A grand structure ruined by its acts

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Adjusting Monster Statistics The basic stat line for a creature is just a starting point, one meant to give a GM a general idea of where the creature stands in relation to the other entities in the world. While simply using the basic stat line is often enough for a GM, sometimes you want to fine-tune a creature to its particular place in the world. You can follow the guidelines below to tweak things accordingly. Hit dice can usually vary by 50% greater or lesser, depending on how impressive the creature is compared to its peers. If you remove hit dice, decrease its attack bonus by an equal amount and re-calculate its saving throw. If you add hit dice, do the same, except adding the new addition to its attack bonus. AC might shift by one or two points if the creature is very fast, unusually slow, particularly large and easy to hit, or abnormally thick-skinned. Intelligent creatures might well fashion or steal armor, giving a substantial boost to their AC. Even a peasant militiaman can be stuffed into a suit of heavy plate armor if one can be found for him. Atk is usually equal to the creature’s hit dice, or perhaps its hit dice+1 if it’s got combat training. The more martially-inclined the creature is, the higher this bonus will be, but it probably won’t exceed 2 or 3 points at most. You can give extra attacks to expert human warriors or dangerous beasts if you want to significantly amplify their danger. One extra attack isn’t unusual, but two or even three extra strikes should be reserved for truly heroic foes or extremely dangerous monsters. Dmg is based on the weapon an intelligent creature uses or the body weaponry possessed by a beast. For beasts, 1d4 represents small fangs and claws, 1d6 to 1d8 for larger ones, and multi-die 2d6 or more for supernaturally savage maws and huge inhuman claws. If you need a benchmark, remember that the average peasant has about 5 hit points; if the creature should expect to kill one peasant a round make sure its average damage is at least 5 points. Powerful creatures shouldn’t be doing less than 2d6 damage on a hit, or an average of 7 points. If the foe is a weapon-user and martially-focused, you can give them the equivalent of the Warrior’s Killing Blow ability and add +1 to their damage and Shock totals for every 2 hit dice they have, rounded up, up to a maximum of +5. Fearsome magical beasts may have a similar bonus to their claws and fangs. Shock is based on the weapon for humanoid combatants. Heroic warriors may have unavoidable Shock, having powers equivalent to PC Foci that allow them to ignore AC when applying the damage. Of course, creatures or PCs who are immune to Shock via shields or Foci will still be immune to such damage. For beasts, 1/13 is the usual rating, or 2/15 for very savage animals. Higher ratings are the preserve of supernatural bestial foes, up to 5/- for the worst of them.

Move has 30 feet per action as the human baseline. A lot of animals will be able to move faster than that, with 40 feet being normal for them. Creatures of exceptional swiftness might get as far as 60 feet per Move action. You might give some creatures multiple movement modes, such as a winged abomination that can crawl at 20’ per move or fly at 40’. ML should be adjusted for the creature’s stupidity and determination. Normal animals always have relatively low Morale because a serious injury is almost inevitably ultimately fatal to them; they’ll fight only when they’re confident of easy victory or forced by hunger. Humans might add 1 or 2 points if they’re fanatical or desperate, while they might lose the same if they’re particularly disorganized. Mindless robots or insects might have a Morale of 12, being too stupid or single-minded to avoid self-destruction. Inst is based not only on a creature’s primal instincts but also their tendency to let their passions run away with their good sense. A mighty warlord might have an Instinct score one or two points higher than usual if he has a great fondness for toying with his foes or an impulse to make grandiose declamations in the middle of a battlefield. Conversely, a coldly rational, ruthlessly disciplined fighter might have a score 1 or 2 points less. Skill should generally range between +1 for most creatures that are good at something, up to +3 for masters of their particular trade. Skill-focused PCs will generally be better than NPCs at skill checks; this is intended, as it gets frustrating if their PC’s main focus is regularly outshone by random NPCs around them. Save rarely changes much unless you change the creature’s hit dice. You might give exceptionally hardy creatures a one or two-point bonus, or give those with weak constitutions or fragile forms a similar penalty. Extremely powerful creatures might be able to automatically make the first saving throw they’re called on to make during a fight.

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Judging Combat Challenges It’s important that the creatures and foes that inhabit a sandbox world should be logically appropriate for the setting. If encounters and enemies are scaled to the PC party, it becomes impossible to deal with the world logically; the players know that whatever they face will be something they could at least theoretically stab to death. Yet this policy doesn’t necessarily help the GM guess whether a particular encounter is likely to kill the PCs or not. A GM may want to know whether they’ll need to drop warning hints or spend prep time on alternatives to combat, or they might decide that this particular encounter ought to be matched to the PCs for some reason. It’s impossible to give a simple rubric for the comparison that will hold in every situation. Monsters often have bizarre powers that can skew an encounter and PCs usually make full use of any Foci or magic they have. Even so, a GM can make a rough estimate using a simple measure. Take the total hit dice of the opponents and multiply it by their total number of attacks. Thus, a mob of 10 Anak warriors with one hit die and one attack each would tally to 100. For the PCs, take the party’s total levels and multiply it by the number of PCs, so a party of four third-level PCs would total up to 48. If the enemy total is more than four times larger, it will probably be a rout. The PCs are going to get crushed unless they have excellent tactics, a superb position that only allows a few of the enemies to engage at once, or some magical resource that can nullify a large

number of foes. Conversely, if the enemies have magical powers or special abilities of their own, it might be an even worse curb-stomping for the heroes. If the enemy total is twice as large, the PCs are probably going to have at least one PC downed and run a good chance of a complete party wipe, assuming they engage their foes in the open with no complications. If the enemy total is larger than the party total, the PCs might have an ally go down, but they have a decent chance of winning the fight due to their generally-superior abilities and powers. If the enemy total is equal to or smaller than the party total, they’re likely to win without anyone becoming mortally wounded. If the enemy total is less than half the party total, it will probably be a walkover for the PCs. These general rules don’t apply to very inexperienced parties. A group of first level PCs can be taken out by almost anything if their dice are unkind, and a single errant blow can wipe out any one of them. They also don’t fit so well if the enemies have unusually strong attacks, exceptionally high Armor Classes, or have powers that can directly inflict damage. In the same vein, an unusually clever or well-equipped party can sometimes pull through even the grimmest situation. These guidelines can be an initial help and hint to you, but as the GM, you will eventually have to rely on your own judgment to guess the likely outcome of a given fray.

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Reaction Rolls and Parleying Worlds Without Number is not a game that encourages constant combat encounters. Heroes are fragile, foes are dangerous, and almost every fight runs some risk of downing at least one PC. GMs or players who arrange their games as a curated sequence of battles are going to rapidly run out of luck. GMs need to constantly recall the fact that not every hostile encounter needs to end in a massacre. The denizens of this world are just as aware of their own mortality as the PCs are, and they will not pick chance fights that they do not expect to win decisively. Even intrinsically hostile creatures such as Blighted marauders or bloodthirsty monsters will take a moment to size up a situation before they decide whether or not to attack. Unless the situation is so patently destined for bloodshed that all negotiation is futile, a GM should always make a Reaction Roll whenever the PCs encounter another creature or group, whether friendly or hostile. This roll will indicate the general mood of the encounter, and whether the subjects are likely to be amenable to negotiations. To make a Reaction Roll, roll 2d6 and compare it to the adjacent table. If a PC is in a position to greet the targets, add their Charisma modifier to the roll. The higher the reaction roll, the friendlier and more helpful the NPCs will be. This doesn’t mean that Anak raiders will invite the PCs to drink with them, but it does mean that otherwise violent groups might decide to demand a bribe instead, or back off rather than risk losing lives to the heroes. Conversely, a low roll means that the group is more hostile and unhelpful than they might be expected to be, given the situation. Once a roll is made, the GM should clearly clue the PCs into its general results. If the bandits are feeling sociable, the GM needs to let the player’s know that they’re looking relaxed and leaning on their spears. If the wild beast is getting ready to attack, it should be described as crouching and snarling as it begins to creep forward. This information needs to be given before the PCs choose their initial actions, or else a lot of potential parleys are going to be erased by the immediate and judicious drawing of swords. A Reaction Roll applies to non-martial encounters as well. Determining the initial mood of a government clerk, the temper of a merchant, or the attitude of a noble patron can all be done by a Reaction Roll. This attitude will likely color the difficulty and nature of any negotiations or social skill checks the PCs might try to conduct with the target. Reaction Rolls are only the start of an encounter, not the end. Clever words, persuasive arguments, or prudent gifts can all shift the attitude of an NPC, as can insults, threats, and looking excessively tender and delicious. Provided the NPCs aren’t the sort to simply attack, the PCs always have a chance to salvage a meeting.

2d6

NPC Reaction

As aggressively hostile as the situation allows

3–5

More unfriendly and hostile than they’d be expected to be in the given situation

6–8

As predictably hostile or friendly as they’d usually be in this situation

9–11

More friendly and benign than you’d expect them to be, given the circumstances

12+

As friendly and helpful as their nature and the situation permits them to be

Peaceful Encounter Reactions

Suppose a GM’s just rolled a 12 for the PCs’ roadside encounter with a band of zealous blood cultists. The GM knows that the cultists are vicious but have no pressing reason to immediately attack the PCs, so what does “friendly” mean in such a situation? If you find yourself having to figure out plausible reactions for otherwise-hostile groups, here are some suggestions. They demand a bribe. They’ll take money, gear, food, booze, praise to their dark god, or some other currency in exchange for leaving the PCs alone. The amount they choose will be calibrated to something they think the party can afford and would rather pay than fight to retain. Haggling is likely a possibility, as well as a two-sided deal, so long as it’s in their favor. They back off. If they aren’t defending their lair or carrying out some critical task, they may just decide to back away and keep their distance as the groups pass by. They may bring word of the adventurers to their comrades, but a fight under the present terms might look like a bad deal to them. They ask for favors. Maybe they have an enemy they want killed, or a task they need done. They may trade offers of ignoring the PCs while they remain in the area in exchange for the help, or offer an outright bribe to the PCs to get them to cooperate. Even the most hostile raider group might be willing to let a few targets go in exchange for some profitable work being done. They offer tribute. They’ve looked at the PCs and decided that their own lives are in danger. They’ll offer wealth, information, services, or other inducements to get the PCs to leave them alone. This reaction grows more possible if the PCs have been carving a bloody swath through their surroundings. They willingly socialize. Maybe the bandits have been out here so long that they’re lonely for civilized conversation, and the PCs look too dangerous to engage. The Anak raiders might’ve mistaken them for allied marauders and invite them to share their camp. The vile necromancer might consider herself a perfectly respectable person who loves good dinner conversation. However it’s sliced, the NPC could be willing just to have a nice chat.

•131

Morale Checks and Prudent Retreats Sometimes, however, combat is inevitable. The raiders swoop down on the heroes, the savage beast pounces, or the vile necromancer runs out of small talk. Even after blades are drawn, however, the hostile NPCs might come to think better of their choices when they fail a Morale check. A Morale check is made by rolling 2d6 and comparing it to the creature’s Morale score. If the roll is greater than the score, the creature loses heart and will seek to flee or stop the battle. PCs never make Morale checks and will fight on until they decide to flee. A Morale check is usually made under certain circumstances, though the GM can add to these whenever they think the situation calls for one. More than one Morale check may be needed in a fight if more than one condition occurs. •

When a non-combatant civilian is first faced with the prospect of life-threatening harm.

•

When the first member of a group is killed or rendered incapacitated.

•

When the group starts to visibly lose the fight or see their odds of victory considerably shrink.

•

When the group faces some terrifying work of magic, a horrendous slaughter, or a vastly superior foe.

The consequences of a failed Morale check will vary based on the situation and the creatures being tested. Non-combatants and undisciplined fighters will generally flee madly, dropping shields and abandoning burdens as they try to escape their doom. Trained and experienced warriors will usually make a fighting withdrawal, trying to pull away from their enemies and escape back to safety with as many of their comrades as they can. Of course, in the face of truly devastating situations they may flee just as readily as their green compatriots. If flight seems impossible or prohibitively dangerous, they might throw down their weapons and beg for mercy, if they think they have any chance of receiving it from their assailants. If that seems hopeless, they might just collapse in terrified despair as they pray to their gods, or fight with a renewed frenzy in a desperate attempt to cut their way out of the trap. Some may offer bribes or favors to win their lives. In all cases, once a side has failed its Morale check, it’s not going to be in a condition to fight those foes until it’s had some time to recover its courage. They’re not likely to engage the same enemies again until the situation has shifted markedly in their favor, either through additional reinforcements, a better tactical situation, or renewed terrorization by their iron-fisted leadership.

The Importance of Morale

It’s very important that GMs keep Morale checks in mind and use them regularly during combat. Only truly abnormal creatures such as mindless undead, unthinking vermin, or command-bound automatons will fight relentlessly onward regardless of the situation. If every Anak warrior is a Spartan at Thermopylae, the PCs are going to lose a lot of comrades cleaning up fights that were clearly won five rounds ago. Aside from that, the warriors of the Latter Earth are not fools, and they will not linger to fight battles that cannot be won and are not worth their lives. Even if they never fail a Morale check, they will not stay to die to the last man if there’s no pressing reason for them to do so. Once they see that victory is a vain hope, they’ll try to withdraw or to cut some kind of deal with their enemies. Groups with a sense of loyalty might ask quarter from their foes, offering to retreat if they can carry their wounded with them. More savage bands might just decide to pull back and leave the dying where they lay. The beaten side might withdraw to a more defensible location, retreat in order to summon reinforcements, or pull away with a mind to fleeing the area entirely until their foes have safely departed. Of course, not all beaten sides respond rationally. The terror of battle, the confusion of melee, and a misunderstanding of the situation might leave some few warriors battling on even when all is lost, simply because they haven’t realized that all their friends are dead yet. Green troops are notorious for sometimes achieving military goals that veterans never could, because veterans would recognize certain failure much earlier. The same can sometimes apply to frenetic barbarians, savage mobs, or single-minded marauders. And in some cases, the combatants really do have a cause that’s worth their lives. Warriors defending their homes, mates, or children will fight until broken Morale sends them fleeing or some better way of saving their kin comes to light. A band of ill-trained peasants might rationally flee at the first few dead when fighting as conscripts, but with the village at their backs and their families cowering within it, they’ll keep fighting until they win, they die, or their blind terror overwhelms them.

132•

Instinct Checks Very few creatures are capable of engaging in desperate, life-or-death struggles without losing some amount of their rationality. Terror, fury, excruciating pain, and situational blindness can sometimes make a combatant do something genuinely stupid, even if they would never have made such a mistake in calmer circumstances. In the same way, wild beasts and non-sentient monsters may be driven by instinct and habit rather than logical prudence and so behave in ways that are not always tactically sound. The Instinct check is the game’s way of helping a GM take this situational chaos into account. Whenever an Instinct check is triggered, the GM rolls a 1d10. If the number rolled is equal or less than a combatant’s Instinct score, measured from 1 to 10, they do something impulsive, short-sighted, instinctual, or otherwise less-than-tactically-sound. Instinct checks are rolled separately for individual combatants, though the GM can simply decide that an appropriate percentage of large groups automatically fail the check. If the creatures have an Instinct of 3, for example, the GM might just decide that 30% of them fail the check rather than dicing for every one. PCs never make Instinct checks. Even in the grip of terror or traumatic injury they remain in control of their own choices. Heroically well-trained or tactically-expert enemies with an Instinct score of zero might likewise be immune to Instinct checks. Even martial paragons might be susceptible to Instinct, however, if they’re so proud. blase, or contemptuous of their foes that they fail to fight them with their utmost cunning. When an Instinct check is failed, a creature will do something thoughtless or sub-optimal that is in line with their natural instincts. The adjacent tables offer example suggestions for various types of creatures, but a GM can simply decide the most reasonable reaction based on the situation and the combatants. A GM should use these instances as opportunities to show off the nature of an enemy or the instincts of a bestial foe, or to set up some battlefield situation that isn’t necessarily tactically-optimal for the enemy but is still troublesome for the heroes. Actions taken as a result of a failed Instinct check will usually only occupy one round worth of the creature’s efforts. Actions forced by an Instinct check failure won’t necessarily be entirely useless, but they won’t be the wisest or most effective use of the creature’s abilities. Blindly attacking sub-optimal targets, recklessly using unarmed attacks rather than the weapon in hand, or aiming spells or shots at targets of lesser importance might all be actions taken as a result of a failed Instinct check. Instinct checks are always optional and at the discretion of the GM. Some GMs might choose not to use them at all, judging actions strictly on what seems reasonable to them. In all cases it’s the GM’s final call as to whether or not to roll one.

When to Make an Instinct Check

As a general guide, a GM might make an Instinct check for a creature whenever any of the situations below are applicable, or any time the GM thinks the creature might be confused or indecisive.

•

The second round of combat for mobs and undisciplined fighters. The creature could think clearly before starting the fray, but the fear and exhilaration of mortal combat might confuse it.

•

The creature has just had to make a Morale check for any reason. Terror might cloud its thoughts.

•

The enemy just did something confusing or disorienting. When the situation is strange, the creature might fall back on instinct.

•

The enemy did something to enrage or directly intimidate it. Fury or terror might force bad decisions.

•

The creature is presented with something it desires, such as dropped food, hurled money, or other inducements. It might go after the bait instead of the battle if it seems safe to do so.

Other situations might force Instinct checks as well at the GM’s discretion. Indeed, some situations might be so compelling as to cause automatic check failure. Depending on the situation, the GM might decide a particular response is the only reasonable one, and not bother to randomly pick it from a table.

Assigning Instinct Scores

For non-sentient beasts, a creature’s Instinct score should usually be about 5. Whenever such monsters are confused or frightened, they’re very likely to fall back on their natural instincts. Those instincts tend to be violent in predators, however, and a failed Instinct check might just mean it bites the nearest target. For non-combatant sentients and those unfamiliar with battle, Instinct should be 5 to 7. They are extremely likely to become confused and useless in a fight. Ordinary intelligent veterans should have an Instinct of 3 or 4. They might get caught up in the confusion of battle and make some poor calls, but they’re unlikely to lose their head entirely. Hardened, battle-tested fighters might have an Instinct of only 1 or 2, being very unlikely to forget themselves in the chaos of battle. The coldest, calmest killers would have an Instinct of 1, and may not have to make Instinct checks at all outside of the most disorienting situations. They’ll fight according to the plan and won’t lose track of the battle.

•133

Example Instinctive Actions

The tables here offer some suggestions for different types of actions that different kinds of foes could take. While the actions may be sub-optimal, assume that every creature will carry them out as intelligently as they are able to. A GM should also feel perfectly free to simply decide on a creature’s action, picking whatever course seems most likely for something of its motives and mentality. d6

Non-Combatant Humans

Trained Servitor Beasts

Seek its trainer or handler on the field

Repeat the last action it took, sensible or not

Attack the enemy closest to its handler

Whine in confusion and disorientation

Perform an inappropriate but trained action

Panic, attacking the nearest friend or foe

Automatonsd

Stand immobile in confusion and fear

Do its intended purpose, even if inappropriate

Punch or kick a foe instead of using a weapon

Spend the round analyzing the situation

Cringe, taking the Total Defense action

Repeat the last thing it did with blind intent

Panic and make a Morale check

Attack the last target, even if it’s now downed

Shout threats or pleas, but don’t attack

Utter a warning or imperative to the foes

Reposition to get close to the nearest ally

Select a new target for some reason

Combat-Trained Humans

Insects and Semi-Mindless Beasts

Freeze in confusion, doing nothing this round

Move to help an ally encircle a target

Reposition to get a better place to fight from

Retreat from a foe for a round

Duck, taking the Total Defense action

Skitter and crawl randomly

Spend a round looking around the battlefield

Chew on the nearest organic substance

Blindly attack the nearest enemy

Charge nearest prey creature

Attack an object, barrier, or downed foe

Attack the smallest prey there

Sorcerers or Other Spellcasters

Freeze a round trying to pick which spell to use

Sneer at the pitiful weaklings that oppose it

Get further away from the nearest enemy

Boast of its inevitable victory

Use magic, but misjudge the aiming somehow

Gratuitous use of a power in an unhelpful way

Try to hide behind something or get cover

Attack the last enemy to offend it somehow

Attack with punches or physical weapons

Urge on servitors, or demand surrender

Ignore everyone but the nearest threat to them

Taunt the foe as it takes a Total Defense

Ordinary Predatory Beasts

Beings of Arrogant Might

Hateful and Sadistic Sentients

Snarl and growl, but don’t attack anyone

Spend a round looking for a good victim

Pull back and get away from nearby threats

Attack to hurt or humiliate, doing half damage

Attack the last enemy to have hurt it

Attack the weakest-looking foe present

Attack the last enemy it managed to hurt

Assault the enemy that most offends it

Take a bite out of a downed enemy

Slaughter a downed foe or tear a corpse

Panic and make a Morale check

Spend a round making threats and vows

Viciously Violent Beasts

Undead Creatures

Roar savagely at the foe, but don’t attack

Moan at the torment of their condition

Attack the last foe it hit in blind fury

Savagely attack the most vital, lively enemy

Charge the last enemy to get its attention

Blindly assault a downed foe or corpse

Gnaw on a downed enemy

Seek to terrify a foe rather than directly attack

Charge the biggest cluster of targets

Target the foe with the weakest life force

Attack the largest enemy on the field

Do nothing, instinctively craving an end

134•

Creatures of the Latter Earth (Bestiary write-up intro goes here.)

•135

Animals The Latter Earth contains most of the same animals known to modern-day Terra. Records suggest that there were extensive periods when the entire zoosphere was less familiar, including periods of reptilian, insectile, and fungal dominance, but at some point the planet was “reset” to more contemporary shapes. Survivors from these prior eras are known to persist in some areas. For the sake of simplicity you can treat most of these latter-day animals as the equivalent of their modern breeds in behavior and appearance. Almost all of them have been altered in some way over the course of ages, but such small points are best used as flavoring and accents to the setting rather than significant differences that players will need to keep in mind. The checkerboard-coated horses of Ka-Adun and the Dry Sheep that never drink water are novel in their way, but they still act much as horses and sheep do. When such a normal animal’s combat statistics matter, you can use the table on page XX and assign it a stat line that matches its function. Aside from such relatively normal creatures, however, there are a more than a few “mundane” animals in the Gyre that bear special mention. Below are a few of likely interest to adventurers. Ashcrawler: One of the hideous fungal life forms that sometimes emerge from the Ashblight, an ashcrawler resembles a centipede that stands half as tall as a man and is at least ten feet long. The “chitin” of the crawler is nothing but a hardened fungal shell around the soft, damp interior of the organism. Those bitten by an ashcrawler must make a Physical save or be infected by the fungus. Without magical healing, they’ll become wholly enslaved by the parasitical fungus within a week, becoming a “crawler slave” and using their own intellect and abilities to gather new prey for the creature. The stat line given for them below reflects an average unlucky peasant, but stronger slaves are possible. Crawler slaves can hide most of the infection under concealing clothing, and can only be saved by powerful healing magic at the GM’s discretion. Anak Courser: Looking much like a horse-sized hairless lion with mottled hide, a courser is a vicious pack hunter often “domesticated” as a mount for elite Animals

Anak warriors. While they can survive on plant matter, coursers much prefer meat. Even when ridden, a courser can fight independently and can leap up to 30’ as a Main Action, giving the crusaders of Sarul their famous tactic of leaping over an enemy force’s front lines to savage the spear wall from the rear. Betrayer Bird: Resembling a vulture with a six-foot wingspan and razor-sharp claws, betrayer birds are encountered in small flocks of 1d6+1 birds. They seek out small or wounded parties in their territory and then try to lead predators and enemies to them in order to feast on the eventual leavings. They seem to have a positively human ability to identify suitable predators, though they fight with no more than bestial intelligence if directly attacked. Horse Lizard: A feathered raptor named for its size, horse lizards hunt in packs of 1d4+1 creatures. They are unusually intelligent for animals and surprisingly disciplined in their hunts. Most are found in habitats of dense vegetation, though some have acclimated to arratu life. Judas Goat: A goat the size of a cow and possessed of an elaborate fan of very sharp horns, the Judas goat is unusual in that its preferred browse is the xenoformed plant life of an arratu. Over the course of decades a flock of Judas goats can gradually push back a mild arratu’s borders. Their flesh is toxic to predators and they are highly aggressive toward anything perceived as a threat to the flock. Only their hair is of any use to humans, but unusually skilled and brave goatherds can train them as watchbeasts or even as mounts. Mountain Crab: Thought to be a Polop war-beast that went native, the mountain crab is named for its gigantic size, the smallest being eight feet tall and twice that width when standing. It has a rubbery hide rather than a chitin shell, and its pincers and legs are of a glassy, razor-sharp mineral. Most live in shallow water, with a few venturing onto land when nearby hunting is good.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Ashcrawler

+8 x2

1d6

50’

12+

Ashcrawler Slave

13a

Wpn

30’

15+

Anak Courser

+5 x2

1d8

60’

13+

Betrayer Bird

1d6

40’ fly

15+

Horse Lizard

1d10

50’

14+

Judas Goat

1d6

40’

14+

Mountain Crab

+10 x2

2d6+4

4 /-

40’

11+

136•

Automatons and Eidolons Robots, arcane automatons, occult golems, and artificial intelligences are not unknown in the Latter Earth. While most would never expect to encounter such a being in their ordinary life, they have heard tales of the false men fashioned by sorcerers in former days, and few would draw any appreciable distinction between a shape animated by sorcery and one given life by arcane science… assuming there was ever any difference between the two.

tions effectively. Those with the Healer class and other specialist physicians are equipped with this knowledge as part of their usual training. Some automatons are equipped with special sensory units capable of seeing in the dark, detecting motion, observing magical energy, or other novel traits. A given automaton might have a number of attachments and improvements, depending on its intended function.

Automaton Qualities

Origin Focus: Automaton

Automatons do not need to eat, drink, or breathe, and are naturally immune to diseases, poisons, and natural climatic extremes of temperature. Most require a six-hour recharge period daily that’s largely the equivalent of sleep. Surviving automatons that don’t draw their power from a specific site are fueled by Legacy fluxes and don’t require power cells or other special fuel. An automaton that is “killed” is broken beyond conventional repair, while a “mortally wounded” one can still be stabilized before its internal processes spin down, if the healer knows how to do so and the automaton was crafted to be repaired in such a way. An hour’s demonstration and training are enough for a sentient automaton to show a person how to handle emergency damage and use healing powers and abilities on its self-repair func-

You are a self-willed automaton, gaining all the usual benefits and limitations of that state. You probably have a humanoid form; at your option, you can be human-like enough that only a close inspection reveals your nature. While you are capable of eating and drinking, it is not necessary for you. As with other origin Foci, it’s up to the GM to decide whether or not this option fits well with their campaign, and it may be disallowed at their discretion. Level 1: You have an automaton’s traits and qualities. You gain System Strain as normal for a living creature when healing or similar effects are applied to you. The long ages or questionable self-repair functions have hindered your functionality; pick one attribute and decrease its modifier by -1, to a minimum of -2.

The Black Brass Legion Legends are unclear as to how many automatons of the Brass Legion first landed with the Reaping King, but his present forces are thought to amount to perhaps ten thousand of these tireless servants. His workshops and artificers are able to maintain this number, but they do not seem able to grow it, or at least they do not try. The Black Brass Legion’s automatons are largely humanoid in shape, appearing as harvesters clad in stylized clothing of black bronze. Their hands can manipulate human tools and they act with ordinary levels of human intelligence in pursuit of their purposes, but they require a Reeve or a human handler to direct them. Scythemen are the line troops of the Legion, each one equipped with a large bronze scythe or iron crossbow. Cataphracts are centauroid in their outlines, with fittings for cart-pulling and other logistical hauling. They also serve as heavy shock cavalry. Brass Legion

Legion Hulks stand twelve feet tall, with spade-like hands and plowshare fingers fit to tear down walls, or build them up again if their handlers so instruct. The rare Reeve is a legionary with sentient self-awareness, capable of commanding its lessers and interpreting orders from its human handlers. The human controllers of the Legion direct them by song, specific tunes and command lyrics used to give orders to the automatons. There is usually one handler for every ten automatons, all of them reporting to the unit’s overall commander and all of them ritually keyed to their unit’s legionaries. Without the directing songs, the legion will carry out its last orders until they appear to have been completed, after which it will return home. The black brass shells of the legionaries are tremendously tough, and are impervious to non-magical weapons or minor environmental hazards.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Scytheman

18*

1d10+2

5/15

30’

14+

Cataphract

18*

+6 x2

1d10+3

5/15

60’

12+

Hulk

16*

+10 x2

2d8+5

8/-

20’

10+

Reeve

20*

+10 x2

1d12+5

8/-

30’

* All Brass Legion automatons are immune to damage from non-magical weapoons or minor environmental hazards

•137

Eidolons Artificial minds have been created in one way or another for countless ages, the first dating back to the earliest years of the lost Terran Mandate. Every educated person in the Gyre knows that the intellect is not shackled to the flesh and that a mind can be forged out of sorcery, steel, and strange ancient components. These artificial intelligences are called “eidolons” by the learned. Eidolons haunt specific sites, usually acting as the genius loci of the place and controlling whatever parts of it are still answering its commands. It sees through the ancient scrying devices of the site, speaks through whatever vocalization objects still function, and can often act through the remaining functional relic automatons. Most eidolons were either created from an imprint of some ancient candidate’s identity or fabricated whole with sorcery and arcane science. A few exist with no particular purpose, or have lost their original compulsions, but most are still tightly bound by whatever original need motivated their creation. An eidolon can bend, interpret, and prioritize its purposes but it cannot deny them for long or act directly against them. Many eidolons have long since lost the capability to carry out their purposes, or recognize that their original goal is now hopelessly impossible. Obedience to this cause is a painful addiction to them, a gnawing suffering

that can only be tamped down when they can do something that fulfills their original coding. Even if the act is ultimately futile, the need to escape the pain drives them to carry it out in any way they can. Obedience buys a little respite until the imperative goads them on again. Eidolons can give considerable help to allied adventurers. They often know of ancient secrets and hidden sites of wealth and arcane power that have been forgotten by the modern day. Their relic automaton servitors can labor for their allies, and many eidolons are capable of fabricating functional devices that would be impossible for an ordinary crafter to devise. The sane intelligences will often offer such favors and help in exchange for an opportunity to further its goals. Unfortunately, many eidolons are either mad or wholly alien. The constant psychic torment of their inability to carry out their purposes leaves many of them hopelessly deranged, lashing out in an attempt to provoke something into euthanizing them without directly defying its self-destruction prohibitions. Other eidolons were never templated on human minds at all, being the product of Outsiders or of transhumans too alien to be comprehended by modern humanity. These eidolons have their purposes as well, but few of them are anything a human would appreciate.

Relic Automatons These forgotten servitors of iron, glass, and stranger substances are commonly found in ancient Deeps, lost Sorcerer-King citadels, or other places once ruled by great powers. Most of them have decayed into uselessness, but a few are often still functional in such sites. Relic automatons come in many different sizes and shapes, most related to their intended function. Humanoid models are often plainly inhuman in their appearance, sometimes due to the intentions of the builders, and other times because the “human” of their age looked nothing like those of the present day. Squat cylinders, spider-like crawlers, apeish heavy haulers, and other such configurations are common for labor relics. Security automatons are usually armed with assorted lethal weapons and will react to intruders with murderous violence. The massive ancient warbots utilized by both Outsiders and Sorcerer-Kings are studded over with devices of arcane and technical ruin, and it is a mercy that most have been destroyed over the ages. Automatons

Most relics are not sentient or self-aware, though some mimic it well. Each has its directive and purpose, and they are usually capable of carrying out these orders with almost human intelligence, though they are unable to generalize them easily. Few communicate in any comprehensible way, though Outsider relics understand Abased and devices of the Sorcerer-Kings understand the various ancient languages spoken in those days. Relic automatons can sometimes be negotiated with if a form of communication is established. Those negotiations usually revolve around helping it carry out its purpose in exchange for some favor or concession. Relics are rarely able to go far from their site of operation, either due to limits placed upon them at their creation or their reliance on certain energies and radiations intrinsic to such places. Skilled sorcerers or Thurian artificers can sometimes relocate relic automatons to their own lairs, though the effort required is usually considerably more than would be spent on human servants.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Servitor

1d6

2/13

30’

14+

Lesser Guardian

1d10+2

2/15

30’

13+

Guardian Commander

+9 x2

1d10+4

6/18

40’

11+

Ancient Warbot

+15 x3

2d6+5

10/-

60’ fly

138•

Blighted Some kinds of atrocities are possible only for those with access to the vilest of tools. Those wretched demihumans known collectively as “the Blighted” are the descendants of men and women horribly warped by wielders of ancient sorcery and genetic science, people forged into tools for purposes that had no place for mercy. There is no single source for the Blighted. Some are slave races forged by the Outsiders out of human chattel, their unlucky subjects plucked from the Deeps and molded into shapes necessary to the aliens. Others are cursed lineages dating back to the ages of the sorcerer-kings, bloodlines that incurred the anger of these living gods and whose descendants now bear the weight of their wrath. Some are unsuccessful transhuman experiments, or once-stable magical species that decayed when the Legacy was twisted, or simple products of magical accidents or malevolent sorcerous radiations. Whatever their origins, every intentionally-created Blighted kind is marked by the purpose they were intended to fulfill. Many were warrior races, crafted to be vicious, aggressive, and intrinsically hateful toward anyone but their long-dead masters. Others were brute laborers, their minds dulled and their power to rebel taken from them. A few of the most wretched were fashioned to be playthings and toys, either for hedonistic disports or more hideous appetites still. To baseline humanity, the horror of the Blight lies in the way that it corrupts and limits the normal human range of emotion and cognition. An Anak warrior may look somewhat like a normal human, but he is filled with an instinctive aggressiveness and cruelty found only in a tiny fraction of ordinary humanity. An Anak of truly heroic mental discipline may be able to overcome these innate urges, but living an ordinarily peaceful life for such a Blighted is as difficult as it would be for a normal human to live a life of constant ascetic celibacy. Such a being must fight their urges on a constant hour-by-hour basis to avoid extremes of violence and brutality. Because of their curse, the Blighted have a very difficult time in normal human society. The violent and dangerous species among them usually exist as raiders and marauders, plundering each other when they can find no softer prey and building a bone-deep hatred in all who deal with them. For an ordinary human of the Latter Earth, there is no question that the only solution for these Blighted is a genocidal extermination of all their kind, before they do the same to humanity. Those Blighted fashioned as laborers or odalisques have scarcely better a place in those lands where they are found. Often lacking the mental ability to live without oversight, they usually are left to become slaves and movable property to their keepers. In the more ethical lands, they may have meaningful protection from obvious abuse, but in many other domains their very existence is something to be granted only on sufferance.

It is the special hell of the Blighted that not all of the members of a lineage may be afflicted by the curse to the same extent. Because the medium of the Blight often works through conventional genetic influence or psychothaumaturgic flux, individual members might randomly escape the worst effects of it. While extremely rare, it’s not impossible for an Anak to be born without the craving for bloodshed that his brethren know, or for a Blighted brute laborer to be born with baseline human levels of intellect. These exceptions, of course, can expect no special treatment from those around them. The Anak must kill as his brothers kill or be slaughtered as a weakling, and the laborer will be treated as a novelty to be gawped at rather than as a being capable of the same independent living as his keeper. It’s not unknown for these sports to become the nucleus of a Blighted uprising or bloody crusade as they organize other gifted Blighted into a cabal able to direct their less capable brethren. The curse of the Blight is commonly passed on through the blood, and is often a dominant trait expressed in any offspring of a Blighted partner. Fertility tends to be high for those Blighted lineages designed as biological weapons or warrior races, while ornamental Blighted and those cursed with penal debilities are much less fecund, and some require special circumstances or stimuli to reproduce. Cross-breeding between Blighted and baseline humans is usually possible, if the physiologies involved are compatible. If the Blight involved is not a dominant trait, it can lie dormant in the bloodline for generations, perhaps expressed in smaller or more subtle ways. Most such heirs conceal it at all cost, for to be identified as a Blighted being is an almost unavoidable sentence of second-class citizenship or worse in most lands.

Blighted in Your Campaign

Aggressive Blighted tend to be unambiguous villains and enemies in most campaigns, sentients that are genuinely incapable of living peacefully with humanity. They have been cursed from their creation with a need to kill and ruin, and while they may be blameless of the ancient sorcery that twisted them, humanity simply cannot live with them under the same sky. Penal Blighted and servitor-species often appear as victims of cruelty and oppression, suffering due to the weaknesses and flaws impressed on them by their creators. Heroic PCs might find significant adventure grist in protecting or helping communities of these people. Some players may find the existence of Blighted species to be a kind of teleological horror, and feel obligated to find some cure for their curse or method by which peace can be made with them. A GM who knows their players are likely to feel this way might choose to soften the mental effects of the Blight or make room for a cure.

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Blighted Origins

Individual breeds of Blighted vary widely, and while this section includes some demihuman breeds specific to Latter Earth, the GM and the players may wish to make up their own as well. Four general types of Blighted origin Foci are given here as templates that players can use for their own creations. All of them assume that the PC was not so severely affected by the Blight as most, and is capable of functioning in a conventional adventuring party. A certain amount of discretion may be needed, however, if the PC’s kind are feared or hated by others in the campaign area.

Chattel Blighted

Some cruel power has made your lineage one of human cattle to serve their hungers. Physically weak and unable to resist abuse, your demihuman strain was meant to exist as playthings and ornaments in the best case, and literal human livestock in less favorable lands. Most such chattel are designed to take a helpless satisfaction in their miserable condition, but you have enough self-control to plot your own course in the world, despite the awful urges that whisper in your blood. Level 1: Pick any one non-combat, non-Magic skill as a bonus skill. Reroll your Strength attribute as 1d4+2 instead of 3d6. Choose either Constitution or Charisma; that attribute modifier is increased by +1, up to a maximum of +3. You gain a +1 bonus on all social skill checks due to your lifelong need to manage and manipulate others, but your innate mental blocks against physical violence give you a -2 hit penalty on all attack rolls.

Laborer Blighted

Your bloodline was reshaped into a caste of toilers and brute laborers for some more powerful group. While you are less badly afflicted than most of your kind, your mental faculties remain duller than most baseline humans and you have an instinctive urge to obey orders and instructions. Level 1: Gain Exert as a bonus skill. Each of your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma attribute modifiers

suffers a -1 penalty, down to a minimum of -2, while your Strength and Constitution modifiers are improved by +1, up to a maximum of +3 for each. You require only half as much food and rest as a normal human. You suffer a -2 penalty to all Mental saving throws to resist mind-influencing effects.

Penal Blighted

Your lineage was cursed by some sadistic sorcerer-king or merciless alien artificer. Perhaps an ancestor offended them, or your people were dominated and made perpetual tools of their conquerors, or your forebears were a fallen ruling caste rendered permanently incapable of threatening the new order. You have been terribly compromised in some physical or mental way. Despite this curse, you have somehow managed to avoid complete incapacitation from it and have done your best to compensate for your limitations. Level 1: Choose an attribute; its modifier suffers a permanent -2 penalty, to a maximum of -3. Only one of your attribute scores can be above 13; reduce any others to no more than 13. You may pick two additional Foci to reflect the efforts you’ve made to overcome your natural limits. Gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws to reflect your indomitable spirit. You cannot pick the Developed Attribute Focus.

Warlike Blighted

Your kind were born to kill, whether as the slave-soldiers of some lost empire or as a living biological plague meant solely to scourge the land of all human life. You are constantly assailed by urges to slay, torment, and destroy, but unlike most of your brethren you are capable of controlling these impulses… when you must. Level 1: Gain Stab and Punch as bonus skills and gain a natural +1 bonus on all hit rolls. Choose two attributes from Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma; these attribute modifiers suffer a -1 penalty, down to a -2 maximum. Increase either your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution modifier by +1, up to a maximum of +3. You suffer a -1 penalty on all social skill checks not related to intimidation.

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Anakim Sages believe that the original Anakim were a spite-weapon created by the Outsiders when the fall of their hegemony seemed imminent. Captured rebels, still-subject Deeps, and human traitors who were no longer needed were used as the feedstock for the transformation, one intended to create a sentient bioweapon for the destruction of all human and demihuman life in the Latter Earth. Later ages saw the Anakim modified by assorted Imperators, their original nature warped and tuned to serve the purposes of the experimenters. The resulting Anakim sub-species are sometimes drastically different from the ur-Anak, but the intrinsic selfishness, cruelty, and aggression of the base stock persist in most of them.

Anak Physiology

Anakim are divided into several sub-species and variant body plans, some more prevalent than others. The urAnak, or “Great Anak” is humanoid in shape, with males averaging six and a half feet in height and two hundred pounds, females being slightly smaller. Skin and hair tones vary based on the original human feedstock, but vivid and unnatural colors are introduced in some groups. Facial features and other bodily details are usually designed to play on primal human terrors, with skull-like features, claws, fangs, bestial muzzles, disease lesions, and other qualities common in different sub-strains. “Lesser Anakim” are a common smaller variant of the ur-Anak. Their origins are disputed among the sages, some believing them the result of an Imperator’s experimentations, while others crediting them as a natural evolution of the Great Anak. These creatures share many of the same features as their larger cousins, but are much smaller and spindlier in build. “Ogres”, “titans”, “hulks”, or “brute Anakim” are an uncommon expression of Anak nature in which one grows to a height and mass far beyond its peers, often standing as much as nine or ten feet tall. This growth tends to come at the cost of neural development, and most hulks have the mentality of a small, particularly vicious child. While hulks breed true, their stupidity and aggression tend to control their numbers in the wild. All types of Anakim usually breed much more quickly than humans, with females bearing litters. This fecundity is necessary to maintain their numbers, as Anakim mature only slightly more quickly than humans. The three kinds of Anakim are merely the most common in the Latter Earth. Other varieties, including no-longer-humanoid strains are known in certain lands. Some even appear very similar to baseline humans, having a barbaric sort of handsomeness about them; most of these variants are just as vicious as their uglier brethren. Even so, a few Anakim strains are less aggressive than their kindred, and some can even maintain a wary sort of mutual non-slaughter with human neighbors, provided a safe distance is maintained.

Anak Psychology

All Anakim are touched to a greater or lesser degree by the “Hate”. This ancient Blight infects them with an overwhelming revulsion and loathing toward baseline humanity and most demihuman species. Some scholars believe that the Hate is triggered by some pheromonal marker or arcane soul-dissonance. Others believe it is keyed on physical appearance, and is simply an unbearably amplified natural response toward physical ugliness. Whatever the source, Anakim find humans and human-like demihumans to be unendurably loathsome. This Hate is worsened by the naturally aggressive, violent, and cruel instincts implanted in them by the Blight. Most Anakim behave in ways largely identical to human psychopaths, having no innate sense of empathy and no desire to obey any principles higher than their own pleasure. They delight in torture, slaughter, and sordid excess, and other Anakim are perfectly acceptable targets. The only effective shackle for an Anak’s instinct is sheer terror. With nothing more precious to them than their own lives, a leader or opponent who can display overwhelming force and a certain ability to slaughter them will provoke a response of groveling obedience and abject submission. This submission will tend to last precisely until the Anak no longer feels this awe. Anakim society, such that it is, is held together by brute force and temporarily-shared ambition. A chieftain or warlord will arise, murder all nearby rivals, and force the local Anakim into obedience in order to plunder and slaughter all available targets. When that warlord shows weakness, he or she will be replaced by their most ruthless underling. This churning chaos tends to limit the size of Anakim societies, with most existing on no more than a tribal basis in the absence of some overwhelming leader.

Origin Focus: Great Anak

Unlike most Anak, you are capable of functioning in human society, either through a weakened sense of Hate or an overwhelming force of will. Unless your appearance is much more human than most, however, you may have an extremely difficult time in human lands. Level 1: Gain Stab and Punch as bonus skills. Your Strength and Constitution modifiers increase by +1, up to a maximum of +2. Your Dexterity and Charisma modifiers decrease by -1, to a minimum of -2.

Origin Focus: Lesser Anak

As with the Great Anak origin, you are an exceptionally human or humane example of your kind, and can function adequately in human society if your nature is hidden. Level 1: Gain Stab and Sneak as bonus skills. Your Dexterity modifier increases by +1, up to a maximum of +2, and your Constitution modifier decreases by -1, to a minimum of -2.

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Anakim

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Lesser Anak Warrior

13a

Wpn+1

20’

15+

Lesser Anak Witch

12a

Wpn+1

20’

14+

Lesser Anak Chief

15a

Wpn+2

30’

13+

Great Anak Warrior

14a

Wpn+1

30’

14+

Great Anak Warlock

13a

Wpn+1

30’

13+

Great Anak Warchief

18a

+8 x2

Wpn+4

Wpn+4/-

40’

12+

Hulk Anak King Anak High Priest

15a

Wpn+4

30’

13+

20a

+12 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

40’

10+

15a

Wpn+2

30’

11+

Encountering Anakim

Most Anakim will be encountered in groups, either as scouting parties, raiding bands, or the main encampment of the tribe. Scouting parties will usually consist of 1d4+1 warriors, raiding bands might number 2d6+6, and main tribal camps might have as many as fifty or sixty combat-capable Anakim. Great warlords can weld together dozens of tribes into a single horde, as can other powerful entities capable of terrifying the Anakim into temporary obedience. Anakim are vicious and cruel, but they are not particularly stupid. Most tribes have the services of at least one competent sorcerer, usually the equivalent of a first or second-level Elementalist or Necromancer in their abilities, though of a very different tradition. Especially powerful tribes might have access to stronger mages. Tribes that are in service to some dark god or malevolent arch-sorcerer are particularly known for their magical prowess, with an Anak high priest sometimes attaining powers equal to sixth or even seventh level as a Mage. Were it not for the relentless backstabbing within Anakim society, it’s possible that these devil-sorcerers might become as skilled as any human mage.

Despite the Hate, an encounter with Anakim does not inevitably devolve into immediate violence. An Anak loves nothing except his own life, and no warrior will fight unless victory seems assured or some present leader demands that they fight. Strong parties or those that offer some tempting inducement in place of bloodshed might be able to parley with Anakim, as some of them are known to speak Trade Cant in order to better command their slaves. One particular trait of almost all Anakim tribes is the sacred terror. This psychological instinct was embedded in them in order to give them some limited mechanism for direction. When an Anak is faced with some overwhelming foe and fails a Morale check, they will either flee for their lives or immediately seek to placate and submit to the foe. Their choice will depend on whatever outcome seems most likely to keep them alive. This terror will persist until their new leader proves weak or pushes the Anak into a situation where disobedience seems more survivable than compliance. Exceptional temptations might cause temporary disobedience to the leader, however, if the Anak thinks its defiance can be hidden.

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Drudges It’s unclear what creators first fashioned the Blighted known as the Drudges. Any civilization powerful enough to curse an entire human lineage with this condition almost certainly had more efficient tools for manual labor, so scholars have hypothesized that the transformation was the product of some punishment or malice. In the ages since, the Drudges have spread slowly throughout Latter Earth, their docility and great strength useful to many different peoples. A Drudge averages around seven feet in height, with a powerful build and coarse human features. Some variants have a bestial slouch to their build and arms long enough to let them rest on their knuckles, while other subtypes look almost normal save for their size and slackness of expression. Drudges are extremely strong, hardy laborers, but they also have very limited intellects, most of them having the same mentality as an eight-year-old child. They can follow simple orders and learn basic skills, but abstract concepts and exercises of judgement are extremely difficult for them to handle. Drudges

Drudges are also given to a docile, obedient temperament, with violence almost unknown among them save in extreme self-defense. This has not prevented some groups from choosing the biggest and strongest among their Drudges and training them for war. This “training” usually consists of horrific abuse, tormenting the Drudge until it is desperate to do anything to avoid further punishment. These wretched “war Drudges” are artless and unskillful, but the strength in their limbs can pulp an ordinary man in a single blow.

Origin Focus: Drudge

You are remarkably intelligent for a Drudge, being able to understand abstract concepts, anticipate consequences, and conceive of hypothetical outcomes. You are also much more capable of violence than most of your kind. Level 1: Gain Exert as a bonus skill. Your Strength and Constitution modifiers increase by +1, to a maximum of +2. Your Intelligence and Charisma modifiers decrease by -1, to a minimum of -2. You suffer a -2 penalty to all Mental saving throws.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Drudge Laborer

Wpn+2

30’

14+

War Drudge

15a

Wpn+3

30’

13+

Halfmen The Blighted humans known as “Halfmen” have multiple origins. In some cases, their ancestors were humans who utterly rejected all the trappings of civilized humanity, seeking simplicity in bestial non-thought. Others were created as human livestock, raw materials for the horrible appetites of alien or depraved human overlords or feedstock for occult rituals. Halfmen look to be much like normal humans, but their physical similarities are rapidly overshadowed by their behavior. Halfmen in their native habitat never wear clothing or use tools, nor do they communicate in language more complex than grunts or lowing. They are found in herds of ten to thirty members under the protection of the biggest, strongest male. They graze as beasts do, tearing the grass with their teeth. Their minds are largely those of cattle, especially while still within their herd. A Halfman separated from his herd will gradually gain human levels of intellect over the course of a few months, though the isolation is initially traumatic for them. Halfmen can be taught the use of language, clothing, and tools, but returning them to Halfmen

their herd or allowing them to cluster together in similar numbers will rapidly erase these skills and dissolve any elements of their personality too complex for a beast. Halfmen reproduce very rapidly, with infants able to walk from birth and attaining adulthood by two years of age. Unless separated from the herd, however, they rarely survive more than twenty or thirty years. The existence of Halfman herds is partially responsible for the prevalence of maneating predators in the Latter Earth, as they condition them to hunt humans.

Origin Focus: Halfman

You have been separated from your herd. Your intellect has achieved human levels in the time since, and for whatever reason you no longer seek to return to them. Level 1: Gain Survive as a bonus skill. Your Constitution modifier increases by +1, up to a +2 maximum. You are immune to natural extremes of heat and cold, and can digest any plant matter a normal ruminant could. Your isolation from the herd inflicts a -2 penalty on all Mental saving throws, however.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Halfman Grazer

1d2+1

None

30’

15+

Halfman Bull

1d2+3

None

30’

14+

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Houris A Houri is a Blighted created for satisfying the particular physical and emotional needs of their owners. Whether male, female, or some more bespoke gender, Houris have been created almost since the first development of the arts of Blighting a line. Houris come in innumerable flawless physical forms, usually characteristic of their particular creator’s tastes and aesthetics. They usually live no longer than humans, but they preserve their exquisite beauty indefinitely, and do not grow feeble with old age. Were they merely touched by this perfection, Houris would not be considered Blighted; what makes them objects of pity and subjection is the innate instinct of subservience woven into their psyches. Obedience to an order provides an intense wave of happiness and positive feeling to a Houri, whatever the order’s nature or origin. Habitual cooperation can leave them emotionally addicted to the sensation. Many oppressed or hopeless Houris simply acquiesce to their nature and accept its rewards, trying only to resist cooperation with commands that might bring significant harm. Houris

A few select trusted companions or superiors and allow themselves to obey only orders given by that person. Others school themselves to a ruthless disinterest in their own emotional states, seeking logical or ideological standards to guide their choices rather than their own desires, even becoming accomplished ascetics and self-deniers of unflinching discipline. The Golden Path counts several Houris among the “Liberators” of their faith for having overcome the lure of emotional attachment.

Origin Focus: Houri

You’ve taught yourself to resist the lure of enforced happiness and seek other forms of satisfaction or personal integrity. While you gain an emotional rush from cooperating with commands, you don’t let it control your decisions. Level 1: Gain Convince and Perform as bonus skills. Your Charisma modifier increases by +1, up to a maximum of +2. Your innate nature makes you susceptible to mental influence, however, inflicting a -2 penalty on Mental saving throws.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Houri Concubine

Wpn

30’

15+

Dispassionate One

Wpn

Wpn/-

30’

12+

Lifting the Blight There’s a certain kind of player who, upon discovering the existence of an irrevocably cursed species in the world, will immediately try to figure out how to lift the Blight. If a GM happens to be running a game for this kind of player, it’s necessary to think carefully about the consequences of this goal. The Blight is tremendously persistent. While it is not impossible for powerful magic and erudite sorcerous surgery to lift the Blight from individual beings or even specific bloodlines, purging it from an entire species might well be prohibitively difficult. From a game perspective, the Blighted exist to create moral conflicts for the PCs. How should they treat people who cannot function in the same way that ordinary members of society can function? What rights should be accorded to them, and what kind of treatment is least likely to be abusive to them while still protecting them from their own debilities? If treating them exactly like baseline humans would merely ensure their exploitation and abuse, how much of their own freedoms should be curtailed for the sake of their own good, or should their inevitable mistreatment simply be accepted as the price of freedom? Or are there ways to effectively prevent abuse that won’t prove impractical to implement?

Different groups will have different degrees of interest in these questions. Many of them will simply gloss over the issues, satisfied enough so long as Blighted aren’t being mistreated in front of them. This is a perfectly valid way to play; even the most heroic band of adventurers can’t interest themselves in every societal quandary they encounter, and most groups have much more interest in exciting adventures than meditations on social structure. Others will be interested enough to try and eliminate the entire problem by lifting the Blight. This is one way to solve the problem; if the situation doesn’t exist, it’s not necessary to consider its ramifications. It’s up to the group as a whole to decide whether or not this ambition is even possible in the campaign. If it is possible, it’s probably a Major Project of Impossible difficulty, with the scope depending on how large a population of Blighted are to be cured. Pursuing it will require vast amounts of magical equipment, Legacy alterations, arcane Workings, and perhaps even the discovery of the original documentation of the Blight that the PCs are trying to lift. If the whole group is interested in this goal, however, it’s entirely acceptable for the GM to let them spend their time and efforts in seeking its glorious success.

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Demihumans of the Latter Earth The definition of “humanity” is somewhat broader in the Latter Earth than it would be in some other ages. Countless eons of sorcerous and genetic manipulation have left their mark on the modern population, and qualities that would be freakish or remarkable in other times now scarcely bear comment in most nations. In the current age, the standard baseline human form is not unlike that of modern-day humanity. The same general build, body configuration, and range of coloration can be found in the humanity of the Latter Earth, and while other ages had somewhat different ideas about what constituted a “normal human”, those that live in the current era would not look out of place on a contemporary city street. Yet within this definition of humanity there remain some considerable variances. Odd coloration of skin, hair, and eyes is one of the smallest such quirks, a remnant of some recessive aesthetic alteration, while slight differences in body configuration are also unusual but not unknown. Remnants of some customized genders exist in some lands, while the humanity of other nations might have been subtly altered to better accommodate local environmental conditions. Despite these small differences, such people are still generally considered “humans” by their neighbors. Some cultural adjustments may be needed to integrate the more exotic examples, but few would consider such uncommon quirks to be disqualifying for humanity.

Demihumanity

This is not the case with those known as “demihumans”. The alterations they have received have been so profound and so reliably heritable that they are not considered to be quite the same as their baseline brethren. They may have radically different mentalities, significantly different physical requirements, or have mental or physical qualities that make it very difficult for them to integrate easily into baseline human societies. At its edges, demihumanity is as much a social decision as a physiological one. Some variant lineages are considered demihuman in one land and mere exotic humanity in another. Such a difference is most significant when a society has separate rules for its human and demihuman members. As a consequence, most demihuman lineages prefer to live in their own communities, either wholly independent or in a relationship of loose suzerainty with the local lord. There, they may live according to their own inclinations and be ruled by their own kind. Most demihuman lineages were originally designed for a particular purpose, adjusted and augmented to serve the ends of some long-dead empire, god-king, or soulless Outsider scientist. They are often considerably more capable than baseline humanity in their special fields, but generally suffer some weakness or debility as

compensation. Their fertility is usually significantly less than that of ordinary humanity, and so their numbers are correspondingly fewer. Those wretched demihumans known as the “Blighted” are a special case in most lands. The debilities they suffer are so obvious and so severe that they often cannot live among humans without some kind of oversight. In many lands this oversight is little more than slavery, and those Blighted cursed with a violent nature are often hunted down and killed on principle.

Creating Demihuman Characters

A player who wishes to make a demihuman PC can spend their initial free Focus pick on an origin Focus appropriate to their kind. If a GM is feeling charitable and there are several demihumans in the party, the GM might allow them to simply give up their usual second-level bonus Focus instead, so that they can start play with a little more mechanical distinctiveness among them. PCs with particular novelties of shape, cognition, or nature that have no meaningful game mechanical effect do not need to take an origin Focus to represent such cosmetic differences. Only demihuman species that have real mechanical consequences require a Focus pick. The adjacent page includes a selection of common, traditional demihuman species for use in more traditional campaign settings. PCs playing in the Latter Earth setting would be using the versions of Elves and Dwarves presented on pages XX and XX.

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Demihuman Origin Foci

These Foci can be used to create PCs from variant demihuman races that may exist in a particular GM’s campaign. GMs who are using Worlds Without Number as a toolset for their own campaign settings might also use them to replicate more “traditional” elves, dwarves, halflings, and other common fantasy races. Some Foci grant bonuses or penalties to attribute modifiers. None of these modifiers can exceed +2 or fall below -2. Some Foci also allow the player to choose which attribute is to be increased or penalized, depending on their particular interpretation of the species.

Dwarves

This origin serves for the classical dwarf; short, sturdy, and given to craftsmanship and drinking. Level 1: Gain Craft as a bonus skill. Your Constitution modifier increases by +1 and either your Dexterity or Charisma modifier decreases by -1. You can see in the dark up to sixty feet.

Elves, Civilized

This style of elf represents the city-dwelling, magic-loving, sophisticated interpretation of elvishness favored in some worlds. Level 1: Gain Stab and Know as bonus skills. Your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier increases by +1 and your Constitution modifier decreases by -1. You can see clearly in any light level above complete darkness.

Elves, Half-Elves

Where there are both elves and humans, half-elves tend to be inevitable additions to a campaign world. This focus follows the “between two worlds” flavor of most half-elf interpretations. Level 1: Gain Connect and any one skill as bonus skills. You can see out to thirty feet in any light condition short of perfect darkness. At your discretion, if you take after your elven parent, you may increase your Dexterity modifier by +1 but then also take a -1 to your Constitution modifier.

Elves, Forest

This interpretation of elvishness is for those kinds given to nature-reverence, archery, and nimbleness. Level 1: Gain Shoot and Survive as bonus skills. Your Dexterity modifier increases by +1 and your Constitution modifier decreases by -1. You can see clearly in any light level above complete darkness.

Halflings

This origin serves for a breed of bucolic and diminutive demihumans with exceptional reserves of toughness. Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. Your Constitution or Dexterity modifier increases by +1. You are too small to effectively use two-handed melee weapons and any bows you use must be made for your size.

Gnomes

Gnomish interpretations vary significantly, from mad tinkers to forest sprites. The origin below suits a subterranean forest-dweller; for tinkers, replace Sneak as a bonus skill with Craft. Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. Your Dexterity modifier increases by +1 and your Strength or Wisdom modifier decreases by -1. You can see clearly in the dark out to sixty feet.

Goblins, Tinker

This variety of goblin is for those campaign settings where they are inveterate builders. Level 1: Gain Craft as a bonus skill. Your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier increases by +1, and your Wisdom modifier decreases by -1. You have the weapon restrictions of halflings. You can see clearly in the dark out to sixty feet.

Goblins, Savage

Feral tribe-dwelling marauders of swamp, forest, and wasteland, this style of goblin can also fill in for other small, vicious humanoids. Level 1: Gain Sneak and Survive as bonus skills. Your Dexterity modifier increases by +1, but your Intelligence modifier decreases by -1. You have the weapon restrictions of halflings. You can see clearly in the dark out to sixty feet.

Lizardmen

Whether dressed up as dragon-folk or left as common swamp lizardmen, this Focus can fill in the details. Level 1: Gain Stab and Survive as bonus skills. Your Strength or Charisma modifier increases by +1, but your Dexterity or Charisma modifier decreases by -1. Your unarmored Armor Class is 13, and if you wear better armor you get a +1 bonus to AC. Level 2: You’re some sort of dragon-man and can breathe fire, frost, or some other noxious substance. The breath can be done once per scene and affects a cone up to 15 feet long and wide at its end. All within must make an appropriate save or take 1d6 damage plus your character level. You gain immunity to the substance you exhale.

Orcs

Large, strong, brutish, and comparatively stupid; such is the standard orc of fantasy campaigns. Players who want to play such a PC can use this Focus. Level 1: Gain Survive and Stab or Punch as bonus skills. Your Strength or Constitution modifier increases by +1, but your Intelligence modifier decreases by -1. You can see clearly in the dark out to sixty feet.

146•

Dwarves Reclusive, strange, and Deep-dwelling, the folk of Latter Earth known as “dwarves” are a relic of the long dark age of the Outsiders. They are living tools for the manipulation of the Legacy, beings gifted with an intuitive ability to twist and subvert that power’s effects. During the period of alien rule, the Outsiders were repeatedly stymied by failsafes and locks embedded in the Legacy, security measures that could only be overcome by humans. While individual quislings and traitors could be found in the human population, they were neither numerous nor skilled enough to accomplish the Outsiders’ ends. As a consequence, the ancestors of the dwarves were extracted from the human chattel of the aliens and altered to become living interfaces with the Legacy, sentient intrusion measures that could be directed to warp the energies of that force into the service of the Outsiders. The hubris of the aliens was such that they had not anticipated that the very abilities they had cultivated in the dwarves were the same ones they would use to break their obedience conditioning and rebel against their creators. In the long ages since the fall of the Outsiders the dwarves have remained largely in the Deeps, obsessed with their own Great Plans and seized with an unending quest for the perfect harmony of creation. Some dwarven nations have made contact with surface-dwellers, either for trade or conquest, but the majority of dwarves found on the surface in this age are rebels or recusants from the Great Plan of their homeland. Some merely wish to be free of the burden of their ruler’s dreams, while others nurse visions of their own.

Dwarven Physiology

As natives of the Deeps, dwarves are compact compared to baseline humans. Males seldom stand over four and a half feet tall, while females average four feet. Most have a powerful, broadly-built frame, though there are some substrains that are built very leanly, and a few that look like small, perfectly-proportioned humans. Facial hair is usually found only on the males, its presence or absence dictated by the fashions of their homeland. Dwarves have an intuitive sense of their surroundings, one derived from their constant low-level integration with the Legacy. This “dwarfsight” is equivalent to monochrome human vision out to a distance of twenty feet, regardless of light levels or fogs. It cannot penetrate solid surfaces but can be aimed in any direction by the dwarf, regardless of their facing, as an On Turn action. The harsh austerities of the Deeps have been encoded into the dwarven metabolism. Dwarves require only half the food, water, and air that standard humans do. They tend to live for considerably longer than their baseline cousins, maintaining good health into their third century before rapidly declining over a few years.

Dwarven Psychology

All dwarves have a subconscious connection with the Legacy, a product of their created purpose. This awareness tends to manifest in the form of an intense love of order and coherent structure; dwarves will build both physical objects and social structures with equal enthusiasm and show an innate talent for engineering, mathematics, and other logically-rigorous pursuits. A dwarf wholly given to the creation of some great work or societal reformation is said to have a “Plan”. A dwarven nation will invariably be fired by some high societal ideal; their envisioned utopia is said to be their “Great Plan”, one which all its members are expected to embrace and assist in creating. Unfortunately for dwarven unity, it is perfectly possible for two dwarves to have diametrically opposed ideas about what constitutes “order and coherent structure”. Depending on the dissonance of their ideals, relations between dwarven groups can range from careful courtesy to genocidal hatred. Individual dwarves who cannot accept the Great Plan of their society will tend to leave it, either to become wanderers, to find a home with a small community of like-minded recusants, or to establish their own shining Plan for others to embrace.

Origin Focus: Dwarf

Your PC is a dwarf, a demihuman weapon-race devised during the ancient rule of the Outsiders. You are probably a recusant from some dwarven polity, though it could be you are a loyal believer in your homeland’s ideals who simply wants to see more of the world before returning home and helping in their Great Plan. Level 1: Gain Craft as a bonus skill. You have the dwarven surrounding-sense out to twenty feet, able to distinguish solid objects as if you were using your sense of sight. You have a natural resistance to magic, gaining a +2 bonus on all saves against hostile magical effects. You need only half the usual amount of food, water, and air and gain a +1 bonus to your hit point die at each level. Level 2: You have such a deep connection with your dwarven nature that once per day, as an Instant action, you can simply negate an unwanted magical effect that would otherwise affect you. If you accept one System Strain point, you can use this ability to negate a magical effect you can see or otherwise sense, provided it’s within one hundred feet. This ability applies only to spellcasting and creature-generated magic; it cannot negate Workings, suppress magic items, or nullify effects created by magic items or exceptionally potent rituals. Note that NPC dwarves of more than 2 hit dice will also have this ability.

•147

Dwarves

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Dwarven Laborer

13a

Wpn

30’

15+

Dwarven Veteran

16a

Wpn+1

30’

14+

Dwarven Artificer

Wpn

30’

12+

Dwarven Lord

20a

+11 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

30’

10+

Dwarven King

22a

+12 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

20’

Encountering Dwarves

Most dwarves remain in the Deeps, laboring together with their like-minded brethren in vast subterranean holds and buried under-kingdoms. A given Deep is usually only occupied by one nation of dwarves, as only the most unusually sympathetic Great Plans can exist in close proximity. Where more than one Great Plan exists in an area, the usual result is bloody warfare until the weaker is expelled, extinguished, or abandoned by its followers. Dwarves tend to be naturally mistrustful of strangers entering their territories, though the prospect of sharing the good news of their Great Plan is oftimes enough to make them open up. Some under-kingdoms have active trade links with the outside world, using the contact as an opportunity to push their ideology on traders. Most merchants have the sense to sound politely interested for as long as is necessary. The dwarves are so confident of the self-evident rightness of their cause that they consider it only a matter of time before outsiders convert.

Outside of their deep cities, dwarves are found in prospecting bands, salvage crews, and military patrols. None of these groups will usually be looking for trouble, but neither will they tolerate interference. Dwarves have numerous active magical traditions, but they rarely work in the same way as human mages. Most rely on the innate link with the Legacy that dwarves possess, and use small devices and cunningly-crafted artifacts to create magical effects. A dwarven artificer might have the equivalent magical abilities of a second or third level Mage, but their spells will be cast using devices that the artificer has crafted. Such use has the same limits and usage requirements as conventional spellcasting. Some dwarves are outcasts or renegades against the Great Plan of their home nation. These wanderers vary wildly in temperament; some are fanatics with a different Plan in mind, while others are bandits, raiders, lunatics, or incurably curious voyagers. In rare cases, a particularly charismatic dwarf might establish an entire village of such exiles. Discussions of the merits of individual Plans there are usually vigorously discouraged.

148•

Elves Death has not always been the universal fate of humanity. At some distant point in the past the rulers of Earth had managed to encode immortality into the Legacy, ensuring the deathless persistence of human identity. It’s unclear whether this universal immortality was lost before the arrival of the Outsiders or as a result of the alien conquest, and some sages hypothesize that it was actually restored more than once in the ages since. In every instance, however, the decay of the Legacy or hostile interference returned the scourge of death to the world. For all humanity, at least, except those transhumans known as “elves”. For whatever inexplicable reason, these few identities were capable of evading permanent death, reincarnating with their identities at least partially intact after each physical discorporation. Scholars argue over the true origins of the elves, some insisting that the original elves were surpassingly powerful sorcerers who forced the Legacy to grant them eternal existence. Others believe that the elves are mere mistakes in the Legacy, souls that slipped through the filter that would otherwise purge their memories of past lives. Some even say that the elves were the ones who originally restored death to the world, a band of jealous transhumans who wished to keep immortality for their own identities alone. Evidence can be marshaled for all these theories, but proof remains elusive.

Elven Physiology

Elves are usually incarnated as the children of other elves, born in ways biologically typical for humans. In some cases, however, the Legacy will instantiate a new body out of inanimate matter, forcing an elf back into existence with whatever raw materials are to hand. Such “worldborn” elves often have visible traits related to their original material, such as smooth gray skin for one born of a granite boulder, or flowered locks for one called forth from a blossoming tree. The original transhuman nature of elves persists in their instantiated bodies. Elves are invariably well-formed beings, physically healthy and mentally unimpaired at the time of their birth. Most have taller and more slender builds than the average baseline human, and their bodies are imbued with a host of small aesthetic upgrades that tend to give them an air of flawless but alien perfection as compared to their human cousins. While the elven body is created without significant flaws, it is no stronger, hardier, or quicker than a standard human body. Its senses are considerably sharper, however, and an elf can detect scents, sounds, and other stimuli at thresholds substantially finer than normal humans can. Elves do not physically age beyond vigorous adulthood. The only way for them to die is through violence, poisons, or disease, after which they will re-instantiate somewhere else in the Latter Earth within the next forty days.

Elven Psychology

While the baseline elven mind is similar to that of a human’s, it is burdened by a tremendous weight of memory. Each rebirth crashes a tidal wave of new stimuli and sensory inputs into the elf ’s brain, and whatever measures the Legacy was originally intended to use to help them integrate these memories have long since decayed. Elven children recall only disjointed elements of their past. Elves treat their past-life memories with great caution. To seek to delve too deeply in them risks the loss of their current identity as past memories crush the thoughts of their current life. Long-dead elves can end up possessing their own mental heirs, the living elf ’s own wishes and memories contemptuously drowned in the overwhelming stimulus of a past life. Some elven traditions revolve around the methodical recollection and integration of past memories into present lives, but most elves prefer to live a single life at a time. Past memories may arise organically as evocative events provoke them, but only the most daring elven psychonauts try to pull them into a coherent prior life. Some elves keenly feel the weight of their past existences, and strive to extinguish their lives permanently in order to escape a world that no longer provides them any joy. Such elves are often the prophets or proponents of faiths that reject the world, such as the Golden Path, for only a truly divine degree of power can force the Legacy to let a weary elven soul finally find its grave.

Origin Focus: Elf

You are a reincarnated transhuman, shards of your former life still lingering in your memories. The more intently you focus on developing and integrating these fragments, the more effectively you can call on them. Elves are invariably devoid of obvious mental or physical debilities. If you have any attribute scores below 9, you must move points from your other attributes to raise the deficient ones up to a score of 9. You may decide which attribute points to shift. Afflictions incurred after play begins can lower your attributes below this floor. If your PC is killed, it will reincarnate eventually, but it will likely be at a place far distant from the campaign. Such new incarnations are unlikely to ever be met again, and may not even remember anything particularly compelling about their most recent past life. Level 1: Pick any skill as a bonus skill reflecting your past memories. You may reroll a failed skill check in this skill once per day. You have extremely sharp senses, gaining Notice as a bonus skill and being able to see clearly in anything short of complete darkness. Level 2: Pick a mental attribute; gain +1 to your ability modifier in it, up to a maximum of +3 as you draw on past memories. Pick any skill as an additional bonus skill.

•149

Elves

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Elven Villager

13a

Wpn

30’

15+

Elven Adventurer

15a

Wpn+2

30’

14+

Elven Sorcerer

Wpn

30’

13+

Elven Lord

20a

+11 x2

Wpn+5

Wpn+5/-

30’

10+

Elven Arch-Memorist

Wpn+3

Wpn+3/-

30’

10+

Encountering Elves

Most elves remain secluded in their own communities, preferring the company of those who can understand the burdens of their memories. The relative rarity of these transhumans makes elven nations few in number and small in population, but scattered elven “retreats” are not unknown in other lands, often deep within the wilderness where they will not be bothered by human rulers. Those elves that leave their retreats generally do so for a specific reason. They may have some task left undone from a prior life, or a debt yet unpaid, or a vengeance in need of execution. A few adventure through the world simply in search of new stimuli and exciting new experiences. These elves will cheerfully cooperate with any plan that promises to give them something new to enjoy, though most will avoid enterprises that they don’t expect to survive. Given the weight of their memories, it’s not uncommon for elves to become skilled mages who can draw on multiple lifetimes for their skills. Such occult med-

itation is dangerous, however, as those lives that were most capable in sorcery are often those lives most likely to overwhelm the identity of a young or unprepared elf. Most elven sorcerers are the equivalent of third or fourth level High Mages, though the rare arch-memorist who has successfully integrated multiple lives might be the equivalent of eighth, ninth, or even tenth level. Meeting with unknown elves always has a measure of danger. While some elves maintain a moral code similar to that of the local human nations, others subscribe to beliefs or goals that are either incomprehensible or repugnant to humanity. They might think nothing of sacrificing countless “transients” in pursuit of their grand goals, and consider their immortality to be tangible proof of their superiority over the evanescent humans around them. Charismatic elves of this kind can sometimes sway a considerable number of their peers to their cause, building dark purposes that threaten ruin and misery on humanity, all for the sake of some pleasure or excitement unknowable to ones not so jaded as they.

150•

Imperators Those beings known as “Imperators” are a broad class of demiurges, Sorcerer-Kings, god-emperors, sentient Legacy fragments, arch-Legates, alien overminds, demi-divine artificial intellects, and other such creatures with power far in excess of any ordinary human being. A being that is more than a human yet less than an inarguable god is generally described as an Imperator in the writings of the sages. Innumerable Imperators have appeared in the annals of the Latter Earth, often mentioned in brief passing for some tremendous work or empire they wrought, only to vanish out of human memory a short age later. Some scholars suppose that there have been more Imperators in the past of the world than there are harlots currently employed in it, and most would credit the harlots with superior virtue. For it is a sadly common quality to Imperators that they should eventually lose most of the qualities that modern humans would call “virtue”. Something about the ascent to unchallenged supremacy and near-godlike puissance erodes whatever reserves of self-discipline and restraint the Imperator might possess. Without anyone to forbid them their wishes, and with a brilliant mind perfectly capable of conjuring excuses for the worst excess, an Imperator almost invariably sinks into a morass of self-indulgent horrors and brutal atrocities. The Tsagasthos Incunabulum purports to be a catalog of the pleasures pursued by the Imperator Tsagasthos the Prevalent; the activities listed in this codex are so horrific in their character and so persuasively justified by the author that possession of the book is usually considered grounds for summary execution of the owner and their household and the burning of the work by a blinded executioner. Thirty-six different Blighted species of cattle-humans, trifoliate odalisques, gladiator-sages, dolorous vivants, and worse are credited directly to Tsagasthos’ appetites, and its worst crimes were the inspiration for several black cults that plague the Latter Earth still. Tsagasthos was not exceptional. While the particularly carnal nature of its horrors was somewhat uncommon, the obsession with satisfying personal goals and a bloodless indifference to the suffering of others was a trait common to most of its brethren. Almost all were convinced of the superiority of their wisdom, the justification for their desires, and the complete depravity of any who would dare oppose their wishes. The struggles between Imperators have shaped whole ages of the Latter Earth, and the relics of their wars and the ruins of their thrones yet burden the land with their awful weight. Not all Imperators were wholly wicked, however, and some may still nurse some remnant of virtue or higher duty in their analog for a heart. Most of these gentler Imperators still look outside their own desires for a moral code, often remaining in service to some

god or higher power they can still respect as a superior. Some are simply of a character to remain compassionate and restrained even with the constant temptation of their own power to seduce them. Such just Imperators often stand as bulwarks against the works of their more ruthless brethren, though it is not unknown for such unending wars to turn even the kindest god-king into an obsessed tyrant. In the present age, Imperators are few and usually legendary in the regions where they dwell. Immortal emperors, divine avatars, mythic monsters, and other figures of superhuman glory beyond that of a Legate are often credited as Imperators, though the stain that clings to the name often makes such comparisons less than flattering. They leave the imprint of their will on whatever nations, institutions, or regions they may command, often in wholly impossible or magical ways.

Imperators in Your Campaign

While it’s possible to stud your campaign setting with a few of these demigods, either as arch-antagonists for the PCs or as vast environmental hazards to be negotiated, it’s often more convenient to use them as shorthand for specific ancient empires or lost kingdoms to help supply a pleasant variety of ruins, Deeps, and monuments to explore. Personalizing a nation as a single leader helps shorthand things for players who may not be all that interested in a nuanced history lesson, and tying them into modern ruins helps give a sense of depth to your setting’s past. Still, if you want to use them as active players in your setting, you’ll need to keep a few things in mind when designing them. They can’t be beaten head-on. An Imperator is effectively unstoppable in a direct confrontation. The PCs are going to have to somehow disrupt the source of their power, find their hidden weakness, marshal powerful allies, or otherwise tilt the table to have any chance of winning. If they do these things, then the Imperator might just end up with the stat block of a monstrously powerful foe rather than being an automatic victor. They want impossible things. An Imperator should always want something that’s flatly impossible. It’s for petty mortals to seek world conquest; it’s for an Imperator to seek the retroactive temporal elimination of any potential rival. Their plans, sub-goals, and choice of servants should reflect this impossible goal. They have minions with their own goals. The servants and underlings of an Imperator cast their lot with it because it can give them something they want. The PCs will likely spend much of their time dealing with subordinates who may or may not be entirely loyal, and overcoming or suborning these minions might be a key step in opening the Imperator up for a mortal blow.

•151

Imperators of the Gyre

The only well-known potential Imperator in the Gyre region is the Reaping King himself; while he has not openly exerted any remarkable personal might, he is evidently immortal and completely unconcerned with assassins. All direct attempts at eliminating him have failed in spectacular and brutal fashion. Aside from the Reaping King, several ancient figures in the region are commonly credited as Imperators, and have left appropriate ruins in their former lands. Acalis: The Good Emperor, of the Nagadi demihuman race. The Nagadi were engineered for virtue, being far more brave, honest, compassionate, and diligent than baselines, and Acalis was their exemplar. He once ruled the Great Benevolence in the human lands that became Emed-Mar, but left with his people “into elsewhere” when he became convinced that associating with humanity was going to morally deprave him. He left behind monumental public works of noble proportions full of dangerously incorruptible guardians and the Nagadi who would not leave; the latter treat humans like Anakim. Nakris: The Hive Queen, known only from relics and statues in the Black Spine range. She was some sort of god-queen to the Jikegadi, her parasitical spawn being incredibly vigorous and swift to grow. The Jikegadi ruins of her era are full of biological parasite dangers and toxic Outsider environments.

Shun: The Lord of Flesh and Bone, an arch-mutator who raised the Rule of Shun in Republic-era Llaigis and perished to his own attempt to become a physical god. He left many laboratories, monstrous breeding-pits, subject-prisons, and healing shrines behind. Tsagasthos: The Prevalent One, a psychic virus that embodied itself in the brains of thousands of slaves. It ruled present-day Ka-Adun and the Rebel Coast until overcome by Voth in the expansion of her empire. Its ruins are of structures of physical pleasure and sensory experience, both sweet and hideous. Fragments of its psyche remain in creatures there, and they grow stronger with proximity to each other. Ubarun: The Dwarf King, progenitor of the Great Plan of the Graven World. He set his dwarven followers on a quest to work, carve, engrave, and sculpt every material object, themselves included, into the vast pattern he laid down for them. Pockets of his believers remain in the Deeps, but most know them only by the occasional Deep full of incredibly complex engravings, intricate machinery, and lethal counter-intrusion measures. Voth: The Mentarch, Imperator-Queen of the Vothite Empire. While immortal, she vanished once her line of heirs was established, telling them only that it was “necessary to the Purpose”. The Imperial ruins her nation left behind are filled with memetically resonant objects that can impress ideas, compulsions, or entire alien minds on unwary intruders.

152•

Outsiders The malevolent or inscrutable remants of the ancient Outsiders that once ruled the Latter Earth have not been entirely extirpated. Here and there, pockets of surviving alien sentients can be found, most often in the more remote, dangerous, and xenoformed areas of the planet. Many have regressed in both artifice and culture, some little more than savage barbarians burning with a hatred for their former slaves. Others have preserved some remnant of their former arcane might. The three species described here are relatively wellknown in the Gyre, as described on page XX. GMs who wish to use them as antagonists, environmental hazards, or profoundly untrustworthy allies of convenience can use the statistics given here.

Jikegida

These Outsiders are almost never encountered alone, with at least 2d4 members found in even the smallest hunting party. Such parties are invariably out searching for suitable hosts for Jikegida spawn and will be equipped with trusses, carrying poles, and other gear for transporting prisoners. A small mother-hive might contain a hundred of these Outsiders, while their remaining hive-cities deep in the Black Spine could house thousands. Most Jikegida are relatively frail “beast-born” types, often with visible animalistic traits from their original

host and an intellect slightly inferior to that of a normal human. The “man-born” Jikegida are a half-foot taller and considerably smarter, usually acting as leaders. Some of them even have magical abilities not unlike those of human wizards. Jikegida use mechanical weaponry, as their limbs are weaker than human arms. Their “throwers” function much like heavy crossbows but can be reloaded as a Move action, and their “flickers” are spears with vibrating heads. Neither weapon functions in non-Jikegida hands, the Legacy forbidding them from human use. As a matter of policy, the Jikegida will always release at least one captured prisoner from among those who surrender to them in order to encourage future prey to lay down their arms. Those prey species who cooperate against their own kind are often chosen for release, resulting in certain ugly stories of caravan guards turned traitor to save their own skins. Once captured by a Jikegida hunting party, some hope of rescue remains if a strong force can quickly retrieve them from a mother-hive. Every so often, however, an ancient Jikegida crawler-machine is sent from a hivecity to the mother-hives to collect a tribute of wretched humans. Those who vanish into the great machine’s bowels can have no real hope of avoiding their terrible fate.

•153

Polop

Tuhulot

While a veteran Polop hunter sometimes finds pleasure in a solo hunt for human prey, most small feasting expeditions consist of at least 1d6+1 of these crab-eel abominations, while an attack meant to reave a coastal village usually numbers at least 20+2d20 of them. Their forward outposts of living coral house twenty to thirty Polop, while the deep-sea cities are reported to contain tens of thousands of the aliens, according to the few who have ever escaped them. Polop make extensive use of monstrous alien sea life as weapons, transport, and utility. Listed here is is the “hellsquid”, a claw-tentacled, octopodal attack beast that can operate on land and that is sometimes found with hunting parties. At sea, huge leviathans of hideous aspect are often employed to destroy troublesome human ships, though such vast creatures are reluctant to approach too closely to the shore. While the Polop who invade the land are usually of the hunter or slaver varieties, legends speak of the living gods of the Polop, those of them who have eaten so much and of so many mighty foes that they become the awe-inspiring patrons of entire Polop cities. These “great devourers” are twice the size of ordinary Polop, but lack nothing of cunning and cruel intellect. For their own equipment, Polop prefer to use living sea organisms sorceled into suitable weapons and scaly armor. Their “spitters” cough bone darts that function as thrown light spears, and the spears and slave-taking clubs they use are of a living coral. The weapons of their leaders sweat a venom that forces a victim that is struck to make a Physical save or lose their next turn’s Main Action. Two failed saving throws in the same scene means the victim is paralyzed for the remainder of the scene. Parties out to gather food-slaves will prefer to take living prisoners, as the Polop prefer their food conscious while it is being consumed. These prisoners will be smeared with a viscous green gel that allows them to breathe water and ignore the ocean’s chill for the next twenty-four hours, before being carried down into the depths. Polop outposts will have air-filled feeding pens for holding these slaves, while the cities have entire herd quarters where whole generations of humans are raised as meat for the Polop lords. Outsiders

The Tuhulot are a cowardly but exceedingly cunning species, loving nothing so much as the preservation of their facsimile of life. The jerking puppet-shapes they use to interface with mundane reality are always kept safely behind a screen of dupes, traitors, and hired help, and only in great necessity will a Tuhulot ever put itself in a position where it might face physical destruction. Tuhulot always have a purpose in being wherever they are. They are trying to destroy one of the keys to their ancient binding, whether that key is at the center of some ancient ruin, incarnated in a particular human bloodline, or manifesting in some organization or religion’s particular teachings. The keys are not always physical; some are particular complexes of belief that must be discredited. To this end the Tuhulot will use its abilities to build a power base and enlist catspaws. Some of these minions may be knowing and willing servitors, as the key the Tuhulot is trying to destroy may be related to their own enmities or goals. Tuhulot have several magical powers specific to their kind, most usable as a Main Action three times per day. Their scrying gaze allows them to observe a particular point within ten miles for up to a scene as if they were standing there, assuming magical wards don’t forfend them. Their blandishing voice bends the mind of a single target on a failed Mental save, making it friendly toward the Tuhulot until the creature does something obviously hostile. Their sidewards step lets them teleport to any location within a mile they’ve occupied before, provided neither their current location nor their destination is directly illuminated by sunlight. Finally, their soul consumption power allows them to eat the memories and identity of a helpless sentient victim over the course of a torturous hour. The victim becomes a passive meat puppet for the Tuhulot, carrying out its orders with total obedience and human levels of intellect, but with all trace of its former personality erased. The only way to cure the victim is for the Tuhulot to give back the soul, a thing which it will do only for a suitable price. Tuhulot do not generally use material weapons, fighting when they must with slivers of distorted space and time. These semi-transparent fragments have a range out to one hundred feet.

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Jikegida Beastborn

Wpn-1

30’

15+

Jikegida Manborn

Wpn

30’

14+

Jikegida Hive Leader

18a

+7 x2

Wpn+2

30’

13+

Jikegida City Lord

20a

+14 x2

Wpn+4

8/-

30’

Polop Hunter

Wpn+2

30’

14+

Polop Slaver

+6 x2

Wpn+3

30’

12+

Polop Hellsquid

+5 x4

1d8+2

None

40’

13+

Polop Great Devourer

+20 x3

2d8+5

10/-

40’

Tuhulot Manipulator

+12 x2

2d8

4/-

50’

10+

154•

Undead As the work of generations of necromancers demonstrates, death is not an invariable condition in the Latter Earth. The Legacy that controls and directs all natural processes in the world is not without flaws or deviations, and sometimes a creature that ought properly to be rotting in the grave is denied the finality of a natural end. These wretched “undead” range from mindless animate corpses to phantasmal identity-imprints to entities largely indistinguishable from normal humans. Most of them are inimical to normal life, either out of malice or out of a sheer incompatibility of existence. While a sufficiently skilled necromancer can force the Legacy glitching that causes undeath, the phenomenon is also known to happen to those who die with great causes unfinished, those who perish because of powerful and disruptive magical effects, or those who die while under the effects of potent curses. Deeps and other places of great magical power are known for a high incidence of accidental undeath, and there are some breeds of Blighted who are intrinsically cursed with the certainty of an unquiet grave. Some necromantic plagues convert their victims into undead, and were it not for the failsafes of the Legacy some of them might have long since converted the entire Latter Earth into a charnel house… and in some Iterums this may have already come to pass. Aside from accidental undeath, some desperate seekers of immortality intentionally seek out the condition. Elaborate necromantic rituals, the employ of certain ancient relics, and adherence to particular death-god cults are all possible roads to undeath, but the results of these methods are not always entirely satisfactory. There remains a significant chance of complete identity-death, with nothing left of the petitioner but a shambling corpse, and even in the better cases there are often unacceptable aesthetic, intellectual, or sensory losses. There does remain one fairly well-known way of producing a perfectly lifelike, fully-cognizant, practically immortal undead form. By creating a complete systemic skip in the Legacy, temporarily jamming its proper operation while effacing the petitioner’s name from the rolls of life and death, the seeker can vanish from the laws of mortality. Unfortunately, creating this skip requires the equivalent of a civilization-destroying magical disaster. The consequences of failure are horrific for the petitioner, and the energy release required for the ritual invariably inflicts catastrophic damage on the surrounding lands and people. For those who seek the power of an Imperator and an eternal existence, however, such a sacrifice is an acceptable price. Accumulating the necessary sacrifices, constructing or repurposing the necessary occult architecture, and acquiring the correct components are often greater obstacles for them than any consideration of morality.

Types of Undead

Undead are aggressively anomalous; while they are divided into several general classes, individual entities might have very different qualities or show strange traits based on the kind of Legacy glitch that created them. Husks are mindless corpses, their identities usually lost or hopelessly scrambled by their death. While relatively easy to create, they are capable of only the most bestial, unthinking behavior, and are usually driven by instincts of violence and useless devouring. Something about living creatures seems to trigger an instinctive hostility in them, as if the living were a painful rebuke to their erroneous existence. In some cases a husk may retain some degree of consciousness or be gifted with unusual abilities by their translation into undeath. Shades are immaterial identity-imprints left behind by death. While intangible, they maintain some semblance of their appearance in life and are usually keyed to particular purposes or repetitious actions related to their death. Their ability to interact with the world is limited, usually restricted to objects or places important to their death, and their intellects range from completely mindless repetition to full awareness of their state. While magical energies or weapons can sometimes destroy them, permanently extinguishing them usually requires completing particular actions or the destruction of certain anchoring objects. Revenants are similar to husks in being material corpses but are usually much better-preserved both in body and mind. The chief distinction is that revenants have their own sentience and will, and are sometimes capable of masquerading as living humans. There are usually at least some serious flaws to this existence, either in cadaverous appearance, the need for human flesh and blood, a vulnerability to symbols of natural law such as sunlight, running water, or green wood, or some related infirmity. Revenants are not invariably hostile to humanity, but most experience a kind of nausea or instinctive revulsion toward living creatures due to the dissonance between their existence and that of natural life. The Unending are a special class consisting of those few mortals who have successfully enacted the Legacy-severing ritual of eternal life. Only those with the might of a potential Imperator have any chance of succeeding at such an ambition and those who have passed the gauntlet are invariably demigods of incredible personal prowess. They are also almost always monstrously evil entities, perfectly willing to erase a nation in order to buy their eternal life.

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Qualities of the Undead

ulate objects important to it in life or kill with its icy touch. Ravenous: If it hits with at least one of its attacks, it gets an immediate bonus attack against the target. Red Hunger: It must eat a pound of human flesh or drink a pint of human blood every week or lose a quarter of its maximum hit points. At zero hit points it dies or goes inert until fresh food comes near. Sunscorch: Exposure to sunlight, running water, or some specific other emblem of natural law inflicts 1d10 damage on it each round. Terrifying: Enemies must make a Mental save or lose their first turn’s Main Action as they summon their nerve. Morale checks it induces are made at -2. Impure: Weapons of silver, green wood, or other specific apotropaic material inflict maximum damage to it on a hit and always inflict Shock regardless of AC. Unending: It cannot die by violence. Only the right act, weapon, object destruction, or ritual can end it.

The example stat blocks below give illustrations of different common types of undead, but you should feel free to add additional abilities to specific creatures or to particular types of undead you create. These special types might have unique vulnerabilities or lack certain of the usual immunities of the undead, while possessing unusual powers in return. By default, undead cannot be poisoned, diseased, or be made to sleep or fall unconscious. They need not eat, drink, or breathe, and they are indifferent to normal extremes of heat or cold. Common undead are destroyed at zero hit points; PCs or powerful undead automatically stabilize. They do not continue to decay beyond their initial state, but self-repair at normal healing rates. Conventional healing spells or powers are useless on them unless used by themselves, a Necromancer, or by another person skilled in the maintenance of dead flesh. They accrue and lose System Strain as normal. Below are certain special abilities or traits found in certain undead. Others surely exist.

Origin Focus: Undead

You are a sentient undead creature that is capable of masquerading as a normal human, assuming no one inspects you too closely. Optionally, you can perfectly mimic a living person, but you must then choose one debility or vulnerability from the prior list of qualities. As with any other origin Focus, it’s up to the GM to decide whether to permit this origin in their campaign. Level 1: You have all the qualities of an undead creature. You can teach your allies how to successfully use healing effects on you. The debilitating effects of death have lessened you; pick an attribute and lower its modifier by -1, to a minimum of -2. Level 2: Pick one trait to gain: you can mimic the living with no penalty or drawback, you can turn Intangible as an On Turn action for one round per scene, you can use Desynchrony once per scene as an Instant action, you become immune to Shock, or some similar undead-style power with GM approval. This level of Focus may be taken more than once.

Averse: Certain religious symbols, lines of salt, emblems of natural law, or like icons repel it. When presented with the symbol it must make a Mental save to approach it. The aversion is broken if the icon’s bearer or their allies attack it. Beguiling: Once per scene it can beguile a creature with its gaze on a failed Mental save. The target becomes its helpless slave until separated from it for a full week. It cannot beguile creatures with more hit dice or levels than it has. Desynchrony: Foes hit by it must make a Physical save or be paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds, stunned by its own dislocation from natural law. Draining: Foes hit by it are enfeebled, taking a cumulative -2 penalty to hit rolls and-1 to damage rolls, Shock, and skill checks for the rest of the scene. Intangible: It is a shade or specter, unable to be touched by non-magical objects or energies. It can manipThe Undead

Atk.

Dmg.

Shock

Move

Inst.

Skill

Save

Animate Skeleton

1d6

30’

15+

Shambling Corpse

1d8

20’

14+

Ravenous Husk

1d8

30’

14+

Sentient Carcass

+4 x2

1d8

2/AC 15

30’

13+

Angry Shade

1d6

2/-

30’

13+

Wraith Lord

+10 x2

1d12+5

10/-

30’

10+

Hungry Revenant

13a

+10 x2

1d8

2/-

30’

11+

Undead Mage*

+10

1d8

2/-

30’

11+

Revenant King

18a

+14 x2

1d12+5

10/-

30’

Unending One*

+20 x3

2d8

5/-

40’

* Undead spellcasters have the slots of a Necromancer of half their hit dice, and cast at a level equal to their full HD, up to a maximum effective level of 10.

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CREATING YOUR CAMPAIGN (Chapter intro here) Tools for building a campaign world.

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CAMPAIGNSPLASH W 8.5 in H 11 in

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Planning Your Work When reading this chapter, it is crucial to draw the distinction between worldbuilding for fun and worldbuilding for playable content. Most of the people reading this book probably enjoy worldbuilding for its own sake. It’s a lot of fun to brew up strange lands and stranger people, to fill dark corners of the world with nefarious evils, and to carefully limn the features of alien gods and time-lost history. These activities are a perfectly good hobby and a relaxing way to spend your downtime. Campaign prep is meant to be more directed. You need to focus your efforts on creating useful, playable content. Sometimes that means leaving aside a fascinating thought-toy or neglecting some intriguing facet of your creation in order to have the time and creative energy to hammer out the pieces you do need for the next session. It’s okay to return to those things once you’ve got your homework finished, but you need to get your critical components finished first. It’s all too easy to exhaust both your time and your creative energy on peripheral matters, leaving you stressed and unequipped for the next session of gaming. If you follow the guidelines in this chapter, however, you should be able to get something fun and playable ready with minimal grief, giving you that much more time and energy to play with the fun parts of your world. When creating your own campaign, the first step is to think carefully about the scope of the work you need to accomplish. Blindly charging into the job with a demiurge’s enthusiasm and a bubbling font of ideas is a lot of fun and doubtless a fine way to spend an afternoon, but if a GM is concerned with actually creating playable, functional table content a little more preparation is in order. First you need to think about your players and the scope of the campaign you want to build for them. Is this going to be a short campaign of tightly-linked episodic adventures, or do you want to build a big, sprawling sandbox for them to explore for months or years on end? Is the campaign meant to focus on the skulduggery and politics of a single vast hive-city and its ruined environs, or do you expect the heroes to be roaming from adventure to adventure over the whole of a kingdom? Players being who they are, your expectations might be wrong. That short run of linked adventures could suddenly arc off into the wild unknown after the party gets fascinated by some peripheral hook you didn’t realize you were feeding them. The roving freebooters might enjoy a particular decadent city so much that they spend a dozen sessions conquering its myriad mad oligarch-guildmasters. It’s okay to revise your plans when the situation has clearly changed, but at the start, you need to pick a scope and build to fit it. This basic scope is your touchstone. Everything you build, plan, or create should relate to this scope in some way and preferably be associated with some kind of adventure-worthy content or situation. Maybe the

Athavian Empire has ten million war-saints who slay with edged words and murderous pity, but if the empire has no reason to impinge on your campaign scope, it’s not an efficient use of your energy to spend much time elaborating their nation. Once you have the basic scope set, you create your backdrop. The backdrop for your campaign amounts to all the world facts that need to be established to give meaningful context to play. The backdrop is built in multiple layers, starting from global facts about the world itself down to details of the specific adventure location the PCs will find themselves in at the start of the campaign. The more remote a given layer is from your scope, the less work you need to put into defining it and detailing its features. If you’re working on a completely new world, you may honestly not know any of the details about it. You might have a basic idea for a theme and a scope for your campaign, like “Island-hopping pirate-wizards” or “Decadent political maneuvering in an underground city”, but you have no idea what these islands might be like or what the name of the underground city is. By working from the top down on your backdrop, you build a framework and a context for your campaign that helps you answer important questions like these.

The Golden Rule of Preparation

In all of these pages, there is a single abiding rule you should follow in preparing your campaign. It is absolutely imperative that you understand it and that you apply it to your own work, or you run the risk of exhausting yourself and your creative powers long before you finish the content you need for a fun, relaxing night of play. Whenever you are building something, you need to ask yourself two questions. Am I having fun building this? If yes, you can keep going. You need to make sure you cover material you need for your next adventure session, but if you’re having a good time then it’s okay to indulge yourself. If the answer is “no” or “maybe”, however, you need to ask yourself a second question. Am I going to need this for the next play session? Will you need this specific content for your next gaming night? Don’t ask yourself if it could be potentially useful, or if it’s something you’ll need in the future. Ask yourself if this piece of work is going to be necessary for what you expect of the very next session of play. If you can’t answer yes with confidence, put it down. It is painfully easy for a GM to exhaust their powers on minutiae or peripheral details that aren’t fun to make and don’t get any useful play time. All of us are limited mortal creatures with finite amounts of time, energy, and focus. We can’t afford to spend it on trifles when there is more important and more satisfying work to be done. Instead, focus on what you need and enjoy making.

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Building Your Backdrop Backdrops are created at several different levels. As the GM, you work top-to-bottom, letting the facts you establish at one level inspire and mold the facts you establish at lower levels. At no point do you put more work into defining or characterizing a level than your actual campaign scope requires, unless you’re consciously doing so for the sake of enjoyment rather than efficiency. Each level has certain questions and generation procedures associated with it. You don’t need to give final answers to these questions, but you should be ready to make at least provisional decisions from which you can fashion lower, finer levels of detail. If you’re using an established setting for your campaign, a lot of these questions might already be answered in the novels or fiction you’re drawing on.

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What’s the name of this world for people in your campaign’s scope? Other people might have different names for it, but you need some kind of label to stick on your creation.

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Are natural physical laws mostly the same as in our world? If there are multiple moons, a lack of stars, a great crystal dome over a flat earth, or some other obvious global novelty of reality, you need to decide on it at this point because the PCs will likely know about it as a societal commonplace.

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Are there any spirit-worlds, alternate dimensions, novel planes of existence, or other cosmological locales generally associated with the world? Don’t worry about gods just yet, but think about whether there are any heavens or hells or Crawling Darks that the natives of this world would likely know about. Of course, some such alternate planes might be established later in the backdrop creation as secrets known only to sages or sinister priests.

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Are there any grand global-scale empires or groups that impinge on the campaign’s scope? If so, give them a name and two sentences of description at this point. If you can’t give them a useful shorthand description in two sentences, then their concept is too vague; tighten it and try again.

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How interconnected are the parts of your world? Is it easy to move from one region to another? Do the natives know a lot about their more distant neighbors?

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Are there any vast global events that have happened recently? You can use the history tables on page XX as inspiration if you wish, but this is the part where you identify any world-spanning catastrophes or dramatic universal changes that have happened in the relatively recent past. Leave distant history alone for now.

The World

At this level you’re establishing some basic global facts about your campaign world. This “world” might be literal; if you’re playing in an iterum of the Latter Earth, the facts you establish here might be related to the Latter Earth itself. Conversely, you might be running a campaign about dimension-shifting refugees fleeing some cosmic pursuer, in which case your “world” might be the overall framework of dimensions and cosmic mechanics for your campaign. This layer of the backdrop is usually the most distant from a campaign’s scope, and so needs the least prep. Many GMs love making world maps for the campaign settings, or establishing different grand empires on far-flung continents, or writing cosmic histories for their world known only to the sagely. These activities can be fun worldbuilding indulgences, but the great majority of them have no meaningful bearing on the campaigns that they’ll actually be running in that world. The coastline of England means nothing to a campaign set in 340 BC China, and the entire Tang Empire is no more consequential in Anglo-Saxon England than the silk embroidery on a bishop’s best cloak. To give such distant glories names and a sentence or two of description is as much as any world-level backdrop likely needs, and often more than it requires. At this level, the GM should establish any noticeable and drastic deviations from real-life physics or daily life. If there are two moons, or if the surface never knows night, or if water flows uphill as a general rule, then this is the level to establish those facts. Even in this case, however, these deviations should only be recorded when they’re something the PCs should be expected to notice immediately. The world may be hollow and full of divine clockwork, but if that fact isn’t widely known or doesn’t have any particular effect on the chosen scope of the campaign, then it’s not worth spelling it out beforehand. Here are some basic questions to answer about the world level of your backdrop.

It can be tempting to add gods and religious faiths at this level of backdrop creation, but it’s generally better to save that work for the regional level, or even the kingdom level. Some settings actually do have a set number of universal deities that are honored and worshipped world-wide under assorted names and guises, but most worlds will have faiths specific to particular regions and cultures. The divine patron of one kingdom might be unknown in a neighboring region, or have no more than a few petty shrines. Once you’ve answered these general questions about your world, you’re ready to step down to the next level of backdrop creation.

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The Region

This level covers the cluster of nations or civilizations most relevant to the intended scope of the campaign. The nations, tribal groups, marauders, and faiths of the people in this region are likely to have an impact on the campaign scope, so it gets more attention and more carefully-drawn detail than the broader world. You should only worry about detailing one region at first, the one most pertinent to your campaign scope. If that scope shifts, then you can concern yourself with a different one. One danger to watch out for at this level is that of excessive detailing. GMs and players both have a limit on the amount of detail they can constructively manage in a campaign setting. Just because you write it down doesn’t mean you remember it in play or that the players will bother to read the handout about it. As such, you have to restrict your detailing at this and lower levels to those facts and situations that are most likely to produce interesting, playable content. Remember also that this limit on attention applies to your entire campaign setting. You can’t draw up a meticulously-detailed region and then focus down on a meticulously-detailed kingdom and expect your players to remember or engage with all the facts on both levels. You have a limited budget of things that will matter to them, one varying with the interest and engagement of the players, and every call you make on their attention will eat up some of that budget. If you’re working with an existing setting, it’s relatively easy to draw the lines around a region. Mark the outline so that it includes about a half-dozen important nations, organizations, or other groups. These groups might have relations with nations outside the region, and external actors might sweep in from time to time, but most of the time these participants will be dealing with each other and creating the situations that are most likely to affect the PCs. If you’re starting with a blank slate, however, it can be difficult to generate a workable region. Follow the steps below to flesh out something usable. Name the region. Decide what the locals call the general area. Perhaps the name is derived from ancient myth, a major cultural group, a particular significant geographical feature, or a former governing entity. Giving the region a name will help you keep things straight in the case that you need to create multiple regions to accommodate a shift of PC adventuring. Choose about six major geographical features. The table on page XX can give suggestions, but for this step you want to pick out the mountain ranges, great forests, huge rivers, steep plateaus, volcanic Hell-gates, blasted arratu wastelands and other major features for the region. You don’t need to place them precisely just yet, but you should have a vague idea about their locations. Create six nations or groups of importance. A few more or less is fine, but don’t try to pack a score of major players into the same region unless you have the copious free time necessary to track their doings. At this stage, all

you need is a name and a few sentences of description for each. You can use the tables on page XX for inspiration, but don’t worry about fine details yet. Identify regionally-significant gods. Many kingdoms and groups will have their own favorite deities, but if there are any gods honored throughout the entire region, define them now. The tables starting on page XX provide tools for this. Remember that just because two nations worship the same god, it doesn’t mean that they necessarily like each other. Most faiths despise heretics far more than they do mere unbelievers, and two churches with similar-but-not-identical ideas about the same god can hate each other with a fiery passion. Make a sketch map of the region. Don’t try to get it perfect at this stage unless you’re doing it purely for fun. All you need is a crude map showing where the nations are in relation to each other as explained in the section starting on page XX. Use rivers and mountain ranges as convenient border markers, while forests, swamps, deserts, and other trackless zones can make for disputed frontiers. Don’t forget to mark in plenty of unclaimed wilderness, dangerous wasteland, and other “blank space” that can serve as a playground for nefarious evils, lost cities, and ambitious heroes. Assign two important historical events to each group or nation. The tables on page XX give example historical events. These events might be very recent, in which case the region is probably still dealing with them, or they might be some remotely distant event that was somehow critically important to the group’s development or current state. Try to connect the different groups via these historical events; use their neighbors as either antagonists, victims, or associates in the events. You might add even more events to each if you want to develop a fleshed-out timeline, but such deep historical work is best saved for a lower level of the backdrop. Define the relationships between the groups. For each one, decide what they generally think about the others and pick something specific they want from them. One kingdom might have a claim on land taken from it in a long-distant war, while an ambitious faith might be trying to get a major temple built in an otherwise-unreceptive nation’s capital. No group should simply “be there”. Every one of them needs to be wanting something or doing something that could spark adventures. Optionally, assign each group faction statistics. The Factions chapter starting on page XX gives the rules for interactions between major groups and organizations. You can use these rules to run between-session events among the major players in the region, and use the results either as adventure hook grist or as background color to help give the region a lively feeling. You may want to restrict the initial number of factions to the three or four most pertinent to your scope, however; many GMs can have a hard time running more than a half-dozen factions between sessions, and new ones might pop up as the PCs establish their own forces or new NPC groups suddenly become relevant.

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The Kingdom

Once you have the general region sketched in, it’s time to take it to a still lower level. The kingdom level of your backdrop covers the nation or tribal region that best includes your adventure scope. This is the first level that’s likely to include facts and details that matter to your very first session of play, so the amount of creative work you put into this single kingdom is roughly the same as you just put into an entire region. “Kingdom” should not be taken literally. This broad scope might apply to a grand metropolis that’s expected to absorb the first dozen adventures, or a raw frontier dotted with hardscrabble settlements and ancient ruins, or a particular stretch of arratu where the barbaric PCs were born and raised. It’s the worldbuilding box that your campaign’s initial stages will take place in. In the end, your entire campaign might well remain in this single zone, if the PCs decide that their interests lie here as well. You may continue developing and adding on to this kingdom for the full length of the campaign. Conversely, your heroes may light out for parts unknown after the first few sessions, obliging you to generate another kingdom-level backdrop wherever they end up. As always, focus your prep work on what you expect to need for your next gaming session. When building your kingdom-level backdrop, start with some basic steps. Pick a linguistic touchstone and give your kingdom or area a name. This language is likely the tongue of the current or historical dominant group in the region. Conventional fantasy names tend to be random nonsense-syllables picked from the creator’s cultural phoneme stock, and places often end up as the city of AdjectiveNoun or the NounNoun river. While some of this can work perfectly well, it’s easier for the GM to pick some obscure or extinct real-world language known to nobody at the table and use it for names. Even if the words they use from it have no relation to what they’re naming, the consistent set of sounds and syllable patterns will help give a coherent feel to the work. Flesh out its history. You already have an event or two related to it that you generated at the regional level. Now take those same tables and add three or four more events. These historical circumstances might’ve been localized to specific areas of the kingdom, or they might have been nation-wide happenings. It’s not necessary to have a year-by-year timeline of the past, but a half-dozen solid events can help inform the kingdom’s current state. Decide how it is ruled and identify the ruler. The zone might be a patchwork of city-states or a single unified monarchy, but now’s the time to decide those details. Give names and a sentence or two of definition to the rulers in the area, with the tables starting on page XX providing some help. Identify the enemies of the rulers. Maybe they’re a usurper who seeks to claim the throne, maybe they’re a sullen band of rebel peasants, or maybe they’re a slowly-advancing army of Hell. Somebody wants to depose or

destroy the rulers of the region, even if they’re so subtle in their work that the public knows nothing of them. The conflict they create is eminently useful for a GM. Choose one or more problems or goals it’s facing. It may be that something is not working right in the region, and its inhabitants are being forced to deal with it or suffer the consequences. These problems might be restricted to particular regions, or they might be long-standing afflictions that have been woven into the culture, or they could be sudden eruptions that the leadership is not equipped to handle. These conflicts will help create adventure hooks in the area and give the leadership something to react to. The tables on page XX can help. Make a rough map of the area. This doesn’t need to be any more precise than the scope of your game requires. If you plan on doing serious hexcrawling in the area, you might make a detailed hex map of the kingdom, while a looser, more point-hopping style of campaign might just sketch some outlines and mark points of interest. Make sure to identify neighboring nations or groups. Place ethnic groups and demihumans. The kingdom might consist of a single monolithic ethnic group, with their own gods and customs evenly distributed throughout the land, or more than one group may exist in the area, with relationships that may be friendly or fraught. Demihuman enclaves likely exist at some distance from human settlements, the better to ensure their relative independence. These groups may use the same linguistic touchstone you picked when building the kingdom, or you might give them different languages. Flesh out the society and style of the kingdom and its occupants. The tools on page XX can be used to give character to the zone. The resultant society you create might be equally shared by all the ethnic groups in the kingdom – whether they like it or not – or each group might vary in their own way. The key at this stage is to give enough flavor to the kingdom that you can confidently ad-lib facts and details associated with it. Assign local gods and religious traditions. Once you have the societies and cultures largely fleshed out, you can put details to the god or gods they worship and identify any major religious power groups in the area. At this stage it can sometimes be helpful to plant a dead or lost god or two into the area, perhaps still venerated by hidden cults or bitter survivors. At least one deity should be thoroughly malevolent or unsympathetic if you mean to make much use of evil cults or sinister high priests in your campaign.

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Geography Construction Almost everyone loves a good fantasy map. A well-drawn map has more than purely artistic charms; the names and borders and carefully-sketched wilds all evoke possibilities in the viewer’s head and invite thoughts about the kind of adventures that could be had in such a land. A place feels more real for having been mapped, and the verisimilitude of a campaign setting is greatly improved by being established in cartography. But as a working GM, your needs are a little different. A beautiful, artistically-done map is a wonderful thing, but very few GMs have the skills to execute such a project or the time to create it even if they did. When thinking about the physical construction of your world, it’s important to start with the essentials and save the elaborations for afterwards.

Campaign Map Essentials

You need two maps at the start of your campaign: a map of the region most relevant to your campaign’s backdrop, and a map of the kingdom-scale area in which your initial gaming sessions will occur. These two maps are going to be the most important when you’re running through the other creation tools in this section, because they’ll tell you which of the major players are adjacent to each other and show you where ruins, wildernesses, conflicts and problems are most likely to be found. If you’re playing in a fantasy-land sandbox the region might be a two hundred mile square chunk of terrain holding the various fantastic nations and organizations you picked as major players during the backdrop’s creation as described on page XX. If you’re running an urban campaign focused on a single massive city, the “region” might be a particular zone of the megalopolis. If you’re doing an alt-history campaign set in 1033 AD, the region might simply be western Europe. The kingdom-scale map should simply cover the specific nation or culture-zone where the first adventures of your campaign will take place. If you plan on starting the heroes in Neue Gruzland, then you want a map of Neue Gruzland. If they’re working out of a keep on the untamed borderlands, then you want a map of the borderlands and its savage wilderness. Megacity campaigns might flesh out a single slum area within the greater cityzone. The region-scale map will tell you where the players could end up going and what they might find there. The kingdom-scale map will tell you what they find during their very first few sessions. Note the distinct absence of any need for a global or continental map. You don’t actually have to establish any details whatsoever about what the rest of the world looks like unless it’s a fun bit of recreation for you. A few sentences of suggestive prose about the Enigmatic South or the Unknown North is plenty, especially since very few realms will have anything resembling reliable maps available to the PCs.

Making the Regional Map

Your beginning campaign maps should consist of nothing but loose scrawls and crude symbols. Indeed, many campaigns can make it through their entire run without creating any map more elaborate than a rough relational scribble. Hex-crawling campaigns and groups that like firm cartographic certainties can build out their initial maps later, but to start with, take a blank sheet of paper and focus purely on mapping basic relationships. First, decide how many sides of the regional map will be oceanic. One or two makes for a curving coastline or a peninsula or land bridge that extends off two edges of the map. Three makes for a self-contained peninsula, and four means that the region is an island. It’s generally wisest to have at least one side be a sea, or else you severely hobble your opportunities for piracy, nautical adventures or sea travel to distant regions. Second, use the tables in this section to generate a half-dozen or so significant geographic features. Space them out on the map, keeping in mind the notes as to which features shouldn’t go closely together. Of course, magic or Outsider manipulation might subvert that expectation, but if that’s the case, make it clear that it’s so. These features should be scaled to the size of the region; a mountain range might extend for a hundred miles in a large regional map, but a small map might have plausible room only for a stretch of rugged hills with a few mountain-worthy peaks. Note that most regions will be small enough that the climatic variation is likely to be minimal. The polar-ward portions might be colder than the more equatorial side of the map, but a few hundred miles is unlikely to have comfortable room for both steaming jungles and barren glacial wastes. If you get table results that suggest a geographic impossibility, either convert the result to its local-climate equivalent or come up with some magical or geographical explanation for why it really makes sense. Warm ocean currents, geothermal heat wells, sorcerous curses, and berserk Outsider xenoforming engines are always handy rationales. Third, sketch in 1d4+2 major rivers. Rivers make excellent borders for the nations you’re going to be planting in this region. Barring sorcery, rivers will start in mountains or highlands and flow down to the sea or until they vanish into a lake, bog, or other sink. Rivers can split into tributaries and sub-branches, but these tributaries do not join together again; once the river splits, it can only split further, though multiple mountain-fed rivers might join on the lowest path to the sea. Across flat land the river will tend to meander, while streams that come down from a height will usually cut straighter from the force of the flow. Any given river should probably be no longer than a quarter of the maximum dimension of your map, though it might twist and wind within that length.

•163 Optionally, add one to three significant lakes or inland sea areas to the map. These bodies of water can be particularly useful in giving “conjoining borders” to nations that would otherwise be entirely separated from each other. Each body of water should have at least one river flowing into it, but only one at most flowing out of it. Fourth, place your nations, important tribal groups, major organizations, or other significant players you’ve decided will play a role in this region. Nations and tribal lands should be largely coterminous with natural barriers such as rivers, mountain ranges, deep forests, impassable swamps, or other easily-defended terrain. If the borders extend beyond these barriers, it’s probably the result of successful warfare and a cause for future battles. National borders probably include significant regions of marginal or uninhabitable land. Sun-blasted deserts, mephitic bogs, cursed arratu wastelands, or jaggedly perilous peaks might all be well within a nation’s borders without actually having any locals to respect the nation’s laws. This is perfectly acceptable, and a good source of adventuring grist when the heroes quest into the unmapped wilderness or fight back the hideous evils that burst forth from it. If these badlands extend across a border, they probably are a source of regular tension as raiders or monsters emerge to scourge a nation before fleeing back into the wastes. Expeditions to control or punish them can easily become forces of invasion, and both nations might want to bring the land entirely within their borders to better have a free hand in repressing its dangers. Don’t worry about placing cities, ruins, or other points of interest on the map just yet. You’ll do that as necessary when you flesh out the kingdom. Also, don’t concern yourself with turning this rough sketch into a “proper” map just yet. You only need it to inform you of the basic spatial relationship between things in your campaign backdrop.

Making the Kingdom Map

Now take the chunk of your region that will contain your campaign’s initial adventures and start with a new sheet of paper. Scrawl out the rough edges of the borders, filling up the whole sheet with the outline of your starting nation. Copy in any major terrain features from the regional map that happen to obtrude into the kingdom. At this point, you basically repeat the regional creation process on a smaller scale. You roll for terrain features, add rivers, mark out provincial or cultural borders within the nation, and finish by placing cities, trade routes, and other features as explained in the nation generation tables starting on page XX. Naturally, the rivers and terrain features you roll at the stage will be of significantly smaller scale than the ones you rolled for the region. A “volcano” result that was a stretch of seismically-active mountains on the regional map might be a single ominous peak in the kingdom, and the rivers and lakes rolled here might be modest bodies of water too small to bear marking on a regional-scale map.

d20

Significant Terrain Features

Ancient farmland. A huge stretch of land was re-engineered for optimal farming.

Arratu wasteland. An area here was once xenoformed by the Outsiders into an environment hostile to humanity or one inhabited by dangerous alien lifeforms.

Blasted lands. Radioactive or scorched over by ancient war. Many ruins, likely.

Canyons. A region with extensive canyons cut by rivers present or long-vanished. Make sure the rivers don’t climb after leaving them.

Dense forest. Trackless, dark, and an effective natural barrier.

Grasslands. A broad sweep of savannah or grassy plains is a coherent whole here.

Islands. There’s a single significant island off the coast or an archipelago of some note.

Jagged mountains. A new or resharpened mountain range forms a barrier in the region. The mountains are young, tall, and likely cast a substantial rain shadow.

Jungle. A classic adventure-worthy jungle of wild, semi-alien flora and fauna.

Light forest. Interspersed with other terrain.

Megaplex. The ruins of a single huge ancient structure stretch for endless miles.

Pit. A Deep or some other underground megastructure collapsed and left a hole with a diameter measured in tens of miles.

Rain forest. Vast, damp, and green.

Rocky Hills. Rough and stony, with little arable land. Herding and raiding are the most profitable employments here.

Rolling Hills. A stretch of gently rolling hills makes for good agricultural land.

Sand Desert. This desert is a waste of sand and dunes. It may be from a rain shadow, or it might be a legacy of ancient war.

Scrub Desert. These often appear on the leeward side of mountain ranges. Borders will often be grasslands or savannah.

Swamp. A sinking river, lake margin, or wet coastal delta forms a vast bog in this flat land.

Volcano. One or more mountains in a nearby range are volcanically active. This may be natural or it may be a consequence of Legacy flux or ancient manipulation.

Weathered mountains. A significant skirt of hills is common. The rain shadow is likely limited due to the rounded, low mountains.

164• Every terrain feature you roll will have its effect on the local inhabitants, however. Swamps will have swamp-dwelling fishers, grassy plains will encourage farmers, hills will often have mining activity or jealously independent herders, and so forth. These people will usually be different from those dwelling in the surrounding land, either consciously so as a self-separated minority, or different by virtue of their practical living requirements. PCs who go to mountains will tend to find mountaineers, and even if they speak the same language and have the same lord as the plains-dwellers their lives will inevitably be shaped by the different terrain they occupy.

Refining the Maps

What you have now is perfectly adequate for an initial session. If you need to establish specifics of distances and position as part of the first adventure’s play, you can do so on a case-by-case basis, and some groups may never particularly care about the details of distances beyond knowing how many days it takes to get to wherever they want to go. Some campaigns need tighter details, however, such as hexcrawl exploration campaigns that focus heavily on scouting and mapping an unknown land. For those cases, it’s best to use an digital tool such as Hexographer to make a usable map at whatever scale is most convenient. A six-mile hex is a popular choice, as it’s large enough to hold multiple points of interest but small enough to reasonably contain only one major type of terrain.

Artistic and handsomely-done maps of kingdoms or regions or continents should be left as exercises in creative enjoyment and recreation rather than necessary campaign prep. A simple hex map provides all the information needed to adjudicate the vast majority of travel or distance questions, and even the most art-incapable GM can stitch one together with the online tools available.

•165

One-Roll Terrain Feature Details It can be difficult to add spice to your sixth mountain range; there are only so many ways to enliven a forest, a desert, or a pile of rocks before the creative springs run dry. As a supplementary tool, you can roll one die of each type and reference the tables below to add more detailing and character to a given terrain feature. It’s assumed that the terrain feature is meant to be a place of adventure and profit, so the table’s results are canted towards dangerous, enigmatic places. It’s assumed the bucolic breadbasket regions of your campaign aren’t in need of particularly exciting features. A suitably inaccessible region can end up becoming a “borderland” zone even in the heart of a developed kingdom. Bandit kings, monstrous hordes, and other grist for adventure can thus be placed almost anywhere. d6

How Dangerous is the Feature?

How Populated is the Feature?

Almost unpopulated for something like it

Very few settlers or workers there

Average or more population density

A rush of people have gone there

d12

What Antagonists are Common There?

Violent secessionist rebels

Angry cultists of a local faith

Locals who resent interloping outsiders

A type of cunning, dangerous beast

Relic-creatures of ancient settlements

Elemental emanations of the disordered land

Safer than usual for someplace like it

A hostile sentient monster civilization

There’s one notable kind of danger there

Brutal envoys of the central government

It’s got some site-specific flavors of peril

Raiders and bandits driven into the areaL:

It’s unusually dangerous in several ways

Rapacious local lords and gang bosses

It will quickly kill the unprepared or unwary

Remnants of a furious native population

It’s a death zone for all but the strongest

Outsider remnants with a bitter grudge

What Use is the Feature?

d20

A rare and precious resource is found there

It has significant magical structures in it

Ancient sites and relics are common there

It has a place in the national origin legend

It’s sacred land to a group or religion

It is entirely manmade by ancient arts

Controlling it has military significance

Time and space sometimes slip there

It has substantial productive infrastructure

The magical power there attracts wizards

A major trade route goes through it

It subtly changes those who live there

Uncontrolled, it’s a nest of raiders and worse

It’s holy land to a particular faith

A mighty Working is still functioning there

It was formerly a different kind of terrain

It has human-worked vistas of beauty

It was formerly an Outsider stronghold

d10

What Kind of Event Last Happened There?

Optional Quirk of the Feature

A significant battle was fought there

A significant part of it is subterranean

A mad prophet tried to start a faith there

It’d expand were it not for ancient wards

A usurper and supporters fled into it

It was a nature preserve of a megastructure

A resource strike drew numerous people

It’s maintained by an ancient artificial mind

A major nest of bandits or raiders formed

Magic is somehow warped in its area

A rich ancient ruin was discovered there

The flora and fauna are queasily “off”

An uncanny plague erupted in the area

The locals once populated it more heavily

Some grim and terrible thing was awoken

Rulership of the feature is widely disputed

A community of outcasts or marginals formed

It’s riddled with caves and delvings

A natural or uncanny disaster struck there

A unique type of sentient lives there

166•

Nation Construction When following the guide on page XX, sometimes a little extra flavor or a few more specific details are needed for a nation. These pages offer some guidelines and examples. The disputes, positive ties, current problems, and present felicities suggested on the opposite page can be used to provide a hint about current national concerns, while the nation themes that follow might be used to color the societies that you place there. Beyond those random tables, there are also a few more material qualities to a nation that require a little more guidance to establish.

Borders

The borders for your nations should generally follow rivers, mountain ranges, trackless forests, and other major geographic barriers. Borders that run through clear, easily-traversed terrain are likely to be points of friction with greedy neighbors and hotbeds of cross-border banditry. Deserts, arratu wastelands, deep swamps, and other difficult terrain might nominally be inside a nation’s borders, but they may have little or no practical control over such desolations. Lands and titles often await heroes who can make the nation’s claim more than mere words.

Population

Population density in the Latter Earth is skewed both by the perilous arratu and the occasional pocket of ultra-dense habitation made possible by ancient sorceries or still-functional Workings. For a general baseline population for a relatively low-tech, low-magic land of unremarkable prosperity, you can assume 60 people per square mile. You can get a tolerable approximation just by multiplying the nation’s longest width and length dimensions by sixty and adjusting that according to what seems sensible.

Urbanization

For most nations of the Latter Earth, at least ninety percent of the population will be rural. They will live in small villages of a few hundred people, if not fewer, with the occasional somewhat-larger market town. The more productive the agriculture of the nation, the greater the percentage that will be able to live an urban life. For most nations, begin by taking ten percent of the population as city-dwellers. A third will live in the capital or chief city. Of the rest, a quarter will live in the second largest city, while the remnants will be roughly divided up among as many cities as you wish to place. A city in most nations qualifies as any settlement with more than two or three thousand people. Thus, if you have a nation of a hundred miles square and 600,000 people, 20,000 would live in the capital, 10,000 would live in the second largest city, and the remaining 30,000 urbanites would be split up into as many as ten minor cities and major market towns.

City Placement

Put the nation’s capital in the central region of the map or the richest farming terrain, unless there’s a particular reason why the borders expanded rapidly in a particular direction. Locate it on a river or seacoast, because any city of its size will require constant food imports that would be prohibitively difficult to haul overland. Now, starting from a random cardinal direction, start placing the remaining cities, working clockwise. Place them on rivers and other bodies of water. If you need to put one in the middle of a dry-looking region, assume that there’s some small river there too minor to show up at the national map’s scale. When placing cities, put them near resource sites. good farmland, trade crossroads, or excellent ports. Most of these communities will have grown up around exploiting those resources. Urban centers without any obvious resource extraction probably serve as trade hubs, industrial centers, military strongholds, or religious centers. To characterize each city, you can use a pair of Community Tags as described on page XX. If you need to flesh out the dynamics of their ruling institution, you can use a pair of Court Tags from the same section.

Marking Wastelands

A land with no empty spaces and no regions of dubious law is lacking certain charms to adventurers. When building a nation, you’ll want to know where to place forbidding ancient ruins, desolate lost cities, rabid bandit kings, and hard-bitten frontier settlers. Look at your map and the cities you’ve placed. Identify the most likely routes of travel or trade between them. In all probability, the connections are by water when possible, and overland only when there are no canals or navigable waterways connecting them. The resulting mesh will have holes in it, zones of land distant from any major travel route. These are the best places to put ancient ruins, arratu badlands, trackless forests, war-torn provinces, and other areas suitable for adventure. Note these zones down for later, even if you haven’t made up any ruins yet or haven’t decided exactly what desolate wastelands exist there. These are certainly not the only places you can put your wastelands and ruins, but if you put them closer to the cities or directly on a trade route between them, you’ll need to explain why the locals haven’t already plundered the lost cities, or why they’re insisting on sending a major caravan route through the middle of an arratu. There may be a perfectly good reason for either of those situations, but you’ll need to think of one. It may be that the former trade route was recently blocked, or the ruin has already been reputed to be plundered, or the traders have some bargain with the Blighted tribes that roam the badlands.

•167 d20

Disputes With a Neighboring State

d20

Positive Ties With a Neighboring State

Raiders are taking refuge in their lands

The ruling classes are related in some way

Ownership of a resource site is disputed

An important faith crosses the border They fought by our side sometime in the past

A usurper or criminal is being sheltered there

A troublemaking religion is based there

Their culture is widely admired here

Their rulers have a political claim on the throne

They helped to overcome an eldritch peril

A diplomatic marriage is going sour

They held back an enemy from our border

A past war’s savagery has left deep scars

They are co-ethnics of the same origins

Their culture is supplanting local beliefs

They provide critical trade relations

Their immigrants are gaining great influence

Sages and scholars came from there

They broke off an alliance or important pact

They gave critical aid during a disaster

They lured away an academy or great temple

A hero of this land came originally from there

Border tariffs and taxes are blocking trade

A past hero-king once ruled both lands

They drove a terrible beast into this land

They produce some vital commodity

A Working of theirs caused problems here

They have a shared enemy

They woke up a great peril from the past

A Working they have is helpful here, too

They’re cooperating with an enemy group

A long-standing alliance or trade pact exists

They’re suspected of backing assassinations

They recently conceded some disputed land

A spy ring is suspected or has been found

They greatly admire elements of this culture

They refused to give aid for some current need

They’re considered unusually attractive here

They’ve been hostile to an allied group

They took in refugees from here at one point

d20

Current National Problems

d20

Good Things Happening Right Now

Farmland is becoming worn-out and depleted

A splendid mine or resource has been found

Verminous monsters are swarming

A pious saint is strengthening a major faith

A rebel front is stirring up trouble

A noble heir shows signs of heroic greatness

An outside power is backing internal strife

A major rival has recently suffered a calamity

The leadership is inept and distracted

New farmland has been opened up recently

A religious reformer is breaking old compacts

A new trade route has been forged

An evil is provoking outraged rioting

A horrible monster was slain or driven off

Dark cults are attracting the ambitious

Good harvests have enriched the people

A Blighted horde is threatening the borders

A wicked minister has been deposed

An ancient ruin has disgorged some peril

A new academy has recently opened

Malcontents have obtained a potent artifact

A bandit or rebel uprising has been crushed

Luxuriance has left the nation’s coffers bare

Two rival lords have started to make peace

Local aristocrats are pushing for independence

An old enemy has agreed to a peace pact

An important mine has run out or been harmed

The military won a recent smashing victory

A sinister favorite has infatuated the leader

A helpful Working has been activated

A recurring plant plague is causing hunger

A powerful artifact is helping the ruler

Fearsome monsters are migrating into the land

An old source of unrest has been calmed

A rival is preparing for war or raiding

A dark cult has been revealed and purged

A grand national plan is exhausting the people

New diplomatic ties have been made

A savage grudge has erupted between lords

A new lord has risen, loved by his people

168•

Example Nation Themes

The themes here offer some suggestions for nation traits that might make for good adventuring grist. The adjacent table is organized in two groups; you can roll 1d10 to get a largely negative thematic trait or 1d10+10 to get a more positive quality. Whether positive or negative, remember that the themes of the nation should be related to actual playable content. A seemingly idyllic land with traits of Justice and Pageantry might be splendid in many ways, but something about those qualities should cause problems or conflicts that adventuring PCs could become embroiled in. If you feel stumped at a prospect, think about the consequences of taking a virtue too far, or applying a virtuous trait in the wrong way. Barbarism: The nation is brutally assailed by bestial, primitive forces, whether from external enemies or internal divisions. Naked violence, cruelty, ignorance, and hatred are always near the surface of things, either as threats pressing on the familiar or as instincts and habits among the natives. Decadence: The nation is voluptuously cruel, indulgent, and indifferent to the prices it pays for its pleasures. Unspeakable debaucheries and sordid delights are in common circulation, and few ever think to question the appropriateness of inflicting brutal evils in order to obtain some elevated enjoyment or refined pleasure. The PCs are regularly exposed to the consequences of such indulgences and the damage they inflict on others. Despair: The nation is redolent of hopelessness and apathetic submission to fate. It may be because some overwhelming evil seems inevitably due to pass, or because all prior efforts at improvement have brought only worse suffering, or because some bright cultural hope or golden age is now clearly lost and ruined forever. The nation will tend to accept evils and sufferings as inevitable, and the natives will do little to rebel, resist, or defy their unhappy fates. Enlightenment: A genuine love of knowledge imbues the nation, such that academies and schools have an important role in social and political life and a good education is considered a hallmark of gentility. The populace has a genuine curiosity and zest for investigation, and finding the truth of things is considered more important than secure stability. Exhaustion: The nation is depleted of something critical, whether that is a tangible resource or their spiritual reserves of enthusiasm and hope. Everything is tired in this nation, with spent rivers, barren fields, cut-over forests, and shorn hillsides. If material resources are sufficient, the natives simply don’t have the energy or enthusiasm to bring in more than they presently do, perhaps out of a sense that nothing good can come of any putative improvement.

d20

Thematic Element

Barbarism, with brutal savagery

Decadence, of sins and fadings

Despair, with good things unlooked-for

Exhaustion, with strength spent and lost

Ignorance, of terrors and the unknown

Oppression, with rule a crushing weight

Poverty, where even the rich are poor

Precarity, with all goods made fleeting

Stratification, where classes do not touch

Violence, where life is something cheap

Enlightenment, where knowledge is loved

Expansion, where things swell greater

Hope, that the future should be better

Justice, where a reckoning is had

Legitimacy, where rulers are by right

Pageantry, of splendor and magnificence

Prosperity, with wealth easily had

Renewal, with things growing brighter

Triumph, with victory a fresh memory

Unity, where purposes are shared

Expansion: The nation’s borders are expanding, either through successful conquest, peaceful assimilation of bordermarches, or the seductive appeal of their values and culture. The society is vigorous and confident, assured of the justification of their expansion and of the good it will provide to everyone deserving of good. There’s usually some truth to this, albeit perhaps less than the expansionists would like to admit. Hope: The nation is imbued with a sense of hope and potential, the promise of a better day to come and a brighter future for those who win through their present problems. There may have been a recent discovery of some great trove of resources, some magical or technological innovation that promises great results, or the rise of a beloved house of seemingly-blessed rulers. Ignorance: The nation is an ignorant one, redolent of (incorrect) superstition, false gods, blundering institutions, and erroneous beliefs of all kinds. These beliefs are somehow critical to the setting’s culture or society, such that being rid of them would cause some profound, potentially bloody disruption of life. Life in this nation can go on as it does only so long as the ignorance remains unilluminated, and the vast majority of its populace would rather remain in error than exist in chaos.

•169 Justice: One or more powers or institutions in the nation have a genuine concern for justice and righteousness, such that the society’s laws and values are fairly and even-handedly enforced. These laws may not perfectly match modern conceptions of justice, but what exists is meant to be applied evenly. Righteous crusaders for the cause, honest magistrates, and some great struggle to enforce justice on a widely-understood wrong might all be present. Legitimacy: The nation’s rulers or controlling institutions have a profound degree of legitimacy among the populace, such that it’s hard to imagine ever overthrowing them as a group. Individuals among them might be criminals or incompetents, but the structures as a whole are accepted as necessary and eternal by most elements of the society. This legitimacy may derive from divine mandates, personal prowess, honored lineages, or a terror of the chaos that would exist without them. Oppression: Some substantial portion of the nation is cruelly oppressed by some force. It’s rare that this is the same group in all areas of the nation; oppression as a key theme to the setting implies that many groups in many places suffer under this, and it may be accepted as a commonplace that one group or another needs to be harshly repressed if the rest of society is to prosper. Oppressive groups will usually have a clearly-enunciated philosophy of why this state of affairs is necessary, and it usually will have at least some coloring of justification to have persisted as it has. Pageantry: The nation is marked by dramatic displays, magnificent architecture, sweeping demonstrations of might, and large-scale undertakings for the glory or edification of the rulers and populace. The locals tend to place great store by such ritual displays, finding them inspiring, meaningful, and important in more than strictly material ways. These grandiose efforts actually have real results towards unification, inspiration, and societal harmony. Poverty: The nation is poor. Even aristocrats might not be assured of the necessary staples of life, or basic resources might be constantly threatened by monsters, warfare, calamities, or simple dearth. The struggle for resources and the basic necessities for survival are apt to drive numerous conflicts in the setting, and the consequences of failure can be far worse than mere discomfort for the losers. Precarity: Whatever good the nation has is under immediate siege by circumstances, and it looks very likely that it might crumble. Something is happening in the setting to make old verities and assured societal instutitions totter, whether a massive monstrous invasion or a revolt by some displeased underclass. These instutitions will tend to strike out violently at threats, fearing that their basic existence is at stake, and the recklessness of their responses might be the very catalyst that provokes their eventual collapse.

Prosperity: The nation is relatively rich, such that conventional scourges of famine, privation, and desperation aren’t nearly as common as they would be in other cultures. Pockets of genuine want may exist, but the average commoner leads a well-fed, wellclothed life and the grandees have the resources for impressive displays of wealth. This prosperity may be the fruit of unusual natural resources, exceptional societal harmony, magical blessings, or simple good climate. Renewal: A spirit of reformation and renewal breathes through the nation, with old noble houses rising once again, decayed religions being reformed, corrupt institutions being shaken, and the populace generally more insistent on improvement. This renewal could be a harkening back to the old ideals of yore or an appeal to some new innovation, and the subjects could just as easily be a royal house recalled from exile as a new republic’s establishment. Stratification: The nation draws harsh lines between social classes, cultural groups, regions, sexes, or some other distinction between people. Castes and aristocracies are a common feature of these settings, ones drawn sharply by blood or birth circumstances. Adventurers are apt to be wild cards in these societies due to their ability to obtain outsized personal power, and they may regularly run into conflicts or complications that they have the strength to deal with, but not the social permission. Triumph: Something wonderful has recently been accomplished in the nation; a dark lord defeated, an evil king overthrown, a plague ended, a natural disaster overcome, or the like. The setting is touched with a sense of success and victory, despite the costs of that triumph, and filled with a confidence in its own power and potential. There will be many new institutions and groups seeking to exploit the aftermath. Unity: Powers and groups within the nation are highly united in their goals and sense of fellow-feeling. While not necessarily xenophobic, they will tend to value their brethren more than strangers, and paper over internal conflicts and disagreements that might fester into civil disorder or chaos in less harmonious societies. These societies might have been shaped by some all-consuming peril that forced them together or a culture that greatly prizes unity. Violence: The nation is a bloody one, with human life held cheap and death a commonplace. This may be the result of incessant warfare, such that most people half-expect to die in battle, or it may be the product of a society that simply doesn’t value people’s lives. Death may be a penalty for comparatively trivial sins, or the environment might just be so dangerous that a death in bed is a thing unlooked-for by most.

170•

Society Construction A nation is the product of its society. While you can easily sketch the borders of a particular fantastic domain on a map, the more difficult part of the process is thinking about the kind of people who live there. The things they value and the way they organize their lives will have inevitable consequences when thinking about their government, their conflicts, and their ambitions. This section allows you to roll up a society to inhabit the nations you’ve made. Some nations may be mono-ethnic, with a single dominant group and no meaningful pockets of any other ethnicity. Others may have more than one significant group within their borders, either as a legacy of shifting boundaries, ancient conquest, migration, or an old division in an existing people. For now, just create one society for your nation and take it as the dominant group. If your history generation or your own plans suggest the need for an additional group, you can come back and build it out, placing it within the context of the majority’s culture. Note that the same society can exist in multiple nations. One might have been a colony of the other, or exiles from a lost conflict, or pioneers who pushed the border out and then demanded the right of independent rule. Ther may be pockets of the group as minorities in distant lands, and it’s often convenient to use already-extant

ROYALILLO width: 6.34 height: 4.78

societies as candidates when your worldbuilding needs a minority pocket within some empire or vast kingdom. Some societies may not be based on ethnic groupings at all. While the tables here presume that the members of a society share some overarching physical relationship, cultures based on ideology, religion, or historical chance might have many different bloodlines and ethnic groups mingled together. Membership in such a society might be contingent on agreeing to intellectual principles shared by the group, or joining with them in some overarching faith that is considered much more important than mere lineage. Of course, rebels against these principles can find themselves exiled or isolated, lacking any other ties with their former comrades.

•171

Physical Appearances A GM usually needs some idea of what the average member of a society looks like. The tables on this page provide some suggestions and possibilities for GMs who don’t already have a clear visual aesthetic in mind. These tables take into account the innumerable eons of sorcerous alteration, genetic manipulation, intermarriage, and alien aesthetic preferences that have gone on in the Latter Earth. The combinations may not map well to any real-life group, largely because all the real-life groups that presently exist have long since gone extinct. In addition, it’s not remarkable for certain groups of humans to have unusual physical additions or traits as an inheritance from some prior age’s manipulations. So long as their cognition is similar to that of their neighbors, all but the most hostile usually count them as humans. d8

Typical Skin Colors in the Populace

Extremely dark hues

Dark browns and mocha shades

Golden, sallow, or ivory

Olives or light browns

Ruddy or tanned complexions

Pale white or pinkish hues

An unusual color or pattern of colors

Scales, fur, or unusual hide type

Hair Color

Hair Texture

What’s the Typical Build of the People?

Smaller and slighter than their neighbors

Same height and weight as the neighbors

Either short and stocky or tall and slender

Much bigger and bulkier than neighbors

d12

Optional Common Forms of Adornment

Intricate hair styles or braiding

Painted skin markings that sometimes change

Tattoos of some cultural significance

Piercings, whether minor or elaborate

Role or class-specific clothing items

Patterned hair shaving or depilation

Culturally-significant jewelry or accessories

Color choices with social meaning to them

Socially-meaningful animal motif items

Worn weapons, tools or trade implements

Significant scent or perfume uses

Impractical or elaborate role-based clothes

d20

Optional Physical Quirks or Traits

They possess an extra eye somewhere

An additional set of limbs or extremities

Extremely pronounced sexual dimorphism

Night-black

Very tightly-curled

Dark browns

Dense and curled

Patches of feathers, scales, fur, or the like

Lighter browns

Slightly wavy

They have a tail of some sort

Red shades

Stiff and straight

They possess wings, whether useful or not

Blonds

Thick and wavy

Their skin is an unusual texture

White or white-blond Thin and fine

Sigil-marked by their creator in some way

An unusual palette

Thick and flowing

The sexes look very similar to outsiders

They lack hair

Scant and delicate

They have a particular scent to them

Their voices are peculiar in some way

Additional or too few fingers or toes

Eye Coloration

Black or extremely dark brown

They have animalistic features in some way

Hazel or olive

Have one or more manipulatory tentacles

Blues in varying shades

They have light-emitting organs or skin

Grays, whether flat or metallic

Their mouths are fanged or tusked

Ambers and yellows

They have alien Outsider features somehow

Greens in different shades

Their proportions are distinctly strange

An unusual or luminous color

They don’t show age the way others do

Slit or unusual pupils; roll again for color

Roll twice and blend the results

172•

Values of the Society

It’s easy for a GM to come up with unsympathetic societies with these tables or from their own campaign needs. If you need an antagonistic nation of slavery-loving ritual cannibals for your setting it’s not likely that the players are going to find the natives particularly appealing in their habits or moral values. For some tables, it’s fine to leave it at that. The players want to put steel into slavers and not have to think carefully about it. The society is an evil one and it gets what it deserves. If the natives are Blighted or non-humans they might actually be every bit as intrinsically malevolent and wicked as their society implies. If you’re building a human society with unsympathetic values, however, you may want to think more carefully about how human traits such as compassion, familial love, loyalty, delight in beauty, and other positive qualities manifest. The natives have explanations for their beliefs that satisfy them and account for their own experiences. Even in a society of cannibal slavers, there will be beloved children, bonds of friendship and respect, and other positive human relationships. Don’t make the natives into caricatures unless caricatures are wanted.

Societies will tend to esteem certain values, holding them as emblematic of their people or specially blessed by their gods. Institutions will honor these values, folk heroes will act in ways to further them, and the rightness of decisions will be judged on how well they conform to these virtues. These special virtues are not the only qualities the society values, of course. Even the most individualistic society will value some degree of order and civic peace, while the most violent warrior cultures can still understand the need for some periods of enforced calm. Yet when these values clash with other principles, the society will generally choose their favorites to prevail. From the GM’s perspective, you can use these principles to generate adventure hooks and problems within the society. Just take the virtue too far, or make a favored vice a cause for significant civic troubles. The table below can help you generate two or three traits the society values. Conversely, you could use the table to find those qualities the society especially hates or considers contemptible. d100

Values They Esteem

d100

Values They Esteem

1–2

Individual rights and freedom of action

51–52

Personal sacrifice for one’s causes or purposes

3–4

Courage and valiance in danger

53–54

Building things in service of their posterity

5–6

Honesty and truthfulness in speech

55–56

Faithfulness towards one’s chosen friends

7–8

Eloquence and social expertise

57–58

Dominating and possessing other people

9–10

Raw strength and personal prowess

59–60

Exploring the unknown and discovering secrets

11–12

Discipline and obedience to the law

61–62

Seeking fortune in new places or new roles

13–14

Filial devotion to family and parents

63–64

Social progress toward some eventual utopia

15–16

Education and knowledge-seeking

65–66

Excellence in one’s profession or trade

17–18

Piety and devotion to the gods

67–68

Loyalty to one’s friends, family, and own

19–20

Beauty and seductive charm

69–70

Vengeance and execution of just vendettas

21–22

Conquest and domination of others

71–72

Restoring some real or imagined glorious past

23–24

Ascetic unworldliness and pious poverty

73–74

Unity and elimination of group differences

25–26

Harmony with nature and existing life

75–76

Magical prowess and occult ability

27–28

Ethnic purity of blood and culture

77–78

Sharing wealth and goods with others

29–30

Cunning and the ability to trick others

79–80

Membership in an elite bloodline or caste

31–32

Subtlety and indirectness of action

81–82

Personal indulgence and luxuriant pleasure

33–34

Prosperity and accruing material wealth

83–84

Scheming subtly against enemies or rivals

35–36 Submission to the collective will or culture

85–86

Remembrance of the past and memorializing history

37–38

Hardiness and endurance before woes

87–88

Aesthetic beauty in material goods and architecture

39–40

Honor and maintaining one’s integrity

89–90

Zealous guardianship of their own land or holy sites

41–42

Sexual license and wantonness

91–92

Humanistic reason and “rational” religion

43–44

Submission to lawful authority

93–94

Industry and the ability to work tirelessly

45–46

Personal development and limit-pushing

95–96

Leadership and charisma in the group

47–48

Justice and fairness between people

97–98

Pacifism and peaceful resolution of problems

49–50

Purging evil and expelling the wicked

99–00

Societal or ethnic superiority over all outsiders

•173

Societal Organization

How is the society organized at the basic level? While the ties of blood are fundamental to almost all societies, the basic units of identity and cooperation don’t always fall along nuclear family lines. In the far future of the Latter Earth, societies built on ideological or functional delineations are more common, as some human lineages have had their cognition and preferences adjusted to better suit their ancient manipulator’s purposes. The adjacent table gives suggestions for major social groupings in the society. A given individual might consider several of these identities to be important to them; a man may be deeply committed to his family and children, but he might also see himself as a member of his caste or professional role, and fight on behalf of their interests as well as those of his immediate family. For the GM, conflicts between these groups are an easy source of adventure grist. The government likely treats many of these groups as subjects for their policies and laws, and different groups probably vie to win control of the governmental apparatus. A powerful dynastic lineage might strive to keep control of a particular ministry, while a trade guild might jealously guard “their” senator.

Societal Aesthetics

It’s impossible for a GM to define everything about a culture that might conceivably become important during play. Small details of dress, architecture, the titles of officials, and other minutiae might suddenly become critical when the GM needs a particular fact at hand. Rather than trying to formulate a heroically Barkerian level of detail for your society, the easiest workaround is to take an existing historical society as a template. Whenever you need an answer for a particular question, provide whatever answer roughly matches the way that the chosen template society did it. Historical accuracy is completely unimportant, as the whole point of the exercise is to give you quick, relatively coherent answers rather than to correctly portray an existing real society. You may be generating a society of albino pacifists with three eyes that have a magocratic government divided into multiple fractious religion-based factions, but if they have an Aztec aesthetic then they build grand stone architecture, favor their clothing styles, and like erecting imposing religious monuments. For some of the more esoteric cultures or societies on this list, you might need to do some background reading to pick up the necessary details. Such investigation of real-life cultures and history can be a fruitful source of inspiration for problems, adventures, and novelties in your own world.

d20

Major Unit of Social Identity

Extended family out to cousins and like kin

Religious factions or faith alliances

Regional and province-based identity

Ethnic membership

Professional guild or trade-specific group

Identity based on their local community

Educational ties to institutions or traditions

Patron-client relationships with major figures

Hereditary loyalty to a political group

Trade guilds specific to particular roles

Dynastic lineages with cadet branches

Lineages based on ancient hero-ancestors

Numerous castes of hereditary workers

Inheritance of an ancient body modification

Astrologically-determined birth groups

Warbands or civic military service groups

Voluntary mutual-assistance brotherhoods

Far-flung clans of affiliated families

Having or lacking noble blood

Ideological groups or philosophical sects

d20

Example Template Societies

Victorian England

Standard Medieval Fantasy Land

Spring and Autumn China

Pre-Columbian North American Tribes

Mali Empire

Unified Dynastic China

Imperial or Republican Rome

Greek City-States

Mongolian Steppe Nomads

Modern-day America

Renaissance Italy

Imperial Persia

Early Medieval Europe

Byzantine Empire

Incan Empire

Fantasy Viking Land

Sumerian or Assyrian Empire

Aztec Empire

Post-Islamic Arabia

Polynesian Islanders

174•

Government Construction When building a government for a nation, tribe, or other polity, it’s important to keep in mind the purpose of your work. While there’s a great deal of pleasure to be had in worldbuilding for worldbuilding’s sake, a working GM should keep in mind three fundamental purposes in building any government. Governments should provide adventure hooks. The conflicts within a government, the demands it makes upon a populace, and the problems it faces from rebels, malcontents, rivals, and its own internal corruption should all work to provide you with easy adventure creation grist and interesting events for PCs to encounter. A peaceful, orderly, intricately-designed government may be an enjoyable worldbuilding exercise, but it’s not likely to give you much playable content. Governments should provide guidelines for reacting to PC actions. You need to understand how the local rulers will respond to typical PC hijinks. While you don’t necessarily need to explicitly tally the local lord’s men-at-arms, you need to know what kind of resources the local authorities will likely have for dealing with troublemakers and responding to local crises. Is there anything like a police force? Are there particular things that PCs are likely to do or be that are problematic, like being a sorcerer in a magic-banning nation or a human in a land of demihuman supremacists? Your life as a GM will be much easier if you have a rough idea of the kind of muscle and money available to the local rulers at various levels of PC interaction. Governments should fit the thematic goal of the nation. If you want to have pulse-pounding sword and sorcery adventures in a decadent land of untamed wilderness and debaucherous cities, you probably shouldn’t put it all under an all-powerful mandarinate. Or if you do, you should have a very good idea of why scholar-officials chosen for academic ability and personal virtue actually fit the kind of play you want to encourage in the area. With these three points established, you can go through the sections below to quickly generate a government that will help you fulfill each goal.

Governmental Density

First, you need to decide how dense the nation’s governmental resources are. Very poor polities simply cannot afford the tremendous superstructure of officials, enforcers, functionaries, and men-at-arms in full harness that richer nations can indulge. As a consequence, they will tend to have very different mechanisms for dealing with public disorders and large-scale problems than more affluent nations. Low-density governments tend to exist in tribal societies, small fiefs, compact institutions such as monasteries, or poor nations that produce very little surplus for the elites to collect. Their governments usually consist of a single autocrat or small group of leaders and their

personal retainers. There is very little in the way of paid offices, bureaucratic institutions, or low-level functionaries. Taxes and other exactions are gathered and handed over by the common populace based on custom and the threat of direct violence from the leadership, rather than being collected by some intermediary enforcers. If PCs or others start to create problems in an area, the local citizens will have to deal with it. Only if that proves impossible will they send to their leadership for help, and that help may not be quick in coming. In such cases, the leadership will dispatch one or more trusted retainers to lead the local response. These retainers may dragoon local citizens and resources to their purpose, but their actions will be based on custom, threat, and recognized necessity rather than any written charter. Medium-density governments are found in richer polities or tribal nation-states where there’s enough surplus to feed a thin layer of functionaries. Even in these nations, however, usually no more than one in three hundred people are actually officials or permanently-mustered soldiers. Small bureaucracies may exist devoted to the treasury, the military, economic control, or state religions, but these bureaucrats will tend to be centralized in the capital or other major cities. Villages and other provincial regions will generally have a single governmental representative present, along with a handful of local clerks, guards, and servants. When a crisis happens, the local governmental representative will resolve it with their personal retinue, or enlist locals to assist. Some of these natives may be formally organized as auxilliaries, such as a town guard composed of free citizens obligated to do the work on a rotating basis, or village chiefs charged with collecting crop taxes from their neighbors. These auxilliaries are rarely paid much, if anything, for their work. Many of their duties may be treated as unpleasant corvee labor exacted from the populace by the state. In a medium-density government, PCs are unlikely to encounter the city watch or other low-level functionaries outside of an actual city. The lowest governmental representative is usually a city or district magistrate or governor, and individual village chiefs are likely no more than important local citizens deputized as such by custom. If the PCs cause serious problems in a city, the rulers may have a certain number of standing guardsmen to deal with them, but major uprisings will require calling out the citizenry or sending to other cities for help. High-density government is the sort most familiar to modern readers, being a fair description of many of the modern nations of the world. Perhaps as many as one in a hundred citizens are either professional soldiers, clerks, functionaries, or other state-employed servants. Bureaucracies exist in every city and town, and the government has the manpower necessary to involve itself in almost every form of human interaction.

•175 Depending on the competence and responsiveness of the bureaucracy, a crisis might be met with a swift, overwhelming response, or it might meet an interminable delay of confused paperwork and competing departments before an overwhelming response is aimed in precisely the wrong direction. Governments of this kind have a tremendous fund of resources to carry out their will, but their will is often bent and warped by the countless layers of functionaries between the leader and the reality on the ground. In such states, it’s not impossible for the ostensible emperor to be unable to control anything he’s not personally overseeing, simply because the existing bureaucracies have too much inertia to direct without personal oversight. As the GM, think about the wealth and general attitude of the populace of this nation and pick a government density that fits. Then if some crisis or calamity strikes in the land, whether PC-generated or not, you’ll have some idea what the initial response will look like and what kind of resources they might have to deal with it.

The Ruling Authority

How many people are actually in charge in the nation? Is it an autocracy based on a single monarch, or is effectively ruled by a council? Don’t worry about who these rulers are at this stage, just decide if they are one, several, or many significant rulers. d4

Number of Rulers

There is a single nominal monarch

There is a monarch and several under-kings

There is a group of approximate equals

There are a large number of rulers

The Ruling Class

Where are these rulers drawn from? What class or classes provide the leadership of the nation? This limitation may be a formal law or custom, or it may just be a de facto reality based on the local political situation. d12

Example Ruling Classes

The Source of Legitimacy

Why does anyone pay attention to these rulers? They may have great military might at their disposal, but continued stable rule is contingent on some degree of popular submission to their orders. What have the rulers done to earn the obedience of the people? d12

Sources of Legitimacy

They’ve simply always been the rulers

They’re thought wiser and more virtuous

Their martial prowess is awe-inspiring

The gods chose them as the leaders

They were chosen by popular will

They’re loved for their benevolence

They utterly crushed the last batch of rebels

They brought greater prosperity to the land

They smashed the prior government

They brought order out of bloody chaos

They led the nation to greater glory and pride

They seem less bad than the alternatives

Servants of the Ruling Order

How do the rulers exert their will on the people? What institutions or functionary classes exist to make sure their commands are carried out and their laws are respected? Most nations have more than one institution that can serve to impose the ruler’s will, but the one you pick or roll below may be the most powerful. The ruler’s favored enforcers often tend to subsume some of the government’s power toward their own class or personal interests. Corruption among powerful government functionaries is a commonplace, and PCs can easily find that the personal trouble they have with some grandee can become a formal crime. Agents of less popular governments can come to be hated or feared by the common people, often with bloody consequences. d12

Institutions and Agents of Control

Hereditary nobility of blood

Subordinate lords pledged to the ruler

Powerful merchant-princes and oligarchs

Obedient commoner bureaucracies

Sorcerers and the arcanely skilled

Magically-empowered enforcers

Magically-empowered bloodlines

A major religion allied with state power

Proletariat peasantry or artisans

A powerful and respected judiciary

Minority ethnicity of long historical rule

Savage brutes on the government leash

Clergy of one or more local faiths

Economy-controlling officialdom

Citizens of a special city or old homeland

Divine blessings and curses on the people

Outsiders or nonhumans of a certain type

Ingrained obedience in the populace

Warlords or military leaders

Hireling enforcers employed at need

Clan heads or ethnarchs of particular groups

Sorcerers in service to the ruler

Colonizer viceroys of a foreign hegemon

A specific ethnic client group of the ruler

176•

Forms of Rulership

You may know how many major rulers there are for the nation, but how are these rulers chosen, and what is their general relationship to the rest of government? Use the table below that best fits the number of chief rulers suitable to the land. d8

Single Rulers

King or queen over lesser lords

Autocrat with non-noble officials

President chosen by certain electors

Warlord recognized as the strongest

Seniormost representative of the ruling class

Divinely-chosen leader of the land

Diseases of Rule

The final step in creating the government is to roll or pick a substantial problem that it’s facing or a driving ambition that is causing conflict within its membership. This problem will help create adventure hooks involving the government; maybe the PCs are caught up in the struggle as unhappy victims, or enlisted by a faction to help gain its end. Remember that there will always be factions and conflicting interests in any government. Feudal lords don’t want the same things that the monarchic king wants, and urban merchants haven’t the same interests as rural peasantry. Even a state’s main institutions of enforcement might have their own set of goals to pursue. d12

Current Struggle Within the Government The ruler’s trying to crush a too-powerful lord

Monarch for a fixed term or situation

Wielder of some magical legitimacy

Ministers are trying to usurp power

A grand scheme has gone terribly wrong

Multiple Rulers

External diplomacy has bungled something

Nobly-born peers of the realm

A usurper secretly controls a major power

Seniormost figures in the ruling class

Foreign rivals are backing malcontents

Elect chosen by ruling class electors

A different class demands a share of rule

Hereditary heirs to their positions

The existing ruling class wants more power

Warlords with the strongest backing

A disfavored class is being oppressed

Oligarchs of greatest wealth or influence

Popular discontent is destroying legitimacy

Divinely-chosen representatives of their class

The prior ruler’s incompetence still harms it

Bureaucratically-chosen ministers

The heir is unacceptable to many

COUNCILILLO width: 6.34 height: 4.31

•177

One-Roll Government Details While the prior tables give you a basic framework for a government, it can be useful to add a few more details for spice and easier plot hook creation. The tables on this page can be used to quickly generate a few peripheral facts and situations to help flavor a GM’s plans. As with the other tools in this section, a GM should simply scale the results up or down to suit the scale of the government. Thus, if you’re creating a tribal kingship where the ruler is one man and his dozen most trusted spear-brothers, a result of “Bribe-hungry and meddling magistrates” might mean that Bragi accepted a dozen sheep from a man to decide in his favor about a land dispute, and so now the victim’s kindred are demanding justice. In a grand empire, that same result might speak of an entire province plagued by greedy magistrates.

How Stable is the Government?

Precarious, its authority questioned by some

It has significant problems, but it functions

Relatively stable, with strong legitimacy

Stable, able to endure even fierce shocks

d12

Officials Recently Causing Problems

Rapaciously grasping tax-farmers

Ill-disciplined and thieving military troops

Bribe-hungry and meddling magistrates

Ever-watchful informers among neighbors

Tithe-hungry collectors from the state faith

How Established Is the Current Ruler?

Corrupt and untrustworthy market officials

They’re an outsider with few existing allies

Carelessly superior nobles and their retinues

They’re newly-ascended to the throne

Thuggish constables or city guardsmen

They have some basic ties with strong allies

Pitiless inquisitors hunting out dark magics

They have a hard core of useful supporters

Law enforcers acting as if they are the law

They have an extensive support network

State scholars teaching vile principles

They’re practically an institution of their own

Corrupt village headmen acting as tyrants

What Problems do their Ministers Have?

d20

Their chief schemes too much against rivals

A major official was executed for treason

They’re out of touch or lazy in their work

A critically-necessary heir was born

They recently suffered a bloody purge

A chief minister fell rapidly from grace

Enemy forces have allies among them

A high noble made rebellious noises

They’re distracted by factional infighting

A major faith was offended by the rulers

The leadership tends to ignore their advice

An allied nation was angered by some act

They tacitly usurp power from the ruler

An enemy nation’s spy ring was revealed

They’re committed to a very bad idea

A vast governmental project was announced

Corrupt officials plundered a great plan

A major new bureaucracy was formed

d10

A Strength of the Government

Recent Governmental Event

The bureaucracy is extremely efficient

A heavy tax was levied to deal with an issue

The military leadership is fiercely loyal

A general was dismissed for incompetence

It has great legitimacy with the populace

A folk hero rose to dangerous popularity

It has firm economic control over the land

A major infrastructure project was begun

The populace is convinced it will bring good

A fief or territory was put in new hands

Its diplomats are remarkably cunning

Certain merchants were fined to beggary

An expert spymaster serves it well

A terrorist attack by rebels or external foes

It has access to powerful sorceries

A major faction of officials collapsed

It’s got firm ties with an important faith

A large bureaucracy was dissolved

Nobles have magic blessings or gifted blood

Internal province borders were redrawn

178•

History Construction A GM will often need to build some sort of history for their creations, whether for current nations and groups in their campaign setting or for some long-lost fragment of ancient empire. Rather than bog down in an endlessly-unscrolling timeline of events, it can be convenient to package the past into four stages for any group: origin, rise, peak, and fall. The tables provided here give some suggestions for particulars. Not every group will need every stage fleshed out, and not every element needs to be detailed in exhaustive fashion. A few sentences about each stage is often all that’s necessary for some long-dead empire, and when building some time-lost ruin all you might care about is how the original creators fell. You can also create epicycles inside this pattern, adding additional rises, peaks, and falls within the group’s history until some final burden blots them from the memory of the world. It’s generally only worth your time to do this if you plan on very carefully detailing a particular history. For less important actors, the rough outlines are usually all you need. If you don’t already know of their origins, first find out how the group came into being.

Then use the table below to pick out some crisis they faced and overcame, thus instigating their rise. d00

Historical Crises

1–4

Barbarian invasion

5–8

Colonial incursion from a greater power

9–12

Decadent society or a great social evil

13–16

Divine wrath upon them

17–20

Domineering neighbor

21–24

Economic collapse

25–28

Failed external war

29–32

Ideological divide

33–36

Incompetent governance

37–40

Internal refugees from disaster

41–44

Loss of cultural confidence

45–48

Magical calamity

49–52

Malevolent religion

53–56

Miserable poverty

57–60

Natural disasters

How Did They Originate?

61–64

Noble infighting

Aboriginal peoples united in the area

65–68

Religious or ideological excess

They were refugees from a fallen land

69–72

Resource exhaustion

They were exiles or losers of some civil strife

73–76

Scheming wizards

They were colonists who became independent

77–80

Some titanic monster

They were magically created or shaped here

81–84

Tyrannical rule

They all followed a faith or ideology here

85–88

Unsuccessful expansion

They were a conquering army gone native

89–92

Usurpers seizing control

They migrated here for profit or plunder

93–96

Vicious civil warfare

97–00

War with a stronger power

Now roll or decide what became of the original inhabitants of the land, who might’ve been the last remnants of the former ruling power of the region or small, disorganized groups unable to successfully resist. d10

What Became of the Original Inhabitants?

But how did they manage to overcome the crisis? What quality did they demonstrate to get through the hard times or shift the burden onto their neighbors? d10

How Did They Overcome the Crisis?

There were no other humans living here

A brilliant and inspirational leader arose

They were wiped out in warfare

Organization and unity overcame the trouble

They were utterly assimilated

Grim determination and enduring the evil

They were driven into exile

Faith strengthened them against the woe

They became the ruling class

Skillful use of magic resolved the problem

They became an oppressed underclass

Martial prowess and military cunning

They were partially assimilated

Diplomatic ties and outside help

They retained small areas of self-rule

Industrious labor and tireless exertion

Roll 1d8 twice; both happened

Economic brilliance and trading acumen

No one can agree on what happened

Ruthless but effective sacrifices were made

•179 With the group at its historical peak, what particular marvels, splendid qualities, or exceptional strengths did it demonstrate? The shining peak of a provincial noble house might produce significantly less than the golden age of a world-spanning empire, but something about this period set its stamp on the group and gave them something to be proud of for the remainder of their days. d12

d12

What Became of the Unabsorbed Survivors?

They fled for refuge to a neighboring nation

They sought to hide in a dangerous wilderness

They were exterminated by bitter rivals

They degenerated into savage remnants

They were enslaved by their enemies

What Was Great About Its Peak?

They were magically transformed or twisted

A terrible regional evil was driven back

They were shattered into pockets of survivors

Academies were built that are still honored

They became a remnant shadow of themselves

Ancient foes were united together

They forcibly migrated into a weaker land

Grand Workings were sorcerously raised

They formed the nucleus of a new culture

It controlled the trade of the entire region

They split into several new, smaller groups

It was hegemon over its weaker neighbors

Roll twice; the resultant groups hate each other

Its armies were fearsomely mighty

Its culture was compelling to its neighbors

Magnificent works of art were created

Numerous legendary heroes arose

The populace was tremendously prosperous

Wonderful works of architecture were built

Yet all glories must fade in time. For its fall, pick or roll another historical crisis; this time, the group was unable to rise to the occasion and collapsed due to the stress of the situation. Why couldn’t it handle the crisis? d12 1

Why Did It Fail At the Final Crisis? Its people were too deeply divided

Its leadership was hopelessly inept

The gods cursed it to ruin

Decadence and self-absorption doomed it

It was vastly overconfident in its plans

Its neighbors conspired to help ruin it

It was actually two crises, and it was too much

It was culturally exhausted and apathetic

Some tried to take advantage of the crisis

Its strengths were useless against the problem

The crisis was far too vast and overwhelming

Some leaders were allied with the crisis

With the nation or group in ruins, the last step to the process is to determine what happened to the survivors that were not absorbed by the conquerors. While fantasy worlds often consign fallen empires to oblivion, historical collapsed nations tend to melt into the surrounding peoples or carry on as pockets within the new overlord’s domain. In your world, it’s possible that the serpent-men of the Red-Scaled Imperium were wiped out by the collapse of their thousand-year rule, but it’s equally possible that they became the humble swamp-fishers that sometimes bring their catch to human villages.

With the basic outline of the group’s history complete, you can now go on to decorate their past with other historical events, such as those given on the following pages. If you’ve already established a few historical events for the group as part of building a backdrop with them, you can stitch those existing events into the pattern you’ve generated here. All of the results in this section should be selected with an eye for adventuring potential. The old conflicts, past prides, and present travails of a nation are meant to provide situations that the PCs can encounter, and problems that they might be called upon to intervene in. An intricate tale of a hundred-year war is all well and good, but if the story doesn’t provide any adventure hooks, then it’s recreational worldbuilding rather than a source of playable content. Also keep in mind that these history tools don’t need to be applied strictly to great nations or mighty tribes. Even a gentry family in some remote village might have a history patterned from this table, translated and shrunken down to the scale at which they live. The Barbarian Invasion that was a tide of howling warriors to a nation might be a raucous clan of backwoods squatters laying claim to the family’s best fields. In the same vein, “diplomatic ties and outside help” might’ve brought together a national alliance at a state level, and might’ve called on old marriage ties to marshal a mob of angry villagers at a more familial level. Use the results as cues and general directions rather than stiff descriptions of specific fact.

180•

Historical Events

The events described here provide a selection of possibilities for your own history-building. When applying them to different levels of your backdrop, scale them accordingly; the Immigrants result rolled on a village scale might be a family of foreigners moving into an isolated farmstead, while applying it on a national scale might mean an entire barbarian tribe has marched in and requested citizenship. Battleground: The group’s territory ended up as a battleground between two stronger rival powers, and they suffered bitterly for it. Betrayal: Either they betrayed some trusting neighbor to a foe, or were betrayed in turn by such a false friend. Brutal Oppression: Some portion of the group was reduced to a state of wretched subservience by the rest. Class Struggle: Different classes were in conflict, either subtle or overt, all seeking their own gain. Consequences: Pick an event of a prior age; it had longterm consequences that were good, for a bad event, or bad, for a good event. Decadence: Old strengths and glories crumbled away into decadent remnants, the group becoming indolent and indulgent. Depravity: Vile debauches, unclean habits, and base hungers became commonplace among the group. Desolation: Some portion of the group’s territory was rendered uninhabitable by something, either permanently or for a long time. Diplomatic Coup: The group achieved an extremely successful alliance or affiliation with a neighboring group that may yet persist. Economic Boom: Circumstances produced a burst of tremendous prosperity for them. Enemies Within: A hostile sub-group inside the group worked to do it evil, perhaps on behalf of a neighbor or due to some old grudge. Evil Wizard: A malevolent sorcerer, arcane cult, or other powerful magical entity caused a great deal of trouble for the group. Exodus: A significant chunk of the group packed up and left for some supposedly-superior land. Exquisite Art: The group produced art that is revered to this day, either in general or in a specific medium or form of literature. External War: The group faced a war with some external enemy or rival nation, with grave consequences. Freakish Magic: A particular type of magic was developed here that is unknown elsewhere, and its practitioners keep its secrets well. Golden Age: Everything went remarkably well for the group for an extended period of time, allowing prosperity and success. Good Wizard: Some magic-using entity of great power protected the group, taught them magic, or otherwise assisted them.

Great Awakening: A tremendous wave of reform, purification, and re-commitment to venerable values swept through the group. Great Builders: The group constructed a great many vast palaces, monuments, estates, or other structures of wide fame. Great Infrastructure: Some tremendous work of infrastructure was accomplished: canals, vast walls, roads, aqueducts, mines, or the like. Hero King: Some king or other ruler achieved legendary glory in war, diplomacy, or governance. Their name is honored even today. Immigrants: A large group of foreigners entered the land more-or-less peacefully and may or may not have been welcomed. Inefficient Rule: The group’s governance was impractical, inefficient, or corrupt, holding to values that turned out to be unhelpful. Internal War: A straight-up civil war was sparked in the group, one that involved all or many of its members. Loss of Confidence: Some encounter with a new group or some shocking event made the group lose faith in its own customs and values. Magical Disaster: Some large-scale magical disaster scarred the group, either natural in nature or the result of someone’s sorcerous doings. Magical Tech: The group developed a useful and widespread magical tech or infrastructure that may have survived into the present. Natural Calamity: Earthquakes, multi-year droughts, tsunamis, meteor strikes, or some other ruins smote the group. New Horizons: The group discovered new territory, whether trans-dimensional, a far terrestrial region, underground realms, or the like. New Rulers: The group’s former ruling dynasty was replaced, either peacefully, through intrigue, or perhaps through outright conquest. Noble Function: Aside from the usual roles of nobles, their ruling class was all expected to fill some specific role: priest, mage, scholar, or the like. Noble Strife: The group’s nobility found itself embroiled in assassinations, petty wars, and mutual struggle. Plague: A sickness of vast scope culled many of the group, and may yet linger in some form. Poverty: Circumstances conspired to reduce the group to a state of great poverty and harsh simplicity for a time. Power Brokers: The group was a critical regional power broker for a time, their aid or influence critical in determining who would be the hegemon. Praetorian Coups: Soldiers or guardsmen in service to the ruler ended up becoming the ruler’s electors or deposers. Priest King: One or more religions became deeply intertwined with the legitimacy of the ruling class, priests becoming nobles and vice-versa.

•181 d00

Historical Event

1–2

Battleground

51–52

Loss of Confidence

3–4

Betrayal

53–54

Magical Disaster

5–6

Brutal Oppression

55–56

Magical Tech

7–8

Class Struggle

57–58

Natural Calamity

9–10

Consequences

59–60

New Horizons

11–12

Decadence

61–62

New Rulers

13–14

Depravity

63–64

Noble Function

15–16

Desolation

65–66

Noble Strife

17–18

Diplomatic Coup

67–68

Plague

19–20

Economic Boom

69–70

Poverty

21–22 Enemies Within

71–72

Power Brokers

23–24 Evil Wizard

73–74

Praetorian Coups

25–26 Exodus

75–76

Priest King

27–28 Exquisite Art

77–78

Rare Resource

29–30 External War

79–80

Religious Fall

31–32 Freakish Magic

81–82

Religious Rise

33–34 Golden Age

83–84

Resource Collapse

35–36 Good Wizard

85–86

Secession

37–38 Great Awakening

87–88 Terrain Change

39–40 Great Builders

89–90

Total Collapse

41–42 Great Infrastructure

91–92

Twist of Fate

43–44 Hero King

93–94

Urbanization

45–46 Immigrants

95–96

Weak Throne

47–48 Inefficient Rule

97–98

Xenophilia

49–50 Internal War

99–00

Xenophobia

Rare Resource: A uniquely valuable resource was found or manufactured by the group, which used or traded it to full effect. Religious Fall: A once-honored religion collapsed, perhaps through divine displeasure, human corruption, or harsh suppression. Religious Rise: A powerful new religion arose among the group. Resource Collapse: Some critical resource ran short; water, arable land, timber, magical power, or the like. Secession: A substantial portion of the group’s territory tried to secede from the rest, successfully or otherwise. Terrain Change: Some portion of the group’s land slowly changed its basic ecosystem; plains to forest, desert to savannah, or the like. Total Collapse: Whether due to war, civil strife, magical curses, or sheer decadence, the group’s society collapsed into anarchistic chaos for a time. Twist of Fate: Roll again; if the event was positive twist it to ultimately be a negative to the group, and vice-versa.

d00

Historical Event

Urbanization: One or more urban sites became unusually heavily populated, growing vastly and having a wide net of supporting towns. Weak Throne: The central government of the group became weak, and feudal lords or subsidiaries gained much effective independence. Xenophilia: The group adopted many customs from their neighbors and many foreigners joined the group. Xenophobia: The group conceived a strong distaste for foreign people and their customs, curtailing outside contact.

182•

Religion Construction While it’s certainly possible to create a setting wholly devoid of anything resembling a religion, most GMs will want some manner of faith in their campaign. Note that you should only build the religions you need, the ones that will give you the most playable content and the highest number of adventure hooks. A boring faith, however important it is to the culture or society it’s in, just isn’t worth much of your mental effort or creative energy.

The Scope of the Faith

First, decide where this god is worshiped. It might be a local deity unknown outside a particular backwoods hamlet, or it might be the state faith of an entire kingdom or continent. Some faiths you create might be entirely dead in the modern age, existing only to help you define the particular god some ruined temple once served. Use the scope of the faith to scale the results and decisions that follow. A religion led by a single holy prophet might amount to a village wise man for a petty rural god, while an empire’s faith might be led by a pontiff hardly less powerful than the emperor.

Who Leads the Faith?

How is the religion organized, and who makes decisions about its beliefs, actions, and use of resources? When PCs interact with the clergy, who will be deciding how the faith responds to them, and who do the nobles deal with when they want divine favors for the church? d8 Church Structures 1

Each holy man or woman is the autonomous leader of their own branch of the sect, with however many followers they can gather.

There are multiple pontiffs, friendly or otherwise, with subordinate clergy obedient to their own pontiff and perhaps cooperative with others.

There is a single pontiff with a layer of upper clergy and temple heads beneath them, who have a layer of minor clergy serving them.

Individual congregations are independent, with their clergy subject to the consensus will of their parishoners.

Powerful lay believers fund temples that are subject to their family’s wishes, staffed by clergy supported by their funding. There is no official clergy; some believers may take up special roles or provide teaching, but they are not qualitatively different from others. The church is entirely part of the secular structure of the land, its clergy no more than officials appointed by the government to their roles. Roll twice; the faith has different structures in different places or contexts.

What is the God’s Origin?

Where did this deity come from? The religion may be completely wrong about the facts of the matter, but they will have some kind of explanation as to the origins of their god. This origin will tend to shape a faith’s relationship with their patron; the literal hero-ancestor of a people will draw a different kind of devotion than a personified abstract principle. d12

Where Did The God Come From?

It’s a deified ancestor-king or progenitor

It’s a legendary historical hero or teacher

It’s an abstract principle reified as an entity

It simply always existed since creation

It was an apotheosized sorcerer

It’s the genius of a particular land or location

It was an Outsider or alien from beyond

It was a personified natural phenomenon

It was another faith’s saint turned into a god

It was a tamed or placated supernatural entity

It was an artificial construct built by humans

Roll twice and blend the two

Why Does This Faith Matter?

Most gods provide something important to their worshipers, be it luck, divine blessings, salvation upon death, or curses on their enemies. From a GM’s perspective, however, the most important factor is how the god relates to the PCs, and what sort of playable content they bring to the campaign setting. In some cases this will be obvious, because you’re building a faith to be the state religion, or the primary source of Healers in a setting, or some other clear hook. The table below offers some suggestions for other cases. d10

Why Does The Faith Matter?

It’s the main purveyor of healing blessings

It provides magical favors to the faithful

It’s locked in conflict with a major local power

It supports something the PCs love or hate

It’s the state faith or otherwise legally important

It regularly hires people to do work for it

It’s trying to expand and needs help

It’s a huge economic player in the area

It plots secret sinister evils against the land

It has influence over important locals

•183

What Does This Faith Want?

The religion doubtlessly wants something. Individual clerics might have their own desires and ambitions, but as an institution the faith wants something that the PCs can either help or hinder them in obtaining. Some faiths might have multiple desires, either pursued by quarreling factions within the church or as part of some larger vision. d12

What Does The Faith Want?

Crush its religious rivals in the area

Destroy a heretical but powerful sub-sect

Expand the faith to a foreign land or people

Recover holy land or a sacred site

Obtain vast material wealth for the faith

Depose a hostile royal house or government

Smash a specific enemy faith or group

Embody their god with a mighty ritual

Erect a huge and imposing temple complex

Perform a tremendously expensive rite

Strengthen or protect its devout believers

Roll again; stop a rival from doing that

What are the Clergy Like?

What’s the average cleric of this faith like? How do they present themselves to the general public, and what kind of cleric will the PCs most likely encounter if they want to deal with this religion? The more restrictive and demanding the faith is about their clerics, the rarer they will be and the more likely that lay believers handle some rituals of the faith on their own. Conversely, the more strict the qualifications, the more likely those clerics are to have special qualities or magical powers. Some faiths may have multiple kinds of clerics, either as different ranks or for serving different functions in the religion.

What Is Their Societal Function?

While a given faith matters chiefly for what it provides by way of adventure hooks, the religion also must serve some meaningful purpose in its surrounding society. It’s a common habit of world-builders to assign particular portfolios to gods and then build out their social function from that. While it’s possible to do this, it’s generally more efficient to reverse this process. First you pick the function that is being served, and then you roll or choose the god’s divine portfolio. The connection between the two may not seem obvious at first glance. but the society will tend to create their own explanations for any apparent incongruities. A forest god who also happens to be the favored deity of a nation’s noble elite might influence their iconography, make their duels into ritual hunts, and perhaps be credited as the magical source of noble fertility or special prowess. Most societies will have certain roles or functions that the gods need to serve. Almost every nation’s farmers need to pray to somebody for a good harvest, and people will pray for health, luck, protection in danger, success in undertakings, and other common human desires. A GM could create gods for all the common needs listed below, but the table is mostly useful for assigning a particular social role to whatever specific gods or religions that are most relevant to your campaign’s scope and your party’s adventures. d20

What Does This God Do in Society?

It’s the war god or patron of those who fight

It’s the favorite god of the ruling class

It’s the patron of an important profession

It’s a devil-figure that must be placated

It provides healing or protection from danger

It’s a patron of an illegal but inevitable trade

It hallows the law and consecrates oaths

What Are the Clerics Like?

It’s flatly illegal and hated by most

Just ritual technicians trained in complex rites, with no special moral qualities.

It’s the protector of an ethnic minority

Chosen from specific bloodlines or groups and trained to serve the faithful.

Experts in some sphere related to the god’s portfolio or nature, though trained in ritual.

Sorcerers who serve the god as part of their magical studies or efforts.

It provides good harvests or human fertility

It’s the patron of the former rulers of the land

It guards particular places within the land

It provides wisdom and insight at need

It gives good luck to its petitioners

It’s a protector of the weak and humble

Common believers chosen by their peers for their technical skill and good moral qualities.

It empowers those seeking revenge for wrongs

It bestows material wealth upon petitioners

Isolated ascetics or ritually-separated persons expected to keep a distance from the world.

It protects the soul in the afterlife

It explains the creation and order of the world

Individuals who step forward and are accepted for their qualities or technical skills as priests

It prevents some type of common disaster

The wealthier believers who can afford to keep up the expensive or demanding ritual practice

184•

What Is The God’s Portfolio?

Once you know what the faith’s role in society is, you can pick or roll to find out what general portfolio is assigned to the deity. Powerful gods may have several spheres they are responsible for, while niche deities might be gods of only a small, specific, yet important function. The origins of the god will also flavor this choice; an ancestor-hero might have a portfolio associated with their great deeds in life, while a reified cosmic principle probably isn’t considered critical to merely human processes and activities. d20

Human Concern

Natural Principle

A Human Vice

A Kind of Demihuman Beasts

Agriculture

Beauty or Sex

Cities

Cosmic Law

Commerce

Creation

Crafting

Death

Deception

Fertility

Healing

Forests

Justice

Magic

Luck

Mountains

Marriage or Family

Night

A Local Terrain Type

What Are the Faith’s Strictures?

A religion will make certain demands upon its faithful, with the common believers expected to keep to certain behaviors and the clergy charged with more demanding practices. These strictures and commands usually relate to actions rather than beliefs; theological disputes are meat for priests, while common believers concern themselves with the proper sacrifices, prayers, rituals, and technical procedures for winning the god’s favor. Some of these strictures will be positive, commanding the faithful to act in certain ways. Others will be negative, forbidding them from particular activities. While many faiths might have general prohibitions against blasphemy or other activities widely despised by their society, the table below focuses on special commands unique to the followers of the god. Of course, not all followers will obey these strictures with the same zeal. Priests and the pious will usually be expected to offer at least lip service to the principles, while common believers may follow them only when their circumstances allow or they feel a special need to curry the god’s favor. Nobles and other elites will often make an ostentatious show of such behavior, facilitating it with their wealth and power in order to emphasize their piety and favor with the gods. Indeed, following certain taboos may be a sign of status in a society and show the practitioner is wealthy enough to afford such limits.

Music

One or More Seasons

Prophecy

Pain

d20

Particular Religious Requirements

Protection

Sea or Rivers

Never/always associate with certain types

Revenge

Sky

Never eat a particular common food type

Ruling

Storms or Rain

Give a significant tithe regularly

Theft or Crime

Sun, Moon, or Stars

Make particular sacrifices at certain times

Travel or Roads

The Underworld

Revere/hate a class or group of people

War

Time

Forbid a certain common profession or role

Wisdom

Untamed Nature

Forbid an activity common to society

Give secular obedience to the clergy

Pray at certain fixed places or times

Never/always trade with certain sorts

Never/always live in certain places

Marry exclusively within the faith

Do something society finds repugnant

Hold certain places to be taboo

Hide the inner faith’s teachings from outsiders

Make sacrifices that society finds hateful

Never/always make war on certain types

Honor/degrade a particular profession

Make certain pilgrimages to holy places

Never/always cooperate with a certain faith

•185

One-Roll Temple Details It’s inevitable that the PCs are going to seek the services of a temple sooner or later, either for the sake of some magical blessing that can be had there or out of more secular interest in its wealth, employment opportunities, or suitability for plundering. The tables below allow you to roll one die of each type and assemble a serviceable shrine out of the results. When considering the specifics of architectural design or decoration, you can lift the aesthetic of the surrounding culture and simply use that. If the faith is an export from a foreign land, however, it might use a different architectural lexicon, or use materials uncommon in the secular buildings there. Often there are particular structural quirks that quickly identify a building as sacred in its culture, such as purifying baths or ritual walls.

How Big is the Temple?

Much smaller than most in a similar place

Shrunken from its former size

Normal for a temple of its importance

Unusually large or grand for its site

d12

What Problems Does It Have?

A rival faith is doing the temple real harm

The locals expect a miracle it can’t provide

The leader is fighting with their superiors

A priest recently did something awful

The temple got into serious debt lately

What Do The Locals Think Of It?

Some disaster physically damaged the place

It’s held in contempt for its flaws and failings

Some armed men have a grudge against it

Something about it is bothering the locals

The elite refuse to patronize it for some reason

The locals accept it as a tolerable shrine

It suffers signs of real divine displeasure

It has a good and trustworthy reputation

A sorcerer-priest is meddling with dark forces

It did something recently that gave it glory

A schismatic is drawing off its believers

It’s held in utmost esteem by the locals

Roll twice; one because of the other

Who Is In Charge There?

d20

Particular Quirks About the Temple

A venal time-server of desultory piety

It’s built into a once-secular building

A harried and inexperienced new leader

It’s remarkably well-fortified

A dutiful minion of the local secular power

It’s connected to a secular business

An incompetent shunted off to the post

The clergy are largely related to each other

A local prodigy of remarkable abilities

It’s in an unusually dangerous location

A grizzled and pragmatic leader

It shares space with a friendly faith

A charismatic but near-schismatic iconoclast

It follows unusual prohibitions or rites

A practical and reasonably pious cleric

It has access to some ancient artifact

The library is remarkably extensive

d10

What Particular Help Can It Provide?

They have considerable magical resources

They’re unusually flush with cash

It attracts prophets and religious merchants

It provides some illicit or scandalous service

It’s more a merchant enterprise than a shrine

They own a lot of valuable goods or land

It’s unusually beautifully-built

They have the ear of important locals

It’s a shadow of a once-glorious past

The local lord relies on them considerably

It’s unusually recent in its founding

They have useful secular servants

The clergy generally hate each other there

They know a lot of useful secrets

Its leadership is foreign or demihuman

They can get crimes or offenses forgiven

It deals only with the proven faithful

They are owed favors by other temples

It displaced a former faith, perhaps violently

They have a lot of well-armed followers

It actually is another faith, merely concealed

186•

Evil or Antagonistic Religions

For many GMs, it hardly seems like a sword and sorcery campaign without a sprinkling of nefarious cults and a cackling evil high priest or two. Likewise, GMs of other genres often find it necessary to cook up the occasional evil deity and its host of cultist slaves. While it’s possible to create such faiths as simple plot devices, wicked for wickedness’ sake and motivated by irrational zealotry alone, fleshing the faith’s reasoning out a little bit further can sometimes produce more usable game content or a more abundant selection of plot hooks. When you need an evil religion or a faith that’s going to be antagonistic to the party’s goals, it’s worthwhile asking yourself some questions about it. Most importantly, is this faith genuinely malevolent or is it just situationally opposed to the party’s interests? The devotees of Kaaldruk the Iron-Horned might make it a point of religious zeal to murder any interloper who dares enter the taboo ruins of his sacred city, but otherwise the faith may be no more vicious or demanding than any other religion in the area. A party who finds themselves with a pack of Kaaldruk’s holy slayers tracking them after their latest ruin expedition may have a negative opinion of the faith, but other locals might just shrug and figure the PCs brought it on themselves. If the religion isn’t really malicious or contrary to local moral codes then you can create it with the tools earlier in this section and just add whatever additional goals or strictures you need to put it crosswise with the PC party. If this religion really is a nefarious one, following heinous principles or obeying sinister powers, then a few more questions need to be answered.

d12

Rewards of the Sinister Faith

It savagely defends an otherwise oppressed or powerless group, requiring service as a price for this aid

The chosen among the believers are granted magical powers or occult gifts

The faith can bestow wealth and material prosperity on those who serve it

It allows an undead or undying state of eternal life for devout servitors

It gives practical protection against a plague, disaster, constant environmental hazard, or other threat against its believers

It provides political power through blackmail, bribery, vile favors, and other works in favor of its followers

Its principles are the comfortably established morals and beliefs of its hereditary believers, as much as they hide them from outsiders

It provides intense physical pleasures or sensory delights that its believers normally would never get to taste

It provides muscle to its faithful followers, letting them murder, beat, or terrorize those who stand against them

It justifies their worst impulses and gives a divine rationale to a vicious, depraved subculture the believers belong to

It promises salvation from an impending catastrophe that will be unleashed on all unbelievers.

It gives its outcast adherents a sense of meaning, importance, and power with its terrible majesty and awful splendor

The Rewards of Damnation

What do the cultists get out of their service? Why does it seem a good idea to worship a tentacular abomination that hates all human life? Why are these believers rejecting the morals and values of their native culture to adhere to faith that rejects everything their families and society holds dear? The irresistable will of a dark god or the convenient insanity of mind-blasted devotees are over-worn tropes often used to answer this question. Aside from being stale, they also don’t give a GM much to work with; if the cultists are worshiping this dark god because they’re crazy or mind-controlled, then there’s no way to rationally predict their actions or assess their logical goals. Instead, it is often better to apply more human reasons to the cultists, and give the more comprehensible rationales for their service. PCs who can recognize the logic behind the cult’s service will be in a better position to deal with them and their plans. Human motivations are also easier to integrate with the rest of the campaign. If the religion is giving the believers something valuable, then that reward will be something others will try to eliminate, exploit, or acquire for their own use.

If the faith has an open, public presence in a society, it probably is offering some of the same practical benefits that a more temperate religion provides. The tables on the prior page can be used to give a hint about what the dark cult means to its more casual adherents. A savage blood god who grants inhuman might to its fiercest devotees might simply be a useful war god to rank-and-file believers. They may not have any moral objection to the hideous rituals the elect perform to get their unholy power, but the price of it may be more than they care to pay. Instead, they simply pray to the god for success in battle. The more widespread the faith, the more likely it is that its most extreme qualities are reserved to its clergy, its most zealous lay believers, or to the more fundamentalist sub-sects of the religion. Outer-circle believers may praise this exemplary piety, but the practical concerns of ordinary life are likely to discourage less dedicated believers from sacrificing so much to their eldritch lord.

•187

One-Roll Malevolent Cult Most antagonistic religions are built for a particular purpose: a GM needs sentient enemies in some ancient ruined temple, a dark mastermind is needed for some nefarious plot, or a savage land needs some suitably bloodthirsty religions for its people. The prior table can give a GM some ideas about what the faith is offering its believers, but a few more details are often needed to put something usable together. The tables below let you roll one die of each type to get a general overview of the sinister faith. They assume that the cult is proscribed in the nation or otherwise viewed with dismay by decent people and so forced to remain in hiding. If you’re generating an evil faith that can openly function in a land, then just read the table results in light of that public acceptability. d6

What General Goal Do They Have?

How Unified is the Cult?

Completely united behind its leadership

Obedient to leaders who sometimes quarrel

Tenuously balanced factions cooperate

Badly fractious under many rival priests

d12

What Problems Does It Have?

The leadership is insane in unhelpful ways

It caught the eye of a dangerous enemy

One of its servitor monsters is out of control

It’s running low on sacrifices and slaves

It’s been impoverished by a recent trouble

There’s a dangerous schism in its ranks

Glorify their dark god and its vile ways

Its god is making unreasonable demands

Expand the cult in an adjacent community

The laity is demanding much from the priests

Destroy a powerful enemy of the cult

The enforcers are muscling their clerical lords

Extinguish a rival faith and their clergy

The god’s influence has become distant

Perform a terrible magical ritual

An important member has turned traitor

Obtain secular control over an area

Another dark faith is warring with it

What’s So Horrible About the Faith?

Unbelievers are to be killed on principle

It favors monstrous body alterations

Hideous appetites of the flesh are sacred

It’s a remnant of a now-dead culture

Unholy entities from beyond must be called

It has a variety of potent ancient artifacts

Unbelievers are cattle to be used as desired

It’s a sect of a better-known public faith

The world must die to make room for the god

It cuts secret deals with the ruling class

Secular civilization must be destroyed

It has a totemic beast or monster type

All law but the cult’s must be overthrown

They live where normal people couldn’t

The god demands a terrible nourishment

They’re cannibals or other gustatory deviants

They have agents in other religious groups

d10

How Do the Clergy Enforce Their Will?

d20

Specific Traits of the Cult

They were thought to be wiped out in the past

A subculture of the land is friendly to it

It employs technology-like magics

Murder by cult enforcers and monsters

It has a lot of servitor monsters obedient to it

Mental compulsions implanted by rituals

An area is tacitly understood to belong to it

Kidnapping before a hideous ritual death

It was once a public and powerful faith

Traitors are betrayed to cult enemies

It has open sympathizers among the great

Violence against a traitor’s loved ones

It’s thought to hold back some awful doom

The dark god’s divine wrath smites them

They only look like humans

Control of an addictive thing they need

The visible part of the cult is but a fraction of it

Lay believers gain glory by purging traitors

They serve a purpose that no longer obtains

Magical curses scourge the disobedient

Blackmail and threats of social ruin

188•

Placing Ruins and Points of Interest Some campaigns revolve almost exclusively around courtly intrigue, urban adventures, or quests through uninhabited wilderness. Most, however, need at least a modest sprinkling of ruins, Deeps, lost temples, hidden lairs, and other “dungeon”-like places of adventure. As a general rule, you should only worry about placing ruins at the kingdom level of your campaign. Famous sites of adventure might exist elsewhere in the setting, and legendary ruins might be well-known to scholars, but the only ruins you really need to worry about are the ones your players could conceivably want to go adventure in for their next session without crossing half the region to get to them. In additon, local ruins are the ones most likely to be causing problems for the natives and creating situations that require adventurers to help resolve their woes.

Establishing Ruins

As a rough guideline, start with a half-dozen ruins for the average-sized kingdom. These are not the only ancient remnants in the area, but they’re the most famous or significant. There’s nothing stopping you from planting a minor Deep a half-day’s march outside your starting village, but places of that scale are so small or obscure that only the locals are likely to know about them. These six initial ruins are names familiar throughout the kingdom. If you don’t have your own ideas about what these ruins are, use the adjacent tables or those on page XX. GMs using the Gyre setting might roll on the Gyre-specific table, while those building for a more standard fantasy setting might use the general one. Look at your kingdom map and identify the usual paths of travel between its major settlements. Usually this will be by water whenever practical, or along the flattest and safest land routes. Identify the empty spaces in the kingdom that lie between these major traffic routes, places where only rural villages or howling wilderness exist. Now place each ruin in one of the empty spaces, choosing locations appropriate to their nature. A ruined city was probably on a river or coast, or else at a good ancient trade nexus. A forgotten fortress guarded a once-vital military strongpoint. A Deep might have breached the surface almost anywhere, while a raider lair is almost certainly close enough to a traffic route to pillage it. Roll a pair of Ruin Tags from page XX to give it character. Finally, write a sentence or two of description about the ruin. You don’t actually need to flesh it out or turn it into an actual adventure site with the tools starting on page XX. All you need is to know it’s there, and to think about what kind of problems or opportunities it might present to its neighbors. If the PCs decide they really want to check the place out, then you can spend the downtime between sessions turning it into a real adventure site.

d12

Places Specific to the Latter Earth

An abandoned Outsider outpost, possibly with a hazardous local environment

A Deep long since abandoned

An alien xenoforming complex, possibly with a surrounding arratu

A relic-palace of a vanished sorcerer-king

A city once inhabited by not-quite-humans

A megastructure of now-irrelevant purpose

An old stronghold of hostile Outsiders or of antagonistic demihumans

Massive monument complex dedicated to a vanished kingdom, god, or ethnic group

Fortress raised by a dead sorcerer-king, lost empire, or militant faith

Wizard’s lair once or presently inhabited by powerful and dangerous sorcerer

Roll twice on 1d10; the first roll was built on top of or in the ruins of the second roll

Roll again, but now inhabited by bandits, exiles, hostile refugees, or other interlopers

d20

General Places of Adventure

A lost temple to a dead god

Ruins of an ancient city

Cavernous tunnels and strange geology

Ruined fortress of a former empire

Town ruins swept away by some disaster

Lair of a legendary beast or monster

Wizard’s tower or complex

Failed colony or forward outpost

Prison-pit to shackle a dangerous power

Pilgrimage site for a lost religion

Nexus point for otherworldly powers

Mortuary complex for a lost people

Stronghold of exiles, rebels, or invaders

City or settlement of dangerous nonhumans

Subterranean settlement or complex

Abandoned pleasure-palace of a ruler

Lost fortified bridge or crossing-point

Sinister ruined estate of a former lord

Roll again; now inhabited by interlopers

Roll twice; one built on top of the other

•189

Location Tags The work of creating interesting places and memorable campaign elements can be exhausting to a GM. Even when following the pattern provided in this book, the need to generate thumbnails of a dozen different cities, ruins, wilderness features, or other places of interest can frustrate and weary a creator. It becomes difficult to come up with new ideas about each new place or give them some sense of distinction. Tags are a creative tool meant to ease the GM’s burden by assigning each point of interest a pair of characteristic qualities or tropes. These two tags are then blended together and the result gives the GM a better idea of what the place is about and what kind of adventure opportunities are to be found there. Each tag is made up of five different elements, each with three different examples provided. Enemies are antagonists characteristic of the trope. They’re exemplary villains or troublemakers that can be responsible for whatever unhappy situation exists that needs adventurers to help sort it out. They may not be the worst or more dangerous denizens of the place, but they’re vexing enough to make trouble for the natives. Friends are sympathetic or appealing NPCs that the players might be expected to want to help or cooperate with. They’re the locals who are most likely to seek out adventurers for help or otherwise provide the hook for getting involved in a situation. The examples provide likely Friends for each tag, but the GM can tweak them to better suit the known interests and inclinations of the players. Complications are particular twists or difficulties that are characteristic of the trope. They may be partial inversions of the tag, or complexities that it layers onto a situation, or subversions of likely player expectations. Complications are meant to keep problems from being too straightforward and simply resolved without having to deal with the complexities of the place. Things are macguffins, treasures, rewards, or plunder that might be found at the site, objects that the Enemies or Friends might be fighting over or that might be part of a Complication’s entanglements. While a pile of loot is usually enough to catch the eye of any adventurer, a Thing is something specific to the tag’s theme. Places are archetypal locations or characteristic structures for the tag, the kind of places you’d expect to adventure in were you in such a place. Other Places can be used as thematic backdrops for an adventure. For each point of interest, two tags are rolled and the results are synthesized together when the GM needs a component for their adventure creation. If the tags for a community are Brilliant Innovation and Lawless Class and the GM needs an antagonist, they might pick “Cruelly indulgent elite” and “Grasping guildmaster” from those tags’ Enemies lists and blend them together. Thus emerges Theophilus Crane, the ruthless, selfish Thurian

guildmaster of the Arcanocaloric Guild, whose crucial advances in repairing thermal Workings have made him and his guildmates above the law in his native city. In the same vein, the “visionary supporter of the innovator” and “victim of an unpunishable crime” elements of the Friends lists can be turned into Hubert Wheelwright, Crane’s brilliant apprentice and the true originator of the techniques that Crane stole, now hiding in terror from his former master’s hired assassins. Whenever you need some set dressing or adventure components for your points of interest, just go to the tags and mix up something that fits them. Some tags will be harder to mesh than others, of course. You could simply reroll them, or instead take some time to figure out a way in which the results actually do apply. Another option is to read one or both of the tags metaphorically, translating the general concept into terms applicable to the situation. There are four different sets of tags in this section, each one aimed at a different kind of point of interest. While the sets are all aimed at their particular targets, it’s quite possible for a GM to mix and match out of any of the sections, either reading them metaphorically or coming up with novel explanations for a literal interpretation. GMs who have access to other Sine Nomine games that involve tags, such as Stars Without Number, should feel free to mix them in as well if they want additional grist. Community tags are for cities, villages, tribes, subterranean survivor bands, or other broad grouping of people. They give traits that distinguish the community from others like it; they may gesture at its organization or social structure, but the point is to explain what about the place might provide adventure grist for the GM. Court tags are for noble courts, temple hierarchies, business enterprises, dynastic families, insular clans, or other groups where intrigue, personal relationships, and conflicting goals are apt to be found. People in a court want things and they’re likely to be looking to recruit outsiders to help. Ruin tags are for classical dungeons, lost cities, Outsider ruins, mysterious towers, or other sites where sneaking down corridors and checking for traps are usual adventurer pastimes. They’ll help you add flavor to your holes in the ground or piles of cracked masonry. Wilderness tags are for natural hazards, dangerous lands, remote motherlodes, wild beast territories, and other sorts of encounters or points of interest that might draw an adventurer’s attention. They’re often useful in filling up a hexcrawl, allowing a GM to plant points of interest in the deep wilderness without having to load it up with an endless parade of villages or minor dungeons. Each section provides some additional tables and guidance, the better to assist you in using the tags to their full effect. As always, you should take what you need from those tools, using only the ones that you need and adjusting things as your creativity recommends.

190•

Communities While Courts provide tightly-connected webs of relationships for the PCs to entangle themselves in, Communities serve more as adventure backdrops for the heroes, or contexts in which other adventures occur. The particular heroics of the party might significantly change the Community, and the needs and situations of the place might present immediate adventure hooks to them, but the existence of a market town does not serve as the same blatant predicate for adventure that a lost Deep offers. Most often, Communities serve as the sandboxes in which urban-focused or intrigue-based adventures can occur. For many players, the default mode of interaction in the wilderness or the underworld is combat; in a city or village, that default instinct is going to be conversation. Sudden, brutal violence is by no means alien to a city, but most PCs will be much less inclined to pull their swords on a surly town guardsman than on an Anak warrior. The resources in this section include both a list of Community tags and a set of tables that can be used to flesh out and characterize particular settlements. While you could optionally choose to use one, both, or neither, they’re built to work cooperatively. To characterize the Community, decide whether it’s best considered a rural village, a significant city, or a tribal or provisional gathering of people. Using the appropriate table, find out the basic rationale for the settlement’s ex-

istence first; this will tell you a great deal about the kind of locals you’ll be finding in the Community and what their chief employments and interests are likely to be. From there, you can roll or pick to find out who actually runs the Community. This may or may not be the nominal head. The central government might say that the leader of a farming hamlet is the government-appointed headman, but everyone in the village might know that Mother Orde is the one who decides what they’re going to do when a problem arises. Tension between real and nominal leadership can make for useful adventure grist. The “significant locals” column can be used to generate a few NPC hooks for those occasions when you need a suitable local face for your adventure or an NPC you can hang a hook on. The “current pressing problem” is an immediate situation you can color with Community tags or use straight. If you mean to make an adventure hook out of it, be sure it’s something the PCs can reasonably influence with their involvement. For delivery of adventure hooks, the two bottom tables suggest potential local NPCs who might approach the party and some ideas for what the natives could offer by way of payment. These suggestions will be colored by the Community tags and the Friends or Things that are suitable to the Community’s situation. As with all the tables, they should be taken as suggestions for you to shape.

•191

Rural Villages These tools can be used for the typical medieval-flavored village or rural hamlet beloved of many adventures. Such places are at usually at least minimally self-sufficient. Villages in relatively sophisticated nations might have permanent shops or full-time artisans working a particular trade, but most such hamlets have their entire population engaged in agriculture, with specialists doing particular crafting jobs as their neighbors might need them. Coinage is usually scarce and reserved for use with outside tax collectors and hired workers, as the local trade deals in tacitly-understood favors owed and granted. While such villages are often very poor, it’s not unknown for them to have at least some valuable goods or trades hindered by the village’s great remoteness, complete lack of fame, or inability to safely get the good to a market that has a demand for it.

d12

Rationale for the Village’s Existence

Once a garrison outpost of a nation

A mine or quarry, perhaps now exhausted

A spot where refugees of a calamity settled

Holy ground or a temple to a particular faith

A plant or animal grows very well here

It’s a safe waypost on a trade route

Refuge for a despised minority or group

A bandit camp that went legitimate

A self-ruled home for demihuman residents

It’s a safe base for salvage or ruin plundering

Decayed remnant of an ancient city

It grew up around a lordly manor or estate

Features of the Village d12

Who Runs It?

Significant Locals

A Current Pressing Problem

A hereditary headman

The village harlot

Vital food stores have been lost or stolen

A reeve picked by a lord

The worst local bully

Two families are in a long-running feud

A temple representative

A gifted young peasant

A new religion is making trouble with the old

A council of elders

A half-savage shepherd

The lord’s reeve has been given unreasonable quotas

A cruel and feared bully

A charismatic priest

An upstart newcomer is disrupting the native hierarchy

A popularly-chosen chief A major landowner

A socially marginal family is suspected of crimes

A dreaded sorcerer

A youth who wants out

A dangerous beast or foe is lurking near the place

A pragmatic warlord

Venerable old farmer

A local bully and his friends are causing trouble

The richest native there

Criminal in rural hiding

The crops or herds are in very poor condition

A traditional squire

Native hedge mage

An ambiguous land dispute is getting bloody

A patriarch or matriarch

A noble’s local reeve

A curse or magical woe is vexing the people

An organization’s envoy

Important artisan

Noble quarrels have caused collateral damage

Village Involvements with Adventurers d12

Local Likely to Interact with Adventurers

Interesting Things the Place Can Offer Heroes

An ambitious local who wants to get to the city

An unusually large amount of saved coinage

Social outcast who can’t ask any local for help

Valuable local specialty product

Gentry who wants no local gossip about their need

Heirloom magic item passed down to the leader

Ex-city dweller eager for contact with the worldly

A magical service unique to a local tradition

Comparatively rich villager with a need

A map or secret leading to a Deep or plunder site

Starry-eyed young local swooning for adventurers

A temple with potent healing magics available

Village priest in need of outside help

A secret treasure acquired generations ago

Reeve who can’t reasonably call on natives for a job

Large amounts of produce or local products

Village leader who wants expendable help

Ownership of an abandoned farm or structure

Burly local militiaman who watches new faces here

Contacts with rural bandits or criminal rings

Shifty native who wants some clueless accomplices

Favors from the lord who’s very fond of the village

Clan patriarch who doesn’t want to use their own kin

Young locals willing to take service with the party

192•

Major Cities A village is largely self-sufficient and organized around the production of basic necessities. A city, whether a market town or a grand megalopolis, is a place that lives off the produce of tributary communities and produces goods and services of a sophistication far beyond that possible in a small village. These tables can be used for modest market centers or major urban sites, with details being scaled to fit the size of the city. Cities need a constant flow of food from the surrounding countryside, and not uncommonly a constant flow of new citizens from the villages to make up for the death rate brought about by plagues, malnutrition, and endemic diseases. Only the richest and most advanced urban centers can escape this entropic drain, often with the help of still-operational ancient Workings. Cities are the places most likely to still maintain these great edifices.

d12

Rationale for the City’s Existence

It’s the former seat of a vanished nation

It’s a trade nexus that has greatly prospered

It’s an industrial or productive center

There is heavy resource extraction nearby

It controls a vital defensive point

It’s built around an ancient Working

It’s a stronghold of a local subculture

It’s a sacred city to an important faith

It’s a shared market for many villages

It’s a place of great beauty or healthfulness

It’s a shelter from dangerous environs

The natives are somehow bound here

Features of the City d12

Who Runs It?

Significant Locals

A Current Pressing Problem

Hereditary lord

Sinister crime boss

Raiders are scourging local trade routes

Merchant prince

Head of a major temple

Criminals have corrupted the local law enforcement

Council of oligarchs

Neighborhood patriarch

Displeased locals are rioting for some reason

Allied noble heads

Ethnic group elder

The king or local ruler is making harsh demands

Royal viceroy

Rich merchant

Food supplies aren’t being received as they should

Gentry-elected mayor

Feared local mage

Urban groups are arming to resolve some dire conflict

Major clerical figure

City watch chief

A recent calamity has done major infrastructure damage

Occult power wielder

Decadent noble

A disguised monster is feeding on the city from within

Criminal group catspaw

Local magistrate

The rulers have gravely offended a local religion

Ethnic group’s ruler

Outcast group leader

A rebel group denounces the city leader’s legitimacy

Chief magistrate

Famous courtesan

A private war threatens with another major city

Military strongman

Demihuman enclave head A major local industry is threatened by events City Involvements with Adventurers

d12

Local Likely to Interact with Adventurers

Interesting Things the Place Can Offer Heroes

City official looking for deniable agents

Large amounts of conventional coinage

Wealthy merchant who wants unknown outside help

Expensive urban property

Newcomer peasant haplessly looking for assistance

Sophisticated and very valuable local products

Demimonde navigator always watching for clients

Formal citizenship and the rights of a local

Curious urchin who trades in local news and events

Quiet dismissal of criminal charges or sinister pasts

Criminal with a mind to use naive newcomers

Indulgences beyond the power a smaller place to grant

Desperate merchant trying to keep their business going Services of exceptionally skilled specialist professionals

Guard chief suspicious of potential troublemakers

Native too infamous for other locals to deal with them Absentee ownership of rural villages or manors

Connections with major nobility of the realm

Noble who thinks adventurers will do anything for coin Rare occult components or magical products

Slumming young gentry with a taste for excitement

Blessings from major clergy or high priests

Foreigner looking for fellow strangers to help

Business monopolies or tax rights in certain areas

•193

Tribes and Exiles Not all communities are neatly delineated by fields and city walls. Nomadic tribes, scruffy bandit camps, groups of underground Deep survivors, or Blighted warbands all constitute communities. They may be far poorer and more materially primitive than even a farming village, but they have some sort of social structure and self-identity. While some may be violent by nature or habit, more peaceful interactions are usually possible for PCs. These tables are meant for the sort of barbarian tribals, desperate bandit dregs, and subterranean survivors that an adventuring band is likely to run into at some point in their travels. The basic dynamics of these societies are usually similar, ones based on raw force, personal charisma, and the prospect of plunder or good hunting. Particular roles or details can be reskinned to fit the specifics of the tribe and its environment.

d12

Why Are They Staying Here?

It’s an unusually well-fortified safe place

A charismatic leader bound them together

The hunting or resources are very good here

They were driven here by a dire enemy

Seers or shamans said it was ordained

The leadership wants to find something here

Their herds or prey have led them here

They’ve been trapped here by the situation

They’re paralyzed by internal dissent

They’ve been paid or induced to be here

Tradition requires they come here

Here they can do the most damage to a foe

Features of the Tribe d12

Who Runs It?

Significant Locals

A Current Pressing Problem

Bestially savage tyrant

Best hunter in the tribe

The leader is becoming weak or acting foolishly

Wizened elder

Wise man or woman

A settled group is hunting them as mortal foes

Magically-gifted chief

Seer or shaman

A curse has been laid on them for some collective sin

Holy man or woman

Tribal artisan

They killed someone who had very powerful allies

Hereditary chieftain

Skilled scout

They’re impoverished and can’t reach new resources

Outsider or alien lord

Trader with outsiders

A fearsome beast hunts them in the wilds

Brutal but cunning chief

Adopted member

Their gods are sending dire but obscure omens to them

Foreigner turned ruler

Tribal slave

The tribe threatens to split under some feud or quarrel

Some are seeking a redder, more powerful god to serve

Council of the elders

Feared troublemaker

No ruler past clan heads

Tribe’s most eligible youth A patron power is using them as expendable fodder

Envoy of a patron power

Barely-tolerated wretch

A sickness is raging through the tribe

Most charismatic native

Cunning tribal advisor

A rival group has taken over their hunting grounds

Tribal Involvements with Adventurers d12

Local Likely to Interact with Adventurers

Interesting Things the Place Can Offer Heroes

Raid-taken slave looking for a way back home

Guidance and safe passage through their territory

Leader with a natural suspicion about outsiders

Knowledge of a hidden place of wealth

Low-status native trying to acquire outside support

Exotic and valuable tribal goods

Tribal sage who likes news of the outside world

Plunder taken from a foreigner they’ve killed

Curious young tribal interested in strangers

Inherited relic or treasure they’ve kept

Near-outcast who wants a hand with some revenge

Secret for accessing an otherwise sealed place

Envoy of another group suspicious of other influences Loot won in battle against another group

Tribal notable who suspects the PCs as potential rivals They’ll raid the party’s enemies for a share of the loot

Tribal trader who wants access to outside goods

A magical elixir or substance they know how to make

Youth determined to show how tribal ways are best

Tribal membership and a place of respect

Eligible native looking for new blood in a mate

Slaves they’ve taken in raids or tribal wars

Reformer or innovator whose kindred won’t listen

Some young tribals willing to go with the party

194•

Community Tags Community tags provide adventure grist for any location where a significant number of people have to work together for survival. While the classic “grimy medieval city” or “rural dirt-farmer hamlet” are both archetypal communities, this heading could also include monasteries, isolated ideological groups, subcultures within a larger society, or any other mass of people that lack the implicit hierarchy and shared organization of a Court. As with the other tags, Community tags should be read as broad strokes and general directions for your creativity rather than a strict description of reality. It can be useful to think about them in a metaphorical sense as well as a purely literal one; maybe the Monstrous Tribute that the community is offering is its docile sacrifice of young men to a brutal lord’s meatgrinder border wars. Two well-blended tags are usually sufficient to give character to any single community. If you’re building a subculture of a particular community, you might choose to roll a third tag, pair it with one of the first two, and then pit it in some sort of opposition or conflict with

the second of the original tags. This conflict or division is what gives the subculture its identity or present focus of effort. Community tags are particularly susceptible to being altered by the actions of the PCs. It’s not beyond impossibility for an adventuring band to completely overturn the power structure or internal politics of even a good-sized city, let alone a humble farming thorp. If this happens, be ready to pull the negated tag and apply something that makes sense as a consequence or derived outcome of the PCs’ actions. It’s almost impossible for a mere band of adventurers to quell all conflict and struggle in a human community, but they can at least shift the terms of the fights to something they find more palatable. Major projects as described on page XX might be used to significantly change a Community’s character or situation. Careful manipulation of existing power bases and the enlisting of useful outside aid can combine with heroic deeds of might to completely alter the existing power balance of a place.

d100

Tag

d100

Tag

1–2

Ancient Infrastructure

51–52

Magical Academy

3–4

Bad Neighbors

53–54

Martial Tradition

5–6

Blood Feud

55–56

Miserable Penury

7–8

Brilliant Innovation

57–58

Mistreated Blighted

9–10

Broken Spirits

59–60

Monstrous Tribute

11–12

Corrupt Laws

61–62

Neglectful Ruler

13–14

Criminal Bosses

63–64

New Industry

15–16

Cultural Center

65–66

Pilgrimage Site

17–18

Cursed Circumstances

67–68

Plagued City

19–20

Decadent Locals

69–70

Population Boom

21–22

Decaying Working

71–72

Raider Scourge

23–24

Demihuman Populace

73–74

Rebel Stronghold

25–26

Dueling Lords

75–76

Rigid Castes

27–28

Enemy Within

77–78

Scars of War

29–30

Faded Remnant

79–80

Seat of Rule

31–32

Fallen Prosperity

81–82

Secret Treachery

33–34

Foreign Enclave

83–84

Sinking City

35–36 Guild Oligarchy

85–86

Theocratic Authorities

37–38

Heavy Fortification

87–88

Toxic Economy

39–40

Hidden Ruler

89–90

Trade Hub

41–42

Hostile Terrain

91–92

Unique Product

43–44

Incompetent Leaders

93–94

Upstart Faith

45–46

Inherited Architecture

95–96

Warring Council

47–48

Inhuman Cooperation

97–98

Widespread Prosperity

49–50

Lawless Class

99–00

Xenophobic Locals

•195 Ancient Infrastructure

Bad Neighbors

The community still has access to some sort of functioning ancient infrastructure, whether it's an array of wall-mounted arcane energy projectors, running water, moving roadways, community-wide climate control, or some other inherited luxury. This infrastructure may be the result of a still-functional Working, or it could be the product of some venerable occult engine that's still operational, or it may be the fruit of the labors of some specially-designed organism... or Blighted populace.

The community has a conflict with a neighboring community. This usually isn't part of a larger war, but is instead a personal animosity between them. It may be the community has suffered at their enemy's hands, or they may have been the ones applying the suffering. Constant low-level skirmishes and troublemaking go on between the two. E

Foreign lord profiting by the quarrel, Bitter zealot who demands violent action, Real culprit seeking to hide their offense

Abusive ruler overusing the infrastructure, Foreign agent seeking to cause havoc, Reckless sorcerer seeking to steal its power

Despairing peacemaker of a shared faith, Local with family from the rival, Frustrated but helpless ruler

Harried chief of the maintainers, Fascinated foreign scholar, Merchant reliant on its use

The infrastructure's cruelly-costly maintenance is coming up, The infrastructure is starting to fray, The infrastructure was actually meant for a much more sinister purpose

One side seems at fault but is actually less blameworthy, The rulers of both use the quarrel to distract their populace, It was a minor dispute that is spiraling out of control

Proof of the culprit's guilt, Weapons cache meant to start real bloodshed, Treasure that would erase the cause of the dispute

Dangerous no-man's-land between the communities, Burnt home of a sympathizer, Religious festival turned into a semi-riot

Irreplaceable infrastructure component, Spare parts worth vast sums on the market, Secret artifact that can control the infrastructure Dangerously energetic working zone, Secret hideout inside the infrastructure, Sanctified and holy control center

Blood Feud

Brilliant Innovation

Two or more groups of citizens within the community hate each other. Their neighbors or the local law have kept things from too-overt violence, but members of the groups will constantly interfere with their rivals and cause whatever misery they can get away with. This hate may spring from recent events, or it may be an inherited spite from old wrongs.

Some local has come up with a wonderful new idea; it may be a magical innovation, a new industrial process, a new agricultural product, a new use for what was thought to be ancient garbage, or some other very useful, profitable idea. Everyone around them is fighting for the chance to exploit this clever new plan.

Wholly unsympathetic group leader, Schemer seeking to exploit the feud, Ruler going to brutal excess to tamp it down

Grasping guildmaster, Overbearing local ruler, Local leader whose power is threatened by the innovation

Reluctant participant in the feud, Local digging for the real truth of the quarrel, Merchant who'd profit by a new peace

The groups were formerly the closest of allies, One group is favored by local rulers, One side is getting completely out of hand

Visionary supporter of the innovator, Outside merchant seeking to profit by enabling the innovation, Local leader whose constituency would profit from it

A treasure the groups are fighting over, Object of exculpating evidence, Lost symbol of peaceful unity

The innovation requires ingredients only adventurers can get, The innovation is riskier than it seems, The innovator is actually a con artist

Critical component for the innovation, Trove of profit from the innovation's test run, Vital planning and design documents

Ambitious test zone for the innovation, Guildhall of upset locals, Tavern with locals fighting over the change

Bloody back alleyway, Sabotaged business, Group-dominated tavern

196• Broken Spirits

Corrupt Laws

The locals are in a state of despair and dull apathy. They've lost the things that used to give them pride and hope, with the best among them carrying on out of habitual duty and the worst giving ready hands to shameful deeds and ignoble acts. No one really believes the future can be better, and most seek only to satisfy immediate appetites.

What law exists here is for sale, or does not apply to certain favored groups or castes. While some degree of corruption and noble license exists almost everywhere, this community lacks any shred of impartiality. Strangers might be fleeced by local lawmen, evildoers can be absolved by a payment, and powerful gentry do as they please.

Cruel tyrant who broke them, Slaver trading on the hopeless, Merchant of despair and its costly escapes

Determined young local leader, Proud old rememberer of better days, Furious rebel against the world

Immensely venal magistrate, Local lord who fails to see any problem with the "natural" order, Crime boss taking blatant advantage of the corruption

A crusading law enforcer, Royal investigating censor, Victim of a cruel injustice

An outside power wants to keep them safely broken, Their fall was due to their own sins and errors, They could be very dangerous if they regain their spirit

The favored class are vital to the community's security, The natives would rather pay predictable bribes than risk facing real justice, The real law is enforced by a secret group of natives

Symbolic item of former glory, Resources to kickstart a new source of pride, Treasure laid up in splendid times

An uncollected pile of bribe money, Stolen goods yet unsold, Blackmail evidence on the chief magistrate

Crumbling monument to a past victory, "Wealthy" town area that's shabby and ill-kept, Empty temple to a once-loved god

A courtroom where the law is sold, Crime scene with an unconcerned criminal, Site of brutal vigilante justice

Criminal Bosses

Cultural Center

One or more crime bosses have a powerful influence on the community. They may control crime within the community itself, or they may use it simply as a safe haven from which to direct their minions elsewhere. Local law enforcement may know all about them, but lack the strength to confront them and their paid or intimidated henchmen.

The community produces some wonderful cultural artifact or trains famous artists. The product might be some exceptional cloth, or artistic luxury good, or the scholarly fruits of a famous academy. Trained artists might be students of a particular school, or the apprentices of the current masters of a long artistic tradition who dwell here.

Blatantly overt criminal chief, Well-controlled head of law enforcement, Crime boss bent on using the PCs as catspaws

Victim of an untouchable boss, Determined bounty hunter, Ambitious criminal seeking to make room above

Master artist who suffers no rivals, "Visionary" who wants to tear down the old art for their own new one, Merchant who is trying to control the production for profit

Ambitious young artist of profound talent, Wild genius of very difficult temperament, Aged master proud of his tradition

The art requires resources that are running low, Some other group is cheaply and poorly mimicking the art, Their main market has somehow been cut off

The crime boss' support is what keeps the community prosperous, Local government is almost openly staffed by cartel members, The locals will deal with PC troublemakers for fear of the boss' anger

A boss' secret stash of wealth, A treasure stolen elsewhere and brought here by a boss, Evidence proving one boss is betraying another

A famous and ancient work of art, An art object made of some priceless substance, An art object encoded with a precious secret

Uncharacteristically opulent home in the slums, Sleepy law enforcement headquarters, Dangerous tavern for local minions

Busy studio or academy hall, Mercantile emporium where the cultural products are traded, Renegade artist's hovel

•197 Cursed Circumstances

Decadent Locals

The community has been cursed with some blight that makes life difficult, albeit not impossible. An offended sorcerer's vengeful Working, an outraged god's wrath, a local distortion of the Legacy, or a simple history of bad feng shui in the area may have brought the curse about. If you include this tag, you'll want to devise not only the curse, but the reason why the locals haven't left for better lands.

The locals enjoy repulsive vices and shameful appetites. They may have religious sanction for their evils, or neighbors might trade with them for such things, or they could be followers of some ideology that blesses such pursuits. Their economy or their social organization is usually heavily reliant on such traffic, and to ensure its continuance they may have made bargains with things worse than humans.

Charlatan offering false hope, Local demagogue blaming a useful culprit, Native profiting from the curse

Trader in hideous sins, Bored gentry in search of a cruel thrill, Once-prey that has become an even worse predator

Scholar seeking details of the blight, Stubborn curse survivor, Aspiring curse-lifter with a secret weapon

Local who has secret doubts about the vice, Crusader from outside, Escaped victim seeking vengeance

It has a profitable side effect, It was meant to be a blessing, It can be aimed by willing conspirators

A personal anti-curse ward, Hidden wealth of a curse victim, A means to lift the curse

Enterprise blighted by the curse, Festival held to pray for mercy, Ruin of a curse victim's home

The victims of the vice are a class or type that their neighbors don't care about in the slightest, They have ways to make their vices give them power, Their society is attractive aside from this hideous urge

A stolen victim of great value to someone else, Proof of an outside noble's trade with them, Precious regalia used in the vice

Salon of hideous beauty, Stinking slave pit, Mundane locale of ordinary business tainted by their evil

Decaying Working

Demihuman Populace

A great magical Working has been a critical part of the community since its creation, but now it's beginning to decay. It may function only intermittently, now, or its effects may have curdled into something double-edged. The locals have no idea how to fix it, and indeed, it may not be possible to repair it with modern knowledge of sorcery.

A particular breed of demihuman are either the majority here or have the dominant positions in the community. Architecture, local laws, and social customs are all tuned to suit them, and they may not be particularly forgiving or friendly to humans. Communities that are not outright independent usually make an arm's-length submission to a local lord.

Saboteur from an enemy community, Scavenger stealing critical components, Overconfident wizard attempting a ruinous repair

Demihuman official who grudges baselines, Baseline local who grudges the demihumans, Outsider preying on the demihumans

One of the Working's hereditary keepers, Native dependent on the Working's effects, Desperate researcher of repairs

Curious young native, Canny local diplomat to humans, Native with a need for baseline help

Part of the community would greatly profit by the Working's failure, The Working risks catastrophic eruption, The rulers punish any talk of it failing

A critical repair text for the Working, Valuable broken Working components, Precious resources crystalized from the Working's energies

Their human suzerain wants to erase all independence from them, Something's legal here that's forbidden in baseline communities but natural to them, Their independence is enforced with something they have

Control nexus for the Working, Enterprise dependent on the Working, Site of a Working failure or accident

Precious demihuman-made goods, Ancient relic revered by the natives, Wealth of a prosperous outside trader

Holy site forbidden to humans, House built to demihuman preferences, Business unique to demihuman needs

198• Dueling Lords

Enemy Within

Two different major powers are fighting over control of the community. Two rival lords, a baron and a merchant-price, the mayor and a local high priest, or some other combination struggle to achieve dominance. They may both have justifiable claim on running the community, or one may be a greedy interloper.

The locals are convinced that there is some terrible threat against them working from within their society. It may be a matter of dark sorcerers, foreign spies, traitorous neighbors, shapeshifting monsters, or some other hidden evil. This evil may be a recent fear, or it may be an inherited peril they’ve always had to guard against. The danger itself may or may not exist, or if it exists it may not justify the steps being taken.

T P

Third party profiting by the strife, Traitor to one of the rivals, Outsider vulture wanting both rivals to fail

Local inquisitor targeting his personal enemies, Leader of the sinister evil, Traitorous local in service to the evil

Unjustly accused victim, Local ruler trying to restrain the mob, Skilled and discerning hunter of the evil

Token of legitimate rule, Bribe meant for a powerful local, Proof of a rival's malfeasance

The evil is real but actually running the inquisition, The hunters are creating the evil whether intentionally or no, The evil really is exactly as bad as the hunters say it is

Deadlocked city hall, Site of mob violence between rival groups, Tavern full of well-armed partisans

Confession naming perpetrators of the evil, Wealth taken from condemned sinners, Resources gathered by the agents of the evil

Confiscated home of an evildoer, Public execution site for the wicked, Courtroom where the evil is being tried

Harried local peacemaker, Impotent judge appointed by a disinterested higher authority. Appealing partisan of one rival The rival with the most legitimate claim is the least suitable to rule, A vital civic task is left undone until a ruler is determined, Both rivals have terrible plans

Faded Remnant

Fallen Prosperity

This community used to be much larger and more prosperous, but something happened relatively long ago that left it a shrunken shadow of its former self. Only a tithe of citizens remain on the site, and much of its former architecture is crumbling and abandoned. A few weathered tokens of old glory remain, and some may be jealously maintained, but there simply aren’t enough locals left to keep up what they’ve inherited.

The community used to be much richer, but something happened recently to crush its source of prosperity. Different factions of the community might be trying to grasp at the remaining dregs of wealth, others might try to restart the failed industry, and some might look for a new livelihood. Any group or entity thought responsible for the collapse is likely to be treated very harshly, and some locals might find profit in shifting the blame to their enemies.

Looter seeking to plunder the remains, Zealot with a plan to return to glory, Outsider strongman who wants to coerce the locals into obedience Learned scholar of the noble past, Hard-scrabble present survivor, New citizen who sees hope in the place They don’t fully understand what they’ve inherited, They were crushed because of their past evils, They’re not the actual heirs but merely squatters who moved into the empty place

Outside profiteer squeezing the newly-poor, Local monopolizing the remaining income, Demagogue blaming everything on their enemy

Plucky local trying to make a new go of things, Harried disburser of limited charity, Riches-torags native trying to maintain their dignity

Their loss is a rival’s gain, Someone’s offering them a new industry at a terrible price, The leadership is refusing to accept the new reality

Artifact of the prior golden age, Wealth hidden away long ago, Secret key to unlocking new glory

Priceless relic of their former wealth, Supplies vital to a budding industry, Resources once held lightly that now are very precious here

Near-abandoned city center, Massive decaying monument, Partially fallen town wall

Ill-maintained but splendid public building, Mansion marked by genteel poverty, Empty shop once catering to the rich

•199 Foreign Enclave

Guild Oligarchy

Either most or a substantial minority of the locals are descended from foreigners alien to their local neighbors. They may have been religious exiles, economic migrants, indigenous locals surrounded by the existing polity, or a foreign city conquered within the relatively recent past. The locals may not be enthusiastic about being ruled by others not of their kind, and their neighbors may look askance at the way foreign customs or even laws may be maintained.

While the community might ostensibly be ruled by some other power, real control lies with the senior members of the local craft and labor guilds. Their decisions have the practical weight of law, and much of their time and effort is spent squeezing out competitors and parceling out economic opportunities in the community. Some guilds might have little or nothing to do with their original trade, and now exist purely as shells for political influence.

Ruthless independence fighter, Outsider ruler with no regard for the locals, Local grandee preaching contempt for outsider ways

Profoundly corrupt guild boss, Ambitious newcomer with brutal methods, Ruthless leader of a guild of criminals

Peacemaking local leader, Local in love with an outsider, Pragmatic-minded outsider magistrate

Secessionists are being supported by their coethnics, The polity’s leaders don’t want them here, They’re hated by their co-ethnics for some reason

Hard-bitten elder among the workers, Outsider trying to make room here, Reformer seeking to oust the corrupt guild heads

The guilds have intermarried or entangled themselves with the ostensible rulers, The guilds offer protection from a real or imagined threat, They guilds hate each other only slightly less than the competition

Priceless symbolic guild regalia, Wealth hidden by the former ruler of the community, Money earned by shady business practices

Bustling guild hall, Purely decorative ruler’s court, Shabby worker’s housing

Precious relic brought from the homeland, Wealth hidden away for fear of outsiders, Valuable good made as a cultural tradition

Public building in an aggressively different architectural style, Outsider home surrounded by local-style buildings, Civic gathering place of a kind specific to the locals

Heavy Fortification

Hidden Ruler

The community is remarkably well-fortified for a site of its size and role. Tall, stout walls, strongpoints inside the community, concentric defenses, a strategic terrain location, or a large body of standing troops might be present. Some threat is thought to exist that makes maintaining this fortification worthwhile, though it may come at a dear cost to the locals. The community’s suzerain may be uncomfortable with these defenses, as they could just as easily be used to defy the ruler.

While the community has a public leader, the real authority is hidden from outsiders. This ruler may draw their authority from rationales unacceptable to outsiders, they may have cowed the public authority into obedience, or they may have a mutually beneficial private arrangement with the official ruler.d E

Secret cult-backed leader, Nefarious agent of an enemy power, Minor functionary who is actually the hidden master

Outside enemy seeking to pierce the defenses, Rebel trying to declare independence, Heavyhanded local ruler demanding protection money

Frustrated outside authority, Local seeking better government, Victim of the hidden leader’s will

Industrious maintenance chief, Ruler’s appointed local military commander, Local warning of some sudden impending danger

The threat is gone but those who profit by the defenses keep them going, The defenses are impractical, The community can no longer bear the expense of the defenses

Most people know that the real authority is concealed, The hidden ruler is a mortal enemy of the legitimate authority, The hidden ruler’s effective authority is over a large affiliated group rather than the whole community

Information on the hidden government, Bribe money paid to the public authority, Blackmail material on important locals

Unassuming tavern that’s a secret headquarters, Tense court of the official ruler, Hidden site where the secret government meets

Components of a powerful fixed weapon, Payroll for the soldiers, Precious and specialized maintenance components

Oversized weapon emplacement, Top of a looming city wall, Stronghold keep at the center of the community

200• Hostile Terrain

Incompetent Leaders

The community is surrounded by dangerous terrain: miasmatic swamps, perilous crevasses, radioactive badlands, a pocket of arratu, or some other harmful topography. The community might prefer the defensive potential of the terrain here, or have found a precious resource worth the danger. The terrain might have formed at some time since the founding, with the citizens struggling to make terms with the new danger.

The community is led by one or more incompetents. While they must have been very good at something to have acquired the position, they are fundamentally incapable of leading. Uncontrolled passions or lusts, commitment to a hopelessly impractical ideal, pigheaded obstinacy in the face of failure, a total lack of charisma or interpersonal skills, or profound laziness might all unfit them for their post.

Bandit chief hiding in the terrain, Monstrous leader in the badlands, Local who’s made a secret deal with the terrain’s vile inhabitants

Heir who is totally unsuited to their new rule, Disinterested ruler forced on them by their overlord, Charismatic ninny with ridiculous plans

Canny badland guide, Innocent researcher eager to explore, Grizzled chief engineer of the community’s anti-terrain measures

Deposed former leader, Desperate local elder, Victim of one of their bungled plans

The terrain is growing somehow, The terrain offers some special profit as well as danger, The community is being crushed by the terrain

An outside rival is backing the fool, The idiot has tremendous institutional legitimacy, They provide a critical skill or ability unrelated to ruling

Treasure lost within the terrain, Device that generates or protects against the terrain, Precious resource found within the terrain

Embezzled funds from a failed plan, Precious artifact lost through incompetence, Regalia of critical importance to the ruler’s legitimacy

Edge of the community overtaken by the environment, Building fortified against the terrain, Tavern favored by terrain guides and explorers

Chaotic and ill-kept court, Site of abject disaster, Plaza full of grumbling locals

Inherited Architecture

Inhuman Cooperation

Many of the community’s structures date back to the ancient past and a long-vanished culture. They have unique architectural traits, perhaps being made of some strange substance or with uncanny qualities. The locals find them too useful or too durable to destroy, but the buildings often have unpleasant little surprises in their under-explored corners, and there may be greater structures still buried by long ages beneath the community’s streets.

The locals have a deal with some manner of inhuman power, either remnant Outsiders, eldritch entities, nearby monstrous beings, or some other creature generally feared or hated by humans. It may actually be a peaceful exchange, but more likely it involves acts and sacrifices that other humans would refuse. If not secret, this deal is valuable enough to make the community’s suzerain avert their eyes, or it may be a bargain so old that time has sanctified it to their neighbors.

A Thing from Below, Outside pillager bent on sacking the structures, Reckless explorer opening up things best left sealed

Heir to the ancient arts of maintenance, Chief of the local structure guard patrol, Keeper of a particularly useful structure

Sinister overseer of the bargain’s price, Local magnate growing rich off the dark bargain, Alien entity seeking to expand the terms of the deal

The locals mine treasures from the buried depths, The structures were built by Outsiders, They require dark sacrifices to keep functioning

Victim of the bargain’s price, Outside investigator seeking the truth, Inveterate hunter of the entity’s type come to purge the evil

The bargain is actually reasonably fair and decent, The locals don’t want the bargain but their neighbors profit by it and so force them into it, However bad the creatures are they’re actually better than the human lord

Valuable alien goods, Wealth offered as a sacrifice, Treasure gained by cooperation

Secret meeting hall for the creatures, Prosperous front business, Sinister ritual of sacrifice

Key to unlock a sealed structure, Artifact of the ancient lost people, Map to a hidden structure

Mundane business in a remarkable building, Ancient structure retrofitted into a habitation, Buried ancient street within a cavern

•201

MAGEDUEL width: 6.34 height: 4.75

Lawless Class

Magical Academy

Some class of citizen is either tacitly or explicitly above the law. They may only be subject to punishment for crimes against their own kind, or they may be entirely immune to legal prosecution. In some cases, this immunity may be the product of official indifference rather than high status; some untouchable classes may be considered so lowly that their slaughter of each other isn’t worth punishing unless it inconveniences their betters.

While private tutelage of worthy apprentices can sometimes be had even in remote villages, this community is unusual in that it has an actual school dedicated to teaching magic. Such schools are usually small, with no more than a few dozen pupils, most of whom will fail for lack of talent or discipline. The instructors are rarely first-rate, usually serving only for the pay and status, but sometimes a genius sorcerer will find a reason to observe likely apprentices here. Given the unfortunate accident potential of the school, it’s probably isolated or well-fortified.

Professionally immune provocator, Cruelly indulgent elite, Grasping mercantile oligarch

Hapless magistrate, Avenger outside the law, Victim of an unpunishable crime

The lawless themselves enforce the law, The immune are most dangerous to each other, Special servants of the immune also are immune

Wealth stolen from a hapless victim, Evidence that an abuser is not legitimately part of the class, Token that grants the bearer the same immunity

Courtroom where some cases are swiftly dismissed, Site of a gaudily obvious exercise of immunity, Shop where the business was ruined by their excesses

Amoral headmaster, Secretly monstrous school patron, Unpleasantly talented yet vicious elite student

Plucky young apprentice, Harried but earnest teacher, Instructor with useful side obsession

The academy is patronized by the ruling class, The community grew around the academy, The rulers don’t trust the wizards but find them too useful to get rid of them

Long-lost grimoire of power, Brilliant artifice of a genius student, Magical key to a dark power the academy keeps locked up

Battered magical laboratory, Architecturally impossible chamber, Grubby student lodgings

202• Martial Tradition

Miserable Penury

The natives have a long tradition of martial expertise. This may be a crisply-organized history of skilled native levies, or it may be a natural belligerance in the people that leaves them familiar with bloodshed. While their neighbors and liege doubtless respect their talents, this very aptitude might make them more willing to turn to steel than prudence would advise.

Life is hard in the Latter Earth, but it is exceptionally hard here. People are deprived of all but the barest necessities, and even the local gentry are impoverished compared to their peers elsewhere. Something is making the locals stay, however, whether fear of the alternative, hope for a better future, or a stubborn attachment to their ancestral lands.

Ruthlessly amoral military leader, Obsessive martial academy master, Outsider using the locals as brute muscle

Determined local defender, Petitioner in need of their prowess, Keeper of the local martial way

Rapacious beggar-lord oppressing even poorer lessers, Outsider who’s siphoning off wealth, Brutal gang leader determined to take what they want

They use weapons only they are able to employ, They’ve bled themselves white in gaining glory, They’re eager to conquer their neighbors

Plucky young entrepreneur, Charitable cleric, Suzerain’s envoy seeking to improve things

Enchanted weapon related to their way, Plunder taken in a victorious war, Venerated battle harness of a legendary hero

They could be richer if they abandon a defining cultural tradition, They’re being bled dry by outsiders, They’re hopelessly resigned

Busy training ground, Cemetery with many memorials, City hall decorated with the banners of the vanquished

A stash of wealth that would be minor elsewhere, Desperately needed resources, A cherished relic that had to be sold for survival’s sake

Miserable slum of shanties, Unprofitable fields, Tavern with only the barest minimum of fare

Mistreated Blighted

Monstrous Tribute

Not all Blighted are violent; many are simply cursed with disabilities or mental compulsions implanted in them by their creators. The locals here have a useful kind of Blighted that provides some valuable service; brute labor, companionship, or more awful fates for those with precious organic components. The locals treat them as nothing but expendable chattel, but the Blighted are unable to effectively defend themselves or survive without the support of their tormentors.

The locals have cut a deal with some unspeakable entity, trading some vile tribute in exchange for the being’s forbearance or assistance. Outsiders may be ignorant of the bargain, or they may know that the community is in thrall but be too fearful of its master to take action against them. The creature likely serves as a protector as well as a tyrant, so the locals may be content with the deal even if it doesn’t offer any further inducement of aid.

Bloodless local slaver, Faux-benevolent overseer, Reformer seeking a complete purge of them

Ancient artificial intellect-tyrant, Cruel sorcererlord, Monstrous quasi-god

Blighted leader, Troubled local, Native seeking to take over the work niche the Blighted are filling

Secret rebel against the deal, Investigator looking for evidence, Monstrous rival of the tyrant

The Blighted are emotionally addicted to this kind of servitude, The Blighted could be very dangerous if they got free, Criminals and the unwanted are transformed into the Blighted

They seize the tribute from their neighbors or enemies, The deal is getting progressively worse, Their neighbors are thinking of making their own deals

Device that imposes the Blight on a victim, Wealth earned by Blighted suffering, Key to the method used to control the Blighted

Ritual instruments forged via atrocity, Forbidden book of hideous truths, Precious resource generated by the entity

Workhouse full of cruelly-used Blighted, Stately mansion with rigidly-disciplined Blighted servants, Sinister establishment staffed by disposable Blighted

Secret shrine to their unholy master, Prison where the tribute is kept, Bustling town street full of sinister prosperity

•203 Neglectful Ruler

New Industry

The community can’t rely on its ostensible suzerain. Whatever lord claims ownership of the place is indifferent to its troubles and pays no attention to its civic disorder. The lord may be incapable of giving help, or convinced their representative can handle it alone, or actively seeking to punish the community for some rebellion or failure of service.

The natives have established a new industry here, and it’s making them a great deal of profit. Old patterns of authority and wealth are being disrupted, and the old gentry are unlikely to be pleased about it. They may be trying to take over the industry, or they may have been the ones to enable it in the first place and are using it to crush the life out of any rival power bases. Outsiders might be playing a major role as well, and it could be they plot to siphon off the profits.

A viceroy sending back false reports, Local grandee seizing control by violence, Cruel local lord who keeps the ruler pacified with tax money

Inspector from the suzerain, Local judge seeking justice, Harried representative in need of help

The ruler has too many problems to care about this place, The ruler would actually make things worse if they paid heed,

Tax money not yet sent, A “gift” meant to draw the lord’s help, Proof of a plot to seize control of the community

Deserted courtroom, Street crawling with local vigilante groups, Burnt-out home of a political loser

Arrogant and ruthless new oligarch, Scheming old-money grandee, Grasping and heartless industrial magnate

Hopeful new entrepreneur, Local elder trying to deal with the change, Innocently naive outside investor

The gentry would prefer poverty to losing power, The gentry are split on the industry, The industry comes with severe and unequally-distributed downsides

Profit from the industry, A valuable device to improve the industry, Tools of sabotage

Retrofitted old workshop, Resource-extraction site, Crowded worker housing

Pilgrimage Site

Plagued City

The community is centered around a major pilgrimage site. This may be a religious location of importance to a major faith, or it may be a more secular institution that draws the traffic, like a famous academy or the remains of some wondrous ancient work. Considerable local tension likely exists over controlling the access to the site and maximizing the profits from foreign visitors.

The community is cursed with recurrent spells of some troublesome disease. The affliction isn’t so fatal as to make living there impossible, but it adds suffering and expense to local lives. The plague might be the product of an ancient curse, the results of longlost toxic remains, or an unavoidable byproduct of whatever industry or purpose justifies the city. It’s probably not overly contagious, but visitors may be in some peril all the same.

Outsider boss seeking to seize control of the site, Corrupt hereditary site controller, Rival saboteur bent on despoiling the site

Well-meaning pilgrim, Scholar with dangerous historical theories, Earnest caretaker of the site

The site can only handle so many visitors without degrading, The pilgrimage site is dangerous, The keepers don’t fully understand the site

Precious relic of the site, Beautifully-made fake of some critical relic, Secret true history of the site

Expensive pilgrim lodgings, Street full of hawkers of pilgrimage tokens, Alien and wondrous pilgrimage site

Charlatan selling false hope, Merciless grandee gladly worsening the plague for profit, Dark sorcerer seeking to weaponize the sickness

Traditional healer wise in the plague’s ways, Appealing waif struck down by the illness, Impassioned healer seeking a real cure

The plague has a positive side-effect, Only certain classes suffer the plague, Passage into or out of the community is strictly controlled

A real cure for the plague, Hidden wealth of a plague victim, The key to halting the cycle

Worn-down sickhouse full of locals, Cemetery overflowing with the dead, Business based on providing for a sufferer’s special needs

204• Population Boom

Raider Scourge

A vast influx of newcomers has recently rushed into the community. They may have been drawn by economic opportunities, or fled some pursuing peril, or been forcibly moved there by a ruler who wanted to dilute the existing native cohesion. The natives may not have the resources or opportunities to integrate these newcomers, and it may be that the new population has no desire to stay longer than is necessary.

Almost every community has some problem with bandits and highwaymen, but this community is seriously plagued with raiders. One or more groups of persistent plunderers are hitting the community repeatedly, and they lack the necessary resources to fend them off or protect all their holdings.

Viciously xenophobic grandee, Newcomer leader who despises the locals and their ways, Grasping merchant exploiting one or both groups

Would-be ruler turned bandit chief, Rival agent backing the bandits, Traitorous native wielding the bandits against their enemies

Runaway ex-bandit, Embittered victim of their plundering, Merchant desperate for help

The bandits are cooperating with a local power bloc, The bandits are a direct consequence of some local political decision, Mustering military force would have dire political consequences

Local trying to bridge differences, Newcomer trying to make a new life, Local official trying to keep the peace

The newcomers act like conquerors, Their cultures are extremely imiscible, The natives are now highly dependent on newcomer industry

Precious relic brought by the newcomers, Loot confiscated or extracted from the newcomers, Riches earned from newcomer labor

Plunder stolen by the bandits, A shipment of some vital good that was waylaid, Evidence of corroborators or informers

Scene of gory slaughter on the road, Burnt farmstead outside the community, Makeshift and dirty bandit camp

Jarringly different newcomer quarter, Market with informally segregated areas, Tavern welcoming to only one group

Rebel Stronghold

Rigid Castes

The community is in tacit or open revolt against their supposed overlord. If it’s distant from their suzerain’s power centers or exceptionally well-fortified, they might be an open nest of rebels and provide overt support to their ruler’s enemies. More vulnerable communities will provide shelter, secret support, and a base of supply for hidden bands of insurgents. Loyalist locals must keep their sympathies hidden or suffer the consequences.

The locals are divided into several castes. They may be organized by social role, by imputed nobility of birth, by ethnic origins, or any other dividing principle, but they cannot imagine any other way of organizing themselves. A hierarchy of castes is not inevitable, but there will be social and legal limits applied to ensure that each caste remains fixed in its function. The outside world may or may not respect these distinctions when dealing with the locals.

Psychopathic but charismatic rebel leader, Savage rebel-suppressing general, Traitor leading the rebels to their doom

Idealistic young rebel, Frightened local just trying to survive, Sympathetic outside mediator

Conqueror seeking to impose “civilized” castes on outsiders, Impostor who’ll commit any crime to conceal their true caste, Abusive upper-caste grandee

Unfairly mistreated caste member, Determined refomer with a “better” caste plan, Outsider trying to undo the caste system

The castes are marked by ancient physiological alterations, Even the low caste locals are convinced the tradition is right, Exceptional money or talent can change a person’s caste

Proof of a group’s real caste, Goods created by a caste’s unpaid labors, Sacred regalia only a certain caste can touch

Caste-divided residential quarters, Temple dedicated to a caste, Workshop of a caste

One side of the dispute is correct but profoundly unsympathetic, A rebel victory would ultimately be catastrophic, The lord can’t afford the disruption that violent suppression would create Cache of valuable rebel supplies, Tax money stolen by the rebels, Secret rebel identities and plans Rebel base hidden outside the community, Tavern full of sympathizers, Burnt house of a loyalist

•205 Scars of War

Seat of Rule

The community is still bloodied by a recent violent conflict. A crushing bandit raid, a lost siege, getting caught at the periphery of a major battle, or some other calamity has inflicted severe damage on the place. Some communities may suffer a longer-term version of this, their youths lost in a grinding, endless battle against some perpetual threat.

Some important ruler or leading figure resides in the community. This may be the seat of a regional lord, or it could be the traditional residence of a high priest, great magus, merchant house, or other wielder of influence. The community itself may or may not be under their direct control, but the wishes of the august figure must be acknowledged by the locals.

Savage tyrant left over from the fight, Outsider taking advantage of their weakness, Native driven to extremes by their losses

Corrupted and venal ruling figure, Conspiring usurper of the role, Vicious rebel against the ruler

Bedraggled survivor, Outsider who’s come to help, Relative of someone lost in the battle

Worried advisor to the ruler, Petitioner seeking help, Rebel against an unjust ruler

The damage was mostly taken by one group, The losses have thrown the old social order into chaos, The locals are desperate to make the losses “worth it”

The ruler is a figurehead controlled by someone else, The community is struggling to keep the seat, The ruler is not legally recognized but everyone knows the reality of their influence

Plunder taken during the fight, Wealth left behind by the dead, A cache of treasure concealed by looters

Riches brought to petition the ruler, Ancestral ruling regalia, Treasure hidden by a ruler of old

Grand and ancient audience hall, Elaborate edifice now no longer used, Public building related to the ruler’s role

Damaged half-occupied house, Burnt-down civil structure, Fields pocked with torched cottages

Secret Treachery

Sinking City

The community is in secret rebellion against their ostensible liege, having cut deals with his enemies, plotted to betray him for their own gain, or bridled under his tyranny and sought a better lord. The community’s leadership is all in on this plot, and outside viceroys or representatives are being kept carefully ignorant of the reality. The common folk may be oblivious to the truth, though they’ll doubtless have felt the same motivations and promptings that convinced their leaders to turn traitor.

The community was built atop something unstable, and now that substrate is crumbling. It may be swampy ground or a decaying coastline, or it could be an ancient buried city that’s now giving way. In the case of some antique habitation, the denizens that once lived there might be boiling upward as their home is collapsing, or new opportunities may be revealed even as the community’s present structure is ruined.

Suspicious investigator from the tyrant, Scheming local chief who plans to be the new lord, Monstrous thing that they made a pact with

Unspeakable evil from below, Ruthless local causing damage for the sake of profit, Outside exploiter preying on the displaced

Local being cruelly mistreated by the tyrant, Honest representative trying to resolve the tension, Local grandee trying to stay out of it all

Struggling local defender, Native made homeless by the collapse, Curious explorer bent on discovering what lies beneath

One of the leaders is a double agent waiting to roll all the traitors up, The leaders disagree on methods, There’s more than one group of traitors who don’t know about the others

The collapse was caused by someone, Only the slums or the noble quarter collapsed, The collapse hasn’t happened yet but it’s going to

Recently-uncovered treasure, Vault buried when the building became a sinkhole, Key to halt the collapse

Pit where a manor once was, Fallen city wall, Freshly-exposed underworks

Proof of the conspiracy, Bribes intended for the leadership, Relic smuggled in by an outside supporter

Smoky back room, Sullen public gathering, Secret chamber in a leader’s home

206• Theocratic Authorities

Toxic Economy

Religious leaders are influential in almost any community, but here they make up the final authorities. It may be an explicit theocracy, with rule by the clerics of a particular faith, or a temple might be so important and powerful that the official leaders are helpless to resist its will. The locals can be expected to be loyal adherents to the faith, or else the less pious majority is deeply intimidated by the religion’s believers.

The community is reliant on an industry or product that has toxic or negative side-effects as part of its production. The good is extremely valuable, or the community is extremely desperate, and the sideeffects are endured as a necessary evil. It may be that their neighbors or lord are forcing them to produce the good so that they aren’t the ones suffering the cost.

Rebel backed by a rival religion, Heretical priest trying to usurp authority, Eldritch being masquerading as a heavenly envoy

Cruel sorcerer-merchant, Indifferent magnate wringing more production out of people, Trader in flesh who profits by the sick and feeble

Well-meaning but zealous priest, Insurgent against a wicked theocracy, Harried town leader trying to please the clerics

Healer trying to cure the side-effect, Crippled local maimed by the product, Outside trader trying to soften the consequences of the trade

The theocrats are divided into struggling factions, The theocracy is the result of the former regime’s complete failure, The priests don’t want to lead but nobody else is acceptable to the people

The side-effect only harms an expendable class of people, The afflicted are isolated from the healthy, The side-effect are social or economic rather than physical

Religious relic conferring the right to rule, Precious sacred scripture, Tithe gathered for the temple

A temporary protection from the toxin, A load of the precious good, A device that worsens the toxin but creates more of the good

Ornate and splendid temple, Shrine room within an ordinary house, Magistrate-priest’s courtroom

Pesthouse full of the crippled, Splendid mansion built off the product’s profits, Factory full of lethal fumes and effects

Trade Hub

Unique Product

The site is a major trade hub, connecting several important cities or resource production areas. It’s probably at an important river juncture, ancient crossroads, or occupying the only safe path through some perilous wilderness. Its position may be important enough that it can survive on trade alone, despite being unable to feed itself with the surrounding land. Such hubs are usually heavily garrisoned by the lord who profits from their tariffs and taxes.

The community produces something unique, a good or service that cannot be had anywhere else in the kingdom. This may be due to some unique resource found only there, or some carefully-guarded craft, or it may be a special service that can only be provided by the locals, who are somehow unique in their forms or abilities. E

Magnate forcing more production at a grim cost, Ruler demanding more tribute, Rival saboteur planning to turn the product dangerous

Cheating merchant prince, Corrupt judge or trade official, Grasping ruler with heavy taxes

Confused foreigner with strange ways, Dealer in some vital adventuring good, Exotic stranger in need of help

Naive but superbly talented artisan, Innovator seeking to improve the product, Outside trader trying to protect their deal

The locals trade with Outsiders or other entities normally shunned by humans, The merchants effectively rule the city, There are pockets of exotic cultures found nowhere else in the kingdom

The product involves a vile component that outsiders can’t accept handling, The product is extremely useful to very unpleasant entities, Multiple rulers claim rights over the community

Precious goods not produced in this land, Map to some fabulous foreign treasure, Gift intended for a local ruler

A cache of the product, The secret method of its production, Valuable components used to make the product

Bazaar full of alien speech, Caravansarai built in a foreign fashion, Palace of conspicuous opulence

Factory full of busy creators, Resource extraction field where a vital component is gathered, Market crowded with traders from far places

•207 Upstart Faith

Warring Council

There’s a relatively new religion in the community which is rapidly gaining power. It might be a sectarian offshoot of a major faith, the unique product of a new prophet, or an outside faith backed by wealthy and powerful foreign supporters. Depending on the demands made on believers, the new faith may be a matter of concern only to the existing clergy, or it might be a major flashpoint for conflict in the community.

There’s more than one leader in the community, but at least some of them are at each other’s throats. It might be a conflict between formal leadership and informal authorities, or it could be a struggle among civil officials. Their interests might diverge sharply, or it could be a personal grudge that’s boiled over. Outside threats and internal problems are likely being ignored until the power struggle is resolved.

False prophet gathering thralls, Hostile native cleric with dark plans, Outside manipulator profiting by the strife

Shadowy kingmaker bent on breaking resistance, Megalomaniacal new leader, “Owned” leader forced to fight for his backers

Sincere new priest, Local trying to keep out of the crossfire, Existing cleric trying to make peace

The faith has very different teachings for inner and outer members, The secular leadership backs the new faith to weaken the existing temples, The faith has both sympathetic and unpleasant traits

Neutral leader seeking a resolution, Outside investigator looking to understand the situation, Local suffering from some trouble that’s being ignored

Sacred relic of the new faith, Temple relic stolen by new convert to the faith, Tithe offered up by wealthy new convert

The most capable leader is also most at fault, The struggle is being incited by an outside rival, They’re arguing over a problem that seems insoluble

Hastily-made new temple, Now-empty existing shrine, Market with informal religious segregation

Blackmail on a leader, Treasure being fought over, Item that would resolve the struggle

Now-abandoned council room, Site of a steadily-increasing problem, Tavern stronghold of one of the combatants

Widespread Prosperity

Xenophobic Locals

The community is uncommonly rich, not only for the gentry but for the common citizens as well. They may produce a valuable good, oversee precious resource extraction, have special economic favors from the ruler, or simply have inherited a vast body of infrastructure. Their neighbors likely view them with envy, and outside raiders and exploiters find them an ideal target.

The locals despise outsiders. For some “outsiders” may be natives of foreign lands, while others might have a grudge against anyone from outside the community. Almost every community in the Latter Earth has some degree of wariness toward strangers, but these locals have an active loathing, and the few outsiders allowed to trade or interact with them do so at a heavy disadvantage.

Cunning raider chieftain, Greedy overlord, Arrogant local ruler over-proud of their wealth

Local being exploited for their wealth, Agent of the local prosperity’s maintenance, Outside trader trying to make an honest profit

Utterly unfair local magistrate, Local magnate who abuses outside laborers, Leader who always paints outsiders in the worst possible light

Secretly curious local, Cruelly mistreated outsider living there, Grudging diplomat seeking a modus vivendi

Casually-stored riches, Device that creates some critical infrastructure, Cache of weapons meant to defend the wealth

They have a very good reason for hating strangers, Their outsider neighbors hate them just as much, They’re the last remnant of their kind and fear being absorbed

Commoner neighborhood as opulent as that of the gentry of elsewhere, Market full of luxuries, Edifice of unusually advanced infrastructure

Prized symbol of their people, Wealth confiscated from an outsider, Forbidden outsider objects kept sealed away

Cultural edifice devoted to the local past, Tightlyguarded city walls, Architecture that only makes sense to the locals

The prosperity is coming at another community’s cost, Their rivals claim their prosperity is wholly undeserved, The impending end of the prosperity is visible to all

208•

Courts A “Court” is shorthand for a particular group of NPCs tangled in a mutually-shared enterprise. It might be a classic noble court, a large business, a patriarch-led familial clan or dynasty, a temple with its clergy, a magistrate’s bureaucratic office, or any other circumstance where a number of significant NPCs have to work with each other while perhaps having contrary goals and ambitions. Courts are used to provide intrigue-based adventures and help a GM manage the complexity of designing and running more socially-oriented challenges. When the GM needs to generate a social situation that can’t be readily solved with swords these tables and tags can provide the basic outlines for them. Five different types of Courts are sketched on the following pages. The “major figures” for each provide a list of potential significant players in the Court’s intrigue. A GM should generally pick or roll three such figures to act as the major foci of plots and schemes. “Minor figures” can be used to fill out NPCs necessary for delivering adventure hooks, local color, or agents of the major figures. Each major figure has some sort of power source that makes their opinions and wishes relevant to the Court’s actions. They can’t be wholly neutralized until they’re either killed or their power source is eliminated, and the former may not be a feasible option for their rivals or the PCs.

COURTILLO width: 6.34 height: 4.75

Courts are synonymous with intrigue and plotting, and the table of potential internal or external problems the Court faces can be used as seeds of conflict for inspiring these secret struggles. The Court Tags you generate for the group can flavor these results, or you can synthesize an implicit crisis in the tag with one of the results to create a hybrid situation. It may be that this conflict is merely the most immediate manifestation of the larger-scale problem represented by the Court Tags. In all cases, a GM should be careful to provide some reason why immediate, brute-force violence is not the smartest solution for the problem. Killing major figures might bring down the kind of societal heat that even notoriously cold-blooded adventurers avoid. It’s very likely that their rivals in their Court conflict don’t actually want them dead, particularly if the Court is representing a normal familial clan or business. The rewards and enticements offered by a Court for resolving its problems should tie in with the society or community it inhabits. A far-flung rural clan might not have much in the way of practical wealth, but if they’ve got a cousin in every village the chance to get a helpful local guide might be worth more than simple coin. A noble family might never be able to openly admit their association with the coarse PCs, but their client families might all have very remunerative work for the heroes.

•209

Aristocratic Courts These courts represent noble houses, monarchic courts, or other combined places of governmental power and exalted lineage. They have a great deal of secular power over some part of the region and their wishes must be respected by the common folk… or resisted with considerable effort. Very few elites can afford to rule with complete indifference to the opinion of others, however. These courts will usually be seeking alliances with other aristocratic houses, cooperation from rich merchants, and blessings from important local faiths. In a stable region, their chief rivals will be other aristocratic courts. When the area is in turmoil or the social order is in flux, they might find themselves facing powerful commoner clans, ambitious religious organizations, or rich merchants willing to provide reliable order to society.

d12

Main Theme of the Court

Treachery, an air of suspicion and mistrust

Decadence, of excess and indulgence

Ennui, of exhaustion and loss of meaning

Ambition, of driving forward and upward

Resentment, bitter at their rivals’ crimes

Nobility, a sense of obligation to their people

Paralysis, trapped in some internal crisis

Luxury, abundant in wealth and possessions

Tyranny, cruelly oppressing those under them

Dissolution, falling apart from outside stress

Exoticism, following strange outside ways

Might, flexing its power in impressive ways

People of the Court d12

Major Figure

Minor Figure

The Source of their Power in the Court

Lord/Lady

Affiliated Merchant

They are the only legitimate heir to an important post

Ornamental Spouse

Amusing Performer

They control a large chunk of the court’s income sources

Ruler’s Mistress

Butler or Eunuch

They are widely loved and admired by the members

Heir Apparent

Footman

They have access to sinister sorceries or magic items

Spare Heir

Hanger-On

The others fear violence or brutality from them

Court Mage/Priest

Heir’s Tutor

They have a special relationship with the nation’s ruler

Jester or Pet Artist

Hired Assassin

They have blackmail on important members

Chief Steward

House Guard

Everyone acknowledges their skill and brilliance

Poor Relation

Lady in Waiting

They have a very effective spy ring in their service

Senior Relative

Pleasure Slave

They provide intimate services to an important person

Cadet Branch Lord

Prying Servant

They have innate magical powers or gifts

Lord’s Main Rival

Spy for a Rival

They have the support of an important local faith

Problems of the Court d12

Internal Conflicts

External Conflicts

Someone is pursuing someone else’s spouse or fiance The court somehow offended the nation’s ruler

Someone is facing financial ruin due to a mistake

A royal advisor wants the court cut down to size

Two potential heirs to something are in bitter conflict

A rival court has recently gotten much stronger

An elder is making unreasonable demands on others

Hostile forces have attacked and ruined a court asset

A danger exists in or near the court’s own seat

A traitor to the court is helping a rival group’s attacks

Someone is skimming off income due others in the court An important faith is angry with the court over something

A court servant is blackmailing their employer

Tenants or merchants have been upset by the court

A court resource or asset has been badly damaged

The local ruler has levied a harsh “gift” on the court

Someone wants to make a very poor marriage choice A rival has seized control of an important court asset

Someone poisoned or cursed someone else in the court A reckless member has incurred a group’s anger

Someone got involved with a criminal organization

Doing something vital will infuriate another power

A rebel in the court is scheming against the crown

A rival has laid a legal claim on a court asset

210•

Business Courts These courts can be used to detail powerful merchant houses, business combines, or even ambitious new enterprises that play a significant role in a community. Business courts provide at least one product or service to the people around them, one important enough or expensive enough to give them considerable influence. Given the state of most nations, every major merchant expects the local rulers to try to take his profits and claim his property sooner or later; the idea of property rights independent of the desires of the ruling class is not a familiar one most places. The main defense a business court has is to be more valuable to the rulers intact than dismembered. Some emphasize heavy ties with local authorities, while others in wilder lands make themselves too dangerous or too vital to destroy with impunity.

d12

Relations With Their Market

Trusted, they’re a fixture of the local market

Angry, they’ve done something to infuriate

Curious, they’ve come up with a new thing

Resentful, they deal harshly and graspingly

Suspicious, they’re rumored to do vile things

Admired, they’re well-loved by customers

Novel, they’re new to the market here

Patronized, favored by the local nobility

Affinity, dealing with co-ethnics or believers

Apathetic, with customers losing interest

Predatory, eliminating weaker rivals

Shabby, their goods cheap and minimal

People of the Court d12

Major Figure

Minor Figure

The Source of their Power in the Court

Business Owner

Angry Former Customer

They own rights to a critical part of the business

Business Partner

Best Customer

They fronted the initial investment money

Buyer Seeking Takeover

Business Guard

They had the idea that made the business work

Chief Artisan

Expensive Courtesan

They have information on the owner’s criminal doings

Corrupt Lieutenant

Gang Extortionist

They keep the local nobility from sucking it dry

Head Accountant

Neighboring Businessman They have ties to an important local faith

Innovative Worker

Noble Parasite

They’re the only one who can handle the workers well

Noble Patron

Shop Clerk

Their relatives make up a lot of the workers

Owner’s Heir

Street Informer

The business owes them a large monetary debt

Rival’s Catspaw

Supply Vendor

The business is built on property they own or control

Spouse or Lover

Temporary Worker

They have vital connections with important suppliers

Wealthy Backer

Thieving Worker

They handle purchases for a critical customer

Problems of the Court d12

Internal Conflicts

External Conflicts

Someone’s been cooking the books

A competitor is trying to force a sale of the business

A secret flaw has been discovered in the product

They’ve insulted or offended the nobility somehow

A critical resource for making the good is running out

Their customers are furious over a recent product flaw

A vital worker has quit in a fury over some offense

Someone’s tainting or ruining a critical resource input

Someone lost a large sum of funds to theft or error

A noble wants to force his own pet business into place

The deed to some vital property has been lost

A local religious group has become angry with them

A customer is proving both critical and intolerable

A holder of a vital secret has died or been kidnapped

A major stakeholder is coming up with terrible ideas

They’re trying to swallow a rival business

Income is down but no one can agree on a plan

Someone’s hooked them into a terribly bad deal

Factions are quarreling over a new product

An enemy is sabotaging an important workshop

A family scion is botching their work terribly

Bandits or paid thieves have plundered something

The owner’s incapacitated and no one is in control

They’ve signed a deal they suddenly can’t complete

•211

Criminal Courts Gangs, secret societies, degenerate villainous cults, and other groups of organized rebels against societal laws are represented as criminal courts. These groups all stand in opposition to some generally-accepted principle or code of laws, though many may be tacitly normalized in places. Substantial criminal enterprises all exist in some sort of relationship with the society around them. Perhaps the locals accept them as an unpleasant inevitability, or they’re too dangerous for secular rulers to meddle with them, or they prey on a population that the authorities are indifferent to. This acceptance can vanish rapidly if the court seems to present a real threat to the government’s control, however. Given their outlaw status, the common populace is unlikely to have any concerns about their brutal and extra-judicial suppression.

d12

Their Primary Mode of Crime

Extortion, using brute force and threats

Blackmail, preying on the wealthy

Murder, being proficient assassins

Smuggling, sneaking in untaxed goods

Black Marketeer, selling forbidden things

Slaving, whether legitimate or by force

Theft, whether burglary or banditry

Fraud, con artists and business cheats

Loans, giving high rates and harsh collection

Fencing, selling hot goods untraceably

Occult, offering forbidden magic to others

Piracy, or helping pirates sell their goods

People of the Court d12

Major Figure

Minor Figure

The Source of their Power in the Court

Grizzled leader

Disreputable Priest

They’re independently wealthy and doing it for fun

Leader’s Concubine

Oppressed Local

They have a sinister magical gift or aptitude

Brutal Kneebreaker

Protected Merchant

They have a powerful or useful magical device

Well-Placed Spy

Shabby Local Fence

They have blackmail about the court’s leadership

Ambitious Lieutenant

Drunken Healer

They’ve seduced the court’s leadership

The Heir Apparent

Cooperative Innkeeper

Their remarkable skills bring in a lot of money

Corrupt Magistrate

Tired Harlot

They’ve special relations with the local rulers

Wicked Noble Patron

Would-be Client

They have a profitable front business they run

Incompetent Scion

Aspiring Member

They’re personally terrifying and capable of murder

Outcast Sorcerer

Bribed Guardsman

Their charisma has gotten them a lot of supporters

Dangerous Rival

Criminal’s Relative

They’re diabolically cunning and persuasive

Seductive Tempter

Scabby Beggar

They have numerous criminal allies elsewhere

Problems of the Court d12

Internal Conflicts

External Conflicts

Someone’s knifed a fellow member again

The local law enforcement isn’t staying bought

A deed’s profits were unfairly split with the members

They’re meddling with an extremely dangerous target

Someone’s stolen court property for their own use

A rival gang or group is moving on their territory

The leadership is being roiled by a challenge

A traitor is in league with an enemy group

An important member’s made a grave mistake

A sorcerer has a grudge against the group

Two members are fighting over another’s affections

They’ve drawn heat from a powerful noble

The leader’s suffering from increasing paranoia

A local religion has a particular enmity with them

They’re overdoing the crime and drawing excess heat They acquired something that’s causing them dire woe

Someone’s picked up a very bad habit or addiction

A court faction is getting support from a hostile rival

Members are employing magic against rivals

A noble or ruler wants to use them for their own ends

A recent catastrophe depleted the court’s wealth

Their territory has become very inhospitable to them

A faction wants to enter a different sphere of crime

They’re in a bad deal they don’t dare renege on

212•

Familial Clan Courts Wherever masses of humans can be found, there will always be found those large, influential extended families that play an outsize role in the community’s life. These major families might be characterized by a shared ethnic background, a tradition of some important skill, or an intensely cooperative clannishness in the face of outside rivals. These tables can be used to flesh out the leading families of a farming village, the not-quite-noble gentry of a major city, or the tribal bands of a barbaric wilderness-dwelling folk. While these courts are assumed to be subordinate to some local ruler, they have enough resources and members to be a problem for nobles that mean to trample them carelessly. That power and ability to protect their neighbors’ interests is often what brings them to prominence in their own community.

d12

Relations With Their Neighbors

Isolated, distrusted or disliked by most

Creditor, with many owing them payment

Scorned, derided for some deed or trait

Respected, honored for some quality

Newcomers, relatively new to the area

Loners, not disliked but not close to any

Feared, for past acts or present threats

Revered, held in dread and awe by most

Envied, resented by jealous neighbors

Loved, widely adored by other families

Needed, for a particular trait or person

Hated, barely endured by their neighbors

People of the Court d12

Major Figure

Minor Figure

The Source of their Power in the Court

Adopted Member

Acquainted Noble

They hold the deed to some critical family property

Ambitious Scion

Blackmailer

They’re the heir to the chief bloodline of the clan

Black Sheep

Disowned Wastrel

They’re best at the skill or profession the clan practices

Clan Duty Keeper

Family Guard

They have considerable blackmail on their peers

Disowned Rebel

Family Priest

They have extensive contacts in other families

Favored Child

Gossipy Neighbor

They own great amounts of personal wealth

Oldest Elder

House Servant

They’re notoriously loyal and useful to the family

Outsider Spouse

Moneylender

They’re an intimate of the local ruler

Patriarch/Matriarch

Old Retainer

Everyone in the family loves them very much

Reckless Innovator

Secret Lover

They have many capable, loyal children

Stern Traditionalist

Tenant Farmer

Their capacity for violence is fearsome to others

Young Fosterling

Useful Tradesman

They have access to secret magical items or powers

Problems of the Court d12

Internal Conflicts

External Conflicts

An important member’s spouse is having an affair

There’s a running feud with another family

The clan leader is opposed to a popular plan or goal

The local ruler doesn’t like their influence and power

The last leader recently died without a clear heir

A member committed adultery with the wrong person

A member’s bloodline is clouded by suspicion

Someone gravely insulted or offended another family

A cadet branch is fighting to seize control

The family’s rights are being trod on by the nobility

The clan poured much wealth into a failed ambition

The family’s source of influence is being subverted

Personal grudges have caused resentful factions

A rival family stole something very important from them

The new generation is ignoring old, painful duties

A diplomatic marriage has turned out very badly

A member is selfishly trading on the clan’s reputation

Their neighbors demand they fix a local problem

One member is convinced another wants them dead

Their vital interests are making trouble for neighbors

A very important young talent has turned rebellious

Ambitious newcomers are attacking their status subtly

The leader is betting big on a risky, unpopular scheme A disowned rebel is trying to usurp control of assets

•213

Religious Courts Temples, monasteries, seminaries, secret cults, or strictly secular academic institutions can all be represented by a religious court. Wherever a combination of intellectual rigor, obscure practice, and less-than-tangible community services are found these courts can provide structure. Religious courts exist in the context of a larger faith, though they may not be strictly subordinate to any outside cleric depending on the structure of the religion. Whether independent or obedient to a bishop, however, they are undoubtedly under at least some pressure to cooperate with the local government. Any organization with the money, popular influence, and land holdings held by a major temple is going to have to come to some kind of terms with the local ruler. Minor shrines and remote monasteries may be able to avoid the worst of these exactions.

d12

Their Relations With the Larger Faith

Schismatic, despised as heretical

Desultory, an apathetic jobsworth sentiment

Carceral, a punishment-post for wrongdoers

Affable, courteous and cooperative

Populist, focusing on the poor lay believers

Intellectual, given to sophisticated theology

Occult, conducting theurgic magic studies

Pioneering, a new missionary establishment

Zealous, full of fervent believers

Subverted, controlled by a secular power

Venerable, old and greatly honored

Sectarian, a stronghold of a particular faction

People of the Court d12

Major Figure

Minor Figure

The Source of their Power in the Court

Affiliated Noble

Cleric of Lax Morals

They are thought to produce wondrous miracles

Charismatic Priest

Corrupt Priest

They have acknowledged magical skills

Dubious Theologian

Fanatical Zealot

Their mastery of doctrine is unanswerable

Gifted Healer

Holy Goods Peddler

They’ve the backing of secret but powerful heretics

Guard Captain

Loud Reformer

Local lay believers support them with money and help

High Priest

Pious Criminal Boss

They’ve noble or oligarchic relatives

Holy Oracle

Sick Petitioner

They’re an expert at seduction and manipulation

Richest Lay Member

Slave of the Faith

Charismatic leadership and keen insight aid them

Sacred Figurehead

Temple Artisan

They have a pious noble who backs them

Stern Inquisitor

Temple Guard

They secretly arrange criminal services for the court

Temple Sorcerer

Temple Prostitute

They have a particularly holy lineage or role

Temple Treasurer

Tenant Farmer

The upper hierarchy of the faith favors them

Problems of the Court d12

Internal Conflicts

External Conflicts

Someone came up with a very seductive heresy

A popular preacher is leading lay believers astray

Omens of divine displeasure have manifested

A rival sect is moving on their unofficial territory

A vital ritual item or component has been lost

A noble believer demands an impossible miracle

The leader and their chief rival sabotage each other

Court property is being seized by a rival power

A forbidden relationship has formed among clergy

The god’s power seems feeble to people lately

A member demands a very costly ritual be performed The ruler wants the court to take on an unpopular role

Members fight over who is to conduct a great ritual

The upper hierarchy is fighting over the court somehow

The greater faith declared a vital activity anathema

A holy demagogue is preaching against the court

The clergy have taken up a costly and wicked habit

The ruler is trying to suborn control over the court

A zealot reformer is demanding impractical reforms

A noble adherent is demanding special concessions

Poverty or need is forcing them to compromise piety

An outside cleric is trying to claim leadership

A member is screwing up an important court duty

Rivals are blaming the court for some misfortune

214•

Court Tags Like the other tags in this section, Court Tags are meant to be interpreted in terms of the Court they’re modifying. Affliction’s Mark representing a wasting disease on a temple’s senior clergy is going to have a very different flavor than the tumor eating away at a crime boss’ brain. A desperate search for the crime that inflicted such a dreadful divine punishment might fit one, while a criminal gang cast into paranoid dread of the boss’ mercurial temperament is more in line for the other. Some tags come with implicit problems as part of their description; an Awkward Birth carries with it the turmoil that the Court is experiencing as it tries to deal with a child that shouldn’t exist. If you’re going to the trouble of generating a Court, it’s probably so you can use it in an adventure, so these problems and crises should be phrased in ways that the PCs can get involved in them. The situation might be so delicately balanced between different major players in the Court that the small nudge a group of skilled outsiders can provide is just what it takes to bring the matter to a resolution.

Other tags are more descriptive in nature, and don’t have an obvious built-in problem to present to the PCs. In those cases you can just use that tag to flavor the complication implied by the other, or else draw the tag to its extreme and make the Court deal with the consequences of maintaining their place or behavior in the face of an uncooperative world. Two Court Tags are usually sufficient to give a group its own flavor and style. A royal court made up of three or four quarreling noble houses might have each of the contenders built as their own Court, each with their own pair of tags and their own internal tensions to go with their external rivalries. Conversely, you might mix two tags for a single Court, but then roll a few more to flavor individual major figures in it, using them as metaphors or creative cues to give personality or detail to the participants in the Court’s intrigues. Still, as in all sandbox affairs, don’t build more than you need for your immediate content requirements. You can always add more detail later.

d100

Tag

d100

Tag

1–2

Affliction's Mark

51–52

Iron Law

3–4

Ancestral Obligation

53–54

Lost Purpose

5–6

Awesome Legitimacy

55–56

Magical Subversion

7–8

Awkward Birth

57–58

Ministerial Capture

9–10

Blandished Leadership

59–60

New Generation

11–12

Cadet Branches

61–62

New Opportunity

13–14

Capricious Orders

63–64

Outside Debts

15–16

Cultural Insignia

65–66

Overextended Grasp

17–18

Daring Ambition

67–68

Poisonous Cliques

19–20

Dark Secret

69–70

Priestly Influence

21–22

Decadent Court

71–72

Proxy Speaker

23–24

Devil's Bargain

73–74

Rampant Corruption

25–26

Diplomatic Demands

75–76

Recent Brutality

27–28

Disputed Inheritance

77–78

Regency Council

29–30

Excess Heirs

79–80

Restive Lessers

31–32

False Prize

81–82

Rival Dreams

33–34

Fatal Extravagance

83–84

Rival Power

35–36

Forbidden Romance

85–86

Ruling Regalia

37–38

Foreign Ties

87–88

Runaway Rule

39–40

Gate Keeper

89–90

Shining Successor

41–42

Hidden Blight

91–92

Splendid Seat

43–44

Hopeless Rival

93–94

Sublime Skill

45–46

Impure Blood

95–96

Sudden Strength

47–48

Inadequate Tools

97–98

Threatened Violence

49–50

Inept Ruler

99–00

Waning Wealth

•215 Affliction’s Mark

Ancestral Obligation

Some sort of persistent, incurable illness is gnawing at the court. The principle leader might have been felled by it, or a beloved member, or it may be a spreading curse within its circles. Acute diseases will likely have the sufferers desperate to find some cure, while chronic illnesses might need regular infusions of some costly or morally-dubious remedy.

The court was impressed with some great task, duty, or role by its founder, and much of its influence or moral authority hinges on continuing to carry out that task. Its traditions and structure revolve around being able to carry out the work. Failure means disgrace and perhaps tangible penalties as old pacts are broken. Aside from this, neglecting the duty may result in other negative consequences, perhaps to parties other than the court itself.

Manipulative quack, Amorally desperate parent, Secret spreader of plague

Appealing victim, Struggling physician, Worried spouse-to-be of a victim

The sickness is a direct result of their choices, A faction would profit enormously if the current victims died, The only known cure comes with a dire moral or material cost

Schemer who’d profit by the duty’s disruption, Rebel who hates the duty and care nothing for the consequences, Tyrannical leader who forces others to bear the duty’s cost

Palliative that can slow or ease the disease, Proof of its source or cause, The price gathered to pay for a perhaps-real cure

Grimly-determined keeper, Sympathetic member who suffers from the work, Outsider desperately reliant on the work being done well

Hushed and shadowed sickroom, Gathering place with an air of forced gaiety, Untouched quarters of the recently dead

No one fully understands the duty’s meaning any more, The duty comes at a terrible cost, Recent calamity has left them too weak for the work

Vital tool for carrying out the job, Ancient payment for the work, Key to lifting the burden

Ancient work-chamber, Hall emblazoned with symbols of the work, Training hall for carrying on the work

Awesome Legitimacy

Awkward Birth

The things that are certain in life are death, taxes, and this court. They are important, they have always been important, and they always will be important. They may wax and wane, but no one in their society can imagine them ever ceasing to exist, and at most the locals can only think of seizing control of the court or compelling its cooperation. Its destruction is unthinkable. It may have absolute control of some crtical social function, have members of legendary awe, or be viewed as the personal property of some divinity or godlike entity.

A pregnancy is roiling the court and causing severe problems. It may be that a member is pregnant by the wrong man, or a pairing took place that was shocking to society, or a newly-born heir is showing signs of inherited Blight, or a new heir suddenly excludes a displeased prior incumbent. The court can’t hush it forever, and abortion is either impractical, unacceptable, or too dangerous to the mother. This may not stop certain members from trying. E

Elder who would see the problem “solved”, Murderously suspicious husband, Demoted heir

Naive young lover, Desperate hidden paramour, Worried sire of the unwanted child

Secret accusations of illegitimacy are being passed through the court, The disgraced husband’s family is enraged, The pregnancy is just a tool the mother is using to get her way

Proof of the real father, Blackmail material on the court’s leadership, Wealth stolen away by the former presumptive heir

Nursery much worse-appointed than expected, Prison-like room for the expectant mother, Stronghold estate of the disappointed former heir

Implacable tyrant consecrated by custom, Manipulator who cloaks his will in the court’s legitimacy, Outsider who’ll ruin the court despite the chaos such a thing would create

Court member keenly aware of their responsibility, Local haplessly oppressed by the court, Outsider who deals cautiously with the court

The court really is as indispensable as it seems, The source of its untouchability is weakening, If it goes down it’s taking much of local society with it

Regalia of ancient authority, Dusty deed to a rich property, Wealth of a failed rebel against it

Long-forgotten spare throne room, Ancient archive, Gathering place in use for ages

216• Blandished Leadership

Cadet Branches

The leadership has been led astray by one or more pretty girls or boys. They dote on their paramours, granting them extravagant favors and imperiling the court with the lengths they go to in order to please their beloved. Those not given to romantic dizziness may be enraptured by more physical talents, so occupied in the business of night that nothing is done in the day.

The authority of the court is somewhat splintered, with multiple cadet branches of the family, enterprise, or department having their own share of its power. These branches are likely to struggle over control of the main court, with some of them perhaps preferring the court’s dissolution rather than allowing a hated rival to gain control of it.

Rival who sent them the playthings as gifts, Ruthlessly manipulative lover, Murderously angry neglected spouse

Disgraced scion with a plan for revenge, Ruler who hates a particular branch, Scheming leader of a minor branch

Sadly displaced former favorite, Frustrated underling, Disapproving moralist

The paramours have a supernatural edge in their charms, Their spouse likes them distracted so as to carry out their own plans, The court is fighting over influence with the paramours rather than the leadership

Bastard offspring seeking recognition, Visionary from a cadet branch, Rightful leader denied their place

One “cadet” branch actually has a right to rule but is too weak to claim it, The main court plays the branches against each other, Outside rivals want the court to remain splintered

Priceless luxury demanded by a lover, Trinket of great worth abandoned by them, Wealth gathered to build some pleasure for them

Proof of a branch’s illegitimacy, Bribe paid to get a branch to cooperate, Blackmail material on the main court’s ruler

Seraglio of constant liveliness, Court hall abandoned by the leadership, Pleasure-garden redolent of luxury

Ostentatious branch estate, More modest but far older main estate, Court hall with places for all the branches

Capricious Orders

Cultural Insignia

The court is issuing unreasonable orders to those under its authority, demanding excessive tribute, unreasonable obediences, or similar sacrifices. The court leader may be new and over-confident of their power, or the court may be in dire trouble and needs more resources, or rival forces may be goading or manipulating the court into overplaying its hand out of recklessness or ignorance of the true state of affairs.

The court produces some famously revered cultural product, such as literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, music, dance, or other art form. Their members may have a direct tradition of production, or they may be the critical patrons of a tradition of artists or a school that produces the product. The product wins them respect among the cultured, and many would be glad to assist them in exchange for the luster of association.

Arrogant new lord, Mentally unstable or bewitched ruler, Scheming advisor in a rival power’s pay

Ruler who would crush rival schools, Chief artist gone mad with jealousy or megalomania, Rival artist determined to destroy the tradition

Mistreated subject of the court, Frustrated moderate member, Reasonable rival of the current ruler

Earnest young artistic genius, Poor court member determined to patronize as best they can, Unworldly aesthete concerned only with art

The demands are all to fulfill a great secret plan, The demands are punishment for a failed rebellion, The court doesn’t want to make the demands but is somehow forced to do so

The art has actual magical powers when wellmade, The art encourages or glorifies some reprehensible cause, The artists are savagely factional in their different schools

Heavy load of tribute, Stolen treasure that the court demanded be produced, Privately-diverted wealth from the demands

Lost legendary work of art, Proof that a famed piece of art is a forgery of the original, Hidden masterwork of a dead genius

Angry court reception hall, Public plaza with darkly-grumbling locals, Enterprised closed down due to a failure to deliver on the demands

Salon dedicated to appreciating the art, Workshop where the art is made, Grand public structure adorned with the art

•217 Daring Ambition

Dark Secret

The court has a grand ambition which is driving its actions, and it’s making a major bet on its ability to achieve its goal. Failure will mean catastrophe for the court, while success promises great rewards. Not all the members of the court are necessarily sharing the same risks and potential payoff, however, and some may be paying more than they’d ever profit.

The court has a dark secret that would cost it dearly if it were to be revealed. Loss of influence, station, money, or power might all be consequent. It may involve old treacheries, hidden crimes, secret illegitimacies, dark pacts, or harsh choices that were unavoidable at the time. The uppermost ranks likely know the truth, but the lesser members may have nothing but unpleasant suspicions.

Megalomaniacal leader, Well-meaning but hopelessly optimistic ruler, Secret manipulator driving the ambition

The villain they’re allied with, Ruthless keeper of secrets, Amorally villainous ruler

Sympathetic necessary sacrifice for the cause, Court member struggling to do their share, Ally who’d profit if the court succeeded

Secretly worried lesser court member, Outside investigator, Bitter survivor of the court’s crime

The court thinks the ambition is one thing but the leadership knows it’s another, The ambition’s success would be a poisoned gift, A faction plans to monopolize the benefit or shift all the loss

The act was acceptable or normal at the time it was committed, Revealing it would implicate other important powers, The court’s leadership has tried to quietly make amends for it

Critical material for the ambition, Costly remnants of a failed effort, A valuable result of progress in the ambition

Proof of the heinous crime, Precious treasure acquired through the sin, Valuable relic taken from a victim of the crime

Enterprise or establishment dedicated to the cause, Newly-constructed edifice, Hall optimistically prepared to celebrate victory

Secret archive full of dark evidence, Noble monument built on a dark substrate, Private sanctum for only the inner circle

Decadent Court

Devil’s Bargain

The court is too absorbed in their pleasures and indulgences. Their cooperation is purchased with coin or flesh, their disports grow ever more costly and excessive, and even the minor members are getting accustomed to shameful enjoyments. Their power is being turned toward facilitating their membership’s appetites rather than fulfilling whatever role got them their status in the first place.

The court made a bargain that’s now coming back to haunt them. Some pact with an outside power gave them a crucial edge or a desperately-needed boost, but now it needs to provide services, favors, or help that could end up destroying it or costing its leadership dearly. The pact was probably secret at the time, and even revealing it exists could have dire repercussions.

Jaded and sensation-starved ruler, Cruel panderer for the court’s hungers, Monstrous entity that sponsors or encourages vice

Vile entity it pacted with, Ruler planning on foisting the price off on a victim, Heartless creditor who cares nothing for the damage it does

Escaped would-be subject, Inquisitive outside investigator, Frustrated native in need of the court’s execution of its duty

Undeserving victim of the price, Rival who suspects something is up, Enemy of the power they pacted with

The court’s leadership is uninvolved and using the vices to blackmail and control their underlings, The court’s trying to spread its vices in its own social stratum and profit accordingly, A faction is taking things much too far even for their brethren and involving occult powers

Only a small faction of the court knows about the bargain, The current leadership didn’t know about the deal until it was threatened into compliance, The power they pacted with is a mortal enemy of their society

Debt-slave contracts, Hideous but precious idol or art object, Valuable drug made from slaves

Blackmail material the pact granter is using to control them, Potent relic granted in the deal, Heavy tribute due to the pacting power

Debauched salon, Court public hall made sinister, Pit where the human chattel are kept

Monument to the victory the pact secretly gave them, Secret chambers for the pact’s granter, Shrine to the dark entity they propitiated

218• Diplomatic Demands

Disputed Inheritance

Some rival or outside power is making demands on the court that they cannot easily ignore. It might involve some prior offense in need of reparations, a past deal that’s come due, or a price required for a favor that the court desperately needs. These demands are more than the court can easily pay, and determining where the burden will fall most heavily is a matter of fierce internal politics.

The court’s rule or property is due to pass on to the next generation, but there are multiple claimants to it. Each has some colorable legitimacy, and factions and secret supporters are doubtless rife in the court. They’re well-balanced enough that brute force seems a risky route to take, though matters are rapidly coming to a head as the need to establish a new leader is intense.

Scheming shifter of burdens, Outside rival bent on beggaring the court, Incompetent diplomat who’s only making things worse

Cruel and vicious heir, Incompetent heir who has the best claim, Outside enemy backing the strife

Victim of unfair exactions, Harried diplomat with no cards to play, Native who desperately needs the deal to go through

Most talented heir but with the worst position, Hapless heir in dire need of protection, Loyal retainer trying to avert disaster

Legitimacy rests on possession of a now-lost relic, If the struggle lasts much longer the patrimony will be ruined or lost, A selfish regent is exploiting the court during the interregnum

Bribe intended for the faction leaders, Precious relic of legitimacy, The real and verified will

Tense and angry court meeting hall, Heir’s country estate, Court plaza where the factions don’t mingle

The exactions demanded are purely punitive, There’s a specific temporary reason the court has to acknowledge the edmands, Another party could give a better deal if they were persuaded

Huge down payment on the demands, The precious object the court is trying to acquire, Proof that the demands are unjustified

Diplomatic retreat full of tense people, Site of the problem causing the demands, Hushed court hall full of whispers

Excess Heirs

False Prize

While the ruler remains vigorous, they have too many legitimate heirs for the court to comfortably absorb. There’s not enough wealth or power to give the losers a dignified station, or else the losing heirs may expect to be executed, or the heirs are locked in a court-disrupting battle to force their desired outcome. Various heirs might be backed by rival outside powers searching for a convenient catspaw.

The court is trying to obtain a goal or ambition that will actually be disastrous for it. Either through political miscalculation, ignorance of the truth, or willful blindness to the consequences, they’re plunging headlong towards calamity. Rivals might be secretly aiding them in their purpose, while factions within the court may be uselessly protesting the danger of the path they’ve chosen.

Cruel but talented crown prince, Scion in league with dark powers, Secretly murderous spare heir

Capable but hard-pressed candidate, Hapless ruler unable to enforce a choice, Vengeful retainer of a murdered heir

Foolhardy ruler with grand plans, Treacherous advisor encouraging disaster, Trickster leading the court to its ruin

Clear-sighted court member who is being ignored, Victim of the danger the court is facing, Disfavored faction leader warning of peril

Proof of a candidate’s illegitimacy, Bribe from an enemy power, Relic meant to eliminate a rival

The prize’s benefits will attract an overwhelming foe, The prize will corrupt or ruin the court’s leadership, The prize comes with secret problems or obligations that will plague the court

Well-fortified home of an heir, Court hall where the factions are well-separated, Ritual occasion of enforced amity

Proof that the prize would be a disaster, The key to unlocking the prize, Rich reward that seems to be a foretaste of the prize’s benefits

Edifice built as part of the effort, Ruined seat of a former holder of the prize, Secret facility where terrible prices are paid in pursuit of it

T P

The ruler desires a Darwinian culling of heirs, The court desperately needs the heirs to cooperate to overcome a threat, Several heirs were formerly unknown

•219 Fatal Extravagance

Forbidden Romance

The court is exhausting itself on luxuries or displays of magnificence that it cannot truly afford. It may feel pressured to do so in order to maintain face before its rivals, or it may over-estimate its resources, or it may be being manipulated by whatever group they’re buying their luxuries from. Optimistic courts may be betting on a future windfall that may or may not come.

Someone in the court is deeply in love with someone they shouldn’t be. It may be a rival from another court, a lowly commoner, an incestuous bond, an attraction to a forbidden demihuman, a fellow court member’s spouse, or a spectacularly horrible person who can only bring them misery. This love may or may not be reciprocated, and it may be an open secret to others.

Smiling merchant of addictive drugs, Grandiose ruler, Selfishly hedonistic court member

Court member vainly trying to economize, Worried accountant, Client upset at the lack of expenditures on their vital need

Unreciprocated lover who won’t take no for an answer, Cruelly manipulative object of affection, Court elder bent on terminating the relationship

Earnest matchmaker friend, Appealing paramour, Aspiring peacemaker who wants the match

The extravagance is serving a secret magical or ritual purpose, It’s being paid for with debt the court intends to never need to repay, The waste is the product of a new ruler who has different expectations of what they deserve

The reasons for opposing the match are extremely good, The court member is being exploited by the paramour or their manipulators, A rival court member wants the match to go through so the court member will be disgraced

Shipment of precious luxuries, Payment meant for the next round of indulgences, Precious item that is to be pawned or sold to fund the luxuries

Proof that the lover is not what they seem, A gift the enamoured should not have given, A token that will legitimize the pairing

Gaudily-adorned court structure, Celebration of wild excess, Ostentatious and newly-built monument to their luxuries

Secret rendezvous spot, Hidden prison for a reluctant lover, Court festival where unacceptable hints are given

Foreign Ties

Gate Keeper

The court has strong ties with some foreign power or organization, one that may or may not be hostile to their greater polity. The court draws some considerable advantage from this tie, but it’s also expected to assist its affiliate in their own local goals. If the affiliate is an enemy or rival of their people, this tie may be carefully hidden, or it may be a known scandal about the court.

The court controls access to some critical resource or social function. It might have an effective lock on the local law, or control the irrigation network for regional farms, or provide vital religious services to faithful believers. If it abuses this power too greatly, however, its rivals will combine against it and may seize control of the resource.

Foreign spymaster with demands, Rival who despises the foreign power, Court member who’s a wholly-owned agent of the power

Appealing foreign petitioner, Harried court member trying to square their obligations, Outside inquisitor into suspicious doings

Reckless leader who’s overplaying their hand, Outside schemer planning to break their monopoly, Corrupt court member who’s undermining the control for their own benefit

Earnest outsider with a monopoly-breaking idea, Frustrated court member trying to reform the monpoly’s administration, Hard-pressed local mistreated by the monopoly

The next alternative monopolist is much worse, A monopoly-breaker has vile intentions, The monopoly rests with them for secret but very good reasons

Some good produced by the monopoly, License or leave to violate the monopoly, Device that greatly weakens the monopoly

Site where the monopoly is practiced, Secret wildcatter site of unlicensed production, Private production site of one of the court’s elites

The power used to be friendly to the polity but has recently been viewed as a rival, The court is secretly reliant on the foreign power’s support,

Funding from the power, Precious item the court needs to turn over, The macguffin the power wants the court to obtain for them

Court hall in an architectural style like that of the power, Home with foreign-derived elements, Archive with documents in a foreign tongue

220• Hidden Blight

Hopeless Rival

One or more members of the court are afflicted with the Blight, but are concealing their condition. Their particular Blight is not physically obvious to onlookers, but may have severe psychological or hidden physical manifestations. At least some of the other court members have a good reason to aid this concealment, if only to avoid the scandal of being known to carry Blighted genetics.

The court has a rival or enemy that bears a burning desire to destroy them. Unfortunately for them, they’re wholly incapable of doing so. This fanatical desire may be born of past crimes, cheated opportunities, or an ancient feud. In their desperation to strike at their enemy, it’s likely the rival will go to extreme and unwise lengths, perhaps making bargains they ought not to make.

Blight-demented leader being shielded by others, Ruthless investigator seeking answers, Murderous court member bent on “resolving” matters

Oft-beaten rival of the court’s ruler, Disgraced court member turned renegade, Spare heir with a grudge

Blighted struggling with their curse, Court member trying to protect the secret, Blighted parent trying to help their child

Sympathetic enemy of the court, Rival’s associate trying to stop them from going too far, Inquisitor looking into nefarious dealings

The Blight is light enough to be lifted somehow, The Blight is somehow useful to the afflicted, They disguise the Blight as a wildly excessive human inclination

The rival’s hate is very justifiable, The rival’s engineering a clash with a greater power, The rival is being set up as a kamikaze attack by a manipulative third party

Drug that ameliorates the Blight, Proof of a Blighted lineage, Bribe paid to hush the matter

Secret retreat for expressing Blighted urges, Hall of glorified ancestral memorials, Prison for badly-affected Blighted members

Doomsday tool the rival means to use, Blackmail material on the court, Precious relic the rival paid dearly to acquire

Site of the rival’s past defeat, Location related to the hate, Structure built with the fruits of the court’s past victory

Impure Blood

Inadequate Tools

Bloodline and lineage are important to the court, either because of a bloodline-dependent power or a society that places much importance on it. Despite this, the court’s lineage would be considered impure by others were it fully known, perhaps due to some secret pairings in the remote past. The court might have to go to extremes in order to mimic the powers appropriate to their supposed bloodline, or else go to similar extents to crush any hint of the truth.

The court’s authority and power have been sustained for a long time by a particular set of tools and tactics, such as violence, money, blackmail, legal rights, or perhaps by particular alliances with other powers. Recent events or clumsy missteps by the court have rendered these old tools no longer effective, but the leadership doesn’t have any better idea than to use them again, but harder this time.

Court assassin cleaning up loose ends, Rival prying into a dangerous leak, Court member making a terrible bargain to blot out the stain

Manipulator goading the ruler to excesses, Frustrated ruler with no new ideas, Court member scheming to restore their old power

Court member undeserving of the obloquy, Innocent threatened with disaster by the truth, Hunter seeking the entity they pacted with

Anguished victim of their overreach, Court member trying to find new footing, Member fearful of the consequences of their frustration

The “impurity” was once celebrated in the hidden past, It’s an open secret but their rivals lack actionable proof, They’re privately working to overthrow the rules that would call them impure

The tools are “working” but are building up a ruinous debt of resentment, Their efforts are only serving to strengthen their rivals, The tools are actually going to be completely successful if the ruler’s scheme to push them to an extreme works

Proof of their impurity, Device that gives them power they wouldn’t normally have, Inheritance from their hidden ancestry

Relic to empower their favorite tactic, Wealth needed to fuel their plans, Priceless implement necessary to effectively use their tactics

Hidden site associated with their concealed blood, Proud monument to their social station, Secret graves of their real ancestors

Structure dedicated to their favorite methods, Site where the method went awry, Site of the method currently in use

•221 Inept Ruler

Iron Law

The court’s ruler is incompetent or debilitated, but there’s no practical way to remove them from power. The alternative might be utterly unacceptable, or the ruler’s bungling might be very much to the benefit of a powerful faction in the court. Rivals are doubtless making plans to take advantage of the situation, and internal factions may well be willing to take acceptable losses in order to profit by the chaos.

There are troublesome or problematic laws to the court that its members simply cannot break. They may be enforced by magical curses, by an inborn predilection of the court’s members, or by a tradition that would unite all rivals against the offender. These laws are likely preventing them from resolving a problem that is currently growing worse.

Insane ruler, Sincere but utterly unsuitable leader, Sinister manipulator influencing the puppet ruler

Competent but unsupported alternative ruler, Victim of the ruler’s bungling, Faction leader being crushed by the ruler’s ineptitude

The ruler seems like an idiot but is actually trying to achieve a secret goal with their actions, Rival courts are vigorously backing the leader, The leader’s deposition would result in a ruinous state of chaos for the court

Token that would legitimize a change of rule, Object that would cure the ruler’s incapacity, Wealth that was lost by the leader’s bungling

Damaged or decrepit structure owing to the ruler’s neglect, Chaotic and confused court hall, Building erected as a folly by the ruler

Suicidally rigid ruler, Troublemaker who exploits the law, Traitor who is somehow immune to the law’s force

Innovator trying to work around the law or repeal it, Troubled defender of the law who sees the problem, Affiliate who can’t be helped because of the law

The law is there for a good reason and breaking it would be worse than the problem, The law can be changed if a certain great deed is done, The law’s enforcer is corrupt or mutable in judgment

Key object that gives the law its force, Token that allows the bearer to ignore or lift the law, Precious treasure that is unreachable as long as the law remains in force

Chamber of judgment, Punishment place for offenders, Site of the growing problem

Lost Purpose

Magical Subversion

The court’s original formation revolved around a particular duty or role that has long since been forgotten. This may be a metaphorical forgetting, like a idealistic young businessman turning to coldhearted avarice, or it may be a literal loss of some ancient charge or consecrated role. This forgetting may have left the court with ancestral obligations they no longer understand, or resources they no longer use in the intended way.

Some member of the court is under magical influence by another, be it an outside enemy or internal rival. It may be mind-bending sorcery, a persistent magical curse, or an arcane blessing that will last only so long as they cooperate. The culprit has some means of ensuring this subversion is not easily detected, either through occult arts or simply ensuring that others never get curious enough to look for such things.

Leader wholly absorbed in their own ambitions, Outsider made hostile by the court’s failure to do their duty, Enemy who prospers by their forgetting Earnest historian who knows the truth, Last stubborn upholder of the role, Petitioner who needs them to do their old duty The purpose was a vile and terrible one, Their current prosperity depends on ignoring the purpose, The consequences of their forgetting are going to be dire Proof of their original purpose, Potent artifact meant to aid their role, Treasure once given to them in repayment for their work Forgotten chamber for the duty, Lost site of importance, Place damaged by the forgetting

Harmless-seeming member who’s a secret mage, Mercenary sorcerer hired by rivals, Court favorite who induces that affection with magic

Suspicious local mage, Relative with suspicions but no proof, Victim of uncharacteristic behavior by the subverted member

The subversion is part of a known and accepted enchantment on the target, They’ll die or suffer horribly if the subversion is lifted, They’re consciously cooperating with the subverter

Charm to lift the curse or mindbending, Proof of magical interference, The artifact being used to subvert the target

Out-of-place location to find the target, Site that’s recently been changed to fit their new demands, Sinister lair where the enchantment was wrought

222• Ministerial Capture

New Generation

The upper functionaries or senior household servants of the court have taken effective control of it. The members may be too distracted to realize what’s been done, or the servants may have irresistible blackmail on them, or they may have the unjustified but complete trust of the proper leadership. These functionaries are using the court’s resources to pursue their own aggrandizement and profit.

The court’s prior leadership was recently decimated by age, sickness, misadventure, or political executions, leaving many leadership posts in the hands of much younger, less experienced members. Few of them have a firm grasp on practicalities, and they’re acting with a confidence and boldness that may not necessarily be justified by their actual skills. E

Reckless spare heir turned ruler, Upstart using a role purely for their personal advantage, Outside rival pouncing on their untested leadership

Minor court member who realizes the problem, Lesser functionary upset by the corruption, Proper leader made helpless by the situation

Harried senior advisor who is ignored, Baffled new ruler who doesn’t understand how it works, Idealistic new office-holder with big dreams

The ministers think the proper leadership is incompetent, The ministers are really serving a rival, The leadership honestly prefers to leave everything to the ministers

The new generation is being held back by ossified existing members, They have magnificent plans that will fail spectacularly, They didn’t want the jobs but were forced into them by circumstances

Documentation proving ministerial malfeasance, Malversated court resources, Blackmail evidence on the court leadership

Lost treasure or resources the old guard hid, Ceremonial regalia that imbues legitimacy, Secret plans or archives that the former ruler hid

Abandoned official audience chamber, Private residence of the ministerial kingmaker, Clerkly offices bustling with petitioners

Newly-remodeled court residence, Audience hall adorned with freshly-changed arms, Ministerial office full of confused and harried clerks

Colorless senior bureaucrat, Scheming butler, Spymaster or intelligence chief turned kingmaker

New Opportunity

Outside Debts

Some special new opportunity has been presented to the court, one that offers a great deal of personal wealth or glory. Only some of the court can take advantage of it, however, and it can be easily spoiled by dissent from within; they argue now over who is to be allowed to exploit the opportunity. New unexplored lands, royal monopoly patents, the hand of a very eligible spouse, or some other limited windfall awaits the winner.

The court owes something awful to a pitiless outside power, whether a rival court, an enemy of their homeland, a vile sorcerer, a merciless banker, or a grasping lord. The consequences of failing to repay the debt would be catastrophic, but the court can’t afford to do so without some members of them being ruined by the price, whether in coin, criminal conviction, disgrace, or eternal damnation.

Bitter enemy who had the opportunity taken from them and given to the court, Jealous internal spoiler who plots to ruin it, Leader who greedily seeks to keep all of it to themselves Talented but ill-supported candidate, Outsider who wants the opportunity handled fairly, Disenfranchised true discoverer of the opportunity It’s a trap and will ruin those who embrace it, The ease of any one spoiler ruining it has paralyzed deliberations, The opportunity has its own ideas about who should exploit it Key to unlocking the opportunity, Rich treasure safeguarded by the opportunity, Token that will allow the holder to exploit the opportunity Site where the new chance is brightest, Camp or building for preparations, Site of a failed effort

Ruler who means to shift the debt to another, Savage enforcer of the debt, Culprit who brought the debt on them with their ambitions

Innocent being forced to pay the price, Suspicious investigator looking into the debt, Past victim of the creditor’s cruel ways

Revealing the debt’s existence would ruin the court, The creditor completely deserves to be paid, An old rival has bought the debt and now holds it

Riches needed to pay off the debt, Proof that the contract was invalid, The document or token that is needed to enforce the debt

Lair of the creditor, Court holding being sold or given away to help satisfy the debt, Great court ceremony made insultingly meager to save money

•223 Overextended Grasp

Poisonous Cliques

The court has seized control of land, offices, noble roles, businesses, or some other valuable holding, but they do not hold it securely. Rival forces are pressing on them and they have exhausted their resources in simply gaining the prize, and have nothing left with which to keep it in the face of resistance. The rivals may simply be fighting to determine which of them is to overthrow the overextended court’s grip.

The court is riven by at least two viciously hostile cliques, both of which are determined to ruin or kill the other. Nonaligned members of the court are forced to submit to one or the other lest they be enemies to both and all normal business of the court is paralyzed by their incessant quarreling. This hostility may be open and overt, or it may be veiled behind venomous courtesies and cruelly heartless protocols.

Foolishly ambitious ruler, Schemer who has profited by the reach even if it fails, Desperate leader who is abusing the prize to help keep it

Outside rival who provoked the clique formation, Traitor seeking mutual destruction, Brutal clique leader who will do anything for victory

Former holder of the prize trying to regain it, Earnest new owner in far over their head, Loyal retainer struggling with insufficient resources

Unaligned member trying to stay alive, Outside ally distressed by the infighting, Weak leader unable to rein in the hostilities

The prize is a poisoned fruit that will destroy them if they don’t let it go, They gambled on support that has been somehow delayed or denied, They mean to destroy the prize rather than lose it

One clique is sympathetic but just as determined to attain total victory as the other, The cliques are destroying the very prize they fight over, A secret internal faction waits to pick up the pieces

Riches meant for the owner of the prize, Device or document that will destroy the prize’s value, Treasure the rivals mean to use to seize the prize

Seat of the prize’s authority, Court holding that’s understaffed and under-resourced, Marginal prize holding that’s already been lost

Treasure the cliques are fighting over, Tool or artifact meant to break the stalemate, Documents showing a traitor within one one clique’s leadership

Well-separated court residences for the cliques, Holding ruined by their infighting, Destroyed former residence of a loser of the fighting

POISONEDILLO width: 6.34 height: 4.75

224• Priestly Influence

Proxy Speaker

The court’s leadership is in the thrall of a particular religion or holy figure, and their wishes are given an undue weight. This influence may be a matter of perfectly sincere faith, or the religion might have some special grip on the court due to blackmail, services rendered, or special need. Such influence often brings the hostility of rival faiths until a more equitable arrangement is made.

The court’s leader communicates only through a particular proxy, be it a chief minister, spouse, heir, concubine, confessor, or other figure of importance. The leader may be too sick or enfeebled to lead or the proxy may have systematically cut all their other lines of control. The other members of the court may vie for influence over the proxy, perhaps while ignoring their ostensible real ruler.

Rasputin-esque holy figure, Zealously pious ruler, Spider-minded court chaplain with strings on everyone

Grasping favorite odalisque, Impatient heirproxy, Scheming regent-minister

Court member who favors a different god, Castoff former house priest, Client abandoned so that resources could go to the faith

Worried child of the leader, Cast-off former advisor, Persecuted enemy of the proxy

The proxy is actually the cause of the leader’s incapacitation, The proxy is a much better leader than the real one, The proxy is really working for a rival or enemy power

Cure for the leader’s incapacitation, Proof of the proxy’s unsuitability, Wealth subverted by the proxy

Abandoned throne room, Sick chamber of incapacitated leader, Proxy’s office teeming with petitioners

The faith is giving major help to the court, The sect the court follows is considered heretical by the main faith, The faith’s opponents in the court are being backed by a hostile outside group Sacred relic of the faith, Costly tithe sum to be offered to the faith, Symbol of authority over the court’s religious practice Grand newly-built chapel, Abandoned chapel of a former faith, Ritual site for a new ceremony

Rampant Corruption

Recent Brutality

The court is so corrupt that it’s crippling its ability to function. Even the most mundane exercises of authority require that the right people be bribed or induced, and its members have little or no interest in the overall good of the group. The leadership is hanging together only because the court is profitable and they will defend it only insofar as it remains so.

Violence is an unfortunate commonplace in many courts, but something happened here recently that was beyond all usual bounds of polite assassination or genteel political execution. Some vast massacre of a whole family line, a berserk slaughter of an unlucky gathering, a humiliating and unthinkable execution of some grandee, or some other dramatic brutality has put everyone on edge and made many start thinking of some previously unthinkable courses of action.

Hopelessly venal ruler, Greedy kingmaker behind the scenes, Colorless head bureaucrat with sticky palms

Ruler with out-of-control bloodthirst, Spree-killing spymaster, Brutal court member with no one daring to check them

Heir to a recent victim, Helpless enforcer of the usual norms, Survivor of a recent massacre

Great hoard of extracted pelf, Inescapable proof of a leader’s wrongdoing, Misdirected bribe payment

The victims arguably deserved it, The source of the violence is being secretly controlled by a member, Everyone else is about to embrace the new norms of violence if it’s not punished soon

Grimy back room where deals are made, Court salon made a market for favors, Court structure clearly starved of its supposed funds

Device used to enable the killing, Treasure left behind by one of the slain, List of who is to die next

Haunted site of the killing, Secret memorial to the slain, Unbearably tense court ceremony

Member with an earnest loyalty to principle, Court member cast out for not playing along, Victim of some bribed crime the court committed The court’s members actually desperately need the money, All the graft is going to only a few strong hands, Their enemies have multiple traitors on their payrolls

•225 Regency Council

Restive Lessers

A council of powerful regents runs the court due to the youth, incapacity, or sickness of the legitimate ruler. Some of these regents may actually have the ruler’s interests in mind, but others are exploiting the court’s resources for their own benefit, taking it as no more than their just due for their services. Some may be making a point of ensuring that the regency is a permanent state of affairs.

The court’s servants and lesser officials are angry with the leadership. Old privileges may have been revoked, traditional rights and fees may have been curtailed, or particular sacrifices or dire perils may have been demanded of them. The court is confident that their lessers can do nothing but obey, but the minions are very close to a dramatic response. E

Ruler who cares nothing for their displeasure, Arrogant chief minister, Outside rival backing disunity in the court

Loyal servant of the true ruler, Well-meaning member of the council, Deposed former regent who was too loyal

Aggrieved lesser official, Worried grandee who sees trouble coming, Client who needs the court’s unimpaired assistance

The regents are keeping a totally disastrous ruler from taking power, The strength of the regents is direly needed right now, One or more regents is in a rival power’s pay

Proof of the council’s treachery, Remedy for the ruler’s incapacitation, Resources necessary to make a loyalist strong enough to take control

Traditional but corrupt perquisites were reformed and the minions were deprived of them, A much loved official or leader was killed or deposed, Other courts’ minions are getting perks or benefits that this court can’t afford to give

Council chamber crowded with servants, Private villa for secret dealings, Ceremonial throne room where the ruler is ignored

Subverted wealth traditionally due to the minions, Document proving old rights, Treasure taken from a leader of the minions

Quietly furious servant’s quarters, Ominously deserted hall, Far-too-crowded plaza where the minions gather

Abusive prime minister, Selfish parent- or relativeregent, Self-absorbed great noble guardian

Rival Dreams

Rival Power

The court has big dreams; unfortunately, they’re contradictory. Two or more major factions each have a grand plan for the court’s future success, but these plans are incompatible, and the factions are struggling to determine which of them the court will follow. The leader is either incapable of breaking the deadlock or else they support one of the plans but lack sufficient allies to impose it on the unbelievers.

The official hierarchy of the court is being challenged by a second power source within the organization, one strong enough to stymie its official lord. This may be a faction formed by a powerful lord, a charismatic religious faction, an intrusive consul of a superior power, or an impatient heir with too many friends. Neither power source can act freely while the other exists, but destroying the rival may bring down the court in the process.

Charismatic but wildly impractical dreamerlord, Selfish purveyor of a plan that will chiefly aid them, Stubborn ruler who will brook no compromise with their dream

Unofficial pretender to the rulership, Secretive kingmaker, Incompetent leader with strong help

Court member trying to make peace, Victim of the rival factions’ infighting, Disillusioned former backer of a faction

The rival power has a very good but also very self-interested reason to seek control, The rival power has all the most competent people, The legitimate lord will bring down the court with him if he’s overthrown

Genius with poor social skills, Inheritor of a familial dream, Would-be peacemaker between the factions

Both dreams are likely to damage the court, They agree on the goal but have contradictory ways of getting there, The dreams are irrelevant and only an excuse to eliminate a rival faction

Vital resources to achieve a plan, Critical device needed for a plan, Proof that a plan is hopeless

Tokens of legitimate authority, Blackmail sufficient to ruin a faction, Resources suborned by a faction

Salon or base where a faction schemes, Field where a partially-complete plan is being furthered, Half-completed monument to glory

Unofficial throne room of the rival faction, Court offices split into different groups, Unnaturally well-fortified country estate of a faction

226• Ruling Regalia

Runaway Rule

The court’s rulership rests on one or more ancient, powerful relics. Quite aside from any practical use they may have, they symbolize the leader’s right of rule, and any loss of them will throw the court into chaos. It’s not unknown for the court’s leadership to be suddenly changed when a new rival manages to seize them, whether by guile or brute force.

Out of overwork, sloth, or carelessness, the court has devolved much of its authority on some subsidiary group or power, leaving it to do the dirty work of a critical function. That group has seized control of that authority, however, and now bids fair to claim leadership of the court itself using its newfound leverage.

Master thief in the employ of a rival, Strong-arm court member plotting their chance, Outside figure who just wants the relics’ power

Ambitious leader of the lesser group, Indolent and careless ruler, Greedy minister profiting by the devolution

Traditional guardian of the relics, Ruler too weak to reliably safeguard them, Would-be thief trying to get them from an unworthy ruler

Client suffering due to the subsidiary’s actions, Minister robbed of effective power by the group, People being oppressed by the group’s excesses

The relics were lost some time ago and are currently forgeries, The power of the relics is objectively necessary for the ruler to function, A bearer will die if the relics are removed for too long

The group has considerable outside backing, The group really is doing something critical to the court’s function, The court is now actually incapable of handling the group’s duties

Device that will destroy or nullify a relic, Perfect forgery of a relic, Another relic perfectly identical in all ways

Wealth obtained by the group’s actions, Treasure given to the group originally to induce them, Powerful relic obtained by the group as a tool

Tightly-guarded repository for the relics, Ceremonial procession showing the relics, Court structure or edifice powered by the relics

Structure dedicated to the group’s devolved duty, Country estate of the group’s leader, Abandoned structure of the court that once handled it

Shining Successor

Splendid Seat

The impending heir to the court is a remarkable figure, gifted with tremendous aptitudes or personal capability. Everyone is convinced they will lead the court to new heights of glory, though existing powers may prefer that glory be postponed indefinitely rather than give up their current posts.

This court operates from a seat of power far beyond the splendor of their peers. It may be some ancient Working full of magical powers and benefits, or an ancestral fortress famed in song and legend, or a complex built around some source of precious material or extracted good. Much of the authority of the court might derive from their control of this seat.

Bitter mother of a rival heir, Ruler who refuses to admit their capability, Vengeful former heir who was put aside Worried mentor of the successor, Ruler who fears for their successor’s safety, Loyal minion of the successor The successor is a genius but has truly horrible traits as well, The successor is being backed by a rival who thinks to use them, The successor’s talents are vast but are precisely the wrong skills for the situation they will face

Ruler who is relying too heavily on the seat’s benefits, Saboteur seeking to destroy the seat, Hostile entity bound or associated to the seat

Caretaker of the seat’s benefits, Court member fascinated with the seat’s history and nature, Servant of a line with ancestral ties to the place

The seat exacts a cost from those who dwell there, The seat’s real power is misunderstood by all save the ruler’s inner circle, The seat is somehow a prison as well as a throne

Regalia due to the rightful heir, A marvelous work produced by the successor, Proof that the successor has no legitimate claim on rulership

Key to unlocking the seat’s secret powers, Precious relic of a former age, Wealth obtained through the seat’s qualities

Salon where the successor shines brilliantly, Site of a grand triumph by the successor, Throne room where the successor gets more attention than the ruler

Strange chamber of some long-lost purpose, Hidden room deep within the structure, Grand and magnificent structure embodying the site

•227 Sublime Skill

Sudden Strength

The court is tremendously good at a particular role or function that their society finds important. Magnificent soldiers, legendary artists, famed diplomats, pious official-priests, or some other quality of note defines them. This skill may be the product of a venerable tradition of instruction, however harsh it may be, or it could be the result of a magical bloodline or inhuman admixture.

A grand stroke of luck, a brilliant plan, or a feat of sublime diplomacy have resulted in a great influx of wealth, influence, or support from outside the court. The group now has access to a newfound strength that may be fleeting, and not all members may have equal access to the benefits. The existing structure of authority is unlikely to be well-equipped to exert this new influence in delicate or well-considered ways.

Ruler who takes the trait much too far in a bad direction, Renegade who uses the skill against the court, Outside power trying to manipulate the skill for their own benefits

Power-drunk ruler pushing things to excess, Desperate rival trying to sabotage the court before it’s too late, Outside patron using this new strength as a lever to control the court

Unworldly but extremely talented court member, Outsider curious about the nature of the skill, Friendly rival seeking to test their skill

Official struggling to cope with the new situation, Old court friend now seeking help, Victim of a poorly-considered exercise of the strength

The skill comes at some compensating cost, The court is fairly useless for anything but that skill, The court is abusing its skill for its own benefit

Relic or item that can confer the skill, Wealth obtained through the skill’s exercise, Magnificent trophy of some prior legendary feat of skill

The new strength is causing damage each time it’s deployed, Their backers are just letting the court overextend itself before pulling the aid, The court’s agents are taking personal advantage

Monument to prior exercise of the skill, Training hall where the skill is honed, Memorial hall full of tokens of past glory

Money obtained by the good fortune, Potent relic that’s part of the new strength, Secret evidence of the real purpose of the help being given

Crushed rival’s estate, Gaudily-upgraded court holding, Confused site of sudden activity

Threatened Violence

Waning Wealth

The shadow of impending death hangs over the court. The ruler may be ordering capricious executions, assassins may be active, a particularly bloody custom may be in full effect, or the court’s superiors may be hunting for traitors. The court members are on edge and willing to do desperate things in order to avoid death or direct the killing toward their enemies.

The court is heading towards poverty, and its members know it. The source of their wealth is under attack, either by a rival, a greedy superior, an outside enemy, or sheer misfortune. If things continue as they are the court will be unable to maintain its place, and its members are contemplating desperate measures to shore up existing holdings or acquire new ones.

Paranoid ruler seeing knives in every shadow, Master assassin with a grudge, Renegade who’s returned to take vengeance

Survivor of a murdered member, Worried bodyguard looking for help, Frightened member convinced they’re next

Ruler who’s making unreasonable demands for member sacrifices, Sinister creditor who demands repayment, Monstrous foe who’s ruining their holdings

Harried chancellor looking for money, Client left destitute by lack of support, Former manager of a now-ruined holding

They’re cutting secret deals with enemies of their land, Unpopular members are being beggared to support the others, Their clients are being squeezed dry just to keep the court solvent

Long-lost treasure the court is hunting, Deed to some profitable holding, Device that will revitalize or repair a ruined property

Threadbare throne room, Meager noble dining hall, Abandoned once-profitable holding

The violence is being blamed on the wrong source, People are using the killings to settle private scores, The victims were all part of a secret scheme Poison suitable for eliminating anyone, List of those next to die, Document with information that will stop the killings Gory scene of death, Unbearably tense court function, Trial full of panicked participants

228•

Ruins There’s hardly an adventurer alive who doesn’t like to explore an ancient ruin, so it’s inevitable that you’re going to be producing your fair share of crumbled keeps, stygian tunnels, and sinister lost cities. The adventure creation tables that start on page XX can help you flesh out the details of these adventure sites, but you need to have a general framework in place before you can use them effectively. The tables in this section are useful in situating the ruin within the context of your own campaign world. Every tumbled-down heap of stones came from somewhere, and it originally served a purpose more exalted than being looted by lawless sellswords. The one-roll table opposite allows you to create this context for an average fantasy-world ruin. The results are generally applicable to most settings and can be flavored or tweaked to suit your own campaign’s particulars. The following pages include specific tables for six major prior periods of history in the Gyre, whether local kingdoms like the Rule of Shun or region-spanning hegemons like the Vothite Empire. While the details provided in these tables are specific to the Gyre campaign setting, you can just as easily loot their themes for your own world and use them as the models for ancient civilizations in your own setting.

The key to building interesting ruins is context. A random magic hole in the ground with assorted monstrous creatures in it is difficult to justify in most campaign worlds. Even if there is some conceit that makes it a normal sort of event, the sheer untethered randomness of it makes it very difficult for a GM to flesh it out in an interesting, engaging fashion. Of course, very few GMs have the time or energy to brew up a half-dozen ancient civilizations that are relevant to their current campaign only in their architectural leavings. Fortunately, you don’t have to. All you need to establish is what the structure was originally meant for, how it ended up ruined, and who if anyone is using it now. The name and particulars of the original creators don’t need to be established if it’s not convenient; just knowing that it was a border garrison is enough to tell you how you should design its architecture. Knowing that it was overrun by barbarians tells you what kind of damage it should have suffered and what sort of detritus and leavings might be left from that age. Knowing that it’s currently a shrine to an obscene faith tells you what kind of inhabitants the PCs are going to meet if they go there and what more modern decorations might exist. Any further details can be conjured as necessary. All you really need is a basic, functional context.

•229

One-Roll Ruin Generation These tables can be used for general fantasy settings, as they include nothing specific to the Latter Earth. If you need a ruin and aren’t entirely sure how to characterize it, a single throw of six dice will give you a basic outline to develop. To this basic framework you can add a pair of Ruin tags and tweak the rolls to mesh accordingly. Some results might not make sense for your intended use for the ruin. You could pick different options in that case, or spend a little time thinking about how the roll might be the actual truth and thus conjure up a suitable explanation. Fully detailing the interior of the ruin and the kind of combat or exploratory challenges that could be found within is detailed elsewhere, with the tools on page XX.

How Old is the Ruin?

Very fresh; ruined within living memory

Generations old at the least

Part of a known prior nation or polity

Belonging to the unfathomable past

d12

What Basic Kind of Ruin Is It?

A city or other major settlement

Temple, monastery, or pilgrimage site

A vast ancient civil infrastructure center

Artistic monument or aesthetic structure

Grand private residence or manor

What Do The Locals Think Of It?

Fortress or great stronghold

It’s traditionally taboo ground to them

Mine or tunnel system

It plays a role in some important ritual

Wizard’s tower or occult stronghold

It and its perils are hated and feared

Border outpost, watchtower, or garrison

It’s considered someone’s private property

Village or small rural community

It’s a lure to the greedy and reckless

Nonhuman settlement or edifice

They totally misunderstand what it really is

Tomb, necropolis, ossuary, or graveyard

How Did It Become Ruined?

d20

It was invaded and destroyed by its enemies

Rebels against the local ruler

Strife from within tore it apart

Bandits or other criminal outcasts

Some natural calamity despoiled it

Fanatical religious zealots

A Working’s failure or magical disaster struck

A failed pretender to the local rulership

It was abandoned when it became useless

Refugees and survivors from a calamity

A plague or curse made it uninhabitable

A wizard of dubious habits or goals

Some dire monster or great foe smashed it

A black market trader to bandits or worse

Its inhabitants died out or simply left it

Overly optimistic settlers trying to reclaim it

A hapless garrison of local troops

d10

Why Hasn’t It Been Plundered Bare Yet?

The environment around it is very dangerous

It’s cursed, plagued, or has some miasma

Who’s Used The Ruin Before?

Monstrous entities lying in wait

Savage beasts of a dangerous kind

Adventurers trying to make it a base

The locals kill or drive off looters

Social outcasts looking for a haven

The true entrance to it is unknown

Demihumans trying to avoid human places

It’s physically very difficult to access

Smugglers seeking a good stash spot

It’s believed inhabited by fearsome things

Nominal owners trying to lay claim to it

Everyone thinks it’s already been looted

Heirs or survivors of the original inhabitants

It’s confused with a nearby site that is looted

An invading warband based here for a while

It’s claimed by a powerful local authority

Intelligent monsters suited to the environment

The prizes it offers aren’t conventional riches

Restless undead and embittered shades

230•

Ruins of Ancient Deeps Deeps vary enormously in size, from the innumerable small refuges that once sheltered human escapees and isolated esoteric experiments to vast delvings that sheltered a million humans or more. Most are far smaller than that, however, either due to being built for smaller, temporary populations of laborers or slaves or because their greater portions have collapsed with age or been cut off by destruction or decay. The sophistication of a Deep varied with its creators. Those cut out by renegade humans in need of a shelter from Outsider patrols tend to be primitive holes gouged into the earth, while Outsider-fashioned Deeps are of smoothly-worked stone, imperishable structural materials, and the occasional remnants of sophisticated arcane control devices. Even so, many have been considerably altered over the ages by newer tenants.

Major Types of Deeps

A punishment Deep to torment its inmates with miserable conditions and terrifying foes

A false-world Deep meant to bubble its prisoners in a sealed custom world

A labor Deep to produce something precious to its Outsider masters

A war Deep to produce slave-soldiers and military creatures for Outsider conflicts

A rebel Deep, where the natives somehow broke loose of their Outsider masters

A ritual Deep, where human thralls were used for some eldritch alien end

Characteristic Ruins

Pre-Hegemony ruin of a site wiped out by the Reaping King’s conquest

Pacification garrison once manned for the subdual of newly-conquered lands

Absentee Adunic lord’s provincial palace for the administration of now-lost lands

Fortified court-stronghold where a viceroy once gave instructions to native rulers

Well-fortified residential area for Adunic clerks and minor functionaries

Prison where rebels and criminals were set to work for Hegemonic masters

Characteristic Ruins

A small hatching-burrow for storing torpid hosts that haven’t been taken to a larger hive

A great shattered mother-hive of hexagonal structures, destroyed by the Sorcerer-Kings

A looming observation outpost for monitoring humanity in ancient days

A debate-palace meant for vast gatherings to dispute some alien philosophical point

A sealed relaxation dome filled with the noxious life and air enjoyed by the Jikegida

Parasitism outpost, once attached to a human Deep to harvest suitable hosts

Ruins of the Brass Hegemony Hegemonic ruins favor square, powerful shapes and a heavy stone construction facilitated by the might of the Black Brass Legion and vast corvee labor drafts. Right angles and squared, even interior spaces are characteristic of their architecture. Some Hegemonic ruins were abandoned long before the present troubles, being remnants of the centuries past when the Reaping King was still forcing his way south from the coast. These forsaken places were usually stripped of their initial furnishings, but the rebels, monsters, and criminals who’ve made homes in them since have often left their own belongings behind. More recent Hegemonic ruins are usually the leavings of now-powerless Adunic nobles or Hegemonic clerks and support staff that have long since departed.

Ruins of the Jikegida Ancient Jikegida did most of their construction with powerful exoskeletons fashioned of suborned alien life. These construction shells enabled the building of vast hexagonal structures in which millions of Jikegida conducted their alien debates and infested their wretched prey with new spawn. Jikegida rooms are preferentially hexagonal, with hexagonal corridors and faceted bubble-windows. Furnishings and implements are frail and light by human standards, reflecting the weaker limbs of the average Jikegida. The acrid stench of an active Jikegida site is tremendous due to their heavy reliance on chemical communication, and some ancient ruins have this reek embedded in the very stone.

•231

Ruins of the Rule of Shun Shunnite ruins are heavily influenced by ancient Khalan architecture. Stepped stone construction and carvings of hideous suffering and monstrous beasts decorate most of the ruins, usually depicting the enemies of Shun or the “unworthy weak” suffering assorted gruesome ends at the hands of Shun’s favored and their created beasts. Shun himself is depicted only as a featureless, stylized human form. Shun’s relatively brief rule was focused around his magically-augmented “favored”, men and women made stronger, more intelligent, and more magically gifted than normal humans. Their temple-palaces served as loci of worship for their sorcerer-god, administrative centers of control, and processing points for the vast numbers of “unworthy” guilty of resisting Shun’s grand plans, the latter ending up as further feedstock for his research.

Characteristic Ruins

Healing shrine with numerous recovery cells and arcano-surgical theaters

Arena or hall of trials where those blessed by Shun competed to ascertain excellence

Prison pit where victims were “cultivated” in various ways to be better research stock

Semi-organic structure infested by the bodywarping sorceries of Shun’s followers

Residential palace full of the insane, trapped, immortal “favored” of Shun

Occult research center stocked with the monstrous detritus of Shun’s research

Characteristic Ruins

Memetic monument to a particular aesthetic ideal or abstract political concept

A thought noble’s palace, usually closely adjoined by the humble servant lodgings

Rectification center, where a thought house “educated” prisoners into joining their cause

Concept battlefield, a structure full of conflicting, magically-potent symbology

Rebel hideout, stocked with now-unstable concepts and tangible mental constructs

Detritus of a mind-bending Working, now broken but stained by shadows of the past

Characteristic Ruins

Overgrown forum ringed with administrative buildings for a vanished community

Huge Republic tenement with a maze of businesses, offices, and homes within

Republic wayhouse along a vanished road, for travelers, military forces, and merchants

Stronghold for Republic troops meant to keep provincial fighting from breaking out

Late-era Republic village or town, heavily fortified to no avail against its pillagers

Senatorial manor once built in an opulent style by a plutocratically wealthy owner

Ruins of the Vothite Empire The Vothite Empire was built around mental influence, with thought houses dedicated to particular principles waging memetic war on their rivals via sorcery and magically-charged symbolism. Losing rarely meant physical death, but instead an indoctrination into the winner’s belief system. Nobles were most vulnerable to these mental influences, and so their residences were always carefully constructed to celebrate their own house’s ideals. The actual ruins tend to have a Classical flavor, with harmonious, symmetrical construction. The chief difference is in the decoration, with slogans, once-meaningful symbols, stautary of ideological significance, and artwork dedicated to the cause all heavily adorning the structures. They almost never have anything resembling conventional fortifications, as military force was literally unthinkable.

Ruins of the Vothite Republic The Vothite Republic utterly rejected imperial principles, and large-scale monuments or symbolic structures are almost never found among their ruins; even statues and non-magical insignia of belief are uncommon. The Classical lines of imperial architecture give way to a looser, more locally-influenced construction. Often the only way to tell a ruin is Republican is due to the lack of any overt symbolic adornment. The Republic continued to use certain massive imperial structures until infrastructure decay and civil strife made them unsustainable. Huge tenements that once housed hundreds of thought house thralls were repurposed for Republic citizens, while the family seats of thought houses were taken over by fabulously wealthy senators and fortified against the newer, less stable political conditions.

232•

Ruin Tags Before a GM can use the tools on page XX to start building the individual places, foes, and treasures within a Ruin, they need to have some idea of what that Ruin is like and the overall theme of its contents. A pair of Ruin Tags from the list below can serve as the start of the process; pick or roll two, mix them together, and use the results to inform your later development. For most of the tags, the Enemies listed can serve as inspiration for major foes within the debris or overlords who’ve cowed the other inhabitants of the Ruin. The Friends are usually NPCs who would have a particular interest in the Ruin, or potentially friendly Ruin inhabitants who could act as guides, interpreters, or dungeon dragomans for the PCs. If the PCs need a hook to direct them to the Ruin or a friendly face within it to discourage them from immediate assumptions of universal bloodshed, a Friend can lead the way. Ruins are generally defined by their loss of former utility. A ruined city is no longer inhabited, a ruined fortress is no longer a point of defense, and a ruined palace

is no longer occupied by human royalty. Whatever the place was originally meant to be, it no longer serves that purpose. The Ruin Tags can help detail the earlier tables and add more specifics to its historical fall or slow, inexorable decay. Just because the Ruin is no longer used as it once was, however, it doesn’t mean that it has no use at all. The architectural castoffs of countless aeons of humanity often find use as dwellings or strongholds for non-human creatures, or sanctuaries for bandits and outcasts from more peaceful surroundings. Ancient infrastructure or mouldering fortifications can find new life in the repurposing that a band of Anak raiders or a sect of persecuted cultists can make of it. Of course, the natural hazards of the environment often do away with such interlopers, creating the potential for multiple layers of past inhabitation and use. Ancient treasures might date from more than one era, and the plunder of a lost age’s bandits might be mingled with the modern possessions of hapless now-dead refugees.

d100

Tag

d100

Tag

1–2

Ancient Archives

51–52

Invincible Delusion

3–4

Aspiring Conqueror

53–54

Lethal Treasure

5–6

Automaton Servants

55–56

Limited Access

7–8

Birthing Cyst

57–58

Lingering Curse

9–10

Bitter Remnants

59–60

Living Dungeon

11–12

Civil War

61–62

Lost Colony

13–14

Cyclical Doom

63–64

Magical Wonder

15–16

Decrepit Structure

65–66

Monster Forge

17–18

Desperate Hunger

67–68

Outsider Domain

19–20

Dire Tombs

69–70

Precious Resource

21–22

Distant Gate

71–72

Raider Lair

23–24

Dungeon Heart

73–74

Recruiting Drive

25–26

Experimental Lab

75–76

Religious Zealots

27–28

Failed Intrusion

77–78

Rigid Hierarchy

29–30

Fallen Sanctuary

79–80

Royal Refuge

31–32

False Front

81–82

Sacrificial Bargain

33–34

Feral Magic

83–84

Sealed Evil

35–36

Flooded Halls

85–86

Secret Alliance

37–38

Freshly Looted

87–88

Shifting Interior

39–40

Friendly Foes

89–90

Spatial Flux

41–42

Hidden Within

91–92

Surfacer Hideout

43–44

Hiveminded Natives

93–94

Taboo Place

45–46

Hospitable Natives

95–96

Things Below

47–48

Hostile Environment

97–98

Useless Treasure

49–50

Infectious Miasma

99–00

Wizard's Lair

•233 Ancient Archives

Aspiring Conqueror

The site once housed archives or information that would be very interesting to certain modern powers. The utility or value of this information should be obvious to the players, even if they’re initially unaware of its existence. Known archival sites might have sealed their lore behind some fearsome guardian or a “puzzle” consisting of access procedures that were self-evident in the age it was constructed in.

Some power within the ruin has ambitions of conquest, and plans to use the site as a base for dominating the surrounding lands. Such a warlord might be wholly reliant on the ruin’s denizens, or they could be recruiting minions from outcasts or renegades and so be willing to parley with adventurers. Not all the lieutenants of such leaders are always supportive of the plan.

Maddened archive keeper, Powerful figure who wants the information kept hidden, Secret-seeker who brooks no rivals

Inhuman warlord, Fanatical Embittered outlaw-noble

Helpful ancient archive attendant, Hired investigator, Seeker of some related lore

Hapless local village headman, Minion who reconsidered their allegiance, Former leader who was pushed aside by the new one

The information is conveyed in idioms or forms that are no longer clear, The information is very dangerous to know, The information is buried in seas of irrelevant data that need navigating

Some of the locals honestly think the conqueror would be a better ruler, The conqueror actually has a legitimate claim on the land, The conqueror is being backed by enemies of the local ruler

Index to the desired information, Key to decoding the data, Cultural work that elucidates the idioms or medium being used

Cache of military supplies, Plunder taken from their first victims, Important hostage in their keeping

Library full of not-book data storage items, Scriptorum or other scribal zone, Chamber related to the topic or field of the data involved

Ruin barracks whipped into order, Training field in use, Nearby village they’ve crushed

cult

leader,

Automaton Servants

Birthing Cyst

The ruin is still staffed by automaton servants or other immortal minions. Aside from obviously robotic servitors, magical golems, bound spirits, undead thralls, uplifted beasts, or other subject species might be found here. Such minions are usually magically bound to their roles, which may be causing them significant problems if their roles can no longer be carried out. It’s possible that some of them have reinterpreted their roles into something they can do, whether or not it’s something they should do.

A horrible thing is growing in the ruin and will eventually erupt into some catastrophic peril or awful creature. The ruin may have been originally designed to facilitate this thing’s creation, or it could have been infested or perverted by some outside power. Outsiders may not realize the nature of the peril, or even mistake its growth for some positive process. The growth could be the product of ancient science, a magical ritual, or a conflux of geomantic forces.

Cruel immortal artificer, Automaton leader gone mad, Outsider seeking to suborn them to their sinister service

God-beast to be born for a long-dead faith, Obsessed ancient keeper, Outsider determined to provoke the catastrophe for their own ends

Helpful automaton minion, Fascinated outside investigator, Local native who fears the minions

Worried local observer, Last surviving keeper of the ruin, Survivor of an early eruption of it

Scrapped automatons are worth a great deal, The automatons are needed to maintain the ruin’s basic physical stability, The automatons have merged with or been altered by some outside power

The thing’s growth provides some profitable byproduct, People are completely mistaken about what’s growing down there, People think it’s already hatched and was dispatched

Item needed to harm or kill the thing, Key to halt or abort the process, Precious offerings made to the unborn disaster by fearful observers

Arcane lab where it’s growing, Fortified chambers to guard it, Shrine depicting its eventual glory

Command key for the automatons, Cache of valuable spare parts, Item they desperately need in order to fulfill their function Automaton maintenance area, Bank of unmoving figures, Place of endless automaton toil

234• Bitter Remnants

Civil War

The ruin is not entirely abandoned, as a remnant of its former creators still occupies the place. These survivors are almost certainly hostile toward the outside world and the intruders who have sought to take the place or loot it for uncounted ages. They may or may not have a full understanding of their ancestors’ purpose in the ruin, but they likely use any secrets they do know to best effect against invaders.

There are at least two organized factions within the ruin that are at war with each other. They all have motives that make simply leaving the place an unappealing prospect, and some of them might be eager to enlist outside help in ousting their rivals. Given the low population of most ruins, the war is likely a restricted one of raids, ambushes, and murders of convenience, and the traps and snares they set might catch more than their foes.

Xenophobic remnant chief, Outside ruler determined to exterminate them, Powerful ruin rival that seeks their destruction Open-minded remnant member, Eager scholar seeking their secrets, Escapee from the terrible cruelties of the remnants The remnant society is genuinely and completely horrible, The remnants no longer or never did think like humans do, Certain outcasts have trade ties with the remnants Precious ancient relic they preserved, Loot taken from dead invaders, Secret history of the ruin full of useful information Ancient but meticulously-kept chamber, Ancestral place of rites unique to them, Maintained monument to past glory

Faction leader with dreams of conquest, Crazed warlord, Treacherous plotter who betrays their hired help

Faction leader with benevolent aims, Innocent local caught in the crossfire, Would-be peacemaker

They both want the same thing but in different ways, Both sides will unite swiftly against invaders, Neither side wants anything that outsiders are going to like much

The macguffin they’re fighting over, Weapon to destroy their rivals, Wealth to bribe other helpers

Site of a vicious ambush, Defaced monument or symbol of a rival faction, Dangerous no-man’s land zone within the ruin

Cyclical Doom

Decrepit Structure

There’s a phenomenon to the ruin that makes it tremendously dangerous at certain intervals. Fluxes of ancient radiation, swarms of quick-breeding dangerous vermin, withering geomantic conjunctions, or cyclically-awakened preserved inhabitants might make the place exceedingly deadly for intruders there at that time. The natives may or may not know about the cycle, and if it’s a very long one, they might not have been around to see it happen.

The ruin is falling apart, and is actively dangerous to its inhabitants. Navigating between areas may require careful progress, extensive rope and piton work, or avoidance of certain obvious-but-hazardous routes. Native inhabitants may have adapted to the hazards or they might be newcomers who are learning the hard way. Some areas in the ruin might provoke a general collapse if they are significantly damaged.

Outsider determined to trigger the cycle, Native leader who wants to weaponize it, Outside researcher with no care for the consequences

Native aware of the impending disaster, Researcher trying to stop the cycle, Survivor of the last cycle

The cycle leaves behind a valuable byproduct, The cycle only threatens certain occupants, Outsiders have totally misinterpreted the cycle’s meaning or events Key to trigger or halt the cycle, Device to protect users from the cycle, Object for controlling and directing the cycle Place scarred by a past cycle’s effects, Control or observation center, Monument obscurely referencing the cycle

Outside plunderer with no care for the consequences, Outsider actively trying to destroy the place, Berserk native trying to repair things

Refugee forced to live there, Native dweller seeking help to fix things, Architectural researcher

Valuable materials can be looted by those indifferent to the increasing instability, The collapse would reveal or unleash a terrible thing, Many places in it can only be visited once

Resources that can repair the damage, Precious loot that will destabilize the place if taken, Treasure revealed by a structural collapse

Creaking bridge or gantry, Room with numerous holes in the floor, Tower leaning at a drunken angle

•235 Desperate Hunger Natives of the ruin just can’t get enough to eat, and their situation or the surrounding area makes it impractical to move somewhere else. Beasts may be extremely aggressive due to hunger, and intelligent natives might fight more for food than gold or glory. Many of the more savage types may have fallen back on cannibalism or hunting other sapients for food.

Dire Tombs The ruin is characterized by a great many tombs or burial sites and a matching profusion of undead. The revenants may be mindless husks animated by dark magic or ambient power, or they could be intentionally created to act as guards or to continue “living” according to some long-lost death-god’s teachings.

Obese cannibal chieftain, Native leader who’ll do anything to feed their people, Sorcerer who gives dark nourishment to their servitors

Undead lord jealous of their solitude, Ravening undead hulk-thing, Necromancer eager for the raw materials

Starved urchin-native, Anxious group leader wanting to cut a deal, Innovator trying to open up a new food source

Descendant of the dead trying to keep them safe, Fascinated historical researcher, Undead-hunter trying to contain them

The overpopulation is being resolved by murder, The food-gathering areas were recently blocked off by something, Foodstuffs become toxic or inedible rapidly in the ruin

The undead are not all of the same motives, The locals revere and venerate them as ancestors, The undead are just symptoms of something worse entombed there

Cache of preserved food, Key to open new hunting areas, Great treasure that’s viewed as trifling compared to the worth of food

Burial goods left behind, Plunder taken from unfortunate adventurers, Once-commonplace good that’s now extremely valuable

Pit of cracked and gnawed bones, Cages of meals-to-be, Viciously desperate feeding area for a group

Halls of silent coffin-niches or urns, Chapel to a god related to the burial process, Splendid tomb to a dead hero or ruler

Distant Gate

Dungeon Heart

The ruin is connected to some interesting distant location, either through a magical gate, a portal of ancient technology, forgotten tube-cars inunderground tunnels, or a more mundane hidden passage into an otherwise inaccessible place. The natives may know about and exploit this quality, or the gate may be sealed until some particular procedure or object is used to activate it.

The ruin’s physical integrity is bound with a particular creature or object within the site, and if it is destroyed or removed the place will collapse. If the destruction is immediate, this danger should be clearly conveyed to the players unless the GM wants to risk a rapid campaign end. This relationship may be derived from an ancient magical curse, a sympathetic unity of magical power, or ancient self-destruct security mechanisms.

Guardian of the gate, Hostile entity from the other side, Intruder determined to unlock the gate

Hapless intruder from the other side, Native gate-guide, Explorer seeking a route to the gate’s destination

The gate was sealed for a very good reason, The gate is one-way, Activating the gate risks destroying the ruin

Key to activate the gate, Codes to control its destination, Treasure from the far side of it

Mysterious transit-chamber with symbolism related to the destination, Room with objects or remains related to the destination, Dangerously energetic gate room

Outsider determined to kill or steal the heart, A heart-creature that would be very convenient or satisfying to kill, Native holding the heart hostage to force obedience

Guardian of the heart, Native eager to warn outsiders of the truth, Explorer with dire suspicions

The “destruction” is metaphorical or societal in nature, Only a specific part of the ruin will be destroyed, No one involved realizes that it will cause a somewhat slow-motion destruction

Device that will undo the link, The precious object that is the heart, Relic to control the linked things

Chamber where the heart’s connection is visible, Place that shifts in sympathy to the heart, Damaged room reflecting damage to the heart

236• Experimental Lab

Failed Intrusion

A sorcerer or ancient artificer once used this place for their experiments, most of which were the sort that would never be tolerated in civilization. They may have been sponsored by some amoral power, or been independent theurges seeking the special resources, environment, or natives of this place to assist in their studies.

The ruin recently experienced a serious incursion of outsiders, whether adventurers, bandits, government forces, angry villagers, or other hostiles. These intruders were repulsed, perhaps with significant loss of native life, and the ruin was considerably disrupted by the fighting. Important native leaders might have been killed or wounded, treasures might have been looted, or slaves and hostages might’ve been taken.

E F

Still-surviving researcher, Hideous creation of the arcanist, Outsider bent on seizing all its dark lore

Desperate intruder leader still in the ruin, Bloodthirsty native leader craving vengeance, Dead leader’s heir full of terrible ideas

Sympathetic intruder or native survivor, Escaped slave, Vengeful relative of the dead

Valuable research byproduct, Treasure once owned by a research victim, Potent magical lore related to the lab’s focus

The intruders are too desperate to have entirely given up, The two sides basically ruined each other, Outsiders have entered to take advantage of the chaos

Testing chamber for the lab’s research, Occult and sinister laboratory, Pens for holding research stock

Useful relic lost by the intruding forces, Stolen treasure of the natives, Tribal treasure now inaccessible due to the chief’s death

Site of a hideous battle, Larder where the dead intruders are being kept, Local beast lair full of dragged corpses

Sympathetic creation of the sorcerer, Witchhunter bent on destroying the secrets, Local plagued by the lab’s emanations or castoffs The lab is still in use, The lab’s patrons don’t realize what’s really going on there, The lab’s creations have gone out of control

Fallen Sanctuary

False Front

The ruin was a place of security within recent memory, until some event or invasion turned it into its present state. Some of the surrounding locals might have been associated with the site during its heyday and remember interesting facts about it. Others may still nurse dreams of returning it to its former glory once its current inhabitants are slain or driven away.

The site actually seems to be a completely different type of place than it really is. You might generate a second basic function for the site and bill it as its true purpose, or conceal it as a currently-functioning structure of some kind. Either it was built this way originally or more recent owners have concealed the truth about it for their own benefit. Others may not realize that the ruin they think they know is just a facade over something deeper.

Dark warlord who overthrew the place, Traitor who arranged its downfall, Terrible creature unleashed in the site’s dying throes Idealistic would-be reconstructor, Native trying to make peace with the locals, Aged keeper of the site’s old secrets The site is fallen to the locals but a sanctuary now to a completely different group, The site is still dangerous and hostile to the interlopers, The locals desperately need to retake the site soon for some pressing reason

Secret master of the hidden ruin, Cruel schemer who established the false front, Monstrous foe still buried below the facade

Clueless entrepreneur who means to exploit the false site, Explorer with curious references to the truth, Victim of something from the truth below

The false front is a lure to bait prey, The false front is to deflect interest, The false front is meant to be useful or profitable to the true lord of the place

Treasures hidden by the former owners, The dark tool used to cast the site down, Token of rightful rule seized by the invaders

Key to reveal the entrance to the real site, Incongruous treasure from below, Valuable goods used to maintain the facade

Hidden chamber unknown to invaders, Defaced and ruined room dedicated to the site’s original role, Chamber repurposed for the invaders

Chamber that doesn’t fit with the false front, Secret passage to the depths, Place full of costumes and props

•237 Feral Magic

Flooded Halls

Some potent Working or other ancient magic has gone berserk or rotten in the ruin, tainting the occupants and making the place dangerous to inhabitants. Whatever the magic once did, it now does it too much, or in the wrong way, or at a grim cost to those within. The natives either cannot escape, or have no place better to go, or are somehow dependent on the twisted magic.

The ruin is largely flooded, perhaps with water and perhaps with some worse substance. Exploring it is difficult, and the heroes constantly risk being trapped by rising waters or flow-shifted obstacles. The natives are either creatures adapted to water or desperate enough to live where few others can pursue them. E

Fish-thing with dark hungers, Cult priest of a watery evil, Chief of a piscid humanoid species

Magically mutated abomination, Native chieftain full of tainted power, Outside sorcerer making reckless use of the magic

Luckless local boater, Hermit who’s tried to live there, Courageous treasure-diver

Researcher trying to understand or fix things, Sympathetic magic-plagued native, Outside victim of the site’s magic

The flooding is cyclical, Water flow can be controlled somehow inside the site, The water is fetid with disease

Valuable loot awaits those willing to break the magic further, The magic can be fixed if something dangerous is done, The decay is spreading outside the ruin

Pearls or other water-fashioned valuables, Extremely precious relic that would be ruined by being soaked, Device to grant water-breathing

Splendid chamber now crusted by slime or coral, Half-filled room with an air bubble, Space full of totally opaque silty water

Item to ward off the magic, Valuable sorcerous byproduct, Ancient instructions on how to fix things

Thrumming power center of the magic, Lair of magic-twisted beasts, Native shrine to the power

Freshly Looted

Friendly Foes

The site has been recently plundered, either by adventurers, organized invaders, or a specific faction within the site itself. Many creatures are either dead or driven off, and the rewards for exploration are limited. But as the site is newly-emptied, numerous outside groups or warbands are likely in the process of moving in, cleaning out the remnants of surviving inhabitants and setting up their own bases there.

A group dwells here that would normally be very hostile to humans or outsiders, yet is perfectly willing to deal with adventurers. They may be an anomalous group of their kind, or have desperate need for outside help, or have religious reasons to be cooperative. Few outsiders are likely to take their friendliness at face value, but they should be given the chance to be visibly friendly by the GM so as to clue the players in to the likelihood of peaceful dealings.

Conquering Blighted warchief, Ruthless banditadventurer who likes the place, Vengeance-mad chief of a rabble of survivors Sympathetic native driven out of the site, Frustrated adventurer denied a chance to loot, Local official charged with investigating the place

The looters missed the most important treasure, A native faction was working with the looters, A group of natives successfully hid from the looters

Treasure hidden by dead natives, Relic lost by a slain looter, Valuable thing too big and heavy to carry out readily

Empty treasure vault, Ruler’s lair plundered and defaced, Hall choked with the recent dead

Bloodthirsty adventurer who doesn’t believe them, Group leader with treacherous plans, Monstrous foe that threatens the group and outsiders both

Friendly being from the group, Local human with secret ties to them, Earnest outside missionary

They’re friendly because of a very large misundertanding they have, They really are totally sincere in their good intent, They’ve got a problem that only long-term allies can solve

Group-made product normally never available to humans, Treasure they gathered from foes, Relic they’re using as a bargaining tool

Meeting space also furnished for humans, Separate dwelling area for outsiders, Chamber for obscure group rituals or worship

238• Hidden Within The ruin is actually underneath a seemingly-ordinary structure or inhabited human settlement. Secret passages or long-forgotten portals lead down into it, and only a short space away from ordinary human life a ruin can seethe with sinister secrets. The ruin may have been built over accidentally, intentionally buried, or perhaps excavated by the current structure’s original builders. E

Thing that creeps up from below at night, Longburied evil, Reckless adventurer stirring up things beneath

Hiveminded Natives A multi-bodied intellect exists in the ruin, whether an ancient AI, hiveminded swarm, telepathic gestalt species, unified golem force, or some other manner of creature. Some such hiveminds are inclined to “recruit” intruders, willing or otherwise. Conflict with these creatures is apt to be very dangerous, as they’re capable of coordination at a level impossible to others, yet their single mind makes them more vulnerable to a single point of failure. E

Crazed ancient eidolon, Magically warped insect queen, Fungus-infected colony organism

Passage-wise urchin, Architect with too much curiosity, Hapless local sewer worker

Escapee from the hivemind, Last survivor of a recruited group, Researcher keen to study it

The structure’s inhabitants have a secret deal with the ruin dwellers, The ruin dwellers masquerade as the structure’s inhabitants, Time-delayed catastrophe will happen after the ruin’s opened

The hivemind’s doubts are embodied in conflicting factions, It can focus only on so many bodies at once, It requires a connection to issue new orders

Key to open the hidden passage below, Treasure hidden in the ruin in ages past, Ancient relic the ruin was made to contain

Device to break the hivemind’s control, Curative to free a recruit, Intricate treasure fabricated by unified hivemind effort

Passage hidden behind now-crumbling construction, Mundane room above a monstrous evil, Secret passages that have peepholes into the structure above

Living quarters with no private elements, Swarming chamber full of perfectly-synchronized motion, Fetid organic queen-lair of the ruling intellect

HIVEMIND width: 6.34 height: 4.75

•239 Hospitable Natives While not all denizens of the ruin are friendly, there’s at least one faction that’s known to be willing to host guests and negotiate for favors. This group may be made up of bandits, exiles, hermits, or other social outcasts who find even the most dubious human visitors preferable to their neighbors, or they might be “civilized” humanoids who find it profitable to parley as well as raid.

Hostile Environment Ruins are seldom comfortable, but this one is actively dangerous to those who enter it. Noxious fumes, radiation, magical miasmas, contagious diseases, poisonous liquids, or some other environmental hazard makes progress very risky. Natives are either immune to the peril or have means of negating it. The extreme defensibility of the site may be the reason they continue to lair there.

Sinister chieftain with ulterior motives, Xenophobic rebel who hates outsiders, Outsider adventurer bent on exploiting their hospitality

Sorcerer researching how to weaponize the hazard, Monstrous entity that emits the peril, Vile creature born of the toxic conditions

Wide-eyed native urchin, Outsider gone native, Outsider envoy trying to make a pact with them

Explorer equipped with survival tools, Friendly native guide, Entrepreneur trying to exploit it

They’re hospitable because they desperately need allies, They recently were betrayed by a guest, Their hospitality comes at a high price

Trade goods gathered from the ruin, Map of the ruin interior, Key to unlock a route normally accessible only to ruin natives

The hostile environment also produces a valuable resource, Surrounding locals consider it taboo because the hazard is somehow contagious, The hazard is very recent and the natives still don’t know exactly how to handle it

Protective gear against the hazard, Controls to shut off the hazard in some areas, Loot from hazard-slain intruders or natives

Mundane location caked in the hazard, Lair of a hazard-mutated beast, Perilous path that snakes through the hazard

Alien but friendly meeting-chamber, Makeshift guest lodgings, Ritual room for strange rites

Infectious Miasma

Invincible Delusion

A contagious disease has infected the natives and might plague any intruders as well. The sickness isn’t fatal, but it may induce physical or mental changes that make life in the outside world difficult; the ruin itself might be an environment optimized for the afflicted. Conversely, the ruin might be a leprosarium or place of exile for those who catch some virulent plague or socially-despised illness.

The natives of this ruin are totally convinced of something that is simply not the case: their ancient empire never fell, their god has commanded them to live a certain troublesome way, they are the only true humans left in the world, or some other delusion that’s likely to cause problems. They’ve developed rationalizations to explain obvious contradictions to their error, many of which involve hostile responses to bearers of iniquitous falsehood. There may be something about the ruin that’s enforcing this delusion.

Tyrant physician-chief who controls treatment, Ruler maddened by the illness, Plague priest determined to spread the disease Innocent native suffering from the sickness, Outsider medical missionary, Hapless chieftain trying to hold things together The ruin has been sealed off by the outside world, The plague turns the natives into living tools or slave-entities, Cures only temporarily suppress the disease’s symptoms Research needed for a lasting cure, Treasures left by a dead sufferer, Vital resources needed for the sick to survive Gathering-place full of the walking ill, Shrine to a healing god, Pits where disease-warped victims are exiled

Hypnotically charismatic leader, Crazed ancient lich-ruler, Leader who knows the truth but profits by the error

Native with suspicions, Outsider trying to convince them, Outsider whom they’ve mistakenly incorporated into their error

The delusion makes an otherwise unendurable life bearable, The delusion is true in some critical ways, The delusion is somehow infectious

Proof of the delusion’s falsehood, Precious goods piled up for a lost cause, Relic of a golden age

Ruin chamber made a pathetic mimicry of some greater place, Ritual chamber to celebrate the “truth”, Archive containing troublesome records

240• Lethal Treasure

Limited Access

The ruin has or produces a very valuable good, but that good is somehow extremely dangerous to acquire or possess. It may be toxic, or cursed, or the acquisition process may be predictably lethal. This danger may be the result of the creatures who create the good, the guardians that watch over it, or the surrounding locals who kill “smugglers” or “profaners” with zeal.

The ruin can only be accessed at certain times or with certain special keys. Any natives are cut off from the outside world for long periods, and must either have no need for sustenance or sources within the ruin. The obstacle may be magical in nature, or the only access route to the ruin may be subject to natural cycles that make it impassable at most times.

Monstrous beast that produces the good, Ancient construct guardian, Cruel tyrant who forces victims to make or acquire the good

Ruin tyrant who views all outsiders as enemies, Ruthless adventurer trying to block rivals, Mad power locked away in the ruin

Desperate young adventurer, Native goodmaker trying to avoid disaster, Victim of the good’s hazards

Eager young scholar, Adventurer with the key to the site, Native yearning to escape

Extended exposure to the good is harmful, The good is useful but somehow morally dubious in its production or nature, The good needs to be specially processed to make it safe

It’s been so long since the last opening that everyone’s forgotten about it, The access now opens in a very inconvenient place, The access can be forced by some terrible sacrifice

Large cache of unrefined good, Object to nullify or cure the good’s danger, Loot lost in an unsuccessful attempt to buy the good

Key to open the access, Controls that permanently open the site, Loot from the last expedition to enter the site

Hellish processing or production area, Tightlyguarded vault of the good, Area made toxic by the good’s effects

Passage that opens on a time lock, Vast magical seal, Coastal portal revealed only during a particular low tide period

Lingering Curse

Living Dungeon

The ruin is cursed, and everything in it is somehow tainted or troubled by the malediction. There must be a strong reason for the natives to remain, or else the curse itself induces them to stay. The curse may be the result of some ancient crime, a Working gone wrong, a lost war against a magical foe, or a “blessing” in one age that is less appreciated in the modern day. The curse usually takes some time to trigger on intruders, but it may be induced by certain actions.

The ruin is alive, either in a literal or metaphorical sense. It may be animated by an ancient eidolon that looks through countless sensors, or infused with the spirit of some arcane mind, or made up of the tiny bodies of countless construction-organisms like some vast coral. Physical damage to the ruin usually brings some hostile response, however muted by age and disrepair, and the structure itself may be conscious enough to strike bargains with inhabitants.

Vile sorcerer feeding on the energies, Embittered chieftain hating all uncursed, Hapless victim made a monster by the curse

Demented ruin spirit, Sorcerer trying to bend the site to their will, Native chieftain who worships the ruin’s genius as a god

Native sorcerer trying to lift the curse, Outside researcher investigating it, Sympathetic native struggling with the curse’s effects

Friendly ruin sub-organism, Native ruin-keeper, Explorer avid to learn of the place

The curse grants a significant advantage as well as a blight, Those cursed need something here to survive, The curse is a mark of native belonging and viewed as proof of loyalty

It’s a colony creature with different minds in charge, The ruin is trying to grow at all costs, The ruin went berserk after its ruination and is now acting irrationally

Object that can lift the curse, Precious offering to the gods for mercy, Treasure left by a victim of the curse

Poison that can kill the ruin, Precious good created by the ruin’s life processes, Indigestible treasures left by prior intruders

Shrine to some protective god, Curse-warped place of twisted mundanity, Chokingly-blighted place where the curse was first invoked

Wetly organic passageway, Chamber with a giant maw for feeding, Room with tethered organic servitor-creatures

•241 Lost Colony

Magical Wonder

The ruin was once a colony site for a now-vanished empire or people. Some of these pioneers might still survive within, albeit doubtless in much-changed form, or else their belongings might include objects or relics that would be very valuable today. The modern heirs to this lost domain might still consider the ruin to be their lawful property, and all within it to be theirs.

An active Working in the site produces some wondrous effect; permanent summer, biological immortality, endless foodstuffs, visions of the future, or some other grand marvel. Unfortunately, it’s so decayed and ill-tuned that all of these wonders come with related serious negative effects and problems, ones that the natives must struggle to deal with.

Degenerate colony leader, Outside conqueror seeking to seize the site, The hideous thing that destroyed the colony

Ancient half-mad keeper of the Working, Sorcerous monster born of the decay, Outsider determined to exploit the Working at any cost

Confused surviving pioneer-heir, New colonist trying to revive the place, Historian looking for relics

Adventurer who seeks the Working’s benefits, Researcher who wants its secrets, Sorcerer convinced they can fix the Working

The colonists claimed to belong to the lost kingdom but were really of a much more sinister group, Local powers quarrel over site access, Something extremely precious was lost here

The objects and benefits it confers don’t exist outside the ruin, It will collapse disastrously if the ruin is seriously damaged, Nearby communities benefit from it and try to keep out intruders

Once-commonplace item that is now precious, Ancient wealth of the colonists, Valuable goods they made before they died

Device to control the Working’s benefits, Ruined Working parts that are valuable still, Research notes that would allow it to be repaired

Area decorated in their ancient style, Longabandoned massacre site, Temple to a forgotten god

Chamber of dangerous magical fluxes, Sorcerous emission point where the blessing flows forth, Abandoned laboratory where it was made

Monster Forge

Outsider Domain

The ruin somehow creates a particular type of monster by its simple existence. It might be an ancient spawning-pit for Blighted, a cloning facility gone berserk, an ancient agricultural complex with feral livestock, an open portal to an Iterum of monsters, a source of very infectious monster-creating plagues, or something in that vein. These monsters probably infest the surrounding area, unless something about their nature requires them to stay close to the ruin.

This ruin was originally constructed to serve a race of Outsiders. It is possible that they were not even humanoid, and the atmosphere within the ruin may still be tainted with alien gases or hostile temperatures. The architecture and lighting was designed for alien bodies, and humans might find it difficult to navigate. Surviving inhabitants might be Outsider remnants or the alien flora and fauna that persisted long after their masters had died out.

Alpha monster of the horde, Sorcerous would-be tyrant over the creatures, Terrible anomaly-beast that’s even worse than usual

Still-surviving alien leader, Monstrous alien “pet”, Cult priest revering the dead Outsiders

Victim of a monstrous rampage, Grim monsterhunter trying to hold back the tide, Local lord overcome by the wave

Surviving heir of human slave-servants, Outsiderhunter seeking prey, Researcher looking for lore

The site once produced something very important to the region at a terrible cost in lives, The alien atmosphere becomes unsurvivable in cycles, Humans Blighted by the Outsiders still live here

Alien artifact of great value, Human treasure collected by dead Outsiders, Alien device that does something very useful to modern humans

Inscrutably strange chamber, Living quarters re-dimensioned to fit non-humanoid bodies, “Garden” full of monstrous flora

The ruin has only recently started to belch forth the creatures, The monsters capture humans to make more of their kind, The monsters were once slaves or servants but have now broken free Implement meant to destroy or control them, Plunder brought back by raiding creatures, Treasures lost by slain adventurers Frenetic chamber of ever-blossoming life, Overcrowded living quarters, Repurposed ancient chamber

242• Precious Resource

Raider Lair

The ruin generates a resource or serves a function that is valuable to those around it. This may be a direct and literal generation, such as a Deep that still automatically extracts and refines silver, or it may be metaphorical, such as a ruin full of undead who are privy to ancient secrets sought by wizards. Completely purging the ruin of perils would probably somehow ruin the process, or else some greedy outsider would likely have cleaned it out by now.

Some ruins are dangerous only to intruders, but this one actively sends out raiding parties to plunder the surroundings. Many such lairs prefer to go relatively far afield to obscure their origins and avoid the hostility of their immediate neighbors. Others have specific grudges to nurse, or particular targets that have incurred their wrath. Hostages might be taken back for ransom, labor, or food, depending on the nature of the inhabitants.

Grasping outsider treasure-hunter, Monster attracted by the resource, Resource-maker using it to gain sinister influence and power

Ambitious bandit chieftain, Embittered exiled lord, Monstrous ruler who hungers for outside wealth

Earnest prospector, Luckless official charged with gathering the resource, Desperate fortune-hunter

Relative of a kidnapped victim, Escapee from the raiders, Local reeve trying to cope with the raids

The resource is cursed or dangerous, The resource can’t be accessed without some kind of agreement with the natives, The resource is sacred to the ruin’s dwellers

The raiders are being backed by an outside power hostile to its neighbors, The raiders exact a brutal tribute for their “protection”, The raiders had or have a sympathetic cause

Hidden cache of the resource, Device that extracts it, Ultra-rare refined example of the resource

Priceless relic taken by the raiders, Cache of supplies they need badly, Loot hidden by the plunderers

Place where the resource is extracted, Fortified zone around the extraction, Vault for the gathered resource

Raucous and vile raider camp, Repurposed room turned into the chief’s lair, Treasure chamber full of looted goods

Recruiting Drive

Religious Zealots

At least one group of inhabitants in the ruin are actively adding to their numbers. This may involve bribes, kidnapping, proselytization, or just the prospect of a better life than their recruits currently have. This group is likely ideological or circumstantial in their ties, like a cult, a rebel group, or a bandit clan, and so new members can be added as quickly as they prove agreeable or profitable to the whole. Those who refuse to join in tend to meet less comradely fates.

Almost everyone has some degree of deference to the gods, but the natives of this ruin are outright fanatics of a particular religious or philosophical cause. They may have inherited from ages of ancestors, acquired it from the teachings of a charismatic prophet, or been persuaded of it by some profitable or terrifying display of divine will. The natives likely have at least one goal that makes no logical sense, but is related to their god’s nature or desires.

Charismatic and ruthless conqueror, Heartless grandee hiring disposable muscle, Hypnotically persuasive cult leader

Frothingly intense high priest, Holy demon or sending of the god, Monstrous entity placated by the group’s worship

Unwilling recruit, Rival group’s leader, Local ruler worried about the new members

The group recruits under false pretenses and then traps the new recruits in some crime, The group really is offering a better deal than most recruits have, Resentment is building between old and new group members

Member having second thoughts, Missionary of a rival faith, Cynical group member who wants to depose the current leadership in their favor

The god’s intervention seems real on some level, Their cult is an offshoot of the locally dominant faith, They have backing from a mother temple

Precious religious relic or regalia, Object blessed with divine powers, Wealth taken from unworthy unbelievers

Room fitted out as an ornate shrine, Chamber carved with religious symbolism, Place dedicated to some bloody or fearsome ritual

Proof of some outside power’s involvement, Wealth meant to use to entice recruits, Rich gift given by an eager new recruit

Disordered and confused living quarters, Welltrod training area, Empty home of a nowvanished recruit

•243 Rigid Hierarchy

Royal Refuge

Most ruins have little organization, with various groups or lone beasts vying with each other as their strength allows. In this one, however, there is a clear and recognized hierarchy of power and authority, and lesser groups and entities are likely to obey the greater even without an immediate threat of violence. Of course, those same groups are also quite likely to conspire with outsiders to remove their vexations.

Some exiled noble, unsuccessful pretender, hunted wizard, or other grandee of note remained here for a time, either willingly or under duress. They and their retinue left their traces behind, and remnants of the group might still be present. The principle figure probably died here, though some kinds of creatures or wizards may have been less susceptible to time.

Iron-fisted monster lord, Ambitious and scheming chieftain, Secret kingmaker working as a humble minion

Hapless outsider slave, Minion with ambition, Bitter native seeking systemic revenge

The current leader is the only one holding back the ruin’s denizens from raiding, The groups are being organized by an outside power, The subordinate groups are extremely bitter and restive over the state of affairs

Treasure used to pay off underlings, Potent artifact used to cow subordinates, Tribute extracted from unwilling inferiors

Barbarically luxurious throne room, Disciplined and organized watch post, Labor zone where the inferiors toil

Undead prince in exile, Royal agent convinced the PCs are allies of the rebel here, New usurper claiming the dead one’s mantle or name

Well-meaning servant of the royal, Local chief trying to keep his village out of the affair, Sympathetic exile in need of help

The royal tried to make a deal with the creatures here, The royal had secret ties or perhaps even was one of the natives here, The royal’s foes are in sudden need of proof of their death

Item proving the royal’s legitimacy, National treature they stole away with them, Book full of blackmail material they recorded

Tattered but once-ornate chamber they occupied, Cache full of carefully-preserved noble regalia, Pathetic and coarsely-monumented grave site

Sacrificial Bargain

Sealed Evil

The natives of the ruin have made some kind of pact with a dread power or sinister force, receiving support or power in exchange for some sacrifice. This sacrifice might fall directly on the natives themselves or they might plunder their neighbors for wealth, human sacrifices, or such other resources as their patron demands in payment. Failure to hold up their end of the deal may be fatal to the inhabitants.

The ruin serves as a prison for some terribly dangerous entity or power. It may have been originally designed to serve such a purpose, or retrofitted by later inhabitants due to a sudden need, or possibly even mistaken for some other kind of structure by innocent discoverers of a later era. Something about the evil makes it exceptionally hard to kill or permanently destroy, so imprisoning it “forever” seemed wiser.

Malevolent high priest of a dark power, Envoy of a ruthless foe of the local inhabitants, Frantic leader driven to desperate bargains

Undead immortal sorcerer, Monstrous and nighunkillable creature, Arch-Outsider with a biology humans can’t be sure is dead

Sacrificial victim who escaped, Foe of the patron power searching for its catspaws, Native from a rival group that’s being beaten down

Hereditary warden of the prison, Innocently eager explorer, Ancestral hunter of the evil

The bargain seemed an innocent one at first, They‘re realizing that they can’t hold up the deal, The deal was made without the consent of the group’s ordinary members

The evil was actually a benign entity or is currently mistaken for one, Those who loose it will gain enormous power, It’s being tapped for power in a way that risks freeing it

Object that symbolizes and empowers the pact, Wealth granted by the patron, Precious object lost by a sacrificial victim

Relic of the dark power’s evil, Seal on the creature that’s an extremely valuable item in itself, Valuable material created or generated by the prison as a byproduct

Terrible chamber of ritual offering, Local homestead ravaged by raiders, Storehouse or living area made abundant by the patron

Exceedingly well-sealed prison area, Chamber with a temporal stasis cell, Hall full of warning iconography made inscrutable by time

244• Secret Alliance

Shifting Interior

The natives of the ruin have a secret deal or arrangement with some outside power, doing their bidding or providing some special service in exchange for considerations. It might be a corrupt ruler, a sinister cult, an Outsider lord, a backwater hamlet chief, or some other figure that wouldn’t wish the arrangement to become public.

The interior of the ruin is not stable, and shifts and alters over time or through some enigmatic cycle. It may be composed of constantly-moving elements of some ancient megastructure, or be spatially distorted by a decaying Working, or infested with inhabitants that are constantly rebuilding or reworking the layout. The natives may have some key knowledge that lets them navigate the changes.

F C

Merchant with vile black market deals, Official who wants the ruin to remain a problem, Society grandee with sinister appetites Suspicious noble investigator, Stern inquisitor from the local temple, Local who knows too much The deal is maintaining a fragile peace, There’s an openly-acknowledged deal with them but the real bargain is far more sinister, One side is getting ready to betray the other

Proof of the alliance, Rich plunder taken from an ally’s enemy, Relic the mutual cooperation is meant to obtain

Secret meeting place in the wilds, Chamber for an envoy of the ally, Treasure chamber with goods from the ally

Transdimensional intruder entity, Berserk master of the rebuilders, Sinister exile using the place as a refuge

Friendly native guide, Relative of one lost in the labyrinth, Frustrated builder in need of help

The shifts encode an important secret, If the shifts are interrupted a catastrophe will ensue, The shifts are under the control of the ruin’s master

Key to control the shifts, Map of the alterations, The treasure within the labyrinth’s heart

Room that’s changed from the last time they saw it, Churning death zone of moving perils, Maze of twisty little passages all alike

Spatial Flux

Surfacer Hideout

Space within the ruin has been folded, altered, or corrupted in some way, either by ancient magics, inauspicious geomancy, the depredations of a dimensional monster, failed Workings, fumbled sorcery, or some other woe. Some creatures may use the curdled space as a refuge from their enemies, while others might use it as a gate to some stranger and more terrible place.

Some surface power is using the ruin as a hideout or base of operations. While they may simply be bandits or refugees, they’re more likely agents of some greater power who need a discreet base, or some cult or criminal organization that needs a safe place to hide from the law. Friendly merchants or other associates might make contact with them there to provide for necessities, or they could be working to survive entirely separate from the hostile world outside.

Transdimensional abomination, Mad sorcerer making things worse, Obsessive seeker of some hidden grail within the spatial maze

Foreign spy chief, Cult high priest, Ruthless hunter of an innocent group that’s hiding here

Friendly xenodimensional, Adventurer lost and trapped within the place, Local citizen accidentally caught in a warp

Elder of a despised ethnic group hiding here, Government investigator of the ruin, Local who lives nearby and has seen suspicious things

The destinations of the warps can be controlled from within the ruin, The place’s architecture is only physically possible with spatial distortions, The warps lead to different times as well as places

Relic that creates or influences warps, Treasure shifted here from an alternate place or world, Wealth physically duplicated by the warps

Rather than displacing the monstrous natives the surfacers have dominated or coopted them, The surfacers were killed or driven out of the ruin very recently and their effects remain, The surfacers have hidden so well that they no longer understand the situation above

Escher-like room, Chamber with physical locations split over vast differences, Featureless hall that really never ends

Treasure brought from afar by the surfacers, Loot gathered up from displaced ruin natives, Some precious good crafted or extracted by surfacers

Room reminiscent of home, Carefully-hidden entrance to their zone, Remote meeting place

•245 Taboo Place

Things Below

The locals surrounding the ruin consider it taboo, and will kill or punish anyone who enters it without their permission. This may be the product of religious reverence, ot it could be a holy place of their ancestors, or it could be disputed territory, or it may be that the last time adventurers went in a catastrophe came out. Objects looted from the place will be very hard to sell discreetly anywhere near it.

The ruin delved too deep, or opened too many doors to other realms, and things came boiling out that brought its destruction. Those things may have fallen asleep again, or returned to their realm, or yet remained here waiting for fresh prey. They may come and go based on particular time cycles, or when provoked by certain rituals or activities within the place.

Relentless leader of the guardians, The monstrous thing within that must not be disturbed, Ruin raider who will cause chaos with their plundering

Lovecraftian abomination from below, Alienminded extraplanar conqueror, Cultist leader who reveres these eldritch powers

Earnest young treasure hunter, Native who doesn’t believe in the taboo, Local who desperately needs to get inside for some reason

Historian seeking more truth about the things, Relative of a victim of the things, Eager explorer who doesn’t believe in the things

The locals are absolutely right that meddling with the place will bring disaster on them, The ruin somehow marks those who profane it, The ruin can be entered lawfully under some special circumstance or by certain people

The things are associated with monstrous tides of dangerous vermin, The treasures to be had from delving are almost worth the risk, The treasures were actually living things that ruined the place

Pass to allow lawful entrance, Unsellably distinct treasure from the place, Device to overcome the watchfulness of the guardians

Precious object brought from below, The treasure that they were delving up, Wealth left behind by the suddenly-slain natives

Exemplary warning-pike with heads attached, Long-sealed entrance portal, Vigilant guardpost

Interrupted digging site, Vault laden with the wealth of below, Site of sudden terrible ruin

Useless Treasure

Wizard’s Lair

The ruin was once a carefully-guarded storehouse of some substance or information that was priceless at the time but is now largely worthless. Obscure materials, Outsider goods of no present use, exotic matter fashioned by sorcery and of forgotten purposes, and critical intelligence on empires long since dust might all be found here.

Wizards often require an emphatic degree of privacy to ward off importunate help-seekers, witch hunters, rivals in the art, or reckless thieves. This ruin is or once was a lair to one such wizard, who probably isn’t inclined to view visitors kindly. Even the dead ones may have left behind half-finished Workings and unaging automaton servitors to guard their venerable lore and precious magical relics.

Tireless immortal guardian, Brutally relentless treasure seeker, Maddened sorcerer trying to unlock the “real value” of the treasure Mistakenly optimistic adventurer, Seeker with a lost key to the wards, Native denizen who knows the treasure is worthless

The natives may prize the stuff even if the world outside doesn’t, The treasure really is valuable to the very few who know how to use it, The useless treasure is cased with then-useless material that is priceless now

Tremendously well-guarded dross, Text showing how to use the treasure, Key for suppressing the treasure’s security system

Vast vault full of garbage, Guard post manned by undying watchers, Ancient luxury area featuring the material or the wealth it brought them

Immortal and heartless wizard, Monstrous creation of a dead mage, Modern sorcerer exploiting the lair of a dead archmage

Well-meaning apprentice, Escapee from one of their experiments, Vengeful mage-hunter

They perform some service vital to the locals but at a terrible price, No one’s heard from them for so long that it’s thought they’re dead, It’s actually a lair for a school or cabal of wizards

Precious sorcerous grimoire, Magical item crafted there, Vast wealth given by petitioners

Chamber with a half-finished and dangerous Working, Pens for alchemical monstrosities, Living quarters that are physically impossible somehow

246•

Wilderness It’s not uncommon for GMs to have difficulty in fleshing out the wilderness parts of a hexcrawl or exploration-based campaign. One forest tends to look a lot like another, and there’s only so many times one can go to the well of “inexplicable magical phenomenon randomly occuring here” before it starts to get stale. Rural villages, lost ruins, and other social- or dungeon-esque points of interest can dot the countryside, but without something interesting in the spaces in between, mere distance fails to provide much useful adventure grist. Wilderness Tags can be used to help spark a GM’s creativity and develop some worthwhile points of interest for their wilderness maps or daring forays into the unknown. When designing these points of interest, a few general guidelines are helpful. A popular default scale for a wilderness hex map is six miles per hex. It’s enough space to get lost in but small enough that a determined party could reasonably search it for points of interest in a day’s marching. If you want to emphasize the interest of exploring a wilderness rather than focus on some other adventure, you might roll 1d6 for each hex and put a point of interest in it on a roll of 1, or on a larger range of results if you’re feeling generous. For this point of interest you should roll twice on the Wilderness Tags table to get a pair of tropes you can synthesize into a usable result. Make sure to tie

your work together as you go; recurring NPCs, current struggles, or shared history might be reflected in multiple points of interest. Don’t try to turn each point of interest into a fullfledged adventure-worthy site. You’ll exhaust yourself in short order if you try to do that. Instead, give each point a couple of sentences of rough description and leave it at that until you’ve fully populated the part of the map that the PCs are expecting to explore for their next session. Then go through and pick the handful of points that you intend to turn into full adventure-worthy locations; no more than three or four at the most. Use the tools in the Adventure Creation chapter to flesh out these points. Don’t try to turn them into mega-adventures; they don’t need to eat up an entire session of play because the PCs have a whole wilderness yet to explore once they finish with a particular site. For the rest of the points of interest, go through and give them a single, simple situation, encounter, or object for the PCs to meddle with. Use these sites as opportunities to hook or hint toward the meatier, more developed parts of the wilderness or foreshadow their significance. Finally, be ready to recycle unused content. If the PCs never find a point of interest, save it as backup material for some later date, when you might suddenly need something to occupy the players on short notice.

•247

Wilderness Encounters While it’s useful to lay down some wilderness points of interest for a hexcrawl or wilderness exploration game, not everything needs tags and full development. Sometimes you just need a few random encounters on a list to pull from when the PCs run into something. These tables provide suggestions for normal human encounters, nonhuman sapients, or dangerous beasts or monsters. For the nonhumans and the beasts, fill in the role with whatever kind of creature or nonhuman is appropriate to the setting; a swarm of dangerous vermin in the jungle might be an army ant column, while voracious sand shrews might erupt from the desert. Wilderness encounters usually start at considerable range, depending on when one side first spots the other. Fleeing, negotiation, or avoidance are usually options, and not all encounters will necessarily end in bloodshed.

d12

Nonhuman Sapient Encounters

d12

Human Encounters

Hopelessly lost merchant or peddler

Hermit with a good reason to stay alone

Escaped slave or prisoner

Peasant perhaps moonlighting as a bandit

Dangerous outlaw or outcast

Explorer, scout, or surveyor

Patrol of the local authorities

Miners, woodsmen, hunters, or other workers

Common traveler, perhaps lost

Noble or other gentry on a journey

Pilgrim, perhaps of a malevolent god

Bandits, marauders, or other adventurers

d12

Beasts and Monsters

Raiders on their way to pillage a site

Harmless but annoying local creature

Scouts out surveilling the territory

Hungry pack hunters

Patrol to drive off troublesome intruders

Stalking predator looking for an opening

Campsite of the nonhumans

Sick or somehow enraged predator

Nonhuman workers or resource gatherers

An ambush predator lying in wait

Religious figure conducting some rite

Large, dangerously aggressive herbivore

Nonhumans chasing a human escapee

Uncanny or eldritch monster

Site of a bloody battle with nonhumans

A swarm of dangerous vermin

A flying monster or beast

Nonhuman traders with valuable goods

Outcast or deranged nonhuman

Mated pair of team hunters

Nonhuman magic-user and attendants

Ghost, animate corpse, or other undead

Hunters pursuing their prey

Something far too dangerous to confront

d12

What’s Happening with the Sapients?

d12

What’s Happening with the Beasts?

They’re arguing hotly over something

It’s wounded from a recent hunt

They’re pausing for a meal

It’s magically warped somehow

They’re making far too much noise for stealth

It’s being chased by something bigger

They’re interrogating a prisoner

Remnants of its last prey are obvious nearby

They’re examining recent loot or a finding

It’s attacking someone right now

They’re camping here for an interval

It’s well-fed and disinclined to hunt

They’re fleeing a fearsome pursuer

It looks deceptively harmless or weak

They’re looking for something to steal

It’s something’s pet or hunting beast

They need healing or help with a situation

It’s fighting over a mate

They’re hiding from something hunting them

It’s using bait to lure in humans

They’re in an affable and friendly mood

It’s currently eating its last unfortunate prey

They’re chasing enemies of theirs

It’s old or crippled and acting unpredictably

248•

Wilderness Tags where they can safely rest and resupply, a Military Outpost tag might refer to a fortified keep on the borderlands with a castellan willing to trade. If all you need is a small point of interest to eat up ten minutes of table time, you might just make it a rustic cabin with a trio of troublemaking soldiers exiled to a perpetual “scout post” by a superior who’s forgotten they exist. If you’re generating a very large number of hex crawl points of interest, you might start getting duplicate combinations from a pair of the tags below. In such cases, you might add a third tag from one of the other categories here, flavoring the synthesis with a Ruin Tag or a Community Tag to add an additional twist. These additions don’t need to be read literally; you can use them as metaphors or as creative prompts to add something fresh to the result. As with any worldbuilding, take care that you tie historical events, current conflicts, and important NPC figures into multiple situations. Having the same elements show up in multiple ways helps add heft to a world.

These tags provide some basic tropes that you can blend together to create a wide range of potential wilderness points of interest. They assume that the wilderness has some sort of pioneer element dwelling there, and remote villages or hard-pressed hamlets of local dwellers exist to provide some oases of relative security in the wilds. Even so, the defining characteristic of a wilderness is the absence of reliable order. Once beyond the village palisade, the local lord’s rule becomes a very theoretical thing, and the wilderness will attract all sorts of inhabitants that have reasons for avoiding more carefully-monitored lands. The dwellers in the area might be sturdy peasants, but they’re just as likely to be refugees, rebels, bandits, displaced natives, demihumans, or sentient monsters of some kind. The “friendly” tag results below could pull any such inhabitants in, as all of them might have reasons to want to deal with a strong band of adventurers. You should also be ready to scale tags up or down in significance depending on your particular needs. If you want to make a major base of operations for the players d100

Tag

d100

Tag

1–2

Abandoned Village

51–52

Migration Path

3–4

Ancient Guardians

53–54

Military Outpost

5–6

Ancient Monument

55–56

Monstrous Beast

7–8

Arratu Land

57–58

Motherlode

9–10

Bandit Lair

59–60

Nomad Camp

11–12

Beast Swarm

61–62

Outsider Enclave

13–14

Blighted Tribe

63–64

Overgrown Tomb

15–16

Broken Infrastructure

65–66

Perilous Path

17–18

Chokepoint

67–68

Pilgrimage Site

19–20

Collapsed Deep

69–70

Precious Game

21–22

Criminal Meet

71–72

Rampant Experiment

23–24

Cryptic Art

73–74

Refugee Camp

25–26

Cursed Land

75–76

Remnant Road

27–28

Decayed Working

77–78

Remote Monastery

29–30

Demihuman Community

79–80

Ruined Fortification

31–32

Devil Grove

81–82

Savage Hamlet

33–34

Disused Mine

83–84

Sculpted Terrain

35–36

Healing Terrain

85–86

Seductive Peril

37–38

Hermitage

87–88

Taboo Territory

39–40

Historical Survival

89–90

Toxic Ruins

41–42

Isolated Academy

91–92

Treacherous Terrain

43–44

Labyrinthine Tangle

93–94

Twisted Fauna

45–46

Lost Battlefield

95–96

Uncanny Weather

47–48

Lost City

97–98

Working Wreckage

49–50

Magical Springs

99–00

Zealot Colony

•249 Abandoned Village

Ancient Guardians

The remnants of a village that failed for some reason

Something here is guarded by constructs or shades of a long-vanished polity

E F C T

E F C

Ancient Monument

Arratu Land

A monument to some lost kingdom or forgotten hero stands here

A large swath of land here is arratu

F C T P

E C T P

250• Bandit Lair

Beast Swarm

A traditional or untraditional nest of bandits

A hive, nest, or lair of dangerous beasts is here

Blighted Tribe

Broken Infrastructure

A tribe of Blighted dwell here, dangerous or wretched as they may be

A ruin here was once a key node of some ancient infrastructure

•251 Chokepoint

Collapsed Deep

Passage through this area is constricted to a particular pass, ancient bridge, ford, or other narrow terrain

There was a Deep here, but all entrances or the Deep itself have since collapsed

Criminal Meet

Cryptic Art

Outlaws, black marketeers, or smugglers meet here to do business

A vast and inexplicable edifice is here which might have been art to some lost culture

252• Cursed Land

Decayed Working

Something has laid a magical curse on everything in this area

A damaged Working is creating a warped magical effect in the area

Demihuman Community

Devil Grove

Some demihumans have made a home here

An infestation of Outsider flora and fauna is centered on a site here

E F C T P

•253 Disused Mine

Healing Terrain

Someone mined something here once

A zone of arratu here is slowly giving way to natural Earthlike terrain

E F C T

E F C

Hermitage

Historical Survival

A hermit or anchoress dwells here

A remnant of some ancient empire lives on in a community here

E F C T P

254• Isolated Academy

Labyrinthine Tangle

Some school or place of learning here stands aloof from the world

The terrain is exceedingly easy to get lost in

F C T P

E C T P

Lost Battlefield

Lost City

A large and gruesome battle was fought here at some time

A major city once stood here, and it may still have some occupants

•255 Magical Springs

Migration Path

An enchanted spring, magical-fruit-bearing tree, or other natural source of enchantment is here

Something dangerous migrates this way at some schedule

LIVINGTIDE width: 6.34 height: 4.75

256• Military Outpost

Monstrous Beast

Someone’s planted a guardpost of some sort here

Some savagely dangerous beast has cowed all rivals here

E F C T

E F C

Motherlode

Nomad Camp

A strike of some valuble substance is here

Nomads, itinerant herdsman, mobile foresters or the like camp here

E F C T P

•257 Outsider Enclave

Overgrown Tomb

A surviving enclave of Outsiders lurks here

A tomb or ossuary once important to some culture is here

E F C T

E F C

Perilous Path

Pilgrimage Site

There’s a dangerous bridge, skyway, tunnel, or other passage here that’s a shortcut to somewhere important

There’s something here that pilgrims come to visit

F C T P

E C T P

258• Precious Game

Rampant Experiment

A game animal of unusually valuable traits is found here, and probably jealously gamekept

Some biological experiment or terraforming effort has gone terribly wrong here

Refugee Camp

Remnant Road

People who fled some calamity are making camp here

There’s an ancient road fragment in the area, with ruins alongside it

•259 Remote Monastery

Ruined Fortification

A monastery, temple, shrine, or other religious site is self-sustaining here

Some crumbling stronghold of a forgotten empire

F C T P

E C T P

Savage Hamlet

Sculpted Terrain

A small community of unsociable sorts

A prior era carved an entire hill, mountain, or other major landform into some meaningful shape

E F C T P

260• Seductive Peril

Taboo Territory

Something attractive in the area is really a trap

Some area here is strictly off-limits, enforced by watchful locals

E F C T

E F C

Toxic Ruins

Treacherous Terrain

There’s a ruin here that’s been tainted somehow

Bogs, landslides, mudholes, and other dire terrain abounds

E F C T P

•261 Twisted Fauna

Uncanny Weather

Something has warped the fauna in the area into dangerous forms

Some kind of magical weather strikes this area intermittently

Working Wreckage

Zealot Colony

The shattered remnants of a vast, now-inert Working are here

A group of religious or ideological zealots are building a community here

262•

Using This Game in Other Settings It’s frankly expected that a lot of readers of this game won’t be using it with the Latter Earth as their campaign setting. Indeed, a considerable number of you won’t be using the system at all, instead taking advantage of the content creation tools in these pages to build worlds and adventures for your own favorite game. These are perfectly reasonable things to do and the game has been written to accommodate these goals as cleanly as possible. Still, there are some extra tools and items of advice that can be given to those GMs who want to use Worlds Without Number as their system, but want to play in a more conventional fantasy setting. In particular, some GMs may want to import character classes, spells, magic items, or other content from existing old-school-compatible games and may need some advice on how to do that.

Monsters, adventures, and other such content should come through with no necessary changes in hit points, damage rolls, or other numeric details. The one big difference found in some old-school games is the use of ascending versus descending Armor Classes; in some editions, lower is better, so an AC of 0 is equal to ascending AC of 20. For these editions simply subtract the armor class given from 20 to find the ascending AC. These same descending AC systems often record a creature or PC’s hit bonus as the number they need to roll on a d20 in order to hit an AC of 0. To find an equivalent Worlds Without Number hit bonus for the creature, subtract this “THAC0” from 20. Thus, if it needs a 17 to hit an AC of 0, then its hit bonus is +3.

it still rolls 1d8 for them here. If it can cast one spell a day from that game’s list of magic spells, then the same spellcasting ability applies here. If the class has special weapon or armor restrictions, they also apply in Worlds Without Number. Many oldschool classes are balanced around restricted access to the best armor and weapons, so it’s important not to meddle with this carelessly. To identify the class’ hit bonus, check to see how many special abilities the class grants. One with very few special powers, such as an old-school Fighter or Ranger, would use the Warrior table for determining hit bonuses. One that has a significant number of special powers but doesn’t actually get the spellcasting abilities of a wizard or old-school Cleric would use the Expert hit table. One that gets full spellcasting or a similarly potent array of abilities would use the Mage hit table. Finally, check to see how many Focus picks you should peel off from the class in exchange for their special abilities. Look at the special powers the class grants and compare them to the benefits reasonable for a single Focus pick. Some “class powers” might not be very powerful at all; a classic Thief ’s special abilities of lockpicking and sneaking are really nothing that isn’t better-represented in this game as a Specialist focus in Sneak. Others might be substantially stronger than a focus normally grants, such as an old-school Druid’s shapeshifting powers. Full spellcasting is something you can set aside; the class paid for that with their shabby hit bonus and hit points, so you don’t need to take away Focus picks for it. Once you’ve decided how many Focus picks the class’ powers are worth, then that many Focus picks are taken away from the class as they advance in experience levels. A class with a lot of special abilities might not get to pick new Foci at all when they go up in levels, simply getting the special powers of their class instead. Particularly straight-forward classes, like the old-school Fighter, might not sacrifice any Focus picks at all. All PCs should be allowed to pick at least one Focus at first level, however. Note that many old-school games offer various different types of saving throws. For this game, it’s easier to ignore those tables and simply calculate Physical, Mental, and Evasion saving throws as usual for the PC.

Importing Character Classes

Reskinning Character Classes

What Materials to Import

A GM can reliably import almost any material written to target the pre-third-editions of the world’s most popular role-playing game. Games that target this same general material such as Labyrinth Lord, Old School Essentials, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, OSRIC, BFRPG, or similar games should also translate with little or no difficulty. Importing materials from more modern editions is possible, but they would need significantly more conversion and adjustment, since the hit point and damage ranges tend to be much wider than in the older games.

Importing Adventure Content

Some GMs may want to add character classes that exist in other old-school games. Instead of making a paladin-flavored Warrior, for example, they might want to import the traditional Paladin class, or they might see some interesting new class that they want to bring into their game. In general, this is a simple process. Overall, use the same class abilities, hit dice, and details as the original version. If the class gets the power to shapeshift at level 3, then it still gains that power at level 3 in this system. If it rolls 1d8 for its hit points, then

In many cases, however, a GM will simply want to use normal Worlds Without Number classes for their own campaign. To help simplify your task, here are some recommendations for what classes to use to substitute for more “traditional” old-school professions. Fighters are simply Warriors. Rangers and Paladins are Warriors who’ve invested in Survive or Pray, and possibly put some Focus specialization in bow use or dual-wielding depending on the interpretation of Ranger being used. Paladins who want some measure

•263 of miracle-invoking ability have partial-classed into the Sarulite Blood Priest class described in the deluxe edition of this book. Rangers who want a “pet” minion will have partialed into the Llaigisan Beastmaster class in the deluxe edition. Thieves are Experts who have probably taken the Specialist Focus in the Sneak skill and invested their skill points in assorted larcenous talents. Assassins have taken the appropriate Focus and might’ve invested more heavily in combat skills; some of these might actually be Warriors with a Sneak investment. Clerics have taken the Warrior/Sarulite Blood Priest class in the deluxe edition if they want to be a traditional head-bashing, miracle-invoking cleric. If they want actual spellcasting abilities, however, they may partial-class into an appropriate Mage tradition, and may have to take the Armored Magic Focus if they want to do their spellcasting while in full harness. Druids are Llaigisan Beastmasters if they want to focus on pet control and Darian Skinshifters if they want to emphasize shapeshifting. If they want to add spellcasting into the mix, they’ll need to decide which aspect to forego in order to add an appropriate partial Elementalist class or the like. Monks are Vowed, with Warrior-Vowed representing the standard punch enthusiast while Expert-Vowed make for effective ninja-flavored martial artists. Practitioners of animal-based arts might add in some bestial shapeshifting with the Darian Skinshifter partial class. Magic-users are represented by whatever Mage class best fits the character’s concept. Optionally, the GM can include some fan-favorite spells from different old-school games into the High Magic spell list if they wish, but such conversions should be done carefully, as explained below.

Importing Spells and Magic

Many GMs may have an inclination to use this game with settings where magic is considerably easier to use than in the Latter Earth. Magic-users in these settings may have access to a much larger selection of spells, both to learn and to cast on a daily basis, and the spells might be much better-tuned to accomplish specific purposes. For these games, the basic idea is that the magic-user should always have something magical to do in a given situation, even if that’s simply blasting magic bolts at an enemy. This is not the philosophy of Worlds Without Number. Mages in this game are intended to find themselves in some situations where their magic is simply not relevant, much like a Warrior sometimes finds his sword useless or an Expert finds her skills unable to address a problem. PCs are expected to have to use their less-best options to overcome some problems or deal with certain situations. Still, this doesn’t mean that GMs should never include more magic, or that they can’t have their own ideas about a proper balance. Most spells imported from existing old-school products will be significantly weaker than equivalent-level

High Magic spells. There’s usually no issue with simply halving their original level, rounded up, and then adding them to the High Magic spell list. The exceptions are three different classes of spells that need more careful examination. Spells that do damage or eliminate enemies need to be toned down or made less convenient to use. Any spell that does area damage should always affect everyone in the area, friend or foe, and spells that inflict damage on a single target should always allow saving throws for half damage. Neither should ever do more than ten dice of damage, regardless of the caster’s level. Spells that render a victim unable to fight should either not work on targets with more hit dice than the caster or should require more than one failed save to finally put the target down. Any spell that threatens to dethrone the Warrior’s primacy in combat needs to be trimmed back. Spells that give bonuses to hit rolls, skill checks, or other attributes should generally not be allowed. A spell that simply makes you do what you always did 10% better is a very boring spell that doesn’t change the situation at all when it is used. Casters end up with a powerful inducement to simply carry a load of buffs, because they’re by definition always useful whenever the buffed abilities are relevant. If the spell doesn’t change the situation when it’s used, it’s probably not going to be a good addition to the game. Spells that step on another PC’s concept should not be allowed. If you have a stealthy, sneaky Expert in the party, don’t let the wizard add spells that let them replicate or better that talent. If you have a social-master PC with heavy investment in social Foci and skills, don’t let the wizard add a bunch of mindbending powers to their spell list. This limit is table-specific, because if there is no PC occupying a niche then there’s much less danger in letting that niche get stepped on by the wizard.

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FACTIONS AND MAJOR PROJECTS (Chapter intro here) The rules in this chapter are currently written in a very summary form, the better to get it out for public examination. More elaborate explanations and examples will come as the details are refined.

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FACTIONSPLASH W 6.34 in H 9.67 in

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Faction Statistics

Factions have several statistics to define their overall qualities. Weak or small factions will have tend to have low ratings even in their main focus, while kingdoms and major institutions may have a good rating even in their less important traits, simply because they have so many resources available to them. Cunning is measured from 1 to 8 and indicates the faction’s general guile, skill at subterfuge, and subtlety. Low Cunning means the faction is straightforward or unaccustomed to dealing with trickery, while high Cunning is for machivellian schemers and secretive organizations. Force is measured from 1 to 8 and reflects the overall military prowess and martial competence of the faction. A faction with low Force isn’t used to using violence to get its way, or is particularly inept at it, while a high Force reflects a culture of military expertise. Wealth is measured from 1 to 8 and shows the faction’s general prosperity, material resources, and facility with money. Low Weath means the faction is poor, disinterested in material goods, or spendthrift with what they have, while high Wealth factions are rich and familiar with using money and goods as tools for success. Magic measures the amount of magical resources available to the faction. “None” is for factions that have no meaningful access to magic. “Low” is for those factions that have at best a few trained mages or small stores of magical goods. “Medium” is for a faction where there is an established source of magical power for the faction, either as a sub-group of cooperative mages, a magical academy, a tradition of sorcery in the faction, or some other institutionalized aid. “High” magic is reserved for those factions that have a strong focus on wielding magical power, most fitting for a faction that represents a magical order. Treasure is counted in points, and the total reflects how much the faction owns in cash and valuable goods. A single point of Treasure doesn’t have an established cash value; a sack of gold is worthless in itself to a faction that needs a dozen oxcarts, and a herd of cattle owned by a faction can’t necessarily be turned into a fixed sum of coin. Hit points work for factions much as they do for characters; when a faction is reduced to zero hit points, it collapses. Its individual members and sub-groups might not all be dead, but they’re so hopelessly disorganized, dispirited, or conflict-bound that the faction ceases to exist as a coherent whole. Assets are important resources possessed by a faction, such as controlling a ring of Smugglers, or having a unit of Infantry. Assets all have their own statistics and hit points, and all of them require certain scores in Force, Wealth, Cunning, and Magic to purchase. Assets don’t cover all the resources and institutions the faction may control, but they reflect the ones that are most useful and relevant to the faction at that moment. A kingdom may have more military than the Infantry unit they have, but that Infantry unit is the one that’s doing something important enough to pay attention to.

The Faction Turn

Every month or so, the GM should run a faction turn. This turn may take place more often during times of intense activity, or less often if the campaign world is quiet. In general, a faction turn after every adventure is a good average, assuming the PCs don’t have back-to-back adventures. At the start of every faction turn, each faction rolls 1d8 for initiative, the highest rolls going first. Ties are resolved as the GM wishes, and then each faction takes the following steps in order.

•

The faction earns Treasure equal to half their Wealth plus a quarter of their Force and a quarter of their Cunning, the total being rounded up.

•

The faction must pay any upkeep required by their individual Asset costs, or by the cost of having too many Assets for their attributes. If they can’t afford this upkeep, individual Assets may have their own bad consequences, while not being able to afford excess Assets means that the excess are lost.

•

The faction triggers any special abilities individual Assets may have, such as abilities that allow an Asset to move or perform some other special benefit.

•

The faction takes one Faction Action as listed in the following section, resolving any Attacks or other consequences from their choice. When an action is taken, every Asset owned by the faction may take it; thus, if Attack is chosen, then every valid Asset owned by the faction can Attack. If Repair Asset is chosen, every Asset can be repaired if enough Treasure is spent.

•

The faction checks to see if it’s accomplished its most recent goal. If so. it collects the experience points for doing so and picks a new goal. If not, it can abandon the old goal and pick a new one, but it will sacrifice its next turn’s Faction Action to do so and may not trigger any Asset special abilities that round, either.

The next faction in order then acts until all factions have acted for the turn.

Asset Locations and Movement

Every Asset has a location on the campaign map. This location may not be where all the elements of the Asset are located. It might simply be the headquarters of an organization, or the spot where the most active and important members of it are currently working. However it’s described, it’s the center of gravity for the Asset. This location is usually in a town or other settlement, but it could be anything that makes sense. A reclusive Prophet might dwell deep within the wilderness, and a ring of Smugglers might currently be based out of a

•267 hidden sea cave. A location is simply wherever the GM thinks it should be. Assets can move locations, either with the Move Asset faction action or with a special ability possessed by the Asset itself or an allied unit. Generally, whenever an Asset moves, it can move one turn’s worth of distance. As a rule of thumb, for a one-month turn, this is about one hundred miles. This is as far as an organization can shift itself in thirty days while still maintaining some degree of control and cohesion. The GM may adjust this distance based on the situation; if the campaign is taking place in an island archipelago with fast sea travel it’s going to be easier to move long distances than if the Asset has to march through mountains to get there. Some Assets also have special abilities that work on targets within one move of the Asset. Again, the GM decides what this means, but generally it means that the Asset can affect targets within a hundred miles of its location. Sometimes it doesn’t make logical sense for an Asset to be able to move to a particular location. A unit of Infantry, for example, could hardly walk into an enemy nation’s capital so as to later Attack the Court Patronage Asset there. In this case, the best the Infantry could do would be to move to a location near the capital, assuming the GM decides that’s plausible. The Infantry couldn’t actually Attack the enemy faction’s Assets until they got into the city itself where those Assets were located. Assets with the Subtle quality are not limited this way. Subtle Assets can move to locations even where they would normally be prohibited by the ruling powers. Dislodging them requires that they be Attacked until destroyed or moved out by their owner. Assets with the Stealth quality are also not limited by this, and can move freely to any location within reach. Stealthed Assets cannot be Attacked by other Assets until they lose the Stealth quality. This happens when they are discovered by certain special Assets or when the Stealthed Asset Attacks something.

Attribute Checks

Some actions, such as Attack, require an attribute check between factions, such as Force versus Cunning, or Wealth versus Force. Other special Asset abilities sometimes call for attribute checks as well. To make this check, the attacker and defender both roll 1d10 and add their relevant attribute. Thus, for a Force versus Cunning check, the attacker would roll 1d10+Force against the defender’s 1d10+Cunning. The attacker wins if their total is higher, and the defender wins if it’s a tie or their roll is higher. Some special abilities allow the attacker or defender to roll more than one die for a check. In this case, the dice are rolled and the highest of them are used for the comparison.

Faction Turn Actions

Attack: The faction nominates one or more Assets to attack the enemy in their locations. In each location, the defender chooses which of the Assets present will meet the Attack; thus, if a unit of Infantry attacks in a location where there is an enemy Base of Influence, Informers, and Idealistic Thugs, the defender could decide to use Idealistic Thugs to defend against the attack. The attacker makes an attribute check based on the attack of the acting Asset; thus, the Infantry would roll Force versus Force. On a success, the defending Asset takes damage equal to the attacking Asset’s attack score, or 1d8 in the case of Infantry. On a failure, the attacking Asset takes damage equal to the defending Asset’s counterattack score, or 1d6 in the case of Idealistic Thugs. If the damage done to an Asset reduces it to zero hit points, it is destroyed. The same Asset may be used to defend against multiple attacking Assets, provided it can survive the onslaught. Damage done to a Base of Influence is also done directly to the faction’s hit points. Overflow damage is not transmitted, however; if the Base of Influence only has 5 hit points and 7 hit points are inflicted, the faction loses the Base of Influence and 5 hit points from its total. Move Asset: One or more Assets are moved up to one turn’s worth of movement each. The receiving location must not have the ability and inclination to forbid the Asset from operating there. Subtle and Stealthed Assets ignore this limit. If an asset loses the Subtle or Stealth qualities while in a hostile location, they must use this action to retreat to safety within one turn or they will lose half their maximum hit points in damage at the start of the next turn, rounded up. Repair Asset: The faction spends 1 Treasure on each Asset they wish to repair, fixing half their relevant attribute value in lost hit points, rounded up. Thus, fixing a Force Asset would heal half the faction’s Force attribute, rounded up. Additional healing can be applied to an Asset in this same turn, but the cost increases by 1 Treasure for each subsequent fix; thus, the second costs 2 Treasure, the third costs 3 Treasure, and so forth. This ability can at the same time also be used to repair damage done to the faction, spending 1 Treasure to heal a total equal to the faction’s highest and lowest Force, Wealth, or Cunning attribute divided by two, rounded up. Thus, a faction with a Force of 5, Wealth of 2, and Cunning of 4 would heal 4 points of damage. Only one such application of healing is possible for a faction each turn. Expand Influence: The faction seeks to establish a new base of operations in a location. The faction must have at least one Asset there already to make this attempt, and must spend 1 Treasure for each hit

268• point the new Base of Influence is to have. Thus, to create a new Base of Influence with a maximum hit point total of 10, 10 Treasure must be spent. Bases with high maximum hit point totals are harder to dislodge, but losing them also inflicts much more damage on the faction’s own hit points. Once the Base of Influence is created, the owner makes a Cunning versus Cunning attribute check against every other faction that has at least one Asset in the same location. If the other faction wins the check, they are allowed to make an immediate Attack against the new Base of Influence with whatever Assets they have present in the location. The creating faction may attempt to block this action by defending with other Assets present. If the Base of Influence survives this onslaught, it operates as normal and allows the faction ot purchase new Assets there with the Create Asset action. Create Asset: The faction buys one Asset at a location where they have a Base of Influence. They must have the minimum attribute and Magic ratings necessary to buy the Asset and must pay the listed cost in Treasure to build it. A faction can create only one Asset per turn. A faction can have no more Assets of a particular attribute than their attribute score. Thus, a faction with a Force of 3 can have only 3 Force Assets. If this number is exceeded, the faction must pay 1 Treasure per excess Asset at the start of each turn, or else they will lose the excess. Hide Asset: An action available only to factions with a Cunning score of 3 or better, this action allows the faction to give one owned Asset the Stealth quality for every 2 Treasure they spend. Assets currently in a location with another faction’s Base of Influence can’t be hidden. If the Asset later loses the Stealth, no refund is given. Sell Asset: The faction voluntarily decommissions an Asset, salvaging it for what it’s worth. The Asset is lost and the faction gains half its purchase cost in Treasure, rounded down. If the Asset is damaged when it is sold, however, no Treasure is gained.

Creating Factions

A given campaign should generally not have more than six active factions at any one time, and three or four are generally more manageable. If there are more extant factions than this in your campaign, then simply run turns for the three or four most active or relevant ones and leave the others fallow for the turn. To create a faction, decide whether it is a small, medium, or large faction. A small one might be a petty cult or small free city or minor magical academy. A medium one might be a local baron’s government or province-wide faith. A large one would be an entire kingdom or a major province of a vast empire. It’s perfectly acceptable to break a large institution down into a smaller faction. If the provincial government

of Ruhark is the important element in the campaign, the empire that Ruhark belongs to can be ignored. If the One Red Dawn faction of the Howling God’s clergy are the ones who hate the PCs, then making them into their own small faction is much easier and better than factionizing the entire Howling God hierarchy. For a small faction, give them a 3 or 4 in their best attribute, a 2 or 3 in their second-best, and a 1 or 2 in their worst quality. Set their Magic as you see fit, though groups this small can often end up having a significant amount of magical resources thanks to the lesser number of skilled mages needed to cover their needs. They should be given a Base of Influence Asset at their primary headquarters with a maximum hit point total equal to the faction’s own maximum hit points. Medium factions should assign 5 or 6 to their best attribute, 4 or 5 to their second-best, and 2 or 3 to their worst. They should have two Assets in their primary attribute and two others among the other two. Their Magic rating will vary as above, and they should also be given a Base of Influence Asset at their main stronghold. Large factions should assign 7 or 8 to their strongest attribute, 6 or 7 to their second-best attribute, and 3 or 4 to their worst quality. They should have four Assets in their primary attribute, and four others spread among the other two. Their Magic rating will depend on whatever you think is appropriate for their scale, but remember that it’s harder to concentrate effective magical resources when dealing with a whole province or nation than it is to enchant a single city-state or magical institution. Give a strong faction a Base of Influence asset with a value equal to their full hit points, and place it in their seat of power. To determine a faction’s maximum hit points, use the table below. Thus, one with a Force of 3, a Wealth of 5, and a Cunning of 2 would have hit points equal to 4 plus 9 plus 2, or 15 total. The Base of Influence at their primary headquarters will always have a maximum hit points equal to the faction’s maximum hit points, even if it later rises or falls due to attribute score changes. Lastly, give a faction a goal, either one from the following list or one chosen by the GM. When this goal is achieved, the faction earns experience points which it can later spend to increase its attributes. The cost for such increases is given on the table below. Earlier levels must be purchased before later, so to raise Force from 5 to 7 will cost 9 XP to raise it to 6, then 12 more to raise it to 7.

•269 Attribute Rating

XP Cost to Purchase

Hit Point Value

Faction Goals

The goals listed below are not the only options for a faction, but they should provide some examples for a GM to use as inspiration. The difficulty of a goal is the number of experience points earned on a successful completion of it. Military Conquest: Destroy a number of Force assets of rival factions equal to your faction’s Force rating. Difficulty is 1 per 2 assets destroyed, rounded up. Commercial Expansion: Destroy a number of Wealth assets of rival factions equal to your faction’s Wealth rating. Difficulty is 1 per 2 assets destroyed, rounded up. Intelligence Coup: Destroy a number of Cunning assets of rival factions equal to your faction’s Cunning rating. Difficulty is 1per 2 assets destroyed, rounded up. Root Out the Enemy: Destroy a Base of Influence of a rival faction in a specific location. Difficulty equal to half the average of the current ruling faction’s Force, Cunning, and Wealth ratings. Expand Influence: Plant a Base of Influence at a new location. Difficulty 1, +1 if the attempt is contested by a rival faction. Blood the Enemy: Inflict a number of hit points of damage on enemy faction assets or bases equal to your faction’s total Force, Cunning, and Wealth ratings. Difficulty 2. Peaceable Kingdom: Don’t take an Attack action for four turns. Difficulty 1. Destroy the Foe: Destroy a rival faction. Difficulty equal to 2 plus the average of the faction’s Force, Cunning, and Wealth ratings. Inside Enemy Territory: Have a number of Stealthed assets in locations where there is a rival Base of Influence equal to your Cunning score. Units that are already Stealthed in locations when this goal is adopted don’t count. Difficulty 2. Invincible Valor: Destroy a Force asset with a minimum purchase rating higher than your faction’s Force rating. Thus, if your Force is 3, you need to destroy a unit that requires Force 4 or higher to purchase. Difficulty 2.

Wealth of Kingdoms: Spend Treasure equal to four times your faction’s Wealth rating on bribes and influence. This money is effectively lost, but the goal is then considered accomplished. The faction’s Wealth rating must increase before this goal can be selected again. Difficulty 2.

Faction Tags (To be defined.)

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Cunning Assets Bewitching Charmer: When the Bewitching Charmer succeeds in an Attack, the targeted Asset is unable to leave the same location as the Bewitching Charmer until the latter Asset moves or is destroyed. Bewitching Charmers are immune to Counterattack. Blackmail: When a Blackmail asset is in a location, hostile factions can’t roll more than one die during Attacks made by or against them there, even if they have tags or Assets that usually grant bonus dice. Court Patronage: Powerful nobles or officials are, appointing their agents to useful posts of profit. A Court Patronage Asset automatically grants 1 Treasure to its owning faction each turn. Covert Transport: As a free action once per turn, the faction can pay 1 Treasure and move any Cunning or Wealth Asset at the same location as the Covert Transport. The transported Asset gains the Stealth quality until it performs some action or is otherwise utilized by the faction. Cryptomancers: In place of an Attack action, they can make a Cunning vs. Cunning attack on a specific hostile Asset within one move. On a success, the targeted Asset is unable to do anything or be used for anything on its owner’s next faction turn. On a failure, no Counterattack damage is taken. Dancing Girls: Dancing Girls or other charming distractions are immune to Attack or Counterattack damage from Force Assets, but they cannot be used to defend against Attacks from Force Assets. Expert Treachery: On a successful Attack by Expert Treachery, this Asset is lost, 5 Treasure is gained by its owning faction, and the Asset that Expert Treachery targeted switches sides. This conversion happens even if their new owners lack the attributes usually necessary to maintain their new Asset. Hired Friends: As a free action, once per turn, the faction may spend 1 Treasure and grant a Wealth Asset within one turn’s movement range the Subtle quality. This quality will remain, regardless of the Wealth Asset’s movement, until the Hired Friends are destroyed or they use this ability again. Idealistic Thugs: Easily-manipulated hotheads are enlisted under whatever ideological or religious principle best enthuses them for violence. Informers: As a free action, once per turn, the faction can spend 1 Treasure and have the Informers look for Stealthed Assets. To do so, the Informers pick a faction and make a Cunning vs. Cunning Attack on them. No counterattack damage is taken if they fail, but if they succeed, all Stealthed Assets of that faction within one move of the Informers are revealed. Interrupted Logistics: Non-Stealthed hostile units cannot enter the same location as the Interrupted Logistics Asset without paying 1d4 Treasure and waiting one turn to arrive there.

Just As Planned: Some sublimely cunning mastermind ensures that the schemes of this faction are unimaginably subtle and far-seeing. Whenever the faction’s Assets make a roll involving Cunning, they may reroll a failed check at the cost of inflicting 1d6 damage on Just As Planned. This may be done repeatedly, though it may destroy the Asset. There is no range limit on this benefit. Mindbenders: Once per turn as a free action, the Mindbenders can force a rival faction to reroll a check, Attack, or other die roll they just made and take whichever result the Mindbenders prefer. A faction can only be affected this way once until the start of the Mindbender’s faction’s next turn. Occult Infiltrators: Magically-gifted spies and assassins are enlisted to serve the faction. Occult Infiltrator Assets always begin play with the Stealth quality. Omniscient Seers: At the start of their turn, each hostile Stealthed asset within one turn’s movement of the Omniscient Seers must succeed in a Cunning vs. Cunning check against the owning faction or lose their Stealth. In addition, all Cunning rolls made by the faction for units or events within one turn’s movement of the seers gain an extra die. Organization Moles: Sleeper agents and deep-cover spies burrow into hostile organizations, waiting to disrupt them from within when ordered to do so. Petty Seers: A cadre of skilled fortune-tellers and minor oracles have been enlisted by the faction to foresee perils and allow swift counterattacks. Popular Movement: Any friendly Asset is allowed movement into the same location as the Popular Movement, even if it would normally be forbidden by its owners and lacks the Subtle quality. If the Popular Movement later moves or is destroyed, such Assets must also leave or suffer the usual consequences of a non-Subtle Asset in a hostile area. Prophet: Whether a religious prophet, charismatic philosopher, rebel leader, or other figure of popular appeal, the Asset is firmly under the faction’s control. Saboteurs: An Asset that is Attacked by the Saboteurs can’t use any free action abilities it may have during the next turn, whether or not the Attack was successful. Seditionists: In place of an Attack action, the Seditionist’s owners may spend 1d4 Treasure and attach the Asset to a hostile Asset in the same location. Until the Seditionists are destroyed, infest another Asset, or leave the same location, the rebelling Asset cannot be used for anything and grants no benefits. Shapeshifters: As a free action once per turn, the faction can spend 1 Treasure and grant the Shapeshifters the Stealth quality. Smugglers: As a free action, once per faction turn, the Smugglers can move any allied Wealth or Cunning

•271 Cunning Asset

Cost

Magic

Attack

Counter

Qualities

Cunning 1 Informers

None

C v. C/Special

None

Subtle, Special

Petty Seers

Medium

None

1d6 damage

Subtle

Smugglers

None

C v. W/1d4 damage

None

Subtle, Action

Useful Idiots

None

Subtle, Special

Blackmail

None

C v. C/1d4 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Dancing Girls

None

C v. W/2d4 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Hired Friends

None

C v. C/1d6 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Saboteurs

None

C v. W/2d4 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Cunning 2

Cunning 3 Bewitching Charmer

Low

C v. C/Special

None

Subtle, Special

Covert Transport

None

Subtle, Special

Occult Infiltrators

Medium

C v. C/2d6 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Spymaster

None

C v. C/1d6 damage

2d6 damage

Subtle

Court Patronage

None

C v. C/1d6 damage

1d6 damage

Subtle, Special

Cunning 4 Idealistic Thugs

None

C v. F/1d6 damage

1d6 damage

Subtle

Seditionists

None

Special

None

Subtle

Vigilant Agents

None

1d4 damage

Subtle, Special

None

Subtle

Cunning 5 Cryptomancers

Organization Moles

Shapeshifters

Interrupted Logistics

Low

C v. C/Special

None

C v. C/2d6 damage

None

Subtle

Medium

C v. C/2d6 damage

None

Subtle, Special

None

Subtle, Special

Cunning 6 Prophet

None

C v. C/2d8 damage

1d8 damage

Subtle

Underground Roads

None

Subtle, Special

Expert Treachery

None

C v. C/Special

None

Subtle

Mindbenders

Medium

None

2d8 damage

Subtle

Popular Movement

None

C v. C/2d6 damage

1d6 damage

Subtle, Special

Just As Planned

None

1d10 damage

Subtle, Special

Omniscient Seers

High

None

1d8 damage

Subtle, Special

Cunning 7

Cunning 8

Asset in their same location to a destination within movement range, even if the destination wouldn’t normally allow an un-Subtle Asset to locate there. Spymaster: A veteran operative runs a counterintelligence bureau in the area and fomulates offensive schemes for the faction. Underground Roads: A well-established network of secret transit extends far around this Asset. As a free action, the faction may pay 1 Treasure and move any friendly Asset from a location within one round’s move of the Underground Roads to a destination also within one round’s move of the Roads. Useful Idiots: Hirelings, catspaws, foolish idealists, and other disposable minions are gathered together in

this Asset. If another Asset within one turn’s move of the Useful Idiots is destroyed by an Attack, the faction can instead sacrifice the Useful Idiots to negate the killing blow. Only one band of Useful Idiots can be sacrificed on any one turn. Vigilant Agents: A constant flow of observations runs back to the faction from these watchful counterintelligence agents. Whenever another faction moves a Stealthed asset into a location within one move’s distance from the Vigilant Agents, they may make a Cunning vs. Cunning attack against the owning faction. On a success, the intruding Asset loses its Stealth after it completes the move.

272•

Force Assets Apocalypse Engine: One of a number of hideously powerful ancient super-weapons unearthed from some lost armory, an Apocalypse Engine rains some eldritch horror down on a targeted enemy Asset. Brilliant General: A leader for the ages is in service with the faction. Whenever the Brilliant General or any allied Force Asset in the same location Attacks or is made to defend, it can roll an extra die to do so. Cavalry: Mounted troops, chariots, or other mobile soldiers are in service to the faction. While weak on defense, they can harry logistics and mount powerful charges. Demonic Slayer: Powerful sorcerers have summoned or constructed an inhuman assassin-beast to hunt down and slaughter the faction’s enemies. A Demonic Slayer enters play Stealthed. Enchanted Elites: A carefully-selected group of skilled warriors are given magical armaments and arcane blessings to boost their effectiveness. Fearful Intimidation: Judicious exercises of force have intimidated the locals, making them reluctant to cooperate with any group that stands opposed to the faction. Fortification Program: A program of organized fortification and supply caching has been undertaken around the Asset’s location, hardening allied communities and friendly Assets. Once per turn, when an enemy makes an Attack that targets the faction’s Force rating, the faction can use the Fortification Program to defend if the Asset is within a turn’s move from the attack. Guerilla Populace: The locals have the assistance of trained guerilla warfare leaders who can aid them in sabotaging and attacking unwary hostiles. Infantry: Common foot soldiers have been organized and armed by the faction. While rarely particularly heroic in their capabilities, they have the advantage of numbers. Invincible Legion: The faction has developed a truly irresistible military organization that can smash its way through opposition without the aid of any support units. During a Relocate Asset action, the Invincible Legion can relocate to locations that would otherwise not permit a formal military force to relocate there, as if it had the Subtle quality. It is not, however, in any way subtle. Knights: Elite warriors of considerable personal prowess have been trained or enlisted by the faction, either from noble sympathizers, veteran members, or amenable mercenaries. Local Guard: Ordinary citizens are enlisted into night watch patrols and local guard units. They’re most effective when defending from behind a fortified position, but they have some idea of how to use their weapons.

Magical Logistics: An advanced web of magical Workings, skilled sorcerers, and trained logistical experts are enlisted to streamline the faction’s maintenance and sustain damaged units. Once per faction turn, as a free action, the Asset can repaire 2 hit points of damage to an allied Force Asset. Military Roads: The faction has established a network of roads with a logistical stockpile at this Asset’s location. As a consequence, once per faction turn, the faction can move any one Asset from any location within its reach to any other location within its reach at a cost of 1 Treasure. Military Transport: A branch of skilled teamsters, transport ships, road-building crews, or other logistical facilitators is in service to the faction. As a free action once per faction turn, it can bring an allied Asset to its location, provided they’re within one turn’s movement range, or move an allied Asset from its own location to a target also within a turn’s move. Multiple Military Transport assets can chain this movement over long distances. Purity Rites: A rigorous program of regular mental inspection and counterintelligence measures has been undertaken by the faction. This Asset can only defend against attacks that target the faction’s Cunning, but it allows the faction to roll an extra die to defend. Reserve Corps: Retired military personnel and rear-line troops are spread through the area as workers or colonists, available to resist hostilities as needed. Scouts: Long-range scouts and reconaissance experts work for the faction, able to venture deep into hostile territory. Siege Experts: These soldiers are trained in trenching, sapping, and razing targeted structures. When they successfully Attack an enemy Asset, the owner loses 1d4 points of Treasure from their reserves and this faction gains it. Summoned Hunter: A skilled sorcerer has summoned a magical beast or mentally bound a usefully disposable assassin into the faction’s service. Temple Fanatics: Fanatical servants of a cult, ideology, or larger religion, these enthusiasts wreak havoc with enemies without a thought for their own lives. After every time the Temple Fanatics defend or successfully attack, they take 1d4 damage. Thugs: These gutter ruffians and common kneebreakers have been organized in service to the faction’s causes. Vanguard Unit: This unit is specially trained to build bridges, reduce fortifications, and facilitate a lightning strike into enemy territory. When its faction takes a Relocate Asset turn, it can move the Vanguard Unit and any allied units at the same location to any other location within range, even if the unit type would normally be prohibitive from moving

•273 Force Asset

Cost

Magic

Attack

Counter

Qualities

Force 1 Fearful Intimidation

None

1d4 damage

Local Guard

None

F v. F/1d3+1 damage

1d4+1 damage

Summoned Hunter

Medium

C v. F/1d6 damage

None

Subtle

Thugs

None

F v. C/1d6 damage

None

Subtle

Guerilla Populace

None

F v. F/1d4+1 damage

Force 2 None

Military Transport

None

Reserve Corps

None

F v. F/1d6 damage

1d6 damage

Scouts

None

F v. F/2d4 damage

1d4+1 damage

Subtle Subtle

Action

Force 3 Enchanted Elites

Medium

F v. F/1d10 damage

1d6 damage

Infantry

None

F v. F/1d8 damage

1d6 damage

Temple Fanatics

None

F v. F/2d6 damage

2d6 damage

Witch Hunters

Low

C v. C/1d4+1 damage

1d6 damage

Cavalry

None

F v. F/2d6 damage

Special

Force 4 1d4 damage

Military Roads

None

Action

Vanguard Unit

None

1d6 damage

Action

War Fleet

None

F v. F/2d6 damage

1d8 damage

Action

None

Subtle, Special Special

Force 5 Demonic Slayer

High

C v. C/2d6+2 damage

Magical Logistics

Medium

None

Siege Experts

None

F v. W/1d6 damage

1d6 damage

Fortification Program

None

Force 6 None

Knights

None

F v. F/2d8 damage

2d6 damage

War Machines

Medium

F v. F/2d10+4 damage

1d10 damage

Brilliant General

None

C v. F/1d8 damage

Action

Force 7 None

Subtle, Special

Purity Rites

Low

None

2d8+2 damage

Special

Warshaped

High

F v. F/2d8+2 damage

2d8 damage

Subtle

Apocalypse Engine

Medium

F v. F/3d10+4 damage

None

Invincible Legion

None

F v. F/2d10+4 damage

2d10+4 damage

Force 8

there. Thus, a Force asset could be moved into a foreign nation’s territory even against their wishes. The unit may remain at that location afterwards even if the Vanguard Unit leaves. War Fleet: While a war fleet can only Attack assets and locations within reach of the waterways, once per turn it can freely relocate itself to any coastal area within movement range. The Asset itself must be based out of some landward location to provide for supply and refitting. War Machines: Mobile war machines driven by trained beasts or magical motive power are under the faction’s control.

Special

Warshaped: The faction has the use of magical creatures designed specifically for warfare, or ordinary humans that have been greatly altered to serve the faction’s needs. Such forces are few and elusive enough to evade easy detection. Witch Hunters: Certain personnel are trained in sniffing out traitors and spies in the organization, along with the presence of hostile magic or hidden spellcraft.

274•

Wealth Assets Ancient Mechanisms: Some useful magical mechanism from ages past has been refitted to be useful in local industry. Whenever an Asset in the same location must roll to make a profit, such as Farmers or Manufactory, the faction may roll the die twice and take the better result. Ancient Workshop: A workshop has been refitted with ancient magical tools, allowing prodigies of production, albeit not always safely. As a free action, once per turn, the Ancient Workshop takes 1d6 damage and the owning faction gains 1d6 Treasure. Arcane Laboratory: The faction’s overall Magic is counted as one step higher for the puposes of creating Assets in the same location as the laboratory. Multiple Arcane Laboratories in the same location can increase the Magic boost by multiple steps. Armed Guards: Hired caravan guards, bodyguards, or other armed minions serve the faction. Caravan: As a free action, once per turn, the Caravan can spend 1 Treasure and move itself and one other Asset in the same place to a new location within one move. Cooperative Businesses: . If any other faction attempts to create an Asset in the same location as a Cooperative Business, the cost of doing so increases by 1 Treasure. This penalty stacks. Dragomans: Interpreters, cultural specialists, and go-betweens simplify the expansion of a faction’s influence in an area. A faction that takes an Expand Influence action in the same location as this Asset can roll an extra die. As a free action once per turn, this Asset can move to a new location. Economic Disruption: As a free action once per turn, this Asset can move itself without cost. Farmers: Farmers, hunters, and simple rural artisans are in service to the faction here. Once per turn, as a free action, the Asset’s owner can roll 1d6; on a 5+, they gain 1 Treasure from the Farmers. Free Company: Hired mercenaries and professional soldiers, this Asset can, as a free action once per turn, move itself. At the start of each of its owner’s turn, it takes 1 Treasure in upkeep costs; if this is not paid, roll 1d6. On a 1-3 the Asset is lost, on a 4-6 it goes rogue and will move to Attack the most profitable-looking target. This roll is repeated each turn until back pay is paid or the Asset is lost. Front Merchant: Whenever the Front Merchant successfully Attacks an enemy Asset, the target faction loses 1 Treasure, if they have any, and the Front Merchant’s owner gains it. Such a loss can occur only once per turn. Golden Prosperity: Each turn, as a free action, the faction gains 1d6 Treasure that can be used to fix damaged Assets as if by the Repair Assets action. Any of this Treasure not spent on such purposes is lost.

Healers: Whenever an Asset within one move of the Healers is destroyed by an Attack that used Force against the target, the owner of the Healers may pay half its purchase price in Treasure to instantly restore it with 1 hit point. This cannot be used to repair Bases of Influence. Hired Legion: As a free action once per turn, the Hired Legion can move. This faction must be paid 2 Treasure at the start of each turn as upkeep, or else they go rogue as the Free Company Asset does. This Asset cannot be voluntarily sold or disbanded. Lead or Silver: If Lead or Silver’s Attack reduces an enemy Asset to zero hit points, this Asset’s owner may immediately pay half the target’s purchase cost to claim it as their own, reviving it with 1 hit point. Mad Genius: As a free action, once per turn, the Mad Genius may move. As a free action, once per turn, the Mad Genius may be sacrificed to treat the Magic rating in their location as High for the purpose of buying Assets that require such resources. This boost lasts only until the next Asset is purchased in that location. Manufactory: . Once per turn, as a free action. the Asset’s owner may roll 1d6; on a 1, one point of Treasure is lost, on a 2-5, one point is gained, and on a 6, two points are gained. If Treasure is lost and none is available to pay it by the end of the turn, this Asset is lost. Merchant Prince: A canny master of trade, the Merchant Prince may be triggered as a free action once per turn before buying a new Asset in the same location; the Merchant Prince takes 1d4 damage and the purchased Asset costs 1d8 Treasure less, down to a minimum of half its normal price. Monopoly: Once per turn, as a free action, the Monopoly Asset can target an Asset in the same location; that Asset’s owning faction must either pay the Monopoly’s owner 1 Treasure or lose the targeted Asset. Occult Countermeasures: This asset can only Attack or inflict Counterattack damage on Assets that require at least a Low Magic rating to purchase. Pleaders: Whether lawyers, skalds, lawspeakers, sage elders, or other legal specialists, Pleaders can turn the local society’s laws against the enemies of the faction. However, Pleaders can neither Attack nor inflict Counterattack damage on Force Assets. Smuggling Fleet: Once per turn, as a free action, they may move themselves and any one Asset at their current location to any other water-accessible location within one move. Any Asset they move with them gains the Subtle quality until they take some action at the destination. Supply Interruption: As a free action, once per turn, the Asset can make a Cunning vs. Wealth check against an Asset in the same location. On a success, the

•275 Wealth Asset

Cost

Armed Guards

Cooperative Businesses

Magic

Attack

Counter

Qualities

None

W v. F/1d3 damage

1d4 damage

None

W v. W/1d4-1 damage

None

Subtle, Special

Farmers

None

1d4 damage

Action

Front Merchant

None

W v. W/1d4 damage

1d4-1 damage

Subtle

Caravan

None

W v. W/1d4 damage

None

Action

Dragomans

None

1d4 damage

Subtle, Special

Pleaders

None

C v. W/2d4 damage

1d6 damage

Special

Worker Mob

None

W v. F/1d4+1 damage

1d4 damage

Wealth 1

Wealth 2

Wealth 3 Ancient Mechanisms

Medium

None

Special

Arcane Laboratory

None

Special

Free Company

None

W v. F/2d4+2 damage

1d6 damage

Action, Special

Manufactory

None

1d4 damage

Action

Healers

None

Action

Wealth 4 Monopoly

None

W v. W/1d6 damage

1d6 damage

Action

Occult Countermeasures

Low

W v. C/2d10 damage

1d10 damage

Special

Usurers

None

W v. W/1d10 damage

None

Action

None

Action

Wealth 5 Mad Genius

None

W v. C/1d6 damage

Smuggling Fleet

None

W v. F/2d6 damage

None

Subtle, Action

Supply Interruption

None

C v. W/1d6 damage

None

Subtle, Action

Economic Disruption

None

W v. W/2d6 damage

None

Subtle, Action

Merchant Prince

None

W v. W/2d8 damage

1d8 damage

Action

Trade Company

None

W v. W/2d6 damage

1d6 damage

Action

Ancient Workshop

Medium

None

Wealth 6

Wealth 7 Lead or Silver

None

W v. W/2d10 damage

2d8 damage

Transport Network

None

W v. W/1d12 damage

None

Golden Prosperity

Medium

None

2d10 damage

Hired Legion

None

W v F/2d10+4 damage

2d10 damage

Action

Wealth 8

owning faction must sacrifice Treasure equal to half the target Asset’s purchase cost, or else it is disabled and useless until this price is paid. Trade Company: Bold traders undertake potentially lucrative- or catastrophic- new business opportunities. As a free action, once per turn, the owner of the Asset may roll accept 1d4 damage done to the Asset in exchange for earning 1d6-1 Treasure points. Transport Network: A vast array of carters, ships, smugglers, and official caravans are under the faction’s control. As a free action the Transport Network can spend 1 Treasure to move any friendly Asset within two moves to any location within one move of either the target or the Transport Network.

Action

Usurers: Moneylenders and other proto-bankers ply their trade for the faction. For each unit of Usurers owned by a faction, the Treasure cost of buying Assets may be decreased by 2 Treasure, to a minimum of half its cost. Each time the Usurers are used for this benefit, they suffer 1d4 damage from popular displeasure. Worker Mob: The roughest, most brutal laborers in service with the faction have been quietly organized to sternly discipline the enemies of the group.

276•

Background Actors There are times when a GM might want to add some extra motion and activity to their campaign setting, but including additional full-fledged factions may be overkill. A few hostile nobles, a rival adventuring party, a zealous new demagogue, an ambitious crime boss, or some other variety of actor can provide some extra liveliness to the campaign backdrop, even if their activities have no immediate bearing on the PCs. Simply hearing about their exploits or encountering the peripheral consequences of them can add extra flavor to a game, and help the players feel that the world exists even when they’re not adventuring there. These background actors need very little development unless you anticipate a direct encounter with the PCs. A petty noble is just a petty noble, and a few sentences of description about their holdings and ambitions are all you need. A rival adventuring party might have statistics assigned to as a group of mid- to high-hit die human foes, but it’s rarely worth statting them out with class levels and all the trimmings. A simple conceptual hook for a background actor and a set of motivations are all a GM really needs. If they run into conflict with the PCs, you can build them out more fully, but it’s best to start simple. About three pertinent background actors is usually plenty for a game. Different groups or individuals might rotate in and out of relevance as their plans progress or the PCs involve themselves in nearby events, but more than three tend to create so much background noise that the players can have a hard time identifying specific actors. Combined with the larger-scale activities of factions, three actors should give plenty of both small- and largescale events for the PCs to notice and potentially react to.

Actors in the Faction Turn

Every time you run a faction turn, decide what each of your relevant actors has been up to in the meanwhile. If you have no active factions, make this decision between each gaming session, assuming a reasonable amount of time has passed. To determine their actions, you can either simply decide it by GM fiat, or use the adjacent tables for inspiration. A generic table is provided for general rolls, and some actor-specific sub-tables for those occasions when you want results more closely personalized to a type of actor. Once you have the general gist of their activities, add details and specifics that fit the particular campaign region you’re using; if an adventuring group is delving into a local Deep, then maybe they’re investigating the same dungeon that the PCs have been exploring lately. In the same vein, a noble who betrays a peer might turn traitor on the lord of the town the PCs are currently occupying. Try to make each result visible to the players, even if it’s not strictly pertinent to them. They might hear about

military clashes nearby, or learn about an adventuring band that was wiped, or pass through a village that’s busily preparing for the local lord’s wedding. The PCs might choose to take an interest in events, but even just hearing about them going on in the background will help add verisimilitude to the world. Some activities might be hidden from them, particularly those involving intrigue or deception, but if the actors’ actions never become visible then your prep time is not doing you much good.

Adding and Removing Actors

Background actors come and go. Sometimes they make some mistake that proves unsurvivable, or they journey beyond the scope of the campaign, or they simply attain their goal and have no reason for further activity. Sometimes the PCs pull up stakes and move half a continent away, and there’s no way that the old crew would have any bearing on events in their new home. In such cases, it’s fine to simply shuffle the expended actors offscreen and bring on a few new ones more suitable to the campaign. If the PCs ever return to them or they become relevant anew you can pull them out of retirement or use them as NPCs in your adventures. It’s often particularly useful to turn consequential NPCs from recent adventures into these new actors, as the lord the PCs helped or the bandit chief they feuded with become a source of ongoing events. d20

General Actor Activities and Events

They came into a large amount of money

They became sick or diseased somehow

A friend betrayed their trust

A stroke of luck aided their pursuit of their goal

They defeated a rival or significant enemy

They made a grave social mistake

A friend or ally was slain or lost to them

They overcame an obstacle to their goal

A source of power they have was threatened

They were defeated by a rival in their ambition

They were accused of a serious crime

They obtained a useful item of magic

They vanished mysteriously for a time

They were attacked by monsters

They made some unsavory associates

They stole something or were robbed in turn

They ventured into dangerous terrain

They offended a powerful entity

A plan of theirs came to its fruition

They gained a powerful new ally

•277

Background Actor Events d12

Adventuring Parties

d12

Demagogues and Religious Zealots

They’re delving into a perilous Deep

A noble patron is finding them useful

They’ve been savaged by monsters

Their followers are getting out of hand

They slew a powerful foe

They’re picking a fight with existing authority

They’re quarreling over some treasure

They’ve made ties with local crime figures

They committed an outrageous social crime

They’ve struck against a hated local figure

They’re spending huge amounts of money

They’re spreading an appealing new idea

A member has betrayed the others

An important local has joined their cause

They murdered someone important

They’ve gotten a major donation from believers

A promising new member joined them

They’re being suppressed by local authorities

They’ve gotten or lost a noble patron

Followers are arguing over ideological points

They’ve been cursed or blighted by magic

They’re trying to create a new power base

They’re heading into dangerous territory

They’ve gotten a stroke of divine good fortune Warlords and Warband Chiefs

d12

Nobles and Gentry

d12

A rival has encroached on their lands or rights

They’ve attacked a poorly-defended place

They’re making a familial tie by marriage

They’ve got a promising new lieutenant

A trusted lieutenant has died or betrayed them

One of their underlings betrayed them

They’ve ruthlessly quashed a non-noble rival

Their men went on an undisciplined rampage

A family scion has gotten in big trouble

They’ve moved their base of operations

Their superior has repaid a favor owed them

They’ve gotten backing from an outside power

They’re fighting with a rival local power base

They’re trying to become legitimate rulers

They’ve formed an alliance with a neighbor

They’re infighting over loot, women, or rank

An old enemy of their line has struck them

They were badly wounded in a fight

They’re fighting over rights to a particular title

They pulled off a remarkable victory

They’ve committed some grave social faux pas

Their band split due to a quarrel

They’ve infuriuated their superior somehow

They absorbed a weaker group

d12

Merchants and Oligarchs

d12

Sorcerers and Magic-Users

A local industry fell under their control

They’ve acquired “subjects” for their work

They made a deal with a local crime boss

They suffered a magical mishap of some kind

They bought or built something fabulous

They’ve acquired an esoteric magic item

Criminals are assaulting their wealth sources

A rival sorcerer has struck at them

They cut a very profitable new deal

They’ve hired adventurers to acquire something

Their employees or minions are getting restive

A noble has enlisted their aid in a cause

They opened a new branch of operations

They’ve been venturing into ancient ruins

They made an alliance with a local noble

They’ve created a Working to pursue an end

They’ve enlisted adventurers for dire work

They’re accused of a heinous crime

A noble has marked them as a dangerous foe

The locals begged their aid in a time of need

They drove a rival out of business

They’ve acquired a promising apprentice

Some enterprise of their has collapsed

They’ve devised a new and potent magic

278•

Major Projects and Party Goals In any campaign, there will likely arise some occasion when the PCs take it into their heads to accomplish some great change in the world. Perhaps they want to abolish slavery in a country, or institute a new government in a howling wilderness, or crush the economic power of a hateful merchant cartel. The party wants to accomplish something grand or large-scale where there is no obvious direct path to success. No single killing or specific act of heroism will get them their aim, though the goal itself isn’t so wild as to be obviously futile. Such ambitions are major projects, and this section will cover a simple system to help the GM adjudicate their progress and success. This system is meant to handle sprawling, ambiguous ambitions that aren’t clearly susceptible to a simple solution. If the party wants a dead town burgomaster, then they can simply kill him. If they want to turn his town into a major new trading nexus, something more complicated may be required.

Renown

The basic currency of major projects is called Renown, and it’s measured in points much like experience points. PCs gain Renown for succeeding at adventures, building ties with the world, and generally behaving in a way to attract interest and respect from those around them. PCs then spend Renown to accomplish the changes they want to make in the world, reflecting their own background activities and the work of cooperative allies and associates. Each individual PC has their own Renown score. They can spend it together with the rest of the party if they agree on the mutual focus of their interests, but a PC might also spend it on other ambitions or intermediate goals that come to mind. It’s ultimately up to the player as to what they want to put their effort into; spending Renown reflects the kind of background work and off-screen support that the hero can bring to bear. A GM doesn’t have to track Renown unless they intend to use the this system. If the GM prefers to do things their own way, they can completely ignore Renown awards. If the GM changes their mind later and wants to introduce the system, they can simply give each PC a Renown score equal to their current accumulated experience points and then track things accordingly from there. Generally, a PC will receive one point of Renown after each adventure. Some other activities or undertakings might win them additional bonus Renown, usually those works that increase the PC’s influence and involvement with the campaign world, and some adventures might not give them much Renown at all if they left no impression on the people around the party. Specific guidelines on Renown awards are given in the adventure building section of the book, on page XX.

Determining Project Difficulty

To find out how much Renown is needed to achieve a project, the GM must determine its difficulty. This total difficulty is a product of the intensity of the change, the scope it affects, and the powers that are opposed to it. First, decide whether the change is plausible, improbable, or impossible. If the change is something that is predictable or unsurprising, it’s a plausible change. A town with good transport links and a couple of wealthy neighbors might quite plausibly become a trade hub. A duke with an abandoned frontier keep and a raider problem might plausibly decide to give it to a famed warrior PC with the agreement that the PC would pledge fealty to him. A plausible change in the campaign is simply one that no one would find particularly surprising or unlikely. An improbable change is one that’s not physically or socially impossible, but is highly unlikely. Transforming a random patch of steppe grasslands into a trading hub might be an improbable change, as would convincing a duke to simply hand over the frontier fort with no particular claim of allegiance. Some things that are not particularly physically difficult might be improbable due to the social or emotional implications; a society with a relative handful of trophy slaves might find it improbable to give them up even if they serve only as status symbols for their owners. An impossible change is just that; something that is physically or socially impossible to contemplate. Turning a desolate glacier on the edge of the world into a trading hub might be such, or convincing the duke to simply give the PCs his duchy. Accomplishing a feat like this might require substantial magical Workings, the involvement of ancient artifacts, or a degree of social upheaval on par with a war of conquest. Some changes might be so drastic that they require their own heroic labors simply to prepare the groundwork for the real effort, and entire separate projects must be undertaken before the real goal even becomes possible.

Determining the Scope

Once the change’s probability is decided, the GM must identify how wide the scope of the change may be. The more land and the more people the change affects, the harder it will be to bring it about. A village-sized change is the smallest scale, affecting only a single hamlet or a village’s worth of people. A city-sized change affects the population of a single city or several villages, while a regional one might affect a single barony or small province. A kingdom-sized one affects a whole kingdom or a collection of feudal lordships, and a global change affects the entire Latter Earth, or at least those parts known to the PCs. When deciding the scope of the change, focus on how many people are going to be immediately affected

•279 Probability of the Goal

Base Difficulty

Scope Affected

Difficulty Multiplier

Greatest Active Opposition

Difficulty Multiplier

Probable

Village

Minor figures

Improbable

City

Local leaders

Impossible

Region

Major noble or beast

Kingdom

x16

King or famed monster

x16

Known World

x32 Multiply opposition by x2 if the local population is emotionally or socially against it.

by the project. Turning a town into a trading hub might incidentally affect a significant part of a kingdom, but the immediate consequences are felt only by the residents of that town, and perhaps their closest trading partners. The scope in that case would be simply that of a city, rather than a region. Banishing slavery throughout a kingdom would require a kingdom-sized change, while getting it banned within some smaller feudal region would require a proportionately lesser scope. If the PCs are trying to establish an educational institution, or a religious order, or some other sub-group meant to serve a chosen cause, the scope should be the largest general area the order can have influence in at any one time. A very small order of warrior-monks might only have enough devotees to affect a village-sized community or problem. An order with multiple monasteries and bases of operations throughout a kingdom might have enough muscle to affect events on a nation-wide scale. In the same vein, a small academy might be enough to bring enlightened learning to a city, improving the lives of men and women there, but not have the reach to influence the greater region around it. Individual warrior-monks or specific scholars might play major roles elsewhere in the setting, but the institution itself can’t rely on the certainty of being able to step into such roles. In some cases, a PC might attempt to forge a Working or develop a specific bloodline of magical or cursed beings. Assuming that they have the necessary tools and opportunities to achieve such a great feat, the scope should apply to the total number of people affected by the magic over its entire course of existence. Thus, a village-sized change like this might apply to ten generations of a very small bloodline, the enchantment lasting for a very long time but applying only to a few people at any one time. It might be reproduced by special training, magical consecration, or a natural inherited bloodline. Once the scope limit is reached, the magic can no longer be transmitted, as it has either been exhausted or the subtle shiftings of the Legacy have damaged it beyond repair. Conversely, a very large scope for such a work might mean that many people are so affected, though a very large change like that would only last for a few generations before reaching the maximum affected population. Because of such limits, many such empowered bloodlines or augmented magical traditions are very selective about adding new members.

Optionally, PCs who want to create such a magical working can fix it indefinitely, causing it to be heritable or transmissible for the indefinite future. Such laborious workings are much more difficult than simply tying the effect to the natural flow of the Legacy, however, and so it costs four times more than it would otherwise. Thus, imbuing a village of people with some magical quality that they will forever after transmit down to a similar number of heirs would count as a x8 multiplier instead of a x2 multiplier.

Determining the Opposition

Once you have decided on the difficulty and the scope, you now need to identify the most significant people or power bases that would be opposed to this change. In some cases, there may be no one opposed to the alteration; turning a steppe oasis into a trading post might not have anyone to object if there are no nomads who control the land, nor terrible beasts to threaten settlers. In most cases, however, there’s going to be at least one person, creature, or other power in the area who would prefer things not change. If the opposition comes in the form of ordinary peasants or citizens, minor bandit rabble, normal dangerous animals, or other disorganized and low-level threats, then the difficulty is multiplied by x2. If the opposition is organized under competent leadership, such as a local baron, rich merchant, or persuasive priest, or if the opposition is some dangerous but not especially remarkable monster, then the difficulty is multiplied by x4. If the opposition is entrenched and powerful, such as a group of nobles, an influential bandit king, a crime boss, a major city’s mayor, or a monster impressive enough to have developed its own legendry, then the difficulty is multiplied by x8. If the opposition involves facing down a king, a legendary monster, the primate of a major religion, or some similar monarchic power, then the difficulty is multiplied by x16. When measuring opposition, only the greatest opponent counts. Thus, if the king, the nobility, and the local village chief all hate an idea, the difficulty modifier is x16. If the king is then persuaded to relent, the difficulty modifier becomes x8, until the barons are pacified,

280• after which the village chieftain is the only opposition left, for a x2 modifier. On top of this, if the change inspires widespread popular disapproval or unease among the populace affected by the change, multiply the modifier by an additional x2. Such changes usually touch on delicate questions of group identity, cultural traditions, or basic values, and the people in the change’s scope are likely to resist such measures on multiple levels. As an example, assume an idealistic band of adventurers dreamed of extirpating slavery from an entire kingdom. The natives use slaves for work and status, but their labor isn’t crucial to the economy’s survival, so the GM decides it is merely improbable to give up slavery, for a base difficulty of 2. The scope is kingdom-wide, so 2 is multiplied by 16, for a difficulty of 32. As the situation stands now, the king has no desire to infuriate the wealthy magnates of his kingdom by taking away their free labor, so he would oppose it for an additional x16 multiplier, for a total difficulty of 512. Oh, and the natives find the idea of accepting slaves as equals to be emotionally abhorrent, so that’s an additional x2 multiplier, for a final difficulty of 1,024. It is very unlikely for the heroes to manage to scrape up the 1,024 points of Renown needed to make this change out of hand. They’re going to have to alter the situation to quell the opposition and make specific strides toward making the ideal more plausible before they can finally bring about their dream.

Decreasing Difficulty

Adventurers who have a dream bigger than their available Renown have several options for bringing it about more rapidly. The party can use some or all of these techniques for making their ambition more feasible, and the GM might well insist on at least some of them before the PCs can succeed. They can spend money. Sometimes a problem can be solved by throwing enough money at it, either by paying off troublesome opponents, constructing useful facilities or installations, or hiring enough help to push the cause through. Money is often useful, but it eventually begets diminishing returns; once everything useful has been bought, additional coinage brings little result. The adjacent table shows how much a point of Renown dedicated to the project costs. The first few points come relatively cheaply, but after that the price increases rapidly. Eventually, there comes a point where only the wealth of empires can shove a massive project through with sheer monetary force. Small projects and modest ambitions are generally easy to accomplish with cash, but society-wide alterations and massive undertakings can defeat the richest vault. They can build institutions. If the PCs want a fortified monastery loyal to them, they can either throw enough Renown at their goal until allied NPCs and local potentates think it’s a good idea to buy them off by building it for them, or they can actually go out and pur-

chase it with their own money. They can hire the masons, recruit the monks, and find a trustworthy abbot to act as regent for the heroes. Such steps may not be enough to completely attain the purpose, as they’ll still have to deal with quelling any local opposition to the new monastery and any innate implausibility of establishing a monastery wherever they want to put it, but it’ll get them a long way toward success. The GM decides a reasonable cost for the institution they want to build and the assorted recruits they’ll need to operate it, using the guidelines in this section. Prices will vary drastically based on the situation; building a splendid stone castle in a desert with no good source of stone will cost far more than listed, while hiring skilled artisans in a major metropolis won’t be nearly as difficult as finding them in an empty tundra. Once the cost is paid, the GM assigns a suitable amount of Renown toward attaining the goal. For example, if the overall goal is securing the trade route between two distant cities, building a fortified caravansary with patrolling road guards might give enough Renown to solve half the problem. The rest of it might require dealing with the opposition that’s making the hazard in the first place, such as the depredations of a bandit chief or the perils of the savage monsters that haunt the road. They can nullify opposition. Either through gold, persuasion, or sharp steel, the PCs can end the opposition of those powers who stand against their ambition. Opponents who can be bought off might be managed with nothing more than a lengthy discussion and an exchange of valuables, but other opponents might need fullfledged adventures to deal with. Some might demand favors in exchange for withdrawing their opposition, or quests accomplished on their behalf, or enemies snuffed out by the swords of the heroes. Others could be so unalterably opposed to the idea that they must either be killed or endured. If the opposition is nullified, the difficulty decreases accordingly. If several sources of opposition exist, then only the biggest opponent counts for the multiplier; if they’re eliminated, then the next largest counts. Renown Bought

Cost in Silver per Point

First 1-4 points

1,000 per point

Next 4 points

2,000 per point

Next 8 points

4,000 per point

Next 16 points

8,000 per point

Next 32 points

16,000 per point

Next 64 points

32,000 per point

Further points

Prohibitively expensive

Thus, purchasing 14 points of Renown would cost 4,000 for the first four, 8,000 for the next four, and 24,000 for the next six, for 36,000 total.

•281 They can adventure in pursuit of their goal. This adventure might be something as simple as finding the den of a troublesome pack of monsters, or it could be something as involved as delving into an ancient Deep to recover the lost regalia that will give them the moral authority to make demands of a troublesome prelate. Such adventures will give the PCs their usual award of Renown, but they can also give a bonus award toward their specific goal if their efforts are particularly relevant. This bonus is determined by the GM. The easiest way for the GM to pick the proper amount for the award is to privately estimate how many such adventures their goal is worth and then award Renown accordingly. Thus, if the GM thinks that three adventures like this one is as much focus and effort as the group should have to spend toward accomplishing their aim, then each adventure will decrease the goal’s difficulty by one-third. Adventuring is by far the most efficient way to accomplish a group’s goals, assuming they can come up with adventures that are relevant. This is intentional; a goal that gives the GM an easy supply of adventuring grist is a genuine contribution to the game. The more adventures that a GM gets out of PC ambitions, the easier it will be to prepare for the game and ensure the players are involved in the campaign.

Achieving the Goal

Once the PCs have piled up enough Renown and lowered the difficulty enough to actually make it feasible to achieve the goal, they need to take the final steps necessary to complete the work. For a minor goal, this might be a simple matter of describing how they take care of the details, while a vast campaign of effort might culminate in several brutal, perilous adventures. The time this change takes will rest with the GM’s judgment. It might take half a year to build a large stone monastery, while a week could be time enough to throw up a palisade and other simple fortifications around a village. Persuading a kingdom to alter its laws about slavery might be done in a theoretical instant if the autocrat decrees but take years to truly percolate into the public consciousness. If the PCs have been working on the project for some time already this effort should be taken into account and lessen the time required. For mundane changes or changes the GM doesn’t really want to focus on, the PCs simply declare that they’re spending their Renown and using their own good name, personal prowess, and accumulated friendships and contacts to pull off their ambition. They might give examples of some of the ways they’re working to achieve the goal and specify what allies or resources they’re deploying. The GM then describes the outcome of their efforts. They may not be completely successful and events may not work out exactly as they planned, but they’ll get the substance of what they wanted. For changes that push through opposition instead of subverting it, those that just pay the price for the opposition multiplier, the GM might oblige the PCs to deal

with consequences of that unquelled opposition. The kingdom might outlaw slavery, but if not all the opposition was defeated there may remain small pockets where the law doesn’t reach or the populace refuses to accept the freed slaves as fellow citizens. Solving these remnant problems might require their own projects or adventures. For magical, impossible, or truly epic changes, the GM might oblige the PCs to face some culminating adventure or challenge before their ambition becomes real. They might’ve marshaled enough force and enough allies to depose the wicked king, but now the day of reckoning has come and they must face the tyrant and his elite guard in a pitched battle within the capital city. Some heroic changes might require several such adventures, with failure meaning that their efforts somehow fall short of complete success. If the tyrant is not slain, he might escape into exile to foment further trouble, or he might flee to a province he still can control. Once the change is successfully achieved, the GM should take a little while to consider the larger ramifications of the event. Who in the surrounding area is going to take notice of the events, and what are they likely to do about it? What allies of the PCs might be strengthened by the change and able to push their own agendas further? What are the longer-term consequences of their actions, and how might these show up during future adventures? The ultimate point of changes like these is not simply to make marks on the campaign map, but to create the seeds of future adventures and future events. The actions of the characters create reactions, and the deeper they involve themselves in the campaign setting, the more that setting is going to involve itself with them. This is ultimately a virtuous circle for the GM and the group, as it helps to generate adventures and events that matter to the players and spares the GM from confusion or uncertainty over what kind of adventuring grist to generate.

Major Changes and Factions

Players are likely to end up with goals or ambitions that directly involve them with local factions or potentially touch on Assets or other resources significant to faction powers. This is normal, and it’s not difficult to integrate the two systems when they happen to touch. As a general rule, major projects should be treated just as adventures would be. When a project would plausibly damage a faction’s Assets, then the Assets will be damaged or destroyed. When they would create an Asset useful for a faction, whether one belonging to the players or to another group, then the Asset is created. If a faction doesn’t care for a project, it might turn into a source of opposition that must be quelled or overcome, while an allied faction might supply some portion of the Renown itself by taking an action to aid the PCs. The help of a faction should be scaled by the GM; if an empire decides to give the PCs a castle, then it might be such a minor part of the faction’s holding that no Treasure expense or other effort is required to do so. A small

282• religious cult that wants to help build a monastery for the PCs might not be able to give nearly as much help, and might simply be good for a quarter of the Renown needed if they spend an action assisting the PCs. Conversely, when a faction is opposed to some measure, the PCs will probably have to undertake an adventure to change its mind or pull the fangs that it’s using to interfere with their efforts.

Magical Projects

Some projects are flatly impossible in nature, such as changing humans into some new humanoid species or creating a magical effect that covers an entire region. These efforts are a step beyond ordinary impossibility, as they often require measures entirely beyond the physical capabilities of normal civilizations. While exceedingly difficult, such projects are not out of the question for powerful mages who have the help of skilled adventurers. They do require a few more steps than an ordinary project would require, however. The heroes must create one or more Workings dedicated to enabling the change, using the guidelines given in the Magic chapter. The scope of these Workings must be large enough to affect the scope of the change itself; if the alteration is to be done to an entire region, then a region-sized Working must be built. Workings so large as to affect an entire kingdom are beyond the scope of modern magic, and only some special quest into the fathomless past could discover the keys to grand, world-spanning alterations. The degree of the Working will depend on the degree of the change. The devising of a race of humanoid creatures similar to humans but cosmetically different might be a Minor Working, while more substantial alterations will require great degrees of power. The summoning of a river from the depths of the earth might be a Major change for a small stream, while something the size of the Amazon might be of Supreme difficulty. If the magical change is impossible but relatively modest in scope, then one great Working will be necessary to empower it. If the change is significant and will have major repercussions on the future area, it will take two, while a change that seems barely within the limits of possibility will need three Workings to support it, all of the appropriate degree and scope. The construction of these Workings often require adventures in their own right to find the critical components or esoteric substances needed to erect them, to say nothing of the material cost of the work. If these Workings are later destroyed or corrupted the change itself may be damaged as well. Sometimes the effect is so graven on the world that it continues unsupported, but other times the change fades away into something more mundane. In the worst cases, the magic goes rampant and terrible consequences are born from its uncontrolled fury. As a consequence, most nations are highly averse to the construction of large-scale magical infrastructure.

Factions and Major Projects

PCs who have the friendship or control of factions can leverage them to assist in their grand plans. A faction can assist on a project only once per faction turn, and this help counts as its action for the turn. When a faction helps, it spends one point of Treasure and decreases the difficulty of the project by the sum total of its Wealth, Force, and Cunning attributes, down to a minimum difficulty of 1 point. The faction can’t usually complete a major project on its own; it needs the PC or some driving personality to envision and implement the plan. A faction needs to spend Treasure and help only once on a project to decrease the difficulty. The difficulty reduction remains until the project is complete or the faction chooses to withdraw its support for some reason. More than one faction can contribute its help, if they can be persuaded. If the faction is ideally suited to the project, such as a government establishing a new political order, or a religion instituting a new cultural norm, or a thieves’ guild forming a cabal of assassins, then their attribute total is doubled for purposes of calculating the new difficulty. If the faction is willing or forced to go to extremes in helping a project, either out of desperation or the ruthless demands of its leadership, it can commit its Assets and own institutional health to the project. Any Asset or Base of Influence in the same location as the project can accept hit point damage to lower the difficulty; each hit point they spend lowers it by one point. This kind of commitment is difficult to calibrate safely; at the end of the spend, each Asset or Base of Influence that contributed suffers an additional 1d4 damage. This may be enough to destroy an Asset, or even destroy the faction itself if enough damage is done to a Base of Influence. If the faction is of a vastly larger scale than the project, such as a prosperous kingdom helping to construct a new border village, the entire project can be resolved in a single action. In some cases, the GM may not even require the faction to spend any Treasure, as the expense is so small relative to its resources that it’s not worth tracking.

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CREATING ADVENTURES (Chapter intro here) This chapter is for GM advice and adventure creation tools.

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ADVENTURESPLASH W 8.5 in H 11 in

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What GMs and Players Need to Bring Many gaming players and GMs are familiar with the tacit expectations of their table. They know what everyone is supposed to be bringing to the session, and they know what their share of the work is supposed to be. For new players or those introduced into a new group, however, these tacit understandings might be a little too implicit. To help clarify these points, here are some of the basic expectations that players and GMs need to have about a standard Worlds Without Number campaign.

Duties of the Players

Players have the relatively “easy” job in a campaign, but it doesn’t mean it’s one they can wholly neglect. There are some things every player needs to bring to the table if everyone there is going to have a good time. PCs need to want to work together. It doesn’t matter how or why your PC wants to work with the other characters. Maybe it’s a spirit of grudging cooperation, or suspicious association, or an alliance of convenience. It can be any reason that your character concept can justify, but it has to boil down to your PC wanting to help and cooperate with the other PCs. If your concept cannot make room for that then you need a new concept. Make a PC that can actually play with the other players. Note that some campaigns might be explicitly adversarial among the PCs, or involve specific contrary goals or purposes. If everyone at the table is fine with that, then that’s perfectly acceptable, but the default assumption is that everyone is working together. PCs need to have a motivation to act. Your PC need to want to interact with the world. They need a goal, or a motivation, or an inclination to do something. When they see adventure, they need to have a reason to jump at it. Sometimes a character concept gets created that is all about being something; the character is a taciturn archer, or a beautiful young priestess, or a farm-boy warrior haunted by the specter of battle. That’s all well and good, but all of these concepts need a driving motivation that will get them tangled in plot hooks and seeking wild adventures. Players need to pay attention. Put away the phones, stow the talk about the latest podcast, and listen to what the other players are doing even when it doesn’t involve you. Listen to what the GM is saying, think about the choices your PC is going to make, and engage with the game as it’s going on. Players need to trust the GM. The GM is going to be making a lot of judgment calls and quick decisions during play. Not all of them are going to go your way, and some of them are inevitably going to seem downright poorly-reasoned. Still, you need to trust that the GM is doing their best to deliver a fun session for everyone. Rules disputes and other issues with the way they’re running a game should be saved for after the session is over.

Duties of the GM

The GM has a heavier load than the players bear. While the players only need to worry about a single character in the world, the GM has to handle the rest of the campaign setting, ensuring that everyone there has enough material to have a good time. A GM needs to be fair. You are not the party’s adversary. You are not the party’s cheerleader. You are not here to test their mettle or usher them toward their destiny. You are the indifferent prime mover of your campaign who gives the PCs the results that their efforts have earned. Tilting dice rolls to save or damn a PC is not part of your role. However heart-rending or cruel it may be, the default assumption in Worlds Without Number is that the GM does not cheat the dice when PCs are involved. In the same vein, a GM doesn’t play favorites among the players. While friendships or relationships may vary, everyone gets the same dice and the same odds at the table. Once special favors start getting handed out every decision the GM makes starts to be viewed with suspicion, whether or not it was deserved. A GM needs to respond to the PCs. If the party decides to venture into the cursed Ashblight arratu, then you need to make up an adventure revolving around that expedition. If the beautiful young priestess has convinced the party to help her assassinate the leader of her temple, then you need to make an adventure about how they do or don’t achieve that. On a smaller scale, when the PCs do something in the world, it should leave marks and consequences that they encounter later, even if only in passing. When the PCs do things, the GM needs to do things in response. A GM needs to account for PC goals. If the PC has a goal of accumulating vast wealth, then the GM needs to be ready to throw out hooks to adventures that promise monetary rewards. If the PC’s goal is bloody vengeance on a tyrant, then hooks need to be made that involve resisting the monarch’s rule. These hooks and adventures need not simply grant the PC’s wish or give them a golden road to success, but if the players say they want to have adventures revolving around a topic, a GM needs to give them hooks that will get them there. A GM needs to have an evening’s adventure. At the start of the session, the GM needs to have enough material to reasonably occupy the group for however long they’ve decided to play. This is the most time-consuming part of a GM’s job, because brewing up an adventure can take a great deal of time and effort to do well. The tools in this section are meant to help ease the GM’s burden in this, however, and make it as quick and painless as possible.

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GM Issues and How To Handle Them Certain topics and issues come up regularly for GMs, and it can be helpful to have some advice as to how to handle these ordinary situations. The tactics below are certainly not the only way to deal with matters, and may not even be the best way for your particular group, but they’ve proved effective at many different tables.

Disputes During Play

It’s inevitable that people at the table will eventually disagree about how a particular rule works. Often as not, this disagreement arises when it is extremely important to some PC’s future health and well-being. This kind of tension can make for sharp disagreements, so some points should be remembered when trying to deal with the situation. Debates are for after the session. If serious discussion of a ruling needs to happen, it should take place after the game session is over. Whatever the GM decides goes for the time being, and afterwards the player can make their case and the GM can reflect on their choices. This doesn’t mean that the GM will agree even then, but the middle of the session is not the time to break out the page number arguments. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Both players and GMs shouldn’t bother spending time arguing over trifles. If a ruling doesn’t seriously affect a situation or a PC’s health, there’s no reason to give it more than ten seconds of backand-forth. For every decision the GM makes that cuts against a PC, odds are there’ll be one that grants them an edge, so it’s really not worth arguing over. This book is not holy. While this book provides a baseline set of rules and default assumptions for play, it is by no means more important than the specific mix of people, situations, and goals that a particular group has at their table. Some default rules might be genuinely terrible for a particular mix of people. Others may not satisfy their interests, or be generally disliked by those who are playing. While it’s good form for a GM to discuss any house rules they’ll be using and make sure all players are amenable to them, disputing these decisions because of what this book says is not particularly helpful. The GM may reconsider their decisions based on new information or new interpretations, but ultimately, it’s up to them. The canonical rules are the ones the GM has decided to use. If their judgment really is no fun for the players then somebody else can do the work to create the play session.

Arguments Among Players

A little intra-party tension is normal and reasonable, and two adventurers who trust each other with their life in battle might not trust each other with their sisters in peace. Sometimes this ordinary tension heats up, however, and PCs start actively working against each other. In the worst cases, this bleeds over into or stems from out-of-game animosity between them.

Worlds Without Number is not designed to be a good PvP game. It’s not built to provide balanced conflicts between PCs, and it assumes that all the PCs will be working together or at the very least not trying to undermine each other. If the entire table is keen on the conflict and everyone trusts the GM to handle any judgment calls, then it can be used that way, but it’s not a situation that the game natively supports. If the quarrel is distracting the rest of the party, however, then the GM needs to call a time-out and get the players back on the same page. Have them decide how they work out their dispute… and they will work it out, because the rest of the group’s fun isn’t going to be held hostage by two players. If they can’t come to some modus vivendi and keep interfering with the rest of the group’s fun, tell them that they’re out of the game until they can play nicely.Their fun is not more important than the rest of the group’s fun, and if they’ve got the bad manners to disregard the rest of the group’s time and enjoyment then they’re not a good match for the table. It is nobody’s obligation to play with people who aren’t fun for them, and no one is obliged to justify their tastes in idle entertainment. Not everybody will be a perfect match for everyone else; the problem player of one table might be the life of the party to another. It is not cruel or selfish to restrict your efforts to those groups that reward your time and labor, and you should not feel obligated to spend your leisure hours amusing anyone who doesn’t provide their own fair share of fun to you.

Rules in Ambiguous Situations

In the course of a campaign, there will be plenty of occasions when the PCs end up doing something that hasn’t got a matching rule or guideline in the book. It’s necessary for the GM to make an ad-hoc ruling in such cases, and in doing so a few things ought to be kept in mind. Don’t worry about large-scale balance concerns. Such extemporaneous rulings can always be changed or revised between sessions if they seem like they’re going to come up again. All you need is a ruling that makes sense for this specific situation. Everyone should accept that there may be changes later if the outcome doesn’t seem to make sense or if it looks likely to be a recurring issue in need of appropriate balance. Decide based on logic rather than outcomes. If the PCs come up with a brilliant plan that totally circumvents the challenge you thought they were going to face, don’t deny them their success simply because it would spoil your preparations. You may need to call a short session, or throw in some filler content as aftermath to their success, or pull out some emergency backup material to throw in another problem to keep them amused, but let them have their fairly-schemed victories. “But this would ruin the adventure” is almost never a good basis for

288 decision making; their course of action is the adventure, and a GM’s job is simply to administer it fairly. Use existing rules as guidelines. If what they just did would probably kill an ordinary person it happened to, then maybe it does 2d6 damage, because that’d usually kill an ordinary person. If the party can usually move twenty miles a day, then the expert native guide might let them cross thirty miles of terrain in her company. Grant +1 bonuses to skill checks, or +2 if the situation is extremely positive, or invert them for negative situations. Don’t worry about matching everything perfectly, but instead just take your cues from what already exists.

GM Calls for Skill Checks

As a general rule of thumb, it should be the GM deciding when a skill roll is in order. There’s a certain habit some players have of simply saying, “I roll Convince” or “I roll Notice” or otherwise simply pushing the button on their sheet to get a desired result. That’s not generally the best way to handle the situation, because the GM has very little information on how to respond to such efforts. Instead, the player should describe what their PC is saying, or doing, or trying to accomplish, and then the GM decides whether a skill check is in order, and if so, what the difficulty might be. If they end up saying or doing the exact right thing, or exact wrong thing, then there may be no need for a skill check at all. If the tactic they’re choosing is exceptionally apt or unfruitful then the skill check difficulty will reflect that. This is also important when running for players who are new to the game system, who can’t be expected to know or remember all the rules. If they learn to simply say what they’re trying to do and let the GM tell them what to roll, they can still play comfortably.

Using Social Skills

Players who invest a lot of their character concept into social skills such as Convince, Lead, and Connect have the fair expectation of being able to use those skills in play, even if they themselves aren’t all that socially adroit. GMs should recognize the general level of comfort that a given player has with describing their specific words and social gambits; some players will gladly extemporize their persuasions and others will have a harder time picking their words. The latter shouldn’t be penalized. As a basic guideline, when the player wants to persuade or manipulate an NPC, they should explain what they’re trying to get from them and what reasoning or motivations they’re offering to get that result. They can express these elements with as much in-character persuasion as they like, but what you really need to know is what they want and why the NPC should give it. In some cases, no skill check is then required. Either the reasoning is solid and the NPC has no cause to object to the inducement or else what the PC wants is so unreasonable or emotionally intolerable to the NPC that no plausible incitement can get it from them. If the situation falls between those two extremes, then you can call for a Convince or Lead skill check at a difficulty appropriate to the persuasiveness of the offer. Remember that social skill levels, no matter how high, are not mind control. They can’t get people to do things they would never normally do unless overwhelming situational pressure is involved. Conversely, they’re also completely impossible to block with magic, so if an Expert con man can get next to an Imperator there’s no magical bar or saving throw that’s going to prevent him from persuading the demigod that a seemingly good idea should be taken up.

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PC Death and Replacement

Worlds Without Number is a relatively lethal game by default. A single good spear thrust can usually put paid to any novice adventurer and there are no easy means of reviving the dead. Shock damage from a mob, the gnashing teeth of fell beasts, or taking a sorcerer's murderous bolt of energy directly to the face can all terminate even an experienced hero's career. It's important that the GM and the party all be on the same page about character mortality before the campaign begins. If the players are accustomed to systems with a more forgiving attitude toward character survival, or those in which heroes are protected by plot armor until they intentionally make themselves vulnerable, the shock of the difference can spoil their fun. The GM should make abundantly clear to the players that people with big knives are dangerous in this game and that combat is likely to get novice heroes killed if it's not approached with a maximum of tactical advantage. Given a long enough campaign, it's likely that even a storied hero of numerous adventures is going to make one gamble too many and end up dead from one cause or another. The default assumption of the game is that the players salute the departed legend, perhaps arrange for a tasteful monument, emotional drinking binge, or pragmatic corpse looting, and roll up a replacement. If the GM is feeling charitable then the replacement might be no more than a couple adventures’ worth of experience points behind the deceased hero. GMs should be very generous about getting fresh PCs into the action. It's bad enough that a player's PC died; they shouldn't be made to sit around for half an hour while everyone else gets to have fun. Let their replacement be found lost in the same Deep, or rescued from the foes the PCs just overcame, or out in the wilderness on some conveniently minor errand when the others happen to march through. Questions of trust and comradeship should also probably be glossed for playability's sake. The point is to get the player back in the game as soon as possible, because playing the game is the reason everyone is there. While this kind of character fragility can be dismaying to players of many modern games, there's a point to it beyond mere bravado. A character who accomplishes grand adventures and survives horrible perils this way has actually accomplished something difficult. There were no plot points in his favor, no narrative tweaks to ensure his survival, and no cushion of fate to keep him from being pulped by a bad choice. The player made a lot of very good choices, picked the right battles to fight, and made decisions that were objectively wise if they've managed to get this far, and they've done it while absorbing the inevitable amount of bad luck that honest dice would have thrown at them. There's a genuine feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from bringing a hero that far. The PCs that didn't make it are just proof that the game wasn't rigged in your favor.

Even so, that's not the kind of game every group wants to have. While the satisfaction of proving your skill at navigating the game world is real, some groups want to focus more on character development and following the lives of the particular PCs they want to play. Some may want to play a full-fledged story-arc campaign where the PCs explore a particular plot line, while others just don't want to deal with developing a new PC whenever their choices and their dice end up demanding it. For games like this, there are a few different options the GM can use, assuming the group is all in agreement. Heroes never die. In these games, the PCs cannot die unless they take bad-faith advantage of this protection. So long as they behave sensibly, no combination of dice can result in their death or permanent invalidation as an adventurer. They may be knocked unconscious, thrown off cliffs, left for dead, blasted into the shrubbery by sorcery, or cursed with afflictions that don't leave them unviable for adventuring, but they won't actually die. Instead, whenever they would die, something Very Bad happens in their life as a kind of karmic balance. Each player should tell the GM three things that their PC absolutely would hate having happen, whether that's a ability-score-lessening wound, limb loss, death of a loved one, loss of most of their wealth, collapse of a friendship, or the like. These things might change over the course of the campaign as new factors become important to the PC. Whenever the hero would die, one of these things somehow comes to pass, through some stroke of ill-luck or consequence of their failure. Optionally, the GM might pick some other calamity, one the players don't know about until it's too late. The point is that something bad will happen, so the PCs should try very hard not to die. Negative ten and counting. In these games, PCs are knocked unconscious at zero hit points as usual, but don't actually become Mortally Wounded until they reach -10 hit points or below. Heroes merely reduced to zero hit points will wake up at the end of the fight or scene with 1 hit point, able to act normally. This buffer ensures that a normal spear wound or ordinary bestial chomp might be able to knock a hero down, but it won't put them at immediate risk of death. Higher-level heroes facing multi-die damage sources might have more to worry about, however. Any healing applied to the downed PCs should count from zero, so a PC at -5 hit points who gets 6 points of healing from a friend can stand up with 6 hit points, not 1. Not my time. Meant chiefly for story-arc games, each PC has a grand ambition or ultimate goal that they're destined to pursue. So long as they honestly and reasonably pursue that goal they cannot die until it has been achieved or been rendered conclusively hopeless. They might suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune, and the consequences of their failures might be dire, but so long as they have some hope of attaining their great goal and don't lose faith in the pursuit of it, they can't be permanently put down.

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Planning and Running Your Adventures Some experienced GMs will have their own well-tested habits for creating and running adventures for their group. Others need a little more guidance, however, and so this section explains how a GM might go about preparing an evening’s adventure, and the steps such a creator will need to go through in order to brew up a suitable session’s worth of fun.

Sandboxes and Story Arcs

The tools in this section are meant to support a “sandbox” style of campaigning, and for some GMs this might need a little explanation. Sandbox gaming is relatively less popular than the more prevalent “story arc” style of play, but it has a long and splendid tradition of fun behind it. A sandbox campaign is built with no presumption of an overarching plot or direction. The PCs are not particularly chosen by destiny, and their fates are wholly undirected by narrative fiat. Each PC has their own goals, motivations, and hopes, and it is the GM’s job to provide them with interesting situations and engaging adventures in which they might strive to carry out their plans. Some will succeed, and others will perish hideously, perhaps of no greater crime than sufficiently bad luck. The campaign world shifts and reacts to PC actions, and the overall goal of the party might change from one session to the next. Story arc campaigns are built around a particular plot line or narrative thread. The campaign is about how the heroes deal with that plot and the actions they take in response to the inevitable events and situations that the narrative thrusts upon them. It’s tacitly assumed that all the PCs are going to get involved in the plot and cooperate with it to at least a basic level; they won’t simply decide to wash their hands of the affair and go hunt monsters two nations away. Both styles of adventuring are perfectly valid and provide their own pleasures. A good story arc can hit narrative beats and emphasize coherent themes that would be impossible to ensure in a sandbox campaign, while a sandbox campaign allows for a refreshing amount of surprise for both players and GMs, as neither of them can be entirely sure what’s going to happen in the next session. This surprise helps keep things fresh for the GM. Worlds Without Number is built chiefly to support sandbox campaigns, but there’s nothing stopping you from using its tools to help build some story arc game with a specific narrative your group wants to explore. In the same vein, there’s nothing immoral about mixing the two styles in the same campaign, so long as the players know what the expectations are. The heroes might venture as their whim takes them through the Latter Earth until they find some situation that so interests them that the GM turns it into a tightly-plotted set of sessions that everyone agrees to follow to their end. The styles are simply tools to help you find the fun you like, not fealties to be pledged.

Preparing Your Adventure

When you sit down to prepare a session’s adventure, you can follow the steps below to help produce something playable in a reasonable amount of time. As you grow more experienced with the process, you can start adjusting it to better fit your own interests and skills, but using it as written will work fine for first-time GMs. Identify the purpose of the adventure. You need to know what kind of fun or opportunity this session is supposed to give to the party. If they’re trying to do something, the session needs to give them a chance to further their goal. If they want a particular kind of play, then the session needs to offer them that kind of play. If this is the first adventure of the campaign, then you need to make a short, one-session adventure that will pull the PCs together, introduce the players to the rules of the game, and give them a chance to learn about the campaign backdrop. At the end of the session, you need to throw them some obvious hooks to other potential adventures and then find out what they want to do next. If this is a later adventure, you should’ve asked the players at the end of the last session what they wanted to do for the next. If they told you they wanted to explore a Deep, then you need to flesh out a local Deep and make it adventure-ready. If they wanted to get back at a tyrannical lord, then you need to give them an adventure that lets them try to take that revenge. In a sandbox campaign the goals and interests of the PCs are what drive the adventures, and so you should always be ready to simply ask the party what they want to do. Pick a primary challenge for the adventure. There are four basic types of adventurous challenge: combat challenges that revolve around killing something, exploration challenges that revolve around exploring a dangerous place, investigative challenges that focus on discovering some hidden truth, and social challenges that require convincing or manipulating someone into compliance. Pick a primary challenge that matches the party’s goal. If they want to pillage a Deep, then that’s basically an exploration challenge. If they want to avenge themselves on the tyrant, then that’s likely going to be a combat challenge. In some cases, the party’s goal might be so large or so distant that it can’t reasonably be attained in a single adventure; killing the tyrant might eventually be a combat challenge, but initially it might be better represented as a social challenge to ingratiate the PCs into a cell of rebels, from which further progress can be made. Use the challenge tools in this section to flesh it out. Each of the four types of challenge have their own section in this chapter giving tools and guidance on making a good obstacle of its type. If you’re making an exploration challenge, you’ll need a map, things to discover, and interesting environments to interact with.

291 If you’re building a social challenge, you’ll need to identify people who have or can do the things the party wants, and the particular problems, wants, and relationships these people have. Add extra layers of challenges. Sometimes a very short session or an optional side-challenge might consist of nothing more than the primary challenge. It’s a relatively simple situation where something needs to die, a small strange place might get explored, or a single NPC might need to be induced to cooperate. Usually, however, you’ll want to add one or more additional layers of challenges beneath the primary one. If the PCs are exploring a Deep, then there are probably major monsters in there that are worth fleshing out as combat challenges, and maybe some enigmatic ancient mysteries that could qualify as investigation challenges. There might even be some not-necessarily-hostile powers in there that could be amenable to being a social challenge. If they’re trying to persuade an NPC as part of a social challenge, a means to induce them might be to kill a dangerous rival, or dig up well-hidden blackmail on them, or find a particular relic for them in some ruin. A GM can take this fractal down as far as they have the time and need to do so. A massive megadungeon Deep might be composed of a half-dozen layers of subzones to explore, each with their own mysteries, dire foes, and sinister bargains. A campaign-scale effort to depose a mad emperor might take a dozen sessions to work its way up to the final conflict as the PCs find secrets, fetch relics, kill loyalists, and persuade wavering neutrals. Stitch the challenges together. If you’ve used multiple layers of challenges the different moving parts probably have some inkling of each other. The dire beasts in a Deep probably know about the existence of their peers, and two different society grandees that are each their own social challenge could well have their own relationship to keep in mind. If the existence of some element in your adventure would have an obvious consequence to the rest of it, make sure that consequence is accounted for by the other parts of the session. Just because only one NPC wants some treasure from a Deep doesn’t mean the others don’t know about it… or don’t know about that NPC’s desire. Identify rewards and consequences. What do the PCs get for overcoming the challenges? Why should they actually care about any of this? Keep in mind the initial purpose of the adventure and make sure that the motivations and rewards the situation offers are ones the players are actually going to want to have. Some PCs will be easily motivated by the chance to fight for truth and justice, while other parties won’t lift a finger without silver to induce them. An adventure hook that doesn’t have any bait on it is unlikely to entice them.

Running Your Adventure

Once you have your adventure built, you’re ready to present it to the party. Every group will have its own tastes when it comes to face-to-face play versus virtual tabletops, or the use of digital devices at the table, or who brings the snacks, and such matters are best discussed and agreed on beforehand. Despite these universal imponderables, a GM should keep a few things in mind when actually running the adventure in a sandbox style of play. Don’t force outcomes. You’re putting the heroes into an interesting situation that gives them opportunities to pursue their goals. You’re not promising them any particular outcome, or any certain likelihood of success. It may further the plot wonderfully if the duke takes a shine to the party, but if they set fire to his rose garden and taunt his mother then that furtherance will not happen. The plot is what happens, not what anyone has planned to have happen. Have filler ready. Sometimes the PCs will hopelessly ruin a situation or shut themselves out of success in some resounding fashion. This may be intentional as they flip the table on an unacceptable situation, or it may be the result of bad luck, poor planning, or general imprudence. You should have some light filler content you can throw in to keep them occupied for the rest of the session, such as conveniently-discovered Deep on their path of retreat, or an easily-reskinned peasant who’s offering good pay for a little adventurous favor. You might generate such a filler adventure with the tools in this section and then just keep it on hand for emergencies. Find out what they want to do next session. At the end of every session, ask them what they want to do next. This is absolutely crucial for saving yourself time and wasted effort and ensuring that the entire group is on the same page about the next session’s general plan. They might choose to bite on a hook you’ve thrown out to them or come up with their own idea, but you need to know what kind of content to make for the next session. In a sandbox campaign, you only ever need to be one session ahead of the players. You don’t need to plot out vast narratives or design lands the PCs might someday reach; all you need to know is what they want to do next time, and then make your preparations accordingly. Remember, if you don’t need it for the next session, and you’re not having fun making it, stop working on it. Update your world after the session. Heroic adventures have consequences, both on the PCs and the world around them. Small-scale heroics might only affect a small region of the campaign world, but that region matters if it’s where the PCs are. Think about what the heroes have done, who profits by it, and who might be upset with their heroics. Ideally, you can then work in some callbacks to these changes in your future adventures, letting the players feel that their actions have consequences and that their goals and plans have a meaningful effect on the campaign.

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Creating Combat Challenges Combat challenges revolve around situations where a hard fight is a likely outcome for the PCs. They may have a burning desire to murder some hated enemy, or they might be facing a creature that has no capacity for peaceful interactions, or you might simply know your party well enough to know that there’s no way they’re going to let a particular NPC live once they find out what they’re like. As always, you should take care not to force this outcome. Cunning PCs might manage to avoid the target entirely if their goals can be achieved without violence, and exceptionally diplomatic groups might find a way to force a more peaceful conclusion to the challenge. Smart PCs will try to avoid combat whenever it’s not a direct necessity, and as the GM you should make sure that you’re not forcing their hand by putting unavoidable brawls directly in their path. It’s fine if the PCs decide they absolutely must kill a dragon. It’s not fine if the PCs decide that all they want is its money, and yet you arrange things so that the only way to steal the dragon’s hoard is to murder it in a setpiece battle. The goal of building a combat challenge is to equip yourself with all the facts you need to run the likely fray. For minor challenges, like sorting out the likely disposition of a sullen Anak with a pastry who happens to be lurking in a Deep closet, you might need nothing more than a brief stat line to remind you of its combat statistics. For more elaborate challenges, like an attempt on a vile cult leader’s life, you’re going to need something more developed.

The Logical Essentials

The first step is to think about the target and any surrounding protectors or associates it might have. A rich merchant will have guards at their estate, a cult leader will have fanatical minions, and an Anak warrior is unlikely to leave his warband behind. Allied groups might also have representatives in the area, or the target might have hired or coerced others into their retinue. If you’re stocking a Deep or some other lair of monsters, the creatures there are probably whatever type are common in the area or have adapted to the alien environment. It’s a great temptation to worry about “balance” when plotting out these details. If there are forty combat-capable Anak in the tribe then it is ridiculous to suppose that any ordinary band of novice heroes will be able to kill them all in a single pitched battle. As a consequence, a GM is tempted to shave down the number of foes for too-weak parties or add in extra muscle to give a “good fight” to a more experienced band. The assumption is that if there is a combat challenge in an adventure, the PCs ought to have some non-trivial chance of beating it in a fight, or a non-trivial chance of incurring grave losses. GMs in a sandbox campaign are encouraged to fight this instinct. Your job is to make a logical, coherent

world that can be engaged with by intelligent and observant players. A full Anak tribe would logically have at least forty capable warriors so there is no justification in shaving them down to match the party’s capabilities. A king would naturally have ferocious bodyguards, an evil sorcerer would have inhuman minions, and the most fearsome swordsman in the kingdom is not going to be any less fearsome if the PCs encounter him at first level rather than tenth. With that said, a GM also needs to think about the context of the adventure’s purpose. If you’re making a Deep for novice adventurers to explore, then at least some of the combat challenges in it should be winnable by the party should it come to blows. If there’s no logical reason why it has to be full of PC-slaughtering hellbeasts, then you do no violence to the campaign’s fabric by including foes both trivial and grand. The guidelines on page XX offer suggestions on how to assess a given combat encounter’s likelihood of slaughtering the PCs. Thus, your first job in the combat challenge is to draw up a list of the creatures and NPCs involved in it. Figure out who should be there and generate or note down combat statistics for them. Don’t worry about further details yet; just get the bare minimum down.

Framing the Environment

Once you know who might be involved in the fracas, you should think about the location the conflict might occur in and the kind of information you need to establish about it. A merchant’s house will require a map of the grounds, a sinister high priest lurking in a Deep will necessitate a plan of the subterranean passages, and a murder in the midst of some highly-populated area will inevitably draw some sort of hue and cry from the surrounding inhabitants that needs to be kept in mind. It’s tempting to turn significant combat challenges into set-piece battles, with different environmental elements all arranged to provide tactical opportunities. Pressure plates, sheer cliffs, howling winds, fiery pits, and other traditional epic-combat battlefield decorations might be involved. While an interesting environment for a fight is always a plus, it’s important to maintain the logic of the situation; most people are not going to spend much time in areas where a hideous death awaits a misplaced step or a lethal trap is waiting to spring on the first drunkard to forget to pull the disarming lever. It’s also quite possible that the heroes will not be considerate enough to fight the enemies on their chosen ground. They might draw them out to their own prepared killing field, hit them in detail, or collapse the supposed enemy lair rather than risk engaging them. Even so, personalizing a combat challenge with the specific perils of the environment is always to be recommended. If the PCs are trying to kill a duke, then the fact that the noble is surrounded by swarms of retain-

293 ers and has mobs of guardsmen that will rush to any alarm is a fact the PCs need to deal with. A combat in a blizzard-prone forest of frozen alien glass is going to involve blinding winds, razor-sharp flora, and dangerous collateral damage. If the environment the combat challenge takes place in has interesting or significant qualities like this, you should note down the likely effects in your preparation.

Identifying Alternate Routes

The next step is to think about ways the PCs could engage with this challenge without drawing their blades. If it’s a fearsome set of opponents, rational PCs will do their best to avoid fighting them unless there’s some strong motivation to risk their lives in battle. Even if the PCs are dead set on murdering the target for one reason or another, they might end up looking for ways to do so safely, without letting the enemy strike back. There are almost no circumstances in which you should force the PCs to engage a combat challenge directly. If the PCs are absolutely determined to draw steel on a target, then so be it, but any adventure that includes irrelevant but inevitable fights is an adventure that will probably go very badly for the party. If your adventure hinges on the assumption that the party is going to attack some particular foe head-on, or even that their interactions will inevitably be violent, then you risk railroading your players into situations that will likely get some portion of their PCs killed. Morale checks, reaction

rolls, and a creature’s basic inclination not to court death casually should always be kept in mind when building combat challenges. You might choose to flesh out a social challenge associated with the subject, some angle of manipulation that might turn them from an enemy into a peaceful neutral, if not an ally. You could stick in a minor exploration challenge that rewards the PCs with a secret back door into the target’s lair or a bypass that lets them skip the potential fight entirely. You should look at the environment you’ve designed, consider the habits and goals of the party, and think about what alternate courses they might take rather than an immediate recourse to initiative rolls.

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Combat Challenge Complications Six bandits in a Deep chamber might be a combat challenge, but it doesn’t give the GM much to work with when it comes time to make the encounter interesting. The tables on these pages offer complications and twists you can throw into the situation to enliven an otherwise banal brawl. Simply pick the tables that are most relevant to the situation and roll or select options to spice things up.

d20

Twists About the Target or their Allies

They are or have access to spellcasters or mages of some kind

They have a useful magical power uncommon to their kind

An unusually strong ally serves the group’s leader for its own reasons

d12

What’s Going On Right Now?

They lost a fight or had an accident, and are tending their wounded

The group is divided into parties or factions that cooperate poorly with each other

They’re absorbed in eating a meal

Killing them would enrage a seeminglyunrelated person or group

They’re arguing over some pertinent matter

They’re busy trying to repair a broken object or structure of importance to them

They have some reason to mistake the PCs for allies or hirelings

They’re having some sort of religious ritual

One member is a secret traitor in service to some other cause or group

They’re resting after hard labor

Another group would pay very well or be very pleased at the death of the target

They’re interrogating a prisoner or suspected traitor to the group

Eliminating this target would somehow release or remove a check on a dire foe

They’re training or practicing their skills

They’re drinking or celebrating some win

The target wants to get a member of their group killed in a deniable way, and will try to use the PCs to do it

There’s a tense leadership showdown

They’re lolling around in indolent idleness

They’re conducting the business of daily life and other duties of common necessity

They’re religious zealots who may or may not have some blessing or affiliation that fits

They’re searching for something that the PCs may or may not be able to help them find

d12

What Problems Do They Have?

The leader is desperately in love with one of their underlings or vice-versa

An ambitious underling plots against the leader or undermines their control

They’re tampering with some object or structural feature that’s extremely dangerous

They’re arguing over the fair division of some recently-gained spoils.

Some are seriously ill with a disease

They’re foreign to the other examples of their creature type around here, having come from far off for their own reasons

The leader is being foolish or irrational, driven by their own desires

They fight in an effective but abnormal way for their type or nature

They’re overconfident and careless

They’ve lost some treasure precious to them

Their leader has ensured that some dire consequence will ensue if they are killed

The underlings are ignoring the leader’s will

They’ve been afflicted by some danger of their current environment

Some portion of the group would really rather not fight but are feeling compelled by their peers or the leader

They’re out of food or some other supply

Some other group has a spy or observer who is watching during a potential conflict

The leader is an impostor or catspaw of some power that would normally be their enemy, and acts as best they can to serve them

They’re being targeted by some hostile rival or dangerous local denizen

They’ve been driven from their usual home by an enemy or a natural hazard

Some of their members have been taken prisoner or lost.

295 d12

What’s That Bestial Monster Doing?

It’s eaten recently and is lolling around, disinclined to hunt new prey

It’s fighting with another of its kind over a mate

It’s guarding cubs, eggs, or a recent kill

It’s currently hunting something else

It’s asleep or torpid

It’s playing after the manner of its kind

It’s patrolling its territory to repel intruders

It’s fleeing, having been driven out by a foe

It licks its wounds after a hard battle

It’s digging, marking, or otherwise preparing its new lair

It’s grooming itself or engaging in behavior specific to its type of creature

It’s starving, and is ravenous for prey

d12

Urban Dwelling Complications

d12

Deep Chamber Complications

An inquisitive neighbor is always watching the place

A dangerous standing magical effect is present in the room

The guards are unusually vigilant and attentive to their duties for some reason

Part of the structure is fragile and prone to collapse if damaged

The target’s living quarters are uncommonly difficult to access

There’s some noxious gas or substance tainting certain areas

There’s a dangerous beast guarding the grounds of the place

A dangerous fall is possible in some part of the room

The dwelling is unusually well-fortified

Servants and minions are thick in the halls

An ancient guardian risks being awakened by disturbances here

The owner has access to some kind of magical ward or divine blessing

Strange ancient engines churn nearby and can cause dire injury to the careless

The place is right next to a very vigilant and dangerous neighbor that will respond to alarms or disorders

There are secret passages here

The room is very vertical in its shape

The interior is mazey, abnormal, or difficult to navigate for some reason

A certain path must be known to safely cross a particularly treacherous surface

Poor repairs or recent damage makes the place dangerous to unknowing outsiders

It’s somehow prone to flooding or currently a swampy mess

A valuable object here is extremely fragile

There are several traps or alarms there

It’s connected to some kind of underground passages or ancient tunnels

Some ancient magic or Deep functionality has been repurposed for a purpose convenient to the current occupants

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Creating Exploration Challenges Exploration challenges revolve around plumbing the mysteries of some unknown site or long-vanished ruin. Not every exploration challenge is a conventional dungeon; searching a stretch of wilderness for points of interest is just as much an occasion of exploration as crawling through the tunnels of a buried Deep. Some exploration sites teem with hostile creatures and malevolent foes, while others simply contain obscure objects or enigmatic devices that make a puzzle of their operation. The goal of an exploration challenge is to engage the players in the setting and make them think carefully about how to navigate it and its mysteries. When building them, a GM needs to stock the area with plenty of things to manipulate, steal, prod, fight, and flee from. This section will discuss one method of creating such an exploration site; there are ten thousand other ways to do it, but this one is simple and replicable by anyone who follows the steps involved. The style of map this procedure creates is an abstract sort of map, one focusing on particular rooms or points of interest and largely glossing over the corridors or trackless miles between them. It’s taken as a tacit understanding that there will be no traps, treasures, edifices or other things of interest in these interstitial spaces, and the PCs won’t be punished for not carefully mapping every ten-foot square of dungeon or surveying every furlong of wilderness. Of course, some groups do prefer the classic graph-paper dungeon-crawls for inhabited areas, so advice is given at the end for converting these abstract maps into more concrete plans.

Choose Site Type

If you’re building an exploration site centered around a structure, you may already know what kind of edifice this dungeon is. You may have already decided to build a Deep, or craft a haunted castle, or send the PCs into the sand-choked passages of a buried city. If you need further inspiration, however, you can use the table on page XX for some suggestions or randomized results. If you’re building a “hexcrawl” wilderness exploration, your site will be the wilderness itself. It’s usually best to worry about no more terrain than the PCs could cover in a single session of play. A twelve-by-twelve hex zone is usually plenty, assuming it’s a standard six-mile wilderness hex. Such a zone assumes that the PCs will be searching it methodically for interesting sites rather than racing straight across it as quickly as possible. The structure’s type will help flavor the contents of the dungeon and the kind of inhabitants it might attract. It’ll also help you establish what sort of locations might be found inside, and what manner of strange devices or peculiar workings might be there.

Choose Inhabitant Framework

For structure-based sites, it may be that your dungeon is entirely devoid of inhabitants, whether bestial or intelligent. Most dungeons will have something crawling around in them, and it’s useful to determine the general shape of its occupants early, so as to let their presence flavor and influence your later decisions. You can use the table on page XX to define the general outline of the dungeon’s inhabitants. A single dominant group may control the area, or there may be multiple groups with varying relations between them. Unintelligent monsters may be a major factor in the place, or they may have been driven out by the sentient occupants. If you want additional layers to the site’s history, you can use the “What happened to their predecessors?” table in multiple “generations” of occupants, rerolling the framework for each period and seeing how it ended each time. The associated tables provide suggestions for what kind of inhabitant groups might fill the various roles of the framework. If you have access to some of the copious numbers of old-school monster manuals that exist, you can also swap in assorted humanoids or monstrous beasts to fill the roles the table offers. For wilderness exploration, you can use the same inhabitant table, but change the context to make it apply to tribes, hill clans, hidden villages, refugee encampments, or other population centers somewhere within the zone you’re developing. At the same time, you should factor in any inhabitants that might already exist on the map, such as a village or border outpost you’ve already established there.

Generate Rooms of Interest

A structure-based dungeon is built of “rooms”, with each room being a particular defined location within the structure. An armory in a fortress might be a room, a carved plaza in an underground city might be another, and a monster-infested moat around a ruined watchtower might be treated as a room as well. A room is simply a place that has its own defining character and might contain something the PCs would want or need to interact with. The tables on page XX provide examples of different types of rooms or different overall functions and roles for a location. You should tailor these results or options to the general purpose or character of the structure; an armory in a noble lord’s estate is going to be very different from the armory found in a wizard’s tower or a military barracks. An “armory” in a private residence might be nothing more than the storeroom where the owner once kept their grandfather’s dusty old armor. Ten rooms of interest are usually sufficient for a small dungeon that won’t eat up an entire evening’s play

297 to explore. A twenty-room dungeon is usually enough to occupy a several-hour session, while thirty or forty rooms is probably as large as is convenient for a particular site. If a site has multiple clusters of rooms or multiple “levels”, then you might assign each level or area of the dungeon its own budget of rooms. You should assume that at least half the rooms of interest will have nothing significant in them. They may have distractors or flavor elements present, but they’ll lack inhabitants, treasures, or substantial mysteries to investigate. If you pack every room with something shiny or sharp-toothed, your dungeon will tend to feel claustrophobic and overly-busy, and there won’t be any periods of calm downtime to contrast with the excitement that comes from perilous encounters. Sketch or dimension each room on the index card. The layout of these rooms is apt to be important if the heroes start fighting in them, and having a general idea of their shape and contents is critical when it comes time to describe them to the players. For a hexcrawl, each “room” is an individual hex. Many will have nothing of special interest in them, while others might have a structure or situation worth closer inspection. You will “stock” each of these hex-rooms later in the development process.

Lay Out the Rooms

Next, for structure-based sites you need to establish the spatial relationships between rooms and identify any interesting topological features that exist in the dungeon. One of the easier ways to do this is to write each room of interest down on its own 3x5 index card, numbering all your rooms in order. Later, as you stock each room with its contents, you can write it down on the index card, adding notes in play to record any changes the party’s actions may have caused. Take your deck of index cards and pick a room to serve as the entrance into your dungeon; this is where the PCs will enter the complex. You may add additional entry points later, but just one will serve for now. Put the card down in front of you on the table. Now roll on the table on page XX to determine how many exits depart from this room; reroll results of zero for this first room. The table below it gives choices for the direction of each exit. If the same result is rolled twice, roll or pick again. Place a new room on the table in the indicated direction. You can mark the existence of a connection between rooms by laying a coin or counter between the two adjoining room cards. Repeat this process for each room you lay down. If a path dead-ends with zero egresses, return to an earlier room and add a fresh connection. If the route turns back on itself so that a room opens an exit to an already-existing room, just mark it down as a loop in the dungeon. Stop adding new connections when you run out of rooms to place. Now look at the stylized map you’ve made and adjust it to your liking. Maybe you’ve got too many connec-

tions in one place or too few in another. Maybe you want to make sure there’s at least one loop in the dungeon’s framework. Maybe it’s too sprawling, and you want to bring it into a more condensed clump. Wilderness hex crawls don’t need to bother with this step, as only in rare cases will some hexes be physically inaccessible from neighboring areas. Crevasses, impassable mountains, ancient megastructures, or large natural features might block free travel in such cases.

Add Optional Map Features

For structure-based dungeons, you can continue on with the stylized map as it is, or you can pause to add some additional features to the map. Their exact implementation will depend on what kind of structure it is; a new ingress into a buried Deep will look different than a new ingress into a ruined city. The table on page XX offers a selection of possible map quirks or complications you can add. A portion of the map may be elevated, requiring the PCs to climb to get to it, while another portion might be separated by a deep crevasse, perilous environmental hazard, or rushing torrent. One exit might actually be a secret door, and another might be concealed due to debris, decay, or the work of inhabitants. At this stage, you’ll also want to add any connections to different dungeon levels or areas. Stairways down into darkness, wells that plunge into lightless zones, crumbling bridges that connect different districts in the ruined city, or other connection points need to be established here. Generally, you should put them in rooms far away from the ingress point. Don’t hesitate to place more than one connection to the same area, with some perhaps being more obvious than others or leading to especially dangerous or interesting locations in the target area. Again, wilderness hex crawls can skip this step, as they’re on such a large topological scale that small details of elevation aren’t generally applicable.

Stock the Rooms

For each structure-site room, decide whether a creature, a treasure, an enigma, or a distractor can be found there. Some rooms may contain several of these things, such as a creature guarding its treasure near some ancient enigma. The table on page XX provides a way of randomly determining these things, or you can use your own good judgment. While creatures and treasures are largely self-explanatory, an “enigma” is some mystery, secret, trap, or other gubbin that the PCs can interact with to gain a reward of treasure or knowledge or to suffer harm from its activation. A “distractor” is a piece of decor or an event in the room that is without significant peril or reward, but adds to the overall flavor of the place or reinforces the theme of the site. The tables on page XX offer suggestions for these things. As a general rule, no more than a third of the rooms should contain creatures, and probably less. About half

298 the rooms with creatures in them should have an associated treasure, while a sixth of the rooms without creatures should have something valuable or loot-worthy to be found in them. If every treasure is kept behind guardian monsters, the PCs will rapidly learn to ignore empty rooms and try to win their fortune exclusively with drawn blades. For the inhabitants, draw creatures from the groups you established earlier. The majority of inhabitants in the dungeon should be from those groups, but you might allocate as much as a third of the results to one-off monsters, wandering intruders, or unassociated entities. For treasures, use the table on page XX to get an idea of the total loot that could be reasonably found in the site, based on how important it is and how powerful the inhabitants are. The mightier the occupants, the more loot they’ll have likely accumulated in the course of their activities. Divide this total loot into as many portions as you have Treasure results in your site. Half the treasure should go into one or two portions representing the major troves gathered by the strongest inhabitants or locked behind some enigma left by the site’s builders. The rest of the treasure should be divided up among the other Treasure results, providing an array of smaller loot opportunities for lesser foes or more minor unguarded finds. Wilderness hex crawls use different tables on page XX to provide potential stocking. Many hexes will be devoid of anything particularly interesting, while others may have remnant ruins, lairs of dangerous creatures, remnants of past explorers, or other gubbins for PCs to interact with. A GM can make these ruins “shallow”, making them no more than a few crumbled walls or still-standing chambers that might be fleshed out with a few dungeon room content rolls, or they can develop them into their own exploration sites with these steps.

Establish Wandering Encounters

The inhabitants of a structure-dungeon are unlikely to spend every waking hour sequestered in their assigned rooms. Creatures wander, inhabitants have tasks in different places, and things happen independently of the explorations of the heroes. At this stage, you should create a table or list of potential encounters that the PCs can run into while traversing the dungeon or exploring its rooms. A table with six entries is usually sufficient, each entry being a group of creatures or a random event appropriate to the dungeon. One entry might be 1d6 sullen bandits on an errand for their leader, while another might be a sudden blood-curdling scream echoing down the halls as a victim is cruelly done in. Not every entry has to be a mob of enemies, and perhaps a third of the entries might just be environmental events. Wandering creatures rarely have any treasure worth note, and not all will be automatically hostile. Remember to make use of reaction rolls. You’ll use this table during the exploration of the dungeon. Usually, after each scene or during each transit between rooms, you’ll roll 1d6; on a 1, you roll on

the wandering encounter table to see what happens to the PCs as they explore. The purpose of this table is to discourage time-wasting and excessive caution when exploring the dungeon. The PCs are in a potentially lethal hive of perilous foes and natural dangers, and the longer they spend in there, the more likely they are to get worn down by hostile inhabitants. If they can safely camp out in any random room they’ll be tempted to spend hours carefully inspecting everything or recuperating overnight after every minor fray. For hexcrawls, the same sort of wandering encounter table is necessary to reflect the beasts of the wilderness and the roaming sentient inhabitants to be found there. An encounter check can be made each time the PCs spend a day in a single hex and each time they spend a night camping in the wilderness. If they’re crossing the wilds rapidly and not pausing to search a place they usually need to make only one check per day’s travel or night’s camping.

Establish Daily Life

Now that you know who is where in a site-based dungeon, take a moment to think about their interactions and relationships. The initial inhabitant framework rolls may have given you some clues about how these groups relate to each other, but here you should nail down the specifics. If the Anak warband squatting in the old amphitheater hates the human bandits that fortified the ruined caravanserai, then you can expect that they’ll keep a distance from each other when not fighting. If the dungeon is a subterranean Deep, how do the occupants get food and water, and what do they do with their time? Do any of the inhabitants venture out of their home areas, and if so, where do they go? Make some notes in each room about what the inhabitants are likely to be doing when the PCs first encounter them. Only automatons and mindless undead are likely to be standing in silence, waiting to be disturbed. Other creatures will be involved in sleeping, eating, arguing, gambling, standing watch, or doing necessary labor. Also make some notes about what the inhabitants will do upon being disturbed. Will an attack cause some of them to run for reinforcements? Have they got some reason to be especially friendly to intruders? As the GM, you need to be careful about telegraphing a willingness to parley, as many players will just automatically reach for their swords as soon as they spot something warty and green. If you don’t give the players some obvious clue that a more peaceful interaction is possible, they may not risk the attempt. Keep in mind the general scale of the map when determining what kind of reinforcements could be summoned or what sort of notice would be taken of a fight. If the map you’re making represents a single urban townhouse, then a bloody brawl in the kitchen is almost certainly going to be audible throughout the entire structure, alerting the whole dungeon. If you’re mapping out a lost

299 city, on the other hand, the individual “rooms” might be hundreds of feet apart, and a screaming fray in one place might be wholly inaudible elsewhere. Wilderness hex crawls can skip this step, unless there’s some titanic beast in the zone with a daily routine significant enough to affect the entire area. Knowing that a dragon has a 1-in-6 chance of flying over a hex on any given day is information likely to be relevant to explorers, but tracking the daily details of an Anak camp you rolled for a particular hex is unlikely to be worth your time.

Copy the Final Map

For site-based dungeons, once you’ve got everything arranged on the table to your liking and have decided which rooms might be affected by optional map features, copy the map to your notes for the site. Simple dungeon room numbers and names connected by straight lines are usually sufficient, with any terrain features noted alongside the connection lines. During play, you can consult the map and then pull out the relevant room cards to handle the exploration of these individual places. For hexcrawls, make a copy of your hex map and write in the numbers of particular hex-contents index cards into the hexes where they’re found. Optionally, you can use a row-and-column grid reference for the cards instead, or use a hex map generation program that prints individual hex numbers in each hexagon.

Making a Detailed Map

For many groups, a stylized map is sufficient for exploring a structure. They really don’t want to pay attention to mazey blank corridors or the twists and turns of dungeon intersections. Each room of interest’s dimensions and shape are important to the encounters within, but the nebulous space between is glossed over with a few words about dank dungeon tunnels or empty streets. Other groups want something more specific. They enjoy the process of mapping a dungeon, or the GM wants to take advantage of the kind of traps and obfuscations that work best in the connecting spaces between points of interest. In that case, the GM can take the stylized map and use it as the framework for laying in individual corridors, intersections, turns, and twists. Using standard graph paper, start at the edge of the map and draw in a peripheral room. Working from that start, connect the various rooms with whatever twisty little passages, all different, that you wish. You might keep the overall alignment of the rooms the same as on the stylized map, or you could just use them as prompts and suggestions. Don’t hesitate to lift chunks and fragments from the innumerable host of old-school dungeons that exist in the wild. More than four decades of material has been created on the care and construction of graph-paper dungeons, and much of it is available online. It’s perfectly fair to lift some dungeon map wholesale for your own table’s needs and simply change the room descriptions to fit your own rooms of interest.

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Types of Ruin Sites The table below offers suggestions as to what kind of structure the exploration site might be. An initial d6 roll gives a general type of structure that you can use as grist for your inspiration, while an additional d12 can be rolled to get a specific example. d6

Basic Type

Residential Site

Military Site

Production Site

Religious Site

Cultural Site

Infrastructure Site

d12

Some of the listed sites might not make sense in a particular context. While you can always just re-roll or pick something, it can sometimes be interesting to read the result metaphorically, and then put a structure in that matches the essential significance of the rolled result.

Site

Isolated rural estate of nobility

Townhouse of minor gentry

Massive tenement or slum tower

Rural grange with outbuildings

Compact fortified village

Hidden shelter against calamity

Mazey urban residential block

Rubble-wrought makeshift village

Ancient arcology or fragment of it

Outpost of refugees or recluses

Sprawling slum of shanties and huts

Inhabited natural feature or cave

Grand fortress of major significance

Hidden bunker or strongpoint

Remote frontier keep

Secret operations base

Isolated watchtower

Military training camp

Gatehouse controlling a vital pass

Half-subterranean entrenchments

Military cache or storehouse

Battlefield littered with fortifications

Fortified waystation

Illicit manufactory for illegal goods

Mine or open pit for excavation

Sacred shrine for holy product

Overgrown ancient plantation

Destroyed camp or extraction site

Managed woodland gone feral

Inexplicable ancient manufactory

Farm for now-feral valuable beasts

Outsider goods production site

Repurposed ancient manufactory

Magical production facility

Fishery or salt extraction site

Lost pilgrimage destination

Fortified frontier monastery

Tomb of some mighty ancient

Prison-monastery for heretics

Shrine repurposed for a newer god

Fragment of megastructure temple

Inexplicable sacred structure

Place of some holy trial or test

Outsider fane to an alien god

Prison for a sealed demonic force

Pilgrim hospital or waystation

Holy archive or relic-fortress

Inscrutable Outsider art structure

Ancient culture’s gathering site

Monument complex to lost glories

Abandoned school or study center

Battered front-line fortress

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The Framework of Inhabitation Some sites will have no significant inhabitants: no monsters, no skulking raiders, no wild beasts or abominable flora worth mentioning. Most, however, will have something dwelling in the place. The adjacent table offers suggestions on how to structure the inhabitants. While any result might also include a scattering of randomly-chosen monsters or inhabitants, these major dwellers will be the main potential foes or subjects for parley within the ruin or wilderness. If your structure is particularly small, such as under ten rooms, these numbers may be shrunk somewhat. Very large sites or wilderness regions might double the numbers to provide adequate populations. The tables below offer optional prompts for relationships between groups and motivations for intelligent dwellers in the ruin. The following page offers tables to help determine who exactly these beings are. d12

Potential Reasons for Hostility

d10

Important Inhabitants

One major monstrous beast, with the other inhabitants avoiding it or supplicating it

One major intelligent leader with their followers, slaves, or associates

1d3+1 major inhabitants, at least two of which are hostile to each other

A major inhabitant and the remnants of another group or pack they deposed

A relatively harmonious group of 1d3+1 significant figures

No discernable major figures, only a disorganized congery of beasts and beings

d12

Possible Causes for Alliances

They raided us and stole our resources

We have a shared enemy

They’re from a rival religion

Our leaders are personal friends

Our kinds naturally hate each other

We intermarry or have a blood relation

They took advantage of us in the past

We each have goods the other needs

They’re weak and ripe for plunder

Each has skills the other lacks

They broke an alliance in a treacherous way

We give protection for a tolerable price

They caused a local disaster or problem

We share the defense of the territory

Our leader has a personal hatred for them

We share the same religion

Local resources are insufficient for us both

We overcame a great peril together

They’re crowding into our territory

We used to be under the same leader

They tricked us and led us into a disaster

We recognize them as our rightful masters

They stole a treasure or an important slave

We gain a great profit by mutual cooperation

d12

Why Are They Staying Here?

d12

Why Did They Come Here?

Driven here by a terrible monster

It’s rich in resources useful to them

No one remembers when they first came

A foe outside threatens them if they leave

Forced out of their old home by enemies

They’re trying to find something specific here

Sent out as a colony from their parent group

It’s simply always been their home

Gathered from scattered exiles and outcasts

An important member is immobile somehow

Enlisted to come by a powerful leader

Some drug or pleasure here has caught them

Drawn by the prospect of resources or loot

They’ve been enslaved by a power here

Making a cultural or religious pilgrimage

They’re being paid to do so by someone

Came to fight an enemy that lairs here

They haven’t anywhere better to go

Sent by visions, prophecy, or oracles

They’re waiting for someone else to arrive

It’s a refuge from some pursuing foe

They’re trapped here by something

To guard something precious here

Their leader has a personal reason to stay

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Types of Inhabitants These tables offer general suggestions as to what kind of inhabitants might occupy particular types of sites. Specific details of species or monstrous kind will depend on your own campaign setting, with Anak serving as hostile humanoids in the Latter Earth, while goblins or kobolds might fill the role in a more conventional setting. The types of inhabitants rolled or chosen here reflect the major figures in a site, but they shouldn’t be taken as the only creatures to inhabit the area. Some portion of a ruin or wilderness site’s inhabitants should be taken from exotic beasts, unaffiliated sentients, or other figures of happenstance. Such variety helps keep foes fresh. If you need additional monsters, virtually any oldschool monster handbook should provide you with beasts you can import largely unchanged for your Worlds Without Number campaign. If you’d like to brew your own, you can reference the Bestiary chapter in this book.

d12

Subterranean Deep

Cruelly Outsider-warped original humans

Outsider monster that once ruled here

Swarm or pack of scavenger-beasts

Blighted intruders that sacked the Deep

Outsiders descended from the local lords

Degenerate or crazed native humans

Outcast surfacers lairing in the Deep

Non-human sentients who now live here

Undead relics of former inhabitants

Still-sane human heirs of the original folk

Surfacer colonists forgotten by their kin

Automaton servitors now lacking their lord

d12

Ancient Sorcerer-King Ruin

d12

Modern Ruin Site

Altered human servitors of the former owner

Local bandits or highwaymen

Magic-forged monstrous beast

Cult of some unacceptable god

Adventurers searching for loot

Deposed noble and their retinue

Heirs of the last human inhabitants

Adventurers trying to plunder the place

Cult dedicated to a now-dead faith

Troops garrisoned there by the local ruler

Summoned creature that broke its fetters

Remnants of the original inhabitants

Magical automaton servitors of the ruler

Sorcerer of detestable inclinations

Decorative magic animals gone feral

Refugees or runaway peasants

Necromancer and their undead servitors

Vicious local monster lairing here

Outsider prisoners gone native here

Foreign raiders using it as a base

Restless dead of the inhabitants

Whatever ruined the place is still here

Zealots in service to a long-dead mage

Interlopers with some tie to the original place

d12

Trackless Wilderness

d12

Alien Arratu

Animate and lethal plant life

Alpha predator of the area

Remnants of the Outsiders who made it

Intelligent monstrous beings

Adventurers daring the perilous terrain

Swarms or packs of dangerous beasts

Human natives trapped here for generations

Violently reclusive local natives

Humanoids adapted to life there

Remnant of a destroyed state

Blighted raiders semi-native to the place

Survivors of a displaced ethnic group

Automatons built to serve or fight the arratu

Demihumans who prefer isolation

Outsider ruler still controlling a site within

Bestially savage tribals, perhaps inhuman

Undead shades of swallowed cities or lands

Expedition from a surrounding nation

Vicious alien fauna

Prospectors or resource-hunters

Human cultist-servitors of the Outsiders

Spirit or elemental related to the wilderness

Explorers searching for a route through

Sorcerers, cultists, or other solitude-lovers

303

Rooms of Interest The table below gives different functions and specific examples of rooms that might be found in a site. You can use them verbatim when that would make sense, but you can also use the results as general metaphors, converting them into something similar that fits the site’s nature. d6

Basic Funcion

Residential Room

Work Room

Cultural Room

Martial Room

Religious Room

Utility Room

d12

Instead, take your structure’s general type and think of at least three rooms or locations that would be characteristic of it. Include those rooms and round out the rest of your needs from the table below, rolling or picking whatever results suit the job.

Example

Dormitory barracks for servants

Meager room for minor servant

The owner or ruler’s bedchamber

Sickroom for patients

High-ranking resident bedroom

Guest chambers for visitors

Latrine or privy

Kitchen or dining hall

Kennel or beast pen

Bathing chamber or washroom

Prison or slave cages

Study or private library

Smithy or forge

Alchemist’s workshop

Smokehouse or food preparation

Artisan’s work area

Artist’s workroom

Sewing or weaving room

Torture chamber

Washroom or scullery

Healer’s work room

Brewery room

Arcane laboratory

Processing room for a raw good

Plaza or meeting area

Garden or flowing water feature

Amphitheater or recital room

Ornately iconographic chamber

Art gallery

Room for a particular cultural rite

Cultural monument

Drinking hall

Grave, cemetery, or ossuary

Performance stage or area

Library or archive

Drug den or place of debauchery

Armory or martial storage

Map or planning room

Training area

War machine fabrication or storage

Barracks for soldiers

Dueling area

Guard post

Beast-fighting arena

Parade ground

Strong point or fortification

Commemorative hall

Gate or fortified entrance

Private shrine

Room for a labor holy to the god

Altar room

Storage for religious equippage

Monastic prayer cell

Secured chamber for holy relics

Ritual chamber

Secret or unofficial chapel

Monument to a deity

Priest’s private chambers

Ceremonial bath

Work materials storage

Concealed servant’s passage

Pantry or food storage

Domestic staff head office

Storeroom for random detritus

Vault for valuables

Furnace or boiler room

Secret or unobtrusive entrance

Exotic ancient power or light room

Grand passage or ornate corridor

Pool or water source room

Barn or fodder storage

Public area adorned with icons

304

Hexes of Interest For a hexcrawl, where a “room” consists of an entire hex of terrain, a point of interest is defined a little differently. First, decide how many hexes in your map should have anything particularly interesting at all. One simple way to do so is to roll one die for every hex in your map; on a roll of 1-2, there’s something worth noticing there. Use 1d6 for the die if you want a densely-populated hexcrawl, or 1d8, 1d10, or even 1d12 if you want sparser results. For each hex of interest, a general feature or event is selected for the terrain, and then two tags are chosen for it from the appropriate lists in the world-building chapter. A crumbling ancient watchtower might use two Ruin tags, while a backwater village might pull a pair from Community, an isolated monastery might take two from the Court list, and an enchanted grove might pull tags from the Wilderness section. These tags are then synthesized with the result to produce something to catch the players’ interest. Some results are “shallow” in that they consist of a fairly simple situation, enigma, or very small ruin that can easily be summed up on an index card. These shallow sites can be generated as you build the hexcrawl, and it’s assumed that each one won’t take more than five minutes to develop using the tags and other tools in this section. If the PCs run into one of these shallow hexes of interest, they can explore or engage with the feature immediately. Other hexes of interest are “deep” in that they involve substantial ruins, complex situations, or significant communities. If you’ve got a half-dozen of these on your hexcrawl, how do you handle them in play? It would be exhausting to flesh out several entire dungeons on the off chance that the PCs will find one and want to explore it. For deep sites, prepare only the most superficial external details, the sort of thing the PCs would notice only at their first encounter with the site. If they decide to explore it further, just explain to them that you’ll need prep time to bring it into adventuring order and that if they really do decide to investigate it, you can have it ready for the start of the next session. In the meanwhile, they can continue exploring the area. This kind of just-in-time creation spares you the crushing burden of developing every major ruin or site of interest in a 70-mile span before the PCs even begin exploring the place. It also ensures that the site is as big as the players need it to be; if they really want to dig into a place, you can make it deep enough to reward their interest if they give you some between-session downtime. The exception to this just-in-time rule is if you know the PCs are specifically seeking a particular site in the wilds. If you know they’re looking for the Deep of the Tarnished Knife, or know that events are very likely to propel them to the site, you’re justified in building that ruin out completely before the game starts.

d10

Basic Type of Feature

1–2

Roll on the Types of Ruin table on page XX

3–5

Roll on the Community Sites table below

6–7

Roll on the Court Sites table below

8–0

Roll on the Wilderness Sites table below

d10

Example Community Site

Village of aboriginal natives

Small colony of a nearby nation

Soldier-farmers dispatched to the wilds

Sectarian village of unorthodox believers

Demihuman enclave

Village of not-always-hostile monsters

Bandit meeting camp for trade and fun

Remnant of a major settlement swallowed up

Village of rebels or exiles from a nation

Oppressed group’s settlement of refuge

d10

Example Court Site

Small group of isolated recluses

Monastery or hermit retreat

Degenerates forced out of civilized lands

Wizards conducting esoteric business

Demihumans of neutral disposition

Small tribal clan living in seclusion

Monsters not immediately hostile in nature

Another adventuring or explorer party

Traders or merchants risking the wilds

10 d10

Miners, prospectors, or woodsmen Example Wilderness Site

Cavern or cave complex

Extreme example of the native terrain

Valuable natural resource site of some kind

Lake, spring, or major water source

Crevasse, rift, or broken ground

Megastructure remnants or fragments

Traces of a long-lost road or canal bed

Mountain, high hill, or commanding height

Treacherous ground suited to the terrain

Pocket of unusual or atypical terrain type

305

Room Layout and Map Features To begin, pick a room as an ingress point, the place where the heroes will enter the site. There may be other places to get into the structure, but this is the most obvious. Place this room’s index card on the table in front of you. Then roll on the adjacent exit table to find out how many egresses exist. You might arbitrarily decide to give two or more exits to this initial room so the PCs have some decisions to make as to where to explore. For each exit, roll on the egresses table to see what direction it runs in. If the direction is impossible, such as heading west out of a room you know is on the western edge of a structure, then flip it in the opposite direction. Take a coin or other temporary marker and put it on the index card to indicate the egress’ location. Now, for each egress, place a room’s index card adjacent in the matching direction, gradually building out the site as you continue to roll exits and egresses for each. If a room only has one exit, then it’s a dead end. If the egresses fold back on the map to create a new link with an existing room, place a marker accordingly between the two cards. Keep adding cards and rolling for exits until you run out of room cards for your site. Next, go through the map you’ve generated and clean up the connections. Remove excess connections between rooms or bend long strings of rooms back toward the center of the structure. Try to ensure that at least one “loop” of rooms exists, so the entire site isn’t just a clump of mutually-segregated linear arms. Lastly, sketch an outline of each room’s dimensions on the index card. If there’s a fight there, you’ll need to know the room’s shape and size to run the hostilities. At this stage, it’s possible to stock this map exactly as it is. You can copy its configuration down in your notes and then go on to add room contents to each of the index cards, with notes on the margins about exits and where they lead. If you want to add further spice to the site, you can go on to add some map layout features before you do this, however.

Map Features

At its simplest, a map layout feature is just some quirk about the site’s geography that affects multiple rooms that the PCs cannot readily ignore. As examples, here are some options you can add. Different levels exist in some ruins. Some rooms will have stairs or slopes up or down, and the cluster of rooms beyond this point will be at a higher or lower elevation. Traditionally, the lower levels of a Deep tend to contain the worst abominations and most fearsome monsters. Rivers or streams flow through some sites, cutting off rooms on either side in the absence of a bridge or a party of brave swimmers. Monstrous life forms like to live in such rivers, and falling in might result in more conventional perils of drowning.

How Many Exits

d12

One

1–2

One

Two

4–5

Two

Three

7–8

Three

Four

Egresses North Northeast East Southeast South Southwest

10–11 West 12

Northwest

Crevasses and pits bisect some sites or have opened up in some rooms. Those who climb down might gain access to a whole new level of the site, or there might be creatures that travel up and down the cleft to reach their lairs or hunting grounds. Toxic atmospheres are common in arratus and other xenoformed areas. They may not be poisonous enough to kill a human outright, but lingering in such places usually increases System Strain until the humans must flee or pass out. A mild arratu might just prevent humans from recovering System Strain while inside it, while an alien xenoforming structure might inflict a point of strain every hour. The right protective enchantments or devices might be needed to make exploration possible at all. Timed accessibility exists in some sites, with particular areas only being accessible at particular times. They might be behind ancient time-locked doors, or it the vast swarm of man-eating vermin that blocks the only ingress into the sub-zone might go out to hunt during the day. Sometimes accessibility is predicated on having particular key objects or succeeding in an Investigation challenge to learn the proper methods to open a sealed portal.

Corridors and Detailed Maps

The maps you create with this technique are simple diagram maps, ones that focus on points of interest and handwave the corridors or tunnels between the rooms. When the party goes north out of the armory, they arrive outside the south door of the grand dining hall; the space between is unimportant. This doesn’t mean you don’t need to give it even a little thought, however. If the PCs get jumped by a wandering encounter on their way between rooms you may need to improvise a section of corridor for the fight. Conversely, if the site is a single small building, there may not be any meaningful corridors between rooms, and loud activities in the armory will be clearly audible to whatever’s dweling in the grand dining hall. GMs for groups that prefer more concrete sites can always plunder one of the myriad dungeon maps available online, re-keying rooms to fit their needs and cutting out sections that are surplus to requirements.

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Stocking Rooms Stocking an exploration site’s rooms is the most demanding part of site preparation. A ruin map can be scrawled out in moments, and deciding or randomly generating a room’s purpose can take only a few minutes, but giving each such place a degree of flavor and interest is a much more challenging prospect. Fortunately, a basic system can smooth this creative work.

d8 1–2 3 4

Contents Creature Hazard Enigma

Rolling For Contents

First, roll 1d8 and 1d6 together and consult the adjacent table. The 1d8 will determine what’s in the room; a creature, a dangerous hazard, a peculiar engima, or a bit of distracting background flavor. About a quarter of the rooms will be entirely empty and devoid of anything worth interacting with. The 1d6 will then indicate whether or not there’s any treasure or objects of value in the room. Thus, if the 1d8 is 6 and the 1d6 is 2, you can see that there’s a distractor in the room but no treasure. It’s not impossible that a creature could share the same room as a hazard, or there might be an enigma with some distractors scattered about, but if you don’t want to hand-decide such instances you can go back and re-roll the 1d8 on a selection of rooms to get a second contents result.

Placing Creatures

If you get a creature result, place one or more of them into the room, using the inhabitants results from page XX to guide your selection. Remember to make about a quarter or a third of the creatures inside the site unrelated to these rolls so there’s some variety in the inhabitants. If the inhabitants are living in the site, make sure there are locations designated for sleeping, cooking, latrines, and other necessities of daily life. The creatures may not be present there all the time, but the evidence of their activities should be obvious. As for how numerous and strong the creatures should be, keep in mind the logic of the site and the needs of your upcoming session. A random minor ruin in the woods is unlikely to be housing a bandit army or a vengeful arch-wraith, and if you are intentionally creating a ruin to engage a party of novice adventurers the inhabitants shouldn’t be so strong as to kill them out of hand unless there’s a good reason for them to be so. You have flexibility on this count, so long as you don’t contradict what your world has already estabished; if the PCs have learned that the Tower of Iron and Salt is the lair of a devil-god, make sure there’s either a devil-god in it or a clear reason for people to think that there is.

Placing Hazards

Hazards can take the form of traditional pit traps and poisoned needles, or they might be unstable construction, dangerous miasmas, or anything else that could cause

5–6 7–8

Distractor Empty

Treasure?

1–3

Yes

4–6

1–2

Yes

3–6

1–2

Yes

3–6

Yes

2–6

Yes

2–6

harm to PCs in the area. Most traps or snares should allow an appropriate saving throw to avoid the worst results. Poison needles or toxic clouds might inflict flat damage on a failed save, and crumbling floors might send the PCs careening into a new area entirely.

Placing Engimas

Enigmas are any magical or mechanical oddity that might be appropriate to the site’s nature. An abandoned manor in the wilderness is unlikely to have ancient megastructural power conduits flaring in its basement, but it might have a relic of the past owner’s arcane experimentations or an eerie trophy taken in some former age. An enigma result is an excuse for you to put something odd in the place, something that could perhaps help as much as harm. Complex or esoteric enigmas might take their own Investigation challenge to make them operational, with clues scattered elsewhere in the site.

Placing Distractors

Distractors are just objects or situations that the PCs can interact with and investigate, even if there’s nothing particularly important about them. Use them to flavor the site and emphasize its past use and current activities. Whatever you use for a distractor should be something the PCs can touch or otherwise interact with. Mere backstory is not a distractor; it doesn’t matter what happened in a given room unless it’s something that left a tangible legacy behind for the PCs to meddle with.

Placing Treasure

Once you know how many rooms in the site have treasure in them, take the total site loot you determined back on page XX and divide it into halves. Put half the treasure into one or two major troves in appropriate locations in the site. Divide the other half of the loot among the other treasure-positive rooms, putting trifling finds in some and bigger hauls in others. You can play with these proportions as your own judgment recommends, but make sure that not all treasure requires a fight to get it.

307 d20

Example Types of Hazards

d20

Example Enigmas

Tripwire alarm or other alerts

Magical fountain or pool

Unstable floor that crumbles under weight

Control that opens paths elsewhere

Dangerous fumes or miasma

Spatial warp between locations

Trapped containers or portals

Enchanted statue or art object

Explosive dust or gases

Magically-animated room components

An object makes a loud noise if disturbed

Substance with physically impossible traits

Damaged supports that give way in combat

Altered or augmented gravity

Dangerously high or deep water

Zone that empowers foes or magic types

Trap set on a path of travel

Magical ward or seal on a summoned thing

Device here is dangerously broken in use

Oracular object or far-scrying device

Trap that seals intruders into an area

Standing magical effect in the area

Treacherous footing over dangerous terrain

Temporal distortion or visions of other times

Uncontrolled flames or dangerous heat

Sounds being shifted over long distances

Torch-extinguishing winds or vapors

Zones of darkness or blinding light

Ordinary-seeming object harms handlers

Enchanted seals visibly locking up loot

Crushingly heavy object is going to tip over

Magical or elemental force emitting unit

A savage foe can be attracted by accident

Enchantment tailored to the site’s original use

Something here is cursed by dark powers

Unnatural heat or chill in an area

Seeming treasure is used as bait for a trap

Magically-altered plant life here

A contagious disease is on something here

Restorative magical device

d20

Example Distractors

d20

Possible Treasure Locations

Books or records from the site’s owners

Stored in a visible chest or coffer

Unique furniture related to the site’s past

Hidden in a pool of liquid

Trophies or prizes taken by the owners

Behind a stone in the wall

Portraits or tapestries related to the site’s past

Underneath a floor tile

Ornate, imposing, but harmless doors

Hidden inside a creature’s body

Daily life debris from the inhabitants

Inside an ordinary furniture drawer

Worthless ancient personal effects

Slid beneath a bed or other furnishing

Odd-looking but normal household goods

Placed openly on a shelf for display

Shrines or hedge ritual remains of inhabitants

Hidden in a pile of other junk

Corpses of fallen intruders

Tucked into a secret furniture space

Bones and other food remnants

Slid behind a tapestry or painting

Statuary or carvings related to the site

Heavy, protective locked chest or safe

Signs of recent bloodshed and battle

Buried under heavy or dangerous debris

Empty cabinets or containers

In the pockets of clothes stored here

A discharged or broken trap

The treasure’s a creature’s precious body part

Remnants of an inhabitant social event

Scattered carelessly on the floor

Mouldering or ruined goods or supplies

Tucked into a pillow or cushion

Half-completed work done by inhabitants

Hung on a statue or display frame

Once-valuable but now-ruined object

Hidden atop a ceiling beam

Broken or expended once-magical object

Resting atop a desk or table

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Wandering Encounters Once you’ve stocked the hexmap with points of interest or filled out the contents of the rooms of your dungeon, you need to put together a Wandering Encounter table for the region or ruin. Some situations might call for more than one table, such as a hexcrawl that covers different biomes or a Deep that has levels controlled by different groups.

The Perils of the Unknown

The ultimate rationale of a Wandering Encounter is to remind the party of the danger of their surroundings, to wear them down over time, and to penalize time-wasting or carelessness inside a dangerous area. The longer the PCs spend exploring the wilderness or delving in a Deep, the more encounters they’re going to have and the more they’re going to deplete their available resources. Wandering Encounters keep the players from having full control of the pacing of their explorations. They can’t simply decide to hole up in a room for 12 hours to rest up and refresh their abilities; odds are that something’s going to find them, and the encounter check is the impartial mechanism that determines whether or not that happens. A party that plunges a hundred leagues into a trackless jungle may decide that they’ve gone far enough, but bad luck with encounter checks on the way back may teach them that they’ve actually gone considerably farther than they should have. The party can decide when they’ve had enough of danger, but the dungeon gets a vote. Wandering Encounters may not be a good fit for story-arc games, however. If the next plot point requires the party to make it to some distant wilderness location, rolling a particularly dire encounter might disrupt that plan. A planned climax may turn out to be decidedly anticlimatic when the PCs stagger in, their resources all but gone after being spent on several unlucky encounters. A GM who wants to firmly control the pacing of challenges for one reason or another may choose not to use them.

Sourcing Your Perils

Where do the creatures that make up these encounters come from? With hexcrawl encounter tables, this isn’t a difficult question to answer. The creatures are either beasts that live in the area, sentient inhabitants that have communities there, or interlopers and hermits from outside the region. It won’t strain the party’s suspension of disbelief if they keep running into the same kind of creatures because it’s always plausible to assume that there are more of them lurking somewhere in the wilderness. Things are different in a Deep, a ruin, or a noble’s townhouse. There are only so many creatures that could reasonably be lairing there. If the PCs kill the bandit chief and drive his lieutenants out of the abandoned fortress, it doesn’t make sense for them to continue to encounter bands of his minions roaming through the castle’s mouldering corridors.\

For these situations, where there are only a finite number of wanderers that could reasonably occupy a site, each creature entry in the table should be allowed to happen only a few times, or perhaps only once. If that same entry is rolled again, then no encounter happens. If the PCs leave the ruin long enough for the locals to regroup and reinforce their numbers, this entry might be refreshed… or reinforced, if the inhabitants are braced for another PC invasion.

Building the Tables

As a general rule, a table of twelve entries is usually enough to give a good variety to encounters. About half the entries should be run-ins with the usual inhabitants of the area, a third should be some environmental peril or complication appropriate to the surroundings, and a third should be false alarms, explicitly non-hostile encounters, or non-harmful environmental activity. The creatures met in a Wandering Encounter are probably either patrolling their territory, hunting for food, or going about their daily life. Most of them are not going to be expecting imminent danger unless the site has already been alerted to intruders, in which case the encounters might be considerably reinforced with creatures drawn from the stocked areas of the site. Wandering Encounters almost never have any loot of note aside from petty personal belongings.

Running Encounters

Outdoors, most encounters begin at the terrain’s maximum sight range, with opposed Wis/Notice checks to see who spots the other first. Ambush predators, stalking hunters, or prowling scouts might engage from a much closer distance. At long range, many PC groups will have time to attempt to flee a hostile group, with escapes being handled with the flight guidelines on page XX. Mounted groups will almost always overtake unmounted groups unless they can be led into terrain unsuitable for horses. Indoors, the usual range for first notice is 2d6 x 10 feet, assuming the site is large enough to have corridors and rooms of that scale. Remember, all but the most mindlessly hostile creatures deserve a reaction roll to determine their initial disposition toward the PCs. Even a group of patrollers charged with guarding against intruders might pause long enough to simply demand the PCs leave, or find them interesting enough to offer silence in exchange for gold or favors. A high reaction roll won’t turn a committed enemy into a friend, but it could be enough to defuse immediate violence, or open the door to a mutually-agreeable parley. Dead Wandering Encounters are likely to draw the alarm of the site’s inhabitants. If enough of these patrols are killed, the locals may choose to migrate elsewhere, taking their treasures with them.

309 d12

Example Forest Encounters

d12

Example Oceanic Encounters

d12

Example Arratu Encounters

d12

Example Modern Ruin Encounters

Example Deep Encounters

Example Urban Slum Encounters

310

Creating Investigation Challenges While most players can hum along with how an adventurous sword fight or perilous dungeon delve ought to be done, very few of them have much practical experience as private investigators. Give them a sinister pit and they’ll have a list of exploration supplies drawn up in minutes, but ask them to find Leper Tom in the grim city of Gathis and they’ll flail in vain. Many of them will try to move directly to Notice or Connect skill checks for lack of any better ideas. This isn’t exclusively the fault of their innocence, but also because investigations and searches are so reliant on masses of detail. Without a real scene to investigate or a real city to comb through, the players can only interact with those parts of the world that the GM describes and defines. If the GM forces them to hit the right magic pixel before they cough up some important description then the players can end up frustrated… and frustrated players tend to do very reckless things in a campaign. It’s inevitable that a GM’s going to need to brew up some mystery for an adventure, or plant a sinister plot, or bring in some hidden person that the party desperately needs to find. These enigmas might be single strange rooms in ancient Deeps or they might be sprawling cultist schemes that encompass half the campaign setting. What they all have in common is that there is a secret and the PCs are expected to want to find it out.

Why Mysteries Are Hard

Enigmas are much more difficult to GM than many other common elements of play. A dungeon can be mapped and keyed with everything of significance in it. A wilderness crawl rarely involves any questions from the players until they run into an encounter, site, or situation that the GM has designed and placed on the map. Even courtly intrigues usually involve a fixed roster of characters and a limited scope of relevance that is obvious to the players. Mysteries and investigations don’t have that conveniently closed scope. Questions like “What was Irrelevant NPC 5 doing at six in the morning on that day?” or “What do I find when I investigate this dubious baker?” can come flying at a GM when the players try to follow some sudden flash of probably-erroneous insight. Anything could be relevant, so the players start to ask about anything, and it’s a gifted GM that can ad-lib while keeping every fact straight. A mistake in a timeline turns into a Telling Clue, and the GM then has to pause and explain to the players that no, the butler had nothing to do with it and it was only a GM error. It is for this reason that most GMs are best off structuring their mysteries in a less sandboxy way. It may sound heretical to suggest this, but for reasons of practical playability it can be necessary to force things into a more fixed structure and let the players explore this particular web of facts rather than risk the need to generate an endless supply of internally-coherent ad-libs.

Focal and Peripheral Mysteries

Before using the tools in this section, it’s important to distinguish between those mysteries and investigations which are the focal point of the party’s exertions and those plots and schemes that just happen to be going on in the area they’re exploring. You only need to worry about the tools and templates in this section when you expect the players to be specifically trying to unearth a mystery. You do not need to use them if there just happens to be a sinister plot or hidden truth somewhere in the dungeon or city area they occupy. The point of these tools is to help the GM build a session that revolves around PC investigation, and if the players aren’t trying to have a session like that then you don’t need to bother using them. Maybe they find out about the peripheral scheme or maybe they don’t, but your content for the evening doesn’t rely on that outcome so you don’t have to worry about it.

Scenes and Investigations

Investigations are broken into several specific scenes. Each scene is a setpiece encounter, place, or situation that the PCs are expected to run into, either because it’s logically obvious or because the GM is nudging them in that direction. It may seem blasphemous for an honest, dice-fearing sandbox GM to tilt the table in that way but it is often a practical necessity, simply because the GM can’t possibly ad-lib all the coherent details that the players might demand if they had a wholly unrestrained scope. The structure for an investigative adventure is built backwards, starting from the Resolution. This is the big moment of confrontation or revelation, the point at which the PCs discover the ultimate truth or find themselves with swords drawn, facing the sinister cultists at their hidden ritual site. Think about what the climax is likely to look like, even if that’s something as simple as the PCs finding the right book on some forgotten library’s shelves. Once you have the Resolution, you need about three Investigation scenes. Each Investigation scene should give the PCs one fact they need to reach the resolution with all relevant information. To make it to the hidden cult ritual, for example, they might need to know where it will be held, when it will next happen, and what kind of defenses or preparations will be there. The necessary information to establish each of these facts is put in its own Investigation scene, where the PCs will have to either infiltrate a place to get the information, negotiate with an NPC, unearth it from a hidden location, or otherwise overcome some challenge. With the three Investigation scenes and their rewards of information established, you pull them together into a single Introduction scene, where the PCs will be

311 given pointers toward each Investigation scene. They may not know anything about the challenges waiting for them there, but they have at least an actionable amount of information necessary to get to the Investigation scenes. Finally, and optionally, you might glue on a Hook scene at the very beginning of the investigation, some event, NPC, or situation that clues in the PCs that there even is something worth investigating here. If you know that some grand mystery or sinister scheme is going on in the next place the PCs are going, you might throw them a Hook scene to establish that something pressing is going on in the area that the PCs might want to look into. In the same vein, you might throw the Hook out so the players know that choosing to spend the next session investigating it is something that will get them worthwhile adventure. If they don’t bite, then you can just leave it until local events would logically come to a head. A simple investigative adventure requires nothing more than these five or six scenes: a Resolution, three Investigations leading to that climax, an Introduction pointing to each of the three Investigations, and an optional attached Hook scene to alert the players that there’s something worth looking into here. If you want to elaborate the session, you can insert additional types of scenes, or have them waiting in the wings as consequences if the PCs screw something up or draw the wrong attention.

312

Resolution Scenes As the first scene to plan, think about the final moment when the PCs finally reveal the truth, place the incontrovertible proof before authorities, confront the malefactor in their hidden lair, or otherwise bring things to a head. In some cases this resolution will be unhindered triumph; the PCs figure out how to unseal the ancient vault and plunder the wealth within. In other cases, they might just buy themselves the opportunity to face an unmasked enemy, and may or may not prevail in the end. Make sure you have prepared any necessary combat stats, relevant maps, and notes on any likely consequent social results. If the PCs successfully resolve the investigation, who will care, and who will be upset or pleased about it? If you choose to add a twist to the situation, make sure it’s foreshadowed and properly hinted earlier in the investigation.

Twists to the Resolution

The culprit or object actually had a reason to want the mystery to be solved

The culprit’s actions are being shaped or influenced by seemingly-uninvolved party

Someone who ought to be happy about the discovery will actually have cause to regret it

The resolution carries hints of an even larger mystery the PCs may or may not pursue

The resolution coincidentally entangles itself in a completely unrelated social conflict

The most obvious act to resolve the mystery is one that comes at some dear price

Complications to the Investigation

Investigation Scenes Now pick three facts that together should give the PCs the information they need to reach the Resolution. Each one of those facts gets its own Investigation scene. Parcel out the truths to likely NPCs, particular significant places in a ruin, the abandoned homes of the long-dead secret keepers, or other people or places who ought to have the facts that the PCs want to find out. Then put an obstacle in each between the PCs and the knowledge. The NPCs will want something in exchange, or have reason to avoid cooperating, or be people the PCs have a hard time reaching. Clues found in the environment will come with attendant dangers and perilous effort to reach them. Avoid ambiguity in your clues, when possible. The point of the scene is to let the PCs face the challenge to get the information; don’t play coy with the rewards.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Introduction Scenes How will the PCs even know that the clues exist or where to look for them? The Introduction scene gives them directions to each of the three clues you’ve placed. It’s unlikely to be a perfect map to the exact NPC or precise abandoned archive that has the clue, but it should give them a clear idea of where to look next. Usually, such an Introduction scene takes the form of the PCs’ first encounter with the mystery and its NPC participants, with the leads being implicit in that situation’s events. Introduction scenes need to give the PCs actionable intelligence, and point them to specific directions they can take to progress the mystery. They may need to navigate dangerous social situations, search perilous Deeps, carve their way through trackless wilderness, or negotiate with less-than-trustworthy informers, but they should have an obvious “Do this next.” imperative as part of the Introduction scene.

d6 1 2 3 4 5 6

313

Hook Scenes Introduction scenes are necessary to give the PCs a clear direction for their investigations. Yet for some mysteries, it might not be obvious that there is any investigation to be had at all. A glowing sphere of glyphed jade invites curiosity; a silent conspiracy of noble cultists is less obviously interesting. The purpose of a Hook scene is simply to let the players know that there’s something they might want to look into. An involved NPC can go to them, or they might stumble into the aftermath of an event related to the mystery, or an old acquaintance might seek them out for help with some seemingly-unrelated problem. If the players have all agreed beforehand to explore the mystery, then a Hook will usually be swallowed on the spot. If that’s not the case, however, be prepared with alternatives should the Hook be ignored or de-prioritized in favor of a more pressing adventure.

d6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Reaction Scenes In active conspiracies or secret intrigues, the players aren’t the only ones with volition. The participants are going to react to the PCs getting involved in their affairs, and that response may not be particularly gentle. Reaction scenes are optional scenes you can work out if you want to think about how a culprit or a conspiracy might respond to PC meddling. Do they attempt an ambush? A sinister warning-off? A friendly spot of bribery? Do they go after sympathetic NPCs, or perhaps after those NPCs who let out their secrets in an Investigation scene? Does the reaction itself risk giving the PCs more clues about how to find the truth? Reactions are contingent on the culprit actually realizing that they’re being investigated. Sneaky and subtle PCs might do their work without ever raising suspicion.

d6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Failsafe Scenes Sometimes the PCs just totally fail to find the clue, or else misinterpret it drastically. It’s perfectly acceptable to let them botch things as a consequence and leave the mystery impenetrable. Not all adventures are a success and there’s always something new to do in a sandbox. In other cases, you’ll want to make it certain that the PCs will eventually pick up the clues. A Failsafe scene allows the GM to hand the PCs a fact or realization they might have missed, though usually at some dire cost to a friendly NPC or at the risk of making the culprit all the more ready and able to deal with the investigators. For a Failsafe, think about some way an NPC, coincidence, or misstep by the culprit could get a missed clue into the PCs’ hands. At the same time, think about the kind of karmic negative consequences that might come from the need to resort to such cosmic forbearance.

What’s the Cost of the Clue?

A sympathetic or friendly NPC dies in the process of revealing the clue to the PCs

The coincidence that reveals the clue also greatly strengthens the culprit

Some portion of a treasure or reward is spoiled by the way the clue is revealed

A positive NPC relationship with the PCs is sacrificed by the circumstances of the scene

The culprit becomes acutely aware of the PCs’ involvement by the way the clue is revealed

The clue’s revelation is made contingent on the PCs making some significant sacrifice

314

Creating Social Challenges

315

316

TREASURES AND REWARDS (Chapter intro here) This section will include magic items and reward guidelines for adventures.

317

TREASURESPLASH W 8.5 in H 11 in

318

Rewards, Renown, and Experience Points The adventure creation rules on page XX explain how to divide up an adventure’s treasure, but how much should you be giving in the first place? How many experience points should the heroes get for an adventure, and how much Renown should you parcel out for their deeds? These matters will be influenced by the tastes of individual tables, but there are some default guidelines that can be followed.

Monetary Rewards and Payment

Adventurers tend to be hired by patrons to do dangerous or unpleasant tasks. The table below gives a general benchmark of what various kinds of average patrons can afford to pay for a job that is important to them, one where failure would cause them major problems. Some portion of the reward might be offered in material goods, property, favors, noble titles, or other non-coin form, particularly if the patron is richer in such things than in silver. Jobs involving great danger or that promise dire consequences for failure are worth twice as much, and if the work is so vital that they’d give everything they can scrape together, the reward is four times as much. There may be times when the PCs want to bribe an NPC or offer them an inducement potent enough to get them to risk major dangers. Such a price is usually equal to twice the average reward below; a peasant will risk great danger for a hundred pieces of silver, while a king might expect a hundred thousand for such a service. Such a cash inducement will be enough to get most people to accept substantial risks of harm, but not their likely ruin.

Type of Patron

Reward in SP

Common peasant / Laborer

Prosperous farmer or artisan

300

Rural village head / Tribal chief

500

Peddler or minor trader

300

Rural Chief Priest or Abbot

1,000

Comfortable merchant

1,000

Minor mage

2,500

Rural gentry or minor noble

5,000

Urban official or minor courtier

5,000

City mayor or its local lord

10,000

Regional noble / Great mage

25,000

Chief High Priest

25,000

Monarch or Merchant Prince

50,000

Great danger or desperate need

They'd give everything for this job

Renown Rewards

A basic game session is worth one point of Renown for each PC, assuming they did something suitably adventurous or challenging during the evening’s play. Their adventuring need not be entirely successful to get this basic point of Renown; they just have to have done their best to accomplish something worth mentioning. If the PCs have done a significant service to some local NPC, provided useful cooperation to a local authority, or done some notable feat of helpfulness to the populace, they each get an additional point of Renown. If their adventure materially improved things for the locals or was helpful to the rulers, it’s usually enough to get this bonus point. Finally, any PC who spends at least a quarter of whatever they earned from the last adventure on carousing, local charity, benevolent tithing, holding parties, or otherwise self-indulgent or non-remunerative ends will gain one point of Renown. It’s up to the GM to decide what counts as “the last adventure”. Blowing the loot from the last trip down into the Deep is usually fine, even if the PCs aren’t done exploring it, but if they’re midway through some story-arc adventure or larger scheme the GM is justified in making them wait until they’ve finished with it before granting them Renown for their carousing. These rewards assume that the PCs are letting their exploits be known by the general populace or someone in authority. Working as a secret troubleshooter squad for a local baron would still win Renown, as at least the baron knows how useful the heroes are, but a band of professionally secretive PCs who don’t let anyone know what they’re up to is unlikely to earn much of a name. Aside from these basic rewards, the PCs might choose to undertake adventures tailor-made to win the hearts of the populace or the local authorities. They might perform generous deeds of heroism and fight mighty foes without asking for material reward. They might go into service with a great noble, doing their dirty work in return for the noble’s cooperation in the party’s own goals. When the PCs decide to aim for glory more than gold, the GM is justified in increasing the Renown reward. For these glory-hound adventures or charitable undertakings, pick a patron reward that would fit what the job would normally earn the PCs. Then convert it to Renown using the conversion table on page XX, rounding up to the next point. Then divide the total Renown among all PCs as a bonus, rounding up for each. This reward assumes that no one is paying the PCs for their help, though they might find considerable treasures in the course of their good deeds. Note that it is not generally possible to lose Renown simply by infuriating rulers or upsetting the natives. Such capriciousness is intimidating, and the PCs who are capa-

319 Ways to Earn Renown

Renown

Participate in a game session

1 point

Help a local NPC, aid authorities, or solve a local problem

1 point

Spend 25% of the last adventure’s reward on charity or carousing

1 point

Succeed in a helpful adventure without accepting recompense

Special

ble of causing so much trouble are perhaps best placated with cooperation, at least as far as their Renown requires. There are numerous lords of the Latter Earth that do little all day but bedevil their subjects, and their minions are as eager to avoid their anger by swift obedience as to please them with their service. For simplicity’s sake, Renown is assumed to travel with the PCs wherever they may go. If they have done wonderful things in one region of the world and travel onward to another, it might take a little time for tales of their heroism to catch up with them, but once they do the impressed locals will likely be inclined to cooperate with their plans. If the PCs travel truly vast distances or adopt entirely new identities elsewhere, the GM might be justified in making them keep separate Renown totals for each of the different areas.

Experience Point Rewards

The experience point requirements for advancing a level are predicated on a certain model of play. It’s assumed that PCs will rapidly advance one or two levels in their first few adventures, linger for a while in the mid levels, and then slowly advance to the campaign-crowning maximum of tenth level. The guidelines in this section presume you want to keep that pacing, and you may need to adjust things if you prefer a different speed of advancement. There are several different ways to award experience points, depending on the kind of activities you want to prioritize in your games. You should pick one that the table can agree on, as the things that you reward with experience points are the things that are likely to form the focus of your gaming sessions. The default system is to give each PC three experience points for each game session in which they tried to do something adventurous or in pursuit of someone’s character goals. So long as their efforts involved a challenge or an attempt appropriate to their characters’ capabilities, they get the full reward, even if the attempt was a failure. If they laze around the home base or spend their time squashing trifling problems then the reward is lessened or eliminated entirely. This system encourages players to go out and adventure, and it doesn’t especially care what exactly they do in this adventure so long as they are trying to do something worthwhile. A goal-based system is to have each player identify a short-term goal and a long-term goal for their PCs. The short-term goal should be something that could conceiv-

ably be achieved in one adventure, while the long-term one might require several. These goals could change on a session-by-session basis if it seems reasonable to the GM. Whenever a PC achieves a short-term goal, they get three experience points and every PC who helped them gets one. Whenever they manage a long-term goal, they get nine experience points and every PC who helped them gets three. To ensure every PC gets their share of the limelight, a PC can’t get goal experience again until everyone else in the party has gotten it. For this system it’s entirely acceptable for the shortterm goals to be something the PC could accomplish this same session. If a short-term goal is achieved every session and a long-term one achieved every three or four, the party’s total advancement is only slightly slower than with the default system. A mission-based system is to have the players all agree on a mission goal, either one given them by a patron or one derived from their own ambitions. The goal must be an honest challenge for their capabilities, but when they achieve it they each gain three experience points. If they decide the goal is too much for them, they can change it at the end of any session, giving the GM time to prepare content for the new goal. This system makes for slightly slower advancement than the default, as the PCs aren’t guaranteed to achieve a new mission goal every session. A spending-based system encourages behavior in line with classic sword and sorcery heroes who are always spending the wealth of kings on debauches, vain purchases, and casual largesse. For a campaign like this, a PC earns three experience points at the end of each session provided they spent all their accumulated liquid funds at the end of the prior session. Thus, if a bronzethewed barbarian came into a royal ransom during the last session’s adventure, he could spend all but a trifling few coins of it on whatever he wished. He’d start the next session near-penniless, but he’d receive three experience points at the end of that next session. For this system, PCs are allowed to spend their wealth on useful things, such as equipment, or holdings, or Workings, or services from others. They are also allowed to keep magic items or objects of more than mere material value. They simply are not permitted to keep any meaningful liquid funds beyond those necessary for bare survival if they mean to gain experience points. Every session they need to go out and earn fresh rewards in order to fund their heroic lifestyle. They might choose to save up a few sessions worth of cash for a major purchase, but they’d get no experience points until they spent it. The system to use is up to the GM and the players, and adjustments can always be made to suit the particular goals of the group. Remember that the activities that reward experience are the ones that are going to motivate the players the most, so be careful to put the focus on the kind of play and purposes you want to have.

320

Placing Treasures Adventurers have a habit of plunging into uncharted Deeps, mysterious ruins, lost cities, fetid jungles, and similar places where large amounts of valuable objects may have been mislaid at some point. Sometimes they are motivated by the rewards given by patrons, but often as not their own curiosity and avarice are the chief drivers. A GM will often be obliged to figure out what kind of loot might be found in a particular place. While the adventure chapter’s section on exploration sites gives guidelines on dividing up a site’s treasure, a GM first needs to decide how much loot should be in the place, and what forms it should take. This amount will depend greatly on the details of the location, but there are a few basic considerations that can be kept in mind. The table below lists various different types of sites, ruins, and treasure storehouses. Pick the most appropriate line and roll 2d6 to see which column you should use to determine the total silver piece value of the goods within the site. This is the basic cash value of the ruin once all its lost coin hoards, concealed jewels, and luxuriant ornamentation is taken into account. This total value should be adjusted to fit the site’s importance in the area and the economy of your particular setting. If you’ve established that adventurers have long delved into the Deep of the Waning Hour then it’s probably fairly picked-over by now. The PCs are also unlikely to find all of the treasure when they investigate the place, and if they miss one of the major portions of the trove they might come away with half or less than the total.

Once you have this total value, you can start dividing it up into various troves for placement in the site, as explained on page XX in the adventure chapter. While some treasures might consist of nothing but a pile of ancient coins, others could use more flavor in being jewelry, gemstones, or objects of art. The tables on the adjacent page offer suggestions for such items. You can assign each such item a portion of the trove’s total worth. Values for jewelry and art object are based on what they could be sold for in a major city on short notice. Merchants might be able to get far more for it with time and skill, but adventurers take what they can get. Important figures or rich troves might have one or more magic items among the finds. Some GMs will prefer to place magic items “by hand”, placing potions, scrolls, and more potent artifacts at the density which fits their particular idea of a good balance. Even GMs who prefer a more randomized distribution should always feel free to reach in and hand-place certain items with the creatures or plunder that ought to have them. In other cases, the table on the facing page can be used to determine whether or not a creature or pile of loot should have a magic item. Pick the line that best describes the possessor or treasure cache that you’re checking and roll 1d20. The result will indicate how many magic items are in their possession, with the table below giving a distribution of potential item types. In almost all cases an intelligent possessor should be expected to use the item if they realize its worth.

Silver Piece Value of the Site’s Contents Type of Site

2–3

4–5

6–8

9–10

11–12

1d6

1d6 x 10

1d6 x 25

1d6 x 50

1d6 x 100

Successful bandit chief's loot

1d6 x 10

2d6 x 20

2d6 x 50

2d10 x 50

2d10 x 100

Rural noble or gentry's estate

1d6 x 100

2d6 x 100

2d10 x 100

1d4 x 1,000

1d8 x 1,000

Great noble's country estate

1d6 x 500

2d6 x 500

2d6 x 1,000

2d10 x 1,000

2d10 x 2,000

Solitary dangerous monster's loot

1d10 x 50

1d8 x 100

1d10 x 250

1d4 x 1,000

2d6 x 1,000

Solitary legendary monster's trove

1d10 x 1,000

1d8 x 10,000

3d10 x 10,000

2d6 x 20,000

2d6 x 50,000

1d6 x 500

1d6 x 1,000

3d6 x 1,000

2d6 x 2,000

2d6 x 5,000

Significant Deep or ancient ruin

1d6 x 1,000

1d4 x 5,000

1d4 x 10,000

1d8 x 10,000

2d6 x 10,000

Sprawling Deep or megadungeon

1d6 x 5,000

2d6 x 10,000

1d4 x 50,000

1d10 x 50,000

2d6 x 50,000

Merchant prince's estate

1d10 x 100

2d6 x 500

2d6 x 2,000

1d10 x 5,000

2d6 x 5,000

Outsider settlement or outpost

1d8 x 1,000

2d10 x 1,000

1d4 x 10,000

1d10 x 10,000

3d6 x 10,000

Outsider city or major power center

2d6 x 1,000

1d8 x 10,000

1d10 x 20,000

2d10 x 20,000

3d10 x 20,000

Ancient royal palace or seat of rule

2d6 x 1,000

1d6 x 5,000

2d6 x 10,000

1d6 x 50,000

2d6 x 50,000

Richly adorned great temple

1d6 x 1,000

2d10 x 1,000

3d6 x 5,000

2d6 x 10,000

2d6 x 20,000

Lost settlement of limited size

2d6 x 100

1d6 x 500

1d10 x 1,000

2d8 x 1,000

1d10 x 5,000

Lost city with many explorable areas

1d6 x 1,000

2d8 x 1,000

1d8 x 5,000

2d6 x 10,000

2d6 x 20,000

Great wizard's domicile

1d8 x 1,000

2d6 x 2,000

2d6 x 5,000

1d6 x 20,000

1d12 x 20,000

Minor bandit cache or petty find

Minor Deep or ancient ruin

321 Chance for Magic Items Rolled Type of Trove or Owner

No Items

One Item

Two Items

Three or More

Trove of 1 HD creature

1–19

N/A

Trove of 2-4 HD creature

1–18

N/A

Trove of 5-10 HD creature

1–10

11–17

18–19

Trove of 11+ HD creature

N/A

1–8

9–16

17–20

Minor unguarded trove

1–18

19–20

N/A

Major unguarded trove

1–5

6–18

Adventurer or noble

1–10

11–19

N/A

Veteran adventurer

N/A

1–5

6–15

16–20

Minor mage or shaman

1–10

11–18

19–20

N/A

Great wizard

N/A

1–5

6–20

Types of Jewelry

d20

Type of Magic Item Found

Rings, whether for fingers, toes, or body parts

1–7

Elixir

Crowns, tiaras, fillets, or headdresses

1d3 Ancient Salvage for modifications

Piercing jewelry, perhaps non-human

9–11

Scroll or Spell Formula

Necklaces, torcs, or strings of jewels

12–14

Weapon

Bracers, wristlets, anklets, or limb decorations

15–16

Armor

Hair ornaments, clasps, sticks, or pins

Shield

Jeweled clothing, straps, or meshes

18–20

Device

Jewelry for non-humanoid alien bodies d20

Why is the Object Particularly Valuable?

d20

Valuable Objects or Precious Goods

Spices of rare worth

It’s contraband, forbidden by a local faith

Recreational drugs

The gemstones on it are very strange

Elaborately-woven or exotic textiles

It’s made of an unearthly material

Household goods, jeweled or in rare metals

The workmanship is superlative

Coffers, casks, or jeweled containers

It’s somehow related to the local rulers

Ornate and luxurious clothing items

It’s abnormally large or bulky for its type

Preserved antique gourmet foodstuffs

It’s clearly sacred to a local faith

Paintings of exquisite skill

There’s a magnificent jewel set in it

Carved ornaments in precious materials

It figures in an important historical event

Uncut or unset jewels

It has some petty enchantment on it

Ingots of rare or precious metals

It induces a positive emotion when touched

Useful raw magical ingredients

It’s a prized trophy taken from Outsiders

Books of historical or literary value

It has a famous maker’s mark on it

Deeds of ownership or tokens of legitimacy

It’s a matched set of something collectible

Statues or figurines of material value

Other items like it were all lost long ago

Religious tokens in precious materials

It’s a perfect example of a particular style

Medicinal herbs or compounds

It was part of an ancient ruler’s regalia

Liquors of rare provenance

It belonged to a famous ancient palace

Vividly illustrated ancient erotica

It’s remarkably durable and hard to harm

Musical instruments of precious materials

Its material can no longer be produced

322

Handling Wealth in Your Campaign Industrious adventurers have a habit of accumulating vast piles of coinage and heaps of glittering jewelry from their exploits. In some settings this money can be swiftly converted to magical items or personal character bonuses that directly improve the strength of the hero. In others, there is less that money alone can buy. A GM is often obliged to think about the ramifications of a party’s discovery of some great hoard of wealth.

Selling Treasure

Gemstones, jewelry, and precious art objects are often a far more compact way of carrying around value than chest upon chest full of silver coins. Heroes also tend to find such shiny plunder in the depths of the earth or on the cold limbs of their slain enemies. While you may have recorded a particular necklace’s worth as being 500 silver, how do the PCs go about actually turning that trinket into spendable cash? A community has a limit on how much loot it can buy before all local purchasers are fully stocked. As a general rule of thumb, use the patron reward levels on page XX; pick the patron that best represents the richest or most influential figure in the community and figure that the place’s total budget for buying loot is equal to twice their average reward. Thus, in a humble rural village whose most important figure is the village head, up to 1,000 silver coins worth of loot can be sold. At the royal capital where the king dwells, the goldsmiths and usurers can afford to buy up to 100,000 coins worth of goods. A local community’s budget refreshes monthly, assuming the locals are able to sell their newfound treasures onward in the meanwhile. For convenience’s sake, the sale value of loot is assumed to include a margin for local taxes, reseller profit, and other realistic but often-tedious considerations. A group that enjoys the extra verisimilitude might have the local lord taking a tax of 10% or more of all adventuring profits within his territory in exchange for the receiving the security of his courts and legal enforcers. While some lords are recklessly venal, most find no reason to pick fights with powerful adventurers by demanding more than a relatively modest due. Selling magical items is not normally practical without a full-fledged adventure revolving around the effort. Elixirs and scrolls might possibly find a buyer at their listed creation cost, but significant artifact sales will likely draw too much attention from greedy locals or worried rulers. Few of them have any incentive to permit ordinary subjects to buy inexplicable devices of eldritch power. While it’s too hazardous for most lords to dare direct confiscation of such things from experienced adventurers, only black market arrangements and private “gifts” for certain favors are likely to be feasible means of exchange.

Spending Wealth

Having made their pile of silver, what do the PCs do with it? There are several possible ways for the heroes to enjoy their hard-won plunder, assuming that mischance or dire need doesn’t quickly strip them of it. They can buy Renown to support their personal projects or goals, with the prices listed on page XX. Throwing silver at a problem is usually helpful to some degree, and some Major Projects could feasibly be accomplished just by buying certain properties or structures. They can support needy NPC allies. If their friends know the PCs are rich, they’re likely to make requests for help. As a GM, try to avoid having every bit character crawl out of the woodwork to beg for a handout, but NPCs you know the players are fond of might speak up or discreetly draw attention to a way in which cash might solve some problem they are currently having. They can buy gear or property. While it’s not generally possible to buy magical items, a country estate, a secure urban safehouse, a sailing ship, or a new suit of heavy armor all have their charms to an adventurer. Low-level heroes often spend much of their first profits simply in kitting themselves out fully for their trade. They can make alliances, befriending useful NPCs with gifts or material support. In many cultures, the giving of valuable gifts may be the most fundamental way to forge an alliance and indicate a desire for cooperation. In others, it may simply be a matter of the king deciding to forget to demand an oath of fealty from the border baron who just swelled his coffers.

Too Much Money?

Many GMs get nervous about giving the heroes “too much wealth” for their current level or station. This isn’t generally a major problem in Worlds Without Number, because there’s no easy way to turn cash into direct personal power, such as by buying magic items. Beyond a masterwork sword and a good warhorse, there’s not much the extra silver can do to directly buff a PC. If the PCs start to wonder what to do with their pelf, give them answers. Throw needy NPCs at them, or point out political alliance opportunities, or direct them to some calamity that can be solved or ameliorated with a sufficient amount of money. Give them exciting exploration possibilities that require a costly expedition to be fitted out, or let them burn their cash in excavating a path into a heretofore unreachable Deep. Ultimately, money is a way for the PCs to control and influence the campaign setting. As the GM, you want them to do that, because the more they entangle themselves with its people, problems, and opportunities, the more likely they are to feel engaged with the campaign.

323

Magic Items and Enchanted Treasures (Magic item section intro)

324

Magical Armor and Shields Just as sorcerers have always found use in enchanting the weapons of allied warriors, magical armor is by no means unknown in the lands of the Latter Earth. Some of these suits are simply better than their mundane equivalents, while others have certain special benefits unique to their particular enchantments.

Armor and Shield Benefits

A suit of armor’s enchantment is measured from +1 to +3. This bonus is added to the armor’s base AC; thus, a war shirt +3 would grant an effective AC of 14 to the wearer. Magical armor is almost always masterwork quality, so its effective Encumbrance is one point less than that of the base version, albeit not for purposes of the Armored Magic focus. Most suits of magical armor are designed to be adjustable to most humanoid wearers. Magical shields do not have enchantment bonuses that add to the user’s Armor Class. Instead, they’re empowered with unique abilities or benefits that apply to the bearer. Magical shields cannot be ruined with the Shatter Shield combat maneuver mentioned on page XX, though they can be destroyed by intentional abuse.

Ancient Panoplies

The ancient cultures of the Latter Earth often had very exotic ideas about what armor should look like, either due to very different conditions of warfare or their ubiquitous access to magical materials. These ancient suits of armor might appear as ceremonial robes, harnesses of glass or crystalline mineral, baroquely impractical plate armors, or enchanted ornaments that cover hardly a handspan of the wearer’s skin. Despite these various appearances, these ancient armors have the same statistics as the modern armors they emulate, including Encumbrance and skill check penalties. Thus, a multicolored and brocaded robe that functions as a suit of plate armor would have an Encumbrance value of 2 and apply its penalty to Sneak and Exert skill checks. Some regions of the modern Latter Earth have preserved the techniques for fashioning armors of this kind, or have so many surviving suits that they are in common use among adventurers. Others make a point of dressing their elite guards or temple defenders in appropriate panoplies to better show their status. The presence or absence of such armor in a campaign is up to the tastes of the GM and the table; some groups love the pulp aesthetic of fur loincloths and scaled bikinis, while others prefer to rely on unisex cuirasses and rust-smelling chain hauberks. Ancient panoplies come in both normal and enchanted versions, just like any other suit of armor. Where such armor is commonplace, normal versions cost no more than their mundane equivalents and artisans can craft them out of commonly-available components.

Creating Magical Armor

When you need to place a suit of magical armor, first decide whether it is a minor, major, or great artifact. The context will usually determine just how potent a relic you want to place, though sometimes a seemingly minor item might turn out to be unexpectedly powerful. Once you’ve chosen the general category, roll a d20 to find out the armor’s enchantment bonus, and again to find out whether it has some special power. Magical shields never have an enchantment bonus, but always have one special power. Armor Enchantment Bonus Bonus

Minor

Major

Great

1–16

1–5

17–19

6–17

2–4

18–20

5–20

How Many Special Abilities does the Armor Have? d20

Minor

Major

Great

1–16

None

One

17–19

None

One

Two

One

Two

None

Lastly, roll to see what base type of armor or shield it is, assuming you don’t have a particular type in mind. d20

Armor Type

War Shirt

11-13 Cuirass and Greaves

2-4

Buff Coat

14-15 Scaled Armor

5-6

Linothorax

16-17 Mail Hauberk

7-8

War Robe

18-19 Plate Armor

Pieced Armor

Great Armor

10-11 Mail Shirt d20

Shield Type

1-5

Small

6-20

Large

Some special abilities might grant bonuses to skills or other numeric benefits. These bonuses don’t stack with other armor or weapon powers that boost similar scores; only the best bonus is applied. In the same vein, a shield and a suit of armor that both have the same ability benefit the user only once; an Impervious shield and suit of armor only allow one instance of Shock to be ignored each round rather than two.

325

Armor and Shield Abilities Below are merely a few of the special abilities that might be found on magical armor and shields. Other graces can be added, but should generally revolve around protective and utility functions rather than offensive magical effects. Augmented: The bearer can carry four more points of Readied encumbrance. Once per scene, they can lift or briefly manipulate anything a human possibly could. Bracing: As a Move Action, the bearer can brace against one specific foe. Until they voluntarily move from their location, they’re immune to Shock from that foe and cannot be forcibly moved. Clotting: Once per day, it automatically stabilizes a Mortally Wounded bearer. Feathery: The user is immune to falling damage and can choose a landing site within 30 feet of their target. Feral: At the cost of one System Strain, the bearer can talk to animals for a scene, who will reply with human intellect but bestial interests and focus. Fireproof: The bearer ignores the first 10 points of fire or heat damage they suffer each round. Fortified: The bearer ignores the first point of System Strain they’d otherwise incur in a day. Graceful: The bearer walks so lightly as to leave no footprints and cannot slip, trip, or be subject to forced movement by a man-sized foe. Harmonic: An allied mage can cast a spell on it; the bearer is then immune to that spell until it is changed. Impervious: Once per round, the bearer ignores an instance of Shock they would otherwise have suffered. Inspiring: Allies who can see the wearer gain a +1 Morale bonus and may reroll failed Mental saves against emotion or thought-controlling effects. Lucky: Once per day, as an Instant action, turn a failed save into a success. Majestic: Its magnificent appearance makes it socially acceptable wear in any situation or context. Sealed: The bearer ignores toxic atmospheres, terrestrial temperature extremes, and has no need to breathe. Shifting: The bearer can teleport up to 30’ to a visible location as a Move action. Shining: It can emit light in a 30’ radius at will. Once per day as an On Turn action, force a melee foe to make a Physical save or lose their next Main Action from being dazzled. Silent: It applies no penalty to Sneak skill checks. If light armor or a shield, it grants a +1 bonus to the checks. Soaring: As a Main Action, the bearer can move twice their movement rate through the air. They’ll fall if they end the turn on an unsupported surface. Sustaining: Once per day, cause the bearer to gain a point of System Strain and lose all need for sleep, food, air, or drink for the next 24 hours.

d00

Magical Armor and Shield Abilities

1–4

Augmented

5–8

Bracing

9–12

Clotting

13–16

Feathery

17–20

Feral

21–24

Fireproof

25–28

Fortified

29–32

Graceful

33–36

Harmonic

37–40

Impervious

41–44

Inspiring

45–48

Lucky

49–52

Majestic

53–56

Sealed

57–60

Shifting

61–64

Shining

65–68

Silent

69–72

Soaring

73–76

Sustaining

77–80

Thorned

81–84

Transient

85–88

Unsleeping

89–92

Vigilant

93–96

Warded

97–00

Weightless

Thorned: Successful grapple, unarmed or natural weapon attacks against them also inflict 1d6 damage on the attacker, plus any armor enhancement bonus. Transient: It can vanish from its wearer or return to their person as an On Turn action once per round. Unsleeping: The bearer need not sleep, but will not get the benefits of a night’s rest unless they do so. Vigilant: The bearer can see normally even in deep mists or total darkness. They cannot be surprised. Warded: The GM chooses one weapon entry from the table on page XX. Non-magic weapons of that kind can’t hurt the bearer, and magic ones do only half damage, rounded down. Neither can inflict Shock. Weightless: It has no Encumbrance, but this benefit does not apply to the Armored Magic Focus.

326

Magical Weapons A lust for enchanted steel is a commonplace among warriors, and the sorcerers of the Latter Earth have not been remiss in creating wondrous weapons for their allies and patrons. Despite the inevitable losses to time, wear, and obscurity, magical weapons from countless prior ages can still be found in ruins, strongholds, and the grip of powerful warriors. As with any magical item, GMs should remember that the weapon’s current possessor will almost certainly be using it against their foes if they have any ability to do so.

Creating Magical Weapons

First, decide whether the weapon should be a minor, major, or great treasure. An heirloom axe of a minor knightly family might seem to be appropriate for a minor weapon, while the famed war-sword of a legendary hero is probably a great treasure. This is not a certainty; even a famous blade might actually be of relatively modest power, and a little-known spear might be a relic from a forgotten legend, but it’s a good starting point for creating the weapon. Next, roll a d20 or pick from the table below to find out the weapon’s basic enchantment bonus. This bonus is added to any hit rolls, damage rolls, and Shock the weapon might do. While most magical weapons are considered masterworks of their type, the usual masterwork bonus does not stack with these enchantments. Weapon Enchantment Bonus Bonus

Minor

Major

Great

1–16

1–5

17–19

6–17

2–4

18–20

5–20

Once you know the enchantment bonus, you should think about the original intended users of the weapon. Who was this magical item made for? What sort of weapons did they use, and in what context were they employed? A footman in some ancient sorcerer-king’s army is going to have a very different kind of short sword than the casual sidearm carried by a noble of some vanished empire. The adjacent table offers some suggestions as to who the original users might’ve been. If you’ve established a particular ancient empire in your campaign setting, you might credit the weapon to them, and use some recurring motifs of material, shape, or style to help emphasize the item’s origins. If the weapon was instead made by some modern mage, it might include a maker’s mark or other characteristic trait that could connect it to other items crafted by the wizard. Each table entry provides some suggestions as to the types of weapons most likely for such a wielder. These favored weapons will form the bulk of the magical war-

The Original Intended Users of the Weapon

Used by a common member of a mass infantry unit that relied on muscle-powered weapons. Favors spears, pole arms, short swords, or daggers.

Used by a civilian gentleman or duelist. Favors swords, daggers, hand hurlants, staffs, caneclubs, or concealable weapons.

Used by a champion or heroic warrior. Favors complex, exotic, or specialist weapons, twohanded weapons, and hurlants.

Used by an assassin or other denied obvious weaponry. Favors daggers, claw blades, and other small concealed weapons; sometimes long hurlants or crossbows.

Used by knightly duelists or other heavy-armor combatants. Favors maces, hammers, twohanded weapons, stilettos, and other weapons with penetrating Shock.

Used by archers or ranged combatants. Favors bows, crossbows, hurlants, light spears, short swords, or daggers.

Used by individualistic warbands. Favors spears and short swords somewhat, but an individual warrior could use anything.

Used by a high-tech culture. Roll again, but replace bows and crossbows with hurlants, and melee weapons will have advanced-tech stylings.

gear found for them, though it could be that the item was a novelty created for an owner’s special purpose. Use the favored weapon suggestions as guidelines for picking the precise type of weapon the artifact might be. For additional help, you can roll on the adjacent table. If the result is a “favored primary” weapon, then pick one of the favored weapons listed above that would make sense for a main armament. “Favored secondary” are usually short swords, daggers, hand hurlants, or other backup gear appropriate to the user type. “Favored ranged” is usually a dagger, hand hurlant, light throwing spear, or other secondary ranged weapon, though archers and gunners might prefer heavier weaponry. The tables lean towards certain weapons that have always been common and favored throughout martial history: spears and short swords. Sorcerers who built weapons for massed bodies of troops will have favored such effective, versatile weapons. Still, the very individualistic nature of most heroic warriors and the unique tastes of prior ages can sometimes result in rather unusual weapon choices. Warriors who find such equipment must sometimes put aside more familiar gear if they mean to master their newfound treasure.

327 d100

Weapon

d100

1–30

Favored primary

Weapon

72–73 Hammer, War

31–40 Favored secondary

Hurlant, Great

41–50 Favored ranged

Hurlant, Hand

51–53 Axe, Hand

Hurlant, Long

Axe, War

77–78 Mace

Blackjack

79–80 Pike

56–58 Bow, Large

81–85 Spear, Heavy

59–61 Bow, Small

86–89 Spear, Light

Claw Blades

Throwing Blade

Club

Staff

Club, Great

Stiletto

Crossbow

93–94 Sword, Great

66–68 Dagger

95–97 Sword, Long

69–70 Halberd

98–00 Sword, Short

Hammer, Great

Once you have the weapon enchantment, origin, and weapon type decided, you’ll want to decide whether or not the weapon might have one or more special abilities. A full list of these abilities is found on the following pages, though you can always make up more of your own or loot them from other old-school compatible games. If you haven’t any particular firm feelings about the topic, you can roll on the table below to find out. Special Weapon Abilities d12

Minor

Major

Great

1–2

None

3–4

None

One

5–6

None

One

Two

None

One

Two

None

One

Two

One

Two

Three

One

Two

Three

One

Two

Three

Two

Three

With that set, your magical weapon is complete. You might give it some details of appearance and style to set it off, but don’t worry about attaching a backstory or other elaborate history to it unless you expect it to become pertinent to your game.

328

Magical Weapon Abilities The following powers are just some of the possible enchantments that might have been wrought into the armaments of ancient days. A sufficiently skilled mage of the present day might be able to replicate some of them at the GM’s discretion using the magic item creation rules that begin on page XX. Adamantine: The weapon is imperishable and unbreakable by all conventional and most magical means. Edged weapons never lose their keenness, bowstrings never snap, and the weapon can bear a seemingly limitless amount of weight without bending or breaking. The weapon’s damage and hit bonus are both increased by +1, to a maximum of +3. Augmented: The weapon’s enchantment hit and damage bonus increase by +1, up to a maximum of +4. Baffling: The weapon looks very strange in some way, and its operation is not obvious to onlookers. The first attack the wielder makes during a fight is an automatic hit; after that, the onlookers have seen enough to defend against it normally. The shifting configuration of the weapon allows the same bonus during the next fight, however, even if the foes have seen it in an earlier engagement. Barring: As a Move action, the bearer can use the weapon to draw a straight, glowing line up to twenty feet long, provided one part of the line is within five feet of the bearer. Enemies must make a Mental saving throw to cross the line from either direction with their bodies, weapons, or powers; on a failed save, their attempted action is wasted. The effect ends until a new line is draw, the scene ends, or the bearer or their allies cross the line with their own bodies, weapons, or powers. Blighted: The weapon was created to slaughter normal human beings. Against baseline humans, it rolls damage twice and takes the better result. It functions without issues even in the hands of a baseline wielder; its creators were as glad to see intercine strife as any other kind. Bloodbound: The weapon forms a symbiotic bond with the wielder. So long as they are wielding the weapon, they automatically stabilize from any survivable mortal wound and automatically regenerate one hit point every hour as magical healing. Once per day, a failed Physical or Mental saving throw may be rerolled as the weapon shares the strain on the wielder. Bloodthirsty: When the weapon’s wielder reduces a creature with at least one hit die to zero hit points, they regain 1d8 plus the creature’s hit dice in lost hit points. This healing cannot take them above their usual maximum hit points. Despairing: The weapon drains a victim’s courage and hope. By accepting a point of System Strain as an Instant action when they hit a target, they can force

the victim to make an immediate Morale check at a -1 penalty. This effect can be applied to a given target only once per scene. Devoted: The weapon bonds with the first possessor to pick it up after the death of their last wielder. Until the wielder dies or intentionally discards it, it remains bound to them. Under no circumstances will it or its projectiles harm its wielder, and it can be teleported back to their hand as an On Turn action. The first time the wielder would be reduced to zero hit points during a day, they may accept a point of System Strain to let the weapon leap up and block the damage, assuming the damage is the sort the weapon could block. Devouring: The weapon bites pieces out of a victim’s body or spirit. Damage inflicted by a devouring weapon cannot be healed until the end of the scene, whether by regeneration or other healing abilities. Creatures brought to zero hit points by the weapon are killed immediately and largely dismembered. Every time the weapon kills a living creature, the bearer gains twice their hit dice in points of healing. Effortless: The weapon is supernaturally handy and easy to use. It has an effective Encumbrance of zero, cannot be unintentionally dropped or disarmed, and will hang suspended in space by the bearer for up to a minute if they should need their weapon hand free for some other purpose during a round. Large Effortless weapons will automatically compact or contort themselves to remain convenient to carry or use in even the most awkward circumstances. Energetic: When in use, the weapon or its projectiles are wreathed in flame, lightning, killing frost, or some other form of energy. Minor energetic weapons do +2 damage on a hit, while major or great energetic weapons do 1d6+2 additional damage. This bonus doesn’t add to the weapon’s Shock. Enervating: The weapon drains the vital energy from those it harms. A creature hit by the weapon must make a Physical saving throw or lose their next Move action. This draining effect can’t apply more than once to a creature until their next turn. Enraging: The weapon ignites a bloodthirsty fury in the bearer. As an On Turn action, the wielder can become enraged. While enraged, they gain a +2 bonus to hit and damage rolls, can reroll any failed Mental saving throws that would stop them from fighting, and can continue fighting for one round after being reduced to zero hit points. Enraged wielders never fail a Morale check. Every round, however, they must either attack someone, seek to get close enough to attack someone, or spend their Main Action to come out of the rage. Forfending: The first Screen Ally skill check the bearer attempts each round is an automatic success. While

329 they are using the Screen Ally action, they are immune to Shock damage and gain a +2 bonus to their Armor Class. Fortifying: The weapon has a supplementary pool of System Strain; up to three points of it can be accumulated by the weapon in place of its bearer when System Strain is incurred. This System Strain decreases by one point per night. A bearer can benefit from only one of these weapons at a time, and its pool is shared among all its potential users. Harmonious: As an On Turn action, provided the bearer has not attacked yet this turn, the bearer may target a weapon being held by an enemy; the Harmonious weapon will instantly move to perfectly parry, deflect, or block all attacks that weapon makes against the bearer until the start of their next turn. Conversely, the Harmonious weapon cannot be used to hurt the bearer of the targeted weapon, as it is too perfectly in harmony with their movements. Hunting: The weapon was fashioned to slay monstrous beasts. Against non-sentient foes, the weapon rolls any damage it inflicts twice and takes the higher result. Illuminating: The weapon casts light up to 60’ in radius at the wielder’s mental command. By accepting one point of System Strain, the bearer may make the light visible only to them and their allies; such selective light lasts for an hour. Innervating: A wielder who uses Effort, such as a High Mage or a Vowed, may accept a point of System Strain to gain an additional bonus point of Effort for as long as they carry the weapon. This System Strain cannot be recovered until the weapon is put aside. Only one Innervating weapon can help a bearer at once. If the weapon is dropped or lost for more than an hour, the Effort and any effect it may be supporting are lost. Longarm: A ranged weapon’s effective range is doubled. If it’s a melee weapon without the Long quality, it gains it, and if it already has the Long quality, it now extends out to 20 feet. Lucky: The weapon confers an unpredictable and unreliable luck on its bearer. As an Instant action, they can call on this luck to reroll an attack roll, damage roll, or skill check made during combat, taking the better of the two rolls. They can use this ability only once per scene, and every time they use it, they must roll 1d6 as well; on a 1, the attempted roll fails or rolls minimum damage instead. Marking: When the weapon harms or even touches a target, the wielder can choose to gain a point of System Strain and activate its marking power. For the rest of the scene, the weapon can strike the target as if they were adjacent, regardless of their distance or any intervening cover. They are also perfectly aware of the marked target’s location, speech, and physical actions. The mark ends at the end of the scene,

d100

Ability

d100

Ability

1–2

Adamantine

51–52

Nightwalking

3–4

Augmented

53–54

Omened

5–6

Baffling

55–56

Penetrating

7–8

Barring

57–58

Phantom

9–10

Blighted

59–60

Phasing

11–12

Bloodbound

61–62

Piercing

13–14

Bloodthirsty

63–64

Radioactive

15–16

Despairing

65–66

Rampaging

17–18

Devoted

67–68

Rectifying

19–20

Devouring

69–70

Returning

21–22

Effortless

71–72

Sacrificial

23–24

Energetic

73–74

Shattering

25–26

Enervating

75–76

Shieldbreaking

27–28

Enraging

77–78

Shocking

29–30

Forfending

79–80

Shrieking

31–32

Fortifying

81–82

Skittering

33–34

Harmonious

83–84

Skytreading

35–36

Hunting

85–86

Slaughtering

37–38

Illuminating

87–88

Souleating

39–40

Innervating

89–90

Spellcleaving

41–42

Longarm

91–92

Terrifying

43–44

Lucky

93–94

Toxic

45–46

Marking

95–96

Vengeful

47–48

Merciful

97–98

Versatile

49–50

Negating

99–00

Vigilant

when a new target is marked, or when the marked target gets more than five hundred feet away. Merciful: The weapon never kills any target it reduces to zero hit points; instead, they are immediately stabilized and will awaken an hour later with one hit point. The damage that this weapon inflicts is completely painless and leaves no visible physical marks. Negating: The weapon feeds on the arcane power of spells and magical weapons used against its bearer. When the bearer is targeted by a magical spell, arcane power, or the special powers of a magical weapon, they may accept a point of System Strain as an Instant action and make a Physical saving throw; on a success, they are unaffected. This save may only be attempted once per instance of effect. Nightwalking: The weapon allows the bearer to step through shadows, entering one and appearing in another no more than a hundred feet away as a Move action. Even very small shadows will suffice, and one is generally available in any area not devoid of light or objects to cast them. Omened: Once per day the weapon can provide a yes, no, or unclear answer to a single question asked by a wielder regarding events that could happen to the

330 wielder within the next hour. The weapon’s answer is the GM’s best estimate of likelihood, and may not be correct if events play out in an unexpected way. Thus, asking “Will I win this hand of cards?” might result in the GM dicing out the result and telling the PC yes or no based on what will happen should they play, but if the PC knifes their gambling partner partway through the draw the weapon’s answer would no longer apply. Penetrating: This weapon ignores non-magical armor, shields, or beast hides for purposes of determining Shock susceptibility. Phantom: As an On Turn action, the bearer can turn the weapon invisible and intangible to anyone but themselves, or revert the weapon to visibility. While invisible the weapon can harm only intangible or immaterial foes, but it cannot be detected or touched by others. Phasing: The weapon can be tuned to pass through solid obstacles, striking only those objects or targets the bearer wills. Causing the weapon to phase is an On Turn action that adds one point of System Strain to the bearer; until the end of the round, the weapon ignores any armor, cover, or barrier that may obstruct it. Piercing: This weapon inflicts its Shock damage on everything the wielder attacks with it, even if the target is normally immune to Shock. However, the weapon never inflicts more than its Shock damage, whether or not the attack roll hits. If the weapon doesn’t normally do Shock, it gains a base Shock rating of 2/-. Radioactive: The weapon emits a constant invisible radiance of toxic power. As an On Turn action the bearer can drop or restore the safeguards on the weapon. While unleashed the weapon glows deep blue and everyone within melee range of the bearer, including the bearer, will take 1d10 damage at the end of the bearer’s turn each round unless somehow shielded against radioactivity. Creatures with one hit die automatically die if so poisoned, regardless of the damage roll. Rampaging: Whenever this weapon kills a creature with at least one hit die, its bearer may immediately make another attack on any target within range. If no additional targets are available, the wielder instead gets an instant free Move action. Rectifying: The weapon is exceptionally potent against undead, robots, and other synthetic life forms. All damage done to such creatures is rolled twice, with the better number taken. The weapon can affect even insubstantial or otherwise immune entities of that type, and an undead creature killed by this weapon is permanently put to rest barring tremendous powers of revivification or immortality. Returning: If thrown, dropped, or disarmed, the weapon can be called back to the owner’s hand as an On

Turn action. A new possessor becomes the owner after carrying it for at least an hour. Sacrificial: The weapon’s violence is fueled by the wielder’s own life force. As an Instant action on a hit, the wielder may accept 1d8 hit points of damage; double this damage is inflicted on the target. This damage may be enough to mortally wound the weapon’s own wielder. Shattering: The weapon can be used to smash inanimate objects and barriers. Once per scene, with one minute of careful preparation, the wielder can break a man-sized hole in a normal exterior wall or up to a foot of stone. If they accept a point of System Strain, they can do so as a Main Action instead, and may do so as often as they have System Strain available. Shattering blows inflict no special damage on animate targets. Shieldbreaking: The weapon ignores all shields, both their Armor Class bonus and their Shock protection. Non-magical shields are destroyed by the weapon’s attack, whether or not the attack hits. Shocking: The weapon’s Shock damage is increased by 2 points. If it has no natural Shock score, it gains a Shock rating of 2/AC 15. Shrieking: At the wielder’s will, the weapon emits an ear-splitting shriek while in use. The wielder and up to a dozen allies are immune to this effect, but others who are within 60 feet of the wielder are unable to hear themselves speak, and spellcasters must make Wis/Magic skill checks at a difficulty of 7 plus the spell level to successfully cast spells without fumbling the incantations. All Instinct checks made within the area suffer a -2 penalty. The shrieking is completely inaudible outside the sixty-foot radius of effect. Skittering: When the weapon is shot or thrown at a location within sixty feet, the wielder may instantly appear where the weapon was thrown or struck as an On Turn action, provided they do so in the same round. If thrown, they appear with the weapon in their hand. This ability may be used only once per round. Skytreading: The weapon’s bearer falls gently from any height, becoming immune to falling damage. By accepting one point of System Strain as an On Turn action, they may fly at their full normal movement rate until the end of the round. Slaughtering: The weapon hideously disjects its victims. Any target reduced to zero hit points by the weapon is immediately killed and violently dismembered. Any enemies with a Morale score of less than 12 who are within melee range of the slaughtered victim take the weapon’s Shock damage as emotional trauma and horror, even if they’re normally immune to Shock. Weapons that don’t do Shock damage inflict 2 points of damage to these bystanders instead. This weapon cannot be used for less than lethal attacks.

331 Souleating: While this weapon may or may not devour the actual soul of the target, such as it may be, it channels great vital force to the wielder. Every time they kill a sentient creature with the weapon, they lose one accumulated System Strain point. This effect can trigger only once per scene. Spellcleaving: At a cost of a Move action and one System Strain gained by the wielder, the weapon can apply an Extirpate Arcana spell effect to any target point within range of the weapon. The spell is cast as if by a tenth level High Mage with a total Int/ Magic skill bonus of +3. This power can be used only once per scene. Terrifying: The weapon is wrought with psychic distress, creating an intense burden of fear in those who oppose its wielder. Whenever the wielder does something that provokes a Morale or Instinct check, any targets who can see them must make the check at a -1 penalty. This effect does not stack with multiple weapons, nor does it affect those with Morale 12. Toxic: The weapon sweats a potent toxin. When it hits a living target, the wielder may accept a point of System Strain to trigger the toxin’s effect; the victim is racked with spasms of torment and cannot speak or cry out while they remain poisoned. Each round they take 1d8 damage at the end of their turn; they can try to throw off the poison’s effects by making a successful Physical saving throw at the end of their round. A creature can only be poisoned once by this weapon at any one time. Vengeful: The weapon will always succeed at any attack roll made against a foe who has harmed the wielder within the past round, assuming success is physically possible. Such vengeful strikes roll damage twice and take the higher roll. Versatile: The weapon shifts forms to better suit the bearer’s need. As an On Turn action, the wielder can give it one of the following qualities it doesn’t already have: Subtle, Long, or Throwable. If thrown, it returns to the bearer’s hand at the end of the round. Vigilant: The weapon’s bearer cannot be surprised by anyone who is carrying a manufactured weapon. The bearer does not need to sleep, though they do not recover lost hit points or accumulated System Strain without doing so.

332•

Magical Devices The ancients produced innumerable objects of wonder, the vast majority of them now so much useless arcane scrap due to the ravages of time and the shifts of the Legacy. Some items still maintain useful functionality, however, though these powers often are used in very different ways than their creators anticipated. The list provided here is only a small selection of the possibilities. Censer of Solid Dreams: When this small censer is filled with flammable substances and lit as a Main Action, it exhales a thick, opaque white smoke. The bearer of the censer can mold the smoke with mental commands, shaping it into any solid, simple object that can fit in a thirty-foot cube. This object is opaque and requires 5 hit points of damage to punch a human-sized hole directly through it. Creatures caught inside the smoke can tear through it with a Main Action. It’s sturdy enough to bear the weight of horses and it lasts for the remainder of the scene. The censer can be lit only once per day. Congealed Paradox: These thumb-sized black gemstones are mildly painful to touch or look at, as each one contains an impossible duality that has been forcibly reconciled by ancient sorcery. When gripped and broken as a Main Action, the released paradox draws the immediate repression of the Legacy as mundane reality is violently reinforced in the surrounding twenty feet. Within that radius all active magic is immediately dispelled and no further spellcasting, art use, or magical power use can be performed inside it for the rest of the scene. Powerful Workings are suppressed within this zone for the rest of the scene. Creatures reliant on magic for existence take 5d6 damage for each full round they spend inside this radius. Enough Rope: When found, this appears to be a simple loop of slim silk rope, no more than five feet long. Whenever this rope is actually used, however, it will always be precisely long enough for the immediate task at hand, be that climbing a wall, binding enemies, casting a line over a crevasse, or some other specific use. The rope can bear up to a ton of weight and cannot be cut by non-magical weapons. So long as the owner is touching the rope, they can cause it to untie itself or retract fully back into their grip. Eye of Discerning Humanity: A jade-colored sphere the size of an eyeball, this device may be pointed at any creature within sixty feet and activated by pressing a small stud. The target will be limned in yellow light if human, green if demihuman, and blue if non-human. The eye’s categorization draws on the creator’s personal taxonomu, so the result shown may not entirely agree with a user’s opinion. Only the wielder can see this light, which lasts for 1d6 rounds. The eye’s discernment can penetrate any

d00

Magical Devices

1–2

Guncloud

3–6

Censer of Solid Dreams

7–12

Congealed Paradox

13–16

Enough Rope

17–19

Eye of Discerning Humanity

20–23

Flask of Devils

24–26

Ghost Horse

27–31

Immanent Beacon Shard

32–35

Implacable Fist

36–39

Jewel Beyond Price

40–42

Key of the Former House

43–46

Lens of the Polychrome Lord

47–49

Lex Talionis

Logos

51–53

Lyre of Longing

54–57

Memorious Fragrance

58–62

Purification Salt

63–65

Rain-Beckoning Drum

66–69

Ring of the Sea Princes

70–72

Rod of Repudiation

73–77

Seed of Flesh

78–80

Staff of the Old Lords

81–84

Stonepeg

85–87

Stutterhatchet

88–91

Vessel of Hours

92–95

Vigilant Banner

96–00

Vothite Icon

mundane disguise or magical spell of third level or less. If the GM thinks the subject has a stronger kind of concealment, they may make a secret Wis/ Notice skill check against an appropriate difficulty to determine if a true answer is given. The eye can be used once per scene. Flask of Devils: This brass flask is tightly stoppered and covered with sigils of sealing and dominion. If opened, a hideous devil-thing leaps out of the bottle, having statistics equivalent to a creature called by the Calculation of the Phantasmal Eidolon spell on page XX. The devil will demand that its liberator give it a command; that command will be faithfully followed until the scene is over or it is completed. Once finished, the devil will be drawn back into the flask. Each use of the flask adds 1 System Strain to the user; if the devil is killed, an additional 1d3 System Strain is gained by the user and a new devil

•333 will be summoned forth the next time the flask is opened. If this System Strain is sufficient to take the user over their maximum, they’re dragged into the flask to become its new devil, lost forever without some heroic labor of rescue. The flask can be opened only once per day. Ghost Horse: A fist-sized crystal acts as a locus for manifesting a strange, geometric-looking steed of translucent force. The ghost horse can be summoned as a Main Action, and will dutifully and fearlessly carry its summoner and up to two hundred pounds of weight or thirty-five points of encumbrance for up to twelve hours before needing an equal amount of time to recharge. A ghost horse has an effective Move of 60’ per action and can cross any terrain a mountain goat or small boat could navigate, moving up to 50 miles in the course of twelve hours. Natural animals shy away from the beast. The ghost horse has an effective AC of 13, 20 hit points, and cannot fight; if destroyed, it collapses back into its locus and cannot be recalled for a week. Guncloud: This collection of ten silvery discs is intended to be applied to up to ten hand hurlants or one-handed thrown weapons. Once affixed to the weapons, the implements spatially collapse into a single gun or weapon until at least one disc is removed. When the bearer draws the weapon, all the conjoined implements immediately fan out around them in a whirling cloud, remaining within three feet of the bearer without obstructing their actions or vision. The bearer can fire or throw any of the weapons in the cloud as if they were Readied, provided they have at least one hand free. Thrown weapons will return to the cloud after ten rounds or one minute has passed, and discharged hand hurlants will reload themselves ten rounds after being fired, assuming the wielder is carrying ammunition for them. The cloud can be returned to its collapsed state as an On Turn action by the wielder should they sheath or holster one of the weapons. Foes in melee range who want to grab or smash one of the weapons must hit an AC of 16; four points of damage will smash a weapon or knock its disc off, but the guncloud discs themselves are immune to anything short of intentional damage inflicted by a possessor. Immanent Beacon Shard: Fragments of some unfathomable monolith of congealed natural law, these shards of faceted crystal are usually the size of a short baton. When a user presses the correct facet of the crystal and releases it, the shard remains fixed precisely in that location, even if hanging in mid-air. Absolutely no mundane force can shift or damage the crystal, and even magical powers must dispel the effect at difficulty 12 before the shard can be affected in any way. The person who placed the shard is perpetually aware of its exact location in relation to their present place, and can see and hear

the area around the beacon as if they were standing there. The user can reclaim the beacon at a cost of 1 System Strain, or wait for the effect to wear out and the shard to become movable again a day later. Implacable Fist: Appearing as a glove, gauntlet, or set of matching rings, an Implacable Fist grants its user an inhuman grip strength to the hand that wears it. With a full round to build up its force, it can crush or destroy any mundane material it grips. Magical materials force a Str/Exert skill check against a difficulty of 8 or more to be vulnerable to the fist’s effects. The time necessary to focus the strength makes it impractical to use as a weapon in combat or grappling, but if the wearer somehow can get a hand on a helpless or completely restrained target, the grip will destroy any limb it grasps or kill a target whose head or viscera are crushed. The Fist can be used at will, but any object carried in that hand has a 1 in 6 chance of being destroyed accidentally by the wearer’s reaction to combat or other sudden stress. Jewel Beyond Price: This small gemstone is impossible to mistake for an ordinary jewel, for it fills all onlookers with an overwhelming desire to obtain it. If found as treasure or plunder, the finders can decide calmly who is to have it, but if it is offered to a person in exchange for some favor or service that some amount of wealth could theoretically compel them to do, the would-be recipient must make a Mental saving throw or agree to perform the act in exchange for the jewel. If they receive the jewel, they will faithfully carry out the spirit of the agreement for at least a week. The jewel’s full bewitchment of them will last for at most a week, after which they will be able to think clearly about whether or not the trade was reasonable and worth it. Key of the Former House: A stylized key, this item may be used as a Main Action to create a shimmering doorway into a prior period of time in which there was an uninhabited domicile in the current location. Those who pass through the doorway enter into this place and time; if they move more than thirty feet away from the other side of the doorway, they’re immediately ejected back into the present. The doorway in the present day continues to glow for five minutes after the key is triggered before fading to invisibility, though it can still be passed through from either side. The house on the other side of the doorway is abandoned or empty; it may look more or less normal, but there’s a 1 in 6 chance each time this key is used that there is something dangerous there, a toxic environment, or some other hazard. The key may be used once per day, with the doorway lasting up to twenty-four hours before ejecting any remaining interlopers and closing. Each time the doorway closes, there’s a 1 in 6 chance the key shatters.

334• Lens of the Polychrome Lord: These palm-sized lenses collect and concentrate light into a beam of lethal jewel-colored radiance. If used in direct sunlight, the beam so created does 5d6 damage to a single target within 300 feet, with an Evasion save to negate the damage. If used indoors in ordinary lighting, the effect does 3d6, and if the chamber is dark save for torches or other portable light sources the damage is a mere 1d6. If the lens is used more than once per day, there is a 1 in 4 chance it shatters after each subsequent bolt. Lex Talionis: These rare magical weapons come in various small, concealable forms, with daggers predominating. They function as ordinary +1 magical weapons in the main, but whenever they cause harm to a target, the victim must make a Physical saving throw. On a failure, both the target and the wielder of the Lex Talionis instantly die, with no chance to stabilize. If the weapon is used as part of an Execution Attack, no saving throw is allowed. The weapon then vanishes; some say that it is destroyed by the magical discharge, while others postulate that it simply appears elsewhere to await a new avenger. Logos: A logos usually takes the form of a fist-sized sphere of luminous crystalline matter, a constellation of tiny lights glowing within. They radiate a sense of endless possibility; no sentient can look on a logos and not recognize it as an object of tremendous power. Only archmages know the full truth of their utility, but persistent rumor speaks of them as critical ingredients in certain rituals of apotheosis, immortality, and reality-shaping. Even the dullest mage can expend a logos as a substitute for 100,000 silver pieces worth of ingredients for creating Workings or magic items. If used to fuel a magic item’s creation, no further special ingredients are required. Lyre of Longing: While these musical instruments often take the form of lyres, other manifestations have been found. When played by a competent musician for at least five minutes, all listeners within thirty feet must make a Mental saving throw or be seized by a great desire for a particular thing or purpose imagined by the player. This longing will not be enough to make them act wholly out of character, but they will perform all normally-conceivable acts in order to obtain the object of their longing, including quarreling fiercely with their fellows if this object cannot be shared among them. The enchantment lasts for the rest of the scene. The lyre can be used this way only once per day. Memorious Fragrance: Found as an incense stick that somehow never burns out entirely, lighting the Memorious Fragrance as a Main Action allows the activator to spread a subtle haze of scented mist in a twenty-foot radius. The activator may then describe a particular memory that they wish others to have; all within twenty feet except the activator must then make a Mental saving throw or have the memory

implanted in their minds. They may not even realize this memory exists unless something happens that would draw it to mind, or questions are put to them about it. The memory persists until magically dispelled. While the Memorious Fragrance can add memories, it cannot change or erase existing ones. Purification Salt: This small bag contains a never-ending supply of spiritually-purifying salt. If the salt is used to dust an object or weapon as a Main Action, that object can interact with incorporeal entities or spirits as if they were solid for the rest of the scene. If hurled directly at a creature from melee distance, it does 3d6 damage to incorporeal beings, mages, or unnatural magical creatures. If actually consumed by a sentient creature, it fills the imbiber with a sense of guilt and acute sorrow, inflicting 3d6 emotional damage. Creatures reduced to zero hit points regain one point but will attempt suicide. One pinch of salt can be taken from the bag each scene. Rain-Beckoning Drum: Sigiled and worked with signs of rule, this hand drum will produce an immediate deluge of rain in a hundred-foot radius around the user when it is beaten rhythmically. The rain lasts no more than one round but will drop three inches of water on all surfaces within the area of effect; if used indoors, the rain issues from the room’s ceiling. The drum can be used safely once per day. Each additional time it is used in the same day, it adds 1 System Strain to the user. Ring of the Sea Princes: A lost empire of sea-going lords has left behind only these loops of polished coral. Someone who wears one will be able to breathe underwater, see clearly out to 120’ when submerged regardless of the light level, and they and their belongings are impervious to the chill and crushing pressure of the depths, though not to other sources of cold damage. The wearer’s swimming speed is equal to twice their usual movement rate. Rod of Repudiation: An ancient punishment-tool, this short rod may be used to strike a target in melee as if a club +1 or used against a helpless target automatically. An affected subject must make a Physical saving throw or have a dully-glowing brand appear on their face. This brand inspires universal, unreasoning loathing in humans and demihumans, causing a -2 penalty to all their reaction rolls and a -2 penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks. Friends, lovers, spouses, and others with close relationships must make a Mental saving throw on first seeing the brand or break off all association with the subject. The rod may inflict such a brand once per scene, and the curse lasts until it is dispelled or the rod is used again on the same target. Seed of Flesh: A ball of soft, warm skin approximately four inches in diameter, the seed of flesh may be hurled at any surface within thirty feet as a Main Action. If flung with force, the seed transforms into a perfect duplicate of the creature that threw it, al-

•335 beit naked and unequipped. It uses the user’s attributes, skills, Foci, and other abilities, though it has only 6 hit points and it cannot cast spells or use arts. The duplicate will obey even suicidal commands and will remain active for up to a scene before shriveling back into a ball. It can be used only once per day. If it dies while active, the seed is destroyed. Staff of the Old Lords: These rods were once carried by certain human viceroys of the Outsider lords. So long as it is carried in one hand, it will automatically jerk to interpose itself before attacks made by human or demihuman foes, making the bearer immune to Execution Attacks or Shock and granting a +2 bonus to their Armor Class. For 24 hours after the staff is last touched, however, the bearer will find it impossible to perform a hostile act against an Outsider without first making a successful Mental save; on a failure, the action is lost. During this time any Mental saves made to resist Outsider spells or abilities must be rolled twice and the worst taken. Stonepeg: These devices are always found in groups of 1d4+2 pegs, each one appearing to be a glyphed metal rod perhaps a foot in length with a chisel-shaped point on one end. If thrust firmly into a stone or earthen surface, the peg will effortlessly sink into the material and become as firm and fixed as if it were cemented in place. The peg can only be freely removed by the person who sank it into place, otherwise requiring that it be chiseled out with a scene’s effort and the correct tools. Stutterhatchet: This small workman’s hatchet has a flat hammer-poll on its opposite side and a blade that cannot be dulled by anything short of intentional effort to damage it. It functions as a hand axe +1 if used in combat, but when applied to inanimate objects its true function becomes plain. Whatever inanimate matter the stutterhatchet damages, smashes, or cuts will return to its perfect, unbroken state at the next dawn, or sooner if the flat of the axe is tapped against a fragment of it. Fragments or pieces of the object will disappear when the object reforms. If the object is broken into several pieces, it is restored around the largest one, or around the one the wielder taps with the hatchet if it’s triggered early. If fragments are burned, melted, or destroyed with equivalent thoroughness they will be missing from the reformed object. Vessel of Hours: A precious implement most often appearing as a miniature clock, hourglass, incense clock, or some other horological device, this item can wind back time by a few moments. As an Instant action, the bearer can invoke it to undo their actions and any consequences for the immediate turn, resetting their turn back to its beginning. This action cannot be taken after someone else’s turn has begun. This object and others of its kind will only work once for any given user.

Vigilant Banner: These enchanted banners bear the insignia of long-vanished armies, and are always found permanently attached to collapsible banner-staves that extend out to fifteen feet at most. When the banner staff is gripped in one hand and held upright, the bearer is filled with vigor and vigilant alertness. They can reroll failed Notice checks to spot approaching creatures or ambushes, they ignore normal extremes of heat or chill, they can see clearly even in perfect darkness, and they cannot be made to fall asleep or become oblivious to their surroundings by sorcery or mundane weariness. A watchman with the banner can stand their post indefinitely while gripping the banner, but they cannot lose System Strain, naturally heal hit point damage, refresh Effort, or restore spell slots for 24 hours after using it. Vothite Icon: These small paintings, figurines, or symbolic statuettes were designed to influence the most primitive, basic levels of human cogitation in order to impress a particular complex idea on the beholder. Their effectiveness waned with human changes over the ages, but they still have a powerful ability to influence the unwary. When a human or demihuman first sees a Vothite icon within thirty feet of them, they must make a Mental saving throw; on a failure, they lose their next round of action as they struggle to comprehend the alien imperative the icon is impressing on their thoughts. These ideals are so strange and anachronistic that they are almost always rejected, but it takes the full round to do so. The same icon can’t affect the same creature twice. Lifting and presenting an icon requires one hand and a Main Action.

Adding New Items

New items can be researched by PCs or drawn from other old-school compatible games with few or no changes. When importing magic items from other games, however, keep a few cautions in mind. Don’t add simple problem-solving items unless you want the problem to be permanently solved. Weightless packs, flasks of everflowing water, portable shelters that always work, and other such “utility” items erase entire categories of challenges. Don’t add them unless you’re willing to forego using those challenges in your own game. Don’t add simple buff items. If a magic item just adds a bonus to a stat or improves a skill roll, it’s not going to induce the players to give any thought to its use or allow any new or creative situations. Don’t add easily reusable damaging items. If the magic item inflicts damage on a target, it should have very limited charges, a chance of destruction, or a strictly limited scope of function. Cheap and common magical damage devalues the martial heroes in a party.

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Enchanted Elixirs Throughout the ages, there have always been techniques for fixing sorcery inside magical potions, occult salves, breakable clay tablets, or other consumable tokens. These “elixirs” are not uncommon in the Deeps, and even modern mages can often puzzle out ways of duplicating the simpler concoctions.

Elixir Appearances

While the conventional elixir is an ounce or two of liquid in an engraved flask, ancient empires and obscure sorcerous traditions often used different methods to contain their magic. All elixirs must be consumed, applied, or destroyed as part of their activation, whether that consists of lighting an enchanted incense stick or tearing a calligraphic charm. Usually such activation takes no more than a Main Action, though some mediums may require an open flame to light them or a stationary target to rub on a salve. The adjacent table offers some suggestions as to the basic appearance of the d10 The Elixir’s Form elixir, while the table below 1 Bottled vapor provides some ideas about traits that would clearly 2 Breakable token mark out an elixir as some3 Incense stick thing magical or unusual. 4 Inhaler You should note down 5 Injector this appearance for a given type of elixir; if another 6 Inked charm dose is found made by the 7 Jarred salve same creators, it probably 8 Liquid potion should look similar to the first. Using a consistent 9 Pill style for elixirs from the 10 Preserved edible same civilization or maker can help add some verisimilitude to your brewing. d10

The Elixir’s Quirks of Appearance

Vividly unnatural color

Pungent or appealing aroma

Strange texture or consistency

Metallic or glowing appearance

It moves slightly of its own

Unnaturally heavy or light

Makes a very soft sound

Bears imprinted text

Abnormally hot or chilled

Changes shape regularly

Using Elixirs

Consuming a Readied elixir generally requires a Main Action, whether drinking it or applying it to an adjacent object or comrade. Salves and unguents cannot be appliued to a hostile or resisting target. Given the careful packing usually required to keep an elixir from becoming damaged in transit, each one counts as one item of encumbrance when Readied. The GM may allow a dozen to be cased or wrapped together in a pack as one item, but digging these out individually takes too long to be practical in combat.

Identifying Elixirs

As elixirs do not normally decay with age, there are potions from half a hundred eons to be found in the Deeps and storehouses of the Latter Earth. Identifying the precise effects of a strange salve is a challenge to the most erudite sorcerer unless the creators were kind enough to label the vial in letters that can still be understood. Apprehending the Arcane Form can give a one-sentence description of the elixir’s intended effect. Touching a single drop of the fluid against a user’s tongue can sometimes give a hint as well, with a tiny flicker of its effect impressed on the user. Aside from these, someone with the Magic skill can spend a full day in careful analysis of the potion, rolling Wis/Magic or Int/Magic against the potion’s creation difficulty to identify its purpose. A given investigator can make only one attempt to identify it. Useful as these measures are not foolproof. If the potion has magically decayed or been warped by its creator’s clumsiness or malice, it will still register as a potion of its apparent type. The unpleasant truth will be revealed only after it is consumed. This factor is not usually a concern for PCs, but those who seek to buy or trade potions must always be wary of false or fouled goods.

Creating and Obtaining Elixirs

The item creation rules on page XX can be used for brewing elixirs. Average creation costs and difficulties are listed on the adjoining table, though these numbers can swell or shrink depending on the prevalence of magic in a particular campaign or region. Most regions do not have convenient, reliable sales of elixirs. PCs who want to buy potions will usually have to have some personal relationship with a skilled brewer and give them some good reason to take the time and care necessary to concoct such a thing. Regions of firm law and order tend to have rulers that have no reason to allow ordinary people to buy magical artifacts of any kind, and those mages willing to work for coin will need to do their brewing on the black market or sell exclusively to the authorities.

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Types of Elixirs The table below provides a weighted range of different elixir types known in the Latter Earth. Others certainly exist. Base creation difficulties and silver prices for each type are also given, but may vary based on the setting. d00

Elixir

Diff.

Cost

1,0001

2,500

1–4

Anchoring Draught

5–8

Bestial Form

9–12

Blood of Boiling Rage

500

13–15

Bodily Innervation

5.000

16–20

Borrowed Flesh

1,000

21–24

Cold Courage

1,000

25–28

Congealed Winter

2,500

29–32

Deep Sight

2,500

33–38

Energetic Impermeability

1,000

39–42

Inverted Entropy

2,500

43–46

Murderous Anointing

1,000

Nectar of Immortality

50,000

Nepenthe

25,000

50–53 Omened Visions

750

54–58

Persistent Luminescence

500

59–62

Plasmic Molding

1,000

63–64

Quintessence of the Hour

5.000

65–68

Sacrificial Strength

1,000

69–76

Sanctified Healing

500

77–79

Scalding Breath

1,000

80–83 Soul Sight

500

84–85 Thaumic Vitality

5,000

86–90 The Great and the Small

1.000

91–94

Truthspeaking

2,500

95–00

Wrathful Detonation

48–49

500

Anchoring Draught: When a subject drinks this elixir, they become spatially anchored to the place at which they drank it. At any time within the following twenty-four hours, they may teleport back to this point as a Main Action, along with any objects, willing subjects, or incapacitated creatures they are carrying. This teleportation can be done only once, and if the target point is blocked by a solid object the shift fails. Bestial Form: The user of this potion transforms into a normal animal of their choice no larger than a horse nor smaller than a rat. Their own attributes and statistics are retained, though they gain the chosen creature’s movement modes and speed. Their

belongings meld with them on the transformation, still applying their benefits, but they cannot be removed until the change ends. The transformation lasts until the user ends it as an On Turn action, they die, or the next dawn. Blood of Boiling Rage: The imbiber of this brew is suffused with a berserk fury. For the rest of the scene, or until the potion’s effect is ended, they can roll their attack and damage rolls twice, taking the better result. Every round, however, they must either attack someone physically or try to reach them in order to attack them. If all foes are downed, allies will be targeted next. If the berserker is left alone or wishes to end the rage prematurely, they must spend a Main Action fighting the fury and make a Mental saving throw to end it. On a failure, they must spend their next round raging before they can try again. Berserk subjects have enough presence of mind to use special abilities or do complicated actions in order to kill or reach a target, but they cannot cast spells. Bodily Innervation: This rare elixir reinforces a living user’s body, decreasing their current System Strain by three points. It takes three days for the potion’s residue to be fully flushed from a user’s system, however, and this potion cannot be used again until it is fully purged. Borrowed Flesh: When found, these potions fill only half their vials. If several drops of blood are let into the fluid by a willing subject, the subject may transfer up to six of their hit points into the elixir, accepting the damage and healing it normally afterwards. The blood droplets congeal and begin growing into a fleshy slurry once activated. A month later the slurry is digested back into its inert, half-full state, but until that point the brew may be poured on a wounded subject to restore as many hit points as were charged into it. The flesh that mends the wounds is of the same kind and texture as the flesh of the donor, though it will assimilate within a few months afterwards. Cold Courage: The user of this potion is filled with invincible confidence and perfect self-assurance, fighting as calmly in bloody battle as if on a sparring field. When they attack, they roll a skill check instead of an attack roll, at a difficulty equal to half the target’s Armor Class, rounded down. They are also immune to any mental effect that would alter their emotions. While under the potion’s influence, however, the GM keeps track of their hit points and damage taken, and the player is told only when they hit zero.

340 Congealed Winter: These bottles are always extremely cold and relatively fragile; even loosening the stopper provokes a warning twinge of ice in the air around it. When opened or shattered, every water-based liquid within twenty feet is instantly flash-frozen at least a foot deep, all fires are extinguished in that range, and living creatures take 2d6 damage. Against liquid or fiery creatures this damage is maximized. Deep Sight: This substance allows an imbiber to briefly subconsciously integrate with a Deep’s basic structure, gaining an insight into the general layout of proximate areas. The GM gives the PC a map of the four nearest rooms of interest to the PC and instructions on how to get to them. For places with a detailed map, a radius of 100’ is discerned. Each room’s original purpose is revealed in a few words, though nothing can be discerned of its contents. This elixir will work inside any structure that was intentionally constructed by an intelligent being. Energetic Impermeability: This elixir confers a temporary immunity to the next harmful energy that would otherwise injure the imbiber within the next scene. This immunity is sufficient to protect the user from any mundane source of this energy, and subtracts fifteen points of damage from each hit by a magical source of that power. Energy forms valid for this potion are thermal, electrical, radiation, or caustic; kinetic energy is not valid, nor are purely psychic or spiritual forms of injury. This protection lasts for one scene, and does not change once it is set by the initial harm it deflected. Inverted Entropy: This flask contains enough of this fluid to affect one man-sized object. If the target is unliving, it can be restored to full and perfect physical completeness from any degree of damage or destruction, albeit magical qualities are not restored. A living target is restored to their last condition of full physical health, but the neural tissue reset causes them to completely forget everything since that point and maximizes their System Strain. The Inverted Entropy can’t revert them more than one week. This reversion does not delete experience points, magical effects, or lingering curses. Murderous Anointing: When this potion is applied to a weapon, it gains a brief semi-sentience dedicated entirely to bloodshed. For the following scene, the wielder can accept a System Strain point to reroll a failed attack roll with the weapon, up to once per failed attack. A weapon affected by this potion cannot be used for less than lethal strikes. Nectar of Immortality: Grandly named, this liquid offers a nominal prolongation of the subject’s natural longevity. Sages speculate that it was once a reward given by the Outsiders to pliant human rulers. Each bottle consumed adds an additional 1d6 years to the subject’s healthy lifespan and immediately cures all but the most sorcerously-potent diseases or sick-

nesses. The nectar cannot do more than double the subject’s natural lifespan, however, and after each dose a 1d20 must be rolled; on a natural 1, the nectar instead causes the subject to perish in a hideous welter of cancers and rebellious growths. Nepenthe: This liquid eases a tormented mind and can cure mental illnesses and temper the pain of past traumas. Madness induced by magical causes forces the subject to make a Mental saving throw; on a failure, the draught cannot break the curse. A subject can benefit from Nepenthe only once in their life. Omened Visions: Often a pale blue powder meant to be inhaled, this dust allows the user to explore the immediate future. Their next fifteen minutes will play out in their visions, their actions chosen as they wish and their consequences made evident in the dreamlike fugue, assuming those consequences are evident within the next fifteen minutes. While under the dust’s effects the subject is oblivious to the mundane world. Persistent Luminescence: When this liquid is applied to an object or imbibed, the target begins to glow like a lantern, shining light out to a 30’ radius. This glow persists until dispelled or the object has its surface sanded or scraped away. Living creatures are affected for six months. Plasmic Molding: When applied to a non-magical object no larger than a large door the substance becomes soft and malleable as clay for one scene. At the end of the scene, the material hardens back to its original consistency in whatever form it now takes. If taken by a living creature, they may reshape their own body to a degree, taking any appearance that a creature of their species might naturally have. This alteration lasts until dispelled or the user ends it, but they can’t recover System Strain while so altered. Quintessence of the Hour: When imbibed, the user is prompted to think of a particular time and place in their own past. They are instantly whisked back to a perfect temporal parallel of that time, occupying the body they had at the time for one hour. During that hour they may do as they wish in that time and place, but if they die during that hour, they die in the present as well. At the hour’s end their mind is returned to the present time. Nothing that happened in the facsimile remains or has any effect on true reality, but things they learned or observed during that hour may be retained. Sacrificial Strength: When imbibed, the user is capable of channeling their own life force into the damage they do. One time within the next scene, as an Instant action, they may sacrifice a number of hit points of their choice when they inflict damage on a target. For every four HP sacrificed, the damage done is increased by 1d6, up to a maximum of 5d6. The user must retain at least one hit point, and the bonus damage can be applied to only one target of a damaging action.

341 Sanctified Healing: This healing unguent comes in dozens of different styles, as the need for it is familiar to many cultures. When applied to a target, it heals 1d6+1 hit points of damage instantly. Scalding Breath: The creature that imbibes this fluid can exhale it again as a Main Action to do 4d6 damage plus their character level to all targets within a cone thirty feet long and wide. Victims can make an Evasion saving throw to halve the damage. Different fluids produce different noxious exhalations, though flame, frost, poison, and lethal radiation are not uncommon finds. Only one breath attack is allowed, and if not made within a scene the potion is wasted. Soul Sight: If applied to a creature’s eyes, this potion causes their vision to become hazy and indistinct, too blurry to read text or make out any details more precise than facial features, albeit not so much as to hinder their fighting ability. They are able to see living or animate entities as glowing colored outlines, however, regardless of the ambient light or their invisibility, and can identify specific individuals by the details of the image. The glow tells the user the subject’s current mental state as described in one or two words. The sight lasts for six hours or until the user rinses their eyes. Thaumic Vitality: A rare and precious potion, this elixir allows a mage to cast one prepared spell within the next scene without it counting against their allowed spells for the day. This force exerts a severe cost on their bodily constitution, however, and they gain Systm Strain equal to the spell’s level after it is cast. If this cost is more than their Constitution can bear, they fall unconscious and wake up in fifteen minutes with maximized System Strain. The Great and the Small: This elixir will cause the subject to either shrink or grow as they wish, compacting down to a shape no smaller than three inches or expanding to one no larger than twelve feet in height. Once their size is chosen it remains fixed for the remaining thirty-minute duration of the potion, or until they voluntarily end it. Shrunken characters have an effective Strength of 3 and can’t do meaningful combat damage. Their Move rating is also cut by 90%, but they automatically pass all Sneak skill checks unless someone is actively looking for them. Large characters have an effective Strength of 18 and do double damage with melee weapons and Shock, but their large size allows all foes to roll hit rolls twice against them and take the better number. If the character expands in a location not big enough to contain them, they inflict 4d6 damage on whatever they’re expanding in; if it’s not enough to destroy the constriction, they are crushed to death. Truthspeaking: This potion is meant to be applied to a restrained, willing, or helpless sentient target. The user must envision a specific query before anointing the target with the potion. The subject may make

a Mental saving throw to resist; on a failure, they tell the user a truthful, undeceptive answer to their question in no more than five sentences. On a success, the user’s psychic impression has tainted the elixir, and the target will instead instinctively give the answer that the user thinks is most likely or plausible in the GM’s estimation. The user cannot discern the result of the save except by their own good judgment of the answer. Wrathful Detonation: These flasks are always permanently sealed. When intentionally hurled at a location, they detonate to do 2d6 damage to all targets within 15’. The magic in the flasks ensures that they always hit the targeted point, provided it’s within 60’. Accidental breakage or breakage by an object is insufficient to trigger the magic, which requires human volition to catalyze it. Only one flask can be hurled at a time or the first to detonate will ruin the rest.

342

LEGATES AND HEROES (These are the extremely draft and partial rules for Legates and other heroically-powerful PCs. The full and final rules will appear only in the deluxe, non-free edition of the game.) Most heroes in Worlds Without Number are decidedly mortal. Novice heroes risk a bloody death every time swords are drawn, and even tenth-level adventurers at the peak of their power can’t dismiss the wrath of a mob of soldiers or the peril of a fearsome monster. They may be masterfully skilled at their chosen role, but they are still fundamentally normal human beings who must fear the things that all mortals fear. Legates, however, are different. They have bonded with the power of the Legacy, becoming figures of uncanny prowess and superhuman skill. By tapping into archetypes embedded in the Legacy and receiving the gift of its power, even their mundane abilities are enhanced in magical ways. Even the least Legate can perform marvels, while the greatest among them can drive back armies, enrich nations, or raise fortresses from featureless plains. Not every veteran hero becomes a Legate. There are many who reach the human peak of their profession and never advance farther. Some simply reach the limits of their own potential, while others lack the ambition to be more. Many simply do not have the necessary arcane makeup to bond properly with the Legacy, a victim of some ancient misalignment or god-king’s inherited curse. Perhaps one in a half-million people ever touch the least degree of a Legate’s power. Nor is becoming a Legate the only route to superhuman strength. There are other ways to attain impossible power, whether through sinister pacts with the entities of other Iterums, the use of ancient artifacts, the performance of excruciatingly difficult magical rituals, or the sheer blind luck of birth or magical attunement. Not every more-than-mortal creature or warrior in the Latter Earth is a Legate, though these other paths often come with terrible drawbacks or awful prices. In this section, you will learn how to become a Legate, how to reskin the concept for alternate campaign settings, and how to run a heroic fantasy campaign where even novice PCs have some portion of a Legate’s tremendous might.

Becoming a Legate

Some campaigns do not include Legates or similar superheroically-powerful heroes. It may not fit the tone of a gritty sword-and-sorcery game, or the GM may have different benefits in mind for veteran adventurers. For such heroes the usual game rules and limits on advancement apply. For GMs with a different intent, however, there are two ways to become a legate. High fantasy heroic campaigns that involve mighty heroes and brilliant paragons from the very start might

begin with the heroes as Legates or their campaign-world equivalent. They might nominally be ordinary men and women, but their personal talents and natural gifts are so pronounced that they can perform feats that would dazzle more conventional veterans. For campaign settings like these, the GM might grant all the PCs Legate abilities from the start of the campaign. Veteran heroes of a long-running conventional campaign might become Legates after reaching 10th level and performing some feat suitable for a legendary hero. This deed must usually be something heroic and dramatic enough to imprint their presence on the Legacy and connect them to the glorious archetypes of ancient heroes. Of course, this need not necessarily be a good deed; the Legacy recognizes mighty feats, whether they are benevolent or selfish. Generally, a single grand deed in which all the party contributed should be enough to make everyone a Legate, assuming they’ve reached 10th level and the apex of ordinary mortal power.

Legate Levels

A Legate’s power is measured in levels, just as the character’s usual class. Newly-minted paragons start as a 1st level Legate in addition to whatever abilities their normal class grants. Thus, a campaign full of budding high-fantasy heroes might have newly-made characters who are 1st level Warriors/1st level Legates, while campaigns involving hard-bitten heroes who finally claw their way into legend might have someone be a 10th level Warrior/1st level Legate. The latter hero will be much more capable than the former due to all the experience they gained in their normal life, but both will have the same number and strength of special Legate powers. For high-fantasy heroes, a Legate level is earned every time they gain a normal level. Thus, that novice becomes a 2nd level Warrior/2nd level Legate as soon as they earn 3 experience points. Their powers top out at 10th level, after which no further advancement is possible without outright apotheosis or becoming an Imperator. For veteran adventurers who climb to glory, they need to earn 9 experience points for each additional Legate level after the first. Thus, once they attain 1st level as a Legate, they need to earn 9 experience points to become 2nd level, 18 total to become 3rd, 27 total to become 4th, and so on. This pacing is meant to put about three adventures between each new set of toys the PC gets; GMs who want a faster or slower-paced ascent can adjust this requirement accordingly. For most class powers, spell effects, and other normal class abilities, the PC uses their full class level. For a veteran adventurer who’s a 10th level Warrior/1st level Legate, his Killing Blow class power adds +5 damage, not +1. For a heroic fantasy wizard who’s a Mage 5/Legate 5, his Howl of Light spells use his Mage level to calculate damage. A few specific Legate powers use only the PC’s

343 Legate level to determine their effects; if so, it will say so specifically in the power.

Gaining a Legate Level

Gaining a Legate level doesn’t improve the PC’s hit bonus, saving throws, hit dice, skill points, or Focus picks, nor does the PC reroll their hit dice. It gives only the specific benefits listed below. As a first level Legate, the PC gains a Fray die appropriate to their class and may pick three Graces from within their class. They may exchange two of those picks to choose a Grace from outside their class. They gain the Heroic Resilience ability described below and they gain a pool of Heroic Effort equal to two points. Each Legate level after first, the PC gains two points to spend as they wish. The table below gives the prices of the various options; if what they want is too expensive, they can save their points for their next level advancement. Their Heroic Effort pool maximum becomes equal to one plus half their Legate level, rounded down. A heroic fantasy PC who advances in their normal class at the same time as they raise their Legate level gains all the usual benefits of advancing in their normal class. A veteran adventurer who has already reached 10th level in their profession gains only the benefits listed above. Cost

Legate Advancement Benefits

1 point

Gain 3 skill points to spend as usual

3 points

Get a Focus pick of your choice

1 point

Master a Grace in a category appropriate to your class

2 points

Master a Grace from a category outside your class

2 points

Reroll your hit dice, taking the new result if it’s higher, and add six hit points to that new maximum.

2 points

Increase your maximum Heroic Effort by one point

1 point

Increase your class’ hit bonus by +1, up to a maximum of +10 total.

Graces of the Legate

Legates gain special powers known as Graces, abilities fueled by their Heroic Effort pool. These Graces are divided into three major types: Martial, Skillful, and Sorcerous Graces. Any Legate can theoretically master any Grace, though ones alien to their profession are more difficult to master, and some of them may be useless to Legates not skilled in certain arts; there’s no point in mastering the At My Word Grace if you can’t cast spells. Warriors can pick from Martial Graces, Experts from Skillful Graces, and Mages from Sorcerous Graces. Adventurers can pick from the choices appropriate to their partial classes. When the hero first becomes a Legate, they can pick three Graces from those allowed

to them, or they can exchange two of those picks for a suitable Grace from a different sphere. Graces are fueled with Heroic Effort, much like a Mage’s arts. This Effort is Committed and reclaimed based on the demands of the Grace; some require the Effort to be Committed for a full day, others for a scene, and some for only as long as the power is to be kept active. Some Graces are constant, and in effect unless the Legate intentionally suppresses them. Heroic Effort is Committed and recovered using all the usual rules for Effort as described on page XX. Included are a selection of Graces for each class, but others can be created at the GM’s discretion. PCs who have developed signature traits or talents might well manifest superheroic abilities appropriate to their natures.

Worthy and Lesser Foes

A worthy foe is any target that has more hit dice or levels than the attacker has character levels or hit dice. Thus, if the Legate is a 5th level Expert, an Anak champion with 8 HD would be a worthy foe. PCs are always considered worthy foes, regardless of the level of their assailants. A lesser foe is any target that has equal or fewer hit dice than the attacker has character levels or hit dice. Thus, a normal 1 HD town guard would be considered a lesser foe to the aforementioned Expert. PCs are never lesser foes. This distinction matters for several Legate Graces, which may have exceptionally powerful effects on lesser foes, or be less effective against worthy foes. It also determines which enemies are susceptible to a hero’s Fray die.

The Fray Die

Legates gain a Fray die, a special ability related to their natural lethality in combat. Even the least martial Legate is more than capable of killing an ordinary assailant, and they can do so even while devoting most of their attention to some greater purpose. The Fray die represents the damage the hero can do in casual passing, as inescapable sword strokes, lethal hurled blades, or casual bolts of arcane energy. Using their Fray die does not interfere with any of their other actions this round; doing so is just a quick flurry of violence in amid their other activities. Warriors get a 1d8 Fray die and Experts get a 1d6 die that can affect lesser foes. Mages get a 1d4 die that can affect both worthy and lesser foes. Adventurers can choose any die appropriate to at least one of their partial classes, but once chosen, they can’t change their choice. Once per round, as an On Turn action, the hero can inflict damage on an enemy within reach equal to their Fray die plus their Legate level. Thus, a 10th level Warrior/2nd level Legate would roll 1d8+2, and add an additional +5 for their Killing Blow ability, for a total of 1d8+7 damage. If this damage is enough to kill the target, any excess may be applied to another foe within range. The only modifiers applied to a Fray die’s damage are those that affect all damage the PC inflicts, such as the

344 Warrior Killing Blow ability. Magic weapons, attribute modifiers, general Focus bonuses, Shock, or other such attack-specific adjustments do not apply. The target must be within reach of the hero’s weapons to be affected by the Fray die. A Mage’s casual occult blasts can reach out to 60 feet even if unarmed. Unless the hero is using a Mage’s Fray die, the target must be a lesser foe; worthy foes are otherwise immune to Fray die damage.

Heroic Resilience

Legates don’t die easily. Even novice high-fantasy heroes are harder to skewer on an Anak’s spear than their innocence would suggest, and veteran adventurers can weather horrific harms and terrible sorceries without dying. Once per day, as an Instant action, the Legate can automatically survive any otherwise-lethal wound, spell, poison, or mishap. They will be reduced to zero hit points but will be stabilized, and will recover at the end of the scene with 1 hit point without any lingering frailty. This ability cannot save them from unsurvivable bodily dismemberment, catastrophic trauma, or voluntarily-accepted harm that results in their death.

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Graces of the Legates Legates have certain special abilities that are far beyond the capacity of ordinary heroes. Indeed, even supposedly non-magical warriors or mundane experts can reach past the limits of conventional human ability to perform wondrous feats of martial prowess or superhuman deeds of skill. In one sense these abilities could be called “magical” due to their reliance on the Legacy, but the truth of the matter is more complex. Each Legate embodies deep archetypes of heroism embedded in the Legacy. Concepts such as the Tyrant, or the Thief, or the Berserker, or the Healer are woven into the Legacy at a very deep level, peripheral fragments of unimplemented godhood and imprints of cosmic definitions combining to bestow tremendous power on those few heroes that successfully integrate with these hazy patterns. Just as the rain that falls is now ordered and directed by the Legacy, the impossible might of a warrior-hero or the superhuman subtlety of a legendary thief are encoded into the Latter Earth’s definition of reality. As such, these “magical” powers are no more arcane than a falling raindrop. It may seem a defiance of reason that the Legate-thief can scrabble up a glass tower, or a Legate-warrior can walk unharmed through a pike line, but these abilities are as natural and rational to the Legacy as gravity or sunlight. Something similar could be said of High Magic in turn, but where sorcery seeks to exploit and control the Legacy, the Graces of the Legate operate on a more fundamental and less provisional basis. As such, a Legate’s Graces cannot be dispelled by ordinary sorcery or suppressed by conventional anti-magic measures. They will not be detected as magical effects, and special measures taken to prevent occult activities will not hinder them. Bonuses to saving throws that apply to magical effects do not apply to resisting their power. As far as the Latter Earth is concerned these are perfectly mundane abilities.

Grace Descriptions

Each of the entries that follow describe the particular effects of a Grace. Each has a requisite Action to trigger it, a Heroic Effort cost, and a Duration for that activation. Grace action types might be “Main”, “On Turn”, “Instant”, or “None”. Graces with None for an action type are constantly in effect. They might grant the PC certain special options that require their own action to execute, but they do not need to be specifically activated. Graces cannot be disrupted or interrupted as spellcasting can be, nor does the Legate need any free hand or particular state of mobility to use them. So long as they are conscious and above zero hit points, they can activate their powers. Effort costs are “Day” for day-long Commitments, “Scene” for Effort that must be Committed for a scene, “Duration” for Effort that can be reclaimed Instantly once the power is no longer needed, or “None” for Graces that

require no Effort at all. In all cases, only a single point of Effort needs to be Committed at most to activate a power. Durations are usually either for a full scene, a single attack or action, or “Commit” when the Grace remains in effect for as long as the Effort remains Committed. A few Graces create permanent objects that last indefinitely.

Graces of Mastery

Some Graces aren’t direct in their blessings, but instead amplify the Legate’s ability to create major changes in the world. Their words are more persuasive, their understanding more penetrating, and their plans blessed with unnatural success by the cooperation of the world. These “Mastery” Graces quarter the silver or Renown cost that relevant Workings or Major Projects would usually require, rounding up. The project’s major effect must fall under the Mastery’s aegis; smaller peripheral changes or effects might be included, but the GM is justified in applying the discount to only half the Working’s cost if only half the Working’s effect relates to the Mastery’s power. Allies are always capable of contributing their own Renown toward their efforts, provided they can explain some way in which their help would be useful in accomplishing the end. A Mastery grace allows even a non-Mage to construct a Working, so long as the Working’s effects fall exclusively within the Mastery’s sphere of control. These mundane Workings often involve social rituals, civic institutions, and religious sects to create their wondrous effects rather than conventional runic obelisks or arcane circles. Damaging or disrupting the Working requires the corruption or extinction of these human institutions rather than any physical vandalism. A Legate with a Grace of Mastery is capable of creating Supreme Workings, manifesting effects that would be too potent for a normal mage. The difficulty of a Supreme Working is at least 32 points, and may be up to 64 at the GM’s discretion. Legates working in their sphere of Mastery are always competent to build and design a Working, whatever the total difficulty of the design.

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Martial Graces As a consequence of their superhuman mastery of war, all Legates with at least one Martial Grace treat all weapon or unarmed attacks as if they were magical weapons for purposes of overcoming a foe’s defenses. Any thrown weapons they wield return to their hands automatically if so desired.

Banner of Glory Act: On Turn

Eff: Scene

Dur: Scene

For the rest of the scene, allies within sight or sound of you have a Morale of 12, are immune to magical fear effects, and fight as if their weapons were +1 magical weapons. Affected allies intuitively understand what you want them to do, though they are not compelled to obey. On a battlefield, this Grace is usually sufficient to affect everyone in the leader’s wing of the army. Bar the Blade Instant Day One Attack You deflect, dodge, or parry an otherwise successful weapon or unarmed attack made against you. Bread of Death Instant Scene Scene For the rest of the scene, whenever you reduce a target to zero hit points, you may regain lost hit points equal to their hit dice. Such foes are instantly killed and cannot be stabilized. Caress of Death On Turn Duration C o m mit Your unarmed attacks appear to be no more than pats or casual touches. Targets are not aware of their hit point loss unless they are already in combat or hit zero hit points. Corona of Endings Main Day O n e Use Pick a point within range of your weapon; all enemies within ten feet of that point suffer damage as if from a successful hit. Foes with 1 hit die are automatically killed or subdued. Crushing Fray None None C o n stant Whenever you roll your Fray die, roll it twice and take the higher result. Font of Lead and Iron None None C o n stant Hurlants, crossbows, and other ranged weapons that take no more than one minute to reload can be reloaded as an Instant action and require no physical ammunition. He Shall Be Cut On Turn Day O n e Target Pick a visible target; for the rest of the scene or until you use this Grace on a different target, your weapon or unarmed attacks will hit them on anything but a natural 1. Impassable Stance Instant Duration C o m mit Target a foe who is currently within melee range of you or passing that close to you during movement. They must make a Mental save to either continue their movement or leave your melee reach. If they fail,

they can make another attempt to save at the end of their next turn. They remain fixed until you either reclaim the Effort or they succeed at a saving throw. Lesser foes get no saving throw. Implacable Blow On Turn Scene One Attack Your next unarmed attack roll made this turn is automatically successful and does maximum damage, if doing so is physically possible. Long Hand On Turn Duration Commit Y o u r melee weapon or unarmed attacks have a range up to 60 feet. This extra reach does not turn the weapon into a ranged weapon for Grace purposes; it remains a melee attack. March Without End On Turn Day O n e Day For the next 24 hours, you and up to twenty allied creatures per Legate level need neither air, rest, food, nor drink. Those affected are immune to any otherwise hostile environment that would not kill a normal person in less than a minute. You heal lost hit points and lose accumulated System Strain normally at morning, as if you were well-rested. Martial Fray None None Constant Yo u r Fray die now does damage to worthy foes. Against lesser foes, it always does the maximum possible damage. Mastery of War None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving warfare, military organizations, and martial equipment. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. One Perfect Edge On Turn Duration C o m mit The weapon you bear is capable of cutting or smashing through any non-magical barrier lighter than a stone wall. You can move through such barriers without slowing your Move actions. Paralyzing Strike On Turn Scene One Attack If the next attack roll you make this round hits, you do damage and the target must make a Physical saving throw at a penalty equal to your combat skill or be unable to take any Main or Move actions for the next 1d4 rounds. If they succeed, they still lose their next Move action. Lesser foes get no saving throw. Ruin Without Distance None None Constant You may used ranged weapons in melee with no penalties, regardless of their size. Ranged weapons you use gain an extra die of damage; thus, if a bow normally does 1d8 damage, it now does 2d8 damage. This bonus damage only applies when the weapon is used for a ranged attack. Sacrificial Blood Instant Scene O n e Attack A visible opponent’s attack roll is redirected from their target to you, regardless of the range. The roll is resolved as normal against your Armor Class.

347 Scorn the Petty Blade On Turn Day Scene For the rest of the scene, foes with 1 hit die cannot harm you with weapon or unarmed attacks. You are still subject to magic or environmental damage they may directly cause, however. Seven Spears Deep On Turn Scene Scene For the rest of the scene, your ranged attacks penetrate all non-magical cover less than three feet thick, and you ignore any concealment benefits for a foe whose location you at least approximately know. Shadow of Iron None None C o n stant At will, you can manifest any type of man-portable weapon, treating it as a +2 magical weapon. In addition, you can attune to one existing weapon at a time with an hour’s focus; you can teleport this weapon to hand as an Instant action whenever you desire. Skin of Steel None None Constant A rmor and shields have no Encumbrance for you and apply no penalties to your skills. They still interfere with spellcasting, however. The Pursuing Sword On Turn Scene One Attack The next melee weapon attack you make this round automatically hits and does maximum damage, if doing so is physically possible. The Tide that Advances Move Scene One Move Move up to your normal movement rate in a straight line. You can pass through enemy lines or barriers no stronger than a thin stone wall without being harmed or drawing attacks. Any enemy directly in your path takes a normal attack from you; make one hit and damage roll and apply it to all valid targets. This Grace bursts any physical bonds that may ensnare you, barring the strongest magical materials. Transfix the Heart On Turn Scene O n e Attack The next ranged attack roll you make this round automatically hits for maximum damage, if it’s physically possible to do so. Wide as the Heavens On Turn Scene Scene For the rest of the scene, your ranged weapons have a range out to your visible eyesight, up to a half-mile away.

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Skillful Graces The superlative mastery of those versed in the Skillful Graces is not hindered by material concerns. A Legate with at least one Skillful Grace never takes any skill check penalty for lacking otherwise-necessary tools.

Absolute Perfection Act: None

Eff: None

Dur: Constant

Choose one non-social skill you have at level-4 proficiency; you will never fail a skill check related to that skill unless it is impossible to succeed or your opponent in an opposed skill check has some magical augmentation to their roll. Beastspeaker On Turn Duration Commit You can communicate freely with animals. They will reply as if they had human intelligence, albeit they will be interested only in animal matters. They can be persuaded to provide services, if suitably induced, and will carry out these favors with human intelligence. Clavis of Skill On Turn Scene One Lock/Trap You automatically succeed at opening a lock or disarming a trap you could physically disarm. If the lock or trap are magical in nature, make opposed Int or Dex/Sneak skill checks against the designer’s Int/Magic and win or tie to succeed. Consecrated Bargain Main Day O n e Bargain Make a deal with a sentient. Magic or Graces cannot be used to influence the target, but mundane threats and bribes can. If they break the spirit of the bargain, as the GM judges it, they may be made to suffer 1d8+8 damage per Legate level or face a suitably equivalent curse. They are aware of the magical significance of the bargain. The deal lasts until completed, you release them, or you violate your own side of the deal. Cornucopia Main Day Permanent You can produce food, water, and any necessary clothing sufficient for up to twenty human-sized allies per Legate level. These created goods are permanent and cannot be dispelled. Optionally, you may instead produce mundane goods, coinage, or domestic animals worth no more than 50 silver pieces per Legate level. Effortless Advance On Turn Scene Scene For the rest of the scene, you can navigate vertical or overhanging surfaces, however smooth, at your normal movement rate provided you have at least one hand free. Eye of the Sun On Turn Duration C o m mit Your visual senses become impossibly acute; you can read text a mile away, ignore penalties for longrange missile attacks, and can see clearly even in perfect darkness or heavy fog. Any visually-based Notice checks gain a +2 bonus. Flawless Prediction Main Day O n e Round Choose a visible creature and dictate its next

round’s actions. The actions must be plausible for it, and worthy foes get a Mental save to resist. Gifted Attribute None None C o n stant Pick an attribute; its modifier increases by +1, up to a maximum of +2. You can take this Grace multiple times, but it must be applied to a different attribute each time. Healer’s Hands Instant Scene O n e Ability For one healing effect, spell, or action you apply to an ally, the results are double the usual maximum possible. In Plain Sight On Turn Scene Scene For the rest of the scene, lesser foes cannot detect you unless you do something to draw their attention or are about to attack them. Creatures looking at you when you use this Grace are not affected unless you can move behind cover or distract them somehow during the same round. Once this Grace is disrupted, it cannot be triggered again until your pursuers lose track of you. Know the Target Main Scene Scene Choose a creature or object you’ve seen this same scene; for the rest of the scene, you can see them and their immediate location. Optionally, choose a location or landmark that is not intentionally hidden from maps or general knowledge; you gain a sense of its direction and distance sufficient to keep you from becoming lost. Little White Lie Main Scene O n e Lie A single listener will believe a lie you tell them, however implausible, provided it does not defy their senses or cause emotional pain. They’ll believe this until evidence proves them wrong; the bigger the falsehood, the less proof is needed to overcome it. Worthy foes get a Mental save to resist. Mastery of Gold None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving wealth, industrial production, or civil engineering. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Ways None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving social institutions, cultural traits, and religious beliefs. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mirror Mind None None Constant You are immune to any magic that would read your thoughts, and can provide false readings as you wish. Myriad Tongues None None C o n stant When you meet a sentient, you instantly acquire the ability to speak, read, and write their native language. Your grace adds a +1 bonus to all reaction rolls made by the group if you do the greeting.

349 Pack of Folded Space Main None C o n stant As a Main action, you can place objects into or take them out of a tiny Iterum associated with you. Objects in this storage do not age or decay, but living or animate creatures cannot be put into it. Up to two hundred pounds of gear per Legate level can be so packed. Its equivalent in items is up to GM discretion, but any reasonable sum can usually be stored. On your death, the Iterum’s contents spill out. Passion’s Herald Main Day Scene You speak or sing something that inspires a fierce passion in those around you. You can choose the target of the feeling, but you can’t control how people act on their passions; peaceful people will not be driven to violence by their feelings, but rough or brutal sorts may. The emotion affects all chosen targets within sixty feet. If the targets are already under a great surge of excitement or emotion, such as in battle, they get a Mental save to resist. Plans Within Plans On Turn Day O n e Event Suddenly have or produce one item, ally, or circumstance you could conceivably have prepared during recent downtime. This Grace can be used only once per scene. Royal Mastery None None C o n stant Your Mastery Graces from the Martial or Skillful categories increase in their maximum size. They can be applied to any domain of which you are the recognized ruler or an official minister of such a ruler, up to Kingdom size. Skillful Fray Instant Scene One Attack Add your maximum Fray damage roll to a successful weapon or unarmed attack. You can use this Grace only once on any given attack. Swift to Make On Turn Duration C o m mit You can fashion portable objects with blinding speed. Choose one non-magical object or device you can carry unaided; it appears in your grasp and persists until destroyed or the Effort is reclaimed. Edible or ingestible substances cannot be called this way. Ten Thousand Masks On Turn Duration C o m mit You can appear as any humanoid creature within two feet of your height. While the change is illusory, it cannot be detected by touch, scent, or other mundane senses. Terminus Est Instant Day One Attack When you make a successful Execution Attack, you may trigger this ability to instantly kill the target, regardless of their Physical save. Worthy foes can make a Physical save to resist this Grace at a penalty equal to your Legate level. Tireless Hands On Turn Duration C o m mit You can labor without rest. While active, you need neither food, drink, or sleep. You can do the same crafting or building work single-handedly as a crew of twenty skilled laborers per Legate level you have. Wake the Still Main Day OneAction You can stabilize a creature that has been actually dead for up to one round per Legate level, assuming it’s not

been dismembered. You can restore actual life to a dead lesser foe that has been expired for no more than one day per Legate level, the body’s condition permitting, but doing so exhausts the use of this Grace for one day per hit die of the revived creature. Walk the World None None C o n stant You can find sufficient food, water, and shelter to keep up to twenty allies per Legate level healthy and sound regardless of the terrain’s barrenness or danger. You and your companions are immune to natural climatic extremes of heat and cold. You all move at twice your normal movement rate overland.

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Sorcerous Graces Those with mastery of at least one Sorcerous Grace have a keen sense of the Legacy’s flow. As a Main action, they can concentrate to perceive any active magical enchantments or magical objects within sight, albeit they get no hint of their function or purpose.

Applied Mastery Act: Main

Eff: Day`

Dur: One Scene

Once per game session, this Grace may be invoked to produce any effect related to a Mastery Grace you have, provided the effect is no stronger than could be accomplished by a spell of a level you can cast and the GM finds it reasonable. Thus, one with Mastery of Bone could spontaneously summon an undead minion, one of Space could teleport the party, one of Thought could bind a target’s mind, or some other effect commensurate with their general spellcasting ability. Worthy foes affected by hostile powers get a saving throw to resist or lessen the effect. The benefits granted by this ability do not normally last longer than a scene. At My Word On Turn Day One Spell Cast an available spell as an On Turn action, regardless of any damage or disruption you may have taken this round. This Grace can be used only once per scene and it can’t be used if you’ve already cast a spell this round. Bonelord None None Constant Undead lesser foes cannot harm you with their attacks, spells, or special powers. Against worthy foes, you get a reroll on any failed saving throw against their abilities and take minimum harm from their attacks and spells. Only Necromancers or similar undeath-associated Legates can take this Grace. Crystallized Sorcery Main Day Until Used You can place a spell you can cast into a token or object. You or an ally can trigger the token as a Main action, casting the spell as if they were in control of its targeting and details, but using your level for the effects. You don’t regain the Effort until the token is used or allowed to lapse and you can have only one token prepared at a time. Eye of the Sorcerer-King None None Constant Whenever you wish, you perceive enchantments and magical effects as a visible, patterned glow. You can get a sentence worth of description of the effect of any visible magical enchantment or spellcasting. You automatically detect any spellcasting or triggered magic within sight range, however subtle the casting. Far-Reaching Workings None None Constant Your Mastery Graces are now applicable to Region-sized alterations or smaller. Fireshaper Main None One Scene You can move or extinguish flames in your presence, affecting up to a 40’ cube at a time and moving it up to 500

feet to a visible location. Flames moved to a non-flammable area will die out. Creatures caught in a typical mass of flame will suffer 2d6 damage per round. At all times you are wholly impervious to heat or smoke damage, magical or otherwise. Golem Lord Main Day Until Released Target a visible non-sentient magical construct or automaton. The target must make a Mental save or become your willing servant, obeying even self-destructive orders until you release them. You cannot use this Grace while the total number of automaton hit dice under your control are greater than your level; you must then release some to use it again. Malison On High Main Day O n e Attack You mold energies appropriate to your style of magic into an arcane attack on a target point within 200 feet. All creatures in a radius up to 20 feet take up to 1d12 damage per Legate level. Make a Mental saving throw or suffer one-quarter of this damage, rounded down, as backlash; this backlash cannot be forfended by any other magic or Grace. Pavis of Sorcery Instant Scene One Effect When you fail a saving throw against a magical effect, you can trigger this Grace to reroll the save. You can use this Grace only once on any failed save. Perpetual Vitality None None C o n stant You are no longer conventionally mortal. You are immune to non-magical diseases and poisons and maintain your current state of vitality for up to one hundred years per Legate level before old age will take you. Revise the Ethers Instant Scene O n e Spell When you or a visible target casts a spell, invoke this Grace to force a reroll of any random result, such as damage dice. This does not apply to any saving throws forced by the spell. This Grace can be invoked only once per target spell and the rerolled results must be accepted. Sigil of Salt and Spray On Turn Duration C o m mit While active, this Grace makes you and up to ten companions per Legate level entirely immune to harm or negative effects from water. You can move through it, see through it, and breathe in it normally without being dampened, and water-based attacks cannot injure you. Sorcerous Fray None None C o n stant Your Fray damage is doubled with the force of your occult energies, provided you are using a Mage Fray die. Spell Eater Instant Scene One Spell Expend a prepared spell slot to instantly disrupt some visible target’s spellcasting, causing them to waste their action. If the target is a Legate or creature of similar power, make an opposed Wis/Magic skill check and win it to succeed at the disruption. This Grace can be used once per round at most.

351 Throne of the Sorcerer-King None None Constant You can spend a month dedicating no more than a City-sized area as your personal arcane domain, provided no significant force opposes your rituals. Within this domain, your Workings and Major Projects cost only half the silver or Renown needed. You can have only one domain at a time. If you have Far-Reaching Workings your domain can be Region-sized, if it’s suitably pacified. Vault of the Sky On Turn Scene O n e Scene The wind bears you up. For the rest of the scene, you can fly at your normal movement rate and hover in mid-air. This Grace can be conferred on an ally by Committing Effort for the day instead of the scene. Mastery of Bone None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving undeath, immortality, and vital force. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Eidolons None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving golems, automatons, or artificial minds. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Energy None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving fire, cold, electricity, motive force, or other energetic manifestations. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Flesh None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving biology, mutation, and physical alteration. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Sight None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving scrying, detection, prophecy, and other forms of divination. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Space None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving spatial distortion, portals, and teleportation. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Stone None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving structures or shapings of stone, metal, or earth. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usual-

ly required, provided their scope is not larger than City level. Mastery of Thought None None C o n stant You are a master of Workings involving mental control, perception, and mind-reading. Workings and Major Projects wherein the primary effect is related to these cost only a quarter of the silver or Renown usually required, provided their scope is not larger than City level.

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ARTS OF THE GYRE Every region of the Latter Earth has its own special arts and traditions of occult or martial skill. Many of these paths are long since lost to the ages, such as the gladiator-sages once employed by Tsagathos the Prevalent or the holy vindicators of the Nagadi. Even so, fragments of these lost arts can survive the long eons to be reborn in more modern shapes. This section of the book provides six professions unique to the Gyre region of the Latter Earth, though equivalents might exist elsewhere. The Adunic Invoker is a magical tradition that may be taken by partial or full Mages, while the other five are all non-spellcasting partial Mage classes that can be mixed by an Adventurer into the desired concept. While these options are included in this book, they might not be included in your GM’s campaign. They might not be appropriate for your particular table or setting, or the GM may have their own equivalents in mind. For campaigns that are not set in the Latter Earth, these partial classes can be reskinned to serve different conceptual needs. The Adunic Invoker is useful for GMs and players who dislike conventional Vancian magic and prefer a spell point system of casting. The Darian Skinshifter can be used when a PC wants to add shapeshifting to their character’s armory, or

when they wish to emulate the traditional druidic shapeshifting powers of some other games. The Kistian Duelist is an example of a swashbuckling light-armor combatant who trades durability and a little overall combat expertise for additional mobility options and bonuses in situational one-on-one duels. The Llaigisan Beastmaster is a template for characters who want to rely on an animal companion who is useful in combat, such as some interpretations of the classic ranger or druid. The Sarulite Blood Priest is there for PCs who want to play a traditional cleric-type hero. It focuses on a modest selection of generally-useful miracles rather than granting full spellcasting abilities. The Vothite Thought Noble is one way to do a mindbender-PC who might not have other magical abilities and may be more mind-control-focused than a Partial Telepath from Stars Without Number. Many concepts are perfectly well-supported by one of the base classes plus an apposite Focus or two. A GM generally shouldn’t bother to build a whole new class for their campaign unless a specific player in it desires a concept that is both reasonable and unable to be supported in a simpler way. By using these classes as templates and examples, such creative work can be made a little less taxing on a GM.

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Adunic Invoker The magical tradition of the Adunic Invoker have been long practiced in Ka-Adun. Most scholars say that the rudiments were first brought over by the Reaping King and his mysterious attendants, but a minority say that its versatile and polymorphous nature owes more to certain psychic disciplines found among the host-minds of the vile Imperator known as Tsagathos the Prevalent. Naturally, modern adepts utterly deny such slanderous accusations. An Invoker wields High Magic much like their more traditional brethren, but the plasticity of their mind is such that they are capable of much more precise distribution of their occult powers. A master High Mage’s will is exhausted after a half-dozen spells are cast, while an Adunic Invoker of the same expertise can hurl twice as many minor enchantments. This flexibility comes at a price, however, and an Invoker is not capable of casting multiple powerful spells in quick succession the way a skilled High Mage can. The need for flexible integration of their powers also leaves their available prepared spells each day as somewhat fewer than their High Mage peer. Still, even a novice Invoker is much less likely to run dry of sorcery in a day than their traditional counterpart. Their focus on magical energetics does limit their outside study, however, and they do not develop the Arts that other sorcerers do. The rituals, meditations, and pacts established as part of this tradition are also highly antagonistic to the techniques used by conventional mages, so it is not possible to blend this art with more standard spellcasting expertise. Even so, adventurers have been known to blend the Invoker’s skills with more mundane pursuits, such that a Partial Warrior/Partial Adunic Invoker might have a number of useful spells to hand, or a Partial Vowed/ Partial Adunic Invoker might delve into mysterious disciplines of inner energy and manifest will.

Invoker Benefits

All Adunic Invokers gain Magic as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if was already level-0. Their arcane versatility requires a thorough grounding in theory. Adunic Invokers can learn and prepare spells of the High Magic tradition, but they cast them differently than their High Mage brethren. Each Invoker can prepare a number of known spells as indicated by the table each day, plus their Intelligence modifier. Each Invoker has a number of spell points based on their level, to which is added their Intelligence modifier. When they cast the spell, they subtract its level from their available spell points for the day. So long as they have sufficient spell points left, they can cast the same spell repeatedly. Spell points refresh each morning. Invokers do not normally gain arts; their versatility requires complete focus. While it’s possible to be a Partial Adunic Invoker, this partial class may not be mixed with another partial spellcasting class. Adunic Invokers begin play knowing first level High Magic spells equal to two plus their Intelligence modifier. When they advance a level, they learn two more of any level or tradition from which they can cast.

Focus: Traditional Education

Your Adunic Invoker has received a great deal of education in a specialist arcane tradition such as High Magic arts, Elementalism or Necromancy. Only Adunic Invokers can take this Focus, and it can only be taken once. Level 1: You may learn and prepare spells of your chosen tradition as well as those of High Magic. You gain arts as if a first level practitioner of that tradition, full or partial based on whether you’re a full or partial Invoker, and your Effort score is equal to one plus your Intelligence modifier. You cannot gain further Arts or raise your Effort above this score.

Full Adunic Invokers

Partial Adunic Invokers

Level

Max Spell Level

Spell Points

Spells Prepared

Level

Max Spell Level

Spell Points

Spells Prepared

2 + Int Mod

1 + Int Mod

2 + Int Mod

3 + Int Mod

1 + Int Mod

3 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

2 + Int Mod

3 + Int Mod

5 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

2 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

6 + Int Mod

5 + Int Mod

3 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

7 + Int Mod

6 + Int Mod

3 + Int Mod

5 + Int Mod

8 + Int Mod

7 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

5 + Int Mod

9 + Int Mod

7 + Int Mod

4 + Int Mod

6 + Int Mod

10 + Int Mod

8 + Int Mod

5 + Int Mod

6 + Int Mod

11 + Int Mod

9 + Int Mod

6 + Int Mod

7 + Int Mod

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Darian Skinshifter The fallen kingdom of Emed-Dar was once famed for the beauty of its people and the elegance of its art. Whether in the form of magnificent cities of marble and bronze, estates built in graceful harmony with the green hills of the countryside, or nobility possessed of a symmetry and loveliness seldom seen elsewhere, the Darians were celebrated for their impeccable aesthetic judgment. Some of these aesthetes pressed their fascination with beauty beyond the conventional limits of humanity. Arcane techniques of self-sculpting and occult biomodification were enlisted to their cause, and some even murmur that certain breeds of Blighted and Outsiders were “studied” to unlock the secrets of their flesh. These Darian shapeshifters emulated existing biological structures in new and intriguing ways, harmonizing the alien with the human to explore whole new realms of aesthetic perfection. When Emed-Dar drowned under the tide of an Anak invasion, the shapeshifters were forced into hiding. Those that did not flee were compelled to adopt the shape of common beasts and innocuous creatures, ones that could escape the notice of the cruel invaders. Over the centuries since, their once-elegant sensibilities have been roughened and scraped down by the harsh demands of survival, and arts that owe little to beauty have been refined by desperate practitioners. Presently, Skinshifters exist as guardians and scouts of the few remaining human remnants in what was once Emed-Dar. Most such bands are nomadic, fleeing from the Anak tribes and hiding in the most dangerous and desolate places. Some orphaned Skinshifters have left Emed-Dar entirely, teaching their occult arts to apprentices in other lands in exchange for protection or favors from the powerful there.

Partial Darian Skinshifter Level

Form Bonus Arts Gained

Change Form and Any One

Any One

Any One Any One

Skinshifter Benefits

Skinshifter is a partial Mage class, meant to be taken by an Adventurer in conjunction with another partial class. A Partial Warrior/Skinshifter might be a shapeshifting assassin or feral savage warrior, while a Partial Expert/ Skinshifter could be an undetectable impostor or con artist. All Skinshifters gain Survive-0 as a bonus skill, or Survive-1 if they already have Survive-0 as a skill. Their acquaintance with the wild and feral parts of the world is substantial, and even the most ignorant among them can survive comfortably in the wilderness.

Skinshifter Forms

The arts of a Skinshifter revolve around improving or adjusting their alternate forms. These alternate forms have a few basic rules that apply to all their permutations. A Skinshifter can master one alternate form per character level. A Skinshifter who wants to change a form selection can do so with a day of careful practice and adjustment. Skinshifter PCs should note down the special powers or traits of their alternate forms and keep in mind which of them they have available at any one time. A Skinshifter’s alternate forms use the same hit points, character attributes, and movement speed as their normal form, unless modified by particular arts. Thus, a Skinshifter shifted into a wolf ’s shape would do no more damage with its bite than the human’s unarmed attack would do without some augmenting art. Alternate forms do grant a minimum level of combat competence, however, and so the “Form Bonus” hit bonus is used in place of the PC’s basic class hit bonus when in a non-humanoid shape, assuming they don’t already have a better basic bonus from their other partial class. Arts that improve the alternate forms can apply their benefits even if the creature’s natural shape wouldn’t normally grant it. Thus, a Skinshifter with the Manifest Wings art could have a wolf-form that had wings and a flying speed if they wished. A given form can have no more than three arts applied to it. A Skinshifter’s alternate forms can be any size between a horse and a kitten, barring modification by some art. They do not need to emulate a specific type of creature; a Skinwalker could have a clawed and winged humanoid form as an alternate shape, or a dog with the head of a man, or a cat with razor-sharp mandibles. The belongings carried by a Skinshifter meld into any new form unless the PC decides otherwise, granting any benefit to Armor Class or other worn advantage they may normally give. Melded objects can be manifested and dropped as an On Turn action, but cannot be re-melded again unless the PC changes form with them again. Skinshifter forms cannot perfectly duplicate another individual creature without an appropriate art.

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Arts of the Skinshifter

Skinshifter Effort is based on Survive, and is equal to the PC’s Survive skill level plus the highest of their Constitution or Charisma scores, to a minimum of one point. All Skinshifters begin play with the Change Form art and one more of their choice. Additional arts are learned as the PC advances in experience.

Change Form: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action to transform into an available alternate form. This shift persists until you die, shift to a new form, or end the transformation as an On Turn action. Your hit points, System Strain, and other scores remain the same in any new form, but in a non-humanoid form your class’ base attack bonus can be no worse than the one listed on the table. If your shape is quadrupedal, its Move is 10’ faster than your base.

Other Skinshifter Arts

Eyes of the Hawk: This shape has remarkably acute senses. You can scent trails and objects like a dog, hear very faint noises, see objects clearly enough to identify faces at a thousand feet of distance, and see clearly in anything short of complete darkness. You gain a +2 bonus on all sensory Notice checks. Feline Leap: This form can vault great distances. You can jump your full Move rating as a Move action, crossing the full distance horizontally or up to half the distance vertically. You subtract your Move rating from fall distance for damage calculations. Feral Prowess: This form has an augmented degree of speed, strength, or hardiness. For this form, pick either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution; that attribute modifier is improved by +1 in this form, to a maximum of +2. These alterations are obvious and extreme; it is impossible to masquerade as a normal baseline human if you improve a form with this art. Intrinsic Armor: This shape has tough scales, hides, shells, or other defensive integuments. Your base Armor Class is 14 plus half your character level, rounded down. This AC can be modified by your Dexterity modifier, and by shields if the shape can hold one. Manifest Wings: This shape can form usable wings. You can’t effectively attack while concentrating on remaining aloft, but you can fly at your normal movement rate +10’ per action. If unhindered and flying overland you can travel up to ten miles an hour and fly up to five hours a day. Octopus’ Embrace: This shape can have more than four usable limbs. These additional tentacles, arms, legs, or grippers can hold and manipulate things; up to four Stowed objects can be held Ready by these limbs without counting against your Readied Encumbrance limit. These extra limbs cannot effectively employ extra shields, perform additional attacks or actions, or do other things that require significant focus beyond your current action.

Perfect Mimicry: This alternate form can exactly duplicate another creature, provided you either have a lock of their hair, a still-liquid drop of their blood, or ten minutes of observation of them from within five feet. Once learned, you need no further samples. Pliant Flesh: You’ve mastered your shapeshiftting skills, and Change Form can be used as an On Turn action, albeit only once per round. Alternately, it can take as long as a minute but cost no Effort. Whenever you spend Effort to shift shape, you heal lost hit points equal to 1d6 plus your level; this does not apply when merely reverting a form’s change. This art is intrinsic to you, and doesn’t count against the total number of arts allowed to apply to a form. Savage Talons: This shape has extremely dangerous claws, fangs, pincers, or other body weapons. At first level these weapons do 1d8 damage, use either Str or Dex as the modifying attribute, Punch as the combat skill, and have a Shock value of 2/AC 13. At level 3 the damage and Shock increase by +1, at level 6 they increase by +2, and at level 9 they increase to +3. These weapons can harm even creatures immune to non-magical weaponry. Sculptor’s Beauty: You’ve developed a refined aesthetic sense that can directly appeal to the subconscious beauty preferences of viewers. This shape improves your Charisma modifier by +1, to a maximum of +2. There is always something alien about this beauty, and such forms can never be mistaken for an entirely normal human or animal, though they may be taken for some exotic demihuman or altered baseline. Serpent’s Kiss: This shape can exude a venom on its claws or fangs. Successful hits allow you to Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action to inflict an additional 1d8 damage plus your Survive skill. You can elect to make the toxin paralytic rather than fatal; foes reduced to zero hit points by such a blow are paralyzed and helpless for an hour rather than mortally wounded. The Monkey’s Road: This shape has an arboreal agility when it comes to climbing. You can travel up sheer surfaces at your usual movement rate provided at least three limbs are available for use and the surface is not glassily smooth. If you fall, you can halt your plunge without damage so long as a serviceable surface to cling to is within ten feet of you. Warform: You gain a flat +2 bonus to all melee hit rolls in this shape and can use your Form hit bonus even in a humanoid body. This shape is blatantly martial in appearance, however, and cannot pass as anything harmless or wholly human. Wisdom of Fin and Scale: This shape can breathe water, swim at double your usual Move rate, and is impervious to any normal climatic extreme of cold or undersea pressure. It can see up to sixty feet while underwater even in the absence of normal light.

356

Kistian Duelist The swordmasters of Emed-Kist are famed for their more-than-mundane expertise with a blade and their uncanny powers of agility. Most of them have inherited their skills through a long line of descent from refugee Emed-Darian blade artists and their esoteric studies of aesthetic murder, while others are heirs to independent sword-scholars who learned their own ways to tap into special graces of steel. The techniques of a Duelist are not entirely unmagical in nature. Secret meditations, occult training katas, and careful internal energy cultivation are all used to tap into the Legacy and imbue mundane steel with supernatural benefits. Some Duelists can go so far as to manifest weapons out of their own tangible will. Such cultivation of the arcane comes at a price, of course. A Duelist is less hardy than a more traditional swordsman and less capable of surviving reverses if their perfectly-polished techniques prove insufficient. The high mobility required by the style also makes it impossible to use it with encumbering armors. Even so, some adventuring arcanists are known to practice the art so as to have a fallback if their magic proves inadequate. Instruction in the arts of Kistian dueling is rare outside of Emed-Kist, and not overly common within it. Only a very few initiates have the innate talent and correct arcane capacities to wield the arts of a Duelist, and all too many masters are willing to take coin without end for lessons that never quite stick. Even so, there are a few masters with principle or wealth enough to teach only those capable of learning the full depth of their art. Most such Duelists are in the employ of nobility as protagonists, bodyguards, assassins, or trainers to their own staff. Others are protectors of their own native enclaves in Emed-Kist, prosecuting endless quarrels with rival groups or Darian interlopers. Those Duelists who weary of such work strike off on their own, trusting in their swords to bring them what their hearts desire. Partial Kistian Duelist

Level

Favored Weapon Bonus

Favored Weapon and Any One

Any One

Arts Gained

Any One Any One

Kistian Duelist Benefits

Kistian Duelist is a partial Mage class, meant to be taken by an Adventurer in conjunction with another partial class. Partial Warrior/Duelist is the most common pairing, for a skilled light-armor combatant with high mobility and excellent one-on-one lethality. Partial Expert/ Duelist might represent an assassin who relies on stealth as much as steel, while a rare few Mage/Duelist combinations speak of adventuring wizards who perhaps have more talent for the sword than for the spell. All Duelists gain Stab-0 as a bonus skill, or Stab-1 if they already have the skill at level-0. No Duelist worth the name is entirely incapable of effective use of melee weapons, though the style lends itself heavily to specialization.

The Kistian Flaw of Fragility

While the canons of the duelist make for an excellent one-on-one combatant, their practitioners spend much less time at raw physical conditioning than their more traditional warrior peers. The techniques they use are swift and lethal, but they aren’t as generally applicable to enduring harm as are standard training methods. As such, Partial Warriors/Partial Kistian Duelists use 1d6 for their hit dice, rather than the Partial Warrior’s usual 1d6+2. Other partial class mixes are unaffected by this flaw.

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Arts of the Kistian Duelist

Duelist Effort is based on Stab, and is equal to the PC’s Stab skill plus the highest of their Dexterity or Intelligence modifiers, to a minimum of one point. All Duelists begin with the Favored Weapon art and one more of their choice. Additional arts are learned as the PC advances in experience. The arts of the Kistian Duelist require agility and free motion. The Duelist cannot benefit from any art of this class while wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a large shield. Dual-wielding is practiced by some Duelists, but most prefer the defensive advantages of a small offhand shield. All Duelists begin play with the Favored Weapon art and one other of their choice. Favored Weapon: Choose one specific type of melee weapon from the list on page XX. You begin play with such a weapon, and when using this type you may use the Favored Weapon attack bonus column on the Duelist table to determine your base hit bonus, unless it’s already better for some other reason. If your second partial class is Partial Warrior, your class’ base hit bonus with the weapon is instead equal to your level. You cannot apply this or other Kistian arts to thrown weapons.

Other Duelist Arts

Blood for Blood: Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action when an enemy hits you with a physical attack. If you attack that enemy with your favored weapon before the end of the next round, the first blow hits automatically and can do no less damage than was done to you, up to the weapon’s maximum. Burst of Speed: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action. You may move your full normal Move rate as a bonus action. This art can be used only once per round. Code Duello: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action when engaged with a single foe. So long as no other combatant attacks either your target or you, and you attack no one but your target, you gain a +4 bonus to your Armor Class and can roll your hit rolls twice, taking the better result. Once the Code Duello has been disrupted or ended, it cannot be invoked again during that scene. Crushing Superiority: Your favored weapon gains the Less Lethal quality if it doesn’t already have it. Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action when you hit a target; they must immediately make an Instinct check. This ability can be used only once per scene on any given target. Dauntless Step: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. The Move actions you make for the rest of the round can cross vertical surfaces or difficult terrain at your full normal movement rate, provided you end the round standing upright on a surface that can bear your weight.

Dodge Doom: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action when caught in some explosion or other burst effect. You take half damage, or no damage if the effect allows a save and you succeed at it. You can move yourself up to ten feet away from your original location, provided the new location is behind cover or away from the blast’s point of origin. Forced Engagement: Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action when making an attack with your favored weapon; you may ignore one foe’s Screen Ally action for that attack. Gentleman’s Withdrawal: Commit Effort for the scene as a Move action. As part of this, you may move at your full movement rate without being hindered by armed foes unless they completely block your path. You count as having made a Fighting Withdrawal against any enemies engaged with you at the time. Graceful Leap: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action to immediately leap up to ten feet horizontally or vertically, counting it as a Fighting Withrawal. You can’t use this art more than once per round or after you’ve attacked. You are immune to falling damage from plunges of less than 30 feet. Lightning Draw: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action at the start of hostilities; you win initiative against anyone without a similar ability to act first and may ready a Stowed favored weapon Instantly. Piercing Strike: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action and choose a visible target. For the rest of the scene, their AC is treated as 10 for purposes of resisting the Shock of your favored weapon. Spiritual Weapon: You are able to translate examples of your favored weapon into a spiritual template that you may manifest as you wish. Any favored weapon can be turned into such a template, including a magical weapon, but the process destroys the object’s physical form. To manifest a template, Commit Effort as an Instant action; a ghostly copy of the weapon appears Readied in hand for you until you release the Effort or stop touching the weapon. Dual-wielders can summon the same weapon into both hands with one use of this art. Unbindable: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action whenever you wish to escape chains, grapples, shackles, ropes, or even a magical spell of physical binding. You automatically wriggle free from mundane restraints and gain an Evasion saving throw to instantly end a physical magical binding of some sort. You can use this art only once per round. Unworthy Rabble: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action. For the rest of the scene, when using your favored weapon, reroll any failed hit roll against foes with one hit die. At eighth level, this ability applies to foes with two hit dice. Whirling Evasion: Your base Armor Class becomes equal to 13 plus half your level, rounded up. This AC can be modified by small shields and your Dexterity modifier, but not by armor or large shields.

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Llaigisan Beastmaster The savage land of Llaigis does not lack for terrible beasts, either the native creatures of the dark hills and deep forests or the horrible abominations that stalk the arratu wastelands. It is perhaps inevitable that the natives of that place should learn how to tame and control these dire creatures, employing ancient Legacy-pacts and more conventional training methods to win the obedience of fearsome servants. The beastmaster’s art is not a formal matter of schools and training lineages. It is a collection of secret arts and cunning tricks passed on from teacher to pupil, or shared within small clans of wise folk. As such, it is not impossible for a foreigner or outsider to learn the methods by which these fell creatures are bound, and some other small societies of animal-tamers have developed similar techniques of control. While some Beastmasters would insist that there is nothing magical about their affinity with the natural world, most acknowledge a significant measure of sorcery in their arts. Experienced Beastmasters can work impossible feats of mental communion or distant summons. Some rely entirely on magical pacts and occult bindings to win the obedience of their companions, using sacred signs and divine sigils of authority to force lesser beasts into subservience. Beastmasters are valued members of their communities in Llaigis. Even those unable to control particularly fierce beasts still find much use in scouting for perils and guiding wayfarers. A few such Beastmasters find it prudent to leave Llagis for a time, either for the sake of profit or the wisdom of avoiding some bitter enemy. Their skills find use in gentler lands, as do the beasts they bring with them.

Partial Llaigisan Beastmaster Level

Arts Gained

Bind Companion and Any One

Any One

3 4

Any One

7 8

Any One

9 10

Any One

Beastmaster Benefits

The Beastmaster exists only as a partial Mage class, meant to be taken by an Adventurer along with another partial class. A Partial Warrior/Beastmaster may be a savage barbarian or wood-wise ranger, while a Partial Expert/ Beastmaster might be a masterful hunter or zoologist. All Beastmasters get Survive as a bonus skill at level-0, or at level-1 if they already have it at level-0. The amount of time they spend in the wilderness learning of its ways can’t help but teach them how to survive in hard conditions and navigate the perils of an untamed land.

Beastmaster Companions

Many Beastmaster arts apply to the PC’s animal companion. There are a few basic guidelines for such companions that a GM should keep in mind during play. A companion animal cannot have a number of hit dice greater than the Beastmaster’s level plus one. Thus a 2 hit die wolf is an acceptable companion for a first-level Beastmaster, but a 5 hit die tentacular horror is too potent to be bound to service. A companion animal cannot have human levels of intelligence. It must be more-or-less animal in its thought patterns, though it can be a magical beast or supernatural entity of some kind. A Beastmaster can normally have only one companion animal at a time. They can leave an animal behind in any terrain suitable for its survival and expect it to be in the same vicinity later if they choose to return for it and no one has killed it in the meanwhile. Released creatures are usually friendly to the Beastmaster still, unless they have been mistreated or are exceptionally savage. A companion animal functions as an independent allied creature. It will obey commands from the Beastmaster that are not contrary to its own nature or beyond its intellect, but it will fight, move, check Instinct and Morale as normal, and act independently in combat. If the creature is mistreated or used as mere cannon fodder, it can flee or turn on its former master. A companion animal must be given a name by the Beastmaster. Without a name to focus the PC’s arts, the creature cannot be controlled.

The Chosen Friend

Some Beastmasters form a lifelong bond with a single dear companion. If a PC chooses this option, they can only ever Bind one companion, but it gains the benefit of the Shared Vitality and Mind Call arts automatically. So long as the Beastmaster lives, this chosen friend cannot truly die; if reduced to zero hit points, it disappears, but will manifest again at the Beastmaster’s side the following dawn with its full hit points. Of course, the master is expected to treat this companion as the beloved friend it is, and not as mere battle-fodder.

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Arts of the Beastmaster

Beastmaster Effort is calculated with Survive, and is equal to the PC’s Survive skill level plus the higher of their Wisdom or Charisma modifiers, to a minimum of one point. All Beastmasters start play with the Bind Companion art and one more of their choosing. They learn additional arts as they gain experience. Bind Companion: With a day’s work in a location you can find and bind a suitable animal companion. If looking for a particular type of companion, it must be found in the area and may require a Wis/Survive skill check at a difficulty of 10 or more if it’s a particularly rare creature. If you encounter a suitable animal on an adventure, you may bind it as a Main Action, with the creature allowed a Mental saving throw to resist and become impervious to your powers. You may release a companion as a Main Action if you no longer wish its service or want to bind a different beast.

Other Beastmaster Arts

Beast Ward: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. So long as the Effort remains Committed, the Beastmaster will not be attacked by unintelligent beasts unless the beast is commanded to do so by its master, the beast is starving, or the Beastmaster or their allies performs some hostile act against it. Once the ward ends or is broken, it cannot be re-established in the same scene. Beasts trained specifically as guardians of an area get a Mental save to resist this power. Eyes of the Beast: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. For the rest of the scene, you can share the senses of your companion. Neither of you can be surprised unless both are surprised. Feral Toughness: Your maximum hit point total is increased by the natural hit dice of your companion; thus, a 5 hit die companion increases your maximum hit points by 5. You are impervious to normal outdoor extremes of heat or cold. Your base Armor Class is equal to 13 plus half your level, rounded up. This AC can be modified by shields or Dexterity modifiers, but not by armor. Howl of Distant Summons: You can call former animal companions to your side by Committing Effort for the day as a Main Action. The howl extends through time as well as space, and the subject will have received the message in time to reach your side within five minutes after you call for it. Once summoned, you may bind it again if you have no current companion. If the journey is exceptionally dangerous, difficult, or long, you’ll need to make a Cha/ Survive skill check against a difficulty of 10 or more; on a failure, the beast could not make the journey and cannot be called by this power for another week.

Know the Weak Spot: Whenever inflicting damage on a beast with a weapon or physical attack, roll the damage twice and take the higher score. Optionally, Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action when an ally within earshot hits a beast; your shouted advice or distracting help allows them to roll damage twice and take the better result as well. Mind Call: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. For the rest of the scene you forge a telepathic bond with your animal companion. You can give it orders and receive information from the creature, at least insofar as its limited intellect allows. Natural Weaponry: You may have physically grown fangs and claws, or it may be that you just intuitively absorbed effective unarmed fighting techniques from your animal companions. When unarmed, your attacks count as weapons that use either Str or Dex as their modifier, use Punch or Stab as the skill, do 1d8 damage, and have a Shock value of 2/AC 13. These unarmed attacks can harm even creatures immune to non-magical weapons. The damage and Shock of these weapons gains a +1 bonus at level 3, a +2 bonus at level 6, and a +3 bonus at level 9. Savage Senses: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action. For the remainder of the scene you are capable of seeing clearly even in pitch blackness, can scent out trails and belongings as perfectly as a wolf could, and gain a +2 bonus on all Notice skill checks involving sight, sound, or smell. Shared Vitality: The animal companions you bind have hit dice no lower than your level, even if they normally have far fewer. Thus, a 2 hit die beast bound by a 7th level Beastmaster would have 7 hit dice while it remained bound. This bonus does not change the creature’s hit bonus or saving throws. A Beastmaster can stabilize a mortally wounded companion by Committing Effort for the scene as an Instant action. Swift Healing: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action to heal 1d6 damage per character level to a wounded companion. This healing can be extended only once per scene or fifteen minutes. Tongue of the Beasts: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. While the Effort remains committed, you can speak with any animal that has fur, feathers, scales, or skin. This art allows them to temporarily speak as if they had human intellect, though their interests, knowledge, and desires do not change.

Reskinning the Beastmaster

A PC with a loyal animal companion is a common trope of fantasy adventures, and the Beastmaster class can fill in whenever a player wants a PC with a capable, effective fighting beast as a companion. Those players who want to emulate a more classic “druid” PC concept might make a Partial Elementalist/Beastmaster PC, while the conventional fantasy ranger works well as an archery-focused partial Warrior/Beastmaster.

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Sarulite Blood Priest The Blighted nation of Sarul holds the blood clergy as their spiritual and secular leaders. These chosen men and women of the Bleeding God are appointed to maintain the laws of the land, punish evildoers, and direct the labors of the populace toward the glory of God and the furthering of His purposes in the world. From the humblest village priest up to the Three Pontifexes themselves, blood priests are expected to comport themselves with the utmost personal rigor and integrity… and the internal inquisitors of the sect help ensure that such is the case. The ancient faith of the Bleeding God gives much power to those who follow its inner teachings, and the miracles of the Blood Priests are very useful in their labors. These arts are available even to those who have no faith in the god whatsoever, presumably because the power is embedded in the Legacy itself rather than being a product of the wielder’s belief. Heretic and apostate Blood Priests who have mastered these arts can use them as easily as the most pious believer, despite the common rumors and superstitions to the contrary. Blood clerics are usually kept in a rigorous internal hierarchy in Sarul, obedient to their superiors and regularly monitored by the faith’s inquisition. Some, however, are set to roam far beyond the boundaries of that nation, either as scouts, missionaries, diplomats, or crusaders in defense of the weak. Others merely claim as much, having fled the nation before their heresy or some more secular crimes could be discovered. The influence of the church of the Bleeding God is weak outside of Sarul, and a renegade who manages to avoid the hierarchy and placate their new neighbors can often hope to live out their days unhindered. Most blood clerics are Blighted, either Anak or some other breed of cursed folk. The hierarchy has a pragmatic approach to the frailties and darker inclinations of its members; they are not blessed, but they are tolerated within limits as the inevitable price of existing in a fallen world. Serious crimes of murder, rape, blasPartial Sarulite Blood Priest Level

Miracles Gained

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7 8

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9 10

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phemy, or treachery against the church are punished with swift and summary execution, but lesser offenders are let off with beatings, fines, or periods of forced service. It is normal for even high-ranking clerics to be so rebuked by their superiors, and few are the bishop-generals of the faith who haven’t felt the inquisitor’s knout for some prior failing. Even so, some who are unjustly accused or unwilling to pay for their deeds have been known to flee the land, seeking anonymity elsewhere. An Anak without companions to vouch for them is unlikely to survive long in most human lands, however. Outside of Sarul, the church of the Bleeding God is divided into numerous co-equal national or ethnic churches, some of which claim overlapping jurisdictions over the same believers. Few have any significant political authority, as they tend to draw their membership from the Blighted, the poor, and the outcasts of society. Many regions have no recognized church at all, and so an industrious and pious cleric can find it quite possible to establish their own sect of the faith.

Blood Priest Benefits

The Blood Priest exists only as a partial Mage class, to be taken by an Adventurer alongside another partial class. A Partial Warrior/Blood Priest might be a Sarulite crusader for the Bleeding God, wielding steel and terror against the evils of this world. A Partial Expert/Blood Priest might be an inquisitor, investigating dubious figures and sifting out the truth of mysterious events. All Blood Priests gain Pray as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if they already have it at level-0. Even a “Blood Priest” who has only learned their abilities through study of the inner texts must master a wide variety of ecclesiastical rites and rituals in order to activate their powers.

Reskinning the Blood Priest

The Blood Priest can serve as a template for a classic fighting cleric found in many other RPGs. The miracles given here are specific to the more traditional interpretation of the class, but priests of other gods or more specific portfolios could have alternate arts provided related to the particular spheres of their patron deity. A traditional fighting priest should pick the Partial Warrior class to pair with this one; a PC who prefers to have some spellcasting powers would need to pick an appropriate partial spellcaster class instead, and be willing to sacrifice much of their martial capacity.

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Arts of the Blood Priest

Blood Priest Effort is calculated with Pray, with their total maximum Effort being equal to their Pray skill plus the higher of their Wisdom or Charisma modifiers, to a minimum of one point. At first level, the Blood Priest may choose two of the following miracles to master, and gain more as they advance in levels. Once chosen, a miracle pick is permanent and cannot be changed later. Miracles are not hindered by the wearing of armor and require no gestures or free hand to employ, though usually a prayer must be vocalized as part of the action triggering it.

A Thousand Tongues: Commit Effort as an On Turn action; while it remains Committed, you can speak with and understand any sentient creature with a language of their own. To any listener, it will seem as if you are perfectly fluent in their own language, even as you speak in your own native tongue. This ability does not allow you to read or write unknown languages. Armor of God: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. While the Effort remains Committed, you have a natural Armor Class of 15 plus half your level, rounded down. This AC can be modified by shields or your Dexterity modifier, but not by other worn armor. Divine Guidance: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and meditate upon a choice or potential action before you. The GM will tell you whether the likely outcome of that choice is weal, woe, a mix of both, or nothing significant, using their own best estimation. This insight cannot perceive likely outcomes more than an hour or so into the future. Fear No Flame: Commit Effort for the day as an On Turn action while nominating a visible target. For the rest of the scene, they are immune to non-magical flame, smoke, or explosive damage, and decrease any sources of such magical damage they take by five points per level of Pray you have. God Wills It: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action and loudly call down the Bleeding God’s blessing on your comrades. For the rest of the scene, up to six allies per character level in earshot gain an effective Morale of 12 and a +1 bonus to hit and damage rolls, including any Shock that may be inflicted. At fifth level this becomes a +2 bonus, and at tenth level it becomes a +3 bonus. Merciful Healing: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and touch a target within melee range. The target receives 1d6+1 points of magical healing. If done in combat or used to revive a mortally wounded subject, the rushed haste of the healing adds 1 System Strain to the target, but no System Strain is added if it is applied outside of combat. At fourth level the healing done increases to 2d6+2 and at eighth level it becomes 4d6+4.

Sanctified Ward: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. While the Effort is maintained and until you take some hostile action against a creature, you are immune to Shock damage and gain a +4 bonus to your Armor Class and all saving throws. Enemies must pass an Instinct check each round to target you with attacks; on a failure, they may take some other action instead. Once this art is ended it cannot be reactivated for the rest of the scene. Healing and other indirect support of fighting comrades does not count as a hostile action. Smite the Wicked: Commit Effort for the day as a On Turn action whenever you attack or take some damaging action toward a single target. The target’s effective AC is treated as 10, you inflict your character level as automatic damage, and you can roll any damage dice twice and take the higher result. This ability can only be used once per scene on a given target. The Light of Faith: Commit Effort as an On Turn action; while it remains Committed, you can cast a clear, bright radiance that extends up to thirty feet away from you. At your discretion, this light is visible only to you and your comrades, including up to a dozen allies. Transubstantiation: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action to transform up to a gallon of any liquid into sacred blood. A draught of this holy liquid is sufficient to sustain a drinker for a day without further food or drink and will heal 1d6 plus the user’s Pray skill in lost hit points. A gallon of blood is sufficient to help a half-dozen people. The benefits of this art can be enjoyed only once per day, and any undrunk blood sublimates away within a minute. Turn False Life: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action and make the sign of the Bleeding God before one or more visible targets within sixty feet. Roll 2d6 and add your character level; that many hit dice of undead, automatons, or other synthetic or unnatural life forms must make Mental saving throws or cower for the rest of the scene or until they or their comrades are attacked. Cowering enemies will take no hostile action and may flee unless bound to their location. This power does not affect foes with twice as many hit dice as the blood priest has levels. If the rolled hit die total isn’t enough to fully affect a creature, it is unaffected. Words of Mercy: Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to reroll any failed social skill check related to maintaining peace, granting help, or encouraging virtuous acts of compassion, mercy, or truthfulness. This art can be used only once on any given skill check.

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Vothite Thought Noble The ancient mental arts of the Vothite Empire are largely lost in the present day. Most of their possessors were slaughtered a thousand years ago in the fall of the empire, and the few thought-houses that survived were left in tattered exile, bereft of their greatest minds and numerous vital training tools. Still, here and there a few fragments of the art have survived, either in the heirs of these refugee houses or in the studies of those seekers who have craved the power it provides. Only specialist sages, the most erudite of scholars, and those with a personal acquaintance with thought-houses are likely to have any real understanding of a Thought Noble’s abilities. Even in New Voth, their ancient oppressors are credited with so many heinous acts and awful powers that the truth of their abilities is unclear.

Thought Noble Benefits

A Thought Noble exists only as a partial Mage class, to be taken by an Adventurer alongside another partial class. A Partial Warrior/Thought Noble might be a cunning duelist who chooses his enemies with uncanny foreknowledge, while a Partial High Mage/Thought Noble might be an arcanist who has managed to unearth the secrets of these psychic arts in the course of their own studies. All Thought Nobles gain Notice as a bonus skill, acquiring it at level-0, or level-1 if they already have it at level-0. An ability to clearly sense perceptual inputs is fundamental to a Thought Noble’s training, and it is all but impossible to make sense of foreign mental inputs without a disciplined and trained sensorium. Thought Nobles do not cast spells, though the ancient Mentarchs were famous for their arcane power. Instead, they develop various cognitive and telepathic abilities based on the focus of their studies. In the ancient days, different thought-houses focused on different techniques suitable for their philosophical imperative, but in Partial Vothite Thought Noble Level

Arts

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these days the surviving Thought Nobles tend to learn whichever skills seem most immediately useful to them. At first level, a Thought Noble gains the Open Mind art and may choose one more of their choice. As they advance in level, they’ll come to master additional arts. Once chosen, an art cannot be changed.

Arts of the Thought Noble

Thought Noble Effort is calculated with Notice rather than Magic, with each PC’s maximum being equal to their Notice skill level plus the better of their Intelligence or Wisdom modifiers, to a minimum of one point. All Thought Nobles are trained in the Open Mind art, but may develop other techniques with time. If an art allows a saving throw to resist it, success renders the target immune to that art for the rest of the scene. Thought Noble arts are all entirely invisible to any but magical senses and provide no hint as to who is using them, even on a successful Mental saving throw. Open Mind: Commit Effort as an On Turn action. While Effort remains Committed, you may detect the current emotional state of a visible living creature as a Main Action. This discernment isn’t fine enough to identify the object of their emotions unless it’s obvious from the context.

Other Thought Noble Arts

Block Memory: Target a visible living creature and Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action while specifying a particular event or situation that didn’t extend longer than a scene. The target gets a Mental saving throw; on a failure, they simply cannot remember the event and will construct a plausible false memory to paper over the gap. The memory can be restored by use of this power once more or a magical dispelling ability, but detecting the alteration is difficult; any power that detects enchantments on a target does so with a +2 difficulty penalty to any skill check made to discern the ban. Excision of Truth: This art can only be taken by those who have mastered Surface Apprehension. It can only be used on a helpless or cooperative target; the Thought Noble may Commit Effort for the day and ask the target a question that takes no more than two sentences to ask. If the target fails a Mental saving throw, they must fully and completely answer the question. They need not exercise any personal judgment or speculation, but they must answer directly and without conscious deception. Facile Speech: An improvement to the Far Speech art, you may now nominate up to a half-dozen companions to be favored targets for Far Speech. You may link with a favored target as an On Turn action without Committing Effort. The range to contact a

363 favored target is one mile per Thought Noble level. You can change your nominated companions with an hour’s meditation in the new companion’s presence. Far Speech: Commit Effort for the scene as an On Turn action and target an intelligent creature known to you that is within two hundred feet per level. If they consent, you forge a telepathic link with them that can convey thoughts, speech, and images even without a common language. The link lasts for the rest of the scene. While linked with someone, both of you may reroll failed Mental saving throws and neither of you can be surprised unless both are. Hypercognition: You can drive your mind to tremendous feats of calculation, estimation, and recall. You have an eidetic memory and can perform extremely advanced calculations in your head. As an Instant action, Commit Effort for the day and reroll any failed Int-based skill check. This ability can be used only once on any given check. Iconograph: Commit Effort for the scene as a Main Action and target a visible written text, piece of sculpture, iconographic symbol, or other visible artifact. You receive a short description of the message or idea the maker was trying to convey with the object. Optionally, you may use this art when making a sigil, art object, or text of your own; any valid target will automatically understand your intended message when they see the item. You may restrict your audience to particular people or types if you wish. Impress Imperative: Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action while targeting a visible living creature. You may give it an overwhelming urge to perform some action that takes no longer than a round and is not completely contrary to its nature or wishes. It can make a Mental save to resist, but on a failure it spends its next action carrying out the imperative. Mind Light: Your Open Mind art is enhanced. While active, you become aware of the location of all living minds within sixty feet of you provided there isn’t a physical barrier between you and the subject. You can identify the species of these minds, if the species is known to you, any strong emotional states, and can recognize known individuals. While Open Mind is active you cannot be surprised by a living creature. Mind Over Matter: Your mental control over your physical processes is considerable. Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to gain one of the following benefits: automatically stabilize if Mortally Wounded, go without sleep for twenty-four hours, heal 1d6 hit points of damage you’ve suffered, or completely ignore normal climatic extremes of heat or cold for one day. Similar tricks of bodily control may be allowed at the GM’s discretion. Mirror Mask: You become instantly aware of any mind-affecting power directed at you and can identify the user if they’re within your current sensory

range. You may reroll any Mental saving throw the attacking ability allows you; if it doesn’t allow a save, you get a single Mental save to resist anyway. If you succeed, you may Commit Effort for the day as an Instant action to give the power false information of your choice or a false impression of success. Positive Association: As a Main Action, Commit Effort for the day and target a visible sentient creature. It gets a Mental saving throw to resist; on a failure, any thought of you or your actions is suffused by a glow of benign happiness and admiration. They will treat you as an admired friend and find all your actions to be eminently reasonable and wise until you or your allies attack them, bring harm to something they love, or leave their presence for more than an hour. Affected creatures that were not misused are unlikely to think themselves bespelled when this power ends unless given reason to. This ability can affect only one target at a time. Read Intent: As an Instant action, Commit Effort for the scene and target a visible living creature. It gets a Mental saving throw to resist; on a failure, the GM will tell you exactly what it is currently intending to do on its next turn, or its next relevant action if used out of combat. If you perform a Total Defense action this round, your insight into its motions ensures that no attack it makes that you could theoretically physically avoid can hit you for the rest of the round. Surface Apprehension: Commit Effort for the scene as a Main Action while targeting a visible living creature. If it fails a Mental saving throw, you become aware of its immediate surface thoughts for the rest of the round. If you ask specific questions of the creature during this round it will instinctively think of the answers, though the detail of these surface thoughts is generally limited to one or two sentences of information. Thoughts Like Razors: As a Main Action, Commit Effort for the day to launch a psychic assault on any visible living creature within sixty feet. The target gets a Mental saving throw to resist; on a failure, it takes 1d8 damage per level of the Thought Noble. The damage can knock it unconscious but cannot kill. On a successful save, the Thought Noble is stunned by the backlash, takes one quarter of the damage, rounded down, and loses their next turn’s actions. This ability can be used only once per scene. Unthinkable Thought: Target a visible living creature and Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action while specifying a particular person, object, or situation that is currently ongoing in their presence. The target may make a Mental save to resist; on a failure, they simply cannot consciously acknowledge the existence of the subject or its actions unless ignoring it would obviously put their life at risk. This forced ignorance lasts for up to a scene; at its end, the target will have no memory of the subject.