Attronarch's Athenaeum

Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D.

Adventurers

Character Class Description
Hagar the Hewer Dwarf level 4 Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros Cleric level 5 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Foxglove Thief level 4 A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time.
Darius Cleric level 4 Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Riker Magic-User level 2 A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Tiberias Normal human Regretting his employment.

Longrass 12th, Waterday

Engulfed by noxious yellow gas, Hagar and Amborus could barely see. Led by Darius's voice, they retreated from the chamber where they just faced four demonic creatures.

“Shut the doors! Let 'em come to us!”

But nothing came.

Peeking into the chamber revealed it was empty. It was stained yellow from top to bottom. There was one door to the left and one to the right. Opening the former reveal a spacious chamber with two dwarven corpses. One was lying on its right side, with its back to the adventurers. The other one was torn in half.

Adventurers shut the door and went for the other door.

They moved forward, down the corridor, until they reached a hard turn. Hagar peeked around the corner, only to be dazzled by a festival of colourful lights. Unsure what to do, other adventurers passed Rorik's corpse—a third of it they still had—to Hagar. Then the dwarf chucked it around the corner.

In a split second the party had been flashed and surrounded by glimmering light. Horned dog sized bunnies were all around them! They rammed and gored few of the members before vanishing in thin air.

The party moved on, following the twisting corridor. They found a dead end with thousands of silver and gold coins arranged in small nests. Another dead end was an unfinished room with stairs leading down into nothing. Third dead end were stone doors with skull on it and two large keyholes.

The adventurers were too experienced to be lured by two matching keys laying on the stone table right next to the doors. Thus they backtracked all the way to the chamber with dwarven corpses.

It was a large fifty by fifty feet chamber. There were three corpses in total, all in horrific shape. The corpses were decomposing, but were still much fresher then other dead people they encountered so far. Doors in the south-west corner were covered with blood and gore from bottom to the ceiling.

More interesting was the curious mechanism in the center of north wall. Some five feet above the floor, a tilted horizontal disc jutted out of the wall. From it three rods—as spokes of a wheel—stood straight. On the upper face of the half-disc was an etched mask with frowning face.

Abandoning the contraption, the party backtracked to the chamber with large stone face. It had matching facial expression to the face on the disc—a frowning expression.

Illustration by kicmaniac.

The face was almost twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. Dark hole in the mouth was in fact an opening into a tight crawlspace. Tiberias volunteered to investigate it. He had to strip into nothing but loincloth and rope around his waist. Then he improvised a weapon with burning torch tied to it, and went into it.

The space was very tight, forcing him to crawl on his belly with little space for looking forward. After ten or so minutes he heard a voice speak in unfamiliar language. Ignoring it, he proceeded forward. His eyes were red and teary from the smoke coming into his eyes. At one moment he decided to pause to rest a bit. But he couldn't! In fact, he was now sliding forward, scrapping his forearms and knees.

Even worse, moments later he was in a head on free fall.

Hagar felt the rope suddenly move much faster. He dropped his body weight and held onto the rope.

Tiberias felt the rope around his waist tightening. He drop was stopped with a powerful jerk. The shock nearly made him black out. The man vomited down the chute. Then he decided to drop down his torch so he could see what lies ahead.

His torch disappeared in thick darkness.

Hagar was joined by other adventurers in pulling the rope. It was tough until it wasn't. They pulled out empty rope. The loop and knot were still there. Tiberias wasn't.

There was no time to grieve.

Party headed back to the room with weird contraption. There they investigated it for hours until one of the clerics suggested at least three characters try to push on the rods. Lo and behold! The disc rotated. Moments later frowning face was replaced with smiling face.

Running back to the room with stone face confirmed it too had changed its facial expression. This time Hagar volunteered. They tied several hundred feet worth of rope around him. They also agreed on various rope signals.

Getting on all fours, Hagar entered the mysterious crawlspace. Moving on he too reached a moment when he could hear someone or something speaking in an unfamiliar language. He too ignored it and moved on.

As dwarf he could feel several inclines. He turned right, twice. After long time he reached a dead end. But he could feel a cold wheel touching his exposed belly. Since there was so little space, he had trouble getting a good grip. But once he did, he was able to twist it with great ease. Floor underneath him gave in and he fell face first on a hard stone floor beneath.

Dazed but alive, he pulled on the rope, signalling others to follow. Everyone stripped, and made sure to carry only the most valuable items that can fit through crawlspace. They also dragged Rorik's corpse through, as well as stiff FoxGlove.

Reunited, the party lit up a torch. Unarmoured and barely armed, they rapidly moved, following a long corridor forward. They passed a chamber, ignoring whatever might be inside, moved into another chamber, and then left through archway. Here Hagar recognised the chamber with framed gold sheet.

“I know the way out! Be careful for there is a dart trap activated by pressure plate!”

Adventurers exited the ruined tower just as night was about to fall. They camped in its ruins, enjoying the smell of fresh air once again.

Survivors returned to Hara on Longrass 13th. Just in time for Hagar to recuperate and prepare for dinner with Aseti Namelin, one of the most influential people in the region.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

This week I decided to use Magical Weapons for Labyrinth Lord by Djeryv / Wizardawn as the starting point.

Spell effects are from Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion (no-art versions of Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion are free).

(For those new to OSR, Labyrinth Lord is a B/X retroclone, meaning its supplements are easy to use with Old-School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry.)

Without further ado, here are thirty unique magical weapons, sorted alphabetically:

  1. Abysmal Battle Axe +1 of Invisibility (as magic-user spell Invisibility, twice a week). Hooked axe with obsidian blade and lacquered shaft that causes bleeding blisters. Has two eyes, one on each side of the blade. Poking an eye causes the axe and wielder to turn invisible.
  2. Bastard Sword +1, +2 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Blade of pure white light with handle and pommel of unknown alien material similar to polished steel.
  3. Bastard Sword +1, +2 of Lycanthrope Hunting (versus lycanthropes). The blade has silver sheen to it, although it is made of steel.
  4. Bastard Sword of the Cursed (-2, cursed). Bat-shaped iron sword-guard. The fuller (groove along the blade) is polished steel.
  5. Divine Heavy Flail +1, +3 of Death Dealing (versus undead). Favourite weapon of Prophet Gardgal Verdier.
  6. Dreadful Morningstar +1, +2 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Gnarly looking monringstar with bent spikes. Made entirely of pure holy iron.
  7. Earthly Light Pick +1, +2 of Magical Vanquishing (versus magical monsters). Forged by long forgotten dwarf blacksmith during the Great Construct Uprising.
  8. Fabulous Quarterstaff of the Cursed (-2, cursed). Wearer believes they are the most fabulous person on the planet and will make sure everybody else knows it as well.
  9. Fallen Mace +1 of the Necromancer (as cleric spell Animate Dead, once a week). Made entirely of stainless steel. Cannot blemish, not matter how hard it hits. Wielded by infamous chaotic cleric Mavorla the Despoiler.
  10. Fiendish Battle Axe +1. Danish battle axe with perennially bloodstained iron blade. Blood can't be washed off.
  11. Fiendish Light Crossbow +1 of the Skunk (as magic-user spell Stinking Cloud, once a week). A slim transparent cylinder is attached to the underside of the crossbow. Cylinder slowly sucks in smells from the environment, which are then magically enriched with vile vapours. Once the chamber is full, as indicated by it being filled with sickly yellow gas, it can be discharged with a click (no arrow needed).
  12. Foul Short Sword +3. The sword smells worse than a rotting troglodyte. Releases sticky ichor when gripped. Forged by Jaa'kewalimnit, a sludge demon.
  13. Glorious Morningstar +2, +3 of Spellcaster Doom (versus spell casters). Magnificent morningstar with obsidian head, ironwood shaft, and steel grip. It is the morningstar that crushed the head of notorious wizard Amenotari Thutmok.
  14. Hand Axe +1, +2 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). A simple handaxe with wooden shaft and steel blade, easily mistaken for a mundane hand axe.
  15. Heavenly Long Sword +3 of the Sage (as magic-user spell Read Magic, twice a week). Gold blade and grip, while sword-guard is a golden winged sun. It looks absolutely splendid, and is desired by rulers throughout the land. Last to wield it was legendary King Numedas “The Fair” Septigius.
  16. Heavy Flail +1, +2 of Giant Conquering (versus giants). Although it looks like a mundane flail, it is so heavy it can be only lifted by characters that have at least 15 strength.
  17. Incredible Dagger +2, +3 of Magical Vanquishing (versus magical monsters). Nicknamed after legendary assassin Levacia whom allegedly yelled “incredible, is it not?!” whenever she'd stab someone to death with it.
  18. Light Crossbow +3 of the Eagle (as magic-user spell Fly, three times a week). Lightweight crossbow made of enchanted wood from elven forest. Three eagles are on the body; touching any of them grants the user ability to fly.
  19. Lost Quarterstaff +3 of the Skunk (as magic-user spell Stinking Cloud, twice a day). Striking either side of the staff into the ground makes the other side release noxious gas.
  20. Magical Light Crossbow +1 of Snake Charming (as cleric spell Snake Charm, twice a week). Gifted to prince Onurekri who liked to play with snakes. He died to suicide.
  21. Sacred Hand Axe of Wounding (+1, wounding). Gilded blade with ironwood shaft and bronze pommel.
  22. Sling +2, +3 of Deterioration (versus regenerating monsters). Y-shaped sling made from troll bones and thoul sinews.
  23. Treasured Battle Axe +1 of Magic Missiles (as magic-user spell Magic Missile, twice a week). Double-bladed steel battle axe with ironwood shaft. Blades and shaft are studded with red and green jewels. Jewels pulsate gentle light, unless both Magic Missile charges have been used.
  24. Trident +1 of Mind Reading (as magic-user spell ESP, once a day). Made of pure jade. Stolen from Sahuagin prince by a band of daring adventurers.
  25. Trident +1, +3 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Gold trident of a long forgotten merfolk hero. Sparkles with electricity when within 30 feet of a devil.
  26. Two-Handed Sword +2, +3 of Golem Banishment (versus golems and statues). Ten feet long slab of iron used to discipline golems. Forged by mad wizard Hjorth “The Ghastly” Pans.
  27. Unholy Light Pick of Wounding (+1, wounding). Borderline erotic moans can be heard whenever it draws blood.
  28. Villainous Dagger +3 of Seeing (as magic-user spell Detect Invisible, three times a week). Tri-edge dagger of polished steel. Belonged to notorious hunter Amargacht the Cruel.
  29. War Hammer +2, +3 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). Double-headed mithril war hammer with wrought iron shaft and diamond-shaped mithril pommel. Weapon of legendary dwarven hero Fimbur Gorazinsson whom used it during Woelands Saurian Crusades.
  30. Wondrous Shortbow +1, +2 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). Forged by Virthin Halrond, an elf who fancied lizardmens' flesh.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #LL #OSR

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A zine chronicling the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis D&D campaign.

This issue details sessions 58, and 59.

Adventurers get into trouble, get out of trouble, and then get in trouble again.

You can download the issue here.

Overlord's Annals zine is available in print as part of the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA, issue 586:

#Zine

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This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

Twenty magical swords for Swords & Wizardry, sorted alphabetically (see bottom of the post for explanation of sword attributes):

  1. Blackblade: Two-handed Sword +1/+2 versus dragon types; AL Lawful; INT 7; EGO 6; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT kill dragon types (dragons, basilisks, hydras, etc.); POW control one animal at a time. Obsidian blade with bronze grip. Forged by dracophobes from the future.
  2. Bloomrose: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 6; EGO 2; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with copper grip adorned with rose motifs. Forged by Gottra Bigkind to feel more feminine during Goblin Wars.
  3. Bronseblad: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Bronze blade with bronze grip. Forged by technomancers of a lost continent.
  4. Foolsblade: Cursed Short Sword -1, for traps with a chance to trigger or not (e.g. pit traps spring on 2 in 6), the wielder always triggers the trap. Flint blade with copper grip. Forged by Tsoozethld, an arauk demon.
  5. Giantslayer: Long Sword +2/+3 versus giant types; AL Lawful; INT 10; EGO 8; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks three language out loud; MOT kill giant types (goblins, trolls, giants, etc.); POW (1) wielder immune from level/energy drain, (2) can project brief auditory illusions up to 60'. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by visitors from the future to fight undead giants.
  6. Iron Spider: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 7; EGO 3; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT renown; POW 4 in 6 chance to chop down a missile in mid flight. Steel blade with bronze grip. Forged by ancient aliens who got annoyed by humans shooting them.
  7. Lightsabre: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Energy blade with emerald grip. Forged by a mad wizard Attalostas Cloudpacer to serve as a showpiece (distraction) for adventurers of lesser intellect.
  8. Logazor's Scorned: Long Sword +1, AL Chaotic. Steel blade with bone grip. Forged by Logazor Keenplate, a dwarf blacksmith of some renown, who discarded the blade in disgust.
  9. Magedoom: Long Sword +1/+2 versus Magic-Users; AL Lawful; INT 8; EGO 4; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT kill Magic-Users; POW wielder need never rest. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by an envious wizard Tapis Sereem, who was promptly murdered by the henchman he commanded to test the sword.
  10. My First Magic Sword: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 5; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with wood grip. Forged by wizard Dullinan for practice.
  11. Ribtorch: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 6; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Energy blade with bone grip (actually a bear's rib). Forged by technomancers of Atlantis as joke weapon for those to be executed by trial in the arena.
  12. Rightway: Two-handed Sword +2; AL Neutral; INT 10; EGO 12; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks three languages out loud; MOT renown; POW (1) never get lost in the wilderness, (2) detect opposite alignment within 30'. Steel blade with ram horn grip. Forged for Marllana Terarel, an elf whou couldn't find her way out of a jungle.
  13. Sawsword: Long Sword +1; AL Chaotic; INT 6; EGO 1; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel serrated blade with bronze grip. Forged by Svkivzinilnaaki, a pathetic demon hoping to enslave a mighty warrior to do deeds in its name.
  14. Sealseeker: Long Sword +1; AL Chaotic; INT 7; EGO 6; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT renown; POW place sword on the ground for 1 turn, and it will point in the direction of the nearest secret door. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by Anika Bacchus, hailing from the future.
  15. Skag's Skål: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 5; EGO 1; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with horn grip. Forged by dwarf Skag Glumtower who wanted a sword that would allow him to kill and drink in rapid succession.
  16. The Hound: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 9; EGO 1; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks one language out loud; MOT renown; POW detect invisibility within 30'. Steel blade with copper grip. Forged by Ragni Ragnisson, a dwarven hero who hated deep elves with great passion.
  17. The Plank: Two-handed Sword +2/+3 versus flyer types; AL Lawful; INT 11; EGO 9; COM telepathic with wielder, speaks three languages out loud, and reads magic as per the spell; MOT kill flyer types (rocs, maticores, balrogs, etc.); POW (1) any living thing cut apart by this blade (beheading, limb lopped off, trunk bisected, etc.) will grow into an auto-homocidal clone/doppelganger of the original in d6 days, (2) 4 in 6 chance to chop down a missile in mid flight, (3) emits Light on command, as per magic-user spell. 2” x 2” seven feet long plank with bronze grip on one end. Forged by technomancers of a lost continent to fight a rust batmonster infestation.
  18. Toothpick: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Wood blade with bone grip. Carved by a Titan in a time of need.
  19. Unrequited Love: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 6; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with copper grip. Forged by mad wizard Inele as a gift for Fighter she was wooing.
  20. Valindel: Short Sword +3; AL Lawful; INT 12; EGO 3; COM telepathic with anyone within 30', speaks three languages out loud, and reads magic as per the spell; MOT kill dragon types (dragons, basilisks, hydras, etc.); POW (1) wielder can “fly” (leap) up to 20', over the heads of up to two ranks of enemies, those enemies can't attack the leaping wielder, unless armed with missile weapons or long polearms, (2) sword bats out of the air any (non-magical) missiles aimed at the wielder, (3) never accidentally dropped (during surprise, for example), (4) warns against cursed magic items (for items already identified as magical by Detect Magic or similar means). Steel blade with copper grip. Forged for Ullialanel Valindel Yavarond, a famed elf dragon slayer.

Legend: AL: alignment; INT: sword's intelligence; EGO: sword's ego; COM: sword's means of communication; MOT sword's motivation; POW sword's power(s).

I made the above with the help of Paul Gorman's excellent free supplement Magic Swords for Swords & Wizardry. First I generated sword abilities using his tables, and then I refined them until I was satisfied.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #SW #OSR

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Friends and strangers!

Through September I am hosting the RPG Blog Carnival, and I would like to invite you to contribute!

The theme is Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers, and your contributions can be anything related to it.

For example:

  • fleshed out magical weapons,
  • detailed cursed items,
  • random tables related to magical weapons,
  • random tables related to cursed items,
  • procedures related to magical weapons,
  • procedures related to cursed items,
  • drawings of magical or cursed items,
  • adventures or locales with magical weapons or cursed items.

There are no limits besides the overarching theme!

Simply share a link to your contribution (e.g. a blog post) in the comments below, and I will include it in the summary post at the end of the month.

P.S. If you don't have a blog, but would still like to participate then you can either send me your contribution via email or comment below.

P.P.S. Don't panic if you don't see your comment immediately after you submit it—I have to manually approve each comment.

#RPGBlogCarnival #OSR #Resource

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#RPGaDAY2024

I'm running the game I want to run! And although I miss every player that dropped out or cannot join us as often as they did in the past, I do not grieve for life happens and we played a good game.

Fight on!

#RPGaDAY #RPGaDAY2024

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#RPGaDAY2024

Some people I'd like to play with are: Matt Finch, Gabor Lux, Calithena, Robert Conley, Michael Curtis, Jeff Rients, James Edward Raggi IV, Bill Webb, W.D.B. Kenower, Courtney Campbell, David Bowman, and Geoffrey McKinney.

#RPGaDAY #RPGaDAY2024

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#RPGaDAY2024

Inspiration Pad Pro (IPP)! It's completely free and absolutely awesome. You put in tables (including nested table and operations) and you get out results!

Absolutely indispensable to me given that I run low prep, high freedom campaign. That means I have to have good random tables at hand that I can roll on quickly.

IPP is super simple to use. Here is an example of d10 table:

Table: RR_Class
Type: Lookup
Roll: 1d10
01:Ruins
02:Relics
03:Remains
04:Vestiges
05:Remnants
06:Refuse
07:Wrecks
08:Skeletons
09:Antiques
10:Artifacts

Now imagine writing ten to twenty tables like above and stringing them together to make an output for you. Such is the power of IPP! And best of all is that you have to do it only once.

#RPGaDAY #RPGaDAY2024

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#RPGaDAY2024

To be honest I just use A4 folders and a dice tray. Majority of my gaming is online so I haven't had the need to look into gadgets. Sometimes I think about dice towers and dice rollers, but I can do that faster in command line or via discord bot. Let me know if there is some great gadget I'm missing out on...

#RPGaDAY #RPGaDAY2024

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Marc Miller, one of the creators of Traveller, has shared his succession plan for the game:

Some years ago, fellow game designer Greg Stafford died, and I was impressed that his company announced almost immediately that he had a succession plan in place, and that his legacy and his designs would live on.

His example was an inspiration to me, and I resolved to emulate him. It would be a terrible loss if Traveller were encumbered, or somehow restricted in its outreach to present and future fans.

With that in mind, I have worked to make Traveller an asset to science-fiction role-players... with our user-friendly Fair Use policies, with the Travellers’ Aid Society programs, with the Cepheus editions of Traveller, and with Mongoose as a primary publisher of their edition of Traveller.

Over the past several years, I have turned over more and more responsibilities to Mongoose, and I have collaborated actively with them as they work to realize the Traveller dream. Earlier this year I passed full ownership of Traveller to Mongoose in order to secure its future.

With that in mind, I point out that, following the example of Greg Stafford, I have a succession plan in place: day-to-day decisions about the Traveller game system are already being made by Mongoose Publishing (with my co-operation and approval), and if anything should happen to me, they would carry on with my full knowledge and blessing.

That doesn’t stop me from speaking my mind: expressing opinions about Traveller, writing stories and lore, and even revealing secrets about the universe.

But Traveller is in good hands, now, and far into the far future.

And I thank you for your (continuing) support for Traveller.

Marc

I wish more authors and owners of legendary IP would adopt such mature and thoughtful approach to their legacy.

#News #Traveller

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