The Library of Attnam: 2024

30 December 2024

Ritual of Communion

No wizard is to be trifled with lightly, but when several wizards join forces, they become the stuff of nightmares. Especially if they literally join forces via the ritual of communion.

Winter Solstice by shk28

All wizards partaking in a communion must be within a pre-made magic circle. The wizard who initiates the ritual becomes the communion master, the rest are communion slaves. Communion slaves cannot use magic until they break communion by stepping outside of the circle.

The communion master gets access to MD and spells of all communion slaves, and can use them as if they were his own.

Only one participant is affected by any Mishaps or Dooms triggered during communion. The communion master chooses who is affected - potentially shunting any consequences of powerful spells onto a communion slave. This is often kept secret from the communion slaves, for obvious reasons.

Wizard shackle: Most often forged in the form of a ring or manacle, it obviates the need for a magic circle when starting a communion. The bearer of the master ring can draw upon anyone wearing a linked shackle.

7 December 2024

Legendary Resistance-less

Legendary Resistance (3/day): If the creature fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

I dislike this ability. It is not fun at all.

I understand why it exists - because otherwise there are way too many save or suck powers that can easily leave any boss struggling to take a single turn while the party murders them - but giving the boss several Get Out of Jail Free cards per day, with no clear indication to the players that their attack worked and the monster just decided that "Nope, I don't like that!" feels unfair and unfun to me. On a second thought, giving a clear indication what just happened might be worse, as the player just wasted a limited resource and there is not even a trick to be learnt and abused later - it just doesn't work until brute-forced by running the boss out of their daily uses.

Here are d6 alternatives to Legendary Resistance. While this is parlance specific to D&D 5e, these abilities should be easy to use for any OSR boss just as well.

1. Save Immunity: The boss automatically succeeds on any saving throws it is proficient in.

I like immunity on bosses more than resistances. Giving a boss one or two immunities and clearly communicating that to the players gives them a nice restriction to work around, which breed creativity. Giving a boss some resistances basically just prolongs combat.

2. Save Adaptation: The boss automatically fails when it makes a saving throw of each type for the first time, but always succeeds afterwards.

A variation on Save Immunity, this means that the players' powers just work (fun) but cannot keep the boss bound for long (also fun). It also forces the players to change their approach each round - no spamming the same spell over and over. Few fights will take more than 4 or 5 rounds and this power should reset between encounters, so the boss probably won't become immune to everything.

3. Purge: As a bonus action, remove one effect affecting the boss.

This should be a bonus action, so that the boss can use it without giving up its turn completely, but works best if the boss has other bonus actions that will compete for their place in the action economy. You can debuff the boss, but it will rarely last more than a round. Still, it will cost it a bonus action it could otherwise use for more nefarious purposes. Plus if you can layer several effects, or somehow force it to use its other bonus action, you can keep the debuffs going. This is my second favourite, as it gives the GM some fun decisions to make in the heat of combat and at the same time prevents the boss from sucking for long even if it fails every single saving throw.

4. Reflect: When targeted by a spell that allows a saving throw, the boss and the caster roll an opposed ability check. If the caster fails, their spell is redirected back at them.

Very scary power that nonetheless doesn't help if the boss fails and gets caught in whatever nasty spell the wizard had prepared. High risk, high reward.

5. Unfair Exchange: As an action, the boss targets one enemy that must make a saving throw. On failure, the boss and the target exchange all their temporary effects.

The boss tries to switch its debuffs for a PC's buffs. Once again, very scary but dependant on a failed saving throw of the PC.

6. Redirect: As a reaction when it fails a saving throw, the boss can redirect the effect to one of its nearby underlings.

This is pretty close to the original Legendary Resistance, but the players get a clear indication that their power worked, that the boss is evil, abusing its minions like that, and that there is a solution - remove all minions. Also their power still works, if against a minion, so nothing feels wasted. This is my definite favourite.

For extra fun, instead of minions, give the boss several fully independent shadow clones and have it switch places and effects with the clones. Chaos reigns.

5 December 2024

d12 Stranger Backgrounds

Found in a circle of ancient stones. You can speak with animals/plants/elements/the Dead (choose one), but may never learn to read, write or do complex maths. Start with a fetish.
Wandered out of a cave rumoured to lead to the Nightmare Below. You don't need to and cannot sleep or dream. Start with a map that shows a long lost secret.
Arrived as the only passenger on a derelict, rotting ship. If the whole party dies, you somehow survive but lose everything you are wearing and carrying. Start with bad dreams.
Fled a sinking paradise island nobody has ever heard of. When you sing, reroll non-aggressive Reaction with a +2 bonus. Start with a harp and an insufferable optimism.
Escaped from a plague pit. Your rotting flesh can be sealed up with mud and squashed bugs. Mindless undead ignore you unless you attack first. Start with a hooded cloak.
Raised in a forgotten monastery. Your bare hands and feet count as sledgehammers. Start with a bald head, a mendicant bowl and an endless supply of koans.
Sealed in a sarcophagus. Immaculate. Beautiful. Uncanny. Immune to filth, mutation and ageing. Start knowing d4 rare languages.
Survived in the woods. Become an animal until dawn when touched by moonlight. Choose the animal the first time you change. Start with d4 extra rations of raw meat.
Grew up in a cult that recently died out. Before every session, the GM gives you a prophetic dream. Start with d4 followers that consider you a living god.
Born of a dead mother, saved by illegal alchemy. Turn monsters to potions with a night of work. Start with a bloody cough and a mutation.
Conceived immaculately; born under a fateful star. Once ever, you can perform a miracle. Start with a ring that glows near evil.
You were always here, just out of sight. You can always move faster than someone who is running away and fleeing for their life. Start with friends among thieves and children.

From Bing Image Creator

3 December 2024

Anime Fighting, or HD as Actions

You know how in anime the combatants are getting faster and faster as they grow in power, dodging bullets and throwing a thousand punches per second? This is something I've been playing around with, rules-wise. The rule is very simple:

Every round of combat you can take [HD] actions.

From JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

There are no special kinds of actions anymore - reactions or movement will take one of your actions now. Other possible actions might include defensive stunts or combat manoeuvres. This applies to both PCs and NPCs. High level enemies will get a lot of actions, which keeps the action economy a bit more balanced. Hypothetically.

Now, this rule is intended mostly for fighters, who will be able to zip across the whole battlefield or take down a group of mooks or strafe around a monster, throw up some dust to get advantage on an attack and then decapitate it, all in a single round once they get a few levels under their belt. But what about wizards? Two options, really.

Option one, which I like better: Wizards get only a single action per round, but their spells get progressively more powerful with HD - spell power should scale fast enough to keep up with fighters' endless barrage of actions. Dominions might be a good measure of spell power - by spell level 4, there are spells to conjure a fortress, call meteors, buff a whole army or blot out the Sun.

Option two: Wizards get just as many actions as fighters, but spell casting now takes a number of actions equal to the level of the spell. High level spells should once again be appropriately more powerful to still be worth casting when you can throw out six first level spells at once at HD 6. Yes, the wizard can also throw out six attacks per round. Either let them (this is anime, after all), and/or make them really bad with weapons skills.

In either case, casting spells is effectively slower than swinging a sword, which nicely preserves the common trope of fighters protecting wizards until they can finish their incantation and demolish the opposition.

This obviously completely reshapes the way that combat plays out and while I have tried it out slightly in a solo game, I have not attempted to put together a comprehensive and balanced rules document. However, this nicely boosts fighters and at least for me captures the anime feeling of fighting an absolutely overwhelming threat, whether it is your first level party struggling against a single ogre who suddenly has four actions per round, or when a superhero-levelled fighter drops a squad of enemies before they can even act at all.

1 December 2024

The Three Tombs of Words

There are three Great Books, artifacts of prodigious power that are hidden and protected in three corners of the world. Each one is capable of changing the world.

Book of Void by AppleSin

The Book of Names

The book contains the three names of every being that lives, lived and will live.

Given name is the first name that a creature was ever granted or referred to with. It holds a mystical significance in many rituals. Especially magic users are careful to keep their given name a secret, while devils and the Folk will gleefully buy them.
Taken names are any names, nicknames or titles that a creature is/has/will use, no matter how obscure.
True name is the cornerstone of one's identity, the true self. Mastering one's true name unlocks great power, but if anyone else finds one's true name, they gain power over them.

Not only can the Book be used to learn the names of any being, it can also be used to erase names. When a given or taken name is erased, it fades from the memories of the whole world. All deeds and misdeeds will be forgotten. But when a true name is erased, that person's identity will fade. They will, slowly and torturously, become a Blank, a being without history, purpose or fate. An unperson.

The Book is located in a great underground library in the Steel Mountains. A lost dwarven dynasty had dug deep halls into the mountains and filled them with endless knowledge in the form of books and scrolls and tablets from all over the world. The dwarves have mostly disappeared, but the scholars they invited to their library remain. And deep within the library, hundreds of floors below where any normal scholar dares to delve, where the books cease and only endless wards and traps and guardian golems are present, is a vault of curse-rock holding the Book of Names.

The Book of Years

The book contains the whole of the past, the present and the future of the world. It can all be changed. A change in the future becomes a prophecy, a fixed point in time that will come to pass. But changing the present or the past is more complicated. The minds of people are rarely completely changed, and many historical events have a lot of inertia, so things will happen similarly anyway. But if the change is large enough, a bit of the world might change without the rest of the world following suit, resulting in paradoxes like ancient civilisations who were always there but no one remembers, or an event that everyone remembers but there are no physical signs of it, or people who have no parents, etc.

The book is found in a small shrine in a beautiful oasis deep within Utabi, the Red Desert. A magic circle around the oasis displaces it to infinity, making any journey to the oasis impossible.

The Book of Laws

The book contains all the Laws of the universe, physical and metaphysical. Rewriting it can fundamentally change the world, or destroy it with a single stroke of a quill.

The book is said to be protected by a whole pantheon of forgotten gods somewhere in the sunken continent of Kal Cher. Maybe.

How do you actually use these books in your game? You don't, or at least not the whole books, unless you wish to destroy the setting. But a single page, somehow stolen and lost?

d6 Book Hooks

The old king is dead and his heir is about to be crowned. The heir is the last one of the dynasty, the only royal remaining in the country... Wait, but what about all the cities that had been ruled by... nobody for years? And the statues that depict people no one remembers? And who is this guy in lavish clothes, begging you to help him, because he doesn't know who he is and why does he have this signet ring?
A single page from the Book of Names is available at the next Black Auction. It contains true names of the four most powerful gods of this continent, among others.
The Loyalists have been running the kingdom ever since the unsuccessful uprising. The Rebels have ~~fought~~ failed to ensure prosperity for all, but there is still a long way to go before the rightful powers could even begin to be threatened by the Rebel scum.
A rumour about a "scroll of prophecy", in fact a page from the Book of Years, sends every faction into a deadly race to find it first and write their own bright future.
A lich is looking for a scrap of paper that apparently contains one clause of the Laws of Magic. She wants to change them to suit her whims.
A benefactor of the party has fallen into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that claim that a Law has been recently rewritten and reality was changed. Why? By whom? And while some of the conspirators want to change everything back as it was before, a growing portion of them want to keep the changed Law...

2 November 2024

GLOG: Wizard Chassis

Mere six years after I've started with the list of wizard schools, I have finally put together magic rules and a wizard chassis that I am rather content with. Enjoy!

All of these are (or should be) wizards.
From here.

The Rules of Magic

Spells are spirits, kindred to demons, souls or fairies. The runes and diagrams in a spellbook, the incantations memorised by a wizard, or the engravings on an enchanted item - these are just bindings for the spell-spirit and ways to control it.

When you cast a spell, you empower it with raw magical energy to manifest itself into the world. Raw magic released without a spell to refine and define it produces chaotic, dangerous effects and generates octarine light. Concentrated raw magic has a tendency to explode unless stabilised into occultum - an extremely valuable substance that still has a tendency to explode, but slightly less so. It can also power great workings of magic.

Minor spells, called cantrips, infest a wizard’s soul and bind to it. They are like spiritual parasites. Unlike true spells, they can be used at will with no incantation or gesture, but cannot be learned or exchanged.

The above is what wizards believe about magic, though it might very well be wildly inaccurate. Wizards train in meditation and other, stranger techniques, modifying their own minds to make them more accommodating and alluring to spirits. A wizard's mind is a dangerous place - a menagerie of cantrips, spells and raw magic. For every ten students who enter an apprenticeship, only three emerge alive and ~~sane~~ technically not insane.

Spellcasting

Spells need magical gestures and an incantation to be invoked. Thus you must be able to speak and either have a hand free, or wield an implement (wand or staff). You cannot use a two-handed weapon in the same round you wish to cast.

Magic Dice

Raw magical energy you possess is represented by Magic Dice (MD). These are d6 and you normally get them from Wizard class templates. When casting in a place of power (ancient circle of stones, top of a wizard tower, near a ley line), step up your MD to d8, but beware of instability.

When you cast a spell, choose how many MD to invest into it. The results depend on the number of [dice], their [sum] and sometimes the [best] roll. Armour penalty decreases [sum] per each MD, applied after Mishaps and Dooms are assessed. Any spell with [sum] reduced to 0 fizzles.

Armour penalty (AP) is equal to 1/2/3 for light or shield/medium/heavy armour.

Any invested MD that shows 4+ is spent, otherwise you can use it again. When an effect says that a MD is burnt, it is automatically spent, no matter what it rolls. All spent MD are regained when you get a good night’s rest. Spells just return to their receptacle once cast and can be used as long as you have MD.

Magic is fickle and dangerous even to a well-learned mage. Rolling a double on your MD causes a Mishap (bad), while a triple leads to Doom (very bad). Still resolve the spell as normal, if possible.

Saoirse is decked out for a skirmish rather than spell-casting, with leather armour and a shield (AP 2), but she tries to heal her friend anyway. She casts with 2 MD, rolling 3, 3. This is a Mishap, but the spell still works, if weakened: [sum] = 3 + 3 + 2 × (-2) = 2. At least the friend survives.

Concentration

When you are distracted, or attempt to cast a spell subtly, with no incantation or gesture, your spell may fizzle. You can be distracted:

By taking damage from an attack of opportunity or when casting from a spellbook as a full-round action, unless you don’t feel pain.
When drugged, drunk, very sick, in agony, or on fire.
While swimming, grappling, or falling to your death.

Make an Intelligence/Concentration check. On success, the spell goes off as intended. On failure, the spell fizzles, but still roll the MD - some may be spent, and Mishaps or Dooms may still happen.

Overchanneling & Corruption

Your MD represent the amount of power you can relatively safely channel, but if you need more power, you can overchannel. Use any number of extra MD that work normally, except that they are always spent. Afterwards, gain the same number of Corruption Dice (CD). These represent the spiritual wounds on your soul where it burned from too much magic. They can be seen with supernatural sight as black, shifting scars on your aura.

All CD are rolled every time you use magic. They do not count towards [sum] and [dice], but do count towards Mishaps and Dooms. CD can only be removed with long ritual cleansing during downtime in Town.

Mishaps

Magic is inherently unstable. Mishaps happen when you roll a double on MD when casting a spell. Reference the doubled number on this table:

#	Mishap Effect
1	The spell fizzles with no effect. Embarrassing.
2	You can't remember how to do language or magic for 1d6 rounds.
3	Spend the next round screaming in pain, or take exploding 1d6 damage.
4	You mutate for 1d6 rounds, then make a Save. Permanent if you fail.
5	Your spell mutates, permanently.
6	A burst of wild magic does... some thing.
7+	You explode, dealing [sum]+[dice] damage to everything nearby. You are quite dead, but then again you must have been tinkering with your MD, so that's on you.

Some wizarding traditions may have specialised mishap tables instead.

Dooms

Magic is inherently dangerous, even ruinous. When you roll a triple (or more) on MD, gain a Doom specific to your wizarding tradition. Dooms are gained in order: the first is a warning, the second is a hindrance, the third and final Doom will kill or ruin you, unless you can escape it via a quest. Should you survive your final Doom, all your future Dooms will instead be Mishaps.

You could also refrain from casting spells with more than 2 MD. But who would do something boring like that?

Counterspell

All spells can be countered by their opposite. As a reaction when you know a spell is being cast, you may attempt to disrupt it with your own spell. Cast a memorised spell, but instead of its normal effect, decrease the [sum] of the countered enemy spell by your [sum]. If their [sum] reaches 0, the enemy spell dissipates with no effect, otherwise it goes off with the lowered [sum]. Note that [dice] are unaffected unless the spell was countered completely.

Elements have obvious opposites (fire vs water or ice, lightning vs earth, healing vs necrotic), but you can counter other effects, too, if your GM agrees. For example, perhaps hold person counters teleport, fear might negate charm, stoneskin might disrupt flesh to stone, etc.

The Language of Magic

In the time before time, the Laws of Magic were chiselled into the very fabric of Reality by the primeval powers that be. Scholars call the language in which the Laws were written High Arkanum or Venderant Nalaberong. That language is now long-lost and nigh forgotten. Only a few syllables remain known - the Words of Power that archmages and gods treasure above all.

Low Arkanum is the common language of magic, likely derived from Venderant Nalaberong but retaining next to nothing from its potency. Still, it is the only language capable of properly binding spirits and channelling magical energies, so all scrolls, spellbooks, magic circles and most magic items world-wide use it. If a wizard does not know Low Arkanum, they cannot use a spellbook, though they can still cast spells they know and gain new spells from another wizard. Note that incantations and trigger phrases are often in a different language, to make using the magic item easier for the intended and harder for a non-intended user.

Spellbook & Memory

As spirits, spells cannot be (easily) copied, only moved. With an hour of meditation, you can move spells as you like between any receptacles you possess - your brain, spellbooks, wands, scrolls. Casting a spell requires that it is prepared within your brain (an action), or in another receptacle at hand (a full-round action).

You have [Intelligence + magic-using templates] Memory Slots to hold spells in your brain, while a spellbook takes up 1 Inventory Slot and may contain up to 10 spells.

Scrolls & Wands

Scrolls are parchments with rune arrays and diagrams drawn in expensive inks that can hold a spell and 1 MD to cast it with. While scrolls are also drawn up in the language of magic, their trigger incantation can be read by any literate person to use the spell within, burning up the scroll.

A wizard with Leyline Lore may use their own MD instead, preserving the scroll and the spell within. They may also move the spell out of the scroll, the same way as from any receptacle, which results in an empty scroll. Draining the MD from a scroll is not possible, but empty, energised $crolls are used as a form of currency by some magi.

Wands are like an even more expensive scroll which isn’t destroyed when used. Any creature with magic can burn a MD to charge a wand, but depending on its materials, each wand has a limit to the MD it can hold.

Staff

Wizards often carry staves which serve as a focus for channelling magic and to poke at strange, glowing things. As a wizard, you may create your own staff. You will need some special wood and other materials, plus about a week of work, and may then roll or choose a staff on the table below. Or you can buy a staff, which is quite expensive and humiliating.

d12	Staff	Effect
1	Cascade	When you roll a Mishap, add +6 to [sum].
2	Chanter's	If you spend a full round loudly chanting, add +2 to [sum].
3	Flux	Retain MD on 1-4.
4	Fulminant	Every MD that rolled 6 adds +1 MD to the spell.
5	Ley	If you roll a Mishap of 7+, instead refresh all MD.
6	Maledict	All CD rolls add to [sum] and [dice].
7	Power	Set any MD to 6, but burn all MD used in the spell.
8	Resonant	Add +1 MD if you, the player, can say an incantation in rhyme.
9	Safety	Set any one MD to 1.
10	Spellburn	Reroll any MD, but burn it.
11	Vancian	Add +1 MD, but the spell cannot be used again until you rest.
12	Warding	Gain +1 to all Saves for every unspent MD.

Pointy Hat

Every self-respecting chartered wizard has a tall, pointy hat. Only members of the Mage Guild who have passed the Candle Test may legally wear a wizard hat, so people will presume you to be one if you wear such a hat. The Mage Guild takes very unkindly to impersonators.

A pointy hat fills 1 Inventory Slot and can be destroyed (describe how) to add +1d6 to any Save.

Tingling Tongue

All magical things taste weird. A good lick will always tell if something (someone?) is magical or mundane, though probably not its properties.

Tasting a potion will never kill you and will give a hint to its effect.

I Need More Power

Each of the following can grant you permanent +1 MD, once.

Wear exquisite robes (worth at least 100 gp) and no armour.

Steal the staff of an archmage or a fairy godmother's wand.

Eat or marry a powerful creature of magic.

Learn your True Name.

Devour god-flesh.

Bind another wizard's soul.

Willing possession by a demon.

Deal with a Devil, the Fair Folk, or an Outer Thing.

Start a cult that will feed you power through sacrifices.

Drink directly from a ley line or a pure elemental force.*

Consume an energy field larger than your head.*

Replace all your blood with a more potent fluid.*

Tattoo your whole body with magic runes.

Implant magic knucklebones.

Inject liquid occultum.*

Experience other dimensions.

Do all the drugs you can find at once.

Make a pact with a spirit to be your familiar.

Control a tower, a dungeon, or other demesne.

Learn the secrets of life and death to transcend mortality.

*) Without exploding, of course.

Rituals and Workings

There are other forms of magic and other ways of using it than just spellcasting. Rituals, borrowed power and inherent talent can all be used for magical workings, but their rules will have to wait for a future post.

This remains the single best depiction of what it means to be a wizard, ever.
We are not taking the wizard by Matt Rhodes Art

Class: Wizard

“The only difference between wizardhood and godhood is a good night’s sleep.”
Andreas Alazar, archmage

“I have become omnip-” KABOOM
Andreas Alazar, last words

Wizards are… well, weird. They are the kind of people who would find an alien soul parasite which can control fire and decide that they want it in their mind. Who would not want to control fire at the cost of their sanity?

Wizards are what you get when you replace every ounce of common sense with child-like curiosity and every last scrap of self-preservation with hunger for more power.

Wizards are the worst. Every undead or chimaera or other abomination of nature, every rain of frogs or acid, every cursed pair of slippers has a wizard behind it who had decided that it was a good idea. Wizards have a surprisingly hard time telling apart good and BAD BAD BAD WHY WOULD YOU EVER EVEN THINK ABOUT IT ideas.

Once upon a time, the plural of wizard was war.

Quest: per Wizarding Tradition

Languages: choose one option from

literacy, the language of magic and one other language, or
any three languages.

Items: simple robe, spellbook, ink & quill, plus per Wizarding Tradition

Skills: per Wizarding Tradition

A: The Gift, Wizarding Tradition, 2 Spells, +1 MD

B: Leyline Lore, Unshaped Expression, 1 Spell, +1 MD

C: Wizard Vision, 1 Spell, +1 MD

D: choose one of Signature Spell or Spell Ward, 4 Spells, +1 MD

The Gift

You can use magic. For every Wizard template you have, gain +1 MD.

Wizarding Tradition

Roll or choose a tradition that you are trained in. This gives you your spell list, cantrips, Perk and Flaw, and more.

You can still cast spells from outside your tradition, but you either have to cast them from a spellbook, or pay 100 XP the first time you memorise them.

Note that “Wizard” is your class; the traditions are an archetype within that class. Thus you cannot multiclass to take two traditions - you would still be a wizard. If you want different spells, find or buy them, but that doesn't change your wizarding tradition. Your Perk, Flaw and cantrips are stuck with you unless you take some drastic measures.

Spells

Every wizarding tradition has a list of (usually) twelve spells such wizards are trained in - 6 Basic spells, 4 Advanced spells and 2 Emblem spells. You will learn these spells as you gain templates. At each template, you:

A: Roll one (d6) and choose one Basic spell.
B: Roll one (d8) Basic or Advanced spell.
C: Roll one (d10) Basic or Advanced spell.
D: Choose any four spells from your tradition’s list.

Leyline Lore

With a touch, you may transfer MD to and from other willing magic-users or some magic items. This may not exceed anyone's normal limit of MD.

You can hear nearby ley lines and other places of power as a faint tingling.

Unshaped Expression

You can bodge together a spell-like effect appropriate to your tradition by pouring any number of MD into a target and hoping for the best. Describe what you are trying to do, but exact effects are adjudicated by the GM and are usually haphazard and dangerous. Mishaps and Dooms apply.

Wizard Vision

With concentration, you can see enchantments and invisible things as a faint lensing of light and can tell roughly how big they are. By making eye contact with someone, you can tell if they are possessed, undead, ensorcelled, or a spellcaster.

Signature Spell

You have trained a spell so well it became a part of your very self.

Choose one spell from your tradition that you know. That spell is always prepared in your brain without taking up a Memory Slot. That spell never triggers Mishaps and Dooms.

Spell Ward

Reduce [sum] of all harmful magics targeting you by 2. Once per session, shatter a spell that targets you. This does not apply to the effects of Mishaps and Dooms.

Sourcery by Marc Simonetti

26 February 2024

The Many Schools of Magic

The Manse has recently published a very nice rant on categorisation of magic where they discuss several approaches to the classification of spells and derive their own schools of magic, a neat and clean system of seven traditions with a rigorous naming convention. But there's a fallacy in this approach, I venture. It's tempting to create a well-defined, all-encompassing set of categories and just use them for everything. I will freely admit to doing just that many a time. But real-world systems are rarely if ever neat. There's always something off, missing or superfluous. New findings undoing the symmetry of old theories, things that do not fit into known patterns, weird edge cases that could go either way, someone who made a mistake a century ago and now it would be too costly to fix it. Classification is a human invention and humans are imperfect.

If the classification of magic is to be used in-universe, I think a different approach is needed. Embrace this imperfection, build on it. Explain it, so that it stops being an irritant and becomes a piece of lore.

Also, why should there be only a single classification?

The Imperial Collegium recognises eight schools of magic:

Abjuration
Conjuration
Divination
Enchantment
Evocation
Illusion
Restoration
Transmutation

Restoration is a very recent addition, founded and still led by Archmage Hasenbach, whose groundbreaking research into positive energy allowed any mage to wield the healing arts that a generation ago would be the sole purview of the divine. Any naysayers who point out that white magic is quite common outside of the Imperium are usually booed out by Hasenbach's near-fanatical followers.

Necromancy used to be a recognised school for centuries, but also illegal for most of the time. After decades of academic misuse, where every spell deemed inappropriate would be labelled as necromantic, and after increasingly pointed inquiries from the Inquisition about why exactly does the Collegium keep a library wing dedicated to illegal magic, Necromancy was officially struck from the Rolls of Magic in the year 769 of the Three United.

One might also wonder about Enchantment and Illusion, the two odd schools out. There used to be a single school of Prestidigitation, but a falling-out between two archmages about three centuries ago led to a schism that created two new, closely related yet highly quarrelsome schools. It is a public secret that whether a spell is an enchantment or an illusion depends entirely on who publishes the paper first.

Foreigners are sometimes confused that the school of Enchantment works with mind-trickery rather than creation of enchanted items. Well, there used to be a school of Imbrication dedicated to crafting enchanted items, but it was officially disbanded in the wake of the Dwarven Trade War.

In Nymbia, magic is colour-coded:

White Wizards are the only sanctioned practitioners. They deal in healing, protection and exorcism. Some tower-cabals can get quite militant about their exorcisms, training squads of professional undead hunters, though this get rarer the further one gets away from the Dead Lands.
Grey Wizards are a wide assortment of hedge practitioners who hold very disparate secrets, from wood-singing and fate-reading to teleportation and unmaking. They are not allowed to own a tower, so a grey practice rarely has more than a single master and one or two apprentices.
Black Wizards are practitioners of the dark arts, which is a nebulous set of practices that include necromancers and biomancers, but also telepaths, mindcrafters and most alchemists. They are outlawed everywhere but in Alema.
"Red Wizards", or rather Pyromancers, as they actually call themselves, are foreign to Nymbia, coming from the Great Swamp. Their magic is very limited and narrow in scope, but all the more powerful for it. So powerful in fact, that the authorities have not yet found a response to their increasingly common depredations. Hence also the reason why Black Wizards are now allowed to settle and openly practice in Alema, whose countryside suffers the most from the flame-makers' raids.

An island nation of Sik has an alternate colour scheme to their practitioners:

White Mages are healers, just as in Nymbia, but much less belligerent. They are widely recognised as the best surgeons on the continent, capable of cutting away ills of the body and the mind alike.
Blue Mages study weather control and ship magic. They can be quite potent war-casters, but their primary focus is binding the powers of the ocean and its storms for use in transportation and agriculture.
Silver Mages are spellwrights who specialise in charms - a type of talisman - and wards. While charms against insects, snakebite or the cold, glamour-charms to allure and impress, or any kind of dowsing-charm are sought-after export goods, the much more powerful wardstones that can protect a whole village from locusts or pirates are never sold outside of Sik.

The Mage Guild of Thorlan considers every spell to be an aspect of the four Great Elemental Dragons:

Air also covers everything related to swiftness, movement and communication.
Earth also deals with the Dead, as the Old Stone Serpent holds dominion over the dearly departed in Thorlan. Earth sages traditionally handle matters of inheritance and murder investigations.
Fire also deals with destruction, counter-spells, curses and high emotions.
Water also deals with knowledge, illusions, cleansing and low emotions.

24 February 2024

Hexploration Adventure Quickstart

If you prefer fantasy wilderness to post-apocalyptic wasteland, here are some starting tables for you.

Start with d6-1 rations, a backpack, blanket and waterskin, plus normal clothes.
Roll for a Weapon, Armour and Money.
Roll for a Background and get its items.
Roll for d3 other starting Useful Items.
Choose or roll d6/2 languages. Do not round, languages can be half-known.
If you'd like to have a class, you can roll here.

d12	Weapons	d8	Armour
1	Club	1	None
2	d2 Knives	2-4	Light
3	Staff	5-6	Medium
4	Axe	7	Heavy
5	Sword	8	Shield and roll again
6	Shortbow & d6 ammo	d6	Money
7	Spear	1	Ring worth d100 silver coins
8	Warhammer	2	d4 silver coins
9	Battle-axe	3	d6 x 10 silver
10	Flail	4	2d6 x 10 silver
11	Longbow & d6 ammo	5	2d8 x 10 silver
12	Zweihänder	6	d10 x 100 s in debt, roll again

d66	Backgrounds
11	Acolyte	random scroll	41	Jailer	manacles, club
12	Astrologer	star chart, spyglass	42	Juggler	d4 torches and knives
13	Barber-Surgeon	razor, soap	43	Linkboy	lantern, oil for 8 hours
14	Blacksmith	hammer, tongs	44	Locksmith	d4 lockpicks
15	Butcher	big knife, big ham	45	Lumberjack	axe, firewood
16	Carpenter	hatchet, saw, drill	46	Mason	hammer, 3 iron spikes
21	Coachman	warm cloak, hat	51	Miner	pick-axe, lantern
22	Con Artist	fake jewellery	52	Minstrel	lute, perfume
23	Cook	bag of salt, wineskin	53	Prostitute	disguise kit
24	Drunkard	d6 bottles of booze	54	Sailor	rope (15 yds), booze
25	Farmer	flail, donkey	55	Scribe	paper, ink and quill
26	Fisherman	large net, d4 fish	56	Seamstress	needle and thread
31	Fur Trapper	snare, d4 pelts	61	Servant	stolen horse
32	Guard	spear, helmet	62	Smuggler	waterproof sack
33	Herder	(d3) goat/sheep/swine	63	Thief	random useful item
34	Houndsman	puppy, whip	64	Trader	nice clothes
35	Hunter	shortbow, signal horn	65	Undertaker	shovel, gold teeth
36	Cheesemaker	wheel of cheese	66	Wet Nurse	loyal urchin

d66	Useful Items
11	Unmarked package*	41	Tent & bedroll (3 Slots)
12	Toolbelt with common tools	42	d2 Blankets
13	(d3) Pick-axe, shovel, crowbar	43	Warm travelling clothes
14	Metal file, d4 lockpicks	44	Musical instrument
15	Chain (3 yds) & padlock	45	Silver hand mirror
16	Grapnel & rope (15 yds)	46	Stolen signet ring
21	Pouch of caltrops	51	Small but vicious dog (HD 1)
22	Weighted net or Beartrap	52	(d4) Crow, falcon, owl, parrot
23	Waterproof bag	53	Mule & cart (carry 30 Slots)
24	Tinderbox, 2d4 torches	54	Random follower
25	Lantern, oil for d12 hours	55	Helmet or Shield
26	d4 Jars of black oil	56	d6 Javelins
31	Random potion	61	Favour owed by local VIP
32	d4 Healing salves or Bandages	62	Location of a secret hideout
33	Red salt or Bezoar (d4 doses)	63	Membership of secret society
34	Vials of glue, grease and acid	64	Extra background, no items
35	Bomb, (d2) smoke/shrapnel	65	Random tri nk et
36	Poisoner's ring with poison, (d4) lethal, sleep, paralysis, charm	66	Treasure map

*) Can contain any item you want that fits into 1 slot and is not too rare or expensive.

d66	How Do You Know Each Other?
11	From the same village	41	Idolise same famous figure
12	From the church	42	Looking for same item
13	From the tavern	43	Looking for same person
14	Childhood friends	44	Woke up in the same bed
15	Mutual friend	45	In a riot together
16	Respected rivals	46	Met on a boat
21	Saved people from a fire	51	Met on a funeral
22	Served in the army	52	Met on a wedding
23	Scammed by the same guy	53	Named in same inheritance
24	Servants to the same lord	54	Both have a rare disease
25	Stole a thing from the other	55	Both got mysterious letter
26	Same horrible fashion sense	56	Shared embarrassing secret
31	Defenders in a siege	61	Mentor/student
32	Plague lockdown survivors	62	Prison cell mates
33	Last members of a cult	63	Roommates
34	Had the same lover	64	Pen pals
35	(Ex-)Lovers	65	Related
36	Former coworkers	66	Will open a pub together

You wake up in the middle of an uncharted wilderness. Good luck.

22 February 2024

Critical Spells!

Warlocks in Encounter Critical can cast one spell per day per level. This is not the only magic they wield and it is a rather limited amount even on higher levels. That seem to point towards spells being the specialist tools and big guns, something that changes the situation rather than yet another magic blast - that's what the Magical Attack skill is for, after all. The booklet presents a few spells, but here is my expansion and reinterpretation of them into a set of game-changers.

If you're unsure about range, duration or effect, think "more, longer, fancier". Warriors of EC should be riding a tyrannosaurus while wielding a light sabre in one hand and a rocket launcher in the other, so Warlocks should be comparably awesome when casting their spells. At least in my Encounter Critical.

Encounter Critical fanart, I think.

d20 Warlock Spells

Evil Eye: The warlock curses an enemy (such as making its weapon explode or its eyes rot away) if it fails a Psi Resist roll. One of the warlock's eyes is permanently strange-looking once he learns this spell.
Battle Banner Imperative: The warlock's side will go first in every round of combat and retainers cannot fail morale or defy orders.
Stop: Freeze one creature or object in place, even in mid-air. No saving throw is allowed. The spell lasts until the Warlock casts another spell, or until the victim is attacked – though that first attack always hits.
Double: Create a copy of one creature or object, which will last until the next dawn. When the duration ends, a random one of the twin things disappears.
Demon Master: Gain control of one demon, no save. Must be recast every day.
Possess: The warlock dissolves into smoke and flows into another creature. They can control it completely until it takes damage.
Mimic Special Ability: One special ability of a creature or object can be copied and used as a spell by the warlock. Only one ability can be copied at a time – if this spell is cast again, the warlock loses the older stolen ability.
Phantasmic Projections: Creates completely realistic, albeit intangible, illusions. This includes sounds, smells and animated illusions.
Tesseract: The warlock teleports somewhere they can see. This can be cast in an instant, even to dodge any danger.
Transportal: Two magic circles prepared by the warlock in advance are linked by a portal. The portal lasts until dismissed or until the warlock casts this spell again.
Transmogrify: The warlock can transform himself into any creature from which he owns a trophy.
Walk on Water or Wind: Wears off when the warlock touches the ground.
Ice Sculpt: Form any object or structure out of ice. It lasts until the warlock casts this spell again, even in heat.
Matter to Mist: Dissolves one object into mist and then condenses it into a tiny crystal. When the crystal is broken, mist billows out and the object is reconstituted.
Shape Earth, Wood or Flesh: Material can be slowly moulded into any shape desired.
Phasic Sphere: The warlock activates a previously prepared magic circle, creating a softly glowing but transparent sphere of force. Nothing can pass through the sphere – not creatures, missiles, magic, psionics, phasics, teleportation nor air. It lasts until dismissed, or until the warlock casts this spell again.
God Speech: The warlock can speak with anything.
Darkstorm: Sudden thunderstorm brings bad visibility, strong winds and torrential rain.
Rain of Fire and Brimstone: Flames start raining from the sky, dealing the warlock's magic damage to everyone not under a roof (and to the roof, too).
Warlock Bomb: The warlock conjures an orb that will explode violently (3d20 damage in close range and half that in short range) when shattered. Can be cast with a delayed timer or a special trigger. The explosion can easily breach walls.

20 February 2024

The Indebted

Gibborim
Sigurd, Fighter A
STR 6, DEX 3, VIT 7, PRE 5, AWA 7, WIL 5

Atk: battle-axe

Def: chain, helmet

Background: miner

Interesting items:

Pick-axe
Unmarked package
Jars of black oil, x4
600 silver in debt

Languages: Sigurde

Elwyn

Amazon, Ranger A

STR 5, DEX 6, VIT 4, PRE 5, AWA 4, WIL 5

Atk: spear, longbow

Def: leather, helmet

Background: fur trapper, educated, tinkerer

Interesting items:

Map case
Parchment, ink & quill
Lock picks
Pouch of caltrops
300 silver in debt

Languages: Amazon, Sigurde, Tradertalk, a bit of Demi-human dialects, literate

Haesiri

Sigurd, Fighter A

STR 5, DEX 4, VIT 3, PRE 5, AWA 3, WIL 9

Atk: iron-shod staff

Background: drunkard

Interesting items:

Booze
Rope
400 silver in debt

Languages: Sigurde, Tradertalk, Demi-human dialects

Parvana

Dendrassi, Sorceress A

STR 9, DEX 6, VIT 7, PRE 6, AWA 5, WIL 8

Atk: axe

Background: Arrived as the only passenger on a derelict, rotting ship. If the whole party dies, you somehow survive but lose everything you are wearing and carrying.

Interesting items:

Demon mask of painted wood
Map of a remote island
Location of a secret hideout
900 silver in debt

Languages: Dendrassi, Tradertalk

18 February 2024

Week 7: Temple Raid

The Rogues had a week of downtime to come to terms with their loss and they are ready to travel once again. Their goal has not changed - get to the shadow temple and rob it of its riches. They still have Deryn the cart-driver and two footwomen, Gwen and Bronwyn, with them, plus Brenna and Maera have spent the week honing their abilities, perhaps to dull the heartbreak. Additionally, Yt the last surviving ragwretch from the altercation with the owlbears has decided to join them as a guide and companion.

Feb 12, Monday; Cold & cloudy

Yt leads us all straight north from the ragwretch village, down from the hills and into a thick forest that he can nonetheless navigate without any trouble. (#4.19) We passed by a tumbled-down temple where a group of ragwretches was just butchering a corpse of some equine creature, but they only waved at Yt as we passed by them. According to him, that is a temple of Ís, the village's god of wine, and the seat of their priestess-queen.
By noon, we were deep in the forest (#3.19, #2.19) where we arrived to the banks of a large river. Yt informed us that it's called Water-that-Leaps and it will guide us to the mountains where the temple we seek is. Going against the stream, we soon got to a ford (#2.18) and crossed the river, then continued west into a valley (#2.17) carved into the quickly approaching mountains.
Dusk was upon us, but Yt insisted on going a bit further. As it turned out, the road we took into the mountains came to an abrupt end at the foot of a massive cliff, from which the river dove in a beautiful waterfall. Yt showed us a sheltered campsite where we can hide our cart. Tomorrow we will have to leave it here and climb a goat path to the higher reaches of the mountains.
We were lucky that our camp is well-hidden. Just as we were about to go to sleep, Nissa noticed a group of hunched humanoids clutching primitive weapons scurry along the river downhill into the forest. They didn't notice us at all.

new hexes traversed = 50 xp
features found = 150 xp

Feb 13, Tuesday; Cold winds, morning star

We leave our hirelings to guard the camp and climb up into the mountains. (#1.16, #1.17) The footpaths that Yt knows are winding and treacherous, plus we have to avoid a small group of big beetles munching on different big insects, but as dusk approaches, we catch the first glimpse of the shadow temple. It is still a few hours away, but tomorrow, we will be there.
The night is uneventful, but the starry sky this high in the mountains is beyond beautiful.

new hexes traversed = 20 xp

Feb 14, Wednesday; Cold rain

We were awoken by the sounds of an endless downpour. But alas, we have to brave it anyway. Sometimes I wonder how adventuring in a desert would be, where there's no rain to drench you nor snow to make your toes purple.
Anyway, we made our way across the deep valley towards the shadow temple. Everyone was rather sombre - both because of the weather and because we are getting close enough that running into a patrol is an increasingly likely possibility. Thus we've made sure to pick our path through wealds and shrubbery where we cannot be easily spotted.
Instead of a patrol of Feather-and-Claw people, though, we have happened upon winged, leonine creatures taking apart some nightmare spawn.

2x Manticore
4x Nightmare Spawn

The spawn seemed in pretty bad shape by the time we saw the fighting, the two manticores circling in the sky above and slowly taking them apart with spike shots. They were all too invested to notice our little group.

First spawn soon collapsed, pin-cushioned by spikes, and the other were already bleeding, too. Yet they seemed more enraged than daunted. They tore great boulders and smaller trees out of the ground and threw them up at the manticores. The smaller one was just a smidgen too slow and a boulder clipped its wing, sending it plummeting to the ground. The larger manticore cried out in anguished wrath and dove at the wounded spawn. It died clawing and biting at the spawn.
During this whole ordeal, we stayed hidden and we kept hiding for at least another hour as the spawn collected their fallen kin and eventually left. Only then did we climb out of the bushes and went to investigate the two manticore corpses that were left behind. We cut off their tails, still bearing quite a few of the strange iron spikes.
It was already past nightfall, so we quickly found a passable sleeping place and set camp for tonight. We have found more signs of monstrous activity in these parts of the mountains, but luckily nobody bothered our little campsite.

Feb 15, Thursday; Cold & cloudy

We woke up early, intending to spend the day scoping out the temple and any forces guarding it. We split into two groups, Maera with Yt and Brenna with Nissa, and off we went.
We have quickly discovered an unfortunate turn of events - the temple was on high alert, guards posted to overlook every access path. Brenna and Nissa even found some of their patrol paths, though thankfully we haven't run into any of the patrols. We reconvened in the evening and shared our troublesome findings. This changes things. We all thought we could rob the Feather-and-Claw people blind, but this is now frankly out of the question.
We have enough provisions for a few days yet, so we might as well wait at least one more day to see if providence doesn't smile our way, but it would seem that this venture was after all the troubles a resounding fiasco.

Providence struck just after midnight. Maera was keeping watch and woke us all, pointing at the sky with a trembling finger. Two great shapes were locked there in a deadly dance, fire and darkness crossing the night sky. Was it the great dragon we have found sleeping a fortnight ago? Was it the horrid corvid-beast we have seen slaughtering citizens of Eklo?
We were frozen in awe and fright until suddenly, a blast of darkness took the dragon square in the chest and it plummeted from the sky. The other beast flew back to the temple, but it was obviously hurt.

... Interesting.

Feb 16, Friday; Icy & cloudy

We split up again. Brenna and Nissa will go to watch the temple and its happenings again, while Maera with Yt will check out the place where the dragon presumably met its demise.

The temple was quiet and well guarded, just as yesterday, and Brenna and Nissa were getting rather frustrated that this was clearly going absolutely nowhere. Then, a dragon swooped in from the clouds.

Dragon of Cinders
5x Feather-and-Claw cultist

It tore through a group of Feather-and-Claw guards and then tore open the temple gate. Screams started to be heard as it barged inside.

"...What?" Brenna said.

"Maybe it's a spouse of that other dragon from yesterday?" Nissa ventured.

"You know what? I don't really care. Let's go find Mae and hide and never stick our heads out again."

Maera and Yt had reached the other dragon's corpse in the meantime. There were tracks that suggested it was already checked upon by the cultists, but no one was around at the moment. This would be a trove of magical materials if they had the time to properly butcher it, but they will probably not have such luck. Maera at least went to pry some teeth out of the dragon's mouth while Yt stood watch.

She managed to get six by the time that Brenna and Nissa found them. After a bit of disjointed explanation, they all decided to withdraw into the forest - and not too soon, as before long the second dragon rose up above the now smoking temple and made for the very corpse they have just been desecrating. Watching from a hopefully safe distance, they saw the weary but mostly uninjured dragon land by its dead kin. In its mouth, it brought a massive corvid head - the head of that monstrous creature that served (or was served by?) the Feather-and-Claw cultists.

It laid the head by the dead dragon and for a few long minutes seemed lost in thoughts. Then it spread its wings and breathed out a column of brilliant flames, torching the corpse and the corvid head.

There were tears in Nissa's eyes.

"Are you actually feeling for that monster?" Maera whispered.

"I was," Nissa sniffed, "thinking about how much we could've gotten for that corpse."

The dragon stood watch over the pyre and the party sneaked away. Smoke was rising from the direction of the temple, a sure sign of the dragon's wrath, but Maera urged that they should still check it out.

"Beat the iron while it's hot, y'know? That dragon probably killed every last damned thing in there and the ziggurat itself didn't look all that flammable. It will probably be left standing, which means we can go a-looting."

"We don't know if everyone is dead and we don't have enough food left to stay about and wait for them to come out," Brenna doubted.

"I have seen a secret entrance," Nissa said.

"What?" Brenna said.

"In the base of the ziggurat. When the dragon attacked, a few cultists slipped out of there."

"Why haven't you mentioned anything?!"

"Things were happening. It wasn't important at the moment."

"Well, you could've told me as we walked!"

"Could've, should've! I'm telling you now. We can go right into the guts of the temple, steal what hasn't burned yet."

"I'm in but I'm also mad at you," Brenna said, "just so we're clear."

"I'm in as long as you stop bickering and concentrate on not getting killed," Maera said.

Yt just nodded.

And thus we went. We crawled through the bushes back towards the temple and it was indeed on fire. There were some cultists about, but they were mostly dragging people and paraphernalia out of the ziggurat, paying little attention to us as we carefully circled to the hidden back entrance. There Nissa showed us where she had seen the secret door.

Maera took out her toolkit and after a little bit of tinkering pushed at a mechanism deep between two stone blocks, which made one of the blocks slide inside and reveal a narrow corridor.

"Ladies first," Maera motioned towards Nissa.

"Funny that you only noticed now," Nissa glowered but went inside.

From the dark but short corridor, she emerged into a large, barely lit hall and the rest of the party followed. The room was half-filled with crates, barrels and boxes - mostly food, as Yt discovered. However, Brenna also opened a small box that turned out to be full of jewellery. This prompted everyone to search the room more properly, revealing a pouch with several hundred silver coins in a chest of clothes.

Enheartened, we went on. Listening behind the single door out of this room let us know that a lot of people are running about this place, but none too close. We crept down the corridor, trying doors to see which were unlocked. There was a kitchen and a common room with nothing much in them, a locked door, and then a room in which a statue of black iron was lifting a massive crate. With a metallic creak, it fixed its gaze on us.

1x Living Statue of Black Iron

We jumped it before it could let go of its load. Though its hide of iron was barely dented by Maera's blow, the others have slipped behind the construct and their blades found its joints, prying open the cracks where its limbs moved.

It threw a crate at Maera, but she deftly dodged and the box shattered on the ground. A swipe of the statue's talon, however, took Yt in the chest, leaving several shallow cuts behind. But it left itself wide open and Maera bashed in its sculpted beak with her hammer.

"So..." Brenna said, "my sword is busted." She was holding just the pommel now, the blade mostly shattered.

"My sword's fine!" Nissa beamed.

"Yes, we all know you have an enchanted sword. Shut up about it already!"

There was unfortunately nothing interesting in the statue's crate, so we moved on promptly. We swiftly scanned a few more empty rooms, all obviously vacated in a hurry, and had to hide a few times from cultists running down the corridor carrying various knick-knacks.

Then we found the first room bearing the signs of the dragon's rampage - one wall was crumpled and a massive hole was melted into the floor, coating everything in the room in soot. Maera carefully edged in, but then Brenna called out a warning.

1x Carcass Crawler

From a pile of slaughtered cultists smouldering by the collapsed wall, an insectoid shape rose and readied itself to jump at Maera, but several well-placed shots by Brenna and Yt saw it fall down into the hole.

"Thanks."

"Not a problem," Brenna said. "But we have a dilemma here, I think. The dragon clearly went down there, probably for a reason. There might be something interesting to appropriate, yet it will require that we abseil down a scary hole in the ground. I have rope, but I'd like to hear your thoughts, first."

"My sword-" Nissa started.

"If you say it's enchanted," Brenna grit her teeth, "I swear to all gods you will be the first down that hole!"

"It's enchanted and allows me to throw my sight, kinda. Like into that hole, so that I can safely see what's there, so suck it, Brenna."

And so we tried that, until Nissa started to look uncomfortable, gripping her gleaming sword with closed eyes and fidgeting.

"So... I may have figured something out. It appears that I can only throw my sight upwards, not downwards."

"Oh, really?" Brenna grinned.

Before more could be said, Yt interjected: "We throw torch down the hole and see, yes?"

And so we tried that. There was a cavernous hollow one floor below us, with some sort of a pool in it. By vote, three against one, Nissa was chosen to go down and have a look, and Yt volunteered to accompany her. Brenna and Maera were to remain up in the half-collapsed room to protect the rope. They climbed down into the cave and got only somewhat frightened by the sight of a massive black-feathered body. Half of it was charred down to bones and it had no head.

"I've heard you screaming like a little girl, Nissa!"

"Fuck off, Brenna! Hey, there's something in that pool."

A moment of silence.

"There's a lot of something! There's a whole hoard of frigging gold and gemstones!"

The Many-Winged Herald's hoard
15 000 gold
30 170 silver
14 gems
40 pieces of jewellery
Curse: One magic item of the defiler permanently loses all abilities.

Then we had to figure out how to get all that wealth out of the pool and then out of the temple. Nissa dived into the pool and brought back handfuls of jewels and gold, while Yt partially emptied out all our backpacks and stuffed them full of the treasure. Then the rock started to creak.

"Hey," Brenna called, "get out of there before you get buried."

"Just one more dive," Nissa called back.

In the room above, the door opened and several robed and feathered cultists rushed inside.

Darkness-Poignant the Priestess
5x Feather-and-Claw cultists

"We've got company," Maera hollers and gives ground to gain enough time to shoot the priestly-looking crow-person before the rest of the cultists surround her. She scores a solid hit and then drops her bow. Brenna has borrowed an axe from Yt to replace her shattered sword and now uses it to decapitate two cultists, stopping their advance.

Shadows thwirl and the priestess disappears from sight, while the remaining three cultists harass Brenna, scoring a shallow cut.

Maera joins the melee and fells two more cultists, the last remaining one turning tail and running. Maera and Brenna do not follow, instead checking on Nissa and Yt down below.

"Are you all right?" Nissa calls up from the cave, waiting by the end of the rope with a sack of gold.

"Yeah, but get your asses up here. They know about us."

They climb up, but before the gold can too be lifted on the rope, Maera gestures for everyone to drop everything and join her by the door. The cultists are coming back for a rematch.

Darkness-Poignant the Priestess
5x Feather-and-Claw cultists

The whole party gets ready to ambush them by the door, but then a flood of spell power makes their knees buckle.

K̯͆͌N̘ͪEE̥̺Ḽ̀ͥ, they hear and understand even though there was no sound. Everyone but Yt obeys.

The cultists storm inside, only Yt going forth to meet them. He takes one down, but another pierced his side with a spear. Maera, Brenna and Nissa frantically fight the magic and the oncoming cultists both. Somehow, they just barely manage to do both.

Maera and Nissa block the remaining cultists while Brenna crawls to the fallen Yt, fumbling for a vial from her pack. She pours greenish liquid down his throat and with a bloody cough, he sits up, then immediately stands up. He is no longer bleeding.

The last cultists beaten, Maera started to grin, when the priestess enters the room and from beneath her robes, a flood of darkness comes. Maera immediately sagged and the other three feel their blood turning halfway to ice. Still, Yt was yet holding onto the lingering warmth of the healing potion that Brenna fed him and swung at the priestess. She blocked with her staff. He swung again and cracked her skull open.

Brenna rushes to Maera's side, carefully rousing her from unconsciousness.

"I'm finnn-ugh," Maera groaned. "All right, I'm not fine but I'll live."

We lift the sack of gold and quickly redistribute everything we carry, leaving most of our food and all non-essential equipment behind to stuff more gold into our backpacks and pockets. In total, we now carry 9 050 coins of gold, a dozen large gems and 28 pieces of ancient jewellery.

Nearly clinking, we endeavour to get out of the temple. As we turn a corner, we can feel the ground shaking beneath our feet as something collapses. More cracks are spreading through the walls all around us. We move faster, jogging down the corridor and cramming ourselves into the tight secret entrance tunnel. Then we are back under the open skies, which have by now been taken over by the moon and the stars.

"Yes!" Nissa cheers.

D̐I̧̜Ę̇͂, a gravelly voice orders.

Midnight-Ascendant the High Priestess
2x Hungering shadows
Living Statues of Black Iron

They all try to fight.

They all fail.

They all do as ordered.