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Dungeons & Magical Girls Let’s Play Webchat Dr. Worldcrafter New worlds for you « Older posts Faction Friday: Lystrata, Lamia of the Lost Library Posted on January 21, 2022 by Brent Public domain image of a Mayan pyramid Deep in the wilderness, an ancient stone ziggurat squats, its vine-covered walls slowly crumbling to time. Many secrets and wonders lie within this monument to a dead civilization, and a new resident patiently plumbs its depths. A lamia named Lystrata has taken up residence inside this complex, which contains everything from ball courts to baths to libraries, all appointed in opulent tastes. As is typical for her kind, Lystrata has acquired a large retinue that inhabits the ziggurat with her, and she’s re-opened many of its chambers, reactivating the wondrous mechanisms left behind here that provide artificial light and pump water from mysterious sources. It is the perfect lair. The library in the lowest level of the ziggurat is sadly incomplete; some years ago a cluster of ankhegs burrowed into the library accidentally, exposing its books and scrolls to humid air that rotted a large proportion. As a friendly faction , Lystrata has become captivated with researching the secrets of this ancient civilization, and has grown less evil and more obsessed . She treats her retainers reasonably well, if mostly because she’s too distracted by her research to pay them much attention. The library has revealed the location of several other ziggurats, and Lystrata desperately wants to find them. Unfortunately, none of Lystrata’s retainers have experience as adventurers, so she’s resorted to sending out her retainers to hire adventuring parties (like the PCs) to find and secure the ziggurats. Some PCs may be uncomfortable with working for a lamia. This is a great source of potential role-play. As a foe faction , Lystrata is a typical lamia: evil and self-absorbed. The ziggurat has become her private pleasure lair, filled with her slaves and captured beasts, where she feasts on any adventurers who attempt to explore it. She has no particular interest in the knowledge contained in the library, but the patron who sends the PCs against her very much does. The ziggurat itself can be a classic dungeon crawl, but Lystrata will not fight to the death. She already controls several other ziggurat lairs, and will retreat (with some of her retainers) to another if the PCs do particularly well, allowing her to serve as a long-term villain. Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment Monster Monday: Frost Mites Posted on November 20, 2017 by Brent Sometimes, you want to give your players a monster that they can’t just whack or shoot at willy-nilly. Today, I present frost mites, tiny arthropods that leech heat out directly out of their prey. Normally, frost mites are barely noticeable pests; a hand covered with half a dozen mites will feel uncomfortably cold, but hardly any danger. But in early autumn and late spring they swarm, gathering in masses of thousands underneath rocks. A foraging animal — or adventurer looking for an entrance to a cave — that disturbs a swarm will find him- or herself covered in masses of blue specks within seconds. Importantly, you can’t just fire an arrow at a mass of frost mites and expect to stop them. More worryingly, you can’t knock them off-balance; they cover their victim. As such, frost mites are immune to all damage types except fire, bludgeoning, and magical damage, and they resist bludgeoning damage (taking half damage). They cannot be knocked prone. Watch your players try to deal with that! Categories: Monsters | 2 Comments Faction Friday: Gyllehaal and His Orcs Posted on November 17, 2017 by Brent Old gnome, via http://www.wampstore.com/store/old%20gnome Gyllehaal, an old gnome, has seen a lot in his life. He spent decades adventuring unluckily; he can barely remember how often he was captured and beaten within an inch of his life, or a treasure chest turned out to be empty, or a valuable gem slipped from his grasp and went careening down a chasm. But eventually his luck turned, and after a number of successful adventures, he grew rich. Given so many years of hardship, now he has to show off his hard-won fortune. Gyllehaal struts the streets of his favorite city, bedecked in jewels and expensive furs, visiting money-lenders during the day to manage his money and every gambling house and high-society party he can get invited to at night. Nobody steals his jewels, though, because of the 4 full orc bodyguards that accompany him everywhere. They speak only among themselves (and then, only in orcish), and they follow Gyllehaal’s orders with completely professional alacrity. They even follow him into parties, though they know enough to stay on the periphery of whatever grand ballroom he’s in. The orcs are a mystery to outsiders. They wear well-tailored leather clothes trimmed with wolf fur and heavy boots, and wear their hair pulled back in pony tails. They each carry large, ornate axes strapped to their backs. They seem well-mannered, though they don’t say or do much; just surround Gyllehaal while he’s in the streets and stand in a knot muttering among themselves when he’s inside a structure. Folks whisper that Gyllehaal defeated them in battle some years ago and they swore fealty to him, though he must have done something pretty amazing to manage that. As a friendly faction , Gyllehaal is no more or less than an ex-adventurer enjoying the fruits of his labor. He’ll ask the PCs to collect various amulets, rings, and other objects he can wear in public. As a foe faction , Gyllehaal may have made a fortune, but he quickly lost it to gambling. Now he works for the money-lenders in a protection racket, using his orcs to squeeze protection money out of a number of businesses. Unfortunately, Gyllehaal has no problem calling on the City Watch if he’s molested, and they have no beef with him, so a group of PCs who just walk up to Gyllehaal and attack him will soon find themselves swarmed with members of the Watch. Instead, they will have to gather evidence, such as a set of cooked books that he keeps in the basement of his heavily guarded mansion. Categories: Faction | Leave a comment Inspiration in the SEA OF DEATH Posted on November 15, 2017 by Brent I recently finished a fantasy novel set in the Greyhawk universe, written by none other than Gary Gygax. It’s The Sea of Death,” starring his character Gord the Rogue. First off: It’s a rollicking D&D-esque adventure and a fun diversion. However, it also contains a number of insights about how Gary expected D&D adventures to flow. A few lessons: Groups of intelligent creatures don’t rush at each other on sight, even if both are enemies. They each send an envoy to size the other side up, and will retreat if the odds are overwhelming. Every group of monsters–intelligent or not–will break and run if at least half of them die during an encounter (except in extremely rare circumstances). Gygax even has a magically animated statue surrender once one of its legs is broken. And while, yeah, that’s like the morale rules in early D&D, those just provided increased chances that enemies would run. Here, they always try to make a break for it when half their number die. Interesting. I may have to bring back morale rules in my 5E games. Probably make it a collective Wisdom check vs. 10 as an initial rule. Combat isn’t a matter of trading blows. While you are constantly swinging your sword or what-have-you, you’re more wearing your opponent down until you can get in a killing strike, and there’s plenty of fancy footwork and use of the environment. Sometimes combat feels surprisingly closer to a Jackie Chan movie than a Conan movie. You can absolutely have unsavory things in your campaign world and keep them out of your campaign. Slavery exists and is consistently portrayed as odious, but in the story is mainly a thing that happens to other people or a threat if the heroes are captured. Evil doesn’t...