Navigating Complex Environments

If you look at Blighttown in Dark Souls, it'd be really boring to run as a dungeon.



The interesting parts of Blighttown arise as the result of a bunch of smaller micro-decisions you make as you navigate the complex environment - not only would mapping this out take a long time, in play it's unlikely to be interesting - many smaller choices without much information to go on.



I think we're better off looking to use the aggregate result - the interesting bit where rubber meets road whilst also allowing players to meaningfully input into the end result. To do this, we can abstract these choices into a system.




As I see it there's one main decision players are making from this high-level view - how do we balance speed (i.e. splitting up and examining multiple routes to go forward) and safety (not doing that, and exploring only as a group).

First up we have an objective - either to explore some designated amount or to use the complex environment to get from point A to point B. Either way, we assign them a number. This number needs to be reached by rolling dice and keeping a cumulative score - when it is, you did the thing you were trying to do. We'll workshop some hard numbers later. Important note - once a route is known, it's known. Characters don't need to explore again.

So what dice do we roll, and how many?

Roll dice equal to the number of search parties - each search party being a distinct group. Two groups exploring? Two dice.

The sides of the dice we roll depends on how dangerous the environment is - we use the dice to trigger encounters as well as increase our score. The smaller the dice, the less progress you'll probably make per exploration, because stuff keeps happening and slowing you down.

Each roll of these dice represents a chunk of meaningful time. In traditional dungeons, this is about 10 minutes - an hour feels intuitively right for this. You could try extrapolating this up for weird 'problem-space'-crawls where each turn is a day but I don't think it'd work.

Whenever the maximum roll on an exploration dice is achieved, roll a normal encounter - but use the surprise and encounter distance rules from your retroclone of choice for each search party and the monsters. (Currently, that's Delving Deeper for me - so 2d6 x 10 feet distance without surprise, 1d6 x 10 with surprise)

If that number -1 is rolled, roll a d4 or d6 (depending on cruelty) on  the following chart for some consequences.

1. Lost - characters will have to explore to discover the route back.
2. Separated - Search parties lose contact - yelling etc. will cause normal encounter checks...
3. Circular path - negate the gain on this dice.
4.  or more - no consequence

Okay numbers:

Really Fucking Dangerous - d4
Dangerous  - d6
Adventuresome - d8
Baby's Day Out - d10

To work out the score needed, I'd just multiply the rough number of hours it could take by five.

Sphinx

Flay the poet and roll them in sand.

Leave them to bake in the sun.

When the vultures come they will drink their blood and borrow their wings.

This is one of the paths a man could walk to leave mortality behind.

HD 4* / AC as Leather / Damage 1d6 

*Supernatural HP

Ents

Amongst woods visited too-often they lurch between their erstwhile siblings.

They have seen one man kill another in anger.

They have watched the hunters.

They stalk.

Trees take a long time to burn.

HD 6* / AC as Leather / Damage 2d6

*Supernatural HP. If set alight, they take 1d6+3 rounds to burn to death.

--

The Ian Miller ents are very firmly lodged in my brain. You should take the time to look at them.

Trolls

To create a troll, take up pliers and empty the head of teeth.

Into each bleeding socket insert a talon of glass. Many will break - this is why most trolls cannot speak, tongues a mess of ruined scraps.

Remove the finger-nails and replace them with blades of glass. Many will break - this is why most trolls cannot use tools, fingers rent apart.

As the glass cuts them, they grow. As they grow, the glass cuts them.

This is why their wounds close in minutes. This is why they always hunger.

This is one of the paths a man could walk to leave mortality behind.

HD 4 / AC as Leather / Damage 1d6

Re-rolls HP at the beginning of each round.

Gnolls

All took the mask willingly. To those not understanding what it entails, the mask is inert. It is made of thick stone. It depicts a snarling dog.

Once donned by the willing, it cannot be removed. One wearing the mask is utterly loyal to the one who offered them the mask. If this chain is broken, they are free but retain their subordinates. All await this day, but are powerless to hasten it.

Domesticated animals and crops despise them, and wither in their captivity.

This is one of the paths a man could take to leave mortality behind.

HD 1* / AC as Armour / Damage as Weapon

*Supernatural HP - the body is as loyal as the mind, unwilling to die despite horrific wounds.

Wraiths

A single stone out of place is all it takes. A tendril of darkness will worm it's way in, and coil itself around the corpse like a lover. Such a tether denies the spirit rest. Beneath the barrows, they forget who they were. The honest mistake of a twisted stone becomes a deliberate betrayal.

Draped in their funeral panoply they emerge under cover of night - seeking those who denied them rest. Sunlight banishes them to their tomb - and opening that to the sky would destroy them utterly.

They are careful to never be seen emerging - and to open all of the barrows is sure to invite more restless dead.

Those they slay are bound to them as thralls, and will rise with them every night - a poor imitation of what they were promised in death.

HD 2* / AC as Unarmoured / Damage as Weapon, applied to Constitution.

*Incorporeal - Cannot be harmed bar by Silver Weapons (Quadruple price, -1 to hit corporeal foes) and Magic.

Giants

The only art left to the giants is self mutilation.

The ruins they haunt are filled with blacksmiths, poets and sculptors, trapped in bronze cages. All eventually starve.

HD 10 / AC as Unarmoured / Damage 2d6

Orcs

There is never an orc.
There are always orcs.

Within the belly of each is a burning nugget of iron. Carve off a limb and embed a slug of iron. Wait a week as muscle forms, cramping in agony around a splinter of white-hot pain.

Their black blood ruins metal, corroding it beyond repair. Arms and armour used against them will be useless in 3 days.

Left in the Sun, they die in hours.       

At night they slink from the mountains for meat and metal.

HD 1 / AC as Armour / Damage as Weapon

Druids

our mouths are full of soil
hands beneath these hills
grasping flint and barrow
worm-sinews

road-breaker
fort-burner
legate-eater

the woods are deeper than
maps and dreams and empires


HD 2 / AC as Unarmoured / Normal Damage - 1 Spell from Vivimancy or Cunning Craft


Spell schools from 'Wonder & Wickedness' and 'Marvels & Malisons' respectively.

Minotaur

To make a minotaur, start with clay. Form a pot in the shape of the head of a bull. The mouth must be wide enough to scrape the temples as it is pushed over the head.  

Once donned, the wearer cannot eat. Their moans of hunger will echo through the pot, distorted into braying and roars. As they grow more emaciated, the remaining flesh becomes harder, turning all but the surest blows. They will be able to tear men in half.

They cannot see through the pot, and so swing their clay heads left to right, listening for you.  

Now loose them into your labyrinth to stumble and squat and hunt in the dark. 

This is one of the paths a man could walk to leave mortality behind.

HD 4* / AC as Unarmoured / Damage with Advantage

*Supernatural HP

Six Troikas p1

i'll put these up 6 at a time then combine I just want it out of my view whilst I try and get other shit done

All journeys across the humpbacked sky start where they begun. But nothing truly stays the same...

All named characters and locations are represented across all instances of Troika, with memories appropriately shifted to reflect the nature of the current instance of Troika.

Whenever a visit to Troika in imminent, roll on the following d66 d6 chart to generate another reflection of Troika. Alternatively, these are some of the districts of the city. Or both simultaneously. Things are hazy.

11 Troika the Smouldering

You emerge amidst an orange-glow carcass, chewed over by Everburning flames visited upon the city centuries ago. A once-rich tradition of appropriated architecture and inspired cultural-fusion is left as so much charred stone, wood and glass. Despite the ruination, it is still the centre of the spheres. Those who perish amongst the flames are endlessly replaced by new wanderers and unfortunates -  and so Troika lives on, an ember of itself.
Goods are bought and sold for twice as much in this desperate place. Everyone is grimmer, less trusting and twice as savage. Effects relating to fire are strictly forbidden, as they call to their Everburning cousins. Those able to wield cold or tame fire are treasured, forming churches, gangs and guilds around their skills.

Who released the Everburning Flame?
(1 in 6 Chance this is public knowledge - otherwise it is suppressed/forgotten. Perhaps the home of the flames holds the key to extinguishing them? Doing such is sure to reap benefits...)

1. Soldiers of the Chiliarch.
2. Screaming half-things from the dead rocks orbiting the Black Suns, slicing through the sky in their knifecraft.
3. Poorly Made Dwarves attempting to show their worth, accidentally succeeded.
4. A courtier of a self-proclaimed ruler of Troika wanted to give a gift sure to grant favour, and sent adventurers to scour all the spheres.
5. A shadow-Troika, forgotten and abandoned to all but the most wretched and miserable, sent their kind regards to their straight-limbed cousin.
6. No-one. Just one of those things that happens, innit.

12 Troika the Conquered

Foreign banners fly from every window. Every sigil of the old regime has been or is being destroyed, covered up or covertly hidden by sympathetic agents. A tension in the air is rife, as the variformed denizens of Troika eye up their new overlords. Patrols of soldiers meander, get lost and reappear throughout this multidimensional warren. How to control a place such as Troika? Force exerted here could be dispersed anywhere across the spheres...

Who has conquered Troika? What are their methods?

1. Clattering metallic smoke-belching insects glowing red-and-green from their infernal internal engines. They lurk above Troika in some hypothetical pocket dimension, descending on rusted chains to abduct those who speak of the previous regime, or of the agonized wailing that echoes from the palace. Things otherwise continue as normal.
2. The Man-Beast legions of the Phoenix Throne in another doomed attempt to hold Troika as the capital of their empire. The Autarch has yet to transfer to their new capital, but the many aristocrats and court hangers-on are eagerly transferring. There is much work to be done, ferreting out resistance and clearing out undesirables. Exotic goods previously unavailable to these aristocrats have skyrocketed in price, and plummeted in availability. 
3. The Travelling Things Hospitality group, seemingly a band of populist travellers who demand the luxuries of Troika for any wanderer amongst the spheres - in actuality, they are are a conglomerate of all inter-sphere inns, taverns, hotels, travelling lodges and other such forms of temporary accommodation, seeking to corner the ultimate market, the hub in the wheel of travel - Troika. Everything is double the price, but otherwise things tick along smoothly.
4. A single, vaguely humanoid figure, seemingly with the ability to appear anywhere and everywhere. It is immobile, a steel mummy, orbited by countless marble limbs. It seemingly knows of all plans to depose of it, and appears there to destroy such conspirators. Beyond destroying those who plot against it, it seems to have no plans.
5. The takeover was slow and insidious. They took over those in power slowly, converting them one by one into puppets to their greater scheme, before they struck! Now we live under their yoke...but who is amongst them? And who is safe? How do we know? All allies and contacts will refuse contact until you can prove you're not one of Them. Apart from the acute atmosphere of paranoia, things are relatively normal - for Troika.
6. The League of Spheres Divided has conquered Troika with their mongrel armies. They wish to see each sphere left to it's own devices, without the meddling of wanderers, vagabonds and intersphere empires. To achieve this, they plan to destroy Troika, the hub of all such travel. How they plan to achieve this is somewhat less concrete. Soldiers attempt to send people "back to where they came from", but overlapping jurisdictions and primitive bureaucracy make these efforts farcical. 

13 Troika the Fortified

Every building bristles in weapon and armour - sweeping arches doubling as guillotines, roof mounted lenses focussing the dire light of Black Suns, crossbow-automata skittering over leaden tiles - truly, the city of infinite access is defended from all angles, and against all comers - as well it should.
Arms and Armour in this Troika are at half-price from their abundance, but movement is restricted and slowed down by the endless fortifications and false-streets ending in dead-ends. Opportunities for ambush abound, and any given location can be observed - if one knows the right place to watch from. Natives of Troika have no such issues moving around.

What is the current paranoia in Troika? What Defences are in vogue as a result?

1. Tunnelling horrors from below. Buried plasmic cores with feeler-tendrils stretching out in all directions, ready to explode...
2. Magically altered super plagues delivered by bat. Ruthless doctor-automatons collect samples of any novel lifeforms or disease. Huge nets strung over streets to catch bats.
3. Golden Dreadnoughts punching through the sky. Knifecraft crewed by feral pirates, kept chained and hopped up on all manner of powdered crystal and slug-secretions, the boats unshackled once the Dreadnoughts come...
4. Dragons. Harpoon cannons manned by abducted dragon-slayers from across the spheres. There are never enough dragon-slayers.
5. Ceramic tripods piloted by conglomerate-beasts, all tentacles and teeth. Pairs of roof-top runners with rope.
6. Orcs. Gatling-fusils.

14 Troika the Narcotic

Dreams and nightmares drift on the wind, borne as the smoke of unknown herbs harvested from the deepest reverie of opium-prophets and somnorific-poets. The city is hidden and shifts in a drift of psychomimetic visions laced with ecstatic peaks and shattering lows from the _other_ side of sobriety. Nothing may be trusted amongst the aristocracy of the stoned.
Unsurprisingly, all manner of drugs may be found here, with prices kept at about average due to availability meeting demand. Not partaking in whatever a hosts substance of choice may be is considered a major social gaffe. The sober are not to be trusted.

What is the new fad-substance? What does it do?

1. Crushed bones of Yellow Well-Swelling Lizards, snorted. Causes both body and mind to flucate in size chaotically, giving a real sense of perspective. Causes some to go entirely bald.
2. The parasitic fungus which grows exclusively on the brains of stunted gods. Mixed into syringes and injected into the eyes, allows third, fourth and fifth sight, as well as an intensely powerful aphrodisiac. Can result in budding godhood or violent mutations.
3. Beard-hairs trimmed from the Hebetudinous Emperor, who has never shaved (nor indeed moved) in his two-thousand year reign. When smoked, one has visions of terrible apocalypses visited upon the locale of the smoker. The popularity comes from the belief that any such vision can never come true - meaning the more of the beard is smoked, the safer Troika the Narcotic can slumber.
4. Crystallised light emitted from a tamed Black Sun. When dissolved on the tongue, allows the imbiber to remake all decisions in their life-to-date in an extended trip, all details and ramifications being entirely accurate. Prized by the Calculators of the Merchant Guilds.
5. Boiled void-barnacles scraped from the hull of Golden Barges. When the broth is drunk and the barnacles chewed, the imbiber is able to rend all veils with a mere thought. What this practically means depends entirely on the imbiber's definition of veils.
6. Smoked eyes from the Many-Sighted-Polyps which roam the void between the spheres. When eaten, gives a euphoric body-high followed by intense paranoia which always has a grain of truth. Whether it was true prior to consuming the Eyes is a matter of conjecture amongst narcoscholars. 

15 Troika the Crumbling

The decrepit city, older than time and showing it. Every stone is worn to a sphere, every street moans and warps under the weight of history. Every building has had names to fill annals rivalling the oldest empires. There is nothing new to this crumbling metropolis. Of course, such a storied city has had plenty of time to forget.
Amongst the ancient streets can be found forgotten artefacts, spells, species, spheres, thought frameworks and philosophies. These can be traded as curios within Troika or exported as relics to younger spheres.

What is the latest archaeo-architectural find?

1. An entire army, sent to conquer Troika but instead lost and forgotten amongst the ancient buildings. They have converted themselves into tour-guides of their own failed military campaign, explaining their weapons and uniform with all the right anachronisms. 
2. A hollow stone statue of an eight-armed fly-headed figure. The back opens up into a negative-space miniature replica of the city itself. 
3. The First Teapot. The location of the first Teacups remains a mystery, and the Pot is near useless without them.
4. Virulent, nihilistic anti-natalism. The view was incredibly popular, especially amongst the nobility of the time. It was forgotten when the adherents unsurprisingly ran out of converts. 
5. A tremendous lance of crystal, seemingly pinning the city to the firmament. Operations to mine it and sell trinkets have already begun.
6. A catacomb of stillborn Troikas, a lightless sub-realm of dead, empty, stunted cities stacked neatly.

16 Troika the Cultivated

From every wall a riotous blooming of impossible frondescence beneath arborescent heights bedecked in fruits beggaring belief. There are no stone buildings - everything is shaped from the living plants themselves. Only outsiders bring metal, stone, fur and meat. Different districts of the city take on different characters as the climates dramatically shift to allow a greater variety of flora. The servitors of the city are all equipped with scissors, watering cans and fertilizer, endlessly tending to the Garden Among the Spheres.
Any novel or heretofore unknown plant samples are richly rewarded in this Troika, as any may climb the social trellis through the formal gifting of such a sample to the city itself.

What Troubles the Garden Among the Spheres?

1. Infestation of Xanthous Aphids - they have the potential to utterly destroy the city. Insects are usually easily dispatched by the Servitors - Xanthous Aphids have the annoying ability to burrow into pocket dimensions when threatened.
2. Major trade dispute with the Sphere of Incalculable Azure Depths, the exclusively supplier of fresh water to the city. Rumours swirl this is deliberate sabotage by the Prince of Thorns, jealous, gnarled and wooden.
3. The Garden of Ineffable Wisdom and Serenity threatens Troika's position as the premier garden-sphere. A legion of agents are being dispatched to resolve this - in both directions. Opportunities abound for work.
4. Due to time mismanagement, the Neural Network Fungus has been allowed to achieve sentience again. It plans to use it's burgeoning intelligence (directly correlated with physical mass) in a court case demanding citizenship for all sub-sentient plantlife. There are two main solutions being pursued - delves into the deadly Court Records to find some legal precedent, or taking out the Fungus. Of course, the fungus has a legion of bleeding-heart supporters.
5. An over-keen denizen of Troika accidentally gifted the Chameleonic Leaf Warping Orchid, disguised as a chartreuse Fractal-Poppy. These Orchids aggressively parasitise other plant-life, converting it into more of the Orchid. Whilst the patsy has been punished appropriately, the hunt is still on for the unknown natural predator of the Chameleonic Leaf Warping Orchid.
6. The mechanical moon system has failed, leaving all of the multiple moons and their arcane system of mirrors locked in the void. Whomever can make the journey out there to identify and rectify the problem is sure to be rewarded by the night-blooming quarters. 

Home Again - Horror Scenario

Quick notes -

SIU - Special Investigations Unit. Delta Green, FBI, whatever.

Trace minerals as in the exact mineral constituents of a human being.

Key to making this weird is there are obvious signs of a previous investigation once the characters begin for the "second" time - from the players perspective this is the first time. Just to reiterate - BEGIN PLAY NORMALLY FROM THE RED ARROW, DO NOT PLAY OUT ANYTHING ABOVE THE RED ARROW

Memetic memory loss as in - you forgot, and anyone talking to you about the thing also forgets.

Up to you how the house attempts to consume/deal with them. Weaponised architecture feels cool, but equally architectural antibodies or something weirder. Go nuts.

YB107b for Mothership

More mothership content

yeah

pic 2 download

etc

Tenum Station

MOTHERSHIP SEEMS PRETTY GOOD

so I did adventure for it - click picture get pdf

Castle Overlook

***FUCK OFF TUESWFRP PLAYERS***

First up, WFRP1e is fucking great - barring the career system which needs some fixing.

This is a little patchy but whatever

Roll 1d20+number of rooms visited and just kinda riff off the contents, letting things slowly get worse. Speed it up by doubling the number-of-room count.

1-20 is normal

21-40 is eerie

41-60 is strange

61-80 is weird

81+ is CHAOS

d20+rooms	Purpose
1	Guest bedroom
2	Guest bedroom
3	kitchen
4	kitchen
5	privy
6	dining hall
7	storeroom
8	dining hall
9	servants room
10	servants room
11	study
12	studio
13	barracks
14	library
15	library
16	storeroom
17	wardrobe
18	barracks
19	servants mess
20	great hall
21	greenhouse
22	childs room
23	chapel to no god at all
24	cell, sign of recent use - bed is a mess
25	apothecary
26	armoury, but all weapons subtly blunted and bent
27	room of mirrors
28	death-mask room - all of them seem in slight pain
29	single book detailing the current activities of Guy
30	single book detailing the current activities of Harvey Boatman
31	potraiture of the Emperor, with subtle deformities
32	family tree with many many connections to witches - if researched
33	collection of disparate diaries and logbooks and journals - victims
34	kitchen of rotten food
35	ballroom, but the orchestra pit is full of broken instruments
36	altar of sigmar, reversed
37	altar of taal, built of city goods
38	suit of armour in traditional style - full of rodents and insects
39	completely empty, bare of all ornamentation
40	servants quarters - but all bed clothes are under the beds, like they sleep there
41	torture chamber
42	surgery, all the tools blunt and cruel
43	horrendously overgrown greenhouse, signs of tending
44	jars of human hair line the walls
45	blackened crib
46	indoor pool, stained wine-red, surrounded by bottle of wine
47	collection of fabrics, patternless, and a box of blindfolds
48	just full of classically styled statues in mildly lewd poses
49	two legged dog with wheels endlessly circling the room
50	glass display cabinents full of murder weapons and marital aids
51	huge amount of drug paraphanelia and substances
52	mummified horse limbs
53	single servant in empty room, unable or unwilling to acknowledge your presence
54	dogs suspended on hooks, alive, silent, pleading….
55	iron maiden in room of overstuffed sofas and opulent cushions
56	BDSM torture chamber - but medieval and such
57	abandoned wedding reception, rotten bouqets
58	seemingly endless chains hang from the ceiling
59	bathtub with bloodstains to the brim
60	room entirely stripped down to the stone - signs of endless scratching
61	lab of glass specimen jars, all pickled foetuses and organs plucked
62	portraiture of the Emperor as a horrendous mutant
63	open casket empty, yet flowers are scattered
64	stuffed manticore , sign of wear on back
65	witchblood paintings
66	whale skeleton set into the walls themselves, bones scrimshaw'd
67	gibbet hanging from the centre of the room
68	ballroom full of skeletons, posed as dancers
69	human trophy room
70	human trophy room
71	human trophy room
72	human trophy room
73	suits of armour rent apart, posed mannekins having struck them down, bones within the armour
74	wicker cage, open, inviting
75	room of man-traps, all yawning wide, teeth aglint, stained brown from previous feasts
76	seemingly the front entrance - but how?
77	master bedroom - skin quilts, bone furniture, unknowable sensual furs
78	dark grimoires form an inpenetrable wall - all detail the readers death
79	sacrifical altar with all implements
80	jackson pollock but used to be human
81	pool of mixed in/human fluids, full of the damned cavorting
82	walls of screaming, pleading faces
83	pleasure-pit of wailing unfortunates and their whooping tormentors
84	the nightmare sea
85	a huge eye growing pseudopods, grasping for you
86	gullet of a warping-melting gential faced monstrosity pleading
87	walls are all pulsating slugflesh oozing and horrendous
88	figures impaled on phallic spikes writhing in ectatsy
89	tree has impaled them and grown into them, they feed off it's drug-sap thankful
90	mawed portal to the Ouside of the House
91	mawed portal to the Ouside of the House
92	mawed portal to the Ouside of the House
93	mawed portal to the Ouside of the House
94	writhing dancing pillar of meat made of loved ones, victims, eternal pleasure and agony
95	endlessly falling waterfall of flesh sensual and awful and utterly rotten
96	long chamber filled with procession of blasphemous monks - all are one, bound by endless vermicular tendrils sprouting from robe face, sleeves, tangled
97	people being cut down into the smallest organs and strands and rebuilt as new creatures, aware in pain moaning in ultimate pleasure divine blasphemy
98	room of half-people frozen in spotless ivory, all possible emotions and configurations can be found amongst the tangle of still figures
99	no-light area, antithesis of sight, all sensation is heightened to near inhuman levels - the ultimate hunting ground
100+	HEART OF THE HOUSE

obviously I didn't call it castle overlook in the game I'm not that much of a hack

yet

River Trolls

more monsters for envisioned Swyvers expansion or whatever - less of a thing to murder this time - maybe? whatever. Not 

RIVER TROLLS, Rotten Jenny, BilgeTroll, Bridgetroll

HD 9
Attack x1
+3 Smash 2d10 - those struck are flung 3d12 feet
-2 Flail - 360 AOE 1d10, uses both attacks
Defence 8
Armour As Decent Light (rubbery skin)
Mov as huge shambling mound
Init As long weapon
Morale 5 Bilge OR 11 Guardian
1d4 Bilge or 1d4-2 Guardian Appearing

All stand as high as two men, despite their hunched over posture, round misshapen faces low between shoulders broad, skin rubbery and foul, ranging tan-green to mossy black. All speak a broken half-tongue, yet seem not to struggle to understand men.

There are two types of River Troll - those which guard bridges, a task set by the invaders from across the sea. Then there are the Bilge Trolls, those who have abandoned their tasks, running rogue, flesh forever rotting and regrowing, despoiling rivers and wells. They will often build standing stones, marking territory and giving them a new 'bridge' of sorts - although pointing this out drives them wild.

Both varieties are delighted by drink.

MISTAKEN FOR
1 Drowners
2 Dwarves
3 Other Trolls?
4 Mosskin


RUMOURS 1d20
1  Bury a dog in the foundation of the bridge, and that`s how you get a bridgetroll. Remove the dog? Remove the troll!
2  Smell exactly as bad as they are.
3  Petrified of goats?
4  Filthy stinkin wellpissers
5  Cannot abide yew smoke
6  Adores the flesh of cats
7  Slumber only during full-moon
8+  Must be paid in drink

ACTIVITY - Guardian
1  Only allows passage to those carrying hard, expensive liqour, rather than the traditional [local drink]
2  Has been stealing stones to repair bridge with rather than requesting them
3  Bridge is falling into disrepair and the troll is getting slimier...
4  Local ruler thinks it very backwards to still have a bridgetroll, wants it removed.
5  Theft of local livestock
6  Destroyed something in drunken stupor/rampage
7  Has gone missing - please bring it back
8  Entirely disallowing usage of it`s bridge, has already killed someone attempting it.

ACTIVITY - Bilge
1  Poisoning the water supplies in the town, 70% chance accidentally
2  Theft of livestock
3  Acting as bandits of land and water
4  Continiously threatening violence if not plied with alcohol
5  Still attempting to collect some form of toll
6  Deliberate campaign of terror, general mayhem

LOCATIONS - Bilge
1  Just upriver of the settlement
2  Squatting about a tiny tributary
3  Beneath a waterfall in the wilds
4  Down an abandoned well
5  Important water resovoir
6  Moat of local fortification
7  Flooded basement
8  Local fishfarm/fishery

INSTIGATING EVENTS - Guardian
1  General malaise for a thankless task
2  Getting over failed troll-marriage
3  Bad mating season
4  traveller opened it`s eyes to other possibilities
5  being coerced by someone threating to destroy bridge
6  something stopping access to traditional source of material/booze etc

horrible jungle

***FUCK OFF THURSBRINGER PLAYERS***

I bought a Pomera which is a fancy japanese electronic notepad and it's cool

this is a thing from that which is barely even tidied up

would be statted for Stormbringer but I'm sick 

use your imagination

The jungle is thick and moist, home to endless poison blooms, striking flowers with barbs across the shaft, strangle-coils, winged lizards, apes of all sizes and predatory cats.

The bat riders of the Mountain hunt for rare herbs and chattel here, using the thermals of the desert to stay aloft, pig-faced goblinoids with lances and billhooks, their monkey-slaves descending on chains and scampering about, fleeing all danger unless commanded to attack by their masters, when they descend in a wild flurry of nail and tooth.

ENCOUNTERS

WHERE
1 - site of recent deadfall
2 - stranglevine infestation, roll again, 50% on playerside, 50% other creature
3 - ruins emerge from the foliage...
1 temple 2 "castle" 3 house 4 barracks 5 mysterious 6 unrecognisable
4 - a choked river winding through the maze of fallen wood
5 - the centre of a fallen tree bridging a chasm or such
6 - clifface in a valley
7 - crawlspace underneath fallen trees
8 - near fireant nest roll again
9 - near pool of waterfall pool
0 - entagled in the undergrowth, thick with fern and creeper.

WHAT
1 - Barkskin Halfmen 3d4,
  1) defending
   2) hunting
   3) curious
   4) fleeing
   5)ignoring
   6) sabotaging
2 - Half-intelligent monkeys 3d12, chattering and swinging, roll again and combine
   1)violent
   2)feeding
   3)socialising
   4)mating display
   5)friendly
   6)cautious
3 - Great Apes, degenerates of the civilisation of the jungle, some still bear stone weapons, artefacts of what has been lost. 25% entire tribe (3d12) else smaller group (1d8), of various purposes
   1 warparty
   2 foragers
   3 shelter-builders
   4 worshippers(ruins)
   5 "farmers"
   6 exiles
4 - Dream Tiger, and you are it`s prey. Can evoke fictions which are real to observer.Incredibly cruel, loves to toy with food, but loves itself more
defeat through vanity.
5 - batriders (1d6 (one bat each) + 3d4 monkey slaves) from the mountains, seeking SLAVES or HERBS or SCOUTING.
6 - carnivirious vegetation, prowling, using potential supplies as bait.
7 - stalked by vampiric bats, potential to carry some manner of disease, 1 large swarm
8 - huge swarms of flying lizards, all bright colours, confusing and dizzying
9 - Pirahana-equivalent infested waterway
10- Gigantic Spiders, weaving tunnel webs and watching eight times over...
11- Toad face, lower body a mess of slimy tentacles, with evil intention
12- Animate stone golem, weeping at the loss of their civilisation, brought
out of their black anger by a new purpose.

YOUR ELVES ARE BORING

cw - sa, child kidnap, animal abuse 

GET YER PDF HERE

Still working on monster hunting for a hypothetical swyvers (hence swyvers stats) expansion. This is what a monster entry would look like - probably not this layout though. That's just because why not

FUCK CTHULHU

WHAT'S THE POINT OF AN UNKNOWABLE HORROR THAT IS VERY KNOWN

The knife-edge of cosmic horror is that single moment of realization wherein an inky black vista yawns wide before you, utterly engulfing the entire world you knew and rendering it insignificant whilst being utterly unknowable by it's very nature - not only have your illusions been shattered, you're not getting a new one - this being the cut, severing you utterly, leaving you floating, alone. And that's pretty neat.

In the abstract our insignificance is relatively easy to grasp, but the illustration, or demonstration, the rendering literal of such a fact, is the cutting moment that severs us utterly. Survivors are wounded and left detached with nothing to cling to.

The unknowablity of the outside directly correlates to it's cutting ability - the less comprehensible, systemisable, the fewer links and logical consistencies it produces, the further enhanced it's wounding capacity.

That's why we need to stop focusing on the surface level aesthetics of cosmic horror, the recognisable characters and entities and forces - we're way past that point now. These surface trappings are graspable by anyone with an internet connection and some time to kill - both their fictive biographies and their genesis in the waking world. They are stripped and bereft of their edge, blunted for easy consumption.
comparable to how punks had sharp studs and now fashion loves blunt square studs. atrophied and nonthreatening, fucking pointless. PUN UNINTENTIONAL

Stop leaning on the old names and techniques - players/readers will guess Hastur! Cthulhu! Yog-Sothoth!, a flight from the actual simmering mindless pointlessness that cosmic horror attacks you with. What's more, they'll shit themselves twice as hard when you cut the guide ropes and push them away from the shores of knowledge and into the black ocean of the unknown.

Fuck 'em, let them drown.

I love day drinking.

Forgetting Bears

The mist coils endless, wrapped about trees tighter than snakes, ghost breath obscura. All sound dies in it's embrace. And so the woods are silent, animal cries localised, shrunk, extinguished. It solidifies to a wall when subjected to light, drawing into itself in defiance of sight or understanding. Bats slice effortlessly through the sea of fog, snatching small lizards midair as they leap from branch to branch. Figures cavort at the edge of comprehension, taunting.

From the mist emerge bears with bone masks, human fingers, fur russet, teeth needles and eyes bleeding*. There are always four - kill one and the rest seemingly dissipate into the fog of unknowing, leaving nothing but their slain companion. They meat causes Forgetting, a dangerous state wherein navigation through, into, and out of the Wooded Mist is possible. There is a standing bounty of £100 on a breeding pair of Forgetting Bears - their unmasked cubs would be slaughtered for meat, allowing the colonisation and harvest of the Wooded Mist to begin.

To capture a bear, a true Idiot is needed, unfettered by knowing or thought. They can grapple them by the mask, and hold them there.

FORGETTING BEAR
HD - 7
AC - AS LEATHER (DUE TO SKILL)
MOVE - AS SNEAKY BEAR
ATTK - BITE +2 -  1D12+3 + AMNESIA OR 2x CLAW +1 1D8
MORALE - 12 BUT FLEE UPON FIRST CASUALTY

*this said pleading on when handwritten but I typed bleeding so bleeding it is