Carousing Tables - HMS Apollyon Player's Guide

CAROUSING

The scavenger lifestyle is one of contrasts, danger and deprivation can lead to a sudden influx of luxurious amounts of cash, and a corresponding amount of fear, and bad memories.  Most scavengers don’t think of the future if they can help it, given that their future most likely involves a horrible terrifying death somewhere down a decaying gangway.  The most common way to avoid thinking about the inevitable during downtime between expeditions is to carouse with the abandon of the doomed.  As wounds heal, memories fade and wealth dwindles Scavengers may spend up to their Level x 100GP on carousing from one of the three tables below between sessions.

Carousing can provide additional experience, either directly or by providing time for reflection on the events of recent expeditions.  More often than not any sage advice, or personal revelation is lost to the haze of drugs, violence, lust and the ever present drinking of the Rust Gate’s bars and food stands.  Before carousing the player chooses which type of vices their character will seek: debauchery, lust, or violence, and spending their stake, a scavenger must roll a save vs. poison and a D20.  On a successful save the scavenger gains an addition XP equal to the GP spent on carousing, while on failure the carouser gains no XP.   Regardless of the result of the first roll the carouser   then rolls on the appropriate table.

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D20	Debauchery Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Hangover – A soft, nauseous stomach, painful pressure behind the eyes, you’re hung over and roll at -1 on all physical actions next session.
2	Full pockets - Slowly removing the mismatched and battered coins from your pockets you realize that you came home with a fair pile of change 50+2D20 GP (or 100+2D20 on a successful save) are still in your pockets after the debauch.
3	You Had a Great Time – Nothing bad happened, you went out and thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
4	Addiction – You have to get more of whatever it is that you spent the last few days ingesting.  It’s not simple desire, it’s a physical craving.  Anytime you return to town you must acquire and indulge in your vice (spending 50 GP x Level) on intoxicants.  The inability to obtain sufficient intoxicants results in a -2 on all rolls during the next session.  There may be cures for this condition via magic or medicine from some factions.
5	Clothing Swap – Somehow you’re wearing another scavenger’s equipment, roll randomly on an equipment table to see what you are now supplied with (1D6) 1- Fighter/Cleric 2-Specialist 3 – Magic User 4- Passenger 5-Frogling 6-Roll Twice, pick your favorite.  On a failed save this may include any magical or special equipment, on a successful save it includes only simple equipment.
6	Gambling – It all came down to that last roll of the dice, or that last hand of cards, and you failed, busted, rolled out, got cheated.  Either way you lose LevelX1D4x50 additional GP. On a failed carousing save this can include a debt, while on a successful save you only lose money you have.
7	Deep Thoughts – Alone, with the sparkling lights of the Rustgate’s nightlife swirling around you have a realization and a sudden knowledge of how you can improve yourself in the future – gain 1D6/2+levelx100 XP.
8	Bad Joss - The wizened yellow and black frogling hands you the pipe and tells you to “open your eyelids and let the demons run”.  You don’t come down, -1 to initiative for the next session as you try to determine the real from the imaginary.
9	Vandalism – Oh yeah! The veritable nectar of truth that was.  You had to make your intentions known and did so in lovely three foot tall letters or by smashing up someone’s window.  On a successful save, no one knows it was you, and on a failure they suspect you - you now have -1 reputation with whichever faction you like least.
10	Alchemical Transformation – Some folks will drink anything and you’re one of them.  The change is random and painful (and may be accompanied by deforming side effects) – Randomly swap 1D4 points between two random statistics.  On a successful save this swap cannot reduce a statistic below ‘3’, on a failed save it can, causing death.
11	Fancy Tastes – That divine concoction, you simply must have more!  You’ve matured, and you deserve the best! Your high end tastes now require double investment on your future carousing rolls.  The effect of carousing is unchanged, and the extra money wasted.
12	Euphoric – Cutting loose was just what you needed.  Next Session reroll one roll of your choice due to high spirits.
13	The Jake Leg – Ingesting some sort of power chemical stimulant or similar terrible substance has given you partial paralysis – Dexterity and Strength are reduced to “6” for the next session. Save vs.  Wands (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or it’s permanent.  Can be cured by Cure Disease.
14	New Friends – You’re the life of the party! Everyone hangs on your word as you tell of your deeds, gain 1 point of reputation with a random faction.
15	Raid! The Stewards raided the establishment you while you were minding your own business.  Roll a Save vs. Paralysis (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or you were too intoxicated to escape and were jailed.  Money will get you out (100 GP per 10% cumulative chance of getting out per session) or a reputation point with the Stewards can be spent to earn your release.
16	Magical Boon – It was clutched in your hand when you awoke, and it’s an odd bit of magic.  A hexed or blessed weapon, a handful of devil shells, a protective medallion of the Leviathan or some other od but minor magical trinket is now yours.
17	Blindness – You drank some gawdawful cheap hooch towards the end of that bender. Suffer partial blindness next session (-2 to hit rolls). On a failed carousing save, Save vs.  Wands or it’s permanent.  Can be cured by Cure Blindness.
18	Drinking Games – You were the last one standing (wobbly but upright) and win the pot of 1D10X25 GP to the adoring cries of your fellow drunkards.
19	Mugged – they waited until you were drunk before they rolled you in the alley, lose all treasures and coinage, and suffer -1 HP/HD next Session.
20	Carried Away – You return from a flight of boozy inspiration sore headed and soured stomached, but clutching one important and immutable fact.  Somewhere in the dark night of total depravity and debauch you spoke to gods or demons, and even your hazed mind remembers a single fragment of the truths they told.  You know the answer to one question as the spell “Contact Other Plane”.

D20	Lust Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Cabaret – At the cabaret you find yourself falling for a performer.  Used to admirers, the object of your affections will encourage you to bring gifts.  If you give a gift less than 50GP before each session, your paramour’s scornful mockery will depress you, with a 1 point penalty to AC.  Gifts over 100GP before a session give you a +1 bonus to hit.
2	Prophecy – You asked her that darn card reader about your love life and all she’d say was “You ain’t got no future, you’re never growing old – and the waves keep rolling in.”  Next attack directed at you automatically does critical damage.
3	Ghostly Affections - “I’ve come in from the cold just to haunt you” You’ve attracted the attentions of a wayward ghost.  It flits about, generally adding an air of doom to your life, -1 to all reaction rolls and all current henchmen abandon you.
4	Courtesan – A beautiful Courtesan catches your eye and you spend far more money than you ever intended seeking to impress the wealthy seducer.  1D100x100GP in treasure is gone, excess is debt.   On a successful Charisma check you do manage to impress the Courtesan and he/she may provide you with information.
5	Flirtations – A fine evening of ribald wit and petty flirtations puts you in a cheerful mood, but has no mechanical effect.
6	Lost Love – You think you spot a long lost love across a crowded dance floor, but then they are gone before you can be sure.  You begin to second guess yourself and doubt your impulses.  -1 to Initiative next session.
7	Stern Lecture – An elderly and officious intermeddler pulls you aside as you wander the Rustgate’s dens of sin.  Delivering a withering and earnest castigation that disrupts your evening, this busybody makes you angry.  Your rage is so strong that you will critically strike opponents on a 19 or 20 during the next session.
8	Social Disease – The only thing social about this illness is the manner in which you caught it.  Lose 1 point of CHR per session until the disease is cured as unsightly boils, sallowness and a sick cheesy smell disfigure you.  When your CHR reaches 3, save vs. death and either die or be cured, recovering only ½ the lost CHR due to the scarring.
9	A New Beginning - A transformative night of passion, literally transformative.  You awake in a different body having swapped consciousness with your partner.  Reroll all stats and pick a new appearance/gender/age etc. If you can find the body hopping spectral entity that stole your corporeal husk (it may have moved on again), a remove curse spell will reverse the process.
10	New Flame – You met someone, someone who’s really neat, and seems to adore you almost as much as you adore them!  Right now you are walking on air, insufferable to your companions perhaps with your constant talk about your new beau, but utterly euphoric, and may reroll one roll next session.
11	You are in love with Love!  It’s just such a wonderful feeling to care about everyone and everything, and you are filled to bursting with good feeling. You feel the need to share this with the universe,  butyou’re your allies gain +1 HP next session due to all that fellowship.
12	A Token – While the dalliance didn’t last, your temporary paramour left you something behind either by accident or as a gift.  This minor magical item (a potion, scroll or small magical trinket) is yours now.
13	Married – You end up married to someone, you don’t remember how or when, but they’re demanding a better lifestyle and they have family/faction that will be annoyed if you leave your new spouse, mistreat them or fail to provide at least 100 GP of upkeep cost for them each session.
14	Anything for Love – You end meeting a really nice someone, only to discover they are owned by or indentured to some sort of horrible pimp/madam/underworld figure.  You must spend 1D6/2 x 1,000 GP or 1D6/2 underworld reputation points to free them.  If you do so gain a permanent +1 to Wisdom/Charisma or Constitution (random) and a potential henchman with a loyalty of 12.
15	Raid! The Stewards raided the establishment you while you were minding your own business.  Roll a Save vs. Wands (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or you were too enamored to escape and were jailed.  Money will get you out (100 GP per 10% cumulative chance of getting out per session) or a reputation point with the Stewards can be spent to earn your release..
16	Dalliance - You manage to charm a slumming member of the passenger caste, it languidly tells you “you are worth your weight in sorrow; you are worth your weight in gold”.  You’ll never see your lover again, but a cameo of you worth 2D6x100 GP is delivered to you by a flying monkey in a tuxedo two days later.
17	Viva Hate - So you go, and you stand in your own.  And you leave on your own.  And you go home, and you cry and you want to die.  A crushing, killing loneliness finds your amongst the light’s that never go out.  All attacks do +1 point of damage to you until you have a successful ‘Lust’ carousing check (not including this one).
18	Paramour – The new object of your affections has a paramour, a big, scary, jealous paramour.  You’ll need to fight him or her, even if nothing happened, or suffer potential ambush and certain social consequences.  Paramour is level 3-10 (D8+2) and fight is likely to be non-lethal unless PC pushes it.
19	Mickey Finn– Such a charming companion, they laughed at all your jokes and you thought they genuinely liked you.  They just liked the idea of drugging you and taking all your money.  Awake stiff and muzzy from the Mickey Finn and having lost all easily saleable wealth (GP valued items, not equipment).
20	But I Got it for You – In an ill-advised, intoxicated effort to attract the attention of others you purchased a small (but vicious) animal of some kind.  A Snapping Turtle, Ornamental Vic, Razor Pigeon or similar mean spirited and mercenary beast with sharp parts and a taste for flesh is now yours.  It didn’t work as a romantic lure, the little terror having decided to protect you from anyone who comes near, but you now have a ½ HD creature that can fit in a small sack or purse and attacks for normal damage with a +1 Attack Bonus.

D20	Violence Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Battle Scars – Those pit fighting professionals don’t really fight any better then Scavengers, but they sure fight dirtier.  You have received superficial but disfiguring wounds. Roll 1D4  1 – Hideous facial scaring (-1 CHR), 2 – Gouged out eye (-1 to all missile attacks), 3 – Impressive and mysterious scar (+1 CHR),   4 – Ear bitten off (-1 to Listen checks)
2	Evil Don’t Look Like Anything – You have become possessed by a dark spirit of violence and slaughter, heal 1HP for every living creature you kill in melee combat.  There will be side effects.
3	Gang Fight – you decide to weigh in on one side of a fight between barflies and street thugs.  Impressed by your fighting ability the gang has decided you are now a member.  They number 2D10 and will provide zero level henchmen, but expect a cut of your income (At least 50 GP a session to maintain the connection and access to LVL 1 Specialist (skirmisher or thief) henchmen).
4	Blood Crazed – The thrill on the blood spattered faces of victory and the agony of the defeated has seduced you.  You have become a thing of bloodlust and sadistic pleasures.  Should you fail to kill an opponent in a game Session, the Session afterwards you will be depressed and roll all rolls at -1.
5	Bare Knuckle – Win or lose, your hands really hurt from pounding the heck out of someone or something
6	Tavern Games – On a bet you played a game of mumbly peg, or some similar game involving knives and your extremities.  Not only are you wounded (suffer 1 HP/HD damage)  but the wound makes it awkward to fight (-1 to hit and damage for the session).
7	The Blood Meridian – You are a killer, but even killers have saints and one has taken a liking to you.  It will follow you judging your violence and murderousness until it finally kills you.  Each Session you gain a cumulative +1 to damage done and damage received, until you have personally killed 10 times you HD in foes.
8	The Moon is a Cold Chiseled Dagger – He just kept insulting you, that huge beast of a man, and you called him out with blood in your eye.  Behind the bar, in a filth choked alley you fought, and you won.  He bit you though, and now the taint is in your blood.  You’ve contracted lycanthropy.  Most likely you are a wereboar, but other varieties are possible.  In future sessions the GM will roll a secret WIS check to see if you turn into a terrible murder beast when you first take damage. May be cured with Remove Curse.
9	Brutality – Swaggering, glowering and looking for trouble usually means trouble will find you. You got in the fight you wanted, and your rage carried the day.  Unfortunately the victim is moderately connected and reasonably dangerous. -1 reputation with a random faction, and the maimed victim of your wrath may seek you out for revenge.
10	New Friends – Your tales of violence and murder from the hull are appreciated by a rapt audience, gain +1 reputation with a random faction.
11	Seen Too Much – There’s too much violence, it doesn’t matter if it’s fights or slaughter in the hull, you’re exhausted and sick of it.  You resolve to change your ways and help people. +1 to all healing efforts (amount healed and skill checks) made in the next session.
12	Mentor – You seek out an old salt, a master of mayhem who teaches you a few tricks and fills you with confidence.  Gain 1D6/2 + level x100 XP.
13	Beat Down – You spit in the wrong eye and have been brutally beaten for your trouble. All HD are treated as 1D6/2 for the next session as you lurch about on bruised bones, peering from swollen eyes.
14	Trophy – Either b y joining in a pit fight, being tossed it by a victorious champion, or stealing from a drunken fan, you’ve come into possession of some sort of trophy: A shattered tooth, bloody severed finger or torn piece of armor belong to a famous denizen of the pit.  This item acts as a magical talisman, deflecting the next critical strike you receive before its magic is exhausted.
15	You Call That A Knife – Searching amongst the weapon stalls and craftsmen of Sterntown’s bazaars you manage to get a great deal on a really neat weapon.  This item is of higher quality then normal and has one minor magical effect (hexed, silver etc.)
16	Pity for the Losers – After watching the blood and atrocity of the gaming pits, remorse and sadness suffuses your being.  Moping about behind the pits you find a mangled fighting animal still clinging to life.  Healing and nursing this creature (at a cost of 100 GP) will gain you a normal 1 HD guard/attack animal of high loyalty in 1D6/2 Sessions.
17	White Knight – You stumble across a slumming member of the passenger caste who is being harassed and threatened by a pack of fierce urchins.  Wading in you drive off the street youth and as a thanks receive a portion of the Passenger’s purse (2D6x100 GP) then spend an interesting evening discussing urchin abatement/massacre plans.
18	An Eye for a Winner – At the gaming pits you seem to be able to spot the creatures with the ferocity and toughness to triumph.  Crabs, dogs, giant rats, imps and even the squid fights hold no surprises for you tonight.  1D10x25 GP in winnings.
19	The Devil You Know – Your rage and lust for violence has attracted the attentions of an otherworldly patron.   You are slowly going mad from the whisperings that demand violence.  -3 to all reaction rolls for the next Session as you fume glower and froth, ready and excited by the desire for violence.  You may keep this frothing madness as long as you like, gaining the abilities of a TIER 1 Berserker (fight on for 1D6/2 rounds after death/serious injury as if uninjured) while accepting the boon of your sanguine patron.
20	Taught a Lesson – Loitering around the sword school or poking through rare books about combat you find a truly elucidating text about the art of combat.  Roll an INT check to understand the hoary document or stunning show of skill and gain +1  Attack Bonus.