Spell Reskinning - Lightning Bolt

5th Level is when Wizards start to get really dangerous, and one of the signs of their new power to destroy is lightning bolt, deadly area effect spell that is a staple of magic user direct damage spells.  In the spirit of my previous posts reskinning sleep and magic missile, here's a set of twenty alternatives for Lightning Bolt.

Snakemen of the Certopsian

Snakemen are something I keep mentioning in my Certopsian Plains stuff, and Serpent Men make up the ultimate opponent in the Certopsian Situation (which I am trying to get back to working on).  Below is a bit of background, a picture (the composition, idea, and style of which was ripped off wholesale from Moebius) and a basic stat-line.

Awakened by strange ritual and dark magics, the Serpent Men have returned to the Certopsian plains after two thousand years of slumber.  Once the blood soaked masters of the Land of Thousand Towers, their monstrous 500 year reign was only put to the end by the advance of the Clockwork Matriarchy and it's automaton armies.

ONE MAP TWO MAP, RED MAP, BLUE MAP

Actually it's four small maps I drew up mostly as a series of tests for new map fills.

MAP 1 - Bugbear Den

(This map relates to ASE goblins - with their strange alien physiology)

In the forest beyond the low road an enterprising band of goblins, led by a fairly intelligent servitor species goblin (though they have no hive mind) have set up a small defensible village using an ancient bunker as a base.  Using this base they've been successful raiders and scavengers.  The key to their success is the use of a huge hollow tree as a spawning shrine for selected goblin sacks that are then heaped with the bodies of victims and animals the goblins hunt.  As goblin specialists know, rich nutrients and forest air result in bugbears.  Now the tribe has several, and with this added muscle expect to raise an even larger crop of bugbears soon.

Not really a fill map, given it's outdoors - I do like the use of the 20% grey (well now orange) for the trees and think it's a nice way to frame a map when one doesn't have real walls.

MAP 2 - Bleached Harbor

The desert beneath the earth was once a salty underground sea, or what was once a sea is now dry an sunk beneath the earth.  Once a proud trading house the Bleached Harbor is now derelict, with the ruins of a smashed cog and a capsized war galley standing sentry below docks that now raise 15' from hard packed salt flats.  Inside the ruin, carved from the rock of a former sea cliff, its interior walls enriched with fossils the trading house is strangely undisturbed.  Perhaps it's ghosts, ghouls or demons.  Certainly denizens of the salt flats find the shelter of the trading post a welcome respite from the dry scouring winds outside.

Used a hatching technique consisting of spirals - Not sure how I feel about it, it's not slow but it's not especially fast either.  I think the effect is pretty good, but it doesn't fit well in narrow spaces.

Some Maps (and thoughts on map fill)

 I was recently happy to get a very flattering comment from Dyson Logos of regarding one of my maps, which got me thinking about Dyson and his maps.  I've always really enjoyed them, they're clean and interesting (especially the way passages cross over each other and they possess a three dimensionality while remaining one level). What I really got to thinking about, because I like drawing maps, is Dyson's crosshatching technique, which even if you have no idea who I'm talking about you will recognize, because almost every map I see (mine included) is using it.

By crosshatching technique I mean the way the one fills space, specifically the space on a map filled with rock, earth or anything else more or less impenetrable. I've been stealing Dyson's great crosshatching, and I want to look into other space filling techniques for maps, because though it's filler, crosshatching adds a lot of character to a map and the character it adds tends to be one of the things that differentiates hand drawn maps from computer drawn.

Here are two filler techniques I thought up yesterday night and have applied to these small temples of evil.

Sinister, vaguely mechanical - block stippling

DER TOTTENWERKS (Das Totenwerk/Temple of Slaughter)

Beneath a stretch of rocky ground and accessed by a narrow stair set within a square pillar in the middle of nowhere, this abandoned temple to a deity of justice gone nasty and draconian served as a prison, ritual torture center and place of sacrificial execution.

It is undoubtedly haunted by the spirits of the victims, but could be used as a lair by just about anything/anyone who doesn't mind grim utilitarian decor designed to inspire hopelessness.  Prison areas are to the North with drainage pits (certainly also filled with bones), a torture theater and a well. To the South is the ritual chamber and quarters for the Carnifex priests.

The fill pattern I used here has a nice effect and is easier than cross hatching, but it is rather time consuming.  I also think it might work better for a map with rounder rooms as smaller spaces can blend into the block fill.  Of course using thick black walls helps keep the negative and positive space separated.

THE TEMPLE OF THE KRAKEN

Buried beneath the salt pan of an ancient dried lake, or the mud of a shallow marsh a sink hole leads to this ancient submersible.  A science-fantasy map depicting a crude temple to some sort of tentacled star god built into the ruins of an advanced technological craft.  The guardians reside in the aft, while the head priest or magician has luxurious quarters in the conning tower.  The temple itself is built in the missile and torpedo room amongst decaying weapons of mass destruction.

I would drop this thing into the Livid Fens South of Denethix in a second packing it with zombie drummers and poison wielding fanatical tribesmen.

This fill worked rather will, it's simply stippling in a more traditional way using a large, blunt sharpie. It's quicker than crosshatching and seems useful on maps with a lot of open space as where a decayed or organic feeling might be useful.

Pahvelorn - Session XVII - Tower of the Stargazer

TOWER OF THE STARGAZER - As converted to Pahvelorn...

This is a play report, but it's also a review of playing tower of the stargazer using OD&D rules as made sensible and brutal by Brendan of Untimely.  I note that the party of 5 PC's (C 4, C 3, MU 2, F 1, T 3) and several henchmen (F2, F1, F1, MU 1, Dog 1, Dog 0) managed to make it through, get the loot and not suffer any damage.  I think this is a testament to the sheer deviousness of the GM's own puzzles and traps and the healthy fear the PC's now have for anything and everything.  I should add that the dangers in the tower were apparently made more so based on the higher level of the party.

After the last disastrous foray into the Pits of Pahvelorn, the adventuring party sometimes known as 'The Order of Gavin" is depressed.  They are broke, have just lost one of their mages (The non-creepy one), had a a favored henchman descend into hysterics and dash unarmored off to his death, exhausted most of their magic items and honestly at wits end about where additional valuables might be located within the Pits.

A knock on the door of the party's ramshackle compound stirs the adventurers from their despondent sloth, and they find a short man, dressed in motley and bearing a invitation to the tower of a powerful wizard recently arrived in town presumably offering employment.  The tower is normal except for a pack of large apes placidly eating ferns in an enclosure to one side, and some strange geometry that appears to facilitate the sorcerer's interest in the heavens

Indeed the powerful wizard does want the adventurers to undertake a mission for him, specifically he claims that an ancient sorcerer of the name Calcidius 'the Great' shared an interest in observing the stars.  Clacidius is presumed dead, but he left an intact tower, likely full of high quality observation equipment that Zorpath's wizard is willing to pay 1,000GP for scouting a path to.  Beni negotiates a byzantine deal where the party will receive a 1,000GP each if they fail to find treasure, and the wizard has a contract drawn up by a strange white haired servant and the party prepares to depart.

Wampus County Play Report - Return of Chauncy...

Public Handbill Posted in the Streets of Thistlemarch...

Citizens of Thistlemarch!  To Arms!

Recently it has come to the attention of this concerned citizen, as I am sure it has come to your attention as well, that a gang of lawless louts and madmen have taken up residence in our fair town.   If the struggles of the stolid frontiersman were not taxing enough, imagine your struggles when faced with the pack of buffoons, cunning men, cold eyed killers and wastrels that haunt the so called "rat-house" of this fair town.

Recently this band of scallywags and maniacs have abducted, imprisoned and ultimately executed no less than three individuals for unproven and likely imagined crimes.  Furthermore, their numbers grow daily, with new hired thugs riding in from the West and dangerous villains thought gone returning from unknown errands.

While undoubtedly you are aware of the recent debacle involving the torturous imprisonment of a large gentleman of the arachnid variety in the center of town and the related hanging of three individuals purported to be bandits, you may be less aware of the return of one of the Rat House's original denizens, the dastardly, obviously insane warlock Chauncy Woolstrike.  The monstrous prestidigitator returned shortly before the diabolical revelry associated with the hanging, and orchestrated by the violent killer Ms. Cobweb, who's gentle feminine demeanor some may still remember from when she was employed as a waitress at the hotel, but who is known now for her sanguinary disposition and was recently seen to strike down a citizen of Thistlemarch with a shotgun at a public meeting.

On alternatives to spell research

MAGICAL APPROPRIATION - AN ALTERNATIVE TO SPELL RESEARCH

In a recent discussion regarding the acquisition of magic in Wampus County the idea that on the frontier normal magical research isn't appropriate, and that perhaps magic (in the form of new spells) can be taken directly from the land and its spirits was discussed.  This, combined with a stodgy and restrictive magical establishment, makes the frontier a beacon for wizards, a sort of magical gold rush.

Weird psychedelic painting - seemed appropriate

TEMPUS GELIDUM- Full PDF

A black shadow above the alkali dust.  The caravan master shouts and several of the guards, the ones who know the road between Denethix and the Lower Certopsian panic.  You ask the nearest veteran if it's a nomad attack, he shakes his head, scars shiny in the oppressive sun, "That's not a Snakeman Terrordactyl, it's something worse" he mumbles and then points to a black pillar in the distance.  "That there, it reminds you, you've run out of time..." With that the veteran darts off his horse and under a creaking wagon, his lips dry and his crossbow loaded.

So that map I published a while back with a drawing of a winged gorgon monster - I've got a downloadable PDF of the adventure local. It's under 20 pages, and considerable tougher than the last adventure I put up.  Again it's aimed at a party of Levels 3-5.

It's a freaking flying Gorgon... This is where my home game would have ended up I think.

Millicent Cobweb - Wampus County PC/NPC/Monster

MILLICENT COBWEB 

Specialist/Assassin 6
HP 12
AC 5
ATK 1
DAM: (1D8+2 or 1D6+2 melee)*
(1D10x2) ranged
MV: 40'

STR 16 +2
INT 15 +1
WIS 8
DEX 17 +2
CON 13 +1
CHR 12

SKILLS: Backstab-6
Stealth-4,
Pick Lock/Tinker-3
Climb -3
Listen -3

Equip: Ash gray steel reinforced leather armor, Black dress, Ash Gray funeral hat, Festive leather skull mask, Silvered cavalry saber (1D8), Primeval monkey bone kukuri (1D6), Sawed off double barreled shotgun x2(1d8/1D10) 20 Silver shells, 20 shells, 2 magical monkey bone pistol bullets, 40' Rope, Compact hand mirror, Lantern, 6 Flasks of Oil, Turkitrice Talon Fetish (Once per day adds + 1D4 damage to attack) Scary Mask of Savage Origin (allows wearer to see in dark). Sack of mysterious blue Carcosa crystal bricks

*On Backstab attack damage is X4 and to hit chance is +4 (unless played by the rules - in which case it's X6/+6hit, without stat and item bonuses).

Character Portraits

As a follow up to the post of Beni Profane - here's the rest of the Pahvelorn party (with the exception of Sarin the Cleric - who was not around this last session).  All were drawn during the tragic session.  A short blurb is below each of them.

OGUM

Ogum - The party's current magic-user.  His master himself a former apprentice was torn apart by skeletal rats.  He also knows that the first warlock in the party, a now almost forgotten fellow named "Margo" was strangled by a skeleton.  He should clearly be afraid of skeletons.

It's not clear Ogum wanted to be a magic-user, rather he had magic use thrust upon him.  He's not really suited for it, but he finds himself with a pile of scrolls, spellbooks and magical bric-a-brac.

His apprentice is Eahrianna - an orphan moppet of 12 years old who was the former apprentice of the mad wizard Lovitar the Bleak eyed, who Ogum, Higgans and the rest of the party slew.

SATYVATI (Deceased)

Satyvati was a cheerful sort for a wizard taking up adventuring to pay his creditors after fleeing his home town.  He liked the finer things and spent a large amount of treasure on clothes and a house (which the party have now taken).  He was a skilled magic-user all the same - and quite effective with less combat oriented spells.

Sadly he was talked into seeing is "Protection from Evil" work on stone guardians.  Apparently they weren't evil, and before he could turn tail and run his was punched through the head by an 10' tall statute.

Satyvati leaves his servant Druna (who came with him in exile) to join the party as a full fledged member

DRUNA

Druna is not an adventurer, or at least he never wanted to be one.  He was a rich man's body servant, and seemed rather content at that job.  Yet when his master fell on hard times Druna followed him into a new career as a delver in slime filled caverns and plunderer of ancient barrows.  Faint hearted and useless at first, apparently Druna had been holding out on his master as he has had some obvious combat experience in his 59 years.

No one is sure where he learned to fight: banditry, military service or gladiator pits.  All are possibilities, but Druna isn't telling.


TARVIS

 Tarvis is the party's less contemplative Cleric.  A crusader for the Ancient Empire (The established religion in Pahvelorn) he's a bit the bruiser and door kicker.

Tarvis is also on the town counsel of Zorptah. His clerical rectitude and zeal making up for any lack of education and intellect.

Tarvis is accompanied by Darullian, a local Pahvelorn farm boy recruited by Lune (deceased) in a crossbow contest.  Darullian is both smarter and possibly more rational than Tarvis but the two work well together.

It should be noted that Pahvelorn is one of the deadlier games played on Google+ that I've seen - 4 PC's and 3 Henchman have died so far in the Pits, which is pretty high given that there is a death save. This is all the more surprising because the party is generally very cautious and frequently goes through a large number of 10' poles, ropes, iron spikes and similar items..