The Midgard Races

The revised edition of the Midgard Campaign Setting is coming along nicely, and it’s time to talk about what’s new and what’s changed. This article is part of an occasional series on the process of refining and sharpening the setting to address its development since its first hardcover compilation.

One of the earliest decisions made in the rewrites was to revisit the core race mix. The 2012 edition of the Midgard hardcover features humans, dragonkin, dwarves, elves and elfmarked, gearforged, kobolds, and minotaurs as the 7 primary PC races, and certainly, those are all races with deep roots in Midgard play and lore. Centaurs, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, halflings, tengu/huginn and tieflings were listed as “minor races.”

However, over time and in play, the balance has shifted, especially with the introduction of the Southlands as a more prominent region. We even considered adding jinnborn and lizardfolk to the options, but in the end, they just are too specific to fit very comfortably outside their homelands. At the same time, other quite prominent races might just not be needed all over the setting; for instance, the gearforged are played by an enthusiastic minority, but really, they’re linked almost entirely to Zobeck and the Seven Cities. At the same time, the shadow fey, the bearfolk, and the trollkin have arrived and all fill interesting niches based on adventures and story events. Where does this leave us?

At the moment, it leaves us with the gearforged shifting into a position as an important secondary race and with a new mix of 7 primaries: humans, dwarves, elfmarked, kobolds, minotaurs, ravenfolk, and trollkin are getting the main focus of attention in the revised edition as they represent the widest-ranging, most played, and most generally heroic races across the width and breadth of the setting. They are the most Midgard-y, if you will. They also lend themselves to a wide range of archetypes and play styles.

That doesn’t mean the minor races are forgotten by any means, just that they are less geographically dispersed, and I’ve been thinking of them as the “regional races” or “regional flavor” races. These 10 regional races are the bearfolk of the Northlands, centaurs from the Rothenian Plains, dhampirs and darakhul from the Blood Kingdom, dragonkin from the Dragon Empire, dust goblins from the West, gearforged from the Crossroads, gnolls from the Southlands and Plains, plus the Niemheim gnomes and the shadow fey from the Shadow Realm—all also worthy races. However, I think you’ll admit they are heavily identified with particular Midgard regions rather than wandering all over the setting. Rather than trying to make them too generic, we’re doubling down on them as exemplars of a particular part of the setting.

Halflings and tieflings are (for now) quite minor races indeed in Midgard; we don’t see any reason to provide a large chunk of Midgard-specific variants for them, though they obviously have lots of fans and remain totally playable in the setting as one-off characters. Lizard folk, jinnborn, lamia, tosculi, and other Southlands-centric races also fall into this category of playable but not requiring further expansion right away.

So there you have it, a high-level overview of some of the current design thinking behind our new player-centric races. I expect some cheers of joy and some gnashing of teeth as is always the way when a setting gets an update. Even knowing that, I hope you like this peek into the thought process going into the design. A poll is available below to see what you are playing or hoping to play in the revised Midgard Campaign Setting!

Gencon is coming, and 4-day badges are more expensive this year!

But the Kobold can help, and you can help the Kobold. Just run 4 or more full-table, four-hour games at Gencon and your badge will be compensated.

We have the adventures, you’re the GM!

Event submission begins on January 22nd, just weeks away. When you commit to running 4 or more events, you can get your badge compensated and possibly pick up some Kobold swag.

Email brickk(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject [GENCON] Volunteer GM, and we’ll get you sorted!

The Escape

Black Gate is not just any prison: it’s where the kingdom holds its most powerful lawbreakers. The Shadow Man, a noted assassin who was little more than smoke and rumor until he faced off with a contingent of the king’s own. The Devil’s Daughter, a woman who had truck with fell powers and whose sorceries left a nation in dread. Even The Deacon, a priest of gods so foul it would curdle the tongue to speak their names aloud, has a cell in the spire of this prison.

Getting into this place is not easy. Getting out is impossible… or is it?

Elements of The Escape

An escape is made up of two elements: the Walls and the Hunt.

The Walls, in this case, are whatever the party has to escape. Maybe they’ve been imprisoned (either justly or unjustly), and they need to get out. The party might awaken in a sanitarium with no memory of how they got there but the knowledge they have to get out. They might even find themselves in a city that’s being occupied by an enemy force or that’s under siege. The Walls, in this case, are the guards, the locked gates, and the overwhelming forces that will try to stop the party from leaving their current location.

The Walls also include the party’s lack of resources. An imprisoned sorcerer may be fine when it comes to spellcasting capabilities, but an imprisoned wizard would need to acquire spell components, find a spellbook, and re-acquire a familiar or bonded item. A brawler might be able to walk the streets of an occupied town ready for battle, but a fighter who depends on armor and shields would need to leave more obvious gear behind, putting him at a disadvantage.

The Hunt is the second stage of the escape, and it’s the one the party doesn’t always think about. After you get past the walls, there are going to be people looking for you. Unless, that is, players can throw off the Hunt somehow. That might be as simple as walking through a trackless waste, making sure their trail goes cold by the time pursuers come after them. It might mean taking on new identities or even faking their deaths, but whatever they do, the party should have to take some serious actions in order to throw off pursuit.

The Hunt isn’t just an immediate threat, either. Even if players manage to get away in the short-term, the Hunt can be ongoing. Bounty hunters might be combing the countryside for the party along with the intelligence services of one kingdom or another. People who want revenge may be looking for the party, hoping to find them before the legitimate authorities do. Those are all things the party has to consider when making an escape.

The Stages of the Escape

The first stage of the escape is to plan it. That means the party has to come together in some way and begin doing research on their exit strategy. That might mean prisoners reach out to each other and start discussing how, if they worked together, they might get out. Alternatively, it might be about disparate agents of an underground resistance making contact in an occupied territory and joining forces. Planning encompasses bringing the party together and gathering enough intelligence to come up with a solution.

The next stage is the attempt. Whatever plan the party came up with, they need to put it into action. That might be starting a ruckus to draw attention while two other party members knock out the guards at the postern gate. Once their uniforms are stolen, the “guards” can escort the “prisoners” out of the deeper area, and they can all make a break for the woods.

The third and final stage is the pursuit. Once the party successfully escapes, they need to stay one step ahead of people trying to track them down. If they’re low-level, that means they’ll only have to deal with physical pursuit. Higher-level, or higher-priority, characters, though, might have diviners scrying on them or priests asking the gods where to find them. This could make their lives increasingly difficult, especially if no precautions are taken against magical tracking.

Does The Escape Ever End?

The escape is one of the game styles that can easily support an entire campaign or a single arc of one. If you’re in a war zone, then escaping a city is a fun way to change up the slog of constant combat. Or, if you were wrongly convicted, then you may need to escape in order to clear your name. And that could take some doing, depending on how elaborate the scheme was that got you imprisoned in the first place.

It’s important to work with your players and to extract details from them in order to make sure the escape goes the way you want. If it’s a simple “get out of the city” arc, then that’s not a big deal. If you want them to evade capture for a dozen levels, though, while simultaneously figuring out why they were set up, then you need to be sure to tie the PCs’ stories to their need to end the escape. If someone would be just as happy sailing halfway around the world to live under an assumed name, it will be really hard to push that character to find out more about what happened.

Lastly, remember to always give your players a way to succeed. For example, if the first escape attempt fails and they’re all recaptured, then they might get sent to solitary confinement. That’s when one of them discovers a secret tunnel that allows them access to a hitherto forgotten part of the prison, which might allow them to escape—if they can avoid the noxious dwellers that were put there to prevent escape. Never have a variable outcome, such as botching a Bluff or Disguise check, be what makes or breaks your players’ progress. Simply close one door, and open a different one.

Neal Litherland provides more gaming insights at his blog Improved Initiative.

For an adventure to add your own Infiltration to, check out Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. One of the reasons we’ve held on to our sanity for so long is our love of arts and crafts. It’s provided an endless series of fun hobbies and useful trinkets. I still fondly remember the looks on the faces of the minions when we gave them those itchy rainbow scarves we knit. The poor suckers were too afraid to take them off.

Beyond random hilarity, our love of creation has produced treasure for luring in burglars and interesting alternatives with our various pursuits. Even the failures can be fun and useful. Like, for example, all of the vacuous grimoires we surrounded this diary with. If anyone is reading this that shouldn’t be, I am sure that was fun to pick through. Assuming you are still literate after all the brain damage, of course.

That brings us to today’s topic: crafting.

You know what stinks? We don’t sleep and still can only craft magic items for eight hours a day. Super lame. As if that wasn’t bad enough, if we actually do something with our freaking off hours, we can only get four hours of progress in. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out workarounds. We have all of eternity, so it’s not like we’re in a rush, but it’s still supremely annoying. It’s mostly about the principle of the thing, but it’s also always fun to point out reality’s loopholes. It’s kind of like making a rude gesture at the whole universe.

One idea we came up with was using greater create demiplane to muck with time, but that didn’t address the basic problems. Time passes normally for us, for one thing. We were getting twice as much work done in a day, but it didn’t change the irksome feeling that we kept hitting a glass ceiling. Plus, to really get the benefit, we have to stick it out in the demiplane for a long stretch. At that point, does it really matter?

The next thing we did was abuse the crap out of the simulacrum spell. Fun fact… there is no maximum on the number of duplicates you can make as long as you have disposable income and time. Funner fact… if you manage to become allies with a hag coven containing a winter hag, those beautiful ladies can pump out 600 simulacrums an hour, for free.

You can always double down on that angle too. A little planar binding might get you a single useful outsider (like say, a genie). Now, dealing with one of those arrogant jerks is a pain in the tail bone. However, there is nothing saying you can’t just permanently paralyze them and start producing perfectly loyal simulacrums. They can’t really resist at all, and then, you can put them to work. You get one that can cast daily wishes, and your small army of simulacrum can craft just about anything. Basically, you turn the demiplane into an industrial-grade, magic-crafting sweatshop.

That, in turn, gives you more time to focus on your cross-stitch.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Image courtesy of Tina Phillips at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Triolan Highwayman

The Triolan corsairs are renowned throughout Midgard for their flamboyant ferocity and near monopoly on organized shipping and piracy throughout the (northern) Middle Sea. But the sea lanes and merchant armadas are not the only means to move goods and services to and from the rich trade centers of the great peninsula. Eager merchants still foolishly brave back roads and “shortcuts” to hurry their goods to Tolmezo, Melana, and Peltzheim. Likewise, the coastal roads to Raguza or west into Trombei are rich with petty nobles and their slackjawed coachmen, careless smugglers, and the occasional tax collector caught out after dark.

You, however, were no roadside robber or woodland brigand. You counted yourself among the storied (and the somewhat storied) Triolan highwaymen, many of whom are still recounted in tavern songs and bawdy, roadhouse limericks.

The “title” of highwayman is most often bestowed by the local populace or by regular association with a reputable highwayman. It denotes an individual (frequently a bastard of the gentry or a disgraced, rebellious, or disillusioned aristocrat) who has established a reputation (or a secret identity) for flair, finesse, and even fashion while exhibiting abhorrence for violence and bloodshed.

You are courteous, polite, and charming, and even in the face of death, your etiquette is impeccable. As a highwayman, you championed the liberties (resentments) of the peasantry, targeting only the rich and powerful: members of the merchant monopolies, corrupt officials, and decadent nobility, some of whom may have been peers or associates of yours at one time. Most highwaymen are rumored to support local causes and reforms or somehow give back to the region or the less privileged.

Triolan Highwayman (Variant Folk Hero)

Skill Proficiencies: Deception and choose 1 from Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception or Persuasion

Languages: Southern and Trade Tongues

Tool Proficiencies: A musical instrument of your choice, a gaming set of your choice, vehicle (land)

Equipment: A token or memento of a happier past, a set of traveler’s clothes, a (stolen?) riding horse (with saddle and tack), a leather belt-pouch containing 3 gp

Feature: Flattery, Footwork, and Flourish

With swirling cloak, flashing blade, and rapier wit, you taunt, tease, and vex your opponent. Whenever you take the attack action, wielding a one-handed, versatile weapon you are proficient with, all allies within 15 ft. who can see, hear, and understand your antics may add 1d4 to any attack rolls or saving throws that turn. This feature may be used once between long rests. Additionally, you are always considered proficient in Animal Handling when dealing with animals of an equine nature.

For the admiral’s tour of that scandalous and swashbuckling city-state Triolo (and their neighbors, peoples, powers, and politics), be sure to check out the Midgard Campaign Setting from Kobold Press. Or

Photo by GaborfromHungary

Parenthood

Hervard the Steady was one of the greatest wizards of his time: a capable adventurer and a renowned university lecturer. Intelligence and perseverance made him a great wizard; generosity and patience made him a great teacher. And he had great talent for divination. Legend has it that on his last day of life at the age of 176, he informed his students that class would end early, handed them all their final grades, sat down at his desk, and died.

There was a time early in his career when even his patience was stretched. As a result of overly ambitious cloning experiments and injudicious dimensional travel, Hervard married three versions of the same sorceress and had 27 children in the space of about six years. He devoted his time and talent over the next few decades to supporting this immense household, and he did some of his best work designing spells to keep track of all his children. Since most of them were magically gifted in one way or another and almost immediately began manifesting strange abilities, this was a challenge.

Accelerated Rest

2nd-level enchantment (ritual)
Casting time:  10 min
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Concentration up to 1 hour

The target creature falls immediately into a deep slumber. Unwilling creatures may make a Wisdom save. Over the next hour, the spell both accelerates time to about double speed and keeps the target in the deepest stages of sleep. If the hour passes uninterrupted, the target counts as having had a long rest.

This spell only works on other people. Since the caster must concentrate on the spell, they cannot be the target.

If the rest is interrupted for any reason, the creature that was resting counts as stunned. They rise from deepest slumber with their senses muffled and disjointed. Each round on their initiative, the affected character can make a Wisdom save DC 10 to negate the effect.

If cast at a higher level, the spell affects 2 more creatures for each slot level above the second.

“Hervard, listen to me very carefully. I haven’t slept properly in three weeks. There are 27 children in this house, and there are only three of me. If I don’t get sleep, I am going to start reducing the number of children.”
“But…”
“I am not joking Hervard.”
“Well, there is something we could try. It was going to be your birthday present, but it’s not finished. It may still be dangerous to use.”
“Does it look more dangerous than I do right now?”
“Nope”

Leash

1st-level Conjuration
Casting time:  1 action
Range: 90 feet
Components: V, M (an iron nail with a bit of string tied to it)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

The caster chooses a spot within range. All creatures within 10 feet are affected and must make a Strength check to move away from the center of the spell. If they succeed, they move as if in difficult terrain. If they fail, they cannot move that turn and are pulled 10 feet toward the center of the spell. If any affected creature makes two successful Strength checks in a row, the spell is broken and all those affected are freed.

“I need you to wait for me here.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Where do I need you to wait?”
“Right here, Dad.”
“Do I need to cast the spell?”
“No, Dad.”

Trace

2nd-level divination
Casting time:  1 action
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 12 hours

Touching the target places an invisible mark on them. For the next half day, you can sense three things about the target. You know their distance from you to within 10 feet, you know their direction, and you know their general state of mind. This emotional awareness is not nearly as precise or powerful as an empathic link, but it will let the caster sense large, powerful emotions like terror, ecstasy, serious pain, or intense curiosity.

The target can choose to make an Intelligence save if they are aware of the spell being cast. If the mark is discovered later, the target can choose to make an Intelligence save. If they fail, the mark stays for the duration of the spell. The invisible mark can be seen with detect magic, see invisible, arcane eye, and true seeing.

When scrying, trace can be used in place of a body part, lock of hair, or a bit of fingernail. It imposes a -10 penalty on saves.

“Let me get this straight, okay? Your brother changed into a bird?”
“Yeah.”
“Then he…?”
“Flew into a tree. So I had to chase him. So I just turned into a cat.”
“A cat. Right. Of course. And then what did your bother do?”
“He flew away. With the geese. I think they were geese. They were headed south.”
“None of you is ever leaving the house again.”

Unseen Librarian

1st-level conjuration (ritual)
Casting time:  1 action
Range: 60 ft.
Components: V, M (a skull shard from the orbit of the eye)
Duration: 8 hours

This spell creates an invisible, shapeless force that finds and reads books until the spell ends. The servant springs into existence in an unoccupied space on the ground within range. It has AC 10, 1 hit point, and a Strength of 2, and it can’t attack. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends.

The librarian will find any book within 300 feet that the caster (or other character designated by the caster) requests. The book must be requested by the name on the cover. If the book is not within range or the name was not correct, the librarian returns empty handed. It cannot give the reason for its failure.

Once the librarian returns with the book, it will read it out loud in the voice of the author. The librarian can also search through a book in 1d3 rounds to find instances of a word or group of words. It grants advantage on all Investigation checks performed using a collection of books.

“Read me another story!”

For more magically delicious spell options, just CAST our eyes on Deep Magic.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Photo by lisaleo

The Hands of Time

Mira cursed as a gobbet of molten iron landed on her shoulder. A partner would have made the riddle of the clock easy to bypass. As it was, her only course had been to spike the pendulum. She thought the sweat on her brow beaded from concentration as she picked the lock, but looking up, she realized it was from the heat of the iron spike that was now red hot and flexing under the pressure of the axe-shaped pendulum. Breaking the glass to escape did not help much. The blast of the clock chimes stunned her, small trickles of blood oozing from her ears…

All manner of clocks line the walls of this 10-ft.-by-40-ft. corridor. A massive grandfather clock dominates the far wall, an axe-bladed pendulum swinging back and forth in a glass-faced cabinet. The crowned peak of the timepiece kisses the 15-ft.-high vaulted ceiling; the time reads ten past six. Just enough room exists under the swing of the pendulum for one medium or small creature to access a hinged panel at the back. The space inside is the perfect hiding spot for a valuable treasure.

The etched glass panel of the cabinet illustrates a great battle and bears the following inscription.

Quarter? No! For quarter past
The time for foemen at the last.
Began numberéd but four plus six,
Thrice multiplied by heinous tricks.
Divide the host by heroes five,
Then take away the two that died.
Thus the key to time be faced,
Forget not to give the first its place.

The ticking of the many clocks overwhelms the senses, hampering the introduction of magical silence and distracting creatures in the corridor. Creatures in the clock cabinet with an intact and shut door are unaffected (and immune to the clock chime trap)—no sound escapes or penetrates the cabinet.

Tampering with the back panel causes the pendulum axe to drop into the safe space, striking up to four times before losing momentum. On the reverse side of the back panel, a clue to avoid triggering the clock chime trap reads:

To safely see me face to face, you must first recall my kingly face.

The clock chimes thunder and stuns those in the passage if the axe strikes, if the glass cabinet door is opened when the clock is not set to 6:10, or if the glass is broken.

The clock hands cannot be reset without inserting the key in the winding mechanism in the clock face. The cabinet key matches the winding mechanism and is virtually impossible to remove without locking the door, possibly leaving a creature trapped inside. Bypassing the pendulum trap requires setting the time to match the answer of the riddle: 4:15. The key must remain in the winding mechanism while the back panel is opened. The time must be reset to 6:10 to provide safe egress from the cabinet. Opening either door with the wrong time set triggers the clock chimes.

Stopping the swing of the pendulum triggers both traps, delaying the axe strike but not the clock chimes. The adamantine shaft of the pendulum heats iron spikes and chains to a molten temperature in three rounds and burns through rope in a single round. Getting a spike in place requires perfect timing.

Pathfinder Statistics

Trap Features: All mechanisms and locks require 2d4 rounds to disable.

Distraction: Increase Perception checks by +5 and prevent taking 10 in the corridor (or in the cabinet with the door open).

Chill metal counters the heating element in the pendulum (hardness 20, hp 40). A DC 20 Reflex save allows safe insertion of an iron spike to arrest its swing; failure grants an attack at half damage (full damage if failed by 5 or more); the pendulum continues to swing until successfully spiked (which triggers the traps as indicated above).

Removing the bypass key while leaving the cabinet door unlocked requires disabling the superior lock (DC 40) augmented by an arcane lock (+10 to disable DC). The back panel lock is of good quality (DC 30).

Silence spells have their area reduced to a single 5-ft. square. A DC 26 Spellcraft check allows a caster to pinpoint the square; otherwise, target a random square in the corridor. A DC 30 Spellcraft check or a DC 30 Perception check from a creature able to detect magical traps identifies this feature prior to casting.

Pendulum Trap CR 11

Type mechanical; Duration 4 Rounds Perception DC 15; Disable Device DC 40 Bypass Setting the clock to 4:15 with key inserted

EFFECTS

Trigger touch (back panel) Reset Automatic, 1 minute
Effect Atk +15 melee (3d6+10/×3).

Clock Chime Trap CR 12

Type magic; Duration 6 rounds; Perception DC 30; Disable Device DC 30 Bypass Resetting the time on the grandfather clock to 6:10 with key inserted.

EFFECTS

Trigger timed (one round following the activation of the pendulum trap, before any other actions), or as indicated above; Reset none
Effect spell effect (widened sound burst), 1d8 sonic damage plus stunned for 1 round, DC 22 Fortitude negates stun); multiple targets (all targets in the 10-ft. by 40 ft. corridor); breaking the cabinet glass grants the sound burst the persistent spell quality.

5E Statistics

The Pendulum Trap, spotted automatically, is DC 30 to disarm with a +9 attack bonus, deals Setback damage, and attacks once per round for four rounds. The Clock Chime trap (DC 25 Investigation/Disarm) sounds for 6 rounds, dealing 1d8 thunder damage each round and requires a DC 14 Constitution Saving Throw to avoid being stunned for one round (broken glass grants disadvantage). The ticking of the other clocks grants disadvantage on all activities unless enclosed in an intact cabinet prior to the triggering of the traps, and a caster must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution check to maintain or cast Silence at any time. Removing the bypass key from an unlocked cabinet requires a DC 35 Dexterity Check, which include the bonus from the arcane lock.

13th Age Statistics

The Pendulum Trap is spotted automatically, Ridiculously Hard to disable, and deals Hard single-target damage with a Hard attack once per round for four rounds. The Clock Chime Trap is Hard to spot and disable, and deals Normal thunder damage once per round for six rounds with a Normal save to avoid being stunned. All checks increase by one difficulty level unless in the enclosed glass cabinet. Silence effects require a Hard check to defeat the ticking clocks. Removing the bypass key from an unlocked cabinet door is Ridiculously Hard.

S&W Statistics

The Pendulum Trap strikes up to 4 times, once per round, dealing 3d6 points of slashing damage (save halves) each round. The Clock Chime Trap deals 1d6 points of damage each round for six rounds and requires a save versus magic to avoid being stunned for one round. If the glass is broken, this save is made at -2. A save versus magic is required to cast silence. Knock defeats both the arcane lock and the lock itself on the cabinet key, otherwise two delicate tasks check must succeed to remove it while leaving the cabinet door unlocked.

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Midgardian Magic

One of the principles behind the revised Midgard Campaign Setting is the “Dark Roads & Deep Magic” ethos. Not surprisingly, this means additions to player and game master options alike with the incorporation of new schools of magic from the Deep Magic series.

The existing school of heavily Midgardian magic are well known: ley lines, clockwork magic, and the illumination school all have extensive support in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game sourcebooks from Kobold Press. Others are certainly common in Midgard but common elsewhere, as well, such as rune magic, chaos magic, and battle magic.

Other schools are a bit more esoteric, as it were. Ring magic has been a thing among the dwarves since the Ring of the Nibelung, and it has a little history in the PFRPG Deep Magic and the 5E Tome of Beasts, but it’s hardly a full-bore treatment of the topic. Void magic is similar, though its roots are in the Cthulhu Mythos and the Midgard use of void as a touchstone for the outer darkness of horrors beyond mortal understanding. Void magic belongs to the category that I think of as “NPC magic” or “villain’s magic.” We’re expecting to keep the dark side options like necrophagy, dooms, void magic, and blood magic as material aimed at the GMs. That means it goes into the setting book, not the player handbooks.

This goes likewise with themes like mountain druids, dragon magic, high elvish ritual, minotaur labyrinth magic, and shadow magic (illumination’s more dangerous twin). I’m hoping we’ll be able to bring all of those (and others) into the player handbooks for Midgard. They are stretch goals at this point because at some level the player handbooks get more expensive to print and ship if we jam another 100 pages or 150 pages into them. I certainly hope that can happen.

That all said… there’s always room for more. We’re looking at entirely new options, as well, from more vril magic to the hidden secrets of Sikkim and the everyday magic of, say, priests of the apocalypse (because Midgard is nothing if not doom ridden!). What of the magic of the giants? What of the elemental magic of the fire priests of Mharot and Ishadia? What can we do to expand the choices for pyromaniacs, elfmarked enchanters, and cunning whispering warlocks?

Like the strong, dark dwarven beer of the Ironcrags, the Midgard Kickstarter project has been a long time fermenting—and it’s now live! The dark roads await us, and the deep magic calls. Check it out here.

This Kickstarter will bring a whole new world to 5th Edition, and expand the options for Pathfinder RPG players. We’re creating a new Midgard Campaign Setting book, with new maps, new chapters and an expanded timeline that moves events in the world a few years along.

The 300+ page volume describes the world of Midgard, from the Northlands to the Western Wastes, and from the Southlands to the Crossroads. With detailed locations, cities, rulers, heraldry, plots, and adventure hooks galore—plus full details of the various pantheons, masked gods, and dark gods—there’s enough here to fuel years of adventuring! In this updated edition, you’ll get the expanded Blood Kingdom of Morgau and updates to Zobeck and the Cantons, plus all-new material. We hope to add the Shadow Realm and Blood Kingdom as standalone chapters, and may open the golden gates of Khandiria…

But wait, there’s more! This Kickstarter includes two player books: the Hero’s Handbook for 5th Edition and the Player’s Guide for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Learn more, and join us as a backer!

Part 5, On Parthia and the Fire-Worshippers of Atashkala

Upon leaving Tabur by barge, it’s a twelve-day journey upon the Lumeta River. We fended off centaur raiders twice before reaching the eastern edge of the empire at the fortress town of Kazan. An impressive fortification, the town rests on both sides of the water and features a wall stretching beyond the bounds of the settlement to the horizon both north and south. The Gorgan Barrier, as the ferrymen boasted, was constructed by the Morza of Hariz herself and has the power to turn foes to stone. This claim I did not try to verify! 

Beyond the Borders

At Kazan the ferrymen would go no further, so we were forced to disembark. Here, my servant Agosto acquitted himself well, gathering up supplies and mounts. A hardy and violence-prone lot, the inhabitants of Kazan spend their days either defending the town from raiders off of the Rothenian Plains or conducting their own assaults against the settlements to the east. The river past Kazan becomes impassible to water travel. Our path now led overland.

Here, I finally reached the edge of the maps I purchased back in Zobeck. From now on, I would be the one mapping the land. The expedition finally begins in truth!

So let us finally turn aside from the known lands and turn to new ones.

On Parthia

A seemingly endless line of posts, hammered into the ground and mounted with the helms of the defeated, runs parallel to the border leaving a stretch nearly 100 miles wide. Patrolled by dragonkin and the Morza’s troops, this borderland keeps settlers away from the empire. Merchants and explorers such as myself are allowed passage, of course.

Now, you should know that the land directly east of the borderland bears the name Parthia. This place is not organized enough to be called a kingdom and consists of three provinces. And so I will name them all for you. The region north of the river is called Mardia; the second, which lies toward the south, is called Isfahan; the third, Qaen, lies on the far side of Parthia.

In the cities, there are many merchants and artisans who live by trade and industry, for they make gold and silk fabrics of every kind. Much cotton grows there, and they have great amounts of wheat, barley, millet, and many kinds of fruits. Fine horses are bred in large numbers in Parthia, and many are sent for sale in Beldestan or stolen by raiders from the Rothenian. Valued more for their habit of eating little, carrying heavy burdens, and traveling great distances than for their looks, these horses sell for at least 400 gold pieces! Through some skillful trading, Agosto managed to acquire several of these Parthian horses for us, though it cost us a great deal of coin.

Be aware, these provinces are full of brutal and bloodthirsty people, forever slaughtering one another in one feud or another. Curiously, they all safeguard traveling merchants claiming that their faith in Azuran (whom they call Azura) demands it to be so. Brigands and soldiers who delight in attacking each other on sight will escort a merchant caravan from one side of their territory to the other in return for a payment for each loaded beast of two or three silvers.

On the Fire-Worshippers of Atashkala

Soon after crossing into Parthia, you will reach Rhaga. This strange city is the center of worship for a god or spirit called Atashkala. This, I have been told, means “fire-beloved” in our language. And that is a statement of fact because the inhabitants of this city do worship fire. And I will tell you why. Here is the tale as I heard it. Some time ago, three magicians returned to Rhaga after following a vision each had received. In their possession was a great stone of metal and ruby which they had witnessed fall from the night sky. When this stone was placed in the middle of the city, it erupted into an endless flame that burns to this very day. The flame, called Atashkala, claimed to be the first flame born at the creation of the world and promised blessings in return for devotion.

Now a great temple stands around the Flame of Atashkala. If the lame or ill but step into the flames, they are restored to full health. These followers of the flame believe every flame to be a reflection of Atashkala, and every time they pray, they make a sacrifice of meat or goods, roasting them in fire until they are ash. Some even carry around a flicker of Atashkala in special reliquaries that they keep perpetually alight.

One fascinating item created by the followers of Atashkala bears description. It is a small iron orb set with rubies that, when thrown to the ground, calls down a pillar of black fire from the sky called voidfire.

Voidfire Orb

Aura moderate evocation; CL 9th
Slot –; Price 2,250 gp; Weight —

DESCRIPTION

Studded with shards of ruby, this small iron sphere can be thrown as a standard action with a range increment of 45 feet. When the orb strikes any surface, it detonates, calling down a pillar of black and orange flame from the sky (as per the flame strike spell). The voidfire orb is completely consumed by the detonation.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Wondrous Items; Spells flame strike; Cost 1,125 gp

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Photo by quicksandala

Dear Kobold Oracle,

The newest player in my group is constantly checking their cell phone despite that I’ve mentioned more than once that we don’t usually use electronics at the table. On top of that, the rest of our party uses real dice, but he insists on using his cell phone for die rolling, so there’s no way to know if he’s cheating. I’m also convinced he’s looking up the stats for monsters we encounter and using them to decide character actions… I hate conflict, but this is really putting myself and the other players in a bad mood for the games. Help?

___

Dear Gamer,

While it’s true many have embraced the electronic age of tablets, phones, and laptops at the table, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a more traditional game! Unfortunately, it sounds like your player may be craving a different style of play than the rest of you. While it’s perfectly okay for the group to decide electronics or die rollers are approved for your game, it really isn’t well mannered of your player to go against the wishes of the majority. I’m afraid you’ll have to put your foot down.

One way to approach the problem may be to get your other players involved. But be sure that your assessment that they agree with your no electronics rule is accurate, first, or you could find yourself drastically changing the dynamic of your game. Get everyone together, and start out by mentioning that you’ve noticed the new player really enjoys using his phone at the table. You might bring up that you haven’t had a group vote in some time over the use of modern tools, and you thought it would be a good idea to revisit the discussion to be fair to the player with the phone. Obviously, your troublesome player will be the only one who votes for electronics, leaving him the minority and setting the tone for the remainder of the games.

If you want to diplomatically cushion the blow, you could give the individual their own set of dice to replace his phone addiction. You don’t need to accuse him of cheating, just let him know that since the group as a whole isn’t inclined to change the way the game runs, he will have to put the phone away. He may argue the point, he may even decide the group isn’t for him and huff off to find a more modern game, but at the very least, you and your remaining players can get back to enjoying your game the way you prefer it.

In the future, I would recommend you establish this rule with new players from day one by placing a small basket on the table and having everyone put their cell phones in it when the game starts. This way, it’s just the everyday rule that the table is very obviously going along with. It’s always harder to correct established behavior than it is to begin how you would like to continue.

Happy Gaming!
The Kobold Oracle

Have a question for the Oracle about gaming? Not about the rules of a particular system but about how to actually start gaming, about scheduling, about social etiquette, about how to handle problems that arise at the gaming table, or anything really about how you and others can have the most fun possible? Let us know in the comments!

Loyalty Beyond Death

Encounters have consequences. Every slain bandit has friends who will want revenge, and every devil banished back to the Eleven Hells reports its failure to its Dark Lord. What happens when the PCs’ daring deeds come back to bite them?

The following encounter chains are more than just random encounters. Each conflict flows organically into the next, sometimes without even giving the PCs a chance to catch their collective breath. Each subsequent link in the chain ups the stakes, giving the PCs the sense of falling out of the frying pan… and into the fire.

Encounter 1: A Knight to Remember

Recommended Party Level: 5–7

You never know what to expect while traveling overland or exploring a dungeon, least of all an undead Magdar knight. The forgetful, quixotic, and skeletal Sir Revilar has been wandering Midgard for nearly a decade—after half a century of entombment—trying to find his way back to his fellows in the Order of the Undying Sun in the city of Wagenstein. Rumors of a skeleton knight-errant wandering across the countryside have spread across the Crossroads, foreshadowing his appearance or giving inquisitive PCs a reason to seek him out.

What is the thing before you? From this distance, it looks human from its stature: bipedal and about six feet tall. It wears a full suit of expensive, knightly armor, but it is pitted and rusty, and the mail coif beneath its helmet conceals its face. Its gait is awkward, like it is limping with both legs. It is mumbling something quietly to itself, looking back and forth into the near distance.

A DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check allows a character to make out Sir Revilar’s mumbling (“I say, this turn wasn’t quite right. Perhaps, I ought to have taken the left at Juralt…”), while a DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check reveals from his body language that this figure is completely lost. If surprised or startled, Revilar reacts with great rattling of his bones and sabre (“What ho, a foe? Stand down, rapscallions, lest you taste the bite of my blade!”).

If attacked, Rovilar attacks in turn. He does not kill his opponents, believing himself far too honorable to do so. If given respect, the knight stands down and sheepishly asks for directions to Wagenstein, seat of the Order of the Undying Sun. He must return, so he may attend to the front lines and put an end to “those damnable centaurs,” a people the Magdar Kingdoms have been allied with for decades.

Another combat encounter may occur at the same time as this meeting to force the PCs and Revilar to work together. Sir Revilar uses ghost knight statistics (Tome of Beasts), though the lawful neutral skeleton uses only his sabre for combat (+6 to hit, 1d8 slashing + 3d6 necrotic).

Developments. After their meeting, Revilar claims he can find his own way back home and departs. If the PCs insist on helping him, proceed to Encounter 2 when they reach the Magdar border. Otherwise, run Encounter 2 when they least expect it.

Encounter 2: An Errant Thought

Roving monsters are a perfect nemesis for a knight-errant. Sometime after the PCs’ chance encounter with Sir Revilar has faded out of memory, they hear a shout of “Unhand me, monstrosities, or I swear by my holy oath I shall rip off your arms one-by-one until they stop regenerating!”

Revilar’s body is in a heap on the ground, and his skull is being thrown back and forth between a pair of warty trolls like a crude game of volleyball, while a crowd of five ogres cheer their monstrous leaders on. A pile of torn-off troll arms surround the combatants. Three humans are tied up in the back of the ogre camp, prisoners from a raid on the nearby village of Hammerhead.

Developments. The prisoners are rightly confused and terrified of Sir Revilar and his skeleton grin, and they are hesitant to allow him to escort them back to Hammerhead. Revilar, having no sense of direction, continues wandering after this encounter unless the PCs choose to join him. Proceed to Encounter 3.

Encounter 3: The Prodigal Sun

The next time the PCs encounter Revilar—or if they are escorting him home when they near the city of Wagenstein—they are set upon by Knights of the Undying Sun, Revilar’s order. Eight knights have surrounded the skeleton knight, four of them humans on warhorses, and four centaurs. Revilar attacked the centaurs—being about sixty years removed from current alliances—claiming that they were imposters and should be jailed for impersonating true Magdar knights.

Developments. Clearing up the misunderstanding convinces the Undying Sun knights to cautiously take Revilar into their custody and bring him back to Madgar. If the PCs join in Revilar’s attack, one of the centaurs flees to warn Magdar of the undead abomination posing as one of their knights.

For even more monsters, check out Tome of Beasts.

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Cardtography: The Basics

Since the introduction of computer RPGs, randomly generated dungeons are everywhere. Software developers prefer to call them procedurally generated rather than random because they aren’t truly random; they’re created according to a rigid procedure. Developing a procedure that spits out satisfying dungeons is a popular problem among programmers, and the web is full of fascinating blog posts about the many approaches people have found for solving it.

Procedures for generating dungeons randomly are, however, much older than personal computers. The first substantial paper-and-dice random dungeon generator I’m aware of is the one created by Gary Gygax and published in Volume 1, Issue 1 (Spring 1975) of Strategic Review. It was later republished with only minor changes in the original DMG. Hundreds more followed in the decades since.

The process of randomly generating a dungeon is amazing when it works well. This can be a game—or a gamelike activity, anyway—all by itself. I’d wager that most of you have spent hours creating dungeons with geomorphs, random tables, and heaps of dice just for the joy of seeing what comes out. Even the person who created the procedure can be surprised by the results despite knowing all the possibilities beforehand. The key is in the unexpected combinations and the fact that a dungeon is more than the sum of its parts.

At first glance, randomly generating a dungeon seems easier than purposely designing every aspect of it, but that’s true only if the procedure already exists. Designing a ten-room dungeon is less work than creating a system for generating an infinite number of ten-room dungeons—trust me. The savings come in bulk; if you foresee the need for an infinite number of ten-room dungeons, or even just a lot of them, then creating a system is more efficient than hand-crafting each dungeon individually.

The best of both worlds is when someone else creates the system. All you need to do is learn how to implement it.

My goal in this series of articles isn’t to put forward the ideal dungeon generator, whatever that might be. It’s not to put forward the most comprehensive, the most flexible, or the one that’s most likely to please everyone. It’s to put forward a generator that’s easy and FAST to use. One that doesn’t require a lot of materials, cross-checking pages of tables, or even drawing a map. Instead of using tables and dice, it uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards (54 when the jokers are included, which they sometimes are) and plenty of six-sided dice. One of those plastic boxes of 36 12mm dice is perfect, but any d6s will do.

This system is fast enough to use on the fly in the middle of a game session. It could be used by a solo player or by a group without a GM. When a GM is involved, it still pays to create the dungeon ahead of time and do some critical thinking about how it can be improved and made more logical (not necessarily the same thing). But if you need a dungeon NOW for a no-prep game session or to kill some time in solo exploration, this will do the trick.

The dungeons this system produces are somewhat abstract. It doesn’t actually draw corridors between rooms, for example, but only indicates that a connection of some sort exists. That connection might be a simple doorway or it might be a lengthy corridor. We’ll explore that subject more in a later article; don’t get hung up on it just yet.

This first article introduces the basic procedure for laying out the cards and for generating connections between them. Next week, we’ll delve into what’s actually in those chambers.

Layout

Start by shuffling the deck. Deal out 25 cards, face down, in the 5-by-5 pattern shown in the illustration.

The card at the bottom center of the layout is the entrance; or, if you’re laying this out in front of players at a table, the entrance could be the middle card in the top row, where it will feel more natural to players. The illustrations assume the entrance is at the bottom, but as you’ll quickly see, any card could kick things off.

Flip the entrance card face-up to show that it’s been entered and explored.

Connections

We need to locate paths that connect the explored card to adjacent cards and lead farther into the dungeon. To do that, roll three six-sided dice.

Now imagine that the faceup card is a dial with 1 at the top, 2 at the upper right, 3 at the lower right, etc., as shown in the illustration. Place the dice you just rolled around the card in the positions that correspond to their numbers; a die that rolled 1 goes at the top, a die that rolled 2 goes at the upper right, etc. If two dice rolled the same number, return one of them to the spare dice pool. Doubles mean this room has only two exits instead of three; ignore one of those dice and return it to the spare dice pool. Triples mean it has only one exit.

If a die turned up 4, place it at the bottom of the card to mark the entrance. If a 4 wasn’t rolled, place a spare die there anyway, as a reminder.

In our example, the first room (9 of spades) has an entrance at 4 and two other doors at 1 and 6.

Let’s assume our explorers move through the door at 6. The card it leads to gets flipped face up (revealing the 2 of diamonds), indicating that room has been entered, and you roll three more dice to locate exits. This time, the rolls are 2, 3, 6. Placing the dice around the card to mark those locations, we see that position 3 is already occupied by the door from the first room (6). That die gets returned to the dice pool and doors are marked at positions 2 and 6, as in the illustration.

Continue in this fashion, moving from one card to the next, to map the entire dungeon. Follow these rules to answer the inevitable questions.

1. Other than the entrance, dice that indicate a door leading out of the dungeon are ignored; return them to the dice pool. If doubles indicate a door out of the dungeon, however, then that location holds a hidden or previously unknown passage back to the surface.
2. Dice that indicate a door where there’s already a door are ignored and returned to the dice pool.
3. Dice that indicate doors into previously explored but unconnected chambers raise the question, “why didn’t we see this door from the other room?” These dice can be handled in one of four ways. Option 1 is to ignore that result and return the die to the dice pool, the same as if it was a double. Option 2 is to treat that result as a one-way door or magic portal that can only be opened from the current room. Option 3 is to assume this door is obvious from the current room but cleverly concealed from the opposite side; now that you know it’s there, it can be opened from either side. Option 4, which is suitable if you’re mapping the dungeon ahead of time instead of generating it on the fly during a game session, is to add the new door to the layout the same as any other and move on.
4. Keep adding doors until all the cards are flipped face-up or until every path has hit a dead end. If every path dead-ends while some cards are still face down with no connections, those cards are removed. They’re not part of the dungeon.

Using these rules to finish our example dungeon leads to the layout shown in illustration 5.

Variations

This simple layout procedure provides plenty of opportunities for variations.

1. Cards can be arranged however you like, not just in a five-by-five layout. A grid of 25 cards produces a dungeon about the right size for an evening’s exploration or a worthwhile side trek. A layout smaller than nine cards tends to be dull, especially if more than a few cards wind up being unreachable. Seven-by-seven is the largest square arrangement possible with one deck of cards, but an arrangement can also be rectangular, ovoid, or asymmetrical—or it can use more than one deck of cards.
2. The entrance doesn’t need to be along an edge. If the entrance is through the ceiling via stairs or a pit, or via a portal, it can open into the dungeon anywhere.
3. Instead of laying out the entire grid beforehand, cards can be dealt into position from the deck as they’re needed. You can predefine the limits of the dungeon or let it sprawl wherever the dice dictate.
4. A door that’s indicated by doubles is trapped, locked, jammed, or obstructed in some other way.

Next: What’s in this dungeon?

Photo by chelle

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. The worst part about being an ancient wizard is daily preparation. As time marches on, the list of magic we’ve learned gets longer and longer. We end up with a library of known spells and have to create a filing system to track them all. By comparison, the number of spells we can prepare in a given day doesn’t ever get much longer. Daily versatility is nice. I mean, we could be a sadsack lich sorcerer stuck with the same spells for eternity… but it can also get to be too many potential choices. Like, do I cast symbol of death or symbol of insanity on this page of our diary to screw with privacy violators?

Actually, that’s a false dilemma. Spoiler alert, we went with both.

Which brings us to today’s topic: spellbooks.

We, for some reason, still have to “rest” for eight hours a day before we prepare spells. The actual preparing then takes another hour. I mean, we literally never get fatigued, but we still have to spend more than a third of our day refraining from movement and talking? Putting it in literal terms, that means in the last millennia, we’ve spent upward of 375 years zoning out or rereading the same freaking spells.

That was an off-topic tangent. I needed to vent for a second.

As noted previously, it is worth the time and money to have more than one copy of your go-to spellbooks. The back-up copy should be somewhere relatively easily accessible but nearly impossible for other people to get at (like a secret chest).

Blessed books are a must have. Without factoring in magic items that give us access to more spells per day, we need about 200-300 pages of spellbooks to fill out our selection. We can either deal with a dozen books to cover every base, or a single convenient tome. Huh… I wonder why these things are blessed? Clerics can’t even cast secret page. Who exactly is blessing this thing?

Anyway, the idea of being prepared for any potential situation isn’t practical on a day to day basis. It’s better to have a broad system for spell selection defined by need. Thus, each “blessed” book should be subdivided into three sections that define your preparation, depending on what sort of activity you expect. This prevents you from wasting even more time picking through every single spell you know.

Expect to be fighting adventurers? Reference the Offensive section. Think you won’t be doing much more than crafting in a safe environment? Reference the Utility section. Taking a road trip to hell? Consider going with the Defensive section. Don’t hyper-focus in each category and retain some versatility. Also, having a few slots set aside for limited wish and wish is always wise.

A pre-chosen spell selection like this saves a ton of effort and also retains the innate versatility of being a wizard. I can’t tell you how many lazy antagonists I’ve seen who always prepare the same spells, no matter what.

Preparing the same darn spells every day makes you worse than a sorcerer. That’s right. I said it.

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Feats of Nuria Natal

Oh, the lands of Nuria Natal! Today, you bring us dread feats of the forgotten sands.

Where gods walk and men think it nothing to seek immortality. Where riches abound and fortunes are to be made in markets and in ancient tombs. Where the dead walk and the sun bakes. Nuria Natal is a land of wonders, whether you are a native or just passing through. Contained herein are options for characters who would explore Nuria Natal and the rest of the Southlands. They work best when coupled with Southlands Heroes.

A Scythe on the Battle Field

Prerequisites: Ability to cast 1st-level Cleric Spells and 1st-level Wizard Spells; follower of Aten

You may cast one necromancy spell and one evocation spell as an Attack. After using this ability, you must complete a short rest before doing so again.

Chosen in This World and the Next

Chosen in This World and the Next is a series of feats typically taken by the Chosen of Aten although other groups have similar practices. Once you set out on this path, you commit to taking this feat every time you could take a feat or get an Ability Score Improvement until you have completed your transformation. Those who step away from the process cannot return to it.

First Transformation: Heart of the Mummy

By a series of strange tattoos, you gain Immunity to Necrotic damage. At this stage, your skin begins to look leathery.

Second Transformation: Dust to Dust

Your regimen of imbibing strange elixirs daily causes you to gain Immunity to Poison. You begin to grow gaunt and bony. Your eyes begin to sink into your skull and your pupils seem small and distant.

Third Transformation: Rotting Fist

You have wrapped your limbs in specially prepared linen strips. You gain a special attack, and your unarmed attack deals an additional 3d6 necrotic damage. If the target is a creature it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be cursed with Mummy Rot. The cursed target cannot regain hit points, and its maximum decreases by the amount of damage you dealt. If the curse would reduce the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target dies and its body turns to dust. The curse lasts until removed by remove curse or other magic. You must complete a long rest before you use this ability again.

Fourth Transformation: Dreadful Glare

You prepare your eyes with a special salve each morning and wrap your face in linen. You gain the ability to target one creature you can see within 60 feet. If the target can see you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your glare or become frightened until the end of your next turn. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more it is also paralyzed for the same duration. A target that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to your Dreadful Glare and that of all mummies, but not mummy lords, for the next 24 hours. You must complete a short rest before you use this ability again.

Final Transformation: Resurrection

You die via the ingesting of a special potion. You rise again the next day as a mummy. You gain all of the Vulnerabilities, Resistances, Immunities, and senses of a mummy. Additionally, the rest limitations on your Rotting Fist and Dreadful Glare are removed.

Desert Born

Prerequisites: Proficient with Survival

You double your proficiency bonus for skill checks involving traveling through or avoiding the hazards of the desert.

For more options for player characters, check out Southlands Heroes.

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Villains and Corruption

One of the great elements of Midgard since the earliest days has been its villains and cults. These draw their power partly from their magic and secrets but also from the flaws of each heroic race. In particular, cults and villains thrive because humans are especially susceptible to corruption, such as by devils, ancient shadows, and simple greed, fear, and wrath.

That theme continues in the revised Midgard Campaign Setting with an emphasis on the cults and secret societies that infest all parts of Midgard. I’ll briefly discuss three of the highlights here, including the new role of shadow as an agent of corruption.

Devils Over Demons

While Midgard has its share of horrific demons—hello Mechuiti and Qorgeth and Alquam and Camazotz!—and their followings sometimes blaze a trail of terror and destruction, the more civilized parts of the world can defend themselves from the blatant, overt threat of demonic power: goblin armies, doomspeaker antipaladins, and creatures of pure chaos tend to stand out on a city street.

By contrast, mercantile hubs like Zobeck and centers of learning like Friula are quite susceptible to the blandishments of envy, greed, and lies from Mammon’s servants or the wordy snares of Totivillus. So the great danger to the home cities and the ruling nobles is often a danger found within the walls: a selfish child turned into a cruel young man and into a ruthless king, bent on power and greed. A merchant prince who wishes not to deal fairly but always to have more than any rival. The human heart is the key that unlocks the door to evil in Midgard, and the plots and schemes of devils are common there.

We’ll see more of this in the chapter on Zobeck and the Crossroads.

Shadow Corruption

In addition, the shadow fey and their Queen of Night have returned to Midgard as the power of the elves has faded away. This means that they are recruiting servants, toadies, and those who gleefully gloat whenever they have the upper hand: snooty artists, arrogant nobles, clerics who are certain they see the truth when all others are fooled by common rumor and ordinary learning.

Superficially, their appeal is similar to that of devils; in the case of shadow fey, they grant direct gifts of magic and power and can increase the charisma and status of their friends tremendously through fey glamours and items. At the same time, they know where the levers of Valeran power were built. The heralds of blood and shadow, the increasing prevalence of shadow magic, the welling of black energies in the heart of old elvish ruins… the shadow fey are one of the great sources of civilization, magical learning, and secrets from the age of elves. But their sense of superiority and their elitism mean that in the end, the only ones who profit from their secrets and manipulations are the Moonlit King and their dark queen.

We’ll learn more about these dark gifts and their price in the Shadow Realm chapter.

Void Speakers

The void speakers are increasingly common in Midgard, those who dare to traffic with the same power that summoned the Elder Walkers in the Western Wastes. Void dragons have been seen in the Northlands, and some believe Loki or the giants are inscribing dread runes in hidden ley line junctions: atop mountaintops, at the confluences of rivers, even deep within ancient glaciers and in the foam of the Boiling Sea. What end do they serve? Void speakers whisper horrible answers to every question, driving their listeners to terror and paranoia. Their numbers seem small, but combined with other threats walking through worm-ridden passages in the World Tree and lich-giants speaking to dark gods, it is clear that they are stirring up evils put down long ago.

We’ll learn more of this in the chapter on the Northlands and Hyperborea.

That’s it for this time; I hope to share more design notes with you soon!

Photo by meneya

Magic & Munchausen

The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736-1794) is one of the most widely known examples of proto-fantasy. In the book, which narrates the astounding and weird deeds of the fictional German adventurer, we can find a lot of elements familiar to tabletop RPG players, including monsters, space travels, fantastic places, and, yes, magic weapons. Stats for two of them are provided below.

The Silver Hatchet

Weapon (handaxe), rare (requires attunement by a creature of any chaotic alignment)

“I had nothing like an offensive weapon in my hands but the silver hatchet, which is the badge of the Sultan’s gardeners and farmers. I threw it at the robbers, with an intention to frighten them away, and set the poor bee at liberty; but, by an unlucky turn of my arm, it flew upwards, and continued rising till it reached the moon.” (Raspe, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen)

The baron uses this hatchet during his adventures as a weapon but also in other strange ways: he is capable of employing it as a tool for returning home from the moon itself! The axe can, in fact, extend the length of ropes to incredible limits… and using one of his unlimited cords, Munchausen was able to cover the distance from earth to its satellite.

This item is a small curved handaxe made of solid silver, covered in abstract arabesques. It has the following properties.

Mythic Instrument. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. The axe is also silvered.

Till the Moon. The Silver Hatchet has a normal range of 300 feet and a maximum range of 1,200 feet.

Symbol of Guildship. You are always considered to be a member of the gardeners’ guild. You obtain the Guild Membership feature of the Guild Artisan background for free, and you never have to pay the guild monthly fee.

Cutting and Knotting. With a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, you can double the length of a target nonmagical hempen rope. This action requires one minute, and you can perform it more than one time per day. After every attempt, however, the DC increases by 5 points. When you finish a long rest, the DC resets to 10.

The Sling of David

Weapon (sling), very rare (requires attunement by a creature of any chaotic alignment)

“He was walking by the sea-shore at Harwich, with this sling in his pocket; before his paces had covered a mile he was attacked by a fierce animal called a seahorse, open-mouthed, who ran at him with great fury; he hesitated a moment, then took out his sling, retreated back about a hundred yards, stooped for a couple of pebbles, of which there were plenty under his feet, and slung them both so dexterously at the animal, that each stone put out an eye, and lodged in the cavities which their removal had occasioned.” (Raspe, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen)

This is the weapon that killed Goliath the Giant in the old Biblical texts. It has come to the baron through his great-great-great-grandfather and has served his family during the centuries. Strangely, every Munchausen has added new elements to its legend, listing new powers and capabilities for the weapon…

The sling is made of ordinary leather and has no distinctive features. It is a powerful item, however: you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. It also has the following properties.

Giant Killer. When you hit a giant with this sling, the giant takes and extra 2d6 bludgeoning damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or fall prone. For the purpose of this weapon, “giant” refers to any creature with the giant type, including ettins and trolls.

Explosive. One time per day, you can transform this weapon into a sort of grenade launcher. Select a point up to 30 feet away and expend a bullet. Each creature within 10 feet of that point must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d6 piercing damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one. Moreover, the bullet unleashes an explosion audible out to 300 feet.

Beast Tamer. The sling also has 5 charges. While attuned to it, you can expend 1 charge and make a ranged attack with it. If you hit and the target is a beast, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blinded and charmed for one minute. The sling regains 1d4+1 expended charges daily at dawn.

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Photo by lisasolonynko

“Well?”
“Well, what, your domeness?”
“You’re covered in dust—explain.”
“Ah, the dust. Yes, well, I was under the Great Stair and—”
“You are not to go under-stairs, ever. You’ve only been briefly in my employ and would do well to remember the last homunculus that pried too deeply into my affairs and property.”
“Yes, master. I was drawn by the curious red leather tome with its ankh and scarab motif lying atop that hefty tea-chest, and—”
“Enough, those are treasures from my recent trip to the fabled Southlands. Keep your prying eyes out. Now, as punishment, get up the chimney and get all the soot out, and if you find a small boy up there, tell him I have no intention of paying a chimneysweep who has the audacity to get stuck and clog my study with smoke.”

As a sister to our previous articles Treasures of the Pharaohs and Treasures of the Rajahs, we humbly present for your delectation this article, which itemizes a few trinkets of unusual treasure from the fabled Southlands Campaign Setting. You can use these treasures to spice up troves of well-traveled wizard, bard, or other collectors. No prices have been set for the items, so you to drop them at any stage into your adventures:

1. A Cindass-made gem-set gold broach depicting lions eating holy-men
2. A Dabu Zawoda bronze model of a bird, its claws made of real bird claws
3. A bronze and silver inkwell from the Dominion of the Wind Lords, depicting eagles tearing humans apart
4. A Nuria Natalian parquetry table inlaid with mother of pearl faces and tortoiseshell camels with human heads
5. A walnut and steel Nurumbeki wedding chest crammed with fine textiles, in the base of the chest is a curious doll made of human hair
6. A pottery panel in a wooden frame illustrating the acts of Horus, on the rear of the panel a lion savages a prone gnoll beneath a depiction of a three-peaked mountain surrounded by crooked eagles
7. A gnollish carved bone and wood spear scoured by the winds of Dabu, burnt into the shaft are human fingermarks
8. An Oasis of Figs marble slab depicting elephants pulling men apart whilst their masters—a group of jinn—make merry with a trio of hyena-faced dancers
9. A jinnborn skull with golden teeth, the skull has been bored into over a dozen times
10. A Tes-Lurian mummified sphinx hand wearing a gold and bone ring depicting the Pillared Portico
11. The whole skeleton of a huge white ape allegedly killed on the Black Lotus Mesa
12. An exquisitely carved figurine of a camel, set with obsidians and carved from a piece of the World Tree
13. A Nuria Natalian birch bark and quill scissors case inlaid with depictions of jinn feasting on living cattle
14. A gnollish-made beaded battle skirt
15. An earthenware and silver water jug with a glass and brass stopper portraying the banner of the Kingdom of Morreg
16. A carved stone and walnut spice cabinet with a hidden curved dagger held in camel skin behind one drawer
17. A trio of beehives, burnt into which are the seal of the Saffron Rajah. Held within each of the hives is a horribly-stung human head, the expression on which seems to suggest the heads were somehow alive within the hives at one time
18. A High Jungles carved bamboo mask depicting demons eating Kush
19. Two carved wooden Nangui stools depicting incubi cavorting with human females, on the underside of each stool is a large carved egg
20. A dragonhide sail from the Corsair Coast depicting dragons fighting over a terrified naked human, sewn into the sail are gnoll finger bones
21. A Per-Bastet carved wooden divination group depicting three temple cats wrapped in silver and fetish material
22. A High Jungles wooden drum made of gnoll flesh and supported on a four-faced vine lord
23. A Sudvall travelling medicine cabinet made of polished ebony and brass set with kobold finger-bone handles
24. A gnoll helmet mask made of bone, gold and polished stones with stylized hares’ ears flanked by female figures
25. A Corremel alabaster cosmetic pot with glass stopper within which is a smiling monkey face

TO BE CONTINUED…!

For even more great adventuring loveliness from Meister Pett, check out Grimalkin.

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What have we done?

The following is a dramatic reenactment of actual play. The role of the corpse mound was played by the corpse mound from the Tome of Beasts. No actual players were harmed during this session, though both PCs and NPCs gave their lives.

The half-orc Zazuk stared before the party as they exited the boundaries of the forest, looking at the devastation before him and feeling the weight of his soul crumbling beneath him. The party remained quiet behind him, ghostly almost as they observed the carnage and felt the fumes of rotten flesh enter their lungs.

They were given a choice, and they chose poorly. The Sunken Elves warned them that the decay was coming, descending upon Zazuk’s tribe even as they spoke. They warned the party that the decay would take them all.

But we had time! Zazuk thought to himself. And they couldn’t leave until the Sunken Elves agreed to safe passage for the orc refugees. They had nowhere else to go! It was up to Zazuk to keep them safe, to give them refuge, to show them a path to the decay.

But they lingered too long. It took them.

When the party left four days prior, the tribe was desperate. His mother, ever the whip, scolded him publicly for bringing this curse upon them. She claimed that if it were not for him and bringing his faith into the tribe and for the curse of his human father, they would still be in home in Direwish Marsh. She blamed him and he fought back. They left in anger, her curses leaving her mouth as they went into the forest.

She would see, he thought. He would show her refuge, and she would see him for his true heart.

The tribe’s witch queen was incapacitated. The decay had taken her and turned her into a wild monster. They buried her alive, posting guards around her living tomb. They decided to keep her living in case her corrupted spirit would spread decay among the tribe.

And now they saw the results of their poor decisions. For their delay.

The witch queen escaped her tomb and slaughtered every orc refugee. Every father, every mother, every child. All but Olfin, the young orc he’d taken as his own. They were the last two of the Direwish Tribe. A half-orc and a child. None other.

The gnome Valros had killed the witch queen. He could see that. His rage still painted on his face. Valros left the party days ago, believing them to be foolish to leave the tribe unprotected following the Elvish warning.

The witch queen’s decayed blood was fresh on the gnome’s body. He had been piling the bodies of the slain orcs. After taking in the scene, Zazuk and the rest of the party helped. Solanka, the human, was distant and quiet. She comforted Olfin. Grumbles, the dwarf and Torrmus, the red dragonborn, helped to bring the bodies together.

They would burn them, for who knew if the decay could possess them or not. After what they’ve witnessed, they could not tolerate a horde of undead orc. Especially not Zazuk’s kin.

As they worked, the air changed. It became very still. The hairs on Zazuk’s neck stood, and he smelled the air. A wave of death stench overwhelmed him.

Something was wrong.

The pile of deceased orcs began shifting.

“THE DECAY!” Torrmus shouted, drawing his magically-imbued sword.

Solanka leapt to her feet and pushed Olfin away. Valros backed up, fingers glowing from a fire spell collecting deep within his weave and Grumbles, with him, casting radiance upon his club.

At first nothing happened. It was a moment of stunned fear.

Then, the bodies doubled-up on themselves, colliding and snapping bones, wrenching heads off of torsos, mangling limbs until it rose from the ground as a single, writhing organism. It towered above them, body parts moving, breaking, thudding, and crashing into the earth as the collection of dead orcs took form, like a rising beast from the rotting earth.

Zazuk stared, unable to process what was happening. And then it overwhelmed him, crashing down like an ocean wave of rotting flesh, sucking him in deep into its bowels. He was suffocating out of the tumbling corpses of his childhood friends, beloved elders, sisters, and brothers. They crushed him, smothered him, and pinned him beneath the rolling flesh on the ground. Splinters of bone ripped into him, skulls cracked up against him.

Solanka was with him. She was taken in by the mound of corpses as well. And then Grumbles. The dwarf fought his way out with a snarl, taking Solanka with him. It was Torrmus that wrenched Zaz out. Worn, weary, bleeding from the attack.

Valros shouted at them to run. They did, and in the next moment, a rolling fireball launched from his small hands, engulfing the corpses as they burned.

As they fled from the mound of corpses, Zazuk grabbed onto Olfin who buried his face into his mentor’s arms. They were all that remained. None other.

To terrorize your own players with the mound of corpse, check out the Tome of Beasts.

The Diplomatic Mission

Most parties are no strangers to diplomacy. Whether they’re trying to get a better bargain for the swag they’ve hauled from their latest dungeon crawl or attempting to convince the guards that no, their friend was really just joking about splitting open their skulls, adventurers are all familiar with using words over steel. It is fairly rare, however, that a campaign’s entire purpose is geared toward a war of words, which is what can make the diplomatic mission such a change of pace.

The Complicated Simplicity of The Diplomatic Mission

Pitched battles on open fields, where magic and steel water the ground in blood and rip entire armies asunder, are exciting to watch. But for most nations, it’s exactly the sort of thing they’re trying to avoid. War is wasteful, costly, and it can take generations for the scars of conflicts like this to fade. Which is why so many nations always try to solve issues with diplomacy before they resort to war.

That is where the party comes in.

More often than not, people think of a party as a group of mercenary soldiers or gang of tomb raiders, but governments are more than willing to employ talented negotiators and problem solvers who can get things done without bloodshed… or, at least, while keeping it to a minimum. Because while a paladin’s training is on the battlefield, their raw charisma and reputation can carry quite a weight in a negotiation. A bard’s depth and breadth of knowledge as well as the ability to speak a wide range of languages (naturally or magically) can ensure there’s nothing lost in translation. Even an enchanter, one of the most overlooked of specialist wizards, could be a dangerous tool on a diplomatic mission.

So how does this kind of game work? Well, first, you need to have a problem that’s too big to be solved by simply kicking in the door and shooting until you’re out of arrows. For example, a group of bandits may have taken over a local inn and are holding innocents hostage. There’s no question that you could kill the bandits, but doing so likely means they’ll kill the innkeeper, his wife, and their children. Alternatively, two gangs might be on the brink of war over a rash of violent incidents in a major city. If the party can negotiate a truce, then they’ll be able to get to the bottom of what happened. Trade agreements between governments big and small, addressing the complaints of a group of revolutionaries prepared to go to war with the crown, and even defending someone in court against charges of a crime are all kinds of diplomatic missions a party might be uniquely suited to handling.

Work With Your Players, And Help Them Think Outside The Box

Adjusting to a game where rolling initiative is the last instinct, instead of the first one, can be hard for some players. And it won’t be ideal for every group. Some groups just don’t feel they’re being proactive if they aren’t armed, armored, and taking dramatic actions. Having long talks hashing out trade agreements and signing pieces of paper might not feel very dramatic.

Which is why it’s important to find a niche and to help your players explore.

Take, for example, the rogue. It’s a class that can do a lot of things, including thievery. But while a pickpocket may not be of much use in forging an alliance between two kingdoms, a forgery expert would be. Whether it’s creating false documents or recognizing them, this kind of character would be of great use in detecting any political chicanery going on with treaties and agreements. Characters of noble birth (which may be of any class) might be called on to maintain their family interests and thus be automatically invested in the outcome of a particular engagement. If an agreement is reached, they’ll increase their standing as well as show their skill. If it goes poorly, though, the loss of face might be nothing compared to being on the front lines of the upcoming war. Even unlikely character classes, like the barbarian, may find that diplomacy suits them. Especially if they use their monstrous constitutions to keep a clear head when the drinks are flowing, getting the other side to agree to terms they would never even consider while sober.

Diplomatic missions aren’t easy. Often times, all it takes is a wrong word, or an unguarded joke to turn things sour. However, it’s important for you to create alternative paths to success so that the party doesn’t fail after a single bad roll or poorly-thought-out course of action. For instance, it’s possible that the group makes a bad first impression on a delegate. However, there should be ways (legitimate or not) to win that delegate to your side. Whether it’s inviting him out to a night on the town as an apology or digging up dirt on an affair he’s had that could ruin his marriage and reputation, there should be additional tools available to the party.

And, of course, there’s always the chance someone tries to assassinate them before they can complete their mission. Which is why they need to be on guard against poisoned food and drinks, unfamiliar faces, and enemy spies looking to be sure the party doesn’t succeed.

Neal Litherland provides more gaming insights at his blog Improved Initiative.

For an adventure to add your own Infiltration to, check out Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava.