Duscuro is unique, in that the gods are very jealous (demanding) of their worshippers/citizens. Everyone in Garashino (the city) is expected the worship Garashino (the god). Everyone in Mondaloa (the city) is expected to worship Mondaloa (the god). Moving cities = changing religions, even though the gods are technically part of the same pantheon. Every city has a couple of exceptions, however.

Mammon, though, is awesome. I'm sure he'd get along with Garashino. He's focused on the business of creating wealth, while Garashino is focused on what you can spend it on. They're opposite sides of the same coin, if you know what I mean. Go to Comment

Edit: Added a couple of intro paragraphs, some formatting, and a couple paragraphs at the end about "how to use him in your campaign". Go to Comment

Yep. Vodai has been used in play.

The blasphemy thing worked beautifully, I think, since Vodai was either sitting on a rock meditating or doing something random: pulling all of the books off a bookshelf, plucking and eating a man's eye (who was immediately gifted with visions of the gnashing, idiot star-gods who exist outside of space and time), and drawing circles with water.

He never got into heavy melee, and his enemies never targeted him, so I never did get a good estimate of how fragile he really is. My only concern is that--for much of the time--he didn't have anything better to do except sit around and meditate, adding subtle effects to his ally's abilities. I would have added more decision-making to him, since he is sort of passive otherwise (which I suppose fits the character).

He also has a hard time communicating, with his strange method of speech. But that's as it should be.

At least I got to see someone get cooked in their own fat. Go to Comment

This is good stuff. It's well written and the part where he chases his horse for two days is pretty cool. My favorite part, actually.

It looks like you want Wilhelm to be a pretty basic character. He's the good knight, falsely accused, and now an outlaw fighting against his old buddies. You don't need a lot of layers there. Your players aren't going to know or care about how he got his horse, or that his an orphan. Just a basic guy with the most straightforward story possible. In that capacity, I think Wilhelm is just the guy.

However, I think everything should be a little bit weird, and cliches should be avoided like plague rat kisses (does he have to be an orphan?), I vote that you play up some of the more interesting parts of this story.

Does he run the bandits like they were knights? Do they catch horses the same way he did? Because that would be a cool way to get horses and take all the horses, if they catch ALL of the wild mustangs. Is he best friends with the cook? I bet he doesn't practice sword all day long. Does he read? Is he hitting on a woman in the village? Does she know who he is? Has he been trying to figure out who is behind the plot? Has he been stalking Leanard, hiding in his house and going through his stuff? Messing with his sock drawer?

I read the other article, too. I don't feel like a "highly honorable" man would go around bribing priests and trying to start a war through sneaky methods. It should be something more drastic. Maybe he feels like the conspiracy in Thrul goes all the way to the top, and even the king needs to be overthrown. Maybe he is going insane. Maybe there is no plot. Or maybe someone is deceiving him.

Overall, I'd just say (1) throw something unexpected in there, and (2) tighten up Wilhelm's motivations. He'll be a solid sub. Go to Comment

No, this is perfect. This SHOULD be thin on content. It's a well-written description of the themes. Every setting should have one these.

Also, I have heard every single one of these songs, and maybe I'm biased.

5/5 Go to Comment

Dude!

I'm glad you finally made it onto the Citadel! Welcome, welcome, hello.

I like this a lot, because it has the two things that I value most in submissions. (1) It has clever nuances, like how it enjoys playing with magnets. And although it can blow up oak trees, it still has to call on cultists to get them unstuck. And (2) it has emergent complexity. The basic idea of a lightning-dude-that-jumps-from-item-to-item is so brilliant that it naturally blossoms into neat scenario ideas, such as your idea of cutting off the front Kalraks, or Shadoweagle's idea to raze an entire area around an occupied city. Actually, upon reflection, these could be two sides to the same idea.

Good seeds bloom with lots of tasty fruit. You can't stop them.

On an unrelated note, I know exactly why you made this. Story time: Alavandrion is my PC. When it came time for the party to fight the sentient forest fire, I sort of wussed out and turned the encounter into a short dungeon with a relatively straight forward boss fight at the end. I explained my choice to Alavandrion, telling him that I couldn't think of any way to make fighting a forest fire interesting (i.e. without building firebreaks and clearing brush, etc). I think this is his way to turn the sentient-force-of-nature thing into something that is fightable in a novel, tactical way. And he has succeeded brilliantly.

@Murometz: My sentient forest fire was a refugee from the Plane of Fire, where he had been serving in the Brass Palace as a decoration (of all things). He's made himself into something of an anti-druid bent on recreating a little slice of home on the Material Plane. He also branched out into a forest creating a linked network of fire that he moved within, like the nucleus of a growing amoeba. He summons tornadoes, gouts of subterranean flame, and treants that serve him (unwillingly) as they burn to death. Go to Comment

The idea is good, but the execution is GENIUS. I, for one, would like to see more stuff like this on the Citadel. This sub accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. My only complaint is that I wish the soldier's diary had more fluff (useless information, setting, and flavor) in it.

How did you map this monstrosity, initially? Is there a program for this or do you just have a giant notebook somewhere? Go to Comment

I was afraid of that. I spent some time pondering, and I couldn't think of a way that didn't involve a lot of shuffling tiles around. Props to you! That's quite an achievement. Go to Comment

Shifted Cubes (optional idea)

In their haste to finish the maze, the foundations were not properly constructed. Eight cubes (a 3x3x3 brick) in the bottom southwest corner has settled about ten feet lower.  The portals between the cubes are undamaged, and the maze is
unaffected.  However, these 8 rooms are
now at a 45 degree angle, and are “standing” on one of their corners.  Not only are the rooms more difficult to
navigate, but they also pose a risk to someone entering the cube.  Since the cube appears normal from the
outside, a person navigating the maze risks taking a nasty fall if they enter
the room uncautiously.

Shipwrecked Room (optional idea)

Not all of the mages involved in the construction of the
Sorcerer’s Knot were there for altruistic reasons.  One of them, an ambitious young transmuter
named Alosius Hanfold, returned several months later.  With his knowledge of the cube’s
construction, he was able to bypass the safeguards and steal room #128.  This room was transported—with great
difficulty—to a harbor and loaded onto a ship. 
Whether the storm was natural or sent by some divine agent, the result
is the same: the ship sank over one of the deepest parts of the ocean, and room
#128 sank into a trench.

While the maze is still intact (since the portals are not
functional from the outside surface), room #128 is very, very cold.  Over the years, water has condensed on the
surfaces of the cube, and the inside of the room is blocked off with spiny
blooms of condensed ice.  An ice pick or
hammer would be useful in hacking through this ice-choked room.  Additionally, a tiny amount of external water
has permeated the room, although only a small puddle of brine in one of the
corners gives any clue to this.

If anyone were stupid enough to hack through the wall of
room #128, they would most likely be killed by the crushing jet of abyssal
water.  Many of the other rooms would
likely flood as well, before the portals overloaded and shut down.

Go to Comment

These are good questions. Go to Comment

I've tried to answer most of those. The Scenario Background section should help, as should the DM's Note's section. I've also clarified a few other sentences in order to make it more usable. Go to Comment

That's a really good roleplaying use. I hadn't thought of that.

Another idea: the PCs are imprisoned, and the next room over is a man who is one day away from turning into an Awakened. After he converts, he spends a night whispering at the PCs before breaking out of his cell.

And yeah, 3-4 weeks does seem short. Feel free to adjust it in your campaign if you ever use this. I only wrote 3-4 weeks because that seemed like the minimum, and the shorter onset times were more menacing. Go to Comment

This is really good stuff. I would use this. It's the right length, and has a good amount of depth.

Where did the random words come from? Is there a good generator somewhere? Go to Comment

I like how even the "bad" sides still have som therapeutic uses. Do any other devices use this technology? And why not sell the sides individually? Why not sell less intense versions of these cubes? Go to Comment

Thanks! And yeah, I've seen eel-men plenty of times before. I just like the idea so much that I wanted one of my very own.

I really like that the Boston guy has no idea what a manatee is, and they gross him out.

This is part of the new setting that I'm working on. I'll try to post more. Go to Comment

I think the best part of this sub is the disturbing little story at the beginning. I'm taking notes--this is where evil artifacts come from. The simplicity is nice, too. It's what you get when you cross needle + undead. I can imagine a bad guy wielding one of these, poking people that annoy him, and leaving a trail of demi-zombies in his wake. Or a bunch of animals in the forest. Could you use it to make an army of zombies by sewing bags over the heads of some villagers?

I've tried, but I still can't imagine sewing anything on to a wall. Go to Comment

I would never use this guy as a session's focus, but he makes an appropriately creepy thing to have lurking in the dark corners of a city. Things that go bump in the night should NOT be things you expect. He fits the bill, is what I'm saying. He's the boogeyman, director's cut.

Also, eww. Zombie-abortion rapist man. Go to Comment

Zombirth! Why not?

I see two main ideas here--a woman with wild necromantic talent who can take life from many to give undeath to a singular thing, and necroparturition (which is awesome). I think this makes a better story than something to inject into an tabletop game. I know that's not the only standard to judge a sub, but it's mine. Players would only learn this stuff through exposition and monologue, which is fine, but there's no quick hook. This is an decent NPC with a great backstory. Go to Comment

I really like the ships in the bottles. The image of tiny sailors boarding the PCs is an especially nice touch. The thing I liked the least was the "find-the-three-doors" puzzle, which reminds me of all the stupid, time-wasting puzzles that DMs have thrown at me. It could be made fun, or it might serve as a way to explore the ship, but the idea of adding keys makes me sad. What's worse is that the third word ("all") can be figured out pretty easily.

And how can a ship turn into a werewolf? What if a werewolf bites a bridge, or a bank, or a peninsula, or a fjord? It's almost cool, but not quite. I also don't like that the two main combats are both against wolves. Go to Comment

There's a lot to like here. No part is painted with the florid hues of cliche, and it all looks pretty well thought out. It's a little boring *because* it is so well thought out (but I say that about anything that doesn't have explosions), but how else are you going to have a company of evil lawyers? UCC is menacing without being evil, which is nice. 5/5 Go to Comment