Strangely enough, Clergyman 3 has some aquaintances with the underground still, and his closest connection is his long-time friend; the son of the criminal leader who ordered the artefact stolen.
Due to his conversion, Clergyman 3 has been long out of touch with the criminal world, but when he finally meets up with his old friend, he will learn of the stealing of the artefact, and also of the sons plots to become leader of the underground.
After Clergyman 3 tells the Criminals son of the groups plan to find and retrieve the artefact, the son decides that this will be of benefit to him; if nothing else than to delay the artefacts passage to the king. Thus the party has an unlikely ally in the midst of their enemies. Go to Comment
Mmm... pools of blood come to life! While it's a relatively simple backstory so far, the idea of the creature itself interests me. instead of cold, I would imagine that fire or intense heat would be the best thing to dispatch one of these - 'cauterising' the threat by drying the blood. No liquid would say to me that there's no fluid motion which would allow the creature to move. In fact, I could imagine that the blood beasts chemical makeup is quite delicate, and it could be very susceptible to any changes in temperature. Thus, you wouldn't find these in deserts or arctic environments, and when winter comes, they may have to "hibernate" in a warmer area... say an attic of a house in a nearby town?
Actually, that poses an interesting thought:
A blood beast has been terrorising a town, and the adventurers finally slay the beast by throwing a flammable oil into it then tossing a torch at it. All that remained was a gruesome dried patch of blood on the ground. The Adventurers leave the town, victorious. But then the mayor orders the cleaning crew to remove the stain. Seconds after a bucket of water is splashed on the patch, the liquid begins to churn and bubble, and the pool of blood-soaked water abruptly slithers away into the darkness, in the same direction that the adventurers left town...
A blood beast may be able to lie dormant for decades in its dried state, until someone spills some water on it.
Hrm. It's probably best to try and steer away from rules/system based properties (such as a +1 weapon); I find it best to write it as you would read it in a book. For example, if you write something along the lines of "The sword was of exceptional craftmanship, and the point and edge far superior to that of a normal rapier." The DMs will understand that this is not supposed to be an average rapier, and they shall appoint appropriate bonuses to it when they use it in their campaign.
I'd like to see the scenario of the assassination attempt that promted the need for the Danamax Rapier expanded on. While this weapon has a backstory about it, it's only a +1 sword, so the only way to make it more interesting to us is to have a very in-depth history to it.
Here are some questions which may be worth expanding on:
- Why were the old weapons inferior? Did they break in combat during the assassination? Were they slow and cumbersome? Were the assassins perhaps part of the royal guard, and the reason all swords look different is to identify the owner?
- Why the falcon? Is it the royal symbol of Danamax? Was the king inspired by a falcon in flight, to make these swords? Perhaps the weaponsmith was an eccentric and wouldn't make the sword unless it was made in homage to his favourite animal!
- What was involved in finding the "best weaponsmith in the land"? Did he stroll across the main marketplace and browse the shops? What if it involved an epic quest to find a small ramshackle in the middle of a forest where a dottering old bespectacled man was hammering away on the most exquisite weapons the king had seen!
I like how you would get eyebrows raised if you wandered around in public with this, as a nobody.
And I like the history to it; i'd just love to hear more about it to make this weapon more catchy to me than just a 'mere +1 rapier'. Go to Comment
This rather plainly carved set of thirty keys was once owned by a rather unassuming stage illusionist, who drowned when trying to use them to unlock a set of shackles while suspended in a tank of water. this impressive set of keys is able to lock any keylock known to man; magical or otherwise - although oddly it cannot unlock anything at all.
Unfortunately however, after using one of these keys the tip will always snap off and be caught in the lock indefinitely. The snapped end will cause the lock to be unusable by the original key. While this may at first seem to be a rather worthless keyset, one may find it somewhat useful in foiling pursuers, or keeping a hostage in a room.
Currently there are only six usable keys left on this unique set. Go to Comment
I actually like this scroll - nice for adding little tidbits you don't want to have to explain with a detailed background on how the item became the way it was. Go to Comment
Phew, that took a while to get through. Very nice - thorough, complete, and with some nifty little twists and turns. Hooray for the desert! Go to Comment
Course, there are probably things to work out. Why would the books want to find out why these events happened?
How do they open doors, climb stairs, and simply do pretty much any action if they can only open and close? How the spork are a couple of books gonna stop a human plot to destroy a museum?
A small side-thought - perhaps one of the books the thief had was the index to the library. Which could mean that whoever plays the index will have a good knowledge of all the other books. Perhaps knowing weaknesses and such. I can see the index bieng very 'high class', thinking it is better than the others :D
First players running around as mice in the Kingdom of Mus, and now we have them inch-worming along as books! Brilliant! Go to Comment
"Even if you don't use this idea as a game in itself, you could use then entire theme in a normal game and location."
hehehe
- The characters walk into the library. The black magic section is alive with activity! Dumbfounded, our heroes look on as five books cross their paths, crawling along as though on a divine mission! Go to Comment
A small note: Mummification wasn't solely performed by egyptians!
Though this creature would most commonly be found in the desert, it could easily be adapted into... say, an ancient ruin deep within a rainforest, for example. Go to Comment
Phew - I just ran the spell checker, and realized how bad it really was, Moon! :D I wrote it up at 5am in notepad and copied it over when I got home from work tonight, so I didn't give it another look over :p I'll check & modify grammar in a moment.
Anyway, all that aside, about your other comments!
Black bandages: Aesthetic (Plus a psuedo-reason as to why it's fireproof)
Amber eyes: Aesthetic. Make it without any discernable eyes if you wish. I just always thought any creature with a line of sight should have an indication of where its sight is. 'Amber pinpricks' is as good as any :)
Bunch of humanoid bandages: Because the form of the corpse/human was humanoid. It latches onto its past life by trying to make itself look and act human.
As for magical wards/attacks: By all means. I intentionally left out magical remedies, simply because to be honest, I don't know what is the norm for attacking 'spirits', since I don't roleplay. I let it be assumed that magical attacks will work as per normal against a ghost/wraith/spirit.
Anyways... Grammar check!
___
As a side-thought: While I was writing this up, I wanted it to kind of have a feel of a very powerful bieng, but with a very exploitable weakness. I wanted the feeling that in a low-magic world, if you don't have any water... RUN! Go to Comment
What Moon said!
Depending on willpower and mental stability, it would vary. Also, take into account that the Bandage Beasts never sleep, so that will effectively half the amount of time it takes.
So really, there is only a fairly small opening of opportunity to find a completely 'sane' Mummy, if you go tomb-digging for one! Go to Comment
History is always a great part of any setting. Unless there is a thought out history behind something, it won't have that 'feel' of bieng part of a world. Even a local tavern could have survived a town fire, or once been visited by (insert local hero here).
29. In the very center of a town, is a pulled-down statue. The statue is now little more than a pile of rubble, but a discernable feature within it is a large, demonic head which has survived the ages, in the midst of the stone. The statue used to be of a particuarly cruel demon which had once claimed the inhabitants of this town as her slaves. This statue rose some thirty feet in height, and depicted this demon holding the head of a human in its hand, separated from the humans body. Once each week, the demon chose one person at random, and removed their heads, devouring the body and keeping the skull as 'count'. One day, after 20 years of torment however, a small band of the townsfolk grouped together, and managed to drive this demon from their town, to the hills a bit away. The statue was promptly torn down, but the rubble kept there to commemorate the demise of the evil. Hundreds of years had passed, but the statue remained, and the story of the demon is hesitantly told, though only beneath townsfolks breath, for fear of superstition: that speaking of the demon might somehow call her back. Should passing adventurers ask at a tavern, where the drunken townsfolks tongues are slightly looser, they might hear tell of a demon which now lives in the hills which the party was going to head through. This information may save their lives. Go to Comment
Very nice! This can start as a simple side-treck and then refuse to go away. The longer the group ignores it, the more and more instances of Yannuzari worship will arise, until the country is divided and it becomes unavoidable! Good fun! :D Go to Comment
New Submissions
Plots (Mystical) (Multi-Storyline)
Due to his conversion, Clergyman 3 has been long out of touch with the criminal world, but when he finally meets up with his old friend, he will learn of the stealing of the artefact, and also of the sons plots to become leader of the underground.
After Clergyman 3 tells the Criminals son of the groups plan to find and retrieve the artefact, the son decides that this will be of benefit to him; if nothing else than to delay the artefacts passage to the king. Thus the party has an unlikely ally in the midst of their enemies. Go to Comment