Wednesday, September 30, 2015

1d4 Random Armband Relics Found In The Wastes Table For Your Old School Campaigns


Deep in the wastelands of Accursed Atlantis there are tribes of mutant warrior metal smiths who work with the weird and strange metals found in the strange alien ruins to create unique and strange works of metalic art and relics to help protect their fighters from the ravages of the other dimensional energies and demons that rage across this horrid landscape. Here then are 1d4 random armbands that are traded with freebooters and adventurers to maybe help them survive the ravages of the wasteland horrors.


1d4 Random Armband Relics Found In The Wastes Table

  1. The armband of Shar'ra - This armband has been created from the beaten hull of an alien spacecraft of baroque and strange design. Two figures of ancient alien antiquity look out onto the world with dead and uncaring eyes. The armband must be bonded to its owner through a wisdom roll, once done the owner gains an uncanny quickness to his movements and dexterity score with a +3 as the band's magick energies race through the owner's body. The fool's life will be cut by 1d10 years as the alien energies burn out and ravage the owner's life. 
  2. The armband of the False Triton - The owner of this greenish but not quite gold metal will have a beautiful but disturbingly alien armband. The armband has been carved from a sheet of metal from the ruins of Dagon's forbidden temple deep in the wastelands. It allows its owner three times a day the powers of a ring of evasion allowing the owner to go out of phase with the normal space time continuum. The owner of this armband will gain a slight greenish cast to their skin and certain animals will not come near nor like them. The owner must bath in salt water every new moon as well. 
  3. The armband of the Twin Moons - This armband of a strange silver metal seems to call to its owner and it allows the owner to gain infravision for twenty feet three times per day. The owner also gains +2 to their hand to hand attacks as strange horny grows spring up from their knuckles. They will be -1 on their Dexterity as their human or near human body tries to cope with the strange alien energies. The owner will have a strange red blue mark around their face when wearing this armband but why is unknown. Each new moon the owner will undergo a subtle Jekyll and Hyde personality shift gaining +2 strength and luscious nature.
  4. Armband of the Volcano God - This armband requires a piece of metal and molten volcanic glass from the plane of fire and cooled in the desert for forty five days and on the forty sixth day a mutant shaman traps the spirit of the elemental essence within the bounds of an armband. The relic three times per day allows a flaming spark of super charged electricity & fire to be hurled at an opponent within a twenty foot radius. The spark's electrical fire will do 3d6 +2 damage and has 40% chance of shorting out an electrical relics upon the opponent's person. The target is not only cooked but will be stunned for four rounds as the electrical element of the attack plays marry havoc with the target's nervous system. The splinter of the Volcano god bound within the armband is a jealous thing and will not allow any other magickal attacks or spells to be used by the owner of this armband. Once per week the armband may be used to heal the owner of a random amount of damage by rolling a 1d10. The horrid energies of the volcano god will rage through the owner. The downside of using this item is that the owner of the band is subject to extreme bouts of flatulence which might sometimes be seriously flammable due to the gas content. 

The Power Of The Atlantian Eight Relic For Your Old School Campaign



Out in the wastelands of Accursed Atlantis's wastelands there is something evil, dangerous, and incredibly ancient. 'The Eight' as it was known was worn since time before time by the ancient god emperors of Atlantis and it symbolizes the eight planar powers of the multiverse. The this relic encompasses the totality of the Atlantian pantheon of kings and queens each one has left a piece of their own spirit and soul within this item. And it is alive. Waiting for the day when yet another fool will don this item of power and learn far too late exactly what it actually is.


The Atlantian Eight Jewels are actually the prison for a powerful Lovecraftian demon lord who was locked away after the destruction of Old Earth and the passage onto the Outer Worlds. There are eight 'jewels' each representing the eight planar realms. The relic pulls on the power of the demon lord for its charges and magickal effects. Each time the relic is used a DM must roll a D10 for the number of charges that are available but there is a 10% chance of the demon lord trying to take possession of the owner of relic each time it is used. Once per day the Eight has the following abilities : Immunity to electricity and poison and they take a 3rd damage from acid, cold, as well as fire. They have the ability to gate in ghosts and minor shades of the dead as well as the abilities of a speak with the dead as per the spell.

The Eight Stones act as rings including the following :
  1. The milky stone acts as a +3 ring of protection named Malkruth  
  2. The purple stone acts as a ring of chameleon power and can blend into surroundings easily and escape detection 
  3. The red stone acts as a ring of xray vision up to twenty feet. X-ray vision can penetrate 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, or up to 3 feet of wood or dirt. Thicker substances or a thin sheet of lead blocks the vision.Using the ring is physically exhausting, causing the wearer 1 point of Constitution damage per minute after the first 10 minutes of use in a single day. 
  4. The small white stone acts a ring of spell storing minor; the stone magically imparts to the wearer the names of all spells currently stored within it. But its greedy and will whine as well as beg for magick from the owner. 
  5. The small green spell acts a ring of invisibility able to be cast on others.By activating this power the wearer can allow others to benefit from invisibility, as the spell.
  6. The central stone is a stone of mind shielding; The wearer is continually immune to detect thoughts, discern lies, and any attempt to magically discern her alignment.Over use of this stone makes the user cold and callus eventually turning them chaotic as well as evil. 
  7. This stone allows one to call upon a minor air elemental once per day. The owner must make a Charisma roll to have this wild and untamed elemental do their bidding. Over use strengths the demon trapped within the Eight. The owner loses one Constitution or Wisdom point should this happen.
  8.  The stone of command allows the owner to command others as per the spell once per day. The owner feels a rush of magick power from this stone and will ride a wave of euphoric power when using this ability. The must save vs poison not to want to give into the magick of this effect each time this ability is used.
     Over use of these abilities will cause the owner to gain 1d10 horrid demonic mutations as per the Metamorphica.  The owner of the Atlantian Eight Relic may attempt once per day to open a dimensional gate and space jump 1d20 light years with a party of 1d6 passengers. They will be protected from the effects of the dimensional jump. Each time this ability is used there is a 20% chance of the Atlantian Eight Relic dimensionally wandering away and stranding its owner on some far off world.

    Atlantian Eight Relic is one of the fourteen relics of power of Accursed Atlantis. Many of the others have been lost to time.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Commentary On The OSR Resource - The Wizard's Inheritence By Cedric Plante For Your Old School Campaigns

So yesterday I stumbled upon a fantastic little resource that just came out from the pen and mind of Cedric Plante called the Wizard's Inheritance. This is a one hundred magic  illustrated guide of  items found within a wizard's mansor or tower. The whole product is system neutral and its illustrated throughout. The pdf is free on google drive and the book is only three dollars but is it useful? Clocking in at just twenty four pages this book is about as useful as it gets! Seriously you've inherited a collection of weird magic items for reasons. The whole thing is done in Plante's weirdly wonderful artwork and don't let the compactness of the book fool you.


The Wizard's Inheritance!
Free web version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49LkbF8zZ1ZZcnE4UFU/view?usp=sharing
On LuLu:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/cedric-plante/the-wizards-inheritance/paperback/product-22378751.html

The book basically gives a dungeon master cart blanch to work his party of adventurers over with whatever plot hooks, artifacts, sinkers, and adventure doodads he's been aching to spring on them. With a price tag of only three dollars on Lulu this one is a steal. This one book has everything that can keep a retroclone game going for months and months. The party of adventurers will be going through the collection of weird artifacts for months of game time as well trying to separate the good, the bad, the useful and the terrifying. The best part is that its up to you as the DM to decide how you want to spring this on the players.
According to the intro to the Wizard's Inheritance:


And this is exectly what you get a selection of items of weird aspect and magical significance that you'll have to handcraft into something exotic, dangerous and OSR slick as hell. The choice on how to do it is going to be up to you as the DM to choose your favorite edition or retroclone system to handle the whole affair. Personally the artwork is very good a weird mix between the cartoon awesomeness of Adventure Time and Rick & Morty; of which I happen to be a huge fan. So more points right there for that. This a perfect hook for a near clone like Dungeon Crawl Classics where a solid hook and idea makes or breaks a continuing game of DCC. With the holidays coming up there's plenty of opportunity to add this one in as a Halloween or even a Christmas themed adventure location or set of ideas. The book is really that flexible. Even more so because of the weirdness of it, this book could work as a way of hooking a group of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea by having the wizard of the piece actually be a retiring adventurer. This enables the book to serve a primer for some of the magic, sword and sorcery action, and high adventure of the Hyperborea setting through the magic items, souvenirs and other relics from the wizard's adventuring career. But there's far more to it then simply a one note idea, here the book can easily serve as a weird hook for a game like Lamentations of the Flame Princess or even Labyrinth Lord. The cartoon choice of artwork works in the book's favor in my humble opinion. Look go pick the PDF up and have a blast adapting it to your own OSR campaign. This book works on a lot of levels and pushes all of the right buttons and because you can preview before buying its a win/win in my book.

Unboxing & Commentary On The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem Adventure For The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg Systems & Your Old School Campaigns

This is the actual adventure I received, the small independently produced modules continue to impress and amaze me. This adventure is wonderfully twisted and produced. 


I received a copy of The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem from the folks at  Red Moon Medicine Show, if you've never heard of this adventure nor Full Moon Medicine Show then you don't know what your missing.
Klint Crouse is a damn fine writer whose OSR  drug of choice is the Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg system. Klint's module is engaging, challenging, and damn fine in what it does.


The book is wonderful, its well put together, the artwork echoes the weird adventure locations that are presented in the book. Red Moon Medicine show ran a very successful Kickstarter for this adventure a few months ago and once again I'm late to the party on this one. We always hear about the negative Kickstarters well, let me tell you that this is exactly what the Kickstarter program is for. Producing weird and wonderful unique adventure modules for the OSR. There are three things that this module does well :
  1. It presents an adventure location with its own rules and consistency as well as reasons for existence. This module echoes many of the current Lamentations design philosophies and yet wraps back around to the early LoFP modules as well. You can easily drop this place into a country or small town campaign or urban setting.
  2. This module drips with atmosphere as good as the nicer Ravenloft or old school modules. Jesus the maps are gorgeous.  
  3. I'm both jealous and amazed at Red Moon Medicine show's creativity. Because the way that this module can be plugged into a campaign and played with is amazing.Take one twisted fairy tale and then let the folks at Red Moon Medicine Show get a hold of it and you end up with something like  The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem.


    So yeah, blah, blah, it's excellent but is it actually playable? Well as a matter of fact its not only playable but it's a non rail roadie adventure location that can be dropped right into the back half of your old school campaigns. See the garden and all of its environs are just waiting for adventurers to stumble upon it. There are is a table of rumors in the back of the book that would allow adventurers to get themselves neck deep into the action of  The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem. The module has all of the components that I've come to love about LoFP adventures. The utility of them, and  The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem is no different in that regard. You see with a bit of work this adventure could be back ported into a wide variety of OSR systems. One nice thing about  The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem its a self enclosed and encompassing within its own parameters. The locations are perfect for any level of party because this adventure is about investigation,adventuring, and the weird. The weird is present throughout the Garden and it doesn't care about your adventurers or their foolishness. Its got its own thing that its doing within the garden and its going to drag you into its clutches kicking and screaming. 
 We know that the Gardens easily work within the confines of a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign but where else could this adventure work?
You place The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem within a retroclone game like Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea but would it work there? Yes, the adventure location & grounds could be placed in behind a waterfall in on the other side of the river Yys. The adventurers stumble upon it and mayhem ensues. This adventure should stand on its own, as an adventure location it deserves this and its mechanisms should continue to work on a number of levels the contents should give you a clue what's in store for adventurers.


Yeah, I don't want to go into too much detail on some of the adventure elements in the Gardens but its sufficient to say that the Red Moon Medicine crew hit the high points in this adventure. This one has plenty of potential in spades of actually back fitting it into any OD&D game that flirts with the weird but I can tell you that hack and slash players are going to ruin it for the rest of the party. This is a bit of a thinking man's adventure not boring but there are several twists and turns that are going to do the players for a wee bit of thinking. This also means that the weird elements could be adapted to other retro or near clone systems. Yes that's right kids many of the elements in The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem could be used in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game campaign with the focus on the type of weird tale that Red Moon Medicine show is famous for emulating. In the end do I think you should grab this module? Umm yes in spades because I'm very proud to have it on my shelf and on my table. The adventure's author summed up best some of ideas and design philosophies of The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem. Abelia Prem was one very twisted lady. Happy exploring adventurers.