Kull era Encounters & Treasures Table For a Sword & Sorcery Castles & Crusades rpg Campaign - The Encounter: The Chronomancer’s Debt

 Ah, the Pre-Cataclysmic Age. Before the oceans drank Atlantis, and before the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of—and a king named Kull. This blog entry picks right up from Kull era Serpent Men Relics & Treasures Table For a Sword & Sorcery Castles & Crusades rpg Campaign

To capture the specific vibe of Robert E. Howard’s Valusia, you need more than just muscle; you need existential dread, ancient conspiracies, and mirrors that steal souls. Here is a custom d100 King Kull Era Adventure & Encounter Table, designed to evoke the philosophy and savagery of the Thurian Age.

---

The D100 Thurian Age Table

d100	The Encounter / Hook	The Twist
01-05	The Serpent Mask. A high-ranking noble invites the party to a feast.	He doesn't eat; his "face" is a spell-bound mask hiding a Serpent Man.
06-10	The Mirror of Tuzun Thune. A wizard offers to show the party "the truth" in a silver glass.	One PC’s reflection stays behind and begins living their life in the real world.
11-15	The Pictish Ambassador. Ka-Nu of the Picts needs a "delicate" matter handled in the city.	The "matter" is a prehistoric horror caged in the sewers of the City of Wonders.
16-20	The Silent Statues. The party finds a row of iron statues in a forbidden wing of the palace.	They aren't statues, but ancient kings held in a "breathless sleep" by a curse.
21-25	The Tiger Valley Ghost. A spectral white tiger stalks the camp, smelling of Atlantean salt air.	It is the literal "spirit of exile" and can only be banished by an act of home-coming.
26-30	The Red Council. A secret society of aristocrats is plotting to "purify" the throne.	They believe the King is a ghost, and they have the "Living Corpse" to prove it.
31-35	The Forbidden Rite. A priest of Valka is performing a ritual to stop the rising tides.	The ritual requires the blood of an Atlantean—the party must find (or protect) one.
36-40	The Shadow Kingdom. Every shadow in the room suddenly detaches from its owner.	The shadows are hungry and seek to "wear" the flesh of the PCs.
41-45	The Lemurian Slave Ship. A galley crashes on the Valusian coast, filled with "mute" slaves.	They aren't mute; their tongues were traded to a sea-demon for favorable winds.
46-50	The Crystal of Kamelia. A merchant sells a gem that whispers the secrets of the future.	The "future" it predicts is always the death of the person holding it.
51-55	The Arena of the Damned. The PCs are captured and forced to fight "monsters" for Borna’s ghost.	The monsters are actually disguised political prisoners.
56-60	The Alchemist’s Draught. A frantic scholar begs the party to test a potion of "Absolute Memory."	The PC remembers everything—including past lives and the coming Cataclysm.
61-65	The Serpent’s Whisper. A snake in the garden starts speaking in a forgotten Atlantean dialect.	It claims to be the PC’s ancestor, trapped in scales for a millennium.
66-70	The Black Abyss. A sinkhole opens in the marketplace, revealing a city older than Valusia.	The inhabitants haven't realized the sun has risen in 10,000 years.
71-75	The King’s Justice. Kull (or a local Governor) tasks the party with hunting a "Sorcerer-Pirate."	The pirate is a hero to the poor; the "sorcery" is just basic chemistry.
76-80	The Grondar Raiders. A horde of barbarians is approaching, but they are fleeing something else.	They are fleeing a "Cloud of Unknowing" that erases the identity of anyone it touches.
81-85	The Living Tapestry. A rug in the palace shows a battle that changes every night.	The party is pulled into the tapestry to fight the next night's skirmish.
86-90	The Skull of Rotath. A glowing golden skull is found in a desert tomb.	It grants wishes, but each wish rots the user's physical body into gold.
91-95	The Chronomancer’s Debt. A wizard from the "Hyborian Age" (the future) appears, lost.	He mistakes the party for historical figures and asks for their "legendary" gear.
96-00	The Great Cataclysm. The earth shakes; the sea begins to swallow the land.	This is a "final session" prompt: How will the PCs ensure their names survive the flood?

---

How to Use This for a Campaign

• The Theme of Alienation: Remember that Kull was an Atlantean on a Valusian throne. Use these encounters to make the players feel like "outsiders" in a world of decaying grandeur.

• The Serpent Man Rule: If a character suspects someone is a Serpent Man, they should use the ancient phrase: "Ka nama kaa lajerama." If the NPC can't repeat it, draw steel.

• Existential Stakes: Unlike Conan, who fights for gold and wine, Kull-era adventures often deal with the nature of reality. Ask: Is this real, or is this a dream of a sleeping god?

This entry is a meta-fictional bridge between the Thurian Age (Kull) and the Hyborian Age (Conan). It introduces a cosmic irony: to the Chronomancer, the players are already "ancient history," and he is a desperate fanboy from a future that shouldn't exist yet.

---

The Encounter: The Chronomancer’s Debt

The Setup: While the party is camped in a remote wasteland or navigating a silent palace corridor, the air ripples like heat over a desert. A man falls out of thin air, dressed in silks that look "wrong"—too vibrant, with strange geometric patterns. He is Astorath of Nemedia, a wizard from roughly 8,000 years in the future.

The Chronomancer’s State:

• Disoriented: He is suffering from "Time-Sickness." He may vomit ectoplasm or briefly flicker out of existence.

• Reverent: He looks at the PCs with wide-eyed awe. To him, they aren't just mercenaries; they are the "Primal Archetypes" he read about in the Ironbound Manuscripts.

• Desperate: He didn't come here to sightsee. He is being hunted by a Time-Wraith (an amorphous blob of "static" that erases history).

---

The Twist: The "Legendary" Gear

Astorath believes the party’s current mundane equipment is actually the "Lost Relics of the First Dawn." He will beg for their items to help him fight his way back to his own era.

• The Request: "Great Hero, I beg of you! Hand me the Sunderer of Worlds (your rusty broadsword) and the Aegis of the Sun (your dented wooden shield)! Only their ancient resonance can pierce the veil!"

• The Problem: If the PCs give him their gear, they are unarmed. If they don't, Astorath might try to "chronos-thieve" them (teleporting the items off their belts).

---

The Conflict: Three Ways it Goes Wrong

1. The Paradox Predator: The "Time-Wraith" finally catches up. It looks like a flickering, grey version of one of the PCs. To defeat it, the PCs must strike it simultaneously with the Chronomancer’s futuristic staff and their own "ancient" steel.

2. The False Prophecy: Astorath starts "spoiling" the future. He tells a PC: "Oh, I shouldn't tell you this, but your lineage ends in three days when you're eaten by a swamp-cat. Wait... was it a swamp-cat or a Serpent Man? The scrolls were smudged."

3. The Exchange: He offers a "Future Relic" in trade. However, a Hyborian-age item (like a Zamorian thief's lockpick) might be useless or even cursed in the Thurian age because the laws of magic have shifted.

---

Potential Rewards (The "Debt")

If the party helps him survive and return to the future, he leaves behind a Chronal Echo. Once per campaign, a PC can "flicker."

Effect: For one round, the PC exists in two places at once. They can take two separate actions, but at the end of the turn, they must choose which "timeline" becomes real. The other version of them vanishes into a cloud of gold dust.

 In Castles & Crusades, the "Time-Wraith" functions as a non-corporeal undead-adjacent anomaly. It isn't strictly "dead"—it's a pocket of stagnant time that hungers for the "flow" of living beings.

In the Kull era, where the boundaries of reality are already thin, this creature appears as a flickering, translucent shadow of the person it is currently attacking.

---

The Time-Wraith (Chrono-Anomaly)

Size: Medium

HD: 6 (d8)

AC: 18 (Unearthly Quickness)

Attacks: 2 Chronal Touches (1d8)

Special: Chronal Displacement, Resonance Weakness, Magic Resistance 15%

Saves: P, M

Alignment: Neutral (Entropy)

Type: Extra-planar/Anomaly

Experience: 550 + 6/hp

---

Special Abilities

• Chronal Displacement (Physical): The Wraith exists slightly out of sync with the current second. All physical attacks against it suffer a -4 penalty to hit unless the weapon is "Ancient" (pre-dating the current era by 1,000 years) or "Future" (brought by the Chronomancer).

• Aged Touch (Ability Drain): Anyone struck by the Wraith must succeed on a Constitution (Physical) Save. Failure results in the victim "aging" rapidly in that limb or area. They suffer a -1 penalty to Dexterity per hit. If Dexterity reaches 0, the victim is frozen in time (stasis) for $1d4$ hours. Points return at a rate of 1 per hour of rest.

• Echo Strike: Once per encounter, the Wraith can "replay" its previous turn. It immediately gains a second set of attacks against the same target it attacked last round, representing a fold in the timeline.

• Resonance Weakness: If the Wraith is struck by a weapon and its "Future/Past" counterpart weapon (e.g., a PC's sword and the Chronomancer's version of that same sword) in the same combat round, the Wraith must make a Charisma (Mental) Save or be instantly sucked back into the temporal void.

---

Combat Tactics

The Wraith is not a mindless beast; it is a predator of identity. It will prioritize the character it most closely resembles. It moves with a jerky, stop-motion gait, appearing to teleport short distances ($5\text{--}10$ feet) instead of walking, making it impossible to pin down with standard flanking maneuvers.

Note for the Castle Keeper: Describe the Wraith not by its own features, but by the PCs' features. If it attacks the party's fighter, it wears his face, but his eyes are hollow voids filled with ticking gears or shifting sand.

---

The Lore Check (Intelligence/Legend Lore)

• CL 12: These beings are the "Janitors of the Ages." They appear when someone tries to change a "Linchpin Moment" in history.

• CL 18: Rumor has it that the Serpent Men of old once captured a Time-Wraith and used its essence to create the first Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, allowing them to see through the veils of what is and what shall be.

 

Gemini said

In the era of King Kull, an object from the Hyborian Age (Conan’s time, roughly 8,000 years in the future) is an archaeological impossibility—a "relic of the future." To a Valusian noble or a Pictish shaman, these items look refined yet strangely "primitive" in their iron-work, or perhaps decadently advanced in their artistry.

Here is a d100 Hyborian Loot Table found in the Chronomancer’s Satchel or left behind in the wake of a temporal rift.

---

The D100 Hyborian Loot Table

d100	Item Name	Origin & Effect (Castles & Crusades Context)
01-05	Zamorian Spider-Silk Rope	50ft of black silk. +4 to Climbing checks. Virtually unbreakable by non-magical means, but dissolves if exposed to direct sunlight for more than 1 hour.
06-10	Stygian Lotus Dust (Black)	A small pouch. When inhaled or thrown (5ft range), target must make a Con (P) Save or fall into a death-like coma for $2d6$ hours. Visions of Set included.
11-15	Aquilonian Lion-Crested Signet	A heavy gold ring. Grants +2 to Charisma (Ch) Checks when dealing with soldiers or mercenaries. They recognize a "kingly" aura they can't quite explain.
16-20	Cimmerian whetstone	A dull, grey river stone. Using it on a blade for 1 turn grants +1 to damage for the next combat. It smells faintly of rain and grim determination.
21-25	Map of the Hyborian Kingdoms	A map of a world that doesn't exist yet. To a Thurian scholar, it looks like a madman's drawing of the post-Cataclysmic world. Value: 1,000gp to the right Sage.
26-30	Bossonian Longbow String	Made of treated hemp and guts. When used to restringe a bow, it increases the Range Increment by +20ft.
31-35	Vial of Golden Wine of Xuthal	A single draught. Heals $3d8+3$ HP and cures any mundane poison. However, the user is Dazed for $1d4$ rounds by the sheer hallucinogenic euphoria.
36-40	Kothic Steel Breastplate	Intricately etched with scenes of forgotten wars. AC +6, but weighs 10lbs less than standard plate due to superior smelting techniques.
41-45	Shemite Scimitar (Blue Steel)	A curved blade that hums in the wind. +1 to Hit. It ignores the first 2 points of non-magical Damage Reduction/Hardness.
46-50	Turanian Silk Tunic	Vivid crimson and gold. Grants +1 to Save vs. Heat/Environmental effects. It makes the wearer look like a flamboyant prince of a desert that is currently underwater.
51-55	Hyperborean Witch-Amulet	A chunk of unmelting ice in a lead casing. Grants +2 to Saves vs. Illusion, but the wearer always feels a supernatural chill.
56-60	Zingaran Duelist's Cloak	A heavy, weighted cloak. When used in the off-hand, it grants a +1 AC bonus (stacks with shields).
61-65	Aesir Mead Horn	Never runs dry of harsh, burning ale so long as it is toasted to a fallen comrade before drinking.
66-70	Pictish Fetish (Wolf-Brother)	A tooth on a leather cord. From the "future" Picts. +2 to Stealth in forests. Valusian Picts will find this item "heretical" or "holy" depending on their mood.
71-75	Brythunian Silver Flute	When played, birds within 100ft stop singing to listen. +2 to Performance checks.
76-80	Ophirian Coin Purse	Contains 50 "Gold Lunas." In the Thurian Age, this is just high-quality bullion, but the minting process is suspiciously perfect.
81-85	Khitan Fire-Dust (3 pouches)	Primitive gunpowder. Can be thrown as a grenade ($2d6$ fire damage, 10ft radius) or used to blow an iron lock.
86-90	Nemedian Chronicles (Fragment)	A scroll describing the "Age of Conan." Reading it grants a permanent +1 to Legend Lore, but a -1 to Sanity/Wisdom as the reader realizes their era is doomed.
91-95	Vanir Bear-Skin Cloak	Grant Cold Resistance (Minor). The spirit of the bear is restless; the wearer suffers -2 to Charisma when dealing with "civilized" Valusians.
96-00	The Phoenix on the Sword (Hilt Wrap)	A leather wrap with a phoenix symbol. When applied to a weapon, it becomes a +2 Magical Weapon and can harm "Shadow" creatures (like Serpent Men or Wraiths) automatically.

---

The "Future-Shock" Penalty

In the King Kull era, using Hyborian technology is considered weird. If a player is seen using "Fire-Dust" or wearing the "Kothic Breastplate" in the City of Wonders, they may be accused of sorcery by the Red Council.

CK Tip: If a PC keeps a piece of Hyborian loot until the "Great Cataclysm" (Entry 96-00 on the previous table), that item is the only thing that survives the sinking of the continents, potentially becoming a legendary artifact for your next campaign set in Conan's time.