Glåugust Challenge Update: The gears have gone awry

 

I’ve been doing a thing. It’s called “Glåugust” and from context, it seems to be about GLOG stuff. Being an incorrigible contrarian, I’m trying to do the challenge but with DCC RPG. 

Unfortunately, my reach has exceeded my grasp, and while posts 4 & 5 are over halfway done, the time needed to sand & polish them is more than I have available over the next 4 days. So, the posts will arrive, the challenges will be completed, but not on time.

Also R.I.P. for Peter Cullen, voice of G1 Optimus Prime.

Glåugust Challenge 3: “The many qualities of night air.”

 

I’m doing a thing. It’s called “Glåugust” and from context, it seems to be about GLOG stuff. Being an incorrigible contrarian, I’m trying to do the challenge but with DCC RPG.

Night Air Concentrate

There is night air and there is Night Air: The former is merely the air of mundane night-time, while the latter is a semi-spiritual substance that mythopoeically resonates with The Dark Before Creation, where every sound, smell, or sensation is full of mystery and menace.

While some insist that location from whence Night Air is gathered affects its purity, it generally is of the same potency whether gathered in the mountains or the valley, sandy deserts or dark woods, although at judge’s discretion these locales may impart specific mercurial magic effects or corruptions.

On the other hand, potency IS affected by light: Only on the days of the new moon and waxing or waning crescent yield a truly useful materia. Candlelight spoils the air in a 100’ radius for 1d3 hours; larger fires spoil a greater area, with campfires spoiling in a 3000’ radius for 2d3 hours, and bonfires spoiling it for dozens of miles all through the night. Even magical light spoils the air, so infravision is essential whether it be natural or magical. Mages without either trustworthy helpers or such sight thus limit themselves to crescent moon expeditions. Generally speaking, the area where the air is to be collected must be at least half a mile away from civilization, although it is up to the judge to determine the qualifications thereof.

The Night Air must be collected in an opaque container and sealed in an airtight manner. After 7d5 hours, the container is noticeably heavier and cold, indicating it is ready to be used. Empty Moon Night Air Concentrate grants +1d and +2 CL to spells and rituals involving darkness, divination, dreams, enchantment, messages, metamorphosis, secrecy and summoning, all determined at the judge’s discretion, but also imparts an additional randomly-determined mercurial magic effect, and the spell inflicts corruption on ANY failure. Crescent Moon Night Air functions similarly but only imparts +1 CL.

Alternatively, it can be “drunk” to grant 1d3 points of temporary Luck and a randomly determined level of corruption using 1d3: 1) minor; 2) major; 3) greater. The judge may instead choose a thematically appropriate corruption to inflict.

It is said that the Concentrate can be distilled even further in certain Atlantean and Serpentine grimoires, but the information is obtuse and contradictory between sources.

Glåugust Challenge 2: “Books as treasure. No spellbooks.”

 

I’m doing a thing. It’s called “Glåugust” and from context, it seems to be about GLOG stuff. Being an incorrigible contrarian, I’m trying to do the challenge but with DCC RPG.

The Book of The Dwarven Tribes

The Master Dwarf created seven Ancestors, and from these came the Seven Tribes of Dwarvenkind. The Master and Ancestors do not speak in metaphor, for such is merely beautified lying; so of the sixteen extant tribes, nine are lying about their natures and origins. This truth caused severe civil wars among the dwarves, until they felt hemmed in both by human upstarts and underworld raiders, and decided to adopt a stance of polite intolerance towards other tribes. But, what if incontrovertible proof could be found of the identities of the True Seven Tribes?

The Book’s covers are made of indigo-colored metal, possibly adamantine, while the clasps, and both internal and external hinges are made of an unknown, pale green alloy. It will likely be found closed and secured but it cannot be locked in any meaningful way. Dwarves immediately recognize it as something important, and barring any obvious danger, must make DC 12 Will saves or attempt to reach it, by force if necessary. The inner pages are eight sheets of a dull red metal, inscribed or perhaps engraved in Old High Dwarven: Even those dwarves who do not know their racial tongue recognize that it is important to all dwarvenkind.

For those dwarves who read it, the first page is the preamble and introduction, detailing the Commands of The Master Dwarf: Each subsequent page names an Ancestor, their tribe, and additional edicts (if you don’t want to create your own, the seven tribes are Elethnes, Eakfen, Mungerys, Gowilpres, Sunborlis, Malharger, Bolglendor). A dwarf reader must make several rolls: First, a d16, with a roll of 1-7 indicating they are of the True Tribes, while an 8+ shows they are a False Tribe. Dwarves discovering they are of a False Tribe lose 1 Point of Luck and must make a DC 15 Will save or lose 1d3 points of Personality and another 1 point of Luck; to discover that you may indeed be a maggot warped by the ichor of Chaos Titans or rocks that began mimicking their predators is a grievous wound to the psyche.

The Book is an artifact created by eight god-like beings and is effectively impervious to all mortal actions both mundane and magical. Its base value is 500-1000 ([1d6+4]x1000) gp or equivalent to mere collectors, but dwarven rulers may offer up to 10000 gp or titles and land grants for it. Attempts at chicanery may well prompt dwarven princes to simply use force of arms to acquire the book. Even the mere knowledge of this Book’s existence will likely re-ignite civil wars and pogroms.

Is that worth it?

Glåugust Challenge 1: “Magic Amulets”

 

I’m doing a thing. It’s called “Glåugust” and from context, it seems to be about GLOG stuff. Being an incorrigible contrarian, I’m trying to do the challenge but with DCC RPG.

Soul-Binding Scarab
This rare antiquity appears as a fist-sized, red or green, semi-precious stone carving of a scarab with a skull in place of the thorax, often backed/mounted in silver; the chain, if any, may be of any material, but those aware of its power prefer materials that do not rot or corrode. It is said that in Ancient Khem, when Men where thirty-three feet tall and lived three-hundred thirty-three years, these scarabs were the settings of rings for the legendary princes of those days. These amulets can be great boons or terrible banes, for if the wearer dies, the soul remains tethered to the body, existing a near-adjacent reality, able to perceive everything within 3’ and experiencing anything that happens to the corpse. The tethered soul remains bound to its corpse as long as the amulet is in contact with any part of the body, but once contact is broken, it slowly marches to its final rest in 1d7 days. Tethered souls cannot communicate with mortal unless magic is employed. A soul keeps the Intelligence, Personality, and Luck scores it had in life, unless factors change it.

The tethered soul can be forced back into the body to restore it to life via a number of methods, none of which are truly safe for either the caster or the deceased. Note that a severely damaged body may result in an immediate death again, or worse yet, an un-dead existence, and that none of the methods described below heal the body; that requires more magic or technology. Also note that in the case of clerics, deities will be EXTREMELY picky about whom is revived using their divinely-apportioned gifts, possibly annihilating a cleric in same cases (such as a priestess of Justicia reviving a chaotic bandit lord, or a priest of Ahriman reviving anyone BUT a someone with outrageous skill to kill lots of people). A brief sampling of possible spell applications follows:
- Find Familiar: Cast at -1d, a 20+ result forces the soul back into the body. Unfortunately, the revived loses 2d3 Personality (to a minimum of 1) and all but 1 point of Luck, while also becoming a random familiar type (determined by the revived’s alignment) bound to the caster who restored them. The revived can no longer gain levels and has all the drawbacks common to other familiars (such as total loyalty to the caster).
- Forget: Cast at -1d, a 22+ result can make the deceased’s soul forget they’ve died. Unfortunately, they also forget other things too. The revived loses 1 point of Luck, 1 point of Stamina, and then roll 1d7 to see what else is lost: (1) a whole character level, going down to the minimum XP for the previous character level; (2) a language; (3) their occupation; (4) how to shout; (5) how to whisper; (6) how to write if literate, or how to eat with utensils if illiterate; (7)
- Breathe Life: Cast at -1d, a 27+ result forces the soul to rejoin the body. This causes a loss of 1d3 points of Luck, and due to mythopoeic resonances causes an immediate re-roll of Birth Augur using the revived’s current Luck modifiers to determine the bonus or penalty.
- Command: Cast at -1d, a 28+ result using “LIVE!”, “REVIVE!”, etc. restores the deceased to life. However, their face is branded with the god’s holy symbol, and they suffer the effects of divine disapproval on any roll of a natural 1.
- Binding: Cast at -1d, a 26+ result restores the deceased to life. However, the revived’s life force is bound to the caster’s, and if either dies, they both die.
- Animate Dead: Cast at -2d (as a reversed animate living), 20+ result fully restores the deceased to life, with no apparent ill-effects.

 

As previously stated, the tethered soul can “see” its own corpse and feel anything done to it. This can be an exceedingly terrible thing, for it is one thing to be eaten by rats, but it is an entirely more excruciating thing to watch one’s own body be eaten by rats. Or to be drawn and quartered, then mutilated. There are many dark legends of souls tortured for trespasses both real or imagined. The first incident of torture/pain/suffering (judge’s discretion on what unit an incident is), the soul loses 1d3 points of Personality and must make a DC 10 + cumulative Personality lost to this form of harm (judge’s discretion) Will save; a success means that the soul has become desensitized, and the next incidence of the same only causes the loss of 1 point of Personality, with another Will save: Success on that means the soul has become numb to that form of suffering. Revival into a damaged body that cannot sustain life causes the loss of 2d3 Personality, and intentionally doing or repeating this to a victim is so wicked that gods and patrons may smite their servants who do so (unless they themselves are similarly wicked). A soul reduced to 0 or less Personality is irrevocably insane.