Blogging Bandwagon: Maps of Aelwydi

 Prismatic Wastelands has a new blogging bandwagon theme going, this time for maps so here is every finished map of my own homebrew world.

Contract Law in Veenhaven

  The Merchants of Veenhaven are well known for their complicated contracts that often swindle outsiders.

The Merchant's Archive

Straatkei district

 Any contract signed in the city must be signed with one copy for each party and one copy to be stored in the grand archive building so it can be used to settle any future disputes. Supervised access is allowed to the archive at a cost of 10 gold per day subject to archivist availability. 

 The head archivist can be bribed to temporarily misplace a contact for 1% of it's value, amend a contract for 2% of it's value, destroy a contract for 5% of it's value or replace a contract for 7.5% of it's value (you must provide your own forgery). Note that the archivist will take the higher value of the original or replacement contract when setting their fee.

 Able to hire its own guards the archive has 8 guards working the day shift and 8 working the night shift, they count as light footmen. 

Head Archivist - Piet Hofstra - Human, Male, 62 - Reserved, Remorseless

Rarely shows emotion, has no interest at those who suffer because of their corruption.

Captain of the Guard - Aaghie Dahm - Human, Female, 31 - Fighter 3 - Sardonic, Observant

Sees everything, does a good job of protecting the archive.

The Civil Courts

Straatkei district

 Three judges over see the civil cases, they rarely find for foreigners and are all corrupt. During the day twenty light footmen serve as guards under the orders of the bailiff of the court.

Head Judge - Geerta Evers - Human, Female, 73 - Terse, Bigoted.

Hates foreign merchants, will find them in contempt for minor issues.

Judge - Jokob Botes - Human, Male, 57 - Florid, Vain.

Can be swayed with flattery, often found at the parties of House Dekker.

Judge - Kees Hals - Human, Male, 52 - Jovil, Greedy.

Newest to the bench, out to fill his pockets as quickly as possible.

Bailiff - Sir Saal de Jongh - Human, Male 29 - Knight 4 - Handsome, Lazy

More interested in attracting suitors than doing his job.

Methuen Law Offices

Straatkei district

 Prestigious law firm run by Gwir Methuen (Elf, Female, 279 - Humourless, Connected). High fees, 2-in-6 chance to solve a case favourably without a bribe due to good connections with all important figures of the city.

J. Rumbledance at Law

Straatkei district (hidden)

Joras Rumbledance (Halfling, Male, 33 - Uncouth, Honest) runs a small, messy office with his partner Nonyon (Ogre - Cheerful, Mute). Joras does the talking, Nonyon does the thumping. Services affordable. Connected to the Pebbledasher gang which they use for robbery etc in the line of servicing their clients.

Ms. T. Verken Legal Services

Waddendorp district

 Working from her home Truida Verken ( Human, Female, 22 - Idealist, Naive)  offers legal services to the poor of the city, she can often be talked into helping for free with a good sob story and as such is over worked.

Maas & Sons

Geweldig docks district

Large legal practice run by Denys Maas (Human, Male, 58 - Charming, Dishonest) and his 8 sons. The specialise in picking up the legal business of foreigners, promising them success and drawing out cases to get as much money from them as possible. Denys will take bribes from local merchants to intentionally mess up a case.

Summarize your Campaign Setting in 2d20 words or Less

 The font of creativity, d4 Caltrops, posted d100 brain food for bloggers so here is my attempt at fulfilling a prompt. 

I rolled a 14 so here is my setting in 14 words or less.

 The Elves fell, the dwarves are wavering, will the young ancestries survive their flaws?

The Bounty Hunter for Dolmenwood

 Self promo update!

I have just released my first custom class for Dolmenwood RPG, check it out on drive thru rpg!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/542433/the-bounty-hunter

Old School Essentials Divine Spell Lists

 Previously I looked at how arcane spell lists work in OSE before creating my Shadowmancer class so now I am considering new cleric spell lists it is time to do the same thing for divine casters.

When it comes to divine casters there is only the Cleric and Druid in official material for OSE and they both have shorter spell lists so while less work, less data to compare. Each class gets access to a total of 30 spells over 5 levels and they share 5 spells although there is some further overlap with spells like neutralize poison vs slow poison. Some what interesting to note is that the druid gets to dispel magic while the cleric does not.

The druid has slightly more defensive spells, otherwise the spell types are broadly similar between classes. 

Which spells should all clerics have access too?

 If as in my last post we are assuming clerics of different gods will have different spell lists to reflect their patron's domain then what if any spells are common to all clerics?

We can assume there are three categories of spells on the default cleric spells list then, spells shared by all clerics, spells which may be shared and spells which are likely not shared. For the moment I am only interested in the first category.

1st level	cure light wounds*
	detect evil
	detect magic
	light*
	protection from Evil
	purify food and water
	remove fear*
	resist cold

At first level you can make a definite case for detect magic to be shared, it is the most utilitarian of spells, cure light wounds seems like an obvious one as well although that may be partly a tendency for players to have an ingrained feeling that clerics should be heal bots. I suppose I could see the case for putting the fear of your god into someone and there by removing it too, this is not exactly how the spell is written even if it could be imagined that way. Detect evil and protection from evil feel like they could be shared spells although they may be not fit with some domains or gods, does the god of death really care about evil or do they have bigger concerns beyond mortal morality? The remaining spells all seem to be of the type that is not necessarily shared.

2nd level	bless*
	find traps
	hold person
	know alignment
	resist fire
	silence 15' radius
	snake charm
	speak with animals

I can see a really solid argument that none of these spells should be shared between all cleric types. Know alignment is the only one that seems to me it could be an always shared spell however again, some domains may be above mortal morality.

3rd level	continual light*
	cure disease*
	growth of animal
	locate object
	remove curse*
	striking

Considering level three I think that to curse or remove a curse would be something all faiths could do and I am leaning towards curse disease being on the list too but could be convinced otherwise. Healing the faithful be that wounds or disease seems like a common trait to most domains, again death being an obvious one where I could see an argument that a tenant of the faith that it is forbidden to interfere with the coming of the inevitable or some such.

4th level	create water
	cure serious wounds*
	neutralise poison
	protection from evil 10' radius
	speak with plants
	sticks to snakes

At level 4 I think we are really only faced with arguments for cure serious wounds and possible protection from evil 10' radius.

5th level	commune
	create food
	dispel evil
	insect plague
	quest*
	raise dead*

Finally we hit the big ones. All clerics should be able to commune with their god or compel a quest in my opinion, those both just seems like pillars of being a cleric regardless of who the boss is. A case can be made for dispel evil depending on where you fall on the whole issue of the spells in those evil targeting grouping. 

 To raise the dead is a thorny one, it could be a common spell, certainly popular with players once they attain it however of course the spectre of the death domain hovers where they spell would certainly be heretical. A cleric being able to strike their god's enemy dead in a single spell with finger of death certainly feels thematic, we must remember though that it is already limited to only being able to be used if drastic situations as written.

Ultimately I suppose this all comes down to what is the common fantasy of being a cleric.

On Clerics, Domains and Flavour.

 One thing I do not like about the simplification of OSE or b/x is the setting implications of the default cleric. They are just a bit too obviously coded towards a type of religion and biblical miracles. Flavour and specificity are the key to an engaging world in which to game, the default cleric just lacks that. Gavin Normal has done a great job with converting the cleric to Dolmenwood but that is a world with one church to rule them all, at least in the part of the setting we see, both in our own history and many fantasy settings there is plenty of polytheism which is not really served this way. 

In the past I have noodled around at alternate OSE or b/x clerics and paladins for different types of gods without going so far as to dip into doing full spell lists for them. Now I am thinking about going all the way which leads to wondering about how far to go with what makes up a god's domain or portfolio.

Your world has a pantheon, maybe several, you want your gods, their clerics and paladins to be distinct. What makes a domain? How many domain types is too many to pick from? Do you want a nature god, should there be animal and plant gods, are those distinct from nature as a domain? Does the tempest domain covering both sea and storm really work? What do you do when your gods have mixed domains?

I personally think that the more granular you get the more flavourful the world you are gaming in gets.  In the past on this blog I have had clerics of winter, a paladin of harvest and a cleric of festivals for example. You can look at the past attempts D&D has taken at putting real world pantheons into D&D to make them playable settings. The fifth edition DMG takes the Norse god Uller, god of hunting and winter and makes them a CN nature god which is just naff in my opinion. Is alignment really the only distinct mechanical feature that Uller has compared to Skadi, god of earth and mountains, in the same pantheon?

 If there is a god of winter I want clerics of winter, not some half hearted "that is elements of nature so you go under the nature clerics". My own homebrew world has large swathes of the world where people worship saints rather than gods, these saints can be even more specific such as a saint of bees so would a cleric of the saint of bees be just another nature cleric, a cleric of animals or something else entirely? How helpful is that as an approach? 

When it comes to spell lists you can be a bit mix and match, that is easy enough to comprehend assuming you have spell lists to start from. In my own setting Saint Ulger the Winter Wolf is both a saint of winter and war so you can rule a cleric of Saint Ulger picks spells from either the winter or war cleric spells list but what do we do about class features? My own Cleric of Winter and Cleric of War can be found on the blog, how would I mash them up for a cleric of Saint Ulger? 

 I suppose one solution would be to have different churches or temples that emphasise different aspects of a god or saint, the church of Saint Ulger the Hardy focuses on the aspects of winter in the saint's portfolio while the church of Saint Ulger the Victorious focuses on the aspects of war in the saint's portfolio and you have some potential for drama there. 

 

Of course it is the OSR, sort it out yourself is a good first rule but I would like some tools or elements to pick from rather than have to start over from first principles each time. So I am really trying to come up with a decent starting list of domains to work from.

Some comparison for domain lists from later editions of D&D.

Third edition

Air, Animal, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire, Good, Healing, Knowledge, Law, Luck, Magic, Plant, Protection, Strength, Sun, Travel, Trickery, War, Water

Fifth Edition

Arcana, Death, Forge, Grave, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Order, Peace, Tempest, Trickery, Twilight War

Neither list is entirely what I am looking for but they provide a good starting point. I definitely want the likes of winter or festivals in there, they are flavourful by being reflective of culture and provide interesting gameable options. 

All of which is to say this entire blog post is a distraction from me actually working on that list. Something to chew on if nothing actually formulated.

Blackthorn & Ramil

Two magic items to brighten up your day

 Blackthorn

A two handed +1 sword. The first time each day that blackthorn is used to kill a human or demi-human cause fear on all creatures in a 30' radius and the sword becomes a +3 for the next hour.

Ramil

A simple wooden staff bleached white by the sun, has the word "Ramil" carved into the side of it, up to three times a day when the command word is spoken a 30 foot cone of sand blasts forth from the tip of the staff.

Fungi of the Urwald Forest previewed!

 A couple of weeks ago RedMageGM was kind enough to give a short preview of my system neutral book of mushrooms that you can get on DriveThruRPG, make sure to check out the video!

Check out the video here at this time stamp.

The Garden of Reeds

 A six foot tall brick wall surrounds a compound containing an overgrown garden of reeds and an abandoned building made of thatched roof that has collapsed in on the mud walls.

During the day there is a 2-in-6 chance per hour of an elderly inhabitant of the city visiting the compound. 

 Elderly inhabitants of the city can explain that in days gone by the compound was used by the druids of the marsh for their representative in the city however the druids have not been present in the city in at least two decades. Under the guidance of the marsh druids people could be laid to rest in the reed gardens and offerings given to the spirits of the surrounding marshes.

There is a 1-in-6 chance a city inhabitant that still visits the garden knows the hex which has historically been the centre of power for the marsh druids.

Any attempt to pilfer objects that were laid as offerings into the reed beds will awaken the revengeful spirits of druids who were laid to rest in the garden.

The Shadow of Sadness

 When a knight fails during a sworn quest their shadow is the last vestige of their soul to chained to the mundane plane in the form of a Woe Knight, the shadow is usually tethered to the spot the knight faced their greatest failure. The longer a Woe Knight lingers the further the influence of their anguish will spread, initially the effect will only cover a radius of 100 feet but if left unresolved over a century it could spread to encompass an entire kingdom.

 If a Woe Knight is defeated in combat it reappears the next dusk, only by identifying the knight's original quest and rectifying their failure as best as possible can the soul be given a final peace allowing the land to heal. Treasure and XP should only be awarded once the knight's soul has been given eternal rest.

Woe Knight

Armour Class    2 [17]

Hit Dice    5** (22hp)

Attacks    1 × weapon (1d6 + energy drain)

THAC0    16 [+3]

Movement 60’ (20’)

Saving Throws D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (5)

Morale 12

Alignment    Lawful

XP 425

Number Appearing    1

Treasure Type    B

Energy drain: As a Wight

Immunity: Cannot be harmed by mundane attacks.

Unaffected: Sleep and Charm spells do not affect this creature.

 Generate the location of the Woe Knight, the nature of their quest, the reason for their failure, how the effect of their sadness permeates the land and a near by item which could give a clue to the knight's identity using the table below.

D6	Location	Quest	Failure	Effect	Clue
1	Battlefield	Destroy	Bravery	Anxiety	Helm
2	Chapel	Protect	Faith	Cold	Letter
3	Road	Recover	Humility	Decay	Necklace
4	Ruin	Rescue	Judgement	Emptiness	Ring
5	Tomb	Slay	Knowledge	Hopelessness	Scabbard
6	Wilderness	Stop	Strength	Lethargy	Shield

Knock! Issue 5

 Big surprise, I'm included in issue 5 of Knock! magazine! Get in while the kickstarter is hot!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896102915/knock-issue-5

If you have eagle eyes you might even spot my pieces in the preview video!!!

Spy (New class)

 A new class that might work best for NPCs, the spy! This is first draft material.

Spy

Requirements: Minimum CHA 9, DEX 9

Prime requisite: INT

Hit Dice: 1d4

Maximum level: 14

Armour: Leather only, no shields

Weapons: Dagger, club.

Languages: Alignment, Common, Code.

Code

All spies know one code which they made use to encode and decode messages. From 4th level they have an 80% chance to understand other codes given an appropriate amount of research time for the difficulty of the code.

Disguise

Spies have the same disguise ability as the Assassin class.

Extra languages

Spies gain an extra languages as they advance in the same manner as the Bard class.

Spy skills

Spies have the same Climb Surfaces, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, Move Silently and Pick Pockets skills as a thief of the same level.

After Reaching 9th Level

 A spy who has reached 9th level may establish a spy guild attracting 2d6 level one spies to work for them.

Spies use the thief progression table.

Monsters of the Shadow Realm Part 3

 Shadow Spider

Dark creatures that hide in black webs.

AC 6 [13] 

HD 6** (27hp) 

Att 1 × bite (1d6 + poison) 

THAC0 14 [+5]

MV 60’ (20’) / 150’ (50’) in webs 

SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (3)

ML 8

AL Neutral

XP 725 

NA 1d4 (2d6)

TT E

* Mundane damage immunity: Can only be harmed by magical attacks.

* Poison: Causes death in one turn (save with a -2 penalty), dead creatures rise as a shadow.

* Surprise: on a 1-5.

* Webs: Creatures caught in webs become entangled and unable to move. Breaking free depends on Strength: 2d4 turns for strength in the normal human range; 4 rounds for strength above 18; 2 rounds for creatures with giant strength. Webs can only be destroyed by bright light or magical weapons. 

Monsters of the Shadow realm part 2

 Dodwrynos the Nightbringer, true shadow dragon

Armour Class    -2 [21]

Hit Dice    9+1** (49hp)

Attacks    [2 × claw (1d4), 1 × bite (3d4)] or breath

THAC0    11 [+8]

Movement    90’ (30’) / 240’ (80’) flying

Saving Throws    D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (9)

Morale    10

Alignment    Chaotic

XP    2300

Number Appearing    1

Treasure Type    H

Breath weapon: Cloud of darkness.

Language and spells: 90%; 4 × 1st level, 4 x 2nd level.

Sleeping: 50% in daylight, 10% otherwise.

Hiding: Shadow dragons have a 5-in-6 chance to hide in shadows.

Woe Knight

Remains of the soul of a knight who failed to complete their quest trapped on the mundane plane in shadow form until their quest is completed. Often tied to a specific location such as where the knight fell or was interned. If a Woe Knight is killed it reappears the next dusk, can only be freed by completing the knight's quest.

Armour Class    2 [17]

Hit Dice    5** (22hp)

Attacks    1 × weapon (1d6 + energy drain)

THAC0    16 [+3]

Movement 60’ (20’)

Saving Throws D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (5)

Morale 12

Alignment    Lawful

XP 425

Number Appearing    1

Treasure Type    E

Energy drain: A successfully hit target permanently loses one experience level (or Hit Die). This incurs a loss of one Hit Die of hit points, as well as all other benefits due to the drained level (e.g. spells, saving throws, etc.). A character’s XP is reduced to the lowest amount for the new level.

Mundane damage immunity: Only harmed by magic attacks.

Spell immunity: Unaffected by charm and sleep spells.

Monsters of the shadow realm (part 1?)

Shadow Dragon 

Armour Class    -2 [21]

Hit Dice    6+1** (31hp)

Attacks    [2 × claw (1d4), 1 × bite (3d4)] or breath

THAC0    14 [+5]

Movement    90’ (30’) / 240’ (80’) flying

Saving Throws    D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (6)

Morale    9

Alignment    Chaotic

XP    725

Number Appearing    1d2 (1d2)

Treasure Type    H

Breath weapon: Cloud of darkness.

Language and spells: 90%; 3 × 1st level.

Sleeping: 50% in daylight, 10% otherwise.

Hiding: Shadow dragons have a 5-in-6 chance to hide in shadows.

Gloom Steel

 The native metal of the shadow plane. Gloom steel is a dull grey in appearance and does not reflect light. If transported to another plane then gloom steel will shatter when exposed to sunlight. Counts as a magical weapon against creatures from the shadow plane or that are made of shadow.

Fuzanglong Legionnaire (new class)

 It has been a while, here is some lore and a new class.

Fuzanglong Legion

 Sallying forth under the banner of a green dragon the Fuzanglong Legion is a politically unaligned mercenary army from Lusebao in the Fenghuang Empire. Fighting for the highest bidder the legion has a reputation for changing sides mid battle and greedily looting lands they have helped to conquer.

 Former officers in the legion have gone on to become mayors, generals, warlords in their own right and even on one occasion marry into the imperial family. With a predilection towards poisonous weaponry the legion is detested for the methods they employ but respected for their prowess in combat. 

Fuzanglong Legionnaire

Requirements: Minimum INT 9

Prime requisite: STR

Hit Dice: 1d8

Maximum level: 14

Armour: Any including shields

Weapons: Any

Languages: Alignment, Common, Dragon.

Alignment: Members of the legion must be chaotic in alignment and have sworn an oath of loyalty to the legion. Renegade members may be hunted down and killed.

A legionnaire must have a golden medallion of the green dragon to show their membership of the legion.

Poison

Legionnaire’s use poison as an assassin. They can identify any poison or its effects if they have previously seen or used it and have a 1-in-six chance of identifying a poison they have not seen or used before.

Saving Throw Bonus

Legionnaire’s have a +1 to saving throws against poison.

Strongholds

Upon reaching second level a legionnaire may establish an outpost of the legion and raise their own company of the legion marshalling as many legionnaires as they can afford to pay.

Reaching 12th level and above

 A 12th level or higher legionnaire commands the entire Fuzanglong Legion, to rise to this level the legionnaire must remove the existing commander and replace them or defeat all rivals if the position is empty.

Legionnaire’s use the fighter progression table.

Winter Elf (new class)

 Elves of the far north, at home in the snowy climates. A variant of the standard elf class.

Winter Elf 

Add

*Minimum CON 9

* Energy resistance, +2 to saves against cold

Remove

*Immunity to Ghoul Paralysis 

Paladin of Murder (new class)

 To go along with my previous cleric of murder how about a paladin of murder?

Paladin of Murder

Add

*Mininum DEX 9

*Poison: As per the assassin ability

*Disguise: As per the assassin ability

*Life Drain: As per the Chaos knight ability in Carcass Crawler #0

Remove

*Turn Undead

*Holy Resistance

*Lay on Hands

Change

*Alignment: Must not be lawful

*Armor: Leather, no shields