4 (New) Common Creatures of the Dust

With the campaign reboot on the horizon (distant 4-6 month horizon I think) I'm digging into the monsters again. Time for a clean slate on the monster book and, while I'm at it, a complete refresh of the monsters themselves.

The biggest chance between v1 and v2 monsters are their END and VIT and damage. Damage (per segment) is increased and their END and VIT are lowered. Non-essential combats were taking too long. Long combats are fairly boring. I encourage everyone to be creative, but there are only so many ways you can smash someone in the face with a mace before even you become bored with describing cool ideas. So - monsters die faster but cause more harm - the net effect is more or less the same, but the combats run faster.  WIN!

I broke out the random monster generator, kicked up 16000 entries, and started filtering for things that i could use/tweak into the game. Rather than "force" things into position (must find medium unclean so i can make skeletons) I let the results inspire new ideas and creations.

4 (New) Common Creatures of the Dust

Parson's Beetle
Threat 1 [Dust A] Small Miscreant Beast (Animal Intelligence); Demeanor: Distant; Ferocity: Passive
Encounter 1d6 wandering, 1d8 stocked; 20% chance in lair (x3 multiplier)

Init: +2	Attack: +2	Speed: 10	Damage: 1d4+1	Rending claws
Defense:+2	DR: 0	KO: 0	END: 3	VIT: 3

Description: almond-shaped beetles the size of small dogs. Their touch is corrosive (armor, shield, weapon must make DUR Check on contact) but they are easily distracted by carrion or any sort of fresh ration. They tend to be flee conflict unless actively swarming from a lair.

Shell Horror
Threat 2 [Dust A] Large Unaligned Ooze (Non-Intelligence); Demeanor: Disorderly; Ferocity: Hostile
Encounter 1d4 wandering, 1d6 stocked; 20% chance in lair (x3 multiplier)

Init: +0	Attack: +1	Speed: 8	Damage: 1d4+1	Spurt of blood
Defense:+0	DR: 2	KO: 1	END: 9	VIT: 10

Description: These oozes craft crab-like exoskeletons from the bones of their victims or those they find lying about. They amble haphazardly toward anything moving and attempt to eat it. Capture of a living ooze from inside the shell is worth 50-100g to the right collector.

Bramblecorpse
Threat 2 [Dust B] Small Neutral Unclean (Clever); Demeanor: Malicious; Ferocity: Cowardly
Encounter 1d8 wandering, 2d6 stocked; 5% chance in lair (x6 multiplier)

Init: +3	Attack: +0	Speed: 9	Damage: 1d6	Thorny vines
Defense:+3	DR: 0	KO: 0	END: 4	VIT: 3

Description: Crow-headed corpses of children wrapped in thorny vines. They lash out with the vines (attack can count as ranged) as well as use them to move about. They caw incessantly once excited. In combat they tend to disarm not as a tactic, but to grab the "shiny things". They are intelligent enough to be bribed if they aren't already excited, which happens easily.

Brunki
Threat 3 [Dust B] Medium Wicked Fey (Low Intelligence); Demeanor: Distant; Ferocity: Hostile
Encounter 1d8 wandering, 2d6 stocked; 5% chance in lair (x6 multiplier)

Init: +5	Attack: +1	Speed: 7	Damage: 1d6	Razor-sharp wings
Defense:+1	DR: 2	KO: 2	END: 10	VIT: 10

Description: Spring-green humanoids with immense compound eyes and over-sized dragonfly wings. They can fly rather quickly, but only over short distances, which allows them for an opening charge attack at +3. Rather than fight themselves they will summon a random wandering monster and flee. They detest flowers of all kinds and will avoid getting near them.

Stats for OSR-type Games
You should be able to translate into 5e easily enough as well ...

Creature	HD	AC	The Rest
Parson's Beetle	1/2	as leather	Corrosive touch destroys item 1 in 20
Shell Horror	1	as leather	Attacks are totally random target except on other shell horrors
Bramblecorpse	1	as chain	Disarm instead of damage on damage roll '6'
Brunki	1+1	as leather	Advantage (or +5) to charge attack

Map of Haven

I've decided that I'm going to make an updated map of Haven for the V2 release. Progress so far:

Sorry the quality is so shit ... I blame Blogger.

I'll likely adjust The Dome a bit (shrink it) partially to tidy up the grid and partially because there is too much space on the outside edges of Haven that isn't accounted for. We shall see. Also need to add bridges. ANd some of the district names will move a bit to adjust perceived district placement.

When it comes to the street-level maps, I've decided that I'm going to go a completely different direction than the usual "this building that building". I'm thinking more like point-crawl maps; the points having areas within them that are point-linked as well. One can move between any regions, really, but doing so outside of the "routes" incurs some sort of problems. 

Or is a map more detailed than the one above really necessary?  Maybe add some MAJOR points of interest: the Block, Temple of Eternal Light, Magistarium, the Chancery, the Tower of Kings, that sort of thing.

Maybe the only time the point-maps are of value are if the crew are searching tor chasing. Perhaps a combination of the two. Or a method to generate the point-maps (both before a session and on the fly)?

Monster Lore in Sorrow in Haven

I've been pushing so hard to get v2 of the rules written up that I have entirely neglected this blog! Tomorrow is the last session of both the year and the current campaign, then I'm taking a break from GMing Sorrow and getting into the editing process - because the text is done and artwork is coming in. Satisfaction all around.

Here, in all sorts of glorious detail. are how characters (and therefore players) know about Monsters.

Knowing About Monsters
Every good adventurer should know something about monsters, but definitely not everything. At least not until they've encountered them enough. If everything is known by the players (and hence their characters, meta-gaming be damned) then the monsters are effectively just normal creatures to battle - a gibbering red torture spider may as well be a rebid lion for all the terror it elicits from the players

Common Monsters
If a monster is Common (the actual monster Frequency Encountered classification) and the Threat (how dangerous the monster is) is equal to or less than the character's level, they will automatically know a few things. If the creature's Threat is above the character's level, they can make a Level Check (difficulty equal to how much higher the Threat is than the character's level) to know the stuff.

• Name (not the personal name)
• Threat (the actual threat level, which is meta-gamey, but a quick note on how dangerous they are)
• Type (filth, unclean, beast, etc)
• Territory (what type of region or dungeons these things hang out in)
• One fact about the creatures attacks, defenses, habits, or abilities
• If the character has the Monster Lore advance, also 1 rumor about the creature

All Other Monsters
Monster frequencies other than Common are

• Uncommon
• Rare
• Very Rare
• Unique
• Local

Local, incidentally, means the creature will ONLY EVER be found in the specific location. It is like unique, but for a group of critters. Unique, of course, meaning there are just one of them. If a character wants to know things about any of these creatures, they need to know about they'll need to make a Monster Lore Check.

Monster Lore

Monster Lore is an Alternate Advance (anyone can take it)  with no requirements.

After spending 1 Turn studying a monster (active observation and interaction) the character makes an INT check, the difficulty based on the rarity of the creature. With a successful check, the character will know the information about the monster as though it were Common. 

If the check is a Critical Success the player may also ask a number of yes/no questions equal to half their level.

If the check is a Legendary Success the player may also ask a number of yes/no questions equal to their level (instead of half).

This ability does not work on NPCs or non-famous unique creatures.

This advance may only be used once per monster until the character advances in level. In other words, if a character uses monster lore on a particular creature, success or failure, they can't use it again on that specific monster again until they go up a level.

Famous Monsters
But what about famous monsters? Everyone knows about Gurnd07, the Mecha-Cyclops of the Void Gate. Of course they do. If a creature is tagged as Famous, they are treated as Common, but each piece of information provided is a rumor and not necessarily true!

• Uncommon: each rumor is 50% true
• Rare: each rumor is 40% true
• Very Rare: each rumor is 30% true
• Unique: each rumor is 20% true

A Monster Lore Check against a famous monster is made with Advantage, success indicating actual information is gathered.

Monster Lore II

This advance can be taken to enhance the Monster Lore ability. In addition to the benefits of Monster Lore, the character will know if any of the monster parts are valuable or have specific uses and may ask the GM one open-ended question about the monster. If the INT Check is a Legendary success all questions may be open-ended.

The Actual Monster Lore INT Check

This roll should be made in the open, never secret. The difficulty is based on the monster frequency:

• Common: +0
• Uncommon: +1
• Rare: +3
• Very Rare: +5
• Unique: +8

On a Failure, the player can request information, but it has a 75% chance of being false.

On a Critical Failure, the player can request information, but it has a 90% chance of being false.

On a Legendary Failure, doesn't know anything about this monster.

Multiple Characters with Monster Lore

Great! They each get a roll if they want one and can confer all they like. Since Monster Lore is an Advance, it is a significant investment in the character. If multiple characters go that route, the GM will hand out info like mad, but the characters may be lacking in other areas.

Multiple Characters, Common and Famous Monsters

For common monsters, the GM hands out set of information for everyone. For famous monsters, they should hand out a set of info for each character that wants to participate. This could cause some serious confusion as everyone has different info, or a consensus (which could be wrong). In either case, the GM should do what seems like the most fun for the group. 

Final Thoughts

Monsters should be mysterious, and learning about how they work can be fun. The rules above give the players a chance to get some insight for their characters when something unknown is encountered. However, when players encounter something they have encountered before, even with new characters, that information doesn't mysteriously go away - the actual experiences become common knowledge within the game world. Characters from the last campaign were paralyzed by the bite of a gorging worm? Well - the new characters know about that because the players do - and that is OK! Maybe they heard a story about those other adventurers, or perhaps it is part of some macabre children's song. In any case, be reasonable and have fun!

Sorrow in Haven V2 Updates

I haven'st posted in a while. Work and real life have been taking a front seat, with gaming driving from the back and blogging in a trunk in the driveway. C'est la vie.

Sorrow in Haven Update
The book is now separated into Parts, then into Chapters.

Part I: Introduction

• Primer for Players [being re-written]
• Action Resolution [done]
• Setting Overview [being reviewed]

Part II: Characters

• Character Creation [done]
• Class update [more or less done]
• Backgrounds [finish reviewing, add some new ones for those i removed]
• Memories & Details [done]
• Gear [probably done]

Part III: Magic

• Traditions of magic [needs to be fleshed out]
• Arcane Magic [done]
• Divine Chanting [done]
• Purge the Unclean [done]
• Familiars [done]
• Technomancy [in progress]

Part IV: Adventure

• Encounters [done]
• Evasion [done]
• Social Interactions [done]
• followers [done]
• Combat [mostly done]
• Rest and Recovery [in progress]
• Madness [in progress]
• Dungeoneering [in progress]
• Other Perils and Challenges [in progress]
• Identifying Loot [in progress]
• Labs and Libraries [in progress]
• Reward and Advancement [in progress]
• Between Adventures [in progress]

The GM sections are in progress but I don't know how I'm organizing them. Once Part IV is complete it is a viable player's handbook (with the exception of Crews and Wilderness stuff which are each going to be an appendix). PHEW!

Actual Play & the GigaDungeon Sorrow

We've had quite a few sessions since the last update. The crew are exploring Sorrow slowly and cautiously. THey've been poking about the Gauntlet and have just discovered the passage between The Gauntlet and the Lost Catacombs of St. Brigit. So that is exciting :) They know about more levels and think they've been in one or two briefly. We are also seeing characters advance and approach 5th level, which is very exciting. A few characters have died, protege and backup characters have been created; The last wizard got lost forever in The Gloom. 

The New gear rules have been interesting to watch. In short, stuff is far more expensive, but players can make it less expensive by adding options, which are all awful. Lester, for example, has an Unlucky Axe ... once per session it can just fail to do what it was designed for (GM fiat). He was able to get the axe and uses it, but it just seems to fail at inopportune moments.

We've also reached a point where the players are seeing the living dungeon actually means something. They haven't been back to the Catacombs for some time ... and things are different. With some of the faction leaders removed the remaining factions have rallied a bit. Politics have changed. Much exciting ;P

Some Rules Bits

After a lot of discussion about the Wizard casting rules, there was a dramatic change in the rules. When casting a spell, the most powerful aspect (target, duration, effect) determines the Chaos Index of a spell. This is the % chance that the spell causes Magical Chaos even if successful. Critical success negates this. The Pact of Blood (where wizards can bleed INTO their magic) can be used to lower the Chaos Index or Boots the power of the spell (increase the chance of success) or both.

Divine Invocations (templar spells) got a tweak with the Divine Displeasure rules. When they do dubious stuff they can gain DD points, but they can actually USE them, but this brings up the path of Shadow and potentially "Gifts of Darkness". SO now templar can go down a wicked path as well.

Additional Combat rulings (from play and discussion of possible events) have been added. Players are tricky and a GM has to keep coming up with ideas to mitigate and rule on crazy ideas ... which is awesome! The Combat Rulings section is really just ideas and guidelines, but more examples are good for those interested in such things.

The Book(s)
When Part IV is complete I may make that a seaprate book. the GM stuff I'll include in a "Master" book. so the players get the player stuff, the GM gets the GM stuff AND the player stuff. Or maybe a separate book?  We'll have to see how they look and feel. These are going to be much larger.

Here is a Magic Item
Wand of Bigby (Technomancy)
It has a metal handle with grooves and indentations that fit the human hand quite comfortably. From the end is a gnarled wooden branch of white birch, smooth except at the end that flares into 5 short twigs. Once imprinted on a user they may
  1) Summon an Astral hand to manipulate objects (lasts 1 turn)
  2) Summon a Patchwork hand to punch things super hard (ignores non-magical DR)
The distance of the target from the user determines the strength
  Close: STR +3, 5d6 damage
  Near: STR +1, 3d6 damage
  Far: STR -1, 1d6 damage
The uses are limited. Usage Die: d6, 1 Usage Roll each time the item is used

Technomancy Imprinting
Technomatic items must imprint on a user. This gives then the ability to activate the item, but not what necessarily what it does. The user must make a WIT Check.
  Legendary Failure: the item defenses kick in and the item uses itself against the character
  Critical Failure: the item will not imprint and will never imprint
  Failure: ya get nothin'
  Success: the character may use the item
  Critical Success: the character may use the item and knows basic abilities but not details
  Legendary Success: full use and knowledge of abilities

One important note is that knowledge of abilities doesn't mean the character actually understands what that means. They might get that the item is a portal generator, but the full knowledge that the user can open a conduit through the astral for immediate transportation across vast distances on the Realm of Light doesn't impart that the conduit is subject to attack from astral forces or that characters can still get "warp sickness". Those are details subject to research. Cursed items also don't reveal their curses. That also takes research ... the imprinting is the willingness of the item to with with the character.

Familiar ideas for Sorrow in Haven

People love their familiars, and well they should! But more often than not they get ignored and just show up when needed. Mechanics have been built around this idea to match how the players play. Which at first irked me, but then I got this idea ...

Normal animals walking around in Haven aren't going to cause anyone to lose their mind. But monsters, even "tame" monsters cause the citizenry to get nervous and possibly even freak out and start calling for the Hammers to "Destroy the Demon!"

Walking Your Familiar If a familiar is near the wizard that is their master and generally minding it's own business and the wizard isn't doing anything particularly odd or alarming, people just tend to not notice it. If Edward the wizard is walking around town with his Astral Beast, which is a mind-bending creature from the astral plane, it is just a wizard walking his weird dog. If Edward tells his beat to investigate an alleyway, however, folks will (probably) notice there is a freaky unnatural creature skulking about. This ruling cannot be used to "get away" with things ... it doesn't make the familiar invisible, and anyone directly interacting will notice it. It just lets the wizard walk around town with his weird-ass pet.

There. That was easy. But familiars aren't exactly normal creatures, even if they look like one. Your cat isn't a cat - it is a special cat. A magical cat. Not entirely on this place. Familiars are imbued with an intelligence and arcane possibilities that indicate they MUST have a connection to the Patchwork Kingdom like their master. In fact, their conduit is intertwined with that of the wizard. That makes them otherworldly, and they must have their own desires and goals. Familiars all want something, and if asked to do something they don't really want to do, they will ask for a payment, which they all call a gift.

Familiar Gifts If the wizard asks a task to their familiar and they don't feel like doing it, or know the wizard needs them to do this thing, they will ask for a gift. If payment is not made, they may wander off for 1d6 days or more and sulk. The gift is particular to the familiar's tastes and desires. The gift may be presented immediately, or may be given later, but not too much later. Promising a gift and refusing it may have dire consequences.

Sample Gifts
A quick chart using your favorite 1d12 to get things going. Don't over-use this idea, just when things are important or interesting.

1. A bowl of milk from a Black Goat
2. A sip of the wizard's blood (1d4 VIT)
3. A silver coin stolen from an honest person
4. A lock of golden hair from a virgin
5. Knowledge of a dark secret, suitable for blackmail
6. A vial of tears mixed 
7. A cake of ash from a burned contract
8. Some fancy new clothes (probably a hat, maybe a vest)
9. The teeth of a hanged man
10. To be carried around like a baby for 1 week
11. To bite an innocent child
12. A crown of ivy plucked from a grave under the full moon

The Cosmology of Eradu

Some "common knowledge" about the cosmos of Sorrow in Haven.


Realm of Light
This is Eradu, the world of Man, the seat of Haven the Perfect City, a place of Order. While things outside the Dome of Haven are a terrible and dangerous mess, this is the prime dimension, the material plane. Eradu and her moons were created by the World God Xin in ancient times and the current state of things is because of the vile Phoenix Legion, who slew the World God but failed to bring about the end of Eradu itself.

Underworld

Another dimension of being that lies right next to the Realm of Light. It pushes through and grows like a fungus or mold, corrupting and twisting things. These tears in reality lead to the Underworld itself, a place of madness and perverted order. These "dungeons" are part of a greater problem.

The Astral Plane
The Astral surrounds the Realm of Light and the Underworld and, many suspect, all places. Most things have a form in the astral, people as shadows of themselves, sleeping wrapped in their silver cords. Wizards can step into the aether of the Astral, a gift or curse of their connection to the Patchwork Kingdom. From the Astral a wizard could travel to any other dimension.

Gloom
A filthy shadow cast by the Realm of Light cast upon the Astral. It is a place of darkness and blood. The gloom occasionally creeps into the foulest places of the Realm of Light - most often the residue of a wizard travelling there. Wizards attempting to see into the Astral often 'miscast' themselves into the Gloom. The reasons for this are unknown, the outcomes are often unfortunate.

The Patchwork Kingdom
Wizards have a connection to the Patchwork Kingdom - a hole in their soul - that allows the power and chaos of this otherworldly realm to be channeled and controlled - at least up to a point. It is a rarely glimpsed place of unrelenting chaos; pure energy of form and thought; demonic nightmares and creatures strange beyond comprehension. It is a place of demons.

The Courts

Reference of the Fairy Courts, Lands of the Fey (also Faerie, fae, fyrae, and all manner of spellings have been found) are common in the tales of children, drunk, and adventurer alike. Elves of all manner, hobgoblin, bogarts, and bogeymen run amok, beautiful people offering delicious food and unexpected wine, and a war so ancient that everything is said to be a pawn. If the five courts (Summer, Winter, Spring, SUmmer, and Moonlight) even exist, be wary if things seem too idyllic.

Star Realms

Somewhere beyond Erau, not exactly in the Realm of Light, hiding in the darkness between the infinite stars, are the Star Realms. The Old Gods, if they exist or ever existed, wait here sleeping. Their avatars can sometimes be seen searching the night skies, looking for worshipers, casting their strange repeating melodic messages. Members of the Esoteric Society claim that in the most ancient texts Eradu was part of a vast network and the Star Realms were but a moment away. 

Sigil and the Variance
Adventurers sometimes run across rumors of a place called Sigil, a city in the heavens at the center of the universe. They also find references to the Variance, some sort of subtle shifts in Realm of Light and perhaps elsewhere. Talk of divergent streams and parallel lines, the appearance of odd mathematics and references to the Machine Core; these are signs of Sigil and her three rulers: The Lady of Pain, The Lady of Suffering, and the Lady of Dreams.

Rumors Around Haven

What is happening Haven right now?

Dungeon Goodness
1. Sorrow has been rumbling! The vermin at the Block have multiplied and the Hammers have been keeping a goblin infestation under control. Rumors that the Recasting on Jubilation woke the dungeon up.

2. The Gentlemen of Success (GDD 638 - North Gate) have made a concerted expedition into the Sorrow! On their last venture they spoke of the Great Halls beneath the Gauntlet ... a place of giants.

3. The Night Runners (GDD 719 - Smouldering Wharf) leadership has had a mighty blow - a confirmed TPK of their most senior members a dungeon on the wharf. The new crew is continuing the contract, but their standing among the Guild is in question.

Political Nonsense

4. With the Jubilation celebration over and Summer in full swing, the Collective of Farm Guilds is throwing their weight around, and many of the non-collective guilds are considering retribution. 

5. The Hammers have a new commander! Redzik the Wise has retired to a country estate and now Ophelia Crownhammer (formerly of the North-central Branch) has the Gavel of Justice. Petrik and Asgud (Lieutenants inside Haven) are strong supporters, but the other three Lieutenants of luke-warm at best. Levin Gasoux now in charge of the North-central Branch is said to have had several public arguments with her.

6. A new deacon, Wendell Worthington, has been making a name for himself in Old Town among the nobles. The Church has suggested that his rhetoric of Divine Right is not in alignment with current doctrine, but his longstanding charitable works (with hearty donations from various noble houses) are highly valuable. Not all of the nobles houses agree with his statements

Weird Shit

7. A ship, tattered and beaten with no obvious crew is floating on the edge of the Dome, wandering in and out. No-one has taken it upon themselves to investigate.

8. A young woman was found dead near the Wall covered in inexplicable injuries some alchemists are calling "chem-burns". A nearby tower was reported to have been "taken over for a short while by  some sort of gang". The two incidents may be related, but without knowledge of the teen (a Jane Doe) and a lack of identification of the gang (well armed from one report) no more is known.

9. A rogue wizard has flooded a field in New Hope village after an apparent conflict with the elderly farmer who was offering him board at her farmhouse. Some claim this ties in with a well in Quail Point overflowing with rancid filth, but nothing has been confirmed. The wizard has since disappeared and his whereabouts are unknown. 

10. On two separate occasions, mysterious floating women in golden armor with flowing blue robes have whisked away the recently dead claiming to take them to "a better place". The Hammers are actively searching for more information, as one of their own was taken up. The Magistarium is turning a portion of their efforts on research as well. On both occasions the strangers disappeared in a flash of "wan green light that smelled of foreign spices".

Outside The Dome

11. A Storm Titan was seen on the horizon, surrounded by a pair of tornadoes. Wall Wardens report that the Titan looked right at them and even pointed before disappearing into the mountains northwest of the Derembel Forest and Trogdic Hills.

12. The Spiced Winds, smelling of clove, cinnamon, persimmon, and plum, have started. This good omen is though to be a sign that the year will be bountiful ... but on the farthest horizon those that watch the Endless Grey say the Bitter Storm is boiling with more lightning than usual - and great shadows have been seen dancing among the thunderheads.

Magic is Hella Dangerous

I was never quite down with the Vancian magic system of traditional RPGs. Eventually I read Vance and it made a lot more sense, but the game mechanics never quite matched the feeling. Conan had crazy sorcerers, but classic fantasy RPG magic-users just had a list of things they could do. And the term "magic-user" was just awful. Clever wizard players would end up doing weird logical arguments about what a spell meant, which is boring at the table. I always wanted magic to be weird and personal and unexpected and crazy and, more than anything else DANGEROUS.

If we step back for a moment and think about what a world with "classic" wizards look like they are basically academics. If anyone could potentially learn wizardry then the world would be very different. Eventually magic just becomes/replaces technology. Uhg. Boring. Robots and trains and communicators and just fucking shoot me. Magic missile was kind of cool until everyone had it. In 5e low-level wizards (et. al.) are walking guns.

Sure, you can wrap role playing and setting and everything around it, but it still never comes across as dangerous. Wild magic came into the fold. Interesting. The Deck of Many Things and the Wand of Wonder? Cool - but a smart player would just burn that shit and walk away.

I really dug on Ars Magica's idea of crafting spells that suit your needs. But again - danger. If there is just a chance of shit going wrong that is also just purely random chance. DCC did a pretty good job of making things much more interesting, but it is still Vancian magic and wizards pretty much dominate the game.

If you like those things, cool. Not me. Ages ago I added in "free casting" with the chance of things going wrong. It was a massively clunky add-on to D&D/Hackmaster. Eventually I wrote the system we are using in Sorrow in Haven.  Check it.

1. The basics: an opposed roll (like everyhting else): 2d6+arcane vs 2d6+difficulty.
2. The spell is built by the player taking looking at a chart and figuring out range, target, duration, and effect.  Effects outside of direct numbers (like 3d of damage) are a bit subjective and must be related to the wizard's focus (more on that below)
3. Total everything up from the chart and that is the difficulty.
4. Chances are, a character's arcane attribute will be in the 3-6 range. Difficulty for "average" spells float around 10, but have no ceiling if the player keeps piling on effects

The character has a few "foci". These are effectively words or phrases they must base the spells they cast. For example, in a recent set of games, a wizard with "Barrier of Steel" used it to cast up a steel wall and is working on casting a spell to make their skin steel. Both are super valid.

Now the danger/risk part comes in when you look at the possible results

Action Roll (that 2d6 opposed biz mentioned above) is a Success, the spell goes off. There are benefits for rolling up a Critical or Legendary Success, but those aren't interesting for this. If the spell Fails, there is a chance some Magical Chaos shows up. On a Critical Fail Magical Chaos definitely happens. on a Legendary Failure ALL THE MAGICAL CHAOS happens. At once.

Magical Chaos is represented by a number of cards. One card is presented per focus the wizard has (and some rules for multiple wizards and the like). The players can see the names of the magical chaos, but not what they do. If Magical Chaos happens, they choose a card and deal with the consequences.

The player can spend some of their character's Endurance (stamina)to improve their chances (as with all Action Rolls). They can also spend their Vitality (causing themselves actual wounds) to improve chances of success. This is where the choice and risk come into play.

If they spend too much END and VIT to make sure the spell definitely absolutely goes off, they have weakened themselves for future encounters (think of it as spending you Hit Points). If they don't spend enough there is not just a chance of failure, but a chance of failure with something going WRONG.

So what the hell is Magical Chaos? The players have encountered this twice so far.

One time the wizards tongue swelled up into a huge worm while their mouth disappeared. They had to choose to bite off their own tongue or suffocate. In the end some clever dagger-work did the trick and neither resulted.  Role playing to the rescue!

Another time Tiger Mott (a famous wizard of GDD Chapter 938 - the Extravagant Philosophers) cast a spell and all his skin sloughed off. All of it. Beneath the skin he had transformed into a porcelain mannequin. He ended up being even stranger than before - knowing that a single critical attack will shatter his fragile body. Role playing to the ... that was MY character. That sucked, but Tiger sure is interesting now :)

Magic is dangerous. People fear it because if it messes up, monsters can come through and destroy the world.

Magic is powerful. A wizard can attempt to cast anything they can think of, but if they over-reach things go wrong (see Magic is dangerous).

Magic is magical. It is unpredictable and creative instead of a list of things. It has strange effects and often unknown consequences and, at least for non-wizards, it is mysterious and weird.

How does this work in play?  Really well!  It takes a new wizard player a session or two to wrap their heads around it, but it works and encourages creativity.

END!

The Environment of Adventure

Adventure Biz
After much dicking around in the Lost Catacombs of St. Brigit, including

• finding her sundered-yet-alive-yet-dead body being tortured by weird energy
• meeting 2 of the 4 "deacons", killing 1 of them
• discovering that deacon Wentworth has left the dungeon (uh oh)
• free the four sister-queens of Elesia (imprisoned by Wentworth)
• and defeating a summoned monster that was way too tough for them

the party has returned to Haven in the middle of the Jubilation celebration, during which, on midsummer, the Dome shall be re-cast.  It has been fun and they've got a lot left to do back down in the Underworld, but what I want to talk about is that last bullet and how they did it and why it is important (at least to me, and possibly other GMs)

Killing the Demon
The crew was trapped in the underworld by a demon summoned in the entrance by some bad guys (details irrelevant for this discussion but worth another post some time later because it is all about conspiracies in the urban adventures!). This particular entry way was trapped with mondo-destructo lasers, the trap triggered in a specific and repeatable manner.

The players decided to use this trap to their advantage. That is the important part. The dungeon environment needs to have things to interact with. Not just traps that stab a few points of END/HP away from the characters or inconvenience them (stupid pit traps); more than drink from this fountain and gain/lose a stat; things to fiddle with. Things that are memorable. Things to play with!

This particular trap was one of those things. They knew it was a trap. They knew there was a way around it. A character died trying to get by it, but everyone knew what was happening. They didn't bypass it with a die roll, they figured it out through play. Some will argue that this is boring - and for some stuff it is. The "i search the door" thing gets old, and if the GM dings you with a poison needle because you "didn't search the hinges where the poison needle was" is extra lame. By interacting with this trap and figuring it out the players not only remembered it, but later on decided to use it.

Through some clever spell use - Edward the Wizard carved his mandala of Barrier of Steel into one of the gravehounds that he had charmed and sent it running into the room. It exploded into s a huge steel wall. While the demon bashed at the wall (after his sweet TPK-level breath weapon was deflected) another character ran into the room and triggered the trap. 10d6 of laser damage. Not enough?  they did it again! The players used not just their character's bits and bobs, but clever planning and role playing (the guy who is without fear was the one who ran in) to bypass a challenge, but use the dungeon itself. I was so happy.

This demon should have FUCKED UP the party. If they would have faced it directly I expect at least 3/5 characters would have died. This was brilliant. Another awesome GM monster defeated because the players are treating big-ass monsters like this as challenges, not as fights. It was great!

Summary

• Give the players things to play with in the dungeon environment
• Monsters are challenges, not all of which need to be fought to defeat

Class Groups
When a character chooses a class, they also roll 1d6 to determine which group/organization within that class they belong to. These have no mechanical effect, but give the player some jazz to role play with.

1d6	Explorer	Paladin	Scoundrel	Templar	Warrior	Wizard
Type	Club	Creed	Ring	Order	School	Lineage
1	Tusk's Historians	Golden Vanguard	Alabaster and Wine	of St. Bjern	Charidemuth	Bringers of Storm
2	Tomb Raiders	Knights of Valor	Murder Hobos, Inc.	of St. Blün	Blade and Board	Dusk-bound
3	Eagle and Shark	Knights of Scions	Night Carolers	of St. Brigit	Children of Krom	Promaethean
4	League of Toth	Silver Legion	Secret Mouse	of St. Lith	Munkhousun Society	Skyward Watchers
5	Devil's Horns	Black Sentinels	Red Ghosts	of St. Osgüd	Brotherhood of Blood	Unseen Servants
6	Your Betters	Iron Brigade	The Viscounts	of St. Raster	Sisters of Battle	Patchwork Knights

A few selections ...

Devils’ Horns
Thrill seekers of the highest order. The Devil’s horns have an extravagant clubhouse where they regularly throw wild parties. New discoveries are always an excuse for a party, but so is simple survival. More than one Devil’s party has been broken up by the Hammers when some of their more esoteric guests have gotten out of control. They have a reputation for ignoring the conventions of society and walking the edge of heresy.

Black Sentinels
The Black Sentinels hide their faces from society under black hoods to avoid the complications of their sworn duty - to root out witches and sorcerers. They are the oldest of the creeds and can trace their origins to the founding of the Chancery. Each member of this creed must be blooded in a witch hunt, suffering hexes and curses to protect their fellows. Their true identities are rarely known outside of the Chancery.

Murder Hobos, Incorporated
Their name causes most to look on them disdainfully, but as the Murder Hobos take nothing seriously they find the sour looks quite amusing. This ring helps perpetuate the stereotype that adventurers, particularly members of the GDD, are awful morally bankrupt folks. They think this is hilarious.

Unseen Servants
Where most wizards are ostentatious in their dress and manner, the Unseen Servants prefer subtlety, quiet reflection, and deep contemplation.  Many have taken a vow of silence except when casting spells. Unseen Servants are preferred advisors to the noble houses because of their nature.

Adventures, V2 Updates, and the Revised Encumbrance System

Adventures!
Since the last major adventure update, a TON of stuff has happened. Here is a summary of the recent adventure, each chapter is an actual session of play:

Chapter 1

• Jordan Klem is hired as a henchman
• The crew meets Hellen of the Black Leg Gang
• Learn of the turf war between the BLG and the Serpent’s eyes
• Learn of Teluni’s Rest and the Dungeon Kings (Guild 111)
• Meeting with Ingref and the Ageless Vaults
• Jordan is affected by Astral interference from Jacob
• Learned of Petey and his mercenaries wearing false skin
• Confront Hellen with her love letters to Abby (from the Dungeon Kings)

Chapter 2

• Spent some time dicking around in Cowtown
• Gathered information and contacts at the Exalted Hound
• Finds out about the Slippery Begonia
• Brutal fight with Serpent’s Eyes
• Find connections between Serpents Eyes, Black Leg Gang, and Dungeon Kings
• Take on Jerry as a henchman and his debt to Nico Forte
• Jordan is getting worse
• Enter Taluni’s Rest

Chapter 3 [the last session notes on the blog a few posts down]

• Get messed up by something big and shadowy and magical
• Pick up a strange egg, keening hound?
• Find several graves, including one that seems to be related to St. Brigit
• Rescued from certain doom by the Hammers and the Windward Pistoleers
• Jordan Blackwater, insane now, escaped the templar
• The bar was attacked, Hellen perished, but had a letter for the crew
• Some time spent at the Chancery of Arbitration to deal with the bounty on the crew’s heads put there by Serpent’s Eyes
• Visit from Killington from the Gentlemen of Success (senior GDD chapter)

Chapter 4

• Found more about the Serpent’s Eyes leadership
• Interrogation and a new ally at a Buns Shop
• Discovered the Ageless Vault
• Spent quite a bit of time working on deciphering the letter from Abby to Hellen

Chapter 5

• Massive Serpent’s eyes activity at the Vault
• Discovered the TRUE entrance
• Jacob is killed by defense mechanicsm
• Iggy has his eyes put out and puts what are expected to be Brigit’s eyes in his head
• Gain entrance to the False Tomb
• See a congregation of the dead
• Approached by a blue creature named Beetle

Chapter 6

• Beetle trades a sack containing Edward and some information for a pretty music box and a memory from Forval
• Find a strange scrying pool that is also a gate to another place and time?
• Encounter the Defiler Lord and his Masked Defiler adherents
• Parley with them
• Massive battle with the Congregation of the dead and Deacon Ramirez
• Retrieve the arm of St. Brigit
• The masked defilers are following and watching

Chapter 7

• Serpent Eyes found the real Vault Entrance
• This Dungeon is growing, it's probably an entrance to Sorrow
• We find several interesting books
• Deacon Thrum gives us lots of information about Sorrow
• We find an elevator and go down approximately 1 level

Chapter 8

• Happening this Friday night - who knows what will transpire!

Sorrow in Haven V2
Things are moving along at a reasonable pace. The Players section of the rules are nearing completion.

• need to flesh out some of the "flavor text" for the classes, specifically the organizations for each class and a bit about them. Using this to add 'implied setting' directly into the rules
• building out the equipment section a bit more without being an endless list of shit
• The rules for action resolution have been tidied and simplified - we dropped a few fiddly things and after a play session everyone agreed that they didn't really miss them
• the two magic chapters are on deck, followed by the rules for Followers (Henchmen and hirelings)
• review and clean up the combat chapter
• the "reaction rules" are being cleaned up
• adding chapter for Encounters - they don't always lead to combat
• segmenting some rules and flavor into 3 chapters: Urban, Wilderness, Underworld
• going to focus these sections on player-facing needs and keep GM stuff out for now 

Chapters, by the way, are sometimes a page long, sometimes two. Only a few of them span more than that. I'm making a point to spend at least 8 hours a week working on this, trying to write or think about things almost every day. Like a writing month that never ends :) I'm targeting end of April for a the complete Players Section.

Once I'm set with the Players section, I'll deep dive into the GM section. I'm going to try and translate all of my at-table activity into rules/descriptions as well as flesh out some of the details

Encumbrance Rules
Everyone hates encumbrance rules. But how much junk your character is carrying around is important. What doesn't work (and isn't fun) is totaling up the weight of everything a character is carrying and where they are carrying it and maintaining that every hour. it suuuuucks. That is why HM4e had the "Encumbrance Audit" rule, which was basically the GM saying "fuck you" to players who didn't do the book keeping.

What works, though? Slots. Like in the Diablo games. I've used some version of this previously, and in the last few years several games use something similar (Black Hack, Veins of the Earth come to mind). SO here is how it works in Sorrow in Haven.

Containers

Gear Containers from the Character Sheet

Every character has a Primary Container with 9 slots in a 3 x 3 grid. They also have 5 small containers, each with 3 slots. The containers are abstract concepts, not meant to be actual continers like backpacks or pouches.

Slots
Small items take up 1 slot, medium 2 slots, and large 3 slots.  Slots for a specific item must be adjacent in a single container. A few things, like armor, can take up more than 3 slots. Slots are an abstraction of weight, bulk, and access. For example, you can carry more than 1 dagger in a slot, but if you plan on using them in combat or having easy access to them, they need to be a in a single slot.

Ephemera
This is for things that don't take up a slot. A piece of paper, an earring, and small stuff like that. These don't "count against you" for encumbrance.

Calculating Encumbrance
Anyone can use the 9 slots in their primary container with no fear of running afoul any encumbrance rules. As soon as they starting using the small containers, the rules trigger.

Encumbrance points = (# of small containers being used, even a single slot) - size modifier (all characters are medium, so this is 1) - STR action modifier.

Example: 2 small containers, STR action modifier +0 ... 2 (containers) -1 (size medium) -0 (STR mod) = 1 encumbrance point.

Dungeon Cart model I put together ... it also has a flag
but didn't have it attached when I took this photo

If a character has at least 1 Encumbrance Point, they are considered Encumbered. Each Encumbrance point is -1 to ALL ACTION ROLLS. Being encumbered will also impact other things - like being able to climb certain things, what happens if they fall into deep water, and so on, but the -1 penalty is what makes everyone pay attention.

Does it Work?
Mechanically it is a breeze. In actual play it works because players have quick visual cues as to how much they are carrying and if they are going to have any penalties. So far, players do everything they can to avoid that Action Roll penalty, which is exactly the point of the entire system - awareness and ease of use!

Players are making use of followers (Henchman Jerry carries stuff for the group) and we even have the first "dungeon cart" in play to haul stuff around. It works and isn't confusing and is the least amount of book keeping I've seen with an encumbrance system than has the feel I like. That decision to keep some stuff and leave the rest behind can be a Hard Choice ™, which is perfect.

Organizing Dungeon Events

I love events as part of the 'random encounter' tables.  They can add so much to a dungeon

• evocative sights and sounds
• clues as to what is happening
• tension builders
• NPC encounters
• faction play
• and whatever else you can think of

In the Gigadungeon Sorrow there are

• Levels: you know and love them already!
• Layer: these are a discrete collection of dungeon levels (although there may only be 1 level)
• Regions: a collection of layers that have a common thread

In the end, I've got multiple tables. Let's look at one set of tables

Lost Haven Events - things that could happen anywhere within the Lost Haven Region
Catacombs of St. Brigit Events - for just that Layer, which is in Lost Haven, which is in Sorrow
The Gauntlet - events for the Gauntlet Layer within Lost Haven within Sorrow
and so on

                                           Art by Alex Mayo

PLAYERS: DON'T READ PAST HERE : POTENTIAL SPOILERS

So from the bottom, let's look at Events in the Catacombs of St. Brigit: a simple 1d6 table:

1. Chanting - the prayers and enthusiasm of the nearest congregation can be heard
2. Rustling Dead - any nearby dead groan and shudder
3. The Crypts Grow - a new chamber of the crypts is added to the map
4. Filth - Raiments are soiled, holy symbols dirtied
5. Cold Sensation - as Wentworth spies on the party
6. Cries of Pain - the echoes of St. Brigit are heard, volume based on proximity

Each has a description and sub-tables/rules where appropriate and are contingent on other events. For example, if the party deal with Wentworth, he will stop spying on them and that event no longer exists (treated as No Event).

Lost Haven is a Region, so I've created two tables for it - major and minor events. Minor Lost Haven Events are designed more around adding context and flavor

1. Strong scent of the City
2. Sounds of the City
3. Sounds of the Bitter Storm
4. Pillbug corpse removers
5. Gnomefolk working resetting a trap
6. Swarm of sewer/dock rats/lizards come flooding past the party

Major Lost Haven Events have more specific things ralted to them - aspects that can and likely will start to change the game and how players interact with things.

1. The Star Wizards spy on the crew
2. The Lore Seekers want what something the crew has
3. Meekum's Devils looking for a sucker
4. Nearby faction arrives
5. A new sub-level blooms nearby (Threat +{1d3})
6. Monster

The Star Wizards, Lore Seekers, and Meekum's Devils are specific factions within the Lost Haven region.  Nearby faction could be any of those or one from a neighboring region come exploring. Sub-levels are "temporary" mini-layers that have better loot but more danger. and the Monster entry are specific monsters - unique ones that are seriously bad - that wander Lost Haven.

Sorrow Events don't exist as a separate table. Maybe in the future, but there are already a shitload of things going on and that might make it too chaotic. As the players engage in exploration, though, the events tables can and will change and these changes, that are effectively sorrow-wide events - can be reflected in the regional event structure.

So when do I roll on these tables?
Check it:

Each Layer has a random encounter table (rolled every 20 minutes).  Two examples:

Catacombs of St. Brigit (1d12) 1-2: Monster Encounter 3-4: Evidence of Monster 5-6: Events 8-12: Nothing

The Gauntlet (1d10) 1: Monster Encounter 2: Evidence of Monster 3-4: Events 5-10: Nothing

Then in both cases, the Events Sub-table looks like this:
Events (d6)
1-3: Local Event
4-5: Minor Regional Event
6: Major Regional Event

How Does this Play in Real Life?
Pretty well! Here is a random sample over a 6 hour stretch:
1:00  ---
1:20 Evidence: Lair
1.40 ---
2:00 Event, Major Lost Haven: Nearby faction arrives - Halls of Pain
2:20 ---
2:40 ---
3:00 Encounter: Lair (Tombs - Cadaver Collector  x2)
3:20 ---
3:40 Event, Catacombs of St. Brigit: the crypts grow
4:00 ---
4:20 ---
4:40  ---
5:00 ---
5:20 Evidence: Lair
5:40 ---
6:00 ---
6:20 ---
6:40 ---

While engaging in their usual exploration and rooms and encounters and whatnot, they will

1. Find clear evidence of the nearest monster lair (or of the nearest monster if there are no lairs left) - then again which could be a different lair or even the same one depending on where they are and what they get up to.
2. Major Lost Haven event - encounter a faction from the Halls of Pain region.
3. Have an encounter with creatures from the nearest lair (or 2 Cadaver Collectors if there are no lairs left).
4. be witness to the Catacombs growing and expanding, which should scare the pants off them >:)

This might not seem like a lot, but the party has been in this Layer two sessions now and already had two of the catacombs specific events - based on our groups rate of play, they should definitely encounter all of them and a few more Lost Haven events.

Sorrow in Haven, V2 update

Since the last post we've been rocking out, but I haven't been posting.  Mostly because I'm a bit lazy about updating the blog. We've been playing with the current set of Sorrow in Haven rules for about a year - most of the changes and updates have been fairly minor. Nonetheless, with play-testing comes more revelations: things that appeared to work but are actually broken under special circumstances, mechanics that don't fit or over complicated, and stuff that just doesn't work.

Rules Stuff
Some of the changes made it into the book but have been further revised.  For example: Initiative.

First up, Initiative is a Ranked Action Roll. This means everyone rolls 2d6+INIT. Pretty straight forward so far. To make this work with the combat count system is as follows.

• The highest roll has a combat count of 0.
• Everyone else has a combat count of the highest roll - their roll,
• Until your combat count comes up, you are surprised. If forced into an Action Roll (like a Defense roll) your combat count is now the next count (defend on count 3, you get to start acting on count 4).

Artwork by Alex Mayo

This works out pretty great! Surprised targets often get dorked up before they can act (which is exactly the idea), but characters with ranged attacks have a bit of an issue.  So, for V2 here are the engagement rules ...

• When a character engages in a melee within a combat for the first time, they may immediately make an attack (same as the old rules).
• When a character is no longer surprised they may immediately make a ranged attack against surprised targets. If a target is not surprised, the character must aim first (weapon speed). [Old rule: always wait your weapon speed for a ranged attack]. 
• Once a character has acted, ranged, melee, magic, whatever, in a combat situation, all actions require the action speed before it can be attempted. In other words, if you shoot some enemies with a crossbow, then switch to a melee weapon, you have to wait the entire weapon speed before making the actual attack roll. [this was previously a bit nebulous]

This makes ranged weapons, especially those musketoons and pistols, a bit more enjoyable to bring into a fight. Black powder explosions and curls of thick black smoke really add some flair to things.

The rules for casting arcane spells had a major overhaul. The old system works, the new system works better. In short, the aspects when building a spell were tweaked - both the categories and the costs.  Rules to include selective targeting, conditional effects, and stacking effects also got added in. The "Give a Little More" rule was replaced with the "Pact of Blood".  This had a lot to do with how the critical and legendary results were changed.

First, the original rules:

• Roll double your opponent, get a critical success
• Roll triple and that is a legendary

That worked GREAT right up to the point where both parties had positive modifiers ... like when casting spells.  Critical and Legendary results because nearly IMPOSSIBLE to achieve. SO then It got fixed up like this:

• Check is higher than Save, Success
• Check is 5 higher than Save, Critical Success
• Check is 8 higher than Save, Legendary Success
• Check is at least 5 less than Save, Critical Failure
• Check is at least 8 less than Save, Legendary Failure

I like the math, it is easier for players to do quickly, and the chances are based on the difference in modifiers, which is much closer to what I had initially envisioned. 

Flavor Stuff
I'm also taking this rewrite to add more implied background and setting to everything. The Setting chapter is longer by 50% (but still just 6 pages), backgrounds are getting revised and expanded a bit, but I'm also adding a subtable on each class for a little 'extra'.  For example, your character is a templar, fine, but what order do they belong to? Roll a d6  ... and ah! I see you were initiated into the Order of Saint Blün. Most prestigious. These don't have any mechanical effect on play, but add a little something else for the players to latch onto.

Artwork by Alex Mayo

Players also roll for where their character grew up - a d100 table that lists all of the districts of Haven. I'm also working on a table or perhaps series of tables (one for each district) for your personal reputation back home.  This is totally optional, of course, but adds some fun. Speaking of fun, each district is getting a write-up and notes that will be included. more on this later of course.

All in all I'm focusing on both expanding the rule and simplifying them plus adding more setting content to play with. Haven is a vibrant place!  I want players to feel at ease with the rules and have things to hang their hats on, little bits they can grab and run with to tell more and exciting stories. I like the idea of having a solid framework from which players and GMs can work together to create a collaborative setting experience, but not some straight up story-game bullshit.

Once thing I need to do sooner rather than later, though, is find or create a tavern name generator. If there is one more tavern with body parts in the name I'm going to lose it: Hog's Nipple, Naga's Titty, Bishop's Arse, Bishop's Finger, and so on.  Ya'll are filthy.

Adventure Chronicles!

One of my fabulous players has started doing sweet write-ups of our sessions.  This is from the game last Friday (2019.01.11). It is really fun to see things as remembered by the players. I'm also pretty pleased at how much gets jam packed into 4-5 hours of play :)

Teluni’s Rest…
Our party begins this installation of our adventure in the bowels of Teluni’s Rest, a brutal Gorhaven dungeon, seeking answers to the mysterious end of the Dungeon Kings, and the Cypher that may lead to a Timeless Vault. A wave of darkness falls over the party, enveloping us in a cloak of miasma and despair. As the pitch creeps in, Jacob gets a foreboding sensation from the Astral. The group hears a terrible voice beckoning from the darkness, our torches flicker, and reality itself seems to grow dim. Despite the evil lurking around us, we press on. After a few moments of traveling we notice that the physical aspect of the dungeon has been altered, with tiles and flagstones appearing bent and unleveled. We come to a split hallway, with a pile of bones covered in fungus in the center path. Freddy insists that Jerry inspect the bones, and after a few terse words, Jerry agrees. As Jerry inspects the pile, Jacob feels another dark presence, and steps into the astral. His body goes limp and falls to the ground, and Joe tries to catch him. But to the horror of the group, Jacob’s body is merely a pile of limp flesh. While in the astral, Jacob witnesses things being erased, portions of reality ceasing to exist. Things go from bad to worse as the group hears a giant metallic slam behind us. A massive, wrought iron portcullis slams shut, trapping the party. Everyone swears there wasn’t such a gate there a moment ago… Jacob reenters his physical body, and begins frantically drawing a magic rune in an attempt to barricade ourselves against the darkness. The spell attempt is successful, but Freddy and Jerry are left outside the circle’s influence, in the dark. Jacob beckons Freddy inside the ring, however Freddy instead hears Jacob mocking him viciously. Aker spots a huge shadow moving in the darkness, and chases after it. Within a few seconds the group hears his body fall to the ground. In the darkness, Freddy spots Aker’s limp body dragged away by a monstrous shadow. Igneous Fist ties a rope to Joe and runs into the darkness to rescue Aker. As Fist leaves the circle, Joe feels the rope go limp and disappear, and pulls hard to bring Fist back into the protective region. Jacob realizes a stationary circle is useless in this situation, and begins transferring the spell’s power to himself, mobilizing it. Freddy runs to Aker’s downed body, and attempts to revive him. While doing so, he hears a beast mocking him and his futility. Despite the insults, Freddy fends off the creature and revives Aker. Freddy attacks the beast, a giant shadow specked with silver. He is quickly joined in combat by Aker, Fist, and Joe. The battle seems unwinnable, our attacks pass through the creatures flesh, leaving it apparently unharmed. The creatures claws are all too real though, and multiple party members are nearly mauled to death in the process of retreat. Once the group has safely retreated into the circle, Jacob’s spell binds to him in an illuminating blood mandala. The group can now travel in the darkness. We inspect the portcullis gate. It’s thick, heavy, and embedded in the ground. After several failed attempts to open it, the party realizes we are trapped. Joe goes back to the previous room to retrieve 2 keening hound eggs, giving the squirming one to Freddy. Marching on, the party walks down a hallway resembling an ossuary, with desecrated bodies and bones sticking out of the walls. A brief earthquake dislodges a body from its tomb. It contains nothing of value. In the distance, the party hears the cries of keening hounds. Igneous Fist spots a bricked up passageway, and pries a brick out of the wall. The room inside looks to contain valuable objects, so the group disassembles parts of the wall to enter. We find a large tomb containing a sarcophagus, and a statue depicting a female guardian warrior, wielding a glaive. The tomb contains other statues of female soldiers. The sarcophagus holds the remains of a small being, resting on what look like decayed wings. After looting the room of some small silver containers, and offering thanks at the altar, a swarm of keening hound cries startle the party. Over a dozen hounds bear down on us, snarling and snapping. Freddy charges directly at the pack, but gets taken down quickly. The party defensively fights the hounds, desperately trying to rescue Freddy, who incurs great damage from the swarming bites. Jacob rescues Freddy using another blood spell, and the group retreats into the tomb. However the hounds do not back away, and press the attack. Further, a rumbling black shadow swarm begins charging down the hallway directly at us. With all hope lost, the group braces for death… But instead of our demise, we’re greeted by a rescue party of Hammers, along with a local guild (GDD chapter 645, The Pistoliers of Windward), who triumphantly lifts the trophy corpse of the creature who was impersonating Petey. The excited guild offers to purchase the contract to Teluni’s Rest, which our party accepts. Sergeant Michaelson of the Hammers approaches us, and informs us we’ve been down here for a few days, warranting the rescue mission. Also, he tells us the Serpents Eyes has eliminated the Black Leg Gang, and placed a bounty of 100 groats on our heads. Finally, our ex-henchman Jordan has gone crazy and escaped, murmuring about “the blackwater”… Licking our wounds, our party heads back to the Crossed Rapiers, which has scorch marks and boarded windows on the front. We find out that after the BLG was wiped out, Helen came to us for help. Niko’s men came looking for us, and in the ensuing fight, Helen lost her life protecting our homestead, bravely managing to kill 2 of Niko’s enforcers. She eventually fell to a bullet directly to the head. Helen left behind a note from Abby, detailing her love and heartbreak. The heartfelt note makes the party mourn for Helen’s death, but we can’t help but notice possible clues in the writing. The note contains several spelling errors and inappropriate capital letters. An odd thing for Abby, who was known for her intelligence and schooling. The party suspects this may be linked to the infamous Cypher which plagued the Dungeon Kings, and now us. Inspecting the site of Helen’s death, Freddy digs out the slug that ended her life, and hands it to Jacob. Disoriented from the recent turmoil, the party decides to address several ongoing mysteries. Jacob and Joe go to Mikhail’s bookshop and research the fairy coffins we found in the Tomb. While extremely difficult and dangerous, it is possible to leash a fairy to one’s service. We also find that the tomb we encounter was likely a follower of St. Brigit, a founding member of the Templar Order. She was a legendary warrior with untold acts of bravery and heroism. But her status earned her many enemies in the church, and her deeds were nearly wiped from history. Her tomb is now considered lost. Aker, Igneous Fist, and Freddy travel outside the city to the Chancery of Arbitration headquarters in Watcher’s Hill, seeking assistance in the issue of our Serpent’s Eye bounty. The Chancery is a fanciful place, containing strange artifacts and ornate tapestries. While Freddy gorges on delicious quince shortbread cookies and meat pies, Aker explains our Chapter’s situation. The Chancery recommends a nonviolent resolution to our conflict. Despite the danger we’re in, we cannot simply start a war in the streets against the Serpents. The party reconvenes in the Rapiers. Freddy shores up the buildings defenses, and our party hires some muscle to defend the Rapiers while we aren’t here. In his efforts, he hears a rumor that 3 Serpents Eyes members were murdered, execution style, in an alleyway last night. While in the basement, chapter 938 hears a ruckus in the bar, like a party has begun. Investigating the commotion, we discover the legendary scoundrel Killington, of the great chapter Gentlemen of Success, has graced our humble abode. A silver tongued devil, Killington enchants everyone in the bar with his stories, clever wit, and gift of fine wine. But Killington comes here for other reasons, he hints that the destruction of the Black Leg Gang has upset the balance of power in his turf. He “advises” that we fix the issue posthaste, speaking down to us in his otherwise charming way. He thanks us for our hospitality and departs. Desperate to get information on the Serpents Eyes, we interrogate Jerry in the basement for additional information. He doesn’t personally know much about the gang, but says that there’s a SE pickup scheduled in 2 days. Also, he suspects that Bebe, a foul tempered, silly-bearded SE enforcer, will be celebrating the massacre of the BLG for some time. Bebe prefers the “tight waistcoat” treatment from his preferred Seamstress, Carly. The party plans our next move, intent on battling the Serpent’s Eyes to end our bounty, and avenge Helen.

Sewer Adventures

I fucking hate sewer adventures, but as I can't quite put my finger on why, I thought I'd write this blog post to try and find out. This is some stream of consciousness and may be entirely incoherent.  Let's see what happens.

The Usual Ideas
Large fantasy cities have sewers. Fine.  I'm fine with this - we've got magic and dragons so why not a system to pipe shit right out of your home?

They were built long ago and are now infested with monsters ... whoa - hold up. This I have a problem with. If there is a city with a WORKING sewer system, then there are going to be guilds and workers and folks to maintain that system - local politicians will base entire campaigns on getting the sewers working. Maybe A monster from time to time - legendary giant white crocodile in the sewers is pretty sweet - but hordes of zombies? no way. ALso zombies are super duper boring now.

Some local criminal groups using the sewers as a base? Gross. No way. "While planning our next great heist to take down the king let us sip fine tea and ignore the large rats and eternal stench of shit wafting about." But they have magic that makes their clothes not smell ... ok ... then why would anything stink ever if that is magic you can get your hands on?

Necromancers have found an ancient ... STOP. Seriously noone should have a base of operations in shit and piss city!

I hate all of these things.

Good Ideas?
Some possible non-crappy ideas/encounters ... maybe these are awful as well, who knows?

• Criminal or homeless population uses sewers as a means to get around unseen - there are safe zones and unsafe zones. Unsafe zones might have dangerous terrain (super slippry and you might fall into the cistern) or home to the Lurker or maintenance access points for the sewer masons so too much traffic from others.
• A single legendary creature that hunts the waterways - that giant croc, perhaps some sort of shark that has adapted to eating garbage and poop and is infected and disgusting, a gelatinous polygon that wanders about eating up the protein and whatnot, big snake? 
• I'm good with a wererat/skaven lair - those dudes luuuurve the sewers. but these guys are jerks who have been cursed by a witch that lives in the slums (Archeron Point, actually) and are petty and hateful bastards that blame society for their woes. They are moe about whining and complaining than fighting - they are lazy and fat and if they just had a chance of heart the curse would be lifted.
• A group of sewer workers that are planning on fucking up the sewers for political reasons - think how much turmoil there would be if the Van Olsteele family suddenly had a crap overflow in their basement and how they would lay into the council to get more funds to resolve this and then those funds could be embezled.
• a gang of teenagers who have found a relatively clean abandoned place and hang out there to do drugs and drink and generally think they are a gang, but they aren't a gang, but their drugs are tainted and now they think the Lord of Filth is making them steal stuff but it is actually one of the wererat bastards who have a lair nearby and are just whispering to them
• Venomous  blood-sucking spiderbats ... and the weirdo hunters who collect them for bounties as they make great pets for creeper noble dudes. the hunters might be some of the homeless ... omg - what if they are selling the meat along with capture big-ass rats to a corrupt member of the Guild of Butchers and people start getting sick even though some chef has been making mad bank selling a specialty dish and doens't even know and they lynch him ... enter the PC crew ...
• a blockage is causing a backup and they find like 10 dead bodies ... someone has been dumping them and they built up and caused a serious waste problem; but it turns out a vampire was doing it - or some dude/dudes who are playing at being vampires but are really just cannibals - or they are using that as a distraction to use all the blood in some ritual to summon Grertoth the Destroyer who they want to control to take out the Guild of Candle makers local 312 because they have undercut their prices.
• big fucking rats - not "giant rats" - just big ones, which are disgusting. probably related to those wererats, distant cousins or their pitiful children and so they have big watery kid eyes instead of rat eyes and their paws are like human hands. these are evidence of something worse, not something worth fighting.
• after a big storm the water in several of the wells around the city is tainted because the tide pushed the gray water back into he system which overflowed into the canal which supply the wells ... and in doing so it also caused a bunch of old mortar to finally give out now there are cellars that have direct - if tight - squeezes to get down into the sewers and canals. small animals are going missing like crazy because an big-ass octopus got stuck in there and hasn't left yet because the water isn't as super-nasty as it will get in about 2-3 weeks. it will die normally of living in disgusting water or maybe just leave, but until then anyone who travels the underways are at risk. maybe it gets into ta fight with the wererats and the spiderbat hunters are going nuts because they saw it fighting with the giant albino croc.

So maybe i don't hate sewer adventures, I just hate the common banality of sewer adventures. Or most adventures for that matter. I think a lot of this comes from the "scaling" of D&D ... low level characters fight low level monsters. Feh. LotFP has done a great job of kicking that in the nuts and I'm 100% on board for it.

Monsters and encounters and the like in Sorrow in Haven are somewhat scaled - this is a game after all - but not to the extent of modern D&D. I liked old 1e AD&D where a vampire could show up on the first level of a dungeon and wreck your day. It was awesome. Adventuring was frightening and a journey into the Unknown. Monsters were problems to solve, not just bags of XP. I think I was just having a nostalgia moment - uhg. Point is, don't do what everyone else has done. If you are just starting you are BOUND to have the same idea someone else had, we generally base our ideas off what we have encountered and seen before. But if you are going to publish something, don't write the same dreck we've all seen 100 times before.

I'm done.

Game on!