PUNK ESKIMOS

Punk Eskimos* are found in the far northern reaches of Furthermoor & the southern regions of Kush. They are immune to freezing temperatures & their saving throws for freeze & cold spells, etc. are very good. They can track like a ranger & they cannot wear metal armor (this is mainly b/c they only choose to pad themselves w/ animal hides & such, i.e. fur of their own victims). Punk Eskimos can also create a flame & fire w/ the tips of their fingers. Generally to light something else, though in emergency, they can let their finger flame for up to 1d12 turns w/o consequence. The flame puts off light like a candle.

As for the "punk" bit, they are referred to this way b/c of their DIY ethos. Given a choice, a Punk Eskimo would much rather create his/her own weapons & items out of things they kill or things foraged around them than they would use something already made. E.g. a Punk Eskimo would rather wield a spear they carved from a branch themselves than they would a magical sword handed to them. Given this fact, they take extreme care when constructing their weapons, & when doing so, given that they have the raw materials, it will take 1d6 days to finish the project. Also, there is a 17% that any weapon constructed by a Punk Eskimo will have magical properties. These properties come from the god of most all Punk Eskimos, the Hooded Ice King who is said to reign over the ice worlds far, far away, a glimpse of which can be seen by Northern & Southern Punk Eskimos alike @ various times of the year, as the alignment brings pause to those to reveal the wonderous Eskimo Nebula.

Level & Title          Experience Pts.          Hit Dice 10-sided
1  Illiyardjuk           0                                 1
2  Afuyiuqti            2100                           1+4
3  Issumatar            4200                           2
4  Illamareit            8400                           3
5  Nektoralik          16800                         4+1
6  Miortok              33600                         5
7  Issorartuyok       67200                         6+2
8  Sangiyok            134400                       7

Lastly, for a character to consider this class/race they must have a STR of 13+ & a CON of 15+

*Punk Eskimo is a race/class combo, i.e. one cannot be a Punk Eskimo magic-user... @least not right now.

[More details to come as I flesh it out more...]

MOOR'S END - 4 & 5

In which the party continues w/o Farley, experience more bubbles & fight Bandits, Orcs & Goblins...  Two separate staircases are located...  Rest is taken & new bubbles are inspected & realized...  Mapping is done, a secret room is located w/ green glowing spectacles on a table...

PARTY CAST:
Gileegan, hobbit thief - MN
Jin the Cautious, monk - RM
Renfro the Regarded, magic-user - JT
Mattie the Mournful, cleric of the White Widow - NPC
Link, neanderthal - NPC
Ylgu Cro, charmed orc - NPC

After Farley's request for map w/ payment & exit, the party took the other scrap of map they had & started anew. First though they inspected the room the skeletons had flooded from. They found 100 sp in a bag among some bones. When they passed back through the door, they saw that more bubbles had appeared in the room. Skirting the wall, they moved to the NW passage from the room. There Gileegan through a rock & burst one of the bubbles which on bursting brought a howl from Mattie.

The party continued NW wrapping around coming across a few bandits which they dispersed of fairly easily, killing one, the others fleeing SW ---- upon the dead was found a brown bean w/ red dots & 33 gp; there was a door ahead on the NE wall, they busted in, surprised three sleeping orcs, killed two & charmed one. Link took a bit of damage. Locating a number of bags of coin from the orcs, who seemed to be lookouts of some sort in their attire, the party took in 500 sp & 60 gp.

Moving SW & then into a mazey section, the party located two separate staircases, & looking down one saw two goblins coming up... The party took out one of the gobs coming up the stairs & found 9 pp, 18 gp, 5 sp & a goblin book of beat poetry that Jin was able to read the title as "Nightscreams & Whispered Curses" by Reom Ferfak. The party decided to return to the room where they found the orcs to get some rest as it was about 2:00 AM. They moved one of the dead orcs out the door & propped them up w/ things to make them look like guard outside the door, "Weekend @ Bernie's" style.

The party slept well, & after the prev night's deep discussion w/ Gil, Mattie prayed a bit for Cure Light Wounds.She had reminded Gil of their mission & agreed to heal folks, but was worried about healing an orc, versus others, given her experience. The party moved back to the bubble room, where first, Renfro inspected the bubbles, noticing one that floated close to him has Ylgu Cro's reflection in it. He then noticed others that barely missed him had other of the party in reflection. They decided to skirt the walls & move to the NE corridor... On the way, Link had a bubble pop upon him which made him scream, then a bubble darted & popped on Renfro's head which made Mattie scream... They found the NE corridor & funneled in...

From that point they traveled mainly SE, working on mapping, found a cavern room where Jin & Mattie located a secret door where they found a pair of spectacles glowing green. Renfro put them on & his face charred, burned, around the nose area & took damage, he tossed them away. The green was gone. Other tried them on but nothing happened. They moved out of that room & whipping around found themselves back in the chalk room, wetn back north, then evading a few unresponsive Giant Toads, they moved into a room where Jin, outfront, a cavernous room, saw a person across the room around a flame of some sort, someone in armor w/ a helmet w/ horns on it...

4:00 PM, Friday, 15th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Moor's End, Furthermoor

TALBOT AUTOMOBILES

It is said that @ the height of their barony, the Talbots had commissioned the construction of a number of "vehicles" called AUTOMOBILES. Apparently two of them were actually produced & in working order, though no one knows what became of them. They were produced in Furthermoor City by a magical chap that went by the name of Hoody Paris.

TOWN DESIGN: PART 3 - THE INN SHOULD COME LAST

Is this the way out? Faces turn to the windows, but no one dares ask, not out loud. Rain comes down. No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into---they go in under archways, secret entrances of rotted concrete that only looked like loops of an underpass... - Gravity's Rainbow, pg. 3, Thomas Pynchon

If you're anything like me, when you work up a town/village, the inn/tavern is the first thing you deal w/: innkeeper's name, random NPCs that happen to be there, etc. For the inn/tavern is generally the first place PCs check out, right?

I now realize that going this route will keep deeper development of a town in limbo. An Inn by itself, or w/ two other buildings @ a crossroads is one thing, but when dealing w/ a sizable settlement, that may be a campaign hub, you need to seriously consider fleshing out the rest of the town before focusing on the Inn.

Here's WHY:

I. The more framework you have to your town, the more your random NPCs will make sense & come to life, i.e. their reasons for being in town will become simple to work in.
II. The more framework you have in your town, the more possible intrigues to weave together during play - the knowledge & entry into these divergences can all web into & out of the tavern.
III. The more framework you have to your town, the easier it is to place random townsfolk (see below) into the tavern/inn that arent just generic townsfolk - their purpose in the town will be known & this will help immensely during in-play elaboration.
IV. The more framework you have in your town allows the inn/tavern to be the eye of the storm, versus an unprepared storm for the GM.
V. Lastly, having a solid framework to your town before focusing on the Inn will allow ideas to present themselves that will seem organic to the town, vs. sitting around trying to think of adventure hooks from inn outwards... In other words, again, let the town weave into the inn & then out again...

So let's say you have a basic layout of buildings, you know what goes on in each one (e.g. that building is the miller, that's the blacksmith, those are farms, etc.), you know generally how many people live in each (e.g. there's a widow here w/ one son, in that place are 2 clerics, etc.), you have a few religions that correspond to your alignment rules & you have a basic idea of the hierarchy in town...

In Hommlet, you get the Inn of the Welcome Wench. The first key for the Inn is rather simple. You get the basics: innkeeper's name is Ostler Gundigoot, he has a wife & two daughters. Also living @ the inn is a young stableboy, a groom, a serving wench or two & a pair of potboy apprentices. Stats are only given for the young stableboy (who is a member of the militia) & for Ostler Gundigoot.

The meat of the Inn of the Welcome Wench does not come, however, until the key for the map above. Here we learn how to handle the COMMON ROOM and who is there, as well as those NPCs that are staying in the PRIVATE ROOMS. As you know, the COMMON ROOM of the Inn, & those NPCs that stay in the PRIVATE ROOMS are generally always adventure springboards, so given my spiel above, lets take a look @ what Gygax gives us here (italics are passages straight from T1).

The COMMON ROOM is 1:

How many customers are present there? 4d4 (4-16) & these are travellers of various sorts-merchants, tinkers, and peddlers-and local folk in an even mix. One thing I would also suggest, is for locals, guessing that your buildings are numbered on your town map, using those numbers & the appropriate die/dice to determine what locals (see above) are present @ any given time. In the evening, there will always be more people, so double the number rolled.

What about them NPCs? In addition to the normal patrons, there will be a 50% chance that the NPCs who have chambers above... will be in the common room. Roll for each, once per hour.

NOW, ABOUT THOSE NPCs & their PRIVATE ROOMS:

There are 5 of them, 80%, or 4 of them, have actual objectives to their stay in Hommlet. They have deeper ties to the goings on of Hommlet & nearby, they have motive, they have depth... If & when players encounter these NPCs it will most likely shift the game. These NPCs either have specific places, or folks, that they are searching out, if not a specific mission altogether. Only one of them is a rambler, who appears to possibly roam from town-to-town only aware of his present circumstance.  Generally, they have come knotting into Hommlet.

LAME WRAP-UP:

Where I think it is easy to create unattached NPCs for inns, being what an inn is, a place for those passing through, the bottom line is that if you create your inn first, w/o the rest of the town, it will be next to impossible to create this depth (well, it could be possible if you are a highly dedicated DM, but you understand what I'm getting @). Given the importance of the inn to your game, if you save it for last, just think how those NPC ideas will float w/ ease & how the webs of adventure will form all around. Next time I start a new town, the inn comes last. Perhaps I will post more about it then.

[for other parts of series click "town design" label below]

SATURDAY ADVERTISEMENT

SESSIONS 13, 14, 15 & 16 - HALLOWED BE THY GAME

[all illustrations & captions provided by Leif, Elf Ranger]

Djarel, cleric of Dawnbringer, had to be carried out of the Smoking Leprechaun after drinking half of a green-tinted beer - on their way back to the Spooky, Old Tree the party noticed some strange dirt mounds & investigating, found 4 dead groundhogmen who had some items on them - back @ the tree the party pulled together for a work party & tidied the place up & Djarel started on an altar to Dawnbringer in the spider lair - the heart of the session surrounded the party's experiment w/ the words issued from the expired spider's wounds, about knocking in the hall w/ statues - they made their way to the hall w/ the crawfishmen armor, & sure enough, after tapping one of the statues in the proper fashion, were met by an owl oracle of sorts - a Q&A transpired & the party learned much about what Eric Talbot was up to as well as other various info about the tree & surrounding area - some hallowed hash was smoked by the party back @ Djarel's altar to Dawnbringer - then they capped the night off outside the tree as Amadi did what his book told him to do (do snow angels in grass staring at the moon) - he suddenly felt rather wise, he told others to do it, & they became wiser as well - soon after, the silhouette of zombies was seen on the horizon, headed toward the wise & jolly party...

 "I am not a teacher. I am a teller," said the owl.

In response to the approaching zombies, the party, though mechanically slowed by the effects of the hallowed hash, decided to move to the winding staircase @ the back of the Old, Spooky Tree to gain elevation; w/ the two gnolls in back, the party made it a ways up the stair before engaging w/ the undead. The hallowed hash aided in their fight against the zombies, & some impressive fighting (Amadi w/ some choice knife throws were of note) was seen; however, the gnolls were ultimately destroyed by the nine zombies - finally doing away w/ the last, the party took some time out to bury the gnolls. It was then decided that the party would bed down for the night & in the morning leave for Talbot, & ultimately back into Crackenmore.

 RIP Gnollan & Mellon, 17th of the Hummingbird

So the next morning, 18th day of the Hummingbird, the party, w/ Magus this time, traveled west & south back down to Talbot. One their way, they came across an old, capsized wagon w/ weeds grown all up & around. A good search reveals a large barrel of some liquid, a beer of some sort, still in fine condition if not in better for the aging. The party decides to transport the barrels back to the tree. This takes most of the morning. Heading back, they make it to Talbot in the afternoon & gathering supplies at the General Outfitter, come into a bit of an altercation w/ one, Bronze Cooter, & his sidekick, Nasty Dog. They are told they need to leave town. The party manages to leave Bronze & nasty w/o any fighting. They make their way to the Talbot Curosity shop where they meet Stetling Conian, a quiet type. They buy numerous things, & looking more Hallowed Hash, find none, though they do score a nice stash of Nugs of Nobility. They do however manage to trade one smoke of Amadi's Flying Cloud for what Stetling says is a magic shield. Stetling seems amazed to see anyone w/ the Flying Cloud & tells them that it is an item sought out by many & he will have no trouble selling it, though he doesnt exactly know its benefits/effects. Asking about magic-users in town, Stetling tells the party they may wish to consult w/ Miss Crumbleberry, the fortuneteller, who is just next door. Information from Miss Crumbleberry seems to be a bit slight, though they do learn that a powerful magic-user named Halius lives in the Moorhouse SW of Talbot. Likewise Leif or Djarel's fortune is read (I cant remember which) where Miss C sees them inside a room of a cave where there is a cave entrance far up above them & wearing magic shoes of some sort they jump up to the entrance. Lastly, the party visits the scholar in town, Gondo Kelp, who they find is working on a book, commissioned by Furthermoor City in regard to the Cult of the Black Dog, & the Black Dog phenom in general. Gondo about falls on his face when Djarel presents him w/ the Cult of the Black Dog book found in Crackenmore. Of course Gondo had heard of the volume, though has never been able to find a copy. Djarel allows him to borrow the book for a trade. The party pick up a few books surrounding Illusion, Goblin Religion & one about a God of Healing.

 "you are in a dark place. you see an entryway. high above the ground there is a small passage in the wall near the ceiling. you are wearing air jordans."

Finally, the party retires to the Green Lantern Inn where they rent a room to store their belongings (most importantly the armor Djarel found that he wants to have resized - so far unable to locate an armorer) & the rest of the party stays in the common room.

Upon waking the next day, the 19th of the Hummingbird, the party finally makes their way toward Crackenmore, through the cemetery. After a brief skirmish w/ some strange Wolf Bats, the party rigs the statue & enters down into Crackenmore. This time, Leif notices a secret door in the second pair of alcoves. This corresponds w/ the gnoll's map. Passing through the secret door, the party finds a new section of Crackenmore; however, they also find that the gnoll map still just brings them confusion. When they wrap down around a long hallway they come upon a pack of 6 Kobolds trying to enter a door on a north wall. Surprising the Kobolds, the party has little trouble in dispensing of them, a few running down the corridor further east & disappearing through a door further down the corridor. The party decides to focus on mapping these corridors, leaving smash marks in the obsidian walls w/ a hammer. They decide not to enter any doors. Backtracking, they come upon a solo Kobold who gets a fierce stab into Telal, before the K is killed. Moving on, the party maps a number of hallways wrapping around, finding many doors, a secret door included. Things are going well w/ mapping, until something strange happens. Out front, Leif & Telal turning a passage, toward a door, soon find the floor below them turn into a short slide & they fall 40' below into a cold, cavernous pool. The trap snaps back above them.

"tellel and amadi had just hit the ground. i knew what was coming next. she appeared as a small dot in the distance. suddenly she was upon me. now she lies still."

Soon, they can see the trap open back up, & easing down, on a rope in Magus the Dwarf. As Magus slowly descends, suddenly, those left above smell a horrible stench & then see two large lizard-like creatures turning toward them from back down the corridor - a split decision is made & the rest of the party jumps onto the trap, falling through it, & all into a pile into the cold water. Telal is lucky to make it to the shore w/ his life intact after it had flashed suddenly before his eyes; the fate of Rown, cleric of the Great Church, is still not known, however. At death's door, she needs magical healing. The party regroups on the shore of the pool, now down in a cavern, shivering, wandering what further adventures this return to Crackenmore will bring...

1:20 PM, 19th of the Hummingbird, Crackenmore, Furthermoor

Note to players: feel free to leave comments regarding add'l/more detailed info you learned in game etc. May be a handy place to leave that stuff for future reference if you find yrself ever referring back to these posts

ELVES - PART 1

[this post was started a while back, hence the dated nature of items in the post]

With the recent unveiling of the trailer for The Hobbit, an article in the new Fight On! by Walt Jillson titled "Elves as Green Men" + this thread on the OD&D boards, I knew it was time to figure some elf out.

Though I've never seen the Rankin/Bass production of The Hobbit, I owned the 2 LP boxed set w/ booklet & enjoyed it as a young lad. I still have it & here's a picture of it:

The booklet follows along w/ the LPs & contains illustrations from the film. My first visual knowledge of elves was from this booklet: elves are grey, w/ green eyes; the more civilized elves (like Elrond), have green hair & look more human (what later in post would be regarded as "high elves"). Keep in mind, Rivendell is not located deep in a forest, but fairly close to other civilized lands (following image is from my copy of Tolkien's The Hobbit).

 Click to see Rivendell & Elrond over in the West + note Mirkwood

Elrond in Rivendell

 

"Wood elves", on the other hand, will be those elves found in Mirkwood. They have orange (or white) hair & have a more, well, Yoda-esque quality:

Jillson's article in Fight On! #13 is in regard to elves as Green Men & there is a sketch of the wood elf chieftain from Rankin/Bass (fused w/ a bit of Lord of the Flies?).

Jillson points out how the Rankin/Bass production of The Hobbit uses the "Green Man trope" for the elves of Mirkwood, whereas Tolkien himself never distinguished between elves in his books appearance-wise.

This is totally interesting.

So I decided to follow the trail of elves in D&D. 

First, I looked @ Chainmail, then Men & Magic (OD&D Book 1). There is nothing in either specific to elf "types", differences, or appearances; however, one will note that they are in the same class as Fairies.

Next I looked through Monsters & Treasure (OD&D Book 2) & came upon this:

"Elves: Elves are of two general sorts, those who make their homes in woodlands & those who seek the remote meadowlands."

After that the Greyhawk & Blackmoor supplements (OD&D Supplements I & II), respectively:

"Elves: Elves are five or more feet in height, slim of build, weigh about 120 pounds, have tan to fair skin, & are also of various types (wood, high elves, meadow elves)... wood elves being the darkest."

"...akin to mermen as land elves are to men."

Next up was the AD&D Players Handbook:

"There are many sorts of elves, & descriptions of the differing types are found in AD&D, MONSTER MANUAL. Elven player characters are always considered to be high elves, the most common sort of elf."

NOTE: THE MONSTER MANUAL WAS THE FIRST AD&D BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED IN DEC 1977, HENCE THE REFERENCE ---------------- THE RANKIN/BASS HOBBIT AIRED 2 MONTHS PREV OVER NBC FOR FIRST TIME NOV 1977]

MONSTER MANUAL [it would be interesting to see what a first edition MM has for this entry, but for now, the only edition I have, 4th printing]:

"Elves are slim of build & pale complected. Their hair is dark, & their eyes are green. Their garb is typically pastel & of blue or green or violet (but often covered by a greenish gray cloak)."

The MM then gets into more detail regarding diff. types:

"Aquatic Elf... humanoid in appearance, w/ gill slits on the throat & greenish-silver skin & green or blue-green hair."

"Drow... The drow are said to be as dark as faeries are bright & as evil as the latter are good."

"Grey Elf (Faerie): Grey elves have either silver hair & amber eyes or pale golden hair & violet eyes. The latter sort are generally called faeries. They favor white, yellow, silver, or gold garments. Their cloaks are often deep blue or purple. They live beyond the age of 1,500 years."

"Wood Elf: Their complexions are fair, their hair is yellow to coppery red & their eyes are light brown, light green, or hazel. They wear russets, reds, brown & tans. Their cloaks are usually green or greenish brown. Wood elves have a life span of centuries."

So high elves are grey elves?

Anyway, onto BASIC:

HOLMES [originally published in 1977, I have a later printing of this as well]:

Character section: "Elves -  are five or more feet in height, slim of build, weigh about 120 pounds & have fair to tan skin." Monster section: "Elves generally are of two sorts, wood elves & high elves... They are described in the character section."

Notice that up to this point there has been nothing about pointy ears. In D&D, we dont see that description drop until MOLDVAY:

"Elves are slender, graceful demi-humans w/ delicate features & slightly pointed ears. They are 5 to 5 1/2 feet tall & weigh about 120 pounds... prefer to spend their time feasting & frolicking in wooded glades. They rarely visit the cities of men."

Something to note about Moldvay as well is that this is the first rulebook to have the elf be a class in itself: one experience path, abilities of both a fighter & magic-user entwined.

One can assume that Moldvay's elves are high elves, much like it's stated in the AD&D Player's Handbook how all player character elves are high elves.

But why cant players be wood elves? And if they were, what exactly would be different about them?

[more to come]