tales from Moribund and Ur

[ProfGremlin]

Those really are some good looking character sheets. I've never been a good enough artist to illustrate my characters, my skill has been more in line with cartooning at best, well, back when I spent time learning to draw. At one point I considered using the police sketch program Faces 4.0 for character portraits but I could only get my hands on a limited demo so it wasn't as useful as I'd hoped. Though I did use it for a thief character I played in 7th Sea.

Hey, Fin, with that wicked looking Wang Chung pistol you have there, have you thought about taking a talent in pistol whipping? ::evil grin::

[fin]

Thank you so much for drawing that character, it is awesome! ;D And, a talent in pistol whipping.. why not? I could even add a blade at the bottom of the pistol!

[ProfGremlin]

Always possible, just be careful not to stab yourself while it's holstered. You might like this page for some ideas on combination weapons. I kinda like the wheel-lock/axe or warhammer combos. Those look scary... I'd think for your pistol the wheel-lock from the Buffalo Bill Center might work best. Maybe make the blade detachable like a bayonet?

[devadasi]

the "Scions of Moribund" campaign group has grown larger, significantly so, and has now split into two seperate games.

Hannah Jane and her good friend Raven comprise one campaign (geared to the tastes of nine year old girls). Both girls are playing female leprechauns ( this can't have happened often!), who run a "Red Feathers Magical Pet Shoppe" in Moribund. Here they make quite a lucky bit of coin selling "vanishing hounds" domestic fairy dragons" " fire cats" "winged monkeys" and the like.

Both leprechaun ladies have animal training as talents, and use this ability well. In their first adventure they located and nabbed a group of exotic animal poachers. In the poacher's "haunted" lair, they even found larger exotic animals including a unicorn and a hippogriff.... imprisoned in wooden cages.! Blasphemous!
the cages had address labels for locations in the city of Ur, about 50 leagues from Moribund. travelling to Ur to investigate ( it took some coaxing to get them away from the pet shoppe, where they had begun purchasing love philters in order to breed their magical pets into ever more strangely exotic combinations) they have located a restaurant in the snooty nobility district,:"FIENDISH D-LITE" that exorts wealthy clients to "SAMPLE OUR EXOTIC FLAVORS!"
Next game they will attempt to shut down this culinary atrocity, but they will have to take down a sorcerous chef weilding a "wand of flesh to roquefort", a garlic bread gollum with a sack of canivorous spuds, and a disembodied hand called Hansburger Helper.


Wish them well.... and the pets who do most of their fighting for them won't you?



The second campaign, coalesced from the original storylines, and now consists of four seventh graders.... the boys Fin, Kit, and Geronimo.... and our newest ( but VERY avid) member Hana.


Yesterday's afternoon older gang session produced this photo. The next generation is having fun going old school! ( Fin has, in fact started his OWN game... with his OWN TnT noobs now.... which is awesome, and is what i hoped would happen in the first place)

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[mahrundl]

devadasi, an Exalt to you for your 'culinary atrocity', which made me laugh out loud (although quietly, so as not to wake the Trollwife).

I note from the picture that 2 of the players appear to be possessed. However, that's not uncommon for that age... ;D

[devadasi]

yes, they do appear quite "taken" don't they?

[kit]

Long live taran! lol a pistol-whipping talent, thats just perfect!

[devadasi]

If you want to know anything about the inception of this new ongoing campaign, please see the 'Neath the Waves folder in the "Worlds" area.


A fair amount changed from the time i was brainstorming in that folder and the actual first games in the setting which occured this weekend.

Primary changes were the move from story and goal based storytelling adventures ( which is the primary modality of the ongoing land based game, now operating between 5th and 7th level (5e advancement) to a more sandbox style of game.... a city as dungeon if you will. Ruined, underwater city as dungeon.

So, in conjunction with my previous brainstorming, i also began looking at what i consider to be the best sandboxxy, ruined city type adventures from earlier times. DWELLERS OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY, and THE LOST CITY both seemed to offer elements of what i was looking for.

Elements of the LOST CITY that I likedinvolved the factions ( which are also in THE FORBIDDEN CITY) and the false god Zargon concept.

The Forbidden City didn't have quite the same level of "faction" coolness, but it has a WAY AWESOME map, and some excellent ideas on how to deal with factions in a bigger and more open ("non-dungeon"?) setting.


So i took the map of the FC and i hand drew something similarly awesome, except underwater. and then i covered it with a (partially flawed ) glassteel dome.


I peopled it with factions, with monsters, with surreal sites, with weirdness.... and gave no indication of where anyone might want to go first. You are a treasure hunter and you have found a lost city. have at it.


Kits characters;

Memlath and Mr. Prickles (talktipus and his sea urchin familiar)

Barry ( kuda warrior)

Fin's character:

Tersiops (mutated dolphino-humanoid paragon)


the first game involved Kit only. Fin was part of the second game.

[devadasi]

So my factions are as follows:

the Cephelomages of Usamangaras - this group of talktipus are an exploratory force from the Great Pink City of Coral. They have their own steampunk type "spelljammer" submarine. led my Lt.COl. Nathax, they are here to document evidence of past talktipus occupation. Subdue and claim territory is possible. Claim valuable in the name of the Squid Queen, and prevent any other ethnic groups from getting in the way of this primary directive.

Brotherhood of Baron Kuda. This kuda faction is really the military wing of a kuda settlement now nearing 80 in the city.. occupying the preponderance of the western kelp forested ruins. baron has had pirate gold hammered onto his teeth... giving him a sparkling gold "grille". He also wear humanskin leather armor, and has a sawfish nosed sword that has a "chainsaw" mode. Despite Baron's charisma and dreams of military conquest of the city, his kudas are really just a bunch of delinquent bullies... not a real fighting force. They have numbers and teeth though, and are a force not to be underestimated.


the Mad Mermaidens of Madarua- this group of crazed mermaids worship a dark mistress named Sirene. Once per week Sirene calls out from her ruined hovel at the edge of Mermaid territory. All intelligent male creatures who hear this call must make a fisrt level luck save or swim mindlessly toward the Sirene. those who arrive without hinderance are then skewered on the tridents of the fierce warrior women on their dire narwals and accompanyed by electric morray eel pets. Sirene is given her fill and the mermaids boil the rest in a volcnic vent and have a weekly feast. Mermaids, being civilized, prefer their food cooked. No one has ever actually seen Sirene.


Smaller factions ( on this LEVEL!) are:
Ixicitchitl cultists of Dagon whose fetus they are nursing in the belly of a giant leviathin in the cold dark depths below. A strange one of their number, a prophet, will offer anyone it encounters pieces of its own flesh to consume.

Crabmen: a very small faction as they are currently the favorite delicacy of the talktipus, who regard them as "barely sentient anyway". these crabmen look more like upright snapping turtles than crabs.. with a very tortoise like shell on their back and a very snapping turtle like neck and maw ( with accompanying powerful bite)... they are likened to crabs mostly because of their very visible and powerful crablike claws.( in short they look ALOT like those ridiculous Fiend Folio 1e crabmen ;D) tend to be covered in barnacles. Intelligent specimens have IQ of 5-8. They do however, feel hatred, and they bitterly despise the talktipi.




Next: other monsters occupying the ruins

[mahrundl]

An Exalt for you, devadasi! There is so much goodness in what you have written!

[devadasi]

I still want an eye of the Deep somewhere in all this.... but not sure how to work him in politically or where to locate his lair, or what his, OR HER (hmmm.) motivations might be. wonder if those facehugger starfish are coming out of beholder eggs.?

Part of me still wants an aboleth as well. However given the mind control aspect of the Mermaiden backstory. (Sirene is a transluscent albino Sea Hag with a charming song. The lower half of her body is that of an octopus, but with each tentacle ending in the face of an eel. true power level yet to be determined)

AND the fact that Memlath was "YESSSSS MAAASSSTERed" in the second game by a cerebro dolphin, and turned against the party..... well, lets just say I dont want TOO much time spent with players not in control of their own chars. Maybe save him for a couple levels down the road. What i've got already has potential to go at least through 4th level.


I have a previously crashed talktipus Nostromo type sub. Inside, information and an undead lacedon talktipus with a hatred of all talktipus, since he was unjustly required to go down with the ship. If they don't get to his ruin till later i will turn him into a vampire of something.

i have a "magically radioactive" field of coral in the city, with wild magick and mutational properties. Also tends to alter personality and encourage eccentricity in intelligent species.



I have a sub aquatic species of trapper..... the sand trapper. an unintelligent but hungry muscle that lies in the sand bed and adheres sand and rock to the top half of its body ( thus giving in armor points) before lying in wait. the kudas encourage these beasts in the sand flats where the mine the small explosive barnacles that power their spearguns. They have "tagged" them so as to be recognizable by kudas but not other races. they are thus good security against anyone attempting to mine barnacle bombs for themselves.

I need treasure ideas. Big time.

also, if anyone has little "mini dungeon" ideas that would work for this kind of campaign.... esp. "side trek" type stuff, i will try yo get as many elements of it in as possible and then give you a play report.

[devadasi]

the map. a city slowly rising out of an undersea caldera. Once fully domed ( dome now broken and shattered in places) One side of the city has collapsed into a blue hole ( see Belize- Blue Hole).

This is a full shot. Detail to follow. WHOOPS! shot below is blurry. see next 2

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[devadasi]

i forgot to include text..... here is full city shot

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[devadasi]

and here is the detailed close-up.

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[ProfGremlin]

Apr 9, 2012 7:11:52 GMT -5 devadasi said:

wonder if those facehugger starfish are coming out of beholder eggs.?

Hmmm.... I wonder if perhaps you could shift the concept of the face-hugger starfish and make them parasitic. Perhaps akin to a caterpillar and a butterfly - Early in the life cycle they eat beholder eggs and then they cocoon/chrysalis and morph into their starfish form? Perhaps it's the beholder eggs where their power comes from to boost other creatures capabilities?

I need treasure ideas. Big time.

What about Ariel's treasure trove from The Little Mermaid? Laugh if you like, but what land-dwellers would find valuable wouldn't necessarily be the same as water-dwellers.