Teleport trouble, the Hadoopites

I started reading this article on Kobold Quaterly about travel spells and the difficulty they present to GM's at times and an idea gated into my head, which partially solves in from the point of teleport-like magic. I've not finished reading the article itself yet, so it may well match their solution too, however I suspect theirs is a less brute force approach.



The Hadoopites

Hadoopites are abberant beings that exist between realities. They lurk in the flaws of geometry, and hunt travelers who dare to shortcut normality. In appearance they look something a little like elephants, with too many eyes and whipping hook tentacles for trunks. Not being made of earthly flesh, they exhibit jelly like properties and are most often yellow, until they have fed when they turn a dull green.

Hadoopites can latch onto those that use teleport and gate magic, and drag them into a null zone where they attack and devour them. Worse, Hadoopites over time learn to recognize the psychic signatures of their victims, thus every time a Wizard uses such magic they increase the chance of an attack.

Mechanics.
Each time an individual travels by use of major teleport magic, such as the teleport spell, teleport circles, gates, etc,. there is a 1% accumulative chance that the traveler and their party are dragged into an indistinct misty realm, where shortly after the Hadoopites attack. Each extra traveler increases the chance by 1% at the time of travel, although that isn't accumulative.  Thus a wizard who activates a teleport circle, who has previously used teleport magic 6 times and travels with a party of 4 others has an 11% chance of attracting the attention of Hadoopites. 6% base, 1% for himself and 4% for his companions. The next time he uses the magic, he'll have a base of 7%.

If the travelers defeat the Hadoopites, they complete their journey and the base chance is halved.

(Note, GM's with software developers and system ops players may want to rename these creatures. Hadoopites hunt in packs called clusters.)

The Lure Of Chaos, or Plan B From Outer Space

After reviewing my Brass Wardens yesterday I realized there was no way I'd manage to paint all that I needed to before the Spikey Grand Campaign 2 day 40K tournament. I've brass based about 7 Terminators, but I still had so much to do, including the Inquisitor Kill Team, and I'm going to Copenhagen this weekend, so I'm unlikely to have any serious time to get it done.

So I've fallen back on my Nurgle Chaos Space Marine army, although this time I'm stripping off the Nurgle theme. With this in mind, I've decided to take a Greater Daemon and some Khorne Beserkers, which I put together last night. I'm much happier spray basing these beserkers, ink washing, dipping and highlighting than the more delicate Brass Wardens, which I'm taking my time with. I've still got to build two more Rhinos, one for the regular marines and one for the beserkers, but they also can be done quickly.

All in all, I'm surprised how much stress this was causing me and the relief yesterday once I'd made the decision made for a fun and relaxing modelling session rather than a panicked on, was palpable.

Last Temple Of The Spider God

Before the rise of demon goddess of the dark elves there was a great primal spider god beast called Aranith. Ancient humans worshiped Aranith and built underground temples to it, to gain favour and protection from spiders.

The cultures that followed the spider god dwindled, while the demon goddess grew in power and sent her minions to destroy all traces of Aranith. However the god beast managed to protect and hide it's high temple, deep within the jungles of the south. An ancient clay map has somehow ended up in possession of the adventurers, that speaks of the location of the temple as well as the treasures and dangers that lurk within. Unknown to the adventurers dark elves have managed to open a magical gateway into the inner temple and are also in the process of exploring the temple from within.

The temple is a dungeon built vertically rather than not horizontally, and the party must contend with immortal guardians, mummified spiders, traps and the deadly mystic wells that are found throughout temple. Bring rope, a lot of rope.

Last Temple Of The Spider God is a high level OSRIC adventure.

The Necromancer

I've been re-reading the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook, as I've being toying with the idea of doing an old school D&D version of Star Trap. It gave me the idea for a Necromancer class using solely the PHB.

The Necromancer.

Based on the Magic User class, the Necromancer studies dark texts which lead to magical spells that work very much like clerical magic. The study is difficult and taxing, and the Necromancer is forced to forgo the study of some schools of magic.
Necromancers have ability requirements, saving throws, hit points and gain levels just as a magic user. They wield weapons in the same manner to, although through the connection leather has to the dead, a special ritual allows them to wear specially prepared necromantic leather armour.

Only humans and half orcs live lives short enough to allow them a connection the necromatic arts in such a significant manner. Half orcs may indeed be Necromancer/Assassins, but are restricted still to necromatic leather armour. Half orcs are limited to levels as Necromancers as elves are to magic users .

Necromancers are either neutral or evil in outlook. Neutral necromancers must make a percentage roll every time the gain a level to see if they are corrupted by their increasing powers. If they roll equal to or under their level, they become evil. Thus a chaotic neutral Necromancer changes to chaotic evil on a% roll of 01 or 02 when he becomes 2nd level and at 10th level a roll of 10 or less will have the effect. Evil Necromancers must also roll in the same manner but if they roll equal to or below their level they loose a point of charisma.

Necromancers may only learn necromantic, abjuration, divination, summoning/conjuration and alteration schools of magic user spells. They may cast necromantic clerical spells, but always the reversed versions, as if they were magic user spells. In addition to the necromantic clerical spells, a necromancer may learn Cause Disease, Unholy Word and Bestow Curse. When casting Monster Summoning spells, they monsters summoned are always undead.

The necromantic leather armour that Necromancers may wear is made from the skins of intelligent creatures and requires ritual that costs 50 g.p. in extra material components. Most leather workers would be horrified to create such a suit, so specialists must be sought out. Once made, the armour maybe enchanted as normal. Magical leather armour that is found is necromantic 2% of the time.  

History Of The Star Trap Dungeon

Smulhahoozin The Cowled, a primeval wizard of near godlike powers, was fighting a war against the great aberrant race in the dim depths of the past. During one of her forays into the underdark, she came across a wall of something that reeked of madness and the powers of the Far Realm. Her insatiable curiosity caused her to pause awhile to study the discovery. During this time she found the outsiders avoided the locale around the wall and because of this she built an underground fort at the site. Summoning her elemental servants to carve out much of the the rock around the wall she found it rose up further than she imagined, so she sent earth spirits out to detail the size of the barrier while she studied it further. Notorious for her impatience she never the less took her time and was careful to not let the radiant madness infect her. She summoned about her mind-mages, who were greatly disturbed by the object she now named The Obelisk Of Insanity. Some of these psionists died, went insane or were killed in mysterious circumstances while in study of the huge edifice. Eventually she gave custody of the Obelisk over to one of her thirteen daughters, Toolizith. Determined to win notoriety, Toolizith pressed ahead quickly and wantonly with further research, finally coming to the conclusion that the Obelisk could be used as some sort of cage and was built from the very stuff of the Far Realm. During this period her attendants fought battles with terrible beings that seem to slip into reality unnoticed near the Obelisk and the growing halls took on a more martial and defensive nature. Never the less Toolizith pondered what great entity she could catch and bargain with using the Obelisk. Eventually she decided to entice and capture a star being of immense power. It took a century for her preparations to unfold, during which she became more and more secretive and obsessive. It is even rumoured that she took to talking to the Obelisk alone for days at a time. Eventually her rituals were complete and as the stars aligned themselves as predicted, she rang a silver bell that called great Zhulbluhb'Tck'Nere, known as The One Who Gathers Whispers to astrologists. Surrounded by both arcane and psychic adepts, she fought a tremendous battle, both in the world and beyond but after much destruction on many planes, she willed Zhulbluhb into the Obelisk. Before she could recover her wounds and powers the soon to be god of secrets appeared with his then faithful servant and together they attacked and slew Toolizith, so that she might not learn the long forgotten whispers the star being could reveal. Events so mythically tremendous caused warps in reality and these two battles in such short periods of time created patches of magical and elemental oddity throughout the region.

Toolizith's followers were broken and fled, burying their leader in her own dungeon, setting traps and leaving immortal guards behind them as then left. Over the centuries that followed the dungeon has grown, both by those wishing to learn the secrets of it's deepest vaults and by others who use it as a home, a tomb or a hunting ground.

The Gatherer is still bound to the Obelisk Of Insanity, whispering promises to those that will listen, while the undead Toolizith rages in her tomb, waiting too to be freed.

One In Six

This photo shows the rolls from my spectacularly bad, and rather important Psycannon rolls from a 40K game I played recently. I needed 3+ 

My friend and comrade is an excellent Warhammer 40K player. In the games that he plays he rarely looses, and he often does very well in the competitions we go to, where it's not enough to just win every game, you have to win well.

He is very good strategist, however I think he'd admit that he is still learning and doesn't always play to the mission - the biggest mistake in 40k. However, without even knowing it I think he is a walking stats engine and he designs army lists that really play to W40K's threat range, 1-6. In most combat situations there are 3 dice rolls to determine the outcome, a to-hit roll, a to-wound roll and an armour save. Occasionally there is also a feel no pain roll, but it's relatively rare. Again except in extreme circumstance even the weakest attacks will score a wound on an enemy on 2 sixes and a one (for armour). This represents a very clumsy, very weak foe striking someone in terminator or equivalent armour. That's 1 in 373 odds and if you're rolling hundreds of dice, it happens. Normally however each roll has 2/3 or 1/2 chance until you get to armour, where it swings much more wildly. In small 'elite' units, changing from 2/3 to 1/2 is important but doesn't actually end up producing that many extra hits. However if you can roll 60, 80 or more dice in an assault it makes a huge difference and this is where his skill and intelligence comes in. He is really good a picking army lists that rolls lots of dice with decent odds. This generally means he runs 'horde' lists, if not horde based armies.

But the very best thing about his lists, and himself, is that they are fun to play. He doesn't swamp his lists with repeat choices, he names each HQ and champion and more often than not acts 'in character' when playing each one. His pirate Orks are hilarious and his armies always have a story behind them.

Still, he has so much painting to do! Ha. In your face!