Wreck of the Golden Koi a mini adventure to put a little Ruins & Ronin in your S&W

song dynasty junk 13th century, Wikipedia commons




If you read the last post on ruins & ronin and thought you might give it a try, heres a little something i thought up that might help you put a little of it in your western fantasy setting.  A wreck of an oriental ship with some oriental monsters and loot
Getting it there can be solved in a variety of ways, If your adventure is near the sea  you can have it floating in a calmed bay after a storm , or beached. If your running a saltbox have it found in a calmed area way out at sea.  

OR due to the magical instruments you will find on board you can do one of these

middle of a large lake after a VERY large storm has passed through, OZ style

seen at the top of a cliff or mountain at dawn after a very dense fog, Mystery style

crashed into the tops of some Stout oak trees in the middle of a woods hex, gonzo style


from far away
you hear the drums, no not drums, but one drum very large drum, somewhere in the distance before you see the ship, it is a ship but it has very strange sails from what you've seen before and tattered long banners

closer but still not near
the drum is louder the closer you get to it and seems to be coming from the center of the ship, perhaps from under that thatched structure near the front. Light of a greenish hue shows through the port holes in the bow seeming like multiple eyes of a terrible ship shaped monster.  The drums echo in your ears making concentration hard and instilling terror ( throw a save in here if you want to shed some henchmen or mess with casting)

a little bit closer
you see what looks like empty cages broken on the decks and scattered on the ground or water. you see no movement on the ship except for the tattered sails and banners. The Drum is deafening at this point, hard to talk or think

at this point lets throw out some monsters
if its on water

Awabi (Sea Demon) Ruins & Ronin page 31
2d4, perhaps they escaped the cages or clung to the hull, they just want to eat you
about half will carry net bags with large oysters in them with a chance of a pearl inside. they will not go on the ship

or if its somehow mysteriously on land or in the trees 

scattered around the wreck will be 1d4 large oriental stone lanterns that seem very out of place



they are actually  Bakemono-Toro ruins & ronin page 32 waiting to ambush the party (stone goblins who shapeshift) at least half will carry katana swords that will revert back to stone with them when killed, the rest claws


The Ships top deck
The drum is defiantly coming from under the thatched shack and it is huge and deafening ( another save perhaps) and the thing drumming is even bigger 

closer inspection will reveal a chained Tusken Ogre dressed in once fine silks with one horn on his forehead and three blinded eyes. he will continue his drumming unless disturbed.    If disturbed in any way he will cast his mirror image behind the party on the deck and proceed to try to break his chains.  (start rolling break out dice)  he will use the chains as a weapon if possible , he roars at you in a far away language

the deck is covered in salty kelp (perhaps slippery?) and broken cages, barrels, and twisted rope (terrain, difficult ?)   

he carrys at his waist a large cleaver and a single key, If by some chance someone speaks eastern tusken ogre and he stops trying to kill you long enough to chat all he will say is, "I have failed to bring my brothers with the Taiko"  or " we locked her away to save ourselves, the dishonor is great"  but im just putting that in there because players surprise me, always.

If you let him just keep drumming several things could happen.  he might die of fatigue,  a dragon might swoop down and fetch him (oriental of course) or an entire army of Ogre mages and tuskens might invade the countryside looking for the ship, your choice one or all


other things on the deck.

a very large hatch down to the cargo area, complete with pullys and cranes for loading stuff.  it is securely latched but there is the strong smell of alchoholic spirits wafting up

a door to the large deck cabin that has been securely closed and barred from the outside with nailed wood, black iron bars, and silver chain (200 lbs). there is a lock of ornate workmanship holding the chain together.    the lock is in the form of a tiger made of copper and jet inlay and yes the key will fit it BUT,   the door isnt trapped the lock is (electrical attack is the key is used unless disarmed or bashed to bits)

the crew and cargo level
Opening the cargo hatch its dark down there but you can hear movement if the drums are quiet .  The smell of booze is heavy (sake) and has about a inche of blood in the bottom that is littered with broken barrels, hammocks, debris and parts of bodies. hiding in the dark are 1d4 crazed Oktomon
http://www.d20swsrd.com/swords-and-wizardry-srd/for-the-referee/monsters/all-monsters/monster-details-o-through-r
they will try to fight there way out of the hatch and jump overboard either into the water or land, but they will fight, just to escape

there is a hatch down into the cargo area, players will note an even stronger smell of spirits and see that it is partially flooded with the contents of barrels of rice and sake


any one with a torch should notice that it sputters and flares when this hatch is opened

1d6 psudopods of a mixture of rice, blood, magic, and sake will rise from the murk of the flooded cargo bay and attack

NEW MONSTER
SAKE PARA -ELEMENTAL

4HD AC2 1d6 attacks a round for 1d6 to submerge and drown, 0 movement save 8
cl/xp 5/ 650 SPecial

Special, Fire attacks do double damage but will cause it to EXPLODE for 3d8 upon death and burn for 2d6 turns
Special takes half damage from slashing, piercing, or cold damage

this encounter should have a high chance of destroying the ship, any cargo, well everything in a great ball of flame if anyone uses fire or drops a torch


Treasure 2d20 barrels of good Sake if its not destoyed


The locked and barred Cabin

opening the door will take a while and is trapped with the lock as mentioned above but the door opens outward

or they can look into the portholes on the side and see

a hooded tall woman stands inside a circle made of blood and salt holding a large sphere cut with mythical writings, the circle glows a bright green and smells of the sea and decay, her hood is drawn over her face and she seems to be muttering a prayer or spell.   there are several chests and a weapons stand holding ruins & ronin weapons and armor stand with a blue complete suit of O-Yori

she will throw back her hood on sensing the party either at the door or porthole (save or dice off)

and we have a SEA HAG .   fight, parley, however, it might be tough any way, depending on if you have found her Oktomon's, reactions, or however, i leave that up to you and your players

She holds a Sphere of otherworldly travel, its cursed, it likes to go places that are bad, and if you use it you will go also, enough of the idea there


appropriate cool nautical treasure  and ruins and ronin stuff to be found in here, along with celestial maps, maps of far off places and a journal

long story short

Sea Hag and Oktomon attacked and boarded a ship and tried to use the Sphere to escape a storm but got swept up into it instead.  The Ogre worked for the Ogre Mage who owned the ship, who knows where the Ogre mage is now. most of the crew was killed and eaten and alot of caged monsters escaped (feel free to populate surrounding area with oddities, Sea Hag went crazy randomly zapping them from place to place and the Oktoms rebeled and helped the blind Ogre lock her in the cabin before they went below decks and he chained himself to the drum to summon help while she randomly zapped them around

too much blood, magic, and sake evolved into the sake para elemental below decks who the oktomons fear more than the locked away sea hag


So i hope you liked this all i used was a picture, a copy of ruins & ronin, an hour drinking Monster on the porch and my imagination, please do with as you please

now im gonna go read about rocketships again 

S&W Appreciation Day a look at Ruins & Ronin Part One

EDIT (my formatting is screwy, please deal the best you can i dont know the majic to fix it and i was not one of the fortunate blogs to be given a code for a discount on S&W products, but if you look over at 2k coppers a bunch of the other blogs have discount codes for the 17th only )

For S&W Appreciation Day, I am not going to write about straight up Swords & Wizardry White Box  , but about one of the cool supplements for the game that i have found and use. The 7 of you who read my blog (you know who you are) will be aware that i like "different" things mostly so it should come as no surprise that today i will be so and suggest a supplement that is such.

How many of y'all grew up watching Samurai movies and playing D&D wanting to play a Samurai or a Ninja?  How many of y'all  where confused and befuddled with your copy of Oriental Adventures, before the spine fell of of it. Who here from time to time wants to eat fried rice and egg rolls instead of your Iron Rations.

Back in 2008 Mike D, over at SWORD+1 started talking about a supplement for S&W to simulate a oriental version of O D&D. (that link takes you to the original blog post, i think)  In 2009 this was published as a supplement for  Swords & Wizardry White Box 

                           Ruins & Ronin

 Pete Mullen cover 

Now, i didnt find this in 2009, i wish i had, i found it on a dark and stormy night looking for stuff to hack into my sci fi game and searching for compatible Asian flavor for a certain planet in sub-sector 567-84hj , but i liked what i read, enough to get a hardcopy to go along with the PDF.

soft cover at LULU

Just what is in these slim 79 page supplement for S&W, well i will let the introduction speak to that 

From the Introduction 

INTRODUCTION

"Why should Western-style clerics, fighters, and magic-users have all the fun of dungeon adventuring and 

fighting strange monsters like stirges and purple worms? What about samurai and monks? Don’t they get 

a chance? Absolutely – in RUINS & RONIN. This isn’t a game of tea ceremonies, haiku, or accurate historical depictions of medieval Japan; it’s a game where the fictional world of the samurai movie becomes the 

basis for swords & sorcery adventure in a mythical, medieval culture that’s almost like Japan.

In RUINS & RONIN, the players take on the roles of bujin (fighting-men, including samurai), spell-casting 

shugenja, and wise sohei (warrior monks). Will they choose to explore strange ruins in the wilderness? 

Deep, forgotten dungeons under crumbling pagoda-fortresses built by ancient sorcerers? Perhaps if they 

achieve great status and power, they might even become daimyos, lords of castles with private armies and 

fearsome reputations. But the wild places of this world contain strange and fearsome monsters as well as 

vast riches and magical items. Spirit creatures roam the wilderness by night, and the rocky hills abound 

with goblins and their kin, always looking to the civilized lands below as a source of plunder and conquest. 

This is the legend-world of RUINS & RONIN. Samurai up.

RUINS & RONIN is compatible with the SWORDS & WIZARDRY WHITEBOX rules, allowing you to mix and 

match the elements of the two games to create a truly unusual fantasy setting"

Its not a mess of Historical setting info and hard to follow rules, rulings and charts, its just what you need to throw some asian flavor into your game and go with all those cool things you saw watching Samurai flicks or Kung foo theater for the western mind, its the getting to taste the Sake without having to work in the rice patty and all the cool names from SEVEN SAMURAI

                        what you get that's not in S&W whitebox

Bujin, Half-Ogre, Shugenja, and Sohei

(4 character classes, yes you read that right Half-Ogre)

Cool Oriental Equipment with just enough detail

 New Oriental Monsters

and some pretty experienced advise on things to do in the game and how to run it

Now this 79 pages is not a huge treatise on role playing, oriental culture, traditions, Honor systems and all that, its Oriental Flavoring for the game you want to play and isn't geared towards new gm's but to people that want to have some new and fun flavor in their game as reviewed back in 2009 by Grognardia

also if you go over to SWORD+1 (look right for downloads)

R&R Character Class: Headhunter

R&R Character Class: Hengeyokai

R&R Character Class: Kensei

R&R Character Class: Ninja

R&R Character Sheet

R&R: 100 Bujin (NPC)

R&R: Katsushiro Castle Level 1

R&R: Random Pits & Occupants

yep thats 4 new classes and a adventure to start you off

and if thats not enough i found on the Swords & Wizardry White Box page a  Random Adventure Table for R&R 

Part Two to Follow

"The Wreck of the Golden Koi"

for Ruins & Ronin Swords & Wizardry White Box 

A couple of random finds that are useful to me and might be to you

Carapace King has a nice blog entry on fighting giant insects that i plan on using. Its a nice little system that i think will fit in easily with alot of stuff, even dinosaurs or giant robots














Save Vs. Dragon  has a new monster index on snakes
and if you havent checked out these check out the Lycanthropes one for sure

Decktet is available at Drivethrough cards, I really want to do something with this card set in game
 and yes Drive through CARDS is up and running
also check out Ninja: Silent but Deadly   
for some fun times

and some Strange Armor over at DoS

and thanks to G+ i might have found a substitute for my need to play a game racing cars and shooting things with SpeedRally  

For the Next Year List

List of things i want to work on for the next year (sorta in order)

1. I have played through the orbital with both a home group and a online group, its mostly played through, now is the time to finish it and write it all down from the chickenscratch pieces of graphpaper its all on. that means typing up pages, redoing the maps and looking about for some art. It was important to play though it to tweek it as it was going.

Levels of the orbital, Botany, Starport, Museum, Entertainment, Habitation, Import/Export (Research), and command and control also finishing a thing on the factions and history and the new playable race, ORBITAL VERMIN

      

      2. ZEPPLINS AND AIRSHIPS, This has been stewing for some time and after much book collecting i think i have a plan to do some simple rules for a fantasy/postapoch bolt on ruleset for building and flying balloons and aerial towns that should be LL/SWN compatable

      3.  I really want to do a setting based around a jungle island ala a pulpy Doctor Moreau, setting that would be a WFRP/ASE/WWII thing, im sure its been done before but i have ideas and i want to have tigers and Amazons in my game

 

I had no idea there where so many retro-clones , D&D Genealogy

make it big enough to see
Over on G+ again they have have been talking about retro clones and Teh Badger did this handy line chart.  and then someone smart said " OSR games arnt about game books anymore there about the procedure of playing the game." or something like that.

As someone who is often overwhelmed by numbers of books and rules i think after seeing all these versions that it dosent matter what system you play, as long as you are playing something.

thats my morning ramble

A MAGICAL PILGRAMAGE

Recently on G+ there has been a discussion on research of new magic user spells in the Wampus game that i try to play in every friday night, it a D&D folklore and pioneer mashup and if you havnt read about it you should. Dungeon of Signs also plays one of the mages in the same game.  Well this setting does flavor some of how i think, and i thought about it, here one of my ideas.

While its not ASE it could be used for something like that as a random table to generate ideas or as im gonna use it in my SWN as a drug trip table, because well my homegroup just found a suitcase full of narcotics

“I began my pilgrimage to far-distant countries.” — Aleister Crowley

So, The magic user in your game wants to learn some new spells and they cant find anyone to teach them. get a list from them of spells they want to learn/research up to level 5 spells.  heres a random table to help do a PbP or a single session. it makes them jump through some hoops but is fun and not just a dice roll to see if they research one and learn it and takes thinking over consumed gems and materials

I could also see this to explain or narrate a drug trip

planning the journey and research

locate and study these 1d4 items

1. old maps of the area
2. the rolling of pebbles in the river
3. the flame of a candle set on the skull of a ?/
4. barn owls hunting mice during a storm/
5. a weaver's loom operated by a blind weaver
6. the petal patterns in a hundred blooming roses
7. an augury of muskrat bones and smashed grapes
8. the rainwater collected in the leaves of the man lashing willow
9. the tracks of an ant carrying a grain of sea salt
10. the rust patterns in an old suit of chainmail by moonlight
11. ashes from a defeated wizards spell book
12. the ridges on a narwhals horn
13. the swaying pattern of a scale measuring the weight of blood against feathers
14. the twisted patterns of high grass after a tornado
15. the scales of a fish caught by hand in a frozen creek
16. the crying of 13 babies at feeding time
17. the hypnotic pattern of a swinging battle axe suspended inches from your nose
18. a strange pattern in the hair of a hibernating bear
19. the tickle of swallowed live centipedes down your throat
20. the laughter of an assassin

your studies will lead you to Gather for the journey 1d6 of these things

1. Stout shoes repaired by a seven or less fingered cobbler
2. 3 old friends
3. a silken parasol owned by a widow
4. 7 goats or a mated pair of guard goats
5. a white sow with a velvet bonnet
6. a jewel the size of a mockingbirds egg
7. a talking rabbit
8. 4 strands of hair for a jilted lover (yours)
9. wind in a bag
10. a caltrop that has injured a centaur
11. a ball of twine from a phase cat
12. a marzipan baby
13. a new hat in a pastel color
14. the closest blood relative of the last person you blasted with magic
15. a seven toed cat in a waistcoat
16. the residual essence of 13 moonbeams
17. 4 singing frogs
18. a bag of stolen gold
19. a wagon made of iron and a team of oxen stout enough to pull it
20. someone you have shot and wounded to accompany you on the journey

Once you have gathered these items you know that you must take a pilgrimage /quest

questing mages are known by the

1. purple feather in their hat
2. carrot in vest pocket
3. bag of live chickens carried in the left hand
4. pure white suit coat/ pure red for evil mages
5. crushed glittering jewels smeared in their hair and beards with honey
6. token of cast silver pinned to their lapel
7. stag horns that they clash like symbols in from of them
8. scroll of ? pinned to their back
9. gilded turtle on a leash
10. taberded herald ringing a cowbell

You will be headed  (compass direction) to the

1. swamp
2. grotto
3. ravine
4. barn
5. cairn
6. statue
7. obelisk
8. gate
9. bridge
10. waystop
11. crossroads
12. broken wall
13. well
14. shadowy rest
15. junction
16. outhouse
17. lichen field
18. hanging rock
19. roosting place
20. killing fields

of

1. sweet salt
2. pyrite
3. weeping
4. shining
5. blubber
6. silver bubbles
7. splintered bones
8. wailing cats
9. ladders
10. rusty sails
11. starry sights
12. fumes
13. bright feathers
14. pilfered goods
15. gilded turtles
16. laughing loon
17. knowing
18. fluorescent thought
19. impure dreams
20. tornados

there you will        Roll d20         for 1d? days

1. revel
2. meditate
3. pound sand (in a leather bag with a wooden hammer)
4. set up a picnic
5. bang on a zombie skin drum
6. walk backwards in tight circles until you pass out
7. construct a fishing rod and “fish” in the wind
8. pour liquor spirits on the ground from a jeweled cup at appointed times
9. build a roaring bonfire and walk through it
10. climb a thorny tree
11. sit on top of a column found there
12. dig 21 graves in a spiral pattern
13. arrange various rocks you will find there into a shrine to magical knowlege
14. plant a 1001 seeds of various food crops (regardless of season)
15. kill, slaughter, and cook a large game animal or domestic,  using only your dagger
16. construct a hut from mud and sticks
17. paint various symbols on the landscape in bright colors, then scrub it clean
18. bury yourself in the earth and listen to the stars, straw allowed for breathing
19. remain motionless and naked until you see a visitor
20. carve arcane star maps in the earth, fill the celestial points with gems

You might have 1d3 of these visitations

1. a mute will drop off a talking sack of parsnips
2. a   loupgarou with a banjo
3. a carriage pulled by a giant snail, get in, reroll a new location
4. a tornado, swept up, take damage, reroll new location
5. a phalanx of drilling skeletons who crumble if you speak
6. a flight of rainbow plumaged birds who  squawk from a high vantage point
7. a comet streaks across the sky at night, its tail spells things to you
8. a traveling group of hooded pilgrims ask to to join, new location
9. six mourning dwarves carrying picks, shovels and a lead casket
10. a rabble of drunken flying monkeys
11. a questing knight, hopelessly lost
12. a sudden violent storm, chance of lighting strike and hail damage
13. a swarm of locusts, devouring everything green
14. a singing cricket, with top hat and tailcoat
15. a pack of rabid blink hyenas
16. a lost puppy, gain a friend for life
17. a fairy wedding party, entertain them
18. a misanthropic old man on a mission to find someone
19. a lone dragon flying in the distance
20. a rabbit runs up an naps, a turtle plods on by later while the rabbit sleeps

They will/ might ask you to do something off this list

1. journey to ? roll a new location
2. play chess with missing pieces
3. waltz with them in the moonlight
4. organize and hold a feast on a set date
5. slay the next thing you meet
6. laugh till you cry
7. answer a riddle
8. plant a tree in memory of someone
9. take tea and discuss philosophy
10. destroy your most valued possession
11. search (roll new location) for (things to gather table)
12. study your spellbook for hidden writings
13. befriend an enemy
14. race or guide them to (new location roll)
15. adopt pacifism in your next adventure, tell no one why
16. build a statue in tribute to those you have slain
17. adopt a new style of dress
18. learn a musical instrument
19. teach them a spell
20. chew up a gemstone and swallow it

They might also grant you a boon or curse

Depending on how you have played this far

1. feather of featherfall pin, one use
2. feather of deadweight, fall like brick
3. bottle of brandy, protection from cold
4. bottle of brandy, burns insides with fire damage
5. ring of find lost item
6. ring of losing things
7. spyglass of infravision (long range only)
8. spyglass of poke your eye out when you look in it
9. sack of glowing crystals (continual light)
10. sack of coal para-elemental (pissed off)
11. shoes of stomping (kick attack extra once per adventure
12. shoes of wrong direction (get lost)
13. marzipan baby, with prize inside
14. marzipan baby, animated and crying, messy, hungry
15. smoking jacket of spell study
16. smoking jacket of stinking cloud
17. bonus spell that you were not looking for
18. migraine lose spell slot for adventure
19. Enchanted snuff box, snorting raises a random ability score (one use)
20. Enchanted snuff box, opening causes obscuring mist  (d6 uses)

you will then find knowledge of the spell you seek in this form

1. Folded up in your pocket when you are looking for something else
2. written in the wind, falling leaves, butterflies, etc.
3. a large albino catfish will sing it to you
4. you will be find a treasure map to it upon waking, tacked to your chest with a dagger
5. in the smoke from the pipe of a passing dwarf, he will wink at you
6. tattoed on the skin of a beaver, you must shave him alive
7. rolled up on a scroll and stuffed in a bottle, will fall from sky
8. drawing detailed star maps on a moonless night, there are words
9. in the slithering pattern of a drunken snake, or perhaps on his scales
10. spelled out in berries on a bush, hurry, the birds are eating them
11. in the cast moving shadow of a red globes lantern
12. under a rock that you trip on, scroll is large 20 lb rock
13. in the mesmerizing stare of an old tom cat, don't blink
14. when you go meditate at (roll location)
15. spelled out in the ticking of a clock in a crocodiles belly
16. printed in type only you can see in a newspaper story
17. in a trance while out riding (do you fall off the horse)
18. at the bottom of a large jug of wine
19. intricately spelled out in a spider web
20. spelled out in the ashes of a funeral pyre of an ally

Heres the link to another table of things that could happen ALTERNATIVE SPELL RESEARCH

Thoughts, always looking for ideas

Damage Reduction, Sorta and energy weapon missfires

In the home game on the Orbital, there are these very large maintenance robots (more on them later, all their secrets arnt out yet)

In order to simulate the heavy plating on them i have a quirky home-rule. A character rolls to hit them normally but when it comes to damage rolls, they must do at least 5 points of damage for the damage to go through. now these things have been shot, grenade blasted, stabbed, picked up with telekinesis and dropped and all kinds of different violence.  I also have an odd ruling on low rolls

example, Spaceman Biff shoots his trusty laser rifle on  burst fire, he gets three shots. he rolls a 17 an 13, and  a 3.  since he is firing on burst fire (my rule) any roll of a 1,2 or 3, (times shot) is a weapons foul. energy cell depleted, barrel fouled, however, but the first two shots went off and hit. this was done so that people thought about odds to miss better when spraying out laser bolts. I have a similar mechanic on the heavy machine gun user but he gets to roll a d10 for chances of belt jam or missfire, being whatever he rolls number wise is the number of times that he can missfire. we use a cone effect for the HMG, evade save or damage, hits everything

now  Spaceman Biff rolls damage, he rolls a 4, and a 9, to simulate the sheer hard to kill of these things anything under a 5 is glancing , the 9 goes all they way through.  In a game where shooting robots is the main for of entertainment for a few of the players, this has worked so far in making the harder to wound but still killable as they are a main target.  So its not really DR, its potential DR

is this a fiddly mechanic, i originally did it as easy way for me to track damage as i didn't want to worry about small numbers when the weapons where capable of doing such large damage and multiple times.  

Thoughts?

Lets play with some random tables from TotGaD II

Let play with some random tables and dice and talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque II and a little of I
if you want to play along in the home game you can find the free pdf on his website or the low-priced spooky dead tree version here

I find this set of books especially useful and useful
is what i tend to look for in rpg books.

if you are not familiar with the world he is working on and his blog, then go check it out, no better time than the present since its that spooky time of year.

im sitting down with some dice and the some of the many random tables for what follows in an example of how i can get something useful out of this set of books.  everybody these days reviews books on their blogs, so i wanted to do something different and use the book to create something using the tables for  randomizing a strange land, monster, wizards tower, and thieves guild. i used some of the tables in the first book also on name generation, dive bars, and strange orginizations

A Visitors View of the Random CityState  of TotGaDEGaD  

Built upon a sky-island by ancient psychonauts  and governed by a conspiratorial council  of brier masked men known as the Pallid Lodge of Mourners, this centuries old city of twisting roads and glass buildings is a wonder to behold.

Floating above a dense forest inhabited by arboreal giants bent on destroying the sky island due to their own Litost (i am sure i used that word wrong, if you get nothing else out of these books you will get some dictionary use, which i like) traveling to and from the city itself might be a challenge. 

The fashionable elite of the city wear bouffants and tough looking leathers while they ride about in giant snail driven chariots on their way to the opera house of meng-tarathia or off for a dish of catoblepas steaks in an underdark peppercorn sauce.  The less fashionable might be seen attending the year long festival of the king of forgotten sorrows in their jewel toned crush velvet attire or frolicking at shrines in worship of the Fallen Star of the Firmament.

Be very sure to cash in any coin at one of the many Bank of the Crystalline Union of Sewerjacks for the only currency used for exchange in the city is a highly polished glass marble in different sizes based on denomination. and what ever you do, do not talk about the weather, it is a crime

For those visitors seeking a little adventure in in the city, i might recommend visiting either the 

Dread Coterie of Dream-thieves, a group specializing in air-ship piracy and rumored to be headquartered  at The Cracked Actor, a seedy oil wrestling venue run by Angelia Dewitt. (just dont look into her eyes)

or the Black Hall, a tower owned by Bramblefordina Amarinth, a practitioner of Inter-Planetary Travel, easy to find by the constantly raging storm over the observatory and surrounded by perpetually skeletal trees. (just be careful about what doors you open inside, you never know where you might end up)

Know Dangers of the City 

Eye Hounds

these small creatures composed of little more than a large floating eyeball  with reptilian scaled wings  and withered hands hover about the cities rooftops at night scooping up wayward fiddlers and the like for their unknown masters

1d8 appearing 2HD AC 5 attacks 1 1d4 with paralytic touch (see invisible)

Torch Grimalkin 

Viscous partially invisible cats seen only by the shifting waves of heat lifting off of them that haunt the lesser populated areas around the city

1d6 appearing 4HD AC 5 attack 1 bite 1d4 and special 1d10 slam attack from pounce. anyone near them in melee range takes 1d4 heat damage around and due to their mostly invisible nature -2 to attack

  Armoured Hermit Cephalopod 

These octopus like creatures inhabit old suits of rusty plate Armour much like a hermit crab and wander around looking for better armor attacking anyone in fine plate  

1 appearing or a group of 1d3 arguing about a suit of magical Armour 

6HD AC-1 attacks 6 whip like appendices 1d6 and 1 mental blast 1d8 stun

these creatures are 50% resistant to magic/psychic attacks

So, there you go i used a couple of  books, some dice and about 20 minutes and came up with a city and area, some new monsters, some organizations, a potential adventure site at the wizards tower and tons of ideas. i find these books useful and i hope you do also

if you haven't download a copy or ordered it yet, here it is again

NEXT WEEK

Im gonna take this setting from the books and write up a SWN sector around it, because Gothic Space, sounds fun and scary   

The Google Plus Role-Playing Blog Directory

The Google Plus Role-Playing Blog Directory

Mike E, over at Wrath of Zombie has put together a stellar list of blogs and their Gplus writers, categorized by subject. like me if you are just getting into Gplus games this is an excellent resource and a darn fine thing to do for the community at large.  Gplus gaming is very big and even with good circle management you will never catch all of the cool stuff that is in the works. this is like a road map to the wonderful blogs of the OSR DIY Homebrew Gplus blogosphere