Miscellaneous

The1True

8, 8, I forget what is for
For rando ideas, magic, equipment, monsters, classes, NPC's, terrain, infrastructure, etc. that don't yet have a home.
 

The1True

8, 8, I forget what is for
All this talk of the ancients and emerging structures has me thinking of an item or effect called The Curse of Memory. It grants the power to see an area as the ancients once saw it but has a chance to kick in at inopportune moments (in combat).
 

The1True

8, 8, I forget what is for
Events beyond anyone's control:

The party interacts (hopefully positively) with the intelligent and quite reasonable son of a notoriously hard-ass lord. At some point, the lord stabs his son to death in a fit of rage (off screen) and raises his illegitimate son, previously exiled to the Utter Wastes, to the position of heir. He becomes known as the Utter Bastard. The adjutant of the murdered son becomes a strong ally to the party.

This (or some other) lord later chokes to death due to a fit of rage/laughter while eating, having heard of some surprising deed/misdeed of the party. If the party is present, anyone attempting to help is accused of being assassins!
 

Ice

*eyeroll*
If we are going all Andean Mountains up in this, it should be a Dire Guinea Pig
They both live in the Andes. When i went to Macchu Picchu, I stumbled into cave to escape the rain and there were some wild chinchillas looking at me. It was pretty wacky. I also got to eat Guinea Pig. No reason we couldn't do both, especially if they are mechanically distinct. We could also have some kind of rowdy cashmere goat monster. Maybe instead of horses, the players could buy Yaks to ride around.
 

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Huh, TIL. I always though Chinchillas were desert animals (hence the dust baths), but it looks like they are almost exclusively Andean. Weird, and cool.
 

Osrnoob

Should be playing D&D instead
Help!

I use GP for XP spent in my home games. With Carousing at a * 5 XP bonus as a gambling mechanic.

One player failed the save so rolled they went!

It came up as the PC is now under the effect of a quest spell.

I am a bit stuck other than to say you have been quested by a dragon god (the PC has dragon blood).

But I don't know where to go next, which god? Dahak ? Sahashuk ? Tiamat? Somebody else?

I know this PC wants to know more of their origin, what is the quest directive in this case? What fits?

Also looking for module recs that could fit in here. Baklin has a atone sleeping dragon at the bottom is one idea I had.

PCs are lvls 2-5 with 4 being the mean.

A search of 10ft shows Dragons Heart, Black Wyrm and Dragons Secret but I have not read them.

Wreck and Ruin has a Dragon Turtle.

Level does not matter a ton to me (you can see my xp rules are very generous and even with deadly stuff I have wounds) mainly looking for ideas and good fit!
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
The quest isn't to find something about the PC's past. The quest is to prevent the PC from ever finding out about their past.

You haven't given much (any) detail about your setting, so there isn't a lot to riff off. So I will riff off elements from my own game, and maybe you can pick something out of it.

Millennia past, when the dragons rose up against their demon overlords, they needed footsoldiers for their fight. However, the lesser races were primitive and of little assistance. In desperation the dragons broke their long taboo of mixing dragon blood with the lesser races and magebred troops, humanoids with draconic toughness and an affinity for magic. With the help of these tainted dragonspawn they won the war, and the fiends were bound uneasily to dungeons beneath the earth. But not before the Overlord Tiamat laid her curse, so that the dragons whose colours matched her own were born with evil in their hearts, and draconic society crumbled.

In the aftermath, the metallic dragons set out to destroy the abominations they had created. But some escaped, of course, and blended with the humanoid rabble, and bred like the vermin they were; or so the dragons viewed it. The dragons tried to root them out when they could, but the mongrels' blood became much diluted over time, and other then the occasional sport with an unusual talent for magic - the odd sorcerer who needed no spellbook - they became too hard to identify and too little threat to be worth the effort.

Or so the dragons thought. But then scholars of the Draconic Prophecy found references to the dragon-blooded in the scribblings of Ourelonastrix. And it became clear that some of these creatures had a role to play in the Prophecy, some of which were a great danger to dragonkind. And so the dragon-blooded became unknowing soldiers in the secret cold war being waged between the metallic dragons and the servants of the overlords, to manipulate the Draconic Prophecy to prevent, or enable, the overlords to be freed from their bindings.

Unbeknownst to the PC, events have occurred in their life that suggest they might be the Dragon-Hearted Prince referred to in prophecy. The answers, and keys to ensuring the Prophecy unfolds in a manner most beneficial to dragons, lie in the Library of Castle Amber. Castle Amber was a stronghold of the dragons during the war; built out of time to protect it from attack, its original guardians still live and would know the ancient stories and be of great assistance in interpreting the Prophecy. But millenia of isolation and the energies of the place have driven the draconic guardians quite out of their minds, and they no longer know who they are or why they are there. They live bound to humanoid form by the fantasies they have created for themselves, forgetting even that they are dragons.

Neither (most of) the metallic dragons nor (most of) the servants of the Overlords want the PC to die; if the PC is indeed the Dragon-Hearted Prince, the seals binding one of the Overlords might be strengthened or weakened, depending on the PC's actions. Rather, they want to manipulate events to the outcome they desire. But the Prophecy resists force, and both sides have learned that they cannot coerce events, but must act indirectly.

And so the agents of Tiamat have manipulated some other party, some grand wizard or lesser divinity, to place a quest upon the hapless PC. That party would have believed they were acting in their own interests, and may have acted directly, but might also have thought they were doing something else; perhaps the quest was placed in a trinket intended for another NPC but lost in a bet to the PC. But in any event the PC has been bound to destroy the Library of Castle Amber, and to slay those guardians who may hold the key to unlocking the Prophecy. Because only the Dragon-Hearted can go the the Forgotten Castle.

To complicate matters, not all metallic dragons think it is worth the risk to keep the Dragon-Hearted alive. And the servants of the Overlords all have their own agendas, some of which may conflict. So there are some factions out there that would be perfectly happy to see the PC dead, if they learned their significance to the Prophecy.

So, uh, yeah. Castle Amber, "Amber family" are polymorphed dragons who have lost their collective minds, modify as needed.
 

Osrnoob

Should be playing D&D instead
This is so sweet! Tiamat, Moldvey and maybe a moment where the PCs destroy the only hope this PC dragonblood has of a heros journey

Thank you so much! Time to read some Amber!
 

Osrnoob

Should be playing D&D instead
It also seems like based on this

Your hook would revise the last Third part of Amber to be more like a library and less the three linear guardian encounters
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
The library is a location in part 1, I would probably just skip parts 2 & 3 (actually parts 7 & 8 of the module, I think). You can figure out some other way to get them out of there when they are done.

EDIT: Hmm, you might want to make the magen vats into magebreeding facilities, and substitute draconians/half-dragons/dragonborn for the magen.
 
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Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
You keep the crazy amber family? Who are they
The crazy Amber family are the best part; social encounters with unhinged sociopaths. So naturally they are the crazy guardians the PC is charged with killing, but actually needs to cure.

Note, curing them isn't in the original module, you would have to figure out that part on your own. I tend to make a LOT of alterations to modules when I run them, but the nice thing about the old TSR ones is, with no plot threads to keep intact, you can change pretty much anything without breaking them.
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
For the VTT crowd you can get very nice maps of Castle Amber from Jon Pintar. I have bought all of his maps for the classic modules.
 

Osrnoob

Should be playing D&D instead
IMAGINE
A SILENT pannel
SILENT yet circulation booms
In this world, there is a meager theocrat
He posts DISCARDED HAIR AND BENT NEEDLES
The amplifer listens disapearing
Combining into a pipe only last notes remain of real masks
into crimson THE DOOR watches from your eggs
But the tree
The toxic tree
Blessed by the cult of overseas leftovers
Spared
never taken
Blessed?
Who then will cure this tree
For the hallow egg, thrilled yet growing
DISCARDEDBRANCHES GIVENOCOMFOT
Goes deep and only cyclical pain awaits
Oh yes there is a prototypes path
A FIELD OF BROKEN ORE thetreeoutshinesthesorebackYETMUSTSCREAM
but that is not our dinner friends
No your sisters knucklebones will not be them, you would not want that
For this tree is not hallow
It rises to vengence
Sleep awakes from terror deep
the Cushman is coming
Nope
FOR THE FROGS HAVE NOT EYES BUT BULGING DISPAIR AND NO GRAIL
BELIAL LIGHTHOUSE PLATAPUS WE MUST WEEP OR NEVER DREAM
heiscoming
The project is ReAdY
Born high or marrow out praised destitution
Leagues from returned null steel
Aging quicker doomed to reborn stolen mistakes
The ????question????? dear gambelers is
ARE YOU
 
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