A Question of Gall

A gall is an amazing thing. Formed by a plant when a parasitic wasp injects an irritant into it, they take a huge variety of forms. Check this out.

That lights me up. So many gameable possibilities! I smell a series coming on!

The Enclave Devil

The walls between the planes are not so much thick as antithetical to one another. Like oil and water, or oil and fire, they either remain unmixed or destroy each other on contact. Extraplanar intrusions will be inexorably drawn back to their origins, like a balloon held underwater. However, there are beings in other worlds who take great interest in the possibilities of other planes. The devils, aggressive thoughtforms, and rogue engrams of the outer spheres puncture normal space and inject it with pieces of themselves to open the way for future conquest. Succubi, incubi, dark rituals, each acts to change the world to match elsewhere, or encyst a piece of one plane in another. The enclave devil is not a singular type of creature, but a multitude of beings. Each plane develops its own more or less stable shape, although most are humanoid. They are vectors for alien planes, driven to scratch out galleries and tunnels that have both mystical significance and act to thin the walls between worlds. Enclave devils also directly scratch at the barrier between the planes, creating breaches through which other extraplanar beings can move freely.

Enclave Devil Forms

1. Worm-centaur
2. Scuttling, emaciated thing
3. Bulbous glutton
4. Cobweb thing, composed of diaphanous webs
5. Eyes and teeth whirling in the air
6. Red-skinned humanoid. Blank, eggshell face
7. Humanoid with exoskeleton like an insect
8. Shadow person
9. A muscular man with the head of a star-nosed mole
10. A floating array of glittering sigils

Enclave Devil: Init +4; Atk extraplanar claws +0 melee (1d6, ignores non-magical armor); AC 13; HD 1d8; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP may scratch through any barrier, 1’x1’x1’ per hour; SV Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +1; AL based on home plane.

The Planar Ram

An enclave devil is comparatively weak, and on its home plane it lacks the ability to cross to another. Aggressive dimensions make use of a carrier organisms to insert enclave devils and other creatures into other planes. Planar rams usually break through in areas of intense magical energy, such as dungeons or wizard towers. They have also been known to break through deep underground, allowing enclave devils to cut extraplanar catacombs undisturbed for years before the inevitable breach. The results are rarely positive for the plane they have invaded.

Planar Ram Forms

1. Enormous, almost immobile, square humanoid, body dominated by wooden door
2. Streamlined, aquatic shape, enormous maw opens portal
3. Skeletal figure with an exposed ribcage opens to the beyond
4. A thin ring of stretched skin and bone
5. Floating multidimensional shape bends space around it to create a portal
6. A mystical circle slowly rotates on a flat surface, it’s mandala-like designs spin when it open a portal within itself
7. Bulbuous, faintly pulsing organ attached to nearly surfaces with ropey sinew. A large valve acts as a portal
8. Tall, thin humanoid made of cracked earth. Hollow. Inverts pieces of its anatomy to reveal a portal within
9. An animate bronze statue, many-limbed. It carries on its back a portal ring
10. A floating tear in space, causing the air around it to howl

Planar Ram: Init +0; Atk limbs+0 melee (1d6), portal explosion +2 ranged (1d8); AC 15; HD 3d8; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SP Planar radiation (characters within 5’ take 1 damage per round due to the otherworldly energies it radiates); SV Fort +2, Ref -1, Will +2; AL based on home plane.

Witchflies

A witchfly is a fist-sized insect that looks like a cross between a wasp and a stick insect. Found in temperate swamps, they go through a relatively normal life cycle that undergoes major changes when intelligent humanoids are closeby. A female will seek out a sleeping humanoid and deposit 1d6 eggs under the scalp. Each egg release a substance which forms a growth on the skull called a witchgall. The hair falls out from around the spot, then a hollow, round knob of bone grows. The space fills with elastic brain tissue, making it the perfect home for the creatures. The witchfly eggs feed on the neural impulses and cerebrospinal fluid, growing faster and larger in the presence of magic. Once an egg is large enough the larval witchflies will burrow free, either breaking out of the skull and flittering away, an agonizing process at best, or eat its way deeper into the brain.

A wizard inflicted with witchgalls can tap into the increased brain mass to better cast their spells. They add +1 to their spell rolls and saving throws to resist the effects of spells cast against them while inflicted with a witchgall. However, the galls also leave them more open to the warping effects of magic, add +1 to corruption rolls. These effects are cumulative for each witchgall inflicted upon the character, to a maximum of +5. To determine if a witchgall breaks open secretly roll a d10 for each when a PC casts a spell. On a 1 the egg has hatched. The PC must make a DC17 Fort save. If they succeed they take 1d6 damage as the insect burrows out of the skull. If they fail they take 1d10 damage and permanently lose 1d3 Intelligence as the insect chews its way deeper into the brain.

Effects of having a witchfly wrapped around your medulla
1-5: nothing
6: You have a compulsion to seek out and consume worms and vermin.
7: You no longer blink. You no longer need to blink.
8: You now sleep, 1: 4 hours a day, 2: 12 hour a day.
9: You gain 2d6 inches in height over the next two weeks as your pituitary goes into overdrive.
10: Whatever god the witchflies belong whispers to you in the dark hours. Making demands. It has plans, so many plans.

The Lake of Woe

The Lake of Woe is a salt lake in an unpeopled corner of wilderness. It is fed by springs descending from the glacial peaks to the east. Five years ago the lake was fresh. When the dragon Brinewing was driven from the western shipping lanes by the sea kings she blocked the lake’s outlets and let it grow brackish. Now the lake is desolate, denuded of all but the hardiest plant life with shores littered with the mummified remains of creatures that have displeased her. The only movement on the shores of the Lake of Woe today are the clouds of flies which cover everything like a vile black carpet.

Brinewing is a salt dragon. She measures thirty feet long in a sickly yellow, muted by a thick crust of salt that has built up on her scales from bathing in the Lake of Woe. She is not particularly intelligent but is vain, territorial, and easily enraged. In place of fire she breathes clouds of superheated salt which burn and desiccate. Her lair lies in the most inhospitable southern sections of the lake on a peninsula of stone and crenelated salt. During the day she is more likely to be found sunning herself on the shores to the east of the lake or flying paranoid circles over her watery territory. The only creatures she permits to approach her presence are her ‘pets,’ the brine shrimp which infest the waters of the lake and can grow to an enormous size.

Hidden in the hills to the west is the Clay Palace, a monastery of salt monks dedicated to achieving enlightenment through self denial and desiccation. The Clay Palace proper is a compound of mud brick building on the shores of the lake, but the coming of Brinewing drove the the monks away. Now it lies abandoned, a ramshackle monument to the dragon’s dominance. The survivors carved out rows of cells along the canyon walls south beyond the dam the dragon created from shattered mountain pinnacles. Here they are protected from the dragon’s sight by overhanging stone. The wisest of their order are little more than leathery husks. Their minds are only lightly tethered to their almost immobile bodies, and drift throughout the region like silent ghosts. Should something threaten the monastery can steal the water from less enlightened monk’s bodies and achieving a lurching mobility. Their mental wanderings have left them utterly without empathy and terrifying in combat.

Encounters

1. The buzzing clouds of salt flies become impossibly thick, sucking the moisture from bare skin and creeping into mouths and noses
2. Salt mephits
3. The salt crust covering the ground here gives way, uncovering a large sinkhole. Contains: 1-salt water 2-nest of hungry brine shrimp 3-jagged old bones 4-caustic mineral bath 5-meditation chamber of a salt monk 6-treasure
4. A gale kicks up a wall of acrid dust, cutting visibility to mere feet and scouring unprotected flesh, it lasts for 1d6 hours
5. 1d6 pilgrims to the Clay Palace. Either 1-3 arriving, or 4-6 departing
6. The wandering psyche of an elder salt monk
7. Mummified remains of the dragon’s victims, a quarter of the time the corpses will rise as undead: 1-2 caravan, 1d6 humanoids, 1d4 pack animals 3- 1d6 wolves 4-2d8 herd animals 5-bats 6-giant eagle
8. A quartet of salt monks carrying the body of an elder on a palanquin
9. The blasted wreck of a small village, 1 in 6 are inhabited by something horrible
10. Mirages appear, hauntingly real until touched: 1- rows of saltwhite children 2-oasis 3-attacking army 4-crystal castle 5-apocalyptic vision 6-the dragon
11. The rainbow-colored crust around this dried pond is a potent drug: 1-2-hallucinogen 3-4-stimulant 5-6-deadly poison
12. Brinewing appears

More info on Brinewing, the Clay Palace, and a map forthcoming!

The Swamps of And

West of Ig are the swamps of And. The numberless rivers of this land are fed by the heavy snow melt of the Dark Mountains and hundreds of tiny springs. To the west, sitting on a plateau above the surrounds land is the cloud forest of Lom. The entire region is saturated. To the north high moors are interspersed by peat bogs. The farther south one travels the more the swampier the ground becomes. At the coast the land breaks up into a jumbled mess of islets and deltas.

And is lightly populated in comparison to Ig. The land is too rough and the local fauna too vicious to support much civilization. Andish villages are usually ramshackle affairs built on bamboo piles to keep them above water during the rainy season. Others are floating communities that drift across shallow lakes, peopled by fishermen and reed-weavers. The common dietary staples are fish and rice, which grows well in the dank climate. The people of And breed dogs of all sizes. Huge war dogs, scent hounds, terriers in endless variations of coat and color. Every town cultivates a favorite breed. Most are highly prized outside of And. And is also riddled with ruins, forgotten cities, and waterlogged catacombs. The back-country is almost entirely unexplored.

Things in And
Jungle cults
Swamp monsters
The Cloud Cities of Lom
Apocalypse moths
Xerterax the Unliving
Children turned into catfish
Psychic vultures

Cyborg and Samurai

I've been neglecting my blog a bit lately due to repeated scrubbing of game night. I've got plenty of content for the party to run through but competing schedules are killing me.

Last week I discovered an incredible film, Mirai Ninja. It's a Japanese action movie from the late 80s, and a heady blend of science fiction, fantasy, and samurai drama. You can watch the entire thing online, come back when you've watched the thing. It's crazy inspirational to me. I've got to stat some of this stuff out for something, I just don't know where to fit robot ninjas into Ig! In my head it's exactly what a game of Tenra Bansho Zero will be like, speaking as someone who knows next to nothing about that particular game. I highly recommend taking the time to watch this movie, it's really entertaining. You won't lose more than an hour and change. Commence highlight image dump!

 

Inverse Star Wars opening!

This is the scene that hooked me, within the first five minutes of the film they introduce these samurai warriors with tricked out sci-fi kiai headphones, guns, and this enormous castle tank.

 

They're in a war with freaky robot ninjas who shoot GI Joe lasers that turn into shuriken on impact, with their own castle tanks, including an outhouse converted into an AT-ST-style walker.

The bad guys live in this awesome castle.

 And are lead by the Black Bishop. Death rays and killer fashion sense? Best evil cleric ever.

 

The good guys get some pretty cool gear. This katana takes bullets.

This guy's sword does a superheated slash.

A bunch of samurai warriors ready to murder some robots. It's got a bit of an Aliens vibe!

Maze-tooth

This post is really just a clearinghouse of ideas while I work on a big post about goblins. Getting it down will let me close all the tabs I had open. First, check this out:

This Easley-looking piece (by Pavel Riha) is a labyrinthodont, an extinct amphibian from the Land that Time Forgot. Something about the critter's hungry, beady little eyes lit up my brain. Maybe it's the ladykiller smile? I'm considering replacing all the crocodiles in my setting with these things, at least in And. As cool as these things are, it's the teeth that clinched me using them in some way.

 

This is a cross section of one of those pearly whites. That's where they get their name! Dead language lesson! Huzzah! This begs to be reworked and used as a dungeon. Very Planescape Caverns of Thought, Ilsensine the God-brain sitting there in the middle with his neuron bundles stretching out into the cosmos. It needs some simplifying to slow down the inevitable player revolt and DM stoning, but it's too cool not to use.

Shark-tooth Sword

Every few weeks I troll Google for non-metal weapons for inspiration for the sort of Iglandish murdering devices characters might feasibly carry. I found this weapon recently and it's just too awesome to share. It's a shark-tooth sword! I rolled one of these in a horde which is what sent me searching for real ones in the first place. I didn't think these things had ever existed, and I don't really know how good a weapon it would really make, but it's awesome so it deals full damage.

Originally found here, there a sweet detail shot as of the teeth and binding as well!