The Ostarian Gardens

These delightful gardens are home to a fellowship of tree elementals, who act as representatives of Ostaria’s ecosystem. They are guardians and inheritors to a consciousness stretching back to the origins of life. Some are so ancient, they don't recollect a time they did not exist. The roots of these trees extend deep, mingling with the roots of all plants throughout the region. The gardens are self-maintaining, the grass grows perfectly even, and everything functions as intended. Gardens such as this can be found throughout Aquilus, each with varieties of plant life reflective of the region in which they’re situated.

What's makes the gardens enigmatic?

• Close observation will reveal the gardens appear to rearrange themselves. They cannot be mapped or remembered. Visitors who return on another occasion will find their recollections of the gardens are useless.
• Fragments of the trees can be used to create +2 wooden weapons such as clubs, spears, and arrows. Visitors will face wrath if attempts to remove any wood. They will be attacked by leeches who attach themselves, draining hit points and possibly levels from everyone, and additionally, magic itself permanently from casters.
• Visitors spending time here discover their deeds — both good and bad — are widely known by the elementals.

What else will visitors find here? (d8):

1. Cave-entrances hidden by illusions which PCs of a lawful alignment can detect. They lead to other places.
2. Tree elementals attempting to make babies.
3. Numerous garden mazes, which are highly complex.
4. A small pool of black water. Visitors looking in will see their reflections showing the deepest darkest evil within each of them. Clerics of lawful alignment feel wrath from their god and must make a WIS check, or lose abilities until they atone.
5. Hundred or thousands of statues, possi- bly petrified by nature or otherworldly powers.
6. Enchanting birds weaving new sections of the gardens.
7. Fruit never falls from trees, but is ripe for picking and eating. Some fruit possesses magical properties, a few varieties are deadly.
8. Anything which dies immediately turns to dust.

Night Land Update

I'm pleased to announce that my new weird-fantasy setting Night Land is complete and will be released within the next few weeks. Night Land is a realm where the sun has extinguished, and its ashes lay strewn across a landscape. One after one, the stars in the universe are entering their final stages of life, and existence is fading into memory.

Artist Andrew Walter (Troika, Fronds of Benevolence, Slipgate Chokepoint, Fever Swamp) has completed 14 amazing pieces for the publication, many in full-color. Night Land is presented as a point-crawl, and can be easily dropped into any fantasy world as part of your campaign. It is fully compatible with Old-School Essentials, and will also work with any original fantasy or similar OSR ruleset.

It's a modest publication running at 48 pages, with new factions, spells, magic items, beasts, and tons of random tables.

Here is a sneak preview of some pages.

Aquilus Issue #2

Aquilus Issue #2 has finally been released. You can pick up a print copy from Exalted Funeral. PDF copies will be on DriveThru RPG shortly.

This issue contains a hex-crawl in the region of Ostaria, with detailed descriptions of 6 keyed locations. This issue also details the city of Halgarth, with numerous random tables to generate ideas, situations, and adventures.

Inside:

• A detailed, full-color hex map of Ostaria.
• Random tables to use with the hex map, including landmarks, encounters, and weather.
• 6 detailed locations in Ostaria, each with descriptions, random tables, and suggestions for further adventuring.
• Random tables to generate the city of Halgarth, including encounters, rumors, city life, factions, and magic schools.
• 18 new magic spheres.
• An appendix detailing links and connections between all locations of the hex map.

Quantum Blinker

This is a creature called a Quantum Blinker, which I've written for my upcoming point-crawl Night Land. 

Quantum Blinker

Extraplanar. Elite. Absurd. Psychedelic. 

AC 5 [14], HD 2**, hp 10, Att 1 x blood boil (1d6+2) + special, THACO 17 [+2], MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W12 P13 B15 S11, ML 8, AL L, XP 30, NA 1d2+1 

Translucent, slug-like body, made of bubble like-spheres, colored ripples continuously play over its surface. Hovers, rarely touching the ground. Presumed to be from a parallel universe, blinks in and out of physical space, leaving a rotten smell. Appear blurred, as creature is out of sync with the physical dimension. Speaks a language that sounds like radio static.

Special: Distorts dimensions, can flip the quantum states of itself in the blink of an eye, essentially becoming a wave or a solid; after creature makes attack, it has a 1–in–6 chance of blinking away up to 30’ without foe being able to counter-attack; injects sharp needles of hardened light into victims within melee range, causing blood to catch fire, boiling inside their veins for 1d6+2 damage, save vs paralysis for half; attains nutrition from magic, players casting spells on creature must make WIS or INT save, or spell fails, adding 1d4 hp to creature; ten Sun Sprites (other creatures from Night Land) can cluster together in a swarm and attack these creatures as a suicide bomb, effectively vaporizing them both instantaneously from space and time.

Image: Stephen Fabian, illustration from William Hope Hodgson's 'The Dream of X'.

The Toothy Fairy

This is one of the main foes in my recent adventure Xanadu. She can be summoned by a ritual in one of the encounter areas of the temple. Details of how to perform the ritual are below.

The Tooth Fairy

AC 2 [17], HD 10, hp 45 + absorption, Att x 3 slam/claw/bite (1d10/2d6/1d10), THACO 11 [+8], MV 160’ (40’), SV D6 W7 P8 B8 S10, ML 4, AL C, XP 3200

The Tooth Fairy is an entity from another plane, a dimension made of sweet stuff. Sunken eyes, lean, emaciated, leathery wings on shoulders, made of stretched skin. Feeds on human teeth, taking satisfaction in cries of agony as she rips bone from mouths. If summoned, she immediately go to the bowl and eat the teeth offered by the ritual. She needs 1d100+10 teeth to satiate her hunger. Will regurgitate 2d20 diamonds (worth 250 gp each), and reward the summoner. If there are insufficient teeth, she will attack the party and attempt to extract theirs. She will not attack the summoner. Wants faithful servants who provide her with the crunchy foodstuffs that she craves. She is not fundamentally evil, just an addict. Moves swiftly, leaving trail of fairy floss. It’s delicious!

Special

All damage rolled against victims adds to creature’s hp total; +2 initiative due to speed; can use attacks independently on 3 different targets in melee range; first attack on victim is always at +2; saves vs mental attacks at +3; saves vs fire attacks at +2; if she is destroyed, teeth she consumed during summoning have all transformed to glittering diamonds, they are within her belly (worth 250 gp each); if threatened, she retreats back into opening on the wall, back to her dimension; portal will stay open for 1d6 rounds after she departs; if the PCs follow her into the wall rupture, here are some options:

• they are transported to another plane made of sugar.
• they transform into bloody pulp and are ejected back into the room.
• it’s gateway to another OSR adventure!

Summoning Ritual

Inscriptions on silver bowl in the encounter room provide comprehensive instructions on how to summon The Tooth Fairy. Referee should determine if a read spell is required to understand inscriptions, or if they are simply written in the common language.

How to perform the summoning:

1. Extracted human teeth must be placed in the silver bowl.
2. Each tooth placed in the bowl will give the ritual a 1% chance of succeeding (so 40 teeth = 40% chance of success).
3. Inscriptions on the bowl must be read out aloud.
4. Roll the dice...

If the summoning is successful, aroma of burnt sugar permeates the room within a few minutes.

The stain on the wall begins to glow, then rupture. The Tooth Fairy emerges from the wall, descending into the room. She will be famished, kneel down, and immediately devour the teeth in the bowl. The party is transfixed (probably under a spell), powerless to act until she is finished. If the summoning fails, teeth in the bowl melt into sweet syrup, they are useless, perhaps try again.

Styles of Magic

Recently, I published a post previewing material that will appear in Aquilus Issue #2, focusing on magic and spellcasting academies found throughout the city of Halgarth. The post included a random table that generated flavorful (and often absurd) names for these establishments. The follow-up table below generates styles of magic that are taught, along with requirements to cast the spells (whether they be verbal, somatic, material, etc). 

I'm currently working on a zine of magic spells for release in 2021 and hope to expand upon these tables, using the results as inspiration for spell names, effects, etc. I've written previously about utilizing language to trigger ideas, and favor this approach as a framework for most of my writing—firstly, come up with the name of something you might find in your imagined world, then determine its properties.

(d12) Roll 2 times and combine:

d12	Style of magic taught...	It's requirements...
1.	Focuses on infernal power.	Knowing the true name of the target.
2.	Focuses on singing.	Avoiding any contact with the target.
3.	Focuses on the fabric of space.	Only certain bloodlines can use this magic.
4.	Focuses on sound and metal.	Dancing whilst making highly specific hand-signs.
5.	Focuses on mind-control.	Poems written in a language the caster invents.
6.	Focuses on shape-shifting.	Various internal organs of the recently dead.
7.	Focuses on gold and gems.	Solving mathematical calculations.
8.	Focuses on microbial life.	Adjusting the gears of small, complex mechanisms.
9.	Focuses on gravity.	Heightened emotions.
10.	Focuses on astral matter.	Wearing a special mystical outfit.
11.	Focuses on ancient texts.	Making bargains with non-human entities.
12.	Focuses on death energy.	Being aligned with the collective consciousness of plants.

Faceless Drifter

This is a new creature called a Faceless Drifter, which I've written for my upcoming point-crawl Night Land. Amongst eight new creatures for the setting, this is most humanoid, the others being far more abstract and counter-intuitive in terms of how they're physically embodied. I'll release a few more in the coming weeks.

Faceless  Drifter

Abomination. Lurking. Heartbroken. Mindless.  

AC 6 [13], HD 1+2*, HP 6, ATT 1 x bite (1d4) or scream (special), THACO [18] +1, MV 180’ (60’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 7, AL Chaotic, XP 19, NA 3, TT None

Hairless humanoids, sexless, gaunt, rubbery skin. Roam in groups of three, moving incredibly fast. No facial features, other than a mouth with razor-sharp teeth. Sound like a death rattle, smell like crude oil. Speak, but limited intelligence of their own, merely able to mimic what it has heard before, mainly with a vocabulary of indecent language. 

Originally, these creatures were genetically constructed by Void Engineers, designed to be workers that could be commanded mentally. They are now mindless shells, which mysteriously reproduce with another, living in hidden colonies throughout Night Land, leaderless, without allies. Unloved, pitied remnants of a failed experiment, who now merely wander and observe, driven by a past, brief, but traumatic connection to people. 

Special: Once per 3 rounds, can unleash a frightening, soul-destroying screech as an attack with 30' range, victims must save vs paralysis or be immobilized with fear, unable to attack for 1d2 rounds; immune to mind-affecting spells.
 

On the Bookshelves

This is an encounter that takes place in the library of a cult temple, from my latest adventure Xanadu. Even though the most useful part for readers of this blog is the random table of books found on the shelves, I've reproduced the encounter in its entirety.  

Bibliotecha

Door, sandstone, arcane locked, painted with cult symbol. Stone pillars, flanking the door, each carved with a representation of female creatures with wings, similar to statue in area 5. Bookshelves, filled with tomes, various bindings, sizes. Smells like wax, stale incense.

Door
If door is touched: it is magically trapped. Touching the door causes (d20): 

• Result of 1–18: a fireball for 2d4 damage to everyone within 10’ of the door (save vs breath for half),
• Result of 19–20: a lightning bolt to explode for 2d20 damage to everyone within 10’ of the door (save vs breath for 1d20 damage).

How to disarm the door: trap is deactivated by pressing a release button behind one of the stone pillars next to door. A thief can find this by investigating for traps. 

Bookshelves
Books of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Some are ancient, some modern. Volumes of esoterica, occult, directories, almanacs, local histories, etc. There is nothing magical here.

On the bookshelves (d20): 

1. Instructions on exotic poisons.
2. History of the temple.
3. Methods of smuggling, extortion and various other activities this cult is involved in. 
4. Treatise of personal sins.
5. Names and notations that look like a collection of financial debts.
6. Journals of notes from failed experiments.
7. Guidebook to invisibility.
8. Interviews with the undead.
9. Handbook of cannibalistic recipes.
10. Opus on tales of astral seas.
11. Travel directory to other planets.
12. Formulas to perform the summoning ritual in area 26 (The Tooth Fairy).
13. Almanac listing locations of the birthplace of all monsters.
14. List of undiscovered cities.
15. Ancient torture methods.
16. Picture-book of decadent fashion.
17. Volume of love poetry.
18. Reference work on arcane dentistry.
19. Guide to ancient meditation techniques.
20. Manual of unpopular magical theories.

Review of Xanadu

My most recent adventure Xanadu, written for Old-School Essentials, was reviewed on Ten Foot Pole.

The Settlement of Protu

Here's a preview of a hexcrawl location from Aquilus issue #2, coming soon. Proto is located in a region of Aquilus called Ostaria, which the forthcoming issue will focus on.

Protu

Standing within a clearing of saturated swamplands is a settlement that has invented a thanatotic compound, which allows users to get a glimpse at life after death. The highly valuable, sought-after substance is supplied as an extremely addictive opiate to the very wealthy. It is extracted from highly poisonous fungal growth that is scraped from tree trunks in the surrounding areas. This area is pervaded by vicious predators, and teeming with disease. It smells putrid, like decayed animals and boiled urine.

What about the residents? 

• They have photosynthetic skin which allows them to produce their own food in sunlight. 
• They do not permit laughter or singing. Punishments for violations are severe. 
• A family of three lives here, with flesh that looks like translucent gelatin. The residents are secretive about them. 
• They can instantaneously eject ink from the pores of the skin, which envelops them in a mist and protects them from spells. 
• They make saving throws vs all magic at +2. 
• The children spend their days stroking dead animals with thigh bones of the dead. The stroking produces miniature lightning storms of static. They store the electrical discharges in jars, which are then used to illuminate the home interiors at night.
• They communicate with deadly insects that guard their settlement at night.

Halgarth's Magic & Spellcasting Academies

This is a preview of a random table that will be included in Aquilus issue #2, coming soon. There is a section in this issue which details the city of Halgarth. The table below generates magic schools found throughout the city. In a future post, I'll release another random table that generates the styles of magic that are taught in these academies. 

(d12) Roll 3 times and combine:

1.	The Seat of	Future	Chronomancy
2.	The Affiliation of	Ecological	Philosophy
3.	The Academy of	Natural	Hermeticism
4.	The Faculty of	Spiritual	Alchemy
5.	The League of	Practical	Inscriptions
6.	The Seminary of	Ancient	Alteration
7.	The Society of	Temporal	Divination
8.	The Alliance of	Geomantic	Experimentation
9.	The Foundation of	Hermetic	Necromancy
10.	The Union of	Evolutionary	Invocation
11.	The Center of	Sorcerous	Abjuration
12.	The Guild of	Mathematical	Summoning

Arcana, Magic Items & Devices from Aquilus

An expanded version of this table is published in Aquilus issue #1.

Roll (d10):

1. Jar of Life: A small jar formed of translucent material. Place organic matter or a severed limb inside, and it will remain alive forever until removed.
2. Dust of Forgetfulness: When thrown at a living creature, the dust causes the victim to forget everything that happened to them during the last day. After one week, the lost memories will be restored.
3. Essence Extractor: Extracts the consciousness of willing being. The consciousness can be stored in a vial and drunk by another being to absorb their soul.
4. Ice Pipe: When smoking this pipe using a particular strain of tobacco, any smoke exhaled will be of sub-zero temperature. It will deal 1d4 points of damage to a living target. Target must be with a 3 ft range.
5. Initiative Dust: Snorted through the nose, the dust creates paranoiac hyper-vigilance. It reduces sleep requirements, accelerates the aging process, creates constant perspiration, and adds +2 to initiative rolls. Lasts for 1 turn. 
6. Protective Gloves: The user’s hands are sheathed in gloves made of solid sound for one hour. The user can touch or handle poisonous substances
7. Purifying Incense: A stick of this incense will purify the air and allow a PC to smell emotions within 30 ft. It is 70% accurate and burns for about 20 minutes.
8. Thought Amulet: A character who successfully activates this ability may send a brief mental message to the mind of any intelligent creature within 360 ft. This message cannot be more than one short sentence.
9. Tobacco of Accelerated Healing: When smoking this strain of tobacco, the PC gains no additional benefit from magical healing, but instead, their natural healing rate is doubled for the next ­twenty-four hours. 
10. Protoplasmic Gel: A jar of gel made by the Riverfolk. It can dissolve any material at the rate of 1 inch per round. It has two uses and lasts for 1 hour.