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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Stygian Depths - Moon Pulses, Titanic Towers and Reg

Three more previews of Stygia. I'm writing Dis now and I'm starting to get into the material. Still working on Blood & Treasure, as well, and it's coming along pretty nicely. I'll probably do a couple art previews soon. 1800 - American Empires is definitely next on the docket. I might change the focus on that one a bit - make it more of a game in its own right than a simple "trek into the wild" sort of thing. We'll see - the setting offers lots of opportunity for large scale battles, wilderness adventure, etc. Should be fun.

57.77 Murderous Blade: A gleaming sword of red steel sticks out of the water here, causing the water around it to boil. The sword is known as the King-Slayer (it calls itself Reg, short for Regicide). King-Slayer is a +2 flaming weapon with a powerful Ego that seeks the blood of kings – including infernal kings like Bael. The waters around the sword are rife with giant leeches – 3d6 of them are encountered when one makes a grab for the sword.

64.78 Moon Pulse: A low, hilly island in this hex is crowded with rank trees and noisome undergrowth. Demonic jaguars haunt the trees, waiting for prey to wander their way. Each night, at midnight, a pulse of inchoate energy flows across the island (but not the entire hex) from a blackened silver pillar at the center of the island. Adventurers hit by the pulse must make a saving throw or be transformed, instantly, into a lycanthrope. The exact kind is determined by the character’s highest ability score:

HIGH SCORE = LYCANTHROPE
Strength = Werewolf
Constitution = Wereboar
Dexterity = Wereweasel
Intelligence = Wererat
Wisdom = Wereowl
Charisma = Weretiger

The transformation is immediate, but the adventurer can attempt another saving throw to retain their own mind for one minute, needing additional saving throws each minute to avoid become a chaotic, slavering beastman.

65.32 Tower of Titans: There is a tower here formed from the bodies of three petrified titans, standing up to their knees in the waters of the Styx. One titan is a curvaceous woman with hair like molten copper flowing from her head and eyes like prismatic spheres. The second titan is a graceful young man with fulginous skin and deepset eyes of opal. The third titan is an athletic man with pearly white skin and narrow eyes.

The tower is the home of Soazil, a cambion wizard (Mage 11; 32 hp) with crocodilian skin and close-set, steel-blue eyes. Soazil has five apprentices (Mage 5) and commands a company of crocodile-men.

Soazil is a master of teleportation, but has found no way to escape Hell, despite his vast knowledge. He is also skilled at cloning, and seven clones of himself hidden throughout the tower (and maybe others hidden throughout Hell). Half of his soul is possessed by the succubus Arete, in the form of a silver apple hidden in her chambers in the palace of mighty Bael.


1 comment:

  1. Were-beams, croc-men, and two of my favorite words: noisome AND inchoate.

    This post, as they say in the vernacular, "rocks".

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