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Chaosium Digest Volume 31 Number 02
Chaosium Digest Volume 31, Number 2
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2000
Number: 1 of 3
Contents:
* The Adventure of the Bequest (PENDRAGON)
by Timothy Ferguson ferguson@beyond.net.au
* The Adventure of the Lady of Darkwater (PENDRAGON)
by Timothy Ferguson ferguson@beyond.net.au
* To Amuse a Lady (PENDRAGON)
by Alexandre Lanciani alexanl@tin.it
Editor's Note:
It's a Pendragon issue this time around! I'm glad to see that the Arthurian
submissions are still coming in despite them not qualifying for the Chaosium
contest. Personally, I greatly enjoy Pendragon and love to get submissions for
the game. It's especially nice when the submissions are as good as these three.
We've got a trio of Arthurian adventures. The Adventure of the Bequest is
written to take advantage of the new "Saxons!" supplement from Green Knight
while
the others should offer sufficient challenges for any knight errant. Enjoy!
As previously noted, all Call of Cthulhu, Elric! and Nephilim articles qualify
for the quarterly Chaosium Contest. Even though they don't count for the
contest, I still gladly accept Pendragon, Delta Green and Glorantha submissions.
The deadline for the next contest will be June 30th. The winner gets a copy of
the upcoming Call of Cthulhu Keepers Companion
http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2388.shtml for their winning Cthulhu, Elric!
or Nephilim submission. So, keep those submissions coming!
**Upcoming Chaosium Releases**
MAY
>CALL OF CTHULHU Keeper's Screen
#2387 $14.95 ISBN 1-56882-149-2
http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2387.shtml
CALL OF CTHULHU KEEPERS (Keepers of Forbidden Lore) can now keep their secrets
in style. This new three panel Keeper's Screen is jam-packed with vital GM
information presented in any easy to use at a glance format. The player's side
of the screen features awesome Philippe Caza artwork worthy of its own sanity
check. This product includes a new introductory scenario perfect for beginning
investigators and keepers alike, as well as three 4-page game aids (weapons
table with an alien weapons section, a new 4-page summary of rule book spells,
and some character
sheet masters to jump-start your new Call of Cthulhu game).
>The Yellow Sign & Other Tales
THE COMPLETE WEIRD FICTION OF ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
6023 $19.95 ISBN 1-56882-126-3
by Robert W. Chambers
http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/fiction/6023.shtml
This massive collection brings together, for the first time ever and with much
of the material unprinted since the 1890's, the entire body of Robert W.
Chambers' weird fiction work. Chambers is considered a
landmark author in the horror field for his _King in Yellow_ collection, but
that is just a small part of his weird fiction output. The Yellow Sign & Other
Stories brings together tales from five different Chambers collections, and also
includes the novel _In Search of the Unknown_ and an excerpt from the novel _The
Tracer of Lost Persons_. These stories are also connected to the Cthulhu mythos,
for they introduce concepts such as Hali, Hastur, and Carcosa. Selected and
edited by S.T. Joshi.
----------------------------
Two adventures follow. The first was written during the playtest for the
"Saxons!" supplement and may contain references which are not correct for the
published version, since it is based on the playtest release. The second
adventure contains elements of gothic and psychological horror, and is based on
Arabic/Persian myth. It was written for a Gothic Pendragon saga, and submitted
to Chaosium ages ago.
The Adventure of the Bequest.
This adventure revolves around the search for the remains of a character's
father, who disappeared and therefore could not be buried by his sons,
dishonoring them. At the time of his disappearance the father was equipped
with a family heirloom, a spear blessed by Wotan and Thurnor, that would never
break in battle and added +1 to it's wielder's spear skill. A traveler will
relate a tale in which the heirloom appears, drawing the character into a
confrontation with its new owner and providing him with a
clue as to the whereabouts of his father's remains. If no player character is
appropriate, then an NPC thegn, Caedwalla, will be the heir and will ask the
assistance of the player characters in the recovering of the artifact. The rest
of the scenario is written presuming it is this NPC who is the heir.
The characters are in the mead hall of their lord. While here before dinner
they can use some courtly skills, if they wish. The Gamemaster should
emphasize how different this setting is from the usual, by making the manners
more earthy and the activities less refined. Dinner is served and the
characters lay into their meat and mead, while telling stories of what they and
their ancestors have done. Check Temperate to see how drunk the character is by
this time.
These tales have a certain form, which should help the players design them about
their character's fathers. It starts with a statement of relationship, then a
description of the excellence of the man and those things he owned. Then it
outlines a problem, adds an opponent, then makes it very clear that the opponent
is terrible and potent. Next it praises the bravery and skill with which the
relative overcomes the menace. It then concludes with the receipt of his just
reward. Characters who make up a story about their fathers may make checks on
Honesty, Pride and Orate. If they critically succeed on the Orate roll, they
may check Love (family), as it gives them a deeper insight into the greatness of
their father's bloodline.
If the characters all have fathers safely burnt or buried, the last tale in the
series involves Caedwalla, who tells the tale of his grandfather's victory over
Edbert, a Scandi warrior of great might. A visiting Skald will beg the next
tale and say:
"As I traveled here, I met another Skald who told me the tale of a warrior
living in the woods of Lanburh. He also carried a spear such as you described.
It's holder is a mighty bandit, known for his many forays into the Welshlands.
It is said that, with the spear you describe, he slew two hundred men at the
Battle of Cliffington. He is said to have escaped the bear-pit of the King of
Kent only by seducing his daughter."
"Tell us the tale!", call many drunken Saxons.
The skald goes into a tawdry tale indeed of a woman foolishly freeing her
father's enemy because he promised her a large bride-price. Although he paid
her a large maiden-fee, he did not take her away to marry him, so she was
dishonored before all of her family.
Soon after, the Gesith leaves and the Thegn get sufficiently drunk at his
expense to fall asleep. Caedwalla asks the skald for directions too Lanburh.
The skald will give them freely, so that the characters realize it is about
three weeks away by foot, two by horse. He mentions that there are feats for
heroes along the way, but myths indicate they might only be found by those with
a fox's hide arm-band. Caedwalla asks the characters to accompany him to
overcome this chieftain and regain his heirloom. He is also keen to haggle a
fox fur off one of the other warriors, but will leave that to the player
characters while he gathers supplies. He has only two horses, one for himself
and one to carry provender, so characters will have to supply their own mounts,
if they can.
The First Feat: The Lady of the Barrow of Black Stones.
Five days from home, the track the characters are following swerves past a low
hill, obviously artificial, made out of black, polished rocks. Should any
character touch a rock, a woman with black hair and dark eyes, dressed in
black-embroidered clothes and wearing a cape of fur from a black bear, will
accuse them of being thieves and attempting to steal her stones. Once they
protest their innocence, she will call them liars and curs, then will demand
they undertake a trial to prove it. Either they will be tried by hot water or
by combat.
A foul beast emerges from this barrow every evening during the dark of the moon,
she claims, and she will believe the truth of their story only if they can slay
it, or cause it to flee. She will be unable to describe it, but will say that
it eats people and leaves few footprints when it travels. It never enters
houses, so people shelter from it in the mead hall, but it often kills
passers-by and livestock. If the characters ask, she will agree to pay damages
for their injuries in battle against the beast, even as a chieftain would, so
long as they prove their innocence of her charge.
At midnight the barrow shudders slightly and there is a low, groaning sound as
the stones move against one another. A humanoid shape leaps to the top of the
barrow. It is like a human, but bent over almost double, with springy legs,
black, shiny skin and a long tongue with which it tastes the air. After a
moment or two, it leaps to a nearby tree-top, then bound from tree to tree away
from the mound and out into the forest. After a night of rapine, it will return
to the mound. Characters wishing to confront it would best do it now, as it is
weighed down by a bloated stomach.
The Fiend of Vaults:
SIZ 15 Move 3 / 6 leaping. Major Wound 12
DEX 30 Damage: 4d6 Unconscious N/A (0)
STR 12 Heal Rate: Special Knockdown 15
CON 12 Hit points 27 Armor 15 points, hide of stone
Modifier to Valor: +0
Glory to Kill: 50? 75?
Attacks: 2 Claws @ 10 each or
2 Kicks @ 15 each, damage 5d6 only on two people standing
together or on a single target or
1 Jump @ 20, crushing damage 6d6, but useable only every second
round.
The Fiend will shy away from flame and not fight any character who bares a
torch. It also hates sunlight, as this turns it into inanimate stone until the
New Moon. If the characters prevent it from hiding back in the barrow, it will
seek a sheltered spot where it's body can lie undisturbed during the next month,
such as the bottom of a deep stream. If it does get back into the barrow it can
be killed by lighting a huge fire that covers the entire mound, as this cooks it
against the hot stones.
If the characters are victorious, the Lady of the Barrow of Black Stones will
thank them profusely and pay them for their wounds using polished jet. Finally,
she will take the left hand of the heir and kiss it,
instantly vanishing. The character will take three points of damage as her kiss
has branded them, as if by a hot iron, with a rune for "stone". Although they
will be annoyed now, the brand will grant them three added points of armor in
their battle with the brigand chief, before vanishing away, leaving only a
faint, white scar.
The Second Feat: The Maiden of the Field of Berries and Briars.
The characters will come upon scattered clumps of wild berries during their
travels and may trap small game to give themselves some fresh supplies. Late
one day while foraging, a character with an arm-band of fox-fur will find a
large glade with raspberries, blueberries and blackberries growing together by a
cool spring. The edges of the glade are surrounded by thick briar-bushes, but a
path through these is easily cleared. It is an excellent place to pitch a tent
and camp, but early the next morning a carnation-skinned girl with
strawberry-blonde hair, who wears a cloak of red deer hide, will rouse them
awake, by demanding that they get out of her glade and pay her for the magical
berries they have stolen.
The characters will again protest their innocence and the maiden will demand a
test of them. Either they will be tested by cold water or they will be tried by
combat. Again, she will agree to pay the price of the blood they spill if they
succeed in the trial. She will tell them that a terrible creature dwells deep
in the well. It is drawn forth by the light of the full moon, or the reflection
of silver in moonlight upon the
water's surface. The creature kills babies and bites people in their sleep,
leaving them with boils and blisters for months afterwards, but never enters the
mead halls, so the people sleep there while it eats their livestock.
The Robust Fiend of the Spring of the Field of Berries and Briars
This creature has the statistics of a Mersc Feond, from Chapter 8, save that It
also has the attack "Bite @ 15: Damage 7d6, plus opposed roll on Con. versus
poison potency of 12, or the wound festers and blisters, giving the character 1
point of damage per round if they participate in combat while wearing clothing."
It has eight points of armor, due to its aqueous nature, which makes it
resistant to stabbing and chopping attacks.
The Robust Fiend is a potent foe, but is very vulnerable to alcohol. It will
not attack a character who is not cold sober, or who carries an alcoholic
beverage. If mead, for instance, is splashed upon it, it uses
the following statistics:
As per Mersc Feond, but reduce damage rolls by two dice, its hit points to 32
and let its armor be 5.
Once the characters are victorious, the Maiden of the Fields of Berries and
Briars will congratulate them, apologizing for her earlier claims against their
honor. She will pay for their wounds with bottles of berry-wine, toasting them
and asking each to raise a horn. As the heir drinks, she disappears and he is
branded on the tongue with the glyph for water. Although he loses three hit
points and is probably extremely annoyed, the glyph will aid him in the final
battle as he will bleed water it produces rather than his own juices. This
prevents aggravation of Major Wounds.
Characters travelling on will get to Lanburh, a little community by the woodland
in which the bandit chieftain skulks. Suspicious players may be on the
look-out for another supernatural occurrence, but these scenes are another
venture into the day-to-day life of Saxons. The chief is holding a feast as his
people have just raided deep into the Welshlands and have returned with much
livestock and many slaves. He invites the characters to sit at his table, so
long as they are not ill-thought of, which in game terms is represented by a low
Honor Score.
Tales will be told and mead drunk. He will gladly give the characters a fair
price for their berry wine in precious metal, so long as they tell him the tale
of its earning. He will be greatly pleased by the death of the Robust Fiend, as
he had tried to kill it, but it had refused to fight him. Although the chief
claims this was due to his great courage, wily GMs may notice it was because he
was noted for his great Indulgence. If asked about the Maiden, he says that odd
magical maidens are thick on the ground in this bit of the country as a
runecarver had come here many years ago and trained some local girls the ways of
the written word. Mostly, he says, they keep to themselves. If the characters
have sex here, remember to check for pregnancies and charge maiden and
bed-prices.
After heading on again, the characters will travel upon a road of gray
flagstones, which makes travel remarkably rapid. They come to an enormous tree
which has fallen, blocking the path. It is spongy with rot and coated in
fruiting bodies of both odd and unsavory hues. It's wood has bleached to a
gray color. Characters trying to clear it will be accosted by a woman who
claims the fruits as her own. If they travel around the tree, which, due to the
placement of gullies on either side of the track is a laborious course, she
still waylays them for using her road, but not paying the toll.
The Dame of the Road of Polished Flagstones is elderly and has gray hair. She
wears clothing of gray wool and has a shawl of wolf's fur. Her hands are
covered with iron gauntlets and she always lays the right over the left. She
will also will also abuse the characters, saying that they have damaged her
tree, trodden dirt all over her nice road and ruined her crop. She will call
them all sorts of horrible names, ask if they are descended of Scandians, then
demand they take the trial of hot iron to prove it.
She will accept combat instead, against the Thegn at the end of her road. He is
a brute and a bandit, also a well-known rapist and a defiler of graves. He does
not, however, attack people in mead-halls, so that is where women shelter from
him while he adulterates graves. She agrees to pay the price of their wounds,
if the players think to ask, so long as they are victorious.
At their assent, she disappears and the heir feels a stabbing pain in his right
hand. He loses three hit points and is marked with the glyph of vengeance.
This will add one to the damage he does with each successful blow of his weapon
upon his opponent. The point is added after the subtraction of armor, so that
he does at least a point of damage whenever he wins the opposed resolution roll.
At the end of the road is a small motte and bailey structure, wherein dwells the
bandit chieftain. Characters are faced with the classical Pendragon dilemma of
how to get into a fortified structure. In this case, it is relatively simple.
The bandit chief wants the horses and valuables of the player characters and he
is more than certain that he can take them. He opens the gates for them and
allows them to enter.
Aelfric, the chieftain, is an elderly man who has fought off the years well. He
is haggard and has scars aplenty to testify to his bravery and resilience. He
asks the characters to dine with him, but at the feast the characters will find
themselves the center of attention, greedily stared at by his henchmen.
Eventually he will ask for stories from the characters. Caedwalla will arrange
with the other characters to speak last. He will tell of his father's victory
over the Scandian warrior.
Aelfric will laugh at him, then tell the story of how he killed Caedwalla's
father, incinerated him, then added him to his Sack of Ashes. A leather bag is
hug from the ridge-pole of his dining hall. He always
incinerates his enemies, he says, as it prevents them haunting him. With a
critical Awareness check, characters can see something inside the bag wriggling.
Caedwalla is incensed, but makes his Hospitality vs. Love (Family) check and so
keeps his peace. His host asks the characters to leave in the morning, saying
that he will give them a day's start.
The next morning, after the characters have passed out of the gate of Aelfric's
stead, Caedwalla will call out to Aelfric, proclaiming him to be ignoble in any
number of ways and demanding trial by combat for his spear and the box of Ashes.
Aelfric will ignore him. Caedwalla shouts that the leader of the bandits is a
Nithing and that all who serve such a one are worse than the lick-spittles of a
dog. That gets some attention.
Twice as many followers of Aelfric as there are characters emerge from the gate
to do battle. They have their armor on, which is an advantage they have over
the PCs, but the PCs are presumably mounted and the bandits have not time to
arrange a Scudburh so long as the players attack them
quickly. The runes on the hands and tongue of the heir do not activate unless
things are going poorly for him. After half of these bandits die, they retreat
back inside.
After this success, Aelfric comes to his gate and calls out to Caedwalla that he
will meet him in trial by combat. All of the rest of the bandits troop out to
form a half-circle and watch their leader in combat. Each is armed and the
characters should feel that if he is victorious they are liable to be hunted
immediately. Aelfric is armored in finely-worked mail, with an elaborate
helmet, giving him 12 points of armor. He carries the spear which was
Caedwalla's father's. This makes "Love (Family)" the appropriate combat passion
for the heir.
Aelfric's statistics are those of a Rich Thegn, from chapter 8.
If, during the combat, the bag of ashes is burst open, a black cloud that whines
like a swarm of mosquitoes will curl out of it then attack Aelfric, filtering in
through the slits in his helmet's visor and choking him to death. It will then
hunt down any bandits who do not flee for dear life, seeking out any who hide
nearby. Finishing it's retributive justice, it slides back into the bag and
turns back into a heavy, gray powder.
At Aelfric's death, the three brands begin to fade into thin, white scars. The
heir loses his magical powers as soon as he holds the spear in his right hand.
Victorious characters can either take over the motte and bailey, which has no
peasants around it so it must be supported by raiding, burn it down, or give it
to the lord they feasted with on the way to the conflict. Although there are
only three horses here, characters might take the livestock, although it is
stolen property, so they can never sell it in good faith. Similarly, most of
the items of treasure found here should be the grave-goods of someone or other,
so to keep it might prove unfortunate and Pious Saxons will insist on destroying
everything they can lay their hands on.
The Dame of the Road of Polished Flagstones will appear to the characters and
pay them for their wounds in iron, giving them swords, seaxes and the heads of
axes. spears and arrows. She congratulates them and thanks them for avenging so
many wrongly dead and badly buried. She gives them an inlaid box in which to
keep the ashes until they are safely home, instructing them to burn it. A
Recognize roll, with negative modifiers, will note that the design is the
battle-banner of the previous King of Kent.
If the characters do not notice this, it will be pointed out to them by the
skald at their home, who has waited to hear the outcome of their journey. He
tells them that the Princess of Kent suffered so greatly that she went mad,
scourged herself until her wounds poured out her lifeblood then fled to the
woods, calling all of the gods to grant her justice and revenge. Many years
later, as her father lay dying, she returned to her family, briefly. She showed
no injury from her time away, having grown into a proud and forceful woman, save
that her left hand, now covered by a gauntlet, was never seen to move without
the prompting of her right, lying flat again if not held bent by its partner.
After burying her father she left again, taking with her such few sections of
her maiden-price as were still in the hall. No-one has seen her since.
Plot Hook: The Lady and the Maiden can serve as puzzles for future games. Are
they ghosts of two of Aelfric's victims? What is their relationship to the two
monsters? Were they his bastards, or the bodies of the women under terrible
curses? Are they simply runecarving acolytes of the Princess in Gauntlets, or
are they faeries she has called to her? Are they simply her in other guises?
--------------------------------
The Adventure of the Lady of Darkwater
(copyright Timothy Ferguson 1998).
This adventure can be placed anywhere in feudal Britain and, although it works
best in Phase Three or later, needs only slight adjustment for earlier phases.
It is a retelling of a classic Arabian folktale. A man, smitten by love,
decides to marry a beautiful woman, about whom he knows little. They live
happily for many years, until, suspecting an affair, the man follows her into
the night. He discovers a terrible secret, and is forced to make
heart-wrenching decisions.
The Phantom of Darkwater
Riding home from an adventure the characters discover they have been misinformed
about the time required to travel to the town in which they were to lodge the
night. Their guide suggests they take a side-road to a nearby village. Since
the road is well-maintained, it is unseasonably cold, and their guide urges them
to continue the last three miles with promises of a warm bed and hot food, they
continue riding, cautiously, by torchlight. Their persistence is reinforced as
the woodland thins, and
they pass the outlying farms of a village.
A scream splits the air. The characters make Horsemanship rolls, or their
horses are startled and bolt away from the sound. Some of their pack animals
disperse. Leaving their squires to collect the baggage horses, the characters
gallop through the closing night toward the sound, making (Awareness+5) rolls to
avoid minor obstacles on the road. The cry is repeated, and comes from a small
graveyard, lined with a drystone wall.
A knight clad in black armor sits upon a dark horse. Through the slits of his
visor green flames flicker. His sword, with which he strikes the drystone
slates, is broad, curved and outlined in flickering, green light. Two
men-at-arms sprawl dead against the wall's base. A figure, featureless in warm
clothes but feminine in shape, covers behind a monument within the graveyard.
She continues to scream until she hears the knights approach, then calls in a
husky voice, "Good sirs! It is the
Phantom Knight of Darkwater! He seeks my death, and that of my unborn child!
Pray, sirs, save me!"
The characters are likely to be deceived. The knight is inhuman, but is not a
phantom, nor is the lady either mortal or honest. Each is a ghul, an Arabic,
undead spirit, and this encounter has been contrived to allow a player character
to woo Jasmine, the woman whom they apparently rescue. Zekiel, her accomplice,
is clad in the armor in which Sir Basil, her husband, was buried. These three
characters are described nearby. Zekiel crosses swords with the knights for as
long as he is able, without risking death. The characters are certain to notice
that their weapons do not become bloodied, even when their stokes land firmly.
Once he's put on a convincing show, Zekiel vanishes into the darkness.
Ghuls
Ghuls are Arabic undead which represent the fear of death by dehydration. These
spirits of thirst are usually female (ghula) and are beautiful. They marry
unwary men and drink their blood as they sleep. On certain nights they sneak
away to festivals where they swallow blood and devour human flesh. The eyes and
mouth interiors of ghuls are green, but they are otherwise difficult to detect.
Ghuls are
unhindered by implements of the Christian religion. For the purposes of this
scenario, ghuls do not
bleed when cut, which reduces the damage they suffer to 6 points, maximum,per
injury from a cutting weapon. Ghuls dislike sunlight, but have excellent night
vision. Far later authors, such as Poe and Lovecraft, describe creatures called
"ghouls" which are based, very loosely, on the ghul.
Zekiel, the Ghulish knight
Zekiel pretends to be a brother of the Knights Hospitalier. He has killed and
replaced the steward of the hospice in Darkwater. He is Jasmine's protector and
lover. While pretending to be the Phantom of Darkwater, he wears Sir Basil's
arms.
SIZ: 14 Move 3 Major Wound 25
DEX: 13 Damage 5d6 Unconscious 10
STR: 16 Heal Rate 8 Knock Down 14
CON: 25 Hit Points 39 Armor: Byzantine plate (14) + shield
APP: 17 Age: 45
Attack: Sword 27, Lance 22, Horsemanship 30 (Cultural skill)
Traits: All Evil 16+.* Deceitful 22. May oppose deceitful to other evil
traits to hide them.
Passions: Love (Jasmine) 14, Loyalty (Ghoul Pack) 22.
Significant Skills: Many excellent skills, due to advanced age. Intrigue,
Chirurgy and First Aid all 20.
Horse: best available in Phase.
* Evil bonus: Aside from his usual ghulish powers, Zekiel can briefly take on
the shape of any person whose matter he has consumed. He reverts to his own
appearance at sunrise.
Ghulish abilities: Ghuls do not bleed (maximum 6 points damage per cutting
blow), do not age, heal quickly and are supernaturally charming.
For this encounter, and others before which he has time to prepare, the False
Ghost has two additional powers, granted by the potions of his mistress. He can
vanish in darkness, retreating from battle simply by riding into an area of deep
shadow. His eyes and sword burn with green fire, so that a Valorous roll is
needed to attack him.
(cont.)
--
