Cults of Averoigne Part 2

Though I am quite satisfied with the Oamenbun — an analog for the Cathari of 13th century France — I also need to set up a pagan cult. Since the Crimson King and his Black Queen are so tightly associated with the pagan past of Averoigne and since time tends to be a bit non-linear — especially around the Chateau des Faussesflammes — I need to establish the pagan cult the king and queen were/are/will be involved in.

I originally created this bit a heraldry for the Crimson King because of its Wotanic overtones:

However, since I have gone to the trouble of tying the Oamenbun to a regional group, I also want to have stronger local ties to inspire this pagan cult. Thus, I have been doing some cursory investigation into the paganism found in France. Here are the three local cults that I find most useful:

• Esus (which means Master) was local to the tribes of southern France. Blood sacrifices were made in his name and he was also associated with hanging. He was depicted with three birds and a bull.
• Sucellus (which means Good Striker) was depicted with a long-handled hammer and a cauldron. He was usually seen accompanied by a raven and a three-headed dog. This suggests that he had a very strong association with funerals, death and the underworld.
• Nantosuelta (which means Winding River) was associated with nature, valleys and streams. She was the consort of Sucellus and was depicted carrying a staff topped with a dovecote as well as a cornucopia. Her symbol was the raven, so she also was associated with death and the underworld.

I plan on doing an amalgam of these three by taking the name and practices of the cult of Esus and applying them to Sucellus and Nantosuelta, since they parallel the Crimson King and the Black Queen. Thus, these two will be simply called Master and Mistress. Their cult will practice human sacrifice wherein the victim is hung and exsanguinated. Necromancy and the undead will also be a huge part of cultic practice.

The various associations of these three also suggest a number of artifacts that might be found while exploring the Chateau des Faussesflammes:

• The Master’s Maul, also known as Lovitor, or Striker. Its size seems to suggest that gauntlets of ogre power or a girdle of giant strength are necessary to even wield the weapon and a combination of the two might be necessary to take full advantage of its powers.
• The Mistress’ Staff, also known as Rau or River. There are several possibilities here. The dovecote suggests the ability to summon and control birds. The name Rau suggests water-based magic. A combination of the two suggests the ability to summon and control a water elemental in the form of a bird.
• The Master’s Cauldron. I cannot help but think of the Black Cauldron from Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain. It was the source of the Arawn’s army of undead and the only way to destroy it is by willingly sacrificing oneself by crawling in. This suggests a couple of special creatures that might be produced by the cauldron, based upon the sacrifices made to the Master — the Hanged Ones and Blood Golems.
• The Mistress’ Cornucopia. Given her association with rivers, it makes sense that this artifact is an unending source of water; however, given her association with the dead, it also suggests another special undead. Should a corpse “drink” from the Cornucopia, it will rise as an undead called the Drowned.

Finally, there are several creatures that suggest themselves (besides the undead and the blood golem):

• The Raven — this strongly suggests spies. It will be fun to play on the paranoia of the players once they figure out that the birds can reveal their secret plans to the enemy.
• The Three-Headed Dog — this, of course, brings to mind Cerberus the guardian of the gate to the Underworld. Thus, somewhere under the Chateau he will guard some major treasure horde or possibly some kind of hub wherein gates to several different time/space destinations can be found.
• The Bull — this suggests that a gorgon wanders the halls of the Chateau and that statues in various poses of fright and combat be littered throughout. Imagine the surprise of a party carrying mirrors in preparation for a medusa or a basilisk realize that their doom is actually a breath weapon.

Jacques de la Lanterne

Having a dungeon called Chateau des Faussesflammes implies that one needs some kind of false flame — the literal meaning of the castle's name. The most appropriate candidate is the will-o-wisp whose name in Latin (igneous fatuus) also means false flame; however, I have never much liked the MM1 version of this monster. With its 9HD and AC of -8 (really!?) I have never had an occasion to use them. Even if I did, they strike me as a rather uninteresting way to kill off a bunch of characters.

Fortunately, neither Cook nor Holmes gives any stats for the will-o-wisp, so I am left to my own devices. The Wikipedia entry on Will-o'-the-wisp provides this rich piece of folklore:

An Irish version of the tale has a ne'er-do-well named Drunk Jack or Stingy Jack who makes a deal with the Devil, offering up his soul in exchange for payment of his pub tab. When the Devil comes to collect his due, Jack tricks him by making him climb a tree and then carving a cross underneath, preventing him from climbing down. In exchange for removing the cross, the Devil forgives Jack's debt. However, because no one as bad as Jack would ever be allowed into Heaven, Jack is forced upon his death to travel to Hell and ask for a place there. The Devil denies him entrance in revenge, but, as a boon, grants Jack an ember from the fires of Hell to light his way through the twilight world to which lost souls are forever condemned. Jack places it in a carved turnip to serve as a lantern.

This story is not found in Europe, however, where will-o-wisps were thought to be spirits of the dead or the supernatural. Thus, my version will fall somewhere in between.

Jacques de la Lanterne

Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. — Psalm 144:11

Number Appearing: 1
% in Lair: nil
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15
Hit Dice: 1+1 (turn as 2 HD)
Attacks: see below
Special: see below
Save: F2
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: nil
XP: 33

These malevolent and mischievous spirits only appear at night or in darkness and from a distance. Those who set eyes upon them will see someone vaguely familiar holding a lantern [in the environs of the Chateau des Faussesflammes they often appear as the Pattern Juggler]. Those who show any kind of curiosity about this vision must make a save vs. spell. Those who fail will fall under a charm and will insist on running after the Jacques de la Lanterne for what they will perceive as 1d6 turns.

During the chase, the Jacques de la Lanterne will keep its distance and never willingly engage in combat. If forced, its attack will do no damage, but will paralyze its victim for 2d4 turns unless a save is made.

While the chase is going on, no mapping may take place and characters will become disoriented. At the end of the 1d6 turns, the Jacques de la Lanterne disappears and its victims are released from their charm. This chase, however, does not take place in normal space or normal time. Those characters who participated in the chase (even those not charmed) will end up in a random section of the dungeon (roll a random room or geomorph on the same dungeon level) or a random adjacent hex in the outdoors. The chase will take the following amount of time for each turn the chase goes on (roll a d4):

1. Seconds
2. Minutes
3. Hours
4. Days

Jacques de la Lanternes are undead and may be Turned (if the cleric manages to make the saving throw). If turned, those who are charmed receive another saving throw. They are unaffected by the spells charm person, sleep, or hold person.

A Sample Wandering Monster Table

Yesterday, after making much about how the sample Wandering Monster Tables in Holmes & Cook suggest "a living, breathing environment that is in constant flux, where creatures from different levels are, if not constantly interacting with each other, moving through each other's territory on a regular basis." A look at my working cross section for my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, however, reveals that the first level of the dungeon is largely isolated from the rest of the dungeon. Therefore the tables as implemented and modeled in Holmes & Cook don't make much sense in context of the dungeon I am trying to use them for.

This is, in part, why I wanted to do all that math — in order to understand the methodology in order to adapt it from three tables into one table. I want to paint the picture of a living, breathing environment but cannot logically do it in the same manner.

Holmes uses a d12 to determine wandering monsters. Cook uses a d20 — as will I because it gives be more entries to help emulate a larger population. As I noted yesterday, Holmes allows for a 25% chance for a 2nd level encounter and an 8% chance for a 3rd level encounter for every wandering monster roll on the first dungeon level. On a d20 this translates into five second level encounters and two 3rd level encounters; however, there is also one 2nd level encounter already present on Holmes' first level list — the Gelatinous Cube. Thus, I will up the number of 2nd level encounters on my list to six.

Conceptually, the idea that Holmes & Cook imply by having so much cross pollination between dungeon levels is that there are different factions that co-exist and/or are fighting over territory. Since there is very little interaction between the first level and other levels in my dungeon, one of the sources for interaction (and therefore factions) needs to be outside the dungeon.

Therefore of the two basic factions (in which there might be sub-factions — I haven't decided yet), one is native to the dungeon and one is an outside interloper. Since CAS specifically refers to goblins being one of the main dangers of the Forest of Averoigne, they will play the role of interloper. The natives I will simply call the Merovingians. They will include various undead (the first level being a crypt), berserkers (normal men who have been possessed by malevolent spirits) and red caps (the most likely of the goblin-types to be affected by the aforementioned spirits).

So, without further ado, here (closely cleaving to the math I did yesterday) is my Wandering Monster Table for the first level of the Chateau des Faussesflammes:

1. Jaques de la Lanterne  (1)
2. Fire Beetles (1d3)
3. Tettix (1)
4. Gelatinous Cube (1)
5. Giant Ticks (1d3)
6. Giant Rats (2d6) + Pookas (1d3)
7. Giant Toad (1) + Pooka (1)
8. Kobolds (3d6)
9. Goblins (2d4)
10. Bogies (2d4)
11. Skeleton (2d8)
12. Zombies (1d3)
13. Zombies (1d4)
14. Ghoul (1d2)
15. Merovingian Ghoul (1d6)
16. Merovingian Hound (1d3)
17. Berserkers (1d4)
18. Berserkers (2d4)
19. Red Caps (1d4)
20. Red Caps (2d4)

Holmes & Cook: Dungeon Design

I have been busying myself with the prospect of creating a dungeon in homage to the Chateau des Faussesflammes, one of the ruined castles mentioned by CAS in his stories of Averoigne. Being in a Holmesian kind of mood, I have been trying to tackle this particular project by reverse engineering the Sample Dungeon in the Holmes Edition. In some of my initial forays into the project, I have found an interesting curiosity.

As a life-long hobbyist, I cannot remember a time more exciting than the period we are living through right now. We have a plethora of resources at our finger tips that demonstrate an amazing amount of creative output. Being a bit of a map-geek, one such resource that I have taken particular joy in is the rebirth of the geomorph. I was fully planning on taking advantage of this revival for the purposes of creating maps for my version of the Chateau; however, go on over to Dave's Mapper and compare the (marvelous) results that you get there with the Sample Dungeon from Holmes:

The average room size in the Sample Dungeon is 60 x 60, which easily takes up more than half the space on the popular 100 x 100 geomorph used by the good folks who draw them for Dave's Mapper. The largest rooms in the Sample Dungeon wouldn't even fit on a single geomorph. Even more interesting is that the Keyed rooms are on average almost twice as big as the Empty (E) rooms (75 x 65 compared to 35 x 35).

This got me thinking about the necessity of designing a dungeon with such large rooms and, in particular, encounter areas. I think this largely has to do with the way combat works in Holmes. Missile (and Magic) combat is largely distinct from Melee combat. Once Melee combat is engaged, Missile (and Magic) combat effectively ends, due to the fact that missile fire and spells have a chance of hitting the wrong target.

Given this style of combat, movement and closing into melee and/or maneuvering to avoid melee becomes a vital element of the game. If combat were confined to small spaces (such as the majority of the rooms found in 100 x 100 geomorphs) this ability to move would be severely limited. Most combats would engage in melee almost immediately, reducing the usefulness and effectiveness of characters interested in using bows and spells. Therefore, Holmes provides encounter areas with plenty of room to maneuver.

Besides offering more evidence that the Dungeon is an ever-changing underground spawning new rooms, passageways and even monsters, the size of Empty rooms also implies an attempt by Holmes to make them dangerous.

The only monsters a party of adventurers would encounter in an Empty room are Wondering Monsters, which are meant to be a major part of the Holmesian dungeon-delving experience. Outside of evidence of an ever-changing semi-intelligent dungeon, they seem rather innocuous. Their significantly smaller size, however, limits any combat that does happen within them. Like the rooms on a typical 100 x 100 geomorph, the smaller Empty rooms limit tactical choice in combat. They are therefore a more dangerous place to encounter wandering monsters than a normal encounter area.

The long and the short — I (unfortunately) won't be using geomorphs to do my version of the Chateau des Fammesflammes because Holmesian dungeons need significantly larger rooms than we modern gamers are used to. I shall also be endeavoring to have my dungeon create a sense of claustrophobia with players despite these larger room sizes. Hopefully, they will come to fear the smaller Empty rooms, where wandering monster encounters are truly dangerous.

Heraldry of Faussesflammes

I am a big fan of heraldry and intend to use it as a visual cue for players while exploring various levels of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. Thus, I spent some time putting together these designs as well as a brief explanation for each of the main characters of the Chateau:

Crimson King

I chose the image of a crow for a couple reasons. Firstly, it has pagan overtones, given their association with the Wotanic mythology. Secondly, it calls to mind the collective noun murder, as in a murder of crows. The color crimson is indicated by both the border and the crown.

Black Queen

I like the simplicity and starkness of this image. Since I plan on have the Black Queen being the most active of these background characters (by way of her various minions) I hope that the characters will be filled with dread when they see a black crown...

Purple Piper

The imagery here comes from the vestments of an Orthodox Christian monk. It represents Golgotha (the place of the skull) with the sponge of vinegar and the spear the pierced Christ's side. This is one of the most misleading of the images here. I plan to use the Purple Piper as a kind of patron — someone who passively directs the players and sends them on missions through hints and riddles; however, I don't necessarily want the players to immediately trust him. Thus, I have left off the Cross, which would normally be part of this image.

Pilgrim

The three birds at the top are peacocks and the ermine below is one that could pass for feathers. In Orthodox Christian iconography, peacock feathers are used to represent the (many-eyed) Cherubim. I felt this angelic imagery (where angel means messenger) was very appropriate for the Pilgrim.

Gardener

As I mentioned before, when King Clovis became Christian, he was granted the vision of an angel handing him a flower. I thought this image was quite apropos given this heraldic symbol is not only associated with French kings, but could pass for the symbol of a gardener as well.

Pattern Juggler

Coats of arms can get quite complicated, especially when trying to represent various lineages and individuals all at the same time (take a look at the heraldry associated with the English crown, for example). Thus, in order to represent the multiple personalities of the Pattern Juggler, I mimicked this heraldic trope of complicated patterns in quarters and the mini-shield in the middle.

Yellow Jester

Finally, this image pulls together some themes from both the Pattern Juggler (with the background pattern representing the chaos surrounding the last of the Merovingian Kings as well as their shrinking power) and the Crimson King (the crown, creating a visual bookend for the beginning and end of the line). The yellow lion is somewhat related to French heraldry and I thought it ironic that such a strong image should be associated with such a pathetic character.

Map: Manor House

I have been re-tooling some of my work on my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, concentrating primarily on the ruins that are above the dungeons below. The first step I took was to make a map of the Chateau (which is really a manor house) prior to its ruination. This way I can make various adjustments, depending on when the Chateau is entered.

This manor house sits atop a hill. The stairs lead up to the front terrace and there is a ramp leading up to the back terrace. The fortifications (including the barracks at the front and the towers at the back) are later additions. Originally built during a time of stability and peace, the fortifications became necessary as the Merovingian dynasty declined from its apex. Though it adapted an already existing space, the chapel is also a later addition, after the line adopted Christianity.

Here is the map itself:

Here is a rough key:

1. Entrance Hall
2. Inner Court/Garden
3. Sitting Room
4. Music Room
5. Storage
6. Kitchen
7. Storage
8. Servant's Dining Room
9. Servant's Foyer
10. Powder Room
11. Sitting Room
12. Great Hall
13. Gallery
14. Trophy Room
15. Dancing Room
16. Dancing Room
17. Dining Hall
18. Storage
19. Trophy Room
20. Coat Room
21. Storage
22. Gallery
23. Dining Hall
24. Storage
25. Trophy Room
26. Coat Room
27. Gallery
28. Study
29. Sitting Room
30. Changing Room
31. Training Room
32. Changing Room
33. Sitting Room
34. Reception Room
35. Study
36. Narthex
37. Chapel; a=Vestry
38. Reception Room
39. Study
40. Reading Room
41. Library
42. Secret Study
43. Front Terrace (protected by a portcullis)
44. Back Terrace
45. Tower
46. Entrance Ramp
47. Barracks; a=Soldier's Quarters; b=NCO Quarters; c=Officer's Quarters; e=Guard Room

Stairs labelled with 'd' go down and those with 'u' go up.

Fun with Vertical Geomorphs

Back in April, Jeff Rients threw down a challenge to all the geomorph artists of the OSR to make a vertical style of geomorph for the purposes of creating cross-sections of dungeons. A few months on, and there are now a plethora of "vertical geomorphs" available. As I move forward in working on my own version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, it occurs to me that using this new OSR resource will be a huge boon.

The Chateau and the Court of the Crimson King have a demi-planar existence that makes it appear as if several different times and places co-exist in the same place. On certain days and certain times, it might be possible to find whole sections of dungeon that are not accessible at other days and times. A fantastic way to simulate this easily is with vertical geomorphs. Using several produced by Dyson Logos, here is the basic layout for an ongoing Chateau-megadungeon:

Since this is generated entirely out of vertical geomorphs, it will be an easy thing to substitute other geomorphs in one or more sections to produce dungeon levels that co-exist in the same space but are only accessible at certain times. Thus, there will be an entire class of treasure maps (which I plan to generously seed all over the dungeon) that will map out time rather than space.

As an aside, there are two things I really like about this particular cross-section:

• At first glance, the dungeon is really very small. Despite there being multiple entrances to multiple parts of the megadungeon, most are secret. This gives me the ability to peek player curiosity about the rest of the dungeon through treasure maps.
• I also like the fact that there is a section of the megadungeon (keyed areas 28-31) where going up results in finding a more dangerous area of the dungeon.

Merovingian Role Call

So, being a bit of a history geek, I have been doing some light research on the Merovingian Kings of France. Therein I found some wonderfully evocative stories, both real and legendary. I did so with the intention of adding weight and depth to the characters of The Court of the Crimson King, which are central themes for my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. Here are some of the results:

Crimson King

There is an intriguing legend about Merovich, the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. It seems that his mother was raped by a fiendish monster known as the Quinotaur (which literally means five-horned). One of the consequences of this heritage is that Merovich is the first vampire. Both of these stories fit very nicely with the title Crimson King.

Black Queen

Brunhilde was a Visigoth princess and an Arian who converted to the Catholic faith when she married Sigebert I of Austrasia. Though she was hailed as a stalwart Catholic by such luminaries as St. Gregory of Tours, she eventually earned a reputation for avarice and cruelty and stood at the center of several conflicts over succession. I need a lamia to haunt the environs of the Chateau, and Brunhilde fits the bill quite nicely as someone tempted by power — especially the fiendish kind that spawned the Crimson King.

The Purple Piper

St. Gregory of Tours is part of the Marovingian line. Therefore, he was a royal who gave up nobility in order to take up the cloth and preach the Gospel. Since purple is a royal color, he fits the role of the Purple Piper (someone who leads in unexpected ways) quite nicely.

The Pilgrim

It was through the faith of St. Coltilda that the Merovingians became Christian. She, therefore, makes a good Pilgrim (using its original meaning of a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons).

The Gardener

King Clovis I was the first Christian Merovingian king. There is a legendary story about his decision to embrace Christ: he was granted the vision of an angel giving him a flower. The fleur-de-lis has been the heraldic symbol of France ever since. Given this horticultural symbolism, I thought he might make a good Gardener.

The Pattern Juggler

The Merovingians actually had several kings ruling over various sections of there territory. Despite this, they collectively were considered one political unit — much like the Roman Empire when it was under multiple emperors. As one might expect, this led to a lot of internal conflict (as exemplified by Brunhilde). This suggests a singular figure who suffers from multiple personalities, many of whom are in direct conflict with other personalities. The Pattern Juggler would have a love/hate relationship with the Black Queen.

The Yellow Jester

King Childeric was the last of the Merovingian kings. He was also a puppet. The real rulers were the founders of the Carolingian dynasty, who prior to their ascension to the thrown were Mayors of the Palace. Yellow suggests sickness, decline and the setting sun. Since the Yellow Jester smiles as the puppets dance, I think the puppet Childeric fills the role quite nicely.

The Fire Witch

I did not find any historic correlation for the Fire Witch; however, I quite like to think that she had something to do with the summoning of the Quinotaur, of which the broken bells play a part…


For the purposes of having a fantasy version of each, here are the versions of all these names I plan on using:

• Merovich = Merovic
• Brunehilde = Brunehaut
• Gregory = Gregor
• Clotilda = Iotilda
• Clovis = Chlodovic
• Childeric = Kildervic

Serendipity

I cannot claim to be a gear- or petrol-head in any way shape or form. Nonetheless, Top Gear is probably my favorite TV show on today. I find it fascinating, hysterical and wildly entertaining in a way very little produced for TV can. I have thus gleefully been spending down time watching past seasons on Netflix. I mention this because when the Stig is driving various cars that I'll probably never see let alone lay my hands on, they make a habit of mentioning what he is listening to on the car stereo. Each season has its own theme. One such theme is Prog Rock.

I was born too late in order to experience Prog Rock in its prime; however, that doesn't mean it didn't loom large in the musical landscape of my youth — especially the background noise of my formative RPG years. In a fit of nostalgia, I got online and watched a documentary about British Prog Rock by the BBC. Therein I encountered a band and a song that had somehow escaped my notice all of these years. Here are the lyrics of The Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson:

The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king.

The keeper of the city keys
Puts shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.

The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower.
I chase the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begin.
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the crimson king.

On soft gray mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the crimson king.

Given that my now months-long thought experiment with the Holmes Basic Edition originated with the question of what would my version of D&D look like if I only had Holmes and Cook available, it occurs to me that I also ought to include some hypothetical sources of inspiration (I have already begun to do this with CAS and Averoigne). Given that most of my RPG friends and I listened to various parts of the Prog Rock scene, I think it entirely appropriate to use The Court of the Crimson King as a lyrical source for my own version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes.

As I look at the lyrics, I see four different ways this song could be the foundation of a really interesting megadungeon campaign:

• Note the line "Three lullabies in an ancient tongue." When juxtaposed with the summoning of a fire witch, it paints a picture of a Classical Civilization within the Holmesian cultural landscape — pagan and seeking out the powerful arcane knowledge of the ancients. This provides a solid timeline and cultural background for the Chateau.
• There are eight distinct characters that are named within the text. If the lyrics of the song are understood to be a cryptic description of the megadungeon, each of these characters, then, can be the inspiration or theme for one or more levels within the megadungeon:

1. The Purple Piper
2. The Crimson King
3. The Pilgrim
4. The Black Queen
5. The Fire Witch
6. The Gardener
7. The Pattern Juggler
8. The Yellow Jester

• There are two subtitles for the song: The Return of the Firewitch and The Dance of the Puppets. Both suggest potential events waiting to be triggered (at the ringing of the cracked bell?) by foolish groups of adventurers.
• Finally, there is also an implied mystery: who is the narrator? He, too, can inspire an entire dungeon level where knowing his true identity can be the key to finding a great treasure and/or the key to survival.

I am sure there will be those who will point out that Peter Sinfield coined the name of the band (and therefore the song) as a synonym for Beezlebub, the prince of demons. Therefore, there might be some question as to whether or not this song is appropriate as a source of inspiration for a Christian-themed campaign. Personally, I have no problem with demons being a part of my FRPGs — as long as they fill their proper role of adversary and monster. Besides, if the Crimson King is somehow affiliated with the prince of demons, then the identity of the Narrator has even more import.

Reconsidering a Holmesian Dungeon

As someone who regularly suffers from Gamer ADD, I am occasionally reminded about how many projects I have left fallow over the years. One such reminder came  yesterday when Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic Games posted a set of S&W compatible rules  as a prelude for a project he is working on. In contemplating all the various things I have not managed to finish, the one I am most disappointed with is my version of Averoigne and its megadungeon, the Chateau des Faussesflammes. One of the reasons for this was that I ran into a problem of how to stock and handle what I envisioned as a dynamic and constantly changing dungeon.

As I have mentioned many times before, historically, I am actually more of a war gamer than a role-player. Recently, I have spent more time at the gaming table playing board games than RPGs. As a consequence, I was inspired to look at my version of the Chateau as if it were a board game rather than an RPG dungeon. What I came up with is a rather intriguing idea and I wanted to see if it was scalable.

Here is my thinking: the mega-dungeon in Holmes strongly suggests the Mythic Underground that many bloggers over the years have described when re-reading older versions of D&D; however, as I mentioned in this post on Holmes on Traps, the biggest danger in this Holmesian Mythic Underground is wandering monsters. My conundrum for years has been how to marry the best ideas of classic dungeons that have factions with the Mythic Underground with the dynamism of a dungeon whose main threat is wandering monsters. My answer was to make all the monsters a kind of wandering monster by turning the dungeon into a kind of board game for the Referee.

Let's begin with a really big dungeon. This is from Dyson Logos and he calls it The Deep Halls:

I haven't counted carefully, but I estimate that this beauty has about 150 rooms. According to older iterations of the game, approximately one third of these rooms will have monster encounters or 50.

In order to make this work like a board game I need to have it look like a board game, so I added a hex-grid:

This grid provides almost 200 spaces. The idea here is to place tokens on this board that represent monster encounters. They exist on a grid so that they can move during the adventure from one hex to the next, with each hex being about 30 feet per side and thus easily moved through by just about every monster that might inhabit a dungeon. In order to give myself enough room to maneuver these tokens, I arbitrarily decided to place one token in about every four hexes:

This provides 45 monster encounters. This is close enough to the traditional 50 to leave it at that, or one could have five set-piece encounters that exist in specific rooms that never move. Now, here is where things get interesting. Forty-five divides nicely by 3 giving us the ability to divide the monster encounters into three different factions:

When stocking a dungeon this way, one really doesn't have to stock the dungeon at all. Sure, you have to make notes about room characteristics and various kinds of traps, but there really is no need to place any monsters at all (again, unless you are married to the idea of set-piece encounters and then you only have to do up to five). What you do need is three lists of 15 monster encounters representing the three factions and a wandering monster list.

So here is how it works:

Every time a wandering monster check is triggered (either by a loud noise like combat or simply time spent in the dungeon), roll your favorite type of die to check if a wander monster shows up. For the purposes of this example, let us use a d6:

• On a '1' move one blue token one hex.
• On a '2' move one red toke one hex.
• On a '3' move one green token one hex.
• On a '6' a wandering monster rolled up on the WMT appears in the hex the players are currently in.

Alternatively, a 1-3 indicates how many tokens to move one hex. Regardless, which token to move and where is entirely up to the whim of the Referee. For example, in the middle of the second row there are a blue and green token in the same room. I would most likely move those closer to each other at the first opportunity.

This leads us to one of the more interesting facets of this idea: when two tokens of different factions end up in the same hex, they get to fight. This leads to a noise encounter that the PCs get to investigate or ignore at their leisure. In the meantime, one your tokens comes off the board and you make a note about bodies being strewn about the floor.

Here is the part I personally like best: when the PCs enter a hex with a token or tokens, they get to have a monster encounter. At this point one of the 15 monster encounters can be randomly assigned to that token. In other words, every monster encounter is as much a surprise for you as it is for your players. If the players prevail, that encounter is marked off the list and the token is removed.

Once the players have wrecked havoc,  you have a very tangible and tactile way to restock the dungeon: place new tokens according to the way the dungeon currently looks. New factions can suddenly make their move to gain territory or one faction can bolster their territory as they have been left unscathed by the activity of your PCs. Or whatever.

While this may seem to be a bit of a headache at the table, I don't believe it to be overly complicated and it incentivizes wandering monster checks, something I know I am guilty of not doing enough (partly because nothing happens most of the time). Using this idea, something happens most of the time, even if the PCs are unawares.

What really attracts me to this idea, however, is the level of danger that gets placed on every wandering monster check. Not only could a monster get spawned from the WMT, but one of the regular monster encounters of the dungeon could come investigating the noise being made by the fighter trying to open that locked door.

A Holmes Inspired Megadungeon: Under Portown

Ever since I started down the path of trying to combine Holmes and Cook, I have been trying to create a megadungeon that would tick off all the boxes I see suggested in a Holmes-style game. To a certain extent, I have accomplished much of what I wanted with my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, but the result has been, well, really complex.

As my Gamer ADD has recently returned to Holmes, I have been working on taking some of the ideas I put into practice with the Chateau, but in a much simpler format in order to flesh out the Sample Dungeon found in Holmes. 

Here is the basic concept: The dungeon beneath Portown is part of the Mythic Underground. Therefore, it is an NPC unto itself. One of the great dangers of the Mythic Underground is that as an environment, it is hostile to adventurers (as is evidenced by the fact that doors easily open for monsters, but PCs must use Thief Skills, spells or Strength). One way that hostility can express itself is by actually changing.

Under Portown, there are six elements of the dungeon that do not change. One is the entrance and there are five special areas which all play a major part in the backstory of the dungeon itself. I've drawn these up here:

The idea here is that the spaces around these six elements can change on a whim. For my part, I am imagining various factions vying for control of the dungeon. Each faction controls a different version of the dungeon. As each faction's power waxes and wanes, the Mythic Underground exposes different versions of itself to the surface world.

Thus, I can take a piece of tracing paper and draw out different "levels" and place them over my six static elements. Here is a version where I took pieces and parts of the Sample Dungeon of Holmes:

Alternately, I can do this electronically. I purposely used geomorphs to create the five main elements of the dungeon so that it would be possible to create something in Dave's Mapper to drop my main elements into with little effort on my part:

The result is an ever-changing megadungeon with an unlimited number of rooms; however, PCs will always have anchor points of familiarity if they can find those unchanging elements of each version of the dungeon. If they can figure out part of the mechanism of when the dungeon changes, they can also begin to have some control over which version of the dungeon they explore.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio + The Caves of Chaos

I am suffering a rather severe case of Gamer ADD and am struggling to keep my focus on any one project; however, one of this plethora has sort of emerged as something that I may very well have an opportunity to finish sometime in the nearish future. As I have noted, since WotC started to re-release its D&D library as .pdfs, Moldvay’s Basic Edition and B2 The Keep on the Borderland have hogged the 1 and 2 spots of top selling items over at RPGNow.

One of my most popular series of posts was an intellectual exercise to see how Moldvay’s Basic Edition would look like if the monster section only had creatures from the Fiend Folio. Although I did end up making Wandering Monster Tables and I did stock a dungeon using them, I never took the whole exercise to the next level: producing a version of the Caves of Chaos that would have come with that Fiend Folio’d version of Moldvay’s Basic Edition.

Given the popularity of both B2 and Moldvay’s wonderful little red book, I decided to take on the task. I can’t speak for other folks who write adventures, but there are those that fight you every inch of the way (my continuing struggles with my version of The Chateau des Faussesflammes immediately comes to mind) and those that seem to write themselves. When I started thinking about re-imaging the Caves of Chaos infested with Fiends from my favorite Folio, the adventure definitely fell into the latter category.

I have a similar variety of monsters in store, with a similar spread of HD, a similar amount of available treasure, a far more naturalistic make-up for why those monsters are there and a little over 40 more rooms to explore. Here is a little background to whet the appetite (and put a fire to my feet to get this thing done):

The Caves of Cormakir the Conjurer

Also called The Caves of Cormakir the Chaotic or The Caves of Chaos

Almost two decades ago, a group of adventurers happened upon a collection of caves on the edge of the Wilderness. They explored them, rid them of all the horrors that dwelt within and returned laden with the riches that adventure sometimes brings. One of their number, Cormakir the Conjurer, decided to make the caves his own with the intention of having them be a new vanguard against the forces of Chaos that lurked in the Wilderness.

Unbeknownst to all, there was something yet undiscovered within the caves that corrupted Cormakir to his core. Rather than making the caves a vanguard, he turned them into a laboratory for creating vile creatures intent on wrecking havoc upon Civilization. Fortunately, his experiments got out of hand before he was able to mass an army of Chaos and several of his menagerie escaped. Thus warned, his former companions and a small force of soldiers descended upon the caves and put an end to Cormakir and his depraved research.

Though the survivors went thoroughly through the Conjurer’s demesne, they could not find what it was that had corrupted him. Thus, they abandoned the caves for fear of being corrupted themselves.

That battle took place ten years ago. There is now growing evidence that there is a new master of the caves, who is sending out raiding parties of humanoids intent on not only wrecking havoc, but taking prisoners. A call has gone out throughout the area for a new generation of adventurers to return to the Caves of Cormakir the Conjurer and rid it of its evil once and for all.

Serendipity: Runes

I was perusing the Carmina Gadelica in search of something that might pass for "three lullabies in an ancient tongue" when I ran across an interesting term: rune. I, being a grumpy old RPGer, think of something like this when I hear that word:

I also associate runes with magic (being an old stand-by for explaining how Dwarves are so good at making magical weapons even in worlds where they can't cast spells).

However, Webster also defines rune as a song or a poem. Lo and behold, the Carmina Gadelica has several examples. What struck me about these examples is how Christian and Trinitarian many of them are. For example:

I am bending my knee
In the eye of the Father who created me,
In the eye of the Son who purchased me,
In the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me.
In friendship and affection.

After doing a little research, I found out that a runic alphabet was in use in Southern France several centuries prior to the assumed time frame of Averoigne (circa AD1100-1300). Therefore, not only do I have several possible "lullabies" but an ancient script with which they can be recorded.

I am not going to stop there, however. Take a look at this rune:

Today is the Day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from the hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
Nor will the serpent molest me.

Note the implied Protection spell (from Dragons? Devils?). It suggests that this rune (a poem) unlocks a rune (a letter carved into an item) in order to get a runic (spell) effect. This sets up a very cool built-in quest to magical items that also gives players a clue as to what an item does: the rune (poem) gives a clue as to the effect of the rune (letter) and these two can be in different locations.

In context of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, I plan on using this construct primarily with the Purple Piper, who will be a source of runes (poems), but not necessarily runes (letters).

DMG vs. The Tome of Adventure Design

Recently, I had the opportunity to purchase either the WotC re-release of the AD&D DMG or a hardcover edition of Matt Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design (I didn’t have the budget to do both). After thinking about it, I realized that the only reason that I wanted the DMG was to support WotC for actually bothering to re-release some of their older stuff and that I’ll have other opportunities this coming year to do so. In contrast, I wanted the Tome because I actually wanted to use it.

And use it I have. I have to admit that I let my work on The Chateau des Faussesflammes go fallow because I was stuck. Despite the fact that I had some really great ideas including dungeon features, NPCs, villains and even a couple of decent maps there wasn’t that one thing that strung everything together and answer that elusive question Why? A notebook, a pair of dice and a about a half an hour with the Tome helped me answer that question — which is why I have been furiously making maps this week.

Of course, one of the fruits born of this endeavor was my daughter’s dungeon. So inspired was she by seeing her dungeon get the computer treatment by dad that she wanted to do more. So, she and I sat down with the Tome, rolled some dice and began brainstorming. The results were actually pretty stunning:

The adventure itself is called The Ethereal Maze of the Feathered Priesthood. It refers to a training facility used by an avian race (possibly alien) to weed out unworthy acolytes from the aforementioned Feathered Priesthood. About a decade ago, the Villain got a hold of a map which was supposed to lead him to an artifact called the Head of Disunity. Interested in breaking apart the Kingdom so as to take advantage of the chaos to take over he set out on a quest to retrieve the evil artifact.

In process, he made a mistake and misread the map. As a result, he ended up at the Ethereal Maze. Therein is a glowing tree which produces a black, effervescent syrup-like liquid used by the acolytes in their exploration of the maze. When the Villain did not find the Head of Disunity, he threatened the occupants and in the end tried to cut down their tree. Unfortunately for all involved, this resulted in the liquid gushing forth and infecting entire areas of the Maze. In large enough quantities, it causes insanity.

The Villain, himself infected, ran away dropping his map as he fled. The inhabitants of the Maze all went insane and the facility has been abandoned. The tree continues to seep its black liquid in large quantities. Thus, the Maze offers up the possibility of all kinds of crazy monsters mutated by long exposure to the liquid, including the original occupants as well as the hazard of the liquid itself.

The hook involves the Villain, who has been recovering his sanity for the past decade and is finally active again. A Patron of the PCs has found out that he is after a map that lies somewhere within the Maze and has sent agents to go find it. The PCs are tasked with getting the map before it falls into the Villain’s hands.

All this was made possible because of a bunch of random tables and the creativity of a little girl with some help from her dad. This is a great adventure location with a built in race against time, an excuse for coming up with surprising monsters, a cool magical liquid that could have far-flung consequences and uses, an evil artifact that exists somewhere in the world (another higher-level adventure), a villain who wants to go get it and an implied political setting to boot.

In other words, Matt Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design has already paid for itself, as far as I am concerned. If you haven’t bothered to take a look or make use of it, I can’t recommend it enough (something, unfortunately, I've never been able to say about the DMG).

A Longhaired Ghoul

In light of how many monsters Holmes includes in his Sample Dungeon that do not appear in his Monster section, I decided that I had better start making a few creatures for use in my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. For ease of use, I am using my modified version of the LL stat block.

Merovingian Ghoul

If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us wantonly ambush the innocent; like Sheol let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the Pit…" my child, do not follow them in their way — Proverbs 1:11-12;15

Number Appearing: 1d4
% in Lair: 20%
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: 4
Move: 9
Hit Dice: 2 (turn as 3 HD)
Attacks: by weapon
Special: see below
Save: F2
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: XXI
XP: 47

These vile creatures are sometimes mistaken for vampires, due to their habit of drinking the blood of their victims; however, they are merely the undead soldiers of the Black Queen. From a distance, they appear as normal fighting-men — dressed in armor bearing the Black Queen's heraldic crown and armed with a variety of weapons (the Two-Handed Sword is most common). From up close, however, their near featureless faces and blood red eyes can be seen beneath long locks of hair.

There is only one way to permanently kill a Merovingian Ghoul: cut short its hair. Otherwise, 2d6 turns after being reduced to 0hp, it will reanimate with full hp and then relentlessly hunt down and seek revenge against the one who delivered the felling blow. When on such a hunt, the burning hate within them results in supernatural strength. All attacks and damage are made at +2.

Although they need not make morale checks, when fighting in groups, they are known to retreat when one or more of them have been "killed," taking their "dead" with them so that they might hunt with supernatural strength once their comrades have reanimated.

As undead, they are unaffected by the spells charm person, sleep, or hold person.

Making a Linear Dungeon Non-Linear (and therefore much more cool and useful)

One of the reasons that I haven’t been posting this week is that I have been furiously drawing maps (I had an aha! moment about The Chateau des Faussesflammes, which is one of those projects I have left fallow for too long). A curious byproduct of this creative avalanche was that all my kids wanted to get into the action, particularly my eldest daughter. She took one of my pieces of graph paper, carefully tried her hand at a dungeon level and proudly produced this:

Though nicely drawn and quite creative (I particularly like the crooked bridge across the big hole) it is very linear and I said so. I then had to explain how there was no real choice about where to go. She went back to the drawing board and produced this:

While there are certainly more choices than her first attempt (and even a false door!), this is still a rather linear dungeon level. Once entered, there is really only one direction to go and most of the choices made by adventurers are false ones — they lead to a bunch of dead ends and they are therefore still forced in one direction.

It was at this point that my daughter made her cute face and asked if I could pretty please use her map and make it all pretty in the computer — something that I could not say no to; however, I insisted that we make a few minor changes into order to make the dungeon level less linear and the choices made by adventurers meaningful.

Here is the result:

Besides the obvious graphic enhancements, we also made the following changes:

• The former entrance is now a stair leading to a lower level.
• The new entrance is a stair leading to a room with two doors that lead to two distinct sections of the level.
• Each of the dead ends now have teleporter squares which will take adventurers to other levels.
• The hole over which the crooked bridge crosses is now a huge pit which connects to other levels.

The result is a small dungeon level that I would be excited to add to one of my dungeons — it has the potential to offer all kinds of adventuring goodness because it allows player choice and each choice has real meaning.

More Holmesian Geomorphs: The Great Chasm

Another of my favorite dungeon design tropes is The Pit, seen here in the Sample Cross Section found in Holmes:

The idea is to give an adventuring party easy access to lower levels without having to trudge through all those levels in between. My favorite iteration of this is what I like to call The Great Chasm. In essence, it is a giant crack in the earth that cannot be crossed without aid — such as a bridge or a spell. What I really like about this iteration is the image of looking down (or up) and seeing various bridges below (and/or above) connecting different parts of different levels. Thus, I wanted some geomorphs that would allow me the ability to have The Great Chasm be a part of my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. Using these, I'll be able to include it on several dungeon levels. Enjoy:

Holmesian Geomorphs

Yesterday, I mentioned that I would not be using geomorphs for creating my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. This is a decision I am not at all fond of, not only because of the ease with which one can make dungeons with geomorphs, but also because of the nature of The Dungeon as suggested in Holmes. If The Dungeon is a constantly shifting semi-intelligent NPC in the campaign, geomorphs are the easiest way I know of to represent it. If I proceeded with normal dungeon maps, shifting and changing bits and pieces would mean having to re-do these maps every time I want to make a change. Ultimately, this choice would discourage making changes and The Dungeon would have less impact on the game.

Geomorphs, on the other hand, would allow 100 x 100 sections to be easily removed, added or changed. It would even be easy to randomize the changes. For example, there could be a standard 1 in 6 chance for every geomorph explored by the characters to change in-between dungeon-delves.

Therefore, I bit the bullet and started making up some of my own geomorphs using the 100 x 100 template; however, note that there are "open" sections on the edges. When connected, these "open" edges allow for some truly colossal room sizes. Enjoy:

The Ecology of Yellow Mold

I have been putting together a level for my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes, and in process came up with another interesting ecology based upon the monsters that occupy that level. Since folks seem to enjoy my musings on such things, I thought I'd share.

The key organism in this ecology is yellow mold. It is central to two diverse groups — giant ants and troglodytes.

One of those wonderfully tantalizing monster descriptions that set my imagination on fire can be found in LL's entry on giant ants:

They will tend to only have a small amount of treasure around, from past opponents, but in some rare instances giant ants will inexplicably mine precious metals.

I've fiddled with this idea before but have never tried to explain the behavior. Carpenter ants harvest leaves in order to grow fungi that they then use to feed the colony. If some giant ants had a similar behavior there is plenty of potential for explaining this inexplicable mining instinct.

In this particular case, the giant ants harvest the leaves from the yellow musk creeper. This vicious plant has no real defense to protect itself from the giant ants, whose central nervous systems are not developed enough for the creeper to take full advantage of. However, the chemicals that would normally result in a yellow musk zombie do alter the behavior of the giant ants. In addition to the leaves from the creeper, they also begin to mine for precious metals. This, in turn attracts humanoids which can fall victim to the yellow musk creeper.

After harvesting the leaves, giant ants dust them in yellow mold spores. The combination creates a very fertile ground for the growth of yellow mold. The giant ants then feed on the mold, its spore and a liquid that they create by combining the mold with giant ant feces. This liquid is mostly used to feed giant ant pupa, but is also used by the ants to prevent the yellow mold from releasing its spores and protects flesh from the acidic touch of the mold.

Troglodytes are a subterranean sub-species of lizardmen, who all have organs that produce smell to communicate tribal affiliation, willingness to mate, anger, etc. Due to their oft dark environment, this gland came to grow all over the body of the trog, increasing the distance from which these odorous communications could be detected.

What these glands did not do however, was develop the infamous stench that causes humans and demi-humans to save vs. poison or suffer a -2 on attack rolls. This ability is the result of purposely ingesting yellow mold as part of the troglodyte diet. The ingested spores from the yellow mold alter the chemicals produced by the glands, producing a toxic mix for humans and demi-humans.

As a result, troglodytes like to live in proximity to both giant ants and yellow musk creepers. They collect the giant ant liquid to protect themselves from the yellow mold that they harvest for producing their infamous odor.

Fighting the Future: A Monster List

One of the themes that I am playing with as I work on my version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes is that of time. I plan on having various levels exist in the distant past, the distant future and, in some cases, both at the same time. One of the easiest ways to dress a level to indicate these various time frames is monsters.

There are multiple choices and themes present in Homes, Moldvay, Cook and LL for monsters of the past. The are plenty of "Lost World" monsters (dinosaurs, neanderthals, saber tooth cats, etc.) as well as ancient Greek monsters (minotaurs, cyclops, medusa etc.). The challenge I am facing is finding monsters to effectively represent the future.

What follows is a preliminary list of monsters from Homes, Moldvay, Cook and LL (those not included in Holmes and Cook will appear in [brackets]) and an explanation as to why they suggest a future timeframe to me:

• [Ape, Albino] and [Baboon, Higher] — Four words: Plant of the Apes.
• Black Pudding — I have always felt that black pudding would fit better on an episode of Star Trek rather than as a stand-in for some primordial slime.
• Blink Dog and Displacer Beast [Phase Tiger] — These two have a definite sci-fi flavor. Their mutual hatred suggests a level of intelligence not necessarily represented in their statistics. I image the displacer beasts to be the equivalent of space-born Nazi war criminals and the blink dogs to be akin to a space-faring version of the Mossad hunting them down. The only question is, are the blink dogs actual agents or are they the pack of hunting dogs used by the agents (which would be some other kind of alien)?
• Carrion Crawler [Carcass Scavenger] — This tentacled monstrosity has more than a little HPL-inspired flavor. While I do use HPL as inspiration a lot, I usually do so from a sci-fi/futuristic POV rather than a fantasy one.
• Doppleganger — I despised DS9, but Odo proved the doppleganger is just as appropriate for a sci-fi setting as it is for a fantasy setting (if not moreso).
• Gelatinous Cube — I have an easier time believing this to be the result of a science experiment gone wrong than the consequence some kind of magical research.
• Ghoul, [Ghast] — These undead most closely resemble the zombies found in all those zombie apocalypse movies cranked out by Hollywood every couple of years.
• Golem, Bronze — This could very easily be re-skinned as a robot.
• Gorgon — Likewise, this could easily pass as some kind of living machine.
• Men, Berserker — Reavers. Serenity. Nuff Said.
• [Morlock] — as an homage to the inhabitants of H.G. Wells' dystopian future from The Time Machine, this is one of the few (if not only) D&D monster that is explicitly from the future.
• Ochre Jelly — Described as a giant amoeba, I can't help but think of the Invisible Monster from the episode of the same name from the first season of Johnny Quest. (This could also be the inspiration for the Invisible Stalker; however, I like Ochre Jellies better)
• Owl Bear — although described as the result of a magical experiment, this could also easily pass for a mutant from the future or the result of a genetic experiment.
• Rust Monster — These guys just beg to be seen as biological constructs created to clean up abandoned cities after some kind of future war that levels most, if not all, urban centers.
• [Statue, Animate (Iron)] — Like the Bronze Golem above, this can easily be re-skinned as a robot.
• Zombie — While ghouls and ghasts do more accurately depict Hollywood's version of zombies, that doesn't mean I can't also have the D&D version, too.