WH40K Campaign: Mapping B.R.7 Part 2

As much as I love geomorphs, I must admit that due to the limitations of the form, maps made from them can be a bit blocky. One of the most popular posts in the entire history of this blog took a bunch of Dyson Logos maps drawn on 3x5 cards and stitched them together. The result was a beautifully organic looking dungeon.

In turn, I started to produce some 3x5 “geomorphs” which resulted in some more beautifully organic dungeons — the kind that we might expect (and do) find in the real world. Though (to my knowledge) my challenge to other artists out there to produce a library of 3x5 geomorphs has yet to be answered, it did power my own (ongoing) attempt to create my own version of the Slave Pits of the Undercity.

However, as Kobold of Waystar Highport points out:

I would imagine that many parts, or subsections, of a Hive would be duplicated or of "standard" design. So, one could map a couple of floors of a residential block in some detail and then decide that the design repeats, both horizontally and vertically over the extent of the Residential subsection.

Indeed, there are many aspects of any modern city that are standardized.

In other words, a megadungeon based on a WH40K hive city is a perfect application for the good, old-fashioned geomorphic map with its blocky, standardized feel. Indeed, if one wanted to limit oneself to a set of a dozen or more for an entire section of the city, not only would it not feel wrong, but would become a realistic feature.

Thus, one aspect of mapping B.R.7 is going to be a very heavy dose of geomorphic madness. In part, this is why I have happily supported Dave Millar’s recent fundraising drive — to give myself a number of geomorphs that have the feel I am looking for in a hive city. The beauty of Dave’s Mapper is that it makes maps very quickly, and given my own experience with graphic design, I can pound out a bunch of maps in short order to accommodate play.

If and when players push off a map, I can always do my own version of the “Greyhawk Construction Company” in the form of a collapsed hallway. How and why are these passageways cleared later? All part of the adventure…

Here is a quick example of what kind of maps I can produce in a short period of time using Dave’s Mapper:

IBD Update

As I mentioned the other day, Dave Millar of Dave's Mapper is running a little fund drive for a good cause (the info can be found here). Since I've had a window of opportunity to stay ahead of the game, I've been doing my part and creating geomorphs in anticipation of having to make a bunch in support of the drive. Indeed, early response has me responsible for 22 in the coming days. Unfortunately, I am well on my way to being finished with all of them.

As a bit of encouragement, I am posting some of my favorites in hopes that it will inspire some folks to increase my workload:

WH40K Campaign: Mapping B.R.7 Part 1

B.R.7 is the working name of the hive city-as-megadungeon for my WH40K campaign. Last night I started to do an intellectual exercise with some math, which demonstrates why having a hive city as a megadungeon is both an unending source of adventure as well as a mapping nightmare.

I have been using Manhattan as a reference in this intellectual exercise because it is both a finite space — an island about the size I might imagine a floating city — and it is one of the most densely populated areas in the world (about 70,000 people per sq. mile) — which suits the image of “hive city” very nicely.

The island is approximately 23 sq. miles and has a population around 1.5 million people (probably a little low, I know, but for easy math purposes 1.5 is a lot easier to deal with than 1.602). In order to fulfill the notion of a hive city, there needs to be, at minimum, 1 billion people. Thus, at least seven seven hundred Manhattans have to be stacked on top of each other in order to approximate a hive city environment. Ignoring for a moment that the island is covered in towering skyscrapers and multi-level apartment buildings, seven seven hundred Manhattans would have around 161 16,100 sq. miles.

Herein is the beauty and the horror of the hive city megadungeon. If one considers that (as far as I can tell) AEG’s World’s Largest Dungeon covers about one third of one square mile, mapping a hive city would require at minimum 483 48,300 world’s largest dungeons. This, of course ignores the fact that Manhattan has an average story height that might approach 20-30.

As much as I love maps and making maps, the idea of mapping 5000+ 500,000+ different versions the World’s Largest Dungeon is not something I want to do (or can do). This means that I must severely reduce access to the hive city itself. This way, I can reduce the amount of actual mapping that needs to be done and allow for expansion as I need or want it. In order to do this, I have in mind the cover of GDW’s Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society #15:

The giant skyscrapers represent the mega-cities of the high population world Azun in my favorite part of Third Imperium space: The Solomani Rim. (Since I am having a hard time finding my copy of this, I am having to go on memory) Azun is xenophobic. Each of the cities is self-contained and even communication between mega-cities is limited. Thus, access to each mega-city is extremely limited.

While this scenario works, Black Reach is not xenophobic; however, it does have a Thick Atmosphere and an Immiscible Biosphere. Thus, each hive city can have a controlled environment that seals itself off from the environment outside. This set-up would allow for a limited number of access points into the city and make my job much easier from the outset.

Here is a (tentative) list of possible access points:

• Exhaust Port — while controlled, the city’s environment is still dependent upon the extant atmosphere. An exhaust port would lead into an air filtration system. These, in turn, would lead to air ducts and maintenance hatches. One or more may have survived the crash.
• Space Port — each hive city would need a means to import and export resources. While probably badly damaged from the ork invasion, this still should result in some kind of access into the city.
• Engines — damaged from the fighting (and the cause of the city’s descent), these would almost certainly grant access; however, this may be the most dangerous because it would also be the main access point for native life forms.
• The Gardens — the upper most level of the city is dedicated to agriculture. Some if the plexiglass-like roof has been damaged, allowing access.
• The Frigate — during the battle that resulted in the city’s descent resulted in a frigate crashing into the side of the city. It is still there and has damage to its exterior, allowing access to the frigate itself, and possibly to the city beyond.

Dave Millar's IBD Tile Drive

Just a note that Dave of Dave's Mapper (one of the very cool tools that this community has pooled their talents to produce) is having a fund drive for a charity that is near and dear to him. You can get more information about it here.

The long and short: he contacted me to help him encourage folks with this drive and I agreed. Thus, for every $5 given from September 14 - 25, I (along with several others) will be doing another geomorph to add to Dave's Mapper. So, if you have the inclination to support a good cause and to keep me busy for a while, please take the time to donate. Thanks.

Saintly Saturday: St. Nicetas the Great Martyr

Today is the feast of St. Nicetas the Great Martyr. He was a Gothic Christian who was captured, tortured and thrown into fire by the pagan usurper Athanaric in A.D. 372.

Normally, I would now go into more details about St. Nicetas’ life, however, yesterday I was struck by one of the hymns the Orthodox Church sang during the feast of The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross, which we are still celebrating today:

O Cross of Christ, the hope of Christians, the guide of the wayward, the haven of the storm-tossed, the victory in wartime, the security of the civilized world, for the sick a physician, for the dead resurrection, have mercy on us. [emphasis mine]

The feast commemorates St. Helen (mother of St. Constantine the first Christian Roman emperor) finding the True Cross in Jerusalem after the Edict of Milan, when Christianity was officially tolerated within the empire. When she had found three crosses lying next to each beneath a pagan temple, the bishop, St. Macarius, had a woman who was greatly ill touch the crosses. When she drew near the True Cross, she was healed.

Thus, the hymnody of the feast tacitly equates Civilization with Christian civilization. This, of course, is one of the assumptions that I make with my own use of the three-tier alignment system in D&D and its derivatives: Law = (Christian) Civilization.

The life of St. Nicetus, therefore, takes place in context of the expanding influence of Civilization in the form of the Christian Roman Empire. It also mirrors many tropes of the classic D&D sandbox campaign:

• His life took place in the lands of the Goths — at the edge of civilization. He spent it spreading the Gospel. His analog is a PC adventuring in the Wilderness, where Chaos = paganism.
• St. Nicetas was baptized by the Gothic Bishop Theophilus, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council. His analog is the former PC who has set up a stronghold and attracted followers, which then go on to be the next generation of PC adventurers.
• The area in which Nicetas operated was liberated by Fritigern, who led an army against the pagan Athanaric. Fritigern’s analog would be a fellow party member with Theophilus.
• The successor to Theophilus is the Arian Bishop Ulfilas. His analog is the NPC complication at the home base creating difficult choices for the PCs. While technically on the PCs side and able to help and supply them, this help comes with a price.
• Finally, the usurper Athanaric (who captures, tortures and martyrs St. Nicetus) has an analog in the lurking Chaos that the former party beat back, but failed to completely destroy. It is this threat that the current PC party must investigate and defeat.

For those interested, these tropes can be found in Gygax’s classic T1: The Village of Hommlet. Additionally, take a gander at Erin Smale’s The Bastard’s Blade. He doesn’t post there very often, but what he does have fits the life of St. Nicetas very nicely (and maybe some extra traffic will inspire him to write more often…)

Lost Colonies Session 57

Personally, one of the philosophies that I accept when it comes to running a successful campaign (from both the perspectives of someone who runs a campaign and one who regularly plays in a campaign) is allowing the players the opportunity to earn what they want out of the campaign. This requires the ability to listen to the players and to integrate what they want into the fabric of the campaign.

I preface this post with this statement, because my players were all really excited, pleased, thrilled and any other positive adjective you can think of at the end of our last session specifically because I listened and allowed my players that opportunity.

The last time we left our stalwart adventurers, the party had gone back to Redwraith in good faith, taking the bodies of the slaad that they had hunted down as they had promised. When faced with several possible choices as to what to do next, the party could not ignore the fact that they had found two keys of a set of four that would open a massive door inside the Black Tower. They had to know what lay beyond.

The majority of the session, therefore, involved a systematic exploration of the rest of the Black Tower, in search of the other two keys. The newest member to join the group was killed midway through the session (that’s three characters in two sessions for the poor guy) as he decided to venture too close to a pool that everyone knew was home to a gigantic, mutant octopus. The irony of it is that the party had decided to mess with the pool rather than try to deal with a section of the dungeon entirely submerged in water — which is exactly where the final key lay hidden.

The battle for the final key proved to be the most exciting because I misread a monster description and Dn. Swibish managed to roll a successful Turn check. The party managed to attract the attention of the key’s guardian, a type of underwater mummy that would kiss its victims and send sea water rushing into their lungs. I rolled damage every round, when the players should have gotten saving throws; however, I also figured that once the creature was killed, the drowning would stop (which, according to the saving throw version wouldn’t happen). So, it all balanced out in the end; however, it also meant that the party had to gang-tackle the mummy in order to prevent it from escaping so that they could kill it before party members drowned (if it had not been for a couple of well-timed CLW spells, two party members would have died).

Having successfully procured all four keys, the party then prepared itself for a massive battle with whatever foul evil lay behind the door. Unfortunately for them, they did not bother reading all of the script inside the pyramid which would have told them exactly what was behind the door — a direct connection to the Negative Plane which was the final step in transforming oneself into a lich.

After describing what lay beyond the door and the fact that there were a pair of very loud bangs that followed, I started counting. I got to about ‘5’ when the confusion wore of my players faces and they all screamed “RUN!” At this point, I instructed the party to show me where they were gong to run. Had they taken the most direct route out of the dungeon, I would have allowed them a chance to escape; however, this is not what happened.

Rather, they got to witness first hand the destruction that they wrought. Due to the fact that there was a rip in space and time that was sitting right on top of the dungeon of the Black Tower, opening a gate directly to the Negative Plane was catastrophic for the immediate area. The two were attracted to each other like a pair of magnets and their collision wiped clean a great evil that had stood for over a thousand years.

The party got caught in the shock wave and was hurtled through time and space. At this point, I drew up a quick table of various places in my repertoire that they could end up in. A couple of our players have been asking about running a sci-fi campaign (something no one seems interested in actually running). Since I have already introduced the idea of space ships to my campaign, there were some sci-fi options on the table, one of which was the result of the players' roll.

Thus, the session ended with the party waking up to find themselves inside a metal room in an entirely alien environment, to the great delight of the table.

WH40K Campaign: Abhumans

When I conceived of this WH40K campaign, I mentioned that I would allow abhumans (ogryns and beastmen, for example) as characters. The mechanism by which this could happen is the replicant class from Section 9 of Mutant Future. To that end, I need to define exactly what “mutations” various abhumans have. In addition to the standard ogryn and beastmen, I have also included an abhuman type of my own making to give the Black Reach Sector its own bit of abhuman flavor.

The following table will be used for all abhuman advancement:

Lvl 1: HD 1d8; XP 0; AB 1
Lvl 2: HD 2d8; XP 3,000; AB 1
Lvl 3: HD 3d8; XP 6,000; AB 1
Lvl 4: HD 4d8; XP 12,000; AB 3
Lvl 5: HD 5d8; XP 24,000; AB 3
Lvl 6: HD 6d8; XP 48,000; AB 3
Lvl 7: HD 7d8; XP 96,000; AB 5
Lvl 8: HD 8d8; XP 192,000; AB 5
Lvl 9: HD 9d8; XP 492,000; AB 5
Lvl 10: HD 9d8+2; XP 892,000; AB 7
All abhumans save as warriors of the same level.

Ogryns

Ogryns are described as big, brutish, physically powerful and tough. They are often used by the Imperial Guard as close quarter and shock troops.

Mutations:

Gigantism: Ogryns stall about 3 meters tall. As a result they gain a +1 on damage in HTH combat.
Increased Physical Attribute: Roll (or choose):
1-3 Strength: starting at 3rd level, the ogryn can summon great bursts of strength. Once a day, the ogryn does an additional 3d6 damage in HTH combat. The number of times per day goes up one for every additional 2 levels (thus, at 7th level it can be done 3 times per day).
4-6 Constitution: The ogryn receives an additional hit point per level and a +2 to all saves vs. poison.

Beastmen

These abhumans combine features of both human and animal. Despite their bestial nature, however, they do conform to the genetic standard of what qualifies as an abhuman. In the past, they were used as assault troops by the Imperial Guard, but this practice has been quietly abandoned over fears that beastmen are more prone to fall prey to the temptations of Chaos (despite little evidence that normal humans are any less so).

Mutations:

Aberrant Form: Beastmen normally have horns, which they can use in HTH combat doing 1d6 damage.
Natural Armor: Beastmen are also covered in hide, which give them a natural AC bonus of +3.

Darkmen

These near albino abhumans hail from the feral planet Night in the Black Reach Sector. Once a mining colony, the surface of the planet along with its atmosphere was blasted to ruin in a conflict long forgotten by its inhabitants. The isolated remnant population has managed to adapt and survive far beneath the surface of the planet in honeycombed cave complexes with a society largely based on war. Locally, the Imperial Guard in the Black Reach Sector have recruited Darkmen as special forces.

Mutations:

Ecolocation: Often living in pitch dark, Darkmen have adapted echolocation as means to see. Though they cannot make out fine details, they can make out shapes even incomplete darkness. This adaptation can also be used to increase combat prowess — Darkmen who are able to use their echolocation gain a +2 to hit in combat.
Combat Empathy: This is a low-grade psychic power that allows Darkmen to see what their opponents are about to do in combat before they do it. As a result they gain +1 to hit and +1 to damage in combat. This damage bonus increases by 1 at both 3rd and 5th level.

Saintly Saturday: The Nativity of the Theotokos

Today is the first Great Feast of the Orthodox Christian ecclesiastical year — The Nativity of the Theotokos. This event, of course, is not found within the NT, because that is not what the NT is about — the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The story of Mary’s birth is found in a book called the Protoevangelium of James.

Many people (including the good folks of Early Christian Writings to which I linked above) label the Protoevanglium to be apocryphal. From an Orthodox Christian point of view this is a misnomer. The word apocryphal means spurious; however, this writing was popular among early Christians and understood to be good for reading. Indeed, details from the Protoevangelium of James are found within the Mariological feasts of the Orthodox Church.

This, in turn, reminds us that the canon of the Bible as we know it today was not set in stone until the 4th century (by St. Athanasius the Great, for those who are curious). Prior to this there were various books that are not in the canon that were popular with early Christians, that were seen as good and holy works by early Christians (including St. Athanasius) and that were even read during services by early Christians. In fact, Hebrews and Revelation almost did not make it into the canon. Hebrews, while popular in the East, was rejected by many Western Christians because they did not believe it was written by St. Paul. Revelation, while popular in the West, was not well received in the East because of the interpretive difficulties that it poses (indeed, it is never read as part of any service in the Orthodox Church to this day).

A few examples of books that, though popular, did not make it into the canon:

• The Shepherd of Hermas
• 1 Clement
• 2 Clement

There are, of course, a plethora of books that were completely rejected by the early Church — the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas just to name two. (BTW, the “re-discovery” of the latter a few years ago did not create much of a buzz among Orthodox Christianity because we already knew of its existence via St. Iraneus, who rejected it).

There is also the Book of Enoch. Though not recognized by most Christians (it is seen as canonical by the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches), it is quoted in the Epistle of Jude (14-15).

I bring all this up because, despite my efforts to the contrary, there are those who are uncomfortable using the Bible as source material for a FRPG. This list of books, therefore, can be used as an alternative set of source material for someone who wants to run a campaign with a pseudo-Christian church or mythology. As anyone who has gone back and read some of the prophets, there are plenty of ways to utilize these books.

For example, here are a few themes that can be mined from the Protoevangelium of James:

• Birth by a woman far beyond her child bearing years and/or barren is far more common within salvation history than the unique virgin birth of Christ. Anna, Mary’s mother, follows in this scriptural tradition — she is elderly and barren when she becomes pregnant. This theme could be exploited as part of the backstory of an adventure or campaign.
• Mary is taken to the Temple by her parents to become of one the Temple Virgins. This highlights the power and status that virginity had in the ancient world. Indeed, there are plenty of examples both within Scripture and without that tie virginity with the ability to prophesy. This is great for backstory, campaign flavor and/or as a seed for all kinds of shenanigans within a campaign.
• Mary was given food by angels while she lived inside the Temple. Angels, therefore, can play an active role in a campaign. Indeed, they can be avatars for God in a campaign world, playing the role from whence their name comes — messenger.

WH40K Campaign: Black Reach

As folks who have read this blog for awhile know, I am a big fan of random tables. When used correctly, they can be a catalyst for some seriously cool creativity. Thus, I am very pleased with the way Stars Without Number handles system and planet creation.

A system consists of a 8x10 hex map on which are randomly placed 20+1d10 worlds (well, mostly random — the rules stipulate that you can choose where to place the last 10 or so in order to make sure worlds have access to other worlds in a way that you want). Each world has several characteristics reminiscent of Traveller: Atmosphere, Temperature, Biosphere, Population, Tech Level and Tags. There are two big differences, however. Biosphere refers to how the native life relates to humanity and Tags are a plethora of descriptors that give depth and flavor to the world itself. The rules suggest two for each planet. Further, the descriptions of these Tags come with what are called Complications — what amount to campaign and adventure seeds.

Thus, I gleefully filled out a hex sheet with planets in order to flesh out the Black Reach Sector. The results were challenging — just the way I like them. The dice came up with three hive worlds which could be a stand-in for my version of the sector capital. However, one had a low tech level and another had the tag Xenophiles — hardly appropriate for a world that had just been decimated by an alien (ork) invasion.

This left me with only one candidate: Thick Atmosphere, Warm Temperature, Immiscible Biosphere, Population in the Billions (of course), a TL of 4 (which is Imperial normal), and has the Tags Floating Cities and Tomb World.

This implies that when colonists first arrived at Black Reach, they found an environment that was completely hostile to human beings — the atmosphere was too thick and the local flora and fauna were too toxic for human consumption. Their answer was to build a floating colony suspended in the upper (and therefore thinner) atmosphere where they could create their own (separate) ecosystem. This solution proved to be so wildly successful that the original floating colony grew to be one of many hive cities flying above a planet surface no human would think to set foot upon. As a result, no one realizes that Black Reach is actually a tomb world, where Necrons patiently await for a food source to awaken them from their slumber (and in turn, the Necrons have failed to awaken because the potential smorgasbord of all those hive cities are miles beyond their reach).

All of this also strongly suggests the reason why adventurers are needed on Black Reach. During the fighting of the ork invasion, the mechanism that kept one of the hive cities afloat was heavily damaged. As a result, the city descended onto the surface of the planet somewhat in tact.

Various factions from around the sector have become aware of one of several things that were in the hive city when it crashed to the surface. They are now in great need of expendable resources to descend onto the surface to recover these valuables (can anyone say tent pole megadungeon?)

The upside of this setup is manifold:

• I can justify a remnant ork population holed up in the hive city.
• Native flora and fauna can not only be found throughout, but be as wild, alien, surprising and toxic as I want them to be.
• Resource management becomes critical. The only food available is the food you bring in — even eating foodstuff found inside the city can run the risk of contamination. Filter masks are necessary to avoid having the air become toxic over time. Making sure the ride back home is secure becomes a real concern.
• The thick atmosphere justifies a constant fog of war — literally. Regardless of light source, line of sight is going to be severely limited.
• Has the hive city landed near a Necron tomb? Is there enough food that some have arisen from their slumber? If so, will an adventuring party inadvertently give them access to a transport to the billions who live above?
• Regardless of whether or not an adventuring party ever takes advantage of the Letter of Marque to go world hopping around the sector, this hive city, its denizens and the riches it holds will always be there to fall back on when a party wants a good, creepy and possibly rewarding adventure.

Lost Colonies Session 56

As life has been less demanding of late, I have had more time to get together with my regular group and play. Unexpectedly, they wanted to run a session of Lost Colonies this week and I got to improv an entire session off the top of my head and had an absolute blast.

The last time we had a session (back in June), the party had gotten distracted from its pursuit of the slaad and his frogmen cavalry and lost two characters as a result. They did, however, survive a couple of combats within the bowels of the Black Tower they had no business getting into in the first place.

It is here that I have to admit something about the Black Tower. I have never mapped nor keyed this dungeon. Given the proclivities of my group, the Black Tower was never much of a priority until my players suddenly made it so (“Oh, crap — they are actually going to go in!?”).

I armed myself with three things:

1. A purpose for the tower itself — therein is the ability to transform oneself into a lich.
2. A really cool map.
3. An inspiring collection of monsters (The Tomb of Horrors Complete [THC]).

One of the things that I adore about the THC is that there are a whole slew of “themed” monsters — blood, sand, cold, clockwork, fire, etc. I was thus able to immediately determine that each “level” of the dungeon had a theme — each related to the concept of death and necromancy. I settled on sand, blood, cold and water.

Since the map itself suggested that there were four keys scattered about in order to open up the sphere at the center of the dungeon, I figured that these keys were necessary to get to the same location — where one could choose to become a lich. The instructions would be on the sand level inside the pyramid. Thus, the slaad was looking to take advantage of the location and secure himself some serious undead power before moving on to conquering bigger and better things.

What was left was riffing off the themes in order to make memorable-looking rooms that the players could interact with. I used a combination of fiat and die roll to determine where monsters and treasure were (sometimes the geography suggested an antechamber with a guardian in front of a treasure horde). When it was time to have a monster show up, I simply leafed through the pages to find whatever themed monster suited my fancy at the time and ran with it.

All-in-all it was a tremendous amount of fun for all. I got to be pleasantly surprised by the dungeon — I had no idea going in what was there until my players got there. My players got to experience a combination of a cool map, cool monsters and the creativity they inspired in me. I heard on more than one occasion “That’s so cool!” and “I’m stealing that for one of my dungeons!” (which I heartily endorse).

Some highlights:

• The blood level was coated in a layer of blood except for one particular area which appeared clean and dry. At the center of this area was a ginormous blood suckle bush (tree, really) to which I gave max hit points and double the number of attacks. My players don’t know this, but they really dodged a bullet here. My die rolls were really bad.
• In the cold level was a room half encased by ice. Inside the ice was a warrior guarding a treasure chest. I really enjoyed this for two reasons. First, it was really inspiring to my players. They got really creative about how to get to the treasure. Secondly, a die roll entirely transformed the room. The players cast Detect Magic, so I had to roll to see if the treasure horde had any. It did. The resultant two items changed the warrior from a passive guardian to an active one that (due to surprise) put some serious hurt on the party. The other item is a bane weapon.
• The first key that the party found was encased in a column of ice. What they didn’t realize was that the interior was hollow and full of flammable gas.
• One of the guys in our group has really earned himself a reputation for having his characters die on him (he is on character number eight in our AD&D campaign). Some of this can be chalked up to the fact that he is a newbie. Increasingly, however, the dice just seem to hate him. He lost two characters this session. Both times, he died because of residual damage (other players set off an area effect trap/spell) that on average should have been survivable. Both times, however, he failed a saving throw and my damage dice were just absolutely nasty. Fortunately, he has developed a really good sense of humor about the whole thing. He doesn’t even name his characters until they actually survive an entire session.
• The players found the slaad and the resulting combat was a lot of fun. The reaction I got from my players was truly precious when my first two actions were to use Power Word Stun and Gate in another slaad. But, as happens, the dice favored the bold and (while seriously hurt) the party managed to fell the two beasts without any casualties.

The party exited the dungeon with the bodies of the slaad to take back to Redwraith in order to help the city’s morale and demonstrate their good faith (having told the city that they would kill the slaad). The session ended with the realization that the party is currently being pulled in several directions at once (just the way I like it):

• The gate that now stands open over the Black Tower is incrementally getting bigger.
• There are still heinous things crawling around inside the Black Tower itself.
• The only means that the party has to control the gate is on the petrified figure of Ahkmed.
• Dn. Goram has urgent need of the party in the Elflands.

Saintly Saturday: Happy New Year

In the Orthodox Church, today marks the beginning of the Ecclesiastical New Year. Personally, what I find significant about this reality are the first and last Great Feasts of the Church Calendar — The Nativity of the Theotokos and the Dormition of the Theotokos. For those who are not familiar with this nomenclature, the year begins with the birth of the Virgin Mary and ends with the death of the Virgin Mary.

This places all of the more Christo-centric Feasts (Christmas, Epiphany, the Presentation, Palm Sunday, Pascha (Easter), Ascension, Pentecost and Transfiguration) in context of a single human life. It demonstrates that everything Christ accomplished with His incarnation was accomplished for the express purpose of transforming the cycle of a human’s life from that of being finite and doomed to death to being full of the potential of divine grace and eternal life.

To put it more simply: God intends for each of us to fulfill our potential. This potential is granted in that we are capable of becoming like God because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, our potential is limited only by our own choice to accept or reject Christ’s transformational grace.

One of the reasons I have always loved RPGs is because they provide an arena for exploring the transformation of character and world through the mechanics of playing the game. For example, every edition of D&D, even at its most basic mechanical level, is about character transformation — characters gain XP through various means in order to advance in level and gain a variety of skills, powers and other game benefits.

I embrace the old ways (or new ways depending upon what side of the "OSR is dead" meme of the past couple of weeks) because they allow more freedom in terms of what this transformation looks like. I must admit, that there is something very compelling about all the various mechanical builds one can accomplish using 3.5 or Pathfinder; however, because they are so mechanics-driven they do not provide the kind of flexibility that older editions of the game do.

As a recent example, what little gaming I’ve done over the last several months has been as a player (our group decided to start a 1ed campaign with the Caverns of Thracia being the megadungeon of choice knowing that my availability this summer was going to be spotty). Since I am familiar with the module, the GM and I brainstormed a couple of ways to get around my meta-knowledge. He made some substantive changes, incorporated info in the 3.5 re-release of the module that I am unfamiliar with and warmed to the idea of me playing one of the denizens of the dungeon.

During the various adventures that I was able to take part in, my character witnessed a miracle performed by St. Cuthbert, someone my character had no idea existed. Because this was such a major event in my character’s life, I wanted him to be changed by the experience. So, I got to explore those changes. If I am honest, these changes would have been very possible in later editions of the game; however, they wouldn’t necessarily have been as easy or mechanically satisfying.

In the end, I have come to really appreciate the character because of this transformation, the way this change has affected the world in which he lives, the people he interacts with and the ability to see these transformations come to fruition.

This, in my mind, is one of the reasons D&D (whatever edition) has the staying power that it does — it plugs into that God-given desire for transformation exemplified by the life of the Virgin Mary.

Gamer ADD: WH40K Campaign

Grrr… this is what happens when I don't get to play as regularly as I want.

So, despite the fact that life continues to happen (severely limiting the time I have to dedicate this sort of thing) two comments from my last couple of posts have fired my imagination in a way that is extremely difficult for me to ignore (Gamer ADD — an affliction even the best of us suffer from).

Anthony said of this post:

This sounds like a lot of fun, giving space for all sorts of adventures and, if the chests were lost years ago, historical detective work. In fact, this campaign would also work with "modern" games, such as Call of Cthulhu. I'd be very tempted to add "competitors," say after the 2nd or 3rd chest was recovered, to give the party a sense that Bad Things would happen, if the relics were to fall into the wrong hands.

TheMetal1 said of this post:

And...so...What are you waiting for?!! Get this campaign rolling and run it online through Google+ or on a Virtual Table Top like FGII!

Anthony made me realize that the campaign idea I had laid out with lost relics could very easily be applied to the WH40K campaign that TheMetal1 has so enthusiastically demanded that I do. Unfortunately, my gaming budget does not have any room for a $30 .pdf of a rule system I am not even sure I would want to play; however, Sine Nomine’s Stars Without Number has a free edition. Since it is based on a system I am very familiar with (old school D&D) it means that not only will it be easy for me to run such a game, but it is flexible enough to easily accommodate the various peculiarities of the 40K universe.

I occasionally can’t sleep and over the weekend I spent some time perusing the Warhammer 40000 wiki and found myself a planet that could serve very well as a basis for a campaign: Black Reach. There are several reasons why I find this local to be ideal (many of which fall into the category of classic D&D campaign tropes):

• The system lies in the Ultima Segmentum, which is on the imperial frontier.
• A bunch of races can be found in the Ultima Segmentum (both friendly and antagonistic). Eldar, Tau, Tyranids, Orcs and Chaos are explicitly named, and there is plenty of room to include Abhumans, Dark Eldar, Necrons and Squats as well as all sorts of unexplained xenoforms.
• Black Reach is a Hive World — it has giant multi-level cities capable of supporting a population in the billions. It also means that it is the equivalent of a giant megadungeon.
• Black Reach was also recently decimated by a recent invasion of orcs — the entire northern hemisphere was left in ruin.
• Despite the fact that the Ultramarines beat back the invading orc horde, (given a little change in tense) there are still pockets of orcs that need to be eliminated by the local population (i.e. adventuring parties).
• There is a precedent for Space Marine chapters to have relics. The Ultramarines, in particular, have quite a few.
• The thing that I like best about Black Reach, however, is that all the information I can find about it is this paragraph:

Black Reach is the Imperial Hive World in the Ultima Segmentum fought over by the Ultramarines 2nd Company under Captain Cato Sicarius and the Goff Clan Orks under the Warlord Zanzag following the invasion of Black Reach in 855.M41 by WAAAGH! Zanzag. As an Imperial Hive World, Black Reach's massive hive cities are home to billions of Imperial citizens. Much of the planet's population was slain during WAAAGH! Zanzag, and the northern continent of the world was completely ruined by the intensity of the fighting. After the defeat of Zanzag by the Imperial forces, Black Reach's inhabitants still had to take back the rest of their world from the pockets of surviving Greenskins.

Other than this, there is no canon that I have to worry about. It doesn’t even appear on any of the maps I have found of the WH40K universe. Given that there are a million planets within Imperial space, that means I have the freedom to create the entire sector of space in which Black Reach is found.

The initial adventure will hold out a carrot to the party — a Letter of Marque, which gives them the freedom and authority to go anywhere within the Black Reach Sector. This will give them a bunch of planets to explore, and provide a reasonable limit on their activities to make life easier for me.

In addition, since Stars Without Number is based on older editions of D&D, I can easily import various classes from D&D and its clones. I expect to have the following:

• Dwarves as a stand-in for Squats.
• Halflings as a stand-in for Ratlings.
• A modified version of Elf (combining Psychic and Warrior) as a stand-in for Eldar.
• The Replicant class as detailed in Section 9 of Mutant Future as a stand-in for Abhumans (like Beastmen and Ogryns).
• The Cleric class to represent the prophets of the 41st century Christians, whose turning ability will work against both Chaos and the Necrons.

Saintly Saturday: St Bartholomew

Today is the commemoration of the Return of the Relics of the Apostle Bartholomew. Originally, the relics of the apostle were in the region of Armenian Albanus (modern day Baku in Azerbaijan). Starting in the reign of the emperor Anastasius (A.D. 491-518), however, his relics were transferred to the newly constructed city of Anastasiopolis (modern day Dura in southeast Turkey). They remained there until the end of the sixth century when Persians under the emperor Chozroes conquered the city.

Christians fled with the relics of St. Bartholomew and several other saints (the martyrs Papian, Lucian, Gregory and Acacius), all collected in various chests. Persian priests, however, overtook them as they were traveling on the coast of the Black Sea. The chests were thrown into the water; however, instead of sinking (as they should have — reliquary chests are normally covered in precious metal) they floated out of reach of the Persian priests.

On this date, the chest containing the relics of St. Bartholomew arrived at the island of Lipari off the coast of southern Italy. The other chests would safely arrive in other places around the Italian peninsula (Sicily, Messina, Calabria and Askalon).

This has an adventure, a series of adventures or even an entire campaign written all over it. The relics of several saints have been lost (to invaders? to a cult? to a political faction?). A powerful patron wants them recovered. Depending upon who the stole them, the relics could be in a series of dungeons or other challenging locations. The party would have to follow clues in order to track them all down. In the meantime, other powers could also be interested in getting their hands on the same relics — making the whole exercise a race to see who gets there first. It could even be done in conjunction with this campaign idea.

Too bad my plate is really full at the moment…

Meditating on Warhammer 40K

Conrad Klinch of Joy and Forgetfulness asked the following question of me:

One of the most popular wargames, Warhammer 40K, makes heavy use of Christian imagery, but warps it rather spectacularly. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Let me preface my answer with a bit of personal background. I had largely stopped playing RPGs in the late 80s and thus most of my gaming budget (both temporal and monetary) was spent playing miniature wargames. In the early 90s I did play quite a lot within the 40K universe (particularly the 2nd Edition of the Spacemarine Epic ruleset). So, I have more than a passing familiarity with the universe; however, I stopped paying attention to GW products around fifteen years ago because I got sick and tired of the constant rule changes, the ever more expensive rule sets and the pricing of figures based on game ability rather than the amount of metal. Thus, if there has been any major changes in the mythology of the universe since then, I am unaware.

Secondarily, I would also say this about symbology: there is very little in Christianity that doesn’t originate in other cultures. One of the central feasts of the Orthodox Church in summer is the Transfiguration — when Jesus shows his divinity to Peter, James and John on Mt. Tabor. The important part of this event is that this happened through Christ’s humanity. This demonstrates that created matter (our humanity in this case) can be transformed through divine grace. One of the primary purposes of the Orthodox Church is facilitating this transformation, not just in ourselves but the very culture that surrounds us. Thus, pagan symbols and celebrations have been “baptized” and transformed into Christian symbols and holidays.

A classic example is the Cross. In pagan Roman culture, it was a symbol of Roman power and the violent and awful death that awaited anyone who dared defy that power. Through Christ, this symbol has been transformed from an instrument of torture and oppression into a symbol of resurrection, salvation and eternal life.

Thus, one is likely to find Christian symbols within other contexts and cultures used in radically different ways. So, that the 40K universe has symbology similar to Christianity, but has a cosmology that is radically different is no real surprise. For my part, I would view it as my role to transform this symbology and the culture around it into its proper form — Christianity.

Thematically, the 40K universe is not much different than any number of human empires that had at their core a cult of personality. The Roman Empire, for example, had an emperor cult in much the same way that 40K does. Indeed, this cult of personality is a reason that there are fascistic and socialist overtones in the way the 40K universe is depicted.

If I were ever to play within the 40K universe again, it would likely be via Rogue Trader, which would allow me to introduce players to the underground Christian Church which has survived (through the grace of the Holy Spirit) alive and well into the 41st millenium. I would couple this with the revelation that the Emperor is one of the primary sources of Chaos in the universe (it helps consolidate his power by giving him an excuse to “protect” so many worlds with his iron fist and constant sweeps of his Inquisitors). Thus, players would be afforded an opportunity to take the symbols of the 40K universe and transform them — give them meaning by restoring them to their proper orientation towards God.

Holmes & Cook: The Assassin

Today I am going to hop into my Way Back Machine and end up in 1985 when I waisted more hours than I’d like to count playing The Bard’s Tale on my Commodore 64. While I am tempted to wax poetic about how much better it was than Wizardry (which also ate up a bunch of my time), how it owes a tremendous debt to D&D or how it emphasized exploration over story, these are not my primary reasons for reminiscing about one of my favorite computer games of my youth.

Rather, I bring it up as a starting point for what a Holmesian assassin might look like — one of the subclasses that Holmes hinted would be part of AD&D:

There are a number of other character types which are detailed in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. There are sub-classes of the four basic classes. They are: paladins and rangers (fighting men), illusionists and witches (magic-users), monks and druids (clerics), and assassins (thieves).

The Bard’s Tale, being (in essence) a D&D clone for the computer included several character classes which strongly resembled their D&D progenitors. Among these was the Hunter, which was described thusly:

An assassin, a mercenary, a ninja. The hunter can use most weapons, and has the ability (which grows with experience) to do critical hits in combat (i.e., to attack a nerve center or other vital area and instantly kill an opponent). A good skill.

Given that there really isn’t any kind of implied definition of what an assassin might be in either Holmes or Cook, it seems to me that this is as good a definition as any (especially since this thought experiment is about what my version of D&D might have looked like and The Bard’s Tale was definitely part of my gaming experience). The question then is what mechanic to use for the assassin’s critical hit ability.

Two suggest themselves from the rules of Holmes & Cook:

• Some kind of percentile chance as per Thief skills. 
• Most (if not all) of the monsters who have the ability to instantly kill a character allow for a saving throw to avoid death.

Whereas I think being able to instantly kill a dragon would be cool, it is only cool if it doesn’t happen frequently. Thus, I believe a combination of the two mechanics could be used. It would work as follows:

• The base percentage for a critical hit would be based on the die roll of the assassin who hits her opponent. The number would be the difference between the roll and what was needed to hit. For example: if an assassin needed a ’15’ to hit an opponent, and rolled a ’20’ the base number for a critical hit would be 5%. 
• This base number would then be modified based upon the level of the assassin. The average increase of Thief skills per level in Holmes & Cook is about 4%. Thus, for every level above 1st, the assassin adjusts the base chance of a critical hit by an additional 4%. 
• Finally, if an assassin is successful at making a critical hit, the creature hit may make a saving throw vs. death to avoid instant death. A successful save means that normal damage is taken from the hit.

For example: an 8th level assassin (THAC0 17) successfully hits a red dragon (AC 2, HD 9) with a ’19’. She needed a ’15,’ so the base percentage for a critical hit is 4%. This is increased to 32% ([4 x 7] + 4) due to her level. Should she succeed in landing a critical hit, the red dragon would then need to roll a ‘6’ or higher on their save vs. death in order to avoid being instantly killed. I’m no math wizard, but I think that comes out to be about an 8% chance of the assassin instantly killing the dragon. Overall, an 8th level assassin has about a 2% chance per attack to instantly kill a red dragon. That feels about right.

Another example: a 5th level assassin (THAC0 17) rolls the same against an Ogre (AC 6, HD 4+1). Needing an ’11’ to hit, the base chance of a critical hit is 8% and 24% with level bonuses ([4 x 4] + 8). The ogre would need a ’10’ to save vs. death. In this case that is about a 12% shot at an instant kill. Overall, a 5th level assassin has about a 5% chance per hit to instantly kill an ogre. Again, that feels about right.


The assassin would loose all Thief skills save for Hide in Shadows and Move Silently but be able to use any weapon. Otherwise the assassin would function in every other way as a Thief.

Holmes & Cook: The Monk

I have been contemplating the Holmsian suggestion that the monk is a subclass of cleric. Given that the early iterations of the cleric class were psuedo-Christian, this strongly suggests that when Holmes mentions the monk, he is thinking of the western (Christian) monastic tradition rather than the Eastern (Asian) monastic tradition which eventually formed the basis of the D&D monk class.

The question then becomes what mechanics present in Holmes & Cook can be used to present a class that is similar to the cleric, but sufficiently different as to be a subclass while having at least a passing resemblance to the Christian monastic tradition. It is here that I have to give credit to Talysman and his work on what he calls the Cleric-without-spells. He divorces the class from Vancian magic by embracing the one mechanic that truly belongs to the cleric — Turning. It is from here that I will begin.

If one actually spends time at a monastery or reading the services that monks do on a daily basis, it becomes obvious that the primary vocation is not only prayer, but prayer for other people. This suggests that a Holmesian monk class should buff other characters through the Turning mechanic.

Thus, a monk would have a floating bonus that she can attempt to attach to any number of characters (for playability, this would include the monk herself). This bonus depends upon the monk's level:

• 1st-3rd = +1
• 4th-6th = +2
• 7th-9th = +3
• 10th+ = +4

The number of characters that the monk can attempt to affect and the chance of success is based upon the Turn Undead Table, where the Skeleton category of undead is one character and each progressive category increases that number by one. For example, a 1st level monk can affect one character on a 7 or more, two on a 9 or more, or three on an 11 or more. This bonus then lasts for 2d6 rounds. A ‘T’ indicates an automatic success and a ‘D’ indicates that the bonus will last for the maximum 12 rounds.

Here is a tentative list for the bonus categories a monk can choose:

• To Hit Melee
• To Hit Ranged
• Damage
• Armor Class
• Saving Throw
• Initiative

Any one category may only be attempted once per combat.

In addition, the monk can perform minor healing. Once per combat per character, the monk can heal their bonus in hit points. For example, a 7th level monk can heal a character for 3hp.

With the exception of spell casting, the monk functions as a cleric.

Saintly Saturday: St. John of Rila

Today is the Feast of St. John of Rila. He is a 9th-10th century monastic of Bulgaria and considered to be the country’s great spiritual ascetic and protector. His life follows a pattern found in many ascetic saints.

Born in a village in the region of what is now Sofia, he was orphaned as a boy. He became a cowherd in hire of a cruel man. It was here that he learned to pray. After being beaten for losing a cow and her calf, he called to God for help. He found the two separated by a raging river. After placing his tattered shirt on the water, he was able to walk on the water in order to save the calf. His master saw this miracle and rewarded John, but being afraid sent him away.

St. John then wandered the wilderness. At first, he lived in a hut, but was driven away by robbers. Later, he lived in a deep cave. He became known for miracle working.

Finally, the monastic feats of St. John began to spread far and wide and he began to attract followers. They built a monastery where St. John was abbot until he died in A.D. 946.

In other words, there is a period where the monastic has some form of patronage — whether as a slave, servant or pupil. Then the monk wanders the wilderness. Finally, followers come and a monastery is built.

Note that this pattern is very similar to the three stages of a D&D character. Lower levels stick close to a home base as they dungeon delve. At mid-levels they explore the wilderness. At high levels, a piece of wilderness is cleared to make way for a stronghold and the attraction of followers. This is also a pattern implied by an understanding of Law vs. Chaos being (Christian) Civilization vs. (Demonic) Wilderness.

I have argued before that adventuring parties can be seen as metaphors for this very monastic pattern; however, there is no real character class that is representative of the Christian monastic tradition. Clerics come the closest, but these are much more akin to what modern gamers see as the holy warrior/paladin than a contemplative monk.

As I mentioned in my last post, there was a moment in the history of the game where such a class was at least being contemplated. I believe that such a class would work in a world where sin is personified by monsters. The issue is figuring out how to differentiate it from a cleric while still making it interesting to play.

Holmes & Cook: The Alchemist Class

I have been contemplating these famous words from the Holmes Basic Edition:

There are a number of other character types which are detailed in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. There are sub-classes of the four basic classes. They are: paladins and rangers (fighting men), illusionists and witches (magic-users), monks and druids (clerics), and assassins (thieves).

In context of my long dormant thought experiment of using the Holmes Basic Edition with the Cook Expert Edition by defaulting to Holmes whenever possible, this preview of what was to come with AD&D is enticing, especially since history has since demonstrated that monks are not clerics and witches were never an official D&D class.

I have already produced versions of both the ranger and the paladin by taking advantage of the quirks found in the way combat functions in the Holes Edition. Since both of these are fighting men, I feel obligated to at least attempt to produce something for the other classes.

It seems to me that the easiest to tackle is the witch (though I will be altering that name because of the various negative connotations associated with it — especially since the rules seem to suggest a Christian culture in which a witch would hardly be welcome). I come to this conclusion based on the fact that illusionists, monks, druids and assassins are not easily inferred by the rules as they stand.

There aren’t many spells in Holmes & Cook that are illusory in nature — what exactly would an illusionist do, then? I have already voiced my own distaste for druids as PCs, but even so, there are very few elemental and nature related spells found in Holmes & Cook. Assuming that a druid would tend more toward spell casting than the basic cleric, it follows that the monk would be more combat oriented; however, what exactly does that mean — especially since the Western monastic tradition is mostly non-violent?

If one looks at literature and popular culture, however, the witch does suggest something hinted at in Holmes. Witches normally cast their spells via concoctions made in a caldron from various weird ingredients — a witches brew. Since low-level magic-users can make scrolls, Holmes suggests there are such things as potion spells and Cook has an alchemist as a specialist henchman, it follows that the witch class can be re-skinned as an alchemist.

Rather than casting memorized spells, the alchemist prepares various potions that have spell-effects. The advantage is that an alchemist can “cast” more spells on a given day because they can carry multiple potions. In addition (as a curious by-product of not having to cast spells while on an adventure), the alchemist can wear armor. The disadvantage is that only spells that can affect someone imbibing a potion are available — sorry, no Magic Missiles or Fireballs. Thus, the alchemist specializes in utility spells — something I’ve always been a big fan of.

The number of magic formula known by the alchemist is the same as the number of spells that a magic user can memorize per day. This number can be effected by Intelligence:

• 13-15 = +1 first level
• 16-17 = +1 first level, +1 second level
• 18 = +1 first level, +1 second level, +1 third level

Thus, a first level alchemist with a 14 Intelligence would know how to make two different kinds of potions.

There is no limit as to how many potions an alchemist can carry, beyond what a Referee might determine via encumbrance; however, this number can be controlled in two ways:

• Cost — just as magic users must pay 100gp per spell level to create a scroll, so will alchemists have to spend money on ingredients to make potions. My initial thinking is 25gp per level.
• Safety — as an alchemist advances in level, they learn how to make their potions more durable and stable. An alchemist may safely carry a number of potions equal to her BMR x her level. If the alchemist is carrying more than this, any time the alchemist gets hit, a number of potions equal to the damage taken are lost (until the safety limit is reached). In addition, the alchemist must make a save vs. spells or take an additional 1 hp per potion destroyed due to a catastrophic failure of the potions. For example: A 2nd level alchemist wearing chain mail with a heavy load (BMR of 2) could safely carry 4 potions. If she were carrying 8 potions and got hit for 5 points of damage, 4 potions would be destroyed (since she has a safety threshold of 4 potions) and she would have to save vs. spells or take an additional 4 hp of damage.

Here is a tentative spell (potion) list:

1st Level

1. Detect Magic
2. Protection from Evil
3. Read Languages
4. Read Magic
5. Shield
6. Ventriloquism

2nd Level

1. Detect Evil
2. Detect Invisible
3. Invisibility
4. Levitate
5. Locate Object
6. Mirror Image

3rd Level

1. Clairvoyance
2. Fly
3. Haste
4. Infravision
5. Protection from Normal Missiles
6. Water Breathing

4th Level

1. Confusion
2. Invisibility 10’r.
3. Polymorph Self
4. Protection from Evil 10’r.
5. Remove Curse
6. Plant Growth

5th Level

1. Animate Dead
2. Anti-Magic Shield
3. Contact Higher Plane
4. Projected Image
5. Telekinesis
6. Teleport

Otherwise, the alchemist functions as a magic user.

Saintly Saturday: The Miracle of St. Spyridon at Corfu

Today is the commemoration of a miracle performed by St. Spyridon at Corfu in 1716. St. Spyirdon is a 4th century saint from the island of Cyprus. He is normally depicted wearing what looks like a basket on his head. In fact, this is the traditional head gear of shepherds on the island during his lifetime. Originally a peasant shepherd, he was eventually elected as bishop of Trimythous in Cyprus. He attended the First Ecumenical Council and despite his lack of formal education was one of the most eloquent defenders of orthodoxy against Arianism.

His relics were originally transferred to Constantinople when Saracens conquered Cyrpus (beginning in the 7th century). His body was discovered to be incorrupt. When Constantinople fell, they were taken to the island of Corfu (one of the Greek islands in the Ionian Sea) and are still there today.

In 1716, the island of Corfu was under Venetian rule, but was being threatened by the Turks, who managed to gain a beach head and laid siege to the city. St. Spyridon was seen by Turkish soldiers walking through their camp at night holding a torch. This vision sent the Turkish forces into a panic and the siege was lifted after only 22 days. To this day, St. Spyridon is referred to as the Keeper of the City in Corfu.

While it might be tempting to dismiss this story as fancy, St. Spyridon is known as a “walking saint.” Every year the shoes that he wears must be replaced, because they get worn out — exactly as a pair of shoes would if someone were walking in them. It is taken as a sign that Spyridon regularly goes for walks about the island — wearing out his shoes.

As an aside, the island of Cyprus would be an awesome basis for a campaign. Due to its strategic placement in the Mediterranean, it has been conquered by a wide variety of cultures:

• Mycanaean Greeks
• Phoenicians
• Assyrians
• Egyptians
• Persians
• Alexandrian Greeks
• Ptolemaic Egyptians
• Romans
• Byzantines
• Saracens
• Crusaders (Richard III of England)
• Knights Templar
• Holy Roman Empire
• Venice
• Ottomans
• British
• Turks

Thus, there are plenty of ruins from all kinds of cultures to explore. To boot, there are archeological finds in Cyprus that indicate some interesting fauna, including dwarf elephants and dwarf hippos.

***

The Shepherd’s Shoes

These humble looking footwear appear as old shoes, worn and full of holes; however, they do have a dweomer of magic about them. The effects of the shoes are based upon the alignment of the wearer. To all who wear them, they fit perfectly and are perfectly comfortable footwear despite their appearance. If the wearer is Lawful, the shoes provide protection from inclement weather, produce no tracks and reduce the need for rations by half. If the wearer is Chaotic, the shoes cannot be removed without a Remove Curse spell. During inclement weather, the wearer must Save vs. Poison or contract a disease. Regardless of the terrain, the wearer will leave obvious tracks that cannot be hidden and will remain for 1d6+1 days. In addition, ration consumption is doubled.

Saintly Saturday: The Seven Youths of Ephesus

Today is the feast of the Seven Youths of Ephesus. Maximilian, Iamblicus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustondianus and Antonius all lived during the third century. All of them were from illustrious families in the city of Ephesus (on the western coast of modern day Turkey), served in the military, were friends and were faithful Christians.

Upon the arrival of the emperor Decius, every citizen was required to sacrifice to the pagan gods. This, of course, led to the Seven answering to the emperor himself for their refusal to make the required sacrifices. After confessing their faith in Christ, however, Decius was moved to spare them — at least while he was away on a military campaign. The youths were stripped of their military ranks and set free.

They fled to a cave outside the city, where they prepared for their eventual martyrdom. When the Emperor found out, he had the cave sealed shut. Faithful Christians placed a plaque on the stone to commemorate the event.

Almost two centuries later, there was a heresy in the city of Ephesus that called into question the general resurrection at the second coming of Christ. The owner of the land on which the cave was situated found the plaque and had the cave uncovered. Rather than dying of dehydration and starvation, the Seven Youths had been preserved in sleep — nothing about or on them had either aged or decayed. Their presence, story and witness demonstrated that the heretics’ imaginations were nothing compared to the power of God.

There is not anything especially new about finding one or more persons from another age either in the wilderness or in a dungeon. Indeed, there are enough denizens within various old school D&D modules that it could almost be called a trope. What I find intriguing about the Seven Youths is the source and purpose of their torpor.

In D&D, when one encounters a person from another age, the source of their great age is usually some variation on the arcane. Liches are magic users that have figured out a way to become undead. Vampires are a variation on the same theme (though they may be victims rather than willing participants). Sleepers might be found in an arcanely produced cryogenic pod. If one expands the arcane to include science and science fiction cyborgs, and robots with human memories can be included in this group of beings that try to cheat death.

Often, these creatures hold a key to understanding the history of the dungeon/place where they are found. They have information which fills in the backstory of why the immediate surroundings are the way they are. They are a fantasy version of an interactive encyclopedia that might want to suck out your brains after getting the information you need.

The Seven Youths, however, are preserved not by the arcane experiments of someone afraid of death, but rather by God Himself. Indeed, the youths were in process of preparing for death. What I find most intriguing, however, is the information they possess. They were not meant to inform those of the present about the past, but rather about issues of the present day (and by implication the future).

This, of course, is a much greater challenge to a Referee/GM/DM than your average lich, which is why I find it so alluring. Saints, of course are always a plausible vehicle for such a find; however, the time traveller who miscalculates her arrival time in order to save the present or future also comes to mind...