Yudhishthira’s Dice

I dug up the Conan RPG stats for the main NPCs in the adventure I posted last week, and now present them to you. For minor NPCs, I’d suggest using the “instant NPCs” .pdf from the Mongoose site.

Bunchhan Muul, male Khitan Scholar 16: CR 16; Medium-size humanoid (human); HD 10d6+14+6; HP 54; Init +3 (Dex); Spd 40 ft; Defense: Dodge 19 (+6 Class, +3 Dex), Parry 17 (+6 Class, +1 Str); DR: 0; Melee +17/+12/+7 finesse (2d4+2 & Death Touch, Crit x2, AP 2); Spell +13 (by spell); Spell Points: 15 (60); SV: Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +16; Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 18, Chr 20.
Skills: Appraise +13, Bluff +24, Concentration +18, Craft (alchemy) +22, Craft (herbalism) +22, Decipher Script +24, Diplomacy +15, Gather Information +17, Intimidate +26, Knowledge (Arcana) +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Knowledge (Local) +16, Knowledge (architecture) +16, Listen +16, Move Silently +13, Perform +13, Search +13, Sense Motive +14, Sleight-of-Hand +13.
Feats: Adept: Necromancy, Fleet Footed, Iron Will, Menacing Aura, Opportunistic Sacrifice, Ritual Sacrifice, Combat Reflexes, Steely Gaze, Leadership (Leadership Score 25), Tortured Sacrifice, Weapon Focus (Staff).
Languages: Aquilonian, Demonic, Hyrkanian, Khitan, Old Archeronian, Shemitish, Zamorian.
Spells: Agonizing Doom, Awful Rite of the Were-Beast, Basic Counterspell, Black Plague, Calm of the Adept, Conjuring, Curse of Yizil, Darting Serpent, Death Touch, Draw Forth the Heart, Draw Forth the Soul, Gelid Bones, Greater Black Plague, Greater Ill-Fortune, Greater Warding, Ill-Fortune, Lesser Ill Fortune, Master-Words and Signs, Raise Corpse, Shape-Shifter, Summon Demon, Summon Elemental, Telekinesis, Yimsha’s Carpet.
SA: Knowledge is Power, Acolyte
Items: Staff of Death, Phylactery of Cyaegha’s Schism (+5 to rolls to Summon Demons & gives feat “Augment Summoning”), Several doses of every type of Lotus, Lotus Smoke.
Reputation: 85

Urracca Knife-Dancer, female Zamorian Thief 8 / Noble 6: CR 14; Medium-size humanoid (human); HD 10d8+4+8; HP 61; Init +11 (+7 Dex, +4 feat); Spd 40ft; Defense: Dodge 24 (+6 Class, +7 Dex, +1 feat), Parry 18 (+7 Class, +1 Str); DR: 0; Melee +19/+14 (+20/+15 sneak) finesse (Akbitanan Short Sword 1d8+2, +poison, +5d8 Sneak; Crit 19-20/x2, AP 4); Missile +19/+14 (thrown dagger, 1d4+1, +poison, +5d8 Sneak; crit 19-20/x2, AP 1); Saves: Fort +5*, Ref +16*, Will +12*; Str 13, Dex 24, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 14, Chr 20.
Skills: Appraise +7, Balance +16, Bluff +20, Climb +10, Diplomacy +11, Disable Device +7, Disguise +12, Escape Artist +12, Gather Information +12, Hide +20, Intimidate +12, Jump +10, Knowledge (local) +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +20, Open Lock +12, Perform +10, Search +7, Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +14, Spot +7, Tumble +17.
Feats: Carouser, Combat Expertise, Eyes of the Cat, Fleet Footed, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Leadership (Leadership Score 25), Light Footed, No Honor, Poison Use, Striking Cobra.
Languages: Shemitish, Zamorian, Hyrkanian
SA: Lead By Example +2, Comeliness, Sneak Attack Styles (Short Sword, Poniard, Dagger), Sneak Attack +5d8, Trap Disarming, Trap Sense +2, Sorcerous Protection*
Items: Akbitanan Short Sword, 4 daggers, 3 doses Black Stygian Scropion Venom, 3 doses Apple of Kerketa Juice, 2 doses Purple Lotus Juice, harem girl’s silks, thieves outfit, lock picks, rope and grappling hook
Reputation: 45

Cittaprasadana Jayasurya, male Vendhyan, Noble 11 / Solider 3: CR 14; Medium-size humanoid (human); HD 7d8+3d10+35+8; HP 93; Init +2 (Dex); Spd 20ft; Defense: 17 (+5 Class, +2 Dex); Parry 33 / 36 w shield (+7 Class, +5 Str, +1 Feat); DR 12 (Plate Armor w Visored Helm); Melee +17/+12/+7 (Akbitanan Tulwar, 2d8+8, Crit 15-20/x2, AP 10) or +18/+13/+8 (Light Lance 1d10+5, Crit x3, AP 7) or +19/+14/+9 (Charging Lance 3d10+16, Crit x3, AP 8 [9 in formation]); Saves: Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +11; Str 20, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 14, Chr 20.
Skills: Bluff +10, Climb +8, Diplomacy +20, Gather Information +14, Handle Animal +10, Intimidate +20, Jump +8, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (nobility) +11, Knowledge (religion) +7, Perform +10, Ride +20, Search +5, Sense Motive +16, Spot +5, Survival +5.
Feats: Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Improved Critical – Tulwar, Leadership (Leadership Score 29), Mounted Combat, Parry, Power Attack, Reflexive Parry, Ride By Attack, Spirited Charge.
Languages: Vendhyan, Khitan, Hyrkanian, Shemitish
SA: Formation Combat: Heavy Cavalry, Special Regional Feature +2, Lead By Example +4, Do You Know Who I Am?, Savoir-Faire.
Items: Akbitanan Tulwar, Plate Armor w Visored Helm, 1 dozen lances, Bhalkana warhorse.
Reputation: 70

Shalmaneser, male Shemite, Nomad 12 / Noble 2: Cr 14; Medium-size humanoid (human); HD 10d10+35+12; HP 101; Init +4 (Dex); Spd 30ft (50 in desert); Defense: Dodge: 20* (+6 class, +4 Dex), Parry: 20 (+7 class, +3 Str); DR 6 (Mail Shirt w Steel Cap); Melee +17/+12/+7 (Akbitanan Scimtar 1d8+3, Crit 18-20/x2, AP 7); Charge +18/+13/+8 (Light Lance 3d10+6, Crit x3, AP 6); Ranged +17/+17/+12/+7 (+18/+18/+13/+8 inside 30 feet) (Shemite Bow 1d10+3 (+4 inside 150 feet, +5 inside 30 feet), Crit x3, AP 7); Saves: Fort +12, Ref +11, Will +8; Str 17, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 15, Chr 17.
Skills: Appraise +10, Bluff +12, Climb +8, Diplomacy +12, Gather Information +12, Handle Animal +10, Hide +11*, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (local) +8, Listen +9*, Move Silently +11*, Ride +21, Search +8*, Sense Motive +8, Spot +11*, Survival +12*,
* = +6 in Desert environments, +1 in Plains.
Feats: Diehard, Endurance, Far Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Leadership (Leadership Score 23), Mounted Archery, Mounted Combat, Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Ride-By Attack, Shot on the Run, Spirited Charge, Track.
Languages: Shemitish, Hyrkanian, Stygian, Argossean.
SA: Special Regional Feature +1, Favored Terrain (Desert) +4, (Plain) +1, Nomad Charge +2, Born to the Saddle, Improved Mobility
Items: Masterwork Shemite Bow, Mail Shirt w Steel Cap, Turanian Warhorse (w improved movement: 80).
Reputation: 55

Merlino, male Hyborian Noble 8 / Thief 4 / Borderer 2: CR 14; Medium-size humanoid (human); HD 2d10+8d8+8; HP 54; Init +7 (+3 Dex, +4 feat); Spd 30ft; Defense: Dodge 20* (+3 Dex, +6 Class, +1 feat), Parry 19 (+2 Str, +7 Class); DR 0; Melee finesse +12/+12/+7 (+13/+13/+11 sneak) (Double Poniard, 1d6 (+3d8 sneak), Crit 19-20/x2, AP 3); Saves: Fort +7, Ref +12, Will +10; Str 14, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 20, Wis 18, Chr 22.
Skills: Appraise +19, Bluff +25, Craft (jewler) +10, Decipher Script +12, Diplomacy +27, Disguise +15, Forgery +15, Gather Information +27, Hide +9*, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (local) +20, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Listen +9*, Move Silently +9*, Perform +11, Profession (Merchant) +9, Ride +8, Search +12*, Sense Motive +19, Sleight of Hand +10, Spot +9*, Survival +11*.
* = +1 in Plains
Feats: Combat Expertise, Deceitful, Diligent, Eyes of the Cat, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Investigator, Leadership (Leadership Score 25), Light-Footed, Persuasive, Sleep Mastery, Track, Two Weapon Defense.
Languages: Aquilonian, Shemitish, Hyrkanian, Argossean, Hyperborian, Cimmerian
SA: Sneak Attack +3d8, Favored Terrain (Plains) +1, Special Regional Feature +2, Title, Wealth, Rank Hath Its Privileges, Smear Others, Lead By Example +2, Sneak Attack Styles (poniard, war spear), Trap Finding, Trap Sense +1
Items: Lots and lots of hawt lewt. He can get almost anything money can buy.
Reputation: 35

This is an idea I had for a Conan adventure setup. I wanted to get a good amount of the feeling of the middle Conan stories, where Conan was not just a fighter but a political player as well. To do this I created an unstable situation, a rich city full of danger, and five powerful foes that are also all foes of each other. I see it playing out a lot like A Fist Full of Dollars, but with 6 powers that be rather than 2, and 3 to 5 Men With No Names coming into town rather than just 1. I’d also play it that the PCs didn’t have to work together, and would probably even work against each other at points. That’s something many aren’t comfortable with though, so it should be able to be worked so the PCs all end up fighting together for the sake of survival.

There aren’t a lot of stats here. Level and class guidelines are given for Mongoose’s Conan RPG – but you could do this with lots of systems. (I’d be tempted to use HeroQuest.) Whatever you do, be sure to play Basil Poledouris’s “Conan the Barbarian” as your soundtrack.

The Setting

Seconderam is a city where rapacious men with shining swords trade tender flesh and shimmering silk for stained coins and winked favors. Its yellow stone walls loom over the vast aridity of the Hyrakanian step, guarded by hard-eyed soldiers with weapons of Akbitanan steel against the hawk-nosed nomads with their brutal horn bows. The blood and life of this stone whore is the trade that passes between Shem and Vendhya, for Seconderam is the only safe stop between the tenebrous Vilayet Sea and the glittering towers of Khorala. Any merchant wishing to make the silk run must stop here, and must pay, pouring gold and silver into the corpulent hands of the collectors.

There are five towers in Seconderam, arranged in a dread pentagram which some say binds the will of the city to its points. In each monolith lurks one of the five who rule, each eyeing the others with knives in their hands and malice in the black pits of their hearts. For a decade they have split the city between themselves, each scheming to fell the others. What no one in the city realizes, not even the rulers, is that the very towers they sit in drive them to fight against each other. No man may live in towers built by that beyond the stars and stay sane. When the rulers chose their towers they instinctually took the tower opposite that of their worst rivals, and so the fiercest rivalries are those which cut across the pentagram. If a new lord were to take over the tower they would mystically find themselves inheriting these conflicts.

The NPCs

First among these iniquitous equals is the sorcerer Bunchhan Muul (Khitan, Scholar 16) who sits in the Ebon Tower opposite Cittaprasadana Jayasurya’s Ivory Tower and Merlino’s Gold Tower. It was he who raised the five towers, calling them from the dark between the stars so that they were built in a single night, giving him the power to claim equality with the other leaders of the city. Though he has fewer followers than the others he commands fear and the blackest of sorcery, and few have ever dared oppose him. The heads of those who did still scream from the top of his tower, despite having lost their bodies years ago.

Cittaprasadana Jayasurya (Vendhyan, Noble 11 / Solider 3), known as the White Bull of Saiva’s Fury, sits in the Ivory Tower, opposite Bunchhan Muul’s Ebon Tower and Shalmaneser’s Wormwood Tower. This mighty man is the royal delegate from far off Khorala, and holds his position partly by being the guardian of the route to fabled Vendhya, partly from his own prowess in battle, and mostly from the hundreds of loyal Vendhyan lancers under his command. So long as he holds the royal seal, even Bunchhan Muul is wary of crossing him openly.

The Blood Tower is the opulent commorancy of Urracca Knife-Dancer (Zamorian, Thief 8 / Noble 6) and sits opposite Shalmaneser’s Wormwood Tower and Merlino’s Gold Tower. This provocative murderess turned ruler knows how to use men’s lusts, be they for flesh, coin, or power, against them. She rose to her position by turning brother against brother and murdering whatever was left after their feuds. Even now, when she has a small army of thieves to serve her, she is known to go out on dangerous missions herself, as she lusts for the kill.

Shalmaneser (Shemite, Nomad 12 / Noble 2) is lord of the Wormwood Tower, sitting opposite Cittaprasadana Jayasurya’s Ivory Tower and Urracca’s Blood Tower. As Cittaprasadana guards the caravan route to Vendhya, Shalmaneser guards it to mighty Shem. However he answers to no crown, and has no noble seal to back his orders. All he has is his incredible brutality, which is bestial enough to give even Bunchhan Muul pause, and his hundreds of Shemite swordsmen.

The Merchant Prince Merlino (Zingaran, Noble 8 / Thief 4 / Borderer 2) holds the Golden Tower, facing Uracca’s Blood Tower and Bunchhan Muul’s Ebon Tower. Of all the rulers Merlino is the wealthiest, and the most loved by the people. Where the others are followed from fear, many of the merchants and commoners see Merlino as a tolerable, civilized man. That he really has no heart (literally as well as metaphorically) is a secret he keeps well hidden behind his pleasant smile.

There is, of course, a sixth man of importance to Seconderam, but from the outside rather than the in. He is Hafizullah Amin (Hyrkanian 12th level Nomad, 3rd level Noble), khan of the Farishta clan. His are the raiders that take the most caravans, his the savage bowmen that terrify the city’s soft inhabitants, and his the desire to pull Seconderam to the ground and take from it all the gold, silk, and flesh that his men can carry.

The PCs

Arjuna (Vendhyan, Noble 8 / Solider 4): Lecherous but loyal son of House Bharata, Arjuna has been sent by his family to find a way to either bring Cittaprasadana Jayasurya into line or force him out of power. Arjuna has come with a royal decree and a large number of lancers, but he knows that he must be careful. Cittaprasadana Jayasurya is a dangerous man, after all. Even worse, while Arjuna must corral or kill him, he must do so without disrupting the noble power of Vendhya in the city – for doing so would lose the vast amounts of gold that flow to the royal coffers.

Madog (Cimmerian, Barbarian 12): Unlike the weak civilized men around him, Madog knows that life is nasty, brutal, and short. So he lives every moment to the fullest, and accepts nothing but the finest in weapons, women, drugs, and wine. Unfortunately for him he arrived in Seconderam with nothing but the clothes on his back and the two cheaply made daggers in his belt. This is an expensive city, but it’s also a city where a man with nerve can make a lot of money, and gain a lot of power. The question isn’t so much who to kill as who to kill first. Perhaps this Merlino everyone speaks about would be a good man to ask?

Xiao Xing (Khitan, Scholar 12): Wise, silent, and disciplined, Xiao is the last student of Grey Master Phoenix, and before she can be released from his service she must complete one last quest. So it is that she has come to Seconderam with the humble task of killing Bunchhan Muul and recovering the Phylactery of Cyaegha’s Schism, the very thing which allowed Bunchhan Muul to raise the Five Towers in the first place. Of course, if she can gain power for herself in so doing, all the better.

Fortunato (Zamorian, Thief 10 / Borderer 2): They say that Bunchhan Muul has a box that can summon demons, Cittaprasadana Jayasurya a bull of gold and ivory that weighs over a ton, Merlino a diamond the size of a man’s heart, Shalmaneser a hundred casks of golden coin that have the minting mark of Acheron, and any one of these could make a man a king among thieves. Fortunato wants all of them together. But even more he wants the heart of Urracca Knife-Dancer, whom he has been obsessed with for over a decade.

Shamshi-Adad (Turanian, Nomad 12): Son of the Khan of the Ocalan clan, he has come to Seconderam because his people are currently being squeezed between Shalmaneser’s rapacious mercenaries, Hafizullah’s murderous scorge, and Merlino’s gouging of food and water prices. His father sent him to sue for peace, but on the way his entourage was attacked and his younger brother killed. Now Shamshi comes for vengeance. First he will find who sent the man that killed his brother and make them die so it will be spoken of for 100 years, and then he will really begin his vengeance.

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a beautiful princess who lived in a tower of glass. She was all alone, without any human friends. She was waited on hand and foot by a small army of wind up golems, but none of them had a soul, and none of them could speak.Then one day a handsome prince came to the tower, and saw the princess as she leaned out over her balcony. He called out to her, but she was afraid of the sound of his voice, and ran into her room and shut the door.

So the prince decided that he had to woo her. But first he had to get into the tower, which had no doors. So he got rope from his saddle bags and a grappling hook as well, he tossed it up to the balcony, and begin to climb.

While the prince climbed up the princess hid in her room, her heart hammering. While she liked the look of the prince, was drawn to his beauty and to the fact that he had a soul, she found him too loud. Far too loud.

So the prince finally got up to the balcony and begin to call out to the princess. Loud and long he proclaimed his love for her, and she put her hands to her ears to try and hold out the noise. She even opened her door and tried to shush him, waving her hands to make him be quieter. But the prince did not pay attention, he simply spoke louder and louder….
Finally the princess could take no more. She rushed forward to the prince, and tried to clamp her hands over his mouth to make him be silent. But when she bumped him it upset his balance and he fell the long way back to the ground.

His blood spilled out over the ground, and soaked into the dry dirt. The princess, aghast at what she had done, ran back into her room and closed the door.

The next year, when the memory of the prince was starting to fade, roses grew out of the place where he had died. Red as his blood they too climbed the tower to reach the princess. They too spoke to her of love with their red and beautiful blossoms. But unlike the prince they were wise enough to be silent. So the princess gathered them up, held them to her heart, and loved them all the days of her life.

Many years later another prince found the princess, who had died in her bed. Her skeleton was wrapped about with the vines of blooming roses, which loved her even after her death.

Game Ideas

The Princess’s Tower makes a good moody location for a low level (3rd ish) dungeon crawl. PCs could have gone their for any number of reasons, from being sent by descendants of the Princess’s House to get her signet ring, to being driven in by the rain, to simply doing the old “hack and treasure loot” bit. In the latter case the GM should probably arrange for their to be a suitable treasure to be found. (A Phylactery of Faithfulness beside the Princess’s bed, for example, or a ring of feather fall upon her finger.)

The tower itself is a simple shell tower, about 50 feet around. It had no doors originally, but time may have opened up some small and unstable entrances near the ground level. At that level the interior of the tower has a kitchen with a vast hearth, a small dining room, and stairs winding up to the top of the tower. There is a floor with a library and a sewing room in the middle, and then the princess’s rooms on top. The tower can also be reached through the balconies, which are about 70 feet off the ground. They open into the princess’s sitting quarters, and her room makes the final level above them.

The Princess’s golems, of which there are about a dozen still in repair, are not immediately hostile. However, if anyone tries to take anything or enter the princess’s private rooms at the top floor they will move to defend. They’re small clockwork constructs with the following basic stats: Hit Dice 1 (5 hit points), Initiative +1 (Dex), Speed 30 ft, AC 14 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +2 natural), Attacks: Slam +1 melee, Damage 1d6, Special: DR 4, Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will -1, Str 10, Dex 12, Con -, Int 10, Wis 8, Chr -. They are constructs and thus immune to critical hits, mind control effects, poison etc, etc.

The roses around the Princess’s body are an Assassin Vine that lives in symbiosis with the golems. They, still thinking they feed the princess, really feed it. To really mess with things make the roses vampiric Assassin Vines, giving them the Blood and Energy Drain abilities of Vampire.

The Princess herself is the most potent threat in the tower. Her soul is trapped there still, having no place to go and no reason to leave the roses that loved her so. Any sufficiently loud noise in the tower will wake her and cause her to panic, lashing out blindly to try and stop the dreadful din. In her own bed-chamber even soft noises may wake her. She’s a Ghost based on a 2nd level human aristocrat, but in addition to all the normal ways of defeating such a creature she can be calmed with silence that lasts for several rounds, or perhaps with a gift of flowers. A bard using bardic knowledge could find this out with a DC 20 check, or someone could use Knowledge: History or Knowledge: Nobility with a DC 25 check. These penalties should, of course, be reduced if the PCs know the story of the tower.

As I listed to two versions of “Hallelujah” on endless repeat today (the Leonard Cohen original and the Rufus Wainwright version from Shrek), the idea for this character occurred to me. Inspired by the pain, yearning, and cynical but honest romanticism of that wonderful song I came up with the idea for an Amoromancer whose noble stimulus was, ironically, love.

Here is the result. He’s set up to be a starting level PC for a Global game, or a good NPC for a Global or Street level game.

“All I ever learned of love was how to shoot at someone who out drew you.”
- “Hallelujah” Leonard Cohen

Michael Frenault is a man who has known love. Her name was Jenny, and she wasn’t beautiful – she was just a woman you’d pass on the street. Michael Frenault is a man who has lost love. Her name was Jenny, and she isn’t lost – she lives just down the hall. It wasn’t taken from him in an accident, or in a fight, or by anything that he can understand. He had debts, she had insecurity, they were both alone and both needed the other to be the one they needed. For all that it was sweet, and the desperation of it made it sweat from the teeth. Until one night, in each other’s arms, they both looked at the ceiling rather than looking at each other. It took almost a year for her to move out; both of them becoming ghosts to the other, life a brown fog so thick that when she left the key on the dining room table he didn’t pang. There wasn’t any pain, there wasn’t any closure.

In the strange, fatal myth that was Michael’s life everyone had a panacea. An inevitably it came down to the same pharmicon – new love. His parents told him he’d move on, that he could do better. His friends urged him towards moving on, getting laid, and getting someone else. Michael knew better, classics scholar that he was, for pharmicon not only means antidote it also means poison. One in the same, and in life we often don’t know which until we’ve drunk. It wasn’t that Michael came to hate love, or even to become jaded or cynical. If anything he came to appreciate and understand love at a level few others ever approach. To him it was the serpent eating its tail, an endless thing self-inflected, enclosed, self-referential and yet containing the cosmos. The point where it crossed from reflection to magick is lost in the haze of his emotional existence, a dim feeling of the keys on the table one night when he met a girl at a friend’s party and walked out with her number in hand and not a flicker in his heart.

Michael follows the path of the Amoromancer not for power, but because he is trying to find out if he can ever love again. He thinks that he’s broken inside, that there is something in him that cannot connect to others, and it is that broken part that powers his magick. The irony is that he’s very good at gathering power. The honest anguish in him, the slightly rumpled good looks and melancholy eyes all speak to a certain kind of women, drawing out those who want to fix him, those that are as hurt as he, those that secretly know what he is, and want the pain that he brings because it’s the only way they know they’re still alive. But every time he hears the words and gains a charge he regrets it.

Michael uses the power he gains from his magick to make his life easier, to let him have more leisure time to pursue love in his grail quest. He was once a tenure track professor, now he’s what’s known as a freeway flyer – an instructor at community colleges who has to work at 4 different campuses to make ends meet. He uses his stundents, his TAs, and all the girls who know that they could be the one to grade his papers, to pay for his gas, to cover for him when he misses days, all so that the can find more girls to do the same.

It was almost inevitable that it would happen, cliché really. The angry brother, the threats, the sudden violence – all of these things fill every book of love ever written. Michael knew it had to happen someday, should have seen it coming. But when that day was over he had killed a man and had a woman willing to cover for him, even though she’d seen what he did to her brother. Now Michael is caught in the horns of the bull, this girl could get him a major charge if he plays it right – which may be the only way to avoid jail for life – but there is an honest innocence about her that makes Michael wonder if maybe, just maybe, she is the one that won’t give him the charge when she says the words. Maybe she’ll be the one that takes his magic from him, maybe his life as well.

Maybe he’ll go to stand before the lord of song, and the only word on his lips will be Hallelujah.

Stats

Personality: The Injured Man that Women Want to Heal. Michael doesn’t quite live in the world anymore, alienated and separated from everything by the callus on his soul, and there’s something about that which draws every woman with something to prove.
Obsession: Love. Specifically, Michael is fascinated with the human capacity to love and to lose love, and wants to find out if he can ever find it again, if there’s anything left that’s real.
Wound Points: 50

Rage Stimulus: Cynics. Much as Michael is a shallow, empty predator, at least he admits there is something powerful about love, something moving and important. Those that don’t care, those that slight or belittle the foul rag and bone shop of the human heart drive him to rage.
Fear Stimulus: Jenny (Self): In some way everything goes back to Jenny, and Michael can’t stand to face the fact that even though they’re through, she still is the most powerful force in his life.
Noble Stimulus: Lovers. A true lover, someone that has no self-interest in their love, no needs from it other than to make their lover happy but without being dependent upon it, will earn Michael’s support and admiration.

Body: 50 (arm-chair academic)
- Athletics 20, Hold His Liquor 25, No Sleep till Brooklyn 15, Struggle 20

Speed: 55 (deft)
- Bar Games 25, Dodge 25, Driving 35, Initiative 22

Mind: 65 (studied)
- Classical Education 50, Conceal 25, Notice 25

Soul: 70 (wounded grandeur)
- Amoromancy 65, I’m Innocent Baby 30, Sexily Broken 55

Violence: 1 Hardened, 2 Failed
Unnatural: 3 Hardened, 1 Failed
Helplessness: 2 Hardened, 3 Failed
Isolation: 6 Hardened, 4 Failed
Self: 5 Hardened, 3 Failed

Charges: Michael is good at what he does, and at any given point is likely to have a half dozen minor charges and 1 to 3 significant charges.

Possession: Michael has an artifact he made himself, out of the keys Jenny left behind. Whenever he sets the keys down on a table, bar, or similar surface it will instantly draw the attention of any member of the possessor’s preferred sex who is both lonely and actively looking for love.

Bangs: Jenny is an amoromancer who got a major charge off of him. His new girl (whose brother he killed) is a pornomancer. She may or may not be really in love with him, but it’s probably most interesting if she’s fighting with it in the same way that he is. The policeman investigating the murder is a Sleeper. An angry flying woman who’s friend Michael has hurt in the past comes looking for vengeance.

A subtle, beautiful, female Zorro that I came up with for Issarie’s Heroquest, set up to be a ready-to-rock PC:

Jelvera of the Temple River Osprey League

Appearance: A handsome woman with long dark hair shot through with silver and grey streaks, a strong face, and outfits of flowing red silks with silver trim.

Goal: To protect the women of her league and gain ascendancy of the Lunar religion throughout Dara Happa while gaining vengeance against the man who murdered her sister.

Narrative: A noble daughter of Dara Happa, Jelvera grew up loving her family more than life. Her sister’s murder by Lukaresh, head of the Grey Mountain Eagle League, caused her to vow to slay the man. Seeking a way to challenge him she found her way to Natha, and trained her natural agility and daring until she became a devotee. Returning home she used her beauty and knack for finding the needy to build a following of the disenfranchised. Now she intends to lead them against Lukaresh, using stealth and mastery of disguise to infiltrate and spy. Then her Moon Reach Whip and Silver Scimitar will taste blood.

Skills:
Homeland: Dara Happa 17
Dagger Fighting
Dara Happan Customs
Dara Happan Geography
Raibanth Politics
Know Place in Society
Speak Dara Happan
Urban Survival

Occupation: Petty Noble 17
Dueling
Exert Authority
Grooming
Identify Social Status
Politics
Protocol
Ride
Dance

Magic: Devotee of Natha 17
Devotee of Natha
Mythology of Natha
Mythology of the Moon
Remember Who Wronged Me
Sedenyic Philosophy
Scimitar Fighting +8
Soul Vision
Turn From Attack

Other
Beautiful 15
Agile 15
Disguise 15
Find the Needy 13
Infiltrate 13
Spy 13
Stealth 14

Personality:
Homeland: Dara Happa 17
Hate Lukaresh
Love Family

Occupation: Petty Noble 17
Ambitions
Aristocratic

Magic: Devotee of Natha 17
Implacable
Just
Optimistic

Other
Daring 15

Relationships:
Homeland: Dara Happa 17
Hate Lukaresh
Love Family
Enemy of Lukaresh
Member of Temple River Osprey League
Head of Household

Occupation: Petty Noble 17
Contacts at Court
Mistress of Retainers
Leader of Disenfranchised Followers

Magic: Devotee of Natha 17
Member of Nathic Temple

Followers:
Homeland: Dara Happa 17
Members of Household (Workers 17)

Occupation: Petty Noble 17
Retainers (Foot Solider 17)
Disenfranchised Followers (Farmer, Thief, or Merchant 17)

Magic:
Magic: Devotee of Natha 17 (concentrated)
Affinities: Balancer (Avenging Fury), Nathic Combat (Dance Past Blades, Devastating Riposte), Otherworld (Defend Against Magic, Recognize Open Way)
Silver Scimitar
Moon Reach Whip

Possessions:
Occupation: Petty Noble 17
Horse
Knives
Fine Clothes
Wealth: Prosperous 5w

Magic: Devotee of Natha 17
Silver Scimitar
Moon Reach Whip

Take 3 parts Neon Genesis Evangelion, 2 parts Incredible Hulk, 1 Part Delta Green, and a dash of Final Fantasy. Shake (don’t stir), bring to a chill, and play with Bronze Age style:

The Apotheosis Pranayama

In 2002 Dr. Malkuth Michael, billionaire and PhD in Mysticism, discovered a great secret in a collection of ancient scrolls he had illegally acquired from Iraq. These scrolls, written at the same time as the Dead Sea Scrolls, were a pure and simple explanation of the fundamentals for what had become the Tree of Life in later centuries. Following the directions, which were more practical than mystical, Dr. Michael became the first human to use the Apotheosis Pranayama, and promptly became a god — Bahamut.

Unfortunately for Dr. Michael the human genome had changed ever so slightly over the past 2000 years, and the resulting mischanneling of energies destroyed him in a blast that took out his mansion and a part of the nearby town of Victory, Vermont. The local media caught onto the story and interviews with locals told wild stories about angels and giants being seen just before the explosion. For a short time the area became the darling of tabloids, UFO hunters, new agers, and cultists who believed that the archangel had appeared to herald the end of the earth.

There were three more important groups that also investigated, and that found out a good deal more of the truth. Dr. Michael’s son, Crown Michael, inherited many of his father’s notes on the process as well as his father’s ashes. Dr. Michael’s corporation, Crown International, recovered the fragments of the Pranayama Codex. The ultra secret board of controllers – known as the Sepheroth — realized that they needed Dr. Michael’s diary to use the damaged scrolls, and made a pact with Crown Michael to work together to make all of them into gods. Every side, of course, intends to destroy the others – because one god is omnipotent, but if there are many gods it makes each god less than all powerful.

In order to discover the secret, as well as what had gone wrong with Dr. Michael’s ascension, the Crown Corporation started the delta-classified Pentateuch Project, hiring many of the best biologists on earth to study how the human genome had been remapped and many of the best mystics and physicists to discover how the ancient rituals could be fixed to fit the new genome. As part of this project many of the religious documents and artifacts of the ancient Babylonian period were acquired and made available to the teams, though they were always spread out and classified in such a way that no one researcher could figure out the full story of what was going on.

The third group that found out, due to its ability to use broad investigative powers including highly-advanced scanning and temporal field instrumentation, was the U.S. Government – specifically Majestic 12. M 12 was initially held back by their belief that the phenomena was of extra- terrestrial origins. Eventually, however, their top minds cracked the energy codes and started on the long process of reverse engineering the process that had lead to Dr. Michael’s ascent and death. Realizing that they must be behind Crown on the project, M 12 sent deep cover agents into Crown in order to recover all the data, and any physical remains, that they could get their hands on.

One of the agents, Marrie Junto, was able to recover Dr. Michael’s remains. However, she was caught and executed before she could get clear of Crown. In the confusion of her capture she switched the remains with a soil sample being sent to the biology department. Before the switch was discovered the remains were sent to Dr. John Spencer, a PhD in Microbiology working on the Pentateuch project.

In what would later be ruled (incorrectly) to be a freak accident Dr. Spencer opened the remains at the same time that physicists one level up were recalibrating an atomic splicer, which malfunctioned and created a large warp-field of energy. Under the effects of the field, Dr. Michael’s remains partly animated and infused Dr. Spencer’s body.

Dr. Spencer immediately became Bahamut, and all hell broke loose. M 12 agents scrambled to his home to get his fiancé for leverage, while Crown agents tried to stop him at the Pentateuch complex. What none of them realized is that there were actually 3 beings involved. Dr. John Spencer, Bahamut, and Neo-Bahamut – the evil god that was born of the death of the original Bahamut and all the greed and malice filling the temple of his rebirth. Neo-Bahamut took over, and massive deaths resulted.

Now everyone is after Bahamut. Crown must have him to have their immortality, Mr. Michael must have him so that he can become the sole god, and M 12 is after him for national and human security, as well as their own power. In addition normal government and military agencies are out to stop this “mutated threat” before it can bring more destruction.

What none of the involved parties know is that they are not the only ones researching apotheosis, and that Bahamut’s rebirth has opened a gate in the life-breath temporality. From the moment he was born other gods have started to rise – thus turning the world into the age of superheroes. Many of the others will not know where their powers come from, however, and may just rise spontaneously to fill needs in the universal unconscious. It will take the efforts of Bahamut and Dr. Spencer to uncover the truth and bring balance back to the world.

Notes: This is, obviously, a “Gods as supers” setting. I always loved the idea of Thor and other gods as supers, but wanted something more in the background to drive plot than the standard “well, they’re just there.” The setting wears its sources on its sleeve, so don’t expect to sneak it past any player who’s ever seen Evangelion.

(For another take on Gods as Supers, check out Legends Walk.)

In the few sessions of this game I actually got to run Bahamut ended up fighting M 12 and destroying a large part of an entire brigade, but was injured and driven into the wilderness. There he had a less than pleasant confrontation with Wendigo, another recent god-awoken, that Bahamut only survived with the help of some forest rangers. I’ll get the stats for Wendigo, and Kali, up at a later date.

Resources: a low res M&M character sheet for Bahamut.

For a game almost resembling Changeling: The Dreaming

Embroiled in futile wars and petty spats no one, not even the wise, watched the old gates as their chains buckled, bent, and burst. By the time the fighting stopped long enough for all eyes to turn to the new threat it was already too late, the Fomhiore had risen. The waves of murder and terror that followed were like nothing that had happened before, as the demons of the old earth burst forth on a world unready for them. The very fabric of the world was torn and empires and nations fell. The demons co-opted fae magic and human technology, making legions of damned on machines of war such as Hitler could only have dreamed of. Man and fae alike were forced into thralldom or into hiding, and for generations hope was a forgotten word.

It was old Chretien who turned the tide, when he built the great altar and sacrificed himself upon it. From the ecstasy of the funeral dance and the blood of his great heart was born the Oak, the new axis-mundi, the center of a new world that could stand against the demonic Fomhiore and their mechanized armies. Under the shelter of Oak’s branches a confederacy was formed, and from that loose affiliation a kingdom was born.

You are Chretien’s Heirs, blood descendants of the savior, and you are the princes of Oak. Into your hands is given the future of man and fae alike. Now there are no choices left, you will either let the world be swallowed in darkness, or will find glory such as has never before been seen.

Route 66
For UA

The occult underground was your playground. You had it all figured out, you knew the rules, the ropes, the shakes, and the breaks. Life was an endless series of dirty deeds and cheap deals, cause when salvation comes out of a bottle made by a guy who asks for rat’s hearts as his only payment, the concept of anything having real meaning becomes sort of meaningless. Buzzed, brutal, and bohemian, you and your crew were the flashiest trash in L.A., city that defined both.

That was before the Crying Man gunned down Cain right in front of you, before Maria gave you the baby, and before you saw the end of eternity grinning out of his eyes. Now you’ve got a blood oath, enemies who are as old as the universe, gods and demons out to crush you, a basket full of diapers, a fuck-trophy, a full tank of gas in a 56 Chevy, and 36 hours to get to Chicago.

But hell, if you make it, you’re gonna be the ones sitting in God’s vacant throne.

This one is for two solo games that interact at random points. That is two say, there are two games in which there is one GM and one Player, but the events happen in the same world, and when time and GM desire permits the two Players come together and play a few sessions in the same game.

I’m a large fan of both Eden’s Buffy RPG and Shooting Iron’s Talislanta. One night, while my randomly selected playlist was musing me, it occurred to me that it would be possible to mix the buildingly episodic nature of Buffy with the Conanesque Swords and Sorcery of Talislanta. The Xambrian Wizard Slayer, a Tal character driven by the spirits of his ancestors to avenge their near-genocide, seemed the perfect replacement for the Slayer, and the rest fell into line from there.

Here’s what came of it: Xanderan: The Wizard Slayer

A couple months back I got inspired on RPG.net, and then got sick, and was left with little inspiration but plenty of time for formatting. The result was this adventure set up for Exalted. It’s less of module than it is a description of a place in turmoil and a situation ready to explode, into which the PCs are dropped without warning. It’s designed to be run with only the core Exalted book, and is open ended and given to character-driven action, double dealing spiritual politics, and a bit of sexual innuendo.

The City of Mist and Winter

I’ve been doing a Live Journal for some time now, and while I’m happy with it for personal things, I’ve found that it doesn’t work so well for blogging the frequent random RPG stuff that my brain kicks out.

So it is that I’ve come to make Random Encounters, a blog for the sole purpose of excising the random NPCs, plots, hooks, character sheets, and industry rants that frequent my brain but that I’m not interested in pursuing to the professional publication level. In time I may expand and build a team of folks who use this blog to publish similar material, but for now it’s a one man show.

To get started, I’m going to link to some of the stuff I’ve already got up at various points in the web, and will add new material as the muses get me stoned.

So welcome to all, and I hope you find something here that you can use.