Blimmey - like Mr Dory it's back from the dead...
I also recently ran 'The Styes'. my players loved it - the investigation/adventure route had them running all over the city, shadowing corrupt guards, suspicous of every council member, and generally as paranoid as one could wish for in this kind of adventure.
the one section that stood out above all else for my players, in terms of creepy atmosphere and general horror, though, was the asylum. the flavor text and mood were absolutly perfect, and did a wonderful job.
this is one of the few modules i've ever been able to run "right out of the box," and it really was a pleasure. the internal structure of the adventure - the way that it consists of several discreet small-ish encounter area/dungeons worked incredibly well - the flow of the adventure allowed the party to rest when it was needed without breaking the verisimilitude of the game.
thanks for such a great adventure, and I hope to get more like this from you in the future.
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Sounds like it's a nearly-done deal, and we've seen the also-well-received "Prince of Redhand" in the interim, but in doing a Search for 'Styes Eberron' in preparation of 'porting it into our ongoing Eberon campaign, I found this thread, and have to say...
"Please, sir, I want some more Styes."
("Oliver" PWNs "West Side Story". Greg could be Fagin and Richard could be Sykes.)
The heroes are based out of a rebuilt keep at the northern extreme of the Seawall Mountains, very near the gray mists of the Mournland. One of their number is a House Jorasco heir, and so I'm planning on basing the Styes in Karrlakton and having her called in on a consult on the case of Jarme Loveage. They'll feel some empathy for the decaying Styes, seeing as it--like their holdings--is so close to the cloying border of the Mournland.
In our game, the strange symbol on the Spawn will be more evocative of a dragonmark. Another of the party members is a Tattooed Monk, and we've tweaked that class to have some tie to dragonmarks. These elements will tie together nicely. When the heroes eventually descend into Khyber, they'll see symbols on the walls reminicint of that previously seen on the Spawn.
So, there you are, Richard--more of how DMs are using this fine adventure in their games!
Sounds like it's a nearly-done deal, and we've seen the also-well-received "Prince of Redhand" in the interim, but in doing a Search for 'Styes Eberron' in preparation of 'porting it into our ongoing Eberon campaign, I found this thread, and have to say...
"Please, sir, I want some more Styes."
("Oliver" PWNs "West Side Story". Greg could be f%&in and Richard could be Sykes.)
The heroes are based out of a rebuilt keep at the northern extreme of the Seawall Mountains, very near the gray mists of the Mournland. One of their number is a House Jorasco heir, and so I'm planning on basing the Styes in Karrlakton and having her called in on a consult on the case of Jarme Loveage. They'll feel some empathy for the decaying Styes, seeing as it--like their holdings--is so close to the cloying border of the Mournland.
In our game, the strange symbol on the Spawn will be more evocative of a dragonmark. Another of the party members is a Tattooed Monk, and we've tweaked that class to have some tie to dragonmarks. These elements will tie together nicely. When the heroes eventually descend into Khyber, they'll see symbols on the walls reminicint of that previously seen on the Spawn.
So, there you are, Richard--more of how DMs are using this fine adventure in their games!
I never thought we'd still be talking about the Styes a year after the first post - I feel that I should be buying the drinks or something to celebrate this thread's birthday - cheers everyone!
Although the idea of Greg 'Fagin' Vaughan being arrested and executed for crimes against grammar is highly appealing, I'm not so sure I'd like to be Sykes as I seem to recall a knotty end for him too.
The dragonmark idea is a cool one and has been used by a few others who've run the Styes. I haven't written any Eberron yet but I'd like to have a crack someday soon. Nic Logue has persuaded me to give it another look as he has said it's very Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones in feel and as I love both of those I think it's worth a closer look again. That's Nic for you - jolly nice chap.
It's always interesting to see how different DMs' take on adventures, and I wish I had a time machine to incorporate some of the great ideas that I've seen since the Styes was published -maybe someday in the future I'll get to put them in a revamped version.
Those lovely, intelligent and gifted folk of excellent good taste and fine table manners who like the Styes might like something I'm working on at this very sunny moment up in the Derbyshire hills and which, if it passes the tentacled Dungeon Doorway of Approval may see print sometime in the not too distant future and make fans of horrible places filled with despair and chocked with its own polluted breath happy.
Huzzah!
Rich
I just finished The Styes last night, and the group had a lot of fun and excitement with it. I'm calculating XP awards for them, but unfortunately I left my copy of the adventure at home. Does anyone know the CR for Sgothgah offhand?
I just finished The Styes last night, and the group had a lot of fun and excitement with it. I'm calculating XP awards for them, but unfortunately I left my copy of the adventure at home. Does anyone know the CR for Sgothgah offhand?
CR 12 Amaril. Glad you and your players enjoyed it.
Rich
I must say, the styes is very good.
I began running it a short while ago, wanting to play a one-shot. We rolled up 9th level characters but we only got part way through it in one night, but they're eager to play again. Like Golbez57, I put it in Karrlakton. That seemed a prime spot to stick it.
My players just defeated creepy old Mr. Dory and his flesh golem.
They kind of steam-rollered everything on the boat, since the party wizard dimension-doored them right up to the top of the roof so they managed to bypass most of the nasties inside the warehouse which would have softened them up a bit first.
The creepy atmosphere was fantastic. The director of the asylum telling them to "please don't look" at the other doors in the asylum caused a shudder.
I eagerly await more!
My players just defeated creepy old Mr. Dory and his flesh golem.
They kind of steam-rollered everything on the boat, since the party wizard dimension-doored them right up to the top of the roof so they managed to bypass most of the nasties inside the warehouse which would have softened them up a bit first.
I replaced the flesh golem with a shaboath from Lords of Madness, which was absolutely awesome. :)
I replaced the flesh golem with a shaboath from Lords of Madness, which was absolutely awesome. :)My players just defeated creepy old Mr. Dory and his flesh golem.
They kind of steam-rollered everything on the boat, since the party wizard dimension-doored them right up to the top of the roof so they managed to bypass most of the nasties inside the warehouse which would have softened them up a bit first.
Strangely enough I used a shaboath as well at the earliest opportunity, they are truly awesome. I had an NPC within a nondetection sphere (a sort of thing made of bones and hair and glue he had created from within) who begged the characters not to smash it or the 'thing of baleful water' would be drawn - of course they did and I had the shaboath summoned into the sphere to crush him and then attack them.
Golems are rapidly becoming my favourite monster.
Thanks for the kudos, glad Mr Dory is still tormenting people out there.
Huzzah
Rich
Yeah, the favored soul of Heironeous went into the room first and got swallowed up by the shaboath immediately. Then, the psion (shaper), who had just joined the group by barging in with his astral construct, used dimension swap to replace the favored soul with his astral construct.
Meanwhile, the cleric of Ralishaz just happened to have Freedom of Movement cast on himself from an earlier (and humorous) interaction with the astral construct. The cleric just stood there as the shaboath reached out and tried to grapple him.
I only wish I had remembered to use the shaboath's wall of ice spell-like ability.
I'm not too familiar with Saltmarsh, but it seems like a good alternate location for the Styes. Any thoughts on this subject? Richard? (This is a bit of a double post, as I brought this up in the discussion for Saltmarsh/Funeral Procession, then realized this might be the better thread...in any case, I'm not really sure why I'm bringing this up at all...just an idle thought.)
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As for Cthulhu fetishes... if anyone here at Paizo carries that particular sickness, I'm afraid that would be me. Although Erik Mona's got a touch of it as well...
For my money, of all the "Cthulhu Mythos" writers, I prefer Clark Ashton Smith to Lovecraft. Better writing, and you get the impression Smith actually knew the meaning of the obscure vocabulary he used...
I picked up Lost Worlds Vol 1 (Panther Books), when I was about 10 years old, and was blown away. This was the mood I always hoped to evoke in D&D, but the rules didn't quite support it. When the exit from "Castle Amber" (module X2) led through the mists(an early teaser for Ravenloft?), straight into the plot of Smith's "The Beast of Averoigne", I was as happy as a pig in muck. "The Colossus of Ylorgne" was also in there, though beating it was an anti-climax (the players agreed they should only get a fraction of the xp for finding the way to revert the thing to its component corpses-a very mature decision for a bunch of 11-12 year-olds!).
Smith was also, apparently a true Rennaissance man, with a finger in every pie. I have been told his sculpture was very out-of-this-world; if anyone knows if his books are still in print, or where I could see examples of this sculpture, I'd be grateful.
I'm not too familiar with Saltmarsh, but it seems like a good alternate location for the Styes. Any thoughts on this subject? Richard? (This is a bit of a double post, as I brought this up in the discussion for Saltmarsh/Funeral Procession, then realized this might be the better thread...in any case, I'm not really sure why I'm bringing this up at all...just an idle thought.)
It was a subliminal message from me, 'time for more Styes, - write about it - write about it!' It also picked up one from the Cthulhu thread by accident.
The answer is I'm not so familiar with Saltmarsh either, but doubtless that smarty pants Vaughan is, so I'll email him and ask him, he never misses a chance to get a thread up, although there's usually a spelling mistake or two.
Rich
git n : a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible; "only a rotter would do that"; "kill the rat"; "throw the bum out"; "you cowardly little pukes!"; "the British call a contemptible person a 'git'" (syn: rotter, dirty dog, rat, skunk, stinker, stinkpot, bum, puke, crumb, lowlife, scum bag, so-and-so)
From Dictionary.com
Huzzah!
Greg V wrote: "Anyway, for those of you wanting more Styes, I have completed a manuscript for a new adventure set there. It's kind of a nasty, spidery sort of thing. I've sent it to Rich for a proofread so it should be out before long. I'm sure you'll like it, unless that git, Rich, tries to take credit for writing it or something."
...Naturally I'm flattered that you're trying to claim my latest work as one of yours, does this mean I can write that Istivin sequel after all and finally put the record straight on who should have got the giants sequel?
I'm considering adapting The Styes for Lenap in The Wilderlands of High Fantasy (old Judges Guild world updated for 3.5). If you're interested, the Lenap "area" of the Wilderlands (tropical and desert) is provided as a free download from http://www.judgesguild.com. I'm planning on running the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun first, so this might prove a nice continuation...I'd have to re-read it but IIRC Forgotten Temple doesn't reveal a whole lot about Tharizdun to the players, giving the Styes a good option for re-inforcing the whole mystery/horror.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32
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Blimmey - like Mr Dory it's back from the dead...
Great to hear that The Styes is running well and that your players are enjoying it. The bottom line with the mix of Tharizdun and aboleth was that it was all James J's idea. I had originally submitted the Styes as a sahaugin adventure, with the main villain being a mutated sahaugin with more than a hint of deep...
I must tell you Richard that your Styes is superior work. It's inspired my DMing and Submission ambitions. I, too, am a admirer of the Shrine of Tamochan - a work of near-genious!
Please keep submitting. I look forward to seeing more from you!Well done Dungeon!!
Blimmey - like Mr Dory it's back from the dead...
Great to hear that The Styes is running well and that your players are enjoying it. The bottom line with the mix of Tharizdun and aboleth was that it was all James J's idea. I had originally submitted the Styes as a sahaugin adventure, with the main villain being a mutated sahaugin with more than a hint of deep...
I must tell you Richard that your Styes is superior work. It's inspired my DMing and Submission ambitions. I, too, am a admirer of the Shrine of Tamochan - a work of near-genious!
Please keep submitting. I look forward to seeing more from you!
Well done Dungeon!!
That's good to hear James, Dungeon for me is all about lots of us sharing great adventures and I'm really glad the Styes was inspirational to you. Tamoachan is hugely underrated in my opinion, and hopefully some time soon you'll see a bit of a homage to it. Keep submitting yourself, and thanks again.
Rich
Finally got to run Mr. Pett's adventure, it is going great!
Even after repeatedly saying that there were stacks and stacks of crates with signs on them like fragile, handle with care, my PC's fireballed and lightning bolted away. So my rolss were 24% (so close), 52% and then 12%. Whoosh, thermo nuclear explosion resulting in 11 damage :<
At the end of the session the warehouse is toast. 3 dead skum, 2 dead manticores and everybody in Mr. Dory's hulk is doing fine. My PC's still think that by exposing that there are skum involved they are going to get some justice done for Jarme........
So young, so naive....
Heck, I liked the Styes so much that I set a campaign there! Here's my campaign journal for it, even though I haven't updated in months. In real life, we just finished Tammeraut's Fate and are moving steadily toward 9th level, where we will take on further nightmares from the depths of the filthy turgid ocean.
I read some of that campaign journal, and a fine gritty shocking tale of the seedy and strange it is...
I frankly won't run this unless my player group changes substantially. Half just don't do investigations well--to my regret but there it is. I'm not sure how else I could run this effectively.
Huzzah!
The really awesome thing about good adventures is how they run (Tim's Box Of Flumph would be one that springs to my mind), and when fellow DMs take the setting in the adventure on their own and expand and improve it it is the icing on the cake. I'm so glad people are still walking the polluted streets of the Styes and that it's vile rot is still upsetting players.
James, you have some really great imagery there, hats off to you.
My own Styes campaign is just in the final throes now, with a truly desperate bunch of decrepid neerdowells sponsoring the PCs via third parties, one is employed by Dory, another Rashlen, whilst so many friends have been betrayed that the players are struggling to find out who is who - it's been great fun and has actually run very much like a Ravenloft AP.
Next up for us is either a Moorcock-esque take on arthurian/dark fey legends, or a colonial adventure path set in steamy jungles alive with somethings...
Thanks very much for telling me about the Styes again, it brought back some fine memories of discussions with James J - a great early xmas present!
Have a great xmas and a happy new year all of you.
Rich
Richard,
Besides the Styes I would like to thank you for Alhaster as well. Come to think of it, my players are doing the evil cities that Pett created tour ;>
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My own Styes campaign is just in the final throes now, with a truly desperate bunch of decrepid neerdowells sponsoring the PCs via third parties, one is employed by Dory, another Rashlen, whilst so many friends have been betrayed that the players are struggling to find out who is who - it's been great fun and has actually run very much like a Ravenloft AP.
Hello Richard,
would you care to shed some light on the proceedings in your campaign?
Is it WotC exclusive intellectual property (-> only publishable via digital Dungeon?) or do you plan to report about the Styes on this site?
Looking forward to reading news of your setting - and of course a merry christmas!
Günther
My own Styes campaign is just in the final throes now, with a truly desperate bunch of decrepid neerdowells sponsoring the PCs via third parties, one is employed by Dory, another Rashlen, whilst so many friends have been betrayed that the players are struggling to find out who is who - it's been great fun and has actually run very much like a Ravenloft AP.
Hello Richard,
would you care to shed some light on the proceedings in your campaign?
Is it WotC exclusive intellectual property (-> only publishable via digital Dungeon?) or do you plan to report about the Styes on this site?Looking forward to reading news of your setting - and of course a merry christmas!
Günther
Hey Günther
Hmm, well the campaign revolves around an earlier styes campaign where the crown jewels and royal library were hidden behind a magical door that required 3 keys to open it (they were hidden as Marilith backed revolution swept the city) and essentially the campaign revolves around the PCs (all thieves) trying to recover keys from owners which include a kraken, a psychotic mind-flayer serial killer and the queen of wererats – with a few dozen choice NPCs lying and cheating and being betrayed on the way – oh and lots of sahaugin. It's very Maltese Falcon in feel and the players are making it great fun and being reprehensibly selfish and untrustworthy themselves. The campaign has been great fun and I’ll be sorry to finish it, although as I said it gives me chance to start a new one – either a colonial nightmare in jungles or a Moorcockesque take on the Arthurian legends with lots of twisted faerie tales weaved in.
As for the Styes, yes it's now WoTC property. I have no interest in working on dungeon or dragon at present so it will be up to them to do with it as they will, so for the future who knows.
I’ve pitched a few suitably horrible city ideas James’ way and hopefully they’ll see the light of day in due course if he thinks they’re up to the high standard the writers are setting, and of course Old Korvosa is coming up in the new year, and I can promise you a suitably rebellious and horrible place...
I'd also love a crack at Riddleport:)
Happy New Year, have a great one.
Rich
I’ve pitched a few suitably horrible city ideas James’ way and hopefully they’ll see the light of day in due course if he thinks they’re up to the high...
Yesssssssssssssssssss.
I look forward to seeing them.
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Hello Richard,
thanks for your reply and a happy new year to you, too! :-)
It sounds as if you were having quite some fun in your (ending) campaign.
In regards to Korvosa: I didn't pay much attention on who will be "introducing" which part of Golarion, but on a second thought: Sure! Who else?
The existing Korvosa background information already promises a lot of intrigue and back stabbing. Add e.g. some of the Styes kind of detail information on "normal life conditions" in Korvosa and your fellow PCs should feel quite unsettled. I am looking forward to Korvosa!
About Riddleport: It still looks pretty unfinished. There is this arc, people there have a certain reputation and neighbours in the north don't seem to be very friendly. But there is certainly more room for making this place unique!
Cheers,
Günther
P.S.:
The group of fans translating the Golarion previews to german still wonder how to translate this place:
Is it a "place of riddles"?
Or is "riddle" the result of a different word (maybe from an extinct language) gradually transformed to its current form?
Just curious... ;-)
Finally got to run Mr. Pett's adventure, it is going great!
Even after repeatedly saying that there were stacks and stacks of crates with signs on them like fragile, handle with care, my PC's fireballed and lightning bolted away. So my rolss were 24% (so close), 52% and then 12%. Whoosh, thermo nuclear explosion resulting in 11 damage :<
At the end of the session the warehouse is toast. 3 dead skum, 2 dead manticores and everybody in Mr. Dory's hulk is doing fine. My PC's still think that by exposing that there are skum involved they are going to get some justice done for Jarme........
So young, so naive....
Second session of the Styes, my PCs are learning politics the hard way. I had to adjust the adventure a little, Mr Dory relocated to a bathing house after his warehouse burned down, but that relocation failed to save him ;> One of the skum rogues did manage to kill the barbarian/druid.
Finally got to run through the actual Styes adventure, after using the backdrop since June/July. Mr. Dory went down like a chump; in hindsight, he should have been running about in his ship, rather than hanging back in his office. The golem really creeped them out, though and once they killed it, I had Dory cough a few times and then get up (hey, he's undead) and answer their questions. So, they let him go after that and I'm planning his hit squad. Maybe because Mr. Dory was so easy for them (though the skum were quite lethal), I was pretty rough when Sgothgah went after them. He managed to enslave the whole party (though he needed the other PCs' help restraining the Hellbred Paladin) and he carried them as his entourage to finish off the other aboleth. However, the predominantly good/neutral party got a second will save against the dominate effect when he made it clear they would continue the Lantern Man slayings. The kraken died and they skinned off the birthmark (which now hangs prominently in The Crab Woman; a bar in the merchant's district they frequent that takes its name from a huge statue of Blibdoolpoolp in the common room), but Sgothgah got away.
We're now running through the Weavers, where the party has talked their way past Bleary and Hamfist but are finding the Rigg to be a hazardous place to trespass.
So, after this, I'm planning to follow up on the Tharizdun cult/Hastur/Carcosa theme I've built with The Styes and And Madness Followed. I plan on forging a strange relationship between Hastur and Tharizdun (is one the aspect of the other, are they one and the same?); I have The Styes as the seedy (but ultimately more important) district of a large city in a tropical continent. The Styes is run-down and demented, the other district is compulsively clean and practically deserted, so I want to build an almost right brain/left brain relationship, with Tharizdun's re-emerging power growing from the more right brainish Styes and Carcosa/Hastur drawing himself in via the more left-brained, stodgy and organized other district. Kind of a crackpot idea, but I'm running with it. I just imagine the King In Yellow and Dread Carcosa encroaching on the city with the only place of safety being the Styes Reaper Clock (which Councillor Thornwell and his acolytes maintain for their own sinister reasons) being the only place of safety: the clock's ticking a reassuring measure of cold sanity as madness invades around their ears, a thirteenth bride issuing from the clock face to behead Death.
I also plan on fitting in Horatio Quigley a bit further, maybe at the head of a Tharizdun cult of aberration-blooded degenerates or in the Porphyry House Horror and there will be a jungle expedition to the druid mound where the dreaming lord of madness lay buried as the PCs are stalked by a Jaguar cult. More information than you needed, I'm sure.
Second session of the Styes, my PCs are learning politics the hard way. I had to adjust the adventure a little, Mr Dory relocated to a bathing house after his warehouse burned down, but that relocation failed to save him ;> One of the skum rogues did manage to kill the barbarian/druid.Finally got to run Mr. Pett's adventure, it is going great!
Even after repeatedly saying that there were stacks and stacks of crates with signs on them like fragile, handle with care, my PC's fireballed and lightning bolted away. So my rolss were 24% (so close), 52% and then 12%. Whoosh, thermo nuclear explosion resulting in 11 damage :<
At the end of the session the warehouse is toast. 3 dead skum, 2 dead manticores and everybody in Mr. Dory's hulk is doing fine. My PC's still think that by exposing that there are skum involved they are going to get some justice done for Jarme........
So young, so naive....
3rd session, some mixed results, I left out the skum that guarded the temple of tharizdun and my party of 3 first encountered a lone chuul. The chuul died quickly, then the confrontation with the 'whisperer'. That really didn't go as planned ;<, my party saw through the illusions, the sorcerer got blinded and the invisible mage got in some hits. The aboleth fled, he just couldn't truely hurt the party so I had him flee. Next day they went to the kraken. The 2 aboleth at the site, got surprised by my all 'improved invisibilty' party. That cost them, they fled after losing most of their hp. Then the kraken, quite surprisingly they couldn't hurt it enough, and being invisble the kraken couldn't hurt them. So my party fled. I had them confront another chuul in the temple, bad idea on my part, almost had a tpk!
Next up: I'll have the kraken attack the styes.
As we're just concluding the Styes campaign, and Mr Dory is a key figure (under the guise of the mysterious 'Collector' or 'Fat Man') it's great to hear that others are still playing this adventure.
I hope that as part of the Pathfinder RPG I'll be able to contribute something along this vein again - we'll see how things go.
Have fun!
Rich
As we're just concluding the Styes campaign, and Mr Dory is a key figure (under the guise of the mysterious 'Collector' or 'Fat Man') it's great to hear that others are still playing this adventure.
I hope that as part of the Pathfinder RPG I'll be able to contribute something along this vein again - we'll see how things go.
Have fun!
Rich
It's 2014 and this thread is years old. It's been a number of years since the Styes and the Weavers. Any chance a 3rd chapter from our favorite city will ever see publication in any form, there Mr. Pett???
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It's 2014 and this thread is years old. It's been a number of years since the Styes and the Weavers. Any chance a 3rd chapter from our favorite city will ever see publication in any form, there Mr. Pett???As we're just concluding the Styes campaign, and Mr Dory is a key figure (under the guise of the mysterious 'Collector' or 'Fat Man') it's great to hear that others are still playing this adventure.
I hope that as part of the Pathfinder RPG I'll be able to contribute something along this vein again - we'll see how things go.
Have fun!
Rich
9 years old in fact - remarkable. Thank you, Killer, for raising it once more.
Good news and bad news, not in equal measure.
The bad news is the Styes still belongs to wizards, and I have no desire to do anything on that front with it.
However.
Frog God Games are to publish two things by me in 2015 - both related. The Blight is a city setting akin to the worst aspects of the Styes; its rotten to the core, sweaty, oily and nasty, run by villains and teetering perpetually on the edge of revolution and a place called Between - a wild frontier of madness. From the Jumble to the Capitol via the Gyre and the Unsea, the Blight is a horrible place I hope you'll enjoy.
And which is where...
Levee - a 10 part AP written exclusively by me will take place. Levee is an entirely urban AP taking characters from 1st to 10th level and beyond. It a seedy mix of roleplay and combat, features wererats, vampires, stitched things, creatures from madness and an angel. Its low-dungeon, low level action with the PCs firmly at the soul of the AP.
Here's the taster text from the player's guide. The kickstarter will be widely publicised - huzzah!
“A stitched thing shambles through the night, the smog of the Canker caressing it. Hooded and covered, the thing’s head is too large for its body and it has to lean frequently against the dirt smeared brick walls of the Lyme and suck in air through broken lips. A stench like rotting vegetables and sugar surrounds it. People move by in the smog, quietly and nervously going about their business, occasionally a cockroach crunches under their feet. Some travellers are rich enough to have linkboys, and a ghastly yellow pallor surrounds the conspirators as they flit like will-o-the-wisps through the poison air of the street.
The silence is suddenly stabbed by the sound of a carriage clattering along the cobbles – a child’s nightmare pulls the carriage yet no one seems to notice; it gulps the air as it lurches by - a slick black thing that hobbles spastically yet with great purpose. Unseen within, a naga pulls at a hookah, it is reading an ancient cabalistic work that details a ragefire elemental, a hateful thing of such fury that it can consume cities. The naga smiles and blows out a crimson smoke-ring as it puzzles this new weapon that has fallen, or rather been tripped, into its presence. The naga bangs upon the roof of the carriage for the driver to speed on, and within moments the streets are quiet again.
The hooded thing staggers on, beneath towering walls under sloping gables where great spiders crawl, the arachnids cowering from the spider-catchers who ply their trade in the dark. Both avoid the rooftops, where ancient scrimshaw gargoyles call to each other in haunting song. No one climbs to meet the scrimshaw, no one dares.
The figure passes a burnt-out pawnshop and is ignored by a young couple in a doorway; seeing only each other, one of the figures has two mouths full of jutting yellow teeth. The other, possibly a man, is dead, only alchemy keeps his wan body upright. He appears to be ignoring the prostitute’s shortcomings, or perhaps is paying for them.
At last the stitched thing reaches its destination, a crooked house lit by the distant lights of the Great Fayre and the peculiar cutting beam of Hobbington’s Lamp—the greatest of sea lantern. Now hobbling down the stairs it gives a secret knock and is allowed into the alchymic opium den. Entering, it sees something in the mirror opposite, but the thing it sees is not its own reflection, and as it watches the shadow moves out of the looking glass and into the room. The hooded figure bows, and hands over a package to the mirror dweller, who smiles crookedly and moves into the city night, drawing a shining meat-cleaver as it does so. Singing a nursery rhyme under its breath, it breaks into a skip.
Outside, countless other stories are taking place; misery and joy and lust and sin abound here, this is their home, this is home to many, many things…”
Huzzah! It's about 75% in now Chris, and thank you kindly, I'll hold you to it - lets see where Vaughn is on productions. I'll try and rouse him.
Rich
That's wonderful news. I've never purchased anything from Frog Gawd games before, but I'll do so when your stuff is released. And I'll convince my fellow killer GMs to do likewise:) The AP from levels 1-10 is fantastic. That way, my players can't escape once they reach the next level, off to some greener pasture. 'Levee' will be "home" to them, in a very co-dependent sort of way...
Huzzah!
PS it's nasty:)
Can we have a link? =)
I can never tell, there's always too much stuff on KS for me to navigate until someone provides a direct link >_>
Dave is right Orthos, 80% written. I'll make sure the ks is well-publicised, it's likely to be 2015 I suspect, my maps are going to take a few months to make sense of:)
Rich
Dave is right Orthos, 80% written. I'll make sure the ks is well-publicised, it's likely to be 2015 I suspect, my maps are going to take a few months to make sense of:)
Rich
Looking forward to it, Rich.
Huzzah! And likewise.