The Dragon #8 part 2

The Development of Towns in D&D: This article gives guidelines on designing your campaign's main town or city, where the PCs go between dungeon expeditions. The advice given is generally quite good, but in my opinion it errs on the side of over-preparation. (Yes, I realise how ridiculous that is coming from the author of this blog.) There are number of little rules tidbits that I'm going to pilfer from here:

• Cartographers sell wilderness and dungeon maps for 100 to 600 gp, depending on how remote the area is.
• A shave and a haircut at the barbers costs 1 gp.
• Armour and weapons can be bought at pawnshops, but they have a 1-in-6 chance of being defective.
• There is a 1-in-4 chance that a foreign merchant or two will be present in the main square.
• Horses can be boarded at the stables for 2-3 gp per week.
• In the seedy area of town, there is a 1-in-8 chance per turn of encountering a thief or a band of brigands.
• Soothsayers charge 20 gp to predict how a planned adventure might turn out.
• There are magicians who will cast spells for a fee of 50gp x spell level. Now this is something I will have to limit to very low level spells, probably only 1st or 2nd. The price is far too low for anything more powerful, and only the weakest and poorest of magic-users would resort to selling their services for such a low price.
• Brothels charge 20gp (and 35 gp for the special!). Bribes of 10-100 gp can be made to find out information.
• Surgeons can heal 1-6 hit points for 25 gp with a 50% chance of success. They have a 1-in-6 chance to cure poison for 35 gp.
• Scholars at the library can research facts for a fee that begins at 100gp and goes up as the info required gets more specific.

In addition, an inn named Falgrave's is detailed, which I will probably jam into the City of Greyhawk. It's run by a dwarf named Falgrave, and is mostly frequented by demi-humans. Falgrave himself is up on all the non-human gossip.

There's a quick method given for generating NPCs, which is pretty handy. It brings up the idea that adventurers are exceptional, and suggests rolling 3d4 for the stats of townspeople. I can support this as a general idea, but in practice there's no scope here for townsfolk to have any scores greater than 12, so I'm ignoring it. I'm also ignoring the suggestion that females only roll 2d6 for Strength and Constitution. But rolling 2d6 for every stat for kids? That I'll go with. Also provided is a means for determining random alignment, age, personality type, loyalty, initiative and level. It's nice to haved this sort of thing on hand.

To illustrate the method we get a sample NPC, Blatherson of Hillock. His stats are: Str 12, Con 9, Int 13, Cha 15, Dex 8, Wis 7. He's Lawful, old, loyal to his friends, and cooperative and friendly. He's 4th level, and though it doesn't say I will assume that he is a Fighter. He frequents the Golden Goblet tavern, where he constantly drinks mead and tells stories of his exploits in the Goblin Wars.

Introduction to Gamma World: Yes, Gamma World is going to be in my campaign, given that it has conversion rules in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. This article gives a brief background for the setting. The gist is that in the 23rd Century, life is great until various ideological groups start warring with each other. Into this chaos comes a mysterious group known as The Apocalypse, which issues an ultimatum to the governments of the world: stop fighting, or be destroyed. Man unites in battle against The Apocalypse, but the resulting war destroys human civilization and leaves the Earth devastated. Nice set-up, and I look forward to delving further into this later on.

A Re-Evaluation of Gems & Jewelry in D&D: This article presents a series of tables that give greater variety and accuracacy in determining the type and value of gems and jewelry. It falls a smidge on the over-detailed side, but even the author is smart enough to acknowledge that this doesn't work for the times when you find a crapload of gems together. It's fine for the smaller hauls, though.

For my campaign I'll be introducing these tables with the explanation that gem evaluation techniques make a sudden rapid improvement all of a sudden.

Still More Additions to Metamorphosis Alpha: Jesus H, is Jim Ward still cranking this stuff out? This time we get some new monsters. It's an eclectic selection, with mutated plants, animals, and even a few awful pun-based monsters modelled after the staff of TSR. The Gygarant, for example, has a Sonic Yell attack, I guess because Gygax used to shout at people a lot. You see what they did there? Eh, I'm sure it was funny to people who knew them personally.

Anyway, I won't go the details, because I don't know the MA rules at all. But all of these guys will be going into my version of the Starship Warden. Even the pun monsters, because although they are lame they are also quite functional and dangerous, at least to my untrained eye.

Next: The Dragon #9!

The Dragon #8 part 1

After last issue's dearth of usable articles, it's back to business as usual. The Dragon #8 has a bunch of useful ones, including one on the Outer Planes that introduces a lot of D&D lore. But first, the articles that I'm not using.

The Dragon Rumbles editorial talks about how pleased Tim Kask is to have a story by Harry Fischer in the magazine. He also mentions that The Gnome Cache will be back next issue, but he's lying. The Finzer Family is the aforementioned story, and blimey it's long – so long that the final part is in the next issue. And So, You Want Realism in D&D is a satirical means of determining what your stats would be in real life. Using this method, my stats are very, very bad.

Planes, The Concepts of Spatial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D: This article basically sets forth what will become the Great Wheel cosmology – the classic planar set-up for D&D. This will probably be the only article I tackle today, because it's a doozy.

The first thing that the article posits is that there are an infinite number of co-existing planes. While this could refer to the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, and the many sub- and demi-planes sandwiched between them, I prefer to think that it refers to alternate realities - each alternate reality being either a published campaign setting or someone's home campaign.

The regular plane for human life is clarified as The Prime Material Plane, which includes the planet Earth (or Oerth, if you will), as well as the entire physical universe. Touching this plane are the Positive and Negative Material Planes, as well as the four elemental planes (Air, Earth, Fire and Water). The Ethereal Plane exists in the same space as the material, and can be used to travel to any of the Inner Planes (i.e. the ones that touch the material). The Astral Plane allows travel to the outer planes. It's also said to 'warp the dimension we know as length' which I don't really get. But as a mere mortal, I shouldn't understand the nature of the planes, should I?

There are sixteen Outer Planes, which are "a collection of the religious and/or philosophical goals (or anti-goals) of mankind and the other intellectual species". Classic Gygax. The Outer Planes are: The Seven Heavens, The Happy Hunting Grounds, The Twin Paradises, Olympus, Elysium, Gladsheim, Limbo, Pandemonium, The 666 Layers of the Abyss, Tarterus, Hades, Gehenna, The Nina Hells, Acheron, Nirvana, and Arcadia. This matches up perfectly with Gygax's earlier article on alignment, which has me doing the happy dance. It also gives us a bit more information, such as how many levels some of these planes have. In addition we learn that travel from the Astral Plane always places the traveller on the first level of the Plane. Also, you can apparently walk from one Plane to those adjacent to it, which I find awesome for some reason. There's not a lot of info given on the planes apart from their names, but given that most of them were drawn from mythology, it wouldn't have been too hard to flesh them out.

Where this article gets really intriguing is when it starts talking about magic weapons. Monsters that can only be harmed by a special material, like silver or cold iron, are said to exist partially in either the Positive or Negative Material Plane. Creatures that can only be hit by +1 weapons are said to exist completely in two planes at once. Those needing a +2 weapon to hit exist in three planes at once, and so on. The conclusion that is drawn from this is that magical weapons also extend into multiple planes.

The exact nature of this is explored in some pretty murky text that I'm going to try and decipher. A +1 weapon extends into planes once removed from the Prime material, a +2 weapon in those twice removed, and so on. Those with special bonuses against a certain type of creature have a more intense nature in the plane that creature has its extra existence. The article then posits the idea that every type of creature has its own sub-plane on which it has its personal existence – this is in order to explain weapons that deal extra damage to creatures that can still be hit by normal weapons. This system also allows creatures operating in the Astral or Ethereal Planes to be struck by magic weapons.

The idea is also given that magic weapons can only operate within a certain proximity to the Prime Material Plane. So a +1 weapon is only effective while you are at most one plane away from the Prime Material. Go further than that (say, into the Outer Planes) and your weapon is no longer magical. The sword of sharpness and the vorpal blade are said to have special treatment, though its not clarified what this might be – perhaps they always function regardless of what plane they're on? I'm still a bit unclear on exactly how this all works, but the beauty of it is that it doesn't really affect anything mechanically - it's just a way to explain how it all works given the existing set-up of the planes.

The article ends when Gygax drops the bombshell that this system will require him to revise the whole of D&D. It's a pretty atrange place to announce what will become AD&D, that's for sure.

As for introducing it to my campaign, I'm thinking of just dropping in a tome that has the article in it almost word for word. I'd like to see what my players will make of it all!

Next: The Dragon #8 part 2

The Dragon #7

Remember last issue when the editorial promised to expand the magazine coverage to different games? This where it begins, leaving me with a pretty small selection of articles to cover.

But first, the irrelevent ones. The Dragon Rumbles editorial talks about how far the magazine has come since issue #1, and also makes sure to point out that nothing they publish for D&D is considered official. What to Do When Dogs Eat Your Dice details ways to generate random numbers without dice. Mapping the Dungeons continues to show names and addresses of DMs. Mystery Hill – America's Stonehenge gives the history of a natural rock formation in the USA. The Journey Most Alone is a sequel to last issue's short story by Morno. And Editor's Library talks a bit about the classic game OGRE, and also gives the thumbs up to Judges Guild.

Gary Gygax on Dungeons & Dragons: This article sees Gygax writing about the genesis of the game, from the Castle & Crusade Society, to Chainmail, to Blackmoor to D&D. I won't go into the details here, because there are much better resources out there that have this info at hand. The only detail of note is that originally, Dave Arneson's barony of Blackmoor was situated north-east from the Great Kingdom. From what I remember of the official World of Greyhawk maps, the exact opposite is true. So I doubt I can make use of this, barring some past cataclysm that reshaped the land or something. But it seems a little drastic to fit around the established continuity. This is one I'll probably just have to turf out.

Military Formations of the Nations of the Universe: It's yet another Empire of the Petal Throne article by M.A.R. Barker. Say what you will of the man, he certainly was prolific and imaginative.

This is an article about the various military formations used by the nations of Tekumel. As with all EPT stuff I'm not going to get into this too much here. But this is thorough, and will really come in handy should the PCs get embroiled in mass battle on that world. Especially since the formations have names like 'The Oncoming Wings of the Hereafter' and 'The Five Fingers of Death'. Not only evocative, but completely rad.

Featured Creature – The Prowler: A Prowler is, according to the illustration here, a large green worm or serpent with creepy red eyes and a mouth full of tentacles. Their eyes have the power to irrevocably erase the mind of anyone who looks into them, turning them into a mindless zombie. They then implant eggs under the zombie's skin, then send them out to wander around for a bit until the eggs hatch and the baby prowlers eat their former host.

Although the word 'irrevocable'was used above and in the actual monster description, a zombie's mind can be recovered by three high-level Clerics all casting dispell evil. It's no wonder there are so many different ways to interpret Gygax's rules, because he contr4adicts himself here within the space of a coupleof paragraphs.

There's a cool bit about really smart Prowlers setting up hatcheries full of zombies that act as guards and egg hosts. I'm already picturing a creepy series of caves full of these bastards, so I think I have me a nice lair to place in the wilderness.

Oh, and I just checked the stats on this thing. 14 hit dice? Armor Class 1? 50% magic resistance? Constriction for 4-48 points of damage a round? Blimey, they're well hard.

One last thing – in the article here they spell zombie as 'zombei' repeatedly. I'm not sure if it's a typo or a way to differentiate from the regular undead zombie. I might put in an obnoxious sage type who insists on pronouncing the word with a slight inflection, and sharply corrects any players who pronounce it differently. (In case you don't know, I like to design NPCs just to irritate my players.)

The Gnome Cache Chapter 7: This is it, the final installment of Garrison Ernst's (aka Gary Gygax's) first novel. Except it isn't. The story ends on a cliffhanger and is never seen again. From what I've read the magazine's editor Tim Kask didn't care for it and cut it right out of there as quick as he could. Which I think is a bit of a shitty thing to do, leaving the serial unfinished. Surely there were some readers out there following it. I quite like it myself.

This installment sees Dunstan and Mellerd fleeing from the slaughter of the last chapter, and coming across a dwarf being pursued by giant frogs and frog men. The following details can be gleaned:

• The Nehron uprising mentioned by the bandits last issue was no hoax, and they actually have taken Blackmoor.
• East of Blackmoor is a jumble of broken terrain stretching out to the sea, home to roving bands of Nehronlanders.
• West is a trackless forest which leads to the slopes of the Senescent Hills, an inhospitable place that is home to creatures that do not welcome men.
• The Free City of Humpbridge bends from south-west to south across the base of the Senescent range.
• South-west of Blackmoor, in a valley near the Senescents, is a strange black river.

With that out of the way, the question remains – what happens to Dunstan and Mellerd from here? I'm afraid to say that I am drawing the obvious conclusion: that they were killed by the giant frogs, and that's why their story ends so abruptly (don't blame me, blame Tim Kask!). That leaves the question of the frogs themselves, but earlier details make that an easy one. Giant Frogs and Frog Men near Blackmoor? It's all very reminiscent of the situation from The Temple of the Frog, the adventure module from Supplement II. I'll just have to put some evidence of the deaths of Dunstan and Mellerd in the surrounding area for the PCs to discover. Oh, and possibly include a treasure guarded by gnomes somewhere nearby – the story was called The Gnome Cache after all, even if it never got to that point.

Next: The Dragon #8

The Dragon #6 part 2

Further Rules, Modifications and Clarifications for Metamorphosis Alpha: The glut of articles about this game continues. This time we get some clarification to a few mutations that were vague in their implementation. For example, for the mutation that makes you taller than normal, here is given the exact means of determining how tall. Some other powers are given ranges and the like – simple stuff that was forgotten in the original rules. There is also a change to the poison rules that allows for extra deadliness when PCs are poisoned multiple times in a short period – given that I'm using D&D saving throw rules, I doubt these will come into play in my campaign. There are also small changes to the rules for missile weapons and vibro weapons that would make more sense to me if I knew the MA rules, I'm sure.

From the Fantasy Forge: This article details the recently released official D&D miniatures from MiniFigs. I don't have any of these, and it's highly unlikely I'll be able to get any, so they won't come into use in my game. But there are a few things to note that the miniatures indicate. The first is that the Hobgoblins are the only goblinoids with sergeants and standard-bearers – an early sign of how militant they will eventually become. The kobolds are depicted in their classic dog-faced form, which fits nicely with the art we've already seen in Swords & Spells. The gnolls are similarly hyena-headed. This is the period where D&D is starting to solidify its visual identity.

The Gnome Cache Chapter 6: In this penultimate installment, Dunstan has taken up with a merchant caravan as a mercenary protector. The chapter ends with the caravan having been attacked by bandits, and Dunstan fleeing for his life.

As usual, below are the meagre gleanings I have gotten from the story:

• After a week's journey, the merchant caravan crosses the Aarn River and enters the walled town of Rheyton.
• The men of the distant western plains are small and wiry.
  The land that Dunstan hails from is known as Thalland, and the people that live there are called Thallites.
• Northerners from Nehron or Kimbry are broad, burly and dark-haired.
• The merchant is a Thallite known as Evan. The leader of his mercenary band is called Rufus, and Baldwin is his lieutenant. One of the Kimbry in the band is known as Vardabothet. All of them probably die at the end of this chapter.
• The Kimbry live in the Kimbry Vale, beyond which are mountains.
• After many days travel they reach the border keep of Blackmoor, which also has a village and a guardian castle. The Nehron peasants seem unhappy with their noble lord.
• An evergreen forest begins a few leagues north of Blackmoor.
• The bandits mention a Nehron uprising against Blackmoor, but this could be a ruse on their part.

Determination of Psionic Abilities: This is an alternate system for determining whether a character is psionic. Whereas the old system was reliant on the PC having high ability scores, this one allows any human character to test for psionic ability regardless of score. It also gives half-human character a chance for psionics, albeit a smaller one. The major departure is that here the abilities are no longer divided by character class – any character can possess any psionic ability. Otherwise things work much the same, but those with ESP can learn psionic abilities from others.

This will replace the psionic system from Supplement III at this point in my campaign, as the psionic potential of humans broadens.

Morale in D&D: This is an alternate morale system – not only for the NPCs, but for the PCs themselves! Each PC has a Bravery stat, rolled on 3d6 along with his other ability scores. This gives a modifier to the morale roll, as does the party leader's charisma, the character's loyalty, how frightening the monster faced, the number of clerics or magic-users in the party, etc. These modifiers are added to a roll of 1d10 and compared to a chart to see how the PCs react in any combat situation.

This is the sort of ruleset that anticipates things like the Sanity rules from Call of Cthulhu, but it's the type of rule that I'm opposed to on a number of levels. The biggest reason is that it uses rules to supercede the will of the players – anything that takes choice away from the player is bad (except for magical effects, of course, so long as they're used sparingly). I'd be inclined not to use this at all, but there's a little example setting here that saves me...

The writer describes his home setting of Fantorgn, where humans are predominant and demi-humans are rare and mistrusted. I figure on using this as a mini-setting that the PCs can get to. Pervaded by a palpable air of dread, they will be less able to control their fears while in this world – sort of like a prototype Ravenloft, a Demi-Plane of Dread. Some sample NPCs from this world are Klabath Durhn (a 6th level Fighter with a 14 Bravery), and Maygreth the Fierce (a 7th level Fighter with a 15 Charisma). The rest of their party consists of another 6th level Fighter, three 4th level Fighters, a 5th level Magic-User, his three 2nd level assistants, three village priests from the local temple, a half-elf guide and two elf hirelings.

So I'll use these rules, but only if the PCs happen to make their way into Fantorgn. It's my way of marginalising a rule-system that I really dislike, while foreshadowing some future developments like the Ravenloft setting.

Featured Creature – The Death Angel: Death Angels appear as winged men with scythes and awesome helmets. They have two purposes – the first is to warn someone of impending death, and the second is to kill someone as a representative of Death itself.

This is something they are really, really good at. They can teleport and fly, so there's little chance of escape. And every time they hit with a scythe attack, it's save or die, and even on a successful save you still lose a point of Constitution. They cant be dispelled, and turning only works on them temporarily. All that and 95% magic resistance makes for a pretty formidable foe.

Anyone killed by a Death Angel returns as one in three days. They can be bought back with a Raise Dead Fully spell, but even then the chance for resurrection is rolled as if the character had a Constitution score of 3. Any character killed by a Death Angel three times can't ever be brought back, even by a Wish.

Death Angels single-mindedly attack their target, and will return again and again until they are successful. The only way to kill one permanently is to cast Remove Curse after it is killed by its intended victim.

Death Angels are said to be 'Fingers of Fate', used only by Gods, Demi-Gods, and very powerful Liches and Evil High Priests.

I doubt I'll use these guys much at all, given that they are a one-off monster that was never brought forward into AD&D. Given the power of the beings that command them, I suppose that they are used sparingly, so I don't need a lot of justification for their rarity.

Next: The Dragon #7.

The Dragon #6 part 1

I return from my holiday feeling somewhat rested but no more enthusiastic than I was beforehand. I did not game that whole time, and D&D was really not on my mind at any point. Oh, 4th Edition, see what horrors thou hast wrought!

So here's the plan. I only have a few more products to cover before I reach the end of the OD&D era for TSR, and the beginning of the AD&D era. (For reasons I will get to at a later point, I have decided that the D&D Basic Set authored by J. Eric Holmes is the beginning of the AD&D era.) I plan to tackle those products, namely issues #6 through 9 of The Dragon, and all three sets of the Monster & Treasure Assortment, before changing things up a little.

Once that change comes, I'll be consolidating some of the data I've gleaned so far. Take Castle Blackstar, for instance, the home dungeon of D&D contributor Joe Fischer. There is very little that Fischer wrote for D&D after this, so I feel confident in working up the bare bones of a large dungeon for this location. I also plan to delve into what can be gleaned from the internet and other articles about the original Greyhawk and Blackmoor campaigns, in order to work up a basic timeline of events from before the beginning of my campaign. It's a way to continue the project while changing gears a little bit, which will hopefully refresh my batteries.

But for now, we have The Dragon #6. As always, I'll begin with a quick recap of the articles that I'm not using for the project. The Dragon Rumbles editorial talks about expanding the magazine's coverage of games other than D&D and Empire of the Petal Throne; The Forest of Flame is a short story by early TSR artist Morno that feels the need to spell wizard as wysard; and holy crap, that's it! So much for The Dragon's resolution to cover different games, eh?

An Alternate Beginning Sequence for Metamorphosis Alpha: Like it says in the title, this is a different way to begin a Metamorphosis Alpha campaign. Instead of playing as tribesmen on the Starship Warden, the players begin as clones of the original crew created by the ship to fix the current disaster and get things running the way they should be.

These clones have much greater technical knowledge than the average MA character, though I gather that their potential for mutation is smaller. Even so they have a chance to start with some, and exposure to radiation increases that chance. Some of the special skills that can be generated here are pretty nifty, from immortality to resurrection to the ability to power technology with your mind.

I doubt that I will use this article as intended, given that the majority of PCs in my campaign will be created as D&D characters. But I will certainly include clones like those shown here should the PCs ever venture into the Starship Warden. I also wouldn't rule out introducing a PC who is a clone should a player need to be introduced to the game while the party is stuck in the Starship.

Sea Trade in D&D Campaigns: This article provides a means for the DM to determine the success of any trading ventures the PCs might decide to invest in. Not that this system will be used should the PCs go along for the ride – if that is the case the usual wilderness adventure rules apply. This is for when some wise-ass PC decides he wants to run a sea trade business in absentia while still adventuring.

It's a really nice set of rules, I think – not too complex, and with an element of risk. The PC writes out a set of orders detailing how much cargo the ship will carry, how many ports it will visit, how much to buy, etc. As is the way of things in OD&D, success is determined by a big ol' chart. The number of ports bypassed increases the chance for a big profit, but it also increases the chance that the ship will be lost. Risk vs. reward, and all it takes for the DM is one roll on a chart.

Something tells me I won't ever need these rules, but you never know. They're easily adapted for use with land trade, as well.

Legions of the Petal Throne Painting Guide: Wow, this Empire of the Petal Throne thing is detailed, man. This article has M.A.R. Barker going through all of the EPT miniatures and giving the actual colours that they would be in his world. Not just the soldiers get this treatment, but all of the very strange beasties as well. This is full-on stuff, and I very much doubt that there are many other worlds out there that get into this level of minutiae. As for applicability to my campaign, I will be keeping this on hand for when I need to write descriptions and flavour text and the like. And hopefully I will remember the details should I need to come up with this info off the cuff!

That's it for me tonight, as it is stinkingly, wretchedly hot here for we Southrons. I'll be back in a couple of days with more stuff from The Dragon #6.

On Hiatus

Just a quick note to let you know that as of now I am on a Christmas break. From today until the 4th of January, I will be without the internet, and consequently unable to post updates. I expect to start up again pretty shortly after I return.

A merry Bah Humbug to you all.

The Dragon #5 part 2

Witchcraft Supplement for D&D: I love how the guys at TSR just published this thing even though they have no idea who wrote it. Truly, it was a different time, and there's absolutely no way Wizards of the Coast would be able to do this now.

This is a lengthy and thorough article on the subject of Witches. I know it is far from the last, but after this monstrosity I wonder just what is left to say. Anyway, the Witches presented here are all NPC monsters, part of an ancient order. The first thing the article does is to add them to the Wilderness encounter tables. No matter what terrain you are in, every roll of 5 or 7 now has a 50% chance to be a Witch instead of the monster shown on the chart. It's said that they favour woodlands and orchards, but that doesn't stop them showing up everywhere else.

About a third of Witches are Lawful, while the rest are Chaotic. There's no provision given for Good or Evil, so I guess the author was working from the old alignment system. Chaotic Witches are further subdivided into Low Order, High Order, and the forbidden Secret Order, which never mix with the other types

From there we get into Witch Magic, beginning with a note that Efreet, Djinn and all Clerics are completely immune to it. That last one is a big surprise to me, given that it's a positive boon to the PCs. I guess we can cross Gary off the list of potential authors...

Lawful or White Witches can cast 7 spells a day from a list that mostly consists of healing spells with a few other utilities like invisibility thrown in for good measure. A small percentage of White Witches are 'ancient', and once a week can cast a more powerful spell from a special list. There's some really powerful stuff there. Youth can remove 40 years from a character's age. Influence will automatically turn a character Lawful. Banish Any One Creature will instantly send one creature to Hell with no saving throw. Enchantment allows the Witch to create any magic ring, potion, weapon, or miscellaneous item in day at no expense. Lastly, Seek allows the Witch to find any object, place, or creature and visualise its surroundings. Yep, that's a nasty set of powers alright, and it makes me glad that they are strictly the purview of NPCs.

Chaotic or Black Witches have a more versatile spell list than their White counterparts, though they don't do healing at all. Low Order Witches cast 4 minor spells a day, while High Order cast 4 minor and two major spells.

There are a few new spells in the minor category. Pit opens a hole 15 feet deep in the ground. Fire Box creates a hollow cube of fire around a target. Diminish Plant/Animal/Men shrinks every creature in its area. Plant Entrapment causes plants to entangle creatures in the area.

The major spells are all new, though not as powerful as those for the White Witches. Paralyzing Pit is like the Pit ability above, but anyone in the pit must make a saving throw or be paralyzed. Undead Control lets the Witch command undead. Aging adds 20 years to the age of any living thing. Circle of Blindness seems to cause blindness and deafness to everyone within the range, as well as providing a refuge from all detection spells. Curse is an open-ended means by which the DM can hose players in any way he chooses, though it doesn't work on anyone enclosed in silver. Poison Touch grants the Witch a save or die attack, or lets her coat items in poison. Curtain Wall creates an extradimensional room in which the Witch can make her lair.

Secret Order Witches are extremely antisocial loners who never have help of any kind, but are extraordinarily powerful. Due to their long life, they become intimately familiar with their surroundings, and are impossible to surprise in their lairs. They are smart enough not to attack unless they feel threatened. Here a little bit of history about them:

"In forgotten ages past, in kingdoms unheralded and dead centuries of untold history, a fiery confrontation emerged between witch covens world-wide. The myriad witches of the woodlands and the fields formed an alliance which dominated all other covens. This group forcibly directed the studies of other witches, and great emphasis was placed on the magic of plants and animals, that they might grow stronger still in their respective domains. But there were those who sought darker and more Godly enchantments, pursuing powers of devastation and the very elements. They promised to teach what they learned, to enslave the world of men, and to shape raw power to the ends of witches everywhere. This the alliance would not permit, for power inspires fear, fear of those that have it. Those who allied with the new Secret Coven were cast out, and in time only the mountains offered refuge to the members of this radical coven."

These Witches can cast six 'Group A' spells a day, which are just the general run-of-the-mill Cleric and Magic-User spells. It's 'Group B' where the real doozies reside, and Secret Order Witches get 3 of those a day. Intensify greatly amplifies any natural phenomenon. Wither causes every living thing in the area to rapidly age and die. Weight Concentration/Dilution allows the Witch to control the weight of any creature or object. Quake causes earthquakes. Vaporize turns stone into fog for quick excavations. Solidify is the reverse, and good for trapping creatures too slow to escape. Volcanic Circle creates a ring of lava that flows outwards and burns anyone caught for 10d6 damage. And Reflections makes any spell targeted at the Witch bounce back at the caster.

The Secret Order also has a bunch of magical weapons. Only High Order witches, an 'ancient' White Witch, or a Wizard of 13th level or above can wield them. A Cleric who touches one will suffer instant death, 'for clerics are disciples of deities, and the secret witches recognize no power but their own as supreme'. The Skull of Death is a dragon skull helmet that can command undead and cast Finger of Death. Mountain Seeds become the size of a castle when thrown, and can be used to crush armies and such. Leech Dust forms a cloud that sucks the blood out of its victims. Assassin's Eyes are invisible eyes that fly around and cast Charm Person or Death Ray. Witch Wands can cast a bunch of the various witch spells per day. A Serpent Belt is like the snake belt but better. A Seed Satchel contains seeds that transform into stuff, like a wyvern or a wall of thorns. A Hornet Cape lets the wearer fly, command flying creatures, and fire stingers. Finally, a Potion Cauldron lets the Witch produce any potion in a single day.

From there we go to Lairs, and the treasures that Witches keep in them. Every Witch has a flying broomstick, of course, as well as a crystal ball. They also have familiars, which is the first mention of that concept in D&D. Lawful Witches have small birds or animals, while the Chaotic Witches get rad stuff like Basilisks, Wyverns, undead, or a Warlock. Chaotic Witches trap their lairs with curses, while the Lawful ones make do with manual traps (because a Curse is so much more evil than a crossbow bolt to the neck).

Lastly, we deal with the generic Witch items that might appear in any treasure hoard regardless of the Witch's alignment. Some are from older supplements, while most are new. The Snake Belt is a belt that turns into a snake strong enough to strangle a Wyvern. Ivy Bracelets bestow plant control and the ability to talk to plants, but are delicate and easily destroyed. Dart Rings fire poisonous thorns. The Locket of Satan is only found with evil Witches, and grants command of any three Chaotic creatures in range. Love Lockets are only found with good Witches, and any male humanoid who gets within range is instantly smitten and will do anything the wearer wants. Thorn Twine is a thorny vine that can do all sorts of rope tricks and also slash people with its thorns. A Guardian Egg can be turned into a Hill Giant, a Roc, or a Dragon Turtle. Hill Seeds expand greatly in size and mass whn thrown, acting like cannonballs. Luck Charms give bonuses to attack and defense, as well as wishes and the ability to find better treasure. A Mirror-Crystal protects against Charm Person, sleep spells, paralyzation, curses, and anything else that controls your mind. Amulets of Power let a spellcaster memorize more spells, and increases the power of those spells by 50%.

Phew. That's that. One tidbit to take away from here is the frequent mention of Satan. I'm more than willing to have Satan as one of my Dukes of Hell, so adding him to the campaign is no problem. Introducing the Witches all of a sudden will be more problematic, but I'm tempted just to put them in the encounter tables and be done with it. If I come up with an explanation later on I'll use it.

The Gnome Cache Chapter Five: In which Dunstan and Mellerd travel to Deepwell and join with a merchant heading north. Some observations:

• The Upplands north of Crosshill Road are wild and desolate. Rabbits live there.
• It takes a week by foot to travel from Huddlefoot to Deepwell.
• Dolph is the liveryman in Deepwell. He can't read very well.
• Evan the Trader is a dealer is rich furs from Nehron-land.
• The town of Rheyton lies north of Deepwell, and further north are the forests of Nehron.
• Not too far from Deepwell live the wild Kimbry, who are known to brand their horses.
• Some coin types are named: plumbs, and gold scruples (or scrups).

Next: The Dragon #6. Sea Trade! Psionic Revamp! Morale! Looks like things are getting a bit more complicated...

The Dragon #5

Before we begin, may I just say how good it is to have an issue of The Dragon with actual D&D content in it? Empire of the Petal Throne may be rad, but it can't match the love I bear for its progenitor.

This issue has a number of articles that I won't be using in my campaign. The Dragon Rumbles editorial talks about fiction submissions, and the expansion of the magazine to eight issues per year. Out on a Limb features a letter defending fiction in the mag, another one implausibly trying to recruit 55 assistant DMs, a letter prophetically bemoaning the plethora of new rules and sub-classes, a continuation of the debate about Tolkien elves, and finally a letter from Garry Spiegle about how all sorts of gamers are needed to grow the hobby. Beyond the Wizard Fog is the second tale of Niall of the Far Travels by Gardner Fox, with more reasonably entertaining sub-Conan storytelling. And finally, the infamous Gandalf Was Only a Fifth Level Magic-User, in which the author tries to model Middle-Earth's most famous wizard in D&D terms. Silly man, doesn't he know Gandalf was a Cleric?

The issue kicks off with an article about Witches, but it's a lengthy bugger. I think I'll leave it for now, and maybe tackle it later in the week.

METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA ADDITIONS: This article features a number of small things that missed inclusion in the main rulebooks. There are rules for a gel that neutralizes radiation, fire extinguishers, radioactive material in containers, and a pendant that greatly enhances the senses. The article finishes with some notes about methods of curing poison. As usual, these rules will be incorporated into the campaign where appropriate. Some won't necessarily apply, given that D&D characters making trips to the Starship Warden will be operating under D&D rules.

TRIBAL SOCIETY AND HIERARCHY ON BOARD THE STARSHIP WARDEN: Gee, do you think Metamorphosis Alpha was a recent TSR release at this point? There has been a lot of content for it, and I suspect a marketing push.

Anyway, the article gives some brief details about the nature of tribal life, and especially the role that shamans play in the game (mainly to send the PCs on quests and provide some healing and knowledge). After that it gets a little bit into the goals of the Androids that have infiltrated the tribes, as mentioned in a previous article. It also talks about the Wolfoids, their sworn enemies, master weapon-makers who trade their skill for knowledge and devices. The information presented is basic, but gives just enough to present some adventure seeds for PCs who make the journey to this strange place.

CREATURE FEATURE – THE ANHKHEG: Huzzah, it's classic D&D monster time! The Anhkheg is a giant centipede-like creature that lives in the soil of forests and farmland. And since they like a bit of meat with their soil, I can imagine that they make life a bit hard for your average Greyhawk farmer. They generally attack with their mandibles, but when desperate can squirt digestive acids as a ranged attack.

Introducing these monster shouldn't be much of a problem, as I just need to have some farmers start whinging about being eaten. I may not even give a reason for the sudden anhkheg plague. Some things just happen without a nefarious plot going on.

HOW GREEN WAS MY MUTANT: Gary provides an article for Metamorphosis Alpha, and wouldn't you know it, it's a series of random charts! There are a apparently a lot of mutated humans on the Starship Warden, and these charts are designed to randomly determine what one might look like, from skin colour to head type to number of fingers. Useful, if not too intersting a read.

WIZARD RESEARCH RULES: This article is an extensive supplement to the rules for magical research already provided in the OD&D booklets. The writer has taken care to make things consistent with what already exists while providing a number of interesting options not previously available. I'll list the major ones below:

• Spells can now be researched to permanently increase ability scores, though only once per score per character. All I have to say here is, yikes. The ability increase gets higher with the caster's level, to the point where an 18th level caster can raise a score by 1d12! There are going to be a whole bunch of super-characters roaming my campaign after this beauty gets introduced... Luckily, I have a 'back-to-basics' plan in the offing, more of which I will reveal when the time comes.
• Only really high level casters (Wizards/Witches and Patriatchs/Matriarchs) may create or change magical items.
• Normal weapons and armor can be enchanted to +1 with an expenditure in time and money. You can create more powerful weapons, but the result is rolled on a lovely chart that has a number of cursed options to go along with the goodies.
• Spells can be embedded in items at significant cost.
• Magic items can be duplicated (except for scrolls, potions, weapons, armour, wands and rings containing spells).
• There are rules for making True Rings, as in Tolkien. This takes a load of gold and XP. They can contain a bunch of spells, and also can be used to totally control any lesser ring touched to it (including the wearer of said ring). Lovely, says I. The more Tolkien flavour in my D&D the better.
• Wizard Blades, magic swords that can be wielded by Magic-Users, can be created. They can hold a bunch of spells, and can even range up to +6, higher than anything else in the game thus far. Useful for modelling Gandalf, I suppose.
• There's a discussion of the XP costs of forging a True Ring or a Wizard Blade, and how there's no way to avoid said cost. I love this bit so much I must quote it: "Any attempt to evade this rule is taken as a personal insult by virtually everyone in Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes."
• There's a great bit about wizards being able to permanently lose hit points in order to spontaneously create a magic item, by using a Power Word of Distress. This one could be abused, but hit points are so precious for magic-users that it's going to bite anyone who tries it as anything less than a desperate measure.
• Any PCs can sacrifice magic items to the gods in order to get some sort of aid or reward. It's a good way for DMs to get certain items out of the game, and the rewards are left up to DM fiat. Lovely...

There are a lot of new abilities given here for spell-casters, but I don't plan on inroducing it all in a big lump. I'm going to seed information about all of these abilities in various places throughout the dungeons. Perhaps the PCs will discover them, and perhaps not. Maybe an NPC will use the knowledge against them? Either way, it has to be said that this is great article with tons of flavour.

Next: I finish up The Dragon #5 with Witches and The Gnome Cache.

Dungeon Geomorphs

SET ONE: BASIC DUNGEON

This product is the first released by TSR that does not pertain to the rules directly. Instead it is a game aid intended to help DMs design their dungeons. What it consists of is a number of sample dungeon sections that can be combined together into various forms to make a complete dungeon level. This is another product that I have never toyed with myself. I can certainly see its usefulness for running games off the cuff, and the dungeon layouts look varied enough that exploration of them would be interesting.

(It should be noted at this point that I'm working from the compilation of Dungeon Geomorph Sets 1-3 here, rather than the original OD&D version. I'm not sure what differences there are in the maps between the two versions, but I do know that there are some minor variations in the text. The original text can be found here.)

The obvious way for me to incorporate this product into my campaign is by making a dungeon level out of the geomorphs. That leaves the question of where I should place this level, with the answer being the Sample Dungeon from OD&D Vol. 3, somewhere on level 1 or 2. It's open-ended enough that I know I won't be contradicting any D&D canon here, and Gygaxian enough in origin that I will feel justified in combining the two.

That leaves the sample encounters, all designed by Gary himself. I'll be leaving them where they are placed on the geomorph maps, and I don't feel the need to change anything here. With traps, holy men and giant spiders, they have the sort of D&D flavour that pleases me.

SET TWO: CAVES & CAVERNS

Given the shortness of these entries, I figure I'll tackle all three geomorph sets at once. Now for this one I do have the original. A cursory comparison of this to the later compilation shows that the maps are the same, which pleases me greatly given that I don't own the other two sets. This is basically the same product as Set One, except that the maps are primarily made up of natural caverns instead of straight dungeon corridors.

As with the first set, I'll be making a dungeon level out of the geomorphs to be included in the sample dungeon from OD&D Vol. 3. The 6th level is denoted as being 'Caverns', so that's where I'll place the geomorphs.

The sample encounters given here are a lot more deadly than those of Set One, and to my mind a bit more interesting. We even get a brand new monster, the Aurotyugh, a sort of living treasure pile. The similarity of the name to the more famous Otyugh monster may be coincidental, given the unlikelihood that the two are related. Or perhaps they both stem from the same language, with a similar meaning despite their differences?

SET THREE: LOWER DUNGEONS

It's back to dungeon rooms and corridors with Set Three. I'll be placing the level created with these geomorphs below the cavern level of the sample dungeon; a look at the cross-section will show that further levels are implied by the word ETC. and an arrow.

Again the sample encounters increase in deadliness, and they also start to take on some of the key Gygaxian tropes, most notably in the inclusion of an evil temple. This temple is dedicated to the demon Sha-Hec'urah. It's not a name I've encountered in other D&D books, which is not to say that it isn't out there somewhere. Barring further details, I will be making Sha-Hec'urah a minor Demon Prince, and this temple his major site of worship in the World of Greyhawk.

Next: The Dragon #5! Witches! The Anhkheg! And a big helping of Metamorphosis Alpha!

The Dragon #4

Issue #4 of The Dragon is a spotlight on Empire of the Petal Throne (henceforth referred to as EPT). As such, I won't be going into too much detail here. Yes, I am hoping to use Tekumel as a world that the PCs might stumble into, but given that this world has little bearing on the history of D&D I think it best not to get bogged down in the material. Especially when I have little grounding in the material myself.

I'll begin with the ubiquitous list of articles that will have no bearing on my campaign. Dragon Rumbles has an editorial by Tim Kask bigging up the merits of Empire of the Petal Throne. Miscellaneous Oddball D&D Stuff is once again pure parody, and I have to say that there's a lot of this type of thing in the early days of the mag. As with other unsubtle parodies, it gets tossed out. Wizards Defined is yet another humour article that runs down the capabilities (or lack thereof) of various levels of Magic-User. Mapping the Dungeons is still chugging along with names and addresses. Wargaming World shows some D&D and EPT figures, including some lovely pig-faced orcs. Finieous Fingers continues the classic strip. The Temple of Vimuhla shows an intricate model of this building from Tekumel as designed by MAR Barker, the creator of the setting. The focus of the article isn't that useful to me, but there are some small details about Tekumel to be gleaned here. Recommended Reading is the precursor to AD&D's Appendix N. Gary gives here a list of inspirational fantasy books, with the usual suspects like Tolkien, Howard, Lieber, Lovecraft and Moorcock. It also has a number of things not included in the AD&D version. I'll have to do a comparison one day.

Reports Submitted to the Petal Throne: This is a follow-up to an article from The Strategic Review #7, which featured a number of plot hooks in the form of missives to the Emperor. For that article I did a detailed write-up of the various hooks, but this time I'll stick to more general terms. The article begins with Professor Barker reporting on some goings-on in various EPT campaigns that differ from his own. He declares that each EPT campaign is an equally valid parallel universe. This won't ever come up in my campaign, but I found it a nice touch from Barker nonetheless.

The missives given here are a varied bunch. The first deals with the drug Zu'ur, and is a follow-up to events detailed in the last article. Another involves people being kidnapped and forced into a life as guards of the Tolek Kana Pits. It goes on. I'll be reviewing all of these plot hooks and working them into my campaign when time comes. But it really gives a vivid picture of the strangeness and political intrigues of Tekumel. It's a fascinatingly alien setting.

Notes on Androids in the Starship Warden: Ah, the lone non-EPT article in the issue. It describes the origin of the androids in the game Metamorphosis Alpha, and their infiltration of the various human factions on the ship. Given that Gary has had D&D characters taken to the Starship Warden, I'll definitely be including it in my campaign, along with the info in this article.

Jakalla Encounters: It's a chart for random encounters in the Foreigners' Quarter of the city of Jakalla (from EPT). It has the standard encounters with beggars, drunks, street toughs, muggers and pickpockets. There is also a pimp encounter, with the possibility that the pimp will try to hire any character who is beautiful. The beggar ancounter will occasionally be a noble or god in disguise, which I find awesome, especially given the propensity of PCs to mistreat the beggar population. There is also an encounter with priests of the Goddess of the Pale Bone, which is just an unbearably rad name.

The Battle of the Temple of Chanis, 2020 A.S.: This is a lengthy article about a large-scale battle, complete with fictionalised account from one of the soldiers involved therein. This battle will of course be a part of the history of Tekumel in my campaign, and the characters described will be NPCs (though possibly dead, depending on when this happens relative to the current game year). The account of the battle as written by one Chaeyan Tikkumeshmra will be available for the PCs to read in a library somewhere if they wish. I'd like to have it provide a clue to some larger mystery, but nothing springs to mind just yet.

Creature Features – The Mihalli: These creatures are humanoid shapechangers that were once nearly destroyed by nuclear fission bombs in a war with humanity. (Man, EPT sounds cooler with each tidbit I read.) They are completely alien in mindset and incomprehensible to humanity. This is simulated with a random dice roll. It's a nice touch, but in a way I think it undermines the inhuman intelligence I attribute to these guys. Alien, yes, but complete randomness could make them pretty ineffectual and incapable of realising any sort of goal.

Creature Features – The Vriyagga: These monsters dwell underground in the mythical 'City of Red-Tiled Roofs'. Given the weirdness of their description, I'll reproduce it below:

The Vriyagga is a creature to strike terror into the most heroic breast: a huge pair of wheel-like appendages revolve around central axes like the treads of a tank, powered by gnarled and knotted cores of muscle-fiber. A great central braincase hangs between these, and from the lower part of the parody of a face there depend four (or more in larger specimens) great tentacles covered with powerful suckers. The mouth is lined with poison-dripping purple feelers, which can also serve to kill and ingest its victims. The ebon eyes are like great black opals, drinking in all available light and allowing the Vriyagga to see in the dark.

Nice, and the illustration just cements the strangeness here. Generally it seems like these guys just lurk in their city and eat people that wander in, but that's classic D&D monster behavior. Not everything needs a motivation!

Roads from Jakalla: This piece of fiction involves a group of adventurers being hired to take a book to the Emperor to save a general from assassination by the Priestly Party. Rather surprisingly, they fail this mission, which leaves me free to use the plot as an adventure seed, and the characters herein as NPCs.

Percentile Roll to Obtain an "Eye" as Treasure in EPT: The 'Eyes' of EPT are powerful magic items, each type with different powers. This is a chart to randomly determine what type of Eye has been found. They all have awesome named like The Abominable Eye of Detestation and The Eye of Ruling as a King in Glory, but no further info is given on them here. My favourite is the Eye of Exquisite Power Over Maidens.

Next: Dungeon Geomorphs – Set One