Thursday, April 23, 2020

New generators

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/499141846425927693/703353842460524703/IMG_20200424_1716223332.jpg
I drew these, as some possible results on the sword generator


I've updated and fleshed out my weapon auto-generator button, turning it into two. First, one that is more sword-focused:


And a more general one: 


Half-swording a sword and a half by Antoine Piers

Additionally, here is a small undead generator:



Short post this time, but hopefully soon enough I'll be back with magic factions, cultures in my setting, or perhaps even a rule PDF for my GLOG hack! All credit goes to Spwack of Meandering Banter for creating a terrific set of tools for building these auto-generators.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Musical Magical (OSR Secret Jackalope 2020)

Spell rituals

An ancient spellbook has been uncovered, containing these secret rites. 

The Forest Witch by Stu Harrington


You Spin Me Round

Cover a spinning top with the ashes from a burned wheel, write the words PRITTU VANAM on your palm, and then spin the top upon it. So long as you keep it spun, all who can clearly see its spin are forced to pirouette.


Take Me to Church

Select a shrine or temple and take the branch from a tree near it (if there are none anywhere nearby, a handful of grass may still work). Then, obtain an eyelash from a true believer. When you need to return there, hold the branch aloft and entreat the god to return you to safety. The branch will burn in holy light, and you will be brought there in only a minute by a similar divine glow.


Kill V Maim

Weave grass from your hometown into a small pad, and mix together dirt from a robbed grave, spittle from a panicking goat, and the crushed body of an insect that has killed a human into ink. With this ink, write out your name and the letters E V N X T I N on the pad, and place it under your clothes. For the next week, if you are wounded by blows while bearing this pad, your foe will be struck down on the spot.


Megitsune

Craft a fine mask of clay or another brittle material (clay is simply the most easily reached choice I know of). The mask should depict your own face in a visage of deepest sorrow, and be inscribed along the rim with IV NATAS MIM RETO KALIN. Shattering this mask against your face summons the pure maiden Megitsune, a fox spirit in the form of a young girl who is kind and knows the deepest regret of everyone whose eyes she meets. She will use this knowledge to achieve her (and your) ends, but is not all knowing.

Crying Spirit by Leon Ropeter


Absolute Territory

This spell can be cast with a skirt or cloak. Create a patch woven with an eyelash that has not been wished upon, and dyed with wine that has been shared. Sew the patch to the inside of the garment while describing the most beautiful sights you have seen. When you flip up the inside to reveal the patch, it will start to shine brightly and everyone within five meters as well as anyone who approaches to that close will be enthralled for up to a minute by what they see.


Wonderland

Mix together rust shavings, a stranger's blood, the wings of a butterfly, and spoiled milk in a pot of oil. Say the magic words YARUNE TOLSS REWEK and anoint it upon yourself or another. Until the sun sets, this oil will permeate the outer clothing and badly sting the skin of any fairie who touches it. There are other recipes to ward against other spirits and supernatural monsters, but all I know of them is that the incantation is the same.


Untouched

Take the bone which has never touched human skin from a large beast (a dog or larger). The spell may only work if thick gloves are worn by the caster when handling this bone. The bone must be painted or dyed black and you must incant NATARES. As soon as this is said, the bone will appear to all as whatever object they most desire at that moment, until it melts away into ink at sunset. Some may react unusually to this sight.

Magic wand of peace by Victor Duarte


I Can't Fix You

Forge a bell from bronze that was once a sword. I believe the sword must have seen battle, but cannot be sure. Carve the words NORU SIVIM somewhere on it. If it is rung over a wounded foe while they sleep, the magic words will burn a hole in the bell and the wounds they bear will become cursed to never heal by any natural or medicinal means.


Wandering

Make a candle using the fat of a lost sheep for the tallow and cotton from a field you have never seen before as the wick. Burn it while chanting the words TUMUN SHAMA VIDEH until you have a handful of molten wax. Throw this wax upon someone and they will seem to disappear, while they are forced to wander through the halls of an empty palace full of stairs and balconies, trapped until they say the words "I'm free!"

Summoning by Olivier Hennart

Mr. Blue Sky

Make a circle with a three-pointed star holding at each point amethyst, quartz, and hematite respectively. Meditating in the center of this circle for an hour under uninterrupted sunlight shall summon Mr. Blue, a small fae man with skin fittingly the color of a clear summer sky, who will stay to aid you until the sun reaches the same spot in the sky the next day. His gaze can quell unbound power; raging fire, torrential flow, or frenzying elementals for example.

Created as part of the OSR Discord server Secret Jackalope 2020! The prompt for an ancient spellbook full of spells named after songs comes courtesy of Stefan "The Moth," who blogs at Verbum Ex Nihilo. This prompt caught me somewhat off guard, but I took it as an opportunity to start writing spell rituals which will be a component of my next RPG project. Ultimately, it all kind of worked out just right.

Friday, April 3, 2020

Guilds for adventurers

Cartographers guild

Principally concerned with mapping and exploration of distant lands for colony and plunder, their presence in more well-known areas turn attention more towards the discovery of lost and hidden places, the types adventurers tend to find. With time their pursuits have branched into knowledge and information of other kinds, and a good cartographers guild library can look like a jungle of strange papers and inscrutable writings. Technically the leader of the guild is the ever-absent Choriam Bangra, currently believed to be searching an underground jungle for an entrance to the Eternal Path. The true power is held by a supposedly temporary council, the eight Chief Scribes.


Olaf the Meat Tenderiser by Ricardo Robles


Butchers guild

One of the most powerful food guilds in the land. Any butcher worth their salt will have guild certification, and for many taverns the certification is a mark of prestige. In the adventuring world however, the butchers guild is mainly known for their meat markets, willing to buy all manner of huge dead beasts (as long as they can be proven edible), and even employing a good number of alchemists. The guild is headed by the Kythel twins, who are known for taking joy in cutting apart large monsters.


Salvagers guild

Once a lower-grade offshoot of the builders guild, this group has found renewed purpose in stripping the oldest, abandoned places of anything potentially valuable. The leader is elected semi-democratically, with votes given to guild members based on their performance. Currently the guild is headed by Saliiz Mernir, known for keeping such a myriad of personal items that their office is almost akin to a junk heap. Their diligent style of precise leadership sharply contrasts with that of the previous head, Erham Loen, who was more of a hands-off, minimalist type.


Early Mourning by Patryk Olas


Burial guild

There are countless places deep in the earth where the dead are left in old stone halls and caves, lost to their gods. This small but spirited group has dedicated themselves to gathering the abandoned dead and giving them their proper rites. They are generally hostile toward practitioners of necromancy, with certain exceptions. There are necromancers in the guild, known as the Stewards, who use their art exclusively to gently guide the dead toward a proper resting place. Many of the guild's funerary rites include sanctification of various kinds to prevent future necromancy, and they usually give rites based on the culture of the one who died, if they can find it out. Word of the burial guild's Grave Tower has spread far and wide, a rising catacomb where the honored dead are interred and the occasional meetings of the guild leadership are held.


Sitting hijabi fashionista
Sitting hijabit fashionista by Rabia El Mouden


Mercers guild

Once focused on solely women's fashion, their stakes have broadened to include not just fashion but all manner of far off cultures. It is said by some that a spider controls the guild, though they vehemently deny such claims and believe the rumor was started by their rivals in the weavers guild. Officially they have no overarching leader, only localized chapter heads in different areas. 


Mages guild

Less a meeting of the minds and more a club of magically well-wishers, mostly low-ranking nobles and bored merchants seeking to fill empty days with some mild intrigue. They might have a bit of money for purchasing a fanciful trinket, but their prices can most likely be matched or bettered by a wealthier patron or more practical-minded organization. Their etiquette rules are extensive and stringent.


The Storyteller
The Storyteller by Lucas Sorrenti


Storytellers guild

Collectors of tales and folklore, finding their nearest outpost can often reveal the legends of almost every village for miles around.