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Showing posts from November, 2017

Dwarf Whisky

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The bubbles may imply it's beer, but you just don't understand the complex chemical reactions occurring within Dwarf Whisky So Dwarves like to drink. It's their favorite thing aside from making stuff and bullying Elves. Given that they have a dedication to quality and power and a hearty constitution, their Whisky must be some powerful stuff. In my campaign, they don't leave home without it and it's not just their drink of choice but a useful tool. All Dwarf characters begin the game with Dwarf Whisky. It's an encumbering item, and a character can never have more than one quart of the stuff. The complex blend of ingredients and extremely high alcohol content cause it to be in constant danger of evaporating or spoiling under the wrong conditions. Non-Dwarf characters can neither hold their liquor when it comes to Dwarf Whisky- most can't even take a whiff of the stuff without their eyes watering, nor can they use it for the multitude of purposes a Dwarf

D30 Happenings Near Hellmouths

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D30 because they're cool and huge. And I don't have enough time for D100 tables. It was probably a bad idea to found a town on top of the sacred ground of a murdered people. Or for the church to burn that witch. Or for the townsfolk to trade with those dark travelers. Or to be near a wizard, like, at all.  So here are some things that can haunt, plague, and otherwise fuck with folks. D30 Happenings Near Hellmouths Cries of children are replaced by the caws of crows Rings and necklaces growing too tight to remove Night sweats of a thick, black and mildly caustic ichor Faces on coins seem to snicker and gossip in the corner of one's eye Hunger for raw meat and honey mixed with blood The sound of a hissing whisper echoing all of one's words Scratching compulsively until fingernails fall off Forgetting one's own name, on occasion, and substituting it with that of a demon A preponderance of shrikes and their impaled prey in nearby trees Whit

Review: The Body & Full Of Hell- Ascending A Mountain Of Heavy Light (w/ bonus Pain Sludge monster!)

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This is a long review. If you just want to skip down to the gameable shit, fine . One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache by The Body + Full of Hell The Body & Full Of Hell's previous collab album. It fucking rules. The limited edition pre-order yellow/green  vinyl, which I, being a hipster fuck, own. The Body is one of my favorite bands. They’re incredibly prolific experimental metal/noise musicians that collaborate all over the place. Ascending A Mountain Of Heavy Light is a joint album with Full Of Hell, a very talented grindcore group. They’ve already collaborated once, on last year’s One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache , which was fucking great. Most, if not all of The Body’s collaborative records come from improvised sessions which are mixed and tweaked into albums, a technique that has worked out fabulously before in other collaborations with Krieg, The Haxan Cloak, Vampillia and Thou. Ascending A Mountain Of Heavy Light , while a full-on collaboration as well

Artefacts of Dark Power: Aeon Husk

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Aeon Husk Terminal Redux by Vektor An awesome sci-fi black/thrash metal concept album. Energy, pure and condensed, like that at the dawn of time. All was one, drawn close and crushed together. Remnants of bodies, planets, and simple base atoms alike, the universe held the fury of infinite flame. This property is not only the result of the matter contained within, but the thoughts, the lives, the suffering of creatures and worlds from realities prior. Echoes, only… but the echoes of eons, cycles, and cataclysms. The properties of an Aeon Husk are as follows: Powerful grasp: things within 1’ of the Husk are pulled and held to it. The force of this attraction is so great that it cannot be overcome except by a successful ability check by creatures with a combined Strength of 25 or more. Objects held by this force are slowly liquefied by heat and pressure, and are reduced to sludge and base matter at the rate of 1 day per HD of the object. Inanimate objects are considere

Spells That Are Fucking Metal: Lathspell, I Name You

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Curses are fun to write. Not every spell can be a combat spell. It takes planning and creativity, but using curses to manipulate others can be really powerful and have significant impact on the campaign. And it can be equally influential when a PC is cursed. Incidentally, Lathspell means "ill omen" in elvish from Lord of the Rings, and it's the curse Gandalf uses against Grima Wormtongue. The song inspiring this spell is by The Body, who make some really intense stuff. Hopefully I managed to convey some of the darkness of the song with the spell. Lathspell, I Name You No./Area Affected: 1 person, touch or line of sight with Risky Casting Duration: permanent/until released by caster There often is a need to cast someone out from their home, their clan, and their country. When one has transgressed so gravely against the values of their people that they can never again be trusted or welcomed by those that they have betrayed. Ancient words can mark t

Alp-luachra, the Joint-Eater

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Primordial- awesome Irish folk metal. Redemption at the Puritan's Hand by Primordial The dangers of the countryside are many: monsters, magic, bandits, and other things unseen or forgotten. Some things are known but ignored, at least by the foolish. The wilds themselves, which are full of spirits and fae, pose a danger for those who forget the etiquette of travel. Traditionally, streams and rivers hold great importance to Celt and Briton folk. They are places of rest and healing, often the homes of beautiful water maidens who are glad to help travelers. But in these days of war, when the earth is choked by smoke of coal and the waters filled with corpses and cholera, these spirits have lost their goodwill towards human folk. Rivers are no longer a friendly place. Those who seek to cross must beware. The Alp-luachra (pronounced alp loo-kra) or Joint-Eater preys on foolish trespassers. An offering of food must be made to cross its waters, or else it will take its due. S

Session Report: Night of the Slashers

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Jeroboam, the slasher This Halloween I ran Night of the Slashers as a one-shot that ended up becoming a 1.5-shot. Rather than keeping the 1980s setting I re-skinned it to fit in our regular Lamentations campaign. Thus, it was set in 17th century England during the English Civil War. The players were deserters from the Royalist forces.  Tired of being underprovisioned, unpaid, and watching their friends die, they decided to rob an unprotected garrison where they had heard there was silver, which they planned to take and disappear into new lives. Although the players were not aware of it, the NotS characters they were playing were part of the group of soldiers they encountered in the sessions preceding and following these ones. Changes from the base game: The archetypes were given new names: Athlete became Pikeman, Loner became Engineer, Prep became Rifleman, Rebel became Scout. They kept their original equipment with changes to make it period-appropriate and remove things th