Alp-luachra, the Joint-Eater

Primordial- awesome Irish folk metal.
source: https://goo.gl/images/Ysg349
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. Should one who does not make an offering sleep within half a league (1.5 mi/2.5 km) of the waters, they will be entered as they sleep through the mouth and nose, and awake choking, as if on water. The Alp-luachra will live inside them, subsisting on their food, forcing them to eat twice as many rations or grow emaciated and have their max hp lowered by 1 for each week this continues. While the Joint-Eater lives within a host, they will forever hear the sound of a softly babbling stream.

Alp-luachra Armor as plate, Move 200′(water) 20' (land), 3 Hit Dice, 10hp, choke 1d6 damage, Morale 10. If the Alp-luachra makes successful choke attacks against the same target in 2 consecutive rounds, the next round it forces them to vomit, losing all actions and taking maximum damage from the Alp-luachra's attack that round.

The Alp-luachra can be removed in one of several ways:
  • Atonement: returning to its home river, leaving an offering, and anointing oneself with the waters
  • Drawing out: eating nothing but salt while sleeping near a flowing stream or river will cause the creature to venture out to slake its thirst. The host must awaken before it returns or kill it.
  • Drowning: the host must drown, causing the Alp-luachra to leave the now-useless body. If the host is revived or restored to life, they will forever have the aspect of the drowned, and be ignored by all water fae as long as they live.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Get ya self some tapes. (w/ bonus lost codices table!)

Image
I was already a hipster collecting vinyl. I knew it was kind of silly, but hey, I was supporting my favorite artists at shows and often getting a rare, collectible, sometimes signed copy of something I loved. And they really do sound better (when mixed for high dynamic range). Then I went to a show and bought a tape because it was $8 and I didn't like the band enough to blow $25 on a vinyl instead. Now THAT'S silly. They don't even sound good. Of course, neither does a lot of black metal. So that's what I get, primarily, is the black metal that sounds good, but not because of its sound quality or mixing.   Dungeon Synth is also a great genre having its revival on tape, and a lot of those come with cool OSR content or at least vibes . Disclaimer: Many of these may not be available as tapes can be pretty limited in quantity. If not, just listen to the streaming version then imagine it sounding slightly shittier.   Clipping. - Splendor & Misery Ambient noise instru
Read more

Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods RPG artbook review (w/ bonus Goblin Knight stats!)

Image
Your console boots up. You switch the input to TV03. Color bars flash, static fizzles. The CRT scanlines reveal the words Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods . MIDI synth music issues forth, soft and sinister --what we would call Dungeon Synth today, but what was mysterious and unnamed in childhood-- fades in, filling the dark room lit only by the glow of the screen and the power button of your console. A jarring flash occurs, with the words Which flesh is your flesh? appearing, briefly, before you are given the prompt Press Start to Enter the Darkness . Vermis (volume 1, with more to come?) is a guide to a game that never existed. It’s a lo-fi dark fantasy action RPG, with Dark Souls being an easy point of comparison, but of the era of Eye of the Beholder grid-based movement and sprite-based Doom engine graphics but with an off-putting layer of grime. In those days, a guide book would sometimes contain a world unto itself, with the world lore, character options, and select
Read more

The LotFP d6 Skill System

Image
My chief design philosophy, and the way I play at the table can be summed up as "Memorable, Minimal, Metal." I don't like to juggle a lot of rules. The main elements of OSR games are combat and skill rolls. Combat rolls are pretty straightforward, so we're going to take a look the d6 skill system works, problems that may arise from it and how to solve those problems. As someone who grew up with 2nd edition AD&D I was used to skills being incredibly granular and using a lot of different methods of resolution. It seemed natural to me, having first encountered that approach, that complexity and verisimilitude were the best rules philosophy. Moving on to 3e, it was better (blasphemy!), but there was still a skill for everything and they tended to discourage creativity through their strict codification of what was possible with or without a given skill. By comparison, the d6 skill system is much more general, open-ended and quick at the table. Description and gam
Read more