The Tremor Swamp - My Entry for the Knave 2E Adventure Jam

 

        Once again, I awaken from my slumber, with momentous news: I am now officially a TTRPG publisher. I have just submitted my first published adventure for the Knave 2E Adventure Jam on itch.io.

The Tremor Swamp - A Knave 2E Adventure

        The Tremor Swamp is a wilderness pointcrawl detailing points of interest within a single 6 mile hex of swampland. A renegade wizard is attempting to uncover the lost magic of another long dead wizard to summon an army of elf ghosts and unleash them upon the kingdom in an act of revenge. The players must traverse the swamp and stop him before it's too late.

        A big part of the aesthetic for this adventure is "fantasy Southern Gothic." The location is inspired by the Okefenokee Swamp in my home state of Georgia. I have often thought that American inspired settings do not get enough representation in fantasy, and of course, they say to write what you know.

        Look, it's got art! Look at my pretty art! Drawn by hand with zero AI.        

This style of map drawing was inspired by the maps of Map Crow/Kyle Latino, whose work is also featured in the printed version of Knave 2E.

My experience with Knave 2E/Questing Beast

        I've been a big fan of Ben Milton's channel Questing Beast for a long time. Showcasing the great creativity of the OSR scene is a large part of what got me back into TTRPGs after a long hiatus. So when I heard that he was doing a Kickstarter for Knave 2E, I backed it partially because of how useful of a GM tool his other work Maze Rats is, and partly just to show my gratitude for his content.

        Also, crazy coincidence, but I happened to move to Wichita, KS in early 2023 to start a new job. It was only after the Knave 2E Kickstarter that I found out that Ben Milton lives in Wichita, too. I actually met him at the local TTRPG convention, TsunamiCon, when he joined the one-shot game of Fabula Ultima that I was hosting.

        Between that and my experience running the quickstart of A Monster's Tail, that makes it twice that I've supported a TTRPG Kickstarter only to discover that one of the creators lives in the city I just happened to move to last year and then had them play in a game I hosted. Two nickels, am I right?

        Anyway, when he announced the Knave 2E Adventure Jam, I figured this would be a great opportunity to dip my toe into the domain of published TTRPG content. I think I did a good job, considering it's my first time. I feel like this might actually be worth money.

UVG DW - Session 4

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Axil Scheele, Cogflower Inquisitor

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

Sonia - Artificial dryad re-awoken from the Great Mechanical Baobab Tree.

Imke 'Shippingexpert - DWARF Hexad RLD smuggler, professor of Oldtech Engineering at Magenta Magical University, and caravan financier

Axil Scheele - A stern, no-nonsense greenlander and Cogflower Inquisitor

Caps and Nico - Two post-mortal thugs of the Nighshade Syndicate who work for Old Tom

Tomas "Old Tom" duc Lyco - A minor wine vampire nobleman turned capo of the Nightshade Syndicate.

Session 4 Notes

• The heroes returned to the Violet City to sell the loot from their first successful venture. They met with Imke ‘Shippingexpert, who chided them for cutting the vile heart out of the statue. Still, they were able to sell their acquisitions for an ample profit.

• With their new funds, they purchased four hover-wagons and the magnificent velblod camels needed to pull them, as well as several replacement bodies to sell at the Porcelain Citadel.

• At the stockyard, they were approached by Axil Scheele, a Cogflower Inquisitor. He informed them that the reason that the RLD Hexad had cut funding from MMU was because Imke ‘Shippingexpert had accidentally activated a vile communications array and sent and received a ping from beyond the Mountains of the Moon, where the last viles live. He warned them of the danger of a resurgent vile invasion, and urged them to tell him if Imke asked them to do anything else dangerous or illegal.

• Later, they were approached by two men in purple suits and gasmasks, who asked them to come to the Lagoon Lounge, a local dive bar, to discuss a business venture. There they met Tomas “Old Tom” duc Lyco, a minor vampire nobleman and capo of the Nightshade Syndicate. He asked them to deliver a shipment of illegal narcotics to a post-mortal named “Two-Lives” Traz in Flare Town, a settlement northeast of the Last Serai. They were promised a $5000 reward and they agreed.

• They passed through the Violet Lands and saw a congregation of azure cultists performing funerary rites for a deceased avatar of the Blue God. They decided not to bother them.

• In the Low Road and the High, their camp was attacked in the night by six hulking wolf-like creatures, who turned out to be skinchangers of the war-like Pomelo tribe. They tried carrying off their camels, but the heroes reacted and the skinchangers were slain.

• They sold the replacement bodies in the Porcelain Citadel for a high profit and proceeded to the Last Serai. 

• Somewhere along the way, the copy of the spell taken from the Iron Obelisk went missing. Cordolan investigated the wagon thoroughly, and it showed evidence of a tiny humanoid sneaking into the caravan and making off with it. River consulted her new familiar, and it told them it was a fairy. How a fairy had known to steal this from them was a mystery.

• They arrived in the Last Serai, and encountered an apparition of a woman in a flowing gown, apparently made of static, who beseeched them for aid in freeing an imprisoned goddess. River’s divinatory magic revealed that this was a trap, and approaching the tower with the imprisoned goddess would result in their souls being devoured.

Concluding Thoughts

    This campaign is turning out to have a lot of book keeping associated with it. I think I should probably try and conduct this over Discord so as not to cut into adventuring time.

    Also, I'm beginning to worry if the players are getting too much money and XP too fast. I should come up with something for them to spend it on.

    In general, I just need to get more organized, and smarter about my prep time. I feel like I spent a lot of time prepping things that didn't come up this session and not enough on the things that are actually important.

Six-Point Interesting Locations in the UVG

     I've been trying to get myself to do more writing and worldbuilding, just for its own sake. You can't improve if you don't practice, after all. And I hope that some of the things that I write will be of interest to anyone who happens upon this blog.

    Part of the challenge of writing bite-sized chunks of worldbuilding content is that there needs to be a larger coherent setting to hang them on. I could make my own, but that's a lot of work that may never be useful or interesting to anyone. I am, however, running a campaign in Ultraviolet Grasslands, a setting with an extremely open-ended and inspirational science fantasy setting. You are encouraged, even compelled, to add to the locations detailed on the map. It even names some topographical features not directly detailed in the various points of interest.

    I figured that describing some of these named locations might be a good starting point for some interesting writing.

    Furthermore, Tsojcanth of the Lost Pages blog recently made a post detailing a template for writing about interesting locations. I find it to be a simple and elegant template that I wanted to try out. In brief, the template is as follows:

1. The Core; the defining aspect of the location
2. Not an adventuring locale, but colorful
3. Not an adventuring locale, but colorful and potentially dangerous
4. Possible Danger
5. Danger
6. Resource; something precious but not easy to access

    For my first attempt, I looked at the UVG Grand Long Map and chose the "Best-Forgotten Massif."

Doghead Necromancer Olek

The Best-Forgotten Massif

1. The Memory Hole. A huge hole in the peak of one of these mountains. The closer you get, the more of your memories vanish. No one can remember where it is.
2. Sobaka Village. A peaceful anarchistic village of dogheaded dissidents from the Violet Lands. Practice strict mental exercises and mainline dog’s tail to avoid memory loss.
3. The Necromancer’s Garden. The home of the doghead necromancer Olek, a burly, tough, black-furred doghead man with a prominent gold fang, clad in dirty and ill-maintained black robes. Has an orchard full of trees whose fruits contain fragments of the souls of dead people, whose bones and blood fertilize the garden. A very proud man, he hints darkly at revenge against someone in the Redlands who once wronged him.
4. Crystal Nymph. Enigmatic forest-women whose biology melds crystal, metal, plant, and animal matter. Capricious and vain, with an insatiable hunger for gossip, stories, and news.

5. 

   The Celestial Wolf

   Celestial Wolf. Big badass wolf-taur monster. Extra eyes, purple spines, blue-gray fur. Appears only when the stars are in the right alignment. The dogheads of Sobaka fear him, and believe he is a demon of some kind. 
6. Memory Crystals. Can be found embedded in the soil, or growing from plants like fruit. Come
   in a variety of different colors. When ground into a powder and combined in a precisely measured proportion, can create a potion that erases memories. Different mixtures of different colors can erase memories from a specific time period. It can erase memories of the past night, or the past week, or from a specific time years ago, or someone’s whole childhood, etc.

UVG DW - Session 3

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

Sonia - Artificial dryad re-awoken from the Great Mechanical Baobab Tree.

Sonia, the Artificial Dryad

Session 3 Notes

• After escaping the barbarian sorcerer’s hideout on the Trail of Vomish dreams, the adventurers went back inside so that Mac could carefully dismantle the shrinking device.
• They traveled back to the Iron Obelisk, dug a hole under it, reassembled the shrinking device, activated it, and shrank the obelisk to a more manageable size. They flipped it over and got the rubbings of all four sides.
• With that accomplished, they traveled back to the Porcelain Citadel, where they sold the shrinking device to a somewhat disinterested Porcelain Prince for $4000.
• They were wondering about the value of the octopus pheromones they looted in the last session and asked around. They heard an interesting rumor about some kind of “slumbering octopus deity at the bottom of a spring” in the Steppe of the Lime Nomads.
• Taelin Nyxara mentioned that he wanted to go to the Steppe as well, since he heard about a “great mechanical baobab tree, whose sap has healing properties.” That suits his research interest of melding plants, animals, and machines.
• They traveled to the Steppe of the Lime Nomads and quickly dispatched a flock of vome-infested birds with cameras for eyes, then discovered the Great Mechanical Baobab Tree.
• Taelin used his phytomancer skill to commune with the tree and discovered a sentient mind inside. Thus, he awoke the slumbering artificial dryad, an ecological maintenance golem named “Sonia.” Sonia was distraught at the apparent failure of her ancient builders to “regenerate the biosphere,” and, with nothing better to do, agreed to accompany them.
• They traveled to the High Road and the Low, where they stopped to revisit a discovery they witnessed earlier: the Motor Agate Outcrop. There was a conflict with a gang of vomish pseudo-archaologists, which they dispatched.
• One of the vomes had a treasure map tattooed on its back, for some reason, pointing to the Serpent Stone.
• Mining the Motor Agate Outcrop yielded a metallic humanoid skeleton, which they took as treasure.
• They returned to the Violetlands, and on the way witnessed an errant Avatar of the Dead God, apparently summoned by inept cultists. Cordolan s’Abner tried to listen carefully to its incoherent bellowing, and witnessed a disturbing vision that rattled his psyche.
• Deciding it would be better to avoid the Avatar, they circled around it, and thus arrived in the Violet City.

Monsters

Porcelain Hunter Golem 14HP 3 Armor

Group, Construct, Large, Organized

Damage: Slam (1d8+2, close, reach, forceful), Laser-Eyes (1d8, near, ignores armor)

Special Qualities: Robotic

Hulking humanoid golems deployed by the Porcelain Princes to keep out raiders and vomes. Unfortunately, their friend-or-foe recognition system is notoriously unreliable.

Instinct: To protect the Porcelain Citadel

Moves:

• Radio for help
• Mistake a friend for a foe
• Chase a target tirelessly until it’s dead

Avatar of the Dead God 25HP 1 Armor

Solitary, Huge, Divine, Terrifying, Amorphous

Damage: Tentacles (1d10+3, reach)

Special Qualities: Divine hideousness, rapidly dissolving

Giant, many-tentacled blue monstrosity born of the flesh of the dead god of the Bluelanders. Summoned by an inexperienced cult. Rapidly dissolving into yellow slime.

Instinct: To make the world rot

Moves:

• Inflict a rotting curse of the Blue God
• Ensnare an enemy in its many tentacles
• Bellow out a maddening cosmic truth

Artificial Dryad 12HP 2 Armor

Solitary, Magical, Intelligent, Devious, Construct

Damage: Crushing vines (w[2d8], close)

Special Qualities: Golem

A biosphere monitoring eco-golem merged into the Great Biomechanical Baobab in the Steppe of the Lime Nomads. Beautiful, plastic, and manipulative. Dreams of healing the biosphere.

Instinct: To reactivate the damaged biosphere

Moves:

• Entice a mortal
• Merge into a tree
• Turn nature against them

Back-Jointed Archaeologists 6HP 1 Armor

Group, Construct, Devious

Damage: Serrated Claw (1d8, close, reach), Slagger (1d8, near)

Special Qualities: Cyborg, Disguised as humans

Vome-insect hybrids masquerading as human archaeologists. Found in the Low Road and the High.

Instinct: To seek resources for the hive

Moves:

• Glitch out
• Infect a helpless victim
• Find/excavate a valuable ancient site
• Mimic human behavior

UVG DW - Session 2

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

Session 2 Notes

• The caravan traveled south from the Porcelain Citadel to the Trail of Vomish Dreams.
• Shortly after arriving, they were beset by a swarm of razorflies, and were forced to take shelter for four days to avoid being cut up.
• Once it was safe to travel again, they found the smashed remnants of a Porcelain Prince raiding party returning to the Porcelain Citadel. River's divination told her that they were likely attacked by a heard of biomechanical buffalo and crushed to death. The chest they were carrying was found to contain ten bottles of octopus pheromones (as Charm Cephalopod; go figure).
• After searching around, they found what they were looking for: the fallen Iron Obelisk, covered in Black City glyphs. They took rubbings of the three exposed sides and realized it was spell notation, but they could not see a way to flip it over to get the last part.
• They moved on to their next target: a ruined fort and trading post of a Vile-worshipping barbarian sorcerer.
• They found the fort, but the only entrance was guarded by a thornstone shambler, a creature of stone and briars. They killed it, albeit with some difficulty.
• Other things they found exploring the fort included:
• A twisted, mutant tree that grew fruits with anguished human faces on them. They were able to pick a sack worth of them after sedating the animate and violent tree with magic.
• The sorcerer's gold-plated hookah pipe.
• A statue of an elf-lord, with a mysterious blue crystal embedded in it that was weeping source-code corrupting fluid. Enough to flood a room over many decades, at least. They carved it out with a chisel.
• A shrinking machine in the form of a pedestal with a control panel. Possibly could be dismantled.
• A green-glass monocle.
• A fine mechanic's toolbox and manual on autogolem maintenance, in an underground garage infested with vome tunnelers.
• Upon circling around, they found the green-glass monocle revealed an illusory door, behind which they found the Sunstone Spear, a chest of $200, and the sorcerer's backup power-album.
• In so doing, however, they awoke a throng of angry radiation ghosts, who swarmed about the room reenacting the battle where they rebelled against the sorcerer.
• Mac 'Driver used his ectoplasmic gauntlets to emit an energy wave that temporarily banished the ghosts, giving them a chance to escape.
  

Treasure

Sunstone Spear (close, reach, +1 piercing, 1 weight, $250). A spear of primitive aspect, with a haft carved from wood, a head made from a forged leaf-spring, and a large golden crystal stone just beneath, surrounded by green feathers. When you invoke the magic of the spear, roll+WIS. On a 10+, you fire a ray of searing light at your intended target (1d10, near, far, ignores armor). On a 7-9, choose one:

• You put yourself in danger to get the shot.
• The spear is drained of power, and cannot fire again until next sunrise.

On a 6-, the spear is drained of power.

This weapon once belonged to a prominent Steppelander shaman. If returned to the Steppe of the Lime Nomads, it could fetch an ample reward.

Mindbreaker’s Backup

Backup power-album created by the Vile-worshipping enchanter of the steppelanders, Grozbec Pale Bone.

Plastic-paper scroll, suggests trepanation for best effect, infested with memories

    Note: The spell "Forget" was adapted from Magical Industrial Revolution, by Skerples, another excellent and inspiring book that I recommend to every GM.

Charm Person

LV: 1 R: touch T: person D: indefinite

The person (not beast or monster) you touch while casting this spell counts you as a friend until they take damage or you prove otherwise.

Forget

LV: 1 R: near T: person D: instant

Target person forgets the last 10 minutes. They may recall vague details, but no specific or useful information.

Blade of Grass

LV: 1 R: near T: one or more creatures standing close together D: instant

A fistful of grass transforms into a great, scything blade. Deals 2d4 damage to one or more creatures that are standing close enough together, per the fiction. Does not ignore armor.

Body of Grass

LV: 0 R: touch T: person D: 8 hours

One person touched physically dissolves into a patch of grass along with all of their gear, becoming undetectable. The sensation is akin to resting with one's eyes closed, and the target may sleep. Speaking, moving, or taking any other action also ends the spell. No spell or attack may affect the target in this state, but anything that would damage the patch of grass instantly ends the effect.

Monsters

Thornstone Shambler 19HP 2 Armor

Solitary, Large, Amorphous, Stealthy

Damage: Thorn whip (1d10+1, +1 piercing, close, reach)

Special Qualities: Plant, Stone

At rest, it resembles a giant pile of thorny briars, albeit with a strangely stone-like texture. It is, in fact, a form of ambulatory carnivorous plant life, with a wide “mouth” and two long arm-like clusters of briars. It spends long periods in hibernation, and can attack without warning.

Instinct: To feed

Moves:

• Appear as an ordinary plant
• Tangle up someone in its coils

Radiation Ghost 3HP 0 Armor

Horde, Magical, Devious

Damage: Slam (1d4, close, ignores armor)

Special Qualities: Incorporeal

Accreted remnants of personalities fried into the fabric of space and smeared across the vastness of time. Immune to physical damage.

Instinct: To seek a world that is long gone

Moves:

• Inflict radiation sickness
• Blind synthetic eyes, deafen synthetic ears
• Show the way to a hidden treasure trove

Miniature Vile Tree 21HP 4 Armor

Solitary, Huge, Amorphous, Magical

Damage: Branches (1d10+5, reach, forceful)

Special Qualities: Plant, Immobile

Creepy looking tree with purple and yellow bark and a twisted, helical trunk. Grows blue fruits with anguished humanoid faces on them.

Instinct: To inflict pain

Moves:

• Flail wildly around
• Corrupt the source code of a victim.

Vomish Tunneler 10HP 2 Armor

Group, Large, Construct, Devious

Damage: Bite (1d8+1, close)

Special Qualities: Cyborg, Burrowing

Giant biomechanical worms that burst from the ground, hungry for protein and alchemical lubricants.

Instinct: To feed

Moves:

• Burst from the ground without warning
• Glitch out
• Swallow a victim whole

UVG DW - Session 1

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Imke 'Shippingexpert - DWARF Hexad RLD smuggler, professor of Oldtech Engineering at Magenta Magical University, and caravan financier

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

More AI Pics

There may be a few more after this.

Imke 'Shippingexpert, Amaric diVridi, and Taelin Nyxara. Did you know you can't put three images side by side in the window when editing a blog post? Criminal.

Session 1 Notes

• The adventurers meet with their financier – Imke ‘Shippingexpert, a female Dwarf, Hexad RLD smuggler, and professor of Oldtech Engineering at Magenta Magical University.
• The Hexad has cut funding to MMU, and Imke’s plan to get new funding is to acquire new Long-Long-Ago artifacts from the grasslands.
• They took out a loan from Imke to outfit their caravan and purchase trade goods: 1 sack each of vampire wine, common intoxicants, and replacement body.
• They met the two NPCs that would be joining them on the caravan: Amaric diVridi, the Greenlander hostler, and Taelin Nyxara, a heretical biomancer agronomist/undergraduate wizard.
• They set out on the journey, and before they were out of the Violetland, River spotted an encampment of Bluelander degenerates. After some deliberation/divination, they decided to attack them first.
• The degenerates nearly killed Mac, but the adventurers prevailed.
• At the Low Road and the High, they found the Great Traveling Serai, where they did some market research. They rolled well, and found there was high demand for common intoxicants and replacement bodies at the Porcelain Palace.
• They also saw a giant, multi-colored striated rock formation off in the distance, but they didn’t go there, yet.
• They arrived in the Porcelain Citadel, where the friendly Safranian merchant Teljean de Barbier helped them sell their goods. They sold the common intoxicants and replacement body for $8000, a $4000 profit.
• They resupply their caravan and prepare to venture to their destination: the Trail of Vomish Dreams.

Concluding Thoughts

    Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I guess I'm not a complete hack of a GM after all. I did completely forget about the two NPCs I included with the caravan, though. Next time I'll have to make them actually do something.

    I'm surprised at how quickly the players were able to make money. It looks like they're probably not going to have to worry about compounded interest.

    The other thing I feel like I'm missing from my prep right now is rumors/adventure hooks to drop when the players arrive at a destination. Other than that, great start to a new campaign.

UVG DW - Session 0

    We met for the first time last week to discuss the setting, coordinate character creation, and create our financier and quest together.

Session Zero Agenda

1. Show off my cool new book and map.
2. Answer any lingering questions about the setting.
3. Determine character concept, background, and playbook for each player.
4. Discuss campaign premise and “hook questions.”
1. Why do you want to reach the Black City at the Edge of Space and Time?
2. Motive: Why are you doing this?
3. Stakes: What’s on the line?
4. Dangers: What do you expect to face and what do you know about them?
5. Urgency: Why should you hurry?
6. Detail: What are you seeking/hunting/fleeing/fighting/etc.?
5. Complications: What obstacles are in the way or making life difficult?
6. Create the caravan and financier.
7. Discuss new/modified rules.

Characters

This time, the players got into the idea of creating AI generated portraits. It's pretty neat. I helped and did some myself.

Name: Mac ‘Driver
Playbook: Artificer
Species: DWARF
Background: Salt dwarf prospector, inherited golem armor
Motive: In it for the money
 

Name: Uba Bigtooth
Playbook: Gunslinger
Species: Half-Orc
Background: Cow person Gunslinger, family got into bad business to keep their land
Motive: Pay off family’s debt/reclaim family land?
 

Name: River Thornheart
Playbook: Witch
Species: Steppelander
Background: Necromancer princess/Steppelander warchief’s daughter
Motive: Driven by a compulsion to seek the Black City after meeting a seer
 

Name: Cordolan s’Abner
Playbook: Cleric
Species: Rainbowlander?
Background: head Medical Aristocrat of Violet City’s most prestigious Biomedical Corruption Unit
Motive: Researching the causes and cures of biomagical corruption.
 

Name: R5F1
Playbook: Golem
Species: Golem
Background: independent freehold archaeologist
Motive: Science, and searching for where he belongs (in the geological strata)

Caravan Quest

    I started by asking the players to vote on which caravan quest they'd like to do. They chose "Explore Forgotten Ruins. A wizards’ community college is building an archaeology collection. Here, on the map, are five promising locations."

    We then rolled on the financier tables and discussed the results, choosing results that we felt synergized with each other.

Financier

Who are they? - Hexad RLD smuggler

What do they want? - Subsume the best minds

Their Organization - Wizard community college

Their Opponents - Aggressive elven hive

Weaknesses and Oddities - Turns into a felinoid in sunlight

Who is coughing up? - Post-mortal criminal drug conglomerate

How do they hope to benefit? - Mind-expanding extracts and literatures

What extra help can they send along? - Heretical biomancer agronomist

Quest Details

I selected the locations we would visit in the campaign and came up with some reasons to go there.

Trail of Vomish Dreams

There's a fallen iron obelisk rumored to be covered in Black City Glyphs. Transcribe the glyphs if at all possible, and search the area for other signs of Black City/Long Long Ago relic.

There are also legends that a Vile-worshipping barbarian sorcerer once had a stronghold, here.

Fallen Umber

There are a few giant pyramidal vome autofacs there that might have originally been built by the viles.

Near Moon

There is a giant floating spherical structure. By description, it sounds like it might be a void ship.

There is also a degenerate race of quarterlings that live beneath it that sound like they might have elven blood in them.

Ivory Plain

There is a guardian nature spirit worshipped by the natives. There are rumors that there was once a schism between the viles. If there are any living viles out in the grasslands, this is a likely candidate.

The Black City

Very little is known about it. The Black City Glyphs don't resemble Elvish, but they must have been roughly contemporary. Anything we can learn about it is valuable.

Conclusion

And at time of writing, I just finished session 1. Everyone is really excited about this campaign, as evidenced by them all showing up early. Session 1 notes coming soon.

Ultraviolet Grasslands in DW - Custom Rules

Travel Moves

UVG Travel Procedure

1. For every week of travel, choose one player to be the navigator, one to be the scout, and one to manage provisions
2. Every week, decide on a navigator, scout, and quartermaster. Other players choose moves as necessary.
3. Spend supplies. 1 sack of supplies/creature/week.
4. Resolve misfortunes resulting from travel moves.
5. Roll for an encounter.
6. Tally extra days. Roll travel moves again if extra days reach 7.

Navigate

When you plot a course through dangerous or unfamiliar lands, roll +INT or +WIS. On a 10+, you avoid dangers and distractions. On a 7-9, the GM chooses a lesser misfortune (1-3). On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM chooses a worse misfortune (4-6).

Scout

When you scout ahead and look for anything out of the ordinary, roll +WIS. On a 10+, choose two from the list below. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a -6, mark XP, and the GM chooses a misfortune.

• You get the drop on whatever lies ahead.
• You discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain – shortcut, shelter, or tactical advantage.
• You make a discovery (ask the GM).
• You notice signs of a nearby danger – ask the GM what it is, and what it might signify.

Manage Provisions

When you prepare and distribute food for the party, roll+WIS. On a 10+, choose 1 from the list below. On a 7-9, the party consumes the expected amount of supplies. On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM chooses a misfortune.

• Careful management reduces the amount of supplies consumed this week. The GM will decide how much.
• The food is especially good this week. The party consumes the normal amount of supplies, and takes +1 forward.

Rest

When you spend a week doing nothing at all, choose one. If you are under the care of a healer (magical or otherwise), choose two. You may not Scout, Manage Provisions, Navigate, or Forage during this time unless you also consume an additional sack of supplies.

• Recover all missing HP.
• Cure one debility

Forage

When you halt the caravan for a day to forage for supplies in the Grasslands, choose a leader and the number of PCs who are leaving the caravan to forage. The leader rolls +WIS. On a 10+, you gather 1 sack of supplies +1 sack per additional PC foraging. On a 7-9, the same, but choose 1:

• The provisions you gather are poor quality (-1 forward on Manage Provisions)
• You encounter something dangerous.
• The GM chooses a misfortune.

On a -6, you gather 1 sack of poor quality supplies, and something befalls the caravan while you’re away from it.

Misfortunes:

            These are suggestions for generic misfortunes that can happen on the road. Many destinations have location-specific misfortunes, and the GM is encouraged to choose one of these where applicable.

Misfortunes
	Navigate	Scout/Forage	Manage Provisions
1	Bad weather	Bad weather	Fighting over ration shares
2	Followed	Attracts attention	Local wildlife is attracted to food
3	Path obstructed (-1d4 days)	Scout is lost (-1 day)	Someone becomes Weak until  they consume 1 additional supply
4	Rough terrain (-1d3 HP to all)	Scout encounters danger	Supplies lost due to spoilage or  over-consumption (-1 sack of supplies)
5	Dangerous encounter	Scout is trapped or captured	Food poisoning (1d3 characters  are shaky and sick)
6	Horribly lost (-1 week)	Scout is injured (-1d6 HP)	A Danger is attracted by food

Destination Moves

Look for Discoveries

Once per week at a given destination, one PC may ask the locals about nearby points of interest, and roll +CHA or +WIS. On a 10+, note down 1d2 discoveries. On a 7-9, note down 1d2-1 discoveries. On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM makes a move.

The first time you use this move in a given destination, it’s free. Every subsequent investigation costs $1d6 x 10.

Market Research

When you spend a day inquiring about the local market, pick a trade good and roll +CHA or +INT. On a 10+, choose one boon from the list and roll on the table below. On a 7-9, roll on the table. On a 6-, you glean no useful information.

When you spend a week, as above, but for a chain of three adjacent linked destinations instead of just one.

• Choose an additional trade good. Roll separately to find the price factor for this trade good at the same destination(s).
• You get to choose one of the destinations where you learn the price factor.
• When you roll to determine the price factor for a trade good, roll twice and choose the better result.

D20	Price Factor	Notes
1	0	Taboo. Locals won’t take kindly to dealers.
2	0	No demand.
3-6	0.5	Low demand.
7-12	1	Normal demand.
13	1	Depressed market. -2 to haggling checks.
14-15	2	Popular, but illegal. Stiff penalties for captured dealers.
16-17	2	High demand.
18	3	Market bubble! 1-in-6 chance per visit that the market has collapsed (roll 1d10 on this table for new price)
19	4	The motherload! 1-in-6 chance per visit that the market has collapsed (roll 1d10 on this table for new price)
20	1	Source! They make the trade good here. +2 to haggling checks when buying, -2 when selling.

Buy Trade Goods

    When you buy trade goods in a settlement, you may choose to purchase goods at 10% off the list price OR Haggle. The 10% off list price only applies if you do not have Market Research pertaining to that particular trade good at this location.

Haggle

    When you arrive at a destination and try to negotiate a deal for buying or selling, roll+CHA. Roll 1d6 on the relevant column. Multiply by the price factor when selling; divide by the price factor when buying.

1d6	10+	7-9	6-
1-3	1.2	1	1
4-5	1.5	1.2	0.5
6	3	0.5	0