Swords Against Madness - Episode 4: The Grim Work

Miria finishes the task of slaying the Gorum, and struggles with the guilt of destroying helpless foes. As she struggles with her thoughts she makes a bond with a psisquid, and is then interrupted by a call from an old enemy.

Discussing Alignment

In segment 2 of the episode, I discuss Alignment including how it was used in AD&D.. I mentioned my casual retroclone project Ruins & Redcaps, and reproducing (and re-arranging) the rules of AD&D using modern information design in a way reminiscent of Old School Essentials. Here is a downloable excerpt on Alignment from Ruins & Redcaps.

For purposes of a campaign with only a Law-Neutrality-Chaos axis this can be expressed as a linear scale from 6 to -6 using row 0 of the Alignment table.

In any case, I don’t want Miria, Rayya, & Olan to slip too close to Chaos, but after this, Miria is definitely sitting somewhere around -1.5.

Yanghu

Yanghu is a smuggler captain of the Trassi Syndicate and former business partner of Miria’s. He is the one who shot her down, but she can’t remember why. Yanghu is a cruel Ogre Magus who loves to gloat.

Yanghu: HD: 5+4 (44hp); AC: 4 [15]; Att: portable laser cannon (4d8) or boarding sword (d12); SV: 12; Special: Magic use (See below), regenerate 1hp/round; MV: 12/18 (flying); AL: Chaos; CL/XP: 7/600

• Magic Use: Yanghu can fly, turn invisible (per the spell), create a 10-foot-radius circle of magical darkness, change into human form, cast sleep and charm person once per day, and cast a Cone of Frost with a range of 60 feet to a base of 30 feet, causing 8d6 damage to any caught within (saving throw applies).

Map of Nar

I’ve drawn a map of Nar for an upcoming Hex Crawl!

Each hex is about 6 miles, but the terrain is mostly hilly jungle. I’ve marked a few locations with images:

• 0903 is the location of the Village of Nar and the Church.

• 0602 contains the Cloister of the Order of Stars.

• 0402 includes the Pit of the Gorum.

• 0401 includes the local Volcano, Guluke, and the secret Shrine of the All-Knowing.

The wreck of Empyreal’s Coin is just to the South of the peninsula 0405 (not shown, as I have to import a sunken flying saucer into CC3+).

Random Encounter Tables

Here are my Hot Springs Island inspired random encounter tables: