Orc Guardpost (#2/365)

 Orc Guardpost (#2/365)

 

“This diamond-shaped chamber is 20’ across and has been stripped bare of fittings. A rough entrance lies unguarded to the north-east, while a similar north-western entrance is barricaded behind a palisade of stakes and sharpened poles.”

 

If the Heroes have been making a lot of noise: 

 

“As you enter the chamber, an arrow is fired from a slit in the palisade, and lands at your feet. A rough voice rings out:

'That was just a warning shot my friends! Come any closer and we pepper your guts with arrows!’”

 

If not: 

 

“From behind the palisade you can hear the sounds of loud snoring from several creatures.”

 

Contents: Behind the palisade are three Orcs from the Bronze Serpent Mercenary Company; Gurthak Dead-Eye, the mercenaries’ sergeant, and 2 regular troopers. All are currently on down-time after a successful joint-mission with pirate raiders from the Skull Coast. Depending on how noisy the Heroes have been, they will either be asleep or alert.

 

Polite Heroes, or those that speak Orcish, may be able to negotiate safe passage through the room for a bribe of 10GP (and 5GP for a return trip). A bribe of 20GP may even allow an escort to visit the leader of the mercenaries, Shaisak Camel-Smiter, but all weapons must be left in this room.

 

Rude or aggressive Heroes will cause the Orcs to rain down arrows, crossbow bolts and even a Green Spikeball cacti as an improvised grenade (all within 6’ of impact have -1 to their Attack Strength for the next turn due to water splash, pulp spray, spines and other debris).

 

The palisade is 7’ high and stoutly constructed, with several openings to allow for arrow fire. It will take 20 points of STAMINA damage before collapsing, but it is flammable. It has a bolted hatch that can only be opened from the inside.

 

Stats:

Gurthak Dead-Eye, GREAT ORC Mercenary (Out of the Pit, pp. 90-91)

SKILL: 8

STAMINA: 10

Attacks: 1

Weapon: Crossbow, Sword

Armour: Medium (chainmail scraps), Large Shield

Notes: Has a pipe and pouch of Old Trollborn Smoking Weed (see Encyclopedia Arcana, p. 49)

 

2 ORCS: SKILL 6, STAMINA 5, Bow and Sword, Light Armour (leather scraps)

 

All Orcs have 1d6 GP on them. One has a hipflask of Seaman’s Grog he won off a pirate (see Encyclopedia Arcana, p. 59), the other has a Green Spikeball cacti (see The Titan Herbal, p. 36).

 

The Found Tombs of Arvakaten

Level One

Rubbish-Strewn Entry Chamber (#1/365)

 

“This square chamber is around 15’ across, with a single exit opposite you. The floor is covered with the debris and rubbish of a millenia; rubble, bones, rotting wicker furniture, broken timbers, rusted ironwork and corroded bronze dishes, all layered in white dust and bat guano. Indeterminate footprints trace a clear path from your portal of entrance to the other. The walls are of grease-streaked plaster and adorned with at least six languages worth of graffiti, daubed and carved in sequential layers of occupation.”

 

Contents: This chamber is a dumping spot for centuries of dungeon inhabitants. If at least one hour is spent searching the debris (with numerous Wandering Monster checks for noise and disturbances), the Heroes can uncover a dusty Brass Lamp. Rubbing this will summon the GENIE Wubutu (see below).

 

There is nothing else of value here. The graffiti on the walls say all kinds of things, roll two dice separately on the table below if needed (only understandable if the reader is skilled and literate in the appropriate languages). Feel free to use this table, and self-made variants of it, for graffiti and inscriptions throughout the tombs.

 

First Roll	1	2	3	4	5	6
Second Roll	Gnoll (using Orc runes)	Orc (in Orc runes	Common (Allansian) (Regular script)	Ancient Allansian (Regular script)	Vatosian (Pictoglyphs)	Ancient Djaratian (Hieroglyphs)
1	Give Chance a Piece!	Make my ale Grundel’s Guursh!	Abdur and Fatima were here in 27… AARRGGHH	In the legions, nobody knows your name, but everybody knows your number!	Blessed are the fiends. That lurk here in the darkness. They will burn us all.	The reedy marshes of Umfargaten will provide us with moisture for our crops.
2	More offal for the Offal God!	Yoomans! Paying Orcs to kill other Yoomans since the beginning!	You are our only hope. We have buried our largest cachet of diamonds at …	Chaos Spawn? What Chaos Spawn?	The holy burden. Is that of blind followers. To toil in dust.	Lord Sothra decrees the Pyramids of Ghinai must be built higher still.
3	A hungry Gnoll is a bad Gnoll!	By Hashak’s beady eye, I create this!	It is 283AC. I have escaped to here from Vatos for failing in High Priestess Leesha’s Contest of the Arts.	All hail Avana, most blessed of our imperial gods!	Dark the road ahead. Upon which I travel far. To a place unknown.	The blessed god Assamarra will withhold his sandy breath in this most bountiful year.
4	Laugh at night? Tears in the morning.	And if there were ten black rats, sitting on the wall…	Death rides a black flaming camel!	We came, we saw, we chipped out our name on a dusty wall. GALVANUS!	Five cohorts came here. All were obliterated. Only bones remain.	The holy goddess Assamura will rain beams of sun upon our golden crops of corn.
5	Elf bones!  Best toothpicks since whenever!	Skorgar is the best Orc Knees’ champion since Bhelay, change my mind!	Shazaar Rangers unite against everybody!	I am here. Here I sit. Tried to guard. Fell in the pit.	Evil dwells in the dark. This is known to be true. And yet we do naught.	Our high lord entered the underworld to the south bearing papyrus scrolls and stalks of wheat.
6	Bone marrow? Smash or suck?	Dirty jobs done dirt cheap. See Myorg’s “Murder Sphere” Brethren and Sisterhood.	Rage against the Caarth! Rage against the serpentine machine!	What do we want? Extra rations! When do we want it? Soon!	Cleanse us in the flame. Of the holy sun at noon time. So we may live warm.	The seas that wash pearls to our shores are like the winds that blow the sweet smell of spring to our villages.

Stats:

 

Wubutu the GENIE (Out of the Pit, pp. 56-57)

 

SKILL: 12

STAMINA: 20

Attacks: 1

Weapon: Cleaver (as per Battle Axe)

Armour: None

Notes: Wubutu is a classical Genie of Vatosian origins, who has spent several centuries imprisoned within the Brass Lamp, brewing home-distilled liquor made from dates. Wubutu can be summoned 1d3 times a day by rubbing the lamp; attempting to summon him beyond this daily limit yields no effect. The very first time Wubutu is summoned, read the following:

 

“A cloud of purple smoke erupts from the brass lamp, and when it clears, hovering in front of you is a large rotund purple-skinned GENIE, clad in robes of an ancient design. His eyes are bloodshot and he clutches an empty glass in one hand. Seeing you he burps, tucks the glass away into a sash at his waist, and folds his arms.

‘I am Wubutu the Genie!’ he declares in a booming voice. ‘How, *hic*, may I be of service?”

 

For every subsequent summoning, roll on the following table to determine Wubutu’s mood:

 

Roll	Mood	Effect
1-2	Sober	Can function as normal.
3	Drunk	Can function. All abilities at -1 penalty.
4	Hungover	Can function. All abilities at -2 penalty.
5	Psychotic	Will fight anything in the immediate vicinity with a cooking cleaver for 1d6 Attack Rounds before disappearing back into the lamp.
6	Asleep	A purple hand will emerge from the lamp, wave away the supplicant’s summoning, and return to the lamp, closing the lid behind it.

 

What Wubutu Can Do (one task per summoning):

·      Speak, read and write ancient languages: Vatosian 4, Ancient Allansian 3, Ancient Djaratian 3

·      Fight creatures that can only be wounded by silver or magical weapons. Often refuses to fight ‘normal’ monsters. “Where’s the challenge in that?”

·      Offer obscure advice or solve riddles.

·      Will not grant wishes. “That ability has been removed from my prescribed duties at this current time.”

 

What Wubutu Likes:

·      Getting bunches of dates. One bunch of dates will allow one extra task per summoning.

·      Getting other kinds of booze. One receptacle of quality ale, wine or spirits will allow one extra task per summoning. Others will simply be quaffed immediately. Will be drunk as per #3 on the table above the next time he is summoned.

·      Fighting high-powered magical beings. But not too high-powered…

 

What Wubutu Abhors:

·      Dealing with Orcs, Gnolls, Goblins and the like. Makes fun of them and picks fights.

·      Being wounded. Will take a number of days off equal to how many STAMINA points he has lost. Reaction roll as per #6 on the table above.

#Dungeon23 Inspires Dead Blog Resurrection!

 Ok, here we go. (And I really do not have time for this.)

Been meaning to resurrect the blog for a while, and #Dungeon23 has given me the impetus to do so. Without risking immediate derailment via long boring explanations about why I've done nothing blog-wise for quite some time, instead, let's dive straight into #Dungeon23.

What: A mega-dungeon! One room per day! How hard can it be?

Why: Why not?!? This blog lives again and I get to run Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E through its paces in a mega-dungeon format.

How: I'm using Graham Bottley's excellent random dungeon generation method from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E rulebook (pp. 134-137). I'm then using my own interests and methods to populate the catacombs. Obviously, it's going to be set somewhere on Titan.

Where: Here, on this blog. Will probably post weekly digest updates elsewhere, and may start up a separate 'How To' forum thread to really unpack the AFF 2E approach to dungeon-building.

When: Every day! (Disclaimer: may post multiple-room clusters ahead of time if I know I have crazy things coming down the line.)

Who: Me, Andrew Wright, author of Beyond the Pit, The Titan Herbal, Rough Guide to the Pit, Return to the Pit, and volume one of the Encyclopedia Arcana. What can I say? I love Titan and Fighting Fantasy!

The Concept: I was once doing a side-project involving a wilderness-crawl in southern Allansia, so let's use that as a jumping-off point. The mega-dungeon is a tomb-complex in the desert upland wilderness, surprisingly much-visited by adventurers and heavily populated with obnoxious types, and yet still somewhat isolated and slightly off the beaten track. We'll situate it near the obscure but useful city of Pellod (Heroes Companion, p. 43).

The Found Tombs of Arvakaten

The Background:

"The Found Tombs of Arvakaten lie several days wandering upstream, through the valley of the river Murab, northwest of the city of Pellod. Opinion is divided as to whether Arvakaten was a lord or god (and thus were these tombs or a temple), but this Djaratian crypt-complex was subsequently ransacked and repurposed over the years by Vatosians, Allansians from Carsepolis, the Caarth serpent-folk, Orcs and other bestial races of the uplands, and many others besides.

As such, it has become a local stamping ground for up and coming heroes, a place to test your mettle and the speed of your sword or the potency of your magic. Miscreants congregate here too; Orc mercenaries, pirate looters, Lizard Man kidnappers, and every renegade mage from the Spellcaster's Guild of Pellod, who needs solitude, time, and tight dark places, to find themselves and their one true calling.

In the final village before you reach the tombs, you find the Last Step Inn. The walls of this run-down establishment are hung with the debris of adventuring lives brought abruptly to an end; broken swords, split shields, shattered helms, Orc arrows and Gnollish clubs, skulls, bones and other bits and pieces. The innkeeper, a tall thin fellow named Abughan, regales you with tales of the mystic underworld of Arvakaten and its place in Djaratian cosmology; his rustic, dusty clientele of farmers and herders may have more practical information to share.

The region is a craggy wilderness split by goat-trails; of stony fields, bone-dry vineyards and twisted olive trees. The main entrance to the tombs lies right at the end of the valley; a rocky path leads upwards to where several trickles of water from nearby springs coalesce into a green scummy pool that forms the source of the river Murab. A rocky outcrop abuts the pool, it contains a shallow cave that opens up into the main tomb entrance. The walls of the cave are daubed and carved in much graffiti, the languages include Common (Allansian), Orcish and Gnoll. 

Entering the tomb, a passage leads north, into darkness..."

The Rumour Table: Gossip and scuttlebutt from the Last Step Inn. Spend 1GP on drinks per roll. Roll 1d6:

1. An evil wizard has fled to the tombs to conduct unspeakable rites!
   
2. There are several entrances to the tombs.
3. Orc mercenaries stalk the halls of Arvakaten!
   
4. One must know the ancient tongues to understand the way.
   
5. There are cannibal Gnolls in the tombs!
   
6. There is an invincible lion-monster who speaks gibberish!
   

Caveats:

• It will be fun.
• It will probably fail.
• It will be unashamedly heavy on AFF 2E and Titan.
• It will have maps of varying quality, timeliness and availability. Ditto room descriptions.

Beyond the Pit: Old School Art and Hideous Monsters!

 Great and terrible flesh-eating beasts have always shared the landscape with humans... (Quammen, 2003)

Well, it took a bit over two years to get done, but Beyond the Pit is finally finished. When I originally agreed to write it for Graham Bottley's Arion Games and their second edition of Advanced Fighting Fantasy I knew it would be a big undertaking, but I probably underestimated just how big it would be! I should have considered the fact that if Marc Gascoigne never wrote a follow up to his own Out of the Pit then there must have been a good reason.

And there was. Basically, the simple fact is that trying to compile a bestiary of at least 250 monsters drawn from random paragraphs scattered throughout well over 60 gamebook canonical sources, while trying to keep each creature entry informative and interesting, is a big task! Not to mention all of the extras: treasure tables, encounter charts, Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules, and Fighting Fantasy canon consistency. Still, it's done, and I thought I'd share a few snippets about the product and the process.

• The original brief was to use 250 creatures that already had prior artwork published in Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, to avoid commissioning new art and limiting the Kickstarter target to cover the licensing fees for the old artwork.
• This did allow me some creativity in using different artwork for creatures that originally had none (e.g. see the entries for the Carnivorous Plant, the Killer Bee, and the Man-Octopus).
• I started at the very first book (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain) and basically tried to cram in many old favorites that didn't make the original Out of the Pit. (e.g. the Iron Cyclops, the Night Horror, the Sand Snapper, and, of course, the She-Satyr).
• Where possible I tried to clump creatures as opposed to split them (e.g. see the Death-Knight, the Kraken, and the Serpent).
• Half way through writing, Stephen Hand requested via Steve Jackson that his monsters not be used, so out went any creatures from Dead of Night, Legend of Shadow Warriors and Moonrunner. This was disappointing...
• Marc Gascoigne was too busy to write a brief foreword. More disappointment...
• Ian Miller and Dave Carson had issues with their artwork being used, so Graham commissioned the talented Jason Lenox to provide illustrations for these creatures, and, especially given the short time frame, I think Jason's pictures are excellent!

Having said all that, I am very very happy with the final product. I think it stands up well as a companion to Out of the Pit, and provides definitive information on a horde of Fighting Fantasy beasties that were screaming out for their own official Advanced Fighting Fantasy treatment. I hope I've walked the fine line between a useable monster manual and a canonical sourcebook, while providing plenty of ideas for how the various creatures could make an appearance in a game or campaign. Despite the lengthy timeframe, and the workload (on top of family commitments, studies and my day job!), I thoroughly enjoyed myself writing this folio of fiends, and, well, who knows, there may certainly be a third volume to write yet! After all, there are plenty more monsters where these horrible creatures all came from...

The monster, of course, is a product of and a regular inhabitant of the imagination, but the imagination is a driving force behind our entire perception of the world. If we find monsters in our world, it is sometimes because they are really there and sometimes because we have brought them with us... (Asma, 2009)

References

Asma, S. T. (2009). On monsters. New York: Oxford University Press.

Quammen, D. (2003). Monster of God. New York: Norton. 

False Dawn?

Red Sea denizen (Andrew Wright, 2014)

I hadn't seen him in two years. He'd long since left L.A., teaching, any sort of steady job, steady income, steady life. He was in Aspen, Dakar, Bangkok. Once in a while I got a dirt-smeared postcard from out of the amazing pipeline, exotic stamps, a mad trembling hasty scrawl of which the only legible term was "dude." (Boyle, 1994)

It's been a while. When I first moved from Bangkok to Saudi Arabia, I thought that the lack of a two hour daily commute to work might free up some time for other endeavors, such as this blog. However, the flotsam of life has tossed up plenty of alternative distractions to prevent this. Still, there is hope. In the next post I hope to talk about Beyond the Pit, which has basically taken two years to finish, and how happy I am to finally see it in print!

References

Boyle, T. C. (1994). Without a Hero. London: Penguin.

Interviewed!

There's a whole host of reasons why nothing has happened on the blog for ages (and there's been a stillborn post sitting on my laptop explaining all of them that I still haven't posted), but for now, check out this interview I did with Stuart Lloyd. You can find the interview here.

A New Year and a New Plan

 

This past year has been a good one for Fantasy Gamebook! This blog got started for one thing, taking a detailed look at Dave Morris’ amazing Heart of Ice adventure. Tin Man Games then released my Catacombs of the Undercity gamebook as the fifth entry in their Gamebook Adventures series on iTunes to good reviews. Finally my entry, Sea of Madness, won first prize in Wayne Densley’s 2011 Windhammer competition for short gamebook fiction.

However, it has been exceedingly tricky at times trying to balance fun stuff like gamebooks with real-world concerns like employment and studying, and the number of posts on this blog has suffered as a result. For 2012 there will be some changes, with posts being shorter, but hopefully more regular. In order to do this, I’m going to have to introduce a bit more structure to the proceedings, with posts organized into a cascading series of categories as follows:

News

Wherein I talk about a bunch of tangentially-related gamebook stuff that caught my eye over the past week or so.

Gamebooks

Where I explore some facet of gamebook lore in more detail.

Games

Whether it be boardgames, RPGs, or CRPGs, I briefly review or offer examples of play.

Books

Be they paper or PDF, I offer a few thoughts on whatever texts I’m currently wading through.

Influences

Ah nostalgia! Wherein I look at childhood influences that inspired a life-long lurch into the realm of fantastical endeavours.

Multimedia

Music, film, or (rarely) television; I post on what my eyes and ears are currently distracted by.

Science

A close favourite I’ve previously dallied with here.

That’s the plan anyway. Whether it actually happens is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish...