Emperors Choice

Arduin Eternal and EL (levels)

2012-03-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve fielded lots of question about Arduin Eternal (AE) overthe course of its development and even more after its release. A common question/complaint has revolvedaround the why ELs (experience levels) were removed from the game. The outcry seems to hinge around a couple oftopics, some more legitimate than others.

Previous iterations of Arduin revolved around ELs because,frankly, the games Arduin grew out of used them. They were a measure of power, of durability(how long you played), and were a core mechanic in the gaming system. They were the levels of achievement tomeasure off and the roadmap of improvement. The growth from greenhorn to veteran and to legend was measured out inthe slow (or fast) ascension from EL 1 to EL 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, and beyond. It waseffective and but too integral at the same time. It quickly became the focus instead of thegame play. EL 5 is better than EL 1 andEL 10 is better than EL 5 and if EL 10 is greater than EL 20 is grander; onlyEL 30 could trump them all and beyond that EL…anyone who has observed or playedMMORPGs will quickly note this fact. Thejourney of progression and growth from EL 1 to EL infinity is lost in thefootrace to the top. It’s evident in somany ways it’s almost painful.

Also, totally off topic, but look up MMORPG in the urbandictionary, reading definitions for MMORPG like “a treadmill that makes youfatter” and “…perfect for people who are too slow for Counter-Strike and withno friends or imagination for role playing” just gets me to laughing…

Arduin Eternal combats this by removing the use of EL as acore mechanic. Instead of balancing thegame off of a scaling single value, Arduin Eternal uses the values hidden underthe hood of EL. Most EL-driven (or levelif that’s more comfortable) games also use holistic mechanicaladvancement. Holistic advancements meansiterating from EL 1 to EL 2 provides a benefit to all the values hiddenwithin. If EL is an umbrella for saves,attack/defense bonuses, access to powers/skills/spells/goodies (etc), bonusesto starting attributes, or other mechanics, then it’s holistic. Compleat Arduin (CA) and the Arduin Adventure(AA) used this mechanic, for instance.

Don’t be fooled by games that provide pools of resources asEL are gained. With a few exceptionsthese games feature holistic advancement or hybrid holistic advancement. They seem individualized but are not. And don’t be confused by the windowdressing. Individuals of the same leveland similar configuration will have a tight pattern of resources at theirdisposal. Two EL 8 Thieves from the CA,for instance, with equal attributes will have the same amount of resourcesmechanically. Use similar grading foryour own favorite system: If you clonedtwo people so the attributes were the same, EL was the same, their archetypewas the same (profession, class, etc.) -- do they look alike within closevariance? If so, the game is probablyholistic.

Right. So how is AEdifferent? Well, let’s see. It uses an individualized advancementsystem. Not just one but actually two ofthem acting in parallel. One of theadvancement systems is driven by game events and player choices in game. This allows role playing to directlyinfluence mechanics. If yourhardbitten, crusty warrior spends the evening wining and dining instead ofswinging his sword and shield butting people in the face, he’ likely get better at it. I say likely because it’s notautomatic. Just because you utilizedinterpersonal skills in game doesn’t mean they automatically advance but itdoes mean you will get the “chance” for them to advance. Advancement systems of this sort arenominative, meaning that performance of some kind nominates a game mechanicinto the advancement system. Also, inAE, this advancement is failure possible. In its basic sense, AE uses a d100 roll against a difficulty of yourcurrent value. If you don’t attain thisthreshold you don’t advance. I’ll givean example.

Our tough warrior spent the evening smoozing, using hisSocial skill left and right. This gameaction nominates the Social skill for advancement. At the end of the night when the GM askspeople to check for advancement he makes this advancement check. His current skill ranking is 7. His chance of seeing some advancement is high(93%). Rolling an 8 or higher meanshe’ll see some increase. Should he rollless than this, however, he would not. So while the skill was nominated, it can fail. As skill ranks increase chances to succeeddecrease. If you charted it, it would bea bell curve.

The second advancement system is an individualized optionsystem. Gameplay is rewarded nightly orby story arc (depends on the GM) with experience (EPS). Usually 1 – 3 EPS is given, which can besaved or used by the player to gain secrets, buy advancement bonuses, trade forskill points and basically tailor your character. Let’s say our tough warrior didn’t make hisadvancement roll. He could use his EPSto buy skill ranks and advance the skill anyway.

So, let’s deal with the common complaint/question Ihear. “How do I tell how powerful my characteris without levels?!!?”.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I feel for them. The ability to say with a certain level ofsmugness that you have a 50th level mage or EL 30 Warrior carries with it asense of confidence that’s hard to give up. People know hearing you say it that the character is powerful, uniqueand “important”. Even if you juiced themup to that point, it still gets a reaction out of your audience.

Before I answer, another outcry has been from GMs, who useELs to “balance” an adventure for their players. Granted, to a point everyone does this,especially for one-shot or convention games where the players are unknown andyour snapshot of time is short to play in. Outside of the above and perhaps a few other unique situations, it’smore akin to wrapping your players in bubble wrap.

If you need it, Arduin Eternal uses the same grading systemit uses for skills (Proficient, Trained, Experienced, Specialist, Expert,Genius, Legendary, Epic, & Mythic) to sort out power and challenge levels. Ifyou split the requirements for each of these levels, you get a general idea ofstrength, measured by sessions (game nights) or experience (graded at a rate of3 per session). So, if I was making achart, it would look like this:

Proficient, 0 - 4sessions/0 – 14 EPS

Trained, 5 – 11 sessions/15 – 33 EPS

Etc.

EPS are in the equation because the rate it’s given can alterthe amount of sessions. If you gave out5 EPS per session, characters would mature much quicker, hitting Trained in 3-4sessions and so on.

So an Expert level character has seen somewhere around 35 –55 sessions/115 – 165 EPS.

Anyway, if you need a rough approximation, please use theabove.

Note on the Klinchnâk

2012-03-01T17:05:00.000-05:00

Spoken of only in whispers and dread are the legendary Kthoi and their dominion of the world in the misty dawn of creation. While often referred to as the beginning, others strode the world before and with them prior to their rise to dominion and long grip on the world, space, and dimensions. The Klinchnâk, an aqueous race whose arcane skills were formidable, came, and went before the Kthoi came into their own, leaving behind little beyond their tree anemone cities in the deep crevasses of the sea. They were not alone but what trace of them exists today? Little, for the Kthoi did not look upon the achievements of other races with wonder but with contempt and destroyed most if not all of the ruins of any race preceding them, especially any that might come anywhere within the extent of their abilities.

Misty Mountain Wars

2012-02-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

Mingled in the regional histories of many of the more extant eastern countries are references to the Misty Mountain Wars. This 42-year stretch of history is not only a bloody one for the Misty Isles but also a spur of change for the entire central coastal region of Khaora. It directly spawned one other country and was indirectly responsible for several more. It gave the impetus to the formation of the stone-toothed quays found in the cities and ruins of Aldoré; magikal forces released near the end of that struggle inadvertently formed the Uquiliu Venting and the a poor, foolish and misguided Amazon Priestess of Hekate let loose an evil in the world whose appetite is unquenched still. The wars were indeed a tumultuous time for the region and they ended only through the death of Duchess (and Amazon General) Quotara-la in the sacrificial trees high on Mist Finger Mountain (thus ending her claims to the Mist Wind Throne) and the fleeing of General Avelda (who founded a country of the same name) from the Misty Isles. With these two claimants slain or departed from the scene, soon-to-be Queen Lysippl consolidated the rest of the isles under her iron fist and ended the wars.

Thus, you can see this was a powerful event in Misty Isles history. While it would grow to large proportions and change the course of nation, those who started it had no idea this would occur. Like many other great events this war began as something trivial—so much so it might have swept into the ocean of the past without changing anything if it were not for the critical (though likely accidental) intervention of a few. An unlikely grouping: a Phraint, two Dwarves, an Elf, and a (very slim) Hobbitt saved a smuggler from stoning in Brēll. Their motives were not altruistic by any means, as the fool owed them money (and no small amount either).

Price of Safety

2012-02-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

In think a little background on this session is required. The characters were all hobbitts or hobbitt breeds (yes, Arduin people spell it with two tt’s not one). One of the players (Jake) had bought rice wine from a village we had walked through and almost everyone half sloshed by the time we started. If you’ve never had the stuff, it’s a demon. Their naming stunk as badly as their breath and Jake, Cal, and Tim thought it was funny to name themselves after weapons. They also dared everyone to play hobbitts. For whatever reason, they thought it funny to do so and cajoled the other two into playing them as well.

Anyway, the run lasted a couple of hours and was recorded by me. The players were set in Arduin but in the nation of Malgoreem. I’d ruled they had past history and had run together during the excursion of the Mok from the Blood Dawn nexus two years ago. They had all survived that bloody day when the Mok overran a chunk of southern Malgoreem before they were banished back to whatever hell spawned them.

Characters:
Moarx – Hobbitt Warrior
Koch – Half Hobbitt/Human Mercenary
Wesson – Hobbitt Priest of Saren
Kimbir – Half Hobbitt/Human Warrior
Glock – Hobbitt Mage

****

The five had been away for a time, each traveling their own path in the world before they returned home. They had agreed, on the stark and windy day that they had left, to return in two years time. They met up on the road and camped, swamping stories of their exploits before taking up the road again the next morning to go into the town of their birth. They had few ambitions: to see old haunts, maybe an old girlfriend or two and to visit Wesson’s sister Tessa and Moarx’s sister Erin.

Breezing into town, everyone greeted them friendly especially when they realized who they were. Once or two people looked at them nervously but the five wrote it off to fears of old quarrels. Moarx sister offered to take two of them into her home while Wesson’s agreed to have the other three.

The five, the two sisters and few old cronies from the old days met up at the only establishment that went for a place to eat and be merry, Crangstons. It was much improved since the old days, with new beams along the ceiling and better ale. The night went fast, as did the next day. Partying tended to do that. A few more people began to look at them nervously and it made them curious. Everyone denied it but the town magistrate, Accias, did stop by with an inquiry on when they planned to leave. Wesson, just to pull his toe hair, mentioned potentially staying. Accias just harrumphed like he always did. He frowned and said Wesson would have to ask the town for permission. Regardless, he wanted the lot of us troublemakers out by tomorrow.

Of course, that did nothing but pique their interest. They laid heavily into the two sisters who pale but determined, refused to say anything. Angry, they went out and roamed around the town. It was sad but they had to hear the truth of it from the town drunk, March. He told them that a few months after the five had left, kobolds had raided the town from the Lead Ridge hills. It seemed endless and they were carting off everything. It stopped as abruptly as it started and a Manticore had landed outside of town the next day. It had two farmers, and sent one in to tell the town that it had slew many kobolds and would keep the town safe as long as they paid it tribute. It would hold the other farmer until it had its tribute. It demanded meats, freshly slain and a live victim once every couple of months. The town, unwilling to submit, sent out a team of militia, hardened veterans of the Mok invasion and the recent Kobold attacks. They found the Manticore in its lair in the nearby Silver Crown woods. The manticore slew them all and devoured them in the air over the town, raining pieces of the men everywhere and fouling the Saren’s Fountain in the town circle.

Powerless, Accias had given in. The Manticore demanded its tribute though it accepted a wagon of skins, furs and carpets in place of a victim; it had already eaten well.

Unhinged by this news, they demanded how the people were picked. The drunk only knew there was a lottery. Everyone who lived here participated in it. No one was exempt. Outraged they return to the houses but the sisters locked them out. They spend a cold night in the streets.
The next day, more braced and hardened they attend the town meeting about the lottery. The meeting was in shambles from the beginning as they yell and curse the townspeople. Who roar back and warn them against acting. They had tried, they pleaded, not once but three times to kill the beast. Once when it showed, again three months afterward with a near dozen men hired from High Wall. They were strong, sturdy men who died like flies when it rained death down on them and gouged their hearts out. The Manticore demanded more tribute after that and the town paid with a living sacrifice per month. It lasted three months before, Prandial, the priest of Saren returned from his pilgrimage to the Sun Scorch Mountains. Hearing of the tale of horror, he marshaled his faith and confronted the beast. He never returned.

Finally, the town watch get the players to shut up. The lottery is done and Wesson’s sister is chosen. The five go completely bat shit and argue vehemently about the justice and right of the shrine. Eventually they have to be throw out. Wesson goes to the fountain, now clean and sparkling with the sun, and calls on Saren but gets no answer even though he asks so desperately (GM Note: He blew the roll with a fumble).

Out in the street, Glock and Koch are all for marching on the beast immediately and putting it to the sword. They are loud about it too and chase down Wesson to say that they should kill it, whether Saren is on their side or not. It’s the right thing to do. Numerous townspeople try to talk them out of it, including a blustering Accias. Kimbir and Moarx finally track the other three. They tell them to shut it, apologize to everyone and drag them away. They meet at the sister’s house. They are debating on what to do (she’s left and went to a friend’s house) when several members of the militia show up. They tell them to stay in the house and to not interfere. To make sure it happens, the guys are going to keep a watch on them. No sneaking out the back either!

The five just look at each other and shut the door. Later when their relief shows up, Glock puts the whole lot to sleep. They truss them up and sneak out of town.

Tessa, Wesson’s sister, though, she finds them. She always knows where her brother is (it was hell growing up!) and meets them not far outside of time. She confronts Wesson and the other four, telling them it is fate and that she doesn’t want to see him or the other die trying to kill the Manticore. Wesson refuses to hear her out and they fight; eventually she runs away weeping.
Disturbed but still determined, they move on. The Silver Crown woods is alight with thin tendrils of smoke and moving lights, making the silver bark of the trees and the mantle of leaves glimmer to live up to its name. They are not long in the wood before they run afoul a nest of Argo Caols. Moarx had discovered them and told the rest. His capacity to talk to and be liked by insects made it easy to see why he was an excellent scout. He gets a picture of how the three of them are lounging in the trims (ready to drop on prey below) and the five of them attack instead. They butcher them quickly, without much effort. Koch took down one with his ax in a mighty blow (surprise + an awesome damage roll), Glock froze on stiff and watched it shatter when it fell, while Wesson and Kimbir sliced the third simultaneously (snake sushi).

They quickly moved away from the noise and bodies. They thought they had gone far enough but a Sepithidan (a monkey like thing that attacks from the trees) picked up their scent and followed them, throwing rocks and pieces of tree s well as making an unholy racket. Moarx got a lucky shot on it, pinning it to a limb and Glock got off another freezing dart that immobilized it. It didn’t take much after that to kill it and Moarx shoved it in a hollow tree to feed the bugs.

Moarx led them farther in towards the lair, using the insects for a guide (even they knew where the big predators laired). They almost stumbled into a spirit haunt (ghosts locked to the land) but caught their steps in time. It took a few hours to skirt around it and while traversing a lowered, marshy part of the trees the group ran smack into a clump of screaming scarlet itchies. They loved Moarx, who was unbothered but crawled all other the rest. It took all their willpower to back out and retreat far enough that Moarx could get them off the rest of the group. By that point, it was coming to morning. Wesson prays to the morning sun (Saren) and is rebuked (second fumble of the night on this). Chastised, he must return to the Saren’s fountain (in the town; it’s the shrine to the god locally) to be cleansed. (He won’t get mana or faith until he does; it’s part of the fumble). Frustrated but unwilling to do it without him, they return to the town.

The townsfolk are upset with them. The slept guards were found and this time they are totally surrounded. The townspeople are glad to hear they did not anger the Manticore but they suspect the players will do something and cause the Manticore to kill more of them. They demand the group leave. The five of them confer and make a plan. Tessa forces her way into their council and insists that if they must be mad, she will join them in their madness. They hesitate but agree, changing the plan to incorporate her.

Wesson talks to the guards. He insists he be allowed to the fountain. Mollified by the groups compliance with their demands, they allow it under guard. Wesson prays at the fountain and is filled with mana and faith though Saren doesn’t answer his most ardent question. Seeing no alternative, he enacts the plan.
Wesson says he is to take his sister’s place. Seeing as how he just prayed and visibly was blessed by the gods, the townsfolk are encouraged to believe him. And to think it is the will of the gods. The townsfolk meet and agree, but only if they can lock up the other four in room when they pay tribute.
After some arguing, the others agree. The other four are locked up in a room while they truss and strip Wesson down to nothing but a cloth to protect his modesty. Someone stays on guard while the rest of them go get the remaining tribute.

Simultaneously, Glock casts an illusion that the 4 are in the room. Koch knocks out a floor board (quietly) and the slip away. Moarx goes into the woods covertly to find the swarm of screaming scarlet itchies. He has Wesson’s equipment.

The other three meet Wesson’s sister Tessa behind the butchers (she is also a butcher). Pale but determined, she dunks them with blood, and has them get into the wagon and then puts them in the big bags that hold the meats to go to the Manticore. Tessa pads each one in a ball of meat. She then hands them over to the men that come to get the meats. The men pound on each bag with a hammer. Glock gets hurt but manages to suppress his cry of pain (nice roll too!).

The men take the wagon out of town, meeting the other with the trussed up Wesson. They all dismount and put Wesson in the seat. They then draw straws to see who has to drive him and the tribute out to the Manticore. The baker draws the short straw.

Once in motion the four cut air holes to breath better (I was making them make checks to not pass out and suffocate). When they get to the arranged spot the baker rolls out the bags. Koch gets hurt but Wesson was making noise and it covers his cry of pain.

Once unloaded, the baker mutters an apology to Wesson while averting his eyes, and places him next to the bags, still trussed up. Wesson lays there, the sun on his face, praying to his god. Moarx has made it to the edge of the wood and can barely see them. It’s a good run across rough ground but he’s confident he can get into it. He has the screaming scarlet itchies wrapped around him like a cloud and he’s keeping them on him to blanket his form from sight.

The Manticore comes, drawn by the scent of blood. Wesson tells them while it circles and they cut the bottoms of their bags open so they can get up and move better. Satisfied no one is laying in wait, the Manticore drops to the ground and comes slowly up to Wesson, pawing the ground and cackling with hoarse laughter.

In a rough voice it taunts Wesson, telling him it is going to eat him. Wesson ignores it and quietly chants a prayer to Saren, the sun god. When he ends, the others free their weapons and then burst out of the bags. Seeing them do it, Moarx starts his run, the screaming scarlet itchies moving around him like a cloud. The Manticore rears back, not only surprised by their appearance, but by the blinding sunlight aura that rings Wesson.

Glock throws a Landfast spell but spoils it (he blew the roll) due to the blood. Kimbir dives at it, rolling beneath and throws a thick rope around its middle, binding himself to it. Koch attacks, hacking at it with his axe, cutting a huge swathe in its wing.

Luckily, Glock gets his spell going the second time before the Manticore can get back into the air (better roll this time). This time, his Landfast spell goes off and binds it to the ground. The Manticore doesn’t know that though and tries to throw itself into the air. It fails and almost bellies out, which scares the hell out of Kimbir. It snarls and bites at Koch, chewing on the haft of his axe (he parried).

Moarx is in full tilt but seems a mile away (he won’t show up for a few melee rounds). Koch gets another bite out of its wing with his ax and Kimbir slides towards his left, digging his spurs (he’s got fighting spurs on) in its belly while drawing and driving two daggers, one in each hand, in its ribs.

Wesson’s ropes are smoking (as is his skimpy loin cloth) from his sun aura. Moarx is still running and Koch and Kimbir are fighting the Manticore. It realizes after a second that it can move still but has to keep its feet in contact with the ground. It heaves itself forward, sliding on its belly, hurting itself but nearly crushing Kimbir in the process. This also puts it near Glock, who peppers it with a mystic dart spell and backs up. Koch charges and slices off its tail (rolled a crit, yeah!) and Kimbir continues to dig in from underneath though one of his legs is now broken.

It’s a standoff, of sorts. The two, Kimbir and Koch keep hacking at it though poor Glock slips and nearly falls into the Manticore’s mouth. It proceeds to bite him in two (another crit, this time for the GM!). Kimbir gets on top of it and starts stabbing from the top, still roped in. Koch dodges in and out to hack at its wings and legs. They keep up the dance long enough for Moarx to show up with his swarm of screaming scarlet itchies. Koch backs off and Kimbir cuts his rope and rolls away. Wesson manages to finally get free of his ropes.

The swarm of screaming scarlet itchies coats the Manticore and Moarx keeps them on it, coaxing them to coat and aggravate it. Wesson forges the sunlight with his faith (this is a ritual) and hands Kimbir and Koch spears of pure sunlight. They cast them repeatedly into the Manticore until it slumps, finally defeated.

Moarx slips in and thrusts his blade into its neck, slicing it free with a wave of blood. The Manticore is defeated!

Moarx dismisses his insect friends. The others collect Glock’s body and take him and themselves to a small pond fed by a stream that lies nearby. They wash and cover Glock and then lay him out in the sun (he was a Saren follower too).

Master Words of Power

2012-02-27T20:03:00.000-05:00

Tales and songs of Dzor Khorenin aretypically not the fare of many bards, though occasionally one hearsthis tale. Bards regard the song about this supposed forefather oftheir art with a range starting in ambivalence and ending in hatred. Some consider his acts the most heinous of crimes committed whileothers sorrow at the choice he had to make. Regardless of theirfeeling, all agree that according to the tales, Dzor Khorenin justlyheld a reputation of power, subtlety, and spoken presence so intensethat none could abide or deny his words. His charisma, onceunleashed, was undeniable.

All of the tales and songsagree that lying idle one day, Dzor was surprised by Oolnydragen, theDemon of Whispers. Now the slightest sound of Oolnydragen’s voicewas death, it was said, and it hated all other beings. Its utmostdelight was in the expression of surprise and fear adorning everyvictim’s face as they heard its voice. Dzor knew these tales well,for he had sung them myriad times to inspire fear in others,mimicking the stealthy approach of Oolnydragen to strike terror inchildren and adults alike. Presented by reality, Dzor acted in theonly way he instinctively could—he began to sing! Dzor raised hisvoice in an attempt to drown out Oolnydragen’s whispers as theyburned into his mind. Its tentacles and oozing tendrils followed,but as they whipped and whirled around him, Dzor ignored his dreadand spoke more powerfully the words, belted out the songs that madehim tower in greatness. With each word and song he felt safer, yetat the same time felt a sharp pain as if something was literally tornfrom him. In horror, he soon realized Oolnydragen was devouring hisevery word, stripping away each song, forever ripping them from hisbeing! Trapped and refusing to accept such a death, he sung on,feeding Oolnydragen every hateful word, epithet, destructive phrase,and song of death he could produce. As they flowed from him, eachdeparted like a treasured friend, forever leaving, never to return. Yet, no matter what hate-filled magik he spoke, Oolnydragen neverwavered in the devouring of his speech and seemed to eternally yearnfor more.

With no recourse left,Dzor spoke the words of power that shaped him into the master he was,letting each one go like an arrow at the heart of the Greater Demon. Oolnydragen shivered with each word, each master’s utterance givenform in song, but Dzor only sorrowed as he watched the power slipfrom him forever. In the end, exhausted, armed with only his lastword, Dzor spoke and waited, fatigue overcoming him. The silencethat fell after this last, final, cogent utterance was a burningrazor across his skin, and utterly drained, Dzor could only wait,eyes closed, for his doom. In a length of time where legends meltedand time ground to dust, past when he could stand it no more, Dzoropened his eyes and found Oolnydragen gone—blasted perhaps, or justfilled to the max of his gullet, drunk in Dzor’s power and masteryover the word and song. Regardless, Dzor sorrowed mightily, for nowhe was but a shadow of what he was, and words that had defined himwere gone—slipped away in the voracious appetite of the GreaterDemon. Thus, so went the words of power for bards from the world…

Sorrow and Bright Blade Rivers

2012-02-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Aroundthe Sorrow and Bright Blade Rivers persists an old tradition,harkening back to when both rivers were named after the IthalosianMonarch Vilal Kynnyn for his two legendary blades. Supposedly, themonarch lost his famous ‘Bright Blade’ on the verge of battle toa thief, but his guards were able to slay the miscreant before hefled too far. Alas, the thief had cast the monarch’s famed bladefrom a bridge and it was lost in the churning waters of riverbeneath.

Now,the king was wroth that evening while his enemies laughed and plottedfor his doom at the break of light. Yet, the king, no matter howdeep his ire, was wily and wise. He turned misfortune around in away they could not foresee. On morn, when the armies gathered forwar in the cold mist that clung to the low hills, his enemies weredumbfounded as the sun burned off the mist and lit the river likefire. Calling out to them from a nearby hill, King Vilal Kynnyn saidboldly that they would feel the light of his blade no matter how theytried their treachery! The monarch then released the dams he hadcommanded built and swept a low, but powerful wave of water downtowards his foes, all the time with the river shining and sparkinglike flames! As the enemy panicked and its troops milled arounddemoralized, King Vilal rode them down twirling his famous bladeSorrow and a mighty hammer, in the other. Before an hour was spentmore than half of the enemy were slain and the rest sent them fleeingfor the trees.

Thatevening, he recounted the tale, speaking how he had commanded halfhis soldiers to work all night damming the river, while the otherhalf fashioned clay and grass ‘boats’. These he ordered filledwith ‘mirrors’ of polished brass. In the morning before thebattle, while the mist lay on the land, he had them loose the littleclay ‘boats’ with polished brass mirrors, so that as light fellon them it would light the river like fire. Combining this withbreaking the dams utterly unnerved the enemy, who feared he hadsomeone how mastered the river to his power.

Everyyear on the 22nd of Khoros, the people who dwell along the river willcommemorate this battle and light its length with clay and paperboats to bring ‘light to the king’s shining blade once again’. The display is quite beautiful at first light when the bobbing boatsare released t0 catch the sun.

A similar tale involves the king’sblade ‘Sorrow’, and is an echo to this one but involving theshattering of his blade over the remorse of accidentally killing hisson while enflamed with battle. Those who dwell near both riversrelive these acts, taking the day to honor this legend of their firstmonarch.

Conversation overheard in the Undercity

2012-02-26T00:22:00.000-05:00

An intro into a short run campaign about 9 years ago.

*****

Shivering,cold and hungry, a small boy sits in filth. The sound of watercrashing echoes in the distance as does the murmuring of the winds. The boy huddles tighter into the small niche he has found, peeringinto the darkness, vainly trying to pierce its veil. He cuddlestighter around the dimly glowing moss he had found. From nowherecomes a mocking voice.

Stillfloundering around in the dark? Now,don’t get testy—you won’t need that dagger you are clutching! Not that you could hit me with it anyway, taking into account youhaven’t eaten in three days and are limping pretty bad.

What?

Astonished?

Astaroth’sTits boy, I run the Warren and know everything there is to know!

Whoam I?

Comenow, even a gnawbonelike you has heard of me, I am sure.

Lachat is my name and if you want to survive down here in the warren,underneath the great city you had better be like Machaicbefore Skirinand wise up!

Ihave watched you since you stumbled down here from above, runningfrom that tattooed Salt Arm. What do you owe them—money? Sex? Work? Or your life for some infringement? Not interested in tellingme?

Don’tworry, you will in time

Lachat’s voice fades away into thedarkness

Asmall form hunkered down in the slime ridden moss of a stony corner. Once perhaps, the room of sorts served a different purpose, but nowwas little more than a byway for the sewer that coursed above andaround. Of course, it served as a byway for more than the refuse ofthose who dwelled above and more than one lurker plied its ways as apathway in the equally grand Undercity below.

So,how is the taste of rat?

From nowhere, the mocking voice floats onthe air.

Theboy scrambles around and looks up fearfully from his first meal in anindeterminable time.

Don’tworry, the voice says, I its long since I have desired to feast uponthe flesh of rats. My taste runs to more richer flesh, you mightsay.

Sooo,ready to speak to Lachat today? No?

Toobad. I hear the Gloom Striddlers are looking for a nice bit likeyou. Nice bit of cringing there! Really, I was just kidding…thoughdon’t underestimate the dangers of the Wizzen. You luck will notlast forever, you know.

What’sthat? Done well have you? Think you are surviving okay since youavoided Urbail, our local unsavory slaver and slew a few Swlive withyour little knife?

You’velearned a few tricks but you’ll need more than that to survivewhere you are wandering into now. Good luck!

With a sardonicchuckle the voice departs again.

2012-02-25T20:14:00.002-05:00

Regrettably the times have caught up with Emperors Choice. Today we increased the prices on a lot of our items, most noticeable is the miniatures. As you all probably know we do 90% of our own sculpting, mold work and casting in house which allowed us to be one of the cheaper miniature companies on the block, but the times got us also, between metal, rubber, labor etc we really felt we had no choice to help keep Arduin alive. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you but we still have some ongoing specials as usual on the store under "Specials" so some savings is still there.

Thank you,

-Emperors Choice

2012-02-24T20:28:00.001-05:00

A sampling coming in the far future (probably end of year to summer 2013.

1/160 scale (N Scale). These are some o f the original German sculpts we have had on deck for a couple of years.

A Trek to Caliban

2012-02-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

Almost 31 yearsago, I sat down with bunch of friends for a game. It wasan impromptu thing, as my cousin (Jim) had come in from England wherehe was stationed in the Air Force. There was 5 of us at the table,well, actually 6 but he had to take off early. I’d been familiarwith Arduin for a few years at this point but I’d been playing RQrecently and had been out of it.

Anyway,I came in with two characters I’d played in the past: a wizardnamed Petrois Ne’ Cor, wielder of the Wild Purple Winds of Cohchurand bearer of the 5 Rings that sank Tendo the Fair, the shining jewelof the Southern Ocean; and a Martial Artist known only asCore-do-mauc. Core-do-mauc was a tormented soul, caught between thehellish world of his demonic sire and the one of his hobbittonmother. He never carried a weapon, content to use the harsh planesof his bones where they protruded from his skin as all the weaponshe’d ever needed. The few times he lost his cool and sunk into thetorment that chewed at his mind like a pack of hounds, the curse hisfathering sire intoned when he was born would show forth on his skin,the spidery runic writing burning through cloth and steel.

Jimgot us all together and told us to talk and plan before we startedbecause we were making a trek into Caliban. Caliban! I’d beenthere once with a different character and it was tough – tougherthan nearly any other adventure I’d been on! Whispering, we stuckour heads together and started plotting. I peeked every now and thenin-between and caught Jim watching us out of the corner of his eyeand smiling while he doodled at writing some notes. Anyway…we hadall brought a couple of character and after some plotting decided onthe following characters:

1. Faux Shaddoe, a son of the night, scion of its darkness (16^thlevel)

2. Bear Walks into Ghost Claws, a Blue Barbarian (11^thlevel)

3. Lord Jevlin Motedreal, a Priest of Megalon and bearer of the Shieldof the Fellowship of Stars (14^thlevel);

4. Kanaan, son of Konaan, winner of 100 duels (13^thlevel Warrior)

5. Josephus, who heard the first words of magik spoken and was forevermarked by their utterance (14^thlevel Wizard)

6. Gimly, Nightblade wielder and Hero of the Battle of Elements Cross(15^thlevel Warrior)

7. Shainaine, cursed by the Red Moon to be both spider and man(were-spyder Trader 17^thlevel)

8. While I had both characters, I ended up playing Petrois Ne’ Cor(14^thwizard) as the 8^thmember of our party to give us more arcane backup.

Seeingwe were settled, Jim called us over and we sidled over to the table. A bit of storyline later landed us all in Talismondé, meeting withan interesting patron. Each of us had different reasons for beingthere at the meet, from greed to revenge. It wasn’t hard for Jim toleverage reasons for us to find our way to Caliban. Our commonenthusiasm and desire to game under the hand of a truly experiencedGM bonded us into the excitement he was building at the table. Jimused the NPCs and our own character personalities to play off us off,one by one and in en masse, using Faux’s delight in mysteries andego to challenge Josephus and his appetite for knowledge while BearWalks into Ghost Claws was challenged by Motedreal in a way he couldnot back down from for fear of disgracing himself before the spiritsof his ancestors and his god. Gimly was the hardest but the tauntingof Shainaine (who went out of greed) and Kanaan (who walked with usfor glory and to poke Gimly in the nose) soon brought him along. Petrois went to find the Red Winds, lost to time and trouble in thepast.

Westocked up and prepped at Josephus’ place outside of Talismondé. Our patron was an enigmatic fellow, cloaked and garbed to disguiselimb and feature. We trusted him little but he spoke the oath bondto Megalon that what he passed on was true and made plain his aims inour quest: to gain the Fire Stones of Anarr, once worn as a necklacefor the Giantess Eldincarissa, who bore it into Caliban and lost itwhen she died in the grasp of a radioactive blood ooze. He haddivined that they were within, laying upon the burning altardedicated to the Greater Demon Ralkull! At our refusal to piss off aGreater Demon he swore that by replacing it with an even moretreasured piece that we would not incur Ralkull’s wrath. We wereskeptical; but listened a little more keenly when he offhandedly saidhe had three of the Blued Blades of Ananias: Izidkiel, Hanael, andKepharel, each named after the quasi-divine beings that bore theminto battle during the Heaven Siege. After some wheeling and dealingwe agreed but only if we could take the blades as well, kind of a“just in case Ralkull shows up…” backup. The object we were toreplace the necklace with was a reliquary of Boreas, the withered butpotent left hand of the Borean Saint Raven Boaz. Our patron, Iguess, had recently stolen it from a wintry shrine in the far northbut didn’t relate much of the story that went along with it. Hedid indicate that it was thrice cursed and that the triple curseswould adhere to whoever kept it for any length of time; kind of apoke to make sure we did this in a timely manner.

Thus,accoutered, we were ready. We swore fell oaths in ensure both sideswould carry out our obligations. Josephus was the gate, so to speak,on how to get to Caliban. He had been there once prior and had magikat this disposal to transport us to the right world. A short timelater and we found ourselves in a world with yellow skies, a singlemoon, huge and swollen on the horizon and rugged, forested plains inall directions. Taking stock and moving around, we quickly foundCaliban, its needle like basalt stone stabbing the sky like a daggerin the eye of heaven. We weren’t alone however, and an army ofthousands surrounded it on all sides. The men of the army were likethe Mongols, tough asian looking men on horses supplemented withfloating sorcerers dressed in long silk robes.

Whiledetermining what or how we should approach, we kept moving to get aview from all angles. Unfortunately we tripped an alarm or just hadbad luck (or, maybe Jim wanted to move us along!) – anyway, wequickly found ourselves embroiled in a melee with an over strengthcompany of the army. As tough as they were and even with numbers(probably 200 or so) they had never seen anything like us before. Josephus and I cast spells near simultaneously, he conjuring forthmetal spikes from the earth in a circle around us, angling themoutwards in a bristling wall. I called forth a massive volley ofarcane bolts, ones that jumped, sparked and danced from person toperson. The others engaged as well each in their own way. LordJevlin Motedreal was spectacular, evoking forth a blue light thatfilled the sky, grim and ominous to the enemy, draining their couragewhile empowering and bright to us.

Wemade quick work of them though it wasn’t all with ease. Josephusand I tangled with the Chinese like sorcerers, taking on a floatingpentad of them. One nearly ripped the organs right out of my bodybut I held them within by sheer force of will (a close save!). Ireturned the favor by melting his bones, succeeding where he failed. Josephus called forth two gaunt, scrofulous death figures, ringingthem with a halo of unwholesome yellow in accompaniment. Thesorcerers were not without their tricks as well and summoned forthwinged snakes of lighting, writhing tentacles of darkness out of theground and a rain of throttling hands. In the end we won, though Iwas burned, frozen, whipped and near strangled. Josephus had lostuse of his left arm to some kind of genetic dissonance spell but wasotherwise okay. The rest fared in equal parts and we retreatedquickly, Lord Jevlin Motedreal calling forth a sanctuary. Within thesanctuary, out of the flow of the world we had landed to findCaliban, we rested and healed.

Whilewithin, we plotted. Some careful divination (something we shouldhave done earlier) quickly exposed a plethora of information we coulduse. After we egress the sanctuary we back tracked from the Calibanarea, using more care than previously. We found our goal, which wasa village of people, mostly peasants. Between Faux and Shainaine, wequickly got what we needed through trade, treachery and talk. Armedwith the knowledge of the local heroes, legends and demigods, weenacted our plan. See, we were going to walk boldly up to the armyacting like we were heroes and demigods of legend and mythology!

Somequick magik makeover and a little preparation had us doing just that,stomping into the camp of the Co Tang horde. We picked a mix ofchurlish and prickly heroes to emulate and it worked to ouradvantage. If we messed up (and we did!) we reacted with anger andafter killing a person or two, people were a lot less apt to pointout inaccuracies. The Co Tang commander was Han; he had a longstinking name Jim rolled off but we stuck to calling him Han just topiss him off. After a few days of wreaking havoc in his army Han wasabout ready to let us do whatever we needed to get us out of hishair. Which is what we hoped/prayed for. He gave us pass toCaliban, almost relishing the thought. He mentioned the loss of manymen to it and we didn’t think much of it, knowing Caliban’sreputation.

Ashort trudge later had us within sight of the giant basalt steps andmegalithic doors. A storm was raging around the tower where itpierced the clouds and in the flicker of lightning under the hail ofraindrops we could see a field of carnage laid out before us. A fewmen? More like several hundred! The remains of men lay strewn inparts and pieces in a wide arc in front of the doors. Deciding notto attempt the obvious danger we scouted for other routes. Josephusattempted to go airborne but the winds quickly cut that idea short. Dimensional door/teleport options failed completely. Entry via theplanes was fenced in. Attempts to quell the storm turned out to beimpossible. No other entry ways at the ground level were available,even after we scoured the sides in the rain. We did find that thetower had a disconcerting way of slowly absorbing anything thatpressed against it for more than a minute. We almost lost Kanaan tothat. Luckily he regenerated or else he’d be shy a limb! When theattempt to move earth to go underneath failed (it kept collapsing) wewere resigned the doors were the only option left.

Afterthe rest of us moved away some distance, Faux slipped up to thedoors. In the rain and darkened sky we all lost sight of him. Aftera little while we heard several loud and obnoxious retorts, a soundsome of us were familiar with all too well. Gimly said it for us: that was a gun, a big one. When Faux didn’t come back, we had todo something. Not willing to risk another disappearing, we decidedto go as a group. Not interested in dying, we tried to be smart. Kanaan had in his possession a most wondrous sphere. One that couldconjure forth a spherical barrier of power around himself and a groupof others. Its downfall was once within, he could not move it. However, Bear Walks into Ghost Claws was monstrously strong and aftersome practice found he could roll it (slowly, so we could walk withit). While the area around the tower was muddy and wet it wasprimarily level. Bear Walks into Ghost Claws rolled us towards thedoors and we quickly found out exactly what happened. We got within100 yards of the doors and it seemed like hell opened up on us! Amassive volley of shells slammed into the sphere followed by anechoing series of retorts like rolling thunder. After recoveringfrom his surprise, Bear Walks into Ghost Claws waited and then slowlymaneuvered the sphere towards the doors at an oblique angle; it kepthim from getting hit. The shells were coming at the sphere fromseveral points around the door, spraying out across the field. Oncewe figured out the angles, he maneuvered the sphere and smashed eachone with a giant blow, causing it to explode when it spit forth itsnext barrage of shells. He got a little singed and pierced byfragments of metal but otherwise was unscathed. Once it quieted, wewaited a little and then exited the sphere to look for Faux.

We scoured themess of sodden body fragments but Faux found us instead of the otherway around. He slipped out of the wet darkness like a ghost, hisbody held together by liquid darkness. Pissed but otherwise fine, heexplained how he had crept up toward the door but didn’t make ittoo far before several of the guns around the door opened up on him. It took him this long just to recuperate – luckily the stormprovided the necessary darkness he needed to heal. Not that he wouldbe full strength for a little bit. He rested, along with some of theothers, who choose to go among the dead. Lord Jevlin Motedreal movedamong the fallen to give them last rites and others for lessrespectable reasons (thievery!); Josephus, I and Gimly scoped out thedoor and the area surrounding it.

Toour eyes, senses and magical viewing, the doors seemed otherwiseunbarred. It looked like entry was as simple as opening the verylarge doors: imposing, 50 ft monstrosities, scarred, battered butotherwise formed of some fibrous metallic material. We piddle aroundfor some time, observing the area and waiting for Faux to heal (hiscondition/state only allowed him to heal in a certain way; a weaknessI filed away in case it became useful at a later date). We finishedand finally moved in.

Inside,the doors opened up to a giant, well, foyer, for the lack of a betterterm. The room was long, angular and connected to a couple of smallhallways and several smaller versions of the outside door. On eachside of the room, deep grooves were etched into the floor and it wasobvious that a section of the wall on each side could slide out,opening up to a tunnel or room on the other side. Josephus found hecould fly inside and quickly sprouted a pair of large white wings todo just so (nice spell). He did a quick scout of the area (theceiling was some 50 ft in height on average, arched and groined likea cathedral. While we arranged into a decent fighting order, hefound and disabled a few sensory devices – some techno, somemagical in origin. Something he did must have triggered a trap orsecurity measure because one moment we were talking about how andwhere to proceed and he was winging down to the ground and the nextthe room filled with dark green-blue fumes, arid and choking. Thewinds whipped up around me, forcing the fumes away even before theycould come close to me but it took a second before I could expandthis protection to the others. By the time I had bound up the fumesinto a churning ball of smoke in the center of the room, it hadworked its powers on the rest of us. Shainaine had been forced intohis spyder shape and Faux into pure shadow. No one else seemedaffected but both found they could not return to their originalforms. Shainaine was little affected as he planned to assume hiswere form anyway. Faux was livid – he lost a lot of flexibilitybeing forced only into shadow form.

Wefunneled the fumes out the door. We cautiously moved around andfinding we didn’t trigger anything further, chose to investigate alittle more before going forward. Faux used his shadow form to slipdown one of the grooves in the sides and found one side led to a rampgoing down into a tunnel and the other led to a ramp going up. Hedidn’t follow either any distance but found the triggeringmechanism for both on each side. Investigation of the others doorsquickly revealed they were unlocked and easily opened. Presented bya mass of possibilities, we had Faux slip underneath the doors ofeach and quick scout the other side. More rooms and hallwayspresented themselves and we were left using guesswork to choose theway. None of the guidance we had gotten indicated the way and whatwe learned about the shrine and its followers indicated they werelong-lived or immortal followers of Ralkull and never left.

Figuring the sidehallways were for mass movements we chose one of the other smallerhallways. It went straight, curved and then ascended. It connectedto other rooms and halls but prelim investigation revealed only dustand debris from ages gone. We traveled some more, using care butgetting a little less cautious as time went on and it seemed easy. We found some evidence of occupation but nothing distinctive. Weslowed and used more care again. Our path led us to an odd area: aroom of hallways leading to a center area, perhaps a cistern in thepast but now scum filled and muck covered, with tendrils of the stuffcrawling up the walls and long the hallways. Slits in the stonewalls let air from the stormy outside and the mix over the cistern’swater formed a list mist that lingered.

Unwillingto enter the area (who wants to fight an ooze or slime?), weconsidered backing out and taking another direction but Josephuselected to scout from the air (it had another vaulted ceiling) andShainaine skittered along the walls in spyder form. I directed mywinds to keep the mist away from Josephus, glad when it worked. Scouting didn’t reveal much but we weren’t too terribly surprisedwhen something found us – it had been too quiet and we wereexpecting it! No one saw where they came from but the cats slippedin and pounced on Josephus in the air, sliding through the dimensionsand mist like great predators, surrounding him in whirlwind ofburning eyes and claws. We reacted, of course, and set off a mess ofevents. Shainaine managed to web one of them and was fighting itwhile the rest of us unlimbered missile weapons, spells and magik. Less than a second in the room and our presence roused the skeletonsin the cistern: sodden bones who hurled gobs of the slime thatcovered their bodies or sought to grapple and pull us under thewater. It was a mass melee, with seeming endless numbers of themcoming out of the cistern. Still its not like we weren’t heroesafter all and laid into them with gusto! Sad as it may sound it wasalmost pleasant to tear into an enemy after such a long period ofquiet and we were all pulling out some heavy fire power to decimatethe skeletons and zombies that joined them. The cats barely lastedthe first few melee rounds and skeletons and zombies? Come on! What’s this crap? Well, never taunt the GM. There we were,kicking some major arse and Jim pulls out a trump card: a cluster ofSpiga! Not one, or even two but four of these babies, who crept upon us while we were engaged with the above. I felt the first bite oftheir attack as they nailed me with several spells simultaneously,along hitting Lord Jevlin Motedreal and Gimly at the same time. Ifthey had concentrated attacks, I’d died immediately. Luckily theydidn’t. Two Thunderballs popped right on top of me follow by aSonic Sidewider (concentrated sound attack that disintegratesmatter). Gimly was blasted with bolts of black lightning (bolts ofdevastation) and Lord Jevlin Motedreal suffered a physical attack ofsome kind (don’t remember/notes don’t say). I got lucky on myrolls and negated most of the damage from the thunderballs but thesidewinder almost killed me outright.

Gimly,Lord Jevlin Motedreal and a few others retargeted on the Spiga and Itook one on myself. I command the Wild Purple Winds of Cohchur toturn opaque and to whip and snarl around me, spun the ring on my leftfinger to invoke Endrig’s Expeditious Action to move me across theroom instantaneously and began barking out a spell. The Spigahammered the spot where I was, dissipating the Purple Winds a spell Ihad never seen before, one that started as a pillar of dark fire thatsplit into nine sinuous necks ending in dragon-like heads thatexploded on impact. At the same time it realized I had moved, Ifinished by utterance to Call of the Nijgeedean and triggered anotherspell I had bound out of time, directing the Chill of the Void spellto surround the Spiga. It came out of the globe of vacuum the Chillof the Void called pissed, chattering at me in some language I’dnever heard, leaping up to cling to the ceiling. Of course, theNijgeedean started showing up in masses at that point. It launched aspell and fired off its spinneret but I eluded the silk and resistedits disintegration. Enough of the one-inch golden flies had enteredvia the portal I’d created with my summons and they swarmed overit, stinging it thousands of times until it died.

When I looked upagain, the melee was over and a few of us were down or dying. Kanaanwas out. Faux had been eaten alive by some terrible spell but Gimlyhad thrown a darkness stone over his corpse, knowing he would likelyregenerate back. Bear Walks into Ghost Claws had been petrified andthen partly shattered by a sonic spell from one of the Spiga. LordJevlin Motedreal was up and in decent enough shape and was working onthem. A feather could have pushed me over I was so torn up. Josephus looked equally as bad: fried, frostbitten, shocked andparts of him disintegrated in turn. I think only magik was holdinghim together and keeping him alive. Shainaine was still in spyderform since if he switched back he’d probably die immediately fromwounds. Gimly was in the best shape since his darkblade had drunkdeeply of their life force before they died. It was he who took careof any remaining skeletons who occasionally would rise up from thecistern.

Ittook some time to get patched up. We lost Bear Walks into GhostClaws permanently as his spirit was unwilling to return (we blew allthe rolls to make the Deathbreaker spell work). Faux didn’t seemto be regenerating back but Gimly pinned the darkness stone to hisbody and stuck him in a bag of stupendous stasis. I personallydidn’t think it would help but Gimly was both convinced itwould/didn’t care.

We patched up andtalked about whether we could/should go on. After some seriousdebate about our resources and ability to do so, we crept fartheralong. The next encounter was brutal. Josephus was the first to go,exploding into red pulpy froth as concentrated sound slammed into himsimultaneous with two shrieking sparking blurs of fiery light. Wehad trekked carefully down a few corridors and through rooms towardsour goal but in the last, seemingly empty one something had eludedus. Something had been cloaked and activated as we entered, ametallic cone/golem with rectangular chainlinks for feet and varioustubes, rods and metallic coils hanging from it [a war droid though wedidn’t know it. It hit Jossephus with a sonic disintegrater andtwo rockets].

We scattered butit didn’t matter. A storm of grenades, lasers and rockets laterleft me and Gimly still standing. I’d tried a few spells butwithout must effect. Gimly had gotten the closest to it but hadgotten badly burned by its flame thrower. I got hit and almost wentdown. Barely standing, Gimly grabs me and starts running. Realizinghe’s to hurt to get away, he pragmatically shoves his dark bladeinto me (jerk!), killing Petrois to get enough HP and energy to run. He was nice enough to shove my corpse into his bag with Faux andended up the only one to make it out of there alive.

---- We neverfinished the game, much to my sadness. It got late, Jim ran out oftime and had to leave and the adventure stayed open. Still, its oneof my more memorable treks to Caliban.

Hell Spirals

2012-02-23T16:26:00.000-05:00

Hell Spirals are a formof mystik path that acts as a ‘gate’ or ‘pathway’ to otherplaces, times or realities is a Hell Spiral. These are a form of‘gate’ created by exceedingly powerful individuals in a 13-hourritual that requires a lesser demon to be bound into it forever. Otherwise, it will last just a day, and once opened, is open bothways. Such creations are usually carved or painted and hurt the eyesif looked upon for a long period of time. A person wishing toutilize this means of travel must step onto the outside point of thespiral, always looking down to where his feet will go next. A personmust then proceed along the lambent spiral track, never wavering, andnever trying to stop or go back. If a person does—disaster! AHell Spiral’s maker always has a 100% chance of successfullywalking the ‘pathway’; others are not so blessed have anythingfrom a ten to 100% chance, depending on their individual power. Regardless of success or failure these paths are trod by the denizensof limbo, the hells and other dimensional realities—encounters arefrequent, and typically deadly. Walk these with the greatest of carefor to failure to traverse the length of the Hell Spiral brings on achance of death, insanity, horrible aging, blindness or a trip to adimension altogether inimical.

Hell Walking

2012-02-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

Some creatures can naturally move, atwill, from one version of reality to another simply by walking,flying, swimming, sailing, running (or whatever). There are even ahandful of artifacts will allow people to travel this way, but theirrarity and immense value makes them mythical to all but a very few. It works, rather like this: from where one stands, each step forwardis the entrance to another reality ‘next door’, another of aninfinite number of variations in the multiverse.

So trans-realitymovement, sometimes called ‘Hell Walking’, simply allows thebeing in question to travel to an alternate reality other than theone he is actually in, solely by application of will and magikalpower! As he concentrates upon the reality that he wants to be in,the land around him subtly and ever so slowly ‘fades’ from onereality to the next, each change minute but closer to the reality heis traveling to and less like the one he is traveling from. Eachchange actually puts the traveler into another reality, even if onlybriefly, and each such reality will have its own ‘laws’ andcosmology. The distance physically covered (and time required to doso) during this type of movement will be exactly the same regardlessof the intervening other realities.

What this boils down to is thatthe longer you travel, the more realities other than your own youmust pass through. Every reality you travel away from your ownrequires the ever-growing expenditure of power, in prodigiousamounts. Realities widely different from your own that you musttransit are even more draining, multiplying the difficulty by two,three, four or even more times based on how much different; thoughthe vagaries of the endless change of perception is too lengthy toinclude here.

Gnomish Land Law

2012-02-21T19:26:00.000-05:00

Gnomes are an odd sort, considered theworst for sticking to the letter or the most squeamish to part withcoin. Under Gnomish inheritance law, land inherited by an individualhad to be physically entered (walked on by the owner) before it wastransmittable to his heirs. Otherwise, said land reverts back to theprevious owner who had walked each breadth and length of the land. This odd law has stirred up more trouble between them and ‘buyers’of land they have sold. More time than once they have showed up toclaim ‘their land’ when the heirs of the person they sold land toover 50 years ago dies…

2012-02-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

Coming Soon - Bloodbeast

Zirhaine Amusement Tax

2012-02-20T16:23:00.000-05:00

The (in-) famous Amusement Tax or FeastLaw as it is sometimes derisively regarded is a quirk of Zirhaine. Uncertain of origins, this law came into being a few cycles back andlevies a tax on fees paid to visit the numerous singing cinemas andplays predominate in the region. Szgorke (Zirhaine for pigdancer)are the officials who attempt to ensure this law is enforced and theyare scorned as the worst of the worst and the lowest of the low. Italso applies to any feasts or celebration thrown and its officialsare sometimes kicked, buffeted and bombarded with food when they showup to collect this unfavorable tax.

Winds of Limbo

2012-02-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

Known by many names: the Winds ofLimbo, Winds of Change and also the Winds of Chance, this oddly namedphenomena is something that happens during Triangularus, Red Solsticeand the Gray Equinox. At these times, all the Nexus Gates aroundKhaas open simultaneously! This great opening of the ways usuallylasts from the 13th hour of one night until the 13th hour of thenext, 25 hours in all. During this time all sorts of things roamabout the landscape, one such being the Winds of Change. These Windsare of unknown origin, age, and ultimate potency. What is knownabout them is dreadful enough.

Any living being exposed to thesearcane winds is struck with an equivalent 200 strength arcane attack. If it overwhelms a being's MD, then they die! Those whodie are (99% chance) immediately reincarnated (see RandomReincarnation Chart). Those that roll the 1% chance when dying arejust gone and may not be raised by any means whatsoever. Those whosurvive (i.e. successful MRS roll), suffer permanently at the handsof extreme change.
All Undead creatures exposed to these Winds areimmediately discorporate, fragmented, and borne away on the winds,gone forevermore.
Spirit seem to be the only beings in existence unaffected by these dreadful winds.

The Winds are an experience extremely hard todescribe, but for one will experience EVERYTHING AT ONCE. This meansheat, cold, pleasure, pain, knowledge, insanity, insensibility,elation, terror, greed, ecstasy and so on and so on. Every mentaland physical facet of existence will flood over and through them. Acomplete sensory overload is another way of describing it. How longit lasts, none can truly say. Survivors say it felt like no time,yet forever—eternity in an instant.

These Winds are sometimes encounteredwhile walking Hell Spirals or otherwise transgressing those realmsarcane.

These, then, are the Winds of Change;may they never blow your way!

new psychic-based character options

2012-02-18T22:48:00.000-05:00

Some new options for your racial choices.

Mind of Razors (2 point cost)
Your mind is like a pit of razors and anyone who transgresses it suffers for it. You inflict half your EGO in psychic damage on anyone who attacks your mind, consciousness, id, etc. Effectively, if it uses a Mind skill check against your PD, you damage it back.

Native Facility with Psychic Powers – You are naturally better at psychic powers and it is second nature for you. You start with a +5 bonus to your PSI power pool and to the amount of PSI you can move in a melee round. Additionally, each time you use an EPS to acquire Noetics, Channel, and Psychic secrets or to gain access to OP of mental powers, you add a +2 bonus to one of Noetics, Channel, Mind (choose a spell or school), power pool, or the amount you can move in a melee round. On the other hand, you have trouble in other areas, lowering your LR –4 (minimum of LR 1) and –2 CON.

Psi-Patterned Soul (2 point cost)
You are destined to follow the call of the psychic; its traditions and ways imprinted on your soul, regardless of your occupation.

Add a +10 advancement bonus to the Noetics, Mind, Channel and Ceremony skills.
Add a +20 bonus to PD.
Select one of Noetics, Mind, Channel or Ceremony. You begin with 10 skill ranks and the knowledge of 1 secret (you must meet its prerequisites).

Battle of Foam Horses

2012-02-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

With an eye on ever adding to the vastpattern of history in Khaas, this week we have pulled out a smallexcerpt concerning the nation of Arduin and the Nexus Wars!

There are few in the east of Arduin whodo not know the Crystal River. The clear, frothing but flowingwaters of this river are an avenue of trade, travel, and military usein current day, just as they have in every age of Arduin. Sostrategic is this river to the eastern portion of the kingdom that ithas featured in nearly every major conflict to a lesser or greaterdegree. One conflict of note that raged on its banks was the Battleof the Foam Stallions, a small part in the greater whole of thebloody Wars of When. While some know it from the memoirs of theirforefathers who shed blood and tears in that battle, most know itfrom the time when the great bard Fire Eyes Darkness Weeps composedand sung the ballad the “Ride of the Gallant Froth Horses” at TaiTaowyn after the first year of founding the city of Talismondé. During that time, there was a sense of piquant desire to give homageto the brave Elven ones who died defending their home, a home fromwhich the new Arduin was being built. This popularized the song, andthe others about the same battle, the “Deed of Shaldonness”, andthe “Lay of the Elven Eleven Hundred”. While these songs are notsung with the same frequency or desire as back then, they are stillheard from time to time in the inns and ways of Arduin.

As in many tales, the words of the songvary depending on who sings it while the truth of the battle doesnot. The Elven General Almari Shaldonness had led his band of 2200Elves to the newly named Weeping Wood with the words of the queenechoing in his ears, “let no man pass on your life!” For twentyyears, this was their battle cry and they let none pass their woods. Yet, their numbers dwindled and yet always the throngs of men grewlarger. Soon an army came for which the burning arrows and blades ofElves could not wither. Onward this army marched, a composite offierce and hardy Morvaenians, Hyrkhallians, and Viruelandians all inone array of 21,000 strong. After days of devastating battle on eachside and rapid losses to the Elves, Almari devised a plan and gavethe marauders the desire in their hearts—to close with the stealthyElven guerrillas! Retreating rapidly towards the Crystal River andtaking increasingly worse losses, General Almari stoically continuedto lead the wave of men into a muddy shallow area. When enoughpoured into the wet area, he gave the signal and the Elves turned andran at full sprint towards an outcropping of stone. With cries ofvictory, the men charged after, not realizing that the final part ofthe trap was sprung by the weight of their pounding feet. While theElves had harried and fought in the woods, the general had sent hisstrongest Elves and engineers to dam this part of the river. Theheavy thuds of the feet of the charging men were the triggers toshake loose the stones and timber, sending cascading foam-crestedwaves to send them to their doom.

The full “heart” of that army diedthat day, swallowed under the hooves of foam-crested waves releasedfrom broken dams. General Almari swept the rest of that army away,driving them from Arduin. Still, while they celebrated mightily thatday, the Elves knew more would come. They were not wrong, either. Not but two months after another army, even greater swept throughtheir land, and while their bravery and sacrifice was no less thosedays than when they fought previously, Elven might did not carry theday and they gave ground before the onslaught of foreign mailedmight.

Face secret

2012-02-17T13:33:00.001-05:00

It looks like I did not define this well enough. The psychic can employ this secret against any number of people. However the effect is only temporary, lasting until the mental signature of that person changes. Normally this takes a few days (I.e. d6 or so days) but could be faster if the said person was subjected to intense emotion or trauma or longer if they live a placid life.

Face requires you to see the person in question and they must have REAS 1 or more for it to work.

You can combine it with brain lock.

A short discussion on Trelves

2012-02-16T21:42:00.000-05:00

The Trelvesaccidentally entered Khaas sometime in the past and have despised theplace since. Elves of a sort from an alternative universe, theyworship the harsh fracture of the geometry, the beauty in discordantsymmetry and the powerful sound of cacophony. Their world is a placewith violet and lavender skies, ones that crush with crimson hueswhen it storms and turn off white when clouds rake the sky. Vegetation moves, foliage hungers, and animals pursue them in anendless struggle of dominance. Trelf hatred for such things isunparalleled.

Those that enteredKhaas found themselves in a universe that typified everything theydespised in their own; one that despised them in turn. They havehidden away from the mainstream of the world, staying out of eventsfor the most part, seeking either to return to their own universe ormakeover this one in its image.

AE Bandit stats

2012-02-16T00:15:00.000-05:00

BANDITS(50% 2-20; 30% 5d8 of them acting as a group; 20% 2d100)

Description:Can be drawn from any race but typically human.

Ad: 7	Move: 24	Fe: 53
Ref: 9	PER: 38	Di: 33
S: 10	Dodge: 10	Sh: 29
Sz: 8	CF: 25	P/V: 37
M: 11	COORD: 18	DEF: 46 (DR: 2)
C: 17	BODY: 29	MD: 44 (MR: 3)
W: 16	MA: 20	PD: 51 (PR: 12)
R: 9	LEAD: 24
E: 14	APT: 36	Quick Rank: 10
Eg: 13	HP: 48
Ch: 11

Skills: Ac: 13, Ath: 38, Cl: 41, Co: 26, Gu: 8, Int: 16, Lo: 14, Mec: 11, Med: 7, Re: 32, Ri: 5, Uw: 42, Wi: 31

Secrets: Terrain Familiarity [local area], Improvised Weapon [Co]

Tactics: Bandits use one or all of Ambush, Hit and Run(+2), or Swarm (+2) tactics. Most are Cowardly and Destructive. Such bandits roam in packs and use greater numbers and advanceinformation to succeed. Highwaymen are Stealthy Ambush and Hit andRun (+3) attackers who use their smarts and quickness to carry theday.

Bandits come from many backgrounds and have skill in a profession or path, usually (90%) Warrior with 3d10 skill ranks in the profession/path skill and an equivalent spread of skill in Core skills and half in Favored skills for the path/profession. Additionally, Bandits have one secret for every 10 skill ranks (round up) in their profession/path. Bandits use Ability Advancement [Range: 1 – 20, Skill: 32, Secret: 1, Time: 5x2].
Bandits steal for food, slaves, goods or due to a lack of an ethical and moral compass. Sometimes its both to one degree or another.
Bandits met will be outfitted chaotically, with items or completely random quality. Bandits will only keep what they can travel fast in and rarely are seen in other than leather or studded leather if they wear armor at all.

2012-02-15T20:02:00.000-05:00

Coming in the distant future...

Crusade of Steel Sherman tank preview to show detail of the 1/160 scale (N scale)

M4A3 Sherman tank (early production)

(useable with the 1/144 scale stuff including the Can-Do tanks, World Tank Museum).

2012-02-15T19:26:00.000-05:00

Coming soon...

Giant Vampire Bat with Skeleton rider 1 (Sword & Shield)

Miniatures update

2012-02-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

Due to logistical issues and rising costs - we have changed the discount manager on the storefront for figures to 25% If ordering miniatures from the store as long as you type the discount code "metal" into the discount promotion area you will still still get the 25% discount. Sorry for all of the miniature buyers out there that have been buying up figs. We just wanted to still keep some sort of discount before we we overhaul the prices which many figs will go down and some will go up.

-EC

Trade route details

2012-02-14T21:08:00.000-05:00

Forgot to give more detail on how the trade routes work.

Name: Descriptivetitle

Prerequisites: Names prerequisites if any exist.

Factors: Anyother relevant data not otherwise covered. Whether a route is aone-way or two-way route is noted here.

Risk: Percentchance something went wrong during the run during an increment oftime. Roll on the Trade Route Hazard Table if a risk occurs.

Start TD: Businessskill check TD required for the trade route on the starting end.

Investment Capitol: amount of capitol you must provide to gain access to the traderoute. Investment is usually given in wealth though sometimes coinor other requirements are given as well. The capitol is what islost if you fail to meet the Time or Destination TD.

Time Allotted: the window of time given to run the trade route. Time is provided asa variance, such as 3 – 10 days or 2 – 6 months. The bottom endnumber is the minimum amount of time required to elapse before youcan make a Destination TD check to move your goods. It representsthat getting to a destination before the market is ready is asworthless as arriving late. The maximum number is your top allottedtime before you cannot make a Destination TD skill check.

Market: Definesthe market for the trade route. The trade route bonus only appliesto the given markets though other goods can be traded normally.

Destination TD: Business skill check TD required to finalize the trade route and gainthe bonuses it provides.

Variance: Represents the market at a high level and lists what is affected. Any function of the trade route can be a variance. Typical variancesare Start TD, Destination TD, Time and Market.

Blue Wagon Run (Arduin to Falohyr)

2012-02-13T21:03:00.000-05:00

An example trade route for those interested. I'll be posting a few others as time permits as well. I'd had a request to post a couple as examples for folks.

Nythaarna to FalondéBlue Wagon Run (Arduin to Falohyr)

Prerequisites: Arduin Guild members only

Factors: One-way. If the person running the trade route is a Bonded* Merchant* with aGold standard business, the route is a two-way route (optional).Return route:

StartTD 100

InvestmentCapitol of 50 Gold Wealth

Timeallotted d4+3

DestinationTD 125

Marketis Fresh Water Fish, Noble Grain, Prince Seedlings and Dwarf Trees.

Allroute bonuses +10 for return.

Risk: 8% per dayof active travel

Start TD: 75

Investment Capitol:30 Gold Wealth

Time allotted: d6+5 days

Market: Silk,Gems, Metals, Oil

Destination TD:100

Variance: Rolld6.

On a1 – 3, Start and Destination TD are +2 tiers and capitol investmenttriples.

On a4 – 6, Start and Destination TD are –1 tier and capitolinvestment is half normal.

Route Bonus: +20to %Coin, +d10 to Merchant* (must already have a positive value),+2d10 Business trust, +30% FMV

Markets

All listed prices inequipment or the indexes given are the sale prices. Reducethem using the Mark Up Table to determine the base selling price fromthe source. Feel free to vary this as needed for individualnations, fiefdoms, towns, or along whatever lines you desire.

*indicates a social motifis required.

2012-02-11T12:51:00.000-05:00

Hell Hopper miniature released!

The Hell Hopper an interstellar import to Arduin that are also the sky mounts of the legendary Gatwani. Hell Hopper's imprint upon their owner at the time they emerge from their brooding ponds after changing into adults from tadpole form. After emergence, their wings take another three months to develop. They take off by jumping into the air, simultaneously flapping their wings. They are an uncaring predator that loves to jump on prey and devour them!

Pictured here is a Hell Hopper going for a quick catch of an unknown prey.

Get yours today! Released February 11, 2012.

go to the following link to get it now!

http://empcho.bizhosting.com/hell_hopper_stock_emc3113_.html

Giving Experience

2012-02-10T16:49:00.000-05:00

In the AE book I suggested an idea of 1 EPS per game session. Now, I did this because I enjoy long games and have had for the last couple of years a very stable group.

You could easily give 2, 3 or even more EPS, just keep in mind that it very much accelerates your players. Sometimes that what's you want so its appropriate. Other times its not. To keep from widely varying your EPS gifting I suggest you determine a method you can share freely with your players and stick to it.

As a note, giving more than 3 EPS seems to really destabilize characters. Allowing them to ascend too rapidly means players jump over and lose attachment to important abilities they gain with secrets. Keep this strongly in mind.

Having an "Elf Day"

2012-02-08T20:59:00.000-05:00

A bit of streetwise lingo for saying aday is a crappy one. Well, at least for Hyrkhallians, where the useof this bit of jargon seems to have sprung. Its origins seem to stemfrom the Ugly Fire Wars that raged in Hyrkhallia as the Nexus Warscame to a close. That elves fleeing from the most recent incursioninto Arduin caused the wars in Hyrkhallia to foment and drag thecountry into civil war is unquestioned. And why they came up withthe term. It seemed appropriate since the team of elves that stayedkept the country in the throes of civil war for nearly two cycles.

So having an “Elf Day” is a badone, at least to some. Travelers from the east and, obviously, from Hyrkhallia seem to employ this term the most. So you here it here and there, sparingly or often depending on where you happen to be at the moment.

Which leads to the question of the day –are you having an Elf Day today?

A choice upon a quest

2012-02-07T20:35:00.000-05:00

Kain, ever the changing, ever the unrepentant was given the following choice for his17th battle of the Rite of 1000 battles.

Mighty Kain, sullen bearer of the mark of the gods, hear my voice. You walk with the blood of beasts in your fists. Beneath your feet are trod the cobblestones of war, each step a battle that hammer out the one thousand.

Whither where you go?

Shall your boots walk to the cool shadow of Skull Tower, among the shrouded trees and macabre shadows? To where a ruby red spider, the size of Seven waits, sitting on a massive sprawling web. Beware the bones, oh brave one, beware the bones. Or will it be to the slopes of the Prismatic Mountains, in the great height? Where, on a ledge of pure gold hue, is a moving metal beast; all angles, sharp edges and glittering lights. It moves, ungainly but sure, up the slope towards a crumbling star and hammer shaped stone foundations. Will it be the target of your merciless swords? Or shall it be a more humanoid one, one forged my Helidore's hammer? Who trains on the same said slopes as the metal beast, spinning hammers and maces as stone obstacles and traps are overcome. Whose harsh training will prevail?

What road do you walk, faithless one?

Misty Sea

2012-02-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

The inner sea of Arduin, that lies atits very heart. Its name is a clue to its waters and the entire seais blanketed in mist, fog and wet to some lesser or greater extent. The area near the 1000 Thundering Falls is covered in wet fog but themist and fog is relatively light as one moves away from the falls outtoward Roaring Rock. Past there the mist is thick, impenetrable andhard to navigate. In the north east, the Misty Sea warms into aswampy morass of rapidly changing depth and semi-mobile islands as itnears Melkalund. The mist is just as treacherous here, sometimesthick, sometimes so thin as to be non-existent.

Storm God's Pillow

2012-02-05T20:26:00.000-05:00

The stable cloud mass that sits on theMisty Sea. It blankets nearly the entire breadth of the water andskyships and airships must rise above it to cover the area. Its toodangerous to cut through as it throngs with lightning, stormyweather, and magnetic eddies and erratic winds.

Ships on the surface of the Misty Seacan easily sail under it as the stormy mass of the cloud sitssomewhere between 180 to 300 ft depending on where one is on theMisty Sea.

Sometimes columns of the storm mixabove alight on the surface of the Misty Sea, usually during thewindy and storm season of Arduin, which runs from Vaen to Torkos.

Scryers of the Mist

2012-02-04T20:20:00.000-05:00

An organizationon the Misty Sea that has posts in every major city and most largetowns. They make a living navigating ships through the mists andmost are also licensed navigators for normal oceanic ships as well.

The vast majority of the members aredrawn from the myriad races whose interbreeding has led todescendents with sharp sense, who can see, hear, smell, taste, sensevibrations, use the mind or any other number of high perceptions tofind things in the mist and navigate the waters of the Misty Sea.

An unofficial rule is that all shipscarrying passengers must bear these Scryers or they cannot be insured(or bear crown patronage).

The duties and ‘order’ of the nobility

2012-02-03T19:12:00.000-05:00

While important and accurate, Arduindeviated in some interesting ways from perhaps the normal. Which isa expected event, given their style of government, while parallel tofeudalism in our own world did not evolve exactly the same

It grew in starts and fits out of theprovisional government set up after the Accords of Arduin, and wasguided by those leaders who drew upon their own experience with thegovernments they grew up with and had just renounced allegiance to,in order to make the covenant of peace work.

The standard practice of a noble orindividual receiving a land grant in exchange for their contributionof troops to the crown’s army did not spur the creation of thenoble ranks (at least initially).

The Accords of Arduin had made itabundantly plain that each nation that filled the Plains of Paranonthat day of peace would provide a number of troops, as well assettlers, that would renounce their former heritage to take onanother.

The provisional governor, when it allfinished, ended up with a large number of settlers, and an equallylarge amount of soldiers. These soldiers, however, were onlynominally under his command as each arrived with its own commander,with his or her own agendas set forth by their parent nation.

I won’t go into the dance of politicsthat was required to weld this into a working provisional governmentand later into a kingdom (though its included in the world book).

What I will say is in the currentstructure of the kingdom the noble ranks are very much as outlined inAG II, at least for the nation of Arduin. There are Archdukes, Dukes,Barons, Marquis, Viscounts, and Counts—these are the landed highnoble families of the Arduin nation. These are all covered in greatdetail in the world book of khaas, as are their associated families,demesnes and so forth

A rather general overview of Arduin but particularly in the context of villages

2012-02-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

When putting the info found in theWorld Book into context, a majority of references to the verycosmopolitan ideal of Arduin is a reference to the heavily homogenousdepths of the cities.

The villages are more of thexenophobic, standard ideal of a village, where everyone does knownone another and strangers stand out. Let me say, too, that those wholeave and return to those small villages and towns are treat almostas foreign as those very strangers whom the villagers do not know forthe very same reasons.

Do this once and a while and they willcontinue to accept you, though likely with some reservations, and aslong as sufficient time elapses between each ‘journey away’ toallow them to readjust to your ‘differences’.

My case in point would be militaryservice. Join the military and leave for a few years and then returnto the small town of your origin. While at first they see you as astranger, eventually they come to view you once again as the personthey always knew—if a little different or changed from yourexperiences. Leave again fairly quickly or several times in a rowwithout this (fairly long) adjustment period and you are as much astranger to them as the person who just blew in.

The racial and cultural crosscutprevalent in the majority of densely populated areas in Arduinextends to some of the villages but not to a majority.

They are xenophobic, often parochial,and usually more traditional and resistant to change than urbanites. They will not deal with the social evils as much or in as plentifulnumbers as the cities. Deodanths, demons, serial killers, crazedusers of magiks, running street fights, organized gangs, and so forthare not as prevalent in these areas as they are in rural ones.

The cycle of growing, gathering andstoring for winter is closer to the rural peasant than the urbandweller who continues to go to market through out the year,complaining about the lack of one item or another. Villagers andsmaller settlements work on a smaller range of goods and rarely havethem in sufficiency—that excess is sold, traded or bargained forother needed goods.

There is a greater sense of community(some places more than others I would say) as there is a smaller poolof people generally to breakup or challenge the accepted norm.

Also, reigning nobility have a greatersay in the rural portions of Arduin than in the urban regions. Urbanregions generally fall under the sway of administrators appointed bythe king (which could / can be nobility also) but rural regions areusually carved out of individual nobles demesnes. A more firebrandnoble may have an interesting outlook toward the government andcertain races, while others may not care the least.

Mist Wing Boys

2012-02-01T05:19:00.000-05:00

A little Talismondean background for you.

The Mist Wing Boys are a courier service that works the height and breadth of Talismonde, including the bottom two layers of the Undercity. They work for a fee, charging coin for danger, distance, drag, and speed. Their motto is they "never fail". When they take a commission they are deadly serious about discharging it.

The organization has an "office" that serves as its headquarters in the High Park district of the city. Its nothing special or even overly large. Couriers climb all over it though like a hive of bees, coming and going constantly. Outside of this location, the Mist Wing Boys have a network of solicitors that work the shops, businesses, and streets, constantly drumming up business. Their job is to take requests and notify the couriers.

The organization gets a lot of business too. Promptly getting packages safely about the city (which is their boundary) is in high demand. It seems someone is always out to get a package from them though, which keeps the couriers on their toes. Couriers are noted for their capability to deliver, whatever it takes. Some fight, some run, some use magik, some use mind, but all of them make it on time.

Think of it as the Fedex of Talismonde.

It seemed time for a magik artifact

2012-01-31T18:41:00.000-05:00

Like the title says it seemed time for a magik artifact. So let me introduce the following nifty item from the published Bestiary & Treasures volume.

BANDOLEEROF POTIONS

Description: Bandoleer set with 24 pockets that will hold a 24 ounce or lessvial or bottle each.

Value: 5,900 GC TD: 45 Dur:150

Powers:The bandoleer can hold 24 potions. While stored within the bandoleer,the potions cannot be broken, disturbed, or even pulled free byanyone other than the wearer. A potion can be removed with aquickened action, but the wearer can set any single potion to be in a“ready” state. A ready potion is automatically in hand whencalled without expending an action on the part of the wearer.

Rites in Arduin Eternal

2012-01-30T06:35:00.000-05:00

AE has a special kind of ritual called a rite.

These rituals are one time use and are always tied to unique or specific circumstances. For example, The Dance Of The Nine Stars rite can only be performed when nine of the stars found in the constellation Yugora's Maw align in a double triangle formation. A conjunction that occurs only every 13 to 14 thousand years. The nine star rite also specifies the stars must be visible from the Star Giant's plateau framed by the Millennial Trees that grow there. Thirdly the ritualistic must bring representatives of the of elements, life and spirit. Bringing all these elements together at the right time fulfills the requirements for the rite and allows the ritualist to invoke its power.

Rites vary in the power they provide and most often take as much as they give. Not all of them are as time locked and rigid as the DAnce of the Nine Stars. Here is an example of a more "loose" rite that martial artists can pursue:

TAKE THE HEART OF THECHUUL

Preq: ExpertMartial Artist, Life Pool [Martial Artist], Spec Ceremony, ExpertStyle, Trd Channel

Must seek out a GravityChuul in the upper atmosphere of Khaas and battle it, using nothing else but your martial arts. You must strike to its center, ripping out the core to take into yourself. The task must be done alone, with nooutside help (for the battle, at least) and with nothing but your style and abilities. Once youhave taken its heart, you Channel it within (TD 50) to finish therite. It takes 2d12 weeks to acclimate to its addition to your body. Add +2 ESS immediately. You also gain access to special secrets.

I've skipped on putting out all the secrets as it would take too much space and I only wanted to provide an example. Never fear, though, it will be released in full later. Here is one that is much simpler.

RITE OF LIFE LEAP

Preq: Can only be performed once.

A celebration of life ritual the permanently raises your ESS by d2+2.

This rite is very common for Amarydion priestesses. As is this one.

RITE OF THE EARTH MOTHER'S BOSOM

Preq: Amarydion Priest or Saint, 7+ Faith

The rite creates a special bond with the recipient of the rite and the earth. The rite can be done anywhere as long as contact with the earth is made and 70 Faith expended. Any number can participate to provide the Faith but only one being will be the focus of the benefits of the rite. As long as the recipient is in contact with the earth (dirt, rock, vegetation, foliage) they will never stumble, trip, fall or be knocked down unless they elect to do so or the opposing force can beat a TD 500 in an opposed roll.

Joppa

2012-01-29T11:35:00.001-05:00

Joppa is a layered pastry that originated in Zhirhane. It has surged in popularity in Arduin and can be found everywhere among the street vendors. It keeps well too when wrapped in wax paper and has found its way into the packs of numerous adventurers.

New Arduin Blog

2012-01-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

Just a note on another Arduin fan site that has popped up.

Drop by and give them some encouragement.

Nilo's Site

A choice upon a quest

2012-01-25T21:06:00.000-05:00

The following was given unto Kain, when he was given a choice for his 3rd battle of the Rite of 1000 battles.

Kain, set forth in your mind the way clear and choose your doom.

Will it be to the to the Copper Arm Mountains, to battle a Srkaln, fierce raptor, death made of feathers?
Or will you tread the foam and take to the ocean to battle an Inil-daen, rider of waves and foe to ship and man? Or does your courage lie in the south of Aradnast, where the ocean beats the sand with waves and the faces of the lost gods peer forth from their earthen graves! Nornid Lyost, a stretch of beach in the southernmost of Aradnast, home to the graves of the oceans gods forced into stone form in some titanic battle of the past. There darkling warrior Kaerie Ninesworn seeks powers from the lost gods - he is your foe should you take this road.

What road do you walk, faithless one?

Good AE Info

2012-01-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

The below is a Q & A session that came out about AE when we were first proposing it to our fans. I noticed it was lost at some point from the discussion board and not on the blog so I present it for your edification.

Understanding Skills and SkillChecks

Skill checks are a strong part ofArduin Eternal and are based on a d100 mechanic, with a possiblemodifier from attributes (depending on the skill), a modifier fromyour skill ranks in a skill and potential bonuses from talent,training or experience. Essentially a dice roll + skill + bonuses. What you make them against is just as simple, based on a targetdifficulty modified by the GM for environment, tactics orcircumstance, as well as anything else the GM cares to use. A simplesystem to define target difficulties is provided as a part of thesystem and simplifies a lot of work for the GM. The targetdifficulty system acts like a very flexible form of a slide rule,where you can elevate or lower difficulties along a simple scale toaccommodate potentially complicating factors. As a tool it allows aGM to quickly formulate a reasonable and logical target difficultywithout bogging down game play.

Skill contests are just as simplyhandled and are a simple match of skill against skill. Want to findout how well you can hide against someone looking for you? Stealthpast that guard? Simple contests of skill resolve the issue, withthe highest skill check determining the outcome, though a chance ofsuperior success or abysmal failure also exists. The chance ofsuperior success (the archetypical critical) grows with basic skilladvancement while the chance of failure (the archetypical fumble)draws down, but never truly withers away completely. These areimportant components that demonstrate the strength of a legendaryskill user (150+) versus a proficient (1+) or untrained one. Bothhave a chance of superior success but the legendary skill user has agreater chance through sheer skill alone, not to mention a potentialfor even greater chances from experience. This creates amathematical curve that helps reinforce the value of high skill, thevalue of experience and deters the atypical breakpoints that canarise with a constrained percentile system or a small dice pool. Aconstrained roll quickly gathers some problematic issues with highnumbers, especially when comparing contrasted skill ranks, likeproficient amateurs versus legendary masters or handlingenvironmental or circumstantial factors. A smaller dice pool alsoruns into the same problems, since bonuses and modifiers canoverwhelm the base randomness provided by the dice. If your randomrange is small, factors applied to it have to stay small as well orit overwhelms the value provided by rolling the dice in the firstplace. Let’s say you need to roll a 5 or 6 on a six-sided dice. How much value does the d6 maintain if you apply a +1 modifier? Howabout a +5 modifier?

What the skill secrets are all about

Not every skill user is capable to thesame level of ability. The simplest demonstration of this in ArduinEternal is via skill ranks. Difference in skill ranks show thedistance that can exist. You can also show capability byhighlighting certain uses or applications of a skill as well. Skillsin Arduin Eternal are divided into plateaus or tiers that mapdirectly to achievement, knowledge, experience and practice. Atthese plateaus are aspects of the skill or uses of the skill notavailable to someone without the same knowledge, experience andpractice. The beginning math student can sharpen his skills tohandle calculus but the student that has worked with calculus foryears, specializes in it and has worked it time and time again hasthe potential to know aspects, shortcuts or uses of calculus that thebeginning student does not and will not until they achieve the sameor equivalent state. The beginning gymnast may know the samemovements as a veteran Olympiad but the differences are vast in theease of use, application and depth the veteran can achieve with thesame maneuvers. Skill secrets are those aspects or applications youunlock when you gain the requisite skill ranks, experience andpractice. They are outgrowths of the skill in question and notmagikal or powers more in tune with the arcane than the skill.

Why armor resists or soaks damageinstead of turning hits to misses

Armor is a passive coating that absorbsor soaks some or all of the damage from a successful hit. Whichmeans a successful attack becomes a miss in practical terms if itcannot overcome the armor worn by an opponent. Some schools ofthought believe allowing armor to absorb damage causes a rise in“instant death” situations because the GM and players find waysto spiral damage through the roof to hurt opponents and make itchallenging. The same school of thought believes this kills bothgame play and role-play. In truth, neither of these two follow suitto armor absorbing damage as laid out in Arduin Eternal. Armor soaksor absorbs a percentage of the damage, given as damage resistancevalue. The armor in question, its composition, quality, your skill,and other factors can affect how well armor performs. Not to mentionthe curve in skills applies to combat as well and a critical successcould easily negate some or all of armor’s protection. Soundcomplicated? Not really. Armor’s benefits are generallypredictable though skills, maneuvers, actions and circumstances canchange them.

Why not wear armor all the time?

Seeing the benefits of armor, you mighthave the same thing in mind. Well, while armor is good at what itdoes, it has a few problems. Armor is heavy, restricts yourmaneuverability and impedes your range of movement. Its hard to benimble and do that triple somersault with an mass of steel wrappedaround you or those fun chain links that poke, pinch and bunch inungraceful and painful ways. For the protection it provides, armorlowers your movement, slows down your reaction times, decreases yourability to evade or dodge and penalizes skills. Ouch! Since ArduinEternal is an active combat system, losing maneuverability like dodgeor movement capability can be very disadvantageous. Using armormeans making a tradeoff between the ability to resist some damage andthe loss to speed, reaction times and maneuverability.

Difference between getting hit andtaking damage

Arduin Eternal separates getting hitwith taking damage. One does not necessarily follow suit to theother. You can hit a foe but if they parry or dodge the hit, youmiss for all practical purposes. Or, you could do damage and have itabsorbed by their armor or the shield or main gauche they used toblock it. Remember that big lug in armor? You can probably hit himas easily as the broad side of a barn. Might not hurt him but youcan still get the blow in. This is important when you need todetermine whether you can hit someone, like say if you chose towrestle our armored grunt. Maybe you can’t cut him to pieces withyour knife but you can turn all that heavy armor against him when youcinch in and take him to the ground. Ever see a turtle on its back? Or, how about to smash a vial of acid on his armor or dump handfulsof itching powder, pepper or other fun concoctions on our armoredfriend? Each would require an attack roll against the Defense of theopponent (our hit roll).

Petrification rules (AE)

2012-01-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

Any stoning attack that does notinflict 50% or more of your BODY in damage is survivable. However,the effect is not without pain or damage and every point of BODYstoned adds +1 to your MASS. This BODY to MASS conversion isimmediate. The other effects occur after a minute passes. For every5% of your BODY that was petrified apply the following:

Add +3 DR

Subtract –1 REF and –1 ADROIT

Subtract –10% off your PER

Lower CON by –2

All Maneuver skills have a –5 penalty

So Mearivean, a 40 BODY human, gets 18BODY petrified by a basilisk. 18 out of 40 is 45% of the Mearivean’sBODY; a close call. Mearivean will add those 18 points directly tohis MASS. He will also lower his ADROIT and REF by –9, reduce hisPER 90%, lower his CON –18, take a –45 penalty to all Maneuverskills, and add +27 to DR.

Getting the jump on someone or Surprise!

2012-01-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

The rules don't always cleanly cover situations where you surprise or get a leg up on someone.

The ambush rules are pretty straightforward but sometimes you just surprise a foe or get into a situation where one person or group has an advantage over the other. In those instances, you have a situation akin to an ambush but where the setup was accidental, unnecessary or completely visible but one side has an advantage of time to prepare. In these circumstances, you would give them one or more of the following to account for the advantage:

Bonus to ATK. Usually a +10 to +30 bonus.
Set CF to 40 for the melee round. Essentially gives them a "leg up" on the other person.
Bonus to an action. Usually a +10 to +30 bonus.

Pretty much the GM gets to decide when this may apply and its very situation driven.

Jhoeve

2012-01-21T07:10:00.000-05:00

Jhoeve is a staple drink of Talismonde and found equally often in urban areas across Arduin. Its been exported more widely as well but its less frequently encountered. They do say its catching on in Falohyr but they put honey in the mix, giving it a different taste, slightly sweeter.

For those of us with a more earth-aligned taste palate, jhoeve is similar to wassail, and made from juices, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg. It also has crushed Golden Madag Nuts (only exists in Arduin, sorry!) that mix well with the cloves.

Tombdance!

2012-01-20T05:49:00.000-05:00

At one point David Hargrave published something known as the Arduin Chronicles. Typewritten and chock full of information, it was a handy and useful Arduin reference. As it is all but lost to time, I'm reposting it here for everyone to enjoy.

Oh! The Light! doth shine and glow,
greenly wan and cold as snow.

Yet dark and black the winding way
into the cold rock, there to stay.

Before it was the evil did rise,
its doom its heart, its heart the prize.

Aglow with the power of that which ever is,
the heart ever beats, the power is ever his.

'ware the steel jaws, agrin in timeless glee,
yet the left hand of god points the way for thee.

Gold and jewels abound in fair numbers,
yet near to it all the ultimate doom ever slumbers.

A Tombdance for heroes in quest of their fate
A Death song, a poem, the final gate.

Thus it was written, thus it has been,
for time immemorial beyond human ken.

Note: Yes, this poem is related to the Quest of the Dark. How? Hey, that's for you to figure out!

Quest For An Old Traveler's Bed

2012-01-19T05:42:00.000-05:00

At one point David Hargrave published something known as the Arduin Chronicles. Typewritten and chock full of information, it was a handy and useful Arduin reference. As it is all but lost to time, I'm reposting it here for everyone to enjoy.

In the days of old walked a gray bent mage
of furrowed brow and time worn frame.
World walker, star traveler, bone weary but sure
A player in the Great Game.

To his rest, one crystal morn, he came
within the dread tower of blackened skulls.

There lay he, long centuries, even eons now
'midst the tower's grim secrets, its treasure store.

To find his bed 'tis three down, the center heart true
Yet 'ware his guardians, night fanged two!

But light, glorious light can save the souls
and wing you to your farthest goals.

Or so its said!

The Quest of the Dark

2012-01-18T05:41:00.000-05:00

At one point David Hargrave published something known as the Arduin Chronicles. Typewritten and chock full of information, it was a handy and useful Arduin reference. As it is all but lost to time, I'm reposting it here for everyone to enjoy.

The drawing nigh, the reddened dark,
doth enwrap and enfold, the golden mark,
yet ever beats the heart.

So goes doom, fire fall true,
on black behind red and beyond the blue,
louder beats the heart.

Seven steps to seven bells,
black as hate, grim as hell
The heart thunderously throbs;

The door a gate, silver beckoning,
the path is pat the True Tarot's reckoning
Silent is the heart.

Dawn and golden light rises anew,
the green, green and bloody dew
where the still heart lies;

Bring it, burn it and buy my time!

So It Is

2012-01-17T05:37:00.000-05:00

At one point David Hargrave published something known as the Arduin Chronicles. Typewritten and chock full of information, it was a handy and useful Arduin reference. As it is all but lost to time, I'm reposting it here for everyone to enjoy.

The legend so distant, time hoary and old
speaks of Dark Stars, a universe so cold.

Not yet lit, those lamps of gold joy and star fire,
still black hell writhing, an eon old, evil mire.

Thundering sound, silent though to our kin
for they had not yet, nay had not ever been.

That which was, is ever and twill be,
the dark which must wait, for you and for me.

Its reach is such that none may be beyond its reach
and this is the sole lesson, this legend must teach.

For to know that there is such as to darken the night,
is also to know that in balance, there is ever light.

Impacts of Wealth Changes to the Game

2012-01-16T17:42:00.000-05:00

Here are some some adjustments that follow with the change to Wealth:

BUSINESS (base use of skill)

My Credits Good - You can try to extend your credit a little farther than normal when making a purchase that would result in a loan. If you can succeed at the set TD + 50, then you double the amount of time you get to repay the loan. If you fail, you fail the whole thing. If you succeed, the penalties for non repayment are doubled as well.
Haggle - You can use to lower the amount of repayment necessary. Any secret that modifies or replaces this skill use applies as well.
Loan Management - If you have a loan, you can make installments on the loan instead. Start with base TD 50 + double the loan value. Each installment you break the loan into reduces the TD by 10 but adds to the total loan value. Multiple the split in payments by 3 to determine this value. So breaking a loan into 5 payments would add 5 x 3 or 15% to the total loan. You can only make this check once so if you fail the TD you can't manage the loan. However, if your wealth grows, even if by one, you can try again.
Manager [Trained Secret] - You reduce the surcharge to the loan levied by the Loan Management base use of skill by -1% per 25 skill ranks.
Find Capitol [Experienced Secret] - You add +20 bonus to the My Credits Good and Loan Management base use of skill checks.
Large Scale Management [Specialist Secret] - You only use a TD 50 + the loan value to determine the TD for the Loan Management base use of skill.

CRIME (base use of skill)

Skip Out On The Loan - You can bully your way out of a loan. Make a TD 75 + the value of the loan. If you succeed you don't have to repay the loan but the Trust the loaner had in you is lowered by the loan value. If it becomes negative the loaner will seek recourse of their own, either socially, criminally, business or as appropriate for the contact.
Gutter Rook [Specialist Secret] - Trust loss for using the Skip Out On The Loan base use of skill is halved.

SOCIAL (base use of skill)

Talk Your Way Out Of Debt - Attempt to weasel or talk your way out of a debt (Wealth Loan) you owe someone. The TD is 75 + the value of the loan. If you succeed, you can remove the debt by paying 20% of its value. The loaner loses -d20 Trust as their distrust and antipathy increases.
Trustworthy [Proficient Secret] - Gives you a +10 bonus when making the Talk Your Way Out Of Debt base use of skill check. Loaner's Trust only decreases by d12 also.
Magnify Presence [Experienced Secret] - Gives a +10 bonus when making the Talk Your Way Out Of Debt base use of skill check (stacks with Trustworthy). Also lowers the value you must repay by -1% per 20 skill ranks.
Acumen [Expert Secret] - Gives a +20 bonus when making the Talk Your Way Out Of Debt base use of skill check (stacks with all other bonuses). Loaner loses no Trust as an outcome of the skill use.

UNDERWORLD (base use of skill)

I've Got Friends - Your connections to the shadowy underworld can get you out of debt (Wealth Loans). Convert the loan value to Copper Wealth to determine your TD. If you succeed at the TD the loan is forgiven but it lowers the Trust by any but Criminal or Underworld connections or contacts, including business, by 1/20th the value.
Confidence [Trained Secret] - This secret allows you to use Silver Wealth instead of Copper Wealth for the I've Got Friends base use of skill.
Circle of Influence [Experienced Secret]- Removes any penalty to Trust by using the I've Got Friends base use of skill. Also adds a +10 bonus to the roll.
Covert Influence [Expert Secret] - This secret allows you to use Gold Wealth instead of Copper Wealth for the I've Got Friends base use of skill.

Changes to Wealth

2012-01-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

I'll be adding this to the master list of errata for the AE book, but until then, please see below for changes to Wealth.

Okay just to clarify things, Wealth is a form of social influence whose output is a service or item you gain for yourself or another. You don't expend anything other than the "influence". Wealth can be substituted 1 for 1 for coin values unless your GM tells you otherwise. What that means is if you have 50 silver wealth, you have the equivalent to 50 SP that you can use monthly. Please note the use of equivalent and see below.

[NEW RULES]

Using Wealth
Very simply, you determine the value of the item or service you desire (given by the GM usually) and double it to determine the Wealth TD. So the formula looks like this:

VALUE X 2 = WEALTH TD

Make sure you convert the value to your type of wealth before rolling for the TD.

As a note, for Wealth purposes, 10 CP = 1 SP, 10 SP = 1 GC, 5 GC = 1 GS, 5 GS = 1 GB.

The wealth levels are Copper (CP), Silver (SP), Gold (GC), Noble (GS), and Royal (GB).

So with this in mind, let's say you want to use your wealth to pay to have your horse stabled for 13 days. The value is 13 SP (1 per day; hey, its close to a city so don't yell at me...). If you have 67 Copper Wealth, you would need to covert 13 SP = 130 CP and then double it to TD 260. Not good odds.

Now if you had the same Silver Wealth, the TD would be 13 double or TD 26. Much better odds.

Nobility would barely notice, having a scant TD 4 and Royalty wouldn't even have to ask for it, since negative TD means whatever it is happens automatically.

Once you use the Wealth, decrease your Wealth value for the MONTH by the VALUE (not the TD) of the item or service. If the amount would make your Wealth TD a negative value, then you have been LOANED the item or service with an expectation of repayment.

Loans are given a grace period of days equal to your original Wealth value, converted to the Wealth standard (Copper, Gold, Noble, etc.) that you used to pay them back. Loans must be redeemed at 150% item or service value.

Loans not repaid permanently lower your Wealth -d4 per day until you pay it back. Additionally, every point of Wealth lost in this manner is added together to formulate a percentage that legal or illegal action will be pursued. Which is undertaken depends on who provided the loan and ultimately the GM. Regardless, if either action is taken, it will erode the trust of contacts, connections, businesses, markets, fame in social motifs, and other like values by -d4 daily until resolved.

If your Wealth reaches zero or a negative value, you are demoted to the next lower level, and set at a value of 100.

Example: You have a 39 Silver Wealth but want a 60 Silver sword. You make the TD 120 but 39 - 60 = -21 so you have taken out a loan for it. You have 39 days to repay the loan and it will cost you 90 SP to do so. You fail to scape up the money and went out adventuring instead. You come back 9 days overdue to repay the loan and find your wealth has dropped -17. The GM secretly made a roll each day and succeeded on day 7 for illegal action to be taken to repay the loan. As they terrorized your contacts while you were out, their trust fell -3 overall as well impacted your budding reputation in the town. A couple of tough looking guys waited for you on the edge of town. Being bloody and tore up didn't seem to phase them any so they broke your legs to add to your excitement, not to mention killed your mage buddy's familiar. All in all, life is not looking good for you.

Questions about Rituals versus Spells, Prayers, etc.

2012-01-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

I was hit up by a fan about the difference between rituals and spells, prayers and the like.

Here is the rule of thumb for distinguishing between the two.

If the magic in question requires significant time, multiple components, locations or a sequence to enact, then its probably a ritual. Anything simplistic or quick to use, that disregards location, environment and so on, is likely a spell (or equivalent).
If the magic is requires some complication, measuring or particular exactness to use then its likely a ritual.
If the output of the magic is something long term (say, > minute), then its likely a ritual.

Example:

Magic to someone something requires the inscription of a magic circle or equivalent protection.

That makes it a ritual, especially since what is summoned is staying for a while.

Magic to create wall of stone, wood, earth, etc.

Here is where the longevity and exactness rules are important. If the magic requires more than a single measurement, such as determining height, width and depth as a part of the construction, it appeals to rules 1 and 2 above. Additionally, the output will be something of duration, more than likely, which also hits rule number 3 above.

Now some magic is borderline and the GM will have to make the choice of which path to take. Take the Heavy Helper spell in the system. It makes a permanent pile of sand appear. However the measure and complexity to utilize it is simplistic and the caster has little control over how and where the sand appears other than distance. While permanent, the sand is normal and not introducing an unnatural element, such as bringing forth a wall of fire or ice and keeping it within a certain proportion. So, once created it does what any pile of sand does.

So as you can see, some magic will require you to make choices to place it appropriately. It will just require your best judgement to do so.

Understanding the AE Toolbox

2012-01-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

If you think of the Arduin Eternal system as a toolbox it may help in understanding the approach I took when building it.

Each option you have, whether under race, culture, profession, skills or elsewhere, is there to make the characters you build seem not only more realistic but different from one incarnation to the other. If you sit down six guys to make six warriors, in AE the chances of them coming out the same are minuscule. They will be different, probably in concepts but definitely in the mechanics and background that created them.

The game helps build this when you create the character. And yes, I understood that in doing so it would lengthen the character creation process. And equally yes I'm very and completely fine with it.

Its like that saying in the quality assurance world: Fast, Cheap and Good; now pick two.

Anything good will be either cheap but slow or fast and expensive. The three never exist as one entity.

So have a good time building characters. Or make yourself a template that you can follow quickly to rough one together.

Making Characters

2012-01-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

Folks,

everyone has a different approach when it comes to making characters. However, one approach that is common to DnD that doesn't work for AE is to think you can roll up a bunch of stat lists and then apply them towards what you want. The folks I'm bringing into the fold here in Texas mentioned it and I had to show them how that just doesn't work in AE.

Attributes are important but AE treats them different than in other game systems and especially in contrast to DnD (pick whatever version you like). They provide a bonus, an important one, that gives you an edge but not an overwhelming one.

Understanding this fact is tough for some i've found, especially if they are used to playing where attributes can rule the roost. Keep this in mind when you are bringing new players into the fold, especially if they have played DnD or other games where small changes in attributes can sway the mechanics of conflict in large ways.

Just think about differences plunking a couple of points in any one attribute in AE would make and then contrast that with your favorite game system to see the difference. It will help in explaining things. Fluctuation in strength or con in AE, for instance, would definitely be different if you did the same in DnD. Same for Runequest or M&M or any other game you choose.

Crafting Cultures

2012-01-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quick not on how to make your own cultures for AE. It came up while I was initiating a new group in Texas into the game system.

Its actually quite simple. Take any culture and for the sake of an example I'm going to use Texas (it seems appropriate). If you think about Texas a few things might quickly come to mind.

Big; the state is huge and anyone who lives here gets used to that fact. Which means they don't think about driving 10-25 miles to get the simplest things or drive 50 miles to go game with someone. Its a part of the social fabric of the state. So, we might have a cultural influence here revolved around travel, where the influence handles a factor of travel.
Large amounts of land; texans are known for everything big and owning land is one of them and not in tiny lots either. This could be another influence if desired; one with unlanded nobility as a possible or anything else that seemed appropriate.
Patriotic; You can throw a rock and not hit a Texan that hasn't or is currently serving in the military, government or some community organization. National Charge, National Pride and other like nation-based influences are very appropriate here.
Border Life; Texas sits on the borders and this influence is a good one to incorporate.
Multiple large cities; Texas has numerous large cities so any of the serveral urban based influences are appropriate
Commerce; Texas has a lot of commerce and several of the economic and business influences could be incorporated
Resource Rich; Texas is rich in resources and you can make influences that revolve around the acquisition, movement and sale of such things

Can you think of more? This took only a few minutes and is a slice of the conversation I had to show them how to craft their own influences for the cultures of their favorite game world using a real world example.

Lost Kingdom of Ghôrnukor

2012-01-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

When the Shadow of the One fell across the realm, the king sent emissaries to those few allies true to Arduin. Long ago, far northern Dwarven kingdom of Ghôrnukor and Arduin had forged a friendship and in Arduin’s dark hour Ghôrnukor came to her call. Many came from Ghôrnukor to help Arduin but its assistance led to the kingdom’s downfall. The One was angered by their actions, and it reached out and withered the kingdom with its terrible power. For all its once glorious majesty, nothing remains of that valiant realm except the poisoned remnants that lie in the Valley of Dark Dwarves north of the Great Grass Forever.

2012-01-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

Figured it was time to show more AE artifacts. This particular set was a gift from Ariadne, a long standing character by one of my players, to another character. The set was made in Maelshyra and bears the marks of the Surehand family of weavers.

Ariadne's Gift Spider Silkclothes (full set)
Cost: 19200 GC

Type: Cloth (fits BODY 34 -42)
DR: 9
CHARGE Bonus: 0
BODY: 171
CF/Dodge Penalty:0
Move/Maneuver Penalty: 0
Special:

Insulates to cold and wind up to 200 HP potency and stronger potency seeps through at a rate of 5% per 50 HP potency beyond 200-HP. The strong cold or wind doesn't harm the silk just penetrates it.
+20 Dodge bonus
+30 all Saves (Fear, Disease, P/V, and Shock).

Rain Star's Lay

2012-01-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

Harken ye, oh traveller bold,

to my tale of Elven gold.

Entombed on high, mountain bound,

Moontomb waits, seldom found.

Glitter profuse, bejeweled and encrusted,

where the Princess lays, time encrusted.

'ware the laughter of that which waits,

Yet 'ware even more the deadly gates.

Night and doom rings sure and thorned,

of iron and fire, and crescent horned.

Rain Star rewards...

Mage School: Salt and Wave

2012-01-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

SALTAND WAVE

Salt and Wave is an Aradnastan style ofmagik study found little outside of the borders of that country. Itgrew out of a mishmash of arcane practices among the coastal villagesand was consolidated by Melq Afrtain. Melq was formally trained inArad city in the Blood and Stones style of magery but acquired theseed magic that would become Salt and Wave after spending a fewdecades in the coastal villages and the ships that fished and sailedthe coastline.

Prerequisite: 28+ APT, 12+ MA,Aradnastian and Rendorii languages

School Focus: Salt and Waveconcentrates on practical application and has next to no academiccurriculum. Learning is done by rote and use; labs are minimal andpracticals are nearly exclusively used to judge success in learning.

Concentration Skills: Cast,Channel

Alarming Impediment – OP 1

Attend Me! – OP 1

Bone Shaker – OP 1

Dive – OP 1

Fast Freeze – OP 1

Fiery Cone – OP 1

Instant Grab – OP 1

Quell Sound – OP 1

Quickflame – OP 1

Salt Wounds –OP 1

Slow Drop – OP 1

Wizard Dark – OP 1

Wizard Glow – OP 1

Spriggan Wind – OP 1

Farspeaker – OP 2

Fins and Gills –OP 2 [R]

Flotsam Boat –OP 2 [R]

Foam Ring – OP2

High Lifter – OP 2

Salt Tongue –OP 2

Spatial Deliquesce – OP 2

Wizardly Windows – OP 2

-----Trial of the Storm Crow -----

Flesh Oil Fire –OP 3

Fog Bolt – OP 3

Hammer of theWave – OP 3

Heavy Helper – OP 3

Water Skimming – OP 3

Dee-Hopper – OP 4

Morgault's Disappearance – OP 4

Ghost Wind – OP 4

Clumsy Field – OP 5

Long Reach – OP 5

Trial of the Storm Crow. Thefirst and only trial in the school. Melq formed a composite of thevillage based trials to form this one, where a student must take aship out into a raging storm and then lead the same ship (intact)back into port. The trial is actually one-part rite and theinvocation of the trial requires 50 APT (usually provided by themaster). One began, the student attracts storms daily, for sevendays straight. The student must weather each one and bring the(same) ship back to port safely. Every day the student will betested by the power of the storm, requiring a series of Channelchecks, TD 50, 50 and 75 respectively. If any one is failed, theintensity of the storm doubles. If the student succeeds inweathering the full seven days of storms they are considered achanged being and indoctrinated to the higher powers of the school.

DIVE – OP 1

Preq: 16+ APT, 14+ MA, ProfArcanalogy

Mana: see below C:99 F: 8

Range: 120 M: No Area: see below

TD:25^Note1 Duration: see below

For a single mana point you can affect15 BODY of a target, plus 3 BODY of a target for every additionalmana invested in the spell. If enough mana is channeled into thespell, it will sink the target to the bottom of any body of water ata rate of 5 ft per CF Count. The spells lasts for 5 CF Countsminimum, plus 5 more CF Counts per mana invested when the spell iscast.

SALT WOUNDS – OP 1

Preq: 16+ APT, 14+ MA, ProfChannel

Mana: 3 C: 100 F:4

Range: 150 M: No Area: see below

TD:25^Note1 Duration: see below

Salts any open wounds on a target thatis within 150 ft, causing 1 HP per wound they have taken.

FINS AND GILLS – OP 2

Preq: 24+ APT, Trd Ceremony,Trd Channel

APT: 25/5 C: 98 F:7

Range: 50 Time: 10minutes

TD:100 Duration: seebelow

Learn: 565 GS Influence: any/all

The target of the ritualgrows fins and gills, an unsettling though painless process. It willaffect any living being up to 50 BODY without fail. Those alteredignore the penalty of MASS for the purpose of swimming and can breathsalt or fresh water easily. The ritual lasts for your APT in meleerounds before instantly reversing. The ritual does not provide anyadditional resistance to cold, pressure or other environmentaladaptions. If the ritual is performed in the ocean – salt water)then it can be done in half the normal time requirement.

FLOTSAMBOAT – OP 2

Preq: 26+ APT, Trd Ceremony, Trd Wilderness

APT: 30/1 C: 95 F: 10

Range: 150 Time: seebelow

TD:100 Duration: seebelow

Learn: 765 GS Influence: any/all

Theritualist calls upon the ocean to bring to him flotsam and debris,which is then formed into a crude boat that will carry 5 BODY perskill rank and last 10 minutes per APT of the ritualist. Ifperformed away from the ocean or sea – salt or fresh), it doesn'twork. Otherwise it takes d10 times the BODY requirement of the boatin time for the ocean to bring forth the debris to build the boat. The boat itself will be 4 times the BODY it can carry in size. Itmay leak but will not sink and will stay intact, even if damaged,reknitting together also long as enough of the boat's BODY remains tocarry what's contained within it.

FOAM RING – OP 2

Preq: APT 20, MA 16, TrdArcanalogy

Mana: 6 (see below) C:100 F: 7

Range:180 M: No Area:see below

TD:50^Note1 Duration: see below

Asimple spell that brings forth rings of foam that surround asingle creature of 10 + skill ranks in BODY, holding them fastcompletely. Those captured are held fast, immobile but notparalyzed, for 1 melee round plus 1 melee for every additional 2mana invested in the spell when cast. The rings are considered asingle unit for destruction purposes and will resist the amount ofBODY they can capture in HP damage before breaking. However, a BODYcheck against a TD of double the capture value will also burst themasunder.

SALT TONGUE – OP 2

Preq: APT 21, MA 16, TrdArcanalogy

Mana: 7 C: 95 F:9

Range:40 M: No Area:see below

TD:50^Note1 Duration: see below

Asimple spell that targets a single person; when they speak orutter sound their mouth is filled with salt – literally) and thetaste of the ocean and they must make a TD 100 + skill ranks ShockSave or gag, spit and retch instead of speak or utter sounds, losingtheir action in the process. It lasts only a melee round but can beextended by +1 melee round for every 4 mana invested when cast. Ifthe target is in salt water when cast upon the Shock save is TD 150 +skill ranks until they leave the salt water and the caster gets a +30bonus to succeed against their MD with the spell.

FLESH OIL FIRE – OP 3

Preq: APT 26+, MA 20+, ExpChannel, Exp Arcanalogy

Mana: 14 C: 92 F:12

Range:60 M: No Area:see below

TD:100^Note1 Duration: seebelow

The spells conjures forth an oily,tallow-scented fire that burns only beings with ESS and who havephysical flesh. The fire is transferred to a target by touch –roll versus DEF), burning d6+1 HP and impairing 1 ESS per meleeround. While active, and it lasts for 6 melee rounds + 1 melee roundevery 7 mana invested when cast, any other living being that touchesthe target also catches fire if a half-strength application of thespell surpasses their MD. Regardless, no affected creature burnslonger than the total duration of the spell, no matter when affected. The fire cannot be put out like normal as it is consuming flesh andlife force but neither does it burn normally flammable material. Spells or rituals that disrupt OP 3 spells and render them inert;secrets that allow dismissal or dispelling magic, and like powerswill dissipate the fire once lit on a target.

HAMMER OF THE WAVE –OP 3

Preq: APT 26+, MA 20+, ExpChannel, Exp Arcanalogy

Mana: 11 C: 99 F:10

Range:20 M: No Area:see below

TD:125^Note1 Duration: immediate (see below)

Thespell conjures forth the hammering intensity and power of a droppingwave as it smashes down on the shore. It will hit a everything in a5 ft wide by 15 ft long length, accompanied with the scent of theocean and dampness on the skin. Its force is such that it 2d10+10 HPdamage and bowls over a total BODY of creatures, objects, etc.equal to the caster's skill check. Those bowled over are moved alongthe same path 2d10 ft past the end of the wave with a force equal tohalf the BODY total of the wave. If they encounter something solidthen they take the BODY damage for that value as well, otherwise theyend up prone and Staggered for the rest of the melee round.

Coup De Grace Rules (AE)

2012-01-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

After some discussion with a few players I realized that I did not include the Coup De Grace rules!

So, I guess better late than never.

In situations where a person is unable to defend themselves and you make a strike against them, inflict max damage for the weapon employed and add the damage to a base TD 150. The person then makes a Shock save against this value. If they fail then they die instantly. Otherwise they suffer the damage inflicted.

Doom Guard

2012-01-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

Few, if any, could pinpoint with anyaccuracy the existence of the original Doom Guard. The annals ofGhealcour Deal’jousi are accounted for as the first, direct mentionof such things. Known as the Golden Ashang of Arduin, Ghealcour wasa name synonymous with heroism, danger and glory. In his annals, hedescribes them in detail after limping back from a sojourn into thenecrotic depths of Skull Tower. Below is a fragment from thatjournal, written as Ghealcour was wont to do, as if speaking toanother face to face.

“Horrific. Terrible. Yet, so potent, so beautiful the deadly song of their blades. Bornin the song and weave of rune, these doom guard move with the cogencyof the old great beasts of yore. Who or what birthed these things? Was it the rune weavers¹and the first true ones²,forging a weapon against the great grey beasts³? Or, the beasts themselves, forming a weapon aimed at theirrebellious slaves? None live to answer such questions, I wouldsurmise.”

Another fragment later captures thetale of how he and his men came across them in the dark recesses ofSkull Tower.

“No scent capturedtheir intent. No twitch of the neck, raising hairs was the alarm oftheir attack. None of our trained senses were aware. In oneinstance we trekked the dank, dismal necropolis and the next theywere among us! Tall as a man and more, blades in each fist, burningthe air with whistling speed. My men fell like flinhorns in a briskwind across the plain as they cut into u. Our blood was a red andgreen flow, decorating the black metal of their forms, scarringmomentarily the symmetry of the silver runes that adorned them.”

Later, having reformed and limped away,Ghealcour muses with his pen.

“Curiosity consumedme. Even in flight for our lives, I could not contain it. Weretreated and fought them as they flickered faster than the eye couldconceive. We were lucky now and then and one would fall. Almostlike the harsh sound of chimes or a dulcimer. There was an odd,musical quality to it. In the thick of battle, I could not resist. I took up a piece of the rune scribed metal, holding it close as mymen ushered me free of the bony grip of the tower. Later, in thesafety of the boughs I held its weight and considered it in the lightof Syraath. Strange it was. So strong but so light in weight. Themetal looked like no other I had seen. The runes, however, drew methe most. The order of their making was beyond me, but I could seethe hint of the power they contained.

While probably the first in writing, hewas by far the last to have encountered Doom Guard. Many haveconfused the soul bound army of Tankaras, (Greater Demon) Hell’sown general with these creatures. While similar on the exterior theyare greatly different. Those under Tankaras’ command are formedfrom the souls of sentient beings he has taken.

Doom guard of our day differ from thoseoriginal doom guard described by Ghealcour and others in the heydayof Arduin’s revival. Those few original ones were born in runemagik, empowered by runes fell and powerful. Time and the blades ofadventurers took their toll, and slowly these original uglies slowlydisappeared. In their place came similar creatures, constructs madenot in the strength of runes but the chaotic energies of magik. Mages of power learned to construct a special form of golem thatresembled and duplicated much of the original Doom Guard powers. Nomatter how well they made, however, they could never duplicate theextent of the original doom guards’ powers.

GM side notes: Creatures of greatpower can dominate and override a Doom guard’s originalprogramming. Some lesser demons can also do this (Night Demons inparticular). Some versions of the Doomguard have 8 arms, each withappropriate weapons. Such versions can effectively make 4 to 6attacks per round as well as engage multiple opponents with no lossof accuracy. Others were inscribed and loaded with spells, very likea shydra is. Most spells are 7th to 20th power. Such Doomguardalways possess harsh white runes that leave after trails in the airas they moved. Fewer still had the ability to discorporate and/orbecome ethereal. Such doom guards always possess a crystallinepowder blue hued gem on their helms. Rarer still are those that canduplicate themselves. Such Doomguard can create temporary clones ata rate of 1 per round (fully capable at birth!) without limit. Theseterrible few are distinguished by a bloody red ruby where their“heart” would be.

In time, these original incarnationschanged (as did Dave’s games). By campaign two and three, theywere a bit milder but no less deadly. The version you see in theCompleat Arduin was the updated version though the one released with Arduin Eternal is the latest incarnation and most "official".

Rarely did DH make unique versions ofthese critters. A few notables did exist though. In particular,within Skull Tower was one of the more ancient Doomguard. Thisunique creation was always encountered alone.

Its description wasthat of a 14 ft set of armor, flat black in color with spiraling wavyrunes in gold, bronze, silver, ivory and green. Each rune was alayer atop another, spelling out the fate of one Jjinuroon inEldarin. Within the suit itself was the preserved bones ofJjinuroon, his lingering hatred of life empowering the Doomguard. Itcarried a double edged broad sword in one hand called “Life’sAshes” and a hooked mace (formed to look like a falcon’s head andbeak) called “Hell Falcon”.

Another was the so-called Blood Houndof Tunk Hill. This singular one had a helm shaped like a feral houndand constantly dripped with blood. Crossing its slime trail was saidto bring death.

One horrible Doom Guard was said to bewithin the Caverns of the Time Lords. The Scrolls of Anarakurk tellthe tale of nine intrepid souls that have passed beyond the livingrune that covers the entrance. The fourteenth scroll tells the taleof meeting a giant of a man, clothed in metal armor. His helm showedfive faces, one a face of intense anguish, one flat andexpressionless; another laughed, a fourth grimacing and the last witha look of intense concentration. They had little time to discernwhat it all meant as the doom guard laid into them with whirlingflails, trails of flame from its eyes (anguish) and a tongue ofscarlet energy (grimacing mouth).

Ynyzer’s Sign

2012-01-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

Also calledJanguir’s bite (in Falohyr, Khorsar and Bossalia) and vulgarly“big-lip, fat-eye” disease in the Undercities. It only arisesmostly in those who use spoken magik (of any kind) but sometimesafflicts victims who see or gaze upon magic. Typical afflictionstarts with a swollen lip or lips and sometimes an or eyes(especially if they have gazed upon powerful magic [OP 15 or higher]when infected). The disease spreads through the body rapidly,peaking within 8 to 54 hours and declining thereafter over a 40 to 88hours period. However, any exposure to magik worsens the conditionand lengthens the affliction by 8 to 40 hours.

The affliction iscaused by small miniscule parasites (invisible to the eye) thatinfect creatures (living, undead, or dead) and subside off the arcaneparticles emitted by spoken magic [Runeweave or Runesong does notemit any particles and does not support these creatures]. Itsmortality rate is a flat 5% during the first 8-hour period but risesby 5% for each additional 8 hours that passes. Exposure to sun light(natural only) reduces the mortality rate in half for that period.

This disease is particularly prominent in the Undercities and theGreat Wurm Road.

2012-01-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the calendar I was talking about. The blog doesn't support direct file embedding, at least I can't find it at the moment but this link should work just fine.

Arduin Calendar

Arduin Courier Service

2012-01-03T16:53:00.000-05:00

In addition to the regular coachservice, Arduin has an efficient and fairly inexpensive courierservice as well. While most traders will gladly carry a letter ordocuments for a fee, Arduin enjoys a form of pony express thatconnects all its major cities and large towns. Lesser-populatedareas are freely accessible as well but the courier network takeslonger and is more expensive to reach those areas. The system worksthrough a network of mounted relay messengers. Riders stop atcarriage houses, inns, and relay stations to refresh their horses,exchange them for new ones, or pass on their dispatches and messagesto another messenger for the remainder of the distance.

When couriers dispatch to lesspopulated areas they will ride on the regular coach service for addedsecurity. Couriers will also do this to safeguard large dispatchesor bulk deliveries.

A standard letter (about 5 sheets ofpaper) costs a copper penny to send between any of the major citiesin Arduin. From a large town or city to another doubles this price. It costs a silver penny to take a letter to anything of smallerpopulation (excluding the Mickleback Mountains. It costs 2 silverpennies going into or exiting the mountains). All packages aregauged by weight or bulk. The going rate is one pound or one-quartercubic foot equals one half-crown, with a maximum 50 lbs and 10 cubicfeet (breakable into 2 cubic feet boxes).

Arduin Couriers can usually deliverywithin two days to one major city to another. Four days for any ofthe large towns to another town or city. To anything smaller, theywill give no less then an estimate of 2 weeks to one month fordelivery, depending on distance and the place in question.

2012-01-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Hell Hopper miniature - coming soon!

Valley of the Walking Stone

2012-01-02T16:52:00.000-05:00

Perched on the edge of Falohyr’sborder with the near barren Wasted Lands and the frost coveredheights of the Heaven Wall Mountains is a small valley shrouded in awarm foggy embrace. Vegetation is thick and thriving around and inthe valley though the warm wet arms of the fog hide most from sight. It’s a vivid green contrast to the land surrounding, which isbrown, faded and dying. While thick and verdant, it no animals markthe air with calls or scuttle through the thick foliage. Indeed, thebounty of green does not rise higher than a Throon. Within, shroudedby mist, giant stones festooned with vegetation (three times a Throonand more) float and bob, moving in time to hidden music. They areespecially active around the equinoxes and solstices.

Time and Calendar

2012-01-01T16:50:00.000-05:00

Arduindays are exactly 25 hours long, consisting of ten full hours ofdaylight and darkness, with two and one half hours each of twilightand dawn. There is no axial tilt or rotational wobble, so this nevervaries during the year regardless of the season. The day of Arduin isalso called Zed, and its hours are known as Azark. An Azark furtherbreaks down into Azar (minutes), Aza (roughly 9 seconds), and Az(approximately a second). Six days comprise a week, usually called aSixday or Zedra. The individual days of the Zedra are Mordag,Taenwal, Wurdigan, Veldoar, Sarmaht, and Qwain, in that order. Thefolk of Arduin commonly work Mordag through Veldoar, and half a day onSarmaht, taking the afternoon and all day Qwain off. This variesregionally.

Thereare 15 months in the year, for a total of 450 days in the year, notincluding Tai Taowyn or End Year, which is a five-day period of‘non-time’ that takes care of the odd orbital period around thesun of 455 days (its our equivalent of Christmas!). The months, in order, all called: Tor, Ator, Vaen,Torvaen, Kos, Torkos, Skord, Torskord, Zar, Torzar, Ghast, Torghast,Chund, Torchund and Khoros, or the End Year month.

Thereare four distinct seasons: Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Winter is 125 days long, and is the last 25 days of the old year andthe first 100 days of new. Spring follows with 125 days and is inturn followed by 125 days of summer. Fall follows as the first 75days of the last one hundred days of the year (the first 25 days ofwinter being the last 25 days of the year.