DragonQuest Campaign Newsletter issue 10.0
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Where We Left Off..
Game Date: Saturday, July 13th
The Party just arrived in Mirzapur with the caravan. The three Guardians who had shown up at the battle with the bandits also rode along as guards. The party members get 3Cr each for their part in capturing/killing the band of brigands which attacked the caravan. Also, pay as caravan guards came to 50P each.
Your current objective is to find a Mage named Amar Das who had lived in this city a couple dozen years ago, but then left to take up the life of a hermit somewhere. Rumor had it that he died about 15 years ago, but the jounral from Aldeberon specifically mentioned visiting Das recently. It is suspected that he had given the Amulet to Das at that point. The Amulet, along with several other artifacts, are believed to be sought by the Dark Prince. The artifacts are used in a number of powerful rituals, but the Dark Princes motives are at the moment unknown, but presumed nefarious.
Rumors & News of Current Events (top)
Adventurers’ Guild Postings (top)
Tidbits (top)
Gargoyles
Gargoyles are fairly common architectural sculptures used throughout the known world as "guardians". They are primarily meant to keep "evil" spirits at bay., and are often depicted as horrifying creatures themselves.
However, it is also known practice to work some ward magic into such statues so that they can in fact become animated "guardians". This usually involves a ward triggered by some event in the vicinity which brings the statue to life.
Artifact Alert
Mournblade - Fortunately, Mournblade has few sibling weapons, for it is a very nasty weapon. It is a straight hand & a half sword with a black blade. When it strikes an opponent, it causes severe agony above and beyond that expected through normal damage, plus it can lend strength or heal its bearer. Legend has it that this blade, once drawn, cannot be sheathed until it has tasted blood - which has led to many a tragic occurrence. Known siblings to Mournblade include Paingiver, Dhaubpros, and Gorkris. None of the locations of any of these weapons are common knowledge.
Hammer of Thor - The Hammer of Thor resembles a small sledge-style warhammer, with several magical abilities, including increased strength for the user, the casting of lightning bolts, and the ability to return to the hand which throws it.
Rule Clarifications, Notes, and Extensions. (top)
Witchsight
The Witchsight talents do not give a character the ability to see in the dark, only improved chances of seeing magically hidden, altered, or invisible things. An exception to this is the Witchsight spell of Celestial Magics which does provide night vision in addition to this. Any other Witchsight talents should be considered equivalent to the E&E Magics T-1. (PC + 4/rank %).
Bucklers
Use of a buckler does not prohibit use of that hand for other tasks (such as wielding a weapon or casting a spell). However, any other use of that hand does negate the bonuses offered by the buckler, and any weapons used with that hand will suffer a -10% penalty due to the added encumbrance of the buckler.
Further notes on Restraining - Multi-Hex Creatures
In order to restrain a multi-hex creature, each hex of the creature must be restrained, and each hex is considered to have the creature’s full grapple rating. If there are some hexes which are not pinned, then the creature can make attacks with the unrestrained portions of its body, plus it gets to add the total grapple ratings of those sections to adjacent restrained sections for attempting to break free.
Example: Three men (grapple ratings of 45 each) try to restrain a Troll (3-hex creature, grapple rating of 70). Each man goes after one hex of the creature, and will have a 10% (45 - ½x70) chance of restraining that 1-hex portion of the creature. Only one man is successful, and restrains one side of the Troll, leaving 2 hexes free. The Creature can then attack with any weapons (natural or otherwise) which are not restrained, plus it could add 140 to its grapple rating for trying to break free from the restraint. If two of the men had been successful, only one hex would remain free, so the Troll could add the 70 for that hex to either of the other two hexes for breaking free, but not both. (Moral of this story: Use several men to grapple a Troll!!!).
(Note: one free hex used to free another would not necessarily represent an arm being free to pry at a restrainer, but could simply be that since that hex is not pinned it is capable of a greater degree of freedom and can provide improved leverage for adjacent parts of the body).
Interpretation of which locations are actually grappled will usually be left up to the GM and players attempting the grapple. Typically, parts of the body which would be targets for restrained would be the arms (preventing attacks), head & neck (preventing attacks), or torso & legs (preventing mobility, and possible attacks). Distinctions and results may become less clear with larger creatures.
Death & Unconsciousness
At any time, if a character is reduced to 0, 1, or 2 remaining EN points, they fall unconscious until the Endurance is raised to at least 3. If their Endurance goes negative, the character is dead. Also, if the Endurance is 0, then the character is considered to be bleeding severely and will lose one more Endurance point (causing them to go negative and die) if not treated within 5 minutes.
Sprinting
Sprinting movement can be along a hex-spline, but any partial-hex-facing changes are considered a whole hex-side facing change.
While sprinting, the character can move into the hexes to the left or right of directly ahead, provided the previous movement was a straight-ahead movement to enter their current hex. In other words, characters can move forward one hex, shuffle to a side for the next hex, move forward one more, then shuffle tot he side again. But they cannot, while sprinting, shuffle sideways more than one hex at a time.
If a character chooses to grapple at the end of a charge, and is successful at doing so, they can make an unarmed attack action if they moved no more than half their normal TMR and were not sprinting.
Knockdown through Damage
Whenever a character takes damage in one blow which exceeds their Physical Strength, they may be knocked off-balance from the force of the blow. After such a hit, they must roll 3 x Agility to avoid being knocked down. Shield charges are special cases of knockdown, since they rely on the momentum of the charge rather than the excessive damage to force an Agility check.
Counter Spells
Every character starts off knowing the General and Special Knowledge counterspells of their college. They can cast these with no preparation. Any Adepts can learn the counter spells of other Colleges, but only the Namers can cast counterspells from outside their College with no preparation. Any other Adepts must prep and cast such off-College counterspells as for normal spells.
Anti-Spelling
When two spells of opposing effect affect a character, their effects cancel for as long as both spells are active. As soon as the shorter duration spell ends, the other spells effects start again for the remainder of that spell’s duration.
Earth Magics Spell of Healing (G-6)
The Spell of Healing requires the application of healing herbs and salves, as described, and then through the application of magic, draws on and magnifies the healing nature of these things to bring about rapid healing. The herbs & salves must be on hand (typical cost would be about 25P, 1/8 lb. per dose) and easily accessible. If they are not readily at hand (i.e. in a pouch in a backpack), then a turn must be spent getting them. The actual application of these materials is worked into the preparation of the spell, which means it cannot be quick cast.
Healing Potions
Healing potions are a combination of herbal ingredients which, when imbibed, will increase the body’s natural healing rate (Endurance only). Such potions are manufactured through the joint efforts of a Healer and an Alchemist, and the effective rank of the potion is the sum of the Healer and Alchemist skills used. The potion will add (Rank) points of Endurance healed per 2 days, divided across the two days. The natural healing rate is 1 EN per 2 days of rest. After drinking a healing potion of rank 5, the character will heal 6 EN points every 2 days, or 3 points per day. If the net result is odd, the first day is the half-value rounded down, and the second day is the half-value rounded up. Healing potions are only effective for 2 days, and typically cost (Rank squared) Crowns. The effects of potions are not cumulative, so if two potions are drunk, only the higher ranked one is effective. Furthermore, if several potions are taken, there is a chance for some adverse reactions. Continued use beyond the two days is ill-advised.
Spells of Speed and Slowness
Speed and Slowness spells affect Initiative by adding or subtracting the rank of the spell. For doubled speed, the character does their first action at their Initiative point in the turn. Their second action takes place at one-half of their Initiative.
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