(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 287: September 2001
part 4/7
Fiction: Deeper, Deeper dark. An interesting fairy-tale like story this month, telling the tale of how a greedy industrialist took over a town in search of resources, making himself rich while the population suffered, but eventually getting his comeuppance. So essentially a parable for real world industrialisation of the past few centuries, only with a happy ending instead of exploitation becoming the default, and the community being left hollow when their natural resources run out and the company moves on. So this story makes me sad because it's a good story, but also reminds me that you don't get easy resolutions and happy endings like that in the real world. If we did, would we bother to create all these fantastic otherworldly universes anyway? They say stories tell us monsters can be slain, but will capitalism ever be replaced by something better? I think we may be reaching one of those points where we're going outside my remit, so that's enough of that line of thought. Changing the world can wait.
Elminster's guide to the realms: Shadowdark? I wasn't expecting to see that particular portmanteau turn up this early. A little searching turns up earlier examples in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, and two Volo's Guides, so it looks like we can definitely blame Ed for it's creation, if maybe not it's becoming ubiquitous next edition. The amount of cheese he's responsible for just grows and grows.
But enough digression about the wider scheme of things. This particular tidbit of realmslore concerns a magic shop, it's cranky old owner, and it's contents. While it may not be standardised, there's a fair number of people who are willing to teach young spellcasters for the right price, and this is a good example one for your low-mid level players to encounter. They've got enough wards up that a casual attempt at robbery is unlikely to work, but clever trickery might do the job. The illustration does a good job of showing that the place is actually pretty small, with tons of magical knicknacks crammed in. This gives a GM plenty of leeway to have players find odd things with unexpected powers for a bargain that may be crucial to a plot later. All seems nicely literary really. Now if he could just do something about that name before people get ideas.
The bestiary: James Jacobs steps away from Greyhawk, and heads off to the planes that are the source of so many of his cthuloid gribleys. The Chaos Spire is your basic roaming corrupted artefact, lost in the astral plane and transforming those who enter it into scary aberrations. If you can get hold of it and clean it out, you can have a hellraiseresque giant fortress that folds into a teeny little puzzle block for your convenience. I think that's a nicely epic adventure for you.
Bonespitters are the basic form you'll be transformed into if this place comes your way unexpectedly. A half alive, half dead, half cyborg, all insane mass of limbs, mouths and eyes? With a surprisingly high hide and move silently scores? It must be a tuesday.
Chaoswyrd are multiheaded tentacled gorillas, the kind of things you'd get if Demogorgon and Cryronax mated. They're prone to fishmalk behaviour, so they may suddenly lose interest or apologise mid-battle if you're lucky.
The Tetramorph is the giant amorphous blob at the middle of all this. It's surprisingly low CR, but I guess we don't have epic rules yet. Touching it'll mutate you, and it destabilises reality in general, so a good cleric is once again vital for after the battle. So the monsters are a little predictable, but the article redeems itself with the unusually good plot hooks and overarching adventure idea behind them.
part 4/7
Fiction: Deeper, Deeper dark. An interesting fairy-tale like story this month, telling the tale of how a greedy industrialist took over a town in search of resources, making himself rich while the population suffered, but eventually getting his comeuppance. So essentially a parable for real world industrialisation of the past few centuries, only with a happy ending instead of exploitation becoming the default, and the community being left hollow when their natural resources run out and the company moves on. So this story makes me sad because it's a good story, but also reminds me that you don't get easy resolutions and happy endings like that in the real world. If we did, would we bother to create all these fantastic otherworldly universes anyway? They say stories tell us monsters can be slain, but will capitalism ever be replaced by something better? I think we may be reaching one of those points where we're going outside my remit, so that's enough of that line of thought. Changing the world can wait.
Elminster's guide to the realms: Shadowdark? I wasn't expecting to see that particular portmanteau turn up this early. A little searching turns up earlier examples in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, and two Volo's Guides, so it looks like we can definitely blame Ed for it's creation, if maybe not it's becoming ubiquitous next edition. The amount of cheese he's responsible for just grows and grows.
But enough digression about the wider scheme of things. This particular tidbit of realmslore concerns a magic shop, it's cranky old owner, and it's contents. While it may not be standardised, there's a fair number of people who are willing to teach young spellcasters for the right price, and this is a good example one for your low-mid level players to encounter. They've got enough wards up that a casual attempt at robbery is unlikely to work, but clever trickery might do the job. The illustration does a good job of showing that the place is actually pretty small, with tons of magical knicknacks crammed in. This gives a GM plenty of leeway to have players find odd things with unexpected powers for a bargain that may be crucial to a plot later. All seems nicely literary really. Now if he could just do something about that name before people get ideas.
The bestiary: James Jacobs steps away from Greyhawk, and heads off to the planes that are the source of so many of his cthuloid gribleys. The Chaos Spire is your basic roaming corrupted artefact, lost in the astral plane and transforming those who enter it into scary aberrations. If you can get hold of it and clean it out, you can have a hellraiseresque giant fortress that folds into a teeny little puzzle block for your convenience. I think that's a nicely epic adventure for you.
Bonespitters are the basic form you'll be transformed into if this place comes your way unexpectedly. A half alive, half dead, half cyborg, all insane mass of limbs, mouths and eyes? With a surprisingly high hide and move silently scores? It must be a tuesday.
Chaoswyrd are multiheaded tentacled gorillas, the kind of things you'd get if Demogorgon and Cryronax mated. They're prone to fishmalk behaviour, so they may suddenly lose interest or apologise mid-battle if you're lucky.
The Tetramorph is the giant amorphous blob at the middle of all this. It's surprisingly low CR, but I guess we don't have epic rules yet. Touching it'll mutate you, and it destabilises reality in general, so a good cleric is once again vital for after the battle. So the monsters are a little predictable, but the article redeems itself with the unusually good plot hooks and overarching adventure idea behind them.