Red Wizards... of Leng?!

Whizbang Dustyboots · Apr 17, 2008

Shroomy said:
I've always thought of it as a kind of mythic, evil, transdimensional Tibet.

Yeah, I thought that was a good argument made in the podcast.

Riley · Apr 17, 2008

Shroomy said:
I've always thought of it as a kind of mythic, evil, transdimensional Tibet.

The Plateau of Leng is also featured prominently in Paizo's Pathfinder #6, the excellent finale of Rise of the Runelords.

Desdichado · Apr 17, 2008

Henry said:
Don't tell me the 4E bug is biting at your heels, too.

No, I've already got a Plateau of Leng (and a place called Kadath, and another called Carcosa, and a Mnar and a Bnazic Desert) in my 3.5 E6 game. I don't need 4e to do that. (I did relent and ditch R'lyeh, though—and replaced it with Cryx from the Iron Kingdoms.)

I just think it's a cool idea. That also reminds me; I need to get off my butt and continue that Story Hour I started. I'm liable to fall so far behind that catching up will be practically impossible if I don't get a few updates posted soon.

malraux · Apr 17, 2008

frankthedm said:
The 4E Tiefling will work well enough for the Men of Leng.

Bloated purplish spiders chill on the plateau of Leng too. I don't remember if they were intelligent or not though.

Magic the gathering even had a Library of Leng card. Not sure if that was a reference to the Cthulhu mythos though.

Just for the heck of it, a conversion of the 3e Spider of Leng

Spider of Leng - Level 6 Lurker
Large Aberrant Beast (Spider)-Lesser Independent Race 250XP(?)
San 1/1d10

Init: +10 Senses: Perception +4; Darkvision
HP: 59; Bloodied 29
AC 20; Fort , Ref , Will
Speed 6; Climb 6

m Bite (Standard, at-will)
Reach 2, +9 vs AC; 2d6 + 4 + 5 poison (save ends)

M Spring from Shadows (Standard + Move, at-will)
Creature can move before and after its attack, movement limited to creature's speed

r Web (Standard, recharge 4 5 6)
Reach 10; +9 vs Ref; Hit: Target speed is 0 and takes -2 to all attacks and defenses (save ends)
Miss: Target slowed (save ends)

R Curse of the Putrid Husk (Standard, recharge 6) - Illusion
Your skin begins to rot and fall off your body as your internal organs spill out onto the ground
Range 6; +7 vs Will; Hit: 1d10 San and Target Slowed (save ends). If target fails first saving throw, target becomes unconscious (save ends).
Miss: 1d6 San

Alignment: Evil Languages: A language unique to the Spiders of Leng but some Tcho-Tcho can speak it
Skills: Stealth + 10 (+18 in its web)
Str 18 (+7) Dex 15 (+5) Wis 13 (+4)
Con 17 (+6) Int 14 (+5) Cha 11 (+3)

No idea if all the numbers are exactly right, as I didn't find another level 6 lurker to base my numbers off of, so alot of the number are either made up or just copied from the 3e version. I'd also add some fluff about their ability to create webs and such if this were more formal.

Ahglock · Apr 17, 2008

mhacdebhandia said:
I do like the way Rich Baker and Bruce Cordell described the updated version of Thay. A remote, scary place dominated by evil wizards is much cooler than the current version, which is an accessible, orderly place dominated by evil wizards.

I don't know anything about leng and very little about thay. But I prefer a I guess tradional thay as the coolest type of country. It isn't remote you can get there fairly easily, but its scary as heck, people are scared living there, they don't act out much its fairly orderly, people talk in hushed tones, why because there are scary ass wizards ruling things out of sight. I don't really know if that is what traditional thay is, but that is what i like. The only thing I want remote and scary are the wizards themselves who are running things.

HeavenShallBurn · Apr 17, 2008

Hobo said:
Thay...but it looks like it was specifically compared to Leng.

The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

I think they can take things a bit far afield with the new FR, but it's not so far off from the version of Thay I've dropped into every setting I ever made somewhere. Kind of like Shangi-La through a mirror darkly. Remote and high atop a plateau in a mountain range, the slaves and peasants all live in very well ordered lives, of constant fear. Not daring to look over their shoulder, or speak above a whisper. Who bar their gates when PCs show up and keep their eyes on their feet. Because they know what the wizards do, in their seven-sided tower fortresses up in the mountains. Strange mutated things come down from the slopes sometimes, and people go up, taken by their faceless knights armoured in magic. Occasionally it's even people who were causing trouble, but either way they never come back. See the witchfire on the peaks, up in the clouds? Unspeakable things are done there.