Fe'brew'ary · 12:02am Feb 8th, 2017
So let's talk RPG's, specifically Pen and Paper RPG's.
I've been at them for about, ooh, 4-5years started with D'n'D 4th ed, and moved onto Pathfinder, since then that's generally what I've stuck with outside of Traveller, DFRPG, Warhammer 40K, a couple of homebrew systems here and there, and a very short-lived foray into BESM/Pendragon (DM just dropped it due to wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey shenanigans).
All that said I find nothing about them more fun than sitting down and designing new items, characters, town, or one-shots.
And that is exactly what Fe'brew'ary is about, until the end of February I'm going to be updating this blog with items, locations, or personas from my old games. It won't be daily, but if you guys want to leave your own Homebrews in the comments go right ahead.
Let's start this off nice and grizzly.
Gutripper's Girdle (Pathfinder)
This belt is the last known item of Flench "Gutripper" Harllden, a famous gladiator, and serial killer. He was obsessed with ripping out his victims entrails, before drying, curing, and tanning them to hang around his own waist, thinking they would protect him from a similar ignoble end in the arenas in which he fought.
He was eventually brought to justice after he was caught in the act of murdering a particular noble's daughter. Said noble took great pleasure in gutting Flench with his own tools.
This belt disappeared after Flench's death, passing through the hands of those ignorant of its gory history time and time again before being lost once more.
Cost: 10,000 GP
CL: 7th
Aura: Mild Transmutation/Necromancy
Abilities: This belt grants its wearer a +2 enhancement bonus to CON, in addition to this bonus the wearer may, three times per day, make a standard melee attack as part of a CMB check made to grapple. If sucessful this attack deals 1d6 CON damage to the target. Finally, once per day, the wearer may end any Bleed effect they are suffering from.
If this belt is worn by a Neutral aligned character they suffer from repeat nightmares from the point of view of Flench's victims and are constantly fatigued from a lack of rest so long as they wear this belt.
If this belt is worn by a Good aligned character the nightmares are of such vividness and terror that they continue to feel the pain of Gutripper's victims even in their waking moments. A Good aligned character is considered to be constantly staggered, in addition to suffering the same penalties as a neutral character above.
Crafting Prerequisites: Craft Magic Item, Crafter must be Evil, Bear's Endurance, Touch of Bloodletting, Contagion, 5,000GP
And now for a two-fer
This is the very first location I ever made myself for a Pathfinder campaign, none of us could afford any of the (expensive for a group of uni dropouts) Paizo Adventure Paths, so homebrew campaigns were our only real option. I lost the original piece so I've left the Important people part blank beyond a couple of spots I remember, all the jobs I do remember, and I can remember what locations were around, but not their names.
Any ways, welcome to the twin-township of Chillfern and Glacier-Falls, a small town just south of the Frost Queen's Fangs Mountain Range, with a small farming settlement on top of the nearby Glacier where the Chillfern the town takes its name from is grown.
Chillfern and Glacier-Falls: Small Trading Town.
Alignment: LN/G
Population: 350+ (Primarily Humans and Dwarves, with a smattering of Elves, Halflings, Lizardfolk, Tieflings, and Kobolds)
Important People in Chillfern
*Sheriff
*Bartender 1
*Bartender 2
*Blacksmith
*River Port Master
*Father "Smiles" Rolfden, Human Adept 3, (Priest of Erastil)
*Priest to Cayden Cailen in his aspect as a god of Brewers
*Sieleniel Reletheiss, Half-Elf Alchemist 2 (Town Alchemist)
Important People in Glacier-Falls
*Harll "Three-Eyes" Davi'son, Dwarf Warrior 2 (Lodge-Keeper, wears a monocle, tells tall tales about his old hunts, and offers a decent price on any pelts, especially Wargs or Dire creatures)
*"Fridgid" Brid Davi'son, Dwarf Commoner 2 (Farm supervisor, stock-keeper, and village headsdwarf)
Important Locations for Chillfern
*Inn by the south gate, caters primarily to traders coming from the cities of Dros'Azar, Blueglass, and Lothalias
*Beer Flow Tavern, seedy tavern found by the western docks, most town guards drink here, the booze is cheap, and fights are rare.
*Town Chapel, this chapel is not dedicated to one single god, however most Good and Lawful Neutral dieties have an altar here.
*Graveyard
*Smithy and General store, Chillfern's general store has more alchemical stock than most others, primarily curative items, although there are usually several vials of Alchemist Fire in stock at any time.
Important Locations in Glacier-Falls
*Village Lodge, run by Harll "Three-Eyes" Davi'son, offers extremely cheap lodging in the village common room
*Chillfern Glacier Farm: Produces Chillfern Weed, a herb that only grows on extremely pure ice and may be mixed into a variety of useful medicinal substances.
*Queen's Gap: the only northern pass through the White Queen's Fangs, is only "safe" to traverse during Summer , recently a pack of Warg's has made their lair partway through the pass, and a bounty has been issued.
Other Notes: While Chillfern and Glacier-Falls are considered to be one settlement for the purposes of book-keeping there is a three-day journey between the two by foot. The path winds its way up the Chillfern Glacier Valley, the end result being a barely wagon wide road that is both circuitous and steep, with several well established rest-stops. This path is trecherous enough that most shipments of Chillfern Weed from Glacier-Falls are simply packed into Ironwood Barrels, and shipped downriver to Chillfern. While most bandits aren't suicidal enough to risk that constant cold for such slim pickings, wolves and other creatures aren't so picky.
To the South there are several old ruins nestled in the Drake Foothills that serve as the homes of Kobold clans, Goblin tribes, and a much hated Gnoll Slaver Pack that has escaped every attempt by the Town guard to drive them from their caves.
And now to the next bit, this one's a villain I designed to go up against PC's who are specifically collecting magical items.
The idea came from probably my favourite character to play, and the one who hurt me the most when he died, Gulag the Kobold Pistolero. Gulag had an interest in collecting old weapon blueprints and building the weapons there. Whether they were technical, magical, or just odd, it didn't really matter, he just liked building things, being snarky, and saving the day.
Anyways, the DM for that campaign came to all the player's and asked them to give him a private quest for each character to follow for the chunk of the campaign that was to follow, and I gave him the 7 Shard of the Flamelash, an ancient longsword from a dead civilization that was said to be as fluid fire when it was swung. (the item was a 3rd party artefact sword, +2 Flaming Longsword that had a reach of upto 15ft)
So Gulag was, outside of his own responsibilities, and the main campaign, always looking for weapon blueprints and he stumbled across an old legend detail this sword, how it was shattered, the pieces spread far and wide, yada-yada.
So, after Gulag and the entire party died because one asshole player was bored and saw nothing wrong with descrating an ancient tomb, comes Zenmar Sword-Stealer, drow assassin for hire, my attempt at this sort of quest from the villain's point of view.
Zenmar Sword-Stealer
Zenmar is something of a rarity in Drow culture, in that he's a male who wasn't subserviant to the strictly, and most times murderously, matriarchal society that the Drow adhere to.
Passed around from priestess to priestess in order to break him, before being given up as damaged goods, Zenmar eventually escaped after an acolyte got too careless and left a dagger by his hands while trying to break him, allowing him to murder her, steal the keys to his prison, and escape out through a cave river that flushed him into the wilderness.
from then on Zenmar lived life as a hunted man, paranoid that his previous slavers would find him, take him, and put him to tortures far greater than anything he'd every experienced before, so rather than sit and wait he started learning, judging, training, collecting, and stealing. Anything he could do to make himself safer.
Part of this was trying to find weapons, fully believing each and every legend he heard of blades that could make their weilders invulnerable, stronger than entire armies, capable of cleaving through castles, every single one.
Since then he's taken to funding his expeditions in chasing these tall tales by assassination and theft, his network wide enough that no rumour or myth in the kingdom can escape his paranoid notice.
Such a shame that players who weild big magical swords tend to attract obvious notice, isn't it?
Encounters
It's entirely up to you how you want to run Zenmar, is he a coward who only strikes in the middle of the night, killing a target before stealing their famous or not so famous weapons? Is he a pragmatist who likes to openly challenge his opponents to duels for the weapon in question, knowing that they will play by the rules, while he preps dirty deed after dirty deed? Does he send a gang of bandits, muggers, and thieves after the PC's to weaken them before he swaggers in and bullies them until he gents what he wants? Does he actually manage to steal the PC's actually legendary weapon, something they NEED to deal with the BBEG, and then run and hide as they try to get it back?
I ran him as an 9th level Slayer (one of Paizo's duel classes made by mixing the skills and abilities of a Ranger/Rogue), who would publically challenge opponents to fights for the weapon in question. Fights where he would hold a stark advantage, but never openly cheat. The fight would always be on a wide bridge (3x5 squares), with narrow sidings that the combatants could Errol Flynn their way around on. His main aim being to bait the PC to the edge, before disarming them, throwing their weapons into the river below, and demanding their surrender, or for more aggravating fighters, just trip them over the edge, and watch them wash away down the river while he collected the winnings.
Seems a bit weak for 10.000 gold, but I'll admit I'm not familiar with Pathfinder. Although I suppose in the right campaign setting that 'end bleed at will' thing could save your skin ten-times over alone.
Still, the idea of an evil, twisted belt that let you make a special unarmed attack a few times per day is very original, and a nice flavor of creepy that works well with the Evil thing. Nicely done.