Fellowship, Love Ties, and Blood Feuds

Art by Giorgio Baroni

FELLOWSHIP, LOVE TIES, AND BLOOD FEUDS

These variant rules for awarding and using inspiration can be implemented to further the bloody drama of The Liberation of Wormwood. When these rules are adopted, inspiration can be granted and used in the following ways:

BOND OF FELLOWSHIP

When a player character protects another player character or a friendly nonplayer character from harm, their player can declare that they have a bond of fellowship with that character. When a player character has a bond of fellowship, they can invoke that amity to gain inspiration when they act to defend the character they are bonded to or when they act to further that character’s interests. Inspiration can be invoked by calling on a bond of fellowship once per session.

LOVE TIE

A player can declare that their character is in love with another player character or a nonplayer character. If the attachment is between two player characters, it is a good idea to discuss this at the table to make sure everyone is comfortable with it. Keep in mind that this love is not necessarily reciprocated. When a player character has a love tie, they can invoke that intimacy to gain inspiration when they place their trust in the person they love or sacrifice themselves for the loved one’s benefit. Inspiration can be invoked by calling on a love tie once per session.

BLOOD FEUD

When a player character is harmed by a nonplayer character, their player can declare that they have a blood feud against that character. When a player character has a blood feud, they can invoke that vendetta to gain inspiration when they act to injure the object of their hate or to frustrate their goals. Inspiration can be invoked by calling on a blood feud once per session.

If you like the content above consider checking out The Liberation of Wormwood, a supplement for generating characters facing the invasion of their hometown by a usurping force, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.

The Value of What You Do is Your Call

Sentiments like the one to the right, which was the beginning of a contentious Twitter thread about how you should price your rpg work, are essentially well meaning--but I've begun to find them more and more hectoring in tone and frequency.

I agree with much of the underlying ideology at the root of these kind of posts: reaching a state of fair wages is a conversation we should be having, creative work in rpgs is undervalued, etc. (1). But what bothers me is the assumption than anyone has a right to tell me how I should price my work and the unspoken insistence that the primary way I should find value in what I do is economic in nature.

Part of the issue, for me, is that no matter how sympathetic I am to some of the stated goals of this kind of thinking is that it reduces the creative endeavor to its capitalist expression. If "I don't care about the money" is the wrong thing to say, than it must be important to care about money. If "I'm not looking to get rich" is an errant perspective, than looking to get rich must be the correct orientation toward creative work. 

This problem is pervasive in the language used to discuss the topic. Product. Strategy. Loss leader. The assumption is that to create is to engage in commerce. I can think of a lot of reasons to give stuff away for free, none of which have to do with a lack of self-respect or a sales strategy. 

Sometimes I give stuff away for free because I don't think of it as a "product." Sometimes I just want to share something without making a transaction out of it. Sometimes it means more to me that someone finds a use for the thing I made than me getting beer money out of it. Sometimes I want to pay it forward because of all the free stuff I've gotten use out of or enjoyed (2).

But don't take what I'm saying here as prescriptive. The best answer for you is the one you're happy with. I think you should charge as much (or as little, or nothing) for your creative work as you want. $200 deluxe hardcover, $10 handmade 'zine, $1 pdf, pay-what-you-want for a full game, or zero-cost "here's a Google Drive link," it's your choice.

Sometimes I give things away for free (every episode of my podcast, all the posts on this blog, and the occasional free pdf) and other times I set a price I'm comfortable with (the books and pdfs published under the Dolorous Exhumations imprint). I get to make that call because it's my work. I resent being told I should be ashamed to make that call.

The screencaps used in this post are not intended to harangue anyone for voicing their sentiments; the examples I've used here just outline the shape of what I'm addressing, and I've made them anonymous because I don't want this to be a "call out"(3). As I have said previously in this post, I think they're coming from a place of magnanimity and solicitude. But what I ask for is simple courtesy: please do not tell me how and why I should value what I do, and I'd appreciate it if you don't imply that what I do only has cogent meaning if I attach a dollar value to it. I appreciate your concern, and I acknowledge that your opinion is well intentioned, but you do you. 

Unless you're pushing that "Devaluation of creative work" line, of course--I totally get why people are dunking on that. That shit can take a hike, especially if you follow it up with some but you're harming the community rhetoric. I'm not putting my hand in your pocket and if you're taking the tack of shaming people into compliance, I'm pretty sure we do not share a community in common (4).

NOTES
(1) - Something I never (conveniently, perhaps) see: any indie game designers note that they pay their playtesters a living wage.
(2) - In fact, much of what I've done creatively wouldn't have been possible save for the generosity of people making free software available. Makers of open source software like LibreOffice, I salute you.
(3) All of the screencaps come from public, non-locked accounts, however, so I'm not putting anyone on blast here. For the record, the four posts I capped came from three separate Twitter accounts.
(4) - I have strong doubts that anyone who has ever played the what about the community? card on me reads my blog, has promoted my creative work, or purchased anything I've made. No one is obligated to, obviously, but it's rich to claim that we're bound by some notion of communal standards of support that clearly aren't reciprocal.

A Drug-Fueled Ship Sailing the Silver Sea

(continuing the adventure that started here and then continued here.)

Setting & System: Cinderheim, 5e D&D

Characters: Warleader Kro (human barbarian), Sylvester Tremaine (human mystic), Blatherskite (kenku fighter), Lilai (human cleric)

Events: A lot of time has lapsed since this part of the adventure was played; I'm going on hazy memories here, but this is what I remember happening:

Lilai took an instant dislike to Petros. She sidled up to him casually, then kicked his barbed staff across the room and brought her maul down on him.The group's combined efforts took him out swiftly. That wet degenerate never had a chance.

While exploring further, the party found a kitchen in which robed skeletons were mechanically chopping vegetables and adding them to a simmering stew pot. Warleader Kro ate the stew to no ill effects, although he has now unwittingly committed cannibalism.

In the back of the larder, the group discovered another member of Kro and Sylvester's mercenary band hanging by meat hooks that pierced his ankles. The body appeared to have been drained of blood. Sylvester and Lilai tried to get him down but the body began to shudder and convulse as it came to unlife and attacked. The skeletons from the kitchen joined the fray, but a well-timed turn undead stemmed the tide.

The search for intoxicants with which to fuel the vessel they discovered in the prior session continued. The smell of opium greeted the party as they discovered another young dancer blissed out of her mind in her bedroom. They took her stash, and Kro slung her over his shoulder.

However, Lilai felt that they had unfinished business with Navara. Navara felt the same way; she was waiting for them in one of the central tower chambers. Since they were unwilling to do her bidding, combat witht he group was inevitable. Navara's limbs turned into hideous flesh-whips tipped with demonic barbs. Blatherskite was nearly felled when one of those barbs caught him and sent poison coursing through his body. Lilai was also pierced by one of the barbs, but instead of being poisoned she was cursed. She now bears a demonic mark upon her skin that she is not best pleased by. And yet, Navara was ultimately no match for the party that opposed her.

Returning to the vessel, the group fed opium into the ship's "control maw." Acrid smoke filled the interior of the vessel, which sighed contentedly. Then, suddenly, the ship was no longer in the stone chamber in which it was discovered; it was now sailing a silver sea.
After a few hours, the vessel exited the silver sea and appeared in a cavern. A passage was carved in the rock, and a number of rope ladders run down from apertures in the cave's ceiling where the light of the demon sun streamed into the chamber.

The characters climbed the rope ladders to get some idea of where they were. At the top, all they could see was sand and desert stretching as far as the eye could see. However, they also realized that the "cave" below was the interior of a great statue. The apertures they had ascended through were the statue's eyes and nostrils. The rest of the statue's body was buried in an enormous sand dune.

They descended into the cave to explore and were greeted with a horrific smell that was like a combination of spoiled milk and rotting rice. They surprised the source of the stench as they stumbled into a den of troglodytes who fled at their approach. Sylvester's attempts to communicate psionically were no use; the trogs ran for it and attempted to steal away with their treasury (but only secured about half) before collapsing a passage behind them in a rain of rubble.

Currently, the characters are regrouping within the "cave system" with other passages yet to be glimpsed.

Wet Degenerates

WET DEGENERATES
(continuing the adventure that started here.)

Setting & System: Cinderheim, 5e D&D

Characters: Warleader Kro (human barbarian), Sylvester Tremaine (human mystic), Blatherskite (kenku fighter), Lilai (human cleric)

Events
Warleader Cro came down from his rage to find himself surrounded by the remains of ten crawling claws, two mysterious corpses face-down in from of a giant misty mirror, the corpse of his compatriot Aeran, and the unconscious body of Sylvester. Cro entered the mirror to investigate the mollusk-like shape that could be seen beyond the dark glass. Sylvester regained consciousness and turned over the mysterious corpses--which turned out to be the bodies of mind flayers.

The mollusk-shape turned out to be a strange vessel held within a smooth, featureless chamber. Inside, Cro found six storage tubes--two of which contained humanoids in suspended animation. Palming the orange hemisphere on the wall next to the tubes released the two captives, thereby adding Blatherskite and Lilai to the party. 

Further exploration revealed that the mollusk vessel's head was a kind of cockpit. When Cro affixed the oddly shaped helmet he had acquired preciously to a disquieting umbilical cord-like cable the vessel addressed him as "the Voidnaut." When he asked the ship to take him somewhere "bad-ass" it replied that it required INTOXICANTS to continue its journey. A maw-like compartment on the vessel's console was fed the last of Aeran's stash, but it wasn't enough to sate its ravenous needs.

And so the party set off to explore more of the tower in hopes of finding INTOXICANTS. A dormitory with beds arranged barracks-style was found and the beds therein were duly despoiled. The wardrobes in this room only contained dance costumes. Cro kicked in a door, sending it ricocheting off a coffin in the next room. This windowless chamber contained six coffins standing on wrought iron biers. Suspecting vampires, the party decided to experiment. Lilai and Cro dragged one coffin into the dormitory, broke one of the room's window to let in more light, and then wrenched the coffin lid open so that the sunlight would fall on whatever was inside. The coffin contained only a thing layer of soil at its bottom.

After this, each coffin was dragged into the dormitory to be forcibly ejected through the window onto the ground below. All six coffins were tossed out, resulting in a pile of broken dark wood and soil three stories down at the foot of the tower.

Moving on, a room full of weapons was discovered. Cro looted a blunt greatsword and a cestus, Sylvester took a barbed whip, and somebody else took a chakram. They also found the first black chamber, which featured a four-poster bed, a wardrobe, and a vanity with a smashed mirror. Lilai looted several bags of coin from the wardrobe and noted that it contained both dance costumes and black dresses. In an adjoining chamber they group found a hot kettle full of tea waiting for them, along with four bone china cups. A lantern hung above the small table in this room, sending rays of multicolored light throughout the chamber. Previous experience with the crystal peacock statue had alerted them to the fact that the colorful light had some sort of magical property; however, when Warleader Cro attempted to wrap the lantern in a blanket to stifle its effects it caused his body to be suddenly covered with a thick pelt of fur.

Returning to the bedroom, they were met by a damp, dark-haired woman wearing a robe who was unperturbed by their presence in her rooms. She introduced herself as Navara. While sealing her despoiled bed back together with magic, she explained that the Cro and Sylvester's approach of the tower (and the parties exploration throughout) had been monitored. When questioned about their dead compatriot at the tower's entrance, she said that he had refused the offer of employment that had been made to him...and that it was expected that since they had taken the money in her wardrobe she assumed the group was prepared to take up the task. What she wanted the party to do was travel to a nearby village and take note of how many children lived there...so that the Academy's would have an idea of how many potential "recruits" might be living there.

The group neither agreed nor refused her offer, but she nonchalantly told them to explore the tower further, if they desired, and to find her again when they had an answer.

And so they explored further. Opening the door decorated with a danse macabre plaque unveiled a dance studio, its walls and ceilings covered with mirrors and its perimeter ablaze with lit candles. Music suddenly flooded from the room; robed skeletal figures played a harp and kettle drums to provide music for the woman in a red costume who practiced the unnerving, brutal, rhythmical movements movements of an occult dance. As she danced, the woman made eye contact with the group--seemingly pleased to have an audience.

Lilai, however, was not pleased. Unwilling to speak further with the maniac inhabitants of the tower, she cast sacred flame on the dancer. The divine radiance hit the dancer but did not break her stride; she summoned a bladed chain that she swung while she continued her dance. The skeletons ceased their music--although arch-mimic Blatherskite picked up the tune--and joined the fray. 

The dancer proved hard to pin-down; she easily avoided the first few attacks sent her way and wheeled away from her foes without exposing herself to injury. A strike with her bladed chain nearly took out Lilai in one swipe. The skeletons also endangered Blatherskite as they raked at him with their claws, but he stayed focused on sending arrows at the dancer. Cro's newly acquired cestus smashed through the skeletons' brittle bodies. A well-placed arrow from Blatherskite caused the dancer to stumble out of rhythm, and Sylvester finished her off with a mental assault. The skeletons were dealt with by Blatherskite's rapier and Cro's encased fist.

As Cro beheaded the dancer's corpse, applause could be heard coming from a blonde man standing in a doorway. Like Navara, he was noticeably damp. He introduced himself as Petros and explained that he was happy that they had slain his rival--she was a better dancer, he said, and with her out of the way maybe he would be accepted at the Academy.

Is Petros destined to help or hinder the party? We'll find out as the adventure continues.

The Tower That Should Not Be

THE TOWER THAT SHOULD NOT BE

Setting & System: Cinderheim, 5e D&D

Characters: Warleader Kro (human barbarian), Aeran (high elf wizard), Sylvester Tremaine (human mystic)

Events
Kro, Aeran, and Sylvester had all been part of the Blackspear Company, a band of mercenaries fighting under the demon sun of Cinderheim. Their Company's last engagement ended with the mercenaries of their band being routed; they became separated from the rest of the Company during the retreat when a vicious sandstorm arose. They wandered the desert, depleting their food and water, until they crested a stony ridge and saw something that should not exist in the desert: a lone tower of gray stone surrounded by a forest of pine trees.

The group followed a path through the pine forest that brought them to the base of the tower. A man, whom they recognized as Margos--a medic of the Blackspear Company, had been impaled on a stake set into the ground to the side of the tower's wooden doors.

Eschewing tradition means of ingress, Kro climbed up the tower's wall bare-handed, smashed a stained glass window with his greatsword, and hauled his two compatriots up into the tower with a rope provided by Sylvester. They found themselves in a circular chamber with spiral stairs going down and four doors, each decorated with an engraved metal plaque that hinted at what lay beyond: a lit candle, two skeletons dancing, a eye surrounded by runes, and a worm ouroboros.

Later, when more doors were found on the second floor of the tower, they were similarly marked with a peacock, a half-closed eye, a tree with long roots, and another worm ouroboros.

The first order of business was descending the stairs which led them to a landing where four sections of the wall had bars set into the stone to form makeshift prison cells. A torch was lit and thrown into one of the cells, revealing a horrific prisoner: a young woman named Marceline whose body had been twisted and malformed. Conversation with her uncovered a few important facts: she was imprisoned for "failing" to learn the steps of a "dance" as a student of the Academy; her broken body and prolonged life were punishments for her failure; the well on the next level down contained pure water; the tower was inhabited by more students, a mistress named Svasta, and the whole enterprise was likely related to a demon cult who used dance to seal the pact with their patron.

The party offered Marceline the sweet release of death as she pressed her throat to the bars of her cell. Kro and Aeran dispatched her; Sylvester anointed her body with holy water and gave her the last rites.

The supposition that the tower is home to a cult that connects dance with the arcane was born out by further exploration: a library of dance manuals was found, and beyond that lay a library of occult histories and magical theory. An alchemy laboratory was located and the finished preparations therein were duly pilfered.

The party encountered a few things they were not yet prepared to deal with further: a profane chapel dedicated a being symbolized by a twelve-foot statue of a bloated man with the head of a rotting goat, a prism-like crystal statue of a peacock that sent strange rays of light cascading throughout the room, and a pool of mercury-like fluid that captured and distorted Aeran's image when he gazed into it--the image began to change into the visage of someone else, who called to them from the pool, but the adventurers left the chamber without interacting with them. They do know that the voice belongs to the sister of the the tower's mistress.

Another strange discovery within the tower was a greenhouse filled with fruit trees, flowers, and mossy soil in place of a stone floor. At the end of the greenhouse chamber was a door that opened up into a dark room containing an uncanny helm sitting on a small table, two robed corpses with gray skin lying face-down, and a huge "mirror" that did not reflect an image--instead, within its murky confines the shape of a nautilus could be seen.

Kro put his hand into the mirror--it was cold beyond the confines of the "glass," but his hand did not come away wet. He also put on the unwieldy helm. But before further experimentation could be attempted, the group was set upon by ten dismembered hands that had crawled up out of the greenhouse's soil bed!

A furious battle ensued. Sylvester climbed onto the table to protect himself, Kro charged the horde of claws, and Aeran destroyed five of the claws with a well-placed (and literally true) burning hands spell. And then things took a turn against the adventurers. Sylvester was taken down by the claws' leaping slashes, then Aeran fell to them after destroying another with a fire bolt, and Kro was forced to invoke the name of Crom and fly into a rage to protect himself from the deadly assault. Kro managed to dispatch the remaining claws, but it was too late for Aeran--the high elf had bled out among the two other corpses that previously fallen before the dark mirror.

The game ended with Kro badly injured and Sylvester unconscious but stable. How will our heroes safeguard themselves in the meantime and what will they do next in...The Tower That Should Not Be???

Cinderheim on Land Between Two Rivers

So here's a cool thing that happened: Jim Davis, DM of the Land Between Two Rivers used material from my Cinderheim setting in his streamed campaign! Needless to say, I find that super flattering and I got a real kick out of seeing Hamada the Reaver and Niu Bo Wei in someone else's game. 

My stuff shows up at about the 36 minute mark and I get a nice shout-out at 2:31 in the Youtube video embedded above.

Of course, if you'd like to get up to similar shenanigans with Cinderheim, it's currently available here in both pdf and print.

Bring Me the Heads of the Seven Jade Disciples

Campaign: Cinderheim, the Land Under the Demon Sun

Characters: Ka-Seti Blackhand, aasimar paladin; Shaasha, half-orc paladin; Tanni, human druid; Kyzzak Sloogh, lizardfolk sorcerer; Meatpie, tiefling monk.

The party had tracked the Seven Jade Disciples, a gang of raiders and desperadoes, to the mining town of Salamara. The party's motivation--REVENGE! Each of them were seeking vengeance for someone killed by the Seven Jade Disciples. Sweetening the deal, the warlord Lesedi Gheda had placed a bounty on the heads of the Disciples, payable in gold.

The first of the Disciples to die was Fareed, who was caught otherwise occupied with a prostitute in a brothel and didn't see the attack coming. For the rest of the melee, he fought stark naked. His lackeys entered the fray too late to save him; they were slain as well. Three down, four to go.

An impromptu game of demon chess with an old miner in the town alerted the party that the many of the miners in Salamara had been part of a warband led by Fareed and his brother Samir, so the village was largely loyal to the Seven Jade Disciples.

As the group prepared to find and kill Hassiba, the Seven Jade Disciples' sharpshooter, they were interrupted by the arrival of Phineas Sharpe on his giant lizard steed. Sharpe attempted to get the group to clear off, claiming to represent "the law" in the desert. 

When the group wouldn't be dissuaded from their vengeful purpose, Sharpe offered to join forces with them and split the bounties fifty-fifty: half for him, half for the other five to divide among themselves. Surprisingly, the group agreed--but they were also using magic to secretly communicate among themselves and agreed to kill Sharpe when the job was done.

As they began to plan out how to take down Hassiba, Sharpe immediately proved his worth by taking a bolt to the back from the Disciples' sharpshooter. The group wouldn't have to worry about splitting their take or murdering the bounty hunter after all. Sharpe's corpse, however, did make for an effective shield. What followed was a dangerous fight (involving crossbow fire, hurled javelins, magical flame, martial arts, and heavy bludgeons) in which three members of the party were momentarily taken out--but they were ultimately victorious. Six down, one to go.

Just before the fatal blow fell on Hassiba, she looked to the strangely verdant hill in the distance and smiled. Using Sharpe's spyglass (he certainly didn't need it anymore), the party could see the last of the Seven Jade Disciples, Samir, atop the hill--seemingly conducting some sort of ritual. The group raced to meet him and conclude their vendetta.

As they neared him, his ritual was completed: he animated two of the corpses buried on the hill as zombies. Samir fell back, leaving the group to deal with his summoned undead. Tanni attempted to use Sharpe's giant lizard mount as a beast of war, but the unruly creature proved difficult to control. The zombies were dealt with, as was Samir--who had his wand slapped from his hand before he was killed and decapitated.

The Seven Jade Disciples had fallen; blood paid for blood.

REWARDS:
XP - 165.

Bounties on 7 Jade Disciples - 170 gp for each member of the party
Looted coin - 400 cp, 28 sp, 16 gp, 4 ep, 1 pp for each member of the party.
Gems - 1 gem worth 25 gp for each member of the party.
Magic items - Handy haversack, scroll of mage hand, scroll of mending.
Misc. items - Giant lizard mount, rifle (20 shots), pistol (20 shots), spyglass.

The First Adventure of a New Campaign is a One-Shot If Everyone Dies

Campaign: Cinderheim: The Land Under the Demon Sun (5e D&D, G+ Hangouts)

Characters: Thrank, lizardfolk druid; Mirk, lizardfolk ranger; Wolf Ctibor, human barbarian.

Events: Thrank, Mirk, and Wolf were hired by a mysterious trader to steal a phoenix-emblazoned vase from a petty crime lord ruling over a small oasis village. They pulled off the theft successfully, but were pursued across the demon-haunted desert of Cinderheim by the crime lord's minions. As the minions closed on them, a sandstorm began blowing in from the east. When all looked lost, they noticed a strange edifice half obscured by a massive dune: the building's front was carved into the semblance of a devil, the entrance its yawning maw.

Inside, they discovered a number of ominous statues--horned, animal-headed, skull-visaged, defaced--and an old stone altar stained with blood. Thrank thought he might have made a grave mistake when he threw a magic stone and shattered one of two-dozen terracotta statues flanking a blasphemous idol, but the rest did not animate and attack as he feared. However, while exploring they were accosted by three goblins who were part of the crime lord's death squad. The goblins were dispatched, and there was talk of stowing their bodies behind a gigantic, demonic statue.

A number of rooms filled with stone sarcophagi were uncovered next. Disturbing a sarcophagus awoke an undead servitor cursed to spend eternity protecting the profane dead--the thing was red of eye and loped toward the party with an unnatural, animal-like gait. The thing charged at Mirk, and cast a curse on him with an outstretched, crooked finger. When the creature swiped at Mirk, it landed a horrifically damaging blow that took him down instantly. Wolf and Thrank managed to kill the thing, then patched up Mirk's wounds, barricaded the doors to the chamber using sarcophagi, and took an hour to recuperate.

A round of further exploration brought them to a chamber that housed a funeral barge. Setting foot on it summoned an unseen specter that spoke with a voice clothed in the desert wind. The spirit told them several interesting things:

• He was the high priest of the Demon Queen to whom this temple was dedicated, but now she slumbered powerless beneath the sands of Cinderheim.
• Three other agents of the crime lord were now within the temple complex, plotting to kill the party and retrieve the vase.
• The specter was ambivalent about how this situation resolved, but was enjoying having something to observe after all these years bound to the temple.

The party hatched a plan to draw the attention of their pursuers and then launch a sarcophagus down the stairs as they came up to investigate. Initially, the plan went well. The beastmaster's two giant lizards were smashed back down the stairs, and one was badly injured. The party descended one set of stairs while the two sharpshooters ascended the another to flush them out. The beastmaster and his pet were dispatched, but the two archers--twins, no less--returned fire from the stairs. 

One of the brothers was slain, but then things turned for the party. Thrank fell first, then Wolf, then finally Mirk. The lone brother remained alive; he took possession of the vase--would he return it to his employer, the crime lord, or would he find demonic inspiration within the Temple of Suffering as he waited for the sandstorm to end? In Cinderheim, only the darkness knows the answers to such questions of fate.