A Useful concoction

A preventative elixir 

Designed for the Company of Fools game but of wider use I would think

 

This is a mundane potion prepared by the herbalists’ at large temples of the Caregiver such as the Great Hospital in Vayham. These herbalists, who are mostly ether junior priests of the care giver or anointed experts produce the potion in some quantity as it is useful in their work and can be made from relatively common herbs. There are reputed to be more powerful versions made with more exotic ingredients or ones which are specific rather than general.  Beyond the cult of the care giver similar potions are made in many places as making of them is not uncommon knowledge to the wider community of herbalists beyond those associated with the caregivers cult. It should be noted that independent herbalists who make these potions attract the special ire of the servants of the rot lord and being outside the protection of the care givers cult they are especially vulnerable.

It can be used as a preventative, and is often taken by Care givers working with infected patients to protect them selves, and as a treatment thought it is not that good a treatment and only works to aid at the point of crisis of the disease but it will work for all diseases.

As a preventative it adds +1d6 to the takers disease resistance for at least twelve hours after consumption, with the die being rolled individually for each potential infection. As a curative the potion ads +1 to any one roll made to determine the result of the crisis point of a disease. The potion tends to be dispensed freely as needed by the followers of the Caregiver but where it is for sale it would cost 10-20 silver per dose  and a dose is a sixth of a pint in a sturdy stone ware flask sealed with wax.. Multiple doses dont stack but may cause some transitory nausea,

As a campaign note it was used to dose all the party entering the Rot Lords temple under Vayham with the intent to exterminate the cult and destroy its foul works and was given free as it was to do the Caregivers work. 

A new disease

Weeping Visage

Communicability: 5

Severity: 4

Where is the disease found

This seems to be a variant of the common animal disease of mange which can be passed on to humanoids, in animals it presents as mange with inflamed flesh and loss of fur or hair in patches the main difference between it and Mange is that the skin weeps a serous fluid in advanced cases and it is contact with this which causes it to spread.

In Humans Demihumans and Humanoids it causes what looks like very severe weeping eczema particularly on the face throat and chest and the backs of the hands and fore arms. It will like mange cause hair loss in races which are typically bearded such as dwarves and it is viewed as a form of leprosy by them and sufferers are often exiled.
 

Minor effect:

For a period of 1d6p weeks the victim’s appearance is reduced by 1d6 points as they have skin in the effected areas which looks like raw liver and seeps fluid continually and is often crusted with scabs. The disease then reaches a peak after which the victim slowly recovers generally taking about as long as the original course of the disease to clear up and the victim may be pocked especially if the duration roll penetrated

Major effect:

The disease becomes chronic and will not heal without the application of magic or if the victim is lucky medicine and the appearance loss becomes permanent until so healed.  It is also likely that the victim will be treated as a leper by their community even thought the diseases are not at all connected.

Some one elses EVIL GM Idea

What Will They Do With Us?

So the party's been pursued, run down, overcome and captured.  Now what?  This is no time to go soft on them.  What good are the Star Queen's brutal gnoll mercenaries if they go soft on their captives and allow them to reach the Place of Bright Stones?

What Will They Do With Us? (d6)

1. Kill us all
2. Eat us one by one
3. Make slaves of us
4. Mutilate us, take our stuff and let us go
5. Drag us before their leader to answer for our trespasses
6. Parlay to find out what the misunderstanding was

Brutal enemies roll twice, taking the lower result. Merciful enemies roll twice, taking the higher result.

When? (d4)

1. Immediately
2. After they catch their breath
3. After a brief confinement
4. After an eternity of confinement

Rash captors roll twice, taking the lesser result. Contemplative captors roll twice, taking the higher result.

Capricious captors invariably change their minds given enough time. Re-roll on the first table (ignore Brutal and Merciful effects). Maybe they eat three of you and merely rob the rest.

Confinement might mean being tied up near the fire, sat on, impaled through the hand on something tall and sharp, tossed in a hastily dug pit (which they made us dig), or rotting in an actual prison.

Posted by Michael Prescott on the I'll See It When I Believe It blog 

I may give it a run out so be very careful folks 

Nasty stuff from the northlands

Artefacts recovered from the wastes 

Descriptions 

These weapons are largely named for the noise they make when discharged all are very simple to use once mastered and fire horrendously fast compared with just about every other weapon in the game. Most are ranged and are largely assumed to be magic of an unknown type.  They also have the capacity to utterly terrify even the boldest Kethian tribes man on sight and are taboo with them to a level that worked even conventional worked metal is not.The names given are either descriptive or in some way onomatopoeic based on  the sound it makes when discharged.

It is also important to note that whilst these may all appear to be in some way enchanted and analogous to the wands arcane spell casters make on occasion none of them  detect as in any way magical appearing entirely mundane in all such divinations, they are also to all intents and purposes indestructible in normal use much as a +5 piece of equipment is.

BzzCrack

resembles a for shortened and rather stubby cross bow without a span  made of some entirely of some light weight metal it is feature less externally except for an arrow shaft diameter hole in the face where the span  on the cross bow if it where a cross bow would be attached. This goes about three inches into it and then stops. If is can be discharged and not all of them can it as many are either inert when found or become so after a few discharges. This seems to require a steady pressure on the place where a cross bow trigger would be ant the taking up of a shooting stance, there is no trigger and it active the device discharges with a soft buzz  then a load crack. what it discharges is unclear as it is in most conditions invisible thought after several discharges the area of the hole becomes warm and some have reported that it shows as a ray of light would in a dusty or smoky environment. Whatever it is seems to burn its target and largely ignores any sort of armour beyond burning or melting  a neat hole in it of similar dimensions to that of the hole in the span end of the item. One thing is certain its discharge has a devastating effect on flesh appearing to leave deeply burned locally to the strike and almost cooked beyond that. There are some reports of lightning arcing all over metal armour but those few sages who have heard of these things and Kethian folk lore discount this. There seems to be no way of reloading the thing or of telling how many times it can be discharged before becoming inert. 

Distance (ft) Attack Die
5 - 80 d20p
81 - 140  d20p-4
141 - 190 d20p-6
191 - 250 d20p-8
250+         d20p-10

These might seem low but the item has no way of sighting it except looking along its length as is as such no more accurate than a crossbow.

GM note when found the item has 2d6p charges but don't tell the player.

Fzattt
a much shorter and in parts slimmer item resembling in many ways a stubby wand with a slight asymmetric kink in unlike the former it is not clear where the thing discharges from and some have reported discharging it at themselves as a result. fortunately the effects of the discharge are non lethal but do cause the target to become slowed or even stunned. As before the discharge is not visible though some with  low light vision report a faint bluish flash in complete darkness as the discharge strikes its target.

The mechanical effect is to attempt to force a ToP check with the discharge causing 2d10p points of virtual damage for this purpose.the effect on the target depends on the result of the check.

Mechanically any hit add a +1 to the speed of any action in progress and may cause spell mishaps other than that the normal rule for trauma apply except that the strike is not particularly painful having a numbing effect. Multiple hits stack and can cause fatal results on rare occasions but most just increase the time to recover

Distance (ft) Attack Die
5 - 30 d20p
31 - 50 d20p-4
51 - 70 d20p-6
71 - 100 d20p-8
100+       d20p-10

Spitter 
Of all the Artefact weapons  one is the most compensable in that it seems to shoot a projectile of very hot and possibly initially molten metal. That said the source of the metal it shoots and the method by which it shoots it are just as impenetrable as the other ones

Distance (ft) Attack Die
0 - 5  automatically its every one in the radius of  5' with a shower of hot metal droplets including the user armour does not protect and every one takes 1d4p 1 point wounds

5 - 30 d20p damage 2d6p+2d4p Dr of heavy metallic armour is doubled but the target also takes 1d4p 1 point wounds as above
31 - 50 d20p-4 damage 2d6p+1d4p
51 - 70 d20p-6 damage 1d6pp+1d4p  
71 - 100 d20p-8 damage1d6p

Combined  weapons table

Weapon Name	Strength Required	Skill Level	Damage	Shield Damage	Rate of fire	Weapon Size	Max range	Damage type
BzzCrack Fzattt Spitter	8 5 5	low low low	4d10 Special Special	2 nil 1d6p	3s 5s 5s	medium small small	500 120 100	E E P

The centre of Vaham a work in progress

The Market area 

This is the start any way of the promised additional urban map set. I am doing it in the same style as the previous ones of Vayham and on an A3 canvas as they where I am however not doing every thing entirely freehand as I did before, as I have picked up a few more tricks I can use with GIMP since then and this is speeding matters up quite a bit. Even so compared with the rural maps its still slow which is why I am posting what I will admit its an early work in progress. 

More will follow but I also have work to do an will be running a game tomorrow night on Roll20

A bit more progress is made  and the yellow area is the Temple of the Coin lord ant the in  next door I am still debating where to put the market administration building where Quiril used to work before he got sacked for revealing the coin lords smuggling tunnels. The Guild hall also needs to be located on the square as well.

More evocative images of the North lands

Rare herd of game grazing by a melt lake

Northern wastes in summer looking north

None of these are mine just mined off the internet with an image search but intended to give the players in against the Robots a feel for the environment 

Scenes form the north

Hight Mountains

Wastes in winter

the Grinding ice

all curtsey of deviant art

The Mountains of the Giants

in the farthest north before the sea of grinding ice there are great mountains  mountains from whence came the giants and their half giant warrior slaves a generation ago and where the defeated and disunited giants still lurk. No doubt plotting revenge on them as laid them low in the south lands.

Its a rat the size of a Shetland Pony!!

Aeltreds Rat 

Its final form well one I am happy with all done with GIMP as a image manipulation of an existing clip art image of a rat  I found lying about on the internet some time ago and I cant quite remember where form.

Mean while in the Market square of Vayham (part II)

The Demon unleashed its ululating cry again as it and the Half Ork clashed, which would have surprised the on lookers had there been any for fear of the demon had made all else flee or cringe in cover praying to the very gods that it not notice them. The Ork let out its on battle cry "for the True" as its axe and the demons massive sword began a deadly dance. In the living quarters of the temple of the True and the Temple of the Founder inside the keep their respective priests and knights where roused from their sleep by terrified guards in the Manor the Count called for his squire. The demon did not notice the girl sneaking up on it from behind her short swords blade glittering dully in the dying light of the fountain of flame.

Fawlit dodged the heavy sword for all he was worth but even so it the tip caught him and tore his golden yellow surcoat and struck sparks from his new scale armour. However he noticed the demon could not fight it swung its sword in wild arcs and quite predictable sweeps like a farmer reaping wheat or scything down long grass not like a warrior it also seemed to give little thought to its own protection. Fawlit watched and toyed with it giving ground and moving seeming to give way to the creature biding his time as it hewed at him before spinning his great axe “questions will be axed” in to an opening the beast left smashing the heavy axe into its knee with a force that would have take the leg off a lesser creature. Black stinking ichor exploded from the wound but the creature took it resolutely as if it was a mere tap and essayed a reply but being unable to brig its great blade to bear it lashed out with its great clawed foot. The move caught Fawlit who was moving to a second swing himself a bit by surprise but even so most to the not inconsiderable force of the blow was taken on his axes shaft even so it sent him sprawling back towards the gate way a good ten feet and winded him even if he did have the presence of mind to hang on to the axe. The demon let out its war cry again and raising its sword above its head followed up to finish the prone Half Ork. Inside the keep all those who heard cringed deeper in their hiding places and prayed all the harder.

Then Nyasse struck with a balletic leap she threw herself at the creature sword forward in a movement more suited to the climax of a Basirian sword dance than a fight, but the blade struck home in the small of the foul things back and cut a deep wound which caused it to cry out in pain and its stroke at Fawlit missed striking sparks off the stones of the market square instead. Nyasse completed the move with a back flip. The creature turned looking for its new assailant as the girl landed and Fawlit recovered and got back to his feet.

It took a swing at Nyasse who was perhaps a bit too elated at her beginners luck to pay attention to defending herself catching her unarmoured left arm  and cleaving it to the bone. For a moment the young dancers vision greyed and she thought she was going to faint. So did the demon who let out an exultant cry and prepared to strike his hapless and soon to be helpless foe. Fawlit struck smashing “questions will be axed” into the demons unarmoured thigh, he had been aiming for the already wounded knee but the stroke went high. Once again the stroke did remarkably little damage for all it was delivered with full force and would have felled an ox. Nyasse vision cleared and despite the pain she forward rolled in under the demons swing driving her sword into the malformed muscle of its calf the sword went right through and Nyasse tore it out not that she had quite intended to but she had rolled on her gashed arm and this time the pain was too much for the girl. Fawlit laughed a strange and rather inappropriate laugh. He could see his death and it did not scare him because he knew that he would be as welcome as any in the afterlife of the true. He caught the demons uneven glowing eyes and the demon saw its own end in the Orks an end to millennia of slaughtering the defenceless and innocent of a myriad worlds an end to every thing to oblivion for no after life awaits demons and it decided it had had enough, it was gone in an instant

To be Continued.......

The Demon in the Square

The Demon of the Sword - Vaesehanesresics (that which delights in the slaughter of the
unresisting and  the terrified)

Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Initiative: -2
Speed: 9
Reach:+2 feet ( 8 feet with sword)
Attack: +8
Damage: 2d12p + 5 Sword
2d3p + 5 with claws on hands or feet or 3d3p+ 5 bite
Special Attack:  Demonic battle cry (same as Grell war cry) Sweep attack can strike all in a 180 degree ark on an aggressive attack ,and causes +1d3p damage to helpless targets.
Weakness: takes +5 damage form good aligned items and +5 damage from lawful ones the effects are cumulative and may be turned as undead.by any good or lawful priest regardless of them having the ability to turn undead
Defence: +2
Special Defence: Teleports if on half damage or more less instantly (takes one second) but can only do this once per day
Damage Reduction: 12 - 4 weapons of legend
Hit Points: 30+4d8
ToP Save: n/a
Will Factor: 10
Size: large
Move: 15 feet/second at a walk and can Teloport at will over long distances as many times as it likes in a day but the ritual to do so takes 3d6p minutes during which it is unable to defend itself without aborting the process and beginning again the maxumum range on such a teleport is eight days march
EPV: 1200 (Nb never counts as half for there only being one opponent as its well able to deal with multiple foes)

Notable skills  Intimidate 50 torture 30

Description

This demon or may be type of demon for they are commonly found during the initial phases of any abyssal invasion and this may indicate that there are some numbers of the foul things. However given its ability to teleport freely over long distances and that in every reported case only one has been encountered at a time may mean that is is indeed a unique monster.

This demon ranges ahead of the abyssal horde and is drawn to accumulations of unarmed or poorly armed largely non-combatants who it delights in terrifying with its abyssal war cry and then slaughtering wholes sale. Unlike many demons it is not one for property damage for its own sake however it will do so to further terrify its victims and to get to those who might be hiding in buildings etc.

As a demon it does not need to eat however it will often consume victims messily in order to further terrify its other victims

General Info

Activity cycle - none preferred appears not to need sleep
No Appearing - only ever one
In Lair - never
Frequency - Very rare as it only occurs in the proximity of an abyssal break through usually within 1-3 teleprts distance or a similar distance ahead of  an abyssal army
Alignment - Chaotic Evil
Vision - Dark vision to 180 feet
Awareness senses - +20 on listening or observation rolls & can automatically detect any thing cosmicly good or lawful within its range of vision and more common good or lawful within thirty feet.
Habitat - any
Diet - only eats for effect mostly to enhance its intimidating effect on its victims may subsist of the emotions of its soon to be victims
Organization - Solitary
Climate terrain - any 

Yield

Medical - none
Spell components - none but any demonic blood can be used to enhance harm spells cast by chaotic evil priests by 1d3p points per ounce killing this demon would give 2d4p ounces of such blood but there are easier sources
Hide trophy  - demonic material decays far to fast to be preserved without magic
Edible - yes but like all demons no good will flow form eating their flesh however quite what ill flows form eating the flesh of this one is no where reported
Treasure -  none but a +3 magical two handed sword of unusual size may be recovered but this is probably of  no use except as a trophy and is almost certainly cursed
Other - Nil
Experience point Value  1200 (Nb never counts as half for there only being one opponent as its well able to deal with multiple foes)

Mean while in the Market square of Vayham (part I)

another drama unfolds.

Just as the market was setting up for the day in the great market square of the town, not that it was going to be all that great a market considering the town had been under close siege for three weeks now and things to sell, especially food, where getting increasingly scarce and what there was to be had increasingly expensive as they became scarcer. There was always something to be had that was needed and the social function of the market had not subsided and there was always time for a moan about the town situation or same tale to tell about that nights fighting. Thought the chief topic this morning was that the Acolytes of the Great Hospital had cordoned off the shambles in the Newtown on account of some vile plague having broken out there and that a great crowd of acolytes had gone in to set up a fever hospital in its midst.

Then there was the tale of the heroes of the major attack on the Northgate of a couple of nights ago to talk, including the strange elf and his lieutenant who had lead the counter attack,  about and some wondering what the company of adventurers variously called Telec’s or Dvorn’s company where going to do to lift the siege after all the tale was all around that two weeks ago they had cut there way through the goblin siege lines with great slaughter amongst the goblins and those who manned the walls told that the goblins had greatly reinforced their works to defend against a second occurrence. Finally the Kalamarian lass who had been doing performance poetry was a always worth a watch even if no one here could understand a word of it, one could not but like the lilt and style of it, not to mention that the poetess was an uncommon pretty girl and that drew enough interest form the young apprentices who had precious little else to do these days.

Then it happened, there was a massive explosion quickly followed by a fountain of flame which rose higher than the walls of the keep and hurled gobbets flame far out over the north of the town falling into thatch and starting fires. The bystanders stood stunned for a few instants and then the alarms went off at the keep,the war drum and the great gold horn of the true sounded, and Militia men tired for a nights patrolling ad skirmishing with goblins along the walls where rousted out to act as a fire brigade lest the town burn. Around the market they where joined by the market guard and even some of the traders and their customers and some amongst the counts guard and the soldiers of the true also joined in though the strange Half Ork who had been rumoured to be hiding in the temple of the true and pretending to be one of their guards was no where to be seen.

Then the demon appeared not far form the now faltering fountain of flame. It appeared with a soft pop and a whoosh of air and no one who was not looking towards the flame would have noticed it until its war cry rent the air sending a shock wave of fear through all who heard its terrifying yet inchoate howl only two did not flee the Kalamarian lass who drew her sword, a blade every one thought little more than a prop to her troubadour act and charged it out of the arch of the keep the Half Ork appeared still aping a guard of the true and ran towards the monster.

Picture from here

The monster was a the form of a twisted red skinned humanoid of gigantic proportions wielding a sword of prodigious size for a moment it stood and surveyed the scene before moving towards the gate of the keep sweeping abandoned market stalls before it with its great blade. The blows smashing them and scattering the goods form them to be crunched under its cloven hooves

A couple of the counts guards on the gate recovered enough from the effect of its cry and had the presence of mind to shot it with the large siege bows from the gate house the bolts shattered on its flesh like hurled icicles on granite. It ignored the two figures approaching it sniffing the air intent on the gate to the keep and beyond.

to be continued....

The Beasts of the Wastes

 A Short bestiary of the unique creatures of the northern wastes 

This is something which will develop as the campaign does however I do have a few ideas to get it started off.

Intelligent Monsters

Half Giant Barbarians
HIT POINTS:

Actually a manic miniatures ogre

SIZE/WEIGHT:
TENACITY: -
INTELLIGENCE:
FATIGUEFACTOR:
ATTACK:
DEFENSES:

MOVEMENT
CRAWL:
WALK:
JOG:
RUN:
SPRINT

SAVES
PHYSICAL:
MENTAL:
DODGE:





DESCRIPTION AND HABIT

Hulking brutes from the foot hills of the mountains where there giantish masters dwell they where unknown until thirty years ago when the true giants unified under a great king for the first time known and they where sent south in large bands as a van to the giant armies and then as a support when the true giants arrived in the field.   The are tall seven feet being typical thick set and heavily muscled humanoids with earth coloured flesh lumpen features and coarse black hair which grows thickly on the tops of their heads, and as beards on the males or tufts on the females.

They dress and armour themselves with layers of uncured hides but as raiders and looters more than happy to use any thing that they loot form their victims which the find to be of use though they are restricted some what by being significantly larger than most of there victims. They like large often crudely made hacking weapons such as one and two handed axes backed up with heavy javelins and a large knife like short sword. They seldom favour metal armour as it can be a liability in the frozen north lands.

Giants
Half Giant Barbarians

Image from here

HIT POINTS:
SIZE/WEIGHT:
TENACITY:
INTELLIGENCE:
FATIGUEFACTOR:
ATTACK:
DEFENSES:

MOVEMENT
CRAWL:
WALK:
JOG:
RUN:
SPRINT

SAVES
PHYSICAL:
MENTAL:
DODGE:

DESCRIPTION AND HABIT 

Massive hulking brutes standing on average fifteen feet tall they resemble huge thick set barbaric humans with coarse features and

Game animals 
The North lands does not exactly abound with game animals 

Predators

Wyrd and mythological creatures 

The Forest Folk

Fortekki 

Intended as another playable race for the Against the Robots game they are loosely based on Halflings in the same way that Half Giants  where loosely based on Half Orks. I was going to do no more than mention them in the history of the area briefly but as I was working on the games background tonight I came to the conclusion that I needed to do a proper write up as I did for the Half Giants. 

Abbilities

STR -3

DEX +2

CON +1

Fortekki Pro's 

• two free levels of purchase of the Sneaking skill
• two free levels of purchase of the Hiding skill
• Harder to hit +2 defence bonus 
• Superior hiding and sneaking in natural surroundings +65%
• -1 initiative bonus
• Native Language Fortekki and  Solmari

Fortekki Con's 

• Poor reach -1 foot
•  movement faster than a walk at half speed 
•  Small for the purposes of hit points
• Small for the purposes of knock back
• tend to be ignored in mixed company and assumed to be children 
•  Have to learn a mainstream human language and do so at double cost 
• never get armour proficiencies above light as free as a result of class
• Suffer an additional -1 defence penalty when wearing medium or heavy armour

preferential talent access  
all at 50% cost 
Crack shot and greased lightning with crossbows
Defence and Speed with short spear
Dodge
One level of extra hit points
Shield Mastery

Class costs
Ranger	20	Thief	35	Fighter mage     60
Fighter	20	Rogue	50	Mage thief         75
Fighter Thief	30	Assassin	50	Mage                  n/a
Cleric	30	Barbarian	n/a

Priors and particulars

Ranger	18+1d8p	Thief	20+1d8p	Fighter mage 24+1d6p
Fighter	16+1d4p	Rogue	20 +1d8p	Mage thief  24+1d6p
Fighter Thief	20+1d8p	Assassin	20 +1d8p	Cleric        24+1d4p

Roll                 Female                Male
1-6                    42-d3                44-d3
7-12                  44                      46
13-22                46                      48
23-37                47                      49
38-58                48                      50
59-75                49                      51
76-84                50                      52
85-91                51                      53
92-96                52                      54
97-00                52+d3                54+d3

BMI table as the standard halfling  however with a -2 modifier on the roll as they are less likely to be very over weight or obese having only recently taken up a more sedentary agricultural  life style.

all the other tables are unchanged and the character is treated as a halfling where this is specific to a halfling

Half Giants

A new Playable race in against the giants 

Strength +3

Intelligence -3

Wisdom -3

Constitution +3

Looks -3

Charisma -3

Half Giant Pros

Acute eyes sight +20 to all observation rolls involving sight

One free purchase of the Observation skill

Size large for the purposes of hit points (15+Con+Class roll)
They have a long reach add an additional foot to a weapons reach

They do +1 point of damage with any medium or bigger weapon

They cause +1 level additional knock back with two handed crushing and hacking weapons

Large for the purposes of knock back

A free talent chosen from -Tough hide, Fast healer, Pain tolerant

Free Labourer proficiency

Native language Kethian and Giant

Half Giant Cons

Most of the locals are a bit uneasy around them especially those who are old enough the remember the war when they formed the backbone of the Giantish Army’s but they are not hated any more since all the ones locally are descended form the ones who mutinied against their masters during the war.

They are whilst still technically medium sized still around Seven feet tall and heavily built with it so can have problems with the narrow and  low doors and low ceilings on many human buildings.

They are universally regarded as stupid and unsuitable for fine work so tend to get lumbered with simple manual labour amongst humans and dwarves.

They are frequently the subject of mildly derogatory humour. 

All their gear and clothes has to be specially made for them outside of their own communities, and especially with the tools it adds to the reputation they have of being clumsy as well as stupid.

They suffer a -10 penalty if they are using tools not made for them and -1 penalty all round if using weapons not made for them.

They get a defence penalty of -2 due to size and bulk

All literacy skills cost double at first level as they are seen as too stupid to learn to write.

Fighters don’t get Phalanx fighting for free.
Count as giants for the purposes of dwarven combat ability against giants 

Preferential talent access

All at 50% cost

Tough Hide

Extra Tough Hide

Additional hit points up to three levels

All weapons talents with any large or medium low skill two handed weapons

Disadvantageous access

All cost 150%

Forgettable face

Dodge

All weapons talents with any large or medium or high skill one handed weapons and bows

Phalanx fighting.

Classes 

Fighter              20bp                Fighter Mage 60bp       Mage N/A       

Ranger                         30bp                Mage Thief    75bp

Fighter Thief                 30bp                Rogue              N/A

Cleric                           40bp                Barbarian         N/A

Thief                             50bp                Assassin           N/A

Oddly enough whilst the majority of the Half Giants where in effect barbarians originally and those who remained loyal to the Giants still are they made a cultural decision since the revolt to reject their former ways and now copy much from the settled humans.  It would not be impossible to  have a half giant rogue, assassin or even mage there is as yet no one who will take seriously any who expressed an interest in that direction as they are seen as stupid foolish and clumsy  and don’t have those professions within their own ranks.

Priors and particulars

Height
Roll d100	Female	Male
1-2	74	76
3-7	76	78
8-14	78	80
15-26	80	82
27-42	82	84
43-63	84	86
64-78	86	88
79-88	88	90
89-96	90	92
97-100	90 +1d8”	92 +1d10”

Other tables 

BMI table as a Half Ork

Handedness and legitimacy as a human

No changes to the other P& P tables

Charactors for against the Robots

We now have five rolled up for which background and the like  will follow but in brief  we have

• A Male Dwarf Fighter 
• A Male Human Priest of the Eagle 
• A Male Human Priest of the Eagle
• A Female  Fey Ranger
• A Female  Human fighter  
• A Male Human Fighter Magic user half rolled up 

Backed up by   Male Human Fighter, Male Human Thief and a Dwarf Cleric  as  npc-protoges

and as a result of tonight's character generation session we are now at our full compliment

Players local Map

A Regional Map

Something of a work in progress, isn't every thing connected with a game whilst its running  but this will build to show the detail of the area close to the players current base of Torn Hold and where the adventure starts Angrad

Key

Red areas are Varazaran lands 

Purple areas are Dwarf land

Green areas heavy forest

Finally a bit of linguistic information on names - Varazzan place names ending in Grad are fortresses or at the least indicative of the presence of fortifications those Ariz are whilst often walled for protection largely civilian settlements with no major military presence. Torn and Zebregan are non standard with the former being a version of the original dwarven name and the latter being probably Solmori in origin

A Map Of Torn hold

A Bit of Background

Torn hold was initially founded by dwarves almost five hundred years ago as an extension to their surface farming enterprise in the vales around Drulkariz dwarf hold but dwarves are competent rather than gifted farmers and whilst it did not fail as such when the dwarves made trading contact with the Varazzan’s its days where numbered. As the amount and variety of food the Varazzans would trade for dwarf made finished goods made it more sensible to just buy the more exotic stuff than grow it themselves.

As the Varazzans began to expand north through the gap and discovered a large supply of the wonder metal at Zebregan the Dwarf king decided to sell the hold to the Varazzan’s for a large quantity of the metal which until the flare up of the purple flame at the site of what is now Angrad several years latter the Varazzans could not work. The dwarves had been aware of the metal as it is to be found in small quantities scattered about the area north of the Gap and where able to work it with difficulty in their sophisticated forges they valued it greatly and where always eager to get hold of more such as that the Varazzan miners could prize form the lode at Zebregan or latter hack from it with tools made from the reforged metal either by the dwarves or in the foundries at Angrad even if the reworked metal seemed to lack some of the hardness and toughness of  the original and the tools made form it where whilst able to hack lumps from the mother lode soon broken and blunted by doing so.

So Torn hold passed peacefully from Dwarven hands to Varazzan hands and is now the centre of the most sophisticated farming enterprise north of the gap further human settlers founded a network of smaller holds in the relatively fertile valleys around in many cases taking over the farming centres the dwarves had built but soon expanding beyond that and producing fine crops form land which the dwarves had thought barren.

This was a pattern which continued for nearly fifty years until the giants came down out of Kethian folk lore into the real world 

The actual map is in process 

Against the Robots NPC list

At Torn hold
Erened Varnia – Crippled hero of the war against the giants
Alikizior Durtajior – Mayor of Torn hold
Jojokir Varnia – The dutiful nephew and steward


At Angard
Dolga – Town councillor and head of the small dwarf community in the town not one of the smiths who worked around the flame however.
Khonnir Baine – Town councillor master smith and scholar of Kethian folk lore
Val Baine – The teenage ward of Khonnir councillor and master smith
Sanvil Trett – Scholar of Kethian folk lore and scholar of the arcane and divine
Garmen Ulreth – An inn keeper
Gundremmor Alinzor – Garrison Commander

Other persons of interest
Rekkit - a half giant tinker who wanders around the region
Jerazberit -  a Kethian exile and the the senior priest of the Eagle in the region  works as a trapper trading hides to settled folk  in the area



Amongst the Dead
These being largely famous personalties form recent history and include the leaders on both sides of the giant war as well as the members of the  company who adventured with Varnia against them.

As ever with these lists it will expand as needed 


note that some of the names of the personalities are taken from the Pathfinder adventure path book Fires of creation on which the game is initially at least based

The Differences between the world of Against the Robots & the standard setting

• Even more Humanocentric than normal
• No humanoids none of the standard humanoid races are included
• Fewer demihumans than are standard and no half races
• Fewer intelligent races all round this includes intelligent non humanoid monsters
• A different set of Gawds and associated priests even if some of them are quite similar such as the Bright One of the Dwarves and the Solmari and the Elk and the Eagle of the Kethians who are the Cathedral of Light, The Conventicle of the Great tree and the temple of the patient arrow, respectively with minor changes  as well as a whole new set of Gawds I am developing for the setting
• Illiterate arcane spell users
• Illiterate priests
• A much less benign environment mother nature is also your foe and having survival skill and proper gear is vital
•  Barbarians who are more superstitious about technology worked metals in particular than magic
• More variation between human ethnicities in some game mechanics 
• There is no slavery within the Varazzan empire and it only exists beyond its borders amongst the larger Kethian tribes  and the Jehenghii
• The Varazzan culture is not fully feudal  it is more like that of the late Roman empire with nobles being land holders rather than warriors and the Empire does have a well trained standing army mostly Pole arm armed backed up with archers armed with powerful recurved bows. These are in turn backed up by local nobles household troops on the borders, where the noble title requires the retention of a number of trained warriors and civic and rural militias who will defended there patch. 
• The more martial Religions of the Empire have fighting orders with the Bright order being the most prominent locally - The elite these fighting orders are the equivalent of knights and generally fight as heavy cavalry the rest as light cavalry or mounted infantry.
• The Chief religions of the Empire as a whole are The Maker the Gawd of crafts and industry The Merchant the Gawd of  local Commerce  and The Trader the Gawd of roads and long distance commerce. The Emperor is the patron of the empire itself and is impart the deified version of the last Varazzan king and first emperor as well as in part a personification of the spirit of the empire as a whole
• In addition to these there are numerous local religions particularly strong in this area are the Bright One which has a Dwarven and a Solmari cult the main difference being that the Solmari one is also the judge of the dead and the Dwarven version is not as well as the Elk of the Kethians and the Eagle of the Solmari and the Kethians Most farmsteads have a shrine to the Ploughman the Solmari Ammmarend agricultural Gawd but there are very few priests