10-Room Dungeon Brainstorm: Tomb of the Honorable Order of Glory (& Possibly Justice)

I had started this 10-room dungeon back in March when I started a side campaign to a Traveller campaign that never made out of character generation. The side campaign was in Knave (and also tragically never got past a very bumpy session 1) and I had named it "Knave Side Stories." I'd started this dungeon (working title was KSS Dungeon A) and had made it as a dungeon to use after finishing a cute adventure called "The Matchmakers" out of Dungeon Magazine Issue 7. I'd intended the scenario to be something for level 2-4.

I originally wrote this brainstorm by hand in some notebook paper and definitely waxed too much. I've finally typed it up, though. As I write up these brainstorms, make assumptions and then build on them further, I end up with an idea that's implied from the various entries. The brainstorm mentions things which aren't actually developed in the brainstorm and effectively say to brainstorm something further. Once I finish the brainstorming of the original prompts, I'd like to map the rooms onto an actual map and dungeon description. 

I've tried to keep the flavor and description of the order fairly vague so that the referee can tailor it into their campaign setting. 

Below is the brainstorm that I'd written up. I've already made and keyed a map for this dungeon and I hope that soon I'll post it along with a dungeon description that I'll be formatting to a PDF and upload for itch.

The Carrot Launcher (Large Carrot-Shooting Revolving Rifle)

This is probably going to be a bit of a strange, cutsie little post. I just posted it on my Mastodon and figured that I may as well also share it to any strange digital passersby who are searching for a carrot-shooting gun.

I had some thoughts on a baby carrot-shooting pistol revolver (and a more modern automatic pistol (TL6+1)) and a more typical, old-fashioned TL3+1 medium-sized 2-3oz carrot-shooting musket.

(TL 4+1) Large carrot-shooting revolving rifle, 1d-2(0.5) cr, Acc 1 Range 10/25 Weight 12/0.25 RoF 3, 12(3i) Shots, ST 10 Bulk -5 Rcl 3 $600 LC 3 (Malf 15; unloaded weight 9lbs; can't function without Mana).

This is a large rifle which features a medium-length beveled barrel, a large revolving chamber (idk gun terms tbh), each fitted with a large ~4oz carrot (complete with leafy green ends resting outside of their chambers). Upon shooting, the leafy green end is separated from the propelled carrot, dropping out the back of the rifle.

Martian Nerve Dart-Guns

A long time ago (apparently 19:47 15 October 2018 according to my notes) I started working on something for Moment of Truth RPG (MoT RPG). The idea for the campaign was a Martian planetary romance pulp action/adventure campaign. Primary inspiration came from the Dying Mars setting in the lovely GURPS Mars supplement (though, pretty much all GURPS supplements are lovely) and S.M. Stirling's novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, which is itself an homage to previous Martian planetary romances. I grabbed that book off the shelf when I was in high school and read it primarily because I'm a fan of King Crimson.

There's a weapon out of In the Courts of the Crimson Kings which helps to emulate a swashbuckling mode of combat with divergent bio-tech. On Stirling's Mars the guns are alive. If properly nourished, they produce gases and darts filled with a deadly neurotoxin. Getting shot with this neurotoxin-dart gun makes death a near certainty. The gun can only produce one dart at a time and needs time to do so, however. Thus a piratey swashbuckling vibe is established. Shoot your musket living dart gun once and then resort to blades in a combat because it simply takes too long to reload regrow.

In my notes I wrote that the physical damage of a dart gun would resemble a cross between a sling and a thrown knife (according to the MoT RPG weapon tables, p.56).

Weapon	Damage	Close	Optimal	Long	Notes
Dart Pistol	Skill + 5 (4, 5)	C	12m	10m (2)	Ammo: 1, Living, Neurotoxin
Dart Rifle	Skill + 8 (4, 5)	C-1m	25m	35m (2)	Ammo: 1, Living, Neurotoxin

Living: This weapon is Martian bio-tech. It is alive. It requires nourishment (a special food paste for Martian tech and water) and is susceptible to disease. If properly cared for, it replenishes its ammo within four to six hours after shooting.

Neurotoxin: If any damage penetrates the target, the neurotoxin is delivered. The target is racked with pain and spasms. While under the effects of the neurotoxin, the target's throat clenches shut, are in terrible pain, and lose motor function. The target has the conditions Incapacitated and Suffocating. The suffocation counts as a surprise. To end the suffocation the target must succeed an Endurance stat roll with a -1d6 penalty. Once the character has ended their suffocating condition, they may attempt to end their Incapacitated condition at no further penalty.

Initially I had the Damage at Skill + 3 for the pistol and Skill + 5 for the Rifle. Transcribing it, I figured that I would bump it up. In my notes I initially have the conditions of the neurotoxin as Suffocation and Stunning and then switched it in the next paragraph to Incapacitation.

In retrospect, I honestly think that this could use some work. The Endurance rolls to overcome suffocation might become tedious. It could be better to just need someone to administer an antidote and then roll Endurance to overcome the incapacitation.

GURPS Animal: Dire Boar

This probably shouldn't be a post all on its own. But here we are.
I used the rules  for dire animals according to the Natural Encyclopedia, which is a fantastic resource for high fantasy GURPS referees, and used the large boar in the Basic Set as a base. I did switch things around a little: changing the striker to impaling from piercing, since I wanted their tusks to be spear-like and frightening.

D&D/Pathfinder Poisons in GURPS

As someone who reads my blog may gather, I've been running the Pathfinder adventure path Carrion Crown for quite a few months now in GURPS. I've had to convert a number of poisons and diseases as a result, though fortunately there are a number of conversions available elsewhere. While I am going to release all of my conversion notes for running Carrion Crown in GURPS (for that strange soul who also wants to practice this folly), I figured that I would compile the poisons that I've converted here for your leisure, and also so they would all be in one place for a change.

GURPS Monster: Weaverworm

This monster was very fun to convert and very fun to run. Had some trouble with the drag ability it's supposed to have in Pathfinder, but I decided that I would just have an alternate Web (an engulfing binding which pins rather than grapples) which some or most Weaverworms have.

The Webbers

I had started these guys nearly a year ago after I first saw Tristyn's Random Humanoid Generator. I meant to finish this a lot sooner, and I think it's pretty much been finished. The result I got really got my mind spinning. I can't recommend this generator enough. It's really an excellent resource for making some new monsters.

I had initially written these monsters back when I was running LotFP. Since then I've started looking at S&W as something of a more default system, so I've tried to adjust them to this. That said, I believe morale is essential, so I've added that as well. I also have the stats for these friendly web-spinners as generic as possible OSR stats.

I figure that Webbers are most often preying on other monsters, so it might be profitable for PCs to attempt to make some kind of deal with their Queens (or the Low Mothers at an outpost). I envision Webbers as having a Neutral alignment, or perhaps Lawful given their propensity for strict hierarchies (I suppose it depends on how you want to define alignments). It is very easy, nonetheless, to picture a colony of Webbers as a Chaotic incursion, and power-hungry Queens no doubt would seek deals with demons or other Chaotic entities. I picture these guys mostly in wooded areas, generally attempting to expand caverns or create extensive burrows in the soil.

GURPS Monster: Shrieking Medusa Head

This might have some spoilers for Carrion Crown. Read on at your own peril. It's probably not too much of a big spoiler, though... especially if you're not even playing Carrion Crown in GURPS...

Goblin Racial Template

When I was running an orc-based campaign where all the PCs played orcs, there was a great chance that they'd run into goblins, either as enemies or allies (or slaves, more likely), so I made this racial template. I wanted to make goblins a little different from what they were in D&D, but I enjoyed some of the cliches that they had. I mostly wanted the goblins to be more intelligent than they normally are represented, but have some bizarre compulsions. They're actually smarter than the orc template that I had made (although I might revise that in the future).

Alchemical Elixirs: Sight

Infravision Elixir
Gives the target the Infravision advantage.
Duration: 3d×5 minutes.
Form: Ointment only; must be applied directly to the eyes.
Cost: $600/$840
Recipe: $375, 1 week.
Dark Vision Elixir
Gives the target Dark Vision.
Duration: 3d×5 minutes.
Form: Ointment only; must be applied directly to the eyes.
Cost: $990/$1,450
Recipe: $525, 2 weeks.

Animated Object GURPS Metatrait

I've been required to make a few different animated objects since I've been converting the Pathfinder 1e adventure path Carrion Crown to GURPS. In my first conversions (which were mostly, "it'll attack like this and die from this" without too much definition of its actual traits) I began each one independently, so they tended to vary quite a bit. Later into the campaign I realized that I would need a metatrait to handle animated objects. So that's what this post is...

GURPS Monster: Trollhound

As I'd mentioned, I'd been converting the trollhound that was listed in Trial of the Beast. I did as I'd said in that post: used the Enraged Eggplant's Worg and applied some of the troll's essential aspects. Similar to the troll, I think that the trollhound should have variation as one of its essential qualities, so there should be many different kinds of trollhounds -- especially the troll chieftain's pet.

Troll Racial Template/Monster

When it came to converting the trollhound to GURPS (since my search didn't yield any results), I had the idea that I would just take a formidable canine and apply a troll template on it (and spruce it up with it's fun disease). The first problem was finding which troll template I was going to use. My default as of late is to use the Monster Index of the fabulous Generic Universal Eggplant (sounds delicious), but out of curiosity I checked the Natural Encyclopedia. I had a slight worry about how I wanted to replicate or express the troll's relation to acid and fire in D&D and their regeneration powers. So I looked at quite a few of them and wound up making my own troll. I'm going to space this troll post and the post about the Trollhound fairly close.

The inspiration I got is fairly apparent, since it's mostly a synthesis of the templates I had available to me. The templates that I looked at are: the Enraged Eggplant's Troll, of course; GURPS Dungeon Fantasy's Troll, which was excellent (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, p.31); the Natural Encyclopedia's Troll (p.73); and finally I glanced at the GURPS Wiki's Troll to help me realize that trolls really are all about wrenching and crushing limbs, necks, and spines.

Something worth mentioning is that trolls can take nearly any shape. They have several essentials, but beyond them trolls have endless variation. In fact, variation should be one of the troll's essential qualities. Most of the trolls that I use, especially those that have names or are plot significant, will be pretty different from this generic template, which should be the starting point. It's also worth noting that trolls could be much weaker than they are depicted here.

Skin Stealer Racial Template/Monster

So here's a racial template for the Skin Stealer. The Skin Stealer appeared first, as far as I can tell, in the Trial of the Beast in Carrion Crown. The concept of it, I believe, is older than that. Working on the morph ability for its skin-stealing proved to be a little difficult, and I think that the limitation is a little larger than it should be. I include my notes on how I worked out the limitations on it.

Art from "Trial of the Beast"
I can't figure out who did the art...

GURPS Monster: Flesh Golem Hound

I've been running the Pathfinder adventure path Carrion Crown in GURPS. Naturally, I've had to adapt and convert the scenarios to GURPS rules from Pathfinder. Importantly, I've been converting by concept rather than by rules. Eventually, I am going to make a post and share all of the conversion notes that I've made so that if anyone else ever wants to do this they can take a look at my conversion notes, see if it works for them, and hopefully save them the trouble.

This post relates to that, so allow me to mention the obvious: this post might have a spoiler or two for Carrion Crown book 2, "Trial of the Beast."

Dark Creeper & Dark Stalker Racial Templates

Another consequence of running Carrion Crown in GURPS has been making a racial template for Dark Creepers. Dark Creepers are sort of neat. Their original Fiend Folio entry is very fun and illuminating. In Pathfinder, the Dark Creepers and Dark Stalkers have an interesting story in how they came to be. While I was making the Dark Creepers, I decided that it wouldn't be much more difficult to go ahead and make the Dark Stalkers. It felt wrong to make the Dark Creepers and leave the Dark Stalkers unmade. I don't mind not making the other sub-races though. Dark Stalkers and Creepers were made together, so it's only right that I include them both.
I did a mostly faithful conversion of the black smear present in Pathfinder, but I didn't bother converting their light blindness because it's tedious to figure out what that is and it was never mentioned in earlier entries. I followed the Enraged Eggplant's example in separating some of the creature's advantages to highlight them as their special abilities. Making the poison proved to be somewhat difficult for me.

Mongrelfolk Racial Template

I maybe mentioned that I've been running Carrion Crown in GURPS. Well, I've had to make a racial template for mongrelfolk and as far as I could tell there weren't any other GURPS conversions that'd already been made. I decided that I would go ahead with making my own and then share it with everyone since I'm so nice like that. I tried to emulate the prolific Enraged Eggplant in presentation. I don't generally go with boxes or anything, though. I generally stick with humble messes of stats and lines.

Mongrelfolk have an interesting concept, and I think in a campaign down the line I may perhaps introduce them as a PC race in a fantasy campaign.

In addition to what I describe, they are generally a low-tech civilization, so it might be reasonable to assign them TL 1 or 2, perhaps even TL 0.

The Mongrelman as envisioned by a Paizo artist

Ustalav Map

There are a lot of cool hex maps. Many very cool hex map versions of other cool maps which aren't into the hex thing. For instance -- there are many hex maps of Ustalav or Ytarria (or at least there should be) that one can find in any image search. The problem that I've noticed is that hardly anybody shares the hexographer file (or other file, if you're using another program) for the map so that other referees can modify the map for their own purposes.

For that reason, I'm also going to link the .hxm file of this cool map of Ustalav which I made with Hexographer in preparation for GURPS Carrion Crown. I decided that I might as well share this version of the map before I add too many changes to it to make it fit my wants. I used the Calligraphy icon set, if you're wondering. You should still be able to use your own icon set (or the default set) if you don't have it. Ustalav.hxm

Ustalav, 8-mile hexes

Lamentations in Niðwundor 03: A Golem, A Pudding, & A Chasm

Rations Used: five rations each
Light Sources consumed: one flask of lamp oil.
Treasure: Electrum Disc (200sp?), Sparamantur’s trinkets (10sp), Black Pudding (20sp), Silver and Emerald icon (200sp), silver and gold inlays from shields (20sp), miscellaneous snakeman scrolls (??sp?).
Kills: Black Pudding, Skeleton, Stone Cobra Guardian.
Total XP: 725 (145 each)
PCs

• Alphonse Cloutier, a crossbowman
• Goldie, an eldrtitch idiot savant
• Gorgi, a halfing (cannibal?)
• Morrigan, a specialist
• Sister Clover Chipsworth, a nun
• Urist the Dorf

The map keeps getting a little bigger.

Lamentations in Niðwundor 02: The Zappening

My players are still exploring the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. We've delved a little deeper and discovered some interesting facts about the eldritch idiot savant. When the session ended I really didn't feel very good about it. We ended the session and began making replacement characters about 2 and half hours into the session. I'm not sure if that was my usual anxiety. Later on I let up a bit on myself. Hopefully my players are going to be much, much more paranoid about traps. Maybe someone will bring a ten foot pole.

My map got a little bigger and I redrew the rivers (so now they don't defy physics).