GLOG Class: Mime Thief

This class is built on the foundation created by Velexiraptor's Thieves' Guilds, which are an excellent framework to make all sorts of scoundrels. That post already has a standard Thief and a couple more particular sub-classes, so I'm not going to do that.

Instead, I'm going to go weird.

Mime-Thief

Hit Die: d6

Template A: 2 rank 1 abilities
Template B: +1 ability rank, +1 rank 1 ability
Template C: +2 ability ranks
Template D: +1 rank in all abilities, gain all abilities you don't have yet at rank 1

Abilities

1. Charades
Rank 1: You can communicate silently in a complex sign language. The rest of your party knows this code, but no one else does.
Rank 2: Your sign language has gotten more interwoven with the cultures and languages you know, becoming a web of silent references. Through this method, you can communicate in every language you know silently.
Rank 3: The silent language starts to work through the subconscious mind. You can communicate with anyone, no matter what language they speak, silently.

2. Invisible Object
Rank 1: You can create an invisible simple object, at most the size of your head. You are the only person who can touch this object. If you create another one, the first vanishes.
Rank 2: The object you create can be the size of your body. Other people can touch the object, but you cannot hurt people using it.
Rank 3: The object you create can be more complex - a lockpick, a sword, etc. You can damage people with the object. 

3. Distraction
Rank 1: People love your acts. When you begin to mime, everyone watching must make a Wisdom save or watch you for 1d6 minutes.
Rank 2: Everyone who fails their save will watch for a full 6 minutes.
Rank 3: People no longer get to make a save.

4. Silence
Rank 1: You are silent. Things around you are not. For example, you can walk or run silently, but if you knock over a vase, it makes noise.
Rank 2: You can choose up to 3 people. For 15 minutes, all three of those people are silent.
Rank 3: You can designate an entire area the size of a house. Inside this area, nothing makes noise for 1 hour.

5. Hidden Hands
Rank 1: You can instantly move something from your hand to storage, without moving your hands.
Rank 2: If you can reach someone, you can instantly move anything on their person into your pockets. You cannot do this to anything they are currently wearing or holding.
Rank 3: You can do this to things someone is currently wearing or holding.

6. Unnatural Movements
Rank 1: Using invisible handholds, you can climb vertical surfaces at your walking speed.
Rank 2: Once per day, you can walk through walls on your round.
Rank 3: Once per day, if you are not being watched for any amount of time, including blinking, you can completely hide yourself.

GLOG Class: Drifter

Somebody mentioned Hyper Light Drifter on the OSR Discord, and I decided to make a GLOG class. Why? uhhhhhh

don't ask questions

Hyper Light Drifter's a game I quite like - it's pretty, there's stab-murder, what else do you want?

This is a weird martial class - you've got a microscopic HP pool, but an ability that lets you avoid most attacks. Hopefully, the combination of this and the Laser Pistol/Zaliska should lead to hit-and-run combat gameplay similar to the videogame.

There's not many non-combat abilities here - Dash can be used to circumvent pits, and the Zaliska can do pretty well as a demolition tool, but that's all.

The Drifter would fit best in a science-fantasy game; the kind where finding (or building) a laser weapon and teleportation device would be possible.

HD: 1d4

A: Laser Pistol, Dash, +1 To-Hit
B: Reflect, +1 To-Hit
C: Zaliska, +1 To-Hit
D: Dash Strike, +1 To-Hit

Laser Pistol
The Laser Pistol has a range of 40' and deals 1d4 damage per charge used, up to 3d4. You have a maximum of 6 charges for your Laser Pistol. Each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack, you regain 1 charge. Beams from the Laser Pistol are incredibly hot, and can be used to melt through stone, burn wood, and scorch metal.

To prevent an overload, you must vent the Laser Pistol once per day. When it is vented, it returns to 0 charges. Unless you have something smart to do using this, just assume you vent it at the end of each day when you go to sleep.

Dash
At any time, you can move 10' instantly. You can do this once per turn - you regain the ability to do it on your round. If this moves you into cover from a ranged attack, the attack misses. If this moves you away from a melee attack, the attack misses. Dashes move you exactly horizontally - they will move you over pits, but not up walls.

You can Dash [template] times per turn.

Reflect
Once per turn, you can reduce the damage of a ranged attack by 1d6. If this brings the damage down to 0, a target of your choice is hit by the projectile.

Zaliska
Your Laser Pistol has been retrofitted with a concussive emitter, causing the shots to explode on impact. As well as increasing damage, each charge expended in the Laser Pistol increase the radius of its detonation by 10'.

The Zaliska can shatter wooden doors, break through stone, and melt metal.

Dash Strike
After a successful attack, you can use your Dash ability and attack another target. This continues as long as you can Dash to another target. Each Dash used as part of this ability consumes one use of Dash for the rest of the turn. You cannot attack the same person multiple times with this ability.

Preparing Sewer Rats, Part 4 (Finishing Touches)

Countdown to the Grave

Sewer Rats' health system is a lightly edited version of the standard Into the Odd system, with a Darkest Dungeon-style twist.

Damage is completely normal - take damage to HP, when that runs out, take damage to STR. However, you do not roll for Critical Damage (placeholder) when you take STR damage. You function perfectly fine until you hit 0 STR, at which point you drop dead.

Healing has been changed around as well - at the end of each Delve, you regain all your HP. However, you never regain STR. It's just a timer, counting down until you die. This is intended to balance the increase in equipment characters get over time - as characters get better, stronger equipment, their STR (probably) decreases, making it more of a risk to bring them down into the sewers.

This gives the players a good, in-universe reason to start building up a stable of characters - it's a bad idea to bring a long-running character into a low-level delve, because they'll be slowly worn down through attrition (after all, even a single lost point of STR is a problem), and you want to save them for more dangerous, more lucrative missions.

Optional: Dying of the Plague

To no one's surprise, the sewers under a titanic metropolis aren't particularly clean. Luckily, as long as you don't get cut, you should be fine.

You didn't get cut, right?

When a character takes STR damage, there is a 1-in-8 chance their wound is infected. Roll on the Disease table of your choice (and please, post it in the comments, I need one).

Dungeoncrawling Procedures

Dungeoncrawling is pretty simplified, made up of Turns and Delves. Each Turn, everyone moves, you check off one turn of light, and you roll a 1-in-6 chance for a random encounter. A Delve is the entire time you spend in the dungeon. Most beneficial items will last for a Delve.

I'm using a very simple 2d6 reaction table (2: immediate attack, 3-5: hostile, 6-11: neutral, 12: friendly), and resting during a delve is impossible. They're simply too densely inhabited for it to be a good idea.

Optional: Salary

This rule adds some extra pressure to your players. The Ratcatcher's Guild does not pay for everything. If you do not complete either of your objectives, you get nothing. If you complete your Primary, you get 2 Coins. If you complete both, you get 4.

Coins can be spent on 4 things: Housing, Food, Medicine, and Ammunition. If you do not pay for Medicine, you do not regain HP for the next Delve. If you do not pay for Ammunition, you cannot recharge the Usage Dice of your Ranged Weapons. If you do not pay for Food for 3 Delves, you die. If you do not pay for Housing for 3 Delves, you lose your house. This limits your inventory to 3 items - you must carry everything you own.

Optional: Retrieved Equipment

While most equipment in Sewer Rats is provided by an incredibly efficient and effective system (cough cough), that doesn't mean there's nothing to find during Delves. However, your superiors probably want whatever it is you've found.

Firstly, you must surrender half of any mundane items or equipment uncovered. Hoarding equipment is illegal, and can be punished with lost salary, imprisonment, or expulsion from the Guild. Of course, if you stash everything in an empty part of the sewer to come back for later, who's going to know?

Arcana is of much more interest to the Guild. Legally, you must surrender any Arcana for inspection, which takes 1d4 Delves to complete. If a 4 is rolled, the Arcana is confiscated permanently. If the Arcana is incredibly destructive (disintegration ray, hurricane gem), inspection is automatically permanent. If you hide Arcana and it is found, it will be assumed to be a weapon, and you will be charged with terrorism.

Random checks of Sewer Rats' inventories occur after 1-in-6 Delves.

GLOG Class - Fighter (Let There Be Blood-style)

Hit People with Stuff, The Game

Fighters are generally the simplest class - a lot of HP, attack bonuses, that's about it. Recently, more complex martial classes have come out of the GLOGosphere - deus ex parabola's Zouave and Sword-Shepherd, The Princess in Yellow's set of 7, and Basic Red's veterans, for instance.

This Fighter is built specifically for Let There Be Blood, my weird homebrew combat system. However, it should be pretty easy to convert. 

Their Techniques are built to let you make most common flavors of Fighter - raging berserker (Careless Blow + Brutal + Siege Engine + Rage), exhausted infantryman (Long March + Foraging + Tall Tales + Field Medicine), and aspiring noble (Respectable + Authoritative + Commissar + Beastmaster), for example.

A: Weapon Specialization, +1 Technique
B: Riposte, +1 Technique
C: Extra Weapon Specialization, +1 Technique
D: Extra Attack, +1 Technique

Weapon Specialization
Choose 1 weapon. All your Attack and Defense rolls with that weapon are increased by 1. This allows you to roll a 7.

Riposte
When an enemy's attack is fully absorbed by your Defense, you deal damage to them equal to your Defense.

Extra Attack
You can attack 2 targets per turn, using the same Attack value for both.

Techniques

1. Careless Blow - With melee weapons, you may choose to roll both of your dice in Attack, adding the damage dealt. If you do this, you roll no dice in Defense.
2. Heavy Guard - With melee weapons, you may choose to roll both of your dice in Defense, adding the protection gained. If you do this, you roll no dice in Attack.
3. Commissar - Through a combination of roared orders and threats of violence, you can force your hirelings to reroll a failed morale check 1/day. Further use of this ability is possible, but requires you to assault one of your henchmen. Each of these later uses decreases every hireling's maximum morale by 1, permanently.
4. Authoritative - People look to you in times of crisis. In the absence of actual authority, peasants, militiamen, and similar groups will listen to you unless you prove yourself incompetent. Gain a +2 to reaction rolls with these groups.
5. Long March - You and your party can skip sleep for one night, and continue to travel overland with no penalty.
6. Foraging - Through trial and (generally quite unpleasant) error, you've managed to figure out just about everything edible you can grab in the wild. During a long rest, you have a 4-in-6 chance to find 1 ration worth of food. This chance is decreased to 1-in-6 in less lively environments (deserts, cities, dungeons).
7. Underhanded - You've heard about honor, and you want nothing to do with it. You can use Combat Maneuvers without requiring an action.
8. Respectable - Your pompous bearing has gotten you some attention. You are not a member of the nobility, but you can get them (at least, the lower ranks of them) to pay attention to you. Gain a +2 to reaction rolls with these groups.
9. Just Plain Rude - Using mocking jokes, loud swearing, and generally impolite behavior, you can goad anyone outside of the nobility into a fight. You must fail a Charisma check if this is during combat, or if anything much more important (the person's house is on fire) is currently happening.
10. Brutal - You may be a bit too into this. When you kill an enemy, you may choose to do it in such a theatrically bloody way that the sudden fountain of blood, bits of skull, and flying limbs force every enemy to make a Morale check immediately.
11. Monster Hunter - You've fought bigger. By grappling, you can climb onto any creature larger than a human. While grappling, all your attacks against that creature automatically roll a 6 (or a 7 if you are specialized in that weapon). As an action, you can make an opposed Strength check to forcefully steer the monster around.
12. Tall Tales - Your time on campaign brought you around a lot of weird people, and a lot of weird stories. When presented with a monster or magic item of note, you have a 4-in-6 chance of knowing what it is.
13. Assassination - You killed someone very important, though you won't admit who. Against unaware targets, your Attack die automatically rolls 6 (or 7, if you are specialized in that weapon). 
14. Pest Control - You can attack as many small creatures (rats, giant beetles, goblins) with a melee attack as you can reach.
15. Field Medicine - Enough liquor and rags make everything better. You can attempt to heal someone for 1 HP with this method. They must pass a CON save to recieve healing. You can continue to do this to someone until they fail this check.
16. Beastmaster - You can try to tame utterly unreasonable things (gryphons, snakes).
17. Siege Engine - You can batter your way through wooden doors and walls in less than a minute.
18. Rage - Once per day, succumb to a violent war-madness. For 3 rounds, you roll a 7 for Attack with your weapon, but a 1 for Defense. During the rage, if you would be knocked unconscious, gravely wounded, or killed, you ignore those effects until the end of the rage.
19. Vigilant - You cannot be surprised. When you roll an Omen for a random encounter, you may choose to reroll.
20. Spellbreaker - Wizards are a nightmare on the battlefield, but you've learned that a clear head can usually get you through them. You have a +2 to saves against magical effects.

VERY HEAVY CUBE (GLOG Class)

Note: this class is bad and i've remade it here. Don't read that, read this.

Inspired partially by this video, but the blame should be placed on deus ex parabola on the OSR Discord.

Very Heavy Cube Owner

Weapons technology marches onwards forever. In your case, the march of progress got lost in a dark alley. The cube has its benefits, you desperately think to yourself - it's much quieter than a gun, and it's not stopped by armor.

These justifications do not stop anyone from laughing at your cube.

A: THE CUBE

B: Cube-Sight, Increased Range

C: Cube-Cleave

D: Engraved Cube

THE CUBE

Your body is covered in a prototype Kinesis Suit. In theory, you should be able to use the suit to telekinetically grab people and objects. In practice, the suit only works on materials made of a specific alloy - for instance, your Cube. You cannot wear any armor while wearing the Kinesis Suit.

On your turn, you can use the Kinesis Suit to move the Cube. The Cube moves at 100 feet per round, but it can only be controlled if it stays within a 50 foot radius of you. When it comes in contact with someone during it's movement, roll to-hit with a -2 penalty. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 damage. The Cube stops moving after hitting something.

Cube-Sight

You wake up one morning and start seeing through the Cube. Everything is red - it hungers to kill. You can switch between seeing through the Cube's eyes and your own.

Increased Range

The lights on the Kinesis Suit have all turned red. If you're very quiet, you can hear them crying as you move the Cube. The radius you can control the Cube increases to 100 feet.

Cube-Cleave

The Cube's hunger is increasing. When the Cube kills something, the 100 foot distance it can move resets, letting it move 100 feet from this location. It does not stop after hitting something. If you squint, you can see a mouth starting to grow on its surface.

You cannot wield any weapons - the Cube will not accept them.

Engraved Cube

The Cube has been covered in grotesque engravings, and glows with a pulsing red light. Inside, you can see a dark shape. The Cube speaks to you when you sleep - it is but an egg, for the Flayed God who will rise, kill the world, and drown in blood. The Cube offers a gift, for a price. If the Cube kills 333 people, it will hatch, and you will ascend with it, to be the only god that survives this cataclysm.

The Cube deals 6d6 damage per strike.

Robert Orzol

Picture Pong Riposte - Archons March On

Picture Pong is a recent community event in the OSR MINDSCAPE, in the chain-letter format of "see thing, do what thing say". People write a blogpost based on an image, and then add a different image to their post, someone else makes a post based on that image, repeat forever.

The most recent one at this point (I think), was by Archons March On, sharing the following image:

Hyperborea in Ashes

The grand city of Hyperborea stood for tens of thousands of years. Its mile-high towers rose imperious above the frozen plains.

And then they didn't.

Hyperborea was put to the torch by the armies of Man, drawn to the frozen tundra by promises of unnatural science and grand magics. The giants were killed, their towers were burned, and a new city of humanity rose from its ashes. 

But the giants survived, in a way. They rose up from the dead, with their memories of Hyperborea intact. They saw this blackened, soot-covered city, and their blood boiled. This could not go unpunished.

These liches toppled the city of Man, and rose their towers anew. Now, the giants rule Hyperborea once more, holding humanity under their eternal tyranny.

Factions of Hyperborea

Gift-Thieves: No one is born with magic in Hyperborea. The only path to it is theft - use of Hyperborean genetic editors, ancient blessings, or consuming the flesh of a lich-giant. The Gift-Thieves attempt to unite these daring few, offering clandestine (and highly illegal) magical services to the populace.

The Final Legion: Everyone remembers the armies of humanity who tore Hyperborea from the grip of the giants. Some of them survive, although they are far too old to return to the battlefield. Instead, they build their new Final Legion, preparing to break the giants once more.

Birdwatchers: The Birdwatchers are a secret society, hidden from the view of the giants. They focus on stealth, assassination, and manipulation of the strange vermin of Hyperborea. They have no interest in resisting the giants - they plan to build a shadow government woven into Hyperborea, directing it from within.

The Next Move

Here's my image for Picture Pong. Take it, let it into your MINDSCAPE, turn it into words, put the words on the internet.

Tomislav Jagnjic

Supplement Review - Star Dogs Referee's Handbook

Disclaimer: a review copy of this game was provided for free by the author. This review is based off of a reading of the book, not a playtest.

The Star Dogs Referee's Handbook, by Michael Raston, is a supplement for his sci-fi RPG Star Dogs, which I reviewed in November.

The book is absolutely crammed full of SF-themed generators - everything from a Planet Generator to an Impressive Technology generator or Mission creator. Most of these are freely available on Michael's blog (linked above), but the Referee's Handbook gives them to you in a more searchable single package.

Early Conclusion: Star Dogs is an excellent system-neutral resource for people running soft SF games, but it suffers from some redundancy and a lack of mechanical detail for alien abilities and starship equipment. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in this sort of game, no matter what system you plan to use.

If you're interested in a more in-depth review, going over each generator in detail, see below.

Reviewing Each Generator

1. Galaxy Sector Mapper and Stocker - This is a drop table that creates the map for a galactic sector, divided into separate zones you move across like a slightly melted hexcrawl. I like the way it simulates the dense areas within solar systems and the empty zones between them on a single map, and it's quite quick and easy to use.

2. Planet Generator - Like many of the generators, the Planet Generator is not a hyper-detailed system that constructs continents and civilizations. Instead, between the Planetary Landscape table (which gives you a single scene of the world, like "planet covering alien geometric ruins of super-hardened material"), Planet Atmosphere Manifestation table (which gives you a small theme, like "shrunken, small and shrivelled - rotted and wrecked" and Planet Population table (which gives you a vague concept for the dominant group, such as escaped synthoids or primitive aliens), the Planet Generator gives you a concept of a world for you to flesh out. The first 2 tables are nicely useful, especially for space-opera style single-feature worlds. The Planet Population table, however, doesn't have much of a use. It's too overly simple, without any of the evocative ideas of the others. The book also has both an NPC Group Generator and Alien Species generator, which both do this job better.

3. Outpost/Space Station Generator - This generator starts a lot like the Planet Generator, with a Key Purpose and Atmosphere. It also comes with both a road and building map generator, where you roll up small single pieces and put them together. I'm not sure how often you need this sort of mapping, and the buildings come in strange curved shapes that seem hard to put together. This piece also comes with a building stocker, with single-line building types (weapons stores, abandoned and empty, etc.)

4. NPC Generator - This is an utterly excellent NPC generator for this sort of kitchen sink space opera. A massive d100 appearances help you perpetually toss out new, strange people for your players to meet, and the Wants, Modus Operandi, and Expertise give all of them both a personality, and a reason for the players to talk to them.

5. NPC Group Generator - A very simple single table of group traits, like "group members are ever burrowing deeper and deeper underground". A few rolls would be needed to build an interesting faction, but a single table makes that pretty easy to manage. More components for this generator (Leadership, Motives, Methods) would make it much, much more useful.

6. Alien Species Generator - Monster generators are pretty common in the OSR, but few of them are built for a SF setting. It seems to be specifically built for a civilized society, but it never directly says. It's split between Form (a body type, such as Rat or Ape), a Form Manifestation (a simple modifier, like skeletal, filled with holes, shriveled and gaunt), Armor and Weapon technology levels, a Communication Method (speaking, telepathy, writing, etc.), a d100 Special Ability table (in the same ultra-simple vague idea method as much of the Planet Generator pieces), and a Culture segment partially copied from the NPC Group Generator. I don't think the idea-generating method used in the Special Ability table works well for generating a mechanic, where I'd want a more concrete system. The Culture segment probably could've been fused with the NPC Group generator without losing much, as well.

7. Tables for Roleplaying NPCs - A d12 reaction table, a second, alignment-dependent d6 reaction table, and a 2d12 faction relations table. The faction relations are helpful, but I don't think we need a pair of reaction tables - a larger, alignment-dependent d12 table would be a perfect combination of both.

8. Mission Generator - I love having mission generators in games, especially in low-setting ones like Star Dogs. This one follows a pretty normal format - verb the noun, in the location, with the danger, for the reward. Like any generator of this type, some options are difficult to put together, like "have target be eaten" and "a secret".

9. Dangerous Sector Generator - I don't think Sector was a good term to use here, given the use of Sector as a world map earlier in the book. This is actually a dungeon generator, with a map builder (much more useful here than in the city section), room stocker, and dungeon atmosphere table. Like most of these tables, you would need to roll up the dungeon before the game and fit everything together. I think the atmosphere table is the best part of this generator, giving each dungeon some interesting character and distinguishing features.

10. Impressive Technology and Advanced Combat Equipment Generator - An artifact generator, with a form, material (which also comes with a special rule, such as "Clusters of small metallic nodules. Will also make things smaller."), a power (a vague concept, like "Removes and separates."), and a power modifier (an extra issue with the device, such as "Results tend to be temporary."). Much like the Special Ability table of the Alien Species generator, I think a more mechanics-focused method of generation works better than the idea generator for this.

11. Random Space Encounter Generator - A quite complex random encounter system, rolling an Environment, Modifier, and Content. The Content roll is usually a group of things (Space Anomaly and Single Spacecraft) which direct to subtables which give you what type of Space Anomaly, Galactic Pallet, or other space object you end up with. I absolutely love more advanced random encounter rolls that give you more than just an entity - giving a location and some extra detail like this one does is absolutely excellent, and should be done far more often.

12. Spacecraft Generator - The Spacecraft Generator is one of the best parts of this book. It combines a set of small tables for fluff like Alien Spacecraft Form (done with single words like "Bee" or "Pyramid") Human Spacecraft Form, (using another grid-like visual table, similar to those used in the Dangerous Sector Generator), and Spaceship Form Manifestation (more simple descriptors, like "Large chunks of the hull are rotted away, revealing working innards") with the most detailed mechanical pieces in this book - 8 fully-statted starship classes ranging from tiny fighters to large transports. The Special Ability table could, again, use more mechanics - for example, "Extra resistant to Bull or Laz fire" could use some suggested numbers.

13. Nebula Generator - Nebulae are large-scale terrain formations in Star Dogs, covering multiple Sectors. The Nebula Generator is split into Appearance (which is both a small description, and affects the intensity of the nebula's effects), and Color (which determines the effect). This is the most specific of the generators, and the effects of each nebula seem like they could be difficult to remember, but it has its uses.

Joesky Tax #72 (Rail Screamer)

Recently, Dan released a set of blog post prompts. Since my plan of "one post per week, every week" has been going... badly, I've decided to use some just to fill space.

Prompt
#72. Cryptids! Make some cryptids.

Cryptids are always attached to a location. Luckily, I live in a small Midwestern town on the edge of nowhere - the second-best location (after Oregonian forests) for cryptids. The town's built next to a pretty busy railroad, and every day I can hear trains passing.

At least, I think they're trains. I've never seen one. The rails are always empty when I look.

The Rail Screamer

A bent, gray creature covered in metallic plates, with a pair of floodlight eyes on stalks protruding from its front. The Rail Screamer crawls down train tracks, emanating long howls from the dozens of spiracles running along its back.

In all ways except for appearance, the Rail Screamer is a train. If it passes by you, a tremendous wind follows it. If it steps over you, you are crushed by its tremendous force. The Rail Screamer never stops moving, constantly turning its spotlights on everything around it like it's searching for something.

Using the Rail Screamer

The best use for the Rail Screamer is for a little self-contained mystery in a Delta Green (or similar supernatural mystery) game - someone was killed when their car was hit by a train, but the line's been closed for years. There's also the mystery of its search - what is it looking for? What happens if the Rail Screamer finds it?

You could also pull it out of its context and use it as just a monster. Perhaps their speed makes them the backbone of a nomadic people, or an important piece of modern cavalry tactics. Or, of course, their could just be one in a pit somewhere, sending its cry up into the air.

Stats

I know I namedropped Delta Green up there, but I know my audience, so these are more generic OSR-style stats.

HP: 20

AC: 16

Speed: 528 ft. (60 miles per hour)

Overrun: When the Rail Screamer moves over someone, they must make a Dex save or take 3d8 damage and be thrown 100 feet backwards as they are hit by a train. Overrun also triggers on obstacles like walls. When Overrun is triggered, the Rail Screamer cannot move on its next turn.

Mind the Gap: When the Rail Screamer moves, everyone within 30 feet is pulled along with it by extreme winds, taking 2d6 damage as they are dragged across the ground.

This is an incredibly lethal statblock, with very high damage output and utterly preposterous speed. Ranged attacks might help the players for a short time, but the sheer speed of the Rail Screamer will make that a dangerous plan.

However, as long as your players have some warning that they are fighting a train, they should be fine.

Probably.

The Skinborne (Sunless Horizon)

Sail Into the Light

The Skinborne are rarely seen by Ein Soph's inhabitants - they eschew the worldship's internals to cling to its metal Skin, safe from the threats of that inner world. The rare times they breach the Skin, it's for sudden, violent raids that gather as many resources as they can in the space of hours.

Their technology is incredibly advanced - not only do they have spaceflight, hydrogen from Ein Soph is harvested to power generators and weapons far beyond what the Navigator Houses have achieved. 

They live nomadically, drifting across the Skin in small voidcraft. These crews stay on their voidcraft for months at a time; despite this, they are nearly empty, with no frivolous items onboard except for a single seemingly random object in each person's quarters, kept atop an altar. Once their voyages are complete, they return to the Ark to refuel.

They are confused by the other societies of Ein Soph - can they not see they are failing their test? How do they expect to leave this hateful place when the Garden World arrives?

Their Exodus

According to their religion, Ein Soph is the Iron World, a test from a stern, silent god. Every ten thousand years, this Iron World passes by the Garden World, a paradise of nature and abundance. 

But the Iron World never reaches it. Even at its closest point, they are millions of miles away. This is the test their god has given them - to escape. The vessels they use to skip across the Skin like a stone over water are children's toys compared to their true project - a city-sized starship pointed out from Ein Soph, into the void. 

Soon, they say, they will escape this world forever.

Their Ancestors

The Iron World's orbits have gone on since the beginning of time - entire generations of people have escaped from its grasp, and passed their test. The spirits of these ancestors are revered, and their knowledge is treasured and collected into the Skinborne's holy books - somewhere between Bible and technical manual.

These ancestor spirits are spoken to through objects, passed down through generations and once owned by the spirit in question.

Their Ark

An entire engine of Ein Soph, uncountable stories high, slowly turned to face at a shallow angle. Titanic battery banks, leeching power from the worldship to keep this parasite alive. The Ark is the culmination of generations of work - the answer to the test the Skinborne have been given. Now they wait, until the Garden World comes into view and they can sail away into the light.

Preparing Sewer Rats, Part 3 (Equipment and Progression through Self-Debasement)

One of the main focuses with Sewer Rats is speed - fast character creation (thanks to Into the Odd), short sessions, that sort of thing. The other one is bureaucracy - Sewer Rats don't really get to make their own decisions, and they have a vertigo-inducingly huge chain of command telling them what to do and where to do it.

And you know what isn't fast? Spending half an hour searching through equipment lists and thinking about if you want a hammer and nails or another 50 feet of rope! And you know what has lots of bureaucracy? Being assigned equipment by some incompetent middle manager who doesn't have the faintest idea what Sewer Rats even do!

So, every time you complete a mission, more equipment is provided to your group.

If you complete only your primary objective, you roll 3 times on the table below per player, and each player can choose 1 item. If you complete both objectives, each player can choose two items. New characters are created entirely as written in ItO, and get all the equipment they normally would.

We are tracking ranged ammunition, using Usage Dice. Whenever you get new equipment, you have a 2-in-6 chance of having your weapon's Usage Die increased back to the default (1d8).

Digression: Sewer Rats House Rule #1
I've run a couple sessions of Sewer Rats using Into the Odd completely RAW, and now I am doing the OSR thing. Instead of the standard 3 stats, I'm using 4 - Vitality (STR + CON), Dexterity, Will, and Charisma.

I like having Charisma, because in the same way being smart can help you avoid a pit trap, but you still get a Dex save to avoid it, being persuasive should help you persuade someone, but you should still get a Cha check.

The change from Strength to Vitality is just because STR ended up being used for poison and disease saves anyway, so I wanted the name to reflect what it really was.

Of course, there are more house rules - disease stuff, healing changes, etc. These will be coming in the 4th and final Sewer Rats post, possibly next week (either that or another Sunless Horizon post, depending on the will of the people).

Another Digression: Using Useless Items
Loads of these items seem totally useless. Let them not be useless. If someone tries to distract a Hurtta with dried meat, get drunk to improve their Will saves, or change their clothes to help them with a VIT save against disease, let them. Sewer Rats PCs won't get many (if any) magic items, so getting use out of mundane objects is very important for keeping the game interesting.

1d100 Items from the Ratcatcher's Guild

1. A bucket, with a large hole in the bottom.
2. A single boot.
3. An empty bottle.
4. 1d4 pieces of chalk.
5. A wooden 10' pole.
6. A tattered shirt.
7. 1d20 feet of rope.
8. A bent trumpet.
9. Half of a shortsword (1-3 handle end, 4-6 blade end).
10. 1d4 bottles of beer.
11. A cheap pair of pants.
12. A shoddy hammer.
13. 1d4 metal spikes.
14. 1d20 caltrops.
15. A broken musket.
16. 2d4 candles.
17. 1d6 pieces of dried meat.
18. 1d8 matches.
19. A blank book.
20. A quill and ink.
21. A whistle.
22. 1d4 flasks of lantern oil (each lasts 5 Turns).
23. 2d8 empty glass flasks.
24. A lantern.
25. 50' of rope.
26. A net.
27. An empty barrel.
28. A pair of rusted manacles.
29. A loaf of dense, dry bread.
30. 1d20 pieces of paper.
31. A crowbar.
32. A chicken.
33. A bucket.
34. A pickaxe.
35. A mirror.
36. A shovel.
37. A pair of heavy gloves.
38. 1d4 sticks of unreliable dynamite (1d10 damage, 30' radius, 1-in-4 chance of detonating, 1-in-4 chance of detonating in the next 1d4 turns, 2-in-4 chance of nothing). If an explosive does not detonate, you can collect it and try to use it again.
39. 1 set of Shield Armor
40. 1 flask of acid
41. 1 dose of antitoxin (cures poisons, but not diseases)
42. A metal 10' pole
43. A set of caltrops (covers 4 10' squares)
44. 1 vial of rosewater (defends against airborne illnesses)
45. 1d8 torches (each last 3 Turns)
46. Heavy Plate (as Modern Armor, sinks)
47. A full set of clothes.
48. A handheld battering ram.
49. 1d2 doses of dragon's blood - when consumed, be consumed by anger; +2 to attack and damage, must attack each turn, no defensive or subtle actions, must pursue fleeing opponents. Lasts 1d6 Turns, lose 1d4 VIT when it ends. (while called dragon's blood, it is actually created alchemically from far more mundane ingredients)
50. 1 huge mining charge in a cart (2d10 damage, destroys walls, 100' radius, goes off 5 turns after the fuse is lit).

     51-60. Melee Hand Weapon (dagger, shortsword)

     61-70. Ranged Hand Weapon (pistol)

     71-80. Melee Field Weapon (pike, longsword)

     81-90. Ranged Field Weapon (musket)

     91-95. Melee Noble Weapon (rapier, sabre)

     96-100. Heavy Gun (arquebus). Heavy Guns have a 1d6 Usage Die instead of 1d8.

Also An Advertisement

The Kickstarter for my Zine Quest project King of Dust has one week left! It's a rules-light cyberpunk RPG with a Darkest Dungeon-like management phase, and a free demo version!

Enter the looming cityscape to take a look!

King of Dust is Live!

Edit: King of Dust is now released on itch.io - you can buy it here.

The Kickstarter for King of Dust, the secret zine project I talked about in my last post, is live!

King of Dust is a rules-light cyberpunk RPG with a focus on domain-level play - you play as the Board of Directors of a cyberpunk megacorporation, managing your corporation's Resources in an abstracted management phase, before switching to the mission phase, where you control a group of Associates - vatgrown soldiers used for particularly dangerous missions. You can take a look at the campaign by clicking on the image below - there's a free alpha ruleset, some art examples, and a more thorough description.

Posts that actually contain something useful return next week - sorry about all the not that.

Two Years in the Archon's Court

January 26th marks the second anniversary of the Archon's Court. Sadly, unlike last year, I don't have a gift. Instead, you will suffer as I talk about the last year of the blog, and my plans for the next.

Year in Review
To be honest, I feel like my blog only truly started in 2019. The death of G+ was, in some perverse way, a benefit to me - it finally gave me the kick I needed to arrive on new places, like the OSR discord.

This (along with much better content), made my blog much more popular this year - a full 80% of all of my views happened through 2019.

Speaking of that content, this year also had the creation of my most popular project by far - my Sunless Horizon SF-horror setting.

I also got some paid freelance work - articles in both issues of Stronghold Press Games' Silver Swords zine, and another piece for the currently unreleased third issue of Meanderings.

Future Projects
More Sunless Horizon! Everyone seems to like it, I love working on it, there's no reason not to! Along with setting stuff, I want to make some more playable stuff for it - no full system yet, just a few pieces of equipment, a couple enemies, and an adventure for you to plug into a standard OSR system.

I also want to finish up Sewer Rats, and go back to some of my old projects, like Infra-Red and Wormgod's Harvest. If you want me to prioritize one of these, say words in the words-box or nag me on Discord.

All of this blog stuff is coming out on a new schedule - one post, every Monday (unless some kind of catastrophe happens). Enjoy consistent posts, instead of me not posting anything for a month directly after making 3 posts in a day.

Along with blog stuff, I've got something more exciting coming up - a super-secret Zine Quest 2 project I'll be talking about more in February. Hooray, you finally get the long-awaited chance to give me money! Everyone must be excited or else.

Preparing Sewer Rats, Part 2 (Bestiary)

Last time on this series, we went over the basic premise of Sewer Rats, and built some prep tools to make running the game easier. Now, we continue working on dungeoncrawling basics with

m o n s t e r s

Since the true theme of this series is laziness, I'm not making my own monsters, that would be ridiculous! Instead, all of these are stolen from the video game Noita.

They're organized by difficulty - over time, you should start slowly integrating higher level enemies into dungeons - both rooms and random encounters. For example, the first dungeon might be entirely Level 1, the second will have 1 Level 2, the third will have 2, etc. If your players are having a really easy time, you should start turning the level up faster.

Level 1

Hurtta

Hurtta are shelled, crawling creatures of the underground. They mostly hunt Hämis, but have no issue with taking bites out of an incautious Guildsman.

STR: 10 DEX: 8 WIL: 4
HP: 4
Bite: 1d6 damage.

Hämis

Hämis are waist-high violet tripods, with rubbery skin stretched taut over a thin skeleton. Their head holds three green, pupil-less eyes, and their legs end in barbed spikes. They are not predatory, but they are very territorial, and will lunge explosively towards perceived threats.

STR: 6 DEX: 12 WIL: 4
HP: 2
Lunge: The Hämis leaps 30 feet forward and stabs into a target, dealing 1d4 damage.

Limanuljaska
Limanuljaska are strange beings, seemingly risen spontaneously from the sewers themselves. They float aimlessly, rarely taking an interest in the world around them. They truly cannot exist - they have no organs, no blood, only a poisonous, pressurized ooze.

STR: 4 DEX: 4 WIL: 4
HP: 3
High Pressure: Whenever a Limanuljaska takes damage, they release a 10' long stream of toxic ooze in the direction the damage came from. Anyone hit by the stream takes 1 STR damage.
Poison Orb: 1 damage direct to STR.

Rotta
I mean, the game is called Sewer Rats. I had to have them somewhere.

STR: 2 DEX: 10 WIL: 4
HP: 2
Bite: 1d4 damage.
Filch: The Rotta grabs one item held by the target, and starts to run away with it.

Hiisi
The Hiisi come from an advanced society, living somewhere underground. Some of them reach closer to the surface to explore, running into Guildsmen on the way. Their bodies are humanoid, with gray-green skin and odd faces - all the structures of a human (eyes, nose, etc.) but rearranged; no two Hiisi have identical arrangements.

Hiisi Grenadier
STR: 12 DEX: 10 WIL: 11
HP: 3
Knife: 1d6 damage.
Grenade: 1d8 damage in a 30' radius. DEX save for half. Each Grenadier carries 3.

Hiisi Pyro
STR: 12 DEX: 8 WIL: 11
HP: 3
Knife: 1d6 damage.
Flamethrower: 1d6 damage in a 40' cone. DEX save for half. Sets flammable objects aflame.

Hiisi Soldier
STR: 13 DEX: 11 WIL: 12
HP: 5
Machinegun: 3 ranged attacks, each dealing 1d4 damage. Can attack different people.

Shotgun Hiisi
STR: 13 DEX: 11 WIL: 12
HP: 5
Shotgun: 2d6 damage, ranged.

Level 2

Lepakko

Lepakko are flying squid-like creatures. They fear light and heat, as they must stay moist to survive. They build faintly glowing purple webs to block off escape routes, then attack suddenly with bites and sticky projectiles.

STR: 7 DEX: 14 WIL: 4
HP: 3
Heat-Fearing: The Lepakko takes 1 damage every time it ends its turn inside the radius of a source of light and heat.
Flyby: 1d4 damage, then the Lepakko moves 30 feet.
Trap Shot: DEX save or be immobilized for 1d4 turns. You can still act, just not move.

Happonuljaska
Happonuljaska form from groups of Limanuljaska fusing together in times of stress. Around Happonuljaska, Limanuljaska become more present and observant, as well as much more aggressive.

STR: 4 DEX: 4 WIL: 4
HP: 5
Influence: The highest Reaction Roll result that can occur with a Happonuljaska is Hostile. This effect applies to all Limanuljaska near it.
High Pressure: Whenever a Happonuljaska takes damage, they release a 10' long stream of acid in the direction the damage came from. Anyone hit by the stream takes 1d4 damage and loses one random item.
Acidic Orb: 1d4 damage and the target loses one random item.

Laahustussieni

Laahustussieni cores grow deep in the sewers. Once they are ready to release their spores, several Laahustussieni grow off from the core and wander until they find a good location to explode, releasing their spores.

STR: 6 DEX: 6 WIL: 2
HP: 2
Death Wish: The Laahustussieni will leap in front of attacks, taking the damage instead of the intended target.
Spore Bomb: When the Laahustussieni dies, it releases a 30' cloud of spores. Roll 1d4 for the effect of the spores.
1. Hallucinogen
2. Intoxicating - roll with Advantage (Into the Odd is a roll-under system) for all checks for 1d6 turns
3. Blindness - you sure are blind! All attacks have a 3-in-6 chance of missing, along with other effects of... blindness.
4. Just Poison - 1 damage direct to STR.

Tulikärpänen

Tulikärpänen are large, luminous insects found in some deeper parts of the sewers. Their threatening greenish glow comes from a solution of white phosphorous dissolved in oils. They are usually left alone - not just because of their danger, but also a long-standing belief that they come from dead torchbearers.

STR: 6 DEX: 11 WIL: 4
HP: 5
Rupture: Upon death, the Tulikärpänen explodes violently, dealing 1d6 damage in a 30' radius, setting flammable objects alight.
Phosphoric Vapors: 1d8 damage in a 50' cone. DEX save for half. Sets flammable objects aflame.

Tankki
Tankki are tracked machines built by the Hiisi for use as fire support in extremely dangerous environments. They are controlled by a limited AI, commanded by a nearby group of Hiisi.

KK-Tankki
STR: 13 DEX: 4 WIL: 10
HP: 10
Artificial: KK-Tankki are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.
Heavy Machinegun: 3 ranged attacks, each dealing 2d4 damage. Can attack different people.

IT-Tankki
STR: 13 DEX: 4 WIL: 10
HP: 10
Artificial: IT-Tankki are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.
Rocket Launcher: 1d10 damage in a 50' radius. DEX save for half.

Laser-Tankki
STR: 13 DEX: 4 WIL: 10
HP: 10
Artificial: Laser-Tankki are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.
Beam Emitter: 1d6 damage, adding 1d6 with each turn the Laser-Tankki spends charging.

Häivehiisi
Hidden under advanced metamaterials, Häivehiisi are used for scouting. Remember, if you see one, there are many more.

STR: 8 DEX: 12 WIL: 10
HP: 3
Invisible: It requires a WIL save to notice a Häivehiisi or find its location.
Splinter Rifle: This weapon deals no damage on a hit. On the target's turn, they take 1d6 damage from no apparent source.

Level 3

Hahmonvaihtaja
Hahmonvaihtaja are dark spirits, risen from the Underworld. They are perfect shapeshifters, copying faces and voices to manipulate humans into their bidding. If their machinations fail, they shift to their true form, and enter war at the head of a swarm of Hyypiö.

STR: 12 DEX: 12 WIL: 14
HP: 10
Shapeshifter: Hahmonvaihtaja can perfectly copy the form of another being.
Claw: 2 attacks at 2d6 damage each.
Infernal Pillars: 3 pillars of fire, each with a 20' radius, form around the Hahmonvaihtaja. Anyone touching the pillars take 1d12 damage. Ranged attacks fired through the pillars are instantly destroyed. These pillars last until the Hahmonvaihtaja is killed or leaves the area.

Hyypiö
Hyypiö are accursed souls, dragged up from the Underworld at the behest of a Hahmonvaihtaja. The heavy clay masks chained to their faces glow with red firelight when provoked by Arcana.

STR: 6 DEX: 8 WIL: 4
HP: 4
Rune of Command: The Hyypiö can copy and use the effect of any Arcana near it.
Death Wish: The Hyypiö will leap in front of attacks, taking the damage instead of the intended target.

Infernal Spirit: When the Hyypiö is killed, it creates an Infernal Pillar where it dies.
Flail: 1d6 damage.

Mulkkio
Mulkkio come from Happonuljaska, mutated from strange substances in the deepest parts of the sewers. Unlike the Happonuljaska's wide acid orifice, the Mulkkio's has constricted unnaturally, releasing not a sphere of acid, but a high-pressure, destructive jet. Luckily, this mutation stops Limanuljaska from seeing them as a leader.

STR: 10 DEX: 10 WIL: 6
HP: 15
Higher Pressure: Whenever a Mulkkio takes damage, they release a 30' long stream of acid in the direction the damage came from. Anyone hit by the stream takes 2d4 damage and loses 3 random items.
Acidic Jet: 2d4 damage and the target loses 3 random items.

Peitsivartija

Peitsivartija are tall, thin Hiisi machines with a broad wedge-shaped head. They hold a large railgun that fires foot-long metal spikes. 

STR: 10 DEX: 14 WIL: 10
HP: 10
Artificial: Peitsivartija are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.
Railgun: 2d6 damage and drags the target 40' backwards. If they are dragged into a wall, they are pinned by the spike and must make a STR save to pull it out.

Salamurhaajarobotti

Salamurhaajarobotti are released into the sewers by the Hiisi to hunt for intruders. They are shockingly fast, and defended by a indestructible energy field.

STR: 10 DEX: 14 WIL: 10
HP: 10
Artificial: Salamurhaajarobotti are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.
Energy Field: The Salamurhaajarobotti takes no damage from attacks hitting it in the front.
Beam Sword: 4d6 damage

Robottikyttä
Robottikyttä are unstoppable titans of metal, standing twice as high as a man and bearing a massive rotary cannon. The Hiisi use them to defend their most vital installations.

STR: 16 DEX: 10 WIL: 10
HP: 20
Indomitable: The Robottikyttä's weight lets it crash through walls with ease.
Artificial: Robottikyttä are immune to poisons, mind-affecting magic, and disease. They take half damage from normal weapons (swords, guns), but double damage from electricity and explosions.

Active Countermeasures: When hit by an attack, the Robottikyttä releases a 20' plume of electrified smoke that lasts 3 turns. Everyone inside the smoke takes 1d6 damage on the Robottikyttä's round.

Rotary Cannon: 4 ranged attacks, each dealing 2d6 damage. Can attack different people.

Preparing Sewer Rats, Part 1 (Base Premise & Prep Tools)

I think it's vital to have a filler game - something you can easily set up and run when you're missing people from your campaign, have to run on short notice, or have a schedule too unreliable to make a campaign work.

In my group, Libra has been serving as our filler game, but it takes longer to prep than I'd like (reading Delta Green shotgun scenarios can only get you so far), and everyone's starting to get bored. So, with the new year starting, I began:

Sewer Rats

Sewer Rats is an idea largely stolen from this D&D Wiki post, where someone created a premise for a low-fantasy dungeoncrawler, and promptly ruined everything by deciding to run it in 3.5e.

This series will be comprised of 4-ish posts, probably completed within the next month:

1: Base Premise and Prep Tools

2: Bestiary
3: Equipment and Progression through Self-Debasement
4: Finishing Touches

X: Play Reports

Base Premise

Sewer Rats is an Into the Odd campaign where the players work as repairmen/pest control in the sewers and other under-places of a fantasy metropolis. They're underfunded, underequipped, overstressed, and have learned from experience that everyone who outranks them is dangerously incompetent at best and actively malicious at worst. (If your underlings die, you get to report "unusually high danger", netting you a nice raise thanks to your "increased responsibility".)

The gameplay loop is simple - enter the dungeon, complete your Objectives, realize the map your superior gave you is wrong, nearly die, get rewarded with new equipment from the Ratcatcher's Guild, repeat. It's a nice, simple dungeon crawl with as little extraneous nonsense as possible.

Everything is going to be done entirely as-written in Into the Odd - I know that if I start changing anything it'll just end up as a classless GLOG hack, and I want to try another system for a

Prep Tools

One of the main reasons I'm transitioning to this campaign is the ease of prep: with a bit of work now, making dungeons later will be quick and easy.

The first step here is maps, where there are 3 standard options:

1. make your own map because you're not lazy

2. grab premade maps

3. use a random map generator

Now, all of these options have some problems: I'm not going to make my own maps because I am lazy, eventually I'm going to run out of premade sewer maps, and random map generators don't know how to make a decent map and I'm too grumpy to deal with it.

So instead, I commit heresy.

heresy

Instead of any of those normal reasonable options, I decided to do all of them at once. I went over to Dyson's Dodecahedron, searched for "sewer", grabbed all the maps, and frantically cut them apart into vague shapes, before rebuilding them to make horrid monstrosities like this.

Objectives

Next, we have to put things in them; monsters will be coming later, but for know the most important thing is Objectives - things (other than "kill kill kill clear the dungeon") you have to accomplish before you leave. I'm splitting these into Primary (not completing your primary objective makes the Ratcatcher's Guild "somewhat irritated"), and Secondary (completing secondary objectives gives you rewards in the form of extra equipment).

1d6 x 2 Objectives

1. Primary: A group of Guildsmen went down into the sewers and haven't come back. Rescue everyone still alive. Secondary: Bring back the bodies and equipment of any casualties.
2. Primary: A pipe's shattered. Escort a repair team down and protect them while they fix it. Secondary: Keep all of the repair team members alive.
3. Primary: Some kind of monster has killed the last two teams we sent down there. Get rid of it. Secondary: Capture the monster and bring it back up to the surface.
4. Primary: Bring down this giant pile of volatile explosives and detonate them here. Secondary: Go through and clear out the area on the other side.
5. Primary: Make a map of this area. Secondary: Prep the area for others to come through (disarming traps, building bridges).
6. Primary: We think one of the other Guildsmen parties is "losing" their equipment down in a sewer, then retrieving it to sell. Follow them on their next mission. Secondary: If our suspicions are right, capture them and bring them up to the surface.

A Jackal's Hoard (Sunless Horizon)

A lot of Sunless Horizon posts have been very high-scope: civilizations, environments and overviews make up the majority of the words thrown around about the setting.

So, let's go all the way down the scale, and look at one Jackal, and the tools they carry.

John McCambridge

A Bag of Tricks

All Jackals carry a weapon, to keep them safe even when separated from their group. This one carries a Breaker Pike  - a long metal pole attached to a violent shrapnel bomb - tied next to their pack. Breaker Pikes can only be used once, but their wave of red-hot metal can shatter even the hardiest Disciple.

On their hip rides a Zipgun - a makeshift derringer chosen for its light weight. Below it is a pouch of Red Salt, a beloved painkiller. Applied dry to wounds, it quickly draws out water and blood, turning from a fine powder to a thick paste. This paste is said to be close enough to flesh that it tricks the soul into thinking it is unharmed, causing it to relax. In reality, while it does contain pain relieving compounds, it exacerbates wounds by drying them out.

They wear a set of piecemeal armor - cloth covered in assorted metal plates. On the shoulder is a flashlight, set low to conserve batteries. In combat, they would turn it to strobe, disorienting and blinding the darkness-accustomed denizens of the halls. Tied to the front plate of the armor are bags of ashes, said to drive back Disciples (as the soul held within the ash assaults them).

Around their neck is a figurine pendant to delay pain - as the body is damaged, the soul takes refuge in the figure. Later, as it realizes the pendant is not its true body, the pain appears.

In their pack are tools - everything from tiny screwdrivers to giant wrenches to dismantle any valuable components of the ship, along with ropes, crowbars, and torches to help them climb up walls and break through doors.

Atop their head rests a gas mask - many of the most damaged parts of Ein Sof leak poisonous vapors, and it never hurts to be too careful.