Thursday, November 28, 2019

20 Really Good Mutations

Most mutations are very bad, both in real life and in tabletop games. How about some really good ones instead? You get these for drinking an evolution potion, being blessed by the God of life, or from just being really lucky rolling on a random mutation table.

20 Really Good Mutations
[1] One of your hands, at random, becomes plant based. Your fingers wither and die, the palm cracks and bleeds, but shortly after leaves and shoots bloom in their place, and soon the entire hand is formed from green leafy plant matter with all of its normal strength and dexterity. This hand grants you +2 hit points from being such a hearty part of your body. Additionally, this plant body part can regrow if ever chopped or burnt off; simply holding it under water will allow it to become green and healthy again, and it will regrow in a season if ever forcibly removed or mutilated.

From now on, any seed you “plant” in that hand's palm can blossom into either a single small fruit of that plant type, a tiny adult version of that plant, or create a single use of a magical or potion-ingredient effect that that plant can have. It takes one turn of resting in your palm to sprout, and then you can make use of the plant for one turn before it dies off and falls away. This would allow you to turn an apple seed into a single apple for one ration's worth of food, for example, or a few leaves worth for a single dose of a poison plant whose seed you put in that palm.

[2] Your muscles gain some of the traits of sponges and other primitive life forms. While giving yourself a slightly flabby look, you can 'inflate' your muscles at will full of blood and energy to gain all of your strength back- and then some. Treat your strength modifier as +1 at all times, even when you are affected by things that make you weaker or entangled. If you spend a combat round flexing and pumping up your muscles, they inflate to a much larger size and you treat them as +2 for all rolls involving strength. If your Strength modifier was already +2, then treat them as a +3. You can also use this ability to forcibly push out rot grubs, burrowing worms, and other flesh-eating creatures or objects forcing their way into your body if they found entry through a muscular spot. Simply flex and they will be ejected by the force of your muscular spasm- you take 1 damage each time you do this though from the blood used to flush out your wounds.

[3] The mutagens course through your eyes. Your vision blurs and you find your eyes shifting into that of another creature. Beyond their new captivating purple colored iris, the orbs are extremely sensitive and pristine such as from a hawk or other bird of prey. You can see farther distances then most and any vision problems you may have had before are corrected- adjust your Wisdom modifier to +0 if it's negative, purely from your vision alone. As for other abilities; Firstly, they can shift into feline slits in bright light, making you immune to flares or blinding powder. Second, they can dilate very wide in dark places, giving incredible nightvision similar to many underworld creatures.

But along with these, your eyes also gain the power to see a faint outline of invisible creatures or spell effects, though you only have a 1 in 6 chance to notice them each round until you spot them, in which case you can track them as long as your vision is not interrupted. You also gain the ability to see body heat with a bit of concentration, see unusual and indescribable colors that normal people cannot, and focus your vision over a round to see through a single thin object not made of lead. Your newfound sensitive eyes do come at a small price though; after your eyes mutate you must make a saving throw every time you open your eyes for the first week and a half or so- on failed save you are too disoriented by your incredible vision and vomit. Once the acclimation period has ended you now have your newfound superpowered eyes for life.

[4] Your chest bulges and is inflamed, for a few days you experience strange periods of tiredness and boundless energy back to back, and feel as though you are being dragged two directions at once. Soon, you realize that you have grown a second heart, and after that it becomes stable, beating in sync with your first. Your body feels stronger already- you gain +1d8 maximum hit points and treat your HD for the purposes of spells, resistances, or monster abilities as one size higher. Your physical endurance also improves, letting you run all day without becoming tired and moving at full encumbrance without any sort of exhaustion penalties.

Additionally, your second heart grants you a second chance. If you are struck and fail a save with a heart seeking arrow or poison that destroys your heart (aka causing instant death), you instead live with your first heart. Roll 1d8 and lose that many hit points permanently, but you don't die.

[5] Your colon feels extremely healthy. Whenever you are suffering from a disease or poison that was ingested, you get a second saving throw to resist the effects if the first one failed about 4-6 hours after consuming or drinking the item. If the poison kills too fast for this second save to kick in, consider it a single level of level drain unless you fail the second save, in which case it causes death as normal.

Also; you only need to piss once a week and shit once every two weeks, though you can go more often if you don't want to piss an entire stream. Whenever you poop, your poop comes out as a solid, very dense round ball. If you store up your poop and polish it a bit you can use it as a cannonball on a long ocean voyage, with little daily poop balls being used as musket bullets.

[6] Your shoulders, back, and arms become double jointed. If you're a biped, you can now snap your joints back and run on all fours. While on all fours, you cannot use tools or attack besides biting or kicking, but you move +50% faster. You also take double damage from caltrops. It takes one combat round to snap back upright. If you're quadrapedal, you become a biped instead from using this ability. Even without grasping hands, your paws or claws can still clumsily open doors and push levers, and you can carry small items by holding them against your chest and in your mouth. You can also attack with regular weapons like swords or spears, but must roll disadvantage at the clumsy imitation of normal bipedal combat.

[7] Your skin crawls. Somehow detached from your muscles, but yet still a part of you. You can shake and wiggle tattoos, brands, scars, or other blemishes on your body to other parts of them or fade them out, and can even move wounds with a turn's concentration- these are usually just for cosmetic reasons, but could also be used to avoid painful injuries from repeated stress. Such as moving the slave-lashes you got on your feet to your back or sides to avoid further damage and pain while on tomorrow's march. Your skin can creepily crawl around, letting you move while prone without moving your limbs by sliding across the floor at a very slow pace, like a slug.

Additionally, you have the power to jump out of your skin. Your flesh and bones come out of your skin alive and in one piece, but with several disadvantages. While in this form you'll be almost impossible to recognize physically, looking like a strange flesh zombie but still glistening with fresh blood. Secondly you'll automatically fail any saving throws vs poison or disease, as anything splashed on your body is absorbed directly into the blood and tissues. However, in this form you can jump into the skin of another creature to take on its appearance, though you may move and act differently, and sound differently, then what the creature normally seems. If your original skin is destroyed while you are out of it you will lose -1d4 levels from level drain and never be able to regain your original appearance without a much greater form of regenerative magic.

[8] Your fingers turn blotchy white on both hands. This blueish-tint gives your fingers the appearance of being stained with something, or being frozen solid. While you cannot remove this coloration you can pretty easily hide it with a simple pair of gloves. These coloration also gives you several powers.

Your hands become immune to cold. You can touch things that are “too cold to touch” without injury, and can hold your hands in front of your face when being targeted by ice breath or cold spells, granting you a +2 to saves from deflecting the frost away from you. You can also now 'cut' ice by touching it at your will. You can cut out perfect cubes or spheres of ice with a little practice, though this only works on purely frozen ice and not snow or slush. You could use this to carve rooms or stairs in a glacier. This power also works on clear glass, letting you cut holes in glass windows or objects similar to a burglar; the glass and ice can stick to your fingers to make retrieval of these objects easy. Your hands are immune to cold, but you still take standard damage from cold sources.

[9] Your body tingles, you feel healthy all the time. If the first wound you take during a day is not fire or acid, you restore 50% of the damage from that wound at the end of an exploration turn. This explosive healing also grants +1 hit points per day of bed rest and you are sick for 1 day less as well from common diseases that pass through your system. This healing doesn't seem to speed up your metabolism or cause premature aging, your body is just that active when it comes to healing you.

[10] Your ribs are replaced with a highly mobile, pressurized gas with beneficial properties. The gas inside your chest follows a roughly rib-like shape, and provides the same protection to your heart and lungs as your normal ribs do, but prevent knives and blades from slipping through the gaps in your ribs as they are a solid sheet, without impeding flexibility. Additionally, this gas slips out to instantly shut cuts or stabs on your torso and back, melding the wound with a pure white, boney plate until it is healed and consumed by your skin and flesh above it through natural healing. You gain +4 hit points.

[11] Your eyes and skull gain an unusual hinge, letting you mash your upper face together. This lets you combine your two eyes into a single larger Cyclops eye. This cyclops eye has terrible depth perception giving -4 to all ranged attacks, and if it is destroyed you will lose both of your regular eyes, but the cyclops eye has many magic properties. It can see the basic materials of any crafted item, can identify magic items that aren't legendary in status, grants vision that allows you to see unimpeded for 6 miles from a high place, and finally allows you to levitate objects of 1 load unit or less by staring at them. Your eyes can be split back apart when you choose, requiring a single exploration turn and causing a headache to split or merge your eyes into the magic cyclops eye.

[12] Lymph Nodes- Yours grow even more as a tangled web. Beyond increasing your saves vs disease by +4, you also have a network of highly developed lymph just beneath the surface of your skin. Through your skin these creeping tendrils can pop up and entangle or grasp at objects or beings nearby you. This is painful and makes you take 1 damage per round they are outside of your body, but can freely slide back in without damage; the holes healing themselves up. These tiny blue tentacles can be used to “stick” yourself against a wall or other surface, wrap around a person in a grapple letting you treat your Strength score as doubled for the grapple, or squeeze and strangle tiny creatures crawling on your like flesh eating rats or piranha trying to bite you. The lymph node mutation lets you lower the damage taken by swarms to a maximum of 1 each round.

[13] You regain the ancestral strength in your jaw. Your progenitor's muscles were much stronger then your own, the ancient men who had to fight to survive. You regain that strength. If you are a man, this gives you a totally manly, handsome jaw. If you're a woman, this retreats back to your cheeks and back of the neck instead, letting you retain a more feminine appearance, but having the same effect. You can bite straight through raw meat, and deal 1d4 damage on a bite. If you're of a nonhuman species who could already do biting attacks, then increase the damage of your bite by +2. This strong jaw is also highly resistant to getting you knocked out when punched hard, meaning you can no longer be knocked out by a punch except on an attack roll of 20. Finally, this ability comes with a slightly painful but not unsightly restructuring of your teeth- you gain wisdom teeth and your teeth have an extra ability to regrow if they are knocked out or damaged.

[14] The space between your brain and skill expands to create a fleshy, lumpy layer of helpful blood and air, fed from your breathing. Extremely useful for general health- increase your maximum hit points by +2 and increase your Intelligence to 8 if it was lower then 8. This also allows you to survive and stay conscious and alive for up to 5 + Con modifier minutes without oxygen or fresh air to breath, but without fresh oxygen you cannot power your muscles, simply avoid brain death.

Additionally, in the event you are beheaded, your brain can stay alive long enough for your head to be sown back onto your body and reconnected. Making a saving throw against death to survive and have your head grow back onto your body.

[15] For a short period of about two weeks after gaining this mutation, you feel an incredible urge to eat things that are hard. You feel as though your entire body is as weak as a sapling and your bones will snap at the slightest touch, despite not having any loss of muscle or bone strength. Over this period of time you will venture to eat metal, stone, wood, bone shards, and anything you can to get hard materials into your system. Additionally during this time, your stomach acid turns a bright pink color in the event you throw up to see it- it has become capable of breaking down these substances. You will need to eat powdered or small grits of these items, as your teeth or jaw have not become any stronger. Based on the amount and number of types of objects you have eaten, your bones become remade into much stronger structures based on the materials you ate- the percentage of hard materials you ate that were not common rocks, stones, wood, and bones should be marked and tallied. These materials include things like iron ore, rare alloys, lead, or magical fantasy metals or crystals.

Consult the table below for the results. You also lose the urge to eat these things and become unable to digest them after this two weeks is up.
Pounds Eaten
%
AC Bonus
Description
5 lbs
20.00%
0
Noticeably tougher finger and toes.
10 lbs
40.00%
1
No longer feel pain from bumped elbow.
15 lbs
60.00%
1
Takes 2x long to amputate limbs.
20 lbs
80.00%
2
Bones are immune to Bone Breaking spells.
+25 lbs
90.00%
2
Iron weapons cannot sever your limbs.
+25 lbs w/ Adamantine
100.00%
3
Your corpse's bones will make mighty clubs.

The % category indicates how much of your skeleton has changed into a metallic or heavy form. Small percentages mean little streaks of steel in your bones, where as high percentages mean fully metal bones. You can also roll on the percentage value as a percentile roll to avoid your bone breaking from a fall or similar situation where they would snap under the strain.

[16] For a few days, you lose control of your legs. You'll occasionally fall over, jump in place for a few minutes, run with great speed when you meant to just walk, or accidentally kick your partner in bed from the random firing of your legs. After this fews days is up, both your legs feel very different. The muscles in them are taught like snakes and coiled like a spring. You can now jump 10ft high and bound around +15ft faster then your normal movement rate. Your kicks deal 1d4 damage. If your legs are cut and you don't move, the coiled muscles prevent you from losing any blood. You can also now sleep standing up, and you never feel foot pain or exhaustion from long travels, but you will still develop blisters without the proper footware.

[17] You gain a marsupial pouch. Up against your underbelly, this pouch is made of skin and can be 'sucked flat' against your body by the newfound muscular contractions you can do with your pouch. This suction is so strong that your pouch slit is invisible to the naked eye, only a slip of elf paper could find and enter the invisible gap to prove you had a pouch in the first place. You can store items inside the pouch which meld seamlessly with your stomach fat; a dagger would just make you appear chubby instead of having a dagger-like impression against your skin- still more useful for fatter characters. Using this as a hiding place, you can basically keep a small bag's worth of items sucked up close to you and unable to be detected. Being fatter gives you more storage space.

[18] The bottom of your feet grow hard leathery pads. This lets you walk around with bare feet that is tough as a shoe. Your feet also become more flexible- letting you tip toe around most trap pressure-plates and take no damage by moving through caltrops or burning embers. You can use them to walk across tightropes easily. Your feet have the same protection as good leather shoes would give. You also gain a +2 to stealth rolls from your silent, padded footfalls.

Additionally, you can "step out" of these leather pads whenever you choose, similar to a pair of sandals. As long as you are standing on a nonliving object, your leathery foot-pads remain and continue to press down with the same weight as your physical body would if you were still standing there. Such as stepping on a pressure plate that activates when you step off of it- you can simply step out of your leather foot pads and keep it pressed down. If these footpads are destroyed or knocked loose, they crumble to dust. Over the next week they regrow on your itchy feet.

[19] Uncomfortable growths being to form beneath both your wrists, which stretch down to your elbow. After a few days, they solidify into bones. With a motion you can force long bone spines to exit your forearms from your wrists. They exit through the specially made pores on your skin here, and thus cause no injury to yourself. These act as hidden weapons you can summon at a moment's notice. If you are a human sized being, these bone spines deal 1d4 damage. If you are smaller then a human, such as a dwarf or kobold, then these spines only deal 1d3 damage. If you are bigger then a human, then they're similar to the size of a sword and deal 1d6 damage. Finally, if you have any natural venom or poison, these spines gain the ability to deliver your own natural poison when stabbed into a target.

[20] Along your upper chest and back, scales of an unknown material form. These are bright orange in color, and hold a comfortable warmth, especially in sunlight. The affected character gains +1 AC from the hard scales granting protection, but also gain an inherent knowledge of what the scales do. As long as they are charged by being outside in the sun while shirtless for a few hours a week, the scales can grant the bearer their power. If the scales are not fed enough sunlight, they retain their AC bonus but lose the ability to channel light. In this case they turn a sickly yellow color until they are fed the requisite amount of sunlight once again.

While in darkness, the user can squeeze their temples to channel the sunlight energy in their scales through their eyes. This makes their eyes glow a bright yellow color, and lets them see in darkness. These eyes act exactly as a lantern, with only illumination on whatever the person is looking at at the time. This doesn't negatively effect stealth as long as you close your eyes, but the light can be seen from quite a distance in a dark place. You can keep your eyes glowing for a maximum of 3 exploration turns worth of time per day as long as your scales are charged up.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

20 Dwarven Light Sources

Art @Marius Schlichting
[1] Fire. Hearthfires, torches, long bronze candlesticks. Fire is a full belly and a good blade, why wouldn't you use fire? Smoke is dealt with easily through ventilation channels.

[2] Lava. Only for deeper fortresses. Magmaforges give off plenty of light, small troughes are cut to illuminate side area- flowing down and not cooling until after they fall into the wide drainage ditches. Some dwarf cities are built hanging like a bat against the roof of a large chamber over a sea of magma; the light and heat travels up enough to warm their homes. Mirrors can help illuminate inner rooms. Throw a carpet over the glass floor whenever you want to sleep.

[3] Trap-Jars. They hold jewel fairies; tiny beings responsible for hiding gemstones in the rock for miners to find. By trapping them in these jars the fairies produce light when shaken up. Eventually they'll find a way to slip out. Usually only outcast or poor Dwarves use these; when the fairies escape they tend to turn any gems the dwarf owned into coal as punishment for being imprisoned.

[4] Crystalline Stone. Stone with many small crystals within that trap and reflect light. Large pillar or floors made of this stone produce a small amount of light, enough to make it visible in the darkness, and enough to give a suggestion of nearby objects and beings. Not useful unless you have a large amount. Dwarf palaces are occasionally built with all crystalline stone, meaning the entire place has a moderate level of light without any energy spent.

[5] Glowing Mushrooms. They grow in little farms, or naturally in the caverns near where Dwarves live. There may be small industries based around these fungi; pressing and squeezing them for their glowing juices. These oils are put into lanterns and torches to light the way.

[6] Sparklers. Yes, like the firework. Little primitive gunpowder devices, rolled up sticks that produce a constant low fizzle and shoot of little sparks as they illuminate a small area. This is the reason Dwarves wear such long beards; keeps the sparks from burning your skin.

[7] Glitter Gas. Type of visible gas that only manifests in deep cavernous regions or nearby geothermal vents. It glows brighter the more pressure it is under; pumped into small glass orbs grants useful light but they explode violently when shattered or dropped.

[8] Olm Oil. Oil harvested from the fatty gills of giant cave olms. This oil is used similar to whaler oil; fueling lanterns and is a household commodity for richer Dwarf families. Also instead of Olms, just use literal underdark ocean great ghost whales.

[9] Magic. Some people don't like Dwarves with magic. Maybe all of it goes into light spells. Dwarf wise-men take handfuls of little polished stones and make them glow, permanently, at the cost of their race's other magical ability. Maybe the hallways just glow from this old magic.

[10] Ambient Light. It comes from the Earth itself, or filtered down from the sunlight lands above, and the lava flows below. Maybe the supernatural stonecarving skills of the dwarves allow light to simply carry further down the dark tunnels. Maybe the light is actually just sunlight and moonlight trapped from sediment; stuck in the pores of the rock and slowly leaking out once picked.

[11] Darkglow Brew. When drunk, mixes with stomach to create a potent glowing mix- can be visible through stomach if the dwarf if bare chested. Not used as a common light sources, but bubbles spat up when burping give off a bit of light. Puking this up create a puddle of rainbow vomit sludge.

[12] Salt Pyres. Deep mountain salts of different colors, purified and refined into a fine grain sand. Thrown in a shallow dish and lit on fire, gives off a low glow from the heated salts, lasts quite a while based on how much salt is present in the pyre.

[13] Electricity. Dwarves are the first and potentially only race to trap this force. By using lighting rods at the top of their hollowed out mountains, they channel this power down into deep chambers with copper wire stretched into cuboid shapes. This power can be siphoned off, bit by bit, to warm and light the sleeping and meeting chambers of the dwarves. Some dwarves may generate it another way, such as the great steam boilers in the bowels of the earth.

[14] Ghosts. Dwarves have a strong respect of their dead, and for good reason. Small glow lanterns or folded paper memorial slips to the dead shine in the darkness with a pale blue light- kept glowing from beyond death by their ancestors. Dwarf tribes who shun their ancestors lose their light, and as such, are lost to the darkness forever.

[15] Eldritch Lights. Glowing lights from down below; an eldritch source of energy. The cracks in the rock put out the light, we reflect and share it with our mirrors and tunnels. It grumbles on occasion, all we have to do is throw down an oath breaker who won't be missed. The grumbling stops, the mountain is quiet, the light continues.

[16] Shining Gears. Gears that turn from machines and steam engines. Unlike other engines, instead of putting their power into a machine or labor, these ones produce light. The small funnel at the end just illuminates a beam of light out of its path. Small cords and wires can be hooked up to funnel this light out of other areas. Not electric. It's gear powered.

[17] Trapped Sunlight. In the same way ancient creatures were preserved and fossiled, so to was the sunlight of ancient days. Cracking open a rock to reveal a dull orange splint of sunlight which can be shattered to release a bright flash, or it can be polished to let out a steady stream of light. Could also be frozen moonlight from a bygone age- the last ice age that froze the whole world.

[18] Glowsteel. It's a type of metal that must be imported, as its crafter must hate something enough to make the metal glow when it is pounded into shape. Dwarves may carry little vials of blood from a different creature, or a little bone talisman tied into their beard, which lets the metal light up as they approach. After many generations, dwarves may not even remember why these talismans work, and have no clue that an orc invasion coming as their steel posts desperately glow blue as a warning.

[19] The Gods. Dwarf Gods grant the gift of light as other Gods grant the gift of rain or success in battle to members of other races. They create little floating planetariums in the dwarf cities which give off pale light from miniature, but very real planetoids hovering just overhead. Maybe light is projected from the blessings of their priests or godly miracles, golden glowing clouds fill the halls of the Dwarf capital, showing both their God's favor and blessing in one.

[20] Domestication. Different glowing animals and creatures are used. Ever-flaming imps are stuffed into cages high above the meeting halls, fat glowbugs are given short leashes and tugged around to provide light to the scholars. Potentially only their bodyparts- farmed and put in lanterns as above, their glowing eyeballs torn out just to keep light in the Dwarvish home.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

20 Sounds to base your Magic Language On

Roll on this table to see what sounds and general feel you should use to make your ancient, magical language sound like. You can connect this to the lore reasons as to why it sounds this bad.

20 Sounds for the basis of your Magic Language
[1] Ancient Sumerian. Lots of grunting, simple words like UMA or ELE.
[2] Hebrew. Yelling “Oy Vey!” when your spells fuck up is not necessary, but highly encouraged.
[3] Ancient Egyptian, or just invoke the names of their Gods since that works too.
[4] Aztec. Lots of q's and unpronounceable nonsense. Cool art though.
[5] Just screaming.
[6] Kulning. Scandinavian cow calling- very fitting for Elvish magic.
[7] Nonsense rhyming-whyming bullshit words. Bibitties and bobbitties.
[8] End all the words in exhaling, hissing consonants, like h's and s's. Use for ancient snake sorcerers.
[9] Say what you want a spell to do and then reverse the tape. Talk backwards.
[10] Sound effects. Every spell's incantation is just what it sounds like in funny impersonation.
[11] Tuvan Throat Singing. Can be heard high and far in the mountain steppe.
[12] French.
[13] Some made up baby speak. Daa daa voo woo. Everything ends in a vowel.
[14] Sims talk. Use your native language and pick a few words, but make them connect wrongly.
[15] Dip deep in your throat and make horrible scratchy, growly sounds. Magic words are originally used by demons or other beings, humans aren't well adapted to speak this language.
[16] Magic words are imperfect recreations of things impossible for humans to pronounce. Words like “Ishjjckkkairruullllklkl” from Eldritch Speech. Or just use Georgian.
[17] Gather a bunch of spit in your mouth and just make mouth noises instead of speaking. The closest you'll get to actual Sorcerous incantations is Donald Duck speak.
[18] Latin. You can use Latin literally, since there is good enough representation on how it is spoken, or just use rhyming fake Latin for Harry Potter-esque spell incantations which works too.
[19] Japanese-y. Give it those loud onomatopoeia like ARA ARA and shit from your favorite anime. Don't assume this is meant to be realistic or anything.
[20] Spoken in English (or the fantasy version of English), but it always rhymes and makes good use of ancient and forgotten words. The magic language is just the normal one used in this way.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

8 Origins for Animal-People

Art @vu06 (Potentially NSFW)
8 Origins for Animal-People
[1] The most domesticated animals. Domesticated animals become not only comfortable around people, but eventually start to stand and look like them too. May be the result of an ancient people or empire that domesticated animals a lot more thoroughly then normal villagers do now.

[2] Created by the Gods. Maybe they were created out of various animals to take the god's favorite attributes; the God of War creating people out of bloodthirsty wolves or bears, or the God of Plenty selecting cows and pigs as their mortal race avatars to represent them.

[3] They were once humans who wore animal skins to transform into them, or gain their powers at certain times. The suits were cursed, or the blood of these people mixed with the blood of the animals, turning them into half human creatures.

[4] Cursed by the Gods- animals or humans twisted into mockeries of both.

[5] Animal people are just really polite, well educated animals. Regular animals go around on all fours and eat gross, rotting food or each other because they just haven't been civilized. Leads to a more fairy tale style setting, where rabbits may have tea down in their burrows. Don't think about their lack of thumbs too much; donkeys stand up and swing swords around with awkward hoof-hands.

[6] Created in a arcane laboratory by an ancient progenitor race. Different animals were selected based on their usefulness- genetic super soldiers, laboring slaves, submissive house servants and so on. The original race was probably snake people or something, just to make it more confusing.

[7] Whenever a human breeds with an animal, this is the result. Kind of funny, kind of gross. Weird fantasy genetics- hopefully nobody tries to breed these with other half breeds, else you'll have some horrible chimera monsters.

[8] They're aliens from another planet or dimension. Them looking like animals in this world is just coincidence. It's convergent evolution.

Monday, November 11, 2019

CHARMS

Charms are small items worn by characters to give them minor advantages. Charms are meant to be subtle, indirect, mystic magic that isn't too powerful. Wearing a protective amulet or hunter's necklace boosts your ability only rarely, it is never obvious to the characters in the universe if this hedge magic does anything or if it subtly manipulating fate.

Everyone can make use of charms. As long as your character has a Wisdom score of 8 or higher, you can make or keep a charm. Charms only work if made by yourself, your lover, your parents, or the person who provides you with spiritual succor. Typically this is the local priest, shaman, or your party's Cleric if you follow the same religion. Charms made by anyone must always come from self made or hand crafted ingredients and cannot be mass produced. The protective charm of wolfsbane must be cut with your own hand, for example. There is no direct limit of the number of useful or active charms a person can have, but to prevent people from “spamming” the trinkets a soft cap could be made of around equal to their level.

Offensive Charms – 1d8
[1] Cat Whisker Tassel- put on weapons. Grants +1 to hit on the first sneak attack you make each day.

[2] Octopus Curl. Pickled and shrunken octopus tentacle, curled up in necrosis. User gets advantage on the first grapple check, offensive or defensive, they make each day.

[3] Obsidian Chip. Tiny splinter of black stone, too small to be used as an arrowhead. Makes the first damage roll of 1 with a sharp weapon deal 2 instead per day.

[4] Brawler's Wrappings. Wrapped around arms and fists; old bandages that must have been taken from a fighter who never lost. Deal 1d4 damage with unarmed attacks if you couldn't already, or deal +1 damage on the first bare knuckle punch you throw with them, once per day.

[5] Beast Fang. The fang of any great or threatening monster, taken as a trophy. Bound to a necklace or bracelet, the first attack you make each day against a beast that misses by 1 hits instead.

[6] Nettle Loop. Unusual for a charm; as it must be placed on your target instead. Hidden between the pages of a book or tied into their hair. Makes the first damage die you roll from an attack against the target one size larger; Roll a d8 with a d6 sword for example. Only works once.

[7] Raven's Wing. Tied around your neck or the end of a staff. Enforces a penalty of -1 to saves against your curse or hex spells.

[8] Black Glass-Bead. Tied into a lanyard on a staff, embedded into a wand, or mixed in with a sack of sling stones. Turns a damage roll of 1 into a 2 for slings or the Magic Missile spell; once per day.

Protective Charms – 1d8
[1] Leaf Scroll. Small leaf rolled into a scroll, written with a prayer or well-wishes from your love. The scroll burns instead of you versus any fire spell that deals 1 damage.

[2] Chainmail Link. Bit of rusted chainmail, twisted into a charm or a ring to be worn. Increases your AC by +1 until it makes the difference, ie they hit by one point- this charm turning it to a miss instead. Once per day.

[3] Green Apple. Grants +1 to all saves vs disease or poison. If the apple starts to spoil or a bite is made out of it, the charm's power ends.

[4] Insect trapped in Amber. Has a 1 in 6 chance to extend the duration of a protective spell by 1 exploration turn. Only works on spells that have a duration of at least a turn. Works once.

[5] Feather Cap. Magic cap which will let you ignore the first arrow that hits you that deals 1 damage. The arrow knocks the cap off your head instead, and ruins the charm.

[6] Silver Nub. This melted nub of silver must have once been a part of a holy symbol, candle used in a church, or on the ring of a pious noble (hence its rarity). The ring grants +1 to saves vs death and/or level drain against the undead until you fail the roll; the silver tarnishes.

[7] Four Leaf Clover. Grants a 1 in 6 chance to help you find a minor, useful item worth 1c or less that you need in the moment. Only works in places where it would be plausible. Also grants +1 to saves vs death. Has a 1 in 6 chance each time it is used to lose its power forever, or when it starts wilting.

[8] Lucky Horseshoe. One of the most powerful charms; turns the first roll attack roll of 20 made against you into a 1 instead. This only works once per season. The horseshoe can also be nailed up on a door or passage to act as a ward against the fae.

Traveller's Charms – 1d6
[1] Clay Buddha. If it's too weird to have a real religion in your game, make it a clay fat man of good fortune instead. The small figurine is rubbed on the head or tummy. There is a 1 in 6 chance that the next place you stop has someone willing to share a nice, homecooked meal with you that will restore 1 hit point. Works once per journey.

[2] Cow's Tooth. This heavy molar can be worn on a necklace, bracelet, or even set in a ring. Whenever someone from your main group gets separated either due to an attack, weather event, getting lost, etc. It will take no more then 3 days to catch back up to them, with a lucky coincidence being how you find them again.

[3] Pig's Tail. Used mostly by merchants- often tied to a lanyard or cord for a sac or pack. Counts the trip as 1 day less for food spoilage and product's degrading over time. Also counts for rations or other goods, but only on overland travel and not in ships.

[4] Bent Nail. Taken from a vampire's coffin after being slain. This nail gives you a single reroll on the first wandering monster or random encounter check you take that hits a monster on a journey; the first time you get a wandering monster encounter reroll it to see if you avoid instead. Only works on creatures that come at night, like Vampires.

[5] The Lucky Log. Magic log that must be taken from a naturally fallen tree, usually in an elf forest. The log must be used in a fire, but can be dragged after after a short burn to get the effects. That night, your campfire is magically enchanted reducing the chance for whoever is keeping watch to be surprised by -1 in 6, or granting a +3 to a d20 roll to notice intruders, whichever system fits better. The log doesn't need to be fully burned each time but will eventually be reduced to ash; it can be used up to 6 nights before being used up.

[6] The Caravaner's Cricket. Grants +1 save on the first roadside hazard or saving throw you make that isn't against a monster or hostile spell. Works once per journey, but only if the cricket is alive. The cricket will probably die in a season.

Arcane Charms – 1d6
[1] Sandy Cog. This is a bunch of pure white beach sand that has been wetted and pressed into the shape of a cog. It's very fragile and must be intact when you wish to use it. The next time you cast Sleep, it also works on machines. The cog falls apart after one casting.

[2] Special Petrified Poop. Taken and dried only from a rare breed of dire bat, this guano can be used to cast a variant version of fireball. Upon spell cast, the spell rolls +2 damage die but rolls all die as d4 instead of d6. This makes the spell deal more minimum damage, but less maximum damage. When cast, the guano burns as a slow ember instead of sparking and exploding as normal.

[3] Lead Wing. This charm is made from lead, shaped into a bird's wing by a skilled craftsmen. Whenever you cast a Flight spell, it lasts twice as long and you move faster in flight, but you must touch the ground at the end of each round or else the spell effect ends and you take full fall damage from whatever height you were at. This charm is not used up when used to cast spells, but due to the fact it encumbers as a 2 unit item and is so situational is isn't too powerful of a trinket.

[4] Magic Marble. This glass bead is held to the head and filled with energetic waves of force created from the magic user's mind. Filling it requires the sacrifice of a 1st level spell, gotten rid of during at least a turn of meditation and distillation. The marble can be squeezed to release the spell as a bright magical cloud; it is roughly shaped or reenacts the spell sacrificed to prepare it, but has no effect. This bright cloud expands quickly and can illuminate a whole room, plus it is an impressive display of magic that could full the superstitious into thinking far greater had just been cast.

[5] Summoner Socks. Purple, arcane socks worn in any matching pair of silly wizard shoes. Whenever you summon a creature, you have a 1 in 6 chance to increase it's HD by +1. The other stats of the creature do not change, nor does the duration or loyalty of the summoned monster change unless they scale off of the monster's HD. After use, one of the pair will turn gray and moth-eaten.

[6] Curseleaf. Usually made of a very dark green or brown leaf, pressed in the pages of a book for a long time and then glazed with a clear, sugary substance. Must be eaten when a curse spell is cast, and left to dissolve on the tongue. Gives the victims of your curse spells a -1 to their saving throws against them, but only if they have never eaten a Curseleaf. Tastes terrible.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

20 Orc Prosthetics

Orcs love to fight. Almost as much fighting, Orcs love to show off their battle scars and brag about fighting. This is how Orcs get mates. Their race is very gender divided; Men go out into the world and take back slaves, food, and plunder and present it to the women, who then will let the best mate with them. This is very normal in Orc society, the women are in control of basically anything that isn't fighting and raiding. After all, they're 9 foot tall multibreasted pig women with magic powers.

But there's a problem. Orcs love to fight and get hurt fighting so they can show off their cool scars. But getting hurt as a living creature means you'll start to accumulate permanent damage; not just old inflamed wounds but lost body parts too. This is why second only to fighting, bragging, eating, and fucking- Orcs love prosthetics. It replaces their fleshy limbs with more kickass weapons. It's just about the only inventive things orcs care about- even if they're mostly made by their slaves.

Orc Prosthetics
These mechanical limbs are made of common materials and sometimes poorly maintained. To get a prosthetic fitted on a stump elbow or knee costs 800c, where as the shoulder or groin costs 1200c. Also requires a willing squealer smith to put it on you. Squealers are a lot more open minded about serving humans then Orcs are, but these highly trained underlings are rare outside of the underhills.

Roll 1d10 for an Arm Prosthesis
Roll 1d6+10 for a Leg Prosthesis
Roll 1d4+16 for a Torso, Head, or Back Prosthesis
Roll 1d20 for a totally random Prosthesis

20 Orc Prosthetics
[1] Bone Fist
Simple and effective limb replacement. The bone-fist is made of bones; the radius and ulna of a skeleton bleached and fitted with mechanical joints- the metacarpals fitted with a complex set of wire to help it grasp and move. These arms might also be enchanted with a bit of neromantic energy to make them effective, depending on the level of magitech you're comfortable with. Orcs really like using ogre bones to give them a huge new arm, or replacing the finger bones with the sharp talons of a bird or even the teeth of a large cavern cat for a claw attack. On their own, these prosthetics do nothing special except act as a new hand that can hold and use weapons; but since they were once part of a living creature this hand can be used to grapple or punch undead creatures without fearing the level drain or paralyzing effects, as long as they don't hit the rest of your body. Orc boasts of “strangling wights and vampires” are often made, but rarely verified.

[2] Nail-Stab
This prosthesis replaces the hand with a black metal spike with a detachable socket. This is so simplistic that its much cheaper to graft and repair; reduce costs to 600c for an elbow and below or 1000c for a shoulder and below. This acts as a 1d4+1 weapon that can imbed itself in its prey. By twisting the spike at the wrist, it can be detached and thus pin someone to a wall or floor if stabbed deep enough in them. The target must make a saving throw modified by strength to break free, and takes another 1d4+1 damage for pulling this wicked, often barbed spike out of their flesh.

[3] Beast-Burner
Using a wheel lock mechanism; this device creates a shower of sparks. These sparks and the loud scraping noise is enough to scare a beast- simple minded animals must make a morale check. It creates enough light for surface dwellers to see for one combat round, and may blind an orc using their darkvision from the sudden creation of light. The shower of sparks isn't a very effective weapon, only dealing 1d2 damage in melee range, but can be reloaded with some iron slag to rub and an exploration turn to wind up. It can also start fires rapidly by pressing the end the main discharge point against something dry and flammable.

[4] Arm-Bow
Orcs believe that using ranged weapons are pretty dishonorable. The exception are thrown javelins as a skirmishing weapon, but dedicated ranged military units are relegated to the too old, young, or to the squealers or slave soldiers. However, having a weapon of any kind is much better then not having one at all, and a P'orc with a chopped arm is basically “old” now anyway. The Arm-Bow is a crossbow embedded into the arm from the elbow downwards. It is fired with the other hand free to pull the trigger and requires a turn to wind between shots. Deals a punchy 1d8 damage, but requires bolts and regular maintenance as a crossbow. Can be used as an improvised melee weapon at 1d3, but on a roll of 3 it severs the metal cord and gives either the orc or whoever they're punching nasty whiplash.

[5] Squealapult
Similar in construction to the Arm-Bow, this arm features an elbow that can lock into a straight line and throw a small hooked on basket along it. This arm can only be grafted to someone with their entire arm missing up to the shoulder, the elbow to hand length isn't long enough. This arm prosthesis can launch a small stone fast enough to deal 1d6 damage as a mini catapult, but is impossible to aim closer then 30 ft due to the firing arc. The main purpose of this arm though is in the name- to launch small Squealers, the runts of the Porc race, over walls or as living cannonballs. It can also be used by clever orcs to throw vials of acid or bombs long distance, but can only launch unencumbered beings of Squealer size or smaller. So Gnomes and Halflings are ok, but Dwarves and Humans are much too heavy.

[6] Tangler
This arm features a mess of cords and cables. It has heavy stone weights on the ends of these cords, which are loaded into the hollow core of the arm, which is little more then a metal pipe. Some orcs can afford lead weights, or even better, the dark-lead found near the center of the world, which is a rare and powerful ore. When spun over the head and tossed, the tangler is thrown out of the socket similar to a massive bolas. It only has a single “shot” at a time, but is a much longer cord that can snag up to three bipeds, or a large quadraped like a horse. Only cutting your way out or being exceptionally agile to avoid it in the first place allow escape from the tangler. Orcs using the dark-lead weights with this can often snap the leg bones of weak and thin creatures, especially elves, sheerly from the force of the cords wrapping around their victims' legs.

[7] Sleep-Sword
This long syringe with glass bottles is hooked up to a long sharp blade with a deep channel within to transfer the liquid in the glass tube into the victim. Stabbed or slashed, the medicine in this arm can slow down and weaken the victim. This arm deals 1d6 damage as per a sword. Equal to the damage dealt, the victim takes a number “tranquilized” counters on their character sheet. If these tranquilizer counters reach their Constitution score in number, the being gets -2 to hit and AC from their sluggish movements, and must make a saving throw to avoid falling asleep. To use this on creatures, just add their HD + 10 and treat that as their Con score. Some creatures, such as the undead or massive beings like dinosaurs, or those flying into a beserk rage, are immune to tranqulization.

[8] Steel-Claw
Similar to a bird's talons, this mechanical arm has less dexterity then a regular hand or the Bone-Fist prosthetic, but has a powerful grip. The metal claw can lock into place, and can be used as a 1d3 improvised weapon if grabbing at soft flesh. Anything grabbed by this claw requires a hard saving throw modified by strength to break free, or the metal must be snapped off or melted away with acids. Additionally, this could be used on a zipline or climbing point by the Orc to hang on to something and support their full, fat body weight.

[9] Boar-Bellows
Long, cylindrical bellows built into the arm. By twisting and squeezing, it can shoot out a long blast of air. While useful for forging, and capable of blowing back the bodies of incorporeal ghosts or dusty wraiths, it can also be loaded up with a powder before firing to create a single use blast attack. This powder could be choking, blinding, or even acidic, requiring only the aid of an alchemist to safely store in the bellows. While partially protected by the metal sheath, any sharp or cutting weapon that hits this bellows arm and deals more then 3 damage punctures the sac and makes it useless until it is mended.

[10] Craftsman's Hand
Similar to a giant multitool. This arm can flick out several useful small tools and devices. Scissors, knives, files, spoons & forks and other cutlery, a small hand saw, a hammer with nail-aiming arm addition, and so on. By far the most useful of all these prosthetic arms, but considered somewhat dishonorable due to a lack of weaponry. It is also possible to fit a second prosthesis onto this arm, which fits into the forearm and can be flipped with the hand to have a weapon AND the multitool, but this makes the prosthetic cost double for the installation and advanced hinges. Any powerful blunt weapon that impacts this advanced double-stuffed hand that deals 7 damage or higher causes it to fan out in a shower of metal, making a giant useless hunk of springs, gears, wires, and splayed out tools that the orc must carry along or take off their stump until they can repiar it.

[11] Cricket-Leg
The bended, sharp edged metal of this leg can be used as a d4 weapon from the cruel serrated legs. Secondly, it can be rubbed against the thigh to create a loud, piercing metal scrap that sounds somewhat similar to a cricket's chirp. This leg gives an awkward running gait, but does not impede with jumps in any way. Orcs with two of these cricket legs can jump 5ft higher then normal.

[12] Tap-Leg
Orcs are less caring about smuggling stuff around- they don't try to hide their booze in a fake peg leg. This leg looks like a moderately thick stick similar to a barrel. It has a metal tap near the foot to be twisted and release whatever inebriating substance has been stored within. The sloshing alcohol does reduce stealth rolls made by this orc by -1 unless it has been emptied.

[13] Sprocket Leg
This leg has a large amount of gears and metal components near the knee. It can support the weight of the bearer and also turn and redirect it on a spot; such as when in a chase to quickly shift your weight on that leg, turn it, and the gears steady yourself so you can continue from a sharp turn down a side passage for example. This leg makes the runner immune to the negative effects of slipping oil or the Grease spell, as well as granting a +2 to any saves to avoid being pushed or falling off high places, the gears snapping into sequence to stabilize the walker.

[14] Duelist's Foot
Metallic legs with a hollow cage-like design. Within it can store a sword or two knives if its from the knee and below, or two swords/four knives if its from the groin and down. This acts almost as a mobile armory; popping the leg into a different pose lets the handles of these swords present themselves to be easily pulled free and weilded.

[15] Meatleg
This leg has the same heft and weight as a normal leg, and makes a similar sound if slapped against the hard floor without a shoe. The leg is made of meat and discarded flesh, meaning that within a few weeks it will need to be replaced as it will start to rot and attract flies and create a foul odor. Replaced the meat leg with no meat only costs the price of the number of rations it takes to fill it; as the skeletal structure remains intact. The main advantage of the meat leg is it is more covert then other prosthetic legs, creating almost no difference in walking gait or appearance, and it can also be detached to act as a distraction for hungry beasts. Anyone with a meat leg caught in the jaws of a monster can make a saving throw so that only their leg is caught; they dislodge and fall free as the beast eats the meaty leg. The only orcs who get this regularly are orcs that either work as beast tamers for giant monsters or who regularly enter into gnoll territory.

[16] Boulderclasp
The leg has a long, hard stone in place of the foot. This counterweight makes the leg good at kicking, dealing 1d4+1 damage, and can shatter through brittle floors made of glass or wood with a strong standing kick. However, the heavy stone will cause the user to sink in water and have -2 to stealth rolls. If the user is submerged, they have a few seconds to reach down and cut the cord inside the leg to detached the stone, but the leg becomes uesless for walking without the hefty counterweight.

[17] Skull-Cage
This “prosthetic” is more a lifelong medical brace for the head. It involves screwing tight metal struts around the Orc's head in a cage-like shape to act as a medical brace for a being with a smashed or severely damaged skull. It cannot be removed without killing its host unless enough time has passed for a full healing effect to have been made. The skull-cage grants a bonus +1 AC from itself, but the user cannot wear any kind of helmet and additionally has this big metal object on their head, thus giving them an improvised headbut at 1d3. Most Skull-Cages made by Orcs put spikes on the ends, or paint the bars nearest to the mouth red, to look more intimidating.

[18] Eyeball Pop-Flash
Device that is inserted carefully into an empty eye socket of a person with a missing eye. This eye must then be closed until the device is activated; the prosthetic does not grant sight at all, simply granting a small weapon to deploy in a combat scenario. When this eye is opened- the device pops and creates a loud flash of light- stunning and blinding anyone else nearby for a combat round. This is especially effective for orcs who are fighting other underground creatures who find light loathsome, and they are stunned for two rounds. Those with this prosthetic device will close their other eye and be mentally prepared for the release, and thus will not be stunned by it. Individuals with this stun bomb in their eye often have accidental discharges until they spend a few months really practicing keeping this eye closed at all times; even when surprised or when first waking up in the morning. Nevertheless, an extremely surprising situation can still cause them to open their ruined eye and release the flash.

[19] Gut-Bag
One of the most disgusting types of prosthetics. This is a very brutal device only put on those who have had a large portion of their intestines ripped out or have been gutted but yet survived. The gut-bag is placed in their chest and is visible from the outside. The thick bag fills as the person eats and drinks, and allows them to still digest food, but is very difficult to install and will kill anyone who doesn't have a Constitution modifier of at least +1 from the infection, unless that infection is cured by a regime of healing potions and/or healing magic. Finally, the gut swells up much bigger then an actual stomach would due to a lack of elastic properties, so after large meals the gutbag will extend far out as though they were very fat. Puncturing this bag will cause their half-eaten slop to fall out, but won't cause any damage to the individual. Instead, they will simply have to go hungry and be unable to eat until the bag is sewn shut.

[20] Ear-Funnel
Given to a person with a missing ear. This funnel is attached to the head via leather straps, and is made of a cheap metal. The funnel grants regular hearing out of that ear, but if pressed against a door or other thin barricade it can hear through them, funneling noise into the user's ear and letting them eavesdrop on others like a professional spy.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

10 Orc Spells

Normal Orcs don't usually cast spells. They are warriors first and foremost, magic is something that is mystic and distant to them. The male Orcs rely on brute strength, ingenious weapons, or the occasional magic item granted to them from being a suitor to one of the Great Sows. Magic is seen as something of a powerful, feminine thing, and Orcs are especially distrusting of the male Wizarding society of the humans and elves.

Orcish Great Sows do learn spells though, and greedily consume any magical writings they can get their hands on. They are attended by the smartest of the Squealers to act as scribes and assistants in their arcane witch-workshops. Great Sows cast spells using rough dark-iron staves, and their sorcerous bloodline gives them the power of some of the greatest dark magicians. Any Great Sow will know 2d6 standard spells, with a preference for destructive or fertility-aiding magic, as well as two or three of these special spells, which were invented by the huge pig women themselves.

10 Orc Spells – Roll 1d10
[1] Slave Banner - 1st level
This spell requires a rod or staff. By stamping one end against the ground and casting the spell, it conjures and unfurls a war banner attached to the head of the staff. It held up high, it can be used as a regular banner can in warfare to guide or lead troops. It has no other effect on its own.

Orcs often train slaves to fight for them; large militias of both human, elf, squealers, dwarf, or other slaves may be supplied with basic weapons to fight as meat shields for Orc troops. The war banner they follow is purely based on training and brutal discipline; destroying this banner causes a morale check for slaves, but instead of fleeing they revolt. It would be trivial for a magician who learns this spell to reverse engineer it to change the design of the banner to one of their own kingdom.

[2] Gristlesmooth - 1st level
This spell creates a magical ointment and requires a large amount of fat from any type of creature; pig, human, cave-beast, etc. In the short term, this ointment makes the skin moisten and become healthier, which restores 1d6 damaged attribute points of one attribute among Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma. Secondly, it also gives the skin a glistening smoothness and reduces the visible effects of aging. Continuous use of this spell can suspend the aging process and further increase the physical attractiveness of its user, curing blemishes and scars but giving a constant oily feeling to the skin. Any and all unwelcome mental images of giant, multibreasted pig women rubbing themselves with body oils all over is absolutely intentional and a part of the psionic attack power this spell also contains when in written form, such as right now.

[3] Sow Kiss - 1st level
This spell requires touch. Simply poking a being's nose will activate the spell. This causes their nose to turn red and glow. This glowing is visible in the dark and reduces stealth by -2, but gives an obvious indication that this person has pleased a spellcaster. In Orc society, having your nose glows like this means you have gained the favor of one of the Great Sows and as such it confers a +1 to your Charsima modifier for the duration of the spell. Lasts for three days.

[4] Binding of Dark Magic - 2nd level
When holding a treasure or a cage for a slave, this spell can be used to protect something with dark magic. By touching a container, the object is wraped in fuzzy black chains that collect like shadows and are only partially visible to the naked eye. The difficulty of picking a lock increases by 1 tier and anyone who tries to move or take the object or free the prisoner it is over must save or take 1d4 damage from the black magic. This spell can be dispelled by the touch of a 3rd level Holy Man, such as a Cleric or similar class. Great Sows use this to protect their spellbooks and other valuable treasures.

[5] Growth of the Alloy-Implement - 2nd level
Occasionally, a Great Sow needs to bust some heads. Rarely do they use their great strength directly, preferring spells, but this spell is a back up. By channeling the magic through their iron staves, this spell grows the metal out in all directions creating a jagged and savage looking huge iron cudgel. The growths on this metal object at jagged and rough, consisting of worthless slag iron pieces and sharp edges of half-molded orestone, but the whole thing can be swung as a 1d10 great weapon. It has a -1 to hit due to being unbalanced and basically just being a giant lumpy piece of metal.

Other magic users can cast this spell too, though it requires a long iron staff to cast and powerful armrs to wield it. Any magic inherent in the staff will be useful for up to 5 rounds after being transformed; ie a Fireball Staff could gain +1d6 fire damage on his with the slag metal weapon. After these 5 rounds, the magic inherent in the original staff is gone. This transformation is also permanent, meaning the staff is permanently ruined. The metal grown on this staff is a combination of low quality metals found in the air, as well as ballooned out parts of the original staff, as well as drawing in metals in nearby soils and objects to the staff while casting; it's not very valuable therefore and is mostly just scrap iron or iron flux with little practical value.

[6] Dark Flames - 3rd level
This spell is a dark, twisted version of the standard Flames spell. Dark Flames deals 3d6 damage against a single target, which is reduced by one die if they succeed a save vs spells, and they reduce the damage by another one die if they have a fireproof cloak or are a high-level fighter parrying the flame with a magic holy sword, etc. Dark Flames also does not produce as much light as a regular Flames spell, and does not light things on fire. Instead, it rolls out like a heavy fog, guided by the user's hands, which consumes all in its path. It lasts for up to three rounds.

[7] Distant Dreaming - 3rd level
This spell can only be cast when sleeping, and only functions an hour before, after, or during noon or midnight- pigs are crepuscular animals, and are most active at dawn and dusk, and as such these spells are limited then. It may be because of the third time realm that this spell taps into is too close to function. If this spell is prepared and the caster's sleep is uninterrupted, they dream.

The dream may only work on far away places or other realms of reality, not in your own realm. One in the depth of the underworld may dream of the surface, but someone on the surface could not dream of another country or land far away, it is only the distant places that can be seen. The dreamer is able to move around as an invisible wraith, capable of seeing and hearing as they could if they were really there, though sounds and images are foggy and sometimes undefined. It is possible to spy on other places with this spell, but beings in those places who can sense the invisible or see spirits can notice the dreamer, and may well banish them as with a Turn Undead roll or even destroy them. Once the dream ends, any information learned must be written down as it is forgotten in two minutes. Additionally, you can only use this spell a single time for any realm you have never personally visited. After the first viewing, that location becomes forever blocked to you from this spell.

[8] Fertility Spell - 3rd level
This spell greatly improves the fertility of the caster. The person under this effect will become impregnated or impregnate their partner with a 100% chance. The pregnancy will be much healthier then normal, and will increase the number of offspring by 20% for species with larger litters, where as for humans or similar creatures this spell instead grants a 3 in 4 chance to have twins instead of a single child at the time of birth.

[9] Black Step - 3rd level
This spell works as a perfect teleportation, no errors or disruptions from casting this spell. Additionally, it doesn't count as a “normal” teleportation spell, and as such wouldn't trip any alarm spells or barriers that stop normal teleportation from happening.

Instead, the Black Step lets the caster warp to a nearby place of shadow. This jump happens to any visible location which is shrouded in darkness, and the spellcaster will magically turn into a black cloud and disappear, before reappearing at that place. This transportation happens instantly and does not require any time to orient oneself after casting it, thus it is an extremely reliable spell. Needless to say, if this spell was acquired by an thieves it would quickly make them a master burglar.

[10] Sacrament of the Ties of Blood - 4th level
This spell deals with the blood. All those who cast it in a game with alignment will sway subtly towards chaos, as the spell deals with the powers of hot red blood.

The spellcaster must cut their hand and summon being(s) that shares their blood. The “blood” of a creature includes all beings of that characters race, all beings of closely related races, and animals or monsters who have a component of that races bloodline. For example, Orcs can call upon pigs, great boar wyrms beneath the Earth, and so on. Humans can call upon the bipedal birds that share their nature, along with any human of any race. The summoning ritual calls forth any being to the caster's location, which takes them anywhere from mere moments to an exploration turn to arrive; no matter the difference, the called being is “lost” in a hedge or dark passage and arrives there with great speed. The caster may summon any number of beings with a sum total of HD equal to the casters, OR they can call a single being of greater power if the being's HD is at most double that of the casters HD.

The called being arrives and is placated with the blood given, and must allow itself to bleed as well for the blood to be mixed on the alter or ground with the caster's own. The being then treats its relation to the spell caster as though it had rolled the highest possible reaction check, or if it is under the effect of a Charm spell. They are family and of the same blood, after all. Finally, the caster may impose upon this being a single command or order that the being must follow. Each time this spell is cast, the spell caster loses -1d4 maximum hit points from the blood they spill which does not return to their body; the sacrament is complete only in this way.