Malevolent Zombie Servants

Malevolent Zombie Servants

HD- 2

AC- Leather

Uncanny intelligence, uses weapons (d6)

These zombie servants are created by necromancers using living slaves and expending a high level spell slot. Once turned, the zombie servant is bound by a magical command to never harm its master, and follow two commands from its master, or those its master designates as being allowed to give them orders. They can use any weapons and armor, and even cast spells if they learned how.

The zombie is as intelligent as it was while alive, and is totally devoted to the destruction of living people. It wants nothing more then to rip flesh, kill, and take revenge on its master by roundabout ways. Whenever it is given a third command, it overwrites the first command it had and it is now free to forget and ignore it. This means that after making two commands, the default "never harm your master" command is forgotten, and they will turn on their master.

This creature was inspired from a dream. After commanding the zombies to give me a rope and to lower me out of the elevated house they were stuck in, my two commands allowed them the freedom to trick innocent people into letting them out to eat the flesh of the living. I thought it might be an interesting zombie minion; intelligent creatures bound by only a few commands to hold them back.

Armello Roleplaying Game + 10 Armello Story Seeds

Armello is a video game board-game sort of thing featuring furry characters. The game's lore and world is pretty stock-standard fantasy fair besides the animal people, but has some nice quirks to it and a theme of good vs evil. The thing about Armello though is it has rules for dice, combat, and stats for characters since it has some RPG elements. For this reason I sometimes consider how Armello could be used to create a system for tabletop RPG adventuring- and I wrote one up. 

If you converted the level up system for a to-gold traditional system, you could probably make this an OSR style game about cute animal people getting fucking murdered in dungeons.
But I'll leave that honor up to you.

Armello Dice Symbols

Armello uses regular 6 sided dice for their rolling mechanics, but without numbers and instead symbols. I've linked these up to numbers on a die that I think are very close to their original symbols and intent, plus each piece is on the exact other side as its opposite.

6- Wyld

5- Sun

4- Shield

3- Sword

2- Moon

1- Rot

Armello Stats

Armello uses 4 stats; Health, Fight, Wits, Spirit. Health is the number of hits you take before falling; a single combat may not kill you, just the total number of injuries over time exceeding your health will. Fight is the number of dice rolled in combat, Wits is the number of dice used in perils, and Spirit is the magic stat. All characters in Armello itself start with a stat total of 15, you could adjust these numbers. With a recommended soft cap of 5 in one single stat.

Armello Combat

Combat in Armello deals damage both ways, both attacker and defender can die from an attack. But combat in the board game is about an entire exchange, not blow by blow, which would work better for this system. The problem comes with party based gameplay, how are multiple characters supposed to contribute to one battle? Maybe they do not, or maybe each exchange only counts for a single few seconds of dueling, but is still an exchange between a target and yourself either way. Maybe everyone in the party just rolls combat, is hit with an enemy 'force' die roll, and hope they overcome it. Here is a small bestiary.

Every Sword is a hit. Every Shield is a block, which blocks one enemy hit.

In Armello, Suns count as hits during the day and moons at night. Due to dungeon crawling usually being a big aspect of OSR, this applies a lot less. Instead moons count as hits when you are sneak attacking, and suns count during pitched combat. Maybe instead it's based on light; Suns count as a hit when you have enough torchlight. Maybe moons count as a hit if your light level is as low as it can go, or only counts as a hit for those with Infra-vision.

Then, there is Wyld and Rot dice. Wyld and Rot dice count as hits in combat if you're the right alignment, and they explode meaning after registering it as a hit it rerolls again. The opposite alignment die just counts as a miss.

Wyld die is explosive and powerful for characters who are lawful or clean of the Rot.

Rot die is explosive and powerful for characters who are choatic or corrupted by the Rot.

Armello Saving Throws & Skill Checks

These are called Perils. The DM rolls a certain number of dice, and you need to roll the same symbols. You roll a number of dice equal to your Wits stat, with a die of your alignment counting as a reroll. Even if one of the symbols of the test is your alignment symbol, you still receive a reroll after it is 'locked in'.

Armello Magic

You have a number of spell points equal to your magic stat. Each spell point can be expended to cast a first level spell effect, or can be combined to cast a higher level spell effect. Your magic points only return at dusk. Most spells and magic in Armello have a curse/buffing or healing effect and are almost always tied to nature and natural forces- such as letting out the inner beast of each of the anthro characters, healing rot corruption, or calling a lightning strike on a foe. Either make up your spells as you cast them or the DM will make some spells for you with appropriate costs.

Spells directed at enemies get a save; the number of die rolled by the caster is dependent on their magic stat vs the wit dice of the enemy getting hit regardless of the number of spell points used. Characters high in Spirit will have weak spells that are hard to resist from their sheer force of will.

You could also substitute something akin to the Sage magic system; with each magic point being equal to 1 HD of 'power' you can use for a spell. The magic system can be vague in the game, being tied to cards that you can play. For this you can divorce it from the setting and make a more general magic system with less nature-based effects to tie it into your setting instead.

The final type of magic are Spirit stones. Spirits stones are a general collection of Wyld power. Each spirit stone can be expended as a one time 1 point magic boost to cast a spell with or to empower another spell. It is said collecting 4 spirit stones and performing a ritual can totally cure a person corrupted with Rot, but this will result in the person's death if they are truly evil on the inside.

The Rot

This is a maddening disease that slowly corrupts and kills those infected by it. It is a perversion of nature and bringer of ruin. Banes and other creatures deep within dungeons have the rot- and can spread it to characters by defeating them in combat. Once infected with the Rot, the character takes 1 point of damage each sunrise.

When a character has 1-4 Rot, they are considered “infected” by the rot. At this point, they can, if willing, roll a number of dice equal to their spirit and spend 2 magic once per day when sitting at a place of natural beauty. If they get at least enough Wyld dice equal or greater then their rot, they can cure 1 rot for that day. This is one of the few ways to heal rot, the other methods involving rare potions and talismans.

Once a person reaches 5 Rot though they are considered Corrupted. Their body starts to change; and while they still take 1 damage per day at sunrise, the rot gives them power and they start to depend on it. Rot dice now count as wild and the Wyld dice count as useless rot dice in combat. Additionally, once a character is corrupted, anytime they fight a character with any amount of rot less then them, they get to add a number of dice equal to the lesser rot character's rot stat. Therefore a character with 5 rot gets to add +2 dice to hit attack against a character with 2 rot. This also applies to magic saves.

Prestige & Leveling Up

Each time you complete a general quest objective, solve a worthy challenge, or defeat a creature of darkness you get +1 prestige. Prestige is the closest thing Armello has to a social mechanic; so assume characters with higher prestige have more sway with commoners, nobles, and the various factions in the lands of Armello.

Each time you complete one of these major quests, you also get a level up. You may select any stat to increase, and gain that benefit permanently. You cannot choose the same stat twice in a row, and can level up a maximum of 4 times.

Armello Story Seeds – 1d10

[1] The King is said to have been totally corrupted to the core with rot, and is slowly going mad. His sorcerers are summoning banes and other creatures of darkness to the countryside, is putting a bounty on the heads of the heroes of the animal clans, and his laws become more paranoid and cruel each passing day. End his reign of terror.

[2] Darkness grows in the dungeons beneath the world; dark forces and their followers are attempting to grow a creature of blackness so foul that it will consume the entire world in rot. Travel to the stone circles in the world, collect spirit stones and hold them close as you will face corruption you can't even imagine in your pursuit of purity.

[3] War among the animal clans is coming. The relative peace between them is ending after years of prosperity- and now they vie for more power. You must pick a side or fight to maintain the peace. There are rumors of a conspiracy putting these clans against each other for their own benefit- perhaps they could be the key to ending this conflict before it begins.

[4] The rot has spread to a small and sleepy town- and as the King's Guard fight to keep it contained it spreads. Then again, and then again. The corruption of both mind and body is seemingly spreading among the population, one step ahead of the law. Then, rumors of a strange drink called “Hot Rot Wine” seem connected; the highly addictive drink being traded in secret among the poor and sad populations of Armello- peddled by animals in black. How will you stop the sale of this illegal drug?

[5] Foreigners from across the sea are invading! They're bug people, or lizards, or something else entirely, and they are no good. Enslaving the kind animals of Armello; raise the armies of the clans and march against them to free your people.

[6] There is a new young animal to ascend to the throne, but his innate magical talent is so extreme that is risks unraveling the kingdom if not controlled. You must take this boy across the land to the far off mountain valley where the druids can teach him to control his incredible power over the Wyld.

[7] The Helm of Heroes has been found! This magical item has once belonged to many of the most famous hereos of Armello's past, and is now being fought over by many rival groups. Collect it for your own use, or to keep it safe from those who wish to abuse its power.

[8] The furless cat known only as The Stranger has been causing trouble to the more powerful nobles and leaders of Armello. His events and tricks are not random; but the moment anyone gets close to him he disappears the moment he's not being watched. Everything he's doing is leading to something big, to rock the foundation of the clans and kingdom.

[9] The forsaken clan, “The Bandit Clan”, seeks more power and recognition in Armello. These outcasts are no longer satisfied working with the more prestigious clans and under their shadow- now they are preparing for an armed revolution. Will you join them, or end the uprising?

[10] The King is dead and Armello is safe. But the dungeon's underneath the palace are still crawling with monsters and strange experiments. Somebody's gotta clean it up.

Armello Encounters

[1] Bandits

Fight 3 Body 2

At the beginning of the fight, a Peril is rolled at 2. Each character that fails is ensnared and cannot fight for the combat. The bandits can be bought off with gold, or if you are allied with a rebel faction. Their low body is because they scatter early on if the fight goes bad. 
If every single party member has a bounty on their head; the bandits will chum it up with you instead. Nobody with that much heat can be all bad.

[2] King's Guard

Fight 4 Body 4

If you have a bounty on your head, you lose -1 dice fighting a King's Guard. This bonus also applies to evil creatures like Banes and Dark Sorcerers. The King's Guard suspect you of a crime or breaking a unjust law. If you let them take you to the nearest castle they'll let you go after three days in lock up and taking an item or two from your pack. This is time you don't have.

[3] Bane

Fight 5 Body 4

Rot 5

Banes are considered corrupted and add those with less rot to their attack dice. If you get hurt by a Bane in combat, you may be infected with 1 point of rot. Defeating one grants +1 prestige. If you have more Rot then the Bane, there is an X in 6 chance, where X is equal to the difference between your Rot scores, that it is more interested in assisting you then attacking. It will always perform any commands you have in a way that spreads the most rot or corruption, and will smash any spirit stones you're carrying while you sleep.

[4] Dark Sorcerer

Fight 2 Body 3 Spirit 3

Rot 2

Dark Sorcerers prefer not to fight and instead to cause chaos and summon banes to assault the Kingdom and spread the corruption of the rot. They can spend magic points as a peril to create rot fog- roll vs the peril or gain +1 rot. If you have any Hot Rot Wine or have a Bane following you, they will be interested in a trade; the corrupted stuff in exchange for sparing your life!

[5] Spirit Healer

Fight 3 Body 2 Spirit 4

Rot 1

Currently healing herself in a place of natural beauty. Will invite the party to join her if they are infected, but will take up her sword against anyone who is fully Corrupted. She can cast spells involve natural forces for damage including winds, tangling vines, lightning bolts, and flash fires.

[6] Mercenaries

Fight 5 Body 3

These mercenaries are camped along your path, waiting a letter from their employer. There is a 50% chance the next day they receive the letter targeting your party; and will follow you from behind to attack you the next time you make camp.

If you have recently just buried a party member, a younger member of their band will join you for a chance at glory- and to get away from these cold-hearted sellswords.

Coins

I've taken to calling treasure found in units of coins as well as generic currency as just “coins”. This allows an easy method for other DMs to put in whatever coinage they wish for the “standard” which fits their playstyle and group. Copper, Silver, or Gold standard works when you just call them coins.

But what about other types of coins?

10 Kinds of Coins

[1] Porcelain. These coins are minted by a cosmic bureaucracy or an extremely omnipresent mining/trading company. Counterfeiters are targeted with extreme prejudice to avoid inflation of the coins. Every time you are struck by a mace or take a fall, multiply the damage x10 and you lose that many coins you are carrying from being smashed.

[2] Tea. These “coins” are a common term for those round tea-bricks, which are used as a common trading currency. Each “coin” can be put into a cup of boiling water to create a sort of coffeesque drug, and it is extremely common. Grants the user +1 to their first saving throw of the day. Grown in 700 mystic orchards in not!Tibet.

[3] Ivory. Coins are cut from a specific section of a specific animal's horn or tusks. The animals are quickly being hunted to extinction, naturally.

[4] Shells. “Coin” is just a common term used to describe a very common and universal type of shellfish shell, such as a cowrie or wampum. Used as a trading currency.

[5] Devil Coins. This setting's universal currency uses magic devil coins that automatically shift to look as valuable as possible to the person viewing them. The coins usually look shining, golden or platinum, with the faces of emperors or attractive women on them. Those with true sight usually just see a bored imp crudely sketched onto a piece of limestone.

[6] Graces. Each coin looks to be made of white marble, and may glow softly in a church. These coins represent a single good deed or pleasure one may experience in heaven; and can be traded amongst the living and the dead. Wealthy people want to be buried with as many of these as possible, so they have them at hand while they wait to have all their good deeds tallied up and given their salary.

[7] Magic. Coins are literally a compressed form of arcane or elemental energy; similar to Dust in Endless Legend or Endless Space. The reason enchanted items take so much money to make is not due to the cost of research or finding rare reagents, the magic coins are literally infused into the item or to call spirits and bind them within.

[8] Fuel. Coins are like slivers of supercoal, capable of burning hot and clean for a long time. Used among traders and crafters due to their inherent usefulness. Especially fitting in eternal winter style settings where everything is cold and shitty.

[9] Toys. They're just wooden chips, painted with designs and colors. Money is exclusively created and used by the fae-children of the forest. Even if you try to duplicate it, they just automatically know what is a legitimate piece and what isn't. Humans often trade with the fae-children for passage, blessings, or magic spells and have since adopted the currency. Among humans the currency has strict values, but among the fae-children it's a bartering currency which fluctuates on a whim.

[10] Artifacts. All the coins currently in use are ancient and made by the magical/technological precursor race. The method of creating them or replicating them is totally unknown, as is the metals that go into their unique orange and green hue. Adventurers digging up money from a tomb are literally getting first dibs on coinage; they don't even need to see a merchant to exchange it for cash.

50 Saving Throw Categories

Save vs Elf Trickery

Roll on this list 5-6 times. These are the saves in your game, base your campaign around them.

[1] Save vs Elf Trickery

[2] Save vs Projectile Volley

[3] Save vs Haunted Wailing

[4] Save vs Unerring Weapon

[5] Save vs Weather

[6] Save vs Insect Swarm

[7] Save vs Potion Side-Effects

[8] Save vs Poison

[9] Save vs Death

[10] Save vs Mutiny

[11] Save vs Stampede

[12] Save vs Origami Shurikens

[13] Save vs Soul-Destroying Humiliation

[14] Save vs Embarrassing Adolescent Memory

[15] Save vs Wands

[16] Save vs Paralysis

[17] Save vs Urge to Dance

[18] Save vs Addiction

[19] Save vs Greed

[20] Save vs Miasma

[21] Save vs Breath Weapon

[22] Save vs Spells

[23] Save vs Volcanic Eruption

[24] Save vs Extraterrestrial Taint

[25] Save vs Carnivorous Plants

[26] Save vs Superstitious Rumors

[27] Save vs Astral Parasite(s)

[28] Save vs Partially-Real Illusion

[29] Save vs Mnemonic Weapon

[30] Save vs Magic-Item Ego

[31] Save vs Elemental's Aura

[32] Save vs Musical Curse

[33] Save vs Getting Lost

[34] Save vs Stalking Predators

[35] Save vs Stubborn Pride

[36] Save vs Cave-In

[37] Save vs Oxygen Deprivation

[38] Save vs Exhaustion

[39] Save vs Poor Equipment

[40] Save vs Feudal Obligation

[41] Save vs Spiteful Deity

[42] Save vs Appearing Delicious

[43] Save vs Pregnancy

[44] Save vs Cannibal Shivers

[45] Save vs Pickpockets

[46] Save vs Overconfidence

[47] Save vs Dreams

[48] Save vs Psychic Backlash

[49] Save vs Glass Chin

[50] Save vs Poverty

The City named Garden

Garden city is a setting I created specifically for a type of early modern fantasy game mixed in with psychic, occult, and alien elements. It was greatly inspired by Into the Odd, Goblin Punch's own Eldritch Americana setting, and also Blackgate (an erotic gay furry VN), and it's basically a 1 to 1 copy of that premise.

Unlike many of my other settings, Garden city comes from a special place in my heart because it is built off a feeling. When I was younger I sometimes suffered from some (very minor) insomnia. I would take walks outside in my gated community, and when I went for midnight drives to get food, I would get a certain feeling of comfortable nostalgia from the darkness of the city, combined with the electric lights. This feeling is what I want Garden to feel like. Electro-swing is its anthem.

If you take anything from this post about Garden's setting- get the feeling of a life being a trickle instead of a river. Unlike our world where there is a great surge of activity and then a quiet night, Garden is mostly a quiet night with small bits of activity constantly. Since it's always night, you'll always have some shops open and some closed, some couples laying out under the unfamiliar stars and some people sleeping in black windows above you.

Lost Souls

Everyone not native to Garden was lost. Maybe they got lost on a dirt road, ran through a sewer or crawlspace, just fell asleep in a foreign country on a park bench and then they ended up there at Garden. The first thing they realize is that it's always night time in Garden, and about the second thing they realize is that Garden is FULL of goddamn aliens.

Humans are just one of myriad of species in Garden. There are humanoid animals, demonic looking creatures, discolored and bumpy forehead people, twisted objects brought to life, crustaceans and invertebrates, walking amoeba, and things that defy even these descriptions. Every single species that calls Garden home had a world before, which had a sun that is now gone. Sun worship is popular in Garden, as a lost or waiting godling. The messiah is a sunrise. Some even believe touching someone with a sunburn when they come to Garden as good luck; because nobody here can get one.

Half the people of Garden are instead native. They look as their parents do, but have never felt or seen the sun. Their eyes are slightly bigger and darker, with pupils better adapted to the darkness. Finding a mate in Garden can be challenging, since you have to find a member of your species of the opposite sex, but plenty of people adopt or have loving childless interspecies relationships too. Many people are “married” to their job or gang instead, spending their time wearing a threadbare fedora and smoking a crudely rolled cigar filled with strange plants that grow in moonlight.

Origins

In the dusty old shelves of the city's oldest libraries, the most delicate tomes written on the most crumbling of leaf-bound parchment, you can sometimes see stories of the founding and first “settlers” of Garden. Surrounding Garden is a massive forest of huge trees, that grow and sway even in the total darkness of this land. Within this forest of trees are monsters, wild beasts, sand traps that swallow people whole, and many other extreme dangers. The people who first ended up in Garden had to stick together to survive, huddling around campfires and building candle-lit houses high in the trees.

Then the legends get fuzzy. There are words about a “deal” and a “compromise”. Roughly half the population of the first settlers split off from the Garden city founders- these later became the Torchlight Society. The Garden city-slickers that remained gained access to electricity, and were able to finally begin building a (relatively) safe and happy city. It brought with it industry, hovering cars, warmth, and most importantly electric lights against the darkness.

The city grew and grew, more and more districts were added to the outskirts, chopping down trees in the outer limits of the city, never straying from the electric floodlights. Building up multi-floored apartments, squat condos, Kowloon-walled city style hives, or even larger manors and family homes in suburbs out of all kinds of scavenged and reused materials. Almost any kind of city structure from history you can think of is present here- from dusty old mainstreet looking western towns, confusing cobblestone mazes like rainy old london, modern suburb grid based homes, highrises and shanty towns. Some parts barely even look inhabited, but you can be sure it's lit up.

Despite all this urban development and the ever growing number and resources of Garden's people; the darkness outside the city is ALWAYS a threat. The monsters and things outside the city do not supernaturally appear within its borders, there must be a line of black for them to follow inside. No boogeyman is going to appear in your closet at the highrise you live, but more then once a person living on the outskirts of the town opened their door and saw a window ajar or back door open to the forest beyond the city, and they simple turn around and leave and never return. If the lights ever go out in a district of the city, bad stuff comes out to play and people panic. That's why everyone in Garden's gotta be armed; and they love their guns.

Society

Garden is a true melting pot of a society. With so many different races, ideologies, religions, and people forced to live together merely for survival things have to stay flexible. The entire city could be best described as a sort of urban wild west, things tend to almost be anarchic at times but with a strong libertarian bent. If you can make it, sell it, and keep it then you get to have it. That doesn't mean there isn't justice; the concerned citizens of the city employ “Enforcers”, the lawman of the lawless metropolis, but each part of the city essentially rules itself, as long as you've got the money and guns.

Parts of the city are communist, parts are fascist, parts are theocratic. They all bow to the power of arms and the power of the dollar. Particularly headstrong old ladies can rule their tenement complexes, with gang leaders ruling city blocks and corporations sometimes co-opting entire boroughs. Some of the most stable powers in the city are the casinos and big factories; most things in Garden are hand made but the few things that aren't, like the scrap metal bullets and pork products from the pig yards, are worth a lot of money to the people who make them. And all that money glows in the dark.

There is a strong pioneer spirit in Garden. Everything is second hand and recycled. There are all kinds of abandoned subdivisions, factories, complexes, mental hospitals, nature preserves, and even sinkholes in the city that are ripe for scavenging. Most people dabble here and there, but the real juicy prizes are guarded by psychic infused monsters, bloodthirsty wildlife, territorial gangs, and even creepier things in the dark. People leave those places to the Sweeps- professional building clearers and adventurers armed with scrap metal chimney guns of their very own. ie; The players.

Anachronism

As far as technology, Garden is totally scatterbrained. People arriving to the city if they got lost in a vehicle may do so in an old kerosene clunker, a gasoline guzzler, a hybrid, a hovercar, or even something stranger from their home world. All depending on the technology of their period from their own world. These cars are sold off or stolen, especially to shifty liars that severely underpay the car owners to chop them up for scrap. Nobody actually drive these cars here in Garden, hover cars are far cheaper- tapping into the power grid is essentially free and it's not like there is any gasoline in the ground here anyway. Technology beyond this seems very stuck in a 1920s-esque period. Land-line phones, movie cameras and record players, but no computers or televisions.

Everything is hand made in Garden, especially the guns. Some mafia dons have suits of power armor for their best guys or a robot butler powered by springs; but all this stuff has to be maintained by hand. There are no replacement parts except what you can make yourself. With that being said; there are a few factories in this place, especially to sell some basic common supplies like canned food, soda pop, bullets, and really cheap cigarettes called sparklers that sometimes shoot off sparks at the end just like the firework; usually the person smoking one of these spits it out and burns off an eyebrow, getting a few laughs at his expense from his buddies.

But where does all this material come from? Much of it comes from outside the city by way of migrants. Sometimes a garbage truck gets 'lost' and ends up in the city, filled with things to scavenge. Sometimes people find an old burned out airplane crash or dead guy just outside the city limits; as though on its way here but failing to make it the last leg of the journey. These are ripped apart and sold. Many parts of the city are old and abandoned, all it takes is to crack open one dusty old basement filled with crumbled old pie tins and the whole city's need will be filled for months.

Gunsmiths of high quality are especially prized. People in Garden value their weapons very highly, and despite the ammunition being mostly mass produced aside from a few rare and valuable special bullets, the guns themselves are scrapped and bolted together from old roof paneling and tin cans. High quality gunsmiths can take these pieces of shit and make them automatic shotgun shell spitting death machines- some even work with explosive launching devices capable of blasting apart the paper thin walls of the tenements. If you're a Sweep; it's in your best interest to be on good terms with these artisans.

Mysteries

All of the above has only just started to touch the surface of the true strangeness of this place. The stars in the sky go by without repeating, no race in the city notices any that match their home constellations. The entire place is crawling with ivy and animals and trees and green grass lawns; but all exist without a sun. Garden is very much a living city- and despite being filled with all kinds of escaped farm pigs and ring-tail lemurs roaming the streets at night (since it's always night). The plants just seem to grow on their own accord. Some people in the city have created their own indoor farms to grow a few imported plants using special light bulbs; but that's one of those rich luxuries, actual sunlight plants.

For seemingly no reason; the nighttime conditions or other strange power of the city seems to 'awaken' the psychic ability in many of the residents. Ask around; different people from different worlds have different tales of this sort of things. In some worlds, like our own, psychic powers are largely considered a shadowy myth that some believe but are not proven. In other worlds psychics are a rare but very real part of their societies. In yet others, there has been NO belief in psychic powers, but even they can sometimes awaken strange powers. Psychic users in Garden usually gain a single power that develops along with them; some can start fires or manipulate electricity, some can move objects, others have supernatural senses or can read minds. Some become a “God-Child” that can seemingly manipulate any facet of reality in increasingly severe and permanent ways until they lose it and hole themselves up in a building, changing the dimensions within every room and every resident, morphing the rules in there to some hellish paradise in their mind.

Underneath the city of Garden are service tunnels. They're white walled, usually clean, and always dimly lit with lights. They criss cross underneath the city, most installations have access to them, and many apartment buildings have a door to one in the basement. Strange thing is, no single company or organization can attest to building all of the tunnels down here. Here and there most have done some maintenance, added a few doors or tunnels, ran wires down a length to a new subdivision of the city, but there isn't record of where many of the tunnels come from. They even seem nonsensical sometimes; between two large office buildings under the city will be a tunnel with a locked door off to the side. Brightly lit and locked, leads to a fully stocked and abandoned office; nobody has a nameplate here, as though it was just built and nobody uses it yet.

Also down here are the Lockers- along the hallways and in the side rooms. These lockers are always locked, but curious sorts who break them open find items within. Snowglobes, boxing gloves, pictures, strange coins, weird looking tools and organs in jars, even guns. Some theorize these are the lost 'items' like how people get lost to the city, but these items are never “normal”. They often have supernatural abilities, or enhance psychic abilities and are a collector's dream to get their hands on some genuine locker loot. But these tunnels are not safe. There are things down here, shifting invisibly along the walls, attracted to noise. Men in white cleansuits and masks, old women sweeping the hallways with long brooms. Breaking open the lockers is the fastest way to get noticed down here; and end up dragged away to a tunnel nobody has been down before, never to be heard from again.

And what about the Torchlight society? There is no known colony of people or beings beyond the walls of Garden, except for them. The Torchlighters live out in the forest, digusted by the city's electric lights, somehow having found a way to live with or around the scary stuff out in the black woods. They very rarely trade with Garden residents; sometimes giving away scraps of metal found in the woods or rare foodstuffs that the Garden residents don't have access too. Sometimes they are “at war” with Garden and instead attack with bombs and bullets of their own, but always supported by some of the tamed monsters of the wild. They always try to take out power lines and plunge a neighborhood of the city into darkness to do maximum damage.

And besides all that; nobody knows where the fucking electricity comes from.

Wine of Resolution

This special wine is popular among the very most rich and elite members of the city of Garden. It's an original creation, but requires several 'imported' materials hence it's high cost. If a wish or resolution is spoken before drank, this wine grants +1 to the first saving throw, psychic resistance or power check, shoot roll, melee attack damage roll, or reaction check each day if the drinker is working towards their resolution or wish. Lasts until the next New Year.

Happy New Years!