The dammed that roam dead-holy-towns, part III: Encounters for OSE, Mörk Borg, and NPFTH
Game Design Log #27
Traversing the streets of this dead holy town, you come across with something on your way.
Roll for an encounter!
1d4
Pallbearers of the sinners’ dreams.Plague bearers.Ink-covered scribes.Shadows of greed.
Sometimes, these creatures make reference to something call “Grief”, so if you want to use them in your OSR game…
…for something like OSE you can use this:
Grief → XP or Treassure carried by PCs or sum of both (divided by 1000).
…for something like MÖRK BORG you can use this:
Grief → Omens, or Silver dived by 100, or the sum of both.
…for both you could also add this:
Let the PCs spend “X” HP to increase their roll by “X”.
Spirits that roam dead wheeled holy towns
Pallbearers of the sinners’ dreams
These are the souls of the colonists who have been condemned to lead burial rites for eternity. In deep fear as they faced the end of their lives, the twisted energy of the Chasm fed on the last images that took hold of their minds; that of a limbo, as the only place where they could hide so as not to pay their sins to their god.
To be fit to serve their eternal fate, their skin has become marble, strong, and durable. They do not need to sleep or eat, but they feel tired and hungry. They all carry on their backs a stone coffin, without a lid.
STATS
For OSE
Armour Class → 19
Hit Dice → 10 (45 hp)
Attacks → None, they just walk away toward a graveyard.
Movement → 60’ (20’)
Saving Throws → D6 W7 P8 B8 S10
Morale → 12
XP → 50
▶ Unstoppable: Nothing can stop them. Only if they are destroyed they will fall and crumble.
▶ Undead → Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Weapon Immunity: Unharmed by all attacks made with slashing or pircing weapons.
▶ Energy immunity: Unharmed by fire, acid or cold.
▶ Bearing your sins: When they cross someone's path they will absorb their sins, and will continue to do so until they are destroyed. Every turn after a person encounters the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams", they will feel a pull from their chest to one of the coffins, they will lose 1 HP, and they will forget something they regret, or the details of it will become fuzzy. The coffins on the back of the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" will glow brighter with every HP and memory they take from the people looking at them.
▶ Buring your sins: They will carry the sin of those who have looked at them to a graveyard. Each turn there is a 1-in-6 chance that the graveyard will emerge from a magical fog. The "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams" will enter the graveyard and begin to bury the coffins they carry. They do so in 1d6 turns. If all the coffins are buried anyone inside the cemetery falls unconscious and wakes up hours later in the same place where they first saw the "Pallbearers of the coffin of sinners' dreams". The memories they lost are lost forever and now their current HP is their maximum HP.
▶ Looking at the coffin on their backs: If anyone looks into one of the glowing coffins, they will see the sins it has been devouring.
The people to whom these memories belong will feel a tug, as if a rope is pulling them from their chests into the coffin. Whoever enters a coffin will fall into a pocket dimension inside the "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams".
▶ The pocket dimension: The pocket dimension is a catacomb, with four exits. If someone crosses one exit they return to the catacomb through one of the other exits. There is an open stone coffin in the center. Next to it, looking inside, the person who became the "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams". If someone enters that coffin, they come out of the pocket dimension. If the person who was the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" enters it, (he is afraid of it and thinks that if he enters he will die and be punished by his god), the catacomb will start to crumble, the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" will be destroyed, and any memories or HP that this "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" took with him will be returned. If the person who was the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" is killed, the catacomb will crumble, but any memories or HP they stole will not be returned. Anyone who does not escape from the catacomb when it crumbles becomes the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams".For NPFTH (to use with Mörk Borg → Blood=HP + Imposing as stat for everything when used by the colonist’s spirit)
They do everything with Imposing +4.
Blood → 45 (all white)
Attacks → none
Movement → 60’
Armor → 1d10 (the armor is their marble skin, if the armor breaks their body crumble and they are destroyed).
Morale → 12
▶ Unstoppable: Nothing can stop them. Only if they are destroyed (loosing all their blood or by breaking their armor) they will fall and crumble.
▶ Undead → Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Weapon Immunity: Unharmed by all attacks made with slashing or pircing weapons.
▶ Energy immunity: Unharmed by fire, acid or cold.
▶ Bearing your sins: When they cross someone's path they will absorb their sins, and will continue to do so until they are destroyed. Every turn after a person encounters the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams", they will feel a pull from their chest to one of the coffins, they will lose 1 Blood or 1 Grief (the player chooses), and they will forget something they regret, or the details of it will become fuzzy. The coffins on the back of the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" will glow brighter with every Blood/Grief and memory they take from the people looking at them.
▶ Buring your sins: They will carry the sin of those who have looked at them to a graveyard. Each turn there is a 1-in-6 chance that the graveyard will emerge, from a magical fog. The "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams" will enter the graveyard and begin to bury the coffins they carry. They do so in 1d6 turns. If all the coffins are buried anyone inside the cemetery falls unconscious and wakes up hours later in the same place where they first saw the "Pallbearers of the coffin of sinners' dreams". The memories they lost are lost forever and now their current Blood becomes their maximum Blood.
▶ Looking at the coffin on their backs: If anyone looks into one of the glowing coffins, they will see the sins it has been devouring.
The people to whom these memories belong will feel a tug, as if a rope is pulling them from their chests into the coffin. Whoever enters a coffin will fall into a pocket dimension inside the "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams".
▶ The pocket dimension: The pocket dimension is a catacomb, with four exits. If someone crosses one exit they return to the catacomb through one of the other exits. There is an open stone coffin in the center. Next to it, looking inside, the person who became the "Pallbearers of sinners' dreams". If someone enters that coffin, they come out of the pocket dimension. If the person who was the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" enters it, (he is afraid of it and thinks that if he enters he will die and be punished by his god), the catacomb will start to crumble, the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" will be destroyed, and any memories or Blood that this "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" took with him will be returned (Grief is never returned). If the person who was the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams" is killed, the catacomb will crumble, but any memories or Blood they stole will not be returned. Anyone who does not escape from the catacomb when it crumbles becomes the "Pallbearers of Sinners' Dreams".
Plague bearers
These are the undying bodies of those colonists who carried in them the northern diseases that killed many of the island's inhabitants.
Seconds before they died, they remembered all those who died from these diseases they brought. With shame and regret, they remembered how they kept the cure of these diseases a secret to themselves, either out of self-righteousness or by order of their king. The Chasm fed on these memories of regret, turned them into what they themselves now facing death discovered they had been in life, bearers of death and plague.
Always triple their number when they are part of an encounter.
STATS
For OSE
Armour Class → 10
Hit Dice → 1 (4 hp)
Attacks → 1 × infected nails (1d6 + disease)
Movement → 60’
Saving Throws → D14 W15 P16 B17 S18
Morale → 7
XP → 5
▶ Disease: Anyone slashed by the "Plague bearers's" nails, or ingesting slime from a Exploding pustule, contracts a horrible rotting disease. When sick with this disease, rest only heals half and magic cannot restore HP. The disease can only be removed by magic. If the disease is not treated, every day there is a 1-in-6 chance that the maximum HP of the patient will decrease by 1. If the maximum HP reaches zero then the patient dies.
▶ Exploding pustule: Anyone that hits a "Plague bearers" with a melee weapon has 1-in-6 chance to hit a pustule and make it explode into an infictious slime that burns the skin as an acid (1d4). There is 1-in-10 chance that the explosion cause the slime to fall onto the eyes or the mouth, infecting the cvictim with the Disease that it carries.For NPFTH (to use with Mörk Borg → Blood=HP + Imposing as stat for everything when used by the colonist’s spirit)
They do everything with Imposing +1.
Blood → 5 (all black)
Attacks → 1 × infected nails (1d6 + disease)
Movement → 60’
Armor → none
Morale → 12
▶ Disease: Anyone slashed by the "Plague bearers's" nails, or ingesting slime from a Exploding pustule, contracts a horrible rotting disease (condition Roting disease -0). When sick with this disease, rest nor food restores Blood. The disease can only be cured by a "rite of calling" or by an expert healer. If the disease is not treated, every day there is a 1-in-6 chance that the maximum Blood of the patient will decrease by 1. For every Blood that is lost in this way, add -1 to the Roting disease condition modifier. If someone loses all their Blood because of this, they die.
▶ Exploding pustule: Anyone that hits a "Plague bearers" with a melee weapon has 1-in-6 chance to hit a pustule and make it explode into an infictious slime that burns the skin as an acid (condition burned -1d4). There is 1-in-10 chance that the explosion cause the slime to fall onto the eyes or the mouth, infecting the victim with the Disease that it carries.
Ink-covered scribes
These are the keepers of knowledge, those historians who have come to the island to rewrite history by the command of their kings and following the words of their god-man-king. They write words of conquest, they write words of wrath and righteousness.
As the wheeled holy village got stranded, and the Chasm overflowed it, their profession became their necessity, and in hunger they recorded the pain and insanity that took over the other inhabitants of the village.
With each word, with each fragment of madness they collected from the ones that died, they also anchored the soul of those they wrote about to their skin.
They walk covered in ink, and the weight of the twisted visions of those that already died. They are mortal vessels for the lost souls of the deceased.
STATS
For OSE
Armour Class → 15
Hit Dice → 4 (18 hp)
Attacks → 1 × {sharp quill (1d6, branded) or Ink hands or Ink spines} + 1 × {Ink transfer or Ink recovery}
Movement → 60’ (20’)
Saving Throws → D11 W12 P14 B16 S15
Morale → 9
XP → 50
▶ Branded: The "ink-covered scribes" will experience the dreams of those they marked and, by writing in them on their skin, slowly absorb the souls of the owners of those dreams. The marked victim will lose 1hp of their maximum hp. If their HP reaches 0, their souls becomes a tattoo on the scribe's skin. It can only be released by killing the scribe.
▶ Ink hands: From any type of ink, they can summon hands that can grab or strike those near the ink. These inky hands do 1d4 points of damage and have the strength of an average person.
▶ Ink spines: "Ink-covered scribes" can cause the ink on their body to turn into thorns that do 1d6 points of damage to all creatures that are in melee combat with them.
▶ Ink transfer: By touching any being, they can transfer to them one of the souls they carry. The soul is transported by a tattoo that moves from the skin of the scribe to the skin of the target. The target will be flooded by visions of madness suffered by this soul, taking 1d6 points of psychic damage. There is a 1-in-6 chance that the vision will provide useful information to the target.
▶ Ink recovery: By touching a being to whom they previously transferred their ink, they can recover the tattoo and the soul. In doing so, the target loses 1d6 hp and the "ink-covered scribe" recovers the same amount of hp.For NPFTH (to use with Mörk Borg → Blood=HP + Imposing as stat for everything when used by the colonist’s spirit)
They do everything with Imposing +2.
Blood → 15 (all black, it is ink)
Attacks → 1 × sharp quill (1d6, branded) or Ink hands or Ink spines + 1 x Ink transfer or Ink recovery.
Movement → 60’
Armor → 1d8 (represents the souls inside the scribe's body. When the armor deteriorates it represents the destruction of a dozen of these souls. When all the souls are dead the scribe will fall to the ground, and begin to write with despair on his skin, feeling overwhelmed by the silence of his soul).
Morale → 9
▶ Branded: The "ink-covered scribes" will experience the dreams of those they marked and, by writing in them on their skin, slowly absorb the souls of the owners of those dreams. The marked victim will lose one Condition, one Compulsion or one point of Grief. If they lose all of their Compulsions, Conditions and Grief in this way, their souls becomes a tattoo in the scribe's skin. It can only be released by killing them.
▶ Ink hands: From any type of ink, they can summon hands that can grab or strike those near the ink. These inky hands do evrithing with the scribe's Imposing + 1d4.
▶ Ink spines: "Ink-covered scribes" can cause the ink on their body to turn into thorns that hit with their Imposing + 1d6 to all creatures that are in melee combat with them.
▶ Ink transfer: By touching any being, they can transfer to them one of the souls they carry. The soul is transported by a tattoo that moves from the scribe's skin to the target's skin. The target will be flooded by visions of madness suffered by this soul, loosing as much blood as their Grief. There is a 1-in-6 chance that the vision will provide useful information to the target.
▶ Ink recovery: By touching a being to whom they previously transferred their ink, they can recover the tattoo and the soul. In doing so, the target loses 1d6 of Blood and the "ink-covered scribe" recovers the same amount of Blood.
Shadows of greed and grief
These are the last echoes of all the greed and grief of colonists.
Keep alive by the Chasm, these aspects of the colonist’s souls have interwoven to become an ethereal force that takes the shape of a wraith.
These remnants feed on the Grief of those they meet in their path, and their most vital instinct is to push other creatures to indulge in greed, for they desire one thing more than anything else: to bear their greed in the company of other beings, so as not to feel guilty of what is their nature.
STATS
For OSE
Armour Class → 19
Hit Dice → 6 (27 hp)
Attacks → 1 × touch (Grief draining) or Paranoia or Hurled object (1d4)
Movement → 90’
Saving Throws → D6 W7 P8 B8 S10
Morale → 10
XP → 500
▶ Undead: Make no noise, until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Mundane damage immunity: Only harmed by silver weapons or magic.
▶ Aura of greed: All seeing a "Shadows of greed and grief" must save versus spells or they will feel compelled to indulge in their greed.
▶ Grief draining touch: Victim permanently loses all feelings of grief they behold for any of their actions. They lose 1d4 points of WIS.
If reduced to 0 WIS, the victim loses their moral compass (they alignment changes to chaotic evil). Someone changed in this way can only return to their previous state by killig the "Shadows of greed and grief" that siphoned their grief.
▶ Paranoia: A victim within 60’ must save versus spells or become paranoic. When paranoic a victim will suspect everyone of wanting to steal what they cherishes the most.
▶ Hurled objects: Range 30’. Can only throw objects which are nearby.For NPFTH (to use with Mörk Borg → Blood=HP + Imposing as stat for everything when used by the colonist’s spirit)
They do everything with Imposing +3.
Blood → 20 (all black)
Attacks → 1 × touch (Grief draining) or Paranoia or Hurled object (1d4)
Movement → 90’
Armor → 1d8 (ethereal form) / none if attacked with silver weapons or weapons stained with fresh blood.
Morale → 10
▶ Undead: Make no noise, until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Aura of greed: All seeing a "Shadows of greed and grief" must make an opose roll of Imposing. If they loose they will feel compelled to indulge in their greed.
▶ Grief draining touch: Victim permanently loses all feelings of grief they behold for any of their actions. They lose 1d4 points of Grief.
For each point of grief they loose in this way there is 1-in-6 chance of loosing their moral compass (they get the condition cold hearted -1/+1). Someone changed in this way can only return to their previous state by destroying the "Shadows of greed and grief" that siphoned their grief.
▶ Paranoia: A victim within 60’ must make an oposse roll of Imposing. In a fail they become paranoid. When paranoid a victim will suspect everyone of wanting to steal what they cherishes the most.
▶ Hurled objects: Range 30’. Can only throw objects which are nearby.