Faces of Pretomournon: The Pigs

The Basher Brothers

If you want to have someone killed, the best place to go to is the Secret Masters Guild. But sometimes you do not want someone dead immediately. Maybe you want him beat up? Threaten him? Collect money he owes you?  Break his legs? Then you can contact the Basher Brothers.

The pigs Ale, Vodka and Gin - their father named them - began their careers as bodyguards in service of the rich moneylender Garrelt Cristofoletto. Cristofoletto always used pigs as bodyguards - and still does - because he thinks that they look "tough". The brothers Ale and Vodka Basher guarded the moneylender for almost five years. During that time they often performed special "chores" for him. For example, when someone refused to pay, the brothers paid the debtor a visit to advise him to pay quickly (and when a large sum was involved, maybe break a leg or two). Ale and Wodka often took their teenage sister Gin with them on these jobs, in order to teach her “the ropes”.

When the new tax system was introduced, it paid Cristofoletto better to dismiss his bodyguards and take on freelancers. Of course he hired Ale and Vodka Basher right away, but the two pigs suddenly found themselves forced to start a company. However, Vodka saw an opportunity to expand their business. Gin began approaching new customers. There appeared to be a large market for Brute Force, and soon they got so many commissions that they had to hire personnel.

Now the Basher Brothers (and the Basher sister) are at the head of the largest mercenary guild in Pretomournon. All members of the gang are pigs, about as many bears as sows. Ale and Vodka no longer work as bodyguards - they leave that to the pigs in their service.

Ale, the oldest brother, is the largest, the strongest, and the dumbest of the siblings. Since he no longer does mercenary work, he behaves as if he's better than the staff - many of whom are former friends of his. Ale's an Executive Board Member of the mercenary guild, but actually he’s nothing more than a glorified guard of his younger brother and sister. He is especially protective of Gin, and he makes it very dangerous for would-be suitors to come near his sister.

Vodka, the middle sibling, is only slightly smarter than his older brother, but not by much. Vodka pictures himself as a real businessman. He dresses like a wealthy merchant, smokes big cigars, and travels through the city in his own rickshaw, pulled by one of his servants. But beneath that stylish exterior he remains the low-class gangster from the River District. He is vulgar, has terrible manners and a banal sense of humor.

Gin is the Basher sister. She's smarter than her brothers and therefore takes care of administration, human resources, and client contacts. But make no mistake, even though she’s smart, Gin is as vicious and violent as her brothers, and strong enough to beat almost every thug in the city in a one-on-one fight - except for Ale.

The Basher Brothers have many clients. In addition to providing Cristofoletto's protection, they work for Vithimiris ReizenSteyn, on whose behalf they threaten the art dealer Fern, for Carter Don, who hired them to clear the orphanage of the Amazon Demostratia, and for the magician Laumones of Rozeren, for whom they try to keep the rogue only known as "The Romanticist" away from his daughter Abigail. In all three of these jobs the Bashers aren’t very successful, and it looks like there’s room for competition in the thugging market. So far, however, no one has dared to compete with Ale, Vodka and Gin.

Ale Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 6 (studded leather +1); Pig Male Fighter7; hp 49; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+3 (mace +1, Str) or 1d4+2 (bite, Str) or by weapon +2; S 17, D 10, C 16, I 5, W 9, Ch 7; M 11; XP 790.

Vodka Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 6 (unarmored); Pig Male Thief 9; hp 43; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4+1 (silver dagger, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; S 15, D 11, C 15, I 7, W 10, Ch 8; M 9; special: backstab (2d4+2 dmg), thief abilities; items: gloves of swimming and climbing; XP 1700.

Gin Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 5 (unarmored, Dex); Pig Female Fighter 5; hp 40; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (mace, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; S 15, D 13, C 13, I 12, W 10, Ch 11; M 9; XP 350.

Pig Thugs of the Basher Guild: AL N; MV 12; AC 8 (leather); Pig Fighter 2; hp 10; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (mace, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; M 10; XP 29.

All have normal abilities of a pig, as described HERE.

Location: The Basher siblings can be found in their office in the Money District, or in the barracks of their mercenaries in the River District.

See also: Garrelt Cristofoletto, Demostratia, Carter Don, Fern, Vithimiris Reizensteijn, The Romanticist, Laumones Van Rozeren.

D&D 30: I Made It, and What Now?

So I completed the 30 day challenge this Monday – precisely on schedule. I managed to post every day, and I didn’t skip days, so I didn’t need to catch up.

I had a fun time telling stories about my favorite PC, NPC, and events from previous campaigns. I play D&D in one form or another for almost 25 years, and it was nice to reminiscent about successful games in the past. Looking back, I saw we had some awesome campaigns.

I think everyone agrees the list is a bit dry and repetitive, but all-in-all most questions are good subjects to blog about. The only questions I couldn’t answer satisfactory where the two dice questions, and the one about energy. I endured the repetitive days of monster questions by drawing each monster. They became my favorite questions on the list. Making an illustration takes a lot more time than writing a post does, but I ended up with some nice drawings.

I really liked reading the posts of the other participants. Everyone’s posts were different from each other, making some nice surprises, or “oh, that’s cool”-moments. Although, I didn’t understand the answers on day 6 (favorite deity). Tyr? Chauntea? Where’s Vecna, or Tharizdun?

The most boring thing about the challenge were the people complaining about the challenge. Of course everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but I don’t understand the need for macho posturing and silly insults. Oh well, it’s over now.

What’s Next For This Blog?

“Faces of Pretomournon” has begun, and three of the NPCs are posted. I’ll keep posting the write-ups about one every weekend, but with 30 NPCs, that will take a long time. Maybe, if I manage to get ahead, I can speed up posting a bit.

Further, I’m still writing “Lost Library of the Deathspeakers”. To be honest, the 30 day challenge took a lot of time away from writing the module, but I’m now returning to it, and thanks to the challenge there’s a gibbering mouther in it. I’ll post some things like new spells, books, and magic items from the adventure on the blog.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 30 – Best DM I’ve Had

Last day!

It’s impossible to name the best DM out of the DMs I’ve had. They all were very different, and they all had good moments.

My cousin Rutger was my first DM. Actually, we always ran our campaigns together. We would take turns DMing and playing. Sometimes we would prepare our own separate adventures, but more often we would prepare for the game together, and decide who would DM two minutes before we began.

My friend Alex was my DM for most of my time at art academy. Alex was a big horror fan, and read a lot of Stephen King. He was attracted to Ravenloft, and ran adventures in that setting exclusively . 

Being both an art student and a horror fan, it’s no surprise Alex was very good at building atmosphere. His Ravenloft game often went beyond the gothic horror the setting usually provides, and our PCs encountered scary dreams, serial killers, and a rusty petrol station from another time. He often used out-of-game elements like music and lightning in his game

My friend Martijn was a believer in The One Way: the DM providing the railroad and the player’s staying in character as much as possible. His favorite setting was Al-Qadim, and for the most part he ran published adventures. I have written about those before (here and here), because I’ve used them for my own Al-Qadim campaign as well, and sometimes I could see he had difficulty making the adventures work. That’s not to say he was a bad DM, it was the adventure’s fault. He was especially good at using props: clay amulets, handwritten documents, that sort of thing.

Martijn was running his Al-Qadim campaign when 3^rd Edition came out, and converted the campaign to the new rules. In hindsight, the shift from a more story-oriented game to a more combat-oriented game was very clear. The story elements were still there in 3^rd, of course, but because the characters had more combat-oriented abilities and the fights took a bit longer, there was definitely more combat in the game than before.

My brother Jorrit DMed Dark Sun for a bit, decided he didn’t want to play AD&D anymore, played and ran a lot of games in the Storyteller system, and came back with 3^rd Edition. When 4E came out we started a campaign together, each of us running adventures in turn, but he quickly decided 4E wasn’t for him and left our group. Now he mostly plays Pathfinder.

I’ve played in two of Jorrit’s campaign: the Banewarrens campaign and his Castle Greyhawk campaign. Both had the same faults, pretending to be large megadungeons but really being 3.5 adventure paths. However, both have enough fun set-pieces, and Jorrit is especially good at those. He was also good at managing a big rule-set like 3.5 and Pathfinder.

So all of the DMs I’ve had were the best in some aspects. It’s interesting to note all of them were especially good at things I don’t do in my games. I don’t use music, and my games are more about ideas than about atmosphere. I hardly use any props, and while I’ve had long miniature combats in my 4E game, of course, I’m not really that good at the tactical side of the game. Maybe it’s because I’m not very good at those things that I admire their skill with them.

Faces of Pretomournon: The Priestess

Amariza

The Cathedral of Clouds in Pretomournon is the largest cathedral in the world. It’s home to nearly a hundred small orders, all of which are members of The Temple, the global organization for waning religions. The cathedral is a wonder to behold: a huge structure of more than 500 feet high, made of large grey stones, with gates big as titans, sixteen bell towers touching the sky, and guarded by terrible gargoyles patrolling the walls.

Inside there is plenty to see, hear and experience as well. The floor is inlaid with the sacred symbols of a thousand gods. High stained-glass windows display scenes out of the stories of Deucalion, who saved mankind and wildlife by building the ark Utnapishtim, of Rystespyt, who teached humanity to speak and write, and of Crow, who slayed The Chimera Out Of Nowhere.

Each god has its own shrine – the greater gods a chapel - and each shrine shows the power and greatness of its god. The water in the font of Elgar, god of Patrionism, heals all who drink from it, as long as he or she demonstrates to know the full text of the national anthem, including the lesser known fourth stanza. The dead husk of the Lord of Apathy, hanging on iron chains suspended from the ceiling,  promises to prophesize for those who sacrifice a finger. The statue of the Invisible Queen will make everyone with pure hatred and darkness in his or her heart beautiful in appearance.

Despite all these wonders, the Cathedral is rarely visited, and there are hardly any people other than priests and tourists. One of those priests is Amariza, priestess of Muizi, goddess of memory.

At first sight, her shuffling gait and stooped posture remind one of an older person, but once she starts talking and laughing, it becomes clear immediately that she is younger. Amariza is in her early ‘30s and small of stature. She wears her dark blond hair pinned up in a bun and she always wears the light blue robe of office. A  cloud of about 10 dragonflies – insects sacred to the goddess Muizi – circles her constantly. When starting a conversation, she always asks people the same question: "Do you remember Muizi?"

Amariza grew up in Heugenis, a small village in the northeastern part of the Mournful Kingdom. All residents of Heugenis worship the goddess Muizi, and from an early age Amariza knew that she wanted to dedicate her life to serving her goddess. The priest Pascer took her on as an acolyte at the age of twenty, and inaugurated her into the mysteries of the faith. She learned to talk to dragonflies, to read and interpret signs in the collective memory of humanity, and how to cast some spells. Once her training was complete, the disadvantage of living and working in a small town like Heugenis became clear: the shrine to Muizi was small, and could be managed easily by one person. Amariza stayed on as Pascer’s assistant much longer than normal for an acolyte, but eventually it became clear she had to find her own path to walk. Therefore, Amariza decided to leave her home village to travel to the capital, where the largest and most important shrine to Muizi was located in the Cathedral of the Clouds.

Amariza’s idea was to join the priestly order of Muizi. However, as she arrived in Pretomournon, to her dismay she discovered that no such order existed in the city. The shrine in the cathedral was abandoned and no one – not even the leadership of The Temple – knew about the shrine’s goddess. Amariza was shocked to learn that no one knew about Muizi.

When Amariza learned more about the religious and philosophical schools in the city, she came to the conclusion that the majority of the population had forgotten the gods. And, as the new high priestess of memory, she felt it was here duty to do something about it.

With the help of a young nun named Trudi, she obtained from the library of The Temple an obscure ritual that calls a god into the material world. Amariza wants to use this ritual to summon Muizi. She believes when the goddess of memory walks in the world, people will remember again.

The ritual requires an enormous magical symbol drawn on the ground, covering an area of half a city quarter. Although there’s enough space in the ruined part of Pretomournon to make this half-mile-wide sign, the ruins in the outer circle of the city are not quite uninhabited. Therefore, Amariza hired the “fixer” Carter Don to ensure that the necessary area is clear, and the people who live there are paid to move.

Although Amariza is a sweet woman, she is very naive and gullible. She truly believes Carter Don uses the money she pays – almost her entire salary as a High Priestess of The Temple – to compensate people for leaving their homes, and she has no idea of his true methods. She has no suspicion of her confidant Trudi's true identity either, and has no clue about the real objective of the summoning ritual: to bring about the Apocalypse.

Amariza: AL N; MV 12; AC 9 (unarmored); Human Female Mage 1; hp 4; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4 (dagger) or by weapon; S 11, D 10, C 13, I 14, W 9, Ch 14; M 6; Items: medallion of thoughts; XP 13.

Spells: Amariza can memorize two 1^st level spells, or one of 2^nd level. Favorite spells are amnesia, augury, and know alignment.

Faultless Memory: As a priestess of Muiri, goddess of memory, Amariza never forgets anything. She can recall anything she has heard.

Sacred Dragonflies: Amariza always has 1d6+6 dragonflies flying around her. If Amariza is attacked, the dragonflies will fight as an 2 HD insect swarm with a number of hit points equal to the number of dragonflies.

Dragonflies (1d6+6): AL N; MV 3, fly 6; AC 7; HD 2; hp 1 per dragonfly; #AT 1; Dmg 2 hp (bite); Save as human0; M 11; XP 29.

Location: In the Cathedral of Clouds during work hours, or in her small home in the Priests’ Quarter.

See also: Carter Don, Quinzel, Sylgya.

Note: Because the cleric class doesn’t exist in the Weird Opera world, Amariza is a mage. If you want to use her in a more traditional game, make her a cleric of intermediate level. Give her faultless memory as a granted power instead of turning undead, or give her both.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 29 – What is the number you always seem to roll on a d20?

Okay, the maker of this list truly was out of ideas at this point. Thank God the challenge is over tomorrow. We wouldn’t want him to suffer for much longer.

How am I going to answer this? 3? 4? I always seem to roll low when I want to roll high, and I always seem to roll high when I want to roll low, but I think everyone has that problem.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 28 – A Character I Will Never Play Again

I’m with Christopher Eccleston on this one: when I stop playing a character, I never go back to playing it, even if it would be for a 50^th anniversary celebration.

Usually, when me and my group end a campaign, we start up something else entirely. For example, now I’m playing Vampire. If we go back to D&D we’ll probably start at 1^st level, so previous characters are often too experienced. Also, there are many different character concepts, and returning to the same character means I can't play them.

I do use favorite previous PCs as NPC in new campaigns regularly. Sometimes they’re given a new name, appearance, and role so the players don’t recognize him or her. At other times, the character is pretty much the same. I like to have some continuity between my campaign worlds, even if they're not really in the same universe. For example, Quinzel is the character I played in my brother's Greyhawk campaign, Saldoran Gorst is from my Dromenon campaign, and Kata from an old 2nd Edition campaign all exist in the Weird Opera world in one form of the other.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 27 – A Character I Want To Play In The Future

I’ve been DMing for most of the past 6 years, and before that I played an Ice Witch and a bard/jester. I haven’t played a thief in about ten years! And it is my favorite class! So for my next character (not my Next character, mind you) I’ll probably roll up a thief. To be more precise, I’ll play her:

Her name is Blasphemy Battleship (now where would I have gotten that name?), and only steals so she can provide for her poor, sick mother.

Or so she says...