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From Out of the Garden by Crypt Sermon |
Fear and Loathing in a Land Time Forgot is a series of posts for Dungeon Crawl Classics codifying content I've improvised during play. This may include settings, plot hooks, new equipment, characters, classes, and more! Although I'm a firm believer in ephemeral content for old-school games, perhaps you can pilfer some relics from these open-air tombs.
Grayminster
Grayminster is a towering city ruled by Camua the Master Thief and Hamua the (literal) dragon, who pooled together their massive hoards through marriage to found an entire kingdom through sheer economic gravity. At some point, the queens fell out with each other, and have been trying to kill each other for years. They put on airs as happy wives, but the sheer number of assassins and counter-assassins they've contracted have led to them forming a city around their castle, hewn from locally harvested slate (it's all that was readily available).
The first major construction was evenly bisecting the queens' castle, allowing them the privacy to plot (though they often spend time in their shared tea room, forcing small talk). This project earned the castle the name Seplucre; get it? Every tower, road, gate, and tunnel since was built to get a vantage point on the Seplucre, or to counter another vantage point. Over the years, assassins have had to fill civilian roles but with an assassin bent, like Assassin-Scribes and Assassin-Gongfarmers (think John Wick).
Contracts have become so complex, recursive, and re-delegated that they seem to have minds of their own. Every assassin-citizen of Grayminster has an intelligent sword, which pulls contracts from the Kanban and serves as a GPS through the trap-laden streets and portal-ridden alleyways. It's so bad that even objects are being "contracted" for assassination, from enchanted statues to entire animate buildings.
Recently, raiding parties of Drow have started filtering into Grayminster. Hamua is using the remainder of her fortune to outsource to the underworld—not to end her wife, but her life! Once these ruthless killers make their way to the queens' tea room, Hamua will finally be freed from a life of unending vigilance and scheming. The culture of assassins in Grayminster was not prepared for this inevitability, which is why it's only a matter of time.
But if Hamua dies, an entire city falls, as does its citizens' way of life; even though its assassin-politicians would never admit it, the fall of Grayminster would bring hardship to its citizens and the entire region.
New Class: Drow
As Elf, except with the following changes. This is based on a draft of a Drow class created by Rob Baxter, but I haven't seen hide
nor hair of its development since the shuttering of Google Plus (requiescat in pace).
- Add—Light Sensitivity: A drow in the presence of full or partial daylight (e.g., dawn, dusk, noon, overcast) or it’s magical equivalent may not cast spells
- Add—Danger Sense: A drow can perform one action during the first round of surprise, instead of none
- Add—Poison Sense: A drow can smell poison up to 30 feet away
- Add—Two-Weapon Fighting: As Halfling
- Change—Infravision: 100 feet instead of 60 feet
- Change—Luck: Applies to attack and damage rolls made when two-weapon fighting, instead of to checks made for one spell
- Change—Languages: Start with undercommon instead of elven
- Change—Metal: Use adamantine instead of mithril
- Change—Spells: Reduce the number of spells know by three
- Remove—Heightened Senses
- Remove—Immunities
New Equipment
Drow Outfit (AKA "Drowfit")
+1 leather armor that has no check penalty and a d6 fumble die. If you are not a drow, when you do up the hood and scarves, you are easily mistaken as drow. Becomes regular leather armor in sunlight. I picture it like a leathered-up Medjai getup from The Mummy.
Shade-Blade
You can use this dagger to backstab like a Thief, but you add your level to the attempt instead of the Thief's bonus.
Dreadful Tale
- The party is travelling on the road to Grayminster
- When they find a Drow raiding party desecrating the corpses of caravaneers (who are actually poorly disguised assassin-citizens of Grayminster)
- They kill them at the behest of Kafka, the intelligent sword given to the drow that carries the contract on Hamua; specifically, that more details will be provided by their drow contact Thanorthal at The Bloody Wand (yes, that's a euphamism)
- They find Thanorthal, who has had a change of heart after living in Grayminster. They may all be murderers, but they've also got hobbies, and kids to feed! The party has to get there before any of the drow do. But it turns out The Bloody Wand is an assass-inn, and must escape like it's Trap Adventure
- They use Kafka to find the portal that Thanorthal identified, hotly pursued by drow
- They meet with Hamua and perhaps convince her that death, ironically, isn't the answer
- What they do in the Seplucre determines the fate of Grayminster and its assassin-citizens
- Before they continue on their journey, they are provided a boon by whoever they helped out most. This boon should make them feel sort of guilty