Sorcerer Under Mountain

So I missed a week, but we are back with this special weather event to cheer up even the most humdrum journey across the wastes of Zarth.

“I’ve experienced it four times in my life. It always starts the same. The sky darkens as if a storm is brewing. Indeed there is a rumbling of sorts but if you listen carefully you’ll hear it’s more of a grinding sound. Then suddenly the sky goes blood red, with clouds swirling around an angry red spot, which suddenly opens up and vomits out a blanket of human bones that covers the sky, blots out the sun and even the Locust Star. If you are not already locked up tight in shelter, now is the time to run as fast as ye can, because next comes a rain of the dead armed hideous for war comes screaming down ready to harm the living”
Hongra the Horny, Scout of the Ash Plains.

This is a magical disaster that can affect an area of up to five miles square.

It starts out as typical storm, before the sky turning red round a single vertex of bloody horror, which is actually a gate to a Hellish Other World, were all the armies of the Empire that was under the Ash Plain were taken by the vengeful Old Gods in punishment for their civilisations hubris.  The Sky of Bones vomits out from that Other World gate, and if you look closely enough it is an writhing mass of undead warriors held in the sky by some invisible force.

The storm lasts for d20 minutes, and each minute roll on the following table to see what drops from the Sky of Bones near the adventurers.

Roll d8

1. 2d6 Skeletons
2. 1d3 Ghouls
3. 1 Wight
4. 1d3 Red Zombie
5. 1d4 Zombie
6. 1 Mist Maid
7. 1d3 Wind Wraith
8. Roll again and double the number encountered.

Once the storm is over, any remaining undead are sucked back into the gate which then closes, leaving only clear peaceful skies in its wake.

It occurs mainly in the Ash Plains, probably due to its origins, but has been reported in other places in the Continent of Terror.

Between the hellish Other Worlds and the Real World of Zarth is the grey netherworld of The Shroud. While most of the Shroud is comprised of featureless bleak hills, endless corridors, and dreary mist filled forests there are the occasional landmark. Strange castles filled with dead warriors, aquariums filled with dark fish or ruins of cities infested with ravenous Others are chilling examples.

Travel between these locations and Zarth is hazardous and random. While being distinct and logical in themselves they often have no fixed location in the Shroud, so travelling there in any predictable way from the Zarth is next to impossible. Only long forgotten rituals of the Ancients, themselves locked in deep dangerous dungeons,  can with any certainly facilitate travel. There is also the worry to even the most insane Sorcerer that such rituals in the past have caused cataclysms as such as the opening of the Locust Star, where  plagues of Others have taken advantage of the breach between Zarth and the Shroud and have come over to feed.   The only known ‘safe’ way is the following Magic Item.

Magic Item: The Skin of Oskmas the Traveller
“Old Oskmas he travelled far and wide in a place not a place between the worlds. Until the Sorcerers of Magragore caught him and skinned him alive. Fleshless he crawls the buried underhalls of Magragore “
While alive Oskmas was a frequent traveller in the Shroud. It is unknown if it was necessity or mere curiosity that drove him to find out more and more forbidden knowledge about this shaded realm. During his life he had every location he visited symbolically represented as tattoos on his skin. By all accounts by the time of his death his body was black with inked markers. Death found him in the form of the Sorcerers of the buried city of Magragore, who slew him on behalf of the Sultan of the Shade City. The Sorcerers then had his skin cured, folded and held in a golden chest in the deepest vault in Magragore. It is rumoured that Sorcerers also preserved Oskmas’s essential salts in an a sapphire jar. Some versions of the tale say that the salts were used, and the fleshless screaming thing that guards the chest is Oskmas. Who ever possesses the skin can use the map to instantly travel within the Shroud to the location pointed at with a special enchanted bone wand, found in the chest with the skin.

Welcome to Fiendish Friday, a new feature here where every Friday I shall post a snippet from “Pandora’s Box” for Crypts and Things and other Class/Level based games.

Man-Rat

“My gods, a rat that big should not exist!” I thought. Then it turned to face me, still nibbling on Jaren’s severed arm. Then it hit me. The rat had a face. What abomination of Black Magic was this! Enraged I ran it through. It squeaked pathetically. I stepped back and wiped its blood of my sword. It was then that I heard a multitude of squeaking from the dark entrance of the sepulture. I knew then that the rat’s brothers and sisters were coming to eat!

Standing just over four foot, Man Rats are fast-moving rat-human hybrids, who spend much of their time scratching around for food. Created by the Serpent-Men during ancient times, they escaped the laboratories where they were born in and now infest the surrounding areas. They commonly live in small burrows, but are just at home in ruins and tunnels alongside their smaller brethren.  They attack in groups and while they have vicious claws and bite are natural cowards if numbers are not on their side. Although ancient as a race, this product of foul Vivimancy is still prone to instability and each individual has a one in ten chance of bearing 1d4 Khaos features.  Intelligence wise they are equivalent to a dog, but are often tainted by madness (3 in 6 chance).

Man-Rat
AC 2 [17]
MV 24
Hit Dice 1-1
Attack 2 claws or 1 bite; Dam 1d4/1d4 or 1d6
Saving Throw 18
Special Rules 3 in 6 chance of madness
CR/XP B/10.

Man-Rat Madness table

Roll d10

1. Berserker +2 to attack.
2. Speaks gibberish in Common tongue.
3. Knows a random 1^st Level spell that it fires off immediately upon being attacked.
4. Runs around blindly lashing out at anything in its way if threatened.
5. Facial expressions falsely give the impression of high intelligence.
6. Drools and slobbers.
7. Twitches uncontrollably.
8. Shrieks and yelps randomly.
9. Will go straight up to any character and beg for food.
10. Petrified of Water.