Assorted Algol Related Material & SPACE!

Bat from Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets freakin' Blows My Mind ...and also may have unintentionally provided a potential solution to an Interplanetary Castaway Situation in my own game...

Il Male of The Doomed Wasteland provides us with Random Robot Generation; Random Cults and Societies in Standard Fantasy and Weird Science Fantasy flavours; and a table for Generating Rough Hexmap Hex Contents.

This blog post is actually a set of bookmarks for when I get more ink cartridges for the money pit printer...

Also:

Put up with first 1:45 or so, it's worth it...

Somewhat relevant to the above video.

Magic Item - Dagger Of The Akhtholanduvian Karcists

Chalk fondled the sinister dark, curved dagger.

"I wish you'd get rid of that thing already!" Koram harshly whispered as the party crouched behind a fragment of the massive brassteel girders that supported the lilac dome above them.

"Quiet!" whispered Valance, "there's a pack of rubbery things with metal limbs coming out of that hole in the ground."

Koram quickly raised the strange silvery weapon that fired lines of violet energy.

"My mistake, it's just spider venom hallucinations again."

"This whole fucking world is like your fucking spider venom hallucinations!" muttered Chalk as he continued caressing the malicious looking knife.

The signature weapon of the aforementioned Karcists, a shadowy destruction cult of Assassin-Sorcerers from the Flying Mountains of Ylesh who terrorized the regions below tens of thousands of years ago during the Aeon of the Ivory Autarch.

The weapons are single-edged crescent-bladed daggers of dull, dark hepatazon, tarnished a almost black by the millenea. They are +2 to hit and damage, and if the wielder strikes with a natural 20 on the attack roll the target loses one life level to energy drain and the wielder takes 1-4+2 points of damage.

Steve Zieser Subject of Successful Cloning Program...

...and by that I mean that I get a creepy deja vu when looking at this recent example of Fat Cotton's Artwork, I would have sworn it was a piece by Steve Zieser!

American Barbarica is a pretty Awesome-Stupid blog, and as a fan of Character Portraits-Regardless of Artistic Merit, I am thinking that we all can use more Cellphone Pictures of Character Sheet Portraits.

Although I'm all about "Weridsciencefantasyplanet" right now, there's a couple of blogs that have been doing Yee Olde Traditionyl Phantasie Lande style stuff with an approach I find fresh and exciting. I love the Scurrilous Dung Ages vibe of what I've been seeing of Middenmurk, which achieves the miracle of Making Me Like Halflings. I also adore Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets, which always makes me think of old disney movies on acid! And as a former victim of the "Making the Perfect Fantasy Earth Campaign Setting" obession/madness, it's great seeing that the Tao of D&D is doing exactly that with proper obsessiveness.

Also, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who already misses Chgowiz's big shiny head. There was a lot of practical oldschool D&D advice/theory on his blog which will be sorely missed...

The Three Loathsome Tomes of Kral-Ugott And The Tales of Leigkhu the Scoundrel

As I was discussing earlier, I've been working on putting some flavorful grimoires of repute in my campaign. One of the design goals was to elegantly incorporate "non-core" spells into my campaign.

The below are the results of some thought on the matter, the specific goal being to provide an agency for some of the spells from Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets, Beyond the Black Gate, Secrets of Acheron, and Eldritch Weirdness to enter my campaign. Interestingly enough, I now have the archetypal "Infamous Nasty Evil Tome..."


The Three Loathsome Tomes of Kral-Ugott
An infamous collection of blackest sorcery compiled by a reviled Sorcerer-King of the Ancients Kral-Ugott. There are three tomes in this compilation, although rumors persist of a collected omnibus edition containing additional rituals and incantations.

Volume I, "The Putrid Green Tome of Kral-Ugott"
A large grimoire bound in battered scarred filthy manskin, mottled with disgusting green moulds. The filthy pages are full of crabbed black sigils and when opened emits a choking fungal odour.

Level 1
Evil Eye (soa)
Grave Torment (soa)
Vile Weapon (soa)

Level 2
Cloak of Shadows (btbg)
Corruption of the Leaf (aves)
Strange Shadows (aves)
Strangulations (ew)
Tamu's Collaring Coiffure (ew)
Touch of Pain (aves)
Yxagyg Coil (btbg)

Volume II, "The Slavering Red Book of Kral-Ugott"
This large volume is bound in red scales encrusted with blackish-brown residue. When opened a strong smell of old rotting blood permeates the air.

Level 3
Blessing of Og Sohoth (btbg)
Talons of Yrg (btbg)

Level 4
Aura of Terror (aves)
Beast of Chaos (ew)
Breath of Death (aves)
The Curse of Xurgk (btbg)
Deadly Bliss (ew)
Rain of Evil (aves)
Shadow Armor (aves)
Syblymyr's Dark Compulsion (btbg)
The Wind of Pestilence (aves)

Volume III, "The Utmost Black Grimoire of Kral-Ugott"
This massive book is has two sharp-edged heavy plates of glistening black metal plates for covers. These metal plates are quite bloodthirsty and often cut the hands of those perusing the book's contents. It emits a strong burnt metallic smell.

Level 5
Agonizing Doom (soa)
Breath of Yizil (soa)
Deadly Dissolvative (ew)
Infestation of Astral Vile Incarnates (aves)
Most Horrible Absorption (ew)
Six Mouths of Horror (ew)

Level 6
The Cohesive Cocoon (ew)
Twilight of Thieves (ew)

Level 7
Enslave (soa)
Enterragate (ew)
Your Heart is Mine (soa)

Level 8
Borrowed Time (ew)


Tales of Leigkhu the Scoundrel, Volumes I & II
Collections of episodic picaresque and erotic tales detailing the adventures of a lusty, cunning and greedy vagabond-magician, Leigkhu. These tales are collected in two small, slim volumes with elegant black leather covers, and feature several pornographic plates. Often Leigkhu is accompanied by two additional rogues from a "distant sphere," Khor-Aam the Fighting-Man and Chaalyk the Magic-User. Embedded in the text and illustrations are the encrypted formulae for several spells that Leigkhu, Chaalyk and their adversaries employ. The actual tales themselves are light reading but are also quite entertaining, albeit of a scandalous bent and capable of shocking the reader by the depths of amorality plumbed by Leigkhu and companions in the contained exploits.

Volume I, "Leigkhu and the Eight Grasping Barons"

Level 1
Rope of Steel (aves)

Level 2
Casting Aspersions (aves)
Glamour of False Healing (aves)
Mastery of Puppets (aves)
Mutinous Limb! (aves)
Summon Peasant (aves)
Zeralazar's Blazing Trail (aves)

Volume II, "Leigkhu and the Seven Lusty Sorceresses"

Level 3
Memory Thrall (aves)
Nesztor's Vastly Improved Spell of Levitation (btbg)
Roles Reversed (aves)
Things Out There (aves)

Level 6
Reveal True Name (aves)


aves - Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets
btbg - Beyond the Black Gate - Congratulations on your "Birthday."
ew - Eldritch Weirdness
soa - Secrets of Acheron