Rended Press

Did this as part of a contribution to Gmilk's metadungeon community project and thought I would also post it here: What's in the Burial Urn? (1d30) 1. Desiccated organs. 2. Mummy cat; if removed from jar, will attack [HD 2, AC 7 [10], Atk 2/1 (2 claws or 1 bite), Dmg 1d6/1d6/1d6 + Save vs. Paralysis] 3. Mummified dog head too large to be removed through urn opening. Will open eyes and bark or snarl if poked or prodded. If urn is smashed, the head will immediately turn to dust. 4. Dried Chick Peas. 5. Pomegranate seeds covering a bronzed statue of a hideous beast with the body of a wolfhound and six snarling, snake-like heads. If removed from the urn, it will spring to life and attack the PCs unless its command word is spoken. Its command word is carved on its underbelly in ancient Arkanian ("umamanan", roughly translated as "holy bastard, heel!"). If brought under command, it will serve its owner until the statue is destroyed [HD 9, AC 5, Atk 2

I said this in my Christmas Bookface post , but it bears repeating:

Four Alchemist Recipes for Your OSR Game I've been surfing Wikipedia this morning and came up with a few useful things that I twisted for gaming. For pricing, I've followed the Swords & Wizardry guideline that the price of creation is 50 gp per day of formulation. I've then added in a 450 gp mark-up for the market price. Obviously, you may want to adjust this for your own campaigns. The following is considered Open Game Content :

Hacking Clue Through the Ages The adventurers stumble upon a decrepit four-story mansion that has been divided into four 1-floor apartment suites with similar floor plans. Stairs in the middle of the first apartment lead to the upper stories. The registered residents of floors 1, 2, & 3 are familiar with each other, but tend to keep to their separate floors. What will they find?

Trust me, you want to click this link: Who the @#$% is my D&D Character?

The Man Who Would Not Rest: A Tale of a Servant of the Jale God In those days, an astonishing event occurred in a small village far beyond the boundaries of Walthamthorp. A man, who no one knew was a secret worshiper of the Jale God, died. His body was interred into the earth with the normal rites of his clan, with much rejoicing and feasting on the part of his wife and kindred, as is the nature of such celebrations in certain parts of the realm. The morning after his burial, his wife awoke to find the man laying in the bed next to her. He immediately rolled over on the terrified woman and had his satisfaction with her despite her struggles, after which he wordlessly rose and left the room. The wife leapt from the bed to follow him, but when she left the bed chambers she found the door still barred and he was nowhere in their small house.

The Prisoners of the Mudshot Depths: An Adventure for Delving Deeper or other Original Edition-type rules The text of the following post is considered Open Game Content : map by Dave's Mapper using tiles by Dyson Logos and edited by verhaden Prisoners of the Mudshot Depths An Unsuitable Adventure for Low-Level Characters totally unplaytested and probably will result in a TPK BACKGROUND PCs start in Area 1. Each PC has been captured and is being held for ransom. They wear no armor, but are dressed in rough homespun cloth. They are bound, gagged, and blindfolded. They do not know each other.

6 Folk Beliefs to Invoke the Jale God Many folks say that the Jale God can be compelled to respond to ordinary folk. Here's a few ways.

Side Effects of a Vision from the Jale God Receving a message from the Jale God is a horrible and humbling experience. Humanoid minds cannot deal with the extreme psionic pressures of such a visit and must purge the stress in some physical form. Roll 2d6: One for the main side effects table and one for the appropriate subtable. All effects last for 1d8 days and cause –2 to all DEX & CON checks plus loss of –3 hp per day (recoverable).

Bookface had a very nice Christmas!

The 2 Men of Gorsham: A Tale of a Servant of the Jale God A servant of the Jale God was working in his fields when two men from Gorsham came along the path by his land-hold and waived him over. The man stopped his hoeing and went to talk to the strangers. "We understand that somewhere around here in this village is a witch-woman who can satisfy our needs," one of them said. They meant, of course, that they were looking for someone like those who reside in the pleasure districts of larger towns. The farmer decided to play a little joke on the men and directed them to a small hut a little way down the road. "That's where I usually go when I'm looking to get that sort of satisfaction," the farmer said. "They might play tough at first and try to get more than you're willing to pay, but if you stick to it you'll get what you're looking for."

I've noticed that many of the hits to this blog are originating from RSS mills that scrape content from RSS feeds and repost them online. To prevent this, I'm switching the RSS feed from "full posts" to "short". Hopefully this will be a temporary measure. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but the content scrappers are scum of the earth. I hope you continue to follow the blog and find what I post worth reading!

6 Invocations of the Jale God Translated from Cursed Scrolls 1. A burning, a brightness, a suffering rage Encompass the essence of my soul! Bring forth the unlighted void And draw the knife across my eyes So that I may see what you reveal. 2. Sing of the unlit fire and the empty gullet! Hear me oh Unnameable One! In this your will be done, This your servant begs! Take this meager sacrifice, Eviscerate this flesh, this blood, this bone— Reveal yourself to your true servant! 3. Jale before time, oh hear me, your servant! All bends and breaks to your immutable will Leaving nothing but words unspoken on wind— Enable me to hear your voice in the void! 4. Repent! Repent, unbelievers! Let your ignorance disappear! The day is retreating And darker night is blooming! The Unspeakable One is rising And soon will draw neigh; Cower! Watch in anticipation! At midnight comes the cry. See that your torches are extinguished Douse them in water, fill not your lamps!

The Farmer from Kinbrect: A Tale of the Jale God Once long ago, the Jale God was walking the earth while other gods engaged in settling grievances among themselves. To remain forgotten by the other gods and avoid their enmity, he travelled the lands as a ruddy laborer, relying on those he met for his daily sustenance. He traded a day in the field for a warm meal or sometimes a hunk of bread and a place to sleep. Many times he was beaten and robbed of his cloak or sandals, and these souls he remembered for later repayment. Yet never did the Jale God forget the farmer from Kinbrect. Far on the outskirts of this great city lived a farmer and his wife, working the land for a meager subsistence with barely enough to pay field-fealty to the king. They had no children and worked the land themselves, occasionally hiring a passing traveller to help for part of the day in exchange for the evening meal. The Jale God spent a day there, working in the fields digging up root vegetables and cab

The Fireside Visitor: A Tale of the Jale God Once, a young man and his son were on their way to the market square to sell their cart of vegetables. They did not reach the village before night fall and were forced to spend the night in the forest in a small clearing beside the path. The man built a fire and after a dinner of roasted squash they curled up in their thin blankets beneath the cart and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, the young man woke up with the urgent need to void. As he stood, he noticed a large, monkey-like creature with wings sitting by the dying coals of the fire, rubbing its hands and occasionally turning a potato in the ashes. "Who are you?" the man demanded, his bowels now quivering in fear. "I am no one worth remembering come morning," the creature replied. "I only want to roast this potato; it has been a long time since I ate a warm meal. Allow me this small favor and I will leave you alone." "Oh creature,&q

Three Old Stories of Followers of the Jale God Hildagrum the Blindress Hildagrum resisted the Jale God in various guises. One time, she saw ten bandits being transported to the gallows in a cart. Instead of lamenting their wickedness, they acted like animals, hooting and hollering and jumping about. Although no one else saw anything out of the ordinary when they glanced at the criminals, Hildagrum saw a multitude of spirits and devils prodding and poking the men, making them curse and blasphemy. Having compassion for the men, Hildagrum climbed into the cart beside them, stabbed each one six times through both eyes, and spat in the wounds. In this way, the Jale God gained twenty new eyes to look out upon the world. Nurvoc Nurvoc, a devout man of great piety, was an elementalist and master of a great landholding. Earth, wind, fire, and water were subject to him; he drove away plaguing spirits, unmuted dumb tongues, restored health to the putrid, and, on occasion and for the right

The Beloved Servant: A Tale of the Jale God There is a story now freely told concerning something that once visited a particular cemetery of a well-known kingdom. The story is that one day, early in the pre-dawn hours, a groundskeeper named Karst (employed to keep rabble from sleeping on graves and desecrating monuments) and his friend, a member of the city guard, were surprised in the midst of their nightly banter by a tall, wan figure spider-crawling down a wall and landing close beside them. This figure darted along the path toward the heart of the cemetery towards a grave that has long been rumored to be that of a favored servant of the Jale God. As it ran, the figure made a clackling sound, like a horse with a loose shoe covering rough ground. Too terrified to watch or follow this figure, Karst and his friend fled, not stopping until they were some distance away. Karst refused to return to his post, but his friend, being of the guard and full of bravado, went back to where t

A Tale of a Jale God Cultist A hobgoblin, a bugbear, and a cultist of the Jale God are sitting in a tavern across from a brothel. They are sipping their mead when they see a bugbear across the street walk into the house of ill repute. “Fnarl!” the bugbear curses. “It’s terrible to see a bugbear give into human temptation!” he says, shaking his head. “If it bothers you so much, why don’t you go over there and stop him?” asks the hobgoblin. The bugbear shakes his head and says, “Well, that’s my cousin Merl; he’s the toughest of our warband. If I interfere, he’ll whip me good.” The other two nod their heads in understanding, and drink more mead. A short while later, they see a hobgoblin walk into the brothel. “Pfaughl!,” exclaims the hobgoblin. “It’s a smear on the name of hobgoblins everywhere to see one of us spend our ration on a used handmaiden!” “If it bothers you so much, why don’t you go over there and say something?” asks the bugbear. “Certainly you need to stop him be