Races of Outland (updated)

I've been silently working on a project that is an OD&D supplement that includes all my Outland stuff in it. I normally don't like to talk about things I'm working on until they're done, because of the very real (and likely) possibility that I'll never finish. My hard drive is littered with half-baked ideas and unfinished projects. Further, Outland steals from is inspired by so many other sources, I often have doubts about whether sharing such a document would be a good idea to begin with.

Anyways, I figured it would be a nice thing to use in my game and sort of a cool souvenir for my game store players. I really enjoy reading other people's homemade game supplements, and I can appreciate the time and effort that is required to document one's lifted material ideas in a way that can be used by others.

Anyways, to make a long story boring, I at least have the Races part done, so I figured I'd at least share that much, in case I never get any further. It can be found on the "Outland OD&D Game" menu item above, or just get it HERE.

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Outland Session 5 (Unique Gifts & Games)

This past Monday, four intrepid adventurers decided to pay another visit to Nagle Manor. I got all of their real names written down, but of course I forgot to get their PC names. I'm a terrible record keeper. Anyways, there were 2 magic-users, a cleric, and a thief. I know that much. Each had a henchman in tow as well.

On the way to the manor, they were assaulted by a large poisonous spider which surprised them in the tall grasses. One of them was horribly bitten and died right there in the field - that is until the cleric remembered about his vial which still contained two drops of angel tears. Using a drop of the stuff, he was able to bring his companion back to life. The party took a detour, and were able to follow the spider's tracks back to it's lair where they found a half-dozen human-sized cocoon-thingies. They cut them open and found some odds and ends, you know, like dead bodies, in addition to a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Since there was no fighter, they now have one very strong thief.

Once they reached the manor, they decided to go in a less conspicuous entrance. Although they knew that the main floor had been more or less fully explored, they decided to go over it again anyways, in case some good treasure was missed. They made away with some valuable silverware and dishes, and one of them managed to get badly bitten by a man-faced rat (a.k.a. brown jenkins) that was hiding in one of the cabinets for reasons undetermined.

They figured out a way to rescue a previously lost 0-level nobody from the cursed mirror, but spent their final angel tear to make that happen. A bit more wandering around, narrowly avoiding death by animated flying butcher knives, and they concluded by managing to swipe a deck of cards off of a table before being chased off by some ghouls whose bowling match they so rudely interrupted.

So now there have been four separate excursions to the haunted Nagle Manor, and still no one has gone beyond the ground floor.

Not a very profitable adventure, but I think it was pretty damn fun.

Current Adventuring Opportunities in Outland

Rather than have to explain all this and take up valuable gaming time, I figured I'd just make a post here outlining the basic details any adventurers coming to Outland would know, or be able to learn in a brief time hanging out at the Inn Between Worlds.

1 hex = 1 mile

0. The Last Outpost of the Undying Empire - A great place to party and do a bit of shopping. Most visiting adventurers go to The Inn Between Worlds to organize their expeditions, but those strapped for cash might frequent the more rough-and-tumble Bell & Weasel outside the walls. Turjin the Sage offers sagely services, such as identification of magic items and the occasional alchemical concoction. Finally, an enterprising gnome tinkerer has opened up a shop called Dirty Dwayne's Dungeoneer Gear. It should be noted that pretty much everything he sells is an experimental prototype, but he will pay small sums for field testing reports and testimonials.

1. Nagle Manor - The greater part of the first floor of this haunted house has been explored, and stairs leading both up and down have been discovered. However, no one has yet dared to venture upstairs or downstairs. There is a rudimentary map of the ground floor that can be found here (scroll all the way to the bottom of the post).

2. Satyr Sinkhole - A farmer's daughter was rescued from a horrible blasphemous orgy here. All the satyrs are believed to be dead, but people stay away from the area for the most part, so it's hard to say for sure.

The Weird Caves

3. Weird Caves - Three of the caves here have been explored, in whole or in part.

• Cave A housed a tribe of cyclops monkeys that have been eradicated.
• Two separate groups have gone into Cave B. An entrance to a greater dungeon was found in there (reportedly more or less due west of the cave entrance, although no map has been shared), as well as the tomb of some otherworldly undead guy.
• Cave C was ventured into, after rumors of ruthless amazons being spotted entering and exiting the cave were circulating, but that particular group has not been seen again, and their whereabouts are unknown.
• People have reportedly seen strange-looking orange-skinned men wearing primitive clothing and metal collars shuffling in and out of Cave D.
• No one knows what's up there in Cave E. 

4. The Blackmire Swamp/Village/Castle - Although many trade caravans have attempted the journey, only a single man has returned to tell of the village that overlooks the ancient ruined castle that can only be seen on a clear day. He reports that the people are weird and very superstitious regarding the castle. If you mention it, they will stop talking to you. Apparently some creature lairing in the mountains is what makes the voyage so difficult. It is described as a great winged beast with the tail of a scorpion.

5. Choose Your Own Adventure - As you can see, very little of the area has been explored. A daring group of adventurers might choose to simply head off into the wilderness to see what they might find...

Outland Session 3

Last night at Unique Gifts & Games, we had 5 players. Two made it back from the first session, and three were new. Thus, we had the following PCs:

• a 1st-level thief
• a 1st-level magic-user
• 14 zero-level scrubs

The group decided to venture into the caves - the alien caves to be specific. Here are some of the highlights:

• One of the zero-level guys rolled an 18 for intelligence. Sadly, he failed his save against radiation later on, causing his eyeballs to explode for 1 die of damage. He did not survive.
• A swarm of beetles that had the appearance of gold nuggets near the entrance was expertly avoided.
• A trollish-looking child was met and befriended. He was sad because the other kids wouldn't let him play "dodge-rocks" with them. He led the group to a tomb he and his buddies found, but weren't strong enough to open.
• On the way to the tomb, a large crystal egg (very valuable) was found in a hidden hole with a magical darkness spell cast upon it. Thank the gods it wasn't a gnomish hand-getter trap!
• The group went to the tomb, opened the sarcophagus, and awakened a pissed off undead Darth Varaxis. There were a few casualties, between this guy's lightsaber and the radiation unleashed in the room when his sarcophagus was opened, but the group made it out with some new toys - Darth Varaxis' Cloak (+1 AC and Stealth); Darth Varaxis' Helmet (infravision, breathe in any environment, telekinesis); Darth Varaxis' Suit (basically leather armor a mage can wear); Darth Varaxis' Lightsaber (Whoever wants to use it will have to roll on the item complexity chart, possibly killing themselves in the process. Everyone was too scared to try it.)
• The little green guy tried to steal the lightsaber and run, but was overpowered by a cluster of 0-level nobodies. Amazingly, the group didn't even kill him for his transgressions! Perhaps he's PALS4LIFE material...
• Only one PC, the magic-user, caroused. He gained enough XP to reach level 2, but he failed his save and ended up making a drunken foxhole prayer that led to a quest spell from Ishtar.

Good thing they didn't come across this guy...

All in all, I'd say it was a very profitable expedition.

An Experiment in Hexploration

In reading about the sharing of maps and information in the original West Marches campaign, I've decided to try and implement a similar thing in my own Outland campaign. At the Inn Between Worlds, there is a large crappy table known as "the adventurer's table", where adventurer's carve their maps directly into the table. There is the overland map, and also any location maps of adventuring sites that have been explored.

I've gotten the thing started, and will bring it to the gaming sessions for the players to add to. It will probably be some time before enough exploration is done to expand the map, but we shall see how it goes.

Outland overland map - player version

Also, not sure how to handle this with online players. Keep a current photo posted? How will they update it? Keep another version in Hexographer? Not sure yet...

Outland Session 2

On December 23, I was visited by out-of-towner friends Steve from Atlanta and Mason from Milwaukee. We decided to do some gaming, and after being presented with the available rumors of locations to be explored, they went with the haunted house - now dubbed Nagle Manor.

Two players, with 5 PCs each entered the manor, and made use of the map shared by the previous explorers. They explored the majority of the ground level, and found stairs going both down and up, but chose to limit their shenannigans to the first floor.

Here are some highlights from the adventure, in no particular order:

• Animated curtains began to strangle two adventurers, but the curtains were foiled by a well-thrown bear trap and later burned.
• A well-stocked library attended by a powerful yet crazy magician. One of the PCs attacked him, and she was turned to stone for her efforts. The others perused the books and were each allowed to check out a book, being told that they must be returned in 4 weeks. Books checked out were a treatise on all matter of slimes and oozes, a book on fishing, and two tomes dedicated to the accurate valuation of works of art and fine furniture, respectively. Successful study of these books may aid the adventurers in the future...
• A black pudding was encountered, and sent through the floor to the lower level of the manor.
• A ballroom full of dancing ghosts was discovered. The ghosts seemed to pay no mind to the adventurers, but some clumsy navigation of the room led to one of the PCs brushing up against a dancing ghost. The cold chill of death caused the PC to die where he stood.
• A room full of bowling ghouls was discovered. The PCs fled immediately!
• There was a locked door in the northeast quadrant of the manor that the adventurers were unable to gain access to.
• An armory was discovered, but a suit of plate animated and sent an adventurer or two to their graves.
• Some sort of magical painting depicting a great battle was discovered. At some point, a barrage of arrows flew forth from the painting, killing yet another PC.
• Treasure taken from the manor includes a magic sword, a ring of telekinesis, a dragon control potion, a bottle of elvish whimsey wine, and miscellaneous items to the tune of a ~3,000 gp value. An encrypted treasure map was reported to be found as well.

Here are the adventurers that met their demise at the hands of Nagle Manor, illustrated by Mason:

Big Lurch - death by cursed scroll

Dweebal Zappo - bumped into a dancing ghost

Moonbeam Zappo - pissed off the librarian and was turned to stone

Moonshine Bloodgood - killed by arrows fired from a magical painting

Stephan Suxley - killed by animated suit of armor

Ulthon Steelhide - also killed by animated suit of armor

The following adventurers made it home, did some partying, and two of them advanced to level 1 somebodies:

Jim Titanium - advanced to 1st-level Fighting-Man

Jim Titanium action shot

Scarecrow Hooker - advanced to 1st-level Thief

Gordo Murvin - promoted to henchman of Jim Titanium. Hey, it's better than being dead!

Gordo enjoying his one true love - fishing!

Barkbeard Woodsack - Scarecrow Hooker's new meatshield

Updated map of the manor (scale and accuracy are questionable)

I was told that zero-level adventures are super awesome fun. The end.

Outland Session 1

24 0-level noobs arrived in the land of the two suns this past evening to try their luck at one of the many fine adventuring locations Outland has to offer. At the Inn Between Worlds, they were able to survey a crude map carved into the table by some other crazy adventuring types that had come before them, and learn a bit about the immediate surrounding area.

After acquiring a small loan at a 100% per two days interest rate from Calbraith the Legitimate, they equipped themselves modestly with some spears and a few suits of leather and headed north, to investigate the spooky manor house that was reportedly burned down by a previous adventuring party. A recent trade caravan had returned from that direction a few days prior and claimed it was still standing, so they decided to check it out.

Upon arrival, there was no evidence whatsoever of a fire. A rock was thrown at the door from a good 60 yards, and a devilish figure in a tuxedo, reminiscent of Satan himself, opened the door and bade the group to enter, and offered to take their coats. After doing so, he faded from view as if some sort of apparition.

The group of course jumped on the opportunity to raid the coatroom, and were rewarded for their efforts with a bit of gold and some fine outerwear.

The rest is hard to make out from their drunken ramblings, but there were bits of information concerning a bathtub filled with blood that contained a cursed sword and someone's wedding ring, a magic mirror that sucked in Bleat, the poor dwarven goatherder, and releasing some other grateful young woman who quickly fled the scene. There was also some banter about a painting they boosted, picturing a group of werewolves playing poker, and a dozen skeletons seated for a grand feast, one of which was relieved of his gem-studded iron crown by a nimble-fingered hobbit.

Three of the PCs caroused, all failed their saves, and each of the three were involved in some sort of mixup about where it was acceptable to take a leak in the middle of the night. Luckily, each of them were able to talk their way out of any fines that might have been imposed.

The expedition could be called a great success, with only one PC lost, and they earned enough money to pay back the loan shark and free the one poor fellow of his newly acquired cursed sword. The party was feeling so generous that they carved their makeshift map of the parts of the manor they explored into the adventurer's table at the inn.