Goldsoul Mines Feedback

I know I didn't get around to it at the time, but thanks to all the folk who provided feedback for me on Goldsoul Mines. Eventually we shall get an update for it. Currently, my home group is starting to enter the dungeon (which will have been the first time I've run it), so revisions will definitely wait until after they're through it.

To-Do List for Goldsoul Mines v1.1

1. Add a microsummary at the beginning of the module to give people a clue about the weird shit on the encounter list. (Arnold K.)
2. Replace the boring loot with interesting loot! (Arnold K.)
3. Switch the font to something more readable. (David Perry) Recommended Roboto Condensed.
4. Make a version of the map that won't drain all the ink out of my printer.
5. Make a version without maps, so I only have to print off the printer-drainer once.
6. Reduce the vertical spacing between bullet points.
7. Reconsider bullet point order for some caves. When reading it myself I had difficulty parsing the information. Needs better flow.
8. Add Supplementary Section. Includes optional material like: accompanying music, rules on branching alcoves within routes, etc.

If anyone has additional notes, put 'em in the comments. If you haven't seen the module, you can find it here.

Tidelock PR: The Dragon Cistern

Play report for a session about a year ago for my home group. Party is 9th level. We're playing D&D 5e.

This dungeon concept was wholeheartedly taken from Arnold K. over at Goblinpunch. In short: a dungeon is full of six dragon siblings, all with their own dragon cults and weird idiosyncrasies. (links here and here)

Featuring:
Xynyx, Gnome Wizard Inventor
Night, Tiefling Dreamwalker Warlock
Arinulf Ulfsson, Half-Elf Sand-Viking Paladin of Life
Raemus Astorio, Rogue Extraordinaire!

~~~~~~

A quest to prove their worth as hunters from the Queen of Kobara led the party to the Dragon Hole. The map is designed like a giant hollow tree, with a massive vertical shaft and each dragon's lair branching off.

Garnos's Lair is the first branch down. Xynyx scouts it out with an Arcane Eye and the entire party is weirded out by the Tree of Swords, the Pile of Charred Helmets, the Giant Statue of an Axe Made of Smaller Axes. Regardless, they press on.

There's a fight with Garnos's dragon cult berserkers. In the loud commotion Garnos is alerted. The party escapes into a tunnel headed downward too small for Garnos to fit in. Garnos breaths fire down the tunnel, killing the hirelings and seriously scorching the party.

Tunnel leads to Vulpernia's petting zoo. After making themselves known to the gentle but deadly dragoncult, they agree to meet Vulpernia, not realizing she is also a dragon.

Vulpernia interrogates these intruders. Her preconception that bad people are always ugly causes the liars in the party to become hideous. This dragon is essentially in her My Little Pony phase of girlhood, and kidnaps Xynyx because she thinks he's adorable.

After breaking Xynyx out of his bonds of preteen dragon affection, the party continues downwards through a secret hole in the floor, eventually leading to a secret door to Ashrendar's library.

A muscled librarian lookout spots the party walking atop the bookcases and sounds the alarm. Party heads in the other direction, escaping to the main vertical shaft. They continue heading down...

...Where they meet Scabbermouth, roiling in self loathing down in the mucky waters. They narrowly, narrowly avoid his hostility, realizing almost too late that the key to appeasing his madness is not to belittle him directly, but to say that his siblings belittled him.

He leaves them alone. They continue down, to Emerald Egg's time-themed funhouse lair.

Eggs all over the place. They pick up the dark angel egg (essentially a handheld mini-nuke). They release the Book Burning Demon held in a wooden box egg. It burns Xynyx's spellbook, then runs off to burn Ashrendar's library. This will come back to bite them in the ass far into the future.

Sneaking around, they spot Emerald Egg, in human form, working at her necromancy table. She is making undead from stone-to-flesh spells. Brashly, they decide to open negotiations. Emerald Egg does not tolerate trespassers. A battle ensues. Emerald Egg takes her dragon form.

In the ensuing melee, a significant feat of teamwork and strength results in Emerald Egg being forced onto her own Circle of Death. Unfortunately, the Rogue gets pulled on, too. Both of them bite it. A shame, since the Rogue was secretly carrying an artifact which he traded the secret of Teleportation for - a potion which grants its drinker safety from sudden death and double their lifespan.

After this the party leaves.

~~~~~

When they get to the surface the rumor has already gone around about red dragons in the area. Where the party has made camp there is now a host of dragon hunters, hungry for spoils. Negotiations ensue. It's made clear that it's first-come-first-serve when loot's on the line.

After a days rest the party prepares for a second venture.

Meanwhile, the delicate power balance in the Cistern has been tipped past the point of no return. Emerald Egg, while nobody's favorite sibling, did maintain the illusion that Mother was alive. With her dead it's now a free for all, with a massive dragon hoard on the line.

As the party descends once again, Garnos and his dragon hunter berserker cult launch an attack on Vulpernia and her shepherdess and cute animal cult. Normally, Vulpernia, being the biggest and strongest, would be able to rebuke Garnos. Not so when he has his dragon-killing helm, and when he's on the offensive. He kills Vulpernia, but gets wounded in the process.

As Garnos and his cult lick their wounds, the other dragons plot. Facilitated by the party (and the fact that Volectra likes elves), an alliance is struck up between the human Diviner King Suleyman, Ashrendar, and Volectra. Together they assault Garnos and his lair with a combination of screaming fanatic artists, muscled-librarians, and lightning dragoons.

However, unbeknownst to the party, a secret pact was struck between Ashrendar and Suleyman. They plot to have Volectra's forces take the brunt of the assault, then turn on her when her forces are weakened. This plan goes on without a hitch. Volectra is left vulnerable, and agrees to forsake her claim to the treasure and live in exile, instead of death.

For a sizable amount of treasure, Suleyman leaves Ashrendar to rule the entire Cistern by himself. Ashrendar is now Lord of the Dragon Hole. The party leaves having proved they killed a dragon.


Beloch's Questions

Who did the characters wrong during the session?
Every single dragon, somehow, except Scabbermouth.
Garnos, Vulpernia, and Emerald Egg are dead. Volectra is exiled. Ashrendar's library burnt down.

Did the characters do anything stealthily during the session?
Who released the book-burning demon was a secret, now that Emerald Egg was killed.

Is there anyone, aside from employers, who benefited from the character’s actions?
Ashrendar and The Diviner King Suleyman remain the two massive beneficiaries. They now control the entire Cistern and its wealth.

If anyone died in the course of the party’s adventure, what sort of hole did they leave behind in their community? What effect did they have on their environment which will be lost now that they’re dead?
The rogue died. This was big. He took the secret of his transactions with the Queen of Kobara to his grave, and his reward, now in custody of the party, remains a secret.

What information did the party spread around?
Dragons be in the Dragon Cistern. No doubt this will bring in more dragon hunters.

Did the characters do anything which the authorities, or the public at large, will have feelings about?
Cementing Ashrendar's rule and empowering the Diviner King sets a massive political shift in the area.

Did the players express any desires or interests you might use to engage / hook them in the future?
They love the dragons. The surviving ones will become major plot points in the future.

A City of Clerics

Otherwise known as the City of Morons.

Only being half-serious here. Title's a reference to Wizard City. Also to my last post On Clerics.

~~~~~

The City of Clerics is a sister to Wizard City. It's the same city in a parallel dimension: same layout, people, same stupid shit. The only difference is that they're Clerics, not Wizards.

This changes everything.

There are no layfolk in Cleric City, only clerics. Nobody except each other to act as an intermediary to. Ten thousand clerics, each an expert in their own idiosyncratic knowledge, each unique, each completely useless on their own.

They all depend on each other like individual computer programs coordinating in the mind of an artificial intelligence (and maybe they are). Nobody's self-sufficient, nobody knows how anything works. Forced cooperation or death by ignorance.

For instance, there is a Cleric of the Stove. Only he knows how stoves work. Nobody else in the entire city does. The stove is too complicated. He prays to the Stove God, performs the stove rituals to work the stove, and lo, the Stove God bequeaths its blessings of heat and cooked bacon.

There is a Cleric of Taxes. Taxes, being the most byzantine and incomprehensible of systems, can be done only by the Tax Cleric. Animals must be sacrificed, rituals must be made, the Tax Gods must be worshiped.

A Cleric of Where The Garbage Goes.
A Cleric of Selling Beets

A Cleric of Having Awkward Conversations With Your Roommate About The Rent. 

A Cleric of Laundry

A Cleric of Murder

A Cleric of Religion

Sometimes a Cleric has more than one specialty.

This can be convenient, say, with the Cleric of Juggling Flaming Chainsaws and Bandaging Yourself While Applying Cold-packs.

It can be awkward, such as with the Cleric of Depressing Funerals and Lively Tuba Music.

It can be bizarre, like the Cleric of Spoons and Picking The Lint Out of Your Belly Button.

Lo! A Priest Over Yonder! 

They Must Be The Cleric Of...

1. Cheese
2. Making the Coffee
3. Baking*
4. The Lift
5. The Plumbing and The Cafeteria
6. Making Beds
7. Disappearing the Dust
8. The Printing Press
9. The Mail
10. Vacating the Garbage
11. Coupons
12. Knots
13. Long Division
14. Chemistry
15. Map Reading
16. Glassblowing
17. Getting Dressed In The Morning
18. Talking to Jerks
19. Touching Your Elbow To Your Chin
20. French
21. Taxes
22. Horseshoes
23. Eeeeeeeeeevil!
24. Judging Dance
25. Windmills
26. Graceful Small Talk
27. Proper Fitness
28. Very Tall Hats
29. Symmetry
30. Scheduling
31. Pet Recommendations
32. Procuring Meat
33. The Secret of Combustion
34. Curse Words
35. Boiling Water
36. Proper Grooming
37. Finding Your Keys
38. The Funky Beat
39. Politics
40. Swords
41. Popularity
42. Euchre
43. Kung Fu
44. Classy Cocktail Parties
45. Whale Whispering
46. Haircuts
47. Zoning Permits
48. The Time and Date
49. Littering
50. Naps
51. Firearms
52. Sharpening Stuff (Mostly Knives)
53. Fine Print
54. Walking and Muttering
55. Shady Deals
56. Copying
57. Souffle
58. Cabbages
59. Money Changing
60. Interpretive Sneezing
61. Jazz Hands
62. Parrot Breeding
63. Quilts
64. The Bloody Mary (the drink)
65. Musicals
66. Management
67. Groceries
68. All the Mushrooms
69. 69
70. Rock Soup
71. Calligraphy
72. Necromancy
73. Toast
74. Taxidermy
75. Children's Parables
76. Talking to Relatives At Family Gatherings
77. Tolls
78. The Criminal Court
79. Fermentation
80. Meteorites
81. Plastics
82. Pickpocketing
83. Balance
84. The Plague
85. Sword Fighting
86. Suing
87. Birds
88. Bees
89. Birds and Bees
90. Lanterns
91. Young Boys
92. Butanol
93. Clocks
94. Student Loans
95. Chromatography
96. Talking About Sports
97. Condoms
98. Whales
99. Flour
100. Itinerary Programs

*I know the first three are food related... I'm hungry while writing this.

The Forest of Fences

There's a forest between a marsh and a mountain that has no trees, only fences. The fences grow like trees do, but they aren't always made of wood.

Wooden pickets, chain linked, bamboo stalks, barbed and rusted, wrought iron, hedge rows, electrified - to name some. The further in you go the more hostile they get. You'll start with the orderly fences of good neighbors. You'll end with electrified barbed wire thickets.

They tend to curve you back towards the way you came. Walking deeper constantly corrals you -  a russian doll of parabolas to discourage and entrap. Kill zones everywhere.

The Forest was meant to keep soldiers out. It is an artificial barrier - a minefield - meant for deterrence more than entrapment. When the end of the War came there was nobody to dismantle it. In the following millennia it began to attract things which didn't want to be found.

A little fey-girl tends the forest. Looks around 5 years old, hopelessly tangled hair and innumerable cuts on her arms and legs. She saw this forest conceived and born from the madness of War, and is small enough to squeeze into the cracks. She might help you, if you can prove you're not a monster. This isn't easy. You look just like one.

A juggernaut-beast of fire and metal sleeps in the thickest brush, silent as the dead. With a horrible cataclysmic screeching it comes to live, trampling the most dangerous of fences with a rolling thunder. It is utterly misanthropic, attacking indiscriminately with steel and fire. There is soft flesh to rend, though one must pierce the thick metal shell. It laughs a distant laugh, like a mad man trapped below the ground.

Some fences live. They move and shift, to confuse and entrap. They spring upon intruders with sudden ferocity like mouse traps, to break the spine and crush the viscera. They'll isolate a person, trap them in an cyst, and misdirect or shred. Unlike fences will never work together, though, even in their dislike for people. They get stranger the deeper you go.

There are relics in the Forest, products of ancient mechanized superscience. One may find them buried in tucked-away spaces less comforting than coffins: guns, flamethrowers, chemical weapons, periscopes, gas masks, mortars, metal detectors, steel helmets, entrenching tools, grenades, waterproof tarps.

These things fetch a modest fortune. Woodsmen sometimes go to the edges of the fence forest to harvest scrap wood and metal and find them under loose rocks, buried half-deep in bone meal.

How do you deal with mile after mile of fences?

Well, I suppose you could break them down. You could climb them, or find a crack or imperfection where the fence goes over a large rock. You could burn the ones made of wood. You could make a series of bridges across the fence tops with long planks, though these will be impermanent in the shifting maze. Sometimes you can find a way around - though not often. Some fences are worse than others at shooing out invaders. Sometimes there's a door.

Clerical Domains

Clerics seem extraneous in most games I've played. It seems more often than not people play them to fill out the role in the party for tanky support guy, or a stockier wizard.

And this doesn't really feel satisfying to me. I feel it needs something more distinct.

I think what can best define Clerics is that they are a go-between, a middle man. They are a medium between People and that which is inaccessible to them. This can encompass everything from history to the divine to the un-explainable to science.

The Cleric, more so than other classes, is defined by how they interact with other people. This is also what differentiates them from other magical ilk - say, an ascetic, or a wizard, who don't need (or want) to mediate their knowledge for the advancement of others.

After all, what's the difference between a Cleric who doesn't share their talents, and a Wizard? Spell selection? Armor and weapons? How they acquire their magic? The first two are subjective on the game system, and usually there's enough overlap to muddy the waters. The third one happens "off screen" and has virtually no impact on play.

My point is that there should be a more concrete distinction.

To that end...

Divine Domains are how the gods of the campaign interface with the world. Clerical Domains are how the Cleric interfaces society with the unknowable, the complex, or the divine.

Clerical Domains should be more important for play than Divine Domains, because Clerical Domains describe how the Cleric interacts with NPCs and the other Players.

Divine Domains are great and all, but they don't really tell you what your cleric does, only what their god lords over. So here's a table for what your cleric does.

I wanted to make this a d12 or d20 table, but failed. Some of these domains can be endlessly split or combined, but I said 'fuck it' and stopped worrying halfway through making it.

What Is Your Cleric All About?

(Clerical Domains)

Clerical Domain	The Cleric Mediates Between People And...	Responsibilities	Cleric Examples
1. Judgement	Proper Morality	Judgin' stuff	Asshole Paladin Judge/Jury/Executioner
2. Divination	The Not-Present, Not-Here.	Augury, scrying, foresight	Ceremonial-Chicken-Killer Necromancer
3. Diplomacy	Other People	Mediating, negotiating	Neutral Arbiter Heretical Turncoat
4. Conversion	The Virtues of Orthodoxy	Coercion, persuasion	Fallen Paladin Alignment Jockey
5. Purification	Their Disgust	Being clean and making others so	Heretic Purger Mr. Clean
6. Oathkeeping	Their Logical Lack of Trust	Upholding and remembering oaths and oathbreakers	Grudgewielder Friendship-Is-Legally-Binding Cleric
7. Scholarship	Other People Across Space and Time	Record keeping, cataloging, library diving	Library Navigator
8. Ritual	Symbology	Knowing and utilizing rituals	Techno-Pope Secret Society Leader
9. Communication	The Unfamiliar	Talking to ghosts, animals, rocks.	Speaks With Literally Everything Cleric
10. Politics	Power	Rhetoric, propaganda	Religious leader
11. Pilgrimage	Spatially-Bonded Holiness	Knowing the way and the journey	Guide Hospitalier
12. Funerals	Death	Interment of corpses, cremations, funerals	Undertaker
13. Initiation	The Community	Initiation rituals, education	Hazer Cleric Educator
14. Bureaucracy	The Endless Machinations of Man	Record keeping, loophole engineering	Spirit Lawyer Divine Tax Man

Notes

To facilitate this role of the Cleric as a medium between the unknowable and the layfolk (all non-Clerics, essentially), I think the best procedure is to subtly encourage in-character dialogue between the Cleric and everyone else. Some ideas to do this without being heavy-handed:

Secret DM Communication
This is why I think secret communication between the DM and the Cleric player is critical. When everyone at the table has access to what the Cleric knows (usually by the DM telling the results of the Cleric's doings in front of the whole table) it shortcuts the interaction between the Cleric and the other players. This translation of information is valuable to the Cleric's role as medium.

This can be applied to all classes, of course, but I feel it's more important for clerics than others.

Funerals
More than the other domains, I feel like this is where the Cleric shines best, especially in OSR games with a high PC drop rate. Taking care of the recently dead is a responsibility best done with a focused light at the table. It can have a functional impact on play, too. Like:

• Character who had a proper funeral don't rise as undead the next full moon.
• Those who witnessed a death are physically stained until they reconcile with it by purification.
• Funerals are great for networking with NPCs.

The War of Naps

A war campaign idea, or perhaps a 0 Level Funnel.

~~~~~~

The Lightning War was appropriately named - the whole affair lasted only a month, resulted in the highest number of casualties-by-electrical-burn for any war to date, and utterly crushed the larger nation of Mieir for a generation.

It was a preemptive surprise attack the likes of which the world had never seen. The wizard armies of Yumen had every advantage bestowed to Magic Users: scrying, teleportation, lethal evocation magic, secure communications, conjured supplies, flight.

The armies of Mieir had nothing: their wizards were too few and too obvious. They all fell within the first hours of the War. Their logistics and communications were inferior, their clerical portents were too vague. They were doomed from the start.

~~~~~~

Despite the terrible loss the people of Meier are resilient. They have been planning and plotting. Guerrilla warfare has been the game for thirty years. The initial assault from Yumen was ineffective, and now the time has come for a hasty organized counterattack. The New Army of Mieir is on the move.

As the armies of Mieir and Yumen then danced around the countryside, each vying for a better strategic position, the generals of the New Army came up with a bold strategy. A critical observation was made: the armies of Meier could get inadequate sleep during combat operations and still be (nominally) functional. The armies of Yumen could not.

Their wizards needed 8 hours of uninterrupted, continuous rest in order to recuperate their spells. Without this, they would need to subsist on the spells they'd prepared during their last full rest. If their sleep remained partial no new spells could be mustered.

So the strategy of sleep attrition began. It would be a war of tempo, of quick naps and great sacrifice. Enter the players.

~~~~~~

This campaign is about denying a continuous 8 hours of rest to the wizard army. 

The parameters are thus:

1. The Wizard Army is outnumbered about 3 to 1.
2. Their troops are vastly superior. Fireball-level magic is plentiful enough.
3. The Wizard Army is trying to get rest.
4. The Players need to prevent this at all costs.
5. What disturbs rest is considered generously.
6. OSR Problem Design applies: no easy outs for either side (anti-magic items, use of beholders, mass teleportation to safety, impenetrable magic barriers, etc.)

Each party of sleep-saboteurs can have multiple attempts at disrupting the enemy camp. If done as a 0-Level Funnel, then each party probably only has one. XP could be awarded based on how many Magic-Users disrupted of sleep, and how many spells were used against you.

Example Ways to Disrupt the Wizard Camp

1. Loud explosion by camp
2. Setting the camp on fire
3. Setting the brush on fire and wafting smoke at them
4. Feign a mass attack
5. Feign a mass attack, then a mass retreat, then another mass attack
6. Infiltrate the camp, shake people awake
7. Firing concealed artillery their way
8. Spreading plague (Cure Disease costs spells)
9. Tainting the water/food supply (Create Food/Water costs spells, as does Neutralize Poison)
10. Herd a stampede into camp
11. Cause an earthquake
12. Steal all the pillows
13. Wave after wave of my own men
14. Give them way too much caffeine
15. Give them stimulant drugs (wizards love drugs)
16. Mass trumpet sounds from afar
17. Stink bomb
18. Seduce the wizards
19. Create a haunting
20. Shoot arrows while hidden from cover into random tents

For Yumen, it's probably best to try and be reactive with their defenses, so the same thing doesn't work twice. If they set the camp on fire then the wizards fireproof their stuff. If you give them drugs then they get wise to the act.

The Clerics of Clause

About a year ago I ran an impromptu one-shot using the introductory adventure for Anomalous Subsurface Environment. One of the players wanted to be a cleric. In ASE clerics worship these ominous satellite AI overlord deities, and the setting explicitly says that you can pick any god from any pantheon that ever existed to be your deity.

My friend was cloistered Catholic, so while browsing the list of various pagan deities, and seeing the obvious discomfort on his face, I told him that he can pick anything ever. Narnia, Tolkien, anything.

He decided he wanted to be a cleric of Santa Claus.

And this was the best cleric religion.

He decided that this meant he would go around gifting presents to the needy, making offerings to Santa Claus of cookies and other sweet things, and smashing dudes on the naughty list in the face.

Freakin'. Awesome. I was 110% on board. Best cleric ever.

~~~~~

So now, a year from that date, having completely bailed on my blog post about how clerics feel extraneous and unnecessary in most campaigns, I will write about the Church of the Clause, inspired by the Best Cleric Ever.

Clerics of Clause

Domains: Gift Giving, Good Cheer, Cultural Appropriation

Tell me this dude ain't the most cleric-y cleric you've ever seen.

Everybody generally tolerates the Clerics of Clause (there are those of open hostility). The Clerics are rather annoying, quite possibly utterly blasphemous, but at least they always show up with presents and booze.

The entire function of the Clerics is to show up on other clerics holidays and then misappropriate it to make it about Good Cheer. The good Clerics of Clause are generally courteous and give gifts when they show up uninvited. The bad ones are raucous and drunk. Neither group actually cares what the real holiday is about - they're just here to spread the Cheer!

Clerics of Clause are expected to give gifts wherever they go. It's why most people are generally helpful towards them. Children tend to either be ecstatic or completely terrified.

The other function of the Clerics is to appropriate elements from each Holiday they show up at, to incorporate it into their own Fraken-Holiday.

The Holiday

Once a year comes the Holiday of the Clerics of Clause. It is a wonderful/horrific amalgam of other holidays. Bring an evergreen inside, roast some chestnuts over a fire, perform a bloody sacrifice to Tiamat, whisper the name of Claus into the ashes of a forsaken treaty... then presents! Yay!

Also unleashing cans o' whoop ass.
By yy6242

As a GLOG Class

Because there's a first time for everything, I'm gonna make a GLOG Class for this!

Starting Equipment: A white-furred red coat. Red pants. A big belt. A sack. 2 Liters of Booze. A mace. The List. Pen.

Starting Skills: Religion

Templates:

A - Instant Wrapping, The List

B - Good Cheer

C - Sneak

D- Religious Misappropriation

Instant Wrapping

In 1d4 Rounds you may wrap up any object in your possession. It takes 1d4 Rounds to unwrap.

The List

Every Cleric of Clause has their own personal Naughty/Nice List. It takes a minute to write someone's name down on it, and can only be done after witnessing a naughty or nice act. When you do so, that person gets a -1 penalty (Naughty) or +1 bonus (Nice) to all Saves as long as it's there. Some justification must be given, or Clause himself (the DM) will strike the name from The List.

Good Cheer

You may spend one Round to bolster your allies with good cheer! You and your allies gain advantage against Fear, Poison, and Paralysis for 2d4 Rounds.

Sneak

+2 to Stealth. Double the bonus if you're climbing. Double it again if you're using the ability altruistically.

Religious Misappropriation

Whenever you witness an act of magic for some religious purpose, you may copy and repeat that ability once, at your convenience, provided it is done with general good cheer!