Hidely-ho, neighbors!
It's been another quiet month on the blog-front. Had a couple things in the works, then JB over at B/X Blackrazor had to go and post up an offering of a contest.
The theme, "Out of the Sewer," as in rats... Everyone's favorite ubiquitous dungeon denizen...
So off to scrounge a map that will fit a rodent-inspired adventure and see what my boring brain can come up with.
Idea #1: Of course, rats have many connotations besides just our favorite plague-wielding rodents. Definition#2 in old Miriam-Webster is a deserter, or informer.
"Viktor Pacovi has deserted Wringcaster Keep and fled with the Castellan's sword..."
Wherein our heroes are called to judiciously, or extra-judiciously, take out a deserter before he has a chance to spill the beans on the Keep's defenses to the highest bidder. Of course I've got him holed up in a very well-defended compound. One where walking in the front door is a good opportunity for Many Bad Things to happen to a careless party. But don't worry, there's another rat, er, informer who is happy to share intel with you. How good it is, is up for debate...
 |
| Dastardly! |
Don't worry, there are a couple of back ways in, and depending on how generous, or honest, the informer was feeling, the PCs may actually learn of which one is the better option. In the end, it's a tactical dungeon crawl.
 |
| But with muskrats! |
Then, 25 days into the month and after futzing around with margins and single words for entirely too long, I woke up to more ideas. Of course. Because rats propagate.
Idea #2: I was rearranging some of my game files (i.e. procrastinating) and rediscovered Roger S. G. Sorolla's "Varlets and Vermin," a collection of low-level critters and challenges for adventures. And of course it has variant rats. So mutant rats it was.
Where did they come from? Well, crafted by vivimancers, of course. I've utilized Gavin Norman's pre-OSE "Theorems & Thaumaturgy" several times for its alternate magic users and spell classes, and Natalia and Vlastimil (damn, missed opportunity for Natasha and Boris...) needed to be practitioners of the art.
And during image searched, I discovered the preservation technique of Diaphonization. An educational writing session!
 |
| Source |
And there are R.O.U.S.es present, as well.
 |
| Source |
Download 'Vats of Rats' here
And yes, the last name of every NPC bad guy in the two adventures is 'rat' in a different language.
Missed opportunities:
- Rat Kings
- Brown Jenkin
- Plagues
- The Nutcracker
- Ninkilim
- Capybaras
- A huge Rube Goldberg mouse trap
No comments:
Post a Comment