Latest Material Index

   It’s once again time to get the latest material index updated and to transfer the material from the old one to the main index tabs at the top of the page. If you want the very latest material, it may be necessary to either scroll down or consult the “Recent Posts” listing-widget on the lower right. The previous Latest Materials Index can be found HERE, and – for those who like to rummage at random – the full post-by-post index can be found occupying a great deal of space in the lower right column.

   Eclipse Classless d20 Character Construction Cribsheet / Sample Character List - Character Creation Primer - Compiled Martial Arts.

   Subindexes: RPG Design - Twilight Isles - Battletech – Champions – d20 – Legend of the Five Rings – Shadowrun – White Wolf – Other Games – Battling Business World

Cumulative General Index.

   d20 Material:

• Twilight Isles Setting:
  • Maps of the Twilight Isles: The geography of the known world.
  • Mystic Martial Arts: Two more player-designed occult styles.
  • Peregrine, a Veltine Bodyguard-Companion.
  • Ahriman, a second level Thunder Dwarf.
  • Houses of the Shadow Elves: Part I, Part II, Part III,
  • Dwarven Firearms and Species Compatability.
  • The Veltine in Depth: More details on the culture of the Veltine.
  • Monetary Systems: What the Isles use for mediums of exchange.
  • Commerce of the Twilight Isles: Imports, Exports, and Economies.
  • Exotic Languages of the Twilight Isles: The rare tongues and their effects.
• Federation-Apocalypse Session Logs: Session 82, Session 83a, Session 83b, Session 84a, Session 84b,
• The Rhynsin Dragonslayer Martial Art: A specialized martial arts style for would-be dragonslayers.
• Eclipse – Building the Level One Bladesinger.
• Eclipse – Building the Blade Dancer and Wuxia Adept.
• Eclipse – Building the Stances, Maneuvers, and the Classes (Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade) from the Book of Nine Swords.
• The Party Template Basics and samples – the Knights of Yggdrasil, Forest Stalkers, Company of Kardeon, Angbokor Guild, Royal Cartographic Society,
• Eclipse Character Creation Primer: The basics of making a character using Eclipse: The Codex Persona.

   Shadowrun Material:

• New Technologies: Why you should always carefully examine new gadgets before turning them loose in your games.

   General RPG Material:

• Uncontrolled Substances: Precious compounds and drugs for use in any world, M’ram (a stimulant), Denila (metabolic stabalizer).

Eclipse – Building the Wuxia Adept

   Next up it’s another special request. In this case, it’s how to build a Wuxia-style character like the old Oriental Adventures Blade Dancer – albeit with a few more of the classical abilities, such as the ability to trade blows in midair – in Eclipse.

   Just in case anyone doesn’t know, the Wuxia style involves high-energy, high-mobility, martial arts combat while making incredible leaps through the air, balancing on posts and ropes, or running up the walls. Since that’s the signature of the style, we’ll want our Wuxia Adept to be able to do it at level one and to be able to select from a wild variety of “Chi Based” martial arts abilities later on.

   So what will we need to uy to build such a character?

   At level one:

• Proficiency with Simple and Martial Weapons (9 CP) and Light Armor (3 CP).
• +2 on Reflex Saves (6 CP).
• 8 Skill Points (8 CP).
• Adept (Balance, Jump, Tumble, and any one Martial Art, 6 CP).
• +1 BAB (Warcraft, 6 CP).
• 1d8 hit die (4 CP).
• Qinggong / “Light Foot”: Celerity with Additional Movement Mode/Flight (base total of 30′), Corrupted/not usable while wearing medium or heavy armor or while carrying a medium or heavy load, Specialized/does not allow true flight, although the user can make astounding leaps, turn in midair, “run” up walls, across chasms, and over water, stand on twigs, fall great distances without being injured, and leap up and trade blows with someone in the air before coming down in the next turn. When relevant rolls are made, the character gains a bonus of +(2x Level) on Balance, Jump, and Tumble rolls (6 CP).
  • Note that this can be expanded, at +10′ to this movement mode per additional CP. This is, in fact, a rather cheesy way to build this ability – but if it’s the only major piece of cheese involved in a build, it’s certainly no worse than many others.

   That comes to a total of 48 CP – the basic level one allotment. If the character has a few points from disadvantages – compulsions, hunteds, and vows are favorites in the source material – I’d recommend picking up another point or two worth of movement and Fast Learner, Specialized in Skills. That will effectively keep the character’s Adept skills up to the maximum without further worry for a mere (6 CP).

   At each level past the first:

• +1 BAB (Warcraft, 6 CP).
• 1d8 hit die (4 CP).
• 2 Skill Points (2 CP).
• +1 on Saves (presumably split between the various categories) (3 CP).

   That only comes to 15 CP per level – and there are 24 available. To stick with this style - and to allow me a silly reference to chinese menus - at each level past the first the character can pick one item from Column A and one from Column B…

   Column A: Additional Three-Point Options

• +3 Skill Points.
• +1 on a Save. (Often more bonuses on Reflex saves).
• +1 To Hit in Melee whenever the user has sufficient space and freedom to maneuver to attack while leaping and tumbling around. This may be selected up to four times.
• +1d6 Damage in Melee whenever the user has sufficient space and freedom to maneuver to attack while leaping and tumbling around. This may be selected up to four times.
• +30′ Movement with Qinggong (I wouldn’t allow this more than – say – three times myself).
• Martial Arts: 1d4 base damage the first time, increasing to 1d6/1d8/1d10/1d12 damage for 1/2/3/4 additional selections.

   Column B: Additional Six-Point Options

• Block/Melee or Block/Missile – and other abilities from that sequence – fit in well here.
• One level of Psychic Warrior Spellcasting.
• Reflex Training. Both the Combat Reflexes variant and the Extra Actions variant fit in well.
• +4 daily Bonus Uses on an existing Inherent Spell or Psychic Power.
• One level of Wilder Spellcasting.
• One Inherent Spell or Psychic Power (L3 the first time, L4, the second, and L5 the third), usable once per day.
  • Popular choices of Inherent Powers include
    • The Augment Weapon sequence: Touched weapon gains a +1 bonus or +1 equivalent weapon ability of choice, excluding Bane, for one minute per level of the user. This stacks with magical, but not psionic, enhancements. The level four version provides abilities totaling a +2 equivalent and the level five version provides abilities totaling to a +3 equivalent.
    • A Healing Touch Sequence – Neutralize Poison, Cure Critical Wounds.
    • A Dim Mak sequence – Bestow Curse, Enervation, and Slay Living.

   There are, of course, lots of other things that a character could buy – enhanced attacks and strikes, strange powers, witchcraft abilities, and more – but that covers some of the most common basics. Personally, I’d recommend some Innate Enchantment (possibly substituting for the Light Armor), using effects like Mage Armor and Shield to help make up for the troubles inherent in a poor-AC melee build – but that’s up to the player.

Character Creation Primer

   Here we have a special request – a primer for making a character in Eclipse: The Codex Persona.

   That’s actually a little trickier than usual for a d20 game. Eclipse is a point-buy system which allows the people using it build any character they can imagine. It’s designed to work with 3.0, 3.5, Modern, Future, Past, and the vast majority of other d20 products out there.

   You can use Eclipse to build fighters, wizards, priests, and rogues. You can also use it to build sapient World War II battleships, telepathic energy beings that live in deep space, magic mice, superheroes, scientists, deities, demons, and small children. You’re free to use it to create your own species, templates, and any sort of “class” you can imagine.

   That means that the first step is to check with the game master. You’ll need to know what sort of game he or she has in mind, what the setting is, what system he’s using for attribute generation, and what skills he or she will be using.

   Most game masters will have a preferred set of races, and will often only allow templates on a case-by-case basis. Fortunately, d20 races, ECL adjustments, and templates work just fine with Eclipse. For that matter, so do Classes – but if all you use Eclipse for is a source of customized Feats, you’re missing most of the point.

   Now that you know what the restrictions are, it’s time for the real core of your character – the concept. Given that Eclipse allows you to build anything at all, the trick is to decide what you want to create.

   Depending on what level you want to build the character at, you may need to strip the mechanics of your concept down to the minimum essentials you can afford at level one – or you may need to expand on it, to build it up to something suitable for high-level character. Most characters will start at level one – with a base of 48 Character Points and (4x Int Mod) Skill Points – but Eclipse does allow (Page 9) for level Zero (a base of 3 HP, 24 Character Points, and 3x Int Mod Skill Points), level -1 (a base of 1 HP and 2x Int Mod Skill Points), and even level -2 (Infant) characters – to allow for younger characters and for the use of ECL-adjusted templates and races at first level. After level one, the progression is constant – +24 CP, a basic d4 Hit Die (which may be bought up), and + (Int Mod) Skill Points, at each level.

   There are quite a few possible first-level builds up – but the summary of actually building a character is pretty straightforward.

   Come up with that concept.

   Now look at the mechanics of it. Don’t get distracted with the description, the special effects, or how the character is supposed to be accomplishing something. All of that is window dressing. You’re only looking for the actual game effect that’s being produced.

• Your character might sprout claws, lash out with a kinetic aura, have rock-hard fists, manifest a spirit weapon, or disrupt molecular structures with a touch – but all of that comes down to special effects attached to “inflict large amounts of hand-to-hand damage without using a conventional weapon”.
• You might instantly regenerate a portion of any damage you take, have skin harder than rock, be able to withstand an almost endless number of small wounds, draw nearby matter into a constantly-rebuilt shell of armor, be surrounded by a shell of distorted time that spreads attacks out to make them less effective, or any of a hundred other things – but all of those reduce the damage you take from attacks. That’s Damage Reduction.
• Once you know what you’re actually trying to buy, you can start looking for the abilities that cover it.
  • Most of the abilities are pretty broad. You can Specialize and Corrupt those powers – making them less generally useful in exchange for either making them cheaper to buy or more effective in certain circumstances.
  • That’s a place for caution. Like any open-ended system, it’s quite possible to build extremely specialized characters in Eclipse, making them overwhelmingly powerful when their powers do apply, and useless otherwise. Unfortunately, this is boring all the time. It’s boring when you don’t have anything useful to do, and it’s boring when you automatically trump everyone else. A starring speciality is good. A godlike one is dull – and it’s better to restrain yourself than it is to force the game master to tell you “no”.
  • Personally, I prefer characters with a good speciality and a lot of minor powers that you can use to good effect if you get creative, but that’s just me. A solid base of general powers works just as well, as will a lot of other designs.
  • This is one of the places where the list of pre-built characters comes in handy. Since Eclipse is modular, you can simply pick one that resembles what you want, pull out the bits you don’t want, and plug in some stuff that you do – or simply lift power packages from them to start creating your own design around.

   Finally, now that you have a good idea of what you want in your design, it’s time to put the pieces together.

   You’ll want to make sure that your character starts off with some basics. Those include:

• Weapon Proficiencies (Page 49). Most characters should know how to use at least a few weapons, and some will know how to use some exceedingly esoteric ones.
• Skill Points. You may be getting enough from your Intelligence to start with – but a lot of characters will want more. Most characters will want to look into Adept (Page 24) and Fast Learner (Page 17). Those make it a good deal cheaper to have a decent number of skills, and help compensate for the power creep found in the classes from late in the d20 cycle.
• Saving Throw Bonuses (Resist, Page 41). These are always a good idea.
• Hit Dice (Page 9). Every character automatically gets at least a d4, but tougher characters will usually want to buy these up a bit. Characters who want to be very tough can buy extras or purchase augmented or enhanced bonuses.
• Base Attack Bonus. This is bought as Warcraft (Page 10). Characters can get along with more specialized bonuses, or with no physical combat ability at all – but most conventional adventurers will want at least a little base attack bonus eventually. It’s hard to avoid picking up some knowledge of combat in that job.
• Bonus Feats are normally simply converted into Character Points, and are used to buy whatever-it-is you want.
• If the game master is using the basic Adventurer Template (Page 16) or one of it’s variants (Page 17), there are some minimum purchase requirements and some restrictions on what can be purchased at each level, assuring some minimal character balance. Real balance, of course, is always up to the game master.

   There are never enough character points to buy everything you want of course. Fortunately, characters can scrape up a few more with limitations – Restrictions or Duties (Page 17) which provide extra points every level, or Package Deals, Unique Training, or Disadvantages (Page 18), which provide a smaller number of extra points, but which provide them up front. Go ahead and take some. Weaknesses make characters more interesting anyway.

   After that, comes special abilities – and those come in a virtually endless variety. By this point you should have a fairly good idea what abilities you want.

   You can buy spell or psionic power progressions (Page 11) – or you can build customized sets of magical abilities. You can explore special abilities (Page 21), expand and specialize your combat skills with individual Martial Arts (Page 80), explore the generalized metamagics (Page 56). You can create, buy, and extend templates and racial abilities (Page 61). Finally, you can explore various new magical systems – Channeling (Page 66), Dominion (Page 72), Hexcraft (Page 79), Mystic Artist (Page 84), the Path of the Dragon (Page 92), Ritual Magic (Page 96), Rune Magic (Page 97), Spell Storing (Page 98), Thaumaturgy and Dweomer (Page 100), or dabble in Witchcraft and mystical Pacts (Page 109).

   You probably won’t be getting into epic-level spells, divine ascension, world creation, or character profiles immediately, but the rules are there when you want them.

   That’s also the end of the basic primer. From here, the best I can do is point you to the examples and the standard build breakdowns. There simply isn’t any way to provide a full walkthrough for the millions of possible combinations.

   You’ll find a list of the sample characters and buld breakdowns over HERE.

   If you want to pick up a copy of Eclipse, it’s available in print HERE and in a shareware .pdf version HERE.

The Royal Cartographic Society

   Here we have a mid to high-level Party Template suitable for semi-victorian adventurers and explorers who focus more on new lands and knowledge than on treasure.  

   The known world is an island of order imposed upon a sea of chaos. The efforts of generations of explorers and adventurers have driven its borders outwards, carved order from the wilds, founded realms and kingdoms, and brought them into civilization.

   There may or may not be an end to that frontier.

   The RCS is actually a group of a dozen or so upper-level friends and companions who work constantly to expand the mapped and known areas of the world. After all, everyone knows that monsters emerge from the uncharted places, and that once a region is explored and mapped it can be negotiated and traded with. Determined men – whether literally or figuratively – can forge new lands from the unformed chaos that lays beyond the borders of the known world

   Gaining admittance to the Society isn’t easy. Beginners need not apply, and even a famed world traveler and explorer will have to accompany a society expedition and perform well on it to gain the coveted royal invitation. The lowest-level member of the RCS is level fourteen. Carving new lands out of chaos is no job for beginners.

   Of course, the group has it’s disadvantages as well.

• The RCS fully expects to find horrific monsters, vicious savages, and wildly hostile evil rulers whenever they launch an expedition into an unknown region. Oddly enough, if there’s anything even remotely like that in an area, or a power struggle they could somehow get caught in the middle of, or some other major problem, they’ll invariably wind up in the middle of it – a version of the Accursed disadvantage.
• The RCS exists to explore and map new lands and seas. If they aren’t on an expedition, they’ll be either delivering the results of the last one or putting a new one together – and an expedition is of no use unless it brings back new knowledge. The RCS is forever hauling back specimens of horrible monsters to display and document, going to absurd lengths to save their notes and maps, attempting to explore the cultures of crazed demonic cultists, launching another expedition to see what happened to the first one, and so on. Classical adventurer motivations (such as “Treasure” and “Experience”) are distinctly secondary. This is effectively either the “Compulsive” or the “Insane” disadvantage (it doesn’t really make any difference what you call it), depending on just how crazy the game master thinks this behavior is.
• The RCS invites, and actively seeks, publicity. They’re appallingly easy to find out about. They also tend to negotiate, take notes, and try to identify opponents rather than going directly into combat mode. Those two problems make up the “Showman” disadvantage, and make it easy to find out what they’re up to, as well as reducing their initiative in combat situations.

   That gives the RCS party template a total of 24 Character Points – 14 for a minimum level of 14 and 10 for three disadvantages. That’s not quite enough to effectively equal a level (that would require another 8 CP for the base hit die and 4 CP to get the [Int Mod] skill points that go with it) – but it’s certainly enough for a fairly powerful party template.

• The members of the RCS – and there are enough of them to make up several small parties – regale each other with their tales of distant lands, operate their own private museum and library, and all attend each others presentations on the lands they’ve explored – giving them each the Lore talent in Cultures and Creatures (6 CP).
• Royal Patronage means that the members have a comfortable lifestyle, including a free club and free access to laboratory, library, and museum facilities. As importantly, they can locate backers for their expeditions fairly readily, eliminating many of the usual logistical difficulties. That’s either a major privilege or a pair of minor privileges. Either way, it’s (6 CP).
• Members of the RCS are notorious for their narrow escapes, heroic actions, and barely-in-time catching of slipping individuals. They have Reflex Action, taking the three extra actions per day variant (6 CP).
• You can never count the members of the RCS out when they’re on an expedition; they’ve been lost for years, fallen overboard, been trapped in avalanches, and suffered many other horrible fates – only to return later (if sometimes years later) with an epic tale of adventure. Returning, Specialized and Corrupted/only works while on expeditions in distant lands and only if the characters body is not recovered and the player can come up with some tale of his or her character’s dramatic escape from certain doom (2 CP).
• The members of the RCS are always heroes, and can occasionally push themselves beyond all normal limits on behalf of others. Action Hero/Stunt Variant, Specialized/the user cannot pull off more than one stunt in any given day, Corrupted/can only be used to pull off actively heroic stunts, never just to save their own necks (2 CP).
• Oddly enough, when the members of the RCS draw upon their broad experience to expound on “what’s probably going to happen”, or how “this pass is notorious for the activities of bandits, and we may well encounter some”, or make similar statements, their words are all too likely to come to pass. Mana (1d6) with the Reality Editing option, Specialized and Corrupted/only for Reality Editing, no conscious control of the process, only to make things more troublesome, dramatic, and exciting (2 CP). In general, this operates when the character (or player) starts speculating on what is likely to be encountered in an area.
  • It’s entirely possible that the RCS is more powerful than they know. If they are truly forging new lands from the primordial chaos, their solemn councils, evaluation of rumors and myths, forming of opinions, and mapping expeditions are actually an unconscious form of ceremonial magic, focused on shaping reality rather than simply speculating about it. In this case, their Reality Editing isn’t confined to pushing the likelihood of encounters and bending events slightly to fit expectations; it’s fully capable of grandiose effects – shaping the chaos of the wilds into lands fit for adventure.

   In actual play, the RCS is likely to initially appear as a patron – funding the exploration of distant places, recruiting the characters for rescue and followup expeditions, and providing information on distant lands. As the characters improve their skills and build up their reputations, they may find teachers and mentors within the RCS. An actual invitation to join the society and participate in a major expedition will be a major high point in a character’s career.

For those wanting to build things of their own, the character-point rules are to be found in Eclipse: The Codex Persona - available in print HERE and in a shareware .pdf version HERE.

Federation-Apocalypse Session 84 – Cooking Up Some Investigations

   The kids seemed mildly distressed by the thought of acting as support against Lord Sanwell – but were more than willing to explain the contracts they were under.

(Sandy) “It’s quite all right sir, ma’am! We’ve been given the powers in advance for our indenture, and if I hadn’t thought that they were worth the price, I’d have gone home or just stayed here rather than signing up! It was all explained in advance!”

   It was kind of frustrating to Abigail that she couldn’t really argue with that. On the other hand, how bad was Sandy’s world if Thralldom was the best available choice? She asked about that too…

(Abigail) “So where was home?”

(Sandy) “A world called Balearia ma’am! It’s listed as a “Steampunk Victorian” universe.”

   Abigail started pulling data. It certainly looked like Gelman had been given fairly complete access to a great deal of it… Baelaria didn’t seem all that bad. A bit exploitive of the underclasses maybe – and the kid would be considered an adult there.

   It did look like the benefits were decent, and choosing to sign up would be understandable if that “advance payment” was good enough. It wasn’t every employer who was willing to pay up front – but not too many employers demanded that kind of service either!

   Still, she could understand why the kid might have signed up. On the other hand, this Sanwell character couldn’t be up to any good if he was snagging hundreds of thousands of kids! She doesn’t have as many moral objections as Gelman did – but it was worrying. People in desperate situations did crazy things, but – although the thralls were obedient to the point of being creepy – they did seem to be happy enough.

   Hm. What all were they being paid? She hadn’t exactly had a full summary, but it looked like the terms of the deal were available online…

   An online, annotated, spirit-contract with full disclosure and a time limit? Not too traditional there.

   Hm. Some money of course, and free access to all the facilities, and psionic abilities, and magic, and shapeshifting, and perpetual youth, and regeneration, and returning from death, and martial arts talents, and equipment, and enhanced attributes, and any physical or mental weaknesses were repaired for them, and the ability to open and close the dimensional gates, and more… In exchange, they were linked with “Lord Sanwell” and at his service until they grew out of it – which would require several centuries.

   Abigail didn’t want to say so in front of Gelman – not with his religious prejudices – but that honestly sounded like a pretty good deal. Plenty of people spent their entire lives working for less, and throwing in “immortality” made “a few centuries” sound a lot more reasonable. Were those powers available any other way though?

   Most of them were – and the training probably wouldn’t take as long – but they got them in advance, got a decent effective salary during their indenture, and they were guaranteed to live to enjoy all those powers.

   That wouldn’t have sounded like a big point before she’d talked to her own Thralls – but it seemed that immortality like she’d always taken for granted was a rare commodity in the multiverse.

   WAIT A MINUTE! What if Marty started looking closer to home for ensouled individuals? He might be trying to turn Julia into a slave! He seemed to be functioning as “Lord Sanwell’s” strong right arm…

(Abigail, hurriedly) “Well, Gelman, I have to get home. If you find him, tell me.”

(Gelman) “I’ll keep an eye out.”

   She thanked him and hurried home. Her daughter might be in danger…

(Julia) “Yah! See! Nothing to worry about! I WANNA GO TO MAGIC SQUIRREL LAND!”

   Abigail remained very quiet. She’d be calling her lawyer in the morning.

   Wait, Julia had a pony? Where had she gotten a pony! Was Marty sneaking in while she was away?!?

   She fed it some barley – and it promptly spoke to her telepathically.

<It’s just me ma’am; it was to keep her distracted>

   Oh, one of the Thralls doing the baby-sitting.

<Well, that’s all right.>

Kadia? There are a lot of fun things to do there!>

<Yes and no… Hey, I have a question.>

<Certainly ma’am>

<Say two people have each hired some of you. They start fighting and ordering you to attack. What would you do?>

<If they’ve each got that authority we’d fight ma’am. It’s not like it can really result in any permanent damage>

<Good.>

   She couldn’t let Marty anywhere near Julia right now…his moral compass had been bad enough before, but now he was dealing in child slavery! She could tolerate a lot, but not that! She’d dismiss the ones she had now if she could; they could feed Marty information. It might be a good deal for them, but HER child had someone to take care of her! And she always would!

   She snuggled Julia.

   Would it be bad to take her to the carnival at least? She seemed to have convinced herself that “Magic Squirrel Land!” was candyland and disney and muppets all wrapped up into one – and it was a nice place. Besides, if she didn’t let her have a peek, she might wheedle the thralls into sneaking her in! An hour at the carnival should do nicely. Maybe disguised in case Marty showed up.

   OK, that didn’t seem too likely – assigning eight kids to try and recruit one seemed more than a bit inefficient – and Julia was under “Lord Sanwell’s” age limits – but who knew what Marty might get up to? His moral character hadn’t been all that good to begin with!

   Oh well. A trip to “Magic Squirrel Land” was reasonable enough.

   Julia enjoyed the carnival, and turned out to have a 110 credit balance on her account. That seemed like a bit much for a seven year-old! Oh well, she had been doing well in school lately – and she had the Thralls to thank for that.

   Gelman was right. It was REALLY easy to get used to that kind of service.

   She let Julia buy some new stuffed toys and a new staff. It seemed like anything really major would require parental consent at that age anyway.

   While Julia was playing she did a little looking into how “Lord Sanwell” had wound up in charge of Kadia anyway – and the story she got certainly sounded absurd to her. This boy had simply CREATED a world? Designed to suit his purposes and whims? Built to give his followers a place to hang out between jobs and resurrections? Sure… Some information on, and recordings of, “Lord Sanwell” were available though.

   She got some classical popcorn as a snack and watched the recordings.

   A very through, and apparently quite honest, presentation.

   Could the boy actually have made Kadia? And that recently? That would help explain why Gelman was so upset… That would shake the entire structure of his religion – not to mention her own vaguely protestant faith. What could be up with the boy? He was acting like a rebellious teenager, but on a cosmic scale! Where were his parents?

   What there was on them suggested a fairly normal family… (which would probably explain why they weren’t disciplining their cosmically-empowered son), and apparently currently visiting Kadia on a vacation. It looked like the computers were automatically filtering out attempts to get into touch with them though; she wasn’t on their contact list, and there were apparently quite a few people who wanted to talk to them about Kevin. Still, he apparently did have a fairly normal family and at least one fairly normal sibling.

   Still, somebody should beat the boy to within an inch of his life for behaving this way! Every day! For a month! She kind of wanted to do it right now! Even if he was apparently officially of age! (Core was a strange place. Why had Gelman wanted to move his family there, again? Oh, never mind).

   Meanwhile, Julia was trying the low-gravity flight-with-strap-on-wings pavilion. She wanted to see what it was like to fly WITHOUT riding on Blackie. After some initial confused flapping, she’d started having a lot of fun… Still, she’d tire soon enough. Even in low-gravity, flapping your arms to fly was a lot of work.

   She actually got sleepy – so Abigail scooped her up and headed home. She was definitely calling the lawyer in the morning. She needed to “amend” the custody agreement – as in; “You are not getting ANYWHERE near her.” That might be difficult to do without his agreement, but she could make a case for moral turpitude – and Marty was pretty notorious. And that was in a city where no one looked askance when things got crazy on the New York Stock Exchange floor and it turned into a massacre.

   She put Julia to bed and went to catch up on her restaurant and catering. It was so hard being a single mother… Still, she had to wonder what it was like to live somewhere where death meant not waking up tomorrow?

   It seemed that the Thralls had done a lot of it for her – which left her plenty of time to ask (and to amend the orders to help with the cooking only when she was there to supervise; she liked working!). Apparently not returning meant a constant small undercurrent of uncertainty and fear, with a lot of doubt – and a lot of people being missed because you would never see them again. It didn’t sound like fun.

Federation-Apocalypse Session 84 Part A – The Dark Side of Magic Squirrel Land

   With Julia still agitating to visit “Magic Squirrel Land”, decided to check it out. After all, if Marty had thought it was a good idea, there HAD to be a catch – and she could leave the Thralls to babysit Julia.

   The exit, was in a modest park, with a carnival over the hill, a couple of playing fields, a dragon having a picnic, and a     building a nest in a treetop.

Well at least that explained Blackie.

   It looked like… soccer, some sort of maze, and… jousting? It must be some kind of amusement park!

   Abigail went looking for the staff to ask some questions.

   There were lots of little glowing things around, the carnival seemed to have a staff, and there was occasional traffic down the hill. Still, the bugs didn’t seem too promising. She went to poke around the carnival.

   At the moment, there was a sword-fighting tournament in the bowl, the usual carnival games, exoskeleton-based flight suits, and a selection of rides. Most of the concession booths had staff though.

   It looked like they blended a lot of magic with the technology here… She had to wonder how Gelman felt about that. For that matter, she wondered how she felt about that. Only a few days ago, she’d thought that magic was something you only found in fairy tales and fantasy movies.

   She located an unoccupied staffer to ask about the place’s history. The kid looked about fifteen…

(Staffer) “Good afternoon madam! Care to play? It’s try to knock the weight to ring the bell at the top of the pole; if you can, you win a prize!

(Abigail) “Sure, why not?”

   It was 5 millicredits per attempt – but the system informed her that she currently had a 25,000 Credit Balance.

   WHAT?!?

   How… Why?

(Abigail) “Credits? Twenty five thousand? But I don’t keep that much in checking!”

(The booth operator was also rather surprised) “Wow! That’s about forty years salary!… Didn’t you know?”

(Abigail) “Okay, how did I get that much money in my account?”

(Operator) “You’d have to ask the system, ma’am; it only responds to directed personal queries to maintain privacy”.

(Abigail) “Where is it?”

(Operator) “You can ask any one of the remotes”

   The operator beckoned one of the little glowing things buzzing around, and it promptly came over.

   Wait, those things were devices of some sort? That obeyed on their own? Sentient devices? How could there be that many of them? And so small? Magical sentient devices?

(Abigail) “Who made a deposit to my account? And where are your arms and legs?”

“Your account in Kadia was generated automatically Ma’am, based on the registered existence of an off-universe support arrangement with Marty Tabard. Given confirmation of identity, your ten credit arrival bonus has been registered.”

   Abigail was a little dumbfounded. She’d literally had to pull teeth to get the alimony. Still, she wasn’t going to reject the money.

(Abigail) “Thanks, uh . . . what’s your name?”

“I am a remote unit of local node 1794 of the sector DRV subnet.”

   A remote unit? Abigail wondered where the device in charge was.

“Can I be of further assistance?”

(Abigail) “Sure, can you give me the address of the Gelman household?”

   The device hesitated for a moment – then announced the Mrs Gelman had provided permission, and provided an address.

(Abigail) “And where is Marty Tabard? We need to talk.”

“Mr Tabard is currently in transition between missions, and should be available for some hours. He is currently in ARV sector.”

   Abigail tried to smile, even if it did come out a bit predatory.

(Abigail) “Thanks, 1794.”

   She tried to knock the weight to ring the bell, just for old times sake. They didn’t have many carnivals in Long Island.

   She actually won. Was whoever was in charge of these games actually honest? That was pretty unusual, and said that at least Marty hadn’t set up the carnival. She had a choice of stuffed animals, candy, small toys, a pocket music player, and lots of other junk. At least that was fairly typical for a carnival… Although the candy actually turned out to be quite good. How could whoever was in charge be making a profit if he or she actually provided worthwhile prizes with honest games and such a tiny entry fee?

   She didn’t bother with the swordfighting or other attractions. She had things to do with Marty that promised to be much more fun if she could catch him. Of course, if he spotted her before she caught up with him, he’d become hard to find pretty fast.

   A penthouse?! Apparently with a pool, hot tub, and built-in bar?!? Living it up on the sly out of reach of the courts was he! She’d show him!

(Abigail) “Let me in or I’ll rip the place in two!And what is up with this color scheme? You STILL don’t have any taste!”

   Marty, of course, had been informed when Abigail arrived and headed up to see him. He was on the net with Jarvain at the moment – but his first impulse had been – of course – to hide. Then he’d thought a bit about force fields, and just had the girls get out of sight and sent his Thrall-houseboy to answer the door. He’d known this was coming eventually; Abigail was violent, not stupid.

   He’d only taken on the kid because a live servant was as a status symbol and because Elera and Minel were enough girls for him at the moment anyway.

(Houseboy) “Good afternoon Ma’am! My name is Kelian, can I help you? Master Marty will be just a moment.”

(Abigail) “Just a moment? How many does he have in the bedroom?”

Abigail was too angry at the moment to notice that she was addressing an underage boy.

(Kelian) “At the moment he’s checking in with a mechwarrior pilot that’s a friend of his Ma’am.”

(Abigail blinked…) “Didn’t think he had military pals… Well, let me in! I need to talk with him.”

Kelian ushered her in of course.

(Kelian) “Can I get you anything while you wait? He shouldn’t be more than five or six minutes.”

(Abigail) “How about a bowl for this candy? And what’s your favorite food?”

(Kelian) “I like funnel-cakes ma’am.”

   Well, a bit of cooking always diverted her. It looked like all the ingredients were available in the kitchen too, for a wonder. Perhaps the staff did the shopping? If it was up to Marty, there’d have been nothing but snacks to go with the booze. On the other hand, the kitchen was suspiciously clean and tidy. No doubt Marty went out all the time and hardly ever used the place!

   She whipped up some quick funnel cakes. One for the boy – another kid, a lot like the ones working for her now that she’d taken a good look at him – and the other one for Marty’s face.

   Kelian was more than happy to have some funnel-cake.

   Marty turned up of course. He always appeared when sweet, greasy, fattening food was in the offing! It was suitable for kids of course, but Marty didn’t exercise enough!

(Abigail, with a predatory grin) “Here you go, honey!”

   She pulled her skillet out of the void to start the beatdown.

(Abigail) “DO I LOOK FAT TO YOU? DO I LOOK LIKE YOU? YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME ABOUT THE SQUIRRELS!”

   It took her a few minutes to notice the lack of screaming in pain and begging for mercy – and even then it took a moment longer to realize that the pan was slamming into invisible barriers while Marty rolled on the floor laughing.

   Marty wasn’t gloating – but he found it SO funny. Now she was getting a taste of not being able to hit someone!

(Abigail) “Huh? Oh, don’t tell me I killed you! I’ll have to clean up!”

(Marty) “I’ll be fine dear! How’s Julia? She was fine on this morning’s report of course.”

(Abigail) “She’s good. She wants to visit… Why aren’t you bleeding and twitching?”

(Marty) “No time for that! I’m very busy these days! You’ve lucky to have caught me here!”

   Abigail was seething and fuming at that point. She take another swing at him – but the only mark on his face was from stray bits of funnel-cake, and even THAT was just because he’d been scarfing the stuff up! She took another swing at him in a desperate effort to teach some humility – but it just bounced away!

(Abigail) “Aughhh! What’s wrong with this skillet?”

   She tried throwing it at him, and something simply caught it and put it gently on the stove - which had incidentally been cleaned up behind her, along with the rest of the kitchen?

(Abigail) “I need an aspirin…”

   Still, it seemed important to thank the nice little houseboy.

(Abigail, to Kelian) “Thank you; That was very considerate.”

(Kelian) “It’s just the automatic systems Ma’am. Violence is only allowable by mutual agreement. And I only picked up some major elements; the automatic systems did most of it.”

(Abigail) “Now I really need an aspirin.”

   She thrust her finger in her jerk of an ex-husband’s face.

(Abigail) “You are DEAD the next time you come over!”

   She stormed out, unwilling to listen to whatever biting response he came up with – although Kelian rushed after her to apologize for him.

(Abigail) “He’s always been that way . . . he’ll never change.”

(Kelian) “People rarely really do Ma’am!”

(Abigail) “Could you at least grab my skillet for me? It’s a family heirloom.”

   It was too. Solid cast iron, perfect for fighting and cooking!

(Kelian) “It’s coming along now Ma’am!”

   The remotes were bringing it.

(Abigail) “Well, thank you. I’d shake hands, but I don’t think you have them.”

“We can generate a hand to shake if you would like it Ma’am.”

(Abigail) “No, just give me my skillet. The jerk’s place is hurting my eyes.”

   She left them a tip, strolled around until she calmed down (a process which took about an hour), and went to see Mr Gelman. She didn’t want to scare poor Sophie and Isaac, so she called beforehand too.

   Sophie was delighted to have her come by.

(Abigail, with a very gentle hug) “Oh, Sophie. How are you holding up, dear?”

(Sophie) “Hello Abigail! It’s so nice to have you come and visit! It’s really very quiet here…”

   Abigial found the place more than a bit boring – but she could understand why Sophie and Fred would be happy in Kadia.

   They spent some time chatting about all the things housewives chatted about, with particular emphasis on the children. Abigail inquired about Ruth, since she’d gotten into trouble earlier and heard all about little Isaac’s new ID and how Ruth was wanting to install cyberweapons in mammoths – and how Sophie was slightly worried about Ruth; since it was so easy to pick up odd powers, who knew what kind of trouble Ruth might get into!

(Abigail) “Heh. Well, that’s one reason to watch Julia like a hawk around here! What are you going to do with Ruthie, though?”

(Sophie) “Well, it is just as long as they’re here – and Ruth seems to be content enough with the competitions! She’s been doing very well!”

(Abigail) “That’s a relief. Say, where’s your husband? I need to talk to him too.”

(Sophie) “He’s working downstairs; there was so much extra space here that we just set up an office”.

(Abigail) “I Thought he’d relax a bit once he got the chance. Come to think of it, it seems to have done some good for him. The dark circles around his eyes are already vanishing… Nice to see you again.”

   Downstairs, Mr Gelman was – of course – checking files. He’d discovered that Amarant Solutions currently had hundred offices scattered over seventy worlds, and was opening more at a great rate. The company was trading in commodities he’s never even heard of – as well as in people, albeit almost entirely by purchasing them.

(Abigail) “Gelman, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

   Gelman rather felt that way. In Battling Business World people couldn’t actually die – so Hitler had tried to turn the Jews into his own personal janissaries/super-soldiers. What was being done to the Thralls seemed all too similar. It didn’t seem to be forced, which was something – and nothing horrible happened to the ones who refused – but still… What if they wanted to back out? There was no sabbatical or escape clause. It might not even have been too bad on a small scale, with a few volunteers – but the SCALE was appalling!

(Gelman) “Ah, Nice to see you Abigail!”

(Abigail) “So what is my rat of an ex doing? No good, I’m sure!”

(Gelman) “I wish I could say something nice… But the scale here is horrendous! The shipping alone would be fine – if incredibly complex – but the dragonness currently co-ordinating the operation is pretty ruthless, and they’re… well… have a look here for yourself. They’re dealing in millions…”

Abigail read… and read… and read. Finally, “How good is the soundproofing down here?”

(Gelman) “The local sentient devices say it’s “active force field and vacuum damping”. It seems to be close to perfect.”

Abigail yelled for about ten minutes. The content could be best summarized as:

(Abigail) “WHAT IS HE THINKING? I MARRIED A SLAVE TRADER? I KNOW THEY DID THIS WILLINGLY BUT SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!… And you know what the worst part is?”

(Gelman) “I keep thinking I do, but then I think some more…”

(Abigail) “As long as the jerk is here, we can’t lay a finger on him! He has to consent to being attacked!”

(Gelman) “Why am I not surprised? It’s good for Sophie and the Kids – but Marty doesn’t seem to spend much time here at least.”

(Abigail) “Hey! I have an idea! Let’s find out where he’ll be next and give him a surprise!”

(Gelman) “Fair enough! He certainly can’t object! He knows its coming to him!”

(Abigail) “Any ideas where that is? I think you’re working with him… Sorry about that, by the way.”

(Gelman) “Oh, it’s not so much with him, as just trying to keep the operations straight! He and “Lord Sanwell” have been simply opening offices in whatever bizarre universe comes into their head and the dragon-lady has been reorganizing them at whim!”

(Abigail) “Hmm . . . and I’d rather not leave Julia alone to look. I wonder if we can talk through the kids. Does that telepathy cross worlds?”

(Gelman) “Hm. It must to some extent; otherwise how could they get their reports in? But the kids said it’s very short range… Sandy! Come here a minute!”

   Another youngster. Oddly similar to the others come to think of it – all about the same age, all healthy, all physically fit, etc…

(Sandy) “Sir?”

(Gelman) “How far does your telepathy reach?”

(Sandy) “A few hundred feet at most normally sir! Usually only fifty or sixty feet – although some places boost it and we can use magic to boost it in some worlds.”

(Abigail) “How about here, young man?”

(Sandy) “The range around here is usually about 120 feet Ma’am; there’s a slight boost. Magic can be used as well to let us contact other Thralls some of the closer realms. In a real emergency we can contact Lord Sanwell directly over the link with him, but that’s only for really important stuff or if he calls, because there’ s lots of us, and he can only talk to so many of us at a time.”

(Abigail) “I wonder how close that gate makes my house to here?”

   It turned out to be about fifteen minutes by the shortest route – and, as far as Telepathy went, out of direct range, but reachable with magic.

(Abigail) “Well, it’s not like we’ll need to keep contact all the time. Why don’t you have one of your kids message one of mine when you find out where he is?”

(Gelman) “Sounds like a good idea… Confound it! It’s so easy to slip into casually exploiting them!”

(Sandy) But we’ve been paid for our services in advance sir!

(Abigail sighed) “I forget to give them breaks. They don’t even ASK. I’m starting to see your logic.”

(Sandy) “We don’t need many breaks sir, ma’am; we all get the ability to delay that sort of need for later, and there’s always plenty of time for it while you’re resting!”

(Abigail) “Yes, but . . . oh, wait, the bond. I really don’t know how I feel about that. I guess we’ll have to discuss it with their boss… Think you’ll need support?”

The Angbokor Guild

   Here we have a Party Template that started off as as an individual characters special set of tricks, was shared with others to become a Party Template, spread to become a sort of Package Deal – and may be on the verge of becoming a new subrace.

   The agent possessed subtle, if minor, magic and a mind like a naked blade. There had been many successes – but the final mission went too far, and called for one betrayal too many. The shattered oathstone left in the agents chambers was an unmistakable resignation, but that was not an option that the agents masters would accept. The agent knew far too much.

   There was pursuit, swift and violent.

   That had been anticipated. At the edge of the forest, the agent cast his aura about a bird of prey, and sent it fleeing into the trackless depths.

   That night a sorcerous fire burned in the forest, and the agent died in a holocaust of arcane energies.

   Later, across two borders, Angbokor arrived in a sizeable city – and promptly vanished into its shadows.

   Today, each member of the Angbokor Guild is recruited from amongst the hunted, those who are marked for death. Each accepts a partial death – undergoing Angbokor’s ritual to cast their old self upon a beast and take an aspect of the beast upon themselves. The new rises from the ashes of the old.

   The Guild supports itself through specialized thefts, espionage, and undertaking special missions for those who know how to contact them. They have few loyalties except each other.

• The Angbokor Guild is picky about it’s recruits circumstances – being pursued unto death by more powerful individuals and groups without actually having done anything to truly merit that (they don’t feel that offenses such as thievery merit death) – but doesn’t demand that it’s recruits possess anything in the way of initial abilities; they’ll willingly accept level zero youngsters, and will hide and care for hunted children until they’re old enough to recruit. Unfortunately, this means that their lowest-level members are level zero.
• Whether rightfully or wrongfully, the Guild sees itself as being made up of victims, and thus it’s members see their exploitation of society as only just – but that same worldview sends them to the rescue of other victims and drives them to strike back at those who abuse their power, motivations which count as the Compulsive disadvantage.
• The Angbokor Guild always has enemies. When you make a habit of taking in and hiding those with troublesome knowledge, inconvenient heirs, and other victims of the powerful, that’s pretty much inevitable even without considering their habit of supporting themselves by theft and making trouble for the mighty. Finding that powerful individuals and social groups are turning their influence against you is a standard feature of life in the Angbokor Guild, and counts as the Hunted disadvantage.
• United by their mystic ritual, and by powerful instinctive bonds, the members of the Angbokor Guild will go to great lengths to look after each other, to support and protect the younger members of the group, and to rescue any of the members who get caught – giving the entire group the Obligations disadvantage.

   That gives the Angbokor Guild a total of ten character points to spend on it’s template – zero for accepting level zero members and ten for it’s three disadvantages. It also means that this “party template” has effectively completed it’s transition to Package Deal status, and could be treated either way.

   In any case, the Angbokor Guild Template/Package Deal includes:

• Shapeshift, Specialized in a particular animal form (3 CP). Each member of the guild can take on the form of the animal that his or her aura was transferred to – even long after that animals death.
• Cloaking/the character “detects” as a simple animal of the type he or she can transform into. This extends to thought-detection, lie-detection, and alignment detection – all fairly useless, since they will pick up a simple animal mind – but going to this extreme means that a sizeable chunk of animalistic instincts leaks over into the character’s mind and that the ability cannot be turned off. The user will sometimes need to make will checks to resist instinctive urges, will be judged unacceptable as a priest or follower by many gods, and will be quite ruthless and primal by civilized standards. (Specialized, 3 CP).
• Enthusiast, Specialized and Corrupted for Triple Effect (a 3 CP bonus)/only for Favors, only with groups that the guild has either performed services for in the past or has blackmail material on; hence using such a favor either expends a valuable resource or can draw trouble to the group (3 CP).
• Specific Knowledge/the Angbokor Ritual (1 CP).

   In most settings, the Angbokor are considered a mysterious and dangerous group, distrusted by the authorities, and rumored to steal children and to make pacts with dark powers – somewhat in the way that the gypsies were often seen, albeit with more justification. After all, they have a near-unique aptitude for disappearing; an Angbokor who drops into animal form can readily slip away – and is almost impossible to locate through supernormal means. Even the most rigid social system is unlikely to have much luck attempting to trace one apparently-normal crow across the countryside.

   When they rescue some fleeing youngster, what story is the pursuit likely to put out? Who knows how many secrets they hold, or when one of them will take rat-form and slip past the guards and pass tracelessly through a dozen wards? Who knows how many there are, and where they might be hiding?

   As a player-character group, the Angbokor are best suited for “mission impossible” or intrigue-heavy campaigns; their abilities aren’t all that valuable in a fight – but they’re very good for stealth and infiltration.

The Company of Kardeon

   Here we have another sample Party Template - this time one suited for new recruits to an established group and one on the verge of becoming a standard Package Deal.

   Originally, the Company of Kardeon was a footloose band of high-powered adventurers, like so many others – but a series of wars, and being placed in charge of several border towns, changed that. The dozen or so members of the original Company took personal charge of the veteran troops and became the command-and-support structure of a considerably larger company. While this spread their training and techniques thin – taking the minimum level from twelve or so down to two – it also ensured that their party template wouldn’t die with the later dissolution of their original company. Their original template is now well on it’s way to “Package Deal” status – and isn’t a bad one, as it’s at the twelve-point limit for such bonuses.

   The Company of Kardeon now functions as a mercenary company, and has about six hundred members. They still only accept combat veterans and noncombatants with demonstrated special abilities in support roles – effectively demanding a minimum level of two.

• Ergo, their lowest-level member is level two.
• The traditions of the Company demand that they stick with their contracts. They usually include a few escape clauses to cover pulling out of catastrophes, but this is still a form of the “Compulsive” disadvantage.
• The company is widely know as a bunch of ruthless, cutthroat, mercenaries, as well as a haven for thieves, murderers, and vicious madmen. That isn’t entirely deserved – but it isn’t entirely unfounded either. Still, quite a few of the nobles, and more fastidious or ethical factions, want nothing to do with any member of the Company – a form of the “Outcast” disadvantage.
• The company avenges betrayals ruthlessly, and does not put up with being shortchanged, exploited, or abused. In their view, if you let anyone get away with that kind of thing, you’re asking for it to happen over and over and over again. Whether in great matters or small, the members of the Company do their best to ensure that no one ever gets away with doing anything like that to any other member of the Company – a form of the “Obligations” disadvantage that isn’t always welcome. Occasionally even members of the Company would rather forgive and forget.

   That gives them the afore-mentioned 12 CP to spend.

• The members of the company are all trained in using various poisons safely – although not in the techniques needed to actually make their own (Poison Use, Corrupted/does not cover making poisons, 4 CP).
• As a military group they gain the Legionary ability – providing them with bonuses to their AC, Attacks, and Reflex Saves as long as they’re working together. Unlike the Forest Stalkers, their training is general enough to let them work with other legionaries – but they’re only trained with the company-issued armor and weapons, a Corruption they’ll have to overcome later if they want to branch out a bit (4 CP).
• Finally, they’re trained in parrying; not being hit in the first place is a lot better than relying on a cleric being handy. Sadly, they’re only trained in blocking with their primary weapons again, and will have to spend a few of their own character points if they want to generalize the ability (Block/Melee, Corrupted/only while wielding one of the standard company weapons, 4 CP).

   The Company of Kardeon “party” template is an excellent practical package for a mercenary fighter, even if it is better adapted to larger groups than most parties. Still, if you want a military campaign – perhaps with the characters undertaking special missions – a group could do far worse than to sign up with the Company. They wouldn’t be official members of the company, or get the package, until they hit level two – but most people start as trainees anyway.

   As noted, this particular template is rapidly turning into a package deal – from whence it may turn into a standard piece of training, and perhaps, eventually, into a common first level build – to spawn new builds, groups, and party templates of it’s own. In Eclipse, things can be built in a lot of ways, and templates, package deals, and “classes” can all evolve over time. 

For those wanting to build things of their own, the character-point rules are to be found in Eclipse: The Codex Persona - available in print HERE and in a shareware .pdf version HERE.

The Forest Stalkers

   Here we have another sample Party Template - in this case a template suitable for a rather low-level group. 

   The Forest Stalkers are a relatively new party of adventurers, and have focused on their attempts to clear the orcs out of an area of forested hills that they – eventually – hope to turn into a new holding. While they’re aware that actually giving themselves a name and purpose may draw more unwanted attention than it’s worth – “Oh, it was just some low-level adventurers” is a lot less noticeable than “It was the Forest Stalkers again!” – they think that establishing a clear presence and a claim to having an established stake in the area may be valuable later on.

• The lowest-level member of the Forest Stalkers is level three. To be fair, all six of them are level three.
• They haven’t attracted all that much notice yet, and they haven’t made any major enemies – a few low-level adventurer raids on orc outposts are pretty much expected, both by the rest of the world and by the orcs (and their possible secret masters) – but there was that fiasco in town with the Barbarian, the Druid’s pet Leopard, the innkeeper’s dogs, and the fire. I’ll call that a version of “Accursed”; they’ll lose various chances at patronage or jobs, will be distrusted in several of the towns near the scene, and will be topics of gossip until they manage to live the incident down or some other group does something spectacularly stupid.
• Hopefully they’ll acquire some mighty enemies, be cursed by some great power of the darkness, or otherwise acquire a few more dignified heroic disadvantages to substitute for that one shortly.

   That gives the Forest Stalkers a total of six character points – three for a lowest level of three and three for their disadvantage – to spend. That’s not going to be much of a template, but – at level three – every little bit helps.

   In the interests of early survival, they decide to concentrate on combat training with each other, learning to cover each other and work together.

   The Forest Stalkers gain:

• The Legionary ability – providing them with bonuses to their AC, Attacks, and Reflex Saves as long as they’re working together. Unlike the basic version, however, they haven’t trained in more general tactics, but only with each other, so it’s Corrupted/only works with other party members, not with anyone who has the Legionary ability (4 CP).
• A +3 Speciality in Knowledge related to the Relldine Hills, where they’re currently operating. That’s a slight stretch on the skill speciality rules – normally they’re related to a particular skill, not to a subgroup – but it certainly seems reasonable enough. Who knows? Maybe they’ll even be able to find the enchanted spring (1 CP).
• A Specific Knowledge – in this case, knowing about dozen or so abandoned but well-concealed dwarven strongpoints and guardposts scattered about the Relldine Hills. If they get separated, or are being chased by a stronger group they can’t outrun, they’ll all know where to meet or where to head to best make a stand (1 CP).
• They’re working on learning how to sidestep so as to avoid interfering with each other’s movement – allowing them to charge past each other and such – but haven’t quite got it down yet. Perhaps in a level or two they’ll have the points to afford to buy it (Immunity to blocking each other’s movement [Common, Minor, Major, 6 CP base], Specialized/only works on solid and relatively open ground, net cost 3 CP).

   Now that template is likely to change as the party evolves – but it also offers them a strong initial identity, the Legionary ability will be quite helpful in surviving at low levels since it provides a boost to their attacks, armor class, and reflex saves while they’re fighting as a group, and the knowledges offer them a decent chance of recovering from a defeat. All in all, quite suitable for a low-level party. Who knows? Perhaps one day the template they’re developing will be turned into a formal training program and become the basis for a “Relldine Hills Ranger” package deal – and a part of the setting’s history.

For those wanting to build things of their own, the character-point rules are to be found in Eclipse: The Codex Persona - available in print HERE and in a shareware .pdf version HERE.

The Knights of Yggdrasil

   Here we have a sample Party Template, just in case there’s any confusion about how to make and use one.

   The Knights of Yggdrasil are from the myriad realms of the Federation-Apocalypse campaign setting, where a sizeable subset of the mythic dimensions are linked by a particular theme – the World Tree, with it’s roots and branches which extend into many dimensions. Of course, evil creatures and dark spirits also attempt to transverse the great Tree of Worlds – and the Knights are a group of adventurers who have sworn themselves to trying to stop them.

• The lowest level Knight of Yggdrasil is level eight.
• As a group with a particular oath-sworn purpose, they pretty obviously have the Obligations disadvantage.
• The group has battled the spawn of Nidhogg, the Death Dragon – a cosmic force of entropy, death, and darkness – several times, and has earned the enmity of enough of them that they are often the target of plots, schemes, and attacks. That’s the Hunted Disadvantage.
• Unfortunately, if someone was to ritually sacrifice a Knight of Yggdrasil to Nidhogg, they would be rewarded with a substantial boost to whatever negative-energy channeling abilities they might have (presumably a package deal) – making the members of the group quite Valuable (their third disadvantage).

   That gives the Knights 18 Character Points (eight for their lowest level member being level eight plus ten for having maximum of three disadvantages) to spend.

   As Initiates of Yggdrasil, the knights all gain:

• Enthusiast with Adaption, Specialized/only changes when entering a dimension, Corrupted/only to pick up one skill point in a local language (or, in the Federation-Apocalypse setting, a level one local Identity) (2 CP).
• Occult Sense/can detect dimensional disturbances and the normally-unseen paths of Yggdrasil, Specialized/requires a concentration check, rather than acting as a sense – unless the game master simply wants to have them notice some disturbance they must then deal with (3 CP).
• 1d6 Mana with the Reality Editing option, Specialized/can only be used to open the Yggdrasil portals they sense, Corrupted/even that requires a minute or so and a concentration check (2 CP). Technically this is simply a magical gift – allowing the Knights to draw on a tiny bit of the Energies of Yggdrasil – but Mana is the simplest way to represent it in the setting.
• Favored Foe, Specialized/only against Nidhogg and its Minions (3 CP).
• One Druidic Spellcasting Level (8 CP), thanks to their regular visits to the spirit-realms of Yggdrasil.

   All in all, this means that the Knights will pick up the local language – however temporarily – within a few hours of their arrival in a new dimension, can sense the presence of creatures alien to the dimension and the locations of Yggdrasil-related dimensional portals, can pass through those portals (thus allowing them to leave after an adventure), and all know at least a little basic spirit magic and how to fight their worst enemies – advantages which every one of them is certain to need in their job.

   Should every party have a template? Certainly not! Not only are there some fairly specific requirements for such a thing, but they really ought to have some strong identity and purpose. The “Bunch of Guys who Blow Things Up” party – despite their group-linked Hunteds, Poor Reputation, terrible Unluck, and Compulsive need to set fire to things (four disadvantages, one more than would actually yield points) – can’t simply declare that their party template grants Inherent Spell/Fireball with +4 Bonus Uses (at a net cost of 12 CP) to every member of the party. Now, if they want to become known as the Inferno Legion, destroyers in the service of the great Lord of Flames, perhaps something can be arranged – but it’s always up to the game master.

For those wanting to build things of their own, the character-point rules are to be found in Eclipse: The Codex Persona - available in print HERE and in a shareware .pdf version HERE.

Eclipse – The Experienced Party Template

   Eclipse handles personal abilities very nicely. That’s a basic part of virtually every game system. Quite a few “impersonal” abilities are usually pretty straightforward as well.

• If you want to develop a relationship with some group of organization, that’s presumably where some of your efforts are going – and hence some of your character points will go into abilities such as “Favors”, “Contacts”, and “Privilege”.
• If you want to run your own organization, you can buy Leadership, Privileges, and related abilities, and do so.
• If you want to be a ruler or major noble, you’ll probably want Dominion and Action Hero/Influence, so you can manipulate large-scale events.
• If you want to become a god and found your own religion, you can buy Godfire and become one – at least if the game master is willing to put up with it.

   That’s all personal stuff.

   If an organization is acting as a patron for a character, you can get a package deal bonus to represent it – usually including some special training, favors and perks, and some obligations to live up to if you want to keep those benefits. Normally you can only have one package deal – the old saw about how “no man can serve two masters” – but the game master may allow characters who work for two groups to mix and match from their package deals, up to a maximum of 12 CP.

   Alternatively, if the game master allows it, the character could take an immunity to that restriction, and work for as many groups as he can manage to gain acceptance from. That would be quite a balancing act – but it could be worth it in some cases. Package deals are usually heavy on social benefits and skills and light on powers, but there are some exceptionally good ones.

   There is a small gap in the middle range however. Groups that work together for awhile – especially “adventuring parties”, which are basically special-forces groups under extreme pressure – tend to get used to each other. If all the members survive for awhile, they become familiar with each other’s favored tactics and moves and learn to coordinate their efforts. They become slightly more effective.

   Now, if one character is devoting his or her talents to acting as a leader, we’re back to personal abilities – and there are plenty of ways to buy enhancements for a group.

   Ideally, of course, the actual players will learn to coordinate their characters efforts, making them far more effective. While some players never learn, that’s fair enough; presumably some characters will suffer from the same flaw.

   That’s where there’s a gap though.

   Occasionally players are given characters who are supposed to have worked together for quite awhile, and are supposed to play them as a well-coordinated team off the top of their heads. That’s kind of difficult, and few players – much less entire groups – are really up to it.

   Also, the game master will occasionally want to attach a benefit – or problem – to the group, rather than to specific characters. If some arch-villain has sworn vengeance against the group as a whole, new characters who join will share in that enmity – and old ones who retire may well be forgotten.

   Now that’s something that Eclipse doesn’t include a detailed section on handling – mostly because it’s designed for building individual characters, not groups. Fortunately, there is a standard mechanism for applying special modifiers to individual characters to represent their membership in a particular group.

   Templates.

   Ergo, here’s the  Experienced Party Template:

   For a group to qualify for a Party Template, they’ll need to

• Have worked together as a group for at least a month. If a character is lost, and a replacement is acquired, the template will apply to the new character after he or she has worked with the group for a month.
• Clearly identify themselves. If a group can’t agree on a team designation, they’re obviously not coherent enough to come up with a party template.
• Have gone on at least one notable adventure together. Training without stress will only get them so far.
• Actually work together. Characters who assault other characters in the group, sneak off alone and skim the treasure, or otherwise undermine the group are still subject to the template penalties, but get none of the advantages.
• Make sure that their organization is publicly known. This doesn’t mean that their identities have to be widely known; a secretive group of assassins may remain a secretive group – but they’ll need to make sure that the activities of the “Shadow Blades” (or whatever) are widely rumored and feared.

   To avoid any ECL complications, the Party Template has a net cost of zero character points. What characters are actually getting is a brand new Restriction – worth +1 CP per level – against backstabbing each other or working separately (on penalty of losing the party template abilities) and the ability to count up to three acquired disadvantages against the costs of template abilities.

   Most parties will soon acquire several disadvantages – bad reputations, enemies, having rewards out on them, having their tactics be widely known, getting cursed, or having various obligations – so this way they’ll be getting something out of them.

   That will normally give a party ten character points, plus one character point per level of the lowest level character in the group, to spend. To change them around, they’ll need to retrain – but 0 CP templates are pretty easy to acquire or dump. If they have a particular mission in mind, they can even train in abilities and techniques specifically for that mission if the game master opts to allow it.

   What can those points be spent on? As usual in Eclipse, they can be spent on anything the game master is willing to put up with and which the party members can agree on – which may be the primary sticking point. Since the template is the same for every party member, they’re unlikely to agree on what’s best. Still, if they can’t agree, they don’t get anything.

   Most groups will agree on something soon enough.

• They might have a patron spirit that provides everyone in the party with the Grant of Aid ability.
• They might have acquired special techniques for fighting against particular foes.
• They might have learned to aid each other with a specific set of skills, by buying Skill Focus.
• They might have built up a good reputation.
• They might be particularly good at assisting each other (Aid Another)
• They might be owed some favors, or have group contacts, or be so used to covering for each other that they can’t be flanked (Awareness and Flankless).

   Regardless of what they spend the points on, that will give a party an identity of it’s own, some sort of unifying theme, and some incentive for sticking together. When they run off in all directions separately, they’ll lose their special bonuses. That’s probably worth putting up with them having a few extra character points to spend.

Eclipse and the Book of Nine Swords

   The Book of Nine Swords introduced quite a lot of “combat maneuvers”.

   Many of them were basically magical effects roughly equivalent to spells. Some were pretty blatant about it, even over and above the level one to level nine structure, the selection of schools, and the matching minimum (caster) level requirements.

   For example, take “Inferno Blast”. It sends a wave of flame blasting out from you that does 100 points of damage to everything within sixty feet. It’s a supernatural ability – that’s better than a spell but still the same basic idea – and you have to be seventeenth level to use it, which matches. It’s above the average damage for a ninth-level spell, but the lack of range will often make it inconvenient to use in a group. All in all, it’s still comparable to a ninth-level spell – and a Swordsage can unleash it every other round.

   Is that overpowered?

   Going by the book, and restricting ourselves to “encounter” situations, probably not. Other seventeenth level characters can do similar amounts of damage to single targets, or somewhat lesser amounts in more usefully-shaped and ranged areas, and tweaked-out builds with careful fishing through the vast seas of official and unofficial sourcebooks (or through Eclipse) can make anything from the Book of Nine Swords – save, perhaps, White Raven Tactics (the ability to grant another character an extra turn as a swift action) – look feeble. More importantly, the actual lists of maneuvers are pretty much focused entirely on tactical combat. Your Wizard won’t be able to blow things up as often as the Swordsage, but he or she will have a lot more options outside of battle.

   Now if we don’t restrict ourselves to “encounter” situations, there are certain basic problems with “per encounter” powers – mostly revolving around what, within the reality of the game world, defines an “encounter”, the use of such abilities outside of combat, and the idea that, if powers like the maneuvers are available, I’d expect there to be quite a lot of practical, non-combat, disciplines floating around that will drastically change the setting. On the other hand, that sort of thing is only a problem for simulationist world-designers and for the players who like to figure things out. That’s admittedly a relatively narrow gaming subgroup.

   Semi-unlimited use abilities are potentially more troublesome in Eclipse, where you can create your own maneuvers and don’t necessarily have to stick with the ones from a particular list – and so could potentially use the same mechanics to take a bunch of useful, non-combat stuff – but any freeform design system has to deal with that kind of problem. That’s why I’ve specifically posted a few grotesque designs to illustrate the kinds of things that you shouldn’t let people do.

   So with that caution in mind, here’s how to build characters equivalent to the Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade from Tome of Battle: the Book of Nine Swords.

   Basic Maneuvers:

   Like most unlimited-use abilities in Eclipse, “Maneuvers” are derived from the Path of the Dragon. From that ability sequence we’ll want:

   Shaping (6 CP), Pulse of the Dragon (L1 for 6 CP, L2 for 12 CP, and L3 for 24 CP), and Heart of the Dragon (L1 for 6 CP, L2 for 12 CP, and L3 for 24 CP). That’s 90 CP to complete the entire sequence – pretty expensive.

   Of course, as-is, that would allow the more or less limitless creation of any magical effect of third level or less and comes in three basic tiers; level one effects (18 CP), level two effects (42 CP), and level three effects (90 CP). Most of those can be further broken down, since combinations of Corrupted (1.5x effect) and Specialized (2x effect) can provide intermediate values.

   As for the limitations that make this Specialized and Corrupted, here they are:

• All the effects must adhere to a narrow set of themes, and must build on previous abilities in the same theme.
• All effects must be tactical-combat oriented.
• The user can only create a limited number of effects, and must purchase those for 1 CP each – although he or she may trade out a limited number of them for other effects later on.
• The user may only have one-half (rounded up) of those effects available at any one time, and must spend some time out of combat to change which ones are available.
• The user must ready abilities from his or her available subset before they can be used and, once one has been used, must ready it again before it can be used again. This can be partially bypassed, allowing the character to ready a group of maneuvers at one time for +1 CP per additional maneuver which can be readied at a time. It can also be entirely bypassed for a given maneuver (these are usually known as “Stances”) by spending +2 CP on it, for a total of three.
• Maneuvers can be readied by any one of many different processes – such as by taking a full round action to ready one again (typical of the Swordsage), by random selection during each round of combat (typical of the Crusader), or by whatever mechanism the game master decides is acceptable for a given character.
• The user must meet the minimum level requirements to use any given effect. That’s a standard restriction, but it’s always worth noting.

   Now, as it stands, these are supernatural abilities, although a lot of them will be built as Swift or Immediate Actions – reducing their effects against those of spells of equal level. On the other hand, quite a lot of the less-spectacular maneuvers are supposed to be extraordinary abilities – and thus not subject to antimagic.

   To get that, we’ll want Immunity to Antimagic (Common, Minor, Epic, 18 CP base), Specialized and Corrupted/only protects Path of the Dragon abilities, and only those which can reasonably be interpreted as skill-based effects (6 CP).

   Ergo, our basic Maneuver and Stance package has a total cost of 96 CP, even before considering the costs of buying individual maneuvers and stances. Of course, at level one, it starts off with a cost of a mere 6 CP. That 96 CP cost is spread over twenty levels.

   The Crusader:

   Given that Crusaders are a class from near the end of the 3.5 rules cycle, they can be presumed to use both Fast Learner (albeit possibly not a specialized version) and Adept, saving them a total of 46 SP and 14 CP over the course of twenty levels – or a 60 CP bonus. Given that Crusaders are religious knights, we can also expect them to have Duties, for +40 CP. That gives us a grand tot al of 604 CP to work with.

• Crusader Basics: d10 Hit Dice (120 CP), Saves +24 (72 CP), +20 BAB (120 CP), Skills 92 (92 CP), 14 Maneuvers and 4 Stances (26 CP).
• Proficient with all Simple and Martial weapons (9 CP), Light Medium and Heavy Armor (15 CP), and Shields, Corrupted/not Tower Shields (2 CP).
• Maneuver and Stance Basics (96 CP).
• The Crusader can delay the effects of a modest amount of hit point damage until the end of his or her next turn. There are several ways to build that – but the simplest is Advanced Augmented Bonus/Adds Wis Mod to Con Mod when determining hit points, Specialized and Corrupted/the bonus hit points only exist as a one-round buffer (6 CP).
• While the Crusader has some damage in his or her buffer, he or she gains a +1 to hit and damage for every five full points of damage so stored up to a maximum of +6 each. That’s Augment Attack, +6 Damage (6 CP base) and +6 to Hit (18 CP base) when there’s damage being stored in the “buffer”, Corrupted/only available at +1 per 5 full points of damage (16 CP Total).
• Advanced Augmented Bonus/Adds (Cha Mod) to will saves, Corrupted/only while remaining true to his or her faith (8 CP). The book doesn’t actually say that – but it notes that their bonus does not stack with a Paladins, ergo it seems to fit the fluff text.
• Luck, Specialized in Saving throws, Corrupted/only for Rerolls (2 CP)
• Smite, with +1 Bonus Use (8 CP).
• Stoic (6 CP).
• Fortune for Fortitude and Will saves, Specialized/does not work while unconscious or if the user fails to remain true to his or her faith (6 CP).

   Total: 604 CP out of 604 CP available. Well, it’s nice when things come out properly.

   The Swordsage:

   Again, given that Swordsages are a class from near the end of the 3.5 rules cycle, they can be presumed to use both Fast Learner (Specialized in Skills, for Double Effect) and Adept, saving them a total of 46 SP and 34 CP over the course of twenty levels – or an 80 CP bonus. That gives us a grand total of 584 CP to work with.

• Swordsage Basics: d8 Hit Dice (80 CP), Saves +30 (90 CP), +15 BAB (90 CP), Skills 138 (138 CP), 25 Maneuvers and 6 Stances (43 CP).
• Proficient with Simple Weapons (3 CP), Martial Weapons, Specialized in Melee Weapons Only (3 CP), and Light Armor (3 C).
• Maneuver and Stance Basics (96 CP).
• Augmented Bonus: May add (Wis Mod) to his or her AC, Specialized/only while unencumbered, using no shield, using light or no armor, and free to move (3 CP).
• Improved Initiative +4 (6 CP).
• Occult Sense/Identify Magic Items, Specialized and Corrupted/only works on weapons and armor and requires ten minutes (2 CP).
• Fortune/Improved Evasion variant, Corrupted/only works if wearing light or no armor (8 CP).
• Reflex Training/Extra actions Variant, Specialized in Boosting Maneuvers Only, allowing the user to use two at once three times per day (3 CP).
• Warcraft: +1 BAB, Specialized/melee weapons only, Corrupted/only applies to a limited group linked with a particular style (2 CP).
• Augmented Bonus/adds (Wis Mod) to damage when using a magically augmented strike from either of two chosen disciplines (6 CP).
• Resist/+2 bonus on all three saves, Corrupted/only usable while using a combat stance from one of two themes (12 CP).
• +2 on Martial Lore skill checks. (2 CP).

   That’s a total of 590 CP – meaning we’ve overspent by 6 CP, or one Feat. Not a bad match, although I would – of course – prefer perfection. Of course, the Book of Nine Swords didn’t come out until well after Eclipse did.

   The Warblade:

   Again, given that Warblades are a class from near the end of the 3.5 rules cycle, they can be presumed to use both Fast Learner and Adept, saving them a total of 46 SP and 34 CP over the course of twenty levels – or an 80 CP bonus. From the flavor text, it looks like the Warblade has a version of Duties as well – constant training, which will soak up much of his or her free time (+40 CP). That gives us a grand total of 624 CP to work with.

• Warblade Basics: d12 Hit Dice (160 CP), Saves +24 (72 CP), +20 BAB (120 CP), Skills 92 (92 CP), 13 Maneuvers (13 CP) with +6 Fast Recovery (6 CP) and 4 Stances (12 CP).
• Proficient with Simple Weapons (3 CP) and Martial Weapons, Specialized in Melee Weapons Only (3 CP), Light and Medium Armor (9 CP), and Shields (3 CP).
• Maneuver Basics (96 CP).
• Advanced Augmented Bonus/May add their (Int Mod) to their reflex saves, Specialized/only works if not surprised, the maximum bonus is equal to their level, and the bonus has the “Insight” type, and so will not stack with some other bonuses (6 CP).
• They may adjust abilities that specify a particular weapon to suit a weapon of their choice each day. This we don’t actually have to buy in Eclipse: abilities in Eclipse are already cheaper if you limit them to particular situations or weapons.
• Awareness with the Flankless modifier (12 CP).
• Augmented Bonus/may add their (Int Mod) to rolls to confirm critical hits (6 CP).
• Four bonus feats (24 CP).
• Augmented Bonus/may add their (Int Mod) to their (Str Mod) in melee combat, Specialized/only for damage, Corrupted/only works against flat-footed or flanked opponents (2 CP).
• Augmented Bonus/may add their (Int Mod) to any check made against an attackers bull rush, disarm. feint, overrun, sunder, or trip attempt (6 CP).
• Augmented Bonus/may add their (Int Mod) to their (Str Mod) in melee combat, Specialized/only when making an Attack of Opportunity (3 CP).
• Immunity/stacking bonus limitations on using two “Stance” maneuvers (Common, Minor, Major, 6 CP).

   Now, unless I’ve dropped a number somewhere, that comes to 654 CP – meaning that the Warblade has overspent by 30 CP, the equivalent of five full feats. That is a bit awkward. There are a variety of ways in Eclipse to reduce that cost of course.

   You could pare back to d10 hit dice, and save 40 CP at an average cost of 21 HP (two for level one, one each on the average for the other nineteen levels). To make up for that, buy +2 Con only for the purposes of determining hit points (12 CP), and you’ll wind up a mere 2 CP over – go ahead and drop a couple of skill points – and an average of 1 HP down.

   There are other routes to the same average result of course, but I’d recommend taking that one. It’s simplest.

   Now, that pretty well covers 120 pages – the classes, the maneuvers, the prestige classes (since, in Eclipse, you just purchased the abilities and specialties you want), out of the 160 in the Book of Nine Swords. As always for Eclipse it does put a good deal more work on the player though, since he or she will have to come up with his or her own list of maneuvers and stances. On the other hand, that’s the attraction of Eclipse to begin with; you can build what you want for your character and aren’t bound by someone else’s list of abilities.

   These builds also mean that Eclipse characters styled after older classes – which mostly haven’t been built using Adept and Fast Learner – are free to take those abilities and upgrade themselves a bit so as to remain competitive.

Uncontrolled Substances – Denila

    Denila (Lifekeeper, Surusspin) is a fruity syrup, usually a translucent red in color and slightly tart. It is usually dissolved in alcohol. “Raw” Denila is derived from bees – at least, from the “royal jelly” produced by a particular strain of bees, feeding on specific (if not entirely known) combinations of flowers and plants and infused with a variety of other herbal extracts. Unsurprisingly, even what details are known to the producers are kept a secret, allowing those who control the (few and remote) sources to reap fabulous profits from their monopoly.

   Minor variants are far less potent, but are used for a variety of secondary applications where true Denila is not available. Even when you do obtain a dose of genuine Denila, it’s almost impossible to purify it enough to reach dosage level four, let alone levels five and up, through conventional means. Such purities nearly require magical, psychic, or ultratech extraction.

   Denila is a metabolic stabilizer and regulator. No one is quite sure how that works; speculation suggests some sort of a magical effect, but wilder notions include it being some sort of quasi-living symbiotic organism or it being a psychic link to some sort of elder entity.

   Still, when you can get a hold of the stuff, it can be extremely useful under the right circumstances – and it’s almost unique among drugs; it’s NEVER significantly harmful and it’s quite impossible to overdose on it. The dosage level seven effect is as far as it goes.

   Dosage Levels:

1. At the most basic level, minimal doses of Denila help maintain the metabolic balances of the users body – slowing the progress of diseases, various disorders, and the aging process. Sadly, it slows the bodies natural emergency responses as well. While a regimen of small doses of Denila can slow aging by a factor of around three, users will require a few extra seconds to adapt to the demands of a sudden fight, sprint, or injury. On the other hand, a user will be able to sustain such efforts a bit longer then normal. Users also take somewhat longer to adapt to changes in environmental factors, such as altitude, climactic variation, and variations in the food supply. On the other hand, they’ll suffer a lot less upset due to such things; they just have to live with minor annoyances a little longer than the rest of the population has to spend with major ones.
2. This dosage level extends the effect to stabalizing and regulating the users glandular activity – reducing the effects of emotions and inducing calm, but extending the duration of the resulting state (a few berserkers have managed to stay berserk. In such cases the duration is greatly extended). While this has no effect on permanent states, it can dampen and delay the effects of glandular changes, such as puberty or menopause. This dosage is sometimes used with other drugs and compounds, reducing, and greatly extending, their effects. For example, a compound that would normally need to be administered every few hours to work properly could be administered once a week or even once per month if properly combined with a little Denila.
3. At this dosage level Denila makes the user’s metabolism nearly impossible to disturb, vastly delaying or reducing the effects of toxins, diseases, and similar difficulties. Naturally enough, Denila itself takes a very long time to wear off, so the user’s body may eliminate the problem before the effect gives out. Similarly, menopause will be delayed, cancers will not advance, and various other progressive conditions will be put on hold. Unfortunately, at this level Denila will neatly counteract most beneficial drugs and medications, as well as several useful spells.
4. This dosage level produces downright supernatural effects, allowing the user’s “metabolism” – or what passes for one while under the effects of such a dose – to continue functioning normally despite grotesque insults – incredible doses of toxins or radiation, not having had any oxygen for the last few hours, having lost 80% of the user’s normal blood supply, or having had your body cut away at the neck (this will prove fatal in an hour or so, there are limits – they’re just ridiculous ones). The problem here is that the users metabolism and emotional state may well remain “locked in” for weeks after such a dose. If the user was awake and calm when he or she took the stuff, they’ll remain awake and calm even if a frantic burst of activity or sleep is called for. If they’re in the middle of a fight, they’ll stay in “combat mode”. If they’re asleep when it’s administered, they’ll stay that way.
5. This dosage level “stabilizes” the users metabolism to the point of almost halting it. Essentially it induces deep hibernation – leaving the user resistant to aging, hunger, thirst, lack of oxygen, and temperatures within the basically liveable range, as well as delaying the effects of poison, diseases, and similar troubles. The effects usually persist for months.
6. This dosage level induces “cold sleep” – and paralysis – an effect that may persist for decades without harm to the user. The users food, water, air, and warmth, requirements are virtually nonexistent during this period. Similarly, he or she enjoys a complete immunity to disease and toxins. Sadly, the user has no way of waking up voluntarily; some sort of counteragent is usually necessary – and usually requires hours or days to work. Magical, psychic, and ultra-tech powers may or may not influence the time requirement, depending on how they operate. Individuals in cold sleep may survive for many centuries unharmed.
7. This dosage level induces total stasis, rendering the user virtually invulnerable to harm, but requiring some very special measures to counteract. An overdose is not possible; total stasis is as far as it goes.

   Side Effects: Dosage levels 3+ occasionally induce a dulling of the users intellect and senses, especially if and when the user is required to react quickly. Reports of loss of appetite and slight dehydration are also common. None of these effects are serious; at most it’s like waking up a bit woozy and ready to eat.

Uncontrolled Substances – M’ram

   Here’s another entry in the “fantastic drugs and compounds” list – in this case a stimulant so potent that it may be able to get adventurers out of several major jams before it kills them. A source, or stockpile, of M’ram may offer considerable power – and attract considerable amounts of trouble.

   M’ram (Windrace, Heartforge) is a crystalline white powder with a faint flavor of mint and an astringent effect. It’s alchemically derived from a combination of several relatively common plants – including a type of red algae and several of the aromatic herbs commonly used in cooking. To function properly, however, M’ram must be psychically sensitized, so that it can be unconsciously directed to affect specific biophysical systems as needed. Without that critical step in preparation, and some fairly complex alchemy to stabilize it, M’ram is simply a powerful stimulant, operating on the metabolic level and with subsequent ramifications throughout the user’s system. It is more than powerful enough to kill by overdose and subsequent stroke or heart failure if used incautiously.

   If properly prepared, M’ram allows the user to draw on deep reserves of energy – permitting near-superhuman feats. Unfortunately, there’s always a price to pay later – and M’ram tends to be exhilarating, and so can readily become both physically and mentally addictive.

   Dosage Levels:

1. A very modest dose of M’ram is roughly equivalent to five or six cups of strong coffee or a high dose of any other common stimulant. It lets the user resist the effects of fatigue, remain awake for considerable periods, and even “refreshes” the users mystic and/or psychic reserves by five to ten percent. It also leaves the user at a small (-1) penalty wherever fine control or clear thought is required when M’ram is being used to counter the effects of exhaustion (on whatever level).
2. At this dosage level M’ram acts like a massive shot of adrenalin, allowing the user to draw on deep reserves of energy. This may be used as an emergency stimulant, to counter narcotic and paralytic poisons, or in resuscitation attempts, but its major use is to allow the user to exceed his usual limits. A dose of M’ram at this level provides (Constitution, or whatever physical endurance trait the game in question uses) “adrenalin points”, which the user may expend to accomplish some exceptional feat, resist an injury, or in any way which the game master is willing to allow. Once the points are expended, or after an hour in any case, the user will become utterly exhausted (losing any remaining points) – and will have to rest for several hours. Taking more M’ram before recovering usually results in overdose problems and a later lapse into a coma. Note that the “point cost” of any particular feat is up to the GM.
3. This dosage level operates a lot like the previous one – but allows the user to spend “points” on on physical enhancements that will last for 1d4+1 minutes. Sadly, while this greatly enhances the user’s abilities, it also leads to complete exhaustion – often requiring days to recover from – within minutes. Serious damage is rare (the roll to resist it is pretty easy) – but occurs more frequently when M’ran is used frequently.
4. This dosage level acts like the previous dosage level, above, but it also allows the user to take twice as many actions – including movement actions – as would normally be permitted in a given length of time. Unfortunately, the crash afterwards usually involves damaged tendons, pulled muscles, fracturing your own bones, and a nasty little heart attack on top of the results of a level three dose. If you don’t mind potentially crippling or killing yourself, it’s still a wonderful thing.
5. Dosage level five is sometimes known as “Berserkerite”. It induces a kind of physical intoxication or hysteria – adding immunity to pain and stunning blows, greatly-augmented “hysterical strength”, and an maniac fixation on your objectives to the effects of a level four dose. The problem is that the user can easily inflict great damage on himself – often without even noticing it. The berserker state persists for 1-2 minutes before burning out in feverish delirium and usual side effects of dosage levels three and four.
6. This dosage level throws the users body into a form of metabolic “final strike” – an effect which gives the user triple his or her basic speed and number of actions, reflexes fast enough to evade most blows and missile weapons, virtual immunity to toxins, and a package of similar bonuses. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly to kill the user within 2d4+2 rounds through massive internal injuries, circulatory failure, fever, and so on. Even the (extremely rare) characters with major physical enhancements who manage to survive this kind of abuse usually suffer crippling long-term injuries.
7. Dosage level seven induces a sort of “nove flare”, usually burning out the user in a single action or round. While this may result in a truly spectacular display of power at that moment – allowing the user to perform some mighty act of magic, lift a vast weight, or otherwise accomplish some incredible feat – there is no reasonable chance of survival. There may not even be much of a body left afterwards; expending that much of the bodies energy reserves in a moment resembles a detonation more than normal metabolic processes.

   M’ram tends to accumulate in the body, suppressed by the normal instinct for self-preservation thanks to it’s psycho-sensitive nature. Thus overdoses often result from using it too often, rather then from taking too large a dose – and typically result in moving one or more steps up the dosage level chart without meaning to do so.

   Side Effects include “caffeine nerves”, numbness, damage to the digestive system (commonly ulcers), hyperactivity, headaches, and psychic energy surges, although these are rarely serious if the dosage level is low and infrequent. The effects of long-term use include paranoia, nervous tremors, high blood pressure, and hallucinations.

Eclipse – Building the Level One Bladesinger

   Here we have a special request – how to build a Bladesinger in Eclipse.

   Eclipse lets you build pretty much anything of course, but what is it we’re building? “Bladesinger” was originally a second-edition fighter kit, and there are four differing official versions for 3.0 and 3.5 (from Tome and Blood, Races of Faerun, the Complete Warrior, and the Tome and Blood Web Expansion), as well as quite a few homebrew efforts and second edition and third edition updates available on the web. Most versions are prestige classes, while a few are full twenty level base classes. Some have special spell lists of their own, others upgrade an existing arcane spell progression. Still others add abilities from the Book of Nine Swords, or throw in even more exotic abilities.

   The only way to handle this is going to be to build a base framework and throw in some options for spending the rest of the points. To match most of the official versions, I’ll make this a ten-level build. Of course, in the Eclipse version, you can start off as a Bladesinger, rather than having to take a levels in something else first.

   At first level we’ll want:

• Proficient with Simple and Martial Weapons (9 CP), and Light Armor (3 CP) with the “Smooth” modifier for the light armor (eliminating the arcane spell failure chance for wearing light armor, +3 CP).
• +6 Skill Points (6 CP).
• +2 on Reflex and Willpower Saves (12 CP).
• Augmented Bonus: May add (Int Mod) to (Dex Mod) when calculating AC, Specialized/only while wielding a longsword or rapier in one hand and nothing in the other, Corrupted/now while wearing medium or heavy armor or heavily encumbered (2 CP).

   That’s a total of 35 CP.

   At every level we’ll want:

• 1d8 Hit die (4 CP).
• +1 BAB (Warcraft, 6 CP).
• +2 Skill Points (2 CP).

   For a total of 47 CP at level one and 12 CP/Level.

   For a level-ten design – to match the majority of the 3.0 and 3.5 writeups – that will leave us with a base of 121 CP to spend. For most Eclipse characters it will be more: a large part of what made the Bladesinger interesting back in second edition was the obligations that came with the kit, so some Duties (for a total of +20 CP to spend at level ten) will probably fit in best. They may even have Fast Learner, which – at level ten – would yield a profit of 14 CP. Ergo, anything under a total of 141 CP is good here.

• To get the saves up to the standard +7/+7/+3 for two good and one bad save at level ten will cost 39 CP.

   We’ll also want:

• Bonus Attack, Specialized/only while making a full attack wielding a longsword or rapier in one hand and nothing in the other, Corrupted/not while wearing medium or heavy armor or heavily encumbered (2 CP).
• Three Bonus Feats (18 CP).
• To let the Bladesinger cast spells in melee, we’ll want Reflex Training/Extra Actions Variant, Specialized in Spellcasting and Corrupted/extra actions must be taken during the character’s turn (2 CP) along with Evasive/not subject to attacks of Opportunity when using a Reflex Action for Spellcasting, Corrupted/not while wearing medium or heavy armor or heavily encumbered (Uncommon, 2 CP). This is a compromise of course. The versions of the Spellsinger with their own spell list (and usually a maximum of 4/4/3/3 spells per day) could throw one per round on top of their attacks. Later versions, which simply expanded on another spellcasting progression, cut back this privilege to once per day. Here we’re compromising on three times per day, with the option to buy more uses.

   That comes to 63 CP worth of special abilities, leaving us with 78 CP to spend picking up some magic.

• To build the original version, buy 12 levels from the Paladin or Ranger spellcasting progression, probably taking the Spontaneous Caster option, Corrupted for Increased Effect/only allows the use of an extremely limited spell list, essentially consisting entirely of personal combat boosts (24 CP) and 10 Specialized Caster Levels to go with it (30 CP). That would only give us 4/3/3/3 spell slots (plus some cantrips), instead of 4/4/3/3, so we’ll need a level of Specialist (3 CP) to get things up to 5/4/4/3 (a one level-two spell slot improvement over the original). We’ll also have to buy +16 Reflex Actions (8 CP), but that still only comes to 65 CP – leaving us with 13 CP left over. Enough for two Feats and one SP in change.
• To build the generic plus-arcane-spellcasting-levels version you’d need to buy five spellcasting levels – with a cost ranging from 40 CP (Bard) through 70 CP (Wizard) up to 80 CP (Sorcerer). That leaves us 2 CP short if we’re using a Sorcerer base, but leaves plenty of room to add things left over for a Bard and some room for a Wizard.

Twilight Isles – Shadow Elf Houses III

   Here we have a few more of the Shadow Elf bloodlines / houses.

   Brinial

• House Talents: +2 Str, +3 on all craftsman’s skills (Appraise, Craft, Disable Device, Forgery, Knowledge/Architecture and Engineering, and Open Lock), Fire Resistance 5 and can accomplish all metalsmithing and forge-work in only half the usual time.
• The Brinial bloodline possesses a practical, if unspectacular, set of gifts, and can credit their successes more to hard work and cooperation than to magical power. Their abilities are, however, well suited to keeping them in the middle class – which provides a reasonably secure base for them to recover from setbacks. Brinial who rise to prominence usually do so as warriors or as warrior-craftsmen.

   Fanachfaid

• House Talents: +2 Wis, +3 on all wisdom-linked skills, True Strike, True Skill, True Save, True Dodge, and True Initiative (each providing a +20 insight bonus on an appropriate short-term roll) twice per day for one of them of the player’s choice and once per day each for remaining three.
• The Fanachfaid bloodline is prone to minor, but quite unreliable, precognitive visions – a talent which often allows them to pull through in pinch, but which tends to desert them if they call on it too often. The line tends to rise spectacularly when conditions are good, and the occasional vision suffices to navigate through life – but tends to fall equally quickly when conditions are too stressful, and the occasional flash of precognition will not suffice. Even more annoyingly, the excessive use of precognition tends to drive it’s user’s mad – making it impossible (or at least undesirable) to improve their talents. The Fanachfaid tend to be overconfident and rarely plan ahead, since they tend to rely on their talents to pull them through.

   Offyrdyn

• House Talents: +2 Str, +3 bonus on Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Open Lock, Survival, and Use Magic Device, and unlimited use of Create Implement (creates some a basic hand tool or implement for one minute per level).
• The Offyrdyn commonly find work in the wilds, or as adventurers, or in any other field where one is likely to need some offbeat tool on the spur of the moment without the convenience of having a pack-train or workshop handy. It’s difficult to overestimate the quiet convenience of always having a hammer and some wedges, or a crowbar, or saw, or the perfect lockpick, or a blade, or pretty much any tool or simple weapon you could want, instantly to hand when you need it. It’s rare for an Offyrdyn to rise to any great heights of public power, but rather more of them have risen to substantial heights in the underworld.

   Sharalaes

• House Talents: +2 Con, +3 bonus on priestly skills (Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge/Religion, Knowledge/The Planes, Perform, Profession/Priest, and Speak Language), and unlimited use of Dispelling Touch (as per Dispel Magic, but only affects the target touched).
• Members of this house are extraordinarily difficult to affect with magic for long; even the best spells tend to crumble within minutes when applied to them, they disrupt other spells on contact, and they can even neutralize magical devices – at least temporarily. Unsurprisingly, most Sharalaes act as priests, advisors, emissaries, or magical researchers. They rarely go looking for major positions themselves, preferring to be members of the entourage of more prominent figures.

   Raignedyr

• House Talents: +2 Str, +3 bonus on strength-based skills, unlimited use of Scalywrath (from The Practical Enchanter, page 91).
• The Raignedyr can shapeshift into a reptilian combat-form, wherein they are equipped with claws and fangs, tough scales, some minor physical boosts, and a rather awkward tail (requiring special adaptions in their clothing and armor). They’re often employed as semi-concealed bodyguards, since they don’t need to actually carry weapons and armor to be effective. Oddly enough, those with the potential for higher levels rarely specialize as warriors; most of them find it more useful to rely on their natural talents in a fight and spend their efforts learning abilities which are useful in daily life – often more general magical abilities. Powerful Raignedyr often show really odd personality traits, withdrawing from social contact, focusing on accumulating wealth and power, and becoming reclusive reptile-wizards.

   Riadda

• House Talents: +2 Con, +3 bonus on wilderness skills (Climb, Handle Animal, Knowledge/Nature, Knowledge/Local, Move Silently, Survival, Swim, and Use Rope), unlimited use of Pass Without Trace.
• The Riadda sometimes act as scouts, but they make the best use of their talents as troop leaders – since they can lead several hundred people, or an adventuring party, through the wilderness and still leave no trace of their passage. Noble Riadda often extend the tendency, engaging in careful manipulations but being careful to leave few traces of their operations.

   Yrnsriad

• House Talents: +2 Cha, +3 bonus on assassin’s skills (Bluff, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Hide, Move Silently, and Sleight of Hand), unlimited use of Delay Poison (they’re effectively immune to poison).
• The Yrnsriad are notorious as assassins and poisoners, but are actually rather more often found working as alchemists, refining metals, harvesting dangerous plants, collecting natural poisons for other uses, and in any other job which requires massive exposure to toxins – or at least is easier to manage while accepting such exposure. As nobles, the Yrnsriad rarely make progress too quickly – but going into one of their strongholds without your own form of protection from poison is asking for a lethal dose of something or other. When a family sees nothing wrong with dealing with vermin by sprinkling toxins over everything, visiting gets risky. Of course, half of that is cultivated reputation as well – they Yrnsriad nobles do have servants after all – but it suffices to discourage potential attackers.

Twilight Isles – The Veltine In Depth

   First up for today, Editorial-0 wished to expand a bit on the culture of the Veltine and sent along a sizeable chunk of material. I’ve expanded on that and done some editing, so here we have a more in-depth look at the Veltine.

   The chilly Khundare Archipelago, homeland of the Veltine, is difficult to reach from the larger Ishorin and Ra’Vatan island chains. The distance is considerable to begin with, and the islands are encircled by the Frozen Sea, Sea of Mist, Sea of Weeds, Pillars of Ice, and Seas of Darkness – all difficult and dangerous to navigate.

   The Veltine, being a bit insular, generally prefer it that way.

   Veltine society has few towns or cities. Fundamentally, it’s organized around small clans or extended families, each occupying their own, basically self-supporting, clan-steading. (Those which become dependent on other steadings for any of the basics of life are soon subordinated and absorbed by those other steadings). Any steading will support basic crafts, fishing or herding or both, a few speciality crafts to trade with other steadings, and at least some basic agriculture. Steadings which are fortunate enough to possess other natural resources are generally especially prosperous. A steading will often support more than a hundred related individuals from several generations.

   A steading is normally focused – socially, if not necessarily physically – on an Ancestral Hall, a longhouse normally framed and paneled with wood and bone (from massive sea-creatures) and walled and roofed with turf. With the usual earth-bermed shelter from the wild magic of the great storms, the ancestral hall contains food-stores, kitchens, sleeping areas for the clan’s pups, any special tools or treasures the clan may possess, and sleeping areas for respected elders who have moved into the ancestral hall. Most adults live in small huts nearby. Such shelters provide comfortable places to sleep, and provide room to store a few things out of the weather, but generally do not provide for cooking or more elaborate facilities.

   Farmers and herders generally live in larger bungalows, which double as storehouses and barns, while the occasional serious specialists – master-smiths, magicians, the crafters of charms and talismans, teachers, and priests – generally occupy smaller halls which provide the earth-sheltered space for them to practice their arts. Slaves generally occupy crude pit-huts.

   Other special facilities usually include a field for training or dueling, a (sometimes quite elaborate) bathing area, well-protected boathouses, and the steading defenses – generally consisting of various barriers (walls, moats, thorny hedges, or fields of broken glass or sharp stones), guard-posts, and dangerous pets.

   Not surprisingly, Veltine live like this because they are aggressive and often fight over land, resources, mates, and status. To the Veltine, personal combat is the rational way to settle almost any disputed issue. They’re physically powerful and know it, plus they heal quickly, and they tend to subscribe to the usual d20 view that the strongest (high level) individuals are almost impossible to keep from fighting it out and doing what they want to anyway. Death is rare in such fights unless a feud has grown intensely personal, but it’s easy to wind up maimed. Duels are traditional and have highly ritualized behaviors (a restraining mechanism which has proven successful across the generations) for initiating, fighting, and conceding them. Veltine can be forced into duels, but the traditions give the one being forced some modest advantages, allowing for some social stability.

   While there isn’t any real “government” outside of the occasional council of elders and warriors, the Veltine do have strong customs and their temples to bind them together, a bit like the city-states of ancient Greece. There are competitions, festivals, and religious rituals – and the priests of the various Veltine Ideals generally attempt to enforce the Veltine customs and dueling rules through “moral authority”, shame, and – if necessary – through violence. The Veltine aren’t really very devout, but they rarely dispute the authority of a temple in its area of expertise – although the temples are just as competitive amongst themselves as any other Veltine organization.

   In general, Truth is regarded as the purest Ideal, and is one of the few without competing claims that one hero or another represents it’s true embodiment. It’s high priest or “Noble Philosopher” is highly respected, on the theory that – as he or she is representing the ideal of truth – his or her proclamations must be accurate.

   Of course, when they prove inaccurate, that also proves that the high priest is failing in his or her duty to the Ideal, which means it’s time to tear the old high priest into shreds and elect a new one. That usually suffices to keep such proclamations rare, which helps keep them respected – which helps maintain the rules of justice, honor, and succession which the temple proclaimed long ago.

   In practice, while Truth may be purest, it’s the Warrior Ideals – Honor, Ferocity, Duty, and Glory – that are most popular. Ideals such as Strength, Agility, Skill, and Tactics are also highly regarded, but Service, Peace, Compassion, and Knowledge get more lip service than actual support.

   Most temples teach some magical or martial techniques – demonstrating the superiority of their philosophies through the superiority of their followers – and so are the Veltine centers of knowledge. They maintain the histories (although rarely agreeing on them) and guard their lore zealously, offering it only to those who leave their clans to swear loyalty to the temple itself. Leaving a clan is a huge step, but not considered disreputable. Similarly, particularly respected masters of a given discipline (most often martial arts) may leave their clan to devote themselves to their skills and take students from any clan.

   Battle for standing is not merely physical, of course (although that is usually a major component), and where Veltine gather they compete for power. This most often happens in their few cities (mostly, in fact, occupied by other races), or their more numerous market centers, and often involves competing nobles and temples. Of course, nobility in the Veltine world is something you take, assert and defend through deal-making, shows of strength and personal courage. Adoptions, intermarriage and crowd-pleasing shows are the primary tools of successful Veltine. Attempts to rule through brute force tend to fail spectacularly. The Veltine are simply too fractious and prone to going into berserker rages when pushed instead of knuckling under.

   While the Veltine lack innate magic, and their (fairly scarce) mages favor physical enhancements and magic which draws upon the body’s resources, their physical might and toughness serve them well in many fields. They can accomplish mighty labors, move great weights, haul nets and lines with ease, attempt to take the great monsters of the sea, and relatively few creatures bother them. Even fewer bother a group. They can usually flee sudden strikes and reorganize, or use hit-and-run tactics of their own to grind down major foes. While there are occasional monster-problems in their lands, such troubles are a mere background for their internal struggles.

   Veltine agriculture is fairly basic, and is often the province of slaves of other species, but they do combine simple magic with their innate physical advantages with some effect. They don’t eat many vegetables, of course, but they do raise fodder and eat breads with cheese or meat sauces. They are also particularly fond of herbal infusions and some mild stimulants which grow well in the acidic soil of the cool and rainy inland mountains. There’s even a modest export marketfor such products. Of course, it’s a long ways to the other archipelagos, so only items with compact value are sent that far.

   Veltine are natural warriors, though they don’t take well to military discipline. They tend to come in mobs and warbands, not in platoons and regiments, but work well with their own leaders. They often bring their own ships and gear, and are well-paid in booty. Their smaller craft usually have a single sail, a light frame, and oars for backup. They’re just big enough to hold a band of warriors, their gear, and some plunder, and travel quickly to raid and plunder. Larger ships usually have multiple sails and oars and may have a screw, suitable for use with a dwarven engine (if one is available), magic, or peddling. Most also mount a ram, as well as provisions for boarding. If they have a weather-wizard available to becalm enemy ships, so much the better.

   Those guilty of major crimes or who shame their clans are cast out. If they can’t find another clan to take them in, and can’t find a place in one of the towns, they frequently leave altogether rather than live as a drifter without a place in society. Veltine have a hard time killing family, but exiles are considered to be dead and officially forgotten. This has contributed to a generally bad reputation of the Veltine in many other lands, since Veltine travelers may well be exiled murderers or thieves. Any descendants of the exiles born later aren’t considered tainted, but they won’t even be known to the clan anyway. Thus, there are small populations of Veltine living in other lands.

   Veltine wealth is largely based on food production, with land holdings and production of useful goods contributing as well. Clan ties function as a kind of “credit rating”, but there is no recognized system of currency. This makes it hard to carry wealth to new areas. Veltine usually rely on family connections, but outsiders are advised to carry small, valuable, items, such as perfumes, spices, incense, magical devices, weapons, and brightly-colored cloth (many Veltine love brightly-colored cloth, but they produce few fine fabrics – so it fetches a good price. Ikam cloth is most prized. Outsiders can fall back on money – but the Veltine may or may not accept it, and invariably only do so at a terrible rate of exchange. It’s better to try to fit in by making friends; a Veltine clan is more likely to offer hospitality in exchange for stories or some useful magical work than gold – although the few towns (such as Casinium) which routinely trade with outsiders are more businesslike.

   Travelers are advised, however, to watch out for the occasional outlaws and for a few of the crazier religious beliefs. The Veltine belief that they are on the top of the food chain, and thus are superior to everyone and everything else, occasionally turns up as the belief that – to ascend to a higher state or prove yourself truly superior – you simply need to live on a diet of other Veltine. The few known cases usually didn’t last long (or go over well), but there are plenty of rumors of their being entire cannibal cults out there. A few other tales imply that a wolf-form Veltine who manages to devour the heart of another Veltine will be granted the ability to shapeshift since he or she has proven themselves and their strength. Still other tales state that, when any Veltine eats another, the cannibal will sometimes gain increased abilities and “increase the potency of their blood”. Veltine generally don’t like to discuss such things, and their priests mostly deny that such tales have any truth to them, but it’s not like there’s been any properly-controlled testing.

Twilight Isles – Shadow Elf Houses II

   Next up, we have a few more Shadow Elf houses…

   Aiscaire

• House Talents: +2 Con, +3 on all nautical skills (Balance, Climb, Knowledge/Nature, Knowledge/Geography, Survival, Swim, Use Rope, and appropriate Crafts and Professions), and Sea-Sense (allows the user to sense the local currents, find fish, tell if they’re approaching shoals, predict the weather at sea, and so on. This also provides a +5 insight bonus on relevant checks).
• The Aiscaire are – obviously enough – amongst the premiere sailors, fishermen, traders, and navigators of the Twilight Isles. Unlike many of the other houses, Aiscaire prefers to rely on cash and economic power rather than military or magical might – although they try to make sure to always have some combatants (often Veltine, with whom they have tighter ties than most houses) on hand.

   Falaes

• House Talents: +2 Str, +3 with all dexterity-based skills, unlimited use of invent-your-own plant and plant-material affecting cantrips.
• The Falaes are a quiet, and generally lower-class, house (or bloodline, since they have little formal organization). Those of it’s members with special training usually focus on either learning to chain together their plant-manipulating magics to produce more impressive results, or on upgrading their power to produce more impressive results directly. While they’re not the most impressive expert woodworkers, or clothmakers, or even farmers, in existence, they’re certainly among the most productive in the Twilight Isles. Falaes workers and slaves turn out quite a lot of the basic goods, and produce quite a lot of the vegetable foods and fibers, in Ishorin.

   Galucof

• House Talents: +2 Wis, +3 on all intelligence-based skills, continuous Protection from Evil.
• The Galucof are notable scholars and exorcists, with minds disciplined enough to resist a wide variety of external controls and an inherent protection from spirits. They’re commonly skilled in a variety of magics – and are usually personally insufferable. Born with knowledge that most people would take years to learn, they grow up feeling that most of the other houses are foolish and uneducated – and they rarely outgrow that attitude entirely.

   Narbengyr

• House Talents: +2 Strength, +3 Bonus with all martial arts skills, are considered proficient with any weapon they touch.
• The Narbengyr simply have a knack for combat. All kinds of combat. To a fairly absurd degree. After all, a Narbengyr is not only inherently proficient with any weapon that comes to hand, but can choose two basic martial arts abilities to go with it (to fit their effective skill of +3 in a self-defined art to fit the moment). That may not be an overwhelming advantage, but it’s certainly very convenient – and those who opt to build upon those talents can be quite formidable. Members of house Narbengyr tend to prefer unexpected confrontations. If the only thing to hand happens to be a broom when the fight breaks down, it’s nice to be the only one in the room who happens to both be proficient in brooms and to “know” the basics of five or six martial arts which specialize in using them as weapons. They have quite a reputation for it.

   Yesol

• House Talents: +2 Cha, +3 Bonus on all charisma-linked skills, can shapeshift to an otter-hybrid form at will, gaining 1d4 natural weapons, +1 natural armor, and a +4 bonus to Balance, Climb, Move Silently, and Swim.
• The Yesol are a minor bloodline, and – like most such – may disappear at any time. Still, at least for the moment, they’re doing reasonably well as divers, pearl-fishers, and seamen.

Federation-Apocalypse Session 83b – Balrog Disco

   Corrigan decided to let Mr Balrog consider things for a few moments. There was nothing like a Disco to try and discover your true inner self in! And, if Mr Balrog got tired of that, there were lots of other people to get involved with!

   Besides, there was no point in his missing out on any of the fun!

   He headed out onto the floor. There had to be someone of his persuasion out there… How he wished that Marty was available! He knew how to have a good time too!

   He didn’t have much luck before it seemed to be time to talk to Mr Balrog again.

   Mr Balrog was rather thoughtful at the moment. He’d never been treated as “one of the group” before; even the officeworkers tended to look at him without really seeing him. The clubbers though… The clubbers were high enough to have their mental defenses and preconceptions down – but, like every other inhabitant of Battling Business World, were virtually without fear anyway.

   That makes Corrigan a little sad. He’d have taken a dose of Proma-17 himself, but he couldn’t do that at the moment! He had to help Mr Balrog learn how to treat people decently and achieve balance!

(Corrigan) “You seem a little distant… Is something bothering you?”

(Balrog) “It is strange… Somehow, this – a place where I have never been – somehow seems more familiar than much of my own life! “

(Corrigan) “Oh? Do you think you might have had a past life here?”

(Balrog) “How could I have a past life here? I am thousands of years old! I have lived through three ages of Arda! I lived before the creation!.. Wait… That Gandalf. The one who sent me here… He said that He had been Gandalf for about three hours, but that Gandalf was – like me – a Maia, and had existed from the beginning, and had outlasted the ages – and that in an hour or so, he wouldn’t be Gandalf any more.”

(Corrigan) “Gandalf? Oh, that movie!”

   He got a dreamy look on his face for a few moments as he contemplated Elijah Wood.

(Corrigan) “Wait a minute . . . where did Marty recruit you?”

(Balrog) “I haunted the mines of Moria, slaying many Gandalfs, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits! I took the One Ring repeatedly!… Until the one you call Marty-Boromir and Kevin-Gandalf came, and persuaded me to travel with them to the Underdark, and thence to here in pursuit of the powers of the light!”

“Marty-Boromir?” (Corrigan started to laugh) “Well, Marty really has been going to strange places then!”

(Balrog) “None so strange as this place! When humans see me in most places, they scream, they panic, they flee! Here they try to sell me credit cards or appliances!”

(Corrigan) “Why would they fear you? They wake up the next morning! Malpractice is something to fear. So is bankruptcy.”

(Balrog) “And that is strange as well! The Gandalfs and the rest often seemed to return – but they had no memory of meeting me before, and did not return in a mere day! Humans are supposed to pass beyond the borders of the world and never return at all!”

(Corrigan scratched his head.) “Maybe they lose their memories when they wake up. That makes me sad.”

   Fred Gelman had mentioned something about him Mr Balrog maybe being a cosplayer. He had to wonder… Corrigan started looking around for another cosplayer. They were always people who didn’t quite fit in, so maybe they’d be good at relating to demons who didn’t quite fit in!

   Well, there was one lady over in a corner who was done up as a massive werewolf. She might even be using Meds to get that result… By herself in a nightclub? She might well be equally out of place!

(Corrigan, pointing to the werewolf) “Oooh, she looks fierce.”

   Mr Balrog headed off over that way – although he seemed to feel that the lady was another supernatural entity, and might have some insights on their relationship to human beings. Coming from such disconnected perspectives, the ensuing discussion got rather weird.

   Corrigan found it amusing enough that he almost forgot to keep an eye out for a partner of his own!

   Mr Balrog and the Werewolf were still arguing the fine points of their worlds of origin when the disco ball went off, and the razor-sharp glass fragments swept the room like a scythe. Nine out of ten clubbers went down in the initial blast, while many of the rest fell as the ceiling collapsed! Corrigan, as usual, wasn’t hit; the incoming mirror-fragments always tended to go into orbit around his sparkles. He raised the traditional after-the-blast cry!

(Corrigan) “Last call!”

   It was sad. He hadn’t found anybody to take home – but it was good to help others!

   The “werewolf” was fine as well; Mr Balrog had taken the brunt took the blast – and seemed to be relatively undamaged.

   Corrigan glanced at the mirror-shards dangling amongst his sparkles and grinned. They helped keep him on the cutting edge and basking in the limelight – but there were always more, and – who knew? – these might have a greater destiny…

(Corrigan) “Here, why don’t you have these? They’re not actual sparkles, but maybe you can keep them in your aura.”

   Hanging in the Balrog’s flaming aura, the mirror-fragments became white-hot dots of molten glass. Not quite sparkles – but who knew? If he kept on trying to achieve balance, perhaps they would become sparkles! His physique was certainly good enough…

   Meanwhile, back in Kadia, Kelsaru was getting things organized; between the recordings, the written materials, and the telepathic impressions available from the Thralls, there was no reason why Kevin should have to make a personal pitch to 99.9% of his prospective Thralls. It was only a few with really specialized concerns that would want a personal encounter before making up their minds. Most of the rest were more than willing to sign up without further ado, while those who wanted to opt out were either leaving, or being assigned to various jobs if they were already indentured or owed rescue-fees.

   In fact, a fair number came back after opting out and leaving. It looked like discovering that they were, indeed, free to refuse and leave was all the reassurance that some of them needed.

   No one else could bond them for him of course – that seemed to be some sort of divine privilege (and she was still thinking about the implications of THAT, both for herself and for her clutch), but they could be set up with organized mass appointments. That way Kevin could bond them to himself with reasonable efficiency – and that would be needed considering how many of them there were getting to be.

   As for the Amarant Solutions operations… the main profit was obviously in gatekeeping and trans-dimensional trading operations. Even the slave-purchases and rescue-operations were minor operations next to that, simply due to the sorting for souls. They were a major expense if you considered loss of time – especially for the Neodogs currently operating in the Linear Realms – but that basically went under Recruiting and Advertising. That sort of thing wasn’t expected to yield an immediate profit even if efficiently managed.

   Still, there were plenty of the smaller offices that could be arranged more efficiently. Kevin and Marty had a tendency to place offices by whim, and they tended to favor exciting mythological realms.

   She allocated some Thrall-resources to all of the “Disaster Realms” – where there’d be plenty of recruitable souls – and where they could best use some advance warning on the activities of the opposition (even if it’s nature wasn’t yet entirely clear). Others… All of the mythic and classical literary realms had stuff to trade, and it was a lot more effective to open gates to the more obscure ones. There were all kinds of people and companies trying to grab shares of the more popular realms, since those had the most gates and routes to them – but with plenty of Gatekeeper-Thralls available, it would be best to hit up the more obscure places. They could afford to take circuitous routes though the manifold. Kevin could upgrade the efficiency with new gates when he had time, meanwhile they’d have exclusive access to a lot of places – and to possible recruits and resources no one else was reaching.

   These “Core” people were fractitious though; the Core Military wanted more Thralls without recruiting, the Unified Church people seemed to disapprove on principle, while have very few objections to what was actually being done, the House of Roses was actively recruiting, while not wanting to admit to it, and only a few businessmen were willing to acknowledge that they were dealing with a slave-trader.

   At least it looked like this “Vekxin” person was almost cornered, and that the general population in Core was having no trouble in accepting the notion of sapient humanoid property like the shape-shifted Neodogs and anthromorphs from the Manifold. They didn’t seem to be having any trouble with acknowledging slavery out in the Manifold either – but how they’d feel about formally acknowledging humans as property in Core was still a bit up in the air. There were a few defacto cases around – but nothing formal.

   Over in the dragonworlds, a few of the kids were exploiting the system a bit – using their free access to the processing machines to undercut Kevin’s prices on high-quality slave-processing. Of course, when Kevin found out, he’d probably be pleased that they’d thought of it. Kevin quite expected people to exploit their resources.

   He probably wouldn’t be pleased to discover that a number of the hatchlings were getting into fights with other hatchlings who were there to be educated, and sometimes even getting into completely uncontrolled fights with other young dragons outside his household. Perhaps it was inevitable, but Kevin had really been hoping that giving his hatchlings everything they’d needed – and most of what they didn’t – would keep them out of trouble. Of course, for those who’d lost a fight, the ones who’d been killed would be easy enough to retrieve – and most of the outsiders would probably be open to selling them back soon enough.

Twilight Isles – Houses of the Shadow Elves

   The Shadow Elves are organized around a few basic principles:

• Bloodlines and family names are passed on through the female line; children may be born with wild talents on occasion, but the vast majority of the time, they will be born with the talents of their mother – and thus the techniques for best using the better talents are also passed on through the female line. The houses and clans are thus organized around maternal lines, and males marry into them.
• Given the tremendous, and obvious, inequalities of power between individuals, there is no point in trying to pretend in equality. The mighty will seize power if it suits them and the weak will be exploited. Those in the middle are best off staying out-of-the-way while the powerful sort out their own pecking order; there’s no good way to control them anyway.
  • As a corollary, what the powerful get up to is more or less their own business. If they want to kill each other off or indulge in weird activities, as long as it doesn’t involve the population at large – or at least no more than a few people from among the population at large – no one will pay much attention to their antics.
• There’s a basic trade-off in any species; number of offspring versus investment in each one. Shadow Elves may have twenty or more children over the course of a long lifetime – and most of them will slide towards the bottom, despite parental efforts and influence of wealth. Parents do care for their children and their society accommodates that, simply because any society that does not will be overwhelmed by the ones that do – but the investment in any given child is less. Like classical earthly parents with large families, losses are expected.
• A sizeable chunk of the population never gets past level zero, and usually winds up in very low-status jobs or as slaves. A solid majority make it to level one, and stick there, whether as slaves, lower class, or hanging onto middle class status via specialization. Level two is notable, but not too uncommon. Levels three and up are one in a hundred or so at best – and even the vast majority of those individuals never get past levels four to five. Levels six and up are only found amongst the most powerful nobles.
• The major houses – accumulations of wealth and property – are thus dominated by the powerful and cunning, and will be passed on to the powerful and cunning, even if it has to be by adoption.

   Of course, within that basic framework, there are a lot of variations – in fact there are hundreds of them. There are also some relatively common bits of house training:

• Mana Channeling – meaning, more level zero or level one Innate Enchantments. Limited-use talents are usually known as Lesser Channels, while unlimited-use abilities are classified as Greater Channels. In general, purchased Innate Enchantments:
  • Count as “external” abilities. They may be inherent in the user, but they’re still a conscious method of channeling magic, not something natural to the race.
  • Stack with the abilities that are part of the racial package.
  • Count against the limitation on the number of spells a given Shadow Elf can handle at one time while active (the automatic racial abilities do not).
  • Normally require buying off the Specialization on their Immunity to the XP Cost of innate enchantments (+1 CP).
  • Within those limits, however, many Shadow Elves a few CP worth of extra Innate Enchantments.
• Masteries: Shadow Elves who show exceptional potential will often learn a Metamagical Theorem or two (Specialized in Innate Enchantments, Corrupted/level one and zero effects only) at 2 CP apiece and a level or two of Streamline (Specialized in Innate Enchantments, Corrupted/level one and zero effects only) at 2 CP per level to go with them – an ability which can increase their power quite substantially.
• Arcane Focus – Empowerment, Specialized in Innate Enchantments for unlimited use (6 CP). This is only really useful to Shadow Elves who will be advancing beyond the first level – but, for them, it can be a substantial boost to their power level.

   Sample Houses:

   Brecanasti

• House Talents: +2 Con, +3 with mundane skills (Appraise, Craft, Handle Animal, Perform, Profession, Ride, Speak Language, and Use Rope), and unlimited use of Unseen Servant.
• The Brecanasti are one of the more widespread, and quieter, houses – the quiet backbone of many professions. Even Brecanasti slaves are usually quite well treated, simply because they can be so productive. They usually try to stay out of the major power struggles, only moving against members of other houses if they feel that they’ve become a major menace to their own survival. The house most commonly teaches it’s more promising members various Masteries – focusing on improving the abilities of their Unseen Servants by giving them a portion of the user’s skills and – sometimes – a limited ability to attack, allowing them to inflict modest area-effect damage to resisting targets, to harass people effectively, or to effectively attack sleeping or otherwise helpless opponents.

   Draiocht

• House Talents: +2 Chr, +3 with charisma-based skills, unlimited use of Stabilize Magic I – allowing them to use third-level spells without difficulty. Unfortunately, this also illustrates one of the major limitations of Stabilize Magic spells; they have to be cast by an intelligent, and magic-sensitive, creature to work. Putting them into non-sapient items won’t work.
• The Draiocht have mixed fortunes; those who don’t practice magic find themselves at a slight disadvantage, with a fairly useless house talent. Those who do, usually work with Theurgy (using Augmented Bonus to base it on Charisma), where precisely-tuned spells can make the most of their slight casting advantage. In the great competition, Draiocht is noted for their subtle social manipulation, often leading from behind the scenes as coordinators and managers.

   Elthik

• House Talents: +2 Wis, +3 bonus on magic-related skills, unlimited use of Detect Magic, unlimited use of Prestidigitation, and Read Magic 1/day.
• The Elthik have carefully cultivated a reputation as formidable militaristic magi, but their true strength lies in their magical senses – which allow a skilled member of the house to keep careful track of the power levels of those around them, to evaluate their house talents and any Channels they may employ, and to tell what effects they have active on them. Their innate talents may not match the raw power of some houses, but knowing exactly what spell to use is often better than having a powerful spell and using it at the wrong time and place. At the moment, thanks to a series of feuds and skirmishes among the other notable houses, Elthik is doing very well.

   Galano

• House Talents: +2 Con, +3 bonus on dexterity-based skills, and Weapon Mastery/Sabre (+4 BAB with Sabres – a type of Scimitar).
• The Galano possesses a powerful edge in melee combat with their favored type of sword, often gaining multiple attacks very early on, and possessing excellent martial skills – further focusing on those advantages with a house-specific martial art. Unsurprisingly, they usually attempt to divert any conflicts with other houses into personal duels and favor ongoing low-level conflicts, where their particular advantages come to the fore. Their house training tends to focus on Lesser Channels and – occasionally – on Greater Channels doubling up on their innate talents, which can make them quite formidable.

   Gynt-Haaken

• House Talents: +2 Wis, +3 bonus on scouting-related skills (Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Survival, and Use Rope), unlimited use of Produce Flame.
• The Gynt-Haaken are strongly militarily-oriented, focusing on skirmish tactics and sniping with their own fire-based house martial art. Unlike many of the other militaristic houses, they like things a bit tense – with lots of calls for scouting and deniable missions – but a bit short of outright warfare. Many members of the house are, however, excessively hot-tempered, leading to a constant embroilment in minor quarrels. Their house training usually focuses on conventional military skills and Masteries – allowing them to upgrade the effectiveness of their flame powers even further.