jacinto adventures, classes, LotFP, malamaut, Pernicious Albion

Let’s make a deal

So warlocks need to complete favors in order to maintain (semi)reliable access to their spells. Coming up with lots of favors on the fly is hard, so I made tables. Major favors also work as adventure seeds. These are for the incubus Malamaut.
Minor Favors
A minor favor cannot reduce HP or an attribute to 0, and all attribute damage heals after a night’s sleep.
  1. Dance with me! (for d6 x 10 minutes)
  2. I need some of your blood. It is very, very important that you not ask why (d6 damage)
  3. I need to borrow a bit of that body of yours (d3 Strength damage)
  4. I’m in need of some vigor (d3 Constitution damage)
  5. I want some of your grace (d3 Dexterity damage)
  6. Lend me your cunning (d3 Intelligence damage)
  7. I’ve never had the best judgment. Could I borrow some of yours? (d3 Wisdom damage)
  8. I need a piece of soul. I promise I’ll give it back (d3 Charisma damage)
Major Favors
If you can’t quickly come up with a good location, stick it d6 x 10 hexes (or miles, or days, or whatever) away in a random direction.
  1. It has come to my attention that a merchant caravan passing nearby is carrying a bottle of Quietus, that most potent and poisonous of aphrodisiacs. Fetch it for me.
  2. An old lover of mine has been condemned to death, and I want to watch. The execution is in [2d20] days in [the nearest large city], so do hurry. I always said I’d see him hang, and now I don’t have to do it myself.
  3. An old lover of mine has been sentenced to a most dreadful prison, and I want you to release her. She never did suffer prettily, and I still owe her a favor.
  4. Best beloved, one of those wretched hellhounds is getting awfully close to sniffing me out. Dispose of it, will you?
  5. I think it’s time you got me a proper present, dearest. I could have such fun with a weapon of those Grigori—I believe there’s one skulking around nearby.
  6. Oh dear. I’m fresh out of blood. Could you collect, say, [d100 HP] worth? Nothing too old, of course. (A bottle or wineskin can hold 10 HP worth of blood. Blood goes bad after a day unless it is refrigerated or hermetically sealed)
  7. Dearest, you caught me in the middle of an engagement. Treat me to a fine meal [2d100 sp per diner, d6 hour-long courses], or I will be most put out.
  8. The mayor in (the nearest village) has been treating his lover most viciously, and it is beginning to vex me. Put him out of my misery.
  9. I am in need of a pet. Capture [a monster or magical creature] alive, and I shall come to retrieve it once we’re all safe and sound.
  10. A most boring constable is trying to shut down a brothel in (nearest large city). Convince him otherwise, won’t you?
  11. What luck you called! I’m planning a party in [nearest large city], and I need a bit of cash to get it started (costs a number of silver pieces equal to 25% of the xp needed to reach next level)
  12. I’m in a bit of a bind—some fairy noble caught me in her bed with a lady-in-waiting, and now she’s sent a champion to challenge me to a duel. You‘ll stand in for me, right? They’ll get here in [d6] hours.
  13. Oh, it’s so romantic! There’s this eloping couple traveling nearby, and they’ll be eaten by wolves any day now. Go help them, will you?
  14. Some bore of a priest is burning books in [nearest village]. Go stop him—they always burn the ones with the exciting pictures.
  15. I can’t be seen with anyone dressed like that! Go find some half-decent clothes. (Must spend 5d100 sp on fashionable equipment—engraved grappling hooks, filigreed armor, lace handkerchiefs for cleaning swords, etc)
  16. You know, I’ve just had an idea. Fetch me a length of silk rope, a brazier, a small horse, a block and tackle, some lard, a bag of ball bearings, and some open-minded young people with a strong sense of adventure.
  17. I’ve been trying my hand at some poetry and am in need of a muse. Find someone fetching for me. (Acquire the services of a hireling with a Charisma modifier of at least +1 for at least a month)
  18. All this adventuring has left me fatigued. Take me someplace nice, darling (a night in the most expensive hotel or inn in the nearest large city.
  19. They’re circulating the most interesting pictures of (the region’s most notable noble couple) in [the nearest large city], but I hear the constabulary has begun to confiscate them. I simply must have one of these engravings.
  20. It’s been so long since I’ve been courted. Take me out on a night on the town. (Spend a full 24 hours and d1000 sp; roll on a carousing table if you’ve got one)
jacinto classes, LotFP, malamaut, Pernicious Albion

Warlock 2.0

a class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess


HP, Saves, and Experience as Cleric

All warlocks possess a magical contract that contains the seals and signatures of every spirit with which she has formed a pact. A warlock can call upon such spirits for knowledge or power, while the spirits can demand favors in turn. Each spirit possesses a sphere of influence, such as Knowledge or Curses, over which it reigns supreme, and beyond which it is powerless.

A warlock has a contract with a single spirit. She may add any number of spirits to her contract, but must first find them and make them signatories, usually in return for a Greater Favor. 

A warlock can invoke any of her signatory spirits as often as she wishes. When she does so, she can either ask a question pertaining to the signatory’s domain or draw on its power to cast a spell. A warlock may cast any spell on a spirit’s spell list, as long as its spell level does not exceed half her character level, rounded up. In any case, whenever a warlock invokes a spirit, the Referee rolls 2d6 on the Spirit’s Vagary  table to determine the signatory’s reaction to her demand. If the roll results in a Lesser or Greater Favor, the Referee rolls 1d20 on the corresponding table to determine the spirit’s price. As a rule, spirits are uncharitable beings; when a warlock invokes a signatory, she takes a -1 penalty to its Spirit’s Vagary roll for each outstanding favor. If a signatory realizes its warlock cannot or will not complete a favor, it will extract its price forcibly and immediately, as determined by the Referee.
STARTING PACTS

There will be more, and they will come with tables for manifestations and favors, but I need to hammer these out for my in-person group today.

Malamaut, Demon of Love and Spite
his is the grin of the fox in a henhouse

Sphere: Lust and Loathing

An incubus who has grown disinterested in the business of perdition. Though he possesses not even the smallest shred of virtue, Malamaut has developed a stunted and entirely non-Platonic affection for humanity over the long millennia of his existence, and can be persuaded to serve a warlock for a sufficiently enticing price. He is a connoisseur of indecency and a gourmand of sin and desires pleasures of the flesh above all else.


Old Queen Mab, Fairy of Malediction

she was old when the heath lay deep beneath the sea
 As the sometime Queen of Faerie, Mab above all else desires revenge against the King of Roses Red, who deposed her, and the supposed allies who let him. When she speaks with her vassals, she seizes control of a nearby animal or weak-willed human and speaks through theire mouth.
 

jacinto encounters, fairy, LotFP, Pernicious Albion

Fairy hexes 31-40

This is the last of the fairy hexes for now. A post on how fairies work, and then hexes from another faction.
  1. A Roman officer, accompanied by 20 soldiers, is dumping chest after chest of coinage (1000 pounds sterling in all) into a crumbling well. Iridescent caskets of fairy-metal weapons and armor are stacked neatly nearby. UNDEAD OFFICER: HD 7, AC Plate, MV Slow, d8 Weapon damage, paralyzing touch (d6 Turns, Save vs Paralyze to avoid). UNDEAD SOLDIER: Lvl 1 Fighter
  2. The Barony of Crossed Heart. A fairy-noble and his small army of charmed townspeople besiege the castle as the Baron and his knights cower within. There is some talk of turning the Baron into a bowl of fig pudding.
  3. Two groups of fairies—one arrayed in red, the other in grey—in pitched battle. At sunset, the fallen arise to prepare themselves for the next day’s fighting. Any outsiders who involve themselves, however, remain dead.
  4. A man wearing a mask shaped like a beetle sells an array of mundane goods. He must accept anything as currency; he will sell a length of rope for three pounds sterling, three acorns, or three diamonds.
  5. A young woman reads a book beneath a tree. She wears a most excellent hat; everyone who sets eyes on it agrees it is the best they’ve seen. She’s willing to pass it on to anyone who can beat her in a game of cards, but expects high stakes from her opponents.
  6. A locked chest sits atop a pile of gravel. Whenever someone sees the contents, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, the contents appear to all the senses as a golden statue of a beautiful woman, inlaid with lapis lazuli. On a 4-6, they appear as a naked little man who licks his lips when touched or held. Roll separately for each viewer.
  7. Several foxes in ragged waist coats and top hats run through the brush, pursued by a hunting party of lesser fairies. The foxes are actually Gaulish saboteurs.
  8. A beacon of flame burns atop a slender stone tower. Should it ever go out, a murder of crows great enough to blot out the sun will descend on this hex and attack everything that lives within.
  9. Grey-winged moths congregate in the meadow around a sealed dolmen. It contains vampire lord from the east, locked away since antiquity. He is rather reasonable, but exceedingly hungry.
  10. An abandoned glass palace rests on the floor of a lake. Anyone who breaks a sword in the center of the throne room becomes lord or lady of the castle, with all the rights, responsibilities, and assassination attempts that implies.
jacinto angels, encounters, fairy, LotFP, Pernicious Albion

Fairy Locations 21-30

  1. Here, the Giant of Slumbering Days runs down his prey of lost sheep and lost shepherds and innocent travelers. He does so merrily, with great peals of laughter and blood in his teeth, for none are so happy as him when he eats. GIANT OF SLUMBERING DAYS: HD 10, AC as chain, MV Fast, d12 damage club, Save 8, those hit by club must Save vs Paralyzation or go last the following turn.
  2. A small patch of Perpetual Day. At the center of this hex, a golden sun burns in a tired red sky.
  3. A grey stone path wanders through a misty forest of black trees. Anyone travelling along the path will never reach the end of the forest, even if they turn back; to escape, they must cut through the underbrush.
  4. The ore in these hills can be refined into Sublimated Darkness, a substance treasured by the smiths and metallurgists of New Londinium. A single person can mine about 200 silver pieces worth in a day.
  5. A field of pale asphodel beneath a cloudy sky. The Lands of the Dead are close to this place; those buried here cannot return or be raised as undead, and anyone who Save vs Death in sight of the flowers automatically fails.
  6. A trio of fairy-maidens torments a troupe of 10 Royal Knights. They have decided they must be wed, and will persist until driven off or each has been promised someone’s hand in marriage. ROYAL KNIGHT: Lvl 0 Fighter. FAIRY-MAIDEN: HD 4 AC as chain, MV Fast (fly), d6 damage weapon, Save 12, At-will: Invisibility, Change Person, 1/day: Shrink
  7. Two Angels of the Sixth Sphere escorting an iron-shackled fairy-noble. She is the Countess of Mercy Withheld, and they are taking her to the Immanent Fortress on charges of collaborating with the forces of Hell. They are very sure of her guilt, but can not remember why.
  8. A man wearing a wolfshead helmet and suit of black armor is tied to a tree with thick strands of ivy. He is the Diabolus Loricae, trapped here for assaulting the King of Roses Red long ago. Anyone who frees him will have their hands cursed crimson, marking them as enemies of the King. If freed, the Diabolus will perform a favor for his liberators and offer a pact to any Warlocks.
  9. A man in fashionable clothes lies dead on the dirt, impaled with spears of holly. His pocket-watch bears the crest of House Savile.  
  10. A horse-sized wolf with a mass of prehensile tentacles instead of a head stands in the center of a ring of mushrooms. It can only leave if attacked. SPAKE-HOUND: HD 6, AC as chain, MV Fast, d10 damage tentacle, Save 10, Casts Commune on target the turn after a successful grapple.
jacinto encounters, fairy, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, table

Fairy Locations 11-20

  1. A circle of rowan trees stand atop a barrow. Bound beneath in a circle of iron is the fairy known as the Elphame Prince, imprisoned there by a magician he wronged long ago. Locks and traps bar the way, but the Prince will owe a favor to whoever frees him, and enterprising Warlocks can form a pact with him.
  2. An unsupported ivory gate looks onto a desolate moor, though the field behind it is green and lush. Anyone who walks into it and closes the doors behind them will return an hour later, aged one year, bearing vague memories of war, with a Wisdom score increased by 1. Anyone who does this twice returns a day later, aged ten years and losing 1 point of Constitution. Those who enter a third time do not come back.
  3. The Witmarrow Witch lives here in a dilapidated hut. If she burns someone’s dearest possession, she can discern their deepest secret by examining the ashes. She will perform this service with no regard for legality or propriety for anyone who tells her their own darkest secret. WITMARROW WITCH: Lvl 5 MU
  4. A mountain-sized spider with a castle carved into its carapace picks its way across the countryside on slender legs. It will not leave the hex of its own free will. The castle’s 101 fairy courtiers, with no lord or lady to guide them, have fallen into cruelty and decadence.
  5. A bronze spear is thrust into the center of a great stone wheel. It requires a difficult Strength check to remove. When thrust into the ground, the spear transforms into a 12 foot long serpent with a caustic temperament and venomous bite, grudgingly loyal to the spear’s owner.
  6. Statues of a man and woman in postures of repose sit atop a mouldering blanket. Weathered clothing hangs from their frames, and each clutches a chicken bone. A pile of wicker rots next to them.
  7. Stilltown, a seemingly Briton village of 57 souls, stands here. Its inhabitants are all changelings, and they have done all they can to reject their fairy blood. They treasure the banal and pastoral, but their exceedingly poor grasp of such things means they often turn to magic when they think no one is looking. On the night of every full moon, every Stilltowner awakens with an irreducible urge to whirl shrieking through the night sky. They find this a source of great embarrassment.
  8. A giant, frozen midstride, looms over the landscape. She is the Giant of Love Lost, untouchable by weapon or spell or poison. When she threatened to crush New Londinium, the magicians of Albion cursed her so that for every second she experiences, a century passes for the rest of the world.
  9. A small patch of Eternal Night. At the center of this hex, strange stars shine in unfamiliar constellations.
  10. A troupe of fairy-knights have made their camp here. They will accept any challenge, such as combat, magical duel, or game of chance, and award the winners with a scroll of Glamour. They will Glamour losers to look like filthy beggars, no matter how they scrub themselves or change their clothes.

GLAMOUR
Magic-user Level 4
Duration: Permanent
Range 10’
This spell allows human magicians to wield the deceptive power of the fairies. The caster can change the appearance of any creature or object within range in any way, so long as no single dimension is altered by more than 10%. Unwilling targets are entitled to a Save vs. Magic to resist. Dispel Magic destroys the illusion.

jacinto adventures, fairy, is this gonna work, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, table

The Pernicious Atlas

I do not like talking about things I will do, because they do not always happen, and then I feel silly. But I will have a fair amount of free time for the next year, so if I don’t have something good to show for it, I ought to be embarrassed. 

My plan is to compile and organize and refine all my Albion stuff into The Pernicious Atlas. It will be a retroclone friendly book/pdf/publication/whatever containing:
  • a 400 hex wilderness crawl
  • setting-appropriate versions of the Warlock and Beast Child
  • a brief bestiary, including information that ties the creatures to the class features of the Warlock and Beast Child
  • a handful of spells, each interacting with hex locations in some way
  • some tables for running the faux Regency era English society of New Londinium, the setting’s main city, and all the social warfare, character/literal assassination, and rumor-mongering that implies

Feedback is welcome, of course, but this is something I might be selling for dollars, so if helping for free bothers you, keep that in mind. 


Anyways, here are 10 fairy-related wilderness hexes, in no particular order or geographical grouping. 

  1. In these fields of rose and thorn stands a lonely hill of stone. Deep within its dusty halls, upon the throne he claimed by right of ancient pact sits the fairy-lord of Albion: the King of Roses Red and Fair, a crown of flowers in his hair.
  2. A woman stands in a golden cage garlanded with roses. She weeps and wrenches at the bars, but she sings exquisitely and without pause. 
  3. Heartbreak, a Briton village of 30 souls, stands here. Its ruler is Pretty Tyrant, a minor fairy-noble and self-styled Earl of Heartbreak. He has extracted the obedience and adulation of the village’s inhabitants with magic, stolen their children, and disguised Heartbreak’s ruinous state of repair (the fruit of his neglectful rule) with glamour and illusion.
  4. A gallows creaks in the wind. Anyone hung from them, whether they be fairy or king or simple wretch, is dead forever, beyond the reach of magic or miracle.
  5. Orchards and verdant gardens surround the foundation of an old manor. Everything here is cursed with deathly poison (Save vs Poison or die upon eating any of the garden’s fruit, drinking water from its well, or breathing the scent of the flowers).
  6. Here hunts a fairy-hound. It savors the blood of magicians and attacks them on sight. However, it will act as the mount of anyone who subdues it, and it is sensitive to loud noises and terribly afraid of flame. FAIRY-HOUND: HD 4, AC as leather, MV Fast, d8 damage bite, Save 12
  7. A spring burbles at the base of a standing stone. Any magician who bathes in it can inscribe Speak with Dead in their spellbook. If they do so at night, d12 skeletons will rise up from the earth and attack. SKELETON: HD 1, AC as cloth, MV Medium, d6 damage weapon, Save 14
  8. An inn stands alone in the heath. The innkeeper says that the pleasure of the party’s company is payment enough, but they must ask no questions and make no demands under her roof. Should they violate her conditions, they will awaken d10 hexes away in a random direction, each with their maximum HP permanently reduced by 1. Regardless of the party’s compliance, the inn vanishes the next morning.
  9. A circle of white stones encircles a copse of ash trees. For every day that passes within the circle, an hour elapses without.
  10. A crudely hammered sword of iron lies in a field. It bears no enchantment, and in fact is utterly unremarkable, save for the fact that its wielder killed the Lady of All Nights millennia ago. All titled fairies will recognize the sword, and treat its owner as a peer. This is not always helpful.

jacinto flowerland, Pernicious Albion, World of Dungeons

Flowerland Session 2 Play Report

Lotus addict Trimalchio and jolie-laide boxer Barnaby (plus sidekick Agatha the Swamp Witch and minus partner-in-crime Violette) join forces with Prince Darwin Puck IV, one of the many mortal sons of the vast and inscrutable Queen of Albion. They decide to pursue a bounty offered by Dame Balustrade of the Knights Tentacular and destroy a disturbing black tower to the north. The party decides from the get go to ignore her warnings to not examine the tower closely under any circumstances whatsoever from the beginning, but buy explosives to keep up appearances. The charismatic Barnaby and the dashing Prince Puck spend a day to convince Qelong scholar Pran Praw and Albion druid Arminius to help them. Hiring Gator and his trusty(?) airboat once again, they depart.

On the way they encounter some trigger-happy fellow travelers who open fire when they notice Trimalchio looking at them with his spy glass. The party kills two of them, leaving a woman and her two children alive. It turns out they had fought their way past several bandit gangs, and thought the party was more of the same. They let her go, but keep a crate of her linens as recompense. Trimalchio tries to bind the ghosts of the men who attacked them into bullets, but in his incompetence awakens a crocodile spirit instead. It promises not to eat them if they feed it daily, and they accept.

The next day, a pack of coyotes attacks the airboat as it passes through a narrow channel between islands. The crocodile spirit demands that they kill some so it can feed, and Prince Puck almost shoots the hireling druid Arminius so they can feed him to the crocodile spirit instead. The coyotes attack and manage to maul Agatha before being fought off. Trimalchio takes more lotus powder so he can say goodbye for Barnaby, and while Agatha is not particularly impressed, she agrees to possess Barnaby’s armor so she doesn’t have to pass on to the afterlife. Arminius, not too happy about almost being made into a human sacrifice, runs away, trying his like in the wilds.

The rest of the trip is unevenful, save for the final day, when three butterfly demons attack the boat just as the tower is in sight. One tries to put the party to sleep, another attacks Barnaby, while a third vomits onto the floor of the boat, partially dissolving it. The party dispatches them with ease, mopping up the butterfly acid with some of their stolen linens, and Pran Praq tells them that butterfly demons were once a civilized tribe on their own, but were twisted by the influence of some past civilization.

They make it to the tower, which is located on a perfectly circular island. They explore a tunnel located near the tower (the grass around it is dead, and the plants that do live are growing away from it). They find a single room with a water-filled, transparent column in the center. They see something murky floating in it, and Pran Praq notes that submersion is one of the few weaknesses of the Night Tribe. Barnaby, who had taken one of the butterfly demon heads as a trophy, notices that it begins speaking in this room. Prince Puck takes a rubbing of some strange writing they find, and everyone quickly leaves before anything happens. They spend the rest of the day having visions in the tower, which Prince Puck identifies as a monument of the Night Tribe. Barnaby and Trimalchio acquire a yet-to-be determined new sensitivity to magic, while Prince Puck, already well acquainted with magic, learns the sorcerous art of the Rime Key, but the process permanently turns his shadow big and scary. Trimalchio realizes he won’t have enough lotus powder to stave off withdrawal all the way back to Houndport.

Boat Status: 1 small hole, bottom partially dissolved but still unbreached.

jacinto flowerland, Pernicious Albion, spell, World of Dungeons

Sorcery in Flowerland

The Sorcery of Flowerland is the magic of Night. It is unsubtle and unlovely. It excels at destruction, imposition, corrosion, subjugation, and transformation, while succor, mending, light, heat, and delicacy are fundamentally contrary to its nature. Animals fear it, and spirits go mad in its presence. When Sorcery can be seen or felt, it is cloying, chilling, sinuous, and dark. 

distributed by Stefano Corso under Creative Commons


Anyone with the Sorcery skill can learn magical Arts. To do so, they must spend a full day studying one of the Night Tribe’s monoliths, murals, or texts. At sunset, they roll 2d6+Soul. 

  • On a 10+ they learn the Art.
  • On a 7-9 they learn the Art and are scarred or altered by the experience.
  • On a 6- they transform into a Night Demon and try to murder or subjugate everything around them.
Upon learning their first Art, a sorcerer’s blood turns an inky black and becomes terribly poisonous. Practiced sorcerers have use for the blood of their fellows, but extraction is seldom pleasant.


There are nine Greater Arts of Night known to the sorcerers of Flowerland. Lesser disciplines abound, and of course no one knows what magics lie forgotten in the Night Tribe ruins out in the wilds. A sorcerer can bring about any magical effect, so long as it pertains to one of the Arts they know and it does not contradict anything about Sorcery’s nature.

  1. Razor Dance
  2. Dominion Song
  3. Rapture Eye
  4. Night Grasp
  5. Void Gate
  6. Venom Scream
  7. Dream Chain
  8. Soul Stitch
  9. Rime Key

When a sorcerer draws upon the powers of Night to cast a spell, on a 10+, they pick 2 of the following, and on a 7-9, they pick 1. On a 6-, it all goes it shit. (EDIT: This bit is adapted from one of the Druid’s moves in Dungeon World.)
  • The spell achieves what they wanted it to.
  • They are uncorrupted and unharmed by Night’s influence.
  • They keep control of their magic

The effects of Sorcery can last indefinitely. However, there are two limiting factors: any Sorcery effect that does not take place instantaneously ends the moment sunlight touches it, and Sorcery tends to destroy or transform objects and people under its influence. 

Sorcerers have a Curse score. It goes up when they fail to resist the corruption intrinsic to magic. If a Sorcerer’s Curse score is at any point higher than their current HP, they immediately roll 2d6+Soul:

  • On a 10+, they retain control and reduce their Curse by 1.
  • On a 7-9, their control slips, and they increase their Curse by 1.
  • On a 6- they transform into a Night Demon and try to murder or subjugate everything around them.
jacinto flowerland, intro, Pernicious Albion, World of Dungeons

Flowerland 20 Questions

Alakanthus is a mostly-pre-colonial horrible fantasy New World. However, it is shamelessly anachronistic—modernish technology, like airboats, diesel engines, and radios exist. The important thing is  that it is loud, unreliable, vents smelly exhaust, and could plausibly be found in a shitty riverside fishing camp. The colonizers, from the Empire of (Pernicious) Albion are vaguely Victorian England. They want Alakanthus, they want all of it, and they have the muscle and money to get it. Full control is still a ways away; Houndport provided a toehold on the continent that the Empire is only now beginning to exploit. The native Beast Tribes are mostly subsistence farmers and hunters, and they aren’t passive subjects of invasion. There have been at least two other major empires in Alakanthus, and the Tribes are the only ones left standing.  


Magic is pretty rare. The Empire can’t spare the resources to send many honest-to-goodness magicians (though the Church of the Sovereign Mother maintains some subtle-but-powerful wards around Houndport), and the sorcery of Alakanthus kills or transmutes its users too often for its practitioners to be common. Sun Giant devices are mostly destroyed or locked away in their mouldering complexes. Non-humans other than the Beast Tribes are almost nonexistent. There are a handful of Night Tribe sorcerers not crystallized into monuments or destroyed in whatever catastrophe ended their empire, and a few bunkers still hold fallen Sun Giants, though for what purpose no one knows. 

by marsmettnn tallahassee, distributed under Creative Commons
by Marie Coleman, distributed under Creative Commons

20 Questions by J Rients

What is the deal with my cleric’s religion? Most Alakanthines worship nature and ancestor spirits. Shamans can speak directly to these spirits, as well as perceive their influence when they meddle with human affairs from the spirit world. Powerful and canny shamans form pacts with these minor gods, though these deals can easily go wrong, even if the shaman abides by the terms of the pact. Shamans have another job—purifying or soothing the spirits corrupted or enraged by intruders, sorcerers, or polluters. Clergy of the Church of the Sovereign Mother are big NPC nasties.

Where can we go to buy standard equipment? Morrison Morrison in Houndport runs a store most of the gear you’ll need, but if you want new weapons, armor, or anything unusual, you’ll have to find a smuggler or bribe a quartermaster.

Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? Samuel is a mechanic with a workshop on the southern edge of Houndport. He doesn’t ask too many questions, but the Interim Governor has it in for him.

Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? The Beast Tribes speak of a terrible Pythoness far to the east. Royal Warlock Jack Helton is the greatest of the settler’s wizards, but he has been on an expedition out in the wilds for the last year, and is not expected to return. There is undoubtedly some Night Tribe horror buried away that could annihilate either with ease, but everyone, Beast Tribe and Houndporter alike, would rather not think about that.

Who is the greatest warrior in the land? The Coyote Prince demonstrated his supremacy as a warrior to the Beast Tribes by felling the League Long Crocodile. However, the Old Worlders favor Lieutenant Charlotte Black, who single-handedly gunned down a Bear bandit gang when the killed the rest of her patrol.

Who is the richest person in the land? Interim Governor Lascelle is the scion of a staggeringly wealthy trading company, but until the Queen selects a Governor Proper, she cannot pursue her business interests freely.

Where can we go to get some magical healing? You mostly can’t. There is a hospital in Houndport that will hasten recovery from serious illness and injury. There is a Bat village a couple days to the south of Houndport with a talented shaman, but the Church of the Sovereign Mother is already sending missionaries to convert or reeducate them.

Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath? Powerful spirits, such as Hungry Grandmother or Son of Rain, can lift curses and cure illnesses, but their shrines are distant and their prices unpalatable. The right sort of Night Tribe sorcery could probably work, but they almost always cause more problems then they solve.

Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells? Sorcerers in numbers greater than one tend to kill each other pretty quickly, so no. Students of the forbidden should seek out Night Tribe monuments if they wish to learn more, though doing so risks annihilation or possession by the monument’s resident/prisoner. Becoming a proper magician would require spending several years in a university in Albion, as well as the acquisition of a Magician’s License.

Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC? The Royal Society outpost contains scholars from a variety of fields. If you want services from someone with a more dubious profession, post a classified in the Iron Conch Inn, but be subtle—agents of the Queen stop by from time to time.

Where can I hire mercenaries? The Iron Conch Inn is the place to go. Sellswords and soldiers of fortune look for work there.

Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law? Practitioners of Alakanthine sorcery are to be sanctified and incinerated by order of the Sovereign Mother and will be exorcised and ritually drowned by the Beast Tribes. Interim Governor Lascelle has banned the purchase and open carrying of weapons by civilians, but those who already have them can keep them without penalty. The residents of Houndport hate this—they live in a frontier town surrounded by miles of crocodile-infested swamp, and so there is a healthy black market.

Which way to the nearest tavern? The Iron Conch Inn is for the hoi polloi. Military officer and the wealthy dine and drink on the first floor of the Grand Willowaithe Hotel, which, while not nearly as nice as its name would suggest, is as close to high class as the monied of Houndport can get. 


What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous? Killing a crocodile or python will earn you some serious credit. Sun Giants and Night Tribe sorcerers are rare and extremely dangerous. Members of the Royal Society have been wanting to dissect a panther demon for some time.

Are there any wars brewing I could go fight? Nope, but the Crown is gearing up for a large scale “pacification effort” to create a sister-colony for Houndport.

How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes? There’s a fighting ring held behind the Iron Conch Inn every night. Someone’s been organizing serious gladiator matches out in the swamp ever Tuesday.

Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?Wouldn’t you like to know.

What is there to eat around here? Meat is mostly fish and crow. Crocodile is a delicacy. Planters have had luck with rice, sugar cane, and orange trees, but large farms are rare. Little livestock, since there’s not enough grazing land or grain to feed them.

Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for? The machines and devices of the Sun Giants, the dangerous monuments and vanishingly rare texts of the Night Tribe, the (hopefully mythical) Azoth Fountains, the uncountable riches of the City of Crocodiles.

Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure? The Beast Tribes say the nearest Sun Giant bunker has got something seriously nasty living in it, but those ruins are also stuffed with some major wealth and tech.

jacinto Carcosa, items, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, World of Dungeons

Valuables in Albion

I’m going to be using quite a bit of Dyson’s Delves soon, so I want to alter the treasure schema some, so there is weirder stuff than the traditional pieces of electrum and golden necklaces.

When adventurers in New Londinium stumble on a cache of commodities, roll a d6 to determine its size and quality. The d6 can explode (reroll on a 6) a number of times equal to the party’s average level, the floor of the dungeon it is on, or the level of the monster guarding it, whichever you think is most appropriate. Certain buyers will pay more than the default value, but players have to track them down.

What’s It Worth?

  1. 250 sp 
  2. 500 sp 
  3. 750 sp 
  4. 1,000 sp 
  5. 1,500 sp 
  6. 2,000 sp 

Once you have determined quality, a d6 twice to find out what is actually in the cache.
1. Metallurgy: precious substances used by the smiths and artisans of Albion

  1. Hardened Flame 
  2. Clarified Water 
  3. Rare Earth 
  4. Reified Aether 
  5. Sublimated Darkness 
  6. Immortal Blood 

2. Cosmetics: coveted by the fops and fine ladies of New Londinium

  1. Cream of Shoggoth 
  2. Spawn of Shub-Niggurath ichor 
  3. Spawn of Shub-Niggurath sap 
  4. Imp fat 
  5. Deep One bile 
  6. Refined Protoplasm 

3. Medicaments and Prophylactics: treasured by hypochondriacs and the credulous

  1. Mummia 
  2. Brain mummia 
  3. Transylvanian decoction 
  4. tincture of Dis 
  5. angel tears 
  6. Murderer’s Last Breath 

4. Delicacies and Confections: sought by only by gourmands with jaded palates and strong stomachs

  1. Lotus nectar (black) 
  2. dinosaur steak 
  3. Spawn of Shub-Niggurath fruit 
  4. deactivated pudding (dolm) 
  5. demon flesh 
  6. Deep One liver 

5. Textiles and Adornments: beloved by the tailors of New Londinium’ Silken Avenue 

  1. Jungle Ant Carapace 
  2. Dinosaur Leather 
  3. Angel Feathers 
  4. Lotus Pigment 
  5. Fairy-silk 
  6. Demon Ivory 

6. Liquor and Drugs: proprietors of New Londinium’s salons and opium dens would quite literally kill for a supply of these

  1. Soulwine (damned) 
  2. Angel Sweat 
  3. Lotus Liqueur 
  4. Powdered Shoggoth 
  5. Ichor of Gloriana 
  6. Houndsblood