AJSALIUM BESTIARY

Here you have the longest post yet. It's basically what the title says: a first draft of the bestiary for Ajsalium. A list of creatures and a very brief description for each. Note that this list doesn't include neither animals nor vermin; that will go in a future post, because right now I'm pretty much fed up of this (it has taken me several days to write). See if you still find some fantasy cliche missing.

Aboleth: Big fish like monster that lives in subterranean lakes of the underworld; has many magical powers with which to slay or enslave.
Abyssal Rat: A very big and ugly rat (six legs, humanoid face), a mutation caused by the exposure to the infernal energies; its low intelligence allows it to master lesser common rats.
Arcane Tree: Tree only in name, according to legend this is a splinter of the ubergod Kronait, a being of divine wisdom that sits in the center of large forest and gives birth to the most beautiful sylvan creatures.
Avernal Boar: Monstrous boar that has been tainted by the infernal corruption and now roams the countryside with its venomous breath.
Banshee: Undead creature, what remains of a wronged female that now "lives" a ghostly existence and is armed with a powerful shattering cry.
Basilisk: Magical reptilian beast with six legs whose best weapon is its gaze, capable of magically turning someone to stone.
Beholder: Coming from the Other Side, this aberration resembles a huge floating sphere with a big central eye and ten smaller eyes atop pendables, each one with dangerous spell like powers.
Celav: An angel, a being of human shape with four white wings, always armed with a divine sword; it lost his home to the demons and devils and has promised to avenge this loss.
Centaur: Sylvan creature, a mix of a horse and a human. Even though not evil, it's fiercely territorial, has an irritable mood and likes drinking too much.
Chimera: Legendary monster of unknown origin, it has the body of a lion, two big eagle wings, and three heads: lion, goat and dragon. A very dangerous being, and impossible to tame.
Chupacabra: This is a small and ugly monster that feeds on goats and other herd animals. Even though it rarely attacks humans, killing their way of living is bad enough.
Cloaker: Weird intelligent creature, shaped like a cloak (hence its name). It dwells in dungeons and other dark subterranean places, dedicated both to killing and its own twisted messianic philosophy.
Cockatrice: A funny looking monster, resembles a big chicken with four legs. But it possesses a gaze that turns victims into stone, and is thus an important peril.
Couatl: An intelligent serpent with many hues and feathered wings, fights the good fight against evil monsters.
Cyclops: A giant humanoid characterized by its single eye in the middle of its face. It's as mean as it's big (and that's much).
Demon, Armageddon Beast: A gargantuan beast of mass destruction, with a dragon like body and seven heads with demonic faces and ten horns, that will be used as the ultimate siege engine in the final battle, the Armageddon.
Demon, Imp: Little demon (between one and two feet tall) with bat wings and tail, almost friendly with humans, amongst which it likes to cause mischief.
Demon, Impregnator: Human sized demon constantly possessed by a sexual frenzy that drives it to try to impregnate mortal females with his tentacles that end in small maws (typically resulting in death).
Demon, Marilith: Powerful general of the armies of Thanatos, it resembles a six armed woman with a big serpent body instead of legs. Its fierceness in battle is only surpassed by its cunning use of military tactics.
Demon, Warrior Demon: Basic foot soldier of Thanatos, a medium sized humanoid with a reptilian look, except for its equine horned head. Not as savage as you would expect from a demon, which makes it a better soldier.
Devil, Bone Devil: The foot soldier of Avernus, it looks like a skeleton with rather thick bones and some tendoms still there. Its the relentless backbone of the devilish armies, an skillful combatant.
Devil, Kyton: Human sized, blue skinned devil, always dressed in black leather and covered with hooks and chains, that it uses for sadistic "games". Surprisingly popular amongst humans, and drows.
Devil, Mandrakes: Very small (one foot tall) and weak devil, yet popular because it's commonly granted as a gift to devil adoring witches, to whom they teach unholy secrets.
Devil, Pit Devil: One of the most powerful devils just below the Archdevils, it's an imposing huge humanoid with reptilian skin and bat wings, that seems to glow with an internal fire, that commands the armies as well as pretty much every devil.
Devil, Succubus: This devil has goat legs, feminine torso and head, small horns and bat wings, but can shapechange to a pure beautiful woman at will. It's an expert seducer tasked with infiltrating the mortal world and corrupting mortals.
Displacer Beast: Magical beast similar to a panther but with two long tentacles sprouting from its back, and the power to instantly change the space it occupies, making it very hard to hit.
Doppelganger: A shapechanger featureless grey skinned humanoid with the power to imitate any person to the last detail, and the bad habit of killing him to steal his life.
Dragon, Aquatic: Neutral and solitaire dragon with fish-like scales of metallic shine and many hues (green and blues predominant) that lives its entire life underwater in oceans or deep seas, and can spit water at high pressure.
Dragon, Black: Evil and mean dragon with black scales and a pale belly that lives in swamps and spits venom.
Dragon, Blue: Evil and arrogant dragon with blue scales and sandy brown wing membranes and belly, that lives in desert areas (mainly in Masiwn), and has an electrical breath.
Dragon, Brown: Neutral, patient and intelligent dragon with small and very smooth brown scales, whose race was created by other dragons to act as intermediaries; breathes a stunning vapour.
Dragon, Fiendish: The most powerful creature ever to roam Ajsalium, it's a dragon that has been corrupted by the infernal taint, and now instead of exterminating infernals enslaves them and establishes itself as their god; the same goes for mortals. It breathes pure hellfire.
Dragon, Gold: Benevolent and very wise dragon, with scales that shine like polished gold, and the ability to breathe fire.
Dragon, Green: Evil and territorial dragon of green scales and pale yellowish belly, that lurks deep in the woods and breather a poisonous vapour.
Dragon, Purple: Neutral but amiable dragon, coloured purple (like pseudodragons) and the ability to turn invisible; it can spit magical force as if it were magic missiles.
Dragon, Red: Evil, vain and cruel dragon with thick red scales, brown belly and dark and purplish wing membranes, that lives in mountaintops and volcanoes and breathes fire.
Dragon, Silver: Benevolent and serious dragon covered in shining silvery scales, who also breathes fire.
Dragon, Spine: Neutral, but rather brutal, dragon of brown gray scales and covered with many spiny protrusions, lacks magical powers but its strongest than any other dragon.
Dragon, White: Evil, aggressive and not too intelligent dragon completely white and with bluish wing membranes that lives in arctic climates and has a chilling cold breath.
Drake: From the draconian family, a drake resembles a horse sized dragon with grey scales and small wings. It has only animal intelligence, and can be trained to serve as a mount.
Drow: An evil elf that that forewent the light of day millennia ago and now live in the underworld, in a matriarchal society obedient to their crazed goddess Tylith.
Elemental, Air: Basically, a gust of wind imbued with a fragment of the evil elemental spirit of air. It's invoked by powerful magicians to to their bidding.
Elemental, Earth: Basically, a piece of earth and rock imbued with a fragment of the evil elemental spirit of earth. It's invoked by powerful magicians to to their bidding.
Elemental, Fire: Basically, a flame imbued with a fragment of the evil elemental spirit of fire. It's invoked by powerful magicians to to their bidding.
Elemental, Water: Basically, a quantity of water imbued with a fragment of the evil elemental spirit of water. It's invoked by powerful magicians to to their bidding.
Ettin: A type of ogre characterized for having two heads. That doesn't make it more intelligent, but at least can always have a second opinion.
Faerie: A gentle and tiny creature resembling a scaled down sylph, that lives in the woods and have magical powers.
Fallen Angel: A former angel that, for multiple reasons, has fallen into a spiral of hatred and violence, losing its previous goodness and becoming a terrifying fiend like monster.
Feyr: An aberration, a mass of tentacles, eyes and mouths, that is born when the leaked essence from the Other Side coalesce around the nightmares of hundreds of people in urban areas.
Fundamental, Air: Lesser variation of an air elemental, usually takes the shape of a bird and lacks any intelligence and malevolence.
Fundamental, Earth: Lesser variation of an earth elemental, usually takes the shape of a small quadruped (i.e. dog, cat) and lacks any intelligence and malevolence.
Fundamental, Fire: Lesser variation of a fire elemental, usually takes the shape of a snake and lacks any intelligence and malevolence.
Fundamental, Water: Lesser variation of a water elemental, usually takes the shape of a fish and lacks any intelligence and malevolence.
Gargoyle: The statue of a fiend like monster that's typically incorporated in large buildings, that due to some cause becomes animated and begins spreading terror.
Gelatinous Cube: As the name implies, a large cube of a transparent gelatinous substance very corrosive, that lives in dungeons and likes trapping and dissolving adventurers.
Genie: Magical being with the ability of granting wishes to whoever freeds it from the objects in which powerful magicians imprison it. But be careful what you wish for.
Ghost: The undead shadow of someone who died before completing some important task, can't get eternal rest until the task is completed; its state may drive it to madness and violence behaviour.
Ghoul: Disgusting humanoid, of ancient human heritage, that lives underground near cemeteries and feeds on corpses.
Giant: As the name implies, a gigantic humanoid (somewhere near ten feet tall) of proportional strength and resistance; not truly evil, but rather territorial, and despises humans, because he thinks they have turned their backs on them.
Giant, Fire: A variant giant magically connected to fire, slightly shorter (eight-nine feet tall); lives inside volcanoes, but when it goes out is for raiding or killing parties.
Giant, Fomorian: Degenerate giant with a disgraced figure and ugly mutations, of short intelligence but plentiful bestiality.
Giant, Frost: Another variation of giants, this one magically tied to cold and frozen environments, and somewhat taller (eleven-twelve feet tall); lives mainly by hunting, and attacks humans on sight.
Giant, Mountaintops: The tallest of the giants (twelve-thirteen feet tall), and one that learns to use some magic; this is the giant race more similar to their titan progenitors, and typically live isolated in the highest mountaintops.
Gnoll: Looks like a human-hyena hybrid, and unfortunately its behaviour seems to come from the hyena part.
Gnome: Little gentle humanoid that live in the woods in a nice Nature respecting society. They are shy and prone to the use of illusions, but can be very amiable too.
Goblin: Little (child sized) ungentle humanoid, descendant from a god that abandoned the orcish pantheon much time ago; despite its small size, it's dark humoured, mean and cruel; in numbers, can get dangerous.
Golem, Clay: A humanoid constructed using clay as the only material, that's animated magically, and will obey its master blindly.
Golem, Flesh: A humanoid constructed with pieces of dead bodies stitched together and animated magically, that will obey its master... unless it goes wild.
Golem, Iron: Similar to a clay golem, but made of pure iron, it's usually constructed for warring purposes; and it's a very effective warrior.
Golem, Stone: Similar to a clay golem, but made of stone; when not moving it resembles a statue, and in fact is usually posed as such guarding some place until it activates to attack intruders.
Grell: It comes from the Outside, and resembles a floating brain with a beak and dangling tentacles. It lives underground, either solitary in dungeons or in small communities in cavern complexes.
Griffon: A monster of legend, it combines a big feline body (leopard or lion) with an eagle's head, wings and front paws. Of predatory nature, yet can be tamed to be used as mount by powerful individuals (common for high ranking warring aristocrats).
Hag: Something more sinister than a witch, its relation to the occult forces has transformed this woman into a nightmarish being that dwells in the darkest parts of the world conducting weird rituals that commonly demand the use of sentient sacrifices.
Harpy: An evil woman-bird hybrid, than originated from a curse long time ago, and now lives in flocks that assault travellers and have a scavenging nature.
Hellhound: As the name implies, it's a hound that originated in the fiendish planes and now can be found in many locales of Ajsalium; it has fire-like fur and can breath fire.
Helmed Horror: A suit of heavy armour animated by eldritch forces that is bent on completing some mission that may have begun centuries ago.
Hydra: It has a huge serpentine body from which erupt numerous snake like heads that can attack all at once, and if severed two grow in its place, making this monster dangerous and difficult to slay.
Hippocampus: Water-bound horse that lives underwater and it's used as a mount by some aquatic races, or even some adventurers.
Hippogriff: A monster similar to a griffon, but slightly smaller and having the body of a horse (instead of a feline); it's less powerful, but also less aggressive.
Hobgoblin: A better evolution of the goblin created by their god (imbuing goblins with human and orcish blood); of human size, strength and intelligence, but the same cruel and mean psychology.
Infernal, Daobelinus: Servitor. A child sized infernal, tasked with most menial labour in Inferno, who also sells its services to mortals, for a prize. Perfectly able to defend itself despite its size.
Infernal, Disghurah: Member of the ruling class, it's a legislator of Inferno. Looks like a tall man dressed in robes except for its odd cone shaped head and diabolic features. Extremely intelligent and versed magic-user.
Infernal, Doom Fiend: The foot soldier of the armies of Inferno. Roughly of human size and shape. It can attack with its claws at close range, or haul small fireballs from a distance.
Infernal, Doom Fiend, Aquatic: This is a variation of the standard doom fiend. By chance or design, it's adapted to aquatic life, with webbed hands and feet and a shark-like fin.
Infernal, Doom Fiend, Flyer: This is a variation of the standard doom fiend. By chance or design, it can fly and inhabit the skies; it has bird-like legs and a beak.
Infernal, Doom Fiend, Lieutenant: A bigger version of the standard doom fiend, almost one head taller, less emaciated and with bony spikes. Similar at close combat, yet its fireballs are stronger.
Infernal, Drahukpion: General of the armies of Inferno. Huge monster with hooven legs, four arms, bat-like wings and enormous horns. Its face is always clouded by darkness. The most powerful infernal, not even rulers dare confront one.
Infernal, Fultaurian: A member of the cavalry from Inferno. Similar to more mundane centaurs, but with a gaunt and hellish twist, and armed with tridents. A unit of them charging is devastating.
Infernal, Heretic: Medium rank infernal that lives as an emissary amongst humans, and spreads heretic ideas amongst them (thus its name), and is charged with assisting black masses.
Infernal, Lost Soul: The petty remains of the people condemned to Inferno in the afterlife. A floating shrieking skull in flames that hurls itself at any living being trying to bite him.
Infernal, Maggot: The mount of choice for doom fiends, a maggot is a quadruped infernal with bony armour and one or two heads. The two headed variant is kept as hunting beasts by the naithels and other powerful infernals.
Infernal, Multimorph Servitor: As the name implies, a servitor. Its polymorphing powers make it a very useful minion able to carry many tasks. They also make it excellent at infiltrating human society, and it's often granted as a gift for high ranking infernal worshippers.
Infernal, Naithel: Captain of the armies of Inferno. Perhaps a former evolution of the doom fiend lieutenant. Eight feet tall and heavily muscular, it can hurl powerful hellfireballs from a distance and finish opponents at close combat with strong smashes.
Infernal, Pain Elemental: Member of the ruling class, it's a magistrate of Inferno. Shaped like a huge floating head with two lance-like arms, it digests the condemned for centuries until only their lost souls remain.
Infernal, Styxian: Member of the ruling class, top enforcer of the law. A weird mix of female humanoid, worm and spider. It combines good fighting capabilities with many strange powers and fierce determination.
Infernal, Varrangoin: An infernal similar to a big bat, psychotic and of dubious intelligence, that's commonly used as shock troops; and every now and then, one can be tamed to serve as mount.
Infernal, Xriadesbes: A being of pure coalesced darkness enclosed in a chitin armour of insect like appearance. It's an assassin that can travel through shadows, disappearing before there's a chance to react.
Infernal, Yrbesnak: A scout for the armies of Inferno. Similar to a doom fiend, but with shorter legs and longer arms, so it can run on all fours; it also has a long neck and a canine head. It can trace the scent of a soul from a world apart.
Kaorti: Formerly a human (or elf) sage that lurked in the Outside to learn its secrets, and was horribly transmuted and disfigured by the entropic chaos; now lives encrusted in a chitin exoskeleton and completely mad trying to bring forth Entropy and the apocalypse.
Kobold: Little (child sized) and lean reptilian humanoid; lives in primitive tribes that adore dragons as gods, and doesn't pose much of a threat unless in big numbers.
Kraken: A monster that plagues sea legends, it's basically a gargantuan squid with high intelligence and malevolence who likes shinking ships.
Leodraco: This race resulted from the union of a legendary lion with a gold dragoness. It seems a big lion with some draconian scales in the paws and an unicorn like horn in the head; its pureness and valour makes it a valued mount for paladins.
Liche: Undead magician, the ultimate necromancer in that has been able to cheat death and continue an immortal un-life. Always evil, and always accompanied by a small horde of undead creatures.
Lizardfolk: Reptilian humanoid (human sized), that lives in swamps and other similar areas and is happy if left alone; can get very aggressive if the tribes' territory is violated, though.
Locathah: Aquatic humanoid, with strong fish like features (grey skin, enormous eyes, palmed hands and feet). Not as technologically advanced as humans, for example, but it has a civilized society, and lives in large underwater cities far from the rest of the world.
Lycanthrope, Wereboar: A human (always male) with the curse to change shape into a boar (or hybrid) with full moon, that is always a disgusting cruel person.
Lycanthrope, Werefox: A human (usually female) with the curse to change shape into a fox (or hybrid) with full moon, that can have any moral tendencies but always with a chaotic twist.
Lycanthrope, Wererat: A human (usually male) with the curse to change shape into a human-rat hybrid with full moon, typically coward and mostly found in urban areas.
Lycanthrope, Werewolf: A human with the curse to change shape into a wolf (or hybrid) with full moon; regardless the psychology of the human form, when transformed it's always a mindless savage killing machine.
Magical Mount: A magical horse devised by dragons during the Long War, this steed can polymorph instantly to better adapt to the environment, even transforming into a pegasus or a hippocampus.
Manticore: A legendary evil monster, it has a big leonine body, human face, bat wings, and a tail that ends in spikes that can be shot at opponents.
Medusa: A medusa looks like a woman except for the terrifying feature that her hair is actually a mass of snakes. It can petrify with a mere gaze. Although not on infernal origin, medusas now live amongst the slithi.
Merfolk: A benevolent sea-dweling creature, with the upper body of a human and lower body of a fish. Every now and then, though, a rogue mermaid may try to seduce a mariner, which always results in disaster.
Mimic: A nightmare for every adventurer, a monster that polymorphs and takes the guise of a piece of loot (usually a chest), and attacks when is least expected.
Mindflayer: Member of a brain-sucking race with great magical powers that originated in a distant plane, lost a war, took refuge in the Outside, and now have come to the underworld of Ajsalium to recreate their society and enslave everyone.
Minotaur: The result of an ancient curse, its a violent monstrosity with the body of a very big and strong human and the head of a bull. They like inhabiting mazes and/or dungeons.
Morghul: Former humans, their worship of fiend lords of death was prized by turning them into a race similar to ghouls, who live in the underworld in company of maggots, slime and darkness.
Mummy: Undead creature mostly found in the empire of Rynath, the animated mummified corpse of a powerful individual buried centuries ago.
Necromancer: An evil magician obsessed with death, uses magical means to reanimate the dead to serve him, and ultimately seeks to cheat death and transform into a liche.
Nehthalggu: An explorer from the Outside, look like a spidery huge brain, and has a horrible way to gain knowledge of a new area: it tears apart the brains from sentient beings and engulfs them, thus absorbing their knowledge.
Nightmare: The evil equivalent of a pegasus, born from the pits of the Lower Planes, it's a flying horse of greasy black skin, flame like mane and tail and a vicious temperament.
Nymph: A sylvan creature that looks like an absolute perfect woman of extreme beauty, so much so that it's blinding staring at her.
Nymph, Driad: A variant of the nymph that lives in woods and has a supernatural connection to trees, amongst which she can teleport at will.
Nymph, Nereid: A variant of the nymph that lives in water bodies, such as lakes, rivers or seas, and can breath and live underwater.
Nymph, Sylph: A variant of the nymph that lives in thin air and expends her whole life floating and flying, possessor of a pair of gorgeous butterfly wings.
Ogre: Distant relative to giants, it's a primitive, ugly, eight-nine feet tall humanoid of aggressive behaviour and questionable culinary tendencies.
Ogre, Demonogre: A mutation of ogres with the infernal taint, its race was created during the Long War to command ogre mercenaries alongside the side of Inferno; now some of them still can be found leading ogre tribes.
Ogre, Oni: A relative to the common ogre, this is a far more intelligent and civilized ogre, with magical training; albeit equally evil, that's mostly found in the kingdoms of Yoone and Yupang, in southern Gorlend.
Owlbear: A creature that resulted from the hybridisation of a bear and an owl, that lives in natural settings and woods and represents a fierce and strong predator.
Pegasus: A creature of legend, a winged horse capable of flying, much sought after as a mount. Its flying capacity is actually magical, so it can fly even when barded and carrying a knight in heavy armour.
Phoenix: Legendary creature resembling an exotic birds with flame coloured feathers, of pure heart, and able to resurrect from the ashes of its corpses, thus rending it immortal.
Piscean: Fish-like humanoid with draconian traits, that's supposed to descend from aquatic dragons, and live deep in oceans fighting any evil water-dwelling creatures, but also exerting tolls from human ships.
Piscean, Ancient: An old piscean, bigger and with darker scales; it's wiser and a true magic user, and leads the pisceans in a council of elders.
Plaguer: Twisted humanoid that carries numerous infectious diseases and spreads them either with its fumes or its claws.
Pseudodragon: A very small dragon (the size of a cat) with purple scales, it seeks expert magicians to live with and become his/her familiar.
Purple Worm: A gargantuan worm covered in purplish scales, that moves underground and suddenly erupts from the ground to swallow full teams of unwary travellers (or adventurers).
Quori: A warrior arrived from the Outside, it has a slight crustacean look and an apparently an innate hatred for all living beings, specially sentient ones, in the minds of which it can enter.
Rakshasa: Looks like a human-tiger hybrid and is vain, egoist and behaves like a decadent aristocrat; it has a supernatural origin and possesses both magical immunities and magical powers.
Redcap: A small twisted fey that has originated in human urban areas that needs to soak its cap in blood periodically in order to stay alive.
Roc: Colossal bird of prey that can easily carry an elephant in its paws; much feared by sailors and travellers, despite the fact it only hunts when hungry.
Rust Monster: A monster with the ability to quickly corrode metal, that it literally eats; the bane for adventurers carrying valuable magical metallic equipment.
Sahuagin: Humanoid but with shark like features and bluish green skin, it's a member of an completely evil sea-dwelling race that maintains a cruel underwater nation.
Salamander, Frost: Reptilian monster adapted to life in extremely cold environments, only found in Nhorbar or mountain regions of the Nordic Kingdoms and Nor-Gorlend; it's skin is so cold that touching it is harmful.
Salamander, Sands: Reptilian monster that has evolved to stand great temperatures, and thus lives in deserts, eating mostly anything it wants, as few creatures can make a stand against a salamander whose mere proximity causes heat damage.
Salamander, Swamp: A reptilian monster, the salamander type that has changed less from the ancient ones; lives in swamps, where little creatures (except for black dragons) can surpass its predatory might.
Satyr: Sylvan creature, not truly a fey but friend of them, with the lower part of a goat and the upper body of a human, that constantly plays music and dances.
Satyr, Hipposatyr: A variant of the satyr, that has two horse legs (instead of the goat ones); they are mostly female, and their dancing is contagious.
Satyxis: Former humans worshippers of Hecate and other fiend ladies, they were granted a new form, and are now a tribe of only women, beautiful and horned, dedicated to piracy across the Inner Sea.
Serpent, Land Serpent: Relative to true dragons, this serpent lives on solid ground and can grow to colossal proportions; for that it must eat unbelievable amounts of food, and due to its malice it prefers it to be sentient.
Serpent, Sea Serpent: A draconian serpent that lives in seas, oceans, and even big enough lakes. It can grow to a gargantuan size, and it's bad mooded and prone to sink any ship that passes nearby.
Serpent, Wind Serpent: This serpent of draconian heritage (that on rare occasions has a pair of wings) passes most of its life flying in the wind; it's a solitary being, but if someone manages to capture it with any harm it can grant him/her a wish as a prize.
Shoggti: Coming from the Outside, looks somewhat like an octopus but made of thick intestines; and that's what they actually are, as this monster is little more than an animal bent on feeding continuously.
Skeleton: An undead, the skeleton of someone buried long ago, now reanimated by a necromancer to do its biding and/or serve as a resilient warrior.
Slithi: Former humans and a now extinct race of serpentfolk, they took fiendish worshipping and were blessed with interbreeding, creating these serpent-man hybrids; common in southern Gorlend and Masiwn.
Slug, Giant: Just a slug, but of gargantuan proportions, which makes it dangerous due to the enormous bulk that could shatter a small house.
Sphinx: Legendary monster most often found in desert areas, has the body of a lion, eagle wings and the head of a woman. It has a superior intellect but also a great dose of malevolence, and attacks travellers unless they can solve a complicated puzzle or mystery.
Sprite: A small fey that typically live in woods in the company of faeries; they can turn invisible, have magical powers and love practical jokes.
Stirge: An overgrown insect that's little more of a nuisance when encountered alone as it feeds on blood like a mosquito; unfortunately, it's usually encountered in very big numbers.
Tarrasque: Only one exists, and according to myth this colossal monster is an unstopable weapon of destruction placed in a slumber somewhere hidden in the world by the gods; the day it awakens, kingdoms will fall.
Tchekrick, Bug: Insectoid humanoid, with two legs and two arms, created by true tchekricks from mishappen larvae to serve mainly as slaves.
Tchekrick, Female: Insectoid humanoid, with four legs and two arms, possessor of magical powers and telepathy, leader of the hive like cities in which this race lives.
Tchekrick, Male: Insectoid humanoid, with four legs and two arms, bigger than a female but under their rule, it's a strong guardian of the hive.
Tharn: His race were former humans that worshipped fiend lords of savagery, they've been granted a stronger and more brutal body and the ability to shapechange to an even bigger and more powerful form, and live in isolated locales across the world.
Titan: The original titans were made by the ubergods to build the whole creation; some chose to stay in Ajsalium after finishing it, yet deprived of most of their power. Even so, a titan is an immortal giant of great power; although it never deals with other races.
Treant: A sentient tree with a humanoid shape that can move and walk, although it doesn't usually do so; it lives deep in the woods, sharing its wisdom with other sylvan races.
Trite: A spider twisted by the powers of Inferno, that has the unsettling shape of an inverted humanoid head on eight legs; when attacking in swarms can pose a serious menace.
Troglodyte: A reptilian humanoid, related to lizardfolk but more gaunt and clearly more primitive, that lives in caverns and is rather aggressive.
Troll: An infamous type of monster, an ogre sized humanoid with greenish skin and thick patches of scarified tissue, that likes eating sentient beings and has tremendous regenerative powers.
Troll, Two-headed: Variant of the common troll, perhaps related to ettins, that has two heads and is more intelligent (the equivalent of a common human), and slightly less savage.
Unicorn: Mythical creature that always lives in uncolonized areas of Nature, and only accepts the company of pure maidens; looks like a white or silver horse with a big horn protruding from its head.
Unlife Ooze: A jet black floating ooze that's actually connected to a planar void, thus sucking into it the life of every being it touches.
Uvuudaum: An abomination from the Outside that looks like a centaur composed of giant wooden fingers (!) dressed with a loose robe adorned with weird symbols; it's a sage that has come to learn of the material plane and its possibilities.
Vampire: Undead humanoid (nearly always former human), with shapechanging and mesmerizing powers, who needs to drink the blood of the living and it's very difficult to kill permanently.
Vampire, Nosferatu: An special kind of vampire, with a disgusting appearance close to that of ghouls, not as powerful as common vampires yet physically stronger.
Vegetal Being: As the name implies it's a giant humanoid of completely vegetal origin (some people think it's an evolution of the treant); it fiercely defends the sanctity of ancient forest, and it's not afraid of killing.
Vyssok: Humanoid draconian, created by brown dragons long time ago to serve as guardians of the sacred dragon burial grounds. Tall, strong, proud and loyal.
Will-o-wisp: Mischievous hazard typical of swamps and similar terrains; it's an assemble of supernatural lights that misguide travellers and directs them toward quicksands and other perils.
Wraith: An incorporeal undead, that is created from the union of darkness and hatred, and relentlessly fights all life.
Wretch: Former humans that worshipped fiend lords, they were the victims of a fiendish joke when they received new twisted bodies supposedly as a gift for their worship but also as a punishment because some fiend deemed them as not worthy enough.
Wyvern: From the draconian family, it's a monster similar to a medium dragon without arms. It lacks true intelligence, but it's strong and bears a poisonous spike in its tail.
Yeti: Strange and violent humanoid of unknown origin, looks like an ogre sized ape with long white fur, and always lives in cold climates and mountains.
Zaratan: A colossal sized turtle, so big that his shell floating above sea level can be mistaken for a small island.
Zombie: A reanimated, somewhat rotten, cadaver. Rather slow and brainless, but it's difficult to kill what's already dead.

ANOTHER NECRONOMICON ADVENTURE: SILENT HILL

Basically what the title says. Some days ago I remembered this magnificent Playstation game (one of the best games ever, in my opinion). And thought it could become a good Necronomicon adventure, as it shares many things with lovecraftian horror: weird town, oppressive atmosphere, strange occultist cult, loneliness of protagonist... For the adventure I'll follow the plot of the game rather literally, as I think it would be difficult to come with something better. That includes having just one single PC (the father of the lost girl), which should provide an interesting gameplay. Or at most, I may include a second PC (the female police officer), that will only play intermittently, keeping the main player wondering whether she's truly a PC and an ally, or a NPC and possible rival. The only thing that still worries me about this adventure is finding a good balance between the bloody and infernal horror from the Silent Hill videogame and the more alien and cosmic horror of Lovecraft. But of course maybe the cult is mixing some yog-sothothery knowledge with typical pseudo-christian imagery...

RPG THEORY - UTILITY OF MINIS

Last post included many pics... so this one will be another only-text boring post. You know, for balancing things out...

I already said in a previous post that the Arcade Ruleset is to be used in conjunction with miniatures on the tabletop. And that is caused mainly by two reasons.

The first one is that Arcade is derived from rules for a boardgame (Heroquest as the grandfather, Netherhells as the father). And those boardgames are to be used with minis; the use of visual aids is inherent to the game system, and that's been inherited by my Arcade ruleset. Which I consider a good thing, as that allows for the creation of fast-to-play boardgames derived from the generic ruleset; such as a dungeoning and looting one, surviving a zombie horde, or plunging a spaceship from a xeno infestation. Three examples that I hope to develop once the three rpg's, Ajsalium, Necronomicon and Galaxtar, are (more or less) finished.

And the second is the more theoretical one: miniatures can help in maintaining focus during a roleplaying session. In my opinion having a visual image of a character is the first step needed to understanding him/her and immerse in the game. With a miniature you have that visual image and in full three dimensions. The more depth you add to the image, the better the identification with the character can be. And it may even help in keeping in-game, as it's rather typical (at least for my own gaming group) to lose "concentration" on the game and let the minds and conversation fly. When that hapens, having a little representation of your character on the table can help regaining the gaming momentum easier and quicker.

And on this psychological front we too have the more profund impact of the miniatures hobby as a whole. With which I mean mainly the painting of the mini. Believe it or not, that act enhances the connection between the player and the character, because during the hours that the painting sessions last, it's unavoidable that the player will begin thinking about his character, and imagine a psychology and a story for him/her. After all, sometimes just deciding on the colour with which to paint the clothes already implies some affiliation or world view for the character.
The backdrop of all this is that's important for the mini to properly represent the character. To get the most out of a mini in a roleplaying game we must consider it more than just a gaming aid, more than a token. I spend long hours browsing the web in search for the perfect miniatures for the characters I have in mind. Sometimes I am lucky and find them; but there are other times when the process gets reverted, with the mini being the source of inspiration for inventing characters. And most commonly there's a compromise in between, when I find a mini that's close to my previous concept, but not quite exact, and I twist this former idea to better fit the mini. Or converting a mini, although to be honest my modelling skills are rather limited and little more than swapping pieces.

So here was my justification for using miniatures in roleplaying games.
Ah! And they are cool, too. ;-)

LOOKS & DESIGNS IN GALAXTAR

From the previous posts regarding the history of the setting and the adventure seeds, you may have begun to imagine how things are in Galaxtar. Now we are going to visualize it with the help of some minis that I have bought purposely to roleplaying in this scenario.
One of the keys elements is that mankind is the youngest race to conquer space. Despite the huge advancements from present day, humans are in their napkins regarding high technology when compared to other far more established races. I put so much importance in this because it helps getting a hard scifi feeling. Science fiction is usually divided amongst space opera and hard scifi. Clearly, with humans inhabiting different planets, and ships that make hyperspace jumps, Galaxtar has quite a lot of space opera. But, honestly, for roleplaying I prefer the hard scifi approach, as it provides more interesting plots. So I’m trying to walk the thin line in between the two main science fiction streams (as do the Alien or Riddick movies, for example).
And a way to visualize that naïveté is choosing some crude designs. When a new manufacturing field appears, the first designs are usually rather crude, as efficiency is the main (and perhaps only) concern; the use of straight lines and lack of aesthetic values is a typical characteristic. Only after there’s a good grasp of the technical problems involved will aesthetics be incorporated in the design process.

Applying these principles to Galaxtar we come with the first mini, Debra, a science fiction light trooper by Hasslefree Miniatures (link in the sidebar). If you look at her armour, you’ll see it’s made with the straight lines I have talked about, and gives a sense of practicality and utility above all else. Next are the heavy troopers, to represent which I found these excellent CSO Peace Keepers made by Aberrant Games for the Rezolution skirmish wargame. Everything I’ve said above is evident in these little sculpts. Even the mecha (a VASA Pacifier from Urban Mammoth’s Metropolis game), that I just had to buy when I saw it, follows the same guidelines of being made mainly with straight lines and having a somewhat crude looks.




And from the small to the big, I am keeping that ethos for spaceships, too, specially military ones. After quite a lot of web browsing I decided to settle with the Full Thrust range of spaceships manufactured by Ground Zero Games to represent the human ships from the Galaxtar setting. What follows is a pair of examples of big military ships, a strike carrier first, and the second is the capital ship, the super-dreadnought.



On the other hand, there are other older races, such as the asgards. For them the designs I envision are different, more refined; and as an example we have this miniature of a Tipako battleship manufactured by Ninja Magic, that I’d use to represent a typical asgardian battleship. There’s a big difference amongst the styles of the ships that helps emphasize the differences amongst the races that build them.


But there’s more than military guys in Galaxtar (even though they’ll likely have a predominant place as PCs in many adventures). For civilian fashion I’m not going too far fetched; nothing of people dressing in space suits. Doing a bit of theorization, I don't think things will change much from how they are now to the invented future of Galaxtar. The time elapsed is just four centuries, and that's not really much if we compare it to the whole of human history. Science and technology can advance at a fast pace, but social forms always tend to go slower. So the general aspect of most people would be rather similar to present fashion.
The following minis are the ones that will be used to represent the cops of the future, and you’ll see that they are closer to real life cops, even in the colour schemes based on blue and black, than the troopers showed above. The first mini is from Heresy Miniatures (link in sidebar), Sgt. Dove from their science fiction range, with a typical police scheme: black footwear, black pants with red line, and blue jacket. Mostly it’s just the gun and the ear device that looks futuristic. What follows are two minis from Reaper Miniatures, from their Chronoscope range, a Security guard officer and Veronica Blaze, agent of G.U.A.R.D. The first represents a police in a tactical armoured suit; I’m likely to remove the helmeted head and replace it with one of the heads from the Heresy cops, to show they are actually the same characters but with different outfit. The female cop is wearing a different kind of tactical suit, one for stealth operations, with a system that inhibits electronic detection (somewhat like the Ghost in the Shell device commonly used by the protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi). With their more realistic look these characters are better suited for adventures that focus on the hard scifi approach.




Some of the other characters that will feature in my adventures are mercenaries. The minis will come for diverse sources, as I like a somewhat rag-tag feel for them; yet, using a similar colour scheme will help giving a coherency to the group (they are organized contractors, after all). Said scheme consists mainly of a blue-grey urban camo pattern for the trousers, and black t-shirts and boots. The next minis are Grant from Hasslefree and the Major from Heresy, in which you can see the mercenary outfit I’ve just described. In this case, too, science fiction elements are kept to a minimum, and they are little more than the guns and the kneepads (yes, kneepads are futuristic… or at least I can’t help getting that impression).



Of course, my previous ramblings are not 100% canonical and the ultimate unmovable truth. After all, humans are newbies in space just when compared with the other races from the galaxy; but have actually been there for approximately four centuries. So there’s the possibility that things are starting to evolve, and new, better, and more advanced designs starting to appear. If central Earth authorities are planning a major military take on the galaxy, that surely means the armamentistic business is on the rise. Thus, a possible new light trooper could be the one portrayed by the Union special forces sniper made by Iron Wind Metals as part of the VOR wargame. As you see, he’s more armoured than Debra above, with shoulders, elbows and forearms protected by new armour with more rounded and overlapping shapes, placed over a rubber like inner armour that seems to replace the standard fatigues. The evolution for heavy troopers is the one pictured by an old I-Kore VOID Viridian assault marine sergeant, with an armour that covers almost all the body with a thick armour that still seems to be fairly comfortable to wear and allow for easy movement.
So these minis may end in my Galaxtar drawer, just in case…

ORC LANDS

Last month I was either too busy or too tired, and hence I only updated the blog three times. Let's hope that in November I can get some more quality free time and go back to updating weekly.
For today you have a third (and last) post about the lands inhabited by demi-human races, in this case by orcs.

· ISLES OF THE BROKEN SPINE: These islands are located at the south end of the Inner Sea, east of Masiwn and west of Sur-Gorlend. None of them is overly large, but neither are they small (like the ones from Rintolle). They are located in a line, and there was a time when they served as "step stones" to travel from Sur-Gorlend to Masiwn. But since orc tribes colonized the isles, that kind of travel has been interrumped. This archipelago is the closest thing to a kingdom that orcs have ever had, and they are fiercely territorial about it, not allowing anyone else to enter their domains. They don't even like ships traveling near their shores, and random acts of pirate mayhem discourage such routes, forcing ships to sail deeper in the Inner Sea. Internally, orcs have no single government uniting them. Despite that and their warring temperament, they somehow manage to avoid falling in continuous civil wars; orcs work hard to always remember they must save their energies to crush their true enemies: elves, dwarves and humans. The biggest political formation is the tribe, with quite a good bunch of them populating every isle. Also, all orcs feel a weird pride for their own isle, even though their only true affiliation is to the tribe. The island nationalism is usually exposed when orcs group together for "games", such as wrestling, running, weight lifting... Said isles, being big enough, provide almost everything orcs need to live; orcs practice agriculture and farming (they are not that savage), apart from hunting. There's ore too, but orcs never build proper mines like the ones of dwarves (or men), so they deal with little quantities of metal for their very crude blacksmithing; and use quite a lot of wood, that they promptly chop from the woods, that they don't overwork. All in all, orcs live in a much more civilized manner that what most people expect.
The name needs no explanation, as it's in common language. If anything, it shows the lack of subtlety of orcish thinking.

· NHORBAR: This is the big island that lies north of Nor-Gorlend, a place of eternal snow and gelid winds. This is the only other place in Ajsalium where orcs live freely and predominantly. Yet, unlike in the Isles of the Broken Spine where orcs live alone and "pure", Nhorbar is shared with humans. And, truth to be told, after millennia of living together, all humans have some orc blood, and viceversa; effectively, everyone in Nhorbar can be considered a half-orc. The ones that call themselves orcs, are slightly smaller than their southern relatives, and their skin coloration lends more toward grey tones than olive ones. The extreme climate makes agriculture impossible, and farming a very time demanding and difficult task, so hunting is the main activity. All this has prevented nhorbarian orcs from evolving culturally, and live rather primitively (like their "human" neighbours); thus, they compensate their lack of racial purity with a more strict adherence to the orcish traditional way of living. And that means machism, use of violence as the primary way to solve problems, and constant fights against human tribes.
The word Nhorbar is wrongly assumed to be a contraction of north + barbarian. The north part is true, but not the other. "Bar" was an ancient term for coldness, and thus Nhorbar means "the cold from the north". Later, the term "barbarian" was coined from the root "bar", referring to the people that lived in that cold place.

DWARVEN LANDS

This post is similar to the previous one, but regarding the lands of dwarves. Apart from the ones living in these two places, there are approximately fifty thousand more elsewhere, most of them explorers traveling the world to find a new home for their (dying) race.

· ETERNOCK: Eternock is the name of the huge mountain country that occupies most of the Nor-Gorlend subcontinent. And it's also the name of the ancient dwarven empire that covered all of its excavated underground, continuing down to Sur-Gorlend. The Vortex caused the cave in of all the southern part of the empire; and only the solid rock of Eternock stood still. It's hard to know how many dwarves live there nowadays, but a decent estimation is about two million souls. Dwarves live mainly underground (in fact, the surface supposedly belongs to the human nation of Othar), with small farming facilities in rocky areas. Those "farmers" also serve as merchants and intermediaries with humans. Bellow the ground, vast cities lie in excavated caves that are an immortal testimony of the grandiosity of dwarven mining and architecture. Each city hosts a number of clans, which are large family groups. One clan will be charged with ruling the city (a task that can be retained for many generations), yet it will be aided by selected counselors from every other clan. That same political structure, augmented, rules the whole Eternock, with one clan taking the lead in ruling matters, but usually just for a few generations (from only one to three). Humans call the chief of the ruling clan "king of dwarves", but to be honest that's not a good definition. Dwarves living in Eternock remain the most true to ancient traditions and way of living, despite the fact that mines are dangerously depleted of ore. They put great effort in maintaining the imposing halls of their cities, and still create wonderful pieces of blacksmithing, and goldsmithing jewels that sometimes reach the human world where only the most rich aristocrats can buy them.
Unsurprisingly, Eternock stands for "eternal rock".

· DRAKPAC: In the times before the Vortex Drakpac was a peninsula of Sur-Gorlend, the most southern place dwarves had colonized. But the earthquakes provoked by the Vortex profoundly affected the peninsula, up to the point that it came loose of the continent, and even started to drift away to the East. Fortunately, the dwarves that populated it lived on the surface hills, instead of underground, so not many of them died. The following years were much worse, as the isolated community had to struggle for survival in a relatively small island with no external help whatsoever. Due to dwarven tenacity they overcame those obstacles, and somehow reinvented their own society. In fact, they managed to break a legendary dwarven fear: fear of waters. From nothing but their own intelligence, drakpacians created slow but very resilient ships with which to navigate and reach the continent once more, searching for the rest of the dwarven race. They found a very changed world, in the final stages of the Long War, in which they too entered. In the present, Drakpac supports a community of three or four hundred thousand dwarves, living according to the old traditions, but keen on engineering innovation and exploration of the world still in search of possible lost dwarven colonies.
Drakpac seems not to have a translation into common language, although the word has been linked to the dwarven semantic family of "audacity".

ELVEN LANDS

Basically, all elves live in any of their three territories. There are just ten thousand elves living outside, either adventurers, high diplomats or the occasional merchant. All the rest, you'll find them here:

· VIDOLGREEN: A vast forest located at the western side of Conterria. In the distant past, before the Vortex, Vidolgreen was the only elven country; but then it was much bigger, more than twice its current size. Now a mere shadow of its former glory, it's still the largest forest in the continent; but it gets slowly smaller due to men salvaging the woods closest to their lands, something that fills elves with affliction. There's a shadow in the woods, though, a dark place in the southeast, where the forest was tainted with Hell's corruption, an expanse that is rumoured to be filled with the lost souls of elves that died fighting the infernal hordes. Apart from that, everything is a celebration of greenness and life. Elves (somewhere between half million and one million) live in the inner part of the forest, in places that none from other race has ever seen; enormous arboreal cities can hold thousands of them. Buildings are done in titanic trees as old as the world, and everything is so integrated in the natural landscape that for the untrained eye they would be all but invisible. In these cities elves live under the wise advices of a king and a queen, chosen from the elder for their intelligence and knowledge. All kings and queens are in periodical contact thanks to magical ways, and every decade or so a meeting is held in which all of them visit every city. Vidolgreen is the elven country that keeps most faithfully to the old ways of the race, and they are very happy just to live in perfect union with flora and fauna. Even so, every now and then a rogue elf would want to know more of the outer world, and the very rare elven adventurers will likely come from Vidolgreen.
The name stands approximately for "always flourishing".

· RINTOLLE: The archipelago located between Conterria and Alterria, west of Vidolgreen. It appeared when the Vortex shook the world so hard that terrorizing earthquakes made Conterria split up in two parts, and a good part of Vidolgreen quickly sank under the waters; the islands are what managed to stand above sea level. The population is low, as most of them are direct descendants of the survivors (migration is negligible): something in the vicinity of one hundred thousand inhabitants. The morphology is pretty different from Vidolgreen, as there can't be so dense woods in relatively small islands; because of that, here elven cities are constructed near the shores, with tall stone buildings of rounded shapes. In a way, they resemble the trees that had always been their homes. There they spend their long lives cultivating the arts, that they've honed to a masterful level never seen before, compiling all history in epic odes and wondrous tunes, a swansong worth of gods that will make the legacy of elves live forever. Apart from that, they've also built a small but imposing fleet of ships, that add the luxury expected from elven manufactures to a top performance. But they are just for maintaining the relations between the three elven countries.
Rintolle means "islands of remembrance", and it's a homage to the thousands of elves that died drowned when the earth cracked open.

· YANATHANIL: A small country located in the east of Alterria, southwest of Rintolle. It is the smallest of the elven lands, little more than the area surrounding a gulf and a small peninsula that houses a wood that survived from the pre-Vortex days of Vidolgreen. Population is higher than you would expect for such a small territory, but even so accounts for just under a hundred thousand souls. For the last centuries, almost since the end of the Long War, Yanathanil has been marked by a tense cold war held against the neighbouring human kingdom of Kamenstein, who yearns for the very tactical Yanathanil gulf for his own fleet of warships. This situation has affected greatly to the social and political forms of this land, up to the point that the typical elven pseudo-monarchy has been replaced by a military oligarchy based on the predominant siege mentality. They have little time for Nature or Art, always honing their military skills getting ready for what they think is the inevitable war. This state of mind, and clear xenophobia, has separated them from the rest of their race; but every elf from Yanathanil will readily give his life for their Vidolgreen and Rintolle brothers (a readiness for sacrifice that is reciprocal, too).
The word Yanathanil is usually translated as "steel-strong will", and for that reason the elves from this land are sometimes referred to as "steel elves".

RACES OF AJSALIUM

With the post from last month about the classes to be found in Ajsalium you could see which were going to be the playable races. Now I give you a little more info on them.

· HUMANS: Humans are the massively dominant race in the world of Ajsalium.
The humans of Ajsalium are like the ones in real life, which means they come in all sizes and colours. The average height is nearly six feet, but five or seven feet tall men are not unheard of. There's also a big variety in complexions, from the very thin and fragile to the disgustingly obese. Women are usually shorter and weight much less than men. Hair and skin colour vary depending of the geographical zones, from the blond haired, blue eyed and pale skinned inhabitants of the cold Nordic Kingdoms to the black haired, brown eyed and tan skinned people from the warm deserts of Masiwn.
And as varied as they are physically, thus happens with personalities. No moral positions is banned to them; humans are capable of the best but also of the worst. Shining righteous knights lead the Protector Order of the Dragon against the armies of fiends, but meanwhile sinister warlocks spread infernal-adoring cabals. Yet, on the whole, humans are a neutral race trying to live their daily lives with as less fuss as possible. Their life span of sixty-eighty years, much shorter than that of elves and dwarves, gives them a great vitality and thirst for adventures.
Humans appeared on Ajsalium much later than elves and dwarves, and approximately at the same time as orcs. Visibly more akin to the former two than the later one, an implicit alliance was formed, and elves and dwarves somehow "adopted" men and taught them everything they knew. That allowed mankind to advance incredibly fast, imposing over the orcs. In fact, they too imposed themselves over elves and dwarves and became the dominant race. The relatively short life span allowed for quicker evolution and greater variety. Only the infernal menace of the Long War was able to put humans on the brink; but after victory their grip was reinforced, and has allowed for pride to turn into supremacionism. Guessing what may happen in the future is always a dangerous bet, but surely mankind will have the leading role... for the good or the bad.

· ELVES: Also known as "the fair people". Elves are one of the ancient races, with dwarves; and as them, they are headed towards extinction.
Unlike humans, the physical appearance of elves is rather uniform, with no big variations in height or weight, not even amongst male and females. Average height is roughly six feet; but being far more slender than humans they look taller. Weight is somewhat lower, but not too much as they don't carry superfluous fat. Skin colour is fair but not pale, and has a slight golden hue; hair and eye colour present a great variety, much more than humans, with purples and metallic hues a common sight.
Elven mentality revolves around a calm view of life and close connection to Nature. They are peaceful and benevolent; but also ready to take the arms to defend their way of life, as it was proved during the Long War. Their current decline is translated nowadays in a melancholic resignation of the status quo, and a great interest in all the simple pleasures of life, as well as arts and spirituality. Their very long life spans, of up to two centuries, allow them to reach unparalleled levels of expertise in their areas of favour.
Elves have always seen themselves just as a part of Nature, no more precious than any other, and aim to live as smoothly as possible. Because of that, their laws are just an extrapolation of the natural laws; something that makes them look chaotic in the eyes of humans or dwarves. Since they taught the finesses of civilization to the early humans, and due to their distrust for dwarves and hatred for orcs, they've not had a strong communication with the rest of the world, except during the Long War. And the great toll that conflict put on them has made elves somewhat isolationist for the last millennium. Nowadays they live happily cultivating their culture and waiting for the end.


· DWARVES: Also known as "the stout people". Like elves, dwarves are an ancient race, but their days may too be coming to an end.
Being called dwarves make it evident that they are of short stature: they usually range from four to six feet (with females being somewhat shorter than males). Yet for their height they have a very bulky complexion, with a wide skeleton that's covered with dense muscles, and typically also good layers of fat. Their skin has a rosy tone; and the hair has as many tones as those of men. A very distinctive feature of dwarves are their beards, which the vast majority of dwarves wear with great care and enormous pride. But contrary to an extended myth, female dwarves have no beards (although keeping incipient sideburns was stylished some centuries ago).
They are so fiercely determined and focused they are stubborn. They can bear grudges for their entire lives (that may be nearly two centuries long), and even pass them onto the following generation. But that same memory can remember a friendship and an alliance; a man that befriends a dwarf can expect him to be friend of his son and grandson, too. They are always reliable.
Dwarven mentality has created a well established legal system, able to cover every aspect and solve every quibble; it's the oldest dwarves the ones charged with imparting justice. They are not prone to socialize with the rest of the world, but living mostly underground they need to maintain a commerce with humans for things such as food (that they love), and that merchantile relation has kept the two races mainly as friends. In the long past they were mentors to humans, teaching them all things technical. And despite the fact that human industry has exceeded that of dwarves in many aspects, the solidity and durability of dwarven construction are unrivalled so far. The quality of their black- and gold-smithing are legendary, too.

· ORCS: Counting orcs as a civilized race is not done without controversy; most men, elves and dwarves count them amongst the monstrous races.
At the very least, the looks of an orc are rather monstrous. They are of a similar height to humans, approx six feet, but notoriously broader, in a somewhat disproportionated way. Orc hair is invariably black and very coarse, and covers most of their bodies in a patchy pattern. Their skin is a muted green, so much so that it may be almost grey (for the orcs living in Nhorbar; the ones from the south are more clearly greenish). It has been noted that the stronger the orc the thicker his skin, which is also darker. Their eyes are so dark it's almost impossible to distinguish the iris from the pupil; when there's some variation, the iris tends to very a dark brown or red.
Such a brutal appearance is coupled with a similar psychology. Orcs have a short life span, and they rarely exceed the fifty-sixty years barrier; a fact partly caused by their warring lives. They value strength over anything else, and they are quicker with a sword than with the mind (but for a few notable exceptions). Orcs are easy to anger and prone to burst of ire, but not really rancorous because they don't care about the past or the future, thinking just in the present. Orc life is hard, but they just can't understand it any other way, and are proud of themselves.
A little know fact is that orcs are actually an ancient race, that appeared at the same time as elves and dwarves, but were repelled by them and forced nearly into extinction. It was much later that orcs managed to resurge, but that time they had to fight against the humans helped by elves and dwarves. That has made them bitter, and revenge is a long term goal for the entire race. For the time being, they want no contact with anyone else; that's why they isolated themselves during the Long War. That made them be considered supporters of infernals, and is the origin of the present ban on them. Something the don't really care about, as they're too busy fighting and getting stronger.

MORE CHARACTERS

Today I present you two more characters for the Necronomicon setting. To be more precise, these are the other two PCs for the adventure "Have you seen the Yellow Sign?", along with the Det. Frank Callahan I showed in a previous post. Note that today's characters, Kitty and Martin, are normal (level 2) characters, whereas Frank was a heroic (level 3) one. You may spot a small change in the layout of the character sheet to make the image look better (as if it were a clipped photograph).

Click for bigger images

Finally, if you go back to the ruleset post about skills you'll see I have posted a comment there, as I have decided to change the skill die.

GALAXTAR ADVENTURE IDEAS

As I did previously for the Necronomicon setting, now I compile some of the ideas I've had for adventures run in the futuristic setting of Galaxtar. See if you like them.

· COUNTERSTRIKE
This adventure will feature a somewhat complex plot. An old corrupt military officer with connections to the black market is tired of that life, and devises a plan to become "respectable" once again: he'll secretly arrange a valuable alien artifact to be stolen from the military and then he'll publicly recover it and have the robbers executed. The pawns of that plan will be the PCs, a group of mercenaries, contacted to steal some goods from a civil cargo ship (actually an undercover military transport). Once done, they'll travel to a luxury resort to sell the key item to a top level smugglers; but right then an special ops team, lead by the evil guy, will arrest them and send them to a military court to face a swift judgement and sentence to death. But fortunately for them, just before their death sentence is going to be executed, another military officer "saves" them. This officer is legal, and has always suspected of the other one's black market operations. He'll save the PCs' lives with some fake executions in exchange for them uncovering the evil guy's machinations. A new mission that won't be easy, as he's been cleaning all evidences of his former activities; cleaning means killing, of course. They'll have to do quite a lot of research in the underworld to gather enough data to be able to lure the corrupt officer in a trap, having him arrested and their freedom gained.

· DOOMSDAY
Not truly a sequel to the above adventure, but connected to it. The adventurers, a group of smugglers, make an hyperspace jump, but they suffer a strong deviation and appear amidst an asteroid field. Once they break free from it the ship's navigational computers will give them their situation, revealing that the asteroids are what remains of a moon collapsing on its planet. They'll also receive a S.O.S. signal from a nearby smaller moon, the orbit of which has been affected and is on collision course to the same planet. If they track the signal they'll arrive to secret military investigation facilities, where they were experimenting with a doomsday weapon; the experiment that has gone awkward. They were using the artifact from the previous adventure, an experimental teleportation device from the Ancients, joined with a ship's black hole generator. After the rescue, the PCs are already involved with this project, and will face no chance but to accept helping the military in retrieving the notes of the ancient scientist that created the teleportation prototype, so that the weapon can be upgraded before a new test is made. That means travelling to an ancient planet, avoiding being detected, and once on the completely uninhabited surface search for the laboratory. But all of the ancients' planet is guarded by powerful and strange technologies. If the PCs are successful on their mission, they may think twice about contributing to the creation of a doomsday weapon.

· DEADLIEST OF THE SPECIES
This adventure will actively feature two alien species: Goualds and Dalektoids. Some rogue scientists from these races have joined in a common effort to force an artificial evolution of their two species, joining them with humans in what they expect to be the ultimate supreme race (these experiments are in no way endorsed by their authorities, who would consider them heretical and contrary to their racist believes). In order to carry their experiments they have contacted a neogi trader who's willing to provide them with human specimens. But these disappearances have not gone unnoticed by the authorities, and a group of police inspectors (yeah, those are the PCs) are commissioned with investigating them. First specimens come from the downtrodden, so that will misguide the PCs into some gang war and payback. But as the gouald-dalektoid experimentation advances they'll need better specimens to use the best human D.N.A., a fact that should allow the players to become aware that something else, and likely bigger, is going on. Either way eventually they'll come across the neogi trader, from whom information may be elicited for money and impunity. It will be up to the PCs whether they want to personally raid the secret installations of the rogue scientists, or filter the info to their races so they punish them.

· EMPTY HULL
A very simple adventure, which actually is little more than a dungeon crawl in space. The ship in which the PCs (a bunch of people little more than criminals dedicated to salvaging abandoned ships) travel will locate a stress signal from a sligg ship. Suddenly, the PCs' ship switches to automatic mode and approaches the sligg vessel, which is controlling it (a thing of superior technology dominating lesser one). Once the salvage crew abroads the derelict, which is pretty big by the way, they'll soon learn that there are no living beings there. The corpses of several sliggs can be seen scaterred here and there, and studying that and their injuries makes it clear there was some fighting to death for control of the ships. All the while, electronic equipment used by the PCs will begin to have random errors and reseting themselves. Occasional flickers of light in the ship's screens should add to the creepy atmosphere; and point to the presence of artificial intelligence, occupied with studying the adventurers. As it was to be expected, the robots that killed the sligg crew will finally awake and attack; fortunately, just a handful of them are still operative. Once the PCs defeat them (if they do...) they'd better leave the sligg derelict soon, before the damage caused by the blasts makes the ship explode. And once their ship, they could worse than double-check their computers' systems to avoid an artificial intelligent virus to invade it and ultimately unleashing doom upon human civilization.

· TO THE OTHER SIDE AND BACK AGAIN
A military ship from the Serapis system disappears when making an hyperspace jump; neither overly common, nor unheard of. Time later, it reappears in the Myrzam system, and a three members military team, commanded by a lieutenant, is sent to investigate what may have happened. A soldier, a private, from the ship's system is invited, too. Somewhat strangely, two elite troopers from Earth join the mission, with one of them, a sergeant, taking control of the mission and surpassing the Myrzam lieutenant. I plan this just to encourage role-playing and add a bit of tension to the game. The adventure as of itself will begin with the PCs boarding the reappeared ship and investigating it. There are no humans there, but they'll find that some of the utility robots (which lack real A.I.) behave as if they had it... and very malevolent intentions. Also two weird, zombie like, creatures will appear and attack the PCs; even if they are easy to get killed, they "die" with a laugh only to reappear later. All of this is happening because of the pernicious mutative effects of the other side: the ship is now a sentient being. Before they realize they have to destroy the full ship they'll find that the former crew has gone to a nearby moon with a small human colony to evangelize them on the new "other side faith". Or slaughter them. Which is very similar, truth to be told. PCs will endure now a more thought mission to protect the innocent while battling some crazed but well trained former mates.

· FAREWELL, COLONIES
In this adventure the PCs will be a group of four policemen (and a special operations policewoman). I hope to be able to create a very complex plot of economical and political conspiracies all across the human populated systems, but so far I only have some vague ideas regarding said plot; these I present here. Everything will start innocently enough at some customs, when a possible case of corporate smuggling is discovered. A team of police detectives specialized in economical mischiefs is entrusted with the investigation. It will soon turn out to be an industrial spying case, though. Moreover, the involved corporations all have strong political connections. And so, the smuggling was to cover industrial spying, which was to cover political spying. The latter revolves around the rumour of a coup de etat of Earth against the colonies. Tracking the rumour they'll find a goauld, and it would be natural to assume he's the responsible to spread a rumour that would cause frictions in the human civilization, thus weakening it. Yet even he is just a pawn, and the real conspirators are much higher in the power chain. In the end the PCs should be able to prove everything has just been orchestrated to promote independentism amongst the colonies from within them, accusing Earth of pretending to use the colonials as cannon fodder in a massive attack of conquest, and dismantle this machination; although it's unlikely its perpetrators will ever go to jail.

· HAIL TO EARTH
This is a follow-up to the former adventure, but with a different group of PCs (it would be good, though, if the players are the same, for better effect). It turns out that there really was some secret Earth conspiracy to overcome the democratic governments of the colonies and create a militaristic oligarchy to prepare for war. Some radicals of Earth, tired of hearing that humans are the "last", "young" and "weak" race, are embarked in the production of a massive war starfleet, with which they plan to launch a conquest of all the galaxy, exterminating the hostile races and subduing the rest. To be able to man the ships and fight the war it's compulsory that the populations of the seven colonies enlist in the army, and a "no" won't be accepted. Among the high spheres of power, the viability of this plan is doubted, but having a bigger fleet is never a bad thing, and Earth has always consider itself the metropolis and frowned upon colonial independentism. But someone critically fumbled somewhere, letting some secret info slip, and now the mess must be cleaned. The PCs will be the responsible for this, finding the original information leaker and terminating him/her to prevent further errors. Fortunately for them, some well placed misinformation prevented an investigation carried by some colonial policemen to discover the truth; yet, their knowledge makes them dangerous, so they need to be terminated, too (a confrontation that should be fun if the players are the same of the previous game, as I suggested above).

· COLLATERAL DAMAGE
This had to happen. Xenos are too efficient killing machines. Weapon development is a too lucrative business. Scientists are too absorpted with their researches to care about security issues. Add all them together and you'll have this adventure, in which a research carried in an orbital station made to turn the xenos into living weapons has gone awkward with the bugs breaking their confinement and killing everyone. The self-destruction worked fine, but not before some survivors managed to escaped... impregnated. Now a containment crew of special operations agents, the PCs, is sent to take care of the mess. They'll have to track the landing place of the tainted escape pod and follow the signs of the new xeno infestation up to a rural area, where it has spread surprisingly quick. In top of that, a hürn will enter the game, too, because the xenos for the experiment were originally taken from them, and they are not pleased. His mission is to get rid of the xenos and punish the humans. If the PCs play well their cards they may get some help from the hürn regarding the infestation (despite knowing that truce will end soon); but it's more likely they'll have to confront him. Anyway, once the infestation is seemingly controlled, the climax will come with a new menace, as the military intermediary of the experiments has gone crazy and has started to worship the xeno queen, helping her to flee from Earth aboard a military ship. It's up to the PCs to chase them and finish this incident for good.