Gorm, Usamigaras and Madarua

The masks of Gorm, Usamigaras and Madarua.

Cults variant for the gods of the Lost City.

In the original module, the cult of Gorm only accept males as full members and the cult of Madarua only accept females as full members. Here is two variants for those cults.

Variant 1: the cults accepts characters of any genders, as long as you wear the mask of the cult you are considered a man, a child or a woman.

Variant 2: the cults accepts characters of any genders, but initiates risk being transfigured or cursed during their initiation.

Initiation of the lost gods: 
The character must wear the mask of the god and make a reaction roll modified by wisdom. If the initiate is sincere and faithful he or she receive a bonus for his or her reaction roll. If the initiate have doubts, there is no modifications. If the initiate is not sincere and hope to tricks the gods, he or she receive a penalty.

Reaction roll:

• 2: Character is transfigured and receive the deity visage and may be transformed to match the deity age and gender (maybe). The initiate also receive a vision quest and a permanent wisdom bonus. 
• 3-5: Character is blessed and receive a reaction bonus with members of the cult. 
• 6-8: Character is accepted into the cult. 
• 9-11: Character is cursed and receive a reaction penalty with members of the cult. 
• 12 : Character is petrified, fused forever with the mask and become a guarding statue. 

Cardinal origins and languages

Cardinal origins and languages for my Lost City campaign. 

Cardinal origins:
When you create your character roll a d6 and choose his or her cardinal origin. 
(The campaign is set in the eastern lands). 

• 1- 2 Northern or Western
• 3- 4 Western or Eastern
• 5- 6 Eastern or Southern

Each cardinal region host many kingdoms and cities. I keep them vague for now, but later if we develop the campaign, I (or maybe the players) will be free to invent villages, towns or kingdoms of origin. 

• Northern lands: the untamed north, cold and icy. 
• Western lands: pseudo medieval-Europe, farms, hills and dark forests.
• Eastern: pseudo medieval Middle-East, majestic mountains and lot of desert.  
• Southern lands: vast savannas, jungles, rocky cliffs and volcanic islands. 

(But those are only broad and general traits, it is totally possible to deviate from them.) 
(And there is also the "far" north, west, east and south.)

Languages of men:

• Cardinal Commons: each cardinal common (northern, western, eastern and southern common) can communicate with each other but with a reaction adjustment penalty. 
• Great Empire: the language that unified the Great Empire before it fall. Can understand Ancient Empire with a reaction penalty.  
• Ancient Empire: the near forgotten language of the first Empire of men. Can understand Great Empire with a reaction penalty.   
• Thief speak: local secret and coded language. Can understand rat speak and other thief speaks with a reaction penalty. (Thieves quickly learn local thief speaks and loose their reaction penalty after they spend some sessions in a new city). 

Languages of the Earth:

• Dwarven: can understand gnomish and old dwarven with a reaction penalty. 
• Gnomish: can understand dwarven and old gnomish with a reaction penalty.
• Old Dwarven: can understand dwarven and troll with a reaction penalty.  
• Old Gnomish: can understand gnomish and troll with a reaction penalty.  
• Troll Tongue: the old language of the Trolls (and giants). Can understand old dwarven and old gnomish with a heavy reaction penalty.  
• Cave speak: common language of the underdark, there is so many variants that it always used with a reaction penalty. 
• Old Folk: the language of house and field spirits. 

Language of the Forest:

• Elven: understand fae idiom with a reaction penalty. 
• Fae Idiom: the strange way of speaking of the faery. Understand elven with a reaction penalty. 
• Sylvan: the language of the sentient threes and plants creatures. 
• Slow Tongue: lizard men and reptilian creatures speak this ancient language. They can understand the Dark Egg Speak with a reaction penalty. 

Desert, Sea and Sky:

• Sea Tongue: the secret language of intelligent sea creatures. 
• Sky Song: the secret language of of intelligent avian creatures. 
• Desert Tongue: the secret language of the desert. 

Chaos Spawns:

• Spawns Tongues: the crude tongue of the cruel and brutish humanoids born from chaos (goblins, orcs, etc). They can understand each other with a reaction penalty.
• Dark Egg Speak: the language of Kobolds and chaotic reptilian cults. Understand the Slow Tongue with a reaction penalty. 
• Rat Speak: the coded language of were-rats and rat-creatures. Can understand thief speak with a reaction penalty. 

Alignment and magical languages:

• The Tablets of Law: the lawful language in witch the gods wrote the Tablets of Law. 
• The First Words: the neutral language that beast and human shared at the dawn of time. 
• The Changing Tongue: the changing language of magic and chaos. (Read Magic let you read the ever changing magical variations of the language). Can speak with chaos spawns with a heavy reaction penalty.   
• The Dark Utterance: the dark language of evil spirits and demons.
• Elemental Runes: elemental languages only usable as written runes. Can be slowly "spoken" as a sign language with a reaction penalty.    
• Gem Speak: the vibration language of gem creatures.

Any creature have a chance of 1 on a d6 to speak their alignment language (even animals). 

Magical creatures always know their alignment language (this include spell casting creatures). 

Extra languages

• Humans, Halflings and Half-Orcs start with their cardinal common language. 
• Dwarfs, Gnomes, Elves and Half-elves start with their racial language, a cardinal common language and a free additional language.
• Thieves and assassins also start with Thief speak.
• Clerics and Druids also start with their alignment language. 
• Magic-users and Illusionists also start with the Changing Tongue.
• Fighters learned a enemy language during a military campaign. But they now have a reaction penalty when dealing with this ancient enemy.    

A character origins and alignment determine his or her choice of additional languages: 

• Northern : western or eastern cardinal commons, Great Empire, Dwarven, Sea Tongue, Sky Song, Troll Tongue, White Spawn, Blue Spawn.
• Western : northern or eastern cardinal commons, Great Empire, Ancient Empire, Old Folk, Sea Tongue, Elven, Dark Spawn, Carrion Spawn. 
• Eastern : western or southern cardinal commons, Great Empire, Ancient Empire, Desert Tongue, Elven, Gnomish, Sky Song, Blood Spawn, Wish Spawn. 
• Southern : western or eastern cardinal commons, Great Empire, Dwarven, Old Folk, Slow Tongue, Sea Tongue, Ash Spawn, Green Spawn. 
• Elf : any cardinal commons, Great Empire, Ancient Empire, Dwarven, Sylvan, Sea Song, Sky Song, Fae Idiom, any of the Spawns Tongues, Storm, Ice and Stars Runes. 
• Dwarf : any cardinal commons, Great Empire, Ancient Empire, Old Dwarven, Gnomish, Elven, Troll Tongue, Cave Speak, Deep Spawn, Stone, Iron and Fire runes.
• Gnomes : Great Empire, Ancient Empire, Old Folk, Old Gnomish, Dwarven, Gem Speak, Cave Speak, Deep Spawn, Dark Egg Speak, Stone Runes.
• Halflings : any cardinal commons, Great Empire, Old Folks, Sylvan, Gnomish, Rat Speak.
• Half-Orcs : any cardinal commons, Great Empire, Troll Tongue, any of the Spawns Tongues, Dark Utterance, Rat Speak.

• Lawful : The Tablets of Law.
• Neutral : The First Words. (Druid only: Sylvan and Fae Idiom).
• Chaotic : The Changing Tongue. (Cleric & Magic-User only: Dark Utterance). 

• Thief: rat speak.
• Magic users: storm, ice, iron, stone, dust, water and fire runes. 

Base camp for B4 The Lost City

I am preparing to run B4 The Lost City (with Labyrinth Lord), since the player characters are lost in the desert and are stranded at the dungeon location, I decided to give them a base camp that they can return to as if they were "returning to town". 

So the idea is that the group was travelling with a large caravan convoy full of different people. The convoy was travelling through the desert, Oregon Trail style, when it was attacked by a group of bandits just before a big sand storm.   

The survivors of the convoy took refuge in the ruins of the Lost City. They don't dare to venture into the pyramid. They hope that PCs will bring back water and that they will find a map or some way to orient themselves. They have maybe a day or two left of water (see table 4).  

It can be fun to ask the players to roll the dice to create the camp.

The base camp 
I guess that the base camp is composed of 10 notable NPCs, plus a bunch of non-described NPCs who can serve as PC replacements and potential hirelings (see table 4). Maybe it better to not be to precise with the bunch of non-described NPCs. 

Table 1: Notable survivors (those 10 NPCs are present at base camp) (determine randomly their gender)

1. A greedy specialist (1 alchemist, 2 armorer, 3 physician, 4 smith, 5 craftman, 6 engineer)
2. A helpful specialist (1 alchemist, 2 armorer, 3 physician, 4 smith, 5 craftman, 6 engineer)
3. A apprentice specialist (1 alchemist, 2 armorer, 3 physician, 4 smith, 5 craftman, 6 engineer)
4. Someone lightly wounded
5. Someone heavily wounded
6. Someone interested in the artifacts of the dungeon
7. Someone who keep the camp together
8. Someone who is against going into the dungeon
9. Someone who seem to support the PCs
10. Someone who don't like the PCs

Table 2: Occupations (roll on this table to determine who are the survivors #4 to #10) 

1. Specialist : 1 alchemist, 2 armorer, 3 physician, 4 smith, 5 craftman, 6 engineer.
2. 1-4: Merchant, 5-6: Slave master
3. Young and beautiful idealist or rebel: 1 orphan, 2 laborer, 3 slave, 4 servant, 5 poet, 6 poor student.   
4. Noble who have lost (nearly) everything.  
5. Family leader and some survivors of his or her family. Have family waiting for them at the caravan destination. 
6. Stranger: 1 from the far north, 2 from the far south, 3 from the far east, 4 from the far west, 5 demi-human, 6 rare & unusual demi-human. 
7. Sage: 1 mystic philosopher, 2 mathematician astronomer, 3 historian, 4 cartographer, 5 linguist, 6 naturalist & geologist.  
8. 1-2 Desert guide (saved some water), 3-4 animal handler (saved some animals), 5-6 teamster (saved some equipment)
9. Scum or shady character: 1 barbarian, 2 bandit, 3 nasty thug, 4 wanted murderer, 5 conman, 6 spy.   
10. Religious: 1 cultist, 2 heretic, 3 major distant religion, 4 minor local religion, 5 major local religion, 6 prophet, oracle or seer. 
11. Man-at-arm: 1 veteran mercenary, 2 caravan guard, 3 former henchman, 4 deserting soldier, 5 bodyguard, 6 former member of a town militia.  
12. Classed (level: d4-1): 1-2 fighter, 3-4 rogue, 5 cleric, 6 magic-user.

Table 3: Events (roll each time the PCs return to the camp)

1. Weather change (1-2 for the better, 4-6 for the worst)
2. Bandits or Nomad raiders attack!
3. Wandering fauna attacked someone. (1-4 wounded, 5-6 killed)
4. Wandering humanoids from the dungeon captured someone. 
5. Wandering monsters from the dungeon attacked someone. (1-3 wounded, 4-6 killed)
6. A new survivor wandered into the camp.  
7. The survivors found some food or water or some other useful supplies. 
8. Strife, one of the survivor gain the leadership of the camp. Others don't like it.  
9. Strife, violence and conflict between two survivors. 
10. Strife, murder: one of the survivor was murdered. The murderer is unknown (secretly roll who it is). 
11. The status of the wounded change: 1-2 for the best, 3-6 for the worst. (roll for each wounded). 
12. Someone now want to follow the PC into the dungeon. (may be a good or bad idea)
13. Someone left the camp with some loot that the PCs left behind. 
14. Conspiracy VS the PCs. Determine 3 conspirators. Check for hirelings loyalty. 
15. Someone have stolen loot from the PC or from someone else. (secretly roll who it is). 
16. The camp split up! Half of the survivors moved to a new camp. 
17. Moral is getting low. Test the hirelings moral to see if they are willing to leave the camp.  
18. Someone gain influence. One of the notable survivor is now well supported.  
19. Someone is lost. One of the notable survivor ventured outside the camp and never came back.
20. Two events. (ignore new result of 20) 

No more water!

• After the first day, the camp have 1 chances on a d6 of running out of water (they are rationing). 
• This augment by 1 for each of the following days. Reset the chances if the group bring back water.
• If the camp run out of water. In addition of the random events, the GM choose 1 of the nastier events from table. 

Table 4: Hirelings (Roll on this table if the PC want to recruit hirelings willing to venture into the dungeon.) (determine randomly their gender)

Hireling type d10 :

• 1: Zaelots
• 2-3: Men-at-arms
• 4-5: Scums
• 6-8: Torchbearers
• 9: Servitor
• 10: Follower (squire, novice, apprentice or young runaway)

Starting Loyalty (reaction test) :

• 2: Friendly 9
• 3 – 5 : Interested 7
• 6 – 8 : Neutral 6
• 9 – 11 : Unfriendly 5
• 12 : Hostile 3

Zaelots (d4 volunteers)

• Share : 1GP/day
• HP : d4
• AL : 1-3 chaotic, 4-6 loyal
• Loyalty : depend of alignment : +2 if same, -1 if different, -2 if opposed.
• ML : +2 (+2 with cleric of same faith)
• AC : 9
• WP : 1-2 club, 3 mace, 4 dagger, 5 shield, 6 spear.

Men-at-arms (d3 volunteers)

• Share : 4GP/day (+1 ML/Loyalty for x5 pay)
• HP : d6 (reroll 1, once)
• AL : neutral
• AC : 7(6) Studded leather + shield + helmet.
• WP : 1 axe, 2 mace, 3 javelins, 4 spear, 5 short sword, 6 dagger & short bow

Scums (d6 volunteers)

• Share : 2GP/day (+1 ML/Loyalty for x5 pay)
• HP : d4
• AL : chaotic
• Loyalty : -2
• ML : -1
• AC : 8 leather
• WP : club & dagger.

Torchbearers (d4 volunteers)

• Share : 1GP/day (+1 ML/Loyalty for x5 pay)
• HP : d4
• AL : neutral
• ML : -2
• AC : 9

Loyal Servitor (1 volunteer)

• Share : 3GP/day (+1 ML/Loyalty for x5 pay)
• HP : d4 (reroll 1, once)
• AL : loyal
• Loyalty : +2
• AC : 9
• Weapon : dagger.

Followers (1 volunteer)

• Will become LV1 when their PC reach level 2 (naturally only if they venture with them into the dungeon) 
• Share : 4GP/day (+1 ML/Loyalty for x5 pay)
• Class: same type of class as PC.
• Alignment : same as PC.
• Beginner luck: can be use once by session. 

Squire

• Fighter LV0 (can use fighter gear & manoeuvers)
• HP : 4
• AC : 7(6) studded leather + shield + helmet.
• WP : dagger + short sword.
• Beginner luck : can reroll 1 morale or attack test.
• STR 13 (+1 hit & dmg)

Novice

• Cleric LV0 (can use cleric scrolls, turn at -1 step)
• HP : 3
• AC : 8 leather.
• WP : quarterstaff
• Gear : 2 vials of holy water, holy symbol.
• Beginner luck : can reroll 1 morale or turn undead or saving throw test.
• WIS 13 (save +1)

Apprentice

• Magic-user LV0 (can use magic-user scrolls)
• HP : 1
• AC : 9
• WP : dagger
• Gear : 1 magic-user scroll, 1 lantern and 3 oil.
• Beginner luck : can reroll 1 saving throw, spell effect roll.
• INT 13 (know 1 encountered language).

Young Runaway

• Thief LV 0 (can use thief skills at half their rating)
• HP : 2
• AC : 9 (8) dex
• WP : dagger & sling
• Gear : extra trail rations and water.
• Beginner luck : can reroll 1 skill or trap trigger or a enemy to hit test.
• DEX 13 (+1 to hit with ranged wp).