Throne of Azathoth Campaign

Concept for a Call of Cthulhu campaign (or any other mythos related game system).

The Throne of Azathoth is a damaged Dyson Sphere that encase the space-time anomaly that power it.

The original purpose of the mega structure was to simulate entire universes but over the aeons the Throne has been damaged and Azathoth is now malfunctioning and it simulations are now erratic.

The builder specie was erased from reality during the catastrophe that damaged the Throne.

The servitors of the Outer Gods are called the Flutists because of the flute sounds they produce when the communicate between themselves. The Flutists were engineered by the Builders to maintain the crumbling mega structure and to stabilize it containment field. But over the aeons their bio-engineered programmation degraded, their culture shifted and they ritualized their tasks and contaminated them with occult meanings.

Nyarlathotep is a malfunctioning universal translation program, a AI who can print biomechanical avatar bodies through different points in time and space. Nyarlathotep is trying to make contact with younger races to uplift them to be suitable servitors to fix or replace the Flutists. But it malfunctioning system complicate everything...

Nyarlathotep contacted the "witch" Keziah Mason, a bright and curious woman, and transported her into the Throne of Azathoth. It asked her to log her name and to provide a DNA sample to grant her a personal access code. That "secret name" gave her access to many of the mega structure's systems.

The players play a secret coven of bright women mentored by Keziah Mason to study the megastructure. They learned some hyper science but the mega structure's secrets are still beyond their understanding. 

Nyarlathotep is a helpful but enigmatic ally, often malfunctioning in dangerous ways. 

Keziah Mason have been missing since her last expedition into the megastructure. Two versions of her have been sighted, a caring but amnesic version and a dangerous insane version. What have happened to her? What is she trying to do?

The group must guard the Throne of Azathoth from all sorts of anomalies while preventing these anomalies from bleeding into our reality. To do so they must explore the Throne and try to understand it many secrets. 

Space Scavengers

Last week I was reading back some old notes for a Rogue Trader campaign about squads of misfit space scavengers who delve into spacehulks.

I thought of running a Play by Post campaign on Discord but after a running a playtest combat I had to admit that Rogue Trader is too laborious to play by text.

Anyway, here are the tables I automated, maybe someone can find useful or inspiring.

LOST WORLD generator
I wanted to generate a world cut off from the Imperium so that we could get more creative with our setting.
https://perchance.org/lostworld

SCAVENGER SPACESHIP generator
The group would had started with a randomly generated spaceship
https://perchance.org/scavengers-spaceship

SPACE SCAVENGERS generator
Each player would have played a squad of 3 space scavengers.
https://perchance.org/spacescavenger

Pomeranian Character Class

Pomeranian Character Class
XP as rogues
HD: d4
To hit: as fighters
Weapons: any (d4 dmg for one handed wp, d6 for two handed wp)
Armors: any
Saves: as halflings

• Small but vicious: +1 to hit and dmg and AC against larger creatures (human sized or larger).  
• Territorial: barking loudly at the start of a encounter force a foe to make a ML test. On a fail the foe back away and lose the initiative. 
• Alert: Sense trouble on 1-4 on a d6. They must bark loudly for d6 rounds on a pass.  
• Enthusiastic: when failing a attribute test they become over exited and reroll, on a fail they cause some extra trouble in their excitement. 
• Fluffy: they get a bonus point to reaction tests when they don't bark. 
• Spiteful around nobles: being often owned by nobles, free Pomeranian distrust them and get a point of reaction penalty against them or when one is part of the group as their mood get grumpy. 

Mythos entity generator

I wrote a mythos entity generator.
You can quickly generate a entity with the automated generator I crafted on Perchance: https://perchance.org/rswdaedldh

Or you can do it with dice:

The entity is [TRAIT] and [TRAIT].
It reacts to [STIMULI].

The entity is [ACTION]
to [GOAL].

A [PERSON] has been in contact with the entity
and is now [REACTION].

Tore used the generator to write a entity for his blog: Dorzad, the Parasite Redeemer.
(If you create one, share your interpretation of the result or a link in the comment)

TRAITS (d30)

1.   fractal in nature
2.   immaterial
3.   mineral
4.   hyper dense 
5.   impervious to weapons 
6.   a colony
7.   small
8.   gigantic 
9.   invisible 
10.   toxic
11.   shapeless 
12.   tentacular 
13.   immobile 
14.   fibrous
15.   exist in a different time 
16.   parasitic 
17.   symbiotic
18.   partly real
19.   made of energy
20.   fleshy
21.   slowly awakening
22.   crawling 
23.   blind
24.   fluid
25.   {foul|sweet}-smelling
26.   biomechanical
27.   multi-eyed
28.   fossilized
29.   bending {light|space|time|matter}
30.   radioactive 

STIMULI (d20)

1.   light 
2.   fire
3.   heat
4.   sound
5.   a specific mineral 
6.   water
7.   emotions
8.   electricity 
9.   radio waves
10.   radiation
11.   wounds
12.   incantations 
13.   odors 
14.   cold 
15.   alchemical compounds 
16.   a specific virus 
17.   a alien material
18.   patterns 
19.  cells 
20.  thoughts 

ACTION (d20)

1.   growing
2.   sporing 
3.   splitting
4.   sending visions 
5.   emitting {radio|micro|sound} waves
6.   producing biomatter
7.   assembling minerals 
8.   manipulating time, light, memories, 
9.   infecting matter 
10.   secreting matter
11.   cloning biomatter 
12.   consuming matter
13.   mimicking life forms
14.   mutating life forms
15.   spawning organisms 
16.  digesting and assembling minerals
17.  laying eggs
18.  chanting incantations
19.  draining {body water|blood|fat tissues|body minerals|spinal fluids}
20.  grafting biomechanical materials

GOAL (d30)

1.   communicate with {us|a other entity|a Great Old One|the Outer Gods}
2.   heal {us|a other entity|itself|a Great Old One}
3.   reproduce {itself|us|a Great Old One}
4.   migrate to a new {world|time|reality}
5.   worship {us|a Great Old One|the Outer Gods}
6.   feed {us|a other entity|a Great Old One|the Outer Gods|itself}
7.   understand {us|our plane of reality|our time line}
8.   record {our specie|our reality|our time line|our civilization|our biosphere}
9.   protect itself from {us|our reality|a other entity|a Great Old One|the Outer Gods|time dilatation}
10.   {build|repair} a {weapon|portal|spaceship|communicator} 
11.   end it eternal existence 
12.   teach us {it language|it history|it science|it religion|a technology|the nature of the universe}
13.   preserve a record of {it language|it history|it science|it religion|it technology}
14.   prepare a {landing site|nursery}
15.   help us to evolve 
16.   find a {copy of itself|a mate|other entity|gate|Great Old One}
17.   seal a {copy of itself|other entity|gate|Great Old One|reality breach}
18.   summon a {copy of itself|other entity|Great Old One|the Outer Gods}
19.   terraform our world
20.   preserve {it biosphere|itself|a copy of itself|it civilisation}
21.   mature into a new life stage
22.   make food reserves {to hybernate|for it future spawns}
23.   proselytize the gospel of the Outer Gods
24.   prepare to go into hybernation
25.   repair {reality|a space-time distortion|a time paradox|it specie|our specie|a Great Old One}
26.   open a gate to {it homeworld|a alien city|a different time line|the prison of a Great Old One|a other dimension|the Great Library of Celeano|a alien archeological site}
27.  connect things with {us|a other entity|a Great Old One|the Outer Gods|itself}
28.  recover a artifact 
29.  run a complex simulation 
30. build a colony

PERSON (d30)

1.   religious person
2.   scholar 
3.   local worker
4.   small group of {children|women|men|teenagers|elders}
5.   teacher
6.   homeless person 
7.   hermit 
8.   investigator 
9.   conman
10.   drunkyard 
11.   junkie
12.   hunter
13.   mailman
14.   farmer
15.   doctor
16.   veterinary
17.   veteran
18.   artist
19.   escaped convict
20.   reporter
21.   inspector
22.   exterminator
23.   cop
24.   husband
25.   student
26.   engineer
27.   medium
28.   librarian
29.   couple
30.   activist

REACTION (d50)

1.   afraid of going back there
2.   worried for someone
3.   terrified of someone
4.   dead
5.   hiding a mutation
6.   hiding a artifact
7.   trying to communicate with it
8.   traumatized 
9.   seeing things
10.   crafting strange things
11.   trying to record everything
12.   trying to warn people
13.   trying to destroy it
14.   trying to protect it
15.   hiding a sample
16.   worshiping it
17.   in self quarantine
18.   behaving strangely
19.   mumbling strange words
20.   painting strange patterns
21.   obsessed about it
22.   deep in conspirations theories
23.   trying to find help
24.   afraid of people
25.   paranoiac 
26.   drawing a star map
27.   sculpting idols
28.   having nightmares
29.   sick
30.   sleepwalking 
31.   taking someone hostage
32.   suspected of murder
33.   poisoning the water
34.   missing
35.   speaking a strange language
36.   blind
37.   mute
38.   deaf
39.   insomniac
40.   hoarding things
41.   digging holes
42.   trying to draw it
43.   trying to feed it
44.   a mathematical genius
45.   wearing strange clothes and amulets
46.   writing a book
47.  arming themself
48.  modifying their house
49.  trying to learn magic
50.  different person

Necropolis Ship

A Necropolis Ship sail between the material plane and Underworld on the back of a giant undead turtle.

1. Statues of the Underworld Royal Family
2. The ship captain's sarcophagus
3. Priestess cabins
4. Gardian Pole
5. Sarcophagus presented to the Stars
6. Moonlight collectors
7. Sarcophagus of the undead crew
8. Statues of disgraced gods used as evil spirits deflectors
9. Tomb cabins of giant beings
10. Star core
11. Parasitic Starfish God
12. Giant Undead Turtle. A small kobold scribe spends years talking to the turtle just to get out of it the meaning of a single sentence (they live it it helmet).
13. Poor people ties their funerary ships to get a lift to the afterlife

Cordyceps Lord

Ants, Cordyceps Lord

Cordyceps are mindless and giants ants are usually able to deal with them but once in a while a cordyceps fuse with the mind of a strong willed giant ant and develop the desire to create it own ever growing colony of infected ants. The Cordyceps Lord hivemind coordinate the cordyceps to try to infect the whole colony, if repelled by the ants the Cordyceps Lord retreat into a dark or damp place to build it own hive, from where it will ambush ants who pass by to infect. 

Rumors (d12)

1. The ant queens are hiring non ants mercenaries to defend their hives.
2. Myconids are sending a diplomatic delegation to try to communicate with the Cordyceps. 
3. The Cordyceps are infecting undead too, a local necromancer is sending skeletons to ask for help. 
4. Local vivimancer need cordyceps samples to try to design a cure. 
5. A nearby kobold colony is trying to farm cordyceps. 
6. A old hag have moved into the cordyceps infected hive. 
7. The cordyceps are trying to summon the demon lord of fungus! 
8. The cordyceps ants have captured a local alchemist and are collecting supplies for her. 
9. The cordyceps worship a allied deity, priest wonder if they should ally with them. 
10. Local druid is hiring people to save ant eggs from a cordyceps infected hive.  
11. A Cordyceps Lord who live in a nearby ruin hire mercenaries to steal eggs and larva from nearby giant ants colonies. 
12. Dwarfs are paying good money for captured Ankhegs as they are training them to repel a Cordyceps invasion. 

Albino Penguin Character Class

The other day I was watching a documentary about extincts giant penguins and I thought that the albino penguins from At The Mountains of Madness could be a playable character class in a old school lovecraftian setting like Realms of Crawling Chaos.

I image them as some kinds of eldritch Skeksis.

They live in the north in the ruins of eldritch cities. They organize in households and have complex social codes and rules for everything, they are craven and are obsessed with scavenging eldritch lore. Their large size let them use any weapons but they are quite clumsy with them. They prefer to live underground away from the bright light of the sun.

Albinos Penguin Class (Realms of Crawling Chaos)
Requirements: none
Prime Requisite: INT
Hit Dice: d6
Maximum Level: 9
Armor: any
Weapon: any
To hit: as Magic-user
Saves: as Magic-user
Magic-user spell progression: as Magic-user
XP: as Sea Blood (3000xp for second level)
Special: half any darkness related penalties. +2 to save against cold.

Albinos Penguin Race (Realms of Crawling Chaos)
INT +1, CON+1, DEX-2
Class Level Limit:
Assassin 7
Cleric 8
Fighter 8
Illusionist 7
Magic-user 9
Special: half any darkness related penalties. +2 to save against cold.

Allegories as monsters.

The other day I thought that allegories, like the ones we see in old editorial or propaganda illustrations could be fun to use as monsters. I was especially thinking about the more chimerical ones who feature multiple components that represent different things. Naturally this would work best in a surreal setting.

Like these ones:

I remember that we tried to stat this classic one back in the G+ era. Imagine encountering it in a dungeon: (note the loot at the top) :p

I tried to draw a obvious one myself, I like the potential for multiple attacks and for body parts to target and chop down:

These are not for everyone and some of them could be problematic as they are inspired by real life. (But it could be cathartic to throw fireballs at some of them).

What coud be more interesting to do, would be to create a monster that is a allegory that represennt something within a campaign setting and to use heraldry and symbols from that setting to craft it. This could be used to put emphasis on the culture and the history of the setting.

Like for exemple a monster that represent the feud between two kingdoms could mix body parts from the heraldry of both kingdoms. Allegorical monsters could also represent other situations that impact the setting, like a monster that represent a local famine or  one that represent the oppression of the elven houses against the orcs clans. But then again be careful not to use racist caricatures like some of these old illustrations did.

Well this is probably not a very good idea but I like the part about underlining the history and heraldry of a campaign setting. 

Cursed Unicorn

Cursed Unicorn (1) [AL L and C, MV 240’ (80’), AC 2, HD 5, #AT 3 (2 hooves, horn) or Special (see below), DM 1d6/1d6/1d8, THAC0: 16, SV F8, ML 7

A unicorn who was cursed for using her healing powers to raise her maiden friend from the grave. 

(01) Dreadful Equine Head
Devouring a human or equine corpse bring back the Cursed Unicorn to it full hit points total +1hp. The more it eat corpses the more HP it gain. Instead of doing it usual horn attack, it can bite for d6 dmg and inflict a disease on a failed saving throw.  

(02) Bright Toxic Fumes
Instead of using it routine of 3 attacks the Cursed Unicorn can breath a cone shaped bright toxic fume. Save vs Poison or take d6 poison damage for 1d6 rounds.  

(03) Halo of Lies
Flies buzz around the Cursed Unicorn head, if one enter into your ear it plant a lie in your heart. Save vs spell to resist the effect. 

(04) Dark Hooves
They usually inflict d6 damages and leave a dark mark. But if the Cursed Unicorn recently fed on the corpse of a equine creature they do d8 damages instead (for one fight). 

(05) Dark Womb
The reborn body of the deceased maiden rest in the womb of the unicorn. Striking it womb inflict double damages but will kill the maiden if the maximum damage is rolled. When the Cursed Unicorn is brought to 0 hp, the womb can be cut open to free the maiden. Once released the maiden is unable to breath and will suffocate in 2d6 rounds if no one kiss her. The person who do this will feel a eternal connection with the maiden and with unicorns (advantage to reaction rolls, feeling their pain and sadness).

(06) Maiden Head
The maiden is stricken with grief but friendly, she will try to warn people away from the Cursed Unicorn. She have no control over her movements and the unicorn use her to do horn attacks (d8 damage). If adventurers hit the unicorn, the maiden feel the pain and plead them to cease their attacks. She will also plead them to release the unicorn from her curse instead of killing it even if breaking the curse will destroy her chances of being reborn.   

(07) Enchanted Horn
The maiden can use the horn ability 1 time per day to teleport someone away up to 360 yards. She will usually do this to prevent someone from being kill by the Cursed Unicorn's attacks. If the horn is cut from the maiden's head it can cure poison once a day. If someone is able to grab the maiden's head for a full round, she can use the healing power of the horn on them. 

(08) Halo of Fireflies
Fireflies blink around the maiden's head. These hold her memories, if one touch your skin you get a penalty of 1 point to your next initiative as you receive a bright flashback of this memory. Killing a firefly destroy the memory it hold. Eating one make the memory yours. If all the fireflies dies the maiden will have lost all of her memories and her sense of self.

Breaking the curse require (Roll two d10):

1. The blood of a maiden
2. A ray of moonlight 
3. Holy ground consecrated by a community of women
4. A faery circle
5. A unicorn tear
6. The bones of the maiden 
7. A ivory tower
8. Someone cured from poison by a unicorn 
9. A blessed spear
10. Menstrual blood transmuted into silver