The Ten Rings of Deathlessness

The Rings of Deathlessness: One of the three paths to true immortality. These 10 rings each make the wearer invulnerable to pain, damage, interference, and death from a different kind of danger. Each is made of rustless iron and bears a square imprinted plate, depicting the type of danger it wards against. The rings were forged long ago, by Ibilon, one of the Seven Sages, a student of the Wizard King Zalaman. Zalaman disapproved of the rings, foreseeing catastrophe if they were united upon the fingers of one man. So, unable or unwilling to destroy them, Ibilon cast his masterpieces into the sea. Through the ages, the rings have crept back into the wide world, waiting to be claimed. If someone were to wear all 10 rings on each of his ten fingers, he would be invincible.  

Aging: A man and woman, stooped and wizened. One of the most sought-after rings, the wearer ceases to age as long as the ring remains on his finger and cannot be aged by magical means. Worn for centuries by the vain Duke Moroix, who pretends to be his own descendent, in each successive generation, furthering his growing empire of blackmail, assassination, and corruption.  

Breaking: A hammer crushing a skull. The wearer cannot be bludgeoned, crushed, or dashed by a great fall. This and the ring against Smothering were found by T’loa, a pearl-diver. She has used them to befriend merfolk and claim treasures from the deep sea. 

Corruption: A serpent coiled around a rotting tree. The wearer cannot be dissolved by acid, disintegrated, withered by necrotic powers, or harmed by poisons or venoms. This ring is in the hoard of the slumbering black dragon Tamligon. 

Disease: A convalescent surrounded by miasma. The wearer is immune to all diseases and infections, even magical ones. This ring is held in the hollow of an ancient tree, which has resisted the fell blight that struck down the rest of the forest, due to the presence of a powerful Lich, in the caverns below.  

Freezing: A snowy, windswept peak. This ring makes one immune to cold, exposure, ice attacks, and petrification. Owned by a little orphaned girl. Unaware of its powers, it has enabled her to survive the harsh nights of the uncaring northern city. She has befriended a gorgon, living in the sewer depths.  

Hunger: An emaciated beggar, clutching his stomach. The wearer cannot starve or dehydrate and always feels well-fed and contented. Worn by the False Saint Crios, who has attained his status by his “divinely sustained” fasting.

Immolation: A funeral pyre. The wearer is immune to heat, flames, and lightning strikes. Placed on an altar, within an abandoned temple that was carved into the side of a now dormant volcano.   

Magic: The sign of the evil eye. The wearer is completely immune to magic. This coveted ring is currently in the possession of an unscrupulous minor sorcerer who obtained it by cutting the throat of his cabal’s master.  

Severing: A bloody sword. The wearer cannot be cut, stabbed, slashed, sliced, or pierced through in any way. Possessed by Gutchglor, a pigman warlord uniting the monsters of the wastelands under his blood-soaked banner.

Smothering: The wearer cannot drown, choke, suffocate or otherwise be harmed by lack of air. This and the ring against Breaking were found by T’loa, a pearl-diver. She has used them to befriend merfolk and claim treasures from the deep sea.

How a Magic-User Might Brew A Potion of Lycanthropy

 There are several ways to become a werewolf.

1. Summon and allow yourself to be possessed by a wolf-spirit. Unfortunately, spirits have vendettas, alliances, and uncontrollable passions; one who takes this route to lycanthropy will find himself at the mercy of entity possessing him. Simple (as far as magic goes), but not worth the degradation. 

2. Make a deal with a demon. The Black Hunter Zamiel is known to bestow the power of wolf-walking on those who swear to be his "hounds", but he also likes to hunt babies, virgins, true believers, and other innocents. One may not enjoy such responsibilities.

Actually "Barbatos", by de Plancy, but he fits the idea.

 

3. On the night of a full moon, hunt and kill a wolf, eat its heart, drink its blood, and wear its skin. One must hunt alone, without help from man, magic, or beasts. Any skilled woodsman may accomplish this, but will be incapable of controlling when he transforms and how he acts in the form of a wolf-man, due to the lingering grudge of the slain beast. 

 

5. This method is the safest (relatively speaking- we're talking magic, here, after all) but whereas the other methods may be accomplished by laymen, this operation may only be achieved by a trained magician. 

 

Potion of LycanthropyTaketh thou a wine-bottle of water that hath gathered naturally in the footprints of a wolf. Boil therein slivers of hoary root, called “wolf’s root”, enough so that the decoction seems as milk. Sift the dregs therefrom, and reduce this by an half and part it from the flame. Once it hath ceased to bubble, add thereto a dram of wolf’s spittle, or of blood, collected without slaying the animal. Decant into a silver dish and set it under a glass dome where it may catch the light of the moon, in her fullness, moving it along her arch so that it doth imbibe of her all the night. Repeat this experiment for three nights, preserving the infant liquid in a cold and lightless place, until those nights when the moon is full. After three such nights, the mixture will have grown a skin, like unto cold blood, with the color of shimmering nacre. Return this skin to the vessel and warm over a bath of heated sand until it runneth as water. Pour, by increments, into a phial of aqua vitae, set over a flame and with agitation. When the two are married, plunge the result in very cold water, until the product shows a leaden hue. Once drunk, he who imbibes this elixir shall become a werewolf, assuming this shape whenever it is needful. But beware any who would drink this fell liquor: there is no known antidote for one who thus willingly alters his shape, save death or the Omnipotent Stone of Sages.

The Horrors of Art: Blanks

 

by Stephen Gammell

Blanks were first created when a gifted artist poured too much of himself into a painting, leaving an empty space in the fabric of reality. Blanks are a bleached, bottomless void on the canvas of the universe, vainly seeking the color and substance forever lost to them.

Blank: Thin, blurry, paper-white figures, with black smears for eyes and mouths. Sound like rustling leaves or pages. Never speak. Try to drag humans down to their level. Stalk abandoned galleries and libraries. HD 3, Atk. Paper-Cut (1d6 damage, Drain).  

Dark-Vision: Sees in Low Light and Darkness as if in Bright Light.  

Two-Dimensional: Invisible if standing still and sideways to onlookers. Can slip through cracks of suitable length.  

Damage Immunity: Only damaged by magic.  

Drain: Touch drains color and depth from target, reducing their Max HP by the damage dealt. If a target’s Max HP drops to 0, from this attack, they become a blank.  

Art Vulnerability: If blanks touch a piece of 2-D art which gives the impression of a 3-D space, they become trapped within it until the piece is destroyed.

 

Randomly Generated Surreal Appartments

    Paradise Mansions is a decrepit old brick complex, crammed into an aged and isolated corner of the city. It has an indeterminate number of stories (roll 5d6 each time you enter), but each floor has 10 apartments (A through J), with identical doors, a stairwell, fire escape, and small custodial closet at the north end, and a central hallway with a window looking out the southern face. The first floor has a (usually vacant) office near the southern entrance. The basement is a labyrinth. The attic is a howling void. The roof sports a treasure-laden temple. 

    The staff consists of a doorman (a silent, staring figure concealed beneath a heavy coat, tophat, and many, many scarves), a secretary ( who is young and confused, middle-aged and flustered, or elderly and crabby, depending on the day of the week), and a custodian (pray you never meet it; run if you hear the squeaky wheels of its cart). 

    The apartments themselves are absurd concatenations of shapes, contents, and occupants; no two are alike. All rooms have a fire escape (as per city ordinance). Rent is $800/month, first and last month’s rent as security deposit, $300 dollar pet deposit for cats and dogs. No smoking (though this doesn’t stop some people).

    To generate a given apartment, roll 1d20 in each of the following categories, filling in the sentence below. NOTE: This table can and should be expanded upon.

 

“A [Descriptor], [Shape] room, filled with [Contents], and tenanted by [Inhabitants], who [Characteristic].”

1d20    Descriptor         Shape               Contents                      Inhabitants                               Characteristic

1          Cramped           Square              Diverse Clay Jars           An Old Man in a rocking chair    Cannot Remember Their Name

2          Dimly Lit            Circular             Child Coffins                  A Little Girl facing a corner         Is perfectly still and silent

3          Moldering          Rectangular        A Rotting Feast               A Family of Dolls                        Only Moves when you aren’t looking

4          Immense           Octagonal          Crammed Bookshelves    An Emaciated Cat                      Has merged with the floor

5          Collapsing          Triangular          Lynched Mannequins      Aged Female Twins                    Doesn’t want you to leave

6          Smoke-Filled      Rhomboid          Specimen Jars                A horrifying mass of spiders        Isn’t real

7          Dazzlingly Lit     Cylinder            Medical Tools                A Ghoul in Surgeon’s Garb        Is convinced the world has ended

8          Flooded             Spiral                Myriad Fungi                 A tangle of orgiasts                     Refuses to acknowledge your presence

9          Dust-Choked      Helical               Nursery Toys                  A happy black dog                     Wants to leave but cannot

10        Damp                Spherical         Torture Devices              A mutilated, male figure             Doesn’t believe you are real

11        Crumbling         Pyramidal          Too Many Mirrors          A bathing woman                       Yells at the neighbors through the walls

12        Immaculate        Torus-Shaped     A Zoo of Statues             A Chorus of Talking Masks          Asks increasingly bizarre questions

13        Tasteful             Hyperbolic       Expensive Furniture        A Class of Students                     Has Been Expecting You

14        Maze-like            Hemispherical    Heaps of Rubbish           A School of Air-Swimming Fish    Is about to die, and knows it.

15        Escherian          Hexagonal         Numerous Cages           A Party of Laughing Nobles         Insists You are Someone You’re Not

16        Narrow             Abstract             Faulty Machinery            A Troup of Living Shadows          Speaks to someone who isn’t there

17        Upside-Down     Star-Shaped       Crackling Radios            An Understanding Bartender       Acts like you’ve met before

18        Stained              Shapeless          Flickering Televisions      A Gang of Noisy Children           Believes it is a dragon, in disguise

19        Rocking             Cruciform          Innumerable Paintings    A giant infant                             Is a god

20        Shifting             Tesseract           A small forest                 A primitive tribal culture              can grant you a single wish, for a price