I can forge weapons for you...

Brightsmiths

Smiths who learned their trade in The Otherworld can imbue mortal weapons with power. Bring them a Smithing Stone and they'll do it for the love of the craft.

Smithing Stones

Found in The Barrowdeeps, the power of these stones can enhance mortal weaponry. Seek a Brightsmith to fortify a weapon with a Smithing Stone.

Example Stones and their effects on a fortified weapon:

• Hardstone: Add MIG to Attack Bonus
• Sharpstone: Add AGI to Attack Bonus
• Clearstone: Add AWA to Attack Bonus
• Spiritstone: Add CHA to Attack Bonus
• Flamestone: On causing a Wound, all nearby enemies suffer a Wound as well.
• Brightstone: On causing a Wound, also blinds enemies who saw it for one Round.
• Coldstone: The attacked enemy can’t move for one Round.
• Venomstone: On causing a Wound, the target suffers an additional Wound next Round.
• Lightningstone: On causing a Wound, make a Ranged Attack against an enemy you can see.
• Thunderstone: On causing a Wound, enemies next to you are flung in a direction you choose. 
• Bloodstone: Attack with help, then take one fatigue.
• Thornstone: Attack an enemy, gain +1 to Attack Bonus vs the same enemy next Round (stacks).
• Moonstone: Weapon gains the Ranged [R] property.
• Shadowstone: Wounds cannot be avoided using Armour.

Black Sands

 

One of my intentions for this year has been to get back into a writing habit. How's that been going? Mixed. I've been doing some writing. I've developed a bad habit of justifying RPG related stuff as writing. Although, in fairness to myself, it kind of is. I've read so many more RPGs than I've played, and I don't read anything I don't enjoy. So good writing belongs in RPGs. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, we're not aiming for good. We're just aiming for writing, whatever writing is. So I wanted to bite the bullet with this post. Sit down, write something, post it. So here it is.

-Till next time!

Black Sands

You wake upon a dark shore.

Pale fires light the sky.

The lake is flat calm

The surface swirls iridescent.

A tuneless song hums from

A tiny tent, wax canvas

A fishing rod rests on

A bone tripod

The angler asks

What brought you here

You think

but 

can’t 

remember.

They laugh as they tell you

That the palace lies over the hills

Beyond this beach you see

The high and rocky round-topped hills.

The screech

Of a terrible bird

Echoes unseen across the lake.

You’d best be on your way.

But, of course, you still have questions.

What do you do?

Creature Feature: The Kelpie

If the tales are to be believed, Scotland is lousy with Kelpies. It's one of the most widespread mythical creatures: We have rivers, lochs and coasts all over the place, said to be haunted by a Kelpie.

Hippocampus and fish, Fantasy animals (1596–1610)
by Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt. (public domain via Rawpixel)

Often there's not much of a 'story' to go along with The Kelpie, wherever it might appear. They're usually a cautionary tale, a warning to steer clear of dangerous rivers, strange horses, strange men. The 'classic' Kelpie ploy is for it to appear as a horse at the side of a river, waiting for someone who needs to cross. When they do, the horse kneels down, inviting its victim to climb onto its back. No sooner have they done so, than they find themselves stuck fast to The Kelpie's back. It takes off into the river, dragging the victim down with it. Some variations have The Kelpie as a kidnapper, taking the victim to The Otherworld. Others have it as a murderous beast which consumes its victim, leaving only their lungs, which float to the surface in evidence of their fate.

I have come across a few stories that stuck out though:

Taming The Kelpie, which I heard on the excellent House of Legends podcast, read by Daniel Allison. It's a beautiful take on The Kelpie as not so much a malevolent force but a primal, essential one. In the story, a poor ploughman loses his plough horse to old age during a rough Winter. Without his horse, he's left destitute, unable to make a living. But through a series of favours he performs for a Hag, he gains the means to tame a Kelpie, securing his livelihood indefinitely. But he cannot bare to see such a creature - magnificent and wild - bound to his service, and releases it.

"The Kelpie" in Peter Berresford Ellis' Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths And Legends treats the creature as a singular being: The Kelpie, Each-Uisge, lord of the deeps. He's very impressive, but also gives off vibes of a conceited Fey Prince. In the story, The Kelpie falls in love with a mortal woman, and kidnaps the heirs of every Chieftain to bargain for her release to live with him in his domain under the sea. Understandably, she is not keen on this deal, and with some magic of her own tricks The Kelpie during the Saimhuin festival.

Then there's a couple of legends around The Stone of Morphie in Kincardineshire, which I read about in The Lore of Scotland by Westwood & Kingshill (never far from my desk). This is an origin story for the stone, suggesting it's all that remains of the House of Morphie. The Lord of Morphie had somehow managed to bind a Kelpie to his service through an enchanted halter, and forced the beast to drag the heavy stones which were used to build his castle. One of his human servants, took pity on the Kelpie and removed the halter. The Kelpie, now free, took off to wreak havoc and revenge on The Lord of Morphie, destroying his castle.

So these were some of the inspirations for writing "The Water Horse" as a Legend for Legends of Alba. I ran an early version of this in D&D 5E and it was a really memorable set of encounters, with a satisfying final confrontation and resolution as one of the Player Characters got to decide the fate of The Kelpie. So this is the updated version intended for use with Legends of Alba.

***

The Water Horse

The torrent owes nae debt o' thanks

Fir bursting free it's shackled banks

Augurs

1. A crumbling broch, flooded with silt grey water. Youngsters, drunk on salvaged whisky, plunder the treasures of Brightstone (see below), ruined stronghold of The Trueanvil clan.
2. A raging grey river blocks the way. The Kelpie, as a silver-haired lord, offers to calm its flow for a safe crossing: A trap. D6 Silt Bogles lurk in the shallows.
3. A woeful stonecarver bargains with a grumpy mare, overburdened with salvage from Brightstone. He carries the iron bridle that once bound The Kelpie, broken and irreparable by mortal craft.
4. Horses graze by a silted riverbank, The Kelpie among them as a silver-maned stallion. Any who sit on its back become instantly stuck as The Kelpie carries them off to its domain.
5. Druids from the nearest Stronghold, marooned in their boat as Silt Bogles torment them from a driftwood skiff. The druids know of a secret entrance to The Kelpie’s domain.
6. The Kelpie, as the trampling river, floods the Legend Hex. The river spreads, flooding one hex per day, towards the nearest Stronghold, to be dragged down into The Kelpie’s domain.

Cast

The Kelpie, Each-Uisge, Vengeful Shapeshifter

C25, Trampling hooves [M], silken voice.

Toiled for centuries in service of The Trueanvil Clan, now hates all mortals.

Silt Bogles, misfit subjects of The Kelpie

C10, Silt clod [R]

Launch ambushes from the river, retreating if they lose the upper hand.

Oskar Trueanvil, Woeful Stonemason

C10, fine clothes

Released The Kelpie out of pity. Regrets it.

Treasures of Brightstone

D6	Item	Tainted by
1	Whisky barrel	Greed
2	Golden cup	Sorrow
3	Exquisite cloak	Hubris
4	Carved idol	Guilt
5	Restorative tonic	Cruelty
6	Clan brooch	Avarice

***

If you've read this far, you might be wondering where the Silt Bogles came from. Bogles are a specific type of thing in Legends of Alba and might even get their own post some day but they're in the category of Weird Little Guys that I like to feature in adventures. Some goblins to The Kelpie's Jareth .

Till next time!

Weapons & Attacks

When it comes to rules, my general approach with Legends of Alba has been to build up from a rules skeleton, rather than starting with a fleshed out template and cutting back. So anything that gets added has to earn its place. I'm looking at Weapons and Attacks today.

Celtic Weapons, Edinburgh (public domain)

Characters get Weapons (and Armour) from their Clan, and up till this point there's just been two attributes: Melee [M] and Ranged [R]. But as I've been writing up the Clans I've been kitting out some of them with great weapons, some get paired weapons, others start with a shield. Mechanically there's no distinction between these loadouts and this doesn't feel right to me. At the very least there should be some advantage from using both hands to hold weapons, since you have to sacrifice the potential for wielding a shield to do so. So I added a third Weapon attribute, Two-Handed [2H].

But what sort of advantage do you get for a [2H] Weapon? I thought about a couple of different options:

• A Special Bonus (e.g. +2) for Attacks made with a [2H] Weapon. I didn't like this because this would be in addition to whatever Talent Bonus you're using to make the Attack, and this is a very early stage to be introducing messy stacking modifiers.
• Similar to the above, but the Bonus is determined by a die assigned to each Weapon (e.g. a sword might roll a D6 and a warhammer might roll a D10). I didn't like this for the same reason as above, with the added niggle that you're already rolling a D20 for the Attack, so added more random variance seems bad.
• Attacks made with [2H] Weapons are considered to have Help (so roll to D20 and pick the highest). I didn't like this because now [2H] Weapons can't benefit from setting up creative advantages with terrain or their allies in combat, which is more what Help is supposed to represent.

Playing Break!! recently I was reminded that Attack Bonus in that game is essentially its own stat, which gave me an idea: What if Attack Bonus was defined by Weapon? Completely separate to Talent? I had to think about it a while because I'm changing the core rules of the game here to accommodate a Weapon attribute in a game where combat is not the main focus.

However it is important. There monsters both mundane and magical in Legends of Alba so fighting is going to be important and necessary. And I know for a fact that as a player I'd be baffled if my Character was actually at a disadvantage if they wielded a greatsword vs a knife and shield.

So here's how Attacks and Weapons are laid out now. As you can see a few more attributes have crept in, might delete later.

Attacks

A Character risks life and limb in an attempt to Wound an enemy. Attacks are resolved as Tests.

The Attack Bonus is defined by the Weapon.

The Challenge is defined by the enemy.

Success Wounds the enemy. A Wound is enough to kill or incapacitate most enemies.

On a failed Test, the enemy Wounds the Character (there's a separate procedure for this)

Weapons

Each weapon defines the Bonus to be applied when a Characters attacks with it (e.g. [+3]).

Bastard [B] weapons can be wielded one-handed, or with both hands to improve their Attack Bonus by 1.

Melee [M] weapons can only target enemies next to the attacking Character.

Ranged [R] weapons can target any enemy the attacking Character can see. Characters only suffer Fatigue or Wounds from failed Ranged attacks if their target also wields a Ranged weapon.

Two-handed [2H] weapons require two hands.

Thrown [T] weapons can be used as Ranged weapons but must be recovered before they can be used again.

Example Weapons:

• Dagger [+3][M][T]
• Battleaxe [+4][M][B]
• Spear [+4][M][B][T]
• Longbow [+5][R][2H]
• Paired Blades [+6][M][2H]
• Greataxe [+7][M][2H]