SUN COUNTRY

But Dungeon S., I Hear You Cry, What Are the Sun Countries Like?

Several Male Warrior-Slaves Survey the Land

Sun Country is a land far away, to the other side of the Animal Lands.  There, the Sunfolk sacrifice to Azi Dahaka, terrible Sky-God of Horses and Serpents.  They are a rigidly matriarchal and theocratic society, where non-noble non-women are considered chattel.  The men and other slaves are forced to build many pyramids to honor a vast, intricate hierarchy of celestial beings.
You can swap the genders if you want, it doesn't matter.  If the women are in charge, they make the men grow absurdly long beards which are chained to their feet.  If the men are in charge, they make the women grow long hair filled with clinking trinkets so they can't sneak away.  If a different gender is in charge they lord it over everybody else.

The horses of that land are tawny-haired and renowned for their ability to stare into the sun for many hours without blinking.  The Princess of Horses lives in Sun Country, and is much feared for her venomous tongue, and for intentionally setting brushfires.

Do Not Fuck With the Princess of Horses

The Sunfolk are known for their fearsome Hoplites, who wear thick armor of gold and bronze.  They are among the most disciplined and tireless killers in the World.  They gain power from the sun, and are nearly impossible to dislodge while the sun gleams on their broad shoulders.

The Sunfolk despise the free-wheeling Animal Tribes, and consider them subhuman.  The lowly tuber - symbol of Nomad independence - is reviled and scorned in the Country of the Sun.  Corn, obviously, is the staple crop of the Sunfolk.  Potato-eaters are rounded up by the state police, secretly tried, and publicly killed.  This is considered necessary to protect the state from sedition and sabotage - slaves are, after all, cheap and readily replenished in war.  Death is the only punishment in Sun Country, but it comes in 1,000 different rigidly-proscribed forms.

Sunfolk are copper-skinned and robust, considered handsome by most other tribes.  Their temperament is sanguine.  The men are stoutly-muscled, and the women buxom.  Their hair is bright red-gold.  Free people shave their heads, that the sun may better shine on them and fill them with power.  Hats are unknown.  The men generally grow elaborate beards.

LONE PINE HILL

Lone Pine Hill is visible from several miles in each direction.  On the Eastern side of the Kos River Valley, it rises from the surrounding gently sloped valley-floor.  Atop the hillock is a pine, ancient and vast.  It crawls upward, gnarl upon gnarl, a dense titan bristling with dark needles, hundreds of feet high and host to a self-contained ecosystem.

The undisputed master of that ecosystem is the White Serpus of Lone Pine Hill.  Albino and blue-eyed, it spends its days nestled in and amongst the innumerable curving boughs of the Lone Pine, descending only to destroy and devour anything larger than a Murder-Crow that passes beneath its home.

Once, the Serpus was a beautiful young woman.  Her lover traveled far away to war and never returned.  She waited by the Lone Pine until finally her spirit, fetted with jealously at the thought of him finding another, transformed her into a Serpus.  Since then, she has waited in the timeless manner of the Serpus for her lover to return.  Unfortunately, the mind of the Serpus has largely taken control by now, causing her to coil and to choke, to strangle and to envenom and to feed, and to spend dreaming decades in reptilian stupor, dreaming of her lost love.

The Serpus will not attack a young male warrior who does not attack her first.  Instead, she will descend silently and stare with bright blue eyes directly into his face until he does something.  If he treats her with kindness, he may be able to keep her as a "pet".
The only way to transform the Serpus back into the woman she once was is to pronounce (truthfully) that you love her at the Island-Temple at Par-Kos.

Amidst the tangled roots of the Pine lie half-bured the detritus of the Serpus.  Most of it consists of crinkly shed skin and the occasional animal bone or Lowder husk, but wedged between two massive roots is the skeleton of a Far-Traveler from the late 19th Century.  His corpse bears a large silver belt buckle attached to a shred of leather belt, and an antique (but still functional) .50 caliber revolver containing 2 spent shells and 4 unspent shells (should be treated as a magic item - non-Earthlings probably will not immediately grasp how it functions.  Medium range, deals 2d6 damage) along with a Bowie knife (treat as non-magical Dagger +1).  He also wears a gold ring on one finger and a pair of steel spurs.  Other than that, only a few buttons remain.

the GREAT CATACLYSM & the UNDERWORLD

It's tough to write about the Great Cataclysm.
For one thing, it's technically still happening.  Adventures in Kos are the story of the ongoing defunction of a once-grand and noble people.  The other reason is, the Cataclysm affected physical, universal laws (such as time, causation and correlation, chemistry, physics, genetics, etc).  Therefore, it is difficult to describe.
For example: in some places, the Great Cataclysm is still happening.  It happened hours ago.  The dead rose from their graves.  The oceans turned to shrieking squalls of red blood as the mountains shattered.
Poets, drug addicts and evangelists went insane by the thousands.  Every apocalyptic prophecy turned out to be true simultaneously.  The men and women of those places are still fighting the war.
In other places, the Cataclysm happened 40 or 50 years ago.  Pre-Cataclysmic technology is considered magical, and effectively is.  Man has descended to a primitive state, little better than apes.
In yet other places, the Cataclysm was generations ago. Civilizations are beginning to rise, resembling the old ones in some ways but substantially different in others.
In still other places, the ancient monuments have dwindled long to lonely marble mounds.  The dust that once composed them is carried by wind and wave to place unrecognizable by inhabitants of the forgotten former world.
Pre-Cataclysmic knowledge is largely mythical.  "Sorcery" is simply a method of manipulating the illogical physics which compose this brave new realm, like a programmer hacking a computer.  Bizarre and competitive new species have arisen, seriously challenging the future existence of mankind.

Most of Kos, as written it so far, takes place in one or two of the latter categories.  The town of Pilgrim's Passing occupies a relatively neutral area, as does the majority of the Kos River Basin and the surrounding Wildwoods, Lands of Woe, and Harshwater on the West Side of the River.
However, Thrundunmun exists in such a situation that the Cataclysm is still taking place, and will do so forever in this place.
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE:
"I have developed a habit where I simply lie in my bunk at night.  I'm not the only one who does, but I go in early.  I lie and I look at the ceiling and I picture it as the sky.  And I look at the stars that you see when you close your eyes, and imagine they are the stars, and I am looking at the sky, which we can no longer see. When I do this, I wonder if, in all of the coincidences that happen in the world, maybe you will be closing your eyes and doing the same thing, and looking at the stars inside your eyelids too, and - I know it makes no sense - somehow it will be like you and I are looking at real stars together again.  And so I go in early, to increase the odds it'll be at the same time.  I do it alot, actually; we don't sleep much any more.  There's not much time between attacks and other things that occupy the days which have no sunrise.
It's temporary, though, like everything.  The pain and fatigue are just temporary sensations.
It'll end, and it will seem like it wasn't that long ago, when we're together again."
Letter carried by Red Courier.  Delivered to a location which was found to have been abandoned.  Letter remanded to Secretary General of the Red Knights, Thrundunmunn.
 Nort B. Unthbe, 33rd Red Light Legion"

One area is in fact actually the rotting carcass of an incarnate being of physical decay, which occupies a space the size of a peninsula (such as Cape Cod or Cornwall).
Other areas are actually infinite.  The Endless Mountains, as far as can be ascertained via both experiment and magic, have no physical endpoint.  Neither does the 7th Desert of the 7 Deserts.
Nor the South-Land Sea, to the South.  The Eastern Mountain Country is poisonous to body and mind and thus considered forever unknown and unknowable

In an area like Pilgrim's Passing, the land called "Kos" is actually the area once occupied by a nation called the Kingdom of Kos, now shattered and irrevocable.  The few poor survivors of the disasters and the predations of savage new inhuman inhabitants must now contend with a vastly different world.  They are a hard people. Items and knowledge from before the Cataclysm are hoarded by the very powerful.  "Magic", (understood as the language and culture of the Pre-Cataclysmic People) is in the infancy of understanding, and largely misapplied (with disastrous consequences).
People receive rare reports from other communities but far-off lands are a mystery.  Yet, new religions have arisen from foreign lands to confront the ancient Kossick deities.  The barrens and even the roads have fallen into serious disrepair and are flocked with brigands, lunatics, witches, hungry beasts and monsters of all description.  They are not untraveled, but Merchants and other adventurers are often considered brave to the point of dangerous lunacy.
And yet, even as the White Mounds of the First Age wither into dust, there is yet no end.  The society of Kos will continue to slip away, forever, always leaving tantalizing pieces but growing farther every year. This is the true Curse of the Great Cataclysm: it made itself permanent, except in the ways that the players change it.  Those are not only permanent, but often permanent to all other players of Kos, and all interpretations of Kos, as long as I am the Dungeon Master.

In Pilgrim's Passing, the standard starting town, most people don't know this.  Most people don't figure stuff like this out until they've raided a few dungeons.

THE UNDERWORLD
The Underworld is literally the place underneath the world.  It is a Hell, populated by montrously otherworldly beings and the severely insane.  The Underworld is easy to find - go to the deepest place you know, and keep going down.  In the Deep Dark, everything drips downwards - all of the evil, all of the liquid, all of the corpses, all of the hunger, all of the treasure, all of the strongest and blackest.  At the bottom is the Grey Sea.  The Grey Sea is where the Unworthy go when they die.  It is a sea
made of their souls.  It can be navigated and traveled, by certain measures.  The places it leads to are terrible, and sometimes the terrible things in these places are able to get the World In Which We Live.  These are called "Bleed-Throughs", "Intrusions", "Demons", "Spirits", "Sandestins", etc.  They have a connection to the world of Death (they are always its vessels, unwitting or otherwise), and spread It everywhere they go.  Some take on human flesh as a vessel; others exist invisible to most eyes, and still others take on bizarre shapes of their own devising and understanding.  Some used to be human.  Some philosophers conjecture that it is these creatures who, in fact, rule the Underworld.  This may be.  The only way to escape the Grey Sea and the Underworld is to die in an interesting way - in which case, Adventurers (who are heroes by virtue of occupation - they always die in an interesting way) ascend to the Hall of Heroes*


*Which takes the form of a piece of notebook paper with the name of the dead character written large in crayon, with the method of their death and perhaps a few details or fond memories.  Occasionally they are adorned with extra distinguishment or salient comments from former comrades.  It is whispered that sometimes, those characters can even be contacted through certain complicated spells.
The piece of paper is kept tacked to the wall of the room where we play D&D

ramble

Patrick Stuart got me thinking about why i do what i do on this blog, and i wanted to write about it.

i am a firefighter by vocation and do not play Dungeons & Dragons (or the various other iterations of fantasy roleplaying game that have since appeared or been unearthed) very much any more.  Nonetheless, I find these ideas crowding my head and i feel compelled to put them in words sometimes.

That is why the tone is frequently inconsistent, the writing is sloppy and poorly edited, things often aren't cited (especially art, which is usually from an ancient hard-drive which contains years worth of collected digital art and has been transferred and lost several times)

[sorry my little brother came in and started doing a "prayer routine" he claims to have learned "far to the east"


and i lost my place]

anyway, i try to live my life in such a way that all of my actions and sentences can be ended with the phrase ",....MOTHERFUCKER!"
as in
1d4
1. "I QUIT, MOTHERFUCKER"
2. "So then I went out and got some god damn ice cream, motherfucker"
3. "I'll drink as much as I want, MOTHERFUCKER"
4. "I'm swearing so much because I just got a new tattoo, motherfucker"

so, while this vocabulary of my life doesn't involve sentences like "SO THEN I EDITED A BLOG POST FOR AN HOUR....... MOTHERFUCKER???", it does involve sentences like "So then I just threw some trash about elves on the internet and didn't edit it, motherfucker."  so, uh, thanks for reading.......

YOU HAVE SPENT TIME AMONGST THE WRETCHES

THIS CHART SHALL BE ROLLED WHENEVER A PLAYER-CHARACTER'S TIME IS SPENT AMONGST A LESSER STRATA OF SOCIETY (see *1  and *2 and *5)

ROLL 1d20 (see 3* and *4)
1. You have slowly and methodically acquired a life-long immunity to bloodborne pathogens
2. You got fleas, but not as bad as everybody else (-1 to all rolls and AC until 2 weeks are spent in better company)
3-10. You have got fleas and lice.  The itching is unbearable, and will remain so until you seek proper medical and spiritual treatment (-2 to same)
11-12. You got fleas, lice, ticks; rats have crawled on you and worms have squirmed into you.  constant scratching has turned bite areas and rashes into oozing sores  -2 to all rolls and lose 1 level (until nursed properly and patiently)
13-15. Parasites are winning the war against your body.  -1d4 to all attributes per week (starting immediately) until healing from a soothe-wound
7-18. Emerged from the situation unscathed, but will forever carry a faint stench of sewage.  -2 Charisma
19. Rats and other vermin bit you amidst filth, and you have contracted a veneral disease
20. Rats and other vermin bit you, and you have the plague










*1. That is to say, a lower strata of society than that which they currently enjoy
*2. Reduce roll by -1 for every level of Rogue/Thief/Specialist (See *4), or every quantifiable level of Foulness in a Fighter, or every positive Constitution modifier
*3. aescetic PRIESTS & MYSTICS need not roll; they have all of these symptoms already
*4. MAGSMEN, THIEVES and MASTER THIEVES need not roll for similar reasons
*5. Reduce roll by -1 if player-character spends the whole time waving a hankie around and inhaling special salts and smokes, while complaining

ON THE ROADS - WANDERERS in KOS

ON THE ROADS - (some) WANDERERS in KOS
When traveling the roads, PCs will encounter many other people traveling from place to place.  The Incantation for Safe Travel only prevents
non-sapient monsters and Bleed-Throughs from treading upon the road; other humans and beastmen are eager to relieve travelers of their valuables.

Make a check every 2 turns
Near a city: 85% of 1 encounter, 40% chance of 2 simultaneously
Near a town: 50%
Near a village: 25%
Near a bridge: 25%
Everywhere else: 5%

Most of the time, there will be a visible dustcloud to indicate the presence of another party at 1/4 miles.  however, if the encounter roll was double-digits (as in, 77, 88, etc)
then a curve in the road or a hill pass blocks the other party from view until the last second, at which point you will be in Close Encounter range.  Characters with survival training
or extraordinary senses may be able to avert surprise; this is left to the DM's imagination of circumstance

i

1. HOSTILE
2. CARAVAN
3. ADVENTURERS
4. PILGRIMS

1. HOSTILE ENCOUNTER
1. slavers
2. raiders
3. brigands
4. louts
5. local villain
6. "toll keepers"
7. con men
8. monsterfolk raid
9. Dust Devils
10. Wayward Knight

2. CARAVAN
 1. 1d20 freemen to market, +1d10 tradesmen, 50% chance of 1d6 youths armed with simple weapons, 25% chance of local authority figure (elder, warrior, etc).
 2. 1d20 farms from market, same as above but with smaller, more valuable possessions (+1d20 gold)
 3. moving away - 1d3-1 freeman and his family carting all their posessions on an pack lizard. eager to know road ahead, know little of area
 4. messenger - carrying an important message of some kind.  Heavily armed, well-paid and with an ill-tempered and very fast riding-bird
 5. 1d4 x 1d4 haunted-looking people.  they have seen ghastly things and wander without purpose
 6. LOCAL FIGURE & RETINUE
 7. surly locals - pretend to be traders/huntsmen, unwilling to trade, will give deliberately false and dangerous advice
 8. mishap - blocking the road and causing annoyance is an overturned cart, vicious donkey, etc.  delay of 1d4 hours (checking for encounters meanwhile)
 9. Slaves for sale
 10. Jon Mith
 11. "Rooster"
 12. rich folks traveling with large retinue
 13. Soldiers - templars, knights, light infantry, cavalry, heavy infantry, mixed units, mercenary band, militia, free companies
 14. evil caravan in disguise - yellow morths wait in the carts among other horrors
 15. giant mammalian creature carries a small town on its back
 16. fortune tellers! forecasts!  lucky charms!

3. Adventurers
 1. 1d2 MERCENARIES.  Currently looking for work (50%) or already on a mission (50%).  friendly with any other members of
 the Mercenary Brotherhood.  In general, their advice can be trusted.  Mercenaries often travel together for mutual protection.
 2. 1d3 Skalds, willing to play for money or teach  new song for 100 Lunars
 3. traveling smith
 4. Philosopher a) looking to hire somebody to get something, b) visiting a special and dangerous place, c) visiting a local friend, d) seeking muscle to take somewhere dangerous for little reason
 5. peddler / tinker
 6. woodsmen
 7. prospector(s)
 8. adventuring gang
 9. Enigmat


f the encounter roll is 00, you have encountered one of the Six Slain Thanes or the Pale King himself.  Pray to your Gods for clemency

Barbarian Gods (western)

BARBARIAN GODS (western)




WAHU, Who Administers the Sacred Cut
Taught mankind the Peaceful Cut, which allows animals to die without pain and sends them to the good afterlife.
Teaches men to survive and fulfill the circle of life or whatever.  gives men moral guidance in life.  renders the meat of the animal.
guides animals and men into death.  Promises that Heroes shall never die.  Teaches men warfare.  priests are spiritual leaders / social psychiatrists and preside over many important functions of hunter-gatherer society
Epithets: Gentle One, Found-Child, Peaceful Slayer, Butcher-God


BONE-SMITH GOD, the Sculptor of Corpses
Processes the dead animal to make tools.  Melts hooves & bones for glue.  Uses feathers for fletching.  Uses bones as needles or arrowheads.
Tans and sews hides.  Makes bowstrings from guts.  Makes thread from hair.  Renders dead trees into timber and charcoal.  Renders the Earth's bones
into knives and other tools.  mastered fire and invented art, weapons and traps.
Works with Wahu to ensure nothing goes to waste.  Guides dead animals to the afterlife.  priests are craftsmen; better craftmanship = more favor, but they are viewed as creepy corpse-handlers by some.  Sometimes said to be an aspect of the
Iron Lord
Epithets: Great Renderer, Skinner-God, Old Bones, Rattler


DOG-FRIEND, Who Guards the Herd
Simple god who is friend to gentle animals.  Protects the herd and also disciplines them.  He & Wahu are allies.
Guards the spirits of animals on their way to and from the afterlife.  Chases Sun-Elk across the sky and eats her at night.
Then he regrets it and howls at the moon til she is re-incarnated the next morning.
Priests are intelligent dogs or dog-trainers or people who love dogs.  this cult is mostly popular amongst the Dog Folk Tribe and is considered subsidiary by all other Animal Nomad Folk
Epithets: Brother-Dog


MOTHER DARKNESS
Friends: None. Primordial goddess.  Lives in the dark places of the Earth and between the stars.  Ally of creatures which prefer
darkness.  Teaches witchcraft, shape-changing, how to stay hidden and contact spirits.  Some say all will return to her one day


GRANDFATHER MORTALITY, Who Judges the Dead
The first man, and also the first to die.  Sun-Elk licked him from the ice. Mated with Mother Darkness and so produced the human race.
Resides in the afterworld and judges men according to their deeds.  Jealous of the living.
Epithets: Flesh-Man


SUN-ELK
the first animal, a cow with nourishing teats who also carries the sun in her antlers.  she licked Grandfather Mortality from the Primordial Ice.
Nourishes the world with her milk.


The MOUNTAIN that WALKS
Primordial being of the earth, mountains, and ice.  he is currently deep in slumber, and has been for eons.
it is said that in ancient times, he mated with the Sky-Serpent to produce the World.
Said to resemble a furry mountain with immeasurably large tusks and gaping caverns for eyes
worshipped by mountain animals and the Wild Polar Tribesmen.  prophecies say that one day he will come out of the North
to crush all before him and freeze the seas, ushering in a new ice age.  his worshipers despise technology, and most humans.
Sometimes considered foremost among the SULLEN GODS of the NORTHMEN


BULL-GOD is also worshiped in the WESTERN BARBARIAN LANDS of PARAX


STAG-LORD, God of the Forest
Stag-Lord lives in the Wildwood.  He teaches human worshipers mastery of the bow, and encourages them to hunt other men.
He hates humans who deface the forest and wishes to see them brutally slaughtered.
his antlers are wide and his arrows drip with human blood.
Wild forest animals obey his call.
there are some Pygmy-Tribesmen who worship this red-tooth'd god, and a few others here and there in the isolated forests of BARBARIAN PARAX, in the WEST

Alright, listen / WESTERN WILDWOOD

i'm just going to start posting my notes. i don't have time*, ever, to update a blog with actual posts / essays / etc, although i admire very much those who do.  so instead, i'm just going to start posting my notes, in unadulterated and unedited format.  many of them will not be original, good, or even faintly coherent, but i dunno.  maybe there will be some ideas here and there for people to swipe.  here's an example

WESTERN WILDWOOD

Ferocious caws are audible from up to a half-mile distant.  Here, a murder of 15 Gorecrows are attempting to fight off an invasion of 5 Chop-Hawks.
The Gorecrows have been living in the branches and in a hollow halfway up a large tree hanging out over the cliff for many generations now, but the Chop-Hawks
want it because of the superior vantage point it offers over the nearby Wildwood.  Both groups are willing to fight to the death, although if the Gorecrows
become badly wounded they can be seen flying into the large hollow in the tree order to hide (where they will make a last stand).  Gorecrows are well-knowwn
to collect trinkets, and they have a few objects in the hollow of the tree (which is somewhat dangerous to reach).  Inside, amidst a huge amount of nesting,
eggshells, some lizard and mammal corpses, and other bird stuff, can be found
a) a human skull with some shreds of flesh & hair still attached.  belongs to a former member of a gang in Amble Edge and is inhabited by his ghost.  if touched, capable of communicating very faintly that it desires to be returned there, where it will haunt the gang forever (because they drove the skull's original owner off, hence his ignominious death at the hands of birds)
b) a simple gold ring consisting of two paralell bands.
c) a necklace of 2 large gold coins strung together, each about half the diameter of your palm.  One coin bears an emblem of a shield, and the other a spread-winged eagle.  belonged to a member of a defunct knightly order
d) a small, cheap, gold earring, with a setting where a gem was once attached.
e) some junk - part of a belt with buckle, a tangle of copper shavings, and a dented and battered tin cup.


COMMON CREATURES d20
1. Carnivorous Goats (infinite number)
2. Fanged Impalas (3 herds of 3d12)
3. Gem-Spiders
4. Gore-Crows
5. Chop-Hawks
6. Lizards
7. Lowder
8. Kraw
9. Giant Slugs
10. Fire-Flies (night only)
11. Yard-Long Crawler
12. Bale Snail
13. Screaming Crickets
14. Snakes (Boa, vipers, Stake)
15. 1 Tyrannosaur lives in eastern Wildwood (there was a mated pair, but one was slain by a man with a sword.  The remaining dinosaur is a female who is afraid to leave her eggs)
16. 1 flock of Blaggers sometimes floats overhead
17. 1 Bagu lives in south-eastern wildwood
18. 2 Leopards roam the forest.  Their lair is a willow tree
19. 1 Giant Bear roams the forest
20. 2 Corbins (not affiliated with each other- night only)


SAPIENT CREATURES d8
1. Ulnot the Leaf Collector - strange little blue man on the run from intergalactic mercantile authorities.  sells potions at illegal prices.  rare things  = better potions.  Mercane will pay a hefty reward for his whereabouts
2. The Blue Knight - challenges everybody to duels for some reason.  very insistent.  very skilled fighter.  wears blue platemail, rides a giant blue horse, and has a blue sword + lance + shield + tent + flag.  when armor is removed he is revealed to be a giant half-blue half-normal human with stupifyingly bad hygiene.
3. The lonely carnivorous goat herder - nice old guy.  can talk to goats.  sells goats / goat-related products.  desirous of news from the outside world.
4. Gunder the evil animal trainer - travels with 1d8 random mammals (1. Bear 2. Leopard 3. Wolf 4.Double-Wolf 5.juvenile giant leopard).  trains his animals to kill people and bring back the treasure.  feared throughout the forest
5 - 6. Hunter (1d4:
   1. Amble Edge Hunter - amiable, folksy, violent
    2. Amble Edge Gang Member - conducting nefarious business
    3. Northman Hunter Group - 1d3 northmen, friendly but taciturn, willing to trade walrus tusks, sea-lion       pelts, or even their famed Giant Longbows for metal goods
    4. Tark the Croc-Man: very friendly for a crocodile-man; exiled from Crocodile-Man society for religious crocodile reasons)
7.-8/ A small tribe of Ape-Men.   act like the apes from the beginning of 2001: a Space Odyssey.  Led by a shaman who can summon ape-ghosts in the form of flying screaming ape skulls that harass enemies

OTHER STUFF
1. Fallen pukel pole.  Connects to two defunct Pukel generators and 1 inert Pukel Man (stats as stone golem).  Can only be operated/understood by devout Kos worshippers
2. Mortally wounded tyrannosaur atop man with silver sword - sword is Space Alien
3. Corpse has some *minor random treasure but a viper beneath - Ref save or get bit then Fortitude or take 1d6 damage per round for 1d6 rounds
4. Treasure-Moth - glowing moth always leads to nearest major treasure.  attacking it is a dire sin (-1d100 respect from ancestors, superstitious people)
5. Yellow area... (see DUNGEON ALPHABET)
6. The birds here have a defense mechanism in the form of song that makes beings become confused and fall asleep, and there are carnivorous vines and lichens nearby to reap the spoils.  Fieldcraft save of best Fortitude character or everyone falls asleep for 1d20 hours and finds they have lost most of their treasure to sticky trees.  if you roll a 1 you are being swallowed by a carnivorous tree when you wake up. no treasure
7. There are a number of sticky slime-covered vines here, and a small but opportunistic hyena pack lurks nearby.  the vines stay sticky even if cut, and can be used for various purposes including making a powerful glue; they are highly flammable (but resistant to acid).  Fieldcraft save of most Skilled character or get stuck + attacked by hyenas if you make any noise trying to get free (Violence check or something better)
8. Touching a shriek-vine will cause it to emit a high-pitched ultrasonic whine, which predators have learned means
there is food nearby.  Fieldcraft save of most Skilled character or +85% chance of encounter
9. Candlebloom is a small, wierd little plant that emits light at night to attract insects.  Useful as a dim candle.  Goes
out 2d2-1 hours after being plucked, growing gradually dimmer in the meanwhile
10. SERPUS ATTACK














*by "time", i mean motivation

THE IRIDESCENT GROTTOES

1. The Entrance Cavern - Chert, dim light from outside

1d4 Frog-Dogs lurk here, in randomly determined (1d6) side-passages (1.1 - 1.6).  There will always be 1d4 Frog-Dogs present, no matter how many are killed.  They will attack anyone passing through, unless bribed with food. 

Undigestable remnants of meals remain in the side-passages.  Each side-passage is so low it can only be entered by crawling, and pitch-dark.  Treasures are as follows:

1.1 - 4 stone arrowheads, 6 silver Moons

1.2 - Nothing

1.3 - A large, heavy silver cross of the type symbolic of the Church of Io.  This is a holy symbol to those who worship that God.  Crosses such as these are sometimes awarded to those who perform generous deeds for the Church, or as gifts to young people on their way to service in the Church.  Worth 50 Lunars.

1.4 - Broken sword with aluminum hilt.  Worth 10 Lunars.

1.5 - A knobbled Carnivorous Goat drinking horn.  The initials K.L. are neatly stamped into the steel endplate.  1 Gold Sun.

1.6 - 4 pretty quartz pebbles and 4 silver Lunars.

2. The Mushroom Chambers

Limestone, mud floor, dimly lit by Rope Vines.

The floor descends down a muddy slope about 3 yards to this chamber with a 30-foot-high ceiling.

This cavern contains a mystical fungus garden, dimly lit by subterranean glowing vines hanging from the ceiling.

If searched, each turn spent reveals 2d6 potentially useful or dangerous mushrooms or creatures, whose location should be randomly determined.

1. Purple moss.  Passing within 20 feet causes Endurance roll.  Failure means falling asleep for 3d6 hours.  Eating causes permanent coma.

2. Brown moss.  Passing within 20 feet causes Endurance roll at -3.  Failure means sneezing loudly (roll for Wandering Monsters) and uncontrollably for 1d4 turns.  

3. Crumbs of Darkness.  Eating forces Endurance roll - failure indicates 1d6 damage, success indicates gaining 1d4 temporary Spell Points.

4. Great Throne.  About 20 feet high, with purple fuzz on top.  This fuzz is very nutritious.  Each mushroom yields about one pound if climbed, and each pound can substitute a days' rations and is worth 1 Lunar.

5. Cave-Angler.  Save vs POW at +1 or become entranced by the pretty glow.  Once entranced, the angler will attempt to bite you at +3, dealing 1d4 damage if successful, and then scurrying off into the shadows whether it succeeds or not.

6. Rope Vine.  If cut off from the root mass, this vine can easily be utilized as 50 ft. of strong rope.  It also glows faintly in the dark.  Alchemists can render this vine into Blue blade venom; Piku will pay 5 Lunars for it. Poisonous if eaten.

7. Tower Cap.  Giants of the fungus forest; scrape the ceiling at 30 feet.  Can be made into logs if cut. The bottom of the cap bears a ring of edible brown fuzz.  1 mushroom has a days' worth of rations, but it spoils quickly if collected.

8. Plump Helmet.  Tasty and harmless mushroom.

9. 1d6 edible rock snails; harmless

10. swarm of 1d12 flying bio-luminescent shrimp.  Attracted to light; they will swarm thickly around torches and lanterns.  Not a problem when there's only one, but for every additional one there's a 5% chance they'll put the torch out.  Delicious when boiled

11. Pack of 2d12 Giant Cave Fleas scurry across your feet.  Make a reflex save or suffer 1 damage from opportunistic bites.

12. Elf Tears; small, softly glowing mushroom. heal 1d10+1 HP if eaten.

3. The White Hallway

Chert, pitch black.  Climbs 15 feet from 2. Mushroom Chamber

Empty.  Sound of falling water quite audible from Area 4.

4. Water Chamber

Limestone with striations of chert and microcline.  Pitch black.

A huge chamber whose bottom is filled with water.  The entrance from Area 3 projects over a 2-yard-wide ledge, 3 yards above the surface of the water.  Those travelling without light will surely fall in.

The ledge is connected to another via a few Tower Cap logs laid across.  It requires a Skill check at +3 to cross without slipping and falling into the water. 

Two Slithes wait in the water below.  Clearly visible to those with Witchsight, but nearly invisible to anyone else without strong light.  They will quickly attack anyone who falls into the water.

The water is only a few feet deep; tall characters can make a Skill check to simply stand up to avoid drowning.

The other ledge is two yards across and six long, and leads to Area 4a.  

The origin of the splashing sound can be found in the opposite wall; it is a small waterfall which flows in from some distance outside.  Those swimming up this waterfall will travel perhaps a quarter-mile underground before reaching an entrance for the water in the middle of Wander Marsh.

NOTE uh this is a work in progress so check back from time to time i guess and it'll be updated