onsdag 22 april 2020

The d13 Tribes of Vacuum Nomads

Reading the spell descriptions in Ben Laurence’s Through Ultan’s Door, I was impressed with how efficient a simple reskinning is for giving flavour to d&d staples. The Fleischguildsmen don't use cause light wounds but Cook Flesh, Shaltromo protects himself with a Shield of Memories instead of Sanctuary. Here's a riff on the ‘just use a bear’ notion (is Jack Guignol the originator? Google points in that direction, at least), using a bandit stat line instead.
 By dropping the vacuum prefix, these d13 tribes should be fairly easy to spirit away from their Red planet surroundings, either as nomads crisscrossing the wilderness around one Lost City or other, or as strange warrior-mystics/cultist.


EMPTY SKIES OF THE RED PLANET 

(introductory lore dump)
Shamash raised up against Humbaba mighty tempests’– Southwind, Northwind, Eastwind, Westwind, Whistling Wind, Piercing Wind, Blizzard, Bad Wind, Wind of Simurru, Demon Wind, Ice Wind, Storm, Sandstorm– thirteen winds rose up against him and covered Humbaba’s face.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Maureen Gallery Kovacs’ translation

The major Winds of the Red Planet have all dissipated, the minor ones forming local climes and wandering trade winds, hermit breezes and dwindling whirlwinds in an ever-present Vacuum. A rare few flock around the Phobian court, vying for the privilege to fan the brow of the Imperial Throne, courtiers anthropomorphized beyond (and into) recognition.
Some, such as the Weather of Jokk and the indentured Breaths of the Canal cities, remain bound through brute force or ancient contracts.
A small number roam the empty plains of the planet, as poisonous ill-winds or sandstorms. Fewer still travel with bands of vacuum nomads.
The latter day civilizations of the Red Planet huddle around the Canals, attempting to hold the Great Vacuum at bay. Trade routes and war campaigns are made according to the concatenations of available climes. Only seldom is travel done in a straight line.
If the citizens of the Canal States do their best to ignore the emptiness next door, the vacuum nomads have embraced it. They form mysterious tribes traversing the silent landscape of a dying planet, bent on bizarre undertakings and moved by strange ethics.

VACUUM NOMADS AS ADDED COMPLICATIONS 

The tribes are, as implied by their name, seldom stationary for any longer period of time. Include them in your wilderness encounter table as a small scout force (1d8, without wind, 25% leader). When rolled, generate the tribe (3d10, with leader and wind) and place it in an adjacent hex. Stats as bandits.

Hieroglyphs as spoor of the nomads
The spoors of the nomads arefirst and foremost signs say­ing something about the hex or an adjacent hex. The vacuum nomads speak their own dialects of the lingua martia, understandable to any native of the Red planet. But in addition, the tribes use ancient hieroglyphs to mark out places of great danger, resting spots and hidden secrets among them­selves. They could be modelled on hobo signs or cuneiform.
A character with 13+ intelligence may use a spare language slot to decipher the meaning of the hieroglyphs. 


THE TRIBE 

The members of the tribe wear...
1 Layers of thin veils, moving as if under water
2 Crusts of glittering mud, made from rare earths and slowly dwindling supply of ancient wines
3 Practical, no-nonsense clothing
4 Elaborate, non-figurative glass masks. Heirlooms.
5 Amber-embroidered kaftans, ever rattling
6 Copper chainmail, covered in verdigris
7 Swarms of overbred hummingbirds in yellows and purples
8 Long hair manes that have never been cut
9 Religious symbols and signs of office from fallen enemies
10 Scales of hydra
11 Impractical but light mineralised tree frames covered with primitive wind chimes
12 Millstone collars of much too long finger bones
13Tight fitting acrobat's leotards
 
...and are currently...
1 Selling their services to local potentate
2 Robbing travellers dressed in red
3 Bartering for an abstract concept with bewildered locals
4 Protecting a canal caravan
5 Fleeing a battle
6 Preparing a ritual
7 Negotiating a marriage with another tribe
8 Excavating their presumed ancestral home
9 Their chief is arguing with the tribal wind. The children cries.
10 Playing for their tribal wind. Smoking, drinking age-old teas.
11 Starving and thirsty
12 On a pilgrimage
13 Finding and abducting a new avatar for their patron

They worship their patron...
1 The Empty Lady
2 The Mineral Mirth
3 The Hidden Constellation
4 The Torso of Evenus
5 The Lichen Covenant
6 The Bull of Six-And-Seven Horns
7 The Petitioned Drought
8 The Clay of Many Colours
9 The Tindalos Hound-Mother
10 The Palace of a Thousand Suites (The Anemochory Godhead)
11 The Deimosian Litter
12 The Mystery of the Burning Lungs
13 The Tiger-of-Three-Shades

...who demands...
1 That the tribal song never ends, even for a moment
2 The co-mingling of disparate bloods
3 The shrouding of all hands
4 The desecration of long-forgotten temples
5 The damming of canals
6 The protection of travellers and massacre of the sessile
7 The decoration of abandoned architecture
8 That the tribe breeds and multiplies
9 Impossible wagers
10 The excavation of Phaëton-from-the-Skies
11 Novel culinary sensations
12 That sun beams never touch members of their congregation
13 Expeditious assaults and retreats

THE WIND

It is impossible to cross the Great Vacuum without wind, and every tribe has bound its fate to one of those fickle elementals. Use djinni stats, but with the weakness Addicted to music: Will be mesmerized by any new song or music it encounters.  
 
d13 Tribal Winds
1 Lacks a tribal wind, wear masks with imprisoned sylphs.
2 A perfumed summer breeze, gentle and forgiving
3 (The still before) a thunderstorm
4 A sophisticated dilettant searching for its primeval roots; doesn’t want to expose itself as a poser to tribe
5 Plague wind. Careful not to infects its humans.
6 An addict of wind chimes, tormented by bad conscience
7 An autumn gale, memento mori incarnate
8 A storm in a tea cup, choleric
9 A whirlwind, moving everything within reach
10 A mordant mistral, making everyone ill at ease
11 A former sandstorm, arranging mandala like grain patterns
12 A whispering cross-wind, tearing your eyes
13 A major Clime, tricked into service. Looking for a way out.


THE TRIBE IS LED BY

A lvl 1d4+1 fighter (1-2), thief (3-4), cleric (5) or magic-user (6)
 
Name
1 Polypée
2 Tseresia
3 Aimo
4 Ceder
5 Twelfth
6 Vers
7 Önska
8 Tranĉilo
9 Kahle
10 Enterigita
11 Sonĝo
12 Ĉenataj
13 Elfosaĵo 

Title
1 Sparapet
2 Tribune
3 Reciter
4 ... the Anointed One
5 ...the Eunuch
6 -Speaks-Last
7 Sibyl of Kison
8 of Monochrome Visions
9 Shofet
10 Prytaneis
11 Nomarch
12 Marasi
13  ...the Mnemonic

Personality
1 Opportunist
2 Resentful
3 Erratic
4 Loyal
5 Stubborn
6 Amorous
7 Brutal
8 Melancholic
9 Vain
10 Extravagant
11 Ancient
12 Howling
13 Stoic

...who carries...
1 A complicated metal flute. Belonged to a virtuoso at the Continuous Opera of Ochus. Charms audience once/week.
2 A wig made of impossibly thin strands of copper. Shields the wearer’s thoughts, but imparts a more-than-human coquetry.
3 Beautiful polydactyl white leather gloves. Wearer gains extra thumbs (+2 thief skills, no disadvantage for using two weapons).
4 A tardigrade shaped golden censer. Incense of the Sea (sealed minor water elemental, produces a cup of salt/day).
5 A necklace with kernels and seeds in impractical ampoule. One from each plant in the botanical garden of the Sleeping City.
6 Tattoo needles and green ink. Infected: Any tattoo will spread over the body until stopped by scars or burned skin.
7 Sandals with tribal history in pictograms engraved into soles.
8 The Executioner’s axe of Niph-Below-The-Sand. Attacks those that abuse hospitality in its presence, wielded or not.
9 The Ark of Dybbuk. Carries 1d4-1 ancient souls, waiting for new bodies to inhabit (demands a ritual).
10 Unbound verse by The Poet in the Tower. ST or inflicts madness if heard by the uninitiated.
11 A sturgeonite copper scroll. Ciphered map to caviar cache.
12 The Key of Second Solomon (opens any mundane lock once)
13 A Mantle of sand. Minor sand spirit forms a stylish mantle around the wearer of the contract (+1 AC, can’t cross water, en­cumbering when wet). Signed contract in silver locket.