Jeffs Questions

I have been meaning to do this for like forever now and I need to get this done for the Stones game so I'll have these answers up here later in the week.

1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

•  The Religion of the Common lands is called the 100,000. It is inclusive of just about any religion you can find in Deities and Demi-gods or any of a number of other sources. The groupings/pantheons among the Gods are:
• The Lords of Light - Gods of a Nurturing, genial and caring nature
• The Night Lords - Gods of a deliberately sadistic, warlike and cruel nature 
• The Mad Gods - Gods unfathomable to the Common-folks, strange, weird, human like  gods, commonly but no always destructive
• The Elder Gods - inhuman, alien, uncaring, outer gods [Yep them]
• The Spirits of House and hearth - common house hold spirits of inanimate objects or concepts
• The Ancestor Spirits - personal family spirits of past family members  
• The Greater Elemental Lords - Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Aether
• Mother Nature - the gestalt spirit of all nature
• All Father - the gestalt spirit of all intelligence
• The Malignance - the gestalt spirit of decay/entropy

Temples are dedicated to;

• The 100,000 - best to be safe then sorry. 
• The pantheons
• A revered Deity with associated shires to the associated pantheon 

 Druidic and Shamanistic sites tend to venerate the spirit "houses"


2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

• Smithies, a small towns/neighborhoods  Miscellanea store, open markets and specialty vendors. Its common in a fair sized town or rural farming community to find a Coaching Inn which will have all the above located under one roof along side dining and accommodation.     

3. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

• Specialty stores in major cities. Or a store in a monster enclave or city. 

4. Who are the mightiest wizards in the common lands?

• The Dread Daetheon Kurrz "aka" Kurrz the Accursed
• Artesia Earthshaker aka The Sungold Sorceress
• Maegesh Gelash aka Maegesh the Meddlesome       

5. Who can best the greatest warriors in the land?

• The Knave of Knives Erises Five Fingers
• Raigre the Reaver 
• Ottavio de'Malatesta 

 6. Who is the richest person in the land?

• The Emperor  
• Diedric Brueghel the not so frugal 

7. Where can we go to get some magical healing?

• Provided you are a worshiper or can convince a worshiper to petition on your behalf you can receive healing from a temple. 

• Additionally it is possible to find healing charms and potions for sale at a Miscellanea store.

8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions:

• poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, - A temple
• polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath - A Sorcerer

9. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

• There are no organized guilds since the guild-wars and the Empires Fall
• There are however many secret societies of mages which pool there resources for mutual protection and benefit (they are however highly suspect of outsiders and protective of their knowledge)  

10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

•  Major cities and the occasional mid sized town (that is there is none in Sandypoint)  

11. Where can I hire mercenaries?

•  Isaleaire and Seaton

12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

• In Isaleaire it is Illegal to go around with an unsheathed weapon or a weapon with out an honor knot keeping it in its scabbard. Other weapons such as axes and maces must be like wise "slung" and honor knotted. 
• Wizards, Mages, Sorceress must "honor knot" a formal scroll case and their chief component pouch  
• This "knotting" has become an art form and Noble fashion know as Passementier

13. Which way to the nearest tavern?

•  The Hairy Clam is the main (and only) bawdy tavern of Sandypoint 

• The Barron's Barrel is the main tavern in Seaton with stiff competition from the Sea Maids Tale and The Ten Bells

 14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

• Goblins, Hobgoblins (of which the Orc subtype is most common) Serpent/Lizard men, Pirates, Outlaws
• Dragons
• Atlantian  Sorcerers and Sorcerer-Knights 

 15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

• There are frontier wars all across the Common Lands in the so called Frontier Lands. The Raiders from the Sunrise lands, some of who remain in the Common-Lands still wage wars.
• The Omadin in the southlands venerate Mad gods and the Temple-Knights are often crusading in Near-rafike in the Provence of Eshebah and Tauanis and the far Caliphates   
• The Dreadane and there High-King Volsgar Ulf have new colonies far across the sea in the Untamed Lands and they are open to lords who can claim them
• The Atlantians - once the cruel overlords of Ayerth have declined since their civil war and the over throw of Shelonrathon Varvipathis Aeonscion the Sorcerer-God. They do however still wage war on the Common-Lands from time to time. In the past these were one-sided affairs. However since the advent of blasting powder (and continued Atlantian infighting) this has change. Presently Atlantis is on good terms with the mainland and trades with the Empire and treats it as a vassal/tribute state. 
• The seas between from the Untamed lands, the Common Lands and Atlantis are beset with pirates out of the serpent islands and the Freeport at all times.   

16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

•  Yes but only in Rafike, the Caliphates and the Frontier Lands of the Empire. 

17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

•  Yes....

Game Goodies

In doing weekly preparation for the Stones of Ayerth game (which we only play every two weeks or as we say here fortnightly) I had the urge to share some of the resources I've been using in the game.

The game started as a Labyrinth Lord game and were it not for the extensive house rules we would have stayed using it. Essentially I think - dare I say it, that although I love the classic game I actually thing  do think there have been significant advances in the "technology" of role-playing design.

We as a group have been heavily influenced by D&D 3.0 which was a great version of D&D in its own right. It still felt mostly like D&D. What I haven't liked is the commercialism of the game. As a result they sell upgrade-books of all types which only serve to dilute the strong core of the game.

Hence the change over to Savage Worlds which plays mostly just like the way we had our D&D game running, only all the rules are now in the one place. I still have pangs of OSR longing. Its quickly redressed when I think of the players. They expressed a strong like for the skills and edges of Savage Worlds. Funnily as the GM these are some of the things (the lack there of ) I thought was a strength of the classic game.


Anyway I'm still using the classic game as my inspiration for the Stones game.  

The game stared out in Saltmash as in the Sinister secret of, although the town council all voted to rename the town Sandypoint in an effort to attract new business, and settlement from the nearest major city, Isilaire. they are a weeks horse ride from the city and there are a number of towns on the way to "Sandypoint" the most notable of which is Seaton.

I've kludged that module together with the original B series modules (sort of like my own take on In Search), the Freeport Anniversary collection, White plume mountain, Castle White Roc and Totems of the Dead and Griffin Island, to mention the most immediate contributors to my sandbox.       

Here are some great map resources by the Mad Irishman  for the main module.

there are some good maps online for Saltmash too. Many are much larger then I see "Sandypoint" but they are good to grab if you need a coastal town.

My fav' is this creation and is the one which most matches my imagination of the locale

 this one is also good. Honestly my own version - in my mind - is like a mash up of these three.

I'm off to create, by hand my version of the maps. If they look ok I'll scan them and add them here for people to swipe and use.


and here are some more for you too as well as an awesome looking lizard man.