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> Stedding Tsotiang, What you think? Makes sense?
Campin
Posted: Nov 14 2004, 06:23 PM
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I had placed this Stedding about a week north of Baerlon, on the foothills of the Mountains of Mist. This Stedding could easily act as one of the two swallowed by the blight if you don't like my reasoning as to why it is fare south of there.

Either way have any idea on how to make it better? Maybe more hints about the former Ogier inhabitants?


Stedding Tsotiang

Near the end of the Trolloc Wars around the time when the blood of the brave of Manetheren (1251AB) ran down the slops of there mountain homes the Stedding of Tsotiang looked as if it might survive this fate. Having been overlooked by all manner of dark creature the Ogiers of Tsotiang along with those few Humans that could reach them from nearby villages simply watched and wept as great pillars of smoke filled the air from the scoured lands, they praying to the creator for protection but when an army of Trollocs lead by whip welding Myrddraal crashed the border of there home all those young enough, Ogier and Man alike, raised sung-wood staffs and cudgels and fought desperately as the soft warbling voice of the famed tree-singer Enteum’ Thoc enticed the tree's to give up root and branch as they crashed down on the Trollocs and Darkfriends burying them under the weight of their heavy trunks. All this so that many could flee into The Ways were they would at least have a chance to find shelter afar, however after placing the keystone and sealing the way from invaders, only two humans ever found their way out and it is said that they were dehydrated and hungry, clutching their ears and screaming wildly.

A longtime after this someone found Tsotiang and must have used the Ways without replacing the keystone then after many thousand of years, the filth that tainted both Saidin and The Ways began to seep out and corrupt what was once thought incorruptible...


Stedding Tsotiang today (Circa 988NE) is a dark place of warped and gnarled giants that tower 80 feet up. Everything is thick with moss and lichen. Strands of webbing hanging listlessly in the air and scurrying underfoot are vermin of all type, once rat or spider but now just misshaped, bloated creatures. In the trees are flocks of shadow-linked crows that nest here all year round giving warnings or even threatening those who would do harm to this place. Even during the deadliest of winters nothing but a thick fog touches this place, being humid and warm all year round. Those who have been up in the borderlands and up into the blight would notice a striking similarity with this place.

The area just before this Stedding is grassland with crumbling stone, like fallen solders (Eroded Ogier statues?), all around. Anyone approaching has to roll Hide checks vs. the spot of the Crows lest they start up cawing noisily alerting creatures inside that something approaches. However if the PCs are a known threat to the dark than the birds will swoop down attacking until the PCs are safely protected or undercover (like in the Stedding or a nearby thicket of trees). There are about 300 crows nesting in the trees at any given time (2 swarms, 30-hp each, see below).
Unlike a normal Stedding PCs who enter this place feel a foreboding; a sense of dread (-1 to attacks and will saves vs. fear) as the wrongness of this place overwhelms them & channellers cannot feel the true source when they enter past its borders. The Stedding is shaped like a sliver being about 12 miles long but only about 2 miles at its widest point. Of the Ogiers that once called this place home most of their burrows are now just sunken holes in the grown, overgrown and forgotten. However a few did survive the ages and are more likely the lair of some fell beast (or possible Trollocs if in the blight). Scattered throughout the Stedding are stone markers of Ogier design, most washed clean by the ages but few still possess faint traces of Ogier script. Those who venture deeper inside will eventually meet a ridge that runs the length of the Stedding and rises about half way up the canopy of trees to about 40 feet at it tallest, it is here at the back of the Stedding were the Waygate lay, embedded into the cliff face, its door an open yawing portal were the screaming voice of Machin Shin can, often, be faintly heard.

In a lair of silken web & tangled leaves up in the trees and to the left of the Waygate is the creature resembling a large spider that has been warped by the corruption around, it has eight legs, a bloated oily body and a pair of tentacles that it wraps around it’s pray holding it fast for its poisonous bite. The Trollocs have named this creature Djroth, or the Silent Fang. It is not clear if Djroth and her children were sent here as a guardian for the Waygate or appeared in some natural fashion. But what is clear is that Djroth has a ravenous hunger and those creatures including Trollocs that choose to pass through this Gate pay a toll (a live deer, blight creature or even human) lest one of there own numbers become that toll, Djroth would not dare try to take anything greater than a Trolloc (Mryddraal, Dark Hound, etc.) as she is smart enough to understand the threat they pose. When an enemy of the dark tries to use this Waygate, have the PCs roll Spot checks vs. Djroth’s Hide check as she creeps through the trees and when she is directly above the PCs would drop a web net down onto them then lower herself with her babies clinging to her thorax and attack. If the PCs spot her and try to run she follows until one of the characters are snare by her webbing them breaks off pursuit taking that one back for consumption (Djroth hp27, 3 of Djroth’s Children 5hp, see below).

Djroth’s home is up in the trees around the Waygate, a network of silken tunnels that is not easily noticeable to the naked eye (Spot DC 16). It is about 30 feet off the ground and hanging all around are the cocooned remains of its victims, mostly bloated rats (giant rats), snakes & other smallish creatures, but there is also the odd humanoid or deer (Djroth will leave her lair if hunger drives her).

Redemption: If one of your PCs is an Ogier he might want to try to save this place, if the Stedding is in the Blight than it is not possible until the Dark One is stopped. But otherwise it could be done however it would not be easy. First the Waygate would have to be closed then it would require something like a seed for the Avendesora tree and a cabal of Tree-Singers (aiding another) as the DC to heal this place would probably be in the 40s-50s. Even then the healing would only have started and still take many-many years before the Stedding was restored.

Creature Stats:

Djroth; CR 4; Large Shadowspawn; HD 4D8+8; hp27; Init +4 (Dex); Spd 30ft., climb 20ft. (40ft., climb 20ft.); Def 17 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +4 nat.); Atk: 2 Tentacle +5 (1d8+3), bite +0 (1d6+1 & Poison); Face/Reach: 10ft. by 10ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with Tentacles); SA Poison, Web, Improved Grab (w/ Tentacles), Bloodlust; SQ Darkvision 60’; SV Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +1; Str 17, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 5, Wis 10, Cha 2;
Skills & Feats: Climb +15, Hide +7, Jump +3, Spot +7;

Djroth’s Children (3); CR 1; Small Shadowspawn; HD 1d8 +1; hp5; Init +4 (Dex); Spd 30ft., climb 20ft. (40 ft., climb 20ft.); Def 17 (+1 size, +4 Dex, +2 nat.); Atk: +5 Bite (1d4 –1 & Poison); Face/Reach: 5ft. by 5ft./5ft.; SA Poison, Web, Bloodlust; SQ Darkvision 60’; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +0; Str 9, Dex 19, Con 12, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2;
Skills & Feats: Climb +11, Hide +15, Jump –1, Spot +7; Weapon Finesse (Bite);

Raven Swarm (2); CR ?; HD ?; hp30; Init +2 (Dex); Spd fly 40 ft.(average); Def 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex); Atk: see below (Dmg 1d6); Face/Reach: see below; SA Distraction; SQ half dmg from slashing & piercing wpns; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +2; Str 7, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 6;
Skills & Feats: Listen +6, Spot +6; Weapon Finesse (claws)

Swarm: Each swarm can fill a 10ft. * 10ft. cube and at the end of its move phase all those inside the cube suffer 1d6 dmg. When a swarm moves into a PCs space that PCs allowed an Attack of Opportunity. Swarms need an open area to work so if the PCs take cover (in thick forest for example) than it breaks apart until the PCs show themselves again.

Distraction (Ex): Any living creature vulnerable to a swarm’s damage that begins its turn with a swarm in its square is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save (DC 15) negates the effect. Spellcasting or concentrating on spells within the area of a swarm requires a Concentration check (DC 20 + spell level). Using skills that involve patience and concentration requires a DC 20 Concentration check.
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Two Rivers Wolfbrother
Posted: Nov 14 2004, 08:36 PM
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Wow, I think this is extremely rad. Really sppoky and stuff. Can I use the Djoth in the Encounters Handbook? Also, could I maybe write up the stedding as a mini-adventure?


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MagusRogue
Posted: Nov 14 2004, 08:37 PM
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Very Shebulb-ish. *Grins* good job.


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Entropic_existence
Posted: Nov 15 2004, 12:33 AM
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Very cool, I'd give the PC's a saving throw to ignore the -1 from the overwhelming sense of foreboding to in the place, maybe make it a fairly high DC to really emphasize how corrupt the place is, and give channelers a negative to the check since they should be somewhat more sensitive to it.

But yea I really like it, maybe make some form of twisted Ogier that lives there as well? That could be cool.


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Campin
Posted: Nov 15 2004, 07:58 PM
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QUOTE (Two Rivers Wolfbrother @ Nov 14 2004, 06:36 PM)
Wow, I think this is extremely rad.  Really sppoky and stuff.  Can I use the Djoth in the Encounters Handbook?  Also, could I maybe write up the stedding as a mini-adventure?

Your welcome to it, the time I spent on it, I'm glad someone else is interested in using it. smile.gif

I think the stats for Djroth are in accordance to the rules, but I'm not sure. I kinda took a Giant Spider applied the Blight Creature template from UtDB and picked Lashing Tentacles from the SA list. However I took it one step further and modeled Djroths Tentacles attack on the Displacer Beast from standard D&D.

The Raven Swarms need work though.. I found a post here on this forum about Swarms (It is your reply to that posting that I am referring to WolfBrother) but I didn't understand how you figured out a swarms total HD & hp so I kinda just guessed at the hp and how much dmg the swarm does....

Also, all I ask is that if you are going to publish any of my creations, to give me a bit of the credit, Mark Keller, thx.

QUOTE
Very cool, I'd give the PC's a saving throw to ignore the -1 from the overwhelming sense of foreboding to in the place, maybe make it a fairly high DC to really emphasize how corrupt the place is, and give channelers a negative to the check since they should be somewhat more sensitive to it.


Not sure about the Saving Throw, I just kinda pictured the place as a Sink Hole of Evil. A normal Stedding is a place of beauty and harmony so I kinda imagine that by spending time in one a character could almost say he felt closer to the creator. So then if a character spend time within this corrupt Stedding it would be like the walls of The Dark Ones prison grow thin here are his corruption really seeps through, thus the -1. Think of it as a Mini-Shayol Ghul.

However I do like the idea of making channelers (and those specifically marked by the dark) more sensitive to the corruption of this place. Not sure how to do it though.. A more sever minus? Bad Dreams so one cannot get a good rest? (Like someone would wanna or could sleep here!), etc?

Thanx for the replies all, glad a few other people like it too!
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MagusRogue
Posted: Nov 16 2004, 04:22 AM
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hey i love anytime anyone tries to add something like Tolkein to a game!


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