Metastus

Here is an NPC party led by a disease-infatuated mage, Metastus. There's a sprinkling of OSR in here, as some of the mage's daily spells have been removed to grant resistances and a weird magic effect of becoming an infection upon death.

Voice suggestions are provided for each NPC.

Metastus

Metastus is not immediately hostile to the party, but he is not a pleasant man.

The mage Metastus is infatuated with disease, both its infliction and its treatment. He appears as an older man in a dingy, off-white cloak with sparse hair to match. His skin is pallid and parchment-like, and he has no mustache or beard because he has no lip or chin, their having rotted off in some failed experiment years past.

His knowledge of sickness has won him many wealthy patrons through his treatments. In their turn he has extracted many favors and subjects. He never willingly lets a patient perish, but he will also infect a subject with an unknown strain in order to test the efficacy of his treatments.

He meticulously records all phases of his patients' endeavors. The results of his experiments are usually shared with colleges and hospitals through the land. He is eager to hide behind this fact when defending anything which might be interpreted as a depredation. He adopts an air of clinical detachment during these times but just below the surface he enjoys dancing people along the line between life and death.

Voicewise: leave Professor Farnsworth and Peter Lorre in a sauna for a few decades until they melt together and forget their lips.

Metastus

Medium human, Lawful Evil
Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)
Hit Points 40 (9d8)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
9 (−1)  14 (+2)  11 (+0) 17 (+3) 12(+1)  11 (+0)
Saving Throws Int +6, Wis +4
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Skills Arcana +6, Medicine +6
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Elven, Orc, Deep Speech
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Spellcasting. Metastus is a 9th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following wizard spells prepared:

• cantrips - acid splash, light, mage hand
• 1st (4 slots) - charm person, grease, sleep
• 2nd (3 slots) - ray of enfeeblement, web (of sputum)
• 3rd (3 slots) - dispel magic, stinking cloud
• 4th (3 slots) - black tentacles, noxious form
• 5th (1 slot) - contagion

Equipment: slippers of spider climbing, wand of the war mage +1, cloak of protection (+1 AC and saves)

He is infectious. If he is slain he can use a reaction to infect one person with a disease that will slowly turn the victim into him (Constitution save to resist). It will manifest first as the ability to cast some additional spells he knows.

2645 GP, 110 PP in a chest in his lab.

Noxious Form: 4th-level wizard spell. As gaseous form, but a creature who enters your space or starts its turn there are affected as if by stinking cloud and take d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier acid damage. You are unaffected by stinking cloud while in noxious form.

Spellbook: Memorized spells plus stinking cloud. The necessary course of treatment to preserve Unction's seething life.

Nutch-Nutch

Homunculus (MM 188)

Metastus' familiar. Balloon-like, with tiny wings, a puffy face, wiggly hands and feet, and an unfortunately placed stinger. Deflates into a snake-like creature with grabbly spindle claws.

Voicewise: Like a farting helium balloon.

Drathe

Nothic (MM 236)
Equipment: Cloak of Elvenkind

Metastus' companion of many years. The mage provides it access to any libraries he is welcomed to. In return, the creature plies minds encountered for secret, shameful sicknesses of a family which can be used as leverage in negotiations.

It has gazed at the mage in his sleep and enjoyed what it found in those gray dreams.

Voicewise: Only speak while inhaling and pretend you've got sandpaper next to your gums.

Unction

Orog (MM 247) except:
AC 20 (plate and shield)
HP 51
Equipment: sword of vengeance - longsword, +7 to hit, reach 5, d8+5 damage.

martial adept - d6 superiority die. goading attack, pushing attack (PHB 74)
parry - reaction - adds 4 to AC against one melee attack that would hit. must see attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.
Probably challenge 3?

This orog was offered into Metastus' service by a tribe of orcs whom he gifted with a maddening plague which allowed their warriors to crush a neighboring tribe before their lungs exploded. Their ravening spirits inhabit his gleaming bronze blade.

He has long stopped questioning the motivations of Metastus' company and is confident he and the mage together can face down any threat. However, an open display of hostility means he'll try to throw the offenders off the nearest ledge or alert his companions if none is available.

Metastus knows Unction has no sense of honor and so has, over the years, set up a complex system of disease and treatments within the orog to ensure his loyalty. Without a seemingly random administration of herbs and extracts known only to the mage, he would die a painful and gasping death within days. With practice and desperation he has learned many techniques to protect Metastus' life as his own.

At the moment he abides a suppurating throat affliction requiring a Constitution check (DC 10) to voluntarily make any noise louder than a whisper - a failure stuns him for a round as he hacks up volumes of loose, bloody phlegm.

Voicewise: Grisly-wet, like a raw steak has taken offense to your ability to move around without its consent.

Aubert

Guard (MM 347) - Neutral. Immune to disease.

A simple farmer whose village was struck by an unusual plague to which he was apparently immune. Metastus offered to save his kin in exchange for his servitude, and he readily accepted.

The process has been gradual - several villagers have been hauled to the band's camp for extended treatment, and drift in and out of weak consciousness. Aubert devotes every waking hour to their care

Aubert hates Metastus for the depravities he has seen, and himself for his part in them, but will take up arms to defend the mage as the last chance to save his friends and family.

Voicewise: 90% stuttering misery, 10% shrieking indignation.

5e Hirelings

I recently had cause to include hirelings in a 5e adventure. This is a simple class to represent them, with a feature where if a player character dies, the player can pick up a hireling and continue as a full-fledged character. Until then they are simple to play, competent but with limited options, and largely defined by their skills.

Most of my games use the standard array for ability scores, so for hirelings I just replaced the 15 with another 10. I also use feats, so one human hireling started as an initiate until picking up his second level as a 1st level wizard, and the hunter hireling had crossbow expertise.

Class Features

As a hireling, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per hireling level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per hireling level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, shields

Weapons: Simple weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws: None

Skills: Skip choosing a background but pick any two skills.

Equipment

Start with a simple weapon and 3 days of rations wrapped in a blanket. Your skill proficiencies grant your other starting equipment.

If you roll or choose the same result twice, increase the associated ability by 2.

1. Nothing. If you roll this twice increase all abilities by 2.
2. Acrobatics: 50 feet of hemp rope or 10 foot pole.
3. Animal Handling: Pack animal or trained dog.
4. Arcana: Component pouch or arcane focus.
5. Athletics: Climber’s kit or sledgehammer.
6. Deception: Forgery kit or disguise kit.
7. History: Minor icon or journal, pen, and ink.
8. Insight: Tobacco pipe or journal, pen, and ink.
9. Intimidation: Hourglass or manacles.
10. Investigation: Lantern or magnifying glass.
11. Medicine: Healer's kit or antitoxin.
12. Nature: Herbalism kit or hunting trap.
13. Perception: Signal whistle or steel mirror.
14. Performance: Disguise kit or musical instrument.
15. Persuasion: Fine clothes or bottle of fine wine.
16. Religion: Holy water or holy symbol.
17. Sleight of Hand: Gaming set or thieves' tools.
18. Stealth: Caltrops or ball bearings.
19. Survival: 50 feet of hemp rope or fishing tackle and a tent.
20. Roll again twice.

Then choose or roll one. d4 suggestions for easy-to-run spells follow but you can choose:

1. Leather armor.
2. Padded armor and a shield.
3. Light crossbow and bolts.
4. Riding mount.
5. Shield and three spears.
6. Attendant (All abilities 7, 6 hp, staff -2 d8-2)
7. Once per session, cast a warlock cantrip (prestidigitation, mage hand, eldritch blast, friends)
8. Once per session, cast a druid cantrip (druidcraft, resistance, produce flame, mending)
9. Once per session, cast a cleric cantrip (thaumaturgy, spare the dying, sacred flame, light)
10. Once per session, cast a wizard cantrip (prestidigitation, message, fire bolt, light)

Level	Features
1	Aspirant
2	Exaltation
3
4	Ability Score Improvement
5
6
7
8	Ability Score Improvement
9
10

Aspirant

Every other character level, you must take a level of another class. This follows normal multiclassing rules, so hirelings don't receive saving throw proficiencies. For example, a 5th level hireling would have 3 levels of the hireling class and 2 levels of any other class.

Exaltation

If your employer perishes, you can take up one of their ideals as an action. If you do so, convert levels of hireling into levels of another, existing class. Your hit dice change to match your class, but not maximum hit points. You gain all the proficiencies a character who started in that class would gain.

You may no longer advance as a hireling.

Bonus and Penalty Dice

These are some rules from my fantasy heart-breaker which I thought could be usefully layered over any system that uses a d20 + modifiers vs. a target.

Circumstances or character aspects may influence your chances of success or failure on a check. These are represented with bonus and penalty dice, which are six-sided. They may be denoted as +#d or -#d, respectively.

When you make a check with bonus dice, if any of the bonus dice come up 6, you succeed, regardless of your d20 roll. Conversely, if you make a check with penalty dice and any of them come up 1, you fail, regardless of your d20 roll.

If you have both bonus and penalty dice, they cancel each other before rolling. For example, if you have +2d and -3d, roll just 1 of penalty die. You never roll bonus and penalty dice at the same time.

If any bonus die comes up 6 and your d20 check also succeeds, that is a critical success.

Likewise, if any penalty die comes up 1 and your d20 check also fails, that is a critical failure.

Conversions

If something in your system would call for a +2 or -2 on a d20 roll, you can substitute one of these dice. They turn out to be about the same - the left column here is a target number, and the header is a character's modifier.


Those hit numbers work because the bonus die only matters if the d20 roll misses. The highlighted parts are where most rolls seem to happen, at least in the early levels of the game, or in a lower-powered one.

These dice become less important for skilled characters to succeed, but do help in avoiding mistakes and in driving crits. They reward less-skilled characters for seeking them out.

Almost everything in my game got converted into bonus and penalty dice, so the d20 rolls changed infrequently, since they were based on ability scores. You don't have conditional modifiers to tack onto the roll - they are all individual dice, with no math involved.

That also means there aren't something that would translate as conditional +1 modifiers, but I have never much liked them anyway.

Some character aspects could give bonus dice, but mostly they're situational. Charging? Bonus die for everyone! Attacking something invisible? Well, have a couple penalty dice.

Also note you can't crit or fumble without an extra die. You really want to seek out bonus dice for this reason, either to line op the crit, or negate the possibility of a fumble.

Adding more dice in either direction scales the chance of success or failure interestingly, though I think getting more than 3 in either direction would be rare.

1. 17%
2. 31%
3. 42%
4. 52%
5. 60%
6. 67%

I also ended up getting rid of a lot of level bloat by relying on these dice. If you were facing off against a thing of a substantially higher level, you got a penalty die, and it got a bonus die. Same thing if weaker opponents were facing you.

Fun With Some Blunderbusses

Some magical blunderbusses (blunderbi?) because why not. Assuming 5e but you're adaptable.

Wonderbuss

When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, roll on the Wand of Wonder effects table.

Thunderbuss

Attacks with this gun deal an extra d6 thunder damage. When it rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll, all creatures in 10 feet of you (including yourself) must pass a DC 15 Fortitude save or take d6 thunder damage and be deafened for a minute.

Blunderpus

Advanced artillery now available in convenient liquid form. Poured from its bottle, this thick, milky liquid permanently forms into a serviceable large bore shotgun in a round. If you drink it (and why wouldn't you) you can spit shot for a minute (assuming you have shot).

Chunderbuss

You can use rations as ammunition for this weapon. If you do it deals an extra d6 acid damage and is terrible.

Plunderbuss

Muzzle acts as a bag of holding, but fires a random item from its store on an attack roll of 1.

Numberbuss

If you roll doubles on your damage dice on attacks with this weapon, roll them again.

Günterbuss

This weapon is named Günter. He has Intelligence 10, Wisdom 11, and Charisma 9. He can speak, read, and understand common (but he can't speak on a turn he's used to attack, because his mouth is firing shot, of course). Hearing and normal vision out to 120 feet. Neutral alignment and seeks his creator.

Günter can chew up pretty much anything for use as ammunition, but he prefers wine casks and coal.

All Manner of Devilry

These items were created by devils for use against their own kind. They might be granted as boons to mortals who assist a fiend in the removal of some threat or rival, or be stolen and turned to more noble purpose.

Lysis Blade

Weapon (longsword), rare (requires attunement)

This item appears to be a longsword hilt. While grasping the hilt, you can use a bonus action to cause a blade of wan, gray-green light to spring into existence, or make the blade disappear. While the blade exists, this magic longsword has the finesse property. If you are proficient with shortswords or longswords, you are proficient with the lysis blade.

You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which deals acid damage instead of slashing damage. When you hit a fiend with it, that target takes an extra 1d8 acid damage.

The sword’s dolorous blade emits dim light in a 20-foot radius. Within that woeful light, even if suppressed by darkness, the Devil's Sight ability is suppressed.

Winding Cloth

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

You gain a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws while you wear these tattered rags as a cloak.

You can spend a hit die to cast Speak with Dead as a ritual. Roll that hit die to determine how many questions the corpse answers.

Ring of Retribution

Ring, rare (requires attunement)

This ring has 3 charges, and it regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dusk. When you take damage, you may expend a charge and use your reaction to cast a cantrip you know.

Vuch-Cuch

Weapon (mace), legendary (requires attunement)

This three-pronged mace was once the scepter of a recently slain devil lord. Wrought of iron and fiend-leather, it desires a return to its former stature, viewing hellish ranks as challenges and mortals as vessels.

You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. You can use a bonus action to make an attack against a fiendish or undead creature with it.

When you hit a fiend or an undead with this magic weapon, that creature takes an extra 2d6 thunder damage. If the target has 25 hit points or fewer after taking this damage, it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until you take a short or long rest. On a successful save, the creature becomes stunned until the end of your next turn.

While you hold this weapon, no light can shine brighter than dim in a 40-foot radius.

Tines of Power: At any time, Vuch-Cuch can maintain up to three shards of itself. These manifest as iron daggers, with +1 to hit and damage. The wielders of these knives have disadvantage on saving throws against spells cast by Vuch-Cuch or its wielder, but advantage on all saving throws against spells. If Vuch-Cuch is destroyed, it will regrow from one of these knives in three days.

Rebuke the Petulant: When you score a critical hit with Vuch-Cuch, you may use a bonus action to cast magic circle targeting fiends and undead centered on yourself. This effect lasts for 1 minute as Vuch-Cuch shrieks and mutters true names.

Sentience: Vuch-Cuch is a sentient lawful evil weapon with an Intelligence of 13, a Wisdom of 12, and a Charisma of 14. It has hearing and normal vision out to 120 feet.

The weapon communicates empathically with its wielder, desiring decisions which lead to leverage and power.

The Gods in the Sky

This is a pantheon for an upcoming 5th edition game. The things in the sky, the suns, moons, comets, and stars, are god. They are not worshiped as gods, they are not manifestations of gods - that sun, that moon, is a living entity of massive power that tugs on your own life.

Each god aligns with one or two of the 5th edition clerical domains, and holds several things as sacred to itself. In the game there will be a deck of cards dealt out to the group as a meta-game - that will probably be another post, but I'll use their images here.

Besohur, the Bright Brother

Holds Sacred: Hearts, Gold, Clouds, Bread.

The bright, warm, yellow sun. Clouds are his children, who play around him, and watch the sky as he rests.

Life & Tempest Domains

Everything that walks under the sky is considered by Besohur. His light and the rain of his children nourish them.

Selwolur, the Sun Sister

Holds Sacred: Eyes, Silver, Arrows, Maps.

A tiny, bright-white sun whose radiance pierces the clouds. She sometimes brings a half-day of harsh shadows when it would otherwise be night, defying the moons.

Light & Knowledge Domains

Selwolur appears suddenly, thirstingly, pressing through darkness and mist, illuminating secrets and dark places.

Maku Phoon, the Manic Moon

Holds Sacred: Tongues, Copper, Birds, Wine.

This silver-gray orb roils across the sky, flashing with lightning. Of the moons, it is most commonly seen in the day, seemingly taunting Selwolur.

Tempest & War Domains

Maku Phoon is a herald of destruction and panic. Its whelming alien storms sometimes whip Besohur's nourishing children into a thunderous frenzy. Under its strobing gaze, tempers flare and wills crumble, swords are unsheathed and blood flashes like lightning across the pulsing sky.

Muxadroon, the Moulting Moon

Holds Sacred: Bones, Lead, Insects, Knives.

A stark white moon, clouded with debris and riddled with craters, which creeps across the sky. Flakes sometimes crash to the ground, bearing strange creatures.

Trickery & Life Domains

Unlike Besohur's holdings, all life that springs and spurts in darkness sways to Muxadroon. Worms and beetles that gnaw in hidden places are its.

Wechilon, the Watching One

Holds Sacred: Brains, Glass, Chalk, Wands.

A four-faced pyramid of metal, struck with channels and runes. Its face shifts abruptly to no pattern discovered by astrologers. It is well known that in ages past Wechilonwas the world's arch-mage who ascended to her great palace in the sky and assumed the mantle of godhood.

Knowledge Domain

Whereas Selwolur is the goddess of knowledge uncovered and shared, Wechilon is the goddess of knowledge secreted and horded. She is often revered by mages.

The Firmament

Holds Sacred: Teeth, Wood, Caves, Flowers.

All the stars in the heavens. The innumerable constellations embody every creature or plant or swath of weather.

Nature Domain

Besohur cares for the health of the world, but there is a place in the sky, yes, there, those eight stars, that cares very much for the health of wheat. And those dozen, to the left, Muxadroon wishes well for all insects, but those twelve look down upon the pillbug. They happen to share two stars, you say?

Those Who Fight

Holds Sacred: Hands, Steel, Torches, Salt.

No one god holds dominion over Those Who Fight. These brave spirits cross the sky, trailing their life behind them, fulfilling the mercenary campaigns of whichever deity can rally their services.

War Domain

Comets ply from star to sun to moon to horizon, flaring into existence, burning their path across the Firmament, and winking out.

Naught

Holds sacred: Nothing.

There is a place in the sky with no stars, which the suns and moons do not cross. Those Who Fight who cross it cease their battles. There is Nothing there.

Death Domain

An end to life and light. No truth or falsehood, no rage or rebirth. Unknowable. The end of all things.

Encounters in Sick Country

Like backwoods, or badlands, sick country is a way to describe a place. There are patches of sick country scattered through the Land of Still Waters, some huge and well-know, helping shape the boundaries of nations, others tiny and ephemeral.

Boundaries of sick country are sometimes vague, sometimes well-defined. They shift, tidally, as the forces in the sick country wax and wane. Locals know the boundary signs of any nearby sick country well and often have extensive myths or traditions regarding them.

Though borders may shift, most sick country has a definite center or focus. Here the virulence of the place intensifies and creatures driven from the settled frontier shelter. Often this locus was a city of the ancient world whose ruins may still be seen from afar. Travelers through sick country would do well to give these relics wide berth.

The largest known sick regions bear the names of the ancient cities at their epicenters: Boston, New York, Toronto, and Montreal. The nation of Jorvik has many smaller regions within it whose borders are well-patrolled. Northern Vye contains Ottawa, and the southern shore of Acadia is blighted by Portland.

What do you encounter?

Roll three Fate dice. At the edge add another die and discard the lowest. Deep in sick country add another die and discard the highest.

Fate dice show 2 blank, 2 +, and 2 - sides.

+3: Settlement

+2: Wanderers

+1: Animals

0: Landscape

-1: Phenomenon

-2: Beasts

-3: Monstrosities

If you want to roll for encounter distance:

+1: Immediate: Ambush; stumbled upon; exits cover nearby.

0: Sighting: Raised dust or smoke; against the horizon; sounds.

-1: Hint: Trail or spoor; remains of a camp; aftermath of a battle or hunt; territorial markings.

Inhabitants

 

Even sick country may be settled, though sparsely, and as close to the edge of safer lands as possible. Land here is cheap or unclaimed, the law is scarce, and there are opportunities for those brave or desperate to seize them.

This section is applicable to both Settlements and Wanderers.

Two dice to determine how do they live.

At the borders of sick country, roll three dice and discard the lowest - in the depths, discard the highest of three. Consider rolling twice and combining the results to get a more nuanced or intense motivation.

+2: There are those who intentionally travel through sick country as benefactors: missionary or Ellisian walker; hermit; messenger; mercenary.

+1: Settlers having some degree of success: farmers; merchants; bandits & toll-takers; an outpost of a nearby borderland or nation.

0: These people are struggling: scavengers; living off limited supplies; paying fealty and tithes to some nearby settlement; failing and likely doomed.

-1: Hunters venture into sick country for many reasons: trappers; trophy hunters; furriers; exterminators. Those passing through unsettled lands should be wary they do not spring some forgotten hunter's trap.

-2: Aside from the natural hazards of these lands, anyone living in sick country is unlikely to be missed in civilization. They attract abductors: the autumn people; bounty hunters; cultists hunting for recruits and sacrifices; a witch of the wastes.

And one die for why are they here?

+1: Seeking opportunity: indebted; cheap land; exploration; salvage.

0: Long-time inhabitants: born here; making it work; delusional; infectious and unwilling to return to civilization.

-1: Exiles: Displaced; usurped; apostates or heretics; fugitives from the law.

Settlements

Structure - two dice

+2: Manor

+1: Homestead

0: Village

-1: Hamlet

-2: Campsite or hut

What state is it in - two dice

+2: Heavily fortified

+1: Under construction or temporary

0: Kept in decent repair; perhaps walled

-1: Re-purposed or adapted from other structures

-2: Crumbling; ruined; or badly damaged

Then roll on inhabitants to find out who lives there.

Wanderers

 

Wanderers may be: displaced from their homes and looking to settle; Glist; long-time nomads; just arriving in sick country; utterly lost; taking a dangerous shortcut; trying to hide.

Animals

Normally these creatures are benign, but many are host to sicknesses which may cause unusual behavior. An encounter with otherwise normal animals may serve to unnerve travelers, or restock their supplies.

Two dice:

+2: Foragers: escaped horse or ghast; wild sheep; deer; trollizard.

+1: Birds: ravens; sparrows; hawk or owl; gulls.

0: A swarm of insects: caterpillars; moths; roasps or roaches; ants.

-1: Rodents: squirrels; rats; rabbits.

-2: roll on Beasts.

Landscape

 

Much of sick country appears normal, like the land that surrounds it. The are regions though where even the earth seems to take ill. Often these places are known to and named by the surrounding natives - Toadwood, Norman's Rot, the Aching Cliff.

Three dice.

At the borders, roll four and drop the lowest. In the depths, roll four and drop the highest.

+3: This land offers respite: wax reeds well-adapted to any nearby sicknesses; a walker grove; a seemingly empty and stocked shelter, well-hidden; a length of ancient self-repairing road is clear and easy to travel.

+2: Teeming with life: obscenely plump and verdant plants, humid and heavily scented; swarms of flies or rats or birds with no obvious food source; fearless and hyperactive wildlife; roiling mist full of unseen chirps, hoots, and squeals.

+1: Passing through tended lands suggests a settlement nearby: farms; trails; orchards; pasture.

0: There are some plants which seem to thrive in the sick country and their abundance should serve as a warning to travellers: willow; sunflowers; pigweed; mustard.

-1: A wasteland of: parched dead trees; twisting thorn scrub; scorched and glass-like barrens; rusted ruins.

-2: This water is: vibrantly wrong color; stagnant and fetid; slick with oil and toxins; clear and still but utterly devoid of life.

-3: Blighted with: fungus and slime molds; miasma; rift in the earth; ethereally poisoned.

Phenomenon

Higher numbers are not necessarily good or safe, but they can be more easily avoided and might yield salvage if investigated.

Two dice.

At the borders, roll four and drop the lowest. In the depths, roll four and drop the highest.

+2: Haunts are warded regions created generations ago that try to scare the curious away from the dangers they hold. They send out periodic ethereal scouts to keep abreast of what's scary these days and manifest them with a variety of illusions and shifting facades.

This haunt: broods over a great plague; is slowly breaking down; has turned malevolent; might reward or bribe those who brave it.

+1: An ancient building: perfectly preserved; partially buried or obscured; active with magic and guardians; finally succumbing to the centuries.

0: Roll on the sickness table. This place is rife with the result.

-1: Zones of ethereal flux in which magic is: dead; wild; empowered; sentient.

-2: Radiation lingers in this area. It is a pernicious threat often undetected until one is deep within its boundaries. The animals and plants here are warped; the place glows faintly in the darkness; headaches and nausea begin quickly; everything appears normal to the naked senses.

Beasts

These creatures pose some risk to travelers and settlers. They are not necessarily hostile, though many of them are hungry or diseased.

Two dice:

+2: Feral animals have lost much of their fear of humans: wight; wild dogs; trollizard; cat.

+1: Most predators will only attack humans if they are hungry or threatened: wolves; coyotes; bears; bobcat.

0: Scavengers: dire rats (these are descended from Gambian pouched rats); wild dogs; hop crow; amphisbaena.

-1: Garoulin: regular garoulin; wolf-garoulin half-breeds; look like dogs but are smart as average garoulin; magic-using.

-2: Roll on Monstrosities.

Monstrosities

Three dice:

+3: Chimera: their artistries; their servants; or they themselves.

+2: Fey other than beguilers are somewhat less common in sick country but not unknown: sprite; goblin; gnome; nymph.

+1: Undead can rise spontaneously or are sometimes released by cultists: zombie; ghoul; wraith; revenant.

0: Lesser thaaskith roam wild here, escaped from or released by the cults. Amphisbaena; jaculus; basilisk; tatzelwurm; cerastes; or cockatrice.

-1: Fargone, or something on its way there: viscerid; luxpuck; tallow; ogre.

-2: Beguilers, the succubi and inccubi, are known to hunt the sick country for the weak and undefended. They may be: whole; decayed; traveling with thralls; recently fed.

-3: Greater thaaskith; rampaging lindorm; medusa on a vision quest; naga travelling between temples; samaelisk, possibly with converts.

Sick

Unsurprisingly, things encountered in sick country are often sick. For any encounter, you may use this chart as many times as you like.

Roll three dice to determine the nature of the sickness:

+3: Maniacal: frenzied & murderous; screeching & terrified; gasping & ecstatic; relaxed & psychopathic.

+2: Stupefied: idiot; animalistic; delirious; forlorn.

+1: Blind: cataracts; seeping eye holes; put out; eyes look fine but don't focus.

0: Disfigured: hunched; spindly; twisted; palsied.

-1: Diseased: leprous & rasping; fevered & sallow; bloated & oozing; wheezing & hacking.

-2: An old plague: clear plastic skin; partially ossified; cysts & vestigial limbs; ethereal siren (agonizingly loud for the afflicted and anyone sensitive, attracts attention in the ether).

-3: Fargone: luxpuck (skeletal and luminous); ogre (rippling muscle and insatiable hunger); tallow (bones soften, flesh flows); viscerid (must survive on the harvested organs of others).

A fourth die can determine how contagious the sickness is.

 

+1: Non-contagious: congenial; dormant; too specialized to host.

0: Moderate: wounds or injection; consumption; handling or grappling; imbued in an object.

-1: Virulent: airborne; bodily fluids; ethereal; skin contact.

Even non-physical ailments can be contagious in sick country.

Reactions

If you want a quick behavior, roll one die:

+1: Ignores, possibly curious

0: Observes, possibly stalks

-1: Aggressive, probably attacks

For a more nuanced behavior this encounter will tend towards, consider rolling three dice on this table. You can add a die and drop the lowest on the edge of the sick country, or add a die and drop the highest deep in it. Player actions and attitudes can guide these reactions.

	Initially appear	and soon turn	because they are
+	Welcoming	Helpful	Principled
0	Cautious	Indifferent	Hungry
-1	Threatening	Aggressive	Afraid