You Shall Find in Him the Continent (Class: Personage)

Mounts

Horses are found wild and domesticated in Yarfu. A horse has 3 HD, but through careful breeding may have a sizeable bonus to its HP. A mounted party can travel for longer in the day.

Ulu are created by magicians. They have 4 HD, three legs, long snouts, and vibrant patterned hair. An ulu is cheaper than a horse, though less broadly available. It is smarter but very flighty, and the structure of its legs make it impossible for an ulu to rear up and trample men. However, its dextrous mouth allows it to hold objects firmly and even wield weapons in battle, most broadly the mouthpick. At a gallop, ulu actually hover over the ground for short durations.

Ulus are used not only as mounts but to harvest their eggs and tufan, a waxy spit that hardens to the consistency of soft clay or can be heated to the strength of hardwood. 

 

 

 

Class: Personage

   Between the Khepri and men are the personages. Understood to have the blood of Saver Heol's divine messengers and the blood of mortality, this vast caste is nobility for their nobility. While some hives call engineers or national officials their ras, most still look to a lord or lady to rule and dignify them. If, as a matter of taste, your version of Yarfu omits the depiction of any cruel or hateful deeds that have been common and widespread in history, you can say that this is because of the good influence of the personages— while not universally good, they are like an optimistic person's view of humanity.

   Start with: a horse and lance OR ulu and mouthpick, saddlebags, a cuirass and helm, a shield, a spear, a merkhet. Any number of these may display your sigil, your unique hereditary heraldry.

Every two levels, get +1 MD and +2 spells

A: Centitor, Blood Eyes
B: Magus
C: Duelist
D: Magus Major

Centitor: You have an inborn proficiency with bows, spears, swords, and knives. While mounted, your hereditary equanimity allows you to take attacks directed at your mount. You are very good at directing teams of engineers. No one fully respects you if they haven't seen your sigil.

Blood Eyes: By pressing your tongue hard into the roof of your mouth, you can push your second eyes into place. They glow red, and pierce through the darkness like bulls-eyes, allowing you to see in the dark up to 60'. They are blinded by mist and fog.

Magus: When wearing anything short of full lamellar, you are capable of casting a narrow band of spells. (See the Personage spell list below) You cannot learn magic-user spells, but may find diagrams with more rare personage spells in your adventures.

Duelist: On a successful melee strike, deal +1d6 damage, or immediately cast a spell with 1 MD.
 

Magus Major: You reach the full breadth of attainment, now capable of learning magic-user spells and  casting them while wearing any armor short of full lamellar. 

d12 Personage Spell

1.  Ramose's Wall of Bronze - [dice * 5] bronze panels the height and width of an average human rise up from the ground. You can arrange them how you like. They have images of warriors on them. 
2. Soft Animals of Your Body - weep and shiver, and vomit [sum] falcons. They cannot be easily commanded, but have a sense that they're on your side.
3. Yannez's True Strike - The next [dice] attacks you make within the next hour get +20 to hit.
4. Diet of Wyrms - Your sweat starts to glisten luridly. Those who touch you within the next [sum] without protection come into contact with a burning poison (1d4 damage), and must test Morale (or save with talent, for PCs) to resist immediately releasing you.
5. Water of the Pict - Choose an aperture you can see. Mirrorous fluid flows from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. Your will can shift its aspect to make the water seem to resemble anything.
6. Flicker - [highest] times after you cast this spell, you can choose to not be real when something tangible would affect you, such as an attack or a spell. You are unreal until the end of your next turn.
7. Sorana's Courage - heal [sum] Morale divided among those you choose.
8. Animate Cloak - Your shadow animates and extends to follow your orders, moving up to [sum] cubits away and affecting objects and people with [sum] x 10% of human strength. It can be damaged by fire and has [sum] HP.
9. Become Ooze - You know, ooze! Lasts [sum] minutes.
10. Blade Atomic Blazing - Empower a weapon. It casts colorful light [sum] feet, damages ghosts, and inflicts [dice] fatigue on a successful hit for [sum] minutes. The spell is powered by a great fiery furnace deep underground.
11. Sapphire Snake Bolt - Fire a beam 150 ft., bouncing up to [dice] times. Targets save or take [sum] damage.
12. Silence - [dice] creatures are made incapable of making sound for [sum] minutes. With 4MD, can instead make a single creature permanently silent. 

 This completes the classes for Deserts of Vo. I am working on a big regioncrawl, a complete rulebook, and rare equipment list.

This Sleep of Forgetfulness Will Not Last Forever (Classes: Magic-User and Chancer; d100 Spells)

 

art by Rebecca Storm

    Casting a spell requires a free hand and a strong voice. The aspects in the soul (housed in the organs) can't be entrapped in armor, but may be dignified by robes or other rich things.

    Common magic items include:

• Robes. Quality magical robes give +1 MD and some extra effect
• Wands. Cast spells with a certain number of MD a certain number of times.
• Diagrams. Drawings that evoke to the learned the insights needed to cast a spell— highly referential, very culturally contextually. Can be quickly imitated to release the spell in the diagram, expending it, or studied for three days to be learned with a d20 roll.

 Class: Magic-User

    Thanks to Louis, whose specialist I largely pulled from. 

    In Yarfu, magicians are called wizards because they have a reputation for wisdom, or for overwisdom. Students of the world as illuminated by Saver Heol, their traditions were wrought in academies which now moulder in ruins. The highest places of the Savadur are normally reserved for wizards.

    Start with a knife, 20 darts, an ornate hat, and two specialist toolkits of your choice— examples might include: a paint set, a set of surgeon's hooks, actors’ makeup, climbing gear, the makings for poisoning, a telescope. Start with a Lore of three topics

    +1 MD and +2 spells per template

• A: Lore, Quick
• B: Wizard Vision, Cool-Headed, 
• C: Practical Trade, Immunity to Sleep
• D: Instrumentalize

Lore: Made up a variety of topics you've studied and pondered. Remember, there is no writing here, so to study something fully you have to have visited strange and remote places, spoken to long-lived people, and connected dots on your own. Suitable topics includes:

• Any common artisan profession
• History and Etiology
• Military science
• Mathematics and architecture
• Surgery
• Curselore
• Folklore
• Poetry
• Philology
• Desertlore
• Bushcraft
• Arctica
• Alchemy
• Geopolitics
• Mythology
• Ex Chetera

The lowest possible roll for a skill check pertaining to a topic of your lore is 10. Most academics in Crocodole use the preceding list, minus the artisan professions thing, as a "total" taxonomy of knowledge.

Quick: You are skilled with all one-handed melee weapons and pick things up quickly when you need to. You can be taught something complicated by someone who knows what they’re doing, and will be able to do that thing as a passable amateur for the rest of the day.

Wizard Vision: One of your eyes changes to a random color. It can now see invisibility, and detect magic. If you lock eyes with another person you can tell how many MD they have.

Coolheaded: You can choose whether you wish to be affected by intimidation, seduction, charm, etc. This only works on non-magical effects. (I get that this is largely already true for PCs, but consider it extra license and a warning about magician NPCs.)

Practical Trade: If you make a melee attack on a target who is not aware of your presence, your attack inflicts an additional 2d8 damage. 

Instrumentalize: You can push yourself in pursuit of your goals. Once per day, you may do one of the following:

• When you take a turn, you can take another one immediately afterwards.
• You may attack three times instead of once.
• You may move at three times your normal speed for one turn.
• You may roll three times for a single ability or skill check, and choose the highest result

Spells
Magician players should work together with the DM to invent custom spells. A d100 table of the most common spells can be found here:

(Some of these spells are from Ashes to Ashes by Loch Eil. Crabalanche by Dunkey Halton)

 d100 magic spells (on repeats, round towards 100, or towards 1 if you're a priest of Saver Heol)

1. Sacred Bond - With a one hour ritual, establish a bond between yourself and another creature whom you trust, which contains [sum] points. You may each draw points from the bond to restore missing HP. You may only have one Sacred Bond at a time.
2. Ramose's Wall of Bronze - [dice * 5] bronze panels the height and width of an average human rise up from the ground. You can arrange them how you like. They have images of warriors on them. 
3. Beryx's Deferral - This spell is cast in response to taking damage. The incoming damage is reduced by [sum], and [dice] black pins appear in your arms. Wrenching these pins free deals 1d10 damage to you. If you have more pins in you than you have Max HP, you die by rotting over the course of a minute.
4. Water of the Mure - Choose an aperture you can see. White water pours from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. That soaked with the water cannot do violence and barely exerts friction. Shoes walk as though on ice, hammers tickle, and damage cannot be done.
5. Yanessa's Glorious Emanation - Transform into a ray of light, firing at an impossible speed towards any location within sight. The journey burns and weakens you to the tune of [lowest]+2 damage, and you may "bounce" your journey, turning at up to [dice]-1 non-black surfaces.
6. Sanctuary - Designate a space of up to [sum] by [sum] cubits that are currently warmed by the light of the sun. The undead cannot transgress the space and animals and those with evil intent must test morale to enter it. Lasts [dice] days.
7. Aset's Possession of the Power - Target corpse explodes for [dice]d6 damage, up to its HD total, in a [sum]x4 cubit radius. This spell can target an undead creature, but if it is not destroyed by the damage it does not explode out.
8. Water of the Prive - Choose an aperture you can see. Runny green water flows from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. It ignites flammable objects, and deals ~1d6 damage to someone the first time they touch it.
9. Ease Burden - summon [a yoke/a wheelbarrow/a cart/an ulu].
10. Water of the Al - Choose an aperture you can see. Thick sludge pours from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. The waters are sticky, and after ten minutes harden into a kind of groddy resin.
11. Hoopoe's Crown - Remove your head covering, and vibrant feathers (the color of your wizard eye, if you have one), bolding present themselves. You are the most prominent member of your group, and  those you newly encounter roll reaction at +2. The spell lasts for [dice] hours, and affected encounters reroll their reaction at the end of that time.
12. Teneniu's Royalty - Cause [dice] objects of up to [sum] stones to float in a gentle orbit around you for up to [dice] hours.
13. Izolda's Flare - At your solemn word, "Los-Kadur-Ra," the sun looses a missile of fire and light, and 1 minute later (or five minutes at night), it arrives, blasting the area you designate, dealing [dice]d6! damage to anyone present and scattering wooden structures as well as [marking/damaging/destroying/destroying and penetrating] stone or clay.
14. Magic Mouth - draw a simple image of a mouth on a surface. Whenever someone passes by it, or does some other triggering act you specify, the mouth animates, repeating a message you speak as you cast the spell lasting up to [sum] seconds.
15. Soft Animals of Your Body - weep and shiver, and vomit [sum] falcons. They cannot be easily commanded, but have a sense that they're on your side.
16. Instant Summons - You mark items with a special glyph that you learn when you learn this spell. You may snap your fingers and summon a marked item, expending an MD. You can have [level] active glyphs at once. The absolute maximum size of objects that can be moved is 20 slots. 
17. Mantra of the Plover - You yank the living spirit from yourself or a willing ally, in a movement like tearing a sheet off of someone's head. The character is undead for [sum] minutes, and doesn't take damage from being dismembered as long as the pieces come together before the spell ends. We should be well prepared.
18. Unnamed Hive - Follow an ache that tells you how to find the [dice] nearest places where a kiss was shared.
19. Gael's Memorialism - absorb [sum] XP and [dice] memories from a recently deceased human. If 4+ dice are invested, 500+ gp in funeral expense is expended, and the total HD of deceased figures involved in the ritual is 10+, summons a Mourner Giant, loyal to the caster but foul of temperament.
20. Tiye's Vantablade - summon a light-eating one-handed khopesh into your hand. For each die invested, choose one effect: 1. Foes attacking you treat light levels as dimmer than they otherwise are. 2. You get advantage on your attacks with the vantablade. 3. deal +1d4 damage with the first wound inflicted by the vantablade each round. 4. the blade shrieks and drinks blood, causing a morale test for worldly foes when it is summoned and when it slays a significant enemy.
21. Water of the Acon - Choose an aperture you can see. Scintillating yellow fluid pours from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. Wild beasts and undead cannot cross the waters.
22. First Men - Summon a 4 HD slime warrior and get +[dice] reaction with it. It gets +[dice] to morale if following your orders. Lasts [1 hour/1 day/1month/indefinitely]. Slimes without plants and fellows of their kind will grow sad.
23. Mantra of the Obelisk - In [lowest] Turns, do the skilled work of 10 laborers or architects acting in 1 Turn
24. Adorn the Case - Create an unguent which can preserve a body for [sum]x[dice] days. If this unguent is slathered on a weapon, it instead makes that weapon deal double damage against the undead for [highest] hits.
25. Prima Vedex - Assess up to [sum] symbols divided among [dice] objects as though they spoke their intention, context, subtext, exc.
26. Mantra of the Shining Gem - Enemies must test Morale to attack you for the first [dice] rounds of a combat. Lasts for 1 hour.
27. Yannez's True Strike - The next [dice] attacks you make within the next hour get +20 to hit.
28. Diet of Wyrms - Your sweat starts to glisten luridly. Those who touch you within the next [sum] without protection come into contact with a burning poison (1d4 damage), and must test Morale (or save with talent, for PCs) to resist immediately releasing you.
29. Water of the Pict - Choose an aperture you can see. Mirrorous fluid flows from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. Your will can shift its aspect to make the water seem to resemble anything.
30. Soul Jars - With a defiant twist, remove [dice] of your organs and place it in a vessel. You get +[dice] x 2 HP until the organ is replaced, and if the organ is your brain you can wear a helmet without interfering with spellcasting. The spell cannot be recast until the organs are returned to your body, and if one is destroyed you suffer the result.
31. Gwen's Sweet Archaic Song - Send a poem [sum] seconds long to a recipient you have met before. It arrives in their mind 1d6 x 10 minutes later.
32. Flicker - [highest] times after you cast this spell, you can choose to not be real when something tangible would affect you, such as an attack or a spell. You are unreal until the end of your next turn.
33. Nimlot's Little Slip - Make a chamber or labyrinth "skippable", going directly from an entrance to another area it has connected to which you've been to. Maintain the slip for [dice]+[dice] Turns.
34. Karoma's Dancing Blade - animates weapon to attack with +[dice] to-hit until it’s done [sum] damage.
35. Anger - For ten minutes, the next [sum] times someone tries to attack you, you get to attack them first.
36. Sorana's Courage - heal [sum] Morale divided among those you choose.
37. Ligia's Monstrous Form - Perform a sort of Haukepo'khe dance and transform into a bald woman of striated stone and metal. Gain [dice] DR for 30 minutes.
38. Animate Cloak - Your shadow animates and extends to follow your orders, moving up to [sum] cubits away and affecting objects and people with [sum] x 10% of human strength. It can be damaged by fire and has [sum] HP.
39. From Beneath, Devourer - You may crawl through the ground and breath dirt for [sum] minutes. Attacking foes from below grapples them.
40. Tara's Silent Hound - summon a silent (but vicious) greyhound that serves you for an hour. Invest 2 MD to make it a silent wolf, 3 MD to call two wolves, or 4+ MD for them to have ever-burning fur.
41. Telekinesis - lift [sum]x2 equipment slots of substance or [dice] people. Lasts [dice] minutes.
42. Become Ooze - You know, ooze! Lasts [sum] minutes.
43. Indifferent Rays - Swirl and dance and hop around a space, and after two rounds a half-cubit orb will give off a burning light for an hour, dealing 1d6 damage to organic things. Anyone reduced to 0 rolls on the atomic Table of Consequences. You have [sum] temporary HP to resist radiation for the duration of the spell.
44. Samzun's Arson - cavort and conjure [dice] 10x10 cubits of fire created.
45. Siamun's Command of Wealth - [sum] slots’s worth of coins act according to your command with [sum] x 10% of a human's strength.
46. Tenenan's Passage - Make a cut in your head (dealing 1 damage), then go unhindered through [highest] barriers. Makes a light twinkling sound.
47. Blade Atomic Blazing - Empower a weapon. It casts colorful light [sum] feet, damages ghosts, and inflicts [dice] fatigue on a successful hit for [sum] minutes. The spell is powered by a great fiery furnace deep underground
48. Flame Unto Flame - cause a fire to grow in heat. If enclosed in an oven, a kiln, or a hole, it becomes a marvelous furnace, though any item placed within burns with Atomic energy for [sum] times the duration it is inserted. The flame lasts up to [dice] hours
49. Wild Beasts - You summon [sum]HD of slavering beasts up from the ground. They are hostile to everyone
50. Mantra of the Large Pond - For one hour, see your surroundings as they might appear decades and centuries later, ruins of ruins. There is a [dice]-[dungeon level] in-6 chance of a rent ceiling that allows natural light to show, and a +[dice]-in-6 chance of searching for secret doors and other hidden things.
51. Sovereign of All the World - bleed a stinking green acid from beneath the nail of your pointer finger for [dice] rounds. Each round of contact destroys non-magical material— a fist of metal, a head of stone, a chest of wood, a horse of dirt, exc. the acid may be used as a melee attack for 1d10 damage.
52. Scorpion Sting - Summon a curved light knife made of chitin. The first creature stabbed with this knife takes [sum] extra poison damage, save for half.
53. Become Newt - You transform into a small lizard (the color of your wizard eye, if you have one), capable of climbing slowly and running at human speed. This lasts for four hours. During that time, you have [dice] HP.
54. Ally Across Time - Summon up to [dice] alternate selves. You may instead summon fewer selves to get rerolls. 
55. Sapphire Snake Bolt - Fire a beam 150 ft., bouncing up to [dice] times. Targets save or take [sum] damage.
56. Remote Viewing - See any space up to [sum]x10 feet away.
57. Water of the Cry - Choose an aperture you can see. Cerulean water pours from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. The water numbs and makes heavy, and makes living things giddy with excitement.
58. Mimic - Disguise yourself as an object you have seen, which is smaller than a cart. The object must at least be big enough to contain your body, unless you cast with 3 or more MD, then it can be any size, down to a pin. Objects you mimic work perfectly well for mundane purposes. You can be harmed and injured normally if people attack your Mimic’d form. 
59. Morvan's Acid Arrows - conjures [sum] bolts of lurid yellow acid you can throw like a bow sends arrows.
60. Animate Objects - Up to [dice] objects will be able to move of their own volition, [sum] rounds strenuous actions, [sum] minutes otherwise. Objects have a [dice]-in-8 chance of being particularly loyal, this is only rolled the first time you cast the spell on a particular target.
61. Tanguy's Coldsnap - An area [dice] x 5’ in diameter is exposed to a sudden burst of frigid cold. Creatures in the area take [sum] cold damage, water freezes, & so on. The area gradually returns to its normal temperature over the course of an hour.
62. Comprehend Languages - You understand and speak one language perfectly for [dice] Turns.
63. Siamu's Crabalanche - Point at a crevice and crabs start pouring out of it. Like a hundred crabs per round. They don't really do anything, just mill around for a while and then wander off. Lasts for [sum] rounds.
64. Water of the Vote - Choose an aperture you can see. Stinking fluid pools from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. This is flammable, and belches yellow smoke upon ignition.
65. Silence - [dice] creatures are made incapable of making sound for [sum] minutes. With 4MD, can instead make a single creature permanently silent
66. Mantra of the Crocodile - Seem to be a log, pillar of rough stone, or similar knobbly furnishing. You are totally silent. Lasts for [dice] hours or [until you take a step/until you are seen taking a step/until you attack/until you release the spell.]
67. Promethean Shriek - Call fire towards you by calling its name ("AAAAAAAH"). For up to [sum] rounds, pull a flame from up to 40 cubits away into your open mouth. On later rounds, you may spit the flames elsewhere as an attack or to set it safely onto good fuel.
68. Ego - Gain [sum] temporary HP and turn undead of [dice] HD or fewer.
69. Threading Dew - For [sum] rounds, instead of moving a normal distance you may flow like wind in the trees, seeming to suddenly appear elsewhere without having to physically traverse the distance.
70. Imperial Heart - Make a heart small and black and hard. It is indestructible and, if inscribed with the image of a river, immoble, even hanging in the air. Lasts [sum] minutes.
71. Jackal-Son-Of-Jackal - eat flesh and at least one organ from a dead body to learn the answer to [sum] questions. -1 die to compel honesty, -1 die to ensure full mental faculties. Eating a rotting organ has a [days dead]-in-20 chance of contracting a harmful akh.
72. Stone Plague - Your touch ‘infects’ stone or clay, transforming [sum] cubic cubits into damp sand over the course of [dice] minutes
73. Hide - Enchant a hooded cloak to disguise you from [highest] senses, sight counting as two. Fire touching your cloak reveals you. 
74. Enervate - Inflict [dice] Fatigue on a target, or [sum] if you have a part of their body in your hand (plucked strands of hair, for example).
75. Corpse Mask - Turn a corpse’s face into a magical mask with [dice] of the following properties while worn: resemble the face’s owner, gain their voice, learn one of their languages, recognize what they recognize. 
76. Snakelike Jaw - swallow things whole and get an extra attack each round, biting with +[dice] to-hit , +4 if you are stuck in or grappling. Lasts 1 Turn.
77. Night Dog Bite - Shivering, you make an extremity or object undetectable by pressure, sound, or pain for [sum] minutes
78. Leaden Bandage - The next [dice] magical objects you touch writhe and scream. If [sum] exceeds their HD, spellcasters and magical creatures are also affected, though only once per casting of the spell.
79. Shatter - Target object is struck as though by [sum] iron hammers, with a loud bang. 
80. Door to Chaos - Tracing a line of blood along the frame of a portal, name up to [sum] doors (minimum [lowest]) within a quarter-league that you have seen. Anyone passing through this door appears in a random door from among the ones you designate. Lasts 1 full day.
81. Animating Force - distribute [sum] HP among [dice] corpses, each one ritually prepared. They stand and serve as simple servants, clumsy fighters, and poor conversationalists. They lose 1 HP per day due to erosion.
82. Orbs of Lightning - String up to [sum] electric orbs throughout an area, no closer to each other than 4 cubits. Coming within 1 cubit of an orb causes a sharp discharge, expending the orb to deal 1d4 damage. Lasts 6 hours.
83. Viorel's Fumigade - spit [dice] bulging, scored seeds up. When thrown, a seed emits a hazy poison, filling a space with an 8-cubit radius, dealing 1 damage per round to all living and/or plant creatures. A seed retains potency for 1 day before crusting and sugaring over into an ingestible hallucinogenic sweet.
84. Rubbery Body - Immune to bludgeoning, fall damage and similar things. Amazing contortions. Lasts [sum] minutes.
85. Send Out - You transform into a buzzard. This lasts for [sum] minutes. During that time, you have [dice]x[dice] HP.
86. Torch - Breath on [the ground/a piece of architecture/an item/a face]. It glows with light (the color of your wizard eye, if you have one) in a 30' radius [for 4 hours/for a month/until broken/until broken]. An affected creature saves with favor or is blinded by the light
87. Sleep - [sum] HD of creatures suddenly enter a waking dream, sleepwalking as though living out their vision.
88. Tréphina's Cynical Work - Take a turn to perform an occult bone massage to heal [sum] HP, spending 5 to instead heal an injury.
89. Lust - Track someone by scent for [dice] hours. Get +[sum] to notice details about them but -[sum] to resist their deceptions.
90. Water of the Ride - Choose an aperture you can see. Thick red foam pours from it for [sum] rounds, inundating the surroundings. While it moves, it makes a baying sound that attracts living things (MOR test to resist), and functions as low-density blood, if you might need any.
91. Charm Person - One person with [sum] or fewer HD and wearing no charms or amulets treats you as a friend and teacher for a month and a day.
92. Ironflesh - Turn up to [highest] sixths of your body into immobile iron. Lasts until you desire otherwise.
93. Viamanse - [know the direction of the nearest road/intuit everyone who has walked a particular trail/ken the provenance of an item/bind a tiffin giant to serve you for 101 days]
94. Mantra of the Dark Green Hill - You and up to [sum] characters pass through [sum] nights. If cast in a forlorn place, instead that place passes through those nights, essentially existing in a time between time until the spell ends. You do not regain MD in these nights.
95. Babble - Issue [dice] commands to plant creatures. They will obey, provided they are not attacked, but impose [lowest] strictures on you in return. Their demands are usually irrational, rather than overtly dangerous.
96. Maelys's Eclipse - cast a heavy shadow on up to [dice] targets. Can make a person anonymous, conceal a doorway, exc. lasts [1 Turn/1 hour/1 day/until the target is bathed in the light of a rising sun.]
97. Ovidiu's Illusion - Create a moving, silent image which lasts for [sum] minutes, centred on a tiny songbird you conjure, which flies away into the sky at the spell’s end. You can move and reshape it as you like if the songbird can hear you whistle. If the songbird is killed, the illusion is destroyed. 
98. Darkness - Summon a black torch, which sheds darkness as a torch does light. It lasts for [sum] minutes. 
99. Enora's Dark Star - Play your hand over a flame. Its color becomes grey (or the color of your wizard eye if you have one], and you may have it switch between shedding light to shedding fog. It burns for [sum] x 10 minutes.
100. Mutant spell! Roll twice and combine. 

-

Class: Chancer

In the "jianghu scene" of Yarfu, there aren't really any characters of the chancer type. Stories from abroad speak of slinking wildmen, at home in the places where trees grow so thick they blot out Saver Heol's light, hirsute outlaws who fly on stone birds, assassinate priests, and lie. Thus "chancer" is a term of derogation and disdain.
 

In Hiding and Without Renown (Classes: Ironmonger and Journeyman)

 Armor

  Armor is simple. You have an AC (pronounced "Ahs"), which is 10 if unarmored, 12 if wearing a helm, 14 if wearing a cuirass or other armored shirt and a helm, and 16 if wearing lamellar and a helm. Normally to cast spells the aspects in the soul (housed in the organs) can't be entrapped in armor, but may be dignified by robes or other rich things

Class: Ironmonger

   Ironmongers have an unsavory reputation in Yarfu, though rumors say they are exalted abroad. Their loose order is united by one ambivalent decree, to go where the sun does not warm, and find who you are when no one is watching.
   Start with: an iron shortspear, an iron mask, an iron hammer and twenty nails-of-iron, a skull, a cosmetic kit, and a hood.

   Every template after the first, get +1 MD and +1 to-hit. (Beware, you don't learn any spells from leveling up. (This is the grindset class.))

• A: Cantrips
• B: Comity, Iron Spell
• C: Blood Eyes
• D: Residue
• E: Bounty

Cantrips: with a touch, you can sharpen a blade, sense a metal's purity, conjure a metal glove, or drive a nail. You can use the sling, throwing sticks, and any one-handed bladed weapon.

Comity: You know Kavetek, the language of Ironmongers, elves, giant ferrets, and barren fiends.

Iron Spell: When wearing anything lighter than lamellar, you can cast spells as long as you keep one hand free.

Blood Eyes: Iron suffuses your HP, strengthening its "degree". By pressing your tongue hard into the roof of your mouth, you can push your second eyes into place. They glow red, and pierce through the darkness like bulls-eyes, allowing you to see in the dark up to 60'. They are blinded by mist and fog.

Residue: your sweat is poisonous to non-ironmongers. Those who swallow a shot of it save with magical amulets or take 1d6 damage. Your mounts and lovers develop shallow scarring.

Bounty: as long as you carry at least four inventory slots of iron objects beyond the armor you wear and any weapons in your hand, you may reroll a single MD in every spell you cast.

 Inventory

   Inventory is simple. You have twenty slots. Some identical items can bundle (e.g. a quiver of arrows, a tranch of torches, a sac of ball bearings). Helmets and armored shirts each take up two slots, while lamellar takes up four. Otherwise pretty much everything is just one slot unless specified.

Class: Journeyman

   Strangers in the midst of the vo, and awkwardly received among the savadur. Journeymen are blamed for ancient wrongs, and they make the high and powerful feel guilty. They are considered to be of the race of man, more out of honor than conviction. 
   Start with: an extra two feet of height and five pounds of hair, an oversized spear, an empty skull-sized cage, a jug of houch, and a wheelbarrow (five slots, carries twenty when rolled) with straps to carry it over the shoulder.

• A: Physique, Food for Energy
• B: Comity
• C: Guise
• D: All Of The Rules

Physique: Your nails are like daggers. You can use all weapons and armor that suit your great size, and attack with +2 to-hit. You have a 4-in-6 chance of hearing remote sounds, and can smell blood up to 100' away, discerning between blood fresh, long-shed, that of a hot blooded fighter, or that of a personage or degree-strengthened ironmonger. 

Food for Energy: Get +1 HP when you eat something you find in a dungeon, abandoned hive, or other dangerous location. You can use this ability multiple times per day, but each instance must be more gross or more dangerous than the last. 

Comity: Normal retainers and followers in your employ get -1 morale. They see something in you that disquiets them, even if they followed you gladly before. Rodents, vermin, and other ratainers get +2 morale. You may squeak with rats as though you spoke their language. 

Guise: Like twisting into an acrobat's knot, you may take on a human seeming, including 2-in-6 chance of depicting a particular person, +1 with their clothes, +1 with their tongue, +1 if you know what they love most of all. 

All of the Rules: Your ancestors were made by the wizards of eld, set out for servitude and study. Those chains still connect you to magic, occultation, and the life after life, and you have become aware of the tug that always pulls you. You can grapple magic-users, ghosts, and apparitions from a distance of 100', and do not suffer penalties for any akhs you endure.
 

At the Last, Abundant Equipment for the Tomb (Classes: Fighter and Ranger)

HP and Saves

HP is a measure of your vital spirit (pronounced "hep"). Level 1 PCs start with 6 HP, which is reduced by harms and regained at a rate of 1d6 HP every sunrise. At 0 HP, roll on the Table of Consequences so secret and revolutionary, I haven't written it yet.

There are three types of saves, and they all start at +0.

• Talent: Physical skill.
• Favor: Divine grace.
• Magical Amulets: efficacy of charms and icons.

To test with a save, roll a d20, plus the bonus, and try to get a 13 or higher.  

Class: Fighter

In Yarfu, the bow is the prince of all weapons. Note with pride the fighter's facility with it. Vo men are sought for formal armies in each nation-state, standardizing the more diverse martial traditions that precurse them.
Start with a horn bow and arrows, a spear, a helmet and chain shirt, a tin of pink poppies, a fierce mask, and a bright blanket.

• A: Comity, National Pastime
• B: Captain
• C: +1 attack
• D: Hot Blood

Comity: You know how to use all weapons, including the bow. If you own a magical bow, you are brothers with all other true warriors who carry one. No one can punish you for winning a fair fight against another archer, and you are entitled to what they carried into that fight. You get +4 to-hit with all weapons, and when unarmed.

National Pastime: You are proficient in the fighting style of your people, and honor or shame them by your deeds. Here are some nearby styles:

• The fighters of Faras are dartiers, and their javelins throw a foe off-balance (reduce AC by 2 for a round)
• The maidens of Sawl are moirologists, and when their morale would fail them they keen, slowing or severing the spirit of the undead.
• The knights of Qusair are soldiers, and when they lay low a foe they can attack another one immediately with the fallen enemy's own weapon.
• Zanquecant People are ambushers, and when striking an enemy's flank with an axe, they get an extra attack.
• The Savadur Pacoste Clan are witches, and their charges ignore all resistance and immunity to damage.
• The Savadur Saritur Clan are totemists, and when wearing scale armor they can leap 16 cubits horizontally or 8 cubits vertically.

Captain: No matter now indifferent or cruel you are, you can always find a number of 1 HD Fighters equal to your level in a community.
Hot Blood: You get +4 HP and are immune to the cold, capable of lending that warmth to [level] snuggle pals. Those who drink your blood feel your emotions.

Origins and Speech

• Vo Wanderer. You speak your national language and one other language of your choice.
• Vo Citizen. Decide if you're a nationalist. If you are, you speak your national language, get +2 reaction when receiving reward, position, etc from the nation-state, and get -1 reaction with vo whose nations aren't allied with yours in the war. If you're not a nationalist, you speak your national language and a local language you can use to exclude anyone from more than 100 miles away.
• Savadur Priest. You speak a national language and a dialect of Kha (called, for obscure historical reasons, by ranking. You speak First Kha, Second Kha, etc., up to the Eighth Kha.) Dialects near in number are easier to understand. Kha has no written form, save heraldic strangifiers painted on walls or stamped in armor to You get -1 reaction with Savadurs of other clans.

Nearby languages:

• Crocodolean: spoken by people of the nation, and therefore skeletons, scarab swarms, garden ogres, and crocodiles.
• Abydor: spoken in Abydor, and therefore by Turgid Bastards and gliding lizards. Hostile to Crocodole.
• Vezan: spoken in Vezan, and therefore by temple ogres, rams, rock baboons, and rebel dogs. Hostile to Crocodole.
• Zaun: spoken in Zau, and therefore by Visceral Bearers, aubade fey, and shaggy dingoes. In a compact with Crocodole.
• Koumoulen: spoken in Koumoul and therefore by Wasting Bearers, rock baboons, and maned wolves. Unaligned.
• Tremanian: spoken in Tremanan and therefore by cometary ogres, scrub flies, and pangolins. Hostile to Crocodole.

Class: Ranger

There are many undeveloped places in Yarfu, rugged terrain haunted by the dead. The realm of mankind is narrow, and a rugged few resist the press of chaos on its borders.
Start with a khopesh, a machete, 40' of rope, a portable tent, a tinderbox, climbing gear, a Douglas gray cloak, and four javelins.

• A: Turn Undead, Ranger
• B: Comity
• C: Apotropaic Trophies
• D: Kingsfoil

Turn Undead: You get +2 to-hit and +2 damage vs undead creatures, and undead foes have -1 morale.

 Ranger: You are trained with snares, melee weapons, and the use of slings and javelins. Each overland turn, pick one of the following:

• Forage: gain +1 ration from biting heads off lizards, enticing snowlice with drops of blood, sucking on that secret herb, exc.
• Survey: +1-in-6 chance of detecting hidden or secret features.
• Scout: +1-in-6 surprise chance for you, -1-in-6 surprise for encounters.

Comity: You now qualify for one of several societies of rangers. In Yarfu, there are three of note:

• The Tatouet. Claim to be descended from ancient rebels. They mark their chins with ink and tattoo dots onto their arms and legs. When in a desert region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.
• Maa Kheru. Claim to be of a hereditary line descended from Saver Heol, despite membership based on skill and achievement. They know the name of the secret herb. Wear golden jewelry in brow piercings and oiled dark boots. When in a scrubland region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.
• Plijet Hudjefa. Mostly linger and stare with sinister intention and foreign moustache. When in a tundra region, you can sense secret routes and weather changes.

Apotropaic Trophies: Keep a record of every type of creature whose blood, flesh, or other leavings you've incorporated into your amulets. Add+2 to any saves made to resist such a creature. For human types, the bonus rather applies to the traps and hazards of their hive or other home complex.

Kingsfoil: a sweet lie has swept Yarfu, one that organizes its many people into a tight handful of nation-states, languages, and destinies. It is a reality the unpainted border denies, and in your dreams you practice the liberator's perfect blow. Deal +3 damage to serpents and those who claim dominion over more than one hive.

The Second-Last Seal of Poza (Megadungeon Outline)

 

A prison larger than any city
Built on the first prison ever built
Build to restrain the god that wants to eat the world
Built with seven seals (no fewer would do)
Each seal built to forget how to break
The prison abandoned, except for its first charge
Full of traps and hateful remains
And magic things now precious
You enter through a window that seems untrespassed
And find
Sitting on a pile of blood-slick coins
The pieces of the second-last seal 

(I am not precommitting to publishing this in detail. If I ever run Poza Hive, I want to use the sort of shorthand that doesn't work for a blogpost.)

Poza, the hive to trap the devil, was once the greatest project in all the world. Before Yarfu Empire ever rose, its garrisons boasted 5,000 fountains for drinking water, 450 public ovens, a great hospital that accommodated 8,000 patients and which cured all diseases, anguishes, and even old age; 800 lawyers, 100 eidetic historians, 10,000 savadur of all columns, and 100 armorers manufacturing the famous Pozan armors.

Goodwill is the first well to run dry. By the time Yarfu fell, the garrison had fallen to fewer than a hundred wardens, and it was said each was assigned to discouraging an entire company of outlaws, or two tribes of giant hounds, or four squadrons of squatters. Meanwhile, its coffers swelled perversely, for reasons widely believed to be the Lone Prisoner's own connivances. For unknown and counterfeit reasons, the gibbering plants that infest most of the continent flee the prison's surroundings, making Poza the safest and richest death-trap that stories tell of.

The god is so inimical, he is not even worshipped by the perverse or insane. Thus, as interlopers get further down, increasing levels of Revulsion (the opposite of a mythic underworld that hates you, a Morally Responsible underworld that wants to keep the god imprisoned.) For each point of Revulsion, a +1-in-6 chance of a door being stuck, a door closing behind you, a trap re-arming after a day; a +1-in-12 chance of a random encounter per turn; a -1 Morale for non-retainer hirelings and mercenaries.

Each stratum of the hive has a revulsion score and a level, to guide how dangerous and how much treasure can be found, in standard dungeon tradition.

Levels of the Hive

• Towers of Poza (Revulsion 0, level 3) Includes the roof in general, and any courtyards open to the air. Stalked by Archer-Shades, souls dedicated to the devil in life and claimed as his soldiery. Unable to free him, they loiter about the dungeon, waiting for their general to lead them to work ruin. Many narrow walkways and potential parkours, and many cruel sightlines with an untiring archer waiting at the other end. The skeletons of bygone adventurers carry loot to foreshadow what exists below. A small chapterhouse of the few remaining wardens exists under constant siege in the klochdi, and if befriended they will teach the signals of the bells to a party of adventurers. A pod of mourning fey haunt the mastabas, their speaker Painstaking Song commemorating one of the broken seals on the devil's prison, now broken in three pieces.
• Dock (Revulsion 0, level 1) Picked-over trade sector, with graffiti drawings that hint to the existence of traps. "Mastered" by Purposeful Morvan, an iron-monger who wears a metal skull and seeks to capture fighters for the arena in a deeper section. His complex conceals a hidden well leading deeper.
• Upper Hive (Revulsion 1, level 1) Three or so interweaving floors. Home to the Giant Hounds, wild outlaws whose doctrine states that the sun god Saver Heol is already dead, as well as scarabs and the occasional great cat. Every surface is painted with many colors, and the air is heavy with apprehension. One of the devil's seals lies here, forgotten and unguarded.
• Hospital of Universal Recovery (Revulsion 2, level 2) Once an emporium of wonders. Now patrolled by the Masked Procession, reduced to a cursed half-life and lead by cruel and contagious akhs that were unleashed from a storeroom of exorcized evils. Kept concealed in the Ti Amun, a stash of miracle cures still remain. The Solarium bottoms out on this level, and the Masked Ones never enter it for fear of the sunlight. In a grand gallery stands the idol of Panacea, who promises the fulfilment of wishes in exchange for pieces of the seals on the devil's cage.
• The Knotted Ostaleries (Revulsion 2, level 3) An internecine nest of tunnels adjoining the hospital where many stalls and shops once stood. At the far end, a visitor's quarter is now a nest to Vil of the Darkened Soul, an Ahohedaxuox Dragon who drags herself through the many tunnels seeking food for her three kits. An intact seal lies in this nest, and pieces of another are strewn through the tunnels.
• Echoing Shafts (Revulsion 3, level 3) Mines and high halls, for the depths around the devil are always impregnated with gold. Patrolled by Abyssals, the remnants of those guards whose long vigil changed them. They are warriors so empty that you can literally fall into them like a pit. Cloqmarin, a demigod spirit from distant lands, cajoles and mocks them from his great arena, the only place free from bad air and firedamp on the level. Those who win three battles in his blasted pit win their freedom, but those who win five are granted a hasty marriage. Stories of the vampire Cloqmarin's beauty and sexual facility never die in Yarfu, but the fate of his many lovers is never explored. For a pillow, he rests his head on a broken seal.
• Quiet Underworld (Revulsion 4, level 4) Flooded with black water, hot to the touch, fog rising languidly. Skeletons lie waterlogged and forgotten, ready to wake and claw some life from interlopers. This level is the enjoyment of the Feasters of Tenvalijenn, glutton-demons, carrion-eaters— filthy with a profusion of waste. The war temple still stands on this sunken level, heat emanating from it. Within, stored in a reliquary no demon can open, is the Disc of Gwen, which sings in the presence of a piece of the prison seals. Elsewhere on the level, past a totally flooded annex, a ritual bed leads into the Dream of War.
• The Dream of War (Revulsion 1, level 5) Green dust and embers blow down from the sky. It is a memory of the days before the devil imprisoned, a siege of the infant Saver Heol's leaden citadel. Demigods and vanr abound, and nameless things. If the infant sun dies, the whole dream darkens, chills, and fills with screams. In a work space beneath the palace, the heroine Gwen forges the first seal. Visitors of the dream, if they would fall, wake before hitting the ground. Besides the battlements, there are some very very deep drops. Awakening shows that you lose what you've lost and gained what you've found, and death in the dream is death in waking— a silver scarab tears at your head and heart, and rather than generating a new PC normally you may start as a level 1d4+1 Journeyman with a horrifically debilitating Akh.
• Fires of Fire (Revulsion 3, level 4) Patrolled by Visceral Bearers, who grow in wide rings around the furnaces, waiting eternally for the fires to die down. Standard fire level, with lava and gouts of flame and such. Hidden behind a lead door that must be melted by seven different levers which heat it seven different ways, a glass forge can remake seals from their constituent pieces, and render them pliable enough to re-apply up to an hour after heating them.
• The Prison (Revulsion 6, level 5) A small complex. Thinly attended by Rebel Khepri, emanations of Saver Heol that now burn with the light of darkness— ultraviolet, infrared, and other colors beyond sight. Soft-spoken, dignified, quick-thinking. Invisibly burning blades and chariots brutally sharpened. Graffiti drawings by those few who made it to the depths. The devil leans against a cell, its walls invisible and unbreakable. Those who feel carefully find the wall cuts off not only the cell, but a tall portal that leads on to the final level of the hive. Only a final seal hangs on the wall's seams, glassy and undarkened. The devil watches visitors with impassive confidence, and will not speak unless spoken to. He will not lie. If asked what he wants, he says he wants to leave the prison. If asked for inducements, he will promise anything to the person who removes the final seal, and he will follow through on his promise, not twisting its intention but not desisting from his own eventual goal of devouring the sun. If asked about the portal, he says it leads to the promise, and points out that it cannot be accessed without freeing him. If the last seal is removed, he performs any promised actions, then flies out of Poza Hive to do as he wilt. Only approaching with seals readied by the glass forge will make him desperate to deal.
•  The Promise (Revulsion 0, level 6) Not to be publicly revealed. “It is a well-known tendency in tales that are popular and long re-told for them to be enlarged, until they become ‘cycles’, taking up or being linked to other stories with which they at first has slender connexions, or none at all. One of the methods used in this process is to provide the original hero with a son, either a newly invented one, or a character in another story. In either case the son will tend to have similar adventures, with variation, to those of the father.” Tolkien, commentary on Beowulf translation, line 734 

Ras Tarlaix: Make Me an Indestructible Star, Everything Evil and Vicious and Red

This hive dungeon serves to introduce some of the marquis monsters of the setting, created by random generation. While a little bizarre on their own, I believe confidently asserting their existence, plus repeatedly putting them before players, will give them life.

North Palace of king Nebuchadnezzar II at Babylon

Ras Tarlaix

Three hundred years ago, the Yarfu Empire seized an old Heoline fort and developed it as a link in the trade route. Calling Ras Tarlaix, it thrived until the empire's fell, when cruel madness drove its people into the hot wastes. Now those who retrace the steps of the empire's old routes circumvent Ras Tarlaix, stopping over in the hive of Greyat.

Those who journey to the place find a ruined adobe hive, with tears in the walls allowing the sand to reclaim it. Surrounded by eroded pale mastabas, with empty spaces where a road ran through the hive, passing from the oasis in the southwest to Gabewan on the road to Faras in the northeast. Its dare-tower, with abraised stone faces of winged women, is now the vantage of scoundrels and beasts.

The hive is home to two rival groups— the giant hound raiders recently organized under the ironmonger Gurval the Invulnerable, and intruding gibbering plants controlled by garden ogres. Gurval seeks a magic item, the Stone of Nimlot, which can raise walls and construct fortifications. The giant hounds hope this can be used to repair the rents in the western walls of the hive and cut off gibbering plants from entering. The ogres seek to gain total unilateral control of the hive and to eventually reproduce in its humid depths.

Built into a cliff three hours west of Ras Tarlaix is Greyat. Sleepy and welcoming, it is troubled by banditry from giant hounds in the direction of the old ruins, and its king, Nimlot the Sociable, seeks strong-armed heroes to give his people redress. Other notable people of Greyat include:

• Karoma the Protective, a level 2 Vo fighter. Hailing from distant Kernez, she is diligent, athletic, and baffled by what she deems the urbane charms of even this rustic place. Seeks adventure. Wears the signatures of Kernez— a helm with a grimacing face and puffy lizard-scale sleeves. Knows the Kernezen martial art— on landing a drop attack from above with her mace, enemies of fewer HD must test morale.
• Harmine, a Vo woman. Fierce-faced and ancient, she oversees the stable dock and knows the goods the caravans bring in. Can act as a go-between for buyers and sellers.
• Daring Ptahmose, a level 2 Vo magic-user. Languid and matter-of-fact. Mystical and deadly. Has a scarab tattooed on either cheek. Up for anything. Locals assume he is much more learned than he is.
• Kaourantina, a Savadur woman. A morose smith, privately certain that an apocalyptic scourge from the capital lands will punish Yarfu entire. In the meantime, happy to accept commissions of metalworking, sculpture, and other artisan craft. Always planning to move on soon.
• Small-Thinking Tiye, a Vo man. The nephew of the previous queen, Gwen, and from childhood excluded and usurped by Nimlot. Unambitious, friendly, and loyal, he is penniless and disrespected. A good source of rumors and news.
• Extraordinary Teneniu, a Savadur hashma. A muralist and poet of great skill, they are the only permanent Savadur resident of Greyat and essentially press-ganged into priestly duties, forced to perform half-hearted rites and shoddily resolve disputes. Good person to consult to learn history or appraise strange items.

d6 Random Encounters

1. Gibbering Plant

2. 1d6 Ogres, Garden

3. 1d6 Desert Bull

4. 2d4 Giant Hounds

5. 3d8 Giant Hounds

6. Gurval and 1d4 Giant Hounds

1. Rampart. Fortified wall platform jutting over the stable dock to dissuade climbers. Under the platform, empty urns and despoiled weapon racks. 1-in-6 chance a party entering or leaving the area will be spotted by the Giant Hounds in the Dare-Tower.

2. Puck fields. Evidence of lines and marks in the circular playing field, as well as a raised balcony wall to catch stray pucks. A storage coffer contains a couple stone pucks, ruined wicker armor, and a pair vibrant red athletic shoes stamped with golden hoopoe designs. They are boots of travelling and leaping.

3. Vacant mastabas. Sloped-walled tombs. Each has a secret door, a panel that slides away when pressed, and one has started to deteriorate, showing the seam of the passage. Within each mastaba are warrior statues, funeral urns, and little else.

4. Dare-tower. Wind-smoothed images of winged women stare east, forming a rest for the top of the tower. Ten Giant Hounds roost here, leaping from the scapular balconies float around the roof in the sunrise and sunset. Otherwise, they mostly sing songs in their own language and tell each other ghost stories. Doors on the roof lead to the narrow stairs that lead up to the balconies or down into the klochdi (area 13).

5. Overlooking racing court. The roof looks down three-ish stories into the racing court (area 24), encircled by a large painting of an ezizaja serpent.  1-in-6 chance a party nearing the edge will be spotted by the Giant Hounds in the Dare-Tower.

6. Western Mastabas. Resembled the vacant mastabas of area 3. One has a couple small clumps of hound hair caught in between a couple bricks, betraying the existence of a (much better hidden) secret door. Pressing on the right stone accesses the interior, where in addition to bones and stones the giant hounds have hidden 2000 gp and a +1 horn bow, the fruit of their raiding efforts.

7. Overlooking Solarium well.  Fading abstract frescos line the well, running straight through the hive to its bottom level. There are no windows. At the bottom, six gibbering plants stand waiting.

8. Mastaba birthing-fonts. Like the east and west mastabas, but gradual stairs lead up to the top of each tomb where a birthing-font has been laid. Empty and dry, with solar mosaic designs half-chipped away. Like the other mastabas, each has a well-hidden secret access point. One mastaba's interior leads down directly into the Ti Anum (area 18).

9. Barrack-temple. Filled with moth-eaten brocades. 20 Giant Hounds sleep in wall-niches, gamble, and at night perform courtship dances. Their priest Onnophris (2 HD) wears Gurval's Ring of Control Humans on a string (the ironmonger thinks he lost it) and keeps 6 gems worth 200 gp each.

• At the center of the brocades is an altar, with light from a window shining down onto it around noon. There Onnophris has constructed a symbolic cage for the dead sun god. Divine beings will not enter the cage.

 

10. Storage and guest area (labyrinth) Signs of disorder and ancient unrest. 1-in-6 chance per character of misstep that triggers an ancient trap.

• Trap (d4): 
  1. Snare that cuts into ankle (save with talent or take 1 damage and move no faster than a brisk walk until back to full HP)
  2. Rockfall (1d6 damage and save with favor or be cut off from party)
  3. Shatter a pot of pestilence (save with magical amulets or contract lethal disease)
  4. Time-neutered trap now harmless, like releasing a (long-dead) snake or firing an empty quarrel of darts.
• Those who search the guest quarters storage magazines have a 1-in-6 chance per person of finding one of the following trinkets:
  1. Gilded pig-headed staff (looks amused) (30 gp)
  2. Well-worn but sturdy peg loom (5 gp)
  3. Linen-wrapped doctor's kit, including sharp knives, a whetstone, resin for filling cavities, incense, no anesthetics, a small awl, and copper hooks, spoons, forceps, saws, and picks. (15 gp)
  4. A small stone diagram containing the spell Fast Horse.
  5. A painted statuette of a child, carved in marble and jet. (40 gp)
  6. A case of spare bowstrings, wax, and spare arrowheads. The case itself, well-preserved and finely lacquered, is worth 10 gp.

11. Lower class district (labyrinth) This maze of tunnels is even more circuitous and indirect than normal. Takes an extra turn to navigate through.

12. Slave arcade. Resembles a miniature village of hovels in a wide rectangular pit. Eerie like all empty places that were once homes. Those exploring find that one hovel seems to sweat. It conceals the ghost of the witch Maelys the Accessible, a straight-shooter who in life mostly served one function— the enhancement of beauty. Give up a little blood and she will mutter and carom and make you an object of possessive attention. Every point of constitution spent gives 1 charisma. She does nothing for free ever— never did when she was alive and enslaved, won't now.

13. Klochdi. Formerly a belltower that surmounted the roof, now built upon. A large, ancient copper bell waits in the middle of the chamber, surrounded by carpets and floor-trod tapestries. Stairs lead up to the dare tower (area 4) or down to the bottom of area 23.

• Approaching the bell: the carpets have been placed by the Giant Hounds to cover holes in the floor— the unwary slip through and fall 30 feet, save with talent to grab the edge at the last second.
• Ringing the bell: requires something heavy like a hammer. Summons the giant hounds of the dare-tower (area 4) and garden ogres of the throne room (area 33).

14. Overlooking racing court. Windows look down into the empty court. A thin ledge encircles the windows at this level, and a brave adventurer could shimmy around its circumference. If attacked or something, they must save with talent or fall 20 feet to the court below.

15. Civil district (labyrinth) Place of myriad functions— judgement, punishment, recitation, memorization, and instruction of specialists. Each turn, explorers have a 1-in-6 chance of encountering the giant ferret that calls this place home.

• Searching the district: in the "Hall of Odes", a thin man in foreign threads (connoting in Crocodole "slutty magus" and a candle-perch visor inspects an unfamiliar horn instrument. He is Guileless Ramose, friend and good-time-guy of Gurval. Companionable and well-spoken, he seems amused with everything like there's a secret you're not in on. The giant ferret is his, raised from when it was a giant kit. Knows about Gurval, his deal with the giant hounds, and the threat of the gibbering plants and garden ogres. Interested in new music, magic items for Gurval, a good reason for the two of them to move on.

16. Residential district (labyrinth) Wide main halls that wend up and down at regular intervals. Some apartments are marked with a simple, almost cartoonish painting of a smiling ezizaja serpent (Cefu Cruel, painted here as an apotropaic).

17. Overlooking Solarium well. There are no windows on these levels overlooking the well, so it is inaccessible without demolition.

18. Ti Anum. Once a society headquarters for a club of mothers, now some kind of apothecary' house. Sunrise murals bleeding through white-wash on the walls. A hooked pole leans by a water basin, and a workstation fills the center of the room.

• The workstation contains several sealed jars— an emetic, something to ease labor, something to delay labor, something to staunch bleeding, something for headaches and cramps, something to increase bleeding and end an early pregnancy. Laid out in the middle of the workstation is a diagram, half-cast. Touching it causes it to start to glow, and touching it much more triggers it. This is a spell of confused passage, first designed to thwart intruder armies. When the party enters a new area, roll a d20. If this is less than the area they're entering, they come to the rolled area instead. If it is greater, the spell has no effect. If the spell ever rolls a repeat of a result it got before, it dissipates.
• In the cobwebbed ceiling, a trapdoor and a cunningly stowed rope ladder stand waiting to be unhooked and pulled down. Leads up to a mastaba birthing font (area 8).
• Inspecting the murals: they can be restored by anything acidic or abrasive, showing ancient and shimmering images of the sun being born from the fertile horizon. Any mothers in the party can also make out an image in the glare, a negative-space image-on-the-image. It shows a cow-headed woman holding a dead man, an arrow sticking out of him. Mothers who see this gain a new power. If targeted with an arrow while empty-handed, they may make an attack roll, and if it betters the attacker's, they snatch it out of the air.

19. Stable dock (labyrinth) Empty stables and Giant Hound nests. 20 Giant Hounds reside in the center, near the main entrance to the rest of the hive (area 20). Their foremost joke-teller and manflesh-eater, Hyrgonaphor, wears an elephant-headed ivory Ring of Fire Resistance and sews 10 gems worth 300 gp each into her fur.

• Climbing to the roof: flat and open. Very hard three-story climb up the bastion to area 1

20. Main entrance. Impressive gate, now open and unguarded. Signs of passage by Giant Hounds.

21. Public area (labyrinth) Religious icons, smiling busts, brickfloor hallways (rather than smooth) to give grip when it's filthy.

• Searching: careful inspection shows a path of Hound footprints between the main entrance (area 20) and the barrack-temple access (area 22)

22. Accessing barack-temple. A liminal underzone, half-storage magazine and half ritual area. Ceremonial tallhats and slings sit on pedestals arranged in half-circle around a mural of slingers (the Ten Doctors of Darala). A cocoon of nail-hung leather hangs from a far corner. Ladders and firepoles lead down into area 29.

• Approaching the ceremonial objects: animates three ghosts of Heoline soldiers (Liulo, Doloptes, and Qumut), cowed into service by Gurval. They regretfully attack all of Gurval's foes. Stats as gibbering plant, but cannot leave the area, use slings (1d6 damage), and cannot be hurt by nonmagical means.
• Leather cocoon: sleeping place of Gurval. 2-in-6 chance he can be found here. In addition to a +1 crocodile-shaped dagger and a few throwing sticks, he has also stashed an iron leash and vial of kohl.

23. Accessing klochdi and throne. A nest of stairs running up to area 13 or down to area 33. In the ceiling, holes covered in patterned fabric can be glimpsed.

24. Racing court. Large and mostly empty courtyard, the walls dominated by a massive painting of the winding ezizaja serpent Cefu Cruel, who symbolized waste and danger but in time became a fond mascot for Ras Tarlaix. Ancient graffiti crowds under her. The four gates that access the court are richly decorated:

• West: procession of artisans
• North: procession of soldiers and priests
• East: a great bell, and figures representing anthropomorphic news— ugly rumors, snide catastrophe, gentle well-wishes, and so on.
• South: nobles and worthies with fine fruits and relieved expressions

25. Courtly reserve (labyrinth) Well-preserved and well-decorated halls, often wide and supported by pillars. Inoperable basins, tile floors, polished local sandstone.

• Exploration finds the palace complex. Well picked-over for treasure, there is one valuable remaining— in the antechamber of the queen's quarters, a 9' tall demonic statue of polished marble holds a clouded 1'-wide orb. Within, one can just barely make out thirty polished carnelions worth 20 gp each. If the glass is broken, the demon emits a rasping growl and a curse hangs over Ras Tarlaix. Every time you roll for a random encounter, roll an additional time and on a 1, the party encounters 2d4 spectral soldiers. 2 HD, wielding slings and clubs, their morale never fails. They are hostile to all life, but neutral to the gibbering plants. If the carnelians are brought back and the thief apologizes, the demon will slowly shrug, call them a cuck, and call off the curse.

26. Pond area. Serene natural-themed chamber. Most of the plant life is dead and the pond, fed by clever chutes in the ceiling during the occasional rain, is half-full, leaking into the flooded district below. Mold and fungus predominates.

27. Artisan district (labyrinth). Empty businesses and halls open to the sands of the desert. Here six garden ogres direct a team of six gibbering dead in searching the district for treasures. They possess a potion of clairvoyance (in blue bottle, blotchy silver and gritty, out of season booze after a bender smell), potion of polymorph self (in ceramic bottle, matte silver and runny, cherry cola smell), and living-plant Shield +1. The ogres are eager for any deal that weakens the ironmonger or the Giant Hounds, as they have grown possessive of the hive.

28. Overlooking Solarium well. There are no windows on this level overlooking the well, so it is inaccessible without demolition.

29. Lower barracks. Ladders and firepoles leading up to area 22. Faded murals of a bowman slaying many foes cover the walls. Urns and shelves line the walls, and the floor is covered in squared, empty pools.

• Murals: Savadur recognize these scenes as depicting the demigod Ptahmose wielding the Arrows of Time, which he fired so fast they could slay foes in previous days and undo disaster and loss. A wishful myth.
• Urns: mostly empty, some with oils and perfumes for the pools. One, sealed with clay, contains a potion of speed (glowing brown and foul, potted meat product smell)
• Pools: once bathed warriors. A few have been used recently, and are covered in clumps of giant hound hair.

30. Fortified ostalery. An irregular hall lined with old food stalls. Halfway along is an ornate door covered in peeling red paint. 

• The door: is stuck (hastily sealed with cosmetic glue long ago). It opens to a brothel besieged by the queen's soldiers during the fall of Ras Tarlaix. A rumpled carpet leads from the doorway to the skeletal remains of eight humans. The rest of the chamber is well-furnished.
• The carpet conceals a trapdoor and a 20' pit. The trapdoor can be latched to hold fast.
• The bodies are still covered in finery, jewelry worth a total of 2000 coins.
• In a cabinet, 2000 coins can be found.

31. Flooded district (labyrinth) The carefully finished adobe of this section which was intended to keep the water flowing into the pool above instead retains the leaks and condensation. Water ranges from a couple inches to four feet deep, and travel is slowed here. Home to a herd of five desert bulls, and random encounters here are with 1d4 of them.

• Careful search of the district leads to a submerged chamber now like a wide well, lit by an oddly glimmering golden bull-head statue looking up from the bottom of the chamber. Those who dive down the thirty feet and grab the bull's horns feel that they are offered an accord. If they refuse, they save with magical amulets or take double strength drain from desert bulls forever. If they accept, they gain +2 strength, can speak with desert bulls even if they don't speak Avarin, and all humanoids they slay have a 1-in-6 chance of rising as desert bulls with the next sunset.

32. Procession circuit. Patrolled clockwise by four gibbering plants. 3-in-6 chance per Turn to encounter them.

• The murals depict:
• the Ten Doctors of Darala, soldiers who defended Ras Tarlaix when it was first constructed. They are notable for their tall hats and use of slings instead of bows.
• The oil-weeping Ezizaja Serpent Cefu Cruel, leaving the personifications of diseases and misfortunes half-eaten (monstrous-looking legs and waists with a big bite mark cutting off the rest)
• Graffiti drawings of rabbits, stick figures with bows and arrows, and well-endowed giant hounds.

33. Basement throne. Sitting on the big chair, the remains of mad queen, surrounded by her six retainers' remains. Four garden ogres camp here, on guard for movement from the Giant Hounds on the stairs up (into area 23).

• In combat: the ogres will animate the corpses like puppeteers, striking with the retainers' bows and the queen's greatsword. There is a 1-in-6 chance per round that an ogre will have the queen throw her ball (see below)
• The queen: Im, Ras of Ras Tarlaix. Ordered universal incarceration after the fall of the empire, and fell in the ensuing chaos. Most of her wealth was taken by rebels, but she still wears the golden beard of state (100 gp), the Robes of Darala (+1 MD, cast Deferral with 1 MD 1/day), and the Ball of Sacecas. The Ball, a good size and weight for a slingstone, is covered in intersecting bands of dots. Upon striking the floor, it creates walls of glowing light that prevent ingress or egress from a zone including the keyed area and all adjacent to it for 24 hours straight. The Ball's power recharges after one week.

34. Solarium well. Six gibbering plants on guard outside the armory (area 35), surrounded by painted murals. Come the noonday sun shining directly onto them, they are briefly overtaken with religious reluctance.

35. Armory. In ancient days, a Heoline war temple. Defended from the gibbering plants by ten Giant Hound barricadiers, led by captain Sacer. Each has taken up a helmet and sword, but there are also rucksacks, carrying poles, slingstones, and spears galore. Near the center of the armory is a curtained, freestanding arch.

• The arch: ominous, and sometimes seems to burble with distant echoes. Before it is a basin in a plinth, and if wine or blood fills the basin, wind blows the curtains open to reveal a great portal of swirling energy, leading to (Sam Sorensen don't read this part) another temple in another dungeon, deep beneath the earth and beneath the ruins of a much greater hive, one overrun by hundreds of Giant Hounds who war with greater things than simple garden ogres.

36. Temple reserve (labyrinth). Serene, yet crummy. Fine-sculpted fake rocks and reeds. 

• Searching: A grand hall with a row of statues marking out the western edge of the hive. Also, kept in a random storage magazine is the Stone of Nimlot, which can cast the spell Raise Wall. It has twelve charges.
• Investigating the statues: two adjacent statues, one of Saver Heol in his warlike aspect and one of Ptahmose the Archer. Each reaching back as though to steady himself on a the wall. This traces out the edges of secret door that slides up like a garage door to reveal a hidden ostelary (area 37)

37. Secret mastaba ostelary. Ostelary lined with funeral statues and urns, the remains of honored priests and civil heroes. 5,000 gp, a scarab of protection, and twenty +1 slingstones. The ostelary eventually lets out in a rugged mastaba a half-league away, guarded by a mated pair of giant cats.

Gibbering Plant

Decaying phantasms, the green-veined after-image of the Empire of Yarfu, that seek to consume the souls of humans. Generally peaceful, waiting for the poison of the deserts to weaken their prey.

AC 11

HD 4

Attacks 1 x Two-handed sword 2-12

To-Hit +2

Movement 90 (30’)

Saving Throws as fighter

Morale 6

Alignment Bad

Number Appearing 1 (1-3)

Undead: Make no noise, until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).

Patience: Will follow a group until enough gibbering plants arrive to make the outcome a foregone conclusion. Every 1d3 days in the deserts, scrub, or holy hills of Yarfu, a Gibbering Plant arrives.

Mines and machines: Love machinery, mining, gold, and gems. May make foolish decisions to obtain precious items. War with other creatures over precious metals.

Ambush: Hide in sand dunes or ruins and burst out when victims pass.

Ogre, Garden
Listless, Decaying Plant that is capable of manipulating corpses. Cautious, and avoid humans unless starving.
AC 9 [10]
HD 2
Attacks 1 x Bite 1
To-Hit +0
Movement 30’ (10’) /180’ (60’) flying
Saving Throws as fighter
Morale 8
Alignment Apathetic
Number Appearing 1-6 (1-100)
Undead: Make no noise, until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
Empathy with maidens: A pure-hearted maiden can communicate with the creature.
Castle: Built into remote or fantastic locations.

Desert Bull
May be playful, but quick to anger. Known to eat their own kind.
AC 16
HD 3
Attacks 1 x Gore 2-5
To-Hit +0
Movement 90 (30’)
Saving Throws as fighter
Morale 6
Alignment Neutral
Number Appearing 1-6 (2-5)
Strength drain: Victims lose 1 STR per hit. Recovers after 8 turns. If reduced to 0 STR, the victim becomes another of this creature.
Seep: Can squeeze through small holes and cracks.
Swimming: Excellent swimmers.

Giant Hound
5" tall humanoids. Clumsy, hairy humanoids who glut themselves on surprise attacks. Renowned for their xenophobic and avaricious natures. On Yarfu and in the chasms of Bied, send out raiding parties that then retreat into labyrinths. The Giant Hounds of Yarfu maintain their own Bashmohandes, believing that Saver Heol is essentially burned out and rather than worshipping him or hoping for reincarnation, hold that eating thinking things absorbs some of the energy he imbued in them. They orb quest.
AC 10
HD 1/2
Attacks 2 x Bite 1-4
To-Hit -1
Movement 30’ (10’) /180’ (60’) flying
Saving Throws as thief
Morale 6
Alignment Bad
Number Appearing 3-24 (5-40)
Erode wood and metal: Can dissolve wood or metal in one turn.
Erosion: Wood or leather in contact with the creature will be eaten away.
Glide: can sink safely to the ground or fly quickly to hover over the ground at 2x speed.

Gurval

Ironmonger 4. Wears an iron hat, an iron cuirass, pale linen robes, a thick black beard, sideburns, iron-bead weights, and a wickedly curved sword.

AC 14

HD 4

Attacks 1 x Sword 1d8

To-Hit +3

Saving Throws as Fighter

Morale 8

Alignment Bad

3 MD: Wild Beasts, Illusion, Stone Disease.

Speaks Crocodolean, Pithomen, and Kavatek.

Ironmonger: with a touch, can sharpen a blade, sense a metal's purity, conjure a metal glove, or drive a nail. Can cast spells despite wearing a cuirass. Thanks to iron beads, can reroll a single MD in each spell. Sweat poisonous to non-ironmongers.

Blood Eyes: By pressing histongue hard into the roof of his mouth, can push his second eyes into place. They glow red, and pierce through the darkness like bulls-eyes, allowing him to see in the dark up to 60'. They are blinded by mist and fog.