Batrachians and Beezlebubs

Two similar yet opposed classes for the old school rpg of your choice (though I sort of assume LotFP).

The Frog Demon
d8 Hit Dice (6 hp at level 1)
Attack Bonus: as cleric (I use 1/2 level, rounded up)
Saving Throws: as elf
Experience Progression: as elf

At level one, you are a fledgling frog demon who is really only a simple tadpole, able to manipulate objects with your mouth and able to swim and breathe in both air and water. In addition, you have a single cultist follower who you can order to do things for you. You gain 1 new cultist follower each level, and can gain more through normal hireling means and by converting people to your worship. If any of your cultist followers die, they are "refilled" back up to the minimum number you can have, which is equal to your level, the next day. You are able to speak with all frog creatures.

At level 2, in addition to the cultist follower that you gain, you grow legs and the ability to jump great distances.

At level 4, in addition to the cultist follower that you gain, you become a fully-grown frog demon. You are able to control normal frogs, and have a special tongue ability that allows you to grab a creature or object from a distance and pull it towards you. This functions as an opposed roll, with both you (the frog demon) and the victim rolling 1d20 and adding your attack bonuses. Both you and the victim add their STR bonus to the roll in addition to the attack bonus, and the one who rolls higher wins. Arthropod targets get a -2 to their roll.

At level 6, in addition to the cultist follower that you gain, you gain the ability to turn your cultist followers into frog monsters. You can do this once per day, increasing by 1 extra use for every level above 6. You simply point at the cultist which you are gracing with a better, slimier, amphibian form, and their body contorts and mutates into some sort of frog monster. The exact appearance is up to you, but the creature always has the same stats: 1+1 HD, +1 attack bonus, 14 AC, 1d8+1 damage. You are able to spend more than 1 "use" to increase the stats of the creature, increasing all stats by one increment (2+1 HD, +2 attack bonus, 15 AC, 1d10+1 damage, etc). All frog monsters use your saving throws rather than their own.

The Fly Demon
d6 Hit Dice
Attack Bonus: as thief (1/2 level, rounded up)
Saving Throws: as fighter
Experience: as elf

At level one, you are a little baby beezlebub, nothing more than a fat giant maggot. You can manipulate some objects with your mouth, and can crawl upon the ground. You can also use your tusk-like mouthparts to dig through certain materials, especially meat. You follow the same cultist follower rules as the frog demon above, and so begin play with 1 cultist.

At level 2, in addition to the cultist follower you gain, you begin to go inside of your pupa, and thus cannot interact with the world in any way. However, you float in the air and are able to communicate with the minds of your followers. You are considered as having an armor class of 9, but always take 2 fewer point of damage than normal, and your followers will probably protect you.

At level 4, you crawl out of your pupa as a fully-formed adult fly. You are able to fly in the air, control flies of all life stages (maggot, pupa, and adult), and gain an acid-vomit ability. Your acidic vomit deals 1d6 damage, and can deal more damage (or have some additional effect) if you have consumed some sort of special food recently. However, you lose the points of armor and low armor class from your pupal stage of development.

At level 6, in addition to the cultist follower you gain, you obtain the ability to turn your cultists into either fly monsters at some stage of a fly's life cycle, a swarm of flies or maggots, or a strange mutated fusion of human and fly. You can do this once per day, increasing by 1 additional use each level above 6. You point at one of your cultists, and their skin begins to split as a fly or fly mutant pulls itself out, or they burst into a swarm of flies or maggots. The exact appearance is up to you, but the statistics are always the same: 1 HD, +3 attack bonus, 14 AC, 1d6+1 damage. You are also able to spend additional "uses" to increase the stats (2 HD, +4 attack, 15 AC, 1d8+1 damage, etc.) All such fly creatures use your saving throws.

The World With No Name Session Report 1 Part 2

Cast of Characters
Moon Frog, a Tocatl (humanoid fusion of a spider and a frog) with a massive sword
Costin, a half a foot tall homunculus with a pet monitor lizard
GRN 1000, a robot specially made for vacuuming
Maxie, a dark elf coming to the surface from her underground fungus plantation with some Charismatic Skills and a rifle
Jaru, a floriambler (mobile carnivorous plant that loves traveling) with magical power

As maxie was being bitten in her face on one side of the dungeon, the homunculus Costin and the floriambler Jaru found two abandoned prison cells sitting right next to each other. They first went into the one to the west, seeing a skeleton chained up with a brass knife stuck in between its ribs, a sack lying in its lap. They felt that this was "really sketchy", believing either the contents of the sack to be dangerous or the knife to be cursed in some way. Trying to inspect the sack with Jaru's staff, they accidentally knocked a skull out of it, which made them think it was even more sketchy. As they were sitting there trying to figure out what to do, I rolled a random encounter: a giant harvestman!

The harvestman looked to have been attracted by the noise of the falling skulls, and the players took advantage of it by throwing rocks into the cell to attract into going in there. This was pretty good planning on their part, but sadly, as it turned out, some of the skulls in the sack were explosive, killing the harvestman when activated and throwing Jaru and Costin against the back wall. After the explosion died down, Jaru made sure to note that they gave most of it a proper burial (taking the legs for food).

However, even though they were hurt by the explosion and the giant harvestman was killed by it, some of the skulls contained treasure (coins and small gems) which were scattered about and they scrabbled about to pick up. After that, they went over to inspect the other prison cell.

This other abandoned prison cell really only contained two things: a tunnel in the wall which the once-occupant presumably escaped through, and an acid-spitting slug. They gave the slug some spices they stole from the chef Keeda to befriend it, and ended up taking it out of the dungeon afterwards and now it is their pet. After befriending the acid-spitting slug, which was used by the once occupant to tunnel out of the jail cell, they crawled through the tunnel and into another hallway.

As Jaru and Costin explored the abandoned prison cells and the tunnel out of them, the three other adventurers leave the mouth room through a door on the other side, Maxie bleeding from her face because of the wormtail bite. They walk through a stonebrick hallway to the south, eventually ending up in a small library which they positively loved, and ended up taking 6 different books from. These books use the grimoire system from Last Gasp Grimoire, but I don't really remember which post that was in.

After spending some time grabbing random books in the abandoned study-library, Moon Frog, GRN 1000, and Maxie move over to a smaller chamber some distance off. In here is the hollowed out remains of an ancient bronze robot. GRN 1000 moved over to it and started inspecting it, tearing the metallic arms off to use later, and discovering the creature hiding inside of the bronze body of the android. Inside of it is a very confused giant, pale subterranean sea star, more like a basket star in this case. It flung itself out of the body when discovered, but didn't really do anything but writhe confusedly on the floor. They decided to take it home too, bringing the total number of pets up to 5 (Jaru has a crow familiar).

After crawling through the tunnel, Jaru and Costin ended up at a crossroads. They took a peak through the doorway into the door to the north, and saw a violent scene of many Rowdy Brick Boys wrangling and riding a many-legged giant weasel. They decided they would rather not deal with that, and so went down the hallway and opened the door slightly to take a peak into the room there, seeing many cubbeys filled with many skulls, all snoring and sleeping, They thought that that sounded like it was either a boss monster or at least something terribly powerful, and so went back to the giant weasel room to fight.

When they entered the room, the brick boys noticed them immediately and pounced, one brick boy clinging to Jaru and one fighting Costin, the other riding the weasel and keeping it under "control". Costin dispatched the brick boy quickly, breaking it into smaller pieces, the same fate befalling the rowdy brick boy clinging to Jaru. I don't quite remember how they killed the weasel and the brick boy riding upon it, but I do remember it involved an attack to the throat, because it dislodged something within it. This something was a small ceramic statue of a rat, which (while the player's don't know this) is able to turn anything into a small mammal once/day.

After that I believe they all agreed to meet up back at the statue room before exploring any further (although that may have actually happened earlier and I may have just forgotten it). After meeting up, they went into the room after the room containing the bronze robot and the sea star. This room is a pit filled with fetid garbage and sewage, and a very nice garbage-eating monster which happily ferried them around the dungeon. Specifically, they asked to be taken to "the nearest source of weapons" for the cost of, I believe, a couple of the harvestman legs. Once taken there, they were able to grab some weapons, and they then went back to the garbage beast to be transported back to the weasel room to inspect the mysterious closet on the other end of the room, for the cost of one of the component parts of the brass robot.

They stood in front of this door, made of dark wood decorated with gold details. They opened this door. Inside of the door was a massive grey worm, shoved and stuffed into such a tiny area. The lumpy giant worm unfolded, squirming into the hallway and vomiting forth a handful of rowdy brick boys. They tried to attack each brick boy, Costin using his pet monitor lizard and Moon Frog doing spin attacks with his giant sword. Moon Frog also decided to slash at the worm down the middle, in an attempt to kill it. This really did nothing, as the worm was stuffed full of brick boys which all just surged out of the creature once it was sliced in half. Jaru, in an attempt to use their magic to solve something for what was probably the first time in the entire dungeon, tried to cast a spell to fill the area with a poisonous gas. They failed the spell roll, instead filling the area with an uncontrollable, poisonous, and explosive gas.

Moon Frog was going to spend all of his points of strength to do a kind of final, devastating blow, but as everyone was slowly being killed by the poisonous gas, Maxie, the one character who got pretty much within an inch of her life, decided to sacrifice herself to let all of the other adventurers live. They all grabbed their pets and their treasure, running as fast as they could while Maxie fired her rifle into the explosive gas, igniting it and blowing even the shack above the ground to bits. The dungeon collapsed, but two things escaped: 13 floating skulls, which flew off into the wilderness, and an old lizard woman, who totally won't show up again at some point (yeah she will).

And with that, the four remaining adventurers walk off to the town of Chamlet, to sell their loot and buy more stuff, and to meet two new friends.

The World With No Name Session 1 Report Part 1

So this game was like three weeks ago so i may be misremembering some stuff, but I'm going to be looking over my notes to jog my memory. This was the first time a couple of these people had ever played an rpg, and sadly one of my players wasn't able to come this first session, but everyone there got to make their characters at the start of the session. Edit: as it also turns out, this session had more stuff in it than I remembered, so I'm going to be splitting it up among multiple posts.

Cast Of Characters
Moon Frog, a Tocatl (humanoid fusion of a spider and a frog) with a massive sword
Costin, a half a foot tall homunculus with a pet monitor lizard
GRN 1000, a robot specially made for vacuuming
Maxie, a dark elf coming to the surface from her underground fungus plantation with some Charismatic Skills and a rifle
Jaru, a floriambler (mobile carnivorous plant that loves traveling) with magical power

So the session started with all of the above characters standing outside of a dingy shack in the hills, which they entered, searched around inside for a couple turns and found nothing, and then they found a hole in the back wall leading to an underground dungeon which they entered.

They all walk slowly down the old stairs, dirt crumbling down onto them and the wall being cut by the huge sword that Moon Frog wields. At the bottom of the staircase is a small room with a statue of a lizard person doing the baphomet pose. After searching the room and the statue for a bit, Moon Frog decided to lop off the hand pointed upwards. This ends up opening a secret door leading to a hallway just off the room, which ends in a small chamber containing nothing but a glass sphere holding 25 preserved owls. These are pretty valuable. The players figured out a way to break open the glass sphere without damaging the owls inside by breaking it and having GRN suck up as much glass as they could before it could damage the owls.

Back in the room with the statue, Maxie had the (actually very good) idea to break off the other hand of the statue to see if there were any other secret doors. However I did not have any other secret doors. Also however she decided that the best course of action was to shoot at the statue's hand with her rifle, which she then rolled poorly on and accidentally ended up shooting herself in the foot. Jaru used some medical knowledge and lucky rolls to wrap up the injured foot, but they were still limping pretty much for the rest of the dungeon.

After that fiasco, Jaru walked into the room to the south, disturbing the gambling that some tiny goblins made of bricks (which I call Brick Bogeys in my notes but which we just ended up calling Rowdy Brick Boys) were doing. They all pounced at them and started fighting, but didn't really do a whole lot and were ultimately defeated when some of the other players ran in and helped Jaru fight. After defeating the Rowdy Brick Boys, they grabbed up the meager change that they were gambling over and all walked into a hallway that lead to an adjoining room and another hallway.

When they walk closer to the other room, they begin to smell spices and delicious food. Inside of the kitchen is an undead Keeda (a race of human-faced worms) that is toiling over a cauldron and an oven, cooking stuff up. About half the party thought she was "super sketchy" as they put it, and the other half loved her almost on sight. I remember one player really loved her, but then she mentioned how she really wanted to eat the race that player was (floriambler) and then their opinion of her changed. Even if she was very divisive, they ended up giving her some of the preserved owls to turn into healing pies and one of them wanted to learn how to cook from her.

I don't remember exactly what happened to cause this, but I do remember that the group split in two over some squabble after that room. Moon Frog, GRN 1000, and Maxie went their own way while Jaru and Costin went in the other direction. The first group passed back through the gambling room and the statue room and then down another hallway, where they found the door to a room containing a toothy mouth in the floor which yelled at them to feed it. GRN 1000 shot pebbles down its throat, but it only became enraged after the third pebble and vomited forth tiny tongue goblins which fought the group. Some of them ganged up on the robot, corroding their metal with their spit, but ultimately the mouth was defeated by Maxie shooting at the mouth worm which had been hiding in the floor. It was after this that I finally rolled a random encounter, and their loud noises from the combat attracted what looked like two big fat rats. One of them clung to the clay plate armor that Moon Frog was wearing, and when Maxie tried to pry it off, its tail bit her in the face, surprising her and giving her a bleeding bite hole in the face. These weren't ordinary rats, but wormtails, rodents with toothy worms for tails, and while Maxie was bleeding out I believe Moon Frog broke the neck of the wormtail stuck to his armor and killed the other one, but the tails broke off and crawled away.

More next time...

I'm Back!

I apologize for the very long hiatus, I don't really have an excuse I just never really used this blog that much. I also apologize for the sudden change in post format, I was copying the format of a blog I had found and which I appreciated, with mixed results.

I've also started a game since last I posted! Technically I've started two, but the second game hasn't actually had a first session yet. The first game is set in my World With No Name Setting, which I will be posting about more in following posts, including session recaps that I will probably post the first of tomorrow. The World With No Name is a weird and wacky fantasy setting, with no humans and lots of monstrous playable races all set in a world mutated and ravaged by a history of weird people and weird magic, just on the cusp of a new industrial age (though still mostly pre-industrial). I've tried to do the ol Jeff Rients 20 Questions thing, applying it to the entire world that my setting is set in, but that just doesn't work. Instead, since I now have a much smaller scope game set in a specific part of the setting with specific characters, I can actually answer them, which I will do below!

THE JRIENTS 20 QUESTIONS: WORLD WITH NO NAME EDITION

1. What's the deal with my cleric's religion?
1. Well technically since I tend to use a classless system with this game I don't really have clerics, this question doesn't apply directly but I still have religions and I still have people who get mechanical benefits from religion so. The most prominent religion in the region is The Concordance Of Ahjax, a very exaggerated pseudo-catholic religion. The other big religion is The Pantheon Of Friends, a very nice chaos pantheon. Of course there's lots of other religions too, but those are the main ones in this region.
2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?
1. The general store in Chamlet that's run by Kolya Skonoff the Bearded Dragon probably has what you are looking for, unless its weapons. Then you gotta go to the blacksmith in Chamlet, Didja Steelteef the Crocwoman. There's also definitely some stores in the other towns of the region.
3. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?
1. Well most likely one or more of the players will be more monstrous and will require special armor, but Didja will definitely make that armor for you, for a price.
4. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?
1. Ushitel the Teacher taught pretty much every single wacky wizard in the region, and they will all listen to her whenever she tells them to do something, no matter how powerful or insane they might seem. Wizards from other regions won't care about her, but that kind of influence sure is mighty.
5. Who is the greatest warrior in the land?
1. Anastasia Voin probably was back when she killed that dragon just to the south, but she's an old lady now and there's probably some bounty hunter that claims to have one upped her by now.
6. Who is the richest person in the land?
1. The Queen of Zerbia is probably the richest person in the region, if it isn't some merchant in Skajev. However, that's just in this region, there are definitely richer queens and merchants in other lands, even in the Draugr empire just to the north.
7. Where can we go to get some magical healing?
1. You can't. The closest you are gonna get is some experimental device made by one of Ushitel's apprentices or a mysterious meat from Jenny the Butcher in Chamlet, but otherwise you are just either gonna have to deal with it yourself, get a spellcaster in your party to do it, or go to a normal doctor. Magic stuff is probably gonna make you grow tumors anyways.
8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?
1. Doctor Bezumiye of Skajev claims to be able to cure anything, even death, but expect a couple extra special organs or some organs taken away if you go to his hospital. Undeath isn't really considered a bad thing in this setting (two of the starting playable races are undead), and there aren't any levels or alignments to drain or change.
9. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join to get new spells?
1. There is the aforementioned Ushitel the Teacher, who will most definitely take in students and teach them new magic in between sessions.
10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage, or other expert NPC?
1. Ushitel and Didja of Chamlet will be able to answer questions about magic and clockwork respectively, and Doctor Bezumiye can answer those questions of a more medical nature, but in general there will definitely be an NPC somewhere that can answer your question, whether they are in a fancy laboratory in Skajev or they are just some wild hermit in the hills.
11. Where can I hire mercenaries?
1. There are plenty of hiring houses for more unsavory and violent types in Skajev and Soyim, plus there are always the more fanciful and boastful bounty hunters that you can hire if you can shell out the extra cash.
12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?
1. To get into Zerbia (a nation to the north), and thus also the city of Skajev, you have to get a passport, but other than that and the more mundane laws of that nation, there aren't many in this region.
13. Which way to the nearest tavern?
1. There's one in Chamlet, and there's bound to be one on every street corner in Soyim. Plus there's the Phantom Inn which can be found at crossroads at night, filled with spectres drinking their fill of ethereal ethyl.
14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?
1. There's still a handful of drakes left over from the dragon that Anastasia Voin killed, and some that are still born from the decaying corpse of that creature. There's also lots of roaming wizards, but those aren't necessarily ones you will be famous for killing, more for "defeating"
15. Are there any wars brewing I could fight?
1. The constant and chaotic ethnic conflict in the Peninsula could totally use a couple of adventurers to spice things up! However, the Peninsula is a bit outside of the general vicinity the players are in, but not really too far away.
16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?
1. The Brawling Pit in the middle of the wilderness is a strange indentation in the ground, where contestants wrestle more and more ridiculously larger and stronger foes, all overseen by a mysterious masked WrestleMaster that everybody assumes you fight last (nobody's gotten there yet). Even if you don't fight the WrestleMaster, you still get some cash. There's also bound to be some brawl rooms in Soyim, what with all the rowdy sailors there.
17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?
1. Well of course, but they are secret for a reason!
18. What is there to eat around here?
1. The general store and butcher in Chamlet always have food, and there's plenty of fancy restaurants and cheap food establishments in Skajev, and plenty of fish-sellers and bakers in Soyim. Plus, if you want to try your hand at bread baking or want to eat raw grain, there's always the Grain Sea (and the creatures living inside of it). Plus, your coins are probably edible
19. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?
1. All of the drakes left over by the now dead dragon have little stashes of treasure, and there's all of the fancy niceties lost in the maze-like megadungeon of Franchia just a couple days (maybe a week) worth of travel. 
20. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?
1. Probably some drake wandering the hills or a corn serpent in the Grain Sea has a lot of treasure, but there's also those mysterious flying skulls that just showed up, maybe those are worth something?