Gamelog: Inside the ruined offices of the ancient ones

I doubted a pre xmas game would happen but everyone seems to be starting early, having more smaller events we ended up with three players. Have an uncanny xmas and remember to blame rich for everything at family gatherings. Last post given a warning by google and 15 ppl seen vs hundreds viewing previous post before.

Arsh the dog beast boi who is now Lv4 Abhuman and a 1st Lv Druid
-got a flashy new +2 ring of protection and fire resistance with an oath
- mostly a good guy who wants to help good and stop bad

Nebos a 7"6 sky giant youth Lv5 
-has become a famous builder and engineer  
-his jester now carries the party banner 
-tends to look after Balzac a fleshy 4 foot golem they are trying to raise proper
-even did divination to determine if Balzac should eat all corpses they find or make

The man with no name Lv thief - contemplating being a mutant or wizard
-an alchemy based thief worked well and I have more rules on a blog soon
-with Rat Sonya a swashbuckling 7-foot-tall rat lady

The party is quite good, but now whenever they meet neutrals, they are suspicious. They could do anything and call it self-interest!

"I sense the neutral presence here!"

I gave them starting point options and assumed characters had spent weeks training and crafting. The nameless man has taken to entering battle with a long-lasting fuse in his teeth so he can light bombs. Also teamed up with the dogman who can cast druidic ignite on thrown bombs. 

So from Marsh village they went to the gatehouse on the plateau and the orcs let them in. The orc chief was keen to remind them of the deal for 50% cut and a choice of magic items first. He showed off an orc sorcerer and priest. 

They considered the kobold entrance but the party priest who spoke kobold was away for a religious conference. So they decided to wait. They had made trade with former kobold enemies before.

Up a great ramp they went with orcs slamming a gate behind them.

They came to a great conjunction where a pentagonal outer highway passage met a huge outer circle inside the pentagon and a smaller circle of the local segment. The saw 6 train station entrances at the great intersection and looked at signs. The straight highway had offices running east and west and there were signs indicating the segment circle was half admin (tax and banking) and some kind of workshops adjacent to the Ministry of Information.

Explored some offices noise entering glass and iron doors attracted three ghouls which actually paralysed half the whole party and was a worry. No-man used a light spell to blind a ghoul breaking the undead resolve and finishing them. Arsh and the man with no name had done some save-boosting things and it helped. They rested and searched offices finding some documents and Black Sphere dark ale bottles. Found more documents that made them realise the Ministry of Information was the secret police and the workshops for special spy equipment and examining strange objects. There were many petty poltergeists and haunt phenomena. Did find some potions including age-reducing ointment.

So they headed for the workshops and found a turnstile gate so Rat Sonya squeezed through and returned when she found signs of a blood trail of a dragged corpse. So they found corpses of river pirates with eyes and mouths that arose as sniffing tracking zombies they defeated and found unpleasant. One office had a spectral secretary menace them and only some had the magic required to harm it. Found two weird chests with magic locks so left them hidden.

One has an evil tree seed from the stars
The second a piece of star metal from a hairy star

Inside the first workshop was a bullet-headed worker automaton repairing another one. They asked who authorised this and it explained was under orders to repair other units. It kept stopping to watch the party as they searched. There were 7 benches beside the robot one. with weird items the party could not identify so they grabbed the portable stuff. It was weird stuff from the global reach of the 

A strange metal sarcophagi they left (a star person mummy nobody would touch)
A dried tentacle tip of an extinct kaiju squid
A metal head-size box (vampire head)
A jade idol in a wooden box (a small golem)
A purple crystal from the stars (See Gus L crystal adventures)
A sealed metal box with a frozen sphere of green slime from a glacier
An urn with storm runes (released a cloud)

They grabbed the portable stuff but avoided the frozen slime and alien coffin. They released a storm cloud that covered the ceiling providing an indoor microclimate. 

So made their way back to the orcs. As they had not identified the stuff they took turns grabbing loot. The cackling orc magicians were pleased with the dark tree seed and the vampire head in a box. They also got the crystal and pray watched them snap it and sneeze from the dust. Party learned with divination what they missed and wondered if the orc stuff meant trouble later.

So made it back to marsh village to rest. They got the jade idol to talk, its a highly magically resilient creation.

Market Making

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Chagrinspire Adventure Seeds by Tier

Blogger not showing many any other ppls blogs - just kill it with fire and a few others from 9 years ago - this stuff always makes me nervous

Adventure suggestions by level
My tiers are - I try to do lots of stuff using these
0 = Lv0
1 = Lv1-4
2 = Lv5-8
3 = Lv9-12
4 = Lv13-16
5 = Lv17-20

To give some ideas of how adventures can escalate over a campagn
I will do another d100 version later for other leads

d12 Tier Zero Adventure Table
1 Kill the mutant rat in the root cellar

2 Talk to the vagrant camped close and see if they are friend or foe 

3 Catch a valuable mudhog that escaped its cell

4 A visitor to the tavern wants a feast so catch one dozen giant rats 

5 See what lurks in the hole a stone's throw from the village

6 Find poor Fluffy, the precious lapdog of a visiting noblewoman

7 Some sort of burrowing animal has upset the livestock, see it off then

8 Someone stole six bottles of quality wine from the tavern store room, get them back and give the thief a good beating and take all their stuff

9 Find out which guard has let smugglers get in and out without a record or fee

10 Take this letter to a scavenger camp near an ancient dump
11 Rescue a missing child playing on the fringe of the community

12 An old lady will pay you to get a great big bug out of her attic and can pay in sweet buns

d12 Tier Zero Encounter Table
1 Giant centipede d3
2 Rats! swarm or d4 giant rats 
3 Poison angry snake
4 Wild dogs or jackals d4
5 Angry goat or Beligerant pig

6 A wolf!

7 Kobolds d4+1

8 Goblin d3

9 Bandits d3

10 Cultists d3

11 Demihuman d4 1=dwarf 2=elf 3=gnome 4=

12 Adventurer d4 1=Theif 2=Priest 3=Warrior 4=Wizard

d12 Tier One Adventure Table
1 Escort a scavenger expedition

2 Bounty on local bandits, dead or alive 

3 Explore a recently discovered hole in an underground complex

4 Look for an unexplored dugout in this trench line

5 See off a gang of mutants or beast folk camped close

6 Make a map of an area that is poorly documented

7 Search & destroy a local monster

8 Defend the outpost from a gang of monsters

9 Recover goods stolen by bandits or monsters

10 Explore a ruined vehichle discovered buried by mud
11 Locate the ruin where a tribe of monsters live
12 Explore a ruin discovered by scrappers

d12 Tier One Encounter Table
1 Kobolds 2d4+2
2 Wolves d4 or mutant dogs
3 Orc gang d4+1
4 Goblin warriors d4+2
5 Goblin wolf riders with bows d3

6 Scavenger gang 2d4 thieves from Scavengers guild
7 Bandits d4+4 + a 2nd lv leader

8 Undead soldiers Skeletons d6 or zombie d4 or spectral soldiers 2d4

9 Cultists d4+2 led by 2nd Lv wizard or priest

10 Lone trench Ghoul, in tattered officer uniform

11 Giant bat or swarm of bats

12 Giant spider or d3 giant beetles

d12 Tier Two Adventure Table
1 Explore the plateau ruins of Chagrinspire

2 Stop an out-of-control automaton (some you can get inside)

3 Take over a bunker for a faction to colonise

4 Explore a length of road or tunnel or rail line

5 Investigate a haunted ruin

6 Destroy a dangerous cult that has increased its activity

7 Fight an organised crime or slaver gang

8 Clear out monster tunnels under the village

9 Hijack a hell orc tribe train then use it to rob their home base

10 Find the secret hanger of a flying machine 

11 Find the subterranean monster tribe raiding the surface for food and slaves

12 Find the hidden bunker making a new kind of monster soldiers

d12 Tier Two Encounter Table
1 Orc warg riders d4+4
2 Mutant bear or lion
3 Gang of mutant scavengers 2d4+6
4 Automaton soldiers d4
5 Ghoul sappers 2d4+4
6 Trench mummy with 2d4 zombies
7 Mutant ogres d4+4 or trolls d6
8 Crusader knight Lv8 with d4 x Lv3 knights and d4+4 Lv0 squires 
9 Cultist warband 2d4 hooded Lv0 goons, Lv d4+4 level priest or wizard boss and a d4 armoured cult fighters
10 Shoggoth
11 Chimera
12 Spectre 

d12 Tier Three Adventure Table
1 Slay a famous wanted criminal leader d4 1=robber knight 2=bandit chief 3=river pirate 4=dangerous heretic
2 Recover formula from an alchemist's tower
3 Destroy the Slavers guild paddle steamer or capture it (it golem-powered)
4 Recover food stockpiles in an undead-infested hill fort
5 Discover the underground city of the gnomes
6 Capture an agent of the black sphere for interrogation
7 Rescue a prisoner from a black sphere bunker
8 Visit unknown upper levels of Chagrinspire
9 Find the great cavern of arcane garbage beneath the tower in the deep
10 Hunt a night hag and her monster children
11 Explore a flooded complex somehow to find some relic
12 Locate a radio broadcast heard in the ruins 

d12 Tier Three Encounter Table
1 Party of adventurers

2 Mutant Chaos Warband
3 Crusader knights or templar warband 
4 Gang of gargoyles d4+4
5 Land spirit with various corporeal forms it can manifest or petty god
6 Hoard of human and/orc barbarians who hate spell casters
7 Nighthag riding a nightmare or with giant sons
8 Golem, hungry mad flesh golem or other type
9 Juggernaut or golem war mech
10 Dragon or other related beast
11 Elemental or multiple lesser elemental creatures
12 Devil or demon multiple lesser ones or a greater one

d12 Tier Four Adventure Table
1 Powerful ancient monster species makes a return to the land and needs investigation
2 An ancient portal has opened and an outsider god requires a spell to be cast to banish it
3 Find an alternate entrance by climbing the frozen thin-aired exterior of Chagrinspire
4 Explore the automated factories still working in and under the mountain
5 Rob a sky castle of the giants spying on the region for centuries
6 Petty god and some of their followers arrive and cause trouble or need help
7 Seal a portal at the heart of a cult fortress as the cult is growing

8 A famous evil hero has assembled their followers to kill adventurers before they get too hard to stop and the rumours of this spread wildly

9 A monarch acts against the interest of the heroes and nobles contact the party to help them replace the dangerous ruler

10 Two mobile clanking cities have awoken from the past and both seek outsiders to aid them

11 Find and awaken one of the ancient walking citadels or land leviathans and use it to change the landscape by digging earthworks and canals

12 Ancient armies from the apocalypse have arisen and need someone to unite factions to fight them

d12 Tier Four Encounter Table
1 Party of famous adventurers possibly related to or hired by a faction

2 Skeleton warriors led by undead cursed knight
3 Golem tank or golem mech walker with artillery gun
4 Giant warband with some humanoid soldiers and servants

5 Undead giants animated by necromancers as mecha vehicles

6 Molemachine with a machine gun or Gatling gun, unloads automaton soldiers commanded by gnome sapper squad

7 Phantom army of ancient undead spirit soldiers from the trenches

8 Swarm of hundreds of automaton pillbugs seeking animals, vegetables and minerals to shred and recycle in some underground factory

9 Automaton walking pillbox with twin machinegun turret, walks with crab-like limbs

10 Squadron of flimsy golem biplanes or an aerial battle airship bombardment

11 Purple worm hunting surface meat

12 Squad of flesh golem death guard with steel spears and psionic link to share HP, kill everything and eat anything alive or smash anything moving

d12 Tier Five Adventure Table
1 Visit the pocket universe inside the black sphere and see what is hiding there to survive the destruction of reality
2 Visit a planar lord planning to invade Chagrinspire who intends to nullify them for power on their own secret project
3 Rescue a god from a Black sphere apparatus and out of the wasteland so their pantheon can help them. Other gods are also imprisoned and why have gods stopped visiting the world
4 A lich is planning to release the elder horrors of the outer darkness in his fortress

5 Raid hell or a demonic plane to recover a legendary weapon of the apocalypse
6 Destroy a guild or faction from the continent making unity impossible

7 Area travels back in time to the last battle of the apocalypse war where millions died

8 Travel to the moon and find out what grey gnomes have been doing there for centuries

9 Shut down a secret bunker maintaining the reality-warping field of the wasteland so life will grow and time will work properly, stop enough and the gods might be brave enough to intervene more

10 Uncover the planar travel possibilities of the train tunnels including stops in the underworld or the world tree roots and even hell. They say a golem purpose-built can navigate these worlds used by the ancients who plundered the multiverse 

11 A clone of the great master of the world who led the black sphere at the end of the apocalypse needs to be killed. Based on one of the upper levels of Chagrinspire where reaching pressurized sections is hazardous he must be killed with his wizards and gnome protectors

12 Decide which plan of the new allies to destroy the tower forever causing the least harm to the crust of the planet

d12 Tier Five Encounter Table
1 Party of the world's greatest adventurers

2 Demigod and a few followers
3 Orbital Crystal Palace crashes releasing furious star spirit eldren, celestial faerie
4 Ancient titan awakes and is really unhappy

5 Elemental noble with followers and cultists

6 Elder wyrm and children, possibly with draconic templars

7 Gargantua monstrosity or kaiju

8 Mobile fortress, land leviathan or ship with angry inhabitants, possibly undead crew 

9 Squadron of airships sweep the area with death and disintegrator rays

10 Ancient land deities manifest a gigantic humanoid figure from local cursed soil, the trench versions covered in mud and barbed wire, usually on a mindless rampage

11 Elder or outsider god released or trapped in some way

12  Devils and angels are fighting and innocent mortals need time to escape, slow both sides somehow

Cult Factions of Frog & Fish

 

Fish and frog peoples have had feuds in the past but at some point, the elemental water alliance in the Apocalypse war flooded parts of the waste and infiltrated the Chagrinspire via its waterways inside causing chaos. The frog and Fish folk claim they won the war still and they no doubt did lead to the end of the Apocalypse war.

Alighnment may vary and once you've met some ok specimens further encounters will have players checking before ambushing and murdering strangers.

Ive used these folk for trouble in a few games and over time I've added a variety of factions to make them more complicated. Some are only as bad as a thieves guild rather than demonic. The real bad ppl spread the idea frog or fish folk are the worst who lust after our women and worship demons. Fey frog folk are quite posh. Ancient fish folk faiths have thousands of years of fine fishy history. Most fresh water divinities and spirits are amenable but might be grumpy at human pollution and populations.

Apparently, the age of fish wanting to conquer the surface is over. Now some fish folk think settling the surface was a big mistake and why fish even have land rivals enemies now. Its the bugs and worm fault for colonising the land that made greedy rebel fish dare to leave water. Fish factions are more likely to war on each other and many serve the undersea emperors not demon ancestors. They have warred with amphibians and reptilians but now they might well cooperate against humans or other young species.

Frog folk can rapidly breed a fighting force raising seven feet tall fighting frogs in a few years with stockpiled bugs being the only limit. Quite a few amphibian peoples are committed to spreading and cooperating on their world project or making a comeback. Some want to revive lost saltwater species. Fish and reptiles or others might try to keep frog folk as serfs or vassals but are wary of amphibian reproduction speed and inevitable rebellion. They trade and work with other species and humans and are excellent water workers so they can come to dominate and control waterways. A few swamps and wetlands have flipped to amphibian control or influence after first being brought in as slave labour. Magic grog and swamp weed are vices they trade in and are banned in places. Their skills as water workers were good for allies in war. 

Frogs and Fish betrayed the worm and arthropod peoples long ago to enslave them as food so fish and frogs wage war on bug and worm folk. This led to changes in the monster kings in the age of darkness which resulted in mammalian members and led to human and orc slave troops being bred around the world.

The great undersea wars age is over with a hierarchy of dragons and gods and giants ruling over them vs the great undersea strife that drove Tako onto the surface worldwide. Thats why we have tree octopi now but that's another story. 

Abhuman Beast Folk
AC +3 to +6 HD d12/Lv Att by weapon +1 damage bonus 
Most abhumans are 7-foot-tall beast folk types
night vision, +3m leap, d4 unarmed damage
superior specimens depending on species get additional abilities at the thigh level

Fish Folk Abhumans
-3rd Amphibious
-6th Breathe water
-12th Call 8HD water elemental once per week for one hour

Anuran Folk Abhumans
-3rd Amphibious
-6th Spider climb (treefrog) or burrow 3 (toad or burrowing frog) or +Lv on jump range (ground frog) or +Lv on swim (aquatic or marsh frog)
-12th Call 8HD water elemental once per week for one hour

Beastling Folk
AC +3 d8/Lv Att by weapon  
-3-4 foot tall small beast folk
-all saving throws improved  
-fishlings can breathe water
-froglings are amphibious and +3 jump
-toadlings have burrow 3 and are poison* 
-newtlings are amphibious and are poison* 

-salamanderlings are immune to natural non-magic fire and are allied to elemental fire

*Enemies who bite skin find it tastes like nettles sting save or take d3 damage)
poison can be applied to darts, arrows, and knives for 1hp damage (d3 hp on larger edge)
they usually have a week's worth of poisoned missiles premade

Often subservient to larger kin or might be independent or allies 
They are much less interested in violence than larger kin but may not tolerate abuse
They might be light skirmishers with poison darts or heavily armoured disciples troops used to teamwork. Abhumans often more interested in personal glory but the little guys are more serious in war and more used to teamwork fighting big people. They also make better assassins, craftsmen, thieves and depend more on skill than muscle

Hybrids
Hybrids are more like humans in most respects and not like humans. Some species make them with magic for espionage and to fill cults with fanatic zealots. Some become full abhumans later in life. Many hybrids must hide their non-human features under clothing. Some embrace this condition by receiving mutations for oaths.

There are were folk too. Were-sharks, were-eels, were-pike, who may be found among human gangs of pirates. Seawolves (werewolfsharks) from the frozen north might come with viking raiders. Werefrog bards are used by some frog kings for espionage and propaganda 

Weather and Effects on Water Folk 
Many fish and frog folk are more active in certain weather 
You might notice your marine abuhuman chums are moody depending on the weather
Some subtypes are more fussy but the human-like part of abhumans makes them more flexible than natural animals. Some species specialise in extremes you don't expect or build underground homes to wait out the weather, The are more tolerant of cold than reptiles if wet and will liv often just beyond where reptilians won't. Some species are more salt tolerant. Ancient lineages like Temnospondyls were marine amphibians. Fish folk are probably more flexible in subtypes with different abilities facing climate. 

Average - always know where water is, hours away from water is acceptable
Dry - stay close to water or just short dusk and dawn sorties or just brumate 
Moist - high humidity, fog or some light showers, confident on the surface and happy
Wet - rainy or storms. moody and excited and intense emotions, a bit more chaotic
Cold - but prefer to sleep, brumate or migrate from ice or snow
Heat - if it's wet or humid its great if dry its best avoided

Factions
These offer cults and holy folk to provide oaths that the superior heroes use for magic as well as languages, allies and enemies

In the Frog and Fish folk bulwarks in lakes and rivers and at sea they might be of one faction but many are a cosmopolitan mix of several types or all of them.

d12 Fish Folk Factions
1 The outer gods from the void before time - especially for wicked sorcerers & wizards
2 The elder age great water elemental mother - water elemental magic
3 The water/chaos dragon - Tiamat mother of dragons and chaos who fought the gods the scaly mother goddess
4 Nomor is the mystical fish god of ancient secrets and mystery (the idiot god others call him while his priests interpret his avatars every stare and gulp of their temple avatar)
5 Ancestors - the great primal fish folk lords of the deep guard gates of the sea (the underwater fairyland)
6 Lampgulp the angler fish goddess - a ship-devouring goddess of Angerslund. She keeps away ships except for her cult of smugglers and wreckers. The cult throw her men to be her husbands who bond with her flesh forever. Her fish cultists gain a glowing lure and glassy teeth and black flesh. She has eaten the entire imperial fleets and is absolutely real you could see her if you dared
7 The catfish demon cult - ancient catfish wizards who ruled fish folk in the age of darkness. These were the fish folk who ruled in the age of darkness with other monster kings who used black magic and invaded he surface for an age. Sleeping catfish wizads sometimes awake to resume their lost civilisation or wizardry
8 The shark god - a brutal berserker conqueror god of war and devouring. Can also be a protector in more peaceful versions
9 The eel god - a mysterious lord of the deep up to shifty trickster things and makes obstacles
10 The Fish mother goddess - fish mother goddess of fertility and schools, she helps bring more fish into the world
11 The celestial dragon emperors - sea, lake, well and river dragons appointed by the heavens
12 Armoured elder fish - ancient huge beaked fish with armoured plates, fish folk join to gain improved armour and bites to serve as disciplined mercenaries

d12 Amphibian Folk Factions
1 The outer gods from the void before time, especially wicked sorcerers & wizards
2 The primal amphibian - great amphibian god of unity 
3 Ancestors - the first Amphibian lords who reincarnate the fallen
4 Petty Frog Gods - many minor frog cults popular with commoners
5 Great water elemental mother - a great water elemental ruler
6 Malakar the solar frog death god - the water eater and drought bringer who aids survival
7 Chacak the frog rain god - god of rain and fertility, but also can be a raging war god in storms
8 The Burrowmother - toad mother earth goddess - a great earth goddess of the deep, 

9 Fire salamander -  worship fire salamanders (not the partly humanoid kind the therapod ones), changed allegiance from water to fire, popular with newts and salamanders driven from wetlands into hot arid or volcanic regions. They wear asbestos cloth people call salamander skin that is fire resistant

10 The great star newts - newts went to the stars at the peak of their civilisation and some returned millennia later to establish their culture among newts and human cultists. Mysterious sinister star witch folk
11 The celestial dragon emperors - sea. lake and river dragons appointed by the heavens though a few think Tiamat and her husband Apsu, the first dragons are neat (not the modern Tiamat avatar, this predates the world creation)
12 High Amphibians - fey folk use frog folk in their wetlands for trade but also to halt bugs invading faerie land. These frog folk use faerie culture, court and customs. They are sophisticated, literary and like good manners. Their material technology is equivalent to elves and their magicians include fruits and wizards. Some of these have also left faerie influence and have colonies where they live as the local humans. Recently frog folk mercenaries living in the warring eastern continent have come to visit these kin. Other amphibians adopted this living also but might come off as backward rural cousins  

Finally Reached The Gatehouse Gamelog

So my game which from 3rd level turned into an exploration-bastion-trade game vs a combat one continues. I let them know reaching the gatehouse is a campaign and level up goal (I don't do xp). This session they were invited to start any population centre but they went home to their fort and got their followers ready, some divination, alchemy labwork and building stone walls over two weeks. 

The scavengers guild now has a boating-based gang at the ferry by Flatspur and made a stone wharf and fortified custom house. By the players fort the new turnip cult has settled in.

Finally got underway on a raft.

Sky Giant Nebos 4th Lv and his Lv2 jester
Light priest Lv4 and his pair of Lv2 acolytes
Nameless rogue Lv4 and his followers a lady Rake and Rat Sonja a 7 foot tall rat-folk

Early on saw a sunk jollyboat with bones sunk in the shallows. The giant lifted some rocks, had ropes tied to him, and dropped into the deep to search. He found a chest of Slaver Silver and a dozed human remains. Took a skull and the priest suggested going to camp at the ichor drilling platform which he missed last trek anyway. Found signs someone else had explored since the friendly scavengers stripped the place with their new boating skills. The skull eventually by divination told a sad story of mistreatment of slaves 10 years ago on Bandit Island. They also did some history divination of the rig and found it was 200 years old and used to trade ichor. Built by they black sphere cult and various peoples had lived and died here since. Party very interested in wiping out slavers in the future.

They also saw smoke and lights on shore an unknown Bulwark. So in morning returned the skull and blessed the dead. Then went to spy on the bulwark full of mercenary guildmen of the eastern continent, foreign merchants and was run by the Mayor and his militia. No-Name went and spied on drunk guards, saw a slavers guild hall and other businesses. The mercenaries wore floppy velvet hats and torn shirts with puffy sleeves, but were huge grizzled murder hobos.The town was called pickleton.

They fled and eventually reached near destination when they met a frog folk bard in fancy clothes. The jester charmed him with a saucy slanderous song so he stayed longer to talk of frog fol politics. He was sent to tell the party from the friendly frog king that the frog folk kin on the plateau are not nice and worshipped demons. The frog bard also said he was spying on Pickleton and believed foreign mercenaries were here to learn about ancient guns to dominate their homeland. They bid farewell and arrived in Marsh Town. The green-skinned abhuman folk seemed to be part plant folk. They were welcomed and discussed the West path or the East path on the plateau at a feast. The druid did some scrying for the party and warned them of mutants, cults and lamprey folk.

The west has kobolds with flint weapons but use hang gliders and kites to move their troops around the cliff and attack. The east has giant fly riding kobolds. They didn't like the sound of flies but the Frog Kings palace was close to the east path. So they visited the frogs and their king offered frog skirmishers and archers to help.

The squadron of flies came and buzzed about with kobolds firing tiny arrows. The flies if their masters were killed would zoom in to attack the party in melee. The party arrived at the plateau. They saw colourful piles of garbage and chemical pools to the south and ruined buildings to the north. They were huge concrete and pipe mazes that once made thousands of tons of potions in the past. They explored a bit and avoided a pool of toxic mutant frogs and broke into a factory via an alchemy puzzle and a lock mechanism. Was a mess of tools and parts and drums inside and found a frightened worker automaton. He was quite helpful but for centuries of neglect without orders, he had gone feral and had built a tiny model town of robots to play with on one floor. They discovered with a ton of pine resin and the automaton's help they could make almost 4 tons of "stench-rid" a potion according to ads and labels on bottles made you impervious to miasmas, stinks, smog and poison gas.

From the roof, they saw other alchemy factories and then alchemists towers and the gatehouse entry (5th LV!) awaited with some kind of guards. They rested and went the southern route past the factories and saw some mutant hillbillies searching the alchemical waste mounds. Met some bugs too and mechanical gorillas and finally confronted the orcs guarding the entry. There was a water canal exit and two other doors going inside. The orcs boasted who they were and warned the adventures. The Jester performed his song about the flatulent Black Sphere Wizards who like to smell farts and the orcs were amused and said their king would like this. So they were marched through three courtyards of orcs and mudhogs and bitter gourds growing under the magical ceiling lighting 16 foot up.

They met the king and ate with the orcs who liked the Jester and offered the party aces to the mountain for half of all the loot they brought back. They agreed to this fair deal in a orc-filled palace and the No-named man was sure he could steal anything and get past the orcs.

-----------------

So they had a deal and a safe factory hideout on the Plateau and got back to Marsh Village. The man with no name has been working on swimming as he was impressed by how easily good swimmers escaped the party massacres of river pirates and slavers.

Everyone has new followers and the priest told everyone to get all you can the sooner the better. New spells will be kicking in now. 

The party sure hates slavers and pirates and this is good.
They could cripple the slavers continent-wide if they tried.

All have a few magic items. 

This orc deal will possibly go badly. 

Crusaders in the Wasteland

Wow so i first did a ww1 themed campaign years ago using call of cthulhu, and some of my decopunk ruins in Planet Psychon games people liked and wanted to move into, Chagrinspire is an even more outrageous tower design than all may citadels, So I wanted to bring these threads together in a new game early this year. Id seen Turnip28 as I wanted to make an edge lord paradise of grime core fantasy dialed to 11 and an absurdly huge megadungeon with trains. A chunk of these older rules are being added to Chagrinspire vol3. 

I had crusaders in my setting since fairly early and planned a crusader invasion and a barbarian invasion that can be triggered by players. Only this week I heard about Trench Crusade which I like the aesthetics quite a bit. I didn't dig the religious debates of fan lore online and im not into Christian myth in my gaming. I found vampire games too religious for me and the religious apocalypse/zombie genre. I meet too many religious weirdos too often to enjoy it as fiction. But I will play and keep an eye on it for vibes. I wish them well. Turnip 28 has a KS too.

Starting A Crusade Event
The crusade is an event to trigger usually when players move to the eastern map of the region. Other Trigger events are possible or even invasions. Ancient forces will stir to restart the apocalypse war for even more human sacrifice in the shadow of chagrinspire.

The Immortal Emperor of Lamnutainia has declared the 33rd crusade to once and for all cleanse the waste of wickedness. His reign at the end of the 3rd Empire separated the continent's kingdoms. He insists the world belongs to him now and all should worship him in a new 4th Empire. Cleansing the waste will demonstrate his right to rule again. It has not done well yet.

Players will see Crusaders arrive and might meet or fight them.
They will affect what sort of people are looking for homes in the next year in the waste.

Basically, imagine they are paladins played by teen edge lords who act like jerks while claiming to be holy

Auxiliaries are peasants forced into millitary service from militias in light armour with spears, farm tool polearms, flails and small bows

Templars are cleric priests most are Lv1 led by higher-level heroes

Fighting monk orders sometimes are brought in but tend to do admin and supply

Peasant pilgrim volunteers are like auxiliaries but without discipline and fight as irregular mobs, they make up in tactics with fanaticism. Often use burning torches and pitchforks.

Knights are either foot knights Lv1 or 2 for elite, cavalry are Lv3+
Paladins are knights who max out in oaths and more fanatical and use holy powers

In Lamutania the people put up with taxes and suffering because the crusades keep failing. It's not the emperors fault, its the weak and soft people failing to have the will. The poor emperor weeps for his people he wont help with his divine intervention until the people are worthy.

d12 Basic Crusader Encounters
1 Knights on horse Lv3 x4 looking for any visibly evil-looking things to kill
2 Templars a dozen 1st level acolytes and Lv4 priest
3 Dozen spearmen auxiliaries led by a Lv4 knight or templar priest
4 Armoured war priest Lv4 with two Lv3 knights and a servant d4 1=bard 2=scribe 3=acolyte 4=sqhire
5 Lone knight with Lv4 squire on foot
6 Monks dressed for holy war, most 1st level with Lv4 teacher leading them
7 Starving children in rags 4d6 with sticks and rocks to throw here because angels told them to come here (one of those things players might check out why this has happened for centuries)
8 Palenquin with a Lv4 priest seated in comfort carried by 12 orc slaves with a Lv3 Knight, 12 auxiliary spearmen and from church land as farmers d4 1=eating a roast chicken 2=sprinkling holy water to bless the land 3=admiring jewellery 4=writing a serious report on findings
9 Flagelant priesthood of holy berserkers with flails, holy symbol piercings and scars all over 12 initiates led by an even more scarified Lv3 Berserker
10 Auxiliary troop deserters d12, beg to be taken in and saved from pursuing knights , armour and weapons only, they dumped their kits d4 1=farmers 2=convict conscripts 3=urban poor 4=former gang members have stolen a army payroll and VIP supplies
11 Paladin Lv5 on a horse with six acolyte priest servants on foot
12 Wagon train of 12 carts with 100 soldiers, 20 Lv1 templar priests, led by a party of Knight Lv5 Templar Lv5 Rogue quartermaster/negotiator with awful locals. They support other units in the area and are looking for a ruined outpost of the past to occupy

d12 Specialist and Unusual Crusaders 
1 Inquisitors here to kill heretics or those tainted by mutants
2 Exorcists specialists in fighting undead and curses
3 Monk agents of the emperor from a secret monastery. Appear as imperial bureaucrat monks but might be spies or assassins to monitor loyalty
4 Warrior nun orders of paladins (also monastic fighting nuns)
5 Elder wizards of law here at the Emperor's command with their own mercenary bodyguard

6 Angry mob of peasant fanatics who robbed and killed all the way here in the name of their faith. Led by a dangerous zealot already known to the inquisition

7 Kobold crusaders bred on a farm to be crusader auxilleries and fanatics, good sappers but will question their devotion when they meet local wild kobolds. A desperate experiment

8 Hospitals operate millitary hospitals and act as millitary medics in war
9 Marine order specialising in water transport and marine troops and priests. Aloso trade and banking order

10 Savage Auxiliary Barbarians from the wastes and woods, were permitted to settle on the frontier to convert to the Imperial cult. They even include beast folk and depict crusader symbols with their own stylings. Many hate orcs. They will be commanded by a priest or knight and shun the traditional druids they used to follow. Without leaders or poor treatment they might go feral as being settled farmers sucks

11 Flame order a mix of priests and wizards who use fire in sieges oras artillery. They also boil up enemy corpses to make incendiary fuel and burn convicted heretics. They work with other orders and avoid choosing targets 

12 Heretical fake templars really serve darkness and deceit. Help sabotage and make trouble with other factions worse. Secretly worship the outer darkness and a false entropic dark sun

Signs of crusaders
1 Religious tatoos possibly the immortal sun emperor on earth
2 Holy symbol d4 1=necklace 2= ritual 30cm brass 3=one end of a staff
3 Holy book of the sun emperor on earth, a revised version of the older book of light
4 Tabbard with sword in the circle symbol or other art
5 Banner with sword in the circle symbol or other art
6 Keep singing about how cool the emperor is and how happy they are to die and go to heaven
7 Signs of ritualised self-harm (you gotta use those healing miracles)
8 Carry a holy relic like a saint bone in a silver and gold fancy box
9 Carry holy water bottles d4 (possibly in more in military trunks if a large group)
10 Carry food made by priest spells, a grey nutritious porridge
11 Carry a small or life-size wooden statue of the emperor holding his sword with his sun crown
12 Holy passports stamped with shrines and holy places visited

d12 Crusaders Art & Tattoo Subjects
1 Page from the Emperor's common prayer book
2 Depictions of the Emperor's swords, Executor and Executioner
3 Winged lions roaring
4 Sword over a Circle
5 Blazing sun
6 The Emperor's face with an aureole sun crown
7 The Emperor's cup
8 Scrolls with imperial maxims or epitaphs
9 Angel or a saint battling demons
10 Winged baby cherubim or angel with a burning sword
11 Emperors tears, indicating campaign experience
12 Emperor sealing an old one in the crypt of ages

d12 Stuff Crusaders Yell Lots
1 For the Emperor! (or sun emperor or immortal emperor)
2 Beware the vile unclean mutant unseen among us
3 Purge the wicked slaves of darkness with burning fire
4 Let the light of our lord burn those fallen to darkness
5 All people must swear fealty to the True Emperor of the world
6 Inhumans must be cleansed by the light of our lord
7 Let the fury of the emperor rage like wildfire in this land fallen to darkness
8 Strangers come forth and swear fealty to the Emperor of the World
9 Come let us see you close to be sure you are not mutants or witches
10 Come forth and be blessed so we may speak freely with you
11 Who is your one true lord?
12 Come join us in prayer or prepare to meet your filthy gods

d12 Crusader Corruption and Taint
1 Just arrived ready to fight, green and idealistic
2 Soiled and saw some weird stuff, blooded but bold
3 Some losses from local skirmishers while repulsing humanoids, now confident
4 Survived surprise shelling from ancient war machine mechanised artillery, shellshocked, mud-covered and now demoralised
5 Attacked by undead and managed to kill and burn them, feeling very zealous and clean
6 A flying machine shot at them for an hour then flew away, now wary, shellshocked and muddy. Amazed at their enemy
7 Fleeing losing battle vs undead, pursued by former comrades now undead. Muddy and frightened
8 Slaughtered some mutant warband, now tainted by mutant blood
9 Horrified and doubting the purpose of the crusade and their nation
10 Mutated heretics now serving chaos and the outer gods who embraced their condition and failure
11 Undead heretic anti-crusaders of a previous crusade hate their homeland for sending them here to die
12 DIabolic heretics sold souls to hell to survive and now wage war on the holy crusaders as the Hell's Crusaders

d12 Crusade Wonders
1 See army with all kinds of weird orders with various helmets and hoods marching defiantly
2 See an army clash with undead soldiers of the ancients
3 Marching sickly army carrying plague from fighting rat folk
4 Chaos horde or mutants, beast folk and demon cults assembled on a hilltop awaiting a crusader army
5 A bloody massacred graveyard, mechanical giant pillbugs harvest the dead, metal, cloth, and scuttle away into underground crawlspace to some distant processing centre or train
6 Zombie crusaders mindlessly marching
7 Fighting army of templars singing and blessing the land as they cross it with incense braziers
8 A giant automaton trampling an army and scooping up living and the dead in an iron basket on its back
9 Marching crusaders are suddenly shelled by distant artillery or biplane golems from chagrin spire
10 Arny of orc pikemen and/or goblin wolf-archers slaughter crusaders with numbers
11 See the angel of death, a skeletal reaper and avatar of death flies over soldiers, a terrifying omen of failure
12 See an army brutally obliterated by the death guard flesh golems who then eat the remains

Ending The Crusade
The emperor has been in my games here 12 years. As multiple campaigns never stopped him he is now a 20th lv immortal demigod. The player's church regarded these crusaders as heretics but had also sent armies of Templars here in the past in competing crusader nations. Other foreigners and cults keep agents to watch the region.

The empire bans guns and they rare most of the continent but eastern warring kingdoms have mercenaries travelling back and forth and some of those use crude pre-flintlock guns and crude pistols requiring 2 hands. They are interested in the guns of the ancients and copying them back home. The western lands lotus emperor has an interest in guns too, artillery is more common than handheld guns but firelances and rocket arrows are in use. This will cause future problems in the world.

The Crusades usually last less than a year, sometimes they last decades with occupied outposts but undead, barbarians, non-humans, chaos mutant cults and scavengers and the black sphere all oppose them at every step. A few outposts on hex maps might be occupied after the crusade a while.

d12 Late Crusade Events
1 A crusader hero has become a death knight leading angry ancient undead crusaders against their living kin, their banners show ancient failed crusades of last thousand years
2 Crusader-led mercenary army marching from the eastern warring kingdoms. Pike men, arquebus squads  and landknights. These men will take some look and go home with all the ancient guns they can
3 Gibbeing bishop in a tree can't believe his army was eaten by death guard or undead, describes the horrible scene and now wants to die rather than go home
4 Army of spectral soldiers gloomily marching into a cave or tunnel
5 A revenant looting corpses of soldiers, dedicated to killing his commander who fled the battle by sacrificing troops. Will talk or trade with adventurers, it seeks intel and directions but wants magic stuff not aligned to good or light. It knows all kinds of details of the Crusaders and the Emperor. The revenant is bitter and malicious wanting to spread slander and dirty secrets to harm the Crusaders as his revenge
6 Crusaders resting, winded, damaged by choking gas and enfeebles. Trying to flee but need a ten-minute break every 50m. Someone will slaughter them within a day
7 Orc barbarians riding Dire Wolves came here just to kill humanity's best. Have been victorious and displaying loot and severed heads and hands, very jolly mood
8 Lone paladin with relic blade sole survivor defending a choke point from d4 1=orcs 2=undead soldiers 3=angry peasant conscripts with spears 4=mutant cultists
9 Chanting chaos cult mutants calling down powers from beyond for more mutations, a great feast of alchemical waste and a strange fungus is prepared and sometimes a demon or outer god from beyond speaks to them. The mutants that survive are increasingly unrecognisable of what species they were. Some instead of just die become undead or devolve into slimes 
10 Lone death guard flesh golem sitting contently eating corpses, will go berserk at any loud noises or screams, best left alone, out of its group mind link range and now a free-willed amoral killing machine
11 Zombie former Crusaders now with metal skullcaps with antennae marched to attack tired Crusaders defending a ruin
12 See an airship bathe soldiers in eerie ray light, turning them into undead who promptly bury themselves for later use

d12 Signs the Crusade is Over
1 Broken banners on a pile of dead soldiers 
2 Scavenger gang finishing wounded to rob them
3 Hundreds of feasting ravens cawing over a looted battlefield
4 Giant bloated vultures stand around full of food in piles of gory bones
5 Automaon pillbugs harvesting goods and the dead from the battlefield
6 Undead crusader soldiers march to their new home an underground catacomb, led by a more ancient crusader. They may carry banners or living crucified officers, knights and priests to eat later
7 Deserters who have taken scavenger or bandit gang identities and clothes but you can see their army haircuts and tattoos. They killed the original owners
8 Crusader spirits killing fleeing Crusaders
9 Slavers have captured dozens of Crusaders in chains leading them to a slaver guild prison
10 Mutant cannibals finishing off a wounded crusader on a battlefield and preparing a huge BBQ from all the corpses pit

11 Bandits wearing scraps of crusader army for a laugh, drinking and pretending to be haughty jerks for a laugh 
12 Commoner refugees looting crusader bodies even taking their teeth and bones, denture prices will crash the next year. Came here to loot as their ancestors on the borderlands have done for centuries. In a way, they bring their dead home. Ground bones can be used for crops even