Tuesday 16 January 2018

d100 Superstitions and Legends


This kinda inspired by G+ suggestions. Superstitions are alot like rumours and you can drop them into all kinds of locations or texts or in

d100 Superstitions about monsters
01 If you point a wolf north under the full moon then skin it and wear the skin you become a werewolf
02 Bugbears love catnip it makes them friendly enough to talk to up close or as a gift
03 Orc are not dishonest race but withhold information and vital details and twist the truth
04 A dwarf can smell gold within ten foot and gets exited if there is lots
05 Elves hate cold iron and only tolerate steel, iron filings drive them crazy 
06 Elves hate pubic and body hair and find it disgusting
07 Halflings ae easily baited with treats but years of this has made them poison resistant
08 Unicorns only tolerate the touch of virgins and unicorn hunters use a naked virgin women as bait. Elves and wild folk will actually ride them  
09 Hobgoblins are actually hard working but easily filled with psychotic rage which makes them efficient team workers especially in a fight. Swearing at them or near them enrages them into a fighting mood. Sometimes they will work for farmers quite well as long as nobody swears
10 Goblins are surprisingly good at agriculture. They grow mushroom gardens and forests where they can which rapidly attracts giant insects and creepy crawlies. They make excellent herdsmen and animal domesticators famous for wolves, spiders, giant bats and other pets.
11 Kobolds cant help but mine and build. Goblins and dwarves and gnomes are talented but kobold work as hard as a bigger humanoid and left to their own devices just start digging tunnels. Given time they make bricks and make dungeon complexes according to geomorphic principles. They even set traps and reset any disarmed ones they find and lock doors. The dungeons they build have a life of their own and they begin to worship the spirits of the dungeons
12 Kobolds hate anyone mining in their area and cant help but feel intense rivalry. They make secret doors into human mines and terrorise the humans with tricks and traps. Humans call them knockers
13 In ancient times koboldi were more commonly known as drunken letchers with huge genitalia who were amusing traveling companions. They would frolic with sylvan folk but these kobolds are rare now or overshadowed by the dungeon building scaly dog goblins 
14 Goblins have magical aptitude and long to have wizards teach them magic. They may lack discipline but quite a few have a d4 cantrips from failed studies. Goblin Witch-Doctors will have studied wizardry and priest powers. A shaman is like a cleric but deal with invisible spirits instead of undead and shun armour
15 The dark elf king and queen and the bright elf king and queen are in fact the same and are gods. Greater fey nobility are like demigods and all elves are a  form of land spirits 
16 There are many breed of changeling spirit folk some malicious some benevolent many are neutral. Some are kin to a animal type or a planar beings or element or natural features like trees, grass, water sources and have specific forms
17 There are many types of giants some are akin to the gods, some just like huge men in every detail. Common plains giants children can pass as human adults and may live among humans growing up so the giants don't bother. As the giants grow bigger they might live among ogres before finding their own lair. As adults they develop new mutations like extra heads or other strange powers from chaos
18 Octopus folk from the sea always were fascinated by humans but used to mostly visited to steal treasure or have affairs with fishing folk. Of late more and more have moved from the sea following rivers first then moving into settlements and forests and hills adopting many new lifestyles. The tako as they are known are skilled at using many weapons and magic but they are hysterical cowards if their ambushes and tricks and initial attacks fail. Some tribes are more squid or or cuttlefish or nautilus or ammonites. They live in palaces under the sea
19 Gnomes are like dwarves in some ways but are smaller and less martial and more magical. They often co habit with animals especially talking ones 
20 Shapeshifters walk among humans all the time and sometimes trick humans to raise their children for them then they contact the child when old enough to join them
21 Evil shapeshifters prey on humans like devil or demon hybrids or doppelgangers. Some are nature spirits of an evil bent like a wicked tree or spirit of some bad place or even draconic ones or bad faeries
22 Orc were made at first from the first elves and originally they were mostly males. Over ages wizards have developed better spells to make orcs. Some worked out to change men not elves, then dead fresh corpses into orcs but more recently the secret of turning mud into orcs has become common. 
23 One of the oldest orc trips were cyclopses and many served the gods and guarded strange places
24 They are fully adult and ready to fight and can hybridise with men or goblins and kidnap them for slaves and breeding. They are faster breeders than humans and a rare few have a willingness for black magic, witchcraft, sorcery or wizardry or priesthood which they like to create more orcs or fighting monsters or alchemy and black powder
25 Goblins are actually kin to faeries and elves and are not always enemies. Elves plant them on their borderlands and made them from shrubs, tubers, mushrooms and bushes 
26 Halflings have blood ties with elves, humans dwarves and gnomes and can tolerate all the races better than most. Over eating and drinking helps them cope with other races
27 Giants are related to the gods and warred against them, they are the eternal enemy of human kind though a few know better and even kind
28 Some giants are gifted magicians, and learn spells according to they ways of their tribe. Simpler giants prefer druidry or priesthoods, literate giants like wizardry and giant is a magical language
29 Dragons are one of the first great bloodlines and kin of the gods and giants but older. They are born with godlike arrogance but lost a great war long ago. The retreating dragon army went to hell with Tiamat where they spawn in great pits hoping to start the draconic apocalypse. Every few aeons a swarm of dragons attack the world to cleanse it with fire
30 Giant and prehistoric and talking animals have always lives in out of the way places but of late they are increasing. Druids are creating them more and more to secure nature against man
31 Abhumans are like men but crossed with beastial or elemental or other strange blood. Some are ancient breeds from early creation and bridges between humans and other life. Some say men descended from beastmen or both are descended from elves
32 Wizards like to make beastmen servants with spells ans surgery or spells hat fuse two species. Druids can alter unborn children and promote unnatural interbreeding to make monsters to guard holy places. Some priests use a strain of beastmen to guard their temples made buy magic to combine with the cults favorite animal
33 Some abhumans especially elemental ones have come from other planes often being brought for a purpose with magic or the will of the gods
34 All the humanoid and demihuman races share some blood, man is the youngest and has overrun the world 
35 Angelic changelings are benevolent and help humans in secret. They are kin to a breed like sphinxes, unicorns, angels, devas and certain noble beasts. They infiltrate humans to guide them and such strangers are lucky
36 Children of demons and devils may hide their features possibly till adult. Some are  
37 Goblins when under pressure start to eat each other and those mutate into militaristic hobgoblins or stealthy but huge bugbears killers.
38 Goblinoids can be mean but they do like humour and stories and entertainment which can keep you alive, goblins don't hold grudges in certain seasons or holy places or wont start anything. orcs hate culture and weaklings
39 Human orc hybrids are the worst of both, they are as huge as abhumans, and more savage. The oldest bloodlines have some ogre and giant as well
40 Trolls vary more than people think. The common ones we know are insane ones from a deliberate chaos mutation that turned them into insane living cancers. The oldblood trolls have many breeds and mostly hidden but will deal with animals nor demihumans. Some breeds are dark and magical and others sweet and even holy. Some say trolls are abhumans but they are kin to giants and they spawned all the demihumans  
41 Ogres are frequently huge and hideous but some look like huge men and live among them. Their craving for human flesh is the main giveaway. They are kin to giants and think of humans as just food or slaves. There are many tribes some related to other planar powers of chaos mutants. Some smart ogres learn magic and there is more to them than most think
42 Barbarians of the great wastes are more like abhumans or human-beastmen than most civilized people. They hate wizards and magic and it was they who did the most to destroy the monster empire and the age of necromance kings and will do it again
43 Wildmen roam the woods and are savage and hairy wearing vines and skins. Some are as man was made since the beginning, some have gone wild and become wildmen by joining a tribe or surviving 7 years alone in wilderness. They are grouped with abhumans
44 Cavemen are huge hairy thick skulled stone age humans living in the deeps and caves and hidden places like mountains. Many evil ones hate humans and are canibalistic. some are friendly but wage war on albino cave apes
45 Humans are made to serve the gods and the divine expect their due sacrifices and honour. Some gods might favour you and others will bring you bad fate
46 Trees have been seen moving and growing quickly this last few years, faerie folk and sylvan beings have all been seen more
47 Nobody in grandpas day would have traded and dealt with orcs or goblins like they do now, nor keep household kobold slaves. Even demihumans seem to be coming out of their shells and trading and sending envoys
48 Trolls are coming back and all kinds of less chaotic nasty ones have been seen. Guarding barns or living behind stoves or watching woods or caves but shy of humans still
49 Necromancers used to be hated but more and more you see the ones that just let people talk to their dead families and ancestors. Some even help the priests with embalming and preparing bodies. People are no longer hating them all for bringing a age of night and terror to the world even villagers don,t mind them. Ideas like punishing criminals by making them slave zombies has not caught on yet
50 Invisible spirits are everywhere some helpful some cause problems. Shamen are the experts at dealing with them
51
 The black library is a devil made secret moving library that teaches evil magic like demonology or necromancy or dracomancy The libry agents find likely students and help them discover a entrance
52 Many ancient things and peoples are lost in the underland world, through these great underland roads you can travel across the world even the oceans
53 Not all wizards use books some use pictograms or cave art and others rote learn them and wizards must learn spells from someone who remembers it instead of reading
54 Demons and devils have special talismans with their true names and ranks which have power over them. Sometimes when you kill one they leave such a medal
55 Out in the wilderness are lands ruled by demihumans for aeons but also by giants, trolls, humanoids and ogres. In some of these land humans are cattle
56 There was a comet last year that means the end times are near, the gates of hell will open and monsters will pour from the wilderness to ruin the wold
57 Their is a frozen land to the north a plateau full of ruins where ancient horrors live and nobody has ever returned to tell it's secret 
58 To the north the world freezes and great frozen wastelands and even the sea are covered in cise
59 To the south the sea boils and is full of monsters. If you go far enough you reach the realms of fire
60 Exile Island was the capitol of several ancient empires and the land has many dungeons left from aeons of buried ruins and remains of humans.
61 Monster Island is unchanged since the dawn age crawling with great ancient monsters and covered in incredible temples. Lizard men and serpent men and dragons rule there, there is even a volcano entrance the the dragon spawn pits in hell where Tiamat sits
62 The mad emperor has relaxed in recent years and while the empire is split in seven states still at war, he has learned some restraint. Now he has sent a huge number of spies from his capitol to work for his interests
63 The black lotus cult spread their smokey hands from their hidden mountain kingdom where they claim to rule the world. No outsiders have ever seen it and lived. They use vice to gain influence over people then control them
64 Since guns have overrun the central kingdoms, they have lost their grip on the world and most other lands have restricted guns and rockets. The central kingdoms are the most advanced but waste most of their resources and people fighting
65 Undersea kingdoms exist and dealing with them can help international trade and avoid monsters and bad weather
66 Ancient weapons used on the gods were sealed under the earth and might still be found in lost caverns sealed away
67 Occasionally people have hidden from disaster in some cave or dungeon then they became trapped or lost becoming forced to change to survive and colonize the hidden dark places
68 The secret police and foreign spies are everywhere and once they mark you their spy seers can track or watch you anywhere
69 Many strange races on Exile island are the last of their kind and were once were more common. Some are strange alien and ancient beings and they are incomprehensible and unfathomable
70 The sea flooded several land masses now just legends. But some were hidden in other worlds, strange undersea faerie realms where elves walk with fish and live as if on land. Some ancient evils have hidden kingdoms in the depths
71 On the moon there are kingdoms, and forests and monsters and elves waging war 

72 There are lycanthropes of many types and all of them prey on mankind, animal spirit folk are refined by comparison and hate them
73 Elemental cults and mutations and beings are as old as creation, they are not necessarily evil, but often inscruitible and bewildering in behavure. Best avoid and beware such creatures, most cannot be harmed by the living in any case
74 Silver is a useful metal for harming many undead and lycanthropes and devils. If you come to a place where they sell silver weapons you should beware
75 Cold iron is black high carbon iron used for common tools, horseshoes, kitchen ware and many everyday items. It is too brittle compared to steel for weapons and rusts more easily. It can harm some demons, bothers elves and faeries and other creatures. Maces are one of the more simple and practical weapons to make from cold iron
76 Star stones fall from the stars many are pure meteoric Iron or steel. The quality and celestial metal can be enchanted better than terrestrial (+3). Mithril steel silver or Ornichalcum gold can be made +4 and Adamantium can be made +5
77 Alchemists use chemical and occult properties of organic and inorganic materials to make magic. They start with gunpowder and basic positions but the great ones make golems, artificial life forms in huge apparatus, even dragons. The greatest turn themselves into alchemical hermaphrodites with great godlike power 
78 Red gold and diabolic gems comes from hell and have the property on mortals of making them greedy, jealous and paranoid. The metal is used in coins to corrupt mortals. The glowing red gems have started wars and are good for making magic items while the metal can be enchanted up to +3 but the side effects make the item more of a curse. Devils feel none of the side effects and offer them to mortals. Deposits of them in the mortal world start wars and ruin kingdoms
79 Many monsters body parts have magical uses to those with the right recipes but dragons are the best. Their bodies can be worth more than the treasure horde they sit on and they have many magical uses including dragon powder that extends a mortals life span 
80 Some say lycanthropy cannot effect a beastman but they sometimes carry the disease. But some beastmen say they can be a lycanthrope type that turn into humans which they feel are weaker and dishonourable
81 Goblins are far better at magic than most think, they use all kinds of spell casting and make potions, grow mushrooms, breed monsters and make gunpowder. They also adapt to any environment in 2-3 generations and thus live everywhere. Their likelihood of insanity is high
82 Undead are sometimes made to punish the wicked or guard holy places reserved for the dead but mostly the temptation to make them grows and is corrupting. Once undead labour gets employed corruption will set in and all kinds of chores will come to mind
83 Some dungeons seem to have a spirit of their own and act against intruders maliciously as if a body repelling a sickness. Some such spirits are malicious and sadistic and just enjoy struggle. Some seem to draw on a greater dungeon dimension, a infinite labyrinth of sadistic evil that can repopulate dungeons with all kinds of monsters and architectural styles. Some say kobolds tune into these entities when building the dungeons they do out of sheer mania
84 Bardic schools vary from those specializing in wizardry or sorcery but some are temple singers, magical seducers, funeral singers, chanting mentalist mystics, rune masters and many others who chanel magic through their arts. Those that sing to corpses and animate the dead seem to be on the rise, their lamentations of song and wailing are their power.
85 Druids are not as neutral as you might think, several sects aim to prey on human claiming humans have broken the balance. They respond to development by making monsters to curb human growth. Black robes use undead and dark powers, red robes or blood druids use bloody sacrifice to appease nature. Green robes protect plants and brown robes animals. White robes focus on healing. Elemental sects exist too
86 Sorcerers are natural spell casting magicians who channel planar power they have come in contact with through a patron possibly through dreams or have supernatural bloodlines giving them power. Some even have a type of covert possession where they have fused with a alien spirit which will move on when they die
87 Wizards for all their books and study based practice are ultimately the most versatile magicians and most capable of innovation and expanding the kinds of spells they cast. They also make most magic items (followed by priests)
88 Clerics are warrior priests fit for crusades, holy wars and frontier influence. Their orders are rich and actively go to the worst places to convert and fight evil. Other priest types are less obsessed with fighting and undead. Some run the church bureaucracy and care for common folk. Wandering friars help the common man and tend to be left alone by the church heterodoxy. Some specialists hunt witches or devils or lycanthropes
89 Thieves are part of criminal brotherhoods seeking money and power. The simpler ones are just gangs or bandits, the better ones run markets, trade guilds and even branches of government. Each local or rival guild demands local thieves join them and they tend to murder non affiliated criminals. Rogues are basically out for money through skill and their members include many merchants, assassins, jesters, beggars, charlatans, acrobats, bounty hunters and other occupations
90 Monks come in different types but the warrior monk orders focus on martial skill dedicated to gods or mysticism. Unlike most clergy they do not use magic but many of their strange disciplines seem supernatural. Normal monks are less combat trained with some specialized guardians but some orders are all fighting monks. Some have taken these skill and used to become duelists, or freelance martial artists
91 Many monsters and humanoid and demihumans may change character classes to learn new skills such as magic. Most of their elite just increase HD, combat skill and might gain some unusual ability. Some are mixed in wizardry and priest powers
92 Warrior orders vary around the world and by class. paladins are holy warriors serving the church who get some divine spells. Rangers are wilderness scouts who gain some druid abilities. Knights are nobility who fight from horse back and rule territories and fight wars.  Yeomen are a class of independent farmer who use longbows and two-handed swords and are prosperous farmers
93 There are many great ruined cities across the world famed in ancient times and struck down by war or disaster. Most of these have explorers digging for scraps of treasure and underground complexes. Many places are buried and become dungeons or have elaborate sewer or catacombs underneath. Shadelport is built on non human ruins and still has unexplored prehuman streets in the city ruins and even suburbs

94 Monsters love to swallow treasure, some use gems to grind up food in crop like a chicken. Things like dragons draw magical sustenance from valuables even just by sitting on the them
95 Some monsters pollute the local area fouling water, ruining soil, killing plants and worse. Some spread the taint of chaos affecting normal creatures or causing mutations. Baslists are one such creature who excretes poison. Even increased undead buried in a area can start to spread blight
96 When someone is petrified by magic they are not truly dead and their souls are still inside trapped. This is why some barbarians smash statues because they hate magic
97 Undead that drain souls and life force are a menace and can create more undead but if they don't outright kill you can have priests restore you. Greater magic can even restore undead to living beings. The gods might get annoyed by those who abuse such powers
98 Volcanoes are tapped into the great deeps even connecting to hell and elemental fire. Salamanders play in the lava flows and other creatures are drawn to them. Volcanoes have destroyed several great cities and civilizations and some worship them
99 Hell contains remnants of worlds from previous cycles of existence and sometimes even the miserable remnants of beings from those worlds whose souls are incomplete. They are miserable failures and all their terrible and ancient lore has transpired and is obsolete
100 Under ancient stones and forgotten places inhospitable to man is where you will find remnants of the great old ones who are anathema to our existence and who's alien desires are unfathomable. Humans to them are less than worm or food at best

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