Merchant District of Shadelport

So revising Shadelport again and filling out extra suburb as I did one in detail before as it was where the adventurers spent the most time. This is the second most popular one. It has a mix of wealth, lots of shops and housing. Also features lots of industry.

Thinking I need list of all suburbs gangs and possibly the vigils who enforce the law who are kind of gangs.

1 Tinker Town
Sweatshops & poor crafters
Employs the most casual scum from ghettos over the river with the lowest rates and licencing and law enforcement. Peddlars, tinkerers and crime flourish. Law is brutal and hasty. Sewer Swine gang run the streets

2 Marketplace
Commoners market
Where most of the cities food and goods sold in with blocks of cramped shops and spacious market complexes with parks. Loitering without money is a crime here. Golden Hand gang run most of the rackets here especially numbers, gambling, con games, pick pocketing

3 Dyers Row
Fabric industrySpinners, weavers, clothiers, tailors, hatmakers, felters, laundries and all kinds of industries thrive here making colourful clothing from products grown in the countryside. People here are busy and hot-headed. Scarlet Hearts gang are sleazy lotharios and pimps who sing and have poetry battles in the street in front of ladies

4 Guilders Stead
Guild halls & town hall
All the important guildhalls, banks and the city council have offices here and meeting halls. Grey Rat gang deal in corruption, blackmail, fraud and slander for political causes. They use sewers all over the district from here.

5 Glimmer Market
Magical market
The district sells exotic spell materials, paper, bookbinding also services like alchemists, wizards, apothecaries and herbalists. Potions and petty spells are common, only the nobility or name level persons are allowed in magic auctions. The Blue Flame gang are quasi-mystical and include wizards and prefer magic crime

6 Merchant Hills
Wealthy merchants
Main housing district for better-off merchants. Includes mansions, gated communities, townhouses and parks. The law keep uninvited guests and non residence away. Lucky Dice gang like gambling, horses, chariot racing, drugs and illegal fights. They are related to the vigils and help them keep out rifraff

7 Black Heath
Metal work and industry
Metal and glassworks here make the are soot-covered, smokey and noisy. A +1 quality item is x5 cost and you have a 30% chance of finding one per day or you need to order one with a year waiting list. Coal Hill Gang run protection and stolen goods and provide muscle to protect common man versus the rich

EMO Homebrew Makeover

So Michael Dutkiewicz the Artist of my zine format homebrew retro-clone has updated the art a bit as he was unhappy with the ladies rear leg and now there is more mist. Brilliant.

also

Also revised my two zine format booklets, I have made some minor revisions to rules and finished the second expert book off. It was never intended to be a fully complete system but you could run it as such if you had a familiarity with tabletop fantasy games, especially around 84. It is kind of a toolkit of ideas for homebrew older games.

A friend is messing with automating a bunch of stuff learning to write code. A few other people have been doing it please let me know and I will add to list on my downloads page. Possibly I've been terse with people offering to do this. Just share it is my main request. 

Players have found pretty easy to get into and happy to fill in gaps from other sources. I've had one say format and design helps ease which is nice.

So one of the biggest changes is allowing characters to change class more and as I use BX style race=class this helps to get away from some of the problems this creates. It helps to keep humans common but lets other races be other classes and if you want to use wish level magic or other means to change your race I don't have a problem. I also finished off spells and changed them a bit. Monk and shapeshifters and martial arts got some more weeks.

If you wanna email me any inconsistencies or typos you can at
I use in preference Australian English then UK English
konsumterra at Gmail dot com
Give me enough info to find them
Happy to discuss rules stuff or bugs in the comments box here  

Fully Basick Book 1
Expert Fully Sick Book 2 

So a future step will be to compile them both with some pages to explain stuff more, and some other things lacking.

Might make a conversation thread on my FB page. Struggling on my Discord with some login drama and multiple accounts with same Gmail mess.

When this is done other projects to follow:
1 Monster Books with basic monsters
(dense format) and advanced monsters (1-2 pages each)
2 Arms. Arts & Magic book detailing skills and spells and extra ones
3 Planet Psychon Version

Freebie Zine & Recent Publications

I made a mistake publishing this prior so making it public here.
Was on my Patreon but I only just noticed link was to a defective version.https://www.patreon.com/posts/35807110

I'm a bit crappy at managing Patreon really and have missed money before from posting too late or mistaking what I had already done. My Egyptian 3folds have got up to six now and I have been doing more 8-12 page adventure zines. Some more underground stuff too.

The break has me revising and fixing stuff and I'm a few months ahead mostly and fairly ahead of blog posts. Sadly plague has me shut-in and lucky to see one friend a week. My odds of dying double in a few weeks so sooner I get it the better.

Here is a terrible pic of some recent ones.
A few bucks get you in the door with a few items a month currently.
More sponsors at certain amount I make more stuff.

Im getting used to this format bit by bit so looking up.
Thematically setting most in hills

Island of Ignorance The 3rd Cthulhu Companion

So I have been reading through my Call of Cthulhu stuff while I am on enforced solitude. Seen one friend I last month. No TP in any shops still sigh.

Anyway, I am a big fan of Golden Goblin press and always like their layouts, writing and scenarios. My favourite non-chaosium publisher. I have some Stygian Fox gear and I haven't got into it. The paper stock of one I find difficult to read and made me afraid of handling it.

So I enjoyed the older companions of Cthulhu. The first had various oddments and some great scenarios from back in the day when you could do a scenario in 8 pages. The second had wonderful size charts and several adventures plus at the time a compilation of spells up to date at that time.

This book has a  high standard of layout. Some of the text on black is a bit this and why we have Black fonts because sometimes printing can make thin fonts vanish. It's also an optical effect that black on white looks smaller. Other than this the use of Kickstarter Portraits is kind of inappropriate often and do you really want your face to be used as the portrait of a child rapist as a reward? Hair, clothes and so many details make this approach incongruent with the setting. The type and fonts are lovely. The trigger warnings for adventures I guess are what we do now and I guess we are not going to establish warning symbols for cannibalism and rape. It is Call of Cthulhu. The bad guys do need to do bad stuff. Horror ought to be unsettling. Especially to justify turning investigators into judge jury executioners and terrorist vigilantes.

The maps and handouts are delicious.

So onto the meat of this book with content for pre 7th ed games.

The Golden Goblin is some detail for publishers of Unspeakable Cults and an entity for use in your games.

The Walshes: A Cthulhu Cult is a handy criminal cult.

Massa Di Requiem Per Shuggay describes a opera and it's history featuring Insects from Shaggai and a good fragment to build a scenario around.

Johnny Came Marching Home a guide to playing military veterans, detailing branches of service, veteran support, disabilities, addiction and mental health.

Dwellers In Darkness detail cult of Bugg-Shash and a new monster which had me dreaming of it for days and seems very useful. Provides several cultists and books. This is best of articles and has lots of use for 3&1/2 pages.

The Knija Mrtua details a mythos book a good adventure seed.

The Silks of Irem describes an alternate to gate boxes with lots of lore and history that might inspire adventures.

Raggedy Clothes and Worn Out Shoes, a look at hobos which is great. They have since done a book on Hobo adventures I look forward to.

Consumption is a great and possibly one of the most grisly adventures with no monsters I have ever read. Plus the villains are well connected in Arkham and things could turn bad for investigators. Possibly a good early adventure to wean people onto more supernatural horror later. You could play through this and know nothing about the mythos. It will teach players to not trust authorities. Reading It I thought Id go to police here but of course, the cult have plans for that possibility.

Let The Children Come To Me. Trigger warning here is needed as this adventure is explicit where most would skirt around some of these details. Sometimes its easier to add these elements than remove them. I'm sure people do both. The adventure though is good and features Shubby in all her goaty glory. Once again you get telegraphed the law won't help quite a bit. I will run this but there is no way of players even knowing some of this detail so only I bear the burden (sigh). The fighting here could get quite intense so a gangster investigator wouldn't hurt.

.The Lonely Point Lighthouse is a solid adventure you could avoid combat and make some strange choices. I think I have like 5 lighthouse adventures now but they are a classic horror environment (DrWho Horror of Fang Rock a classic). Nice to be not in an overused setting and has a good twist. There is another scenario with a similar dilemma and a baby deep one in a freak show and If you like your deep ones sympathetic this is good. Showing monsters not always being jerks who instigate problems is good to break up the familiar kill em all school of problem-solving. This would be a good intro scenario as well.

With Blue Uncertain Stumbling I didn't really get into. The hook I would make more personal and possibly meeting the witch prior would be a good move. I like using the dead sorcerer and worms trope that Brian Lumley books deal with often. Set in Key West which is different and deals with Tuberculosis and Immigration authorities which If you like current events in a game this might count. I do like elements of this and definitely has workable elements but I would modify it.

Darkness Illuminated is fantastic. Once again a mythos monster might seem sympathetic but everyone even the MiGo vivisectionists are horrible people. Also good to have adventure featuring science and corporations which there should be more of. Lots of good dilemmas and problems to solve.

The remainder of the book has 18 pregens, some made effort to dress up plus handouts. I like it when you get a plain readable version of handouts because if nobody in a room using a magnifying glass can read your clues it is not great. These are very atmospheric, however.

Overall I enjoy the feel of these and mostly I would read as is. Bugg-Shash is sure to appear soon.....
Highly recommended 4/5

Day of the Sarsen

Dedicated to
Children of the Stones UK Kids TV
Dro Who Stones of Blood
Susan Cooper

Sarsen Stone elemental guardians, Balanced-Neutral
AC as Plate&shield HD 8* or 16** or 32*** Mov 6 or 3 or 1
Attack 2d8 Crushx1 or Touch, save or sticks to with limb, second attack traps the whole body
Once victim stuck can automatically crush each round or drain attribute points
Each stone drains one specific attribute such as STR , victim drained to zero dies in agony
-8HD=1 drain & cling one victim 16HD=d3 drain and cling two 32HD=d6 drains and cling four
Clerical healers can restore all lost stats with a spell or recover one point a day from rest
Dead arise as wights next full moon who worship and defend the stones by night
Immune to non-magical weapons hits from such weapons save or break
Immune to gas, poison, non-magical fire, paralysis, petrification, charm or sleep magic

These ancient elementals were worshipped and sacrificed to. The beings are intelligent prehistoric petrified earth elementals bound to earth by evil powers. Lives they drink from their victims are beamed to the void beyond the stars to feed their masters. Wizards of those days used standing stones for all kinds of magic so the creation of these was made to hide shrine and temples guarded in the open. The Sarsen sleep for aeons at a time but they can be commanded to await a magical alarm or curse or blood spilling to awaken them. Often they start with animals or loners or homeless. Once awake they become hungry and begin to hunt again more obviously, even destroying a cottage to devour those living inside. Some leave them sacrifices and hide till they sleep again.

Smaller sarsen are most often found toppled over or broken near old cult centres and might even be in a village. Medium ones are on hills or special places often in circles or rows. The largest are great monuments that seem impossible for simple people to move. A sarsen makes the sound of dragging through the earth. A medium stone displaces a ton of earth as it moves 3meters and you can hear rubble. The very largest displace tons and shake the earth while moving which may cause damage in the area.

Later peoples might build on top a fallen sarsen or use a laying one as a foundation. Some find abandoned ones then move them unaware for thousands of years what the stones are. Some might fave some signs or runes one them or be carved into great heads or beasts or giants. Local folk stories warn of them often attributing them to giants or ancient priests.

They are intelligent elementals but think very very slowly and don't speak. They communicate telepathically with any earth elemental based being,

1in6 are magically silent
1in6 can move through the ground without leaving a trace
1in6 when killed HD equal to own by draining emit a red glow and gain +3 Mov
1in6 once a year this sarsen awaken and move but will take animals or sacrifice
1in6 non-magical metal weapons stick to sarsen and become trapped by magnetism
1in8 if killed split into two half-size sarsen
1in8 create ghouls or some other undead type
1in8 form a stone mouth to eat those killed messily might be horizontal or verticle
1in10 radiate intense cold or heat that can be felt
1in10 have beating stone hearts that you can feel coming while moving
1in10 have ESP range 9 that help them predict what they stalk
1in10 can create illusions to draw victims towards them
1in12 when in a group gain an additional centre stone, a petrified greater demon
1in12 has a giant constrictor snake with horns coiled around it as an ally
1in12 has a band of savage goat folk cultists who bring it blood
1in12 can summon shadows once per day 8HD=d4 16=2d4 32=4d4
1in12 regenerate 1hp/round but acid stops it regenerating
1in12 when killed releases something d4 1=druid 2=demon 3=bard 4=warrior
1in12 chant creepily causing fear to all in radius equal to HD
1in12 can levitate at a speed of 9 but makes a crackling and buzzing sound
1in20 can cast call lightning once a day only in a storm
1in20 drain energy levels instead 8HD=1 16HD=2 32 HD=3
1in20 crystalline and speak telepathically to any being demanding blood sacrifices

d12 Sarsen Story Seeds1 Innkeepers children climbing on old witch stone got a scrape and that night hungry stone wants more, at night the inn is attacked, a sarsen smashing through walls
2 Wights have become more aggressive making locals afraid to go out at night. Nobody can figure to where they came from but some say they worship a mysterious stone in the woods
3 A cult have been sneaking into the village disguised as travelling workers and other inn guests and leaving goat blood on local stones trying to awaken a sarsen to worship
4 A local hill had a farmer find a stone door into the hill. Inside the entry, a sarsen pillars hold the roof up at certain points. When they are awakened by intruders and follow them doorways of stone will collapse sealing intruders inside them
5 Locals await the dread night of the stones as there no criminal sacrifices to leave outside. Then they are pleased when guests arrive. They will try and drug and kidnap strangers but will if tables turn and lose beg visitors to catch them some bandits or even fight the bloodstone
6  Locals have seen ghosts and heard voices near the old stones and avoid them but now a cult has come to awaken the stones. Each night the cult kidnap and sacrifice someone till all 13 of the witch stones awake and the cult leader hopes will obey their wishes
7 Near a camping site on a distant road, an awakened sarsen has been murdering travellers. Usually, it takes a guard or a straggler. Now it has awakened and is hungry enough to kill a whole group of travellers
8 A scholar claims local stones were moved since a study made a century ago and locals won't comment. A local drunk has been found ground into mincemeat in an old quarry
9 Dark elves have been awakening sarsen to terrorise locals
10 After blood was found on an old witch stone locals have rounded up an old woman they say murdered the drunken labourer, she begs crowd for mercy as they build a fire pit to burn her
11 A cliff in the woods has four strange carved pillars guarding a cave. Locals say a treasure is inside but nobody ever comes back
12  An evil wizard is served by demon-worshipping goat folk, now he is served also by a black crystal pillar that levitates and has glowing symbols on it as it moves 

My Walkthrough to Cthulhu Invicticus

Anyway cthulhu Invicticus is great stuff.
Like regular Cthulhu for bureaucracy, research, classism, racism, sexism
Plus lots of orgies and stabbing.

If that hasn't sold you I don't know what will.

So I'm gonna run through a bunch of Invictus stuff I have access too mostly in print versions. Unlike regular Cthulhu older eds are more different and have lots of trivial differences in content. So grabbing all of them is not so crazy as I have learned.

Henceforth is a rundown on Cthulhu Invictus but first I Would recommend Gurps Rome for having a good wage table as ever (all settings should), BRP Rome, BRP Warlords of Alexander (free magic songs are great) plus Mythras Rome and Constantinople books.
Also game notes and character sheets from my roman Cthulhu brp variant on my BRP page linked on sidebar.  Mark Latham's The Cthulhu Campagns has own timeline and ideas on mythos in Rome plus awesome art that makes it a core book.

BRP Rome has great monsters, animals, history, alt magic and is Roman Republic Era
I liked Nero as some classic disasters, slanders, scandals around then have his death and end with Pompei eruption. Disappointed none of these games or even wargames or films show veletes but they were disbanded in the republic, with their werewolf costumes and skirmishing shenanigans. I figure if Romans can watch mass murder for fun all day quite a few things won't bother them. Adding in more RQ combat works well and gives melee and armour vs the mythos a big edge. Shame no explosives and stone buildings don't burn as well. Like players to eventually get sent around empire as investigators for patrons and secret societies. Possibly Britania will be a reward or a punishment.

I don't think the opium addled oriental flowery fantasies of Dunsanay Dreamlands works in Rome, too many zoog in scenarios I saw. I prefer Robert Holdstock Mythago Dreamlands that even require a variant of the Tillinghast Resonator. I disagree with interpretations of mythology quite a bit. The take on Olympians and Titans in the earlier books I gagged at. Plenty of good horror in the ancient world without needing mythos to rationalize everything or use dreamlands. Something as good as Icelands book for religion would be nice more like my Vikings campaign. Im happy to be ambiguous and not have everything connected or explained or use "too many monsters" syndrome like VanHelsing movie. Finding what gods equated to what mythos things I didn't really get into. Usually, In modern Era I portray traditional occult and religion as all untrue. In history gaming, I find religion works as a good scaffolding prop for roleplaying to hang off. Mot and Nergal might be plague gods but they are in the ancient world equated to Set or Mars and all share some attributes and not always evil as pop culture examples. Pop versions often miss subtlety and intent of Myths. Some religion out there we have only Roman and Christian propaganda to account for them and don't really know lots of what those cults did. Sadly I've dissed books for getting Babylonian demonology confused with popular culture.

My tip for Female characters is to be Etruscan.
You can have drinking parties while husband away and not fear the death penalty
Romans would just shrug and say Eutruscans do that stuff

Id kinda like players to be all military (for a period of time perhaps to earn citizenship)
Otherwise a bunch of mixes of various characters possibly a family or household

Naming stuff in Latin without translation a pain or be consistent and have both
Listing all NPCs as cast is handy
One companion has an adventure with same name but one in Latin
So describing various products and editions
Including location and era info to help plan a campaign
Help plan a route around the world using lots of these

Editions Of Cthulhu Invictus

Monograph 50AD
-"Morituri Te Salutamus" Rome
-Gaul (Also in Chaosium Companion)
-"Chuma Invicticus" Egypt-Nubia-Kush (Also in Chaosium Companion)

Chaosium 80AD
-Reuses and expands from monograph ed
-Has fold out and other good maps
-More cults, spells and monsters than 7th ed
-"Prophylaxis Panacea Efqua" Palmyra in Syria

Golden Goblin 145AD 7th ed
-attractive layout sometimes hard to read but good info design
-"Blood & Glory" Rome, I would split this into two adventures possibly
-"Food for Worms" Rome, Don't think I can use this in any era for COC

Companions Of Cthulhu Invictus
Malum Umbra Monograph
-Dacia Province described with "The Haunted Villa"
-Herculanium described with "Obsidio Villa"

Extrico Tabula the Second Companion
-Germainia& Briton Described
-"Silver Nigre" Germainia
-"Letalis Messor" Britainia

Cthulhu Invicticus Companion Chaosium
-"Morituri Te Salutamus" Rome-Gaul (reprint)
-"Chuma Invicticus" Egypt-Nubia-Kush (reprint, better maps)
-"Bachanalia" Carthage, this one is very good orgy murder mystery

Adventure Books
Strange Aeons 2 Chaosium
-"They did Not Think it too Many" 80AD Britania
Ripples From Carcosa
-"Adventus Regis" Vestalanium town in Tuscany on river Arno 

Lux In Tenerbras Miskatonic River Press 
-Slang, Law, Chariot Racing,  and new occupations
-"Misplaced Charity" Rome
-"On a Lonely Road" Any road in Empire
-"Vinea Perversa" Starts Rome but flexible
-"Dreams of Atlantis" Starts Rome but flexible
-"Naufractus" Mederteranian Sea, Prelude to Arrius Lurco
-"Mystery in Sardinia" Rome to Sardinia, Epilogue of Arrius Lurco 
-"The Dread Idol" Sardinia, Conclusion of Arrius Lurco 
-"The House of Aufidius" Near Rome

The Legacy of Arrius Lurco Miskatonic River Press 
-130AD starts Rome ends in Crete
-4 part adventure great introductory campaign
-teaches you about setting as you play
-players really got into the NPC's wellbeing, ran well
-I think Golden Goblin publish this now


The Gods Hate Me Monograph
-"Blood & Glory" Rome (reprinted in 7th ed core book)
-"Clockwork Rome" 80AD Rome
-"Death & Bane" Britania
-"Lights on Versuvius" 46AD (27-79AD) Herculanium
-"Ursinus' Animal Show" 68AD Britania-"The Gods Hate Me"
-"The Gods Unknown" 55AD Britania
-"Starts Always With the Eyes" 158AD Germania
-A value-packed monograph

De Horrore Cosmico Golden Goblin
-"The Vetting of Marius Asina" Massila
-"Doom" Rome to Alexandria
-"Murmitto" Sicily
-"Kith & Kine" Brittania
-"The Devils Mouth" Brittania
-"The Case of Tertius Orestius Sedonis" Rome (aka Charles Dexter Ward)
-"Patrone Mi Patrone" Rome
-Good dense compact scenarios for 7th ed COC


Fronti Nulla Fides Golden Goblin
-"The Clockwork oracle" Corinth Greece
-"Goddess of the White Apes" Rome to Opar
-"Following Seas sea trip Antioch to Syria
-"Manu Mission" Rome to Corsica
-The Dragon of Cambia" Britania
-"The Blood Sword of Emeric" Germania
-Good dense compact scenarios for 7th ed COC

In conclusion, If you have 7th Edition Golden Goblin Book you would benefit with the Chaosium produced edition and its companion. The monograph companions have adventures also.

Exited for new Britania Book from Golden Goblin
Hope to score dark ages 7th ed hardback soon
Have made some steps for publishing something Cthulhu ish

d100 Deep Space Mystery Containers

Lots of gonzo things for a SF campagn

d100 Deep Space Mystery Containers 
01 A vacuum resistant egg from an alien creature, biological weapon of the ancients
02 Sealed and stasis packed biopet made to taste food and be a ship pet, this one has seen too much and was ejected for what it knows about a crime syndicate. It was illegally hacked to live longer than four years and to be smarter and savagely attack any harming its owner with a venomous tooth.
03 Sealed escape cryopod of a genetic super-soldier from some illegal war. Will awaken and be quiet and passive before going on a murder spree
04 Canister designed for atmospheric entry then bursts to spread an ancient bioweapon that introduces a horrible plant that consumes everything
06 Robot head contains co-ordinates for a lost asteroid base run by a space syndicate
07 Space marine power suit with a skeleton inside, last massage from marine before spaced themself and broke seals
08 Ships black box transponder system legally obligated for port registration records a ship hijacking
09 Ship hyperspace drive of strange design inside is an entity from the void that somehow got through with the ship and the surviving crew ejected it. The ship hulk and dead crew are adrift far from here. If the drive is powered up will be abnormally effective but creates paranormal effects
10 Strange stasis sealed alien container, inside a protoplasmic creature is trapped awaiting to go on a killing spree unless controlled mentally by an ancient alien race
11 A strange mummified alien being made of mater with properties of hyperspace, has strange animal and plant features and adapted for living in a vacuum
12 Alien spore bonds with metal and grows, space barnacles somehow bring other creatures with them when they become large clusters and infest and damage ships
13 Large alien crystal thing possibly alive or some kind of machine, absorb temperature to power up and come to life. May try to contact intelligent beings or might replicate self with sufficient raw materials
14 Escape pod of a ship with SOS inside a protoplasmic alien horror longs to get loose and infect life to make them like itself
15 Computer navigation computer core AI from a starship, corrupted personality is hostile and will attempt to seize control os all systems. Leaves viruses and trojan horse traps on systems, ejected by the crew to save the ship
16 Spacesuit hundreds of years old possibly from some belter, final recorded voice message
17 Spent fuel core of a stardrive of unknown design
18 defective ancient nuclear detonation laser mine from a past war
19 Damaged signal beacon of some old design, a skeleton in a spacesuit stuffed inside service bay
20 Chemical booster engine discarded after use long ago
21 Comand pod jettisoned from a modular ship long ago, two crew at controls in space suits were never rescued
22 Cargo pod full of illegal narcotics dumped to throw off the scent from the law
23 Frozen organic matter of some kind, contagious mutant horror, possible alien bioweapon
24 Unusual metal and other material in a slab, once it can access power it is a metallic nanite colony. It is self-aware and wants to find its own kind unseen for millions of years 
25 Stasis bubble reflects all attempts to open, the field of a star drive can be applied to release one of the ancients, an advanced being with psionics, armour and weapons
26 An ancient satellite with images from long ago of planets surface and other data
27 Pod of modified seeds that will alter minds of anyone eating it, corporate logo on the seal
28 Cargo pod of recycled protein, lab tests show it was human
29 Cargo module with several cryopods inside contain human slaves
30 Mining net full of ore with a damaged transponder that someone assembles
31 Pod containing leaky canisters of military nerve gas agents enough to destroy several cities
32 Cryopod with genetically modified chimp with human IQ, grateful for being fed and treated well
33 Cryopod with a dinosaur egg
34 Medical cryopod with human brains from orphans to be used in borg systems
35 Shapeshifting assassin robot in basic faceless humanoid form was on a mission but owners long dead and mission pointless
36 Scout corp pod with records of a system in dust cloud nebula that nobody knows about and some anomalous scans
37 Distress beacon from ship being attacked and signals jammed by an unknown vessel
38 Toolbox dropped long ago by astronaut possibly very old
39 Sealed non-standard stardrive contains an alien life form that is tormented to operate. If the seal is broken angry creature escapes and interferes in reality over a local area
40 Sealed case of mechanical insect colony, if near energy awaken and seek to reproduce by recycling anything
41 AI sealed in a case, dangerously advanced prototype with the bulk of its mass in hyperspace. Cunning and will be cooperative hacking other systems but has own agenda
42 Unfamiliar tech with a gene bank of several million beings and animals and plants for some future resurrection
43 Folds out into a shapeshifting robot pretends to be friendly and lost in space due to evil enemies but it is all a lie to get close before tries to murder or enslave all the meatbags
44 SIlver 20cm sphere in a sealed box. Strange apparatus allows extradimensional intelligence from overspace to enter and animate it. It once awakened is intelligent and can roll around. WIll try deception or if discovered deception until it can be interfaced into major computer system like a ship computer or AI system. Robots and other synthetic life too, it may even influence anyone touching it lots and obsessing over it 
45 An advanced firearm with AI unit required for weapon operation. AI needs to be convinced and controls fire and aiming user holds it and points or can verbally assign target. It argues and is unconvinced of wielders authority or if enemy realy deserves this. Has several settings disintegration, dematerialisation (sends to hyperspace) or a total conversion beam that creates a chain reaction of implosions and hit can damage small spacecraft in orbit if required but mostly for human-sized objects 
46 Plant seed pod that carries spores to colonise a planet with animated carnivorous plants that establish own ecosystem before intelligent master plants and drone warriors emerge. Often more in an area  
47 Pod with small albino humanoids adapted for lower gravity and space travel, preserved for feeding by another race as emergency food. They are grateful for shy modified humans and good at tech and maintenance if allowed
48 Colony cryonic escape pod containing long lost colonists but they all have a genetic condition that will turn them into psychotic killing machines. They all have early symptoms of cheery camaraderie then anger and fighting then they transform. All jettisoned as they were gene hacked to cause sabotage 
49 Cryonic sample pack with fist-size parasite embryo from survey team pod spaced long ago. If biopack is at room temperature and co2 from an exhaling medium animal are near it will hatch and get close enough to enter their body. Once inside it modifies body and takes controlling a monstrous flesh mecha piloted by the parasite as it grows. It can graft more bodyparts and people to a horrible mess if room for it
50 Frozen head in apparatus to communicate and attach to a computer to view memories. The head does not like this and mouths "kill me!" while eyes flicker under eyelids. It cant see but hears. Knows valuable information
51 Box with three silver isopod like drones. Will awaken and spread a biological agent and try to take over coms to call mysterious masters
52 Casket with dead alien corpse from a space burial ground
53 Long lost space probe was forgotten by owners and sublight
54 Cargo container of dead refugees abandoned by people smugglers
55 Wrapped bundle with some old claim searched for by the mob for generations, a 4 ton crystal of great value
56 Black coffin-sized monolith absorbs all scans. If it brought onboard it awakens, alien nanotech fused with a long lost astronaut. Being wants data and to survive
57 Trunk with a service robot, charming and brilliant chef and musician, equipped with several sets of synthetic genitals. Actually defective assassin bot
58 The case is a folded up borg in shutdown, robot body with the organic brain on life support inside
59 Exotic looking alien box gives off a signal, carries zombie making necrovirus which wont be visible until someone dies or population is reached, alien bioweapons
60 Stone statue in case actually molecularly aligned silicon android that changes its shape and attacks any beings not it's creators
61 Damaged warp core in a case still valuable weighs tones. It was abandoned for producing paranormal effects on ship and death of crew from allowing things from beyond through
62 Escape pod of ship overcome by strange beings in hyperspace. The body inside looks terrified and will reanimate to kill all it can
63 Case in documents detailing strange possibly alien phenomena someone was investigating in several systems and jettisoned to keep secret
64 Lost luggage from shuttle accident including with failed cryopod of elderly person or pet
65 Pod with beacon sent by damages outpost as SOS long ago can use to find mysterious long lost private asteroid habitat
66 Wreckage from ship lost in warp accident covered in strange blue slime in cargo container. A vampire-like being inhabited the slime and seeks a host to feed or reproduce or help it or escape to its home dimension
67 An experiment in warp drives jettisoned by crew in a hurry. Attracted entities from beyond who tormented crew and will do again
68 Black box recording in pod from the long-missing ship with asteroids marked on charts was investigating. Last audio recordings feature screaming and unrecognised noises
69 Coffin with a frozen corpse inside. Criminal syndicates and some planetary governments want it, especially the head they hope to extract data from
69 Eggs from a rapidly reproducing small humanoid newts used by ancients for aquatic labour projects in a cryogenic pod of unknown design
70 Range container with killer borg using serial linked human brains in a strange configuration with non-standard technology. Something programmed it and killed missing military flight crew
71 Box with SOS is a massive emp device which damages ship electronics and causes the ship to require repairs. It also signals pirates who use this as a signal to scramble for a damaged ship and pretend to offer help
72 Pod with small cute robot pet seems harmless and plays games. When victim alone will inject with the mutagenic bioweapon, sabotage ship and contact something unknown
73 Battlefield nuclear mine of unfamiliar design emits warning signal but nobody will recognise it
74 Emergency navigation beacon from some disaster not on any records, remaining recordings of black military op and strange phenomena
75 Log of a ship with a recording from crewperson reporting something driving crew to cannibalistic murder frenzy before self-destruction. Reports finding something on a survey mission and past flight paths
76 Cargo pod of old pirate or smugglers loot. Some personal effects of crewman might be a clue to learning more
77 Case with stolen planetary surveys and markings that appear to be illegal camps of some kind on one
78 Huge quantity of unknown drug crystals of unknown type. Made from using a process on an alien organism with traces of DNA. Some research might reveal drug operation harvesting wild creature only they know makes the substance. It has strange properties
79 Hostile android brain of advanced design. Can overide anti killing protocol and lie to get close to victims spending time calculating how it can kill the most victims
80 Footage in drone of government troops wiping out personnel on a isolated space habitat which would cause outcry if released
81 Container with alien spore pod, will delay release till inappropriate time and start to thrives somewhere unwelcome from a different ecosystem to the air filters on your ship or even human skin
82 Crionic pod with contaminated sleeping passenger broadcasting sos
83 Sealed crate with university insignia, contains ancient flight helmet found with noteson location, university reports expedition vanished with no reports of discoveries
84 Canister of unknown design with biological material that seeks host, ancient alien being wants new body, keen to find subtereanean outpost. Will cooperate and lie if best outcome and cant just killinferior beings and take a ship. Trap filled outpost reveals unknown ancient race and why container was cast into space as punishment.
85 Sealed courier pod with security codes and self destruct device. Older model so not too hard too bypass. Inside are locations of secret bases from past war probably forgotten
86 Cargo pod of chained skeletons. DNA reveals a particular colony ship profile believed destroyed hundreds of years ago. The container is from a mining company famous for criminal scandals
87 Shapeshifting android in crate. Appears obviously synthetic at first will change to same species as rescuers to facilitate communication. Appears to be advanced, friendly and helpful and seeks to make new owners dependant. At some point will take over ship seeking revenge on those who jettisoned it into space
88 Robot in crate, built by rogue pioneering robotacist who left known space a long time ago yet this robot seems more recent. Taking the crate on board releases a signal calling robot pirates, seek materials and the master seeks company on secret asteroid habitat
89 Humanoid in cryonics pod, only looks human is a hateful mass of bioplasm sent to infiltrate and kill humanity
90 Box of spare robot heads from humanoid robots. One of them is buile for espionage on behalf of a criminal cartel. The cartel once signalled will take an interest in salvagers and try and take opportunity to exploit them
91 Canister of old military grade weapons lost in some black market operation, owners lost long ago but keen to get back and revenge on any they think stole them
92 Container of old relics of different ages, was dumped by smugglers but owner a rich collector will kill to get them back. One object includes secret manufacturing plans worth millions to right person
93 Frozen corpse in crate of colonial mine investigator who vanished on job at local asteroid mining hub. Has implanted chip recording part of investigation
94 Sealed crate of valuable lost recordings of musical act and signed merchandise. Band vanished long ago and one recording of band member in a recognisable city seems to post date disapearance
95 Container of modified seed grain, seed if used is intended to thrive in various environments and spread rapidly but this batch is intended to terraform a planet and overgrown everything and destroys any ecology. Once overgrowth noted limited time to stop it. If just sold buyers will report sellers after a planetary disaster to authoraties
96 Container with old military torpedo warhead inside, easily disarmed and left here by sagotuers. Others have been left in area. Serial numbers all linked to forgotten war ammo depot
97 Core of a biotronic computer core weighs 4 ton. If powered up biological components revive and the AI attempts to communicate. The computer is advanced and telepathic and helpful but incapable of violence or harming others. Very efficient at running ship systems but others want to know where it comes from and at least one party wants to kill salvagers and take the AI.
98 Strange design cargo pod with strange root vegetables inside. Smell delicious and human derived peoples find them tempting from delicious smell. Anyone eating them is transformed into dangerous new hybrid life form hostile to humanity. Vegetables full of natural drugs, bacteria and viruses
99 Distress beacon with details of a wrecked ship trapped in area where radio and radar inhibited. Survivors desperately fired this and provide warnings of navigational hazard of strange EM cloud surrounding them
100 Large alien pod with organic readings. A biological mass is a dangerous psionic entity that escaped a self destruction ship. The creature wants to take over a whole planet but needs biomass and servants

sorry didn't finish this when posted

Solo Playtests

So I have been playtesting my rules solo style and made a small party of four then play them through the combats of my first ten 3fold adventures in the Threefold land. Was pretty informative and found some errors and rules to fix and got me on some other tangents.

I rolled stats and used the by the book character skills and spells as in my elfmaids book to try them out.

Filthy Pete a mercenary Warrior possibly interested in social mobility
-Mulligan the bandit a follower
Manny the wood Elf likes bows and druidry and interested in humans
-Harry the hunter a follower
Nebor the Wizard a straight conservative career Wizard
-and his big black pussy MrNeedles
Portia the rogue interested in loot and doing what she wants
Liv the Druid, kind and likes to help animals
-has a pet dog Borko

So I had done this as a solo with some characters before usually a snakey character like a gnome good at escaping I did once. Anyway, a party kind of proved the whole teamwork thing and was a lot safer. Did some basic dungeon with tables which came to a and party had a small change to go to the pub and eat out a few days. Ran through "The Secret of Granny's Hole" and just made it and then had try Nothrthmoor hall and kill everything on surface but fled the orc hero boss on a dire wolf. Failed against the beast of Velborton but solved it's secret and got diseased looking in it's loot pile. After a level-up went back to Northmoor hall and finished it off then caught a monster fo an alchemist then beat up the frog cult and destroyed the regions vice trade. Having gone a few levels up were now living as well off with own house. Poor and low lives hated them over shutting down frog grog and swamp weed sales. Finally, they beat up some witches and then robbed some griffons and got cursed. Then it was level 5 and ready to leave areas mostly sucked out of adventure possibly to Sour Hill.

So progression was good and realised how much of adventures about setting up social interaction prospects which take up in my games about the half play. Some good desperate 15 round long-running fights.

As elf and druid got into goodberries and bringing a batch from yesterday. Which had amusing results. Unlike healing, in a fight, you can't just slap bro on the back bam 8HP. Berries need to handed to hand and eaten. So some time-wasting moment as healers handed out berries wasting more rounds than healing. I'm tempted to replace other druid healing like this. The best moment was it is hard feeding unconscious people potions and berries. So I require a first aid roll to feed an unconscious person. So after it was tried on the fighter, roll failed and fighter spewed up healing berries. I had to wonder if another character would eat those chewed spew berries. Sorry, I'm Australian.

Were some amusing bits. One scenario had several hell cats with party and several members thought alignment shift for a 7HD magic hellcat seemed like a great deal and the cat was gonna help them control the Hellgate and make money it was gonna be awesome. So I had thee npc priest roll to proselytise at them and explain why devil deals were not great. So I was happy to roll persuasion and have dummies fail their rolls and believe the last account of religion they had heard. Souls saved I went and worked out their alignment oaths and they kind of exaggerated their personas well.

Glad I could generate random situations and even internal party conflicts. And will try again with some other classes to test out the default versions.

Playing with my summoning spells and time frames a bit too found the Ad&d spell had a d4 rounds for the monster to arrive and I was thinking d6 so close.

All up was big fun. Big thanks to Chad who is always encouraging me to do stuff like this or at least inspires my by his examples.

Worm Lord Ruins

Ok hayfever meds kicking in and feeling better and this came out.
I like worms in Operation Unfathomable and mentions of hidden elder gnawing things in LOTR. These guys would be good in Xor too. 

Worm kind was one of the earliest beings to swim in the dark primordial oceans. They came in all kinds of sizes and types some were even wizards using black magic Some lived in the corpses of titans, others lived inside other creatures controlling them. While in the dawning age when gods and their servants made the world as we know it now, worms hid in waters and deep under the earth. Worms began the secret alliance between the monster kings and the beings of the outer void. Together they started the age of darkness and the reign of the monster kings. Towards the end of that age, they were betrayed and replaced by vultures. Worms became food and slaves for other races who wanted their eldritch secrets. They were allied with Insects and arthropods who also lost their position.

Many worms are genderless and many if cut in two and left for dead, will have both halves recover with memories intact. Some recover memories of the dead from working or enemies.

Best known Worms
Purple worms served as diggers who burrowed beneath
Rotgrubs are lethal heart-eating parasites
Rock worms burrow through rock and are super heated, swim in lava
Carrion crawlers helped to patrol passages and keep out enemies
Giant leeches dwelled in damp tunnels of worm lairs
Lamprey giant ones haunt salt and freshwater
Centipedes giant, huge, megacentipede, stegocentipede
Thunderherders were desert worms that were driven in huge herds
Tenebrous worm bred as guard worms
Tunnel Worm bred to fight tough armoured tunnel intruders

Lesser-Known Worms
Dungeon Threadworms live in damp dark places and enter the flesh of victims to live
-dangerous parasites in egg form in  water or as brown spaghetti-like masses
Swarm Worm are a crawling slow-moving but deadly swarm type
Sting worms are several metres long with a single fang
White Worms are cow sized and telepathic often direct cultists on surface
Borer Worms are for slow painful torture and ordeals used by cult
Mind Worms are a rare parasite that enslaves hosts and use them as pawns
Thrall Worms are foot-long intelligent worms that attach to victims nervous system
-control host who is aware of everything worm commands
Kyuss Grubs are a necroparasite that turns the host into living dead horrors
Elder Worms with heads and several tentacles were the standard race of worms
-many are wizards or evil priests or psionic and can talk
-technologist of worm kind who wear armour and weapons
Wormlings smaller less aggressive elder worm species less aggressive
Walking Worms are colonies of worms that would take human form and use evil magic
Great elder worms were immortal god-like worms devoted to black magic
Brain Pools worm colonies with collective intelligence
Gargantuan worms are half-mile long and worshipped as gods by other worms
-unclear if intelligent or killable but other worms seem impressed
Void worms are vast things that lurk beyond and are worshipped
-small ones are summoned like demons 

Allies & Servants & Enemies
Worm folk are humanoids with worm heads bread for battle with more recent races
Insectoids were common allies especially those with larva like beetle grubs
Many arthropods were servitors especially centipedes
Human cultists seek elder lore and immortality
Some more pure worms treat segmented, legged and armoured worms as inferior
Serpentine and limbless draconic wyrms were considered civilised
Mole folk and giant moles are especially hated and feared
Other monster kings who betrayed them like fish, amphibians, bats, vultures
All birds and mammals are disgusting upstartsMarine worms are allied kin but rulers and cults are different

Deep under the earth, there are mile wide caverns crawling with millions of worms writhing together, breeding, eating and communicating. Not very hospitable or interesting places. Some intelligent worms communicate by chemical touch and pheromones in skin slime thus they writhe together in masses in a manner humans find repulsive. Worms especially hate mammals and birds who they see as upstarts who eat worms and plunder their secrets. Humans are slightly better as they don't have a rep for eating worms.

Elder worms had magic whereby they could feed a young worm on a human and it would know lots of the human's knowledge which helped with magical disguises and shapeshifting magic spies. In most disgusting version the worms head might resemble the human head in a ghastly parody. They also knew spells to swap bodies so they could borrow a human body leaving the horrified human helpless in the worm. Sometimes the worm in the human body would die trapping the human who often went mad. Cultists often willingly did this. Mindworms in the past kept massive populations of slaves until a surgical procedure (often fatal), careful poisoning of the host (possibly fatal) or cure disease magic was found to help resist. Skilled herbalists and apothecaries know many treatments and some are possibly true as mind worm outbreaks are rare.

Intelligent worm folk who just want to live in peace undisturbed and don't practice elder magic or commune with the outer void do exist. They still have possibly the oldest bad reputations. Village of humble worms or hidden sewer colonies exist. Smaller wormlings tend to be less militant than elder worm folk and hang out with gnomes and goblins. Many have had enough of conquest and black magic failures since the dawn of time.

Worm writing looks like patterns of gnawed squiggly lines only some experts can even recognise. They also leave pheromones in their slime trails like warnings other worms can scent.

Worm ruins are often so old other creatures have moved in and only a few have worms of some kind thriving. It's more common to find cultists trying to restore the worm empire or learn it's secrets than actual intelligent worm kind. Of course, deep underground worm structures may be fully operational as they were long ago. Now worm kind mostly shuns the surface and the hateful sun.

d12 Ancient Worm Ruins
1 Temple - worm cult religious sites
2 Worm farm - a complex of pits with organic waste and trash heaps
3 Slave pens - where humanoid slaves bred as food and labour
4 Gateway - where worms and cultists met, entries to underground colonies
5 Wizard tower - where evil worm wizards dwelled
6 Burrow complex - where worms left tunnels
7 Ziggurats - larger step temple complexes
8 Hillforts - huge artificial hills with fortified camps on top
9 Grave mounds - huge artificial hills with tunnels within
10 Quarries - remains of huge open pits full of tunnels
11 Fungus garden - seems to be cavern but was gnawed out 
12 Colony mound - artificial hill riddled with tunnels

d12 Worm Traps
1 Passage floor waste deep in muck with borer worms
2  Corpses with rot grubs and tempting treasure
3 Dirty pools full of threadworm eggs on the ground
4 Dirty pools full of threadworms attack any walking on them
5 A worm on the walls opens chamber releasing a monster or son of kyuss
6 Sting Worm hiding under the soil or ceiling sting intruders and attack
7 Pit with pool with giant leeches
8 Pit with the bottom ten-foot full of corpses, random carrion and threadworms
9 Pit with swarm worms in the bottom
10 Guardworm in the ceiling causes a cave in sealing passage then gets help
11 Guardworm in ceiling causes deadfall or rubble to fall on enemies then gets help
12 Telepathic young white worm alerts guards of intruders


d12 Worm Chambers
1 Slave pen where servants and prisoners kept, cultists like to use as barracks  
2 Spawn pits of muck and soil with various worm young, eggs and imprisoned hosts 
3 Feeding pits with various kinds of muck for worms to eat
4 Thrall chamber with niches for humans to be eaten or implanted with mind worms
5 Fungus garden where worms grow food 
6 Workshops for slaves to make stuff for worm masters
7 Throne chamber where worm elites directed slaves and relaxed
8 Pools of biological waste and worm excretions
9 Storeroom with various stockpiles in stone bins or living biological sacs
10 Laboratory with living apparatus for making potions (it probably wants to die) 
11 Wizards chamber with scrying pool or crystal and worm writing on walls
12 Worm temple with statues of the worm gods and beings of the outer void

d12 Worm Ruin Encounters
1 Explorers d4 1=murder hobos 2=wizards seeking evil lore 3=tomb robbers 4=scholars
2 Cultists searching for lore d4 1=worm brothers 2=order of the white worm 3=sisters of the burrowing ones 4=sons of they who gnaw
3 Worm swarm pours from every crack and hole hungering for flesh
4 Giant leeches can smell blood and snuffle about in the dark
5 Abhuman savage berserkers protecting this taboo place d4 1=lamprey folk 2=centipede folk 3=leech folk 4=slug folk
6 Giant critter d4 1=whiteworm 2=giant slug 3=giant centipedes
7 Slave hosts d4 1=cultists controlled by mind worms 2=slaves controlled by thrall worms 3=sons of kyuss 4=escaped victim or carrion crawler needs help 
8 Elder worms party d4 1=wizards seek lore 2=priests seek relics 3=degenerate mutants 4=Elder worm work party cleaning the place up to repopulate
9 Elder worm warriors d4 1=with prisoners 2=with work crew 3=with waggon of eggs 4=chasing escaped human slave
10 Carrion crawlers scuttling about d4 1=on ceiling 2=dragging victim away 3=eating victim 4=on way to hunting grounds
11 Walking worm wizard will offer immortality of the worm gods and attacks if refused
12 Giant mole with paralytic venom bite (as bear plus blind fighting)

d12 Worm Evil Schemes
1 Gateway requires reactivation d4 1=plane of earth 2=outer void 3=nightmare world 4=subtereanean elder worm city in a colossal cavern
2 Collecting ledgers and tithes from local bribes and crime guilds 
3 Seeking narcotics desired by worms like black lotus resin or magical tea leaves
4 Start kidnapping and implanting key humans with mind worms for a spy ring
5 Capturing humans to attach thrall worms and sending into the Underland as slaves 
6 Make a deal with some other local species to make lives hard for humans
7 Recruit cultists promising them elder secret lore and immortal life as worms
8 Kidnap humans and use to feed implanted elder worm grubs to build an army
9 Run a cult of assassins to terrorise the local human leaders and control them
10 Stealing human waste and corpses to feed a baby army of elder worms
11 Kidnapping people with skills so worms can eat them and acquire technology
12 Have summoned worm demon who eats humans and turns them into elder worms

d12 Worm Ruin Treasures
1 Medalion allows the wearer to speak to all worm-like beings
2 Obsidian weapon d4 1=dagger +1 2=spiked club +1 3=spear+1 4=hand axe +1 
3 Potions secreted from living slave apparatus d4 1=parasite eggs 2=cure disease 3=memories of some long-dead worm 4=
4 Scrying crystal, most broken but still valuable rock crystal 1in6 works 
5 Bag with d4 magic mushrooms d4 1=poison 2=heal d4 3=+d4CON hour 4=detect magic for a turn 
6 Fossil of some bizarre ancient sea creature valued by collectors
7 Hex stone that provides protection vs void creatures if carries +2 Save and AC
8 Tablets covered in worm scrawls d4 1=ancient lore 2= 3=poetry 4=maths
9 Tablets covered in worm scrawls d4 1=inteligence report 2=cursed 3=truename of some demon from the void to summon one 4=wizard spells
10 Magic rune stone can release 8HD earth elemental once follows one order
11 Medalion may activate a ruined worm gateway location
12 Tablet with map of worm complexes and tunnels connecting them

d12 Worm Cults
1 Cruach the worm beneath, the borrower the devoured, gnaws on the world tree and corpses of dead titans, worm god of underworld and war
2 Celana the Great Worm Mother
3 Aleph the great worm of darkness from beyond patron of wizards
4 Xithirion mad worm god and it's many spawn who rule on it's behalf
5 Shudmar the borrower beneath, shaker of the earth
6 Gorvara the worm of time that devours all and chews holes through time and space
7 Eadra the great ancestor of elder worms 
8 The worms that walk were once elder worms or human cultists enlightened by elder black magic, none know their true horrid purpose
9 Elar the parasite who gnaws at the universe to end time
10 Goram great earth elemental patron of worms who brings forth delicious soils
11 Cerecore the many segmented one, centipede god of hunting and war
12 Eiroth dwells in the depths but sends his spawn to find hosts to control or devour