CAS

CAS

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - The Dwarves - From Dragon #10





Wormy's World - Characters - The Dwarves - From Dragon  #10

The Dwarves


Not pictured (but here is a snip of one my favorites from last issue - I call him Bismark). They can be heard singing their song of revenge and restitution of their stolen bowling balls. Wormy has his own ideas about what is going to happen next. 

Friday, December 26, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Wormy - From Dragon #9



Wormy's World - Characters - Wormy - From Dragon #9

Wormy

Wormy is a snooker-playing, green-colored dragon. He is a rough quick-witted character with a blue cap set so low it hides his eyes and almost always seen with a half-smoked cigar dangling from his mouth. His pal Irving, a small red-demon, hops up on his table to see what Wormy is up to and unsurprisingly he is in the middle of a game of snooker. He invites Irving to play but the little demon doesn't know the rules (neither does Wormy but the balls on the table were the biggest he could find and as everyone knows snooker balls are smaller than billiard balls).


Irving hears a ring at the door and jumps down to answer only to be surprised by a group of angry dwarves demanding their bowling balls back. Wormy tells Irving to tell the dwarves that he has moved to Pittsburgh.




Monday, December 22, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Irving - from Dragon #9



Wormy's World  - Characters - Irving - from Dragon #9 

Iriving


Irving, a small red Demon, who talks suspiciously like someone from Brooklyn in a 1930's movie, is wondering what Wormy is up to. When Wormy tells him he is playing snooker and asks him if he wants to play. Irving says 'No Tanks ' he doesn't know the rules (neither does Wormy or so he says) but then the doorbell rings and Irving hops off to get it. At the back door Irving is surprised to find a small throng of Dwarves, axes and swords at the ready, asking for their bowling balls back. When Irving reports back Wormy just says to tell them he has moved to Pittsburgh.





Them Bones



Them Bones

Jarrod the Carver was a warrior-mage from the land of the Narve, a mountainous country north of the One Hundred Cities. He was known for his love of chance and his wondrous magical creations and of those creations his dice are perhaps the most famous and sought after. He is said to have made a hundred sets of each kind and scattered them across the world. Each of the die was crafted from the bones of some animal or person. Many have similar effects, such as simply summoning that particular animal (his six-sided die of the Owlbear is particularly popular and legendary), but others are unique, some trivial, some beautiful and some horrific.

Here are some of his dice.

1) The Die of Flowers

This pyramid shaped object has four sides with an intricate carving of a flower on each face. It appears to be made of stone but has no weight to it and if thrown will float in the air about ten feet from he who threw it and rise to the caster's eye-level. The effect of the die occurs in the same segment it has been cast, lasts for 1d4 rounds and afterwards the die drops gently to the ground.

The first face of the die causes a storm of flowers to flow from it in a cone shape that will fill a ten foot high, ten foot wide and thirty foot long (10x10x30) area away from the caster of the die. This cloud of flowers will disrupt the casting of spells, normal and shouted conversations as the flowers tend to get in people's mouths if they are trying to speak, and ranged combat as they completely obscure everything in the area of the cloud. Melee combat is considered Blind Combat with an extra -2 penalty to hit for anyone in the cloud as the flying flowers are distracting even to anyone with an ability to fight blinded. Firing into the area of effect is also at negative modifier (-6 to hit) as all objects in the area of effect are completely obscured even to those looking toward them from outside the cloud of flowers. The torn petals remain as a colorful carpet after the spell has been cast, but they are simply a common variety though quite edible.


2) The Dice of Caltrops (and Jarrod's Bag of Dice)

Another pyramid shaped die of which several are normally available at the same time. The reason for this is Jarrod's Bag of Dice (see item 3.). A Die of Caltrops shows an icon of from one to four caltrops on its faces and when cast (or thrown, which is the safer method) it will spread out a layer of caltrops (either the small kind used against man-sized creatures or the large kind used against horse-sized creatures depending on the type of Die possessed. The die that produces the human-sized caltrops is smooth green while the horse-sized come from a die that is mottled red and blue). The layer will be from a ten to forty foot area centered around the cast Die. The caster of the die can walk through this field of caltrops without risk as long as he is in possession of  the Dice Bag which spawned the Die (see item 3) but otherwise he will suffer the same damage as anyone else caught within a section covered in the caltrops.

Unlike normal caltrops which sit and hope for someone to step on them Jarrod's caltrops are more proactive. Anyone stepping into a 10 foot by 10 foot area will find caltrops underfoot no matter where or how carefully they step. Passing through the area causes 2d4 damage and reduces movement by 50% for 1d6 combat rounds unless the damage is somehow healed. Each time someone passes again through a 10x10 section of Jarrod's caltrops they must roll again for damage and add another 1d4 of combat rounds of movement speed reduction to their original total.

The caltrops from the Die have a chameleon ability that allows them to blend in with their surroundings rendering them effectively invisible. They do radiate magic and they will appear to any type of detect trap spell. These caltrops cannot be swept aside or regathered and remain in the area they originally covered unless disspelled.

3)  Jarrod's Bag of Dice


In the creation of his dice Jarrod realized that some must be crafted so that in the casting of the die the effect would consume the die itself. In order to free himself of the necessity of recrafting these useful objects each time he used them Jarrod created one of his most powerful, remarkable and temperamental magic items. The Bag of Dice is a semi-sentient magic item the least of which (for there are many species of them) is highly valued and sought after. Each Bag of Dice has both an intelligence and an ego. They can speak, but only to their possessor's who they tend to adopt as pets though some treat more like servants. Bag's of Dice must be fed. At least one spell must be fed to them each day or a magical effect or a physical magic item. They have limited ability of movement (hunching and crawling like an inchworm) and the more powerful and intelligent have learned to cast spells of their own (especially after consuming scrolls, potions and various magic items). For all the trouble that they can be and cause, the rewards of possessing one of these Bag's of Dice are immediate and obvious as they birth magic dice the way a chicken lays eggs. A Bag of Dice can 'lay' one magic die per week. These dice will be found within the interior of the bag though once removed they can be stored anywhere. The Dice have a sense of the Dice Bag and using a magic Die without possessing the Bag which spawned it will impose some risk upon the caster of the Die. The normal limit of how many unconsumed Dice children a Bag will spawn before becoming reproductively inactive in an even dozen (the Bag will create 12 Dice and if they are unused, stop producing more, if 1 Die is used it will produce 1 more. This amount is called a 'carton'. Only 1 carton of Dice may exist at one time per Bag).  

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - The Dwarves - from Dragon #9



Wormy's World  - Characters - The Dwarves - from Dragon #9

The Dwarves


A throng of dwarves ringing the bell on Wormy's surprisingly small door are demanding their bowling balls back with rather vehement insistence. (Wormy is using them for snooker balls). Wormy tells Irving to say he has moved to Pittsburgh.

Henry Meynell Rheam - The Sorceress


Friday, December 12, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Wererat - #33



Wormy's World - Characters - Wererat - #33

Wererat


Accompanying the Wereboar on his quest for vengeance the Wererat is an enthusiastic torch wielding ally. He sets out after Dudly with gusto but a slip of his foot as he enters the stream puts him in a perfect position to be hammered by Dudly's mallet. He ends up face down in the water a drowned or at least soaked Wererat.






Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Wereboar - #33



Wormy's World - Characters - Wereboar - #33

Wereboar


After his painful encounter with Dudly and Frank at Irving's Dwarfburger stand the Wereboar is looking for some payback with permanent ramifications for the trolls. Tracking them down in the woods he made certain to bring along a torch and some companions as backup. He decides to go after Frank who has fallen in a deep part of the stream and is ready to make some Trollburgers of his own.



Sunday, December 7, 2014

Beyond the Forest of the Dead - Part 1



The Forest of the Dead has no trees except for the bones of man and beast twisted and woven into ivory parodies of bark and branch; the roots covered with brown and withered leaves shaped from flayed skin, the flesh dry and crackling to the touch. Small cages made from fingers and ribs hang from these branches and hold trapped glowing moths whose wings are sharp as razors and whose voices sing of their longing to be free.

A stale and slightly putrid wind blows gently through the forest rocking the cages and sending shadows of the once living to dance among the bone trees. Beneath the leaves of flesh crawl monstrous slugs, wide mouthed and ever hungry. They raise a wake of crackling leaves as they hunch and crawl across the beslimed ground. Footing is treacherous within the forest and bare patches of earth are black and oily from which only a wormlike pale grass grows.

I entered the forest with great reluctance, on foot as my horse would not cross the boundary of the ash-hills to the East of the city; its eyes were rolling, mad with terror, and froth and blood covered its muzzle till it seized the bit and wildly bucked till I turned its head back toward the West and the abode of man. I could not, myself, return, and so I dropped from my saddle and grabbed pack, and bedroll, and sheathed sword and let my mount go, which it did with a frightened whinny and a startled gallop. I watched it disappear along the trail that cut through hills of grey-black ash and dark slabs of broken rock that separated the city of Ang from the utterly evil land before me.

The forest did not stretch far, or so I had been told, though few would speak of this place or lands beyond and fewer still knew even rumors of what might be encountered or any hope past Hellish death that a traveler might have in such a journey. There was little choice and the death promised me by the Sorceror-Priests of Ang was grim enough to make even the sight and rotting corpse-smell of the forest preferable.

It was still hours before noon. I had fled the city of Ang before the rising of the sun. The walls have gateways but no gates and no soldiers to guard them for darker things that even the cruelty of man cannot match in their wickedness have been called forth by the Sorceror -Priests to protect their Temple-Palace and the walls of their unholy city.

My business in Ang was complete. I had drawn the red brush of revenge across those who thought themselves inviolate and now must I pay the price. I looked at the bone trees and the leaves of flesh, the glowing cages whose sickly greenish luminescence was muted by the bright sun and heard the sweet and sorrowful voices of the moths, hugely swollen and strangely human-like with small arms that clutched at the bars of their ivory cages. I looked away; the glowing moth's freedom meant the blood of man and the stories of their ingratitude are some of the most prominent tales that I have collected.

I walked among the trees of bone with my sword drawn and a torch fashioned from the thigh of some beast I had hewed from the outer edge of the forest. What steel might not stop perhaps fire might and I had no other weapons except the strength of my arm and the determination to live or meet death no alone.


End Part 1  

Friday, December 5, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Goblins #33



Wormy's World - Characters - Goblins #33

Goblin


One of the Goblin survivors from Irving's Dwarfburger stand as so many exploded after Wormy jumped on them from the cliff above the entrance to his lair. He has joined the Wereboar and Wererat to exact some revenge on Frank and Dudly who provided security for the Dwarfburger stand. He just wasn't quick enough to avoid Dudly's astoundingly effective mallet.





Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Wormy's World - Characters - Frank #33



Wormy's World - Characters - Frank #33

Frank


Frank spots the Wereboar and gang from Irving's Dwarfburger stand following them through the woods with torches (not a good sign for a pair of trolls) and urges Dudly to break the snookerball and release the demon, but Dudly isn't having any of that and the two make a dash for the nearby stream. While the Goblin and Wererat go after Dudly the Wereboar goes after Frank. Unfortunately Frank steps into the deep end of the pool with the Wereboar right behind him swinging his torch. Frank begins to come up for air to face the Wereboar who is still angry about the Dwarfburger incident.