Swords Against Madness

Episode 1: The Sorceress and the Squid

Miria, a smuggler awakes next to her sinking starship on a strange world, alone, with holes in her memories, and only the clothes on her back and her wrist computer. If she’s going to survive, she is going to need to find a way past the strange alien cephalopods circling her vessel like hungry sharks… Episode 1 of the podcast introduces us to Miria at level 1, and has her survive the crash of her starship the Empyreal’s Coin. We encounter a monster called the Psi-squid, and eventually meet Teo helpful characters: Olan and Rayya, who believe Miria is there to fulfill a prophecy, something she partially verifies with the ancient Trassi incantation “Bah wheep graghna wheep ni ni bong“. We also get a glimpse of a potential enemy known only as The Master.

Episode 2: Burn

Miria awakens in a hut at the edge of the ruined village, covered in blisters, and discoveres that she may well be living on borrowed time, and so is the A.I. on her ship, The Empyreal’s Coin. As a madman plots her death, she stands before the council of the village to tell them a terrible truth about their beliefs… In this Episode, we establish some custom rules for radiation poisoning, and give Miria the strongest possible incentive to see her escape this planet. Her vessel’s AI might be able to help, except it only has 16 minutes of operational tiem remaining. Olan and Rayya become her reluctant guardians, and the Mysterious “Master” awakens the Gorum to slay Miria before she interferes with his machinations. The Gorum Hit Dice: 1+2 Armor Class: 5 Attack: weapon (1d6) Saving Throw: 18 (special) Special: Immortality, Resilience Move: 12 Alignment: Chaotic Morale: 10 Int: 6 No. Appearing: 1d12 Challenge Level / XP: 3 / 60 Brutal and vicious, the Gorum are members of an immortal legion created for an interstellar war. They were found too uncontrollable, and often too stupid to be useful, and were banished to prisons across the cosmos. No matter how many times one is cut down, unless their brain is destroyed by a directed magical attack, they will always return to life in 1d6 turns, often more hideously scarred and insane. If they are left bored, hungry, or thirsty for too long they enter into a state of suspended animation that breaks when the opportunity to sate their appetites presents itself. The Gorum always roll twice for every saving throw and take the better result. They are not affected by poison or any effect that causes instant death. Additional Credits I am extremely blessed to have Simon Williams, creator of the epic solo RPG / Storytelling podcast Legend of the Bones as Empyreal.

Episode 3: The Dagger

Rayya, Olan, and Miria set out to acquire a magic dagger from a local miser to use against the immortal space barbarians known as the Gorum. This drags Miria into the religious cold war that runs through the Island’s culture. This episode includes a brief battle using the deadly and fast grappling rules from Swords & Wizardry, and I opt to use the more granular B/X Morale Rules. Much of this episode is dedicated to exploring the nuances of the Island’s culture as produced by consulting the Mythic GM Emulator. NPC VIllain: Kalmek: HD 2; AC 9 [10]; Atk: Shillelagh (1d6); MV: 12″; AL: C; ML: 7; CL/XP: 2/30; Str 12 Int 11 Wis 8 Dex 10 Con 11 Cha 8 Kalmek is a local miser who has lived off of his Grandfather’s adventuring loot for decades. He thinks himself better than the Islanders and derives all self-worth from his influence in The Church and the legacy that has let him live in luxury.

Episode 4: The Grim Work

Miria finishes the task of slaying the Gorum, and struggles with the guilt of destroying helpless foes. As she struggles with her thoughts she makes a bond with a psisquid, and is then interrupted by a call from an old enemy. In this episode we discuss the use of alignment in OD&D and Swords & Wizardry and why it matters. We also continue to feature the Gorum, shared in the Bestiary section of the SvM homepage. Discussing Alignment In segment 2 of the episode, I discuss Alignment including how it was used in AD&D.. I mentioned my casual retroclone project Ruins & Redcaps, and reproducing (and re-arranging) the rules of AD&D using modern information design in a way reminiscent of Old School Essentials. Here is a downloable excerpt on Alignment from Ruins & Redcaps. For purposes of a campaign with only a Law-Neutrality-Chaos axis this can be expressed as a linear scale from 6 to -6 using row 0 of the Alignment table. In any case, I don’t want Miria, Rayya, & Olan to slip too close to Chaos, but after this, Miria is definitely sitting somewhere around -1.5. Yanghu Yanghu is a smuggler captain of the Trassi Syndicate and former business partner of Miria’s. He is the one who shot her down, but she can’t remember why. Yanghu is a cruel Ogre Magus who loves to gloat. Yanghu: HD: 5+4 (44hp); AC: 4 [15]; Att: portable laser cannon (4d8) or boarding sword (d12); SV: 12; Special: Magic use (See below), regenerate 1hp/round; MV: 12/18 (flying); AL: Chaos; CL/XP: 7/600 Magic Use: Yanghu can fly, turn invisible (per the spell), create a 10-foot-radius circle of magical darkness, change into human form, cast sleep and charm person once per day, and cast a Cone of Frost with a range of 60 feet to a base of 30 feet, causing 8d6 damage to any caught within (saving throw applies). Map of Nar I’ve drawn a map of Nar for an upcoming Hex Crawl! Each hex is about 6 miles, but the terrain is mostly hilly jungle. I’ve marked a few locations with images: 0903 is the location of the Village of Nar and the Church. 0602 contains the Cloister of the Order of Stars. 0402 includes the Pit of the Gorum. 0401 includes the local Volcano, Guluke, and the secret Shrine of the All-Knowing. The wreck of Empyreal’s Coin is just to the South of the peninsula 0405 (not shown, as I have to import a sunken flying saucer into CC3+). Random Encounter Tables Here are my Hot Springs Island inspired random encounter tables:

Episode 5: Heresy

Rayya, Olan, & Miria fight for their life against giant centipedes, we learn about Rayya’s history with the church, the PCs are stalked by a man with a grudge, and find their way barred by an enemy who declares Miria and all she stands for Heresy. This episode features a new NPC villain that I rolled up using the same character statistics as a Player Character. Mormont Mormont is an apostate from the Order of Stars: he has learned and seen too much of the Truth of the Trassi Syndicate, observed too much greed an Hypocrisy in the Aldean Church, seen too much selfishness in the Cult of the Master to believe in much of anything other than himself. He will happily sow Chaos and Discord for any faction against any faction if the price is right… and if he can serve his own agenda, all the better. Mormont: HD: 4d4 (11hp); AC: 9 [10]; Att: dagger (d4); SV: 12; Special: Magic use (See below); MV: 12; AL: Chaos; CL/XP: 6/300; Abilities: Str 8 Int 14 Wis 14 Dex 12 Con 12 Cha 13 Magic Use: Mormont is a 4th level Magic-User, who has the following spells in his spellbook: 1st Level: charm person, detect magic, protection from evil, read languages, read magic; 2nd level: invisibility, knock, mirror image; Gear: amulet (worth 103gp), backpack, dagger, spellbook, staff