The Slumbering Castle Devlog 1

Half a century ago a king ruled here - The ruler of a very small but ancient domain.  The king had a princeling son, and a court bard, and a retinue of servants and vassals.  He ruled from a castle which had grown out from its ancient foundation.

The castle and the town it stands over is a ruin.  Heavy mists shroud the entire place.  The stones are overgrown with thorn and flower.  And beneath the fog and bramble, resting without end in their stations, are the sleepers.  The names of the castle, its monarch and princeling are all gone - stricken from all record and memory by invocation.  

 

Every so often, usually in the springtime, a group will venture into the castle looking for treasure unguarded by the sleeping sentries, unwanted by the nobles and courtesans in their pleasant dreams.  Most of these folk never return.  

In a nearby town, rules a regent.  Folk from the town don't trust coin taken from the castle.  They will say it's cursed.  But further afield, no one knows or cares of such things.  The layered curses of the castle don't go further than the bramble forest after all.  

So new folk who hear the rumors will come as they have before.

Trina Schart Hyman

This is the Slumbering Castle. This is perhaps my favorite adventure location/dungeon idea I've ever had. Through a series of posts I plan to document my process for completing this adventure and reveal some of its secrets.

Current Inspirations
Sleeping Beauty
The City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky - This is the clearest inspiration for how I want this to run and where I got the ideas from outside of the original fairy tale. In this book there is a place in the city that is quarantined with powerful magical runes to prevent a curse within from spreading to the rest of the world. The cursed district was once the wealthiest ward of the city and is filled with treasures, so foolish individuals sometimes go there looking for magical artifacts and treasure to be sold. The longer you stay, the more pull you feel towards joining in a mythical endless feast, the more urge you feel to dance to imaginary music and eat invisible food. I can't really describe it in a way that does it justice but I'd highly recommend the book.
Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian - I've never had the chance to play any of these games but I love them visually. The emptiness and beauty of ruined places are aspects I want to capture in The Slumbering Castle.

The Dolorous Chapel Bell

John Dickson Batten

An old ruinous chapel, several miles from the nearest civilized folk.  The stone brick walls are covered in moss and ivy.  At midnight the chapel bell tolls of its own accord.  All who hear the bell may only speak in truths for the next day.  Oaths made under the tolling bell are unbreakable.

A graveyard of unmarked graves is surrounded by a low stone wall nearby.  A black dog (2-in-6 chance of being asleep) can be found here at all times and bites any it sees who enter the area.

The wooden door to the chapel is battered open.  Light seeps through ivy covered windows and holes in the roof.  The nave is littered with fallen debris from above.  Hidden beneath a broken pew is a leather tome bookmarked with a wilted rose.  The book is filled with blasphemous notes on summoning, including the true name of a demon.  Behind the altar is a set of chains and manacles staked between stone bricks and a leather bag filled with moldy bread and wolfsbane.  The stones around the altar have heavy long scratches as if the altar has been slid across them many times.

Beneath the altar is a rotting trap door leading 10 feet down to a stone crypt.  The crypt is a long thin passageway lined with grave niches.  The niches are filled with saintly relics and bones.  The floor is covered in ruined things, the nests of rats (1D4 Rat Swarms), and the bone filled armor of a long dead knight¹.  

 

At the far end of the crypt is a large sealed burial chamber.  Within are the bones of a dragon.

¹ the black dog will not stop any from burying the knight in the graveyard.

Running Downtime using Seasonal Phases

 

Warwick Goble

Seasons have 4 Seasonal Actions each representing about 3 weeks.  At the end of each Season, during the Seasonal Phase, you perform Seasonal Actions.  The number of Seasonal Actions taken is reduced for every 3 weeks (rounding up) spent traveling or adventuring.  Seasonal Actions can be anything from training (learning techniques, increasing skills), to research, to spreading rumors to working jobs.  

During the Seasonal Phase characters may also change alignment, and attributes.  When a player wants to increase attributes they must select two attributes and select one to be "reinforced" for each attribute starting with the reinforced one they roll a 1D6, on a roll of 5,6 they increase the attribute by one, on a roll of 3,4 the attribute remains the same, on a roll of 1,2 the attribute decreases by 1.  The reinforced attribute cannot decrease.

During the Winter Seasonal Phase, 5 Seasonal Turns are taken instead of 4.

The Classical Elements as Alignment

Each creature has an alignment.  This alignment is their relationship to the four elements.  The alignment of a mortal can shift over time by spending a long period in proximity to a certain element or radical shifts in personal ideals.

The Four Elements are as follows:
Water (Phlegmatic) Values: Transforming, Collecting, Reflecting
Earth (Melancholic) Values: Enduring, Remembering, Providing
Fire (Coleric) Values: Destroying, Illuminating, Dancing
Air (Sanguine) Values: Escaping, Animating, Sending

Alignment is described by four points distributed between the four elements (elements vary from 0-4.)  Elementals have all 4 points in their native element.  Worshippers of a deity tend to have at least 3 overlapping points with their deity and clerics tend to have 4.

Alignment notation is: water-earth-fire-air
(e.g. Oceanus' Alignment: 4-0-0-0)

Alignment Examples:
Dryad: 2-2-0-0
Dragon: 0-1-2-1
Unicorn: 1-1-1-1
Troll: 1-0-1-2
Shade: 1-0-0-3
Hill Giant: 1-2-1-0
Basilisk: 2-1-1-0
Dwarf: 0-3-1-0
Chimera: 0-0-3-1
Centaur: 0-2-0-2
Knight: 0-1-2-1
Tempestarius: 2-0-0-2
Mercenary: 1-1-2-0

The Green Knight in Fire Tales

I am running an arthurian campaign using Fire Tales right now.  This version of the Green Knight is a faye knight and spirit who tests warriors.

Artist Unknown

The Green Knight

Medium Otherworlder

Health: 28                                                 Stamina: 23 
Protection: 4 (Plate)                                 Speed: 30ft

STR: +5    DEX:  0    CON: +3    INT: +1    WIS: +2    CHA: -1 

Initiative: +2
Saving Throws - Will: +1    Form: +2    Luck: +6
Attacks: Longaxe (D12 + 5 Slashing)
Traits: Undying - The Green Knight cannot be slain through normal means and continuously regenerates 3 health per round.
Green Magick - The Green Knight can use magic to control plants and communicate with animals.
Skills: Brawling, Empathy 

The Green Knight may be invoked as a spirit by those who know his true name.  His alignment is Neutral and his domains are fairness and warriors.

Omens from the Spirits

In Fire Tales, the See Omens technique allows characters to notice and interpret omens sent by gods and spirits. This is not an innate or magical ability, like spellcasting, but an ability received through training and experience. Many capable seers have neither the Sight nor the Gift. These are some omens which could be sent from spirits to one capable of interpreting omens:

From Eteilla's Tarot, engraved by Pierre-François Basan

A flock of strange birds flying in a strange shape.

A pattern in the web of a spider.

An inauspicious plant growing by the side of a path.

A shape in the tea leaves.

A shadow from the clouds.

An arrangement of lightning.

A collection of fallen leaves in the summertime.

A figure seen for a brief moment in a dancing flame.

Omens may tell of danger, treachery, peace, or death. They are almost always vague in that they can only be described by a single word (Omen of ____.)

Not every passing shadow or patch of spilled grain contains an omen. Omens are freely given by friendly spirits to mortals. Because of this they are also not a direct portent into the future but a piece of information or emotion from a more informed being.

The Greek Magical Papyri as an RPG Magic System

I rediscovered the Greek Magical Papyri when creating the magic systems for Fire Tales, while specifically looking for historical magic systems.  What I found here was somewhat influential on a game design pillar I am calling "Magical Magic."

Many of these spells are fairly minimal in their impact (Spells for winning at gambling games, relieving headaches) but you do have some RPG classics like invisibility spells, protection spells, etc.  

Is the Greek Magical Papyri a gameable magic system for a tabletop roleplaying game?  Yes and no.  I believe a useable magic system could be made from some of the spells[1], but I also believe many of the spells would need to be excluded for various reasons[2].  

Below I've copied some of my favorite spells from the text.  (Please note that there is a ton of extremely triggering/unethical and bizarre spells in these texts.  The ones I picked out to show here tend to be among the more interesting[3][4] as well as the least problematic.  If you do seek out the rest of the text be aware of this.)

Favor and victory charm: Take a blood-eating gecko that has been found among the tombs and grasp its right front foot and cut it off with a reed, allowing the gecko to return to its own hole alive. Fasten the foot of the creature to the fold of your garment and wear it. 

Adapting this spell:  This spell allows 1 reroll and then becomes inert.

For migraine headache: Take oil in your hands and utter the spell  "Zeus sowed a grape seed: it parts the soil; he does not sow it; it does not sprout."

Adapting this spell: This spell has no mechanical benefit except when it makes sense.

Against every wild animal, aquatic creature and robbers: Attach a tassel to your garment and say: "LOMA ZATH AION ACHTHASE MA . . . ZAL BALAMAON EIEOY, protect me, NN, in the present hour; immediately, immediately; quickly, quickly."

Adapting this spell: This spell provides some bonus to protection/AC for a single hour. 

A means to learn from a die whether a man is alive or has died:
Make the inquirer throw this die in the [above] bowl. Let him fill this with water.
Add to the [cast of the] die 612, which is [the numerical value of] the name
of god, i.e., "Zeus," and subtract from the sum 353, which is [the numerical value of] "Hermes." If then the number [remaining] be found divisible by two, he lives;
if not, death has [him].

Adapting this spell: This spell could easily function exactly as it describes. 

Indispensable invisibility spell: Take fat or an eye of a nightowl and a bail of dung rolled by a beetle and oil of an unripe olive and grind them all together until smooth, and smear your whole body with it and say to Helios: “I adjure you by your great name, BORKE PHOIOUR IO ZIZIA APARXEOUCH THYTHE LAILAM AAAAAA IIIII OOOO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO NAUNAX AI AI AEO AEO EAO” and moisten it and say in addition: “Make me invisible, lord Helios, AEO OAE EIE EAO, in the presence of any man until sunset, IO IO O PHRIXRIZO EOA.”

Adapting this spell: This spell also functions as described and makes you invisible until the next sunset. 

Request for a dream oracle: Take a strip of clean linen and write on it the following name. / Roll it up to make a wick, pour pure olive oil over it and light it. The formula to be written is this: “HARMIOUTH LAILAM CHOOUCH ARSENOPHRE PHREU PHTHA HARCHENTECHTHA.”  In the evening then, when you are about to go to sleep, being pure in every respect, do this: Go to the lamp, say 7 times the following formula, extinguish the light / and go to sleep.  The formula to be spoken is as follows: “SACHMOUNE PAEMALIGOTEREENCH, the one who shakes, who thunders, who has swallowed the serpent, surrounds the moon, and hour by hour raises the disk of the sun, 'CHTHETHONI' is your name. I ask you, lords of the gods, SETH CHREPS: reveal to me concerning the things I wish.”

Adapting this spell: This spell allows you to ask 1 question of Set which is answered via dream-vision. 

To win at dice: “THERTHENITHOR DYAGOTHERE THERTHENITHOR SYAPOTHEREUO KODOCHOR make me a winner at dice, / O prevailing Adriel.” Into your hand say: “Let not even one person be equal to me, for I am THERTHENITHOR EROTHORTHIN DOLOTHOR, and I am going to throw what I want.” And say this repeatedly, and then throw.  Another way you must say the formula is: “Let not even one of these playing with me be equal, and I am going to throw what I want.”  

Adapting this spell: This spell gives you a 50% chance to automatically win at dice games, but must be cast every time.

There is a very blurry boundary between many of these spells and prayers.  The voces magicae can often be assumed to be invocations of a "true" or "secret" name of specific deities allowing the invoker to channel some of their divinity.  This is often paired with some ritual involving materials that relate to the request being made.  This is part of what inspired the Invocation system to exist as it does in Fire Tales.  

[1]And doing so would make an interesting thought experiment at least
[2]redundant spells, spells that are complex in a way that doesn't translate well to tabletop, spells that are very unethical in their aims or method of casting
[3]At least from a game design perspective
[4]I also focused primarily on spells that were short enough to function well in an RPG

Magic Systems Somewhat Reminiscent of This:

Wolves Upon the Coast - Magic Outside of Levels 

Beyond the Wall

Kill Clerics, Become Warlocks