Mnemovore Worms and Phantasmal Plants

In the year 1837, a short paper was read by me before the Geological Society of London, “On the Formation of Mould,” in which it was shown that small fragments of burnt marl, cinders, &c., which had been thickly strewed over the surface of several meadows, were found after a few years lying at the depth of some inches beneath the turf, but still forming a layer.  This apparent sinking of superficial bodies is due, as was first suggested to me by Mr. Wedgwood of Maer Hall in Staffordshire, to the large quantity of fine earth continually brought up to the surface by worms in the form of castings.  These castings are sooner or later spread out and cover up any object left on the surface.  I was thus led to conclude that all the vegetable mould over the whole country has passed many times through, and will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms.  Hence the term “animal mould” would be in some respects more appropriate than that commonly used of “vegetable mould.”

-Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, 1881

 

The world of the jinn is like a translucent layer atop mortal reality, where those made of smokeless fire and other spirits are always unhidden. But, if one with eyes unclouded were to peer into this layer, in addition to the monstrous forms of shimmering spirits, they would see something else: a thin and somewhat mushy layer of what looks like softly glowing dirt. A field of this substance, spirit dirt or memory mold, blankets the world of the jinn, a thin layer even abounding on human architecture and statuary, and on the shoulders of those who bathe (either with water or sand) very infrequently. This humus (not hummus!!) is the product of one of the perhaps most humble subjects of the realm of spirits, the mnemovore worm.

 

Mnemovore Worm

Number Encountered: 2d4 OR 1 swarm

Hit Dice: 1 hit point OR 1+1 HD for a swarm
Attacks: 1 mental bore OR 6 mental bores (when in a swarm) (see below)

Armor: none

Morale: 4 

Mental Bore: Mnemovore worms leap up from the spirit dirt and pass straight through their victim's skull in search of their quarry: memories. The target must save vs. wands or forget something, determined at random:

Roll 1d12:

1. A memory from their youth. 
2. An event from a month previous.
3. An event from a week previous.
4. An event from the day previous.
5. An NPC the party has worked with (this can include hirelings).
6. How to exit the dungeon or how to find their way back home.
7. How to use one of their weapons (disadvantage on to-hit rolls, removed after familiarity returns 1d6 attacks with the weapon later).
8. Ability with a skill or power other than spellcasting (disadvantage on rolls with said skill, removed after familiarity returns 1d10 attempts later).
9. 1 prepared spell (they don't forget the spell completely, they just no longer have it prepared that day; if a non-spellcaster, re-roll).
10. Knowledge of 1 spell entirely (would have to seek out a teacher to re-learn the spell; if a non-spellcaster, re-roll).
11. Ability with a language (bumped down from fluency (if they could write the language, they lose that completely); if rolled a second time (3rd if they could read and write), they no longer speak that language).
12. An aspect of their personality (re-roll INT, WIS, or CHA, determined at random). 

Psychic Attraction: Mnemovore worms are attracted to magic-users, especially higher-level magic-users, as well as charismatic leaders. If a character has 15+ CHA or 3+ spells memorized, roll 1 die size higher on the wandering monster table (so d8 instead of d6, etc.); any results above 6 will be encounters with mnemovore worms. If a character has 6+ spells memorized, roll 2 die sizes higher (so d10 instead of d6, etc.).

Spirit: As spirits, mnemovore worms are immune to damage from mundane weapons. They take damage from magic, heated up silver weapons, intelligent swords, and the attacks of jinn. They can pass through clothing, armor, and flesh as if it wasn't even there, but cannot pass through walls. They can only be seen by jinn or by those with eyes unclouded.

 

Mnemovore worms are a crucial part of the spiritual-magical-mental ecosystem. They are the primary cause for forgetfulness, saving human brains from being overloaded with too much information. And, though humble and small, these little worms are one of the things keeping wizards in check. There are more than a few stories of sorcerer-tyrants from ages past steaming themselves to death in specially constructed silver contraptions heated with boiling water in order to keep the mnemovores out.

 

Memories enter a mnemovore worm through the mouth, and exit as spirit dirt. This memory-based mass serves as the fertile ground for all sorts of phantasmal plants which populate the realm of the jinn. While jinn generally (hehe, jinnerally) eat the same grains and meats that humans do (albeit generally restricted only to what is left over uneaten by humankind), they supplement their diets with such spectral produce. Phantasmal plants are also used by the jinn as medicine, and a gift of ghost-root or invisible leaf (or even the intel to know where a copse of such plants grows) is a reward a jinn may give to an ally, friend, or master.

 

A selection of phantasmal plants from below: a fishroot, a crawling scaletree, some grasping fragrances, some thief's eyes, and a wilting faint

 

1d12 Phantasmal Plants

1. Crawling Scaletree: A race of ancient antediluvian tree with bark like reptile's scales and thin needles on its branches. Ever since going extinct their ghostly forms crawl across the spirit-dirt aimlessly. 
2. Fishroot: From the surface of the memory mold, appears as a mass of long pale fronds, but when uprooted, its wriggling eyeless fish form is revealed. The fronds can be eaten to cure stomach ailments, despite its astringent bitter taste. The fish-like root has a fatty liver that can be rubbed on weapons to make them temporarily phase between worlds. 
3. Ghost Ginkgo: Strangely enough, ginkgo trees span the divide between worlds. Their foul-smelling fruits have no uses, but their seeds and leaves can cure lung and kidney illness. These eastern trees are only known over here in the menageries of sorcerers and nobles. 
4. Ghostgrass: Tall stretches of softly glowing pale green grass, gently swaying in the nonexistent breeze. Causes mysterious feelings of cold when passed through, whether one can see the grass or not. 
5. Grasping Fragrance: Sprouting directly out of the spirit dirt, grasping fragrances reach for those who pass, hoping to attach onto them and spread their fragrance (the means by which they reproduce) far and wide. Smelling the wrist of a grasping fragrance cures paralysis. 
6. Hedgehog Herb: Only visible in the realm of men and beasts during the full moon, and very few even know what it looks like then. When its leaves are rubbed on metal locks, it corrodes them.
7. Pillarwife: About five-foot tall pale trunks that ooze a salty sap when cut. Very confused deer and goats gather around the sites of phantasmal pillarwives without being able to find where the salt lick actually is. 
8. Prickly Marid: A rebellious plant that does anything it can to not be cut, squirming out of the way of blades. Its stalks can be brewed into a tea: drinking it causes blindness, while pouring it on petrified flesh un-petrifies it (and the reverse for un-petrified flesh). 
9. Sprouting Id: A thorny bush with a single bright red flower at its apex. When picked and made into a tea, it brings out the worst, most base aspect in the drinker. 
10. Thief's Eyes: A plant that spans the jinn's world and the world of men and beasts, with eyes clouded it appears as thin stalks tipped by eye-shaped berries, while in the spirit world these eyes are surrounded by ghostly ghoulish faces. When eaten causes hidden gold to glow in one's vision for 1 hour. 
11. Vengeful Father: A sprouting bush that superficially looks like a laid-out dead body. It produces juicy brightly-colored fruit, sweet-smelling and sweet-tasting, that (when the skin is broken) painfully lash out with knife-sharp edges of its inside flesh. 
12. Wilting Faint: Its petals form a vaguely humanoid outline, one arm held across the "forehead" as if fainting. If eaten, induces fainting, but its scent breaks fevers.

-------------

It took everything in my power to not call them ectoplasmic worms a la Noroi or Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi (check those out if you're at all interested in Japanese horror films, Koji Shiraishi is the GOAT). While the above is written with King of Kings in mind, I intend on incorporating the mnemovore worms into other game settings, namely Gamma Ohio or modern horror like the short mini-campaign using Underneath that I made one post about a couple years back. I really gotta get around to cleaning up my notes from that campaign and putting them up here, modern horror TTRPGs is something I'd like to do more with! Anywho, keep your heated silver ready if you've got a lot of thoughts bangin' around up there, and see you next time!

Inhabitants of the World (Peoples of King of Kings)

I puzzled over what to title this post for a good while, mostly because I don't want to use the clumsy language of "races" that D&D stuff has been stuck with for a while, but inversely trying to puzzle out what the name for a broad group of people groups was really difficult and I didn't really want to use super scientific terms like "species", "genus", or "family". I think the incredibly vague and unhelpful word "inhabitants" does the closest thing to justice to the topic of this post, so it's what I went with.

So yeah, this is a setting post for King of Kings about the intelligent inhabitants of the world! It is more of a semi "world bible" of sorts, rather than an in universe statement of lore; the creatures and characters described in this post, and the categories into which they are placed in, are more for my benefit to define what sorts of creatures I use in the world rather than pure world building. I'm personally not a huge fan of the intense taxonomical drive that is present in a lot of D&D stuff, which you can read a very interesting and good post about here, from the wonderful Zedeck Siew. Obviously I am still putting things into categories in this post, but I'm aiming for relatively vague and general categories defined more by connections to fictional cosmology and myth than by how D&D races work, taking cues more from groups of spirits and creatures from real world myth and folklore. So there is still a taxonomic impulse, guilty as charged in that regard, but for King of Kings I want to keep taxonomy as light as possible, and instead emphasize geographic location, familial ties, or political/religious allegiance. If I ever make a KoK book in the future, I'd lean more in that direction for that more "official" presentation, but this post isn't the final official presentation, its basically just a collection of notes put together here for my sake and for anyone who wants to read about my setting.

Maybe that rant was unwarranted, I don't know, I just think about this stuff a lot!

Without further ado!

A person, on a rug

Humans/People

I think I would hope that everyone reading this post knows what these are. While King of Kings takes its cues from the world of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, fundamentally people back then were still just people! Humans are the main inhabitant of the world, living just about everywhere, forming tribes and nations and polities together, etc. etc. Not all humans are visually identical, however, and this is where KoK leans into ancient and medieval conceptions. People groups that would appear at first to be very different from humanity, such as dog headed men, amazons, men of the deluge, and the mouthless astomi, are all still human no matter their, from the perspective of people in the Enlightened Empire, strange customs and appearances. Here I'm trying to lean into ideas of the "monstrous races" from Ancient Greek natural histories and travelogues from Greece, Rome, and the Christian and Muslim Middle Ages. There's a really good book that I'd recommend about this topic that provides a detailed listing of such peoples from ancient and medieval sources, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. I find this topic super interesting, honestly kind of deserving of its own post, obviously of even more than a post because its a historical topic that has garnered plenty of attention in like, book length works and such. These ancient and medieval conceptions of people from faraway lands being monstrous are something to be careful about though because they're, yknow, tangential to and prefacing racism that developed in the modern period & etc. I find them to be a very fascinating and fantastical element of how real premodern people perceived their world, and I like using them as inspiration for KoK, as a basis to then provide some real depth and complexity onto, but just as with anything else really it's good to try and be mindful and whatnot.

Also people

But yeah uh, other than humans like the dog headed men and amazons, there are also humans that are closer to real world ancient human cultures. City dwelling Shahanistanis, rural farmers, nomadic pastoralists or raiding warriors, etc. etc. I'm going to make more posts in the future with more character backgrounds and stuff about different polities in different parts of the world, so there's plenty more to say. But yknow, its just humans.

from the Kitab al-Bulhan

Spirits, including Jinn

Possibly the broadest group mentioned here, spirits encompasses all manner of immaterial and supernatural entities that dwell all across the world of King of Kings. Mischievous kalikantzaroi, morning star worshiping liliths, burgeoning bakhtaks, all manner of ghosts and lingering auras, localized nature gods, and jinn of all sorts, including afarit like Fire Eater, ghuls, marids like the headless bull thing, and the half jinni half human nasnas. Spirits can be basically anything, which is kind of on purpose so that I can encompass all sorts of supernal immaterial entities and atmospheres in here. Jinn are to the world of spirits as humans are to the material world, and so jinn come in just as much staggering variety if not more than people do. They share in all being made from smokeless fire, and have a parallel and often very different society to that of humanity, but are otherwise incredibly diverse. I would never want to try to make any attempt at like, summarizing all spirits or all jinn in a single paragraph, let alone a whole post or book, though I do want to start writing up more spirits for King of Kings for the blog.

For resources that I've taken inspiration from for spirits and jinn in KoK, check out Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert Lebling, Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn by Amira el‐Zein, relevant entries in the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Encyclopaedia Iranica, and of course The Thousand and One Nights. Also I'd be lying if I didn't sometimes just take info from Wikipedia for folkloric creatures, or at least as a starting point. Who doesn't use Wikipedia as a resource these days? It's generally pretty good.

Sea Tyrants, including Amphibians

I've made a post about these before, although I'll definitely return to the topic in the future. The sea tyrants are the primordial once rulers of the world, the ancient despots from when the world was wet and the world was young. They flooded the world in an effort to take control of it in its entirety, but were rebuffed when some among them acted as a sorcerous Prometheus and stole star magic to give to mortals. Ever since then, they have dwelled deep at the bottom of the sea and deep in the depths of the earth, while humanity and the traitors to the sea tyrants thrive on the surface. The sea tyrants who betrayed their brethren and stole magic to give to humanity were the amphibians, namely the froglings, salamen, and elder olms. The froglings live among humans, in their cities and towns, and continue to practice magic and  serve as sailors and merchants, while salamen tend to live out on their own in isolated wilderness and swamp communities, and elder olms serve as a potential friendly faction in delves underground. I have so many ideas for sea tyrant related stuff, so keep an eye out for that in the future.

If you couldn't tell, the main point of reference for these guys is almost entirely Lovecraft stuff, yknow Deep Ones and Cthulhu and the subterranean city of K'nyan from The Mound and all that. Add in aboleths and mind flayers from D&D and other underdark goodies and you've got it. And with regards to the froglings, I can't help but bring up my love for Frog from Chrono Trigger, even if my frog people here don't have That much to do with him. Sure these are some of my most overtly pop culture inspiration creatures but who cares its my setting.

Moses tells the giant Cuj ibn Canaq how to curb an appetite

Giants, or the Children of 'Ajuj and Majuj

Far to the north, in the snowy Land of Darkness, dwell the ancient 'Ajuj and Majuj, twin fathers of monsters. Their offspring form monstrous man-eating lineages that roam the wintry vastnesses, attack human settlements of northern nomads, and on occasion raid down south. The Conquering King, when he took hold of all the world, built a great metal and stone wall with a great looming gate in the mountains on the southern edge of the Land of Darkness, to keep the Children of 'Ajuj and Majuj out. Also, I have an idea for a horizontal megadungeon of sorts which would be the slowly rotting body of a giant that you could dungeon crawl in, I think it'd be super fun and cool.

Like I keep on saying, keep an eye out for more posts about giants, especially since I haven't posted really anything about them so far. With regards to references, check out the Penguin book Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North and certain versions of The Romance of Alexander. King of Kings's giants are another example of taking cues and inspiration from how premodern people perceived people from other parts of the world, similarly to the dog headed men et al. I discussed in the section about people above.

Don't know the source of this one unfortunately

Daevas, or Divs/Dews

Dwelling on the upside down underside of the world, daevas are embodiments of all forms of evil and untruth. They are more than simple unclean spirits, they are the living forms of deceit and lies, and live completely alien and surreal lives on the flat plane of the underside. Some divs are collaborating with the sea tyrants in their efforts to slowly seize the surface world, but most divs are lonesome creatures serving only deceit. Like I keep saying, keep an eye out for more posts about these guys.

Here, the main point of reference is to daevas from Zoroastrianism and, later, the Islamic Persianate div; while the names are super similar, it's an important distinction to make, I think, between these religious/historic references and devas in Hinduism, especially since Zoroastrian daevas are comparable to demons. Just sorta making a note of that. For stuff I've taken inspiration from, the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi which I need to read more of, I haven't actually finished it and Manifestation of Evil in Persian Mythology from the Perspective of Zoroastrian Religion by Elnaz Bakhshayeh and Reza Ebrahimil. Also the Encyclopedia Iranica and Wikipedia again. I wanna do more reading to find good inspiration for these entities.

Skeleboy with some carvings made by the ancient Dinosaur Kings

Dinosaurs

A bit of an outlier for this post, because the dinosaurs are more or less all dead. Once the rulers of the eastern satrapies and other lands before the time of the Conquering King, many of them were killed or forced into hiding once they were defeated by his armies, either by his very soldiers or by their human subjects' retribution. Today, they are little more than carvings on walls and rumors of ancient tombs.

Beasts and Birds

Yknow, animals. I wasn't going to include them in this post because I feel like it's kinda self explanatory that animals exist in the setting, but I figured hey why not I can still say some stuff about some weirdos. Obviously, most beasts and birds are just normal animals, but King of Kings has some unusual creatures, whether they are fictional animals that are still more or less comparable to real world things like the lizardmen herded and bred by the Dinosaur Kings, or intelligent beasts like manticores or pigmen, or birds so beautiful that their plumage inspires awe like the huma, or monotremes like gryphons, owlbears, or the swamp dwelling platypus. Just figured I'd note them.

This is what came up when I googled "byzantine elf". Source

Elves, namely the Gnostic Elves

A last but not least, the newcomers on the scene, the Gnostic Elves. The Gnostic Elves rule an empire directly to the west of the Enlightened Empire, the two neighbors being in a constant slow and grinding war that has been going on for generations. They took over the western archipelago and their portions of the mainland a few centuries ago, having come in from across the sea on pale white boats. They wrap themselves up in full body coverings and often wear masks, and believe that the flesh is sinful and must be destroyed, and that through ascertaining hidden knowledge the material world can be transcended. There are, however, heretic sects of elves who reject that gnosis, most notably the Hedonist Elves who dwell underground in isolated colonies.

I know I sound like a broken record but yeah keep an eye out for more posts about the gnostic elves and about the never-ending war between the gnostic elves and the enlightened empire. The Gnostic Elves have taken a lot of inspiration from a variety of sources: obviously their religion is derived from ancient Gnosticism, while visually and with regards to their role in the fictional world they take cues from the Eastern Roman Empire (for which I really like to refer to The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown and the History and Secret History of Prokopios), and their history of having come here from across the ocean to conquer takes inspiration from the Tarascans/Purépecha of Mexico who have a similar story of coming from across the Pacific, and the Seljuqs who conquered Anatolia from Central Asia.

And that's it! Those eight inhabitants of the world are going to serve more or less as a guide for my world building and adventure location making, and a bit of a taste of some posts to come as I elaborate on some more of these in more detail! Hope you have a lovely day!

King of Kings Session 10 & 11 (10.5?) After Action Report

 Yes, two sessions in one post... or well, perhaps more accurately one session split between two days of play? It got split due to confusion on my part that caused a mixup during the first session. For the purposes of continuing numbering, gonna consider the second one as session 11. Just gonna describe it in one go though, just because it is easier. The events described in this post occurred on August 9th and August 18th.

Dramatis Personae

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon 

Kusa, level one cleric of the exiled and half-dead foreign goddess Nasitu-Neb 

Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, foreign god of the trade routes 

Rohm'Daan, level one cleric dedicated to Anzhalar, a local chthonic god of subterranean flame

also Parsani, scrawny son of a rural matriarch

The group made camp at the edge of the Holy Cedar Forest following the battle with the smoke-billowing headless bull-thing. After some discussion, they decide to call for Fire Eater, their jinn ally in the woodland. They get a fire started, burning some of Rohm'Daan's shiny acorns and some of the ancient silks they had found in an ancient tomb as a sacrifice. Fire Eater, in the form of a slimy black salamander, dashes out of the forest and swallows the flame whole.

They got into asking Fire Eater about what that headless bull-thing was, and they tell them that it was a "poor sort of being", specifically a marid, that only started living there three months priorthat the people who lived there were already gone by the time the bull-thing took residence there, and that there are small creatures that crawl out at night with axes and handsaws to slash at the fields surrounding the abandoned farmstead. When the group mention "that with yawns deep" which they heard about from the oracle back in Temple Town, Fire Eater thinks for a moment and just replies "a hole in the ground." After this, they say goodbye to Fire Eater and discuss what their next course of action will be.

They decide to go back to the ruined farm and investigate some of the collapsed buildings that they didn't look very closely at before. The largest of the buildings collapsed in on itself due to the ramming attack that the marid bull-thing did, so they go to the leftmost of the two smaller buildings still standing. Crawling one after another through a hole in the wall, they find what looks to have been a familial house, with beds strewn about everywhere and children's toys and animal bones on the floor. Manchugo investigates under some of the beds and finds a strange silhouetted form beneath one... which they push out from underneath it using a broom, revealing the desiccated mummified corpse of a child. Their body is intact other than their left hand which is much more destroyed.

Our adventurers take the body and bury it outside, then move on to the next of the pair of buildings. Inside, it is much the same; except for a basement at the back, which they descend down into after investigating the beds for other bodies (none were found). In the lantern light, they see silhouetted humanoid forms hanging from the ceiling, and presume that they are some sort of bat people. Manchugo wonders if they are the former farmers, transformed into bat-oids at some point. They discuss among themselves whether to burn the whole place to the ground, but ultimately decide against it.

After some more deliberation, it is agreed that they will investigate the ruins of the collapsed building and then wait out for the creatures in the basement to come out at night, assuming that they are the beings that Fire Eater mentioned. The big collapsed building seems to have been the house of the farm's matriarch, and they find her skeletonized corpse in the rubble, in what seems like a side room with a bed in it. There, Ishthyromeda finds a lockbox and, after fiddling with it with her knife, she finds a silver necklace, three brass nose rings, and two iron finger rings, all of which she pocketed. There wasn't much else of note in the collapsed building. After this, the five of them took the bones and buried them along with the dried out child corpse outside of the compound's walls.

Then they took to the walls and waited for nightfall... their plan was for Manchugo to throw a lasso around the last of the creatures as it exited the hole in the wall of the house with the basement, in order for them to interrogate it or otherwise figure out what is going on... but this is kind of where it fell apart. You see, in the process of me explaining the creatures crawling out of the abandoned house and Manchugo, Kusa, et al handling their actions during the encounter, I got so confused about what was going on (mostly due to communication problems on my end), and it was getting really late on top of that, that I elected to end the session there and pick up where we left off next time.

BUT THE NEXT TIME IS NOW SO HERE WE GO!!!

So yeah Manchugo had rope and used it to lasso the last of the little critters when it crawled out from the hole in the wall of the building. By this point ten other creatures had crawled out, with four of them remaining within the walls of the compound. Manchugo throws it at the last of the creatures, which now they can see has hirsute goat-like legs and massive ears, but he fails to catch it, misaiming and letting it hit the dusty ground uselessly. However, the creature doesn't notice where the group is, and ends up just running to join its brothers. Manchugo rushes forward and throws the lasso again, and ends up snagging the thing in the rope! He runs and grabs it up in his arms, tying it up with the ropes, before waving to the rest of the group for them to run out of the compound and to the edge of the forest to interrogate it while giving the rest a wide berth. Surprisingly, they are able to dash out of the compound without alerting the others.

Not gonna describe the whole interrogation and whatnot, but basically the players discovered quite a bit! The creature repeatedly told them to "fuck off" and was impervious to threats and torture but was ultimately coerced into helping the players with a gift of an abacus and reassurances that they would return it to its brothers. In the ensuing interrogation/conversation, it identified itself and its brothers as "we who gnaw" and "ka-li-kan-tsa-roi", frantically desperately tried to count the individual strands of the rope it was tied with, was appeased with the aforementioned abacus, described how they and their brothers gnaw at the roots of trees, and described how the farmstead was built by humans but that they had not seen the humans there (i.e. it was not those-who-gnaw nor the bull-marid who killed the peasants). The players decided to call the little creature Higgles.

Locheil wasn't playing in this session but he very graciously drew our lovely little pal :3

After the impromptu interrogation and the abacus deal that they made with Higgles, the group brought the small being back to the compound to return it to its brothers and ask them some questions too. It took some convincing on the part of Higgles to get its brothers to agree to talk with the man-things, but eventually the players asked some questions and those who gnaw asked some in return. Oftentimes those who gnaw would speak in unison or in singsongy chants. They asserted that there was no ruler among them to parlay with and asked the group what they did to make the bull-marid go away (they used what the creatures called "the poison metal what pisses off jinn" of course). In response to the players' questions, they said that all they do is gnaw and cut, describe how before they arrived here there were the "half-men" who were sorrowful and ashy-skinned and who were themselves chased out by wolves, mentioned that those who gnaw cannot smell, and said that they did not kill the owners of the bodies the players found earlier and in fact did not touch them at all when they found them.

Oh and also, when asked about the "that which yawns deep" thing that they heard about from the oracle back in Temple Town, those who gnaw spoke in unison (after a bit of muttering about whether or not to even say it): "big spiral, deep down, full of slime and gunk... a word of warning for the lot of you, a foul nasty funk... beware that which yawns so deep, the hole beneath the earth.... or else in the end you will find your life, in dearth... ancient kings dug down deep, a dismal dark so dreary! do not descend lest you desire naught but death and diadems of pale bony stone..." if you can't tell this was improvised during the game

After this, the group decided that they were much too tired, starving, and beaten up to continue pushing on, at least for now. They return to Tabur via the northern gate at the Tigerskin Quarter, where Kusa's connections got them into the city without having to pay an exorbitant tariff.

Treasure Acquired

1 Silver Necklace

3 Brass Nose Rings

2 Iron Finger Rings

Non-Treasure XP Acquired

Burying Abandoned Bodies (12 XP each before Prime Requisites)

Capturing Higgles (2 XP each before Prime Requisites; for being the one who lassoed Higgles, Manchugo gets 6 XP before PR)
Total: 14 XP/18 for Manchugo

Wow! Sorry About That Impromptu Hiatus Guys! Here's Announcements and Two Very Very Late Session Reports

 Hello hello hello everyone! I am ever so sorry for taking what basically ended up as a four month break from posting to this blog between late January and early May. This was not at all intentional, and really just came down to me being busy with more schoolwork than I normally have during the school semester and simultaneously taking a break from running King of Kings for the very same reason. I still haven't ran any more sessions of King of Kings since January, but I actually had not one but two sessions that I ended up never writing session after action reports for. There were repeated times in the past four months that I felt like I needed to post the session reports but I could never actually bring myself to do it until now for a litany of reasons, some valid some not as much. 

Another major reason for my lack of posting is that I have just been feeling completely sapped of my creative energy and motivation for quite some time. This mostly started in February, when a video game mod I was on the developer team for (it was for the WW2 grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, and centered on an alternate history scenario that continued another popular mod into the cold war era, also yes of course I'm someone who is into alternate history) began to split and fall apart due to issues caused by a hostile lead developer taking action that alienated other members. The members who left were ones that I greatly respected and looked up to, and while we tried to make things right back then in February, ultimately nothing would come of it and none of the people who left would rejoin. I remained on the project until mid April, but my involvement was steadily declining as I saw the lead developer and her friends dismantle the content that those former developers made, and it just made me feel so awful. On top of that, my work was repeatedly ignored, underappreciated, or changed without my knowledge/consent, and during an incident where the lead developer made a change for something I worked on without me approving it, I left the team. Apologies for this kinda personal ramble, but its just to explain why I haven't really worked on any creative stuff for a while. That project was one of my main creative endeavors for the past two years, and leaving it and seeing it get taken apart very quickly made me feel demoralized, like no creative project I ever work on would ever see completion.

I still don't feel great about it but I'm glad I'm out of there! And now, I hope to get back into the swing of not just posting things to this here blog, but also running King of Kings again!

For a quick glance into the future, I plan on continuing to post KoK content and session reports, but on top of that I want to expand into posting more of my own original dungeons/adventure locations, reviews of independent RPG content (I already have some lined up by a fellow blogger, and down the line I will receive some books I backed on Kickstarter!), and perhaps original fiction as well. 

But with no further ado, I must now perform the ritual which was to be completed so many months ago: regaling to you (albeit in shorter form than I typically utilize), the events of the two unspoken of sessions of King of Kings from January 2021.

King of Kings Session 5 After Action Report

Dramatis Personae

Arugula Chosen, level one itinerant cleric seeking out a god

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon
Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, foreign god of the trade routes
Mithra, level one cleric dedicated to Czehlem, chthonic goddess of wealth, gems, and dyes

In the morning, the four clients of Farzaneh Taburi meet at their patron's house, discussing rumors and talk that they have heard from the surroundings. In addition to rumors they have heard previously, they also mention that a dyeworker girl whispered to Manchugo that the dihqans of the valley sacrifice peasant women to the dragon of the horrible winds at night, while Ishthyromeda mentions a street preacher spoke of the northern dihqans being displeased with lack of productivity on their estates.

After much discussion, the group decides to return to the ancient dinosaur tomb high on the mountain to the southwest, since it is a much safer guarantee of treasure based solely on the knowledge they have at hand. On their way there, they encounter Fire Eater in the guise of an owl, who mentions the deal from the previous session, but they do not act upon it just yet. Instead, they push on to the tomb, although while passing through the holy cedar forest they are almost beset upon by mysterious small green humanoids who cling to the trees and chitter madly. They do not stay to investigate, instead speeding on with their horse drawn cart (a recent acquisition) so as not to be caught by them.

They step past the opening chamber of the tomb and reach the door at the furthest end, a large stone gate held in place by a large stone slab on metal pins. They break the metal pins with their weaponry and use Ishthyromeda's lance and their collective strength to lever the stone slab out of the way. On the other side of the door is a tomb chamber, with a large ancient wooden coffin broken open from having fallen onto the floor, a large skeletal reptilian thing with gemstones for eyes and rusty metal bolted to it bringing itself to its feet. The group proceeds to... well, they repeatedly use turn undead to force the skeletal beast into the corner until it is cowering against the wall and then break it apart systematically until it cannot move, then they remove the gemstones in its eyes. They continue on to the other two wooden sarcophagi in the chamber and do the same to the other two skeletal things, bashing their bones with mace and sword while they cower helplessly. From them they retrieve gems from their eye sockets and ancient motheaten silks from their coffins.

Entering a side chamber, the group see a looming black statue of a large beast, a tall sail upon its back and a long beak-like snout stabbing at the air, its body curled up like a frog upon a stone. Beneath the beast itself, however, the base of the statue has been eroded away by dripping water to reveal a staircase downward. Venturing down the stairs, they find themselves in a long hallway flanked by statues of carnivorous dinosaurs. Manchugo uses his rope as a lasso to grab one of the statues and tear it down, revealing a hidden chamber behind it. They try doing the same on another statue but there is no secret chamber. They investigate the chamber, finding ancient rotted furniture, two immense polearms on the wall, and a small silver icon depicting a king of the dinosaurs. They snatch the polearms and the silver icon and leave. 

They decide not to venture any deeper, and begin to make way for the door to the tomb, grabbing another clay statue of a raptor on the way. They make their way back to Tabur under the cover of night, although they are confronted by large spiders on the road, which they keep at bay by throwing food to. An argument almost breaks out with the guards at town when they have to pay the tariff, but they hide the clay statue by disguising as a mute and paralyzed person, and ultimately give up both a polearm and a green gem they took from one of the skeletons.

Treasure Acquired (After Tribute)

One dinosaur polearm, half the value of a red gem from the skeleton and half the value of the statue (sales were not done during this session, it will be something handled at the start of the next session)

Non-Treasure XP Acquired

Three dinosaur skeletons (45 XP before Prime Requisite modification)

Kusa's Grand Day Out

Dramatis Personae

Kusa, level one cleric of the exiled and half-dead foreign goddess Nasitu-Neb

At the same time that the above group of four was venturing into the ancient mountain tomb once again, Kusa was venturing into the depths of the holy cedar forest without the rest of them, accompanied only by the jinn Fire Eater. (This session happened after the one described above, but in the game itself was occurring concurrently, with Kusa meeting Fire Eater right after the four adventurers left them). Kusa came upon Fire Eater in the form of a jet black lizard with yellow slit-pupiled eyes, to take their offer of guidance to treasure deep within the holy forest. 

Kusa and Fire Eater embark on a dual spirit-journey and treasure hunting adventure, endeavoring to cross the mountains that divide the forest in two to reach an ancient site in the inner valley. They come upon two bird-eating tarantulas, which Fire Eater explains give them a wide berth because the beasts of the eastern portion of the forest respect them as their protector. They note that the beasts of the inner forest are... rather more impetuous. Venturing onward, they come upon a small clearing in a passageway between two large hills, where the pair encounter twelve lumpy green mosslings, little humanoid things made of plant matter. A haggard and wet old mossling greets them, and expresses gratitude for Kusa's role in extricating the fire-loving lizardmen from the forest recently, asking only for a tribute before they allow her passage into the deeper forest. She is asked to pledge the first thing she makes upon returning home to the mosslings, a request which she grants.

Stepping into the woodland valley past the mossling gate, Fire Eater offers to ferry Kusa to the treasure she seeks. They bring their clawed hand close to the ground, inviting Kusa to stand on their open upward-facing palm. Once standing in place, Fire Eater clambers up a tree trunk without even gripping Kusa, bringing the pair to a clearing dominated by a large circle of ancient standing stones, all carved with images of predatory and scavenging beasts.

Fire Eater described the place thus: "this place was a place of honor and of fear, in times long before me... a looming edifice of ancient stories, where the people that lived here long before i was born shuddered beneath the circling vultures and the cloying claws of the valley lions... they knew they were here on the graces of the Guardian of the Forest and of the wild beasts of the valley, and so they gave them their homage... and yet still, the audacity of the last ones who dwelt here put themselves above the beasts they once bowed before in this place... you will find what remains of them, buried in the center of the circle of stones, their narcissism covering their bones with gold."

Kusa asks for Fire Eater's permission to dig here, and they say they care not what they do with the bones. She did not bring a shovel, and so must spend hours digging away at the dirt using only her bare hands and her axe. After several hours a glittering golden femur comes before her eyes. She digs some more, revealing the skeletons of six people, all covered in gold leaf from head to toe and with chunks of gold in their eye sockets. Kusa removes the gold from one socket on each skull, telling Fire Eater that she has done so "So they will still see what their audacity brought them."

Fire Eater replies "these six forgotten traitors shall be left with their vision by your charitable hands... a truer reflection of who you are was never seen... and it is truly a beauteous one."

With her pockets full of gold, Kusa reburies the bones of the audacious ones and climbs back onto Fire Eater's outstretched hand to return the same way they came. She bids farewell to Fire Eater and embarks back to Tabur. Kusa hides the smaller chunks of gold in various folds in her clothing, leaving only the two largest to be seen by the guards at the gate... the guards notice that she is from that exiled people who live on the north of the city, having heard from the northern gate guards about their community. They deign to take only one chunk of gold, whereas normally they would have taken both.

Treasure Acquired (After Tribute and Sales)

One chunk of ancient gold, not sold

Four chunks of ancient gold (320 drachmae, 288 drachmae after the cultic tithe)

Non-Treasure XP Acquired

Discovering the depths of the holy cedar forest (20 XP)

Sorry about how long this post was, I just felt that everything in it had to be done before I could really get back into blogging! Hope you are having a lovely day!

King of Kings Session 4 After Action Report

Dramatis Personae

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon

Kusa, level one cleric of the exiled and half-dead foreign goddess Nasitu-Neb

Rohm'Dann, level one cleric dedicated to Anzhalar, a local chthonic god of subterranean flame

Zana the Charlatan, level one magic-user

There was considerably less downtime action stuff at the start of this session, and in fact nobody did a real downtime action this time! Rohm'Daan and Kusa have been more focused on saving up drachmae to get lots of XP in one big go, and Zana was unable to do a downtime action at the start of the session since he sold those sketches at the end of the previous session. Zana did donate 40 drachmae to Ishthyromeda to try and cover the latter's carousing debts, which netted him 40 XP, but other than that and some stocking up on things like lantern fuel and sticks of incense not a whole lot happened at the start of the session.

After handling restocking and donating, the game got started!

The four adventurers convened on the house of their patron, Farzaneh Taburi, to discuss what they were going to investigate or otherwise pursue. They remembered the rumors of a ghost-haunted farmstead to the north and a farmstead filled with the sounds of digging to the north, and mentioned new things which they had heard: a blacksmith woman shared talk of wails in the northern foothills with Ishthyromeda, while a chthonic priestess mentioned a peace agreement being drawn between the bandits of the forest to the east. Out of a desire to consult with their superior, the group approached Farzaneh, asking her about anything she knows or would want them to pursue. She didn't have anything in particular, but mentioned that she would have to take a more significant cut of any treasure they get due to trade routes to the south being blocked by an upsurge in lizardmen and bandits. A number of the adventurers attributed the expansion of the lizards to Manchugo's destruction of the carvings on the ancient tomb.

With that in mind, the four decided to revisit the abandoned tomb of the dinosaur kings to the southwest, since it has thus far been the most lucrative source of treasure that they have visited. With that in mind, they departed from the city along the paved road to the south, splitting off to follow a footpath leading west. On that very footpath, as they approached the edge of the holy cedar forest, they saw four flitting things high in the sky.

courtesy Locheil

Flying high in the sky were four glorious Huma birds, their twin heads glowing in the late morning sun, their lionesque limbs never alighting upon the ground. The group kept their distance and took the time to draw the birds, with Zana sketching their beautiful visage and Kusa even drawing up sketches of a potential clay oil lamp in the shape of the birds. While watching them, Ishthyromeda describes a creature of her homeland, the wish-granting Calythiop.

Once the huma drawings were done, the group pushed on, reaching the cedar forest in short time. As they delved deeper into the wood, they found the path increasingly strewn with deer bones and other torn carcasses, and upon closer examination they find that the tooth marks closely resemble the teeth of the lizardmen. Kusa lights one of her sticks of incense to cover up the scent of the rotting flesh.

Along the winding forest path, they were approached by an inquisitive jet black jackal. Rohm'Daan threw one of the deer bones that he had picked up earlier, but the jackal did not go to grab it. Ishthyromeda readied a javelin, which caught the jackal's attention and prompted it to stand up on its hind legs, bringing its black snout to roughly face height. After a few moments of fearful confusion on the part of the four adventurers, the jackal smiled a wide human-toothed smile and greeted the travelers, before promptly turning inside out at the mouth to reveal a corpulent bright red humanoid form with three eyes and tusk-filled mouth.

courtesy Kusa's player, who can find over here

courtesy Locheil

The being (an ifrit to be precise) struck up a conversation with the group, revealing their name in the tongue of the people of this land to be Fire Eater. Fire Eater described the present difficulty that they have been contending with: the lizards which were previously nesting at the base of the mountain had expanded into the forest and the valleys (for what reason Fire Eater did not know), and with the rainstorms that had blown into the Dazur valley from the east the lizardmen had acquired a taste for cooked meat, and had been keeping fires first started by lightning strikes. Fire Eater, who has been vested with the protection of the southern reaches of the holy cedar forest by the Guardian of the Forest, wanted to get rid of these fire-loving lizards, but could not because he cannot bring harm upon any beast of the forest. And so, they reached out to the traveling adventurers for assistance.

Ultimately, three of the adventurers would make a deal with Fire Eater, with Kusa, Ishthyromeda, and Rohm'Daan stepping into a circle with the ifrit (Zana refused to make a deal with the spirit). Crawling out of the ground came four promise worms, little black things that mark a pact that has been made, dying only when the promise has been fulfilled. In exchange for their assistance, Fire Eater said that they would guide the adventurers to hidden sources of treasure in the forest, and would serve as their guide from then on for any traversing across the cedar forest they wished to do.

The four adventurers, who were familiar with the opening to the ancient tomb of the dinosaur kings at the top of the mountain, already had an idea of how to deal with the lizardmen: they would take one of the statues (which they knew to be filled with a thick stinking cloud of fog) and drop it on the lizard's nest from above. Fire Eater told them that the lizards had taken roost in a mountain pass to the south that had been filled with dirt as a result of a mudslide, and so the plan was put into motion. Before going up the mountain, Rohm'Daan searched the cave that the lizardmother was previously dwelling in, finding little scraps of metal, shiny acorns, and two uncut green gems in a pile of bones. The group moved up the mountain and ventured into the tomb to bring out two of the statues (grabbing a second one just in case the first one doesn't work), and tying them to the mule and draft horse brought by Zana and Ishthyromeda respectively. And with the statues ready, the group set up camp and went to sleep, with Fire Eater staying watch the entire night (since they need not sleep)

In the next morning, Fire Eater informed them that a mysterious man in sleeping robes made an attempt to kidnap Zana in the night. They said that the man was asleep the entire time, their eyes closed as they sleepwalked up to the group, and did not leave until they transformed into a plague of frogs, which prompted the mysterious man to walk away on the empty air as if it were a staircase. The four adventurers were rather perplexed and concerned by this to say the least, but it did not stop them from going through with their plan.

And so, following Fire Eater's guidance, they traversed the holy cedar forest and came upon the nest of the lizardmen, ensconced within a mudslide-filled mountain pass. Kusa and Rohm'Daan climbed up the rocky side of the mountain pass and pulled one of the statues up using a length of rope provided by Zana. They tied rope around the statue still in its wooden coffin and tied the other sides of the rope around their waists, to make sure that if their grip loosened it would not drop prematurely. Crawling slowly along the jagged rocks, they reached the vantage point, from which they could see the corpulent lizardmother poking her wide flat head out of her hole in the mudslide. The area was teeming with lizardmen, with a number of juvenile examples that had been born in the week or so since they were last in this area.

And so, they hoisted the coffin with statue up onto their shoulders and tossed it down, and with a loud crunching crash it landed in the muddy mountain pass. A moment of silence filled the air before the stinking purple cloud began to billow forth, much faster than it did in the ancient tomb just due to the presence of a warm summer wind. Chaos broke out, with the lizardmen frantically scrambling up the pile of half-wet earth or up the sides of the mountain pass, and the lizardmother herself crawling out from her hole to flee. In moments, they were all gone bar some sickly stragglers overwhelmed by the stench. Most had fled south, into the mountains and the desert beyond, with some fleeing back into the forest.

Kusa, Ishthyromeda, Rohm'Daan, and Zana reached into their pockets and found their glistening black promise worms wriggling in pain and then perishing, their promise now fulfilled.

courtesy Kusa's player

The two statue-tossers clambered down from atop the mountain and searched the wreckage of the statue, finding a golden amulet, which they presumed to be cursed, and bones strewn about. The other statue they acquired was still in good condition, but they broke it open to drain its foul gases out before returning to Tabur. Bidding Fire Eater farewell, they traversed the roads back to the city, upon reaching it they were forced to give tribute to the guards, who demanded the golden amulet. Paying the tariff of ancient gold, they entered Tabur and visited Farzaneh Taburi, presenting the statue, the sketches of huma birds, and the two uncut gems to her. She took one of the uncut gems and the sketches of the huma, and asked Kusa to make her schematics of a huma bird oil lamp into reality and give it to her. She also ordered the group to sell the ancient statue and give her three fourths of the money they receive... which ultimately turned out to be no money because Zana the Charlatan, the failed merchant who took care of selling the statue, was swindled out of his money! He was forced to give Farzaneh a portion of his own drachmae, but her suspicions have made her trust the group slightly less.

Treasure Acquired (After Tribute and Sales)

One uncut green gem (600 drachmae (150 drachmae for non-clerics, 135 for clerics))

Non-Treasure Experience Acquired

22 lizardmen with lizardmother (137 XP before Prime Requisite modification)

Accursed Ancestry of Agonizing Affliction (A Monster for King of Kings)

The saddest and most forlorn of all creatures are the nasnas, the mutant offspring of a jinni and a human. Unlike many other half-jinn, the nasnas were born with only half a body, and despite being the offspring of relations between a human and a spirit they are not half-spirits, nor are they spirits at all: the nasnas is a being of flesh and blood. Shunned by humanity for their monstrous visage and by jinn for their malformed physicality, the nasnas flee into the wilderness tearfully.

This is further not helped by their deadly touch. The touch of the nasnas rapidly dissolves the skin of whatever it touches; bark peels off of trees, forest mammals squirm and wriggle as they are skinned alive, and the air is filled with fearful screams of people watching their family members grow translucent and die. The nasnas does not want this... they wish they could just pet rabbits and embrace friends without watching their skin disintegrate before them.

Sometimes nasnas are brought in and taken care of by loving jinn or humans, but the majority find themselves huddling in caves as wolves hunt them down for their jinn ancestry and most thinking creatures do not help them. They are melancholic and anxious creatures who generally flee rather than engaging in direct confrontation. This varies, of course... some nasnas, when guided by others with more malicious intent, can use their foul touch for less savory purposes.

Although it is not as widely known, the flesh of the nasnas is one of the finest of meats, at least when it is cured or boiled to rid it of its disintegrating ability. It tastes sweet and salty, and melts on the tongue so softly. Hunting the nasnas is not an especially common activity, since they usually only feel safe to wander about at night, but on occasion hunting parties seek them out to slay them and cook them up. These groups are immediately identifiable by their thick black clothing which covers every inch of their bodies and their tall conical hats, often wielding bludgeons, bows, and knives.

By SamWolk on DeviantArt
(The Arabic text isn't written correctly sadly but it says nasnas)

Nasnas

Armor Class: 13

Hit Dice: 2+1

Attacks: 1 x touch (disintegrate skin)

To-Hit: +2

Movement: 120' (40')

Saving Throws: D12/W13/P14/B15/S16

Morale: 5

Alignment: Neutral

XP: 35

Number Appearing: 1d8 (1d8)

Disintegration: Anyone successfully hit by the touch of the nasnas must make a save vs. death or have their skin rapidly disintegrate as they collapse to the floor limply.

Anxious Reaction: When making a reaction roll for a nasnas encounter, results of 2 and 12 do not make the nasnas automatically attack nor befriend the group. They will never attack except in self defense.

Wolf Enmity: Wolves despise the nasnas as they despise all jinn, and will attack them on sight.

Delicious Flesh: There is a 2-in-6 chance that a group of wandering nasnas is being chased by a nasnas hunting party.

Since the flesh of the nasnas is so important, I feel like it is a great opportunity to write up a Monster Menu-all entry for the creature! The Monster Menu-all is a project by the great OSR blogger and writer Skerples, which you can check out here. For those not familiar, the Monster Menu-all is a project where Skerples writes up info on the meat (or I guess plantflesh for plant monsters) of creatures from D&D bestiaries. Thus far there is an AD&D Monster Manual version (which is staggering in its detail and quantity) and a smaller version particular to monsters from the fantastic underdark book Veins in the Earth.

Nasnas

FLAVOR: Sweet and salty pork that melts unctuously in your mouth.

NOTES: Must be cured for several days or boiled completely through in order to not maintain its skin-melting quality. 

Roll (d10)	Result
1	A skinless death. The meat was not prepared correctly and it still disintegrates skin. You die as you skin turns translucent and melts off in seconds.
2-4	Slow digestion. The flesh takes a very long time to digest, making you reek of nasnas for weeks to any with a strong enough scent. Wolves will believe you to be a nasnas and attack on sight, while nasnas may be more comfortable around you.
5-8	No extra effect.
9	Spirit vision. Eating the flesh of the nasnas has opened your eyes to the world of spirits, granting you the ability to always see spirits even if they are invisible, for one week.
10	The tongue of the nasnas. Eating the nasnas has granted your tongue the ability to melt skin and flesh just as the touch of the nasnas does. This does not affect yourself, and can only be enacted by touching your tongue onto something. This effect is permanent.

The nasnas has been written up for D&D before already... the Brit Roger Musson submitted a nasnas monster to the Fiend Factory column in White Dwarf in the late 70s.

Roger's nasnas is pretty much just a gotcha monster that isn't very powerful but is meant to freak out the players with a weird appearance and a silly way to generate damage. The comment on the bottom about how these creatures would be able to reproduce is a missed opportunity... Roger didn't mention that the nasnas of folklore is the product of a human and a jinni! You will likely also notice that this rendition of the nasnas does not include either the delicious flesh nor the disintegrating touch; these are two elements of nasnas folklore which are not present in the text that most westerners would have seen the creatures in (the 1001 nights), but rather are elements from the Gulf of Aden. The delicious flesh of the nasnas is a trait particular to the area around Hadhramaut in Yemen, while the touch disintegrating the skin of those who come in contact is from the xunguruuf (pronounced hungruf for those not familiar with Somali pronunciation) of Somalia. Technically the actual account there is that those it touches become fleshless but I kinda like the image of skinlessness so I changed it a little bit. I just felt that these elements made the creature really interesting!