Banquet of Horrors
In sumptuous banquet hall in the Tower of Zards, the walls are festooned with skeletons in manacles. On a table laid with golden plates, cups, and cutlery, there lay beautiful bejeweled forks bearing a curse. Upon picking a fork up characters are compelled to begin eating themselves. Every round affected characters must succeed on a DC 13 Charisma or Strength saving throw or stab themselves with the ornate fork and eat their own flesh, dealing 1 HP of damage.
The skeletons in manacles will begin a mocking, cruel cackling if anyone picks up a fork and takes a bite of themselves.
If they are incautious, multiple player characters may end up feasting on themselves. The curse can be temporarily interrupted by intoning a solemn prayer to the gods, or through use of a cleric’s turning power. The curse can only be ended permanently by a remove curse spell, or by melting the cutlery down, destroying most of their value. Until such time, any time the cursed PCs eat something, the curse activates again, they find the evil fork inexplicably in their hand, and they must make a Charisma or Strength save every round as described above. This may lead to fatigue or inability to rest if the players don’t eat so as to avoid the curse.
Posted in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Encounter, Magic Item, Trap and tagged cursed, Tower of Zards by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
See Through Time
It is the future you see. Or one future of many.
Grand Jedi Master Yoda
For use with Traveller, this new psionic power – temporovoyance – allows psions to see into possible futures.
In the distant past the psychic priests of Archeron, who pioneered the technique, referred to it as chronomancy. This power was then used in the Naikerran Empire, in an age when reliable star charts were not yet available, to establish a near-monopoly on interstellar travel. The Naikerran psion-navigators would glimpse into the future to see if their arrival would be safe before traveling through the warp.
Very rare in the Fifth Interstellar Empire of Humanity, tempovoyance is forbidden by Emperor Omerox, along with all other unregistered psychic powers.
This power presents an opportunity for players to contribute to the story. By describing a possible future, the psion’s player presents the GM with ideas to use in the game. The GM is encouraged to collaborate with the player using the “yes, and…” dynamic, molding the story idea into something dramatic and fun.
Powers
Glimpse – on successful psionic (temporvoyance) roll, the player gets a sense of what’s about to happen in the next few moments. This lets them modify an upcoming roll per the rules on chain tasks. Of course there is danger in looking into possible futures – a bad psion roll can result in a penalty to the task.
Temporvoyance, Psionic Strength, 10–60 seconds, Average (+0).
Costs 1+Range.
Vision – gives GMs and players a tool to allow players to contribute to the game’s story. On a successful psionic (temporvoyance) roll, the player has a vision of the future. Perhaps it’s a future that the psion wants, maybe it’s a scenario they want to avoid. Players are encouraged to describe what they see. The GM has discretion to use or modify the possible future glimpsed. The vision might include things to try to do or avoid to bring that possible future about.
Difficulty and cost should be determined by the GM based on the scope and reach of the vision.
Temporvoyance, Psionic Strength, 10–60 minutes, Average to Difficult (+0 to -4).
Costs GM’s discretion.
Feedback
This power is a work in progress – what other uses could it have? What do you think of the idea?
Let us know in the comments below!
Posted in Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.