Blacktusk Mammoth for Old School Essentials

 

Blacktusk Mammoth

A rare northern breed of mammoth distinguished by its snow-white coat and massive obsidian tusks. Blacktusks are prized by the Ice Amazons as sacred beasts and are sometimes trained as war mounts for queens and champions. Wild Blacktusks are uncommon, dwelling upon the frozen tundra, glaciers, and high mountain valleys of the far north.

AC 4 [15]
HD 17 (76 hp)
Att 1 × trunk slam (2d6), 2 × tusks (3d6) or trample (5d8)
THAC0 8 [+11]
MV 120 (40)
SV D2 W3 P4 B3 S6 (17)
ML 11
AL Neutral
XP 1,600
NA 0 (1d4)
TT Obsidian Tusks

Special

• Charge: In the first round of combat, when not already in melee and with a clear run of at least 20 yards, the Blacktusk may charge. Its tusk attacks inflict double damage.
• Trample: 3-in-4 chance of trampling each round. Gains +4 to hit creatures of human size or smaller.
• Cold Adapted: Blacktusks ignore movement penalties caused by snow, ice, and frozen ground.
• Obsidian Tusks: The beast's glossy black tusks are prized by kings, nobles, master artisans, and sorcerers. Each intact tusk is worth 3d6 × 100 gp.
• Harvesting Tusks: Removing a tusk without damaging it requires 1 hour of careful work using appropriate cutting tools. If the referee deems the attempt rushed or careless, the tusk may be cracked or chipped, reducing its value by half or rendering it unsuitable for the finest craftsmanship.

Gaming Inspiration

 Being pretty much homebound recently due to the crazy winter weather, I had some time to sort through my ever-growing pile of "to be read books". I blame social media, but of late I find I struggle to sit down and read actual books for extended periods. I made an effort to fix that this week and found it to be helpful, relaxing and therapeutic. Here are a few tomes I grabbed to look through for gaming inspiration. I wanted to focus on books that were not specifically designed for RPG's but could be beneficial to jumpstart my creative muse. Even just thumbing through them, I've gotten lots of gaming inspiration! Locations, NPCs' and more!  

What non-gaming books do you use to inspire your gaming muse?

Iustus Vindicta : Solo Play!

 The Introduction

     My buddy Matt recently encouraged me to give Solo gaming another try.  I find myself burned out on 5E; it just isn't my style of game. I looked at the 2024 edition at the local hobby shop and it just turned me off, the art especially was a huge downer for me. It looked more marvel movie superhero stuff than sword and sorcery or Middle-Earth. I'm not knocking you if 5E is your thing, it just isn't mine. Played it, DM'ed it, just no more for me. So, with that said, I have a gaming library full of stuff I want to use, mostly OSR related or even OD&D/AD&D era.  Matt challenged me to run two solo sessions before I go back to work Thursday, so going to try to see what I can come up with. Basically, just going to sit down and "JUST DO IT!".

     I ended up spending more than a brief bit of time playing with random tables and generating stuff before I just started play, which probably wasn't what Matt intended, but you know what? I have had a blast!!! I realized I wasn't burned out on Fantasy gaming, just 5E and whatever the apparent current corporate "modern" take on gaming is... This Solo experience has so far been loads of fun. 

     I've used multiple different resources for this; Knave 2nd ed., F.O.R.G.E. Anniversary Edition, Old School Essentials, Ordure Fantasy, Mythic, Tome of Adventure Design, Worlds Without Number, random online generators and more...Oh and I can't draw worth a darn, so forgive my use of A.I. art generators to give this solo campaign a bit of visual spark.

     

     Let me introduce the party, all randomly generated. While doing this endeavor, I was listening to metal, so the character names and other bits of inspiration are pulled from songs, albums and bands. 

The Party

                                           Aryon King

                                            'Grevele'

                                           Elysion

                                            Solace

                                           The Volturian

     The Gathering...

     A small forest clearing, secluded within the Ravenwold, on the edge of the borderlands, an unkindness of ravens cawed in the distance. A chill breeze stirred the air, a dead leaves blowing in the wind to land on the sparse ground. A group of five had assembled, all very different, and in other circumstances might never have interacted with one another, but they all shared a bond, or rather a shared pain and a common foe!

      All had their reasons to hate her, they had all lost much to the vile creature, the foul one, The Baboon Witch.  Aryon had lost a kingdom, 'Grevele' his only son, Elysion the love of his life, Solace her Order and The Volturian..his people. The Baboon Witch had much to answer for, but she was cunning, and powerful, and never faced her foes directly. She would pay, but revenge is a dish best served cold.

     Aryon had sent out the summons, using the last remnants of his now lost wealth, and calling in old favors and debts he had assembled this band. Not all he reached out too had responded, some were no doubt dead, others seeking oblivion at the bottom of a bottle somewhere or worse. But these had come, whether out of curiosity or something else, these others were here. Hopefully they would be enough. 

     It was Elysion who had gotten the tip, from some of his less than scrupulous contacts. Elysion had learned from his contacts within the Shadow Lanterns that the minions of The Baboon Witch had captured a young sorceress, Amalien the Amaranthine, and planned to sacrifice her, bleeding off her power (and life) to add to the Baboon Witch's own. Time was short, the sacrifice would happen in three days, under the full moon at midnight, typical evil type timing at a typical evil place the ancient Trees of Sacrifice. 

     The party discussed this information. This ritual if successful would make The Baboon Witch even more powerful. Solace, called their quest an "Iustus Vindicta"... The dwarf 'Grevele' looked confused "Excusez-moi" ?...The elf Elysion muttered an answer in his typical soft voice, "Righteous Vendetta". Aryon replied his noble background apparent in the way he spoke, "Righteous? perhaps, that is for the gods to decide, but revenge will be had upon this vile monster, though it may mean my last breath, I vow to destroy her! who stands with me?!...then as a united group, all raised their swords into the air and said with a yell "Aye!!" (Elysion merely said the words, an Elf never yells).

To be continued...

Random Faction Generator

     

Table Elements are song titles from Heavy Metal bands

Original idea taken from  4d20 Faction Generator | STATIONS (72stations.com)

Here are a couple of sample factions I generated just for fun.

 Black Sunrise- This Faction seeks to bring about the Sunset Over the Empire both metaphorically and unknown to the lower ranking members literally.  They seek to weaken and diminish The Empire but their true goal is to blot out the sun and herald in a new age of darkness.  Their power center is a dark citadel where angels fear to fly! For within this stronghold they possess the Chains of Misery, which they have used to imprison an angelic being.  What the lower rank and file of the faction don't know is that the faction is controlled by a cabal of powerful vampires. These vampires have imprisoned an angel using the Chains of Misery and feed off the celestial being's blood in order to give them greater power and dominance.  They want to shroud the entire Empire in darkness and rule over the mortals as gods.  The faction symbol is a black sunrise .

 The Last Candle-   This faction is a secretive sect sworn to seek out and destroy the vampires and other undead menaces that have risen to power throughout The Empire.  Within their sacred temple called Mourning Hall they train, plan and send out strike teams led by specially trained and bred wolves, skilled at hunting vampires and other undead.  The temple is called Mourning Hall in that they mourn the loss of the faction's original founder an angel. The members of The Last Candle have no idea the angel still lives and is imprisoned and tortured daily by  the vampiric leaders of The Black Sunrise.  The faction symbol is a lone candle (defiantly shining a light in the darkness).