TEXT: 100% Official Content
  www.koboldquarterly.com
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  Winter 2009 Issue 12 
  Play a Better Game
  Enslaved Elves / New Boon Traps / War Wagons / Combat Challenges /
  Telkari the Inevitable / Evils of the Abyss / Burnt Offerings On Stage / 
  Monte Cook’s Game Theories / Heroic Diseases / Relics of Power / Book Reviews
  A Magazine of Kobolds & Dragons
  A Magazine of Kobolds & Dragons
  Winter Court of the
  Shadow
  Elves
  Holy Remix:
   Specialty
  Priests
  Ecology of the
  Froghemoth
  Real
  Ninjas
  ®
  ®
  ™
  ™
  
  Kobold Quarterly 9    1
  A new age of fantasy roleplaying 
  has begun! Based on the hit 
  Dragon Age: Origins
  game, the Dragon
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
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  The world of Dragon age!
  A new age of fantasy roleplaying 
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  Dragon Age: Origins computer 
  game, the Dragon age roleplaying g
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  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  Game Master’s Guide, a poster map of the land of Ferelden, and three 
  six-sided dice. All this for the low price of $29.95!
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  The world of Dragon age!
  A new age of fantasy roleplaying 
  has begun! Based on the hit 
  has begun! Based on the hit 
  has begun! Based on the hit 
  Dragon Age: Origins
  Dragon Age: Origins
  game, the 
  ragon
  game, the 
  ragon
  ragon
  ragon
  ragon
  ragon
  game, the 
  ragon
  game, the 
  game, the 
  game, the 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
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  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
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  , a poster map of the land of Ferelden, and three 
  Game Master’s Guide, a poster map of the land of Ferelden, and three 
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  $29.95!
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  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  The core system is easy to use and fun to play, featuring an innovative 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  stunt system that keeps combat and spellcasting tense and exciting. So 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  gather your friends, grab some dice, and get ready to enter a world of 
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  heroes and villains, of knights and darkspawn, of gods and demons...
  The world of 
  The world of 
  The world of 
  ragon
  The world of 
  ragon
  The world of 
  ragon
  The world of 
  The world of 
  The world of 
  Dragon Age, the Dragon Age logo, BioWare, and the BioWare logo are either registered trademarks 
  or trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. in the United States, Canada, and 
  other countries. Green Ronin, Adventure Game Engine, and their associated logos are trademarks of 
  Green Ronin Publishing.
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  Player’s Guide, 
  game
  game
  g
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  Player’s Guide
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  brings the excitement of BioWare’s rich fantasy world 
  Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a Player’s Guide
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  to the tabletop. This classic-style boxed set includes a 
  Needs
  YOU!
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    3
   
   
  Editorial
  4 
  Keep It Short
   
   
  Letters
  7 
  From the Mines
   
   
  Page Header
  10 
  Telkari, Inevitable of Death
   
   
  by Tim & Eileen Connors
  	
  	
  Heavy	footsteps	from	a	twisted	avenger.
  	
  	
  Ecologies
  16 
  The Ecology of the Froghemoth
   
   
  by Jonathan McAnulty
  	
  	
  Ribbit,	ribbit,	ribbit.
  	
  	
  Kobold	Diplomacy
  21 
  Burnt Offerings on Stage
   
   
  by James Jacobs
  	
  	
  Goblins	chew	and	goblins	bite!
  	
  	
  Base	Class
  24 
  The Holy Remix
   
   
  by Scott Gable
  	
  	
  Variant	monks	for	Pathfinder	RPG.
  	
  	
  Worldbuilding
  30 
  Impossible Caravans and Unseelie Ambassadors
   
   
  by Neal Hebert and Jon Cogburn
  	
  	
  Shadow	fey	for	4E.
  	
  	
  Game	Theories
  40 
  The Myths and Realities of Game Balance
   
   
  by Monte Cook
  	
  	
  Wicked	Fantasy
  42 
  Elves: The Fallen Ones
   
   
  by John Wick and Jesse Heinig
  	
  	
  Traps	and	Tricks
  46 
  Spiked Pits, Poisoned Arrows, and Healing Words
   
   
  by Scott A. Murray
  	
  	
  Encounter	Builder
  49 
  Spice Up your Combat Encounters
   
   
  by Phillipe Menard
  	
  	
  Character	Class
  52 
  Lessons from the Shadows 
   
   
  by Catharine McDonald
  	
  	
  Wondrous	Items
  54 
  Sanctus et Virtus 
   
   
  by Brandon Hodge
  	
  	
  DM	Tools
  57 
  Eight Plagues and Diseases 
   
   
  by Stefen Styrsky
   
   
  Kobold	Bestiary
  60 
  Vilest Evils of the Abyss
   
   
  by Phillip Larwood
  On	the	Cover
  Nicole Cardiff's "Winter Druid" shows 
  the magic of the snowy season.
  contents
  Reviews
  Book Reviews 
  38
  by William Banks, Christopher  
  Paul Carey, and Pierce Watters
  Cartoons	by	Stan!
  10' by 10' Toon 
  36
  Bolt & Quiver 
  63
  The	Free	City
  War Wagons  
  of the Magdar 
  65
  by Wolfgang Baur
  
  4					Kobold Quarterly 12
  Editorial
  I
  t’s good to be reminded, every once in a while, 
  that an encounter need not be a 3-hour slugfest to 
  be memorable. Indeed, sometimes all that added 
  wordcount just gets in the way. Look at any of the adventure 
  modules from the 1980s: a typical encounter is shorter than 
  this editorial. Look at some of the modules being written 
  today: a typical encounter runs at least two pages and, 
  sometimes, four or five. 
  Are we gaining anything as gamers from that? Yes, a big 
  book gives us more words for our money. But are we getting 
  more entertainment out of a longer book, or does the joy 
  drop off at a certain point?
  That’s sort of the whole “small but fierce” philosophy in 
  a nutshell: try harder in less space. Cater to gamers with 
  serious, well-designed work, but don’t go long just for the 
  sake of seeing your words on the page, or (in the case of the 
  windbag GM) for the sake of hearing yourself speak.
  The hobby may be inexpensive in dollars, but it has always 
  demanded a large time commitment; that’s part of the 
  appeal. The rules are complicated—even Byzantine—yet 
  mastering them is part of the joy. Yes, it feels good to know 
  the system. It feels good to abuse the rules (to a point). 
  It feels good to make the game sing, to spin out a deadly 
  encounter and know exactly when to deliver the villain’s 
  signature line. You’ve gotta be both master of improvisation 
  and the mechanics to carve out a niche where the game 
  really clicks.
  I just read the opening section of current Open Design 
  patron project Red Eye of Azathoth, for instance, by Tim 
  Connors. It starts with a bang, throwing together Viking 
  raiders, English monks, and Cthulhu cultists to mix it up 
  with full-on horror and super-creepy staging—all in about 
  500 words. It’s a terrific opener that makes me realize 
  how much potential there is in a small number of words.  
  That sense of brevity and timing is refreshing, and it is yet 
  another reason why the patron projects are so inspirational.
  Likewise, the 4th Edition Courts of the Shadow Fey is 
  squeezing some paragon encounters into less space, making 
  it easier to scan and easier for GMs to put their own spin 
  on the elements for players to react to. Even the two sets of 
  original side mechanics take up minimal space. Fast and lean 
  is proving to be extremely playable.
  So, I think it’s a time to fight RPG bloat, but I still see a 
  hobby littered with supplements, add-ons, and fat books. 
  In fact, Open Design just shipped a 188-page Halls of the 
  Mountain King—I’m not being at all consistent because 
  there’s lots of juicy sections there. 
  And yet, I think it might be one of those pendulums that 
  swings from time to time in a gamer’s life. I know there are 
  heavy-tome lovers out there, and I’ve been one myself. Big 
  and ambitious is appealing because it’s going for the limit… 
  and maybe because it improves the odds of finding the 
  elements you want. I just can’t help feeling that sometimes, 
  the little gems are just as valuable, and they never seem to 
  draw the attention that the fat hardbacks do. 
  Maybe I just need to go run my game with three core 
  books and a cloud of fury for a little while. Who’s with me?
  Keep It Short
  Kobold in Chief
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    5
  
  6     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Kobold-in-Chief: Wolfgang Baur
  Circulation Director: Pierce Watters
  Cover Design: Richard Clark
  Consulting Editor: Jeff Grubb
  Assistant Editor: Scott Gable
  Editorial Assistant: Neal Hebert
  Graphic Designer: Matt Widmann
  Ad Manager: EP Healy
  Contributing Authors: William Banks, Wolfgang Baur, 
  Christopher Paul Carey, Jon Cogburn, Monte Cook, Tim 
  and Eileen Connors, Scott Gable, Neal Hebert, Jesse Heinig, 
  Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Phil Larwood, Jonathan 
  McAnulty, Catharine MacDonald, Phillipe Menard, Scott A. 
  Murray, Stefen Styrsky, Pierce Watters,  John Wick 
  Cover Artist: Nicole Cardiff
  Contributing Artists: Darren Calvert, Lucas Haley, Ben 
  Hodson, Michael Jaecks, James Keegan, Stephanie Law, Olaus 
  Magnus, Marc Radle, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hugo Solis, Stan!, 
  Cory Trego-Erdner, and Michael Wolgemut
  Photographers: Steve Hammer, Danica King
  Cartographer: Corey Macourek
  Court Calligrapher: Shelly Baur
  Kobold Quarterly™ Magazine is published four times a year by open design
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  Open Game Content: Open Game Content: The Open content in this 
  issue includes the monster statistics in the the “Telkari” and "Ecology 
  of the Froghemoth" articles, character class tables and powers in "Holy 
  Remix", and the feats in the "Elves" article. All other material is Product 
  Identity. No other portion of this work may be reproduced in any form 
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  Submissions and Design: Each issue of Kobold Quarterly Magazine 
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  Printed in the U.S.A.
  ©2009 Open Design LLC
  Winter	2009	
  Volume	3,	Issue	4
  This Kobold Courier is Lost
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  and confused. The address he wishes to deliver to has changed — 
  and no one told him! 
  Poor sad courier.
  Don't let this happen to your subscription; keep your courier 
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  Kobold Quarterly 12    7
  From the Mines
  Dispatches and Complaints
  You can write to us at letters@koboldquarterly.com or send paper mail to 
  Kobold Quarterly, PO Box 2811, Kirkland, WA 98083
  Kobold	Letters
  Gaming Ethics
  First of all, I enjoy your magazine 
  immensely. But I wanted to comment 
  on your editorial from issue #10 about 
  the ethics of gaming. I agree with you 
  that when viewed from the outside, 
  these heroic titans that are our PCs do 
  seem a bit petty as they fleece the few 
  coppers from the [insert monster here] 
  they just slaughtered. Like you said, we 
  do just take it for granted that looting 
  treasure (no matter how mundane) is 
  “something you do” when you game. 
  However, ethically, how does that 
  compare to the slaughter of the 
  monster in the first place? After all, 
  killing [insert monsters here] is also 
  “something you do” when playing. My 
  point being that while MOST actions 
  undertaken in the game are noble and 
  just, it is possible in the make-believe 
  lands of gaming to engage in all sorts 
  of “non-heroism”—far worse than the 
  pettiness of looting dead bodies. 
  Enter the GM. The GM, while 
  accomplishing many other things, sets 
  the tone of the game. I’ll be the first 
  to admit, in my games heroism runs 
  high. Paladins and clerics flourish, and 
  it is tough for players to play gritty, 
  streetwise rogues or fighters who might 
  want to engage in the seedier element 
  of society (which is something they 
  can’t do in real life by the way).
  Which brings me to this: all of 
  this is something we can’t do in real 
  life—hence we play games. We can’t 
  swing swords and destroy evil wizards 
  or bring down the operation of a 
  vile slaver; we can’t really bushwhack 
  merchants, steal things, or murder 
  citizens in their sleep. So while we may 
  both look down our nose at the noble 
  paladin who debases himself as he 
  relieves the goblin of his 12 coppers, 
  let us remember that he is also the 
  same paladin that about 6 seconds 
  prior, splattered the same goblin’s guts 
  all over the dungeon wall.
  My point? It’s a game. Real-world 
  looting, torture, killing, and despair 
  doesn’t (hopefully) occur in gaming no 
  matter how vile the GM tries to make 
  the game. Likewise, real-world heroism 
  doesn’t occur either (sadly, despite this 
  GM’s attempt to run a high adventure 
  campaign).
  But I agree with you, Wolfgang, we 
  as GMs can and should run games that 
  bring out the best in our PCs. Because 
  let’s face it, when so many things in the 
  real-world get us down, why should 
  anyone make a game that is anything 
  but high adventure where the bad guys 
  are bad and the good guys are good. 
  So it’s OK to look the other way if the 
  paladin player wants to fleece the dead 
  for his few coppers, of if the cleric 
  player had a hard day at real-world 
  work and wants to take it out on some 
  poor goblins. It’s just a game after all, 
  and a darn fine one at that.
  —Joel Burt
  Sure, I take your larger point Joel that 
  murder is worse than theft. As the 
  editorial pointed out, murder in the 
  defense of a heroic cause might be fine; 
  it’s only when heroes stoop to looting that 
  my own personal suspension of disbelief 
  is sometimes challenged. I think it would 
  be terrific to have some games where 
  the treasures aren’t coins, but status, 
  magic, or other rewards. As a designer, 
  I’m putting my money where my mouth 
  is with Courts of the Shadow Fey, 
  an adventure where some rewards are 
  distinctly non-monetary. We’ll see how it 
  turns out.
  Inspiring Minds
  I found this magazine in Kuwait while 
  I was there awaiting movement to Iraq 
  and found a letter about the Adopt-
  a-Soldier. I think this is a great thing. 
  The magazine has inspired me to start 
  roleplaying again, and I have since 
  found a group and started creating a 
  new world for us to play in. Thanks 
  again for everything!
  —Garret DuPont 
  SPC US Army
  The fact that you’ve found inspiration 
  enough in Kobold Quarterly to start 
  playing again is the greatest compliment 
  in the world! Thanks for writing.
  Help a Soldier
  Thank you very much. I am very 
  impressed that you have a program 
  like Adopt-A-Soldier. At the beginning 
  of my deployment, I found your 
  magazine in Kuwait and bought two 
  issues. I just picked up the Summer 
  2009 issue here at Camp Taji, Iraq, the 
  other day. I miss playing RPGs and 
  miniature games, so your magazine 
  really helps to fill that void. 
  Thank you very much!
  —SSG Joshua Goss 
  Combat Advisor, MNSTC-I RTC
  Thanks for writing, and we’re very glad 
  you enjoy Kobold Quarterly, Joshua! 
  Yours is the second letter from Camp 
  Taji (the first was in issue #11), so we’re 
  guessing the gaming is pretty decent there.
  KQ is very proud to offer the Adopt-a-
  Soldier program. Any readers interested 
  in sponsoring a subscription for a soldier, 
  like Joshua, will find the option available 
  in the KoboldQuarterly.com store. 
  
  8     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Back Issue Blues
  I’ve purchased Kobold Quarterly 
  in PDF form, and while I like the 
  convenience of being able to look 
  them up on my computer, I’ve found 
  that I just can’t do without an actual 
  magazine in my hands. Do you have 
  any plans to reprint old issues? (At the 
  KQ store I noticed that issue #1 #2, 
  #3, and #6 seemed to be offered in 
  PDF only.)
  —Charles Carrier
  In the response to the following letter, 
  there’s good news and bad news…
  Two is the Loneliest Number
  I’m a steady subscriber to Kobold 
  Quarterly and have every printed 
  issue except for issue #2. Is there any 
  chance that there will be a reprinting 
  of issue #2? 
  I have certain medical issues with 
  my eyes and the base of my brain stem 
  which cause me a great deal of pain 
  if I read articles of any great length 
  on a computer. However, the same 
  articles in a printed book or magazine 
  cause me little or no pain at all. My 
  neurosurgeon says it has something to 
  do with reading from a lighted screen, 
  so even though issue #2 is available as 
  a PDF, I really need to read the printed 
  magazine form. Any hope for an old 
  injured warrior/ranger? Thanks!
  —Kevin B.
  Thanks for your note, Kevin! You are 
  correct that many back issues of Kobold 
  Quarterly have sold out in print; 
  that’s just the way it goes sometimes in 
  the magazine business. Issue #4 is still 
  available from the KQ store, and there’s a 
  chance we might offer issue #2 in a small 
  reprint.
  The others were printed in large enough 
  numbers that you may be able to find one 
  through eBay, Noble Knight, or similar 
  sources.
  Building Momentum
  From what I have seen, issue #11 
  follows in the trend of another 
  excellent issue! Keep up the great 
  work. I met you at PaizoCon this past 
  year, and I for one appreciate your 
  magazine. I have personally lauded 
  Kobold Quarterly to gamers and 
  have generated a handful of dedicated 
  KQ followers—hopefully their 
  numbers will increase.
  I hope to one day contribute 
  something to the magazine and will 
  send you a query when I get a chance 
  to brainstorm, 30 years of gaming 
  must qualify for something (need to 
  blow the dust off all those scenarios 
  and situations I have run).
  —Julian Rodriguez 
  Burbank, California
  Thanks for writing, Julian! We will be at 
  PaizoCon again this year and hope to see 
  you and many other Kobold Quarterly 
  fans there.
  Kids These Days…
  I just finished reading Monte Cook’s 
  article, “Haunted by the Spirit of the 
  Rules.” First of all, let me mention that 
  I agree with everything he says—
  roleplayers cannot let the rules stand 
  in the way of fun and finding “broken” 
  rules is a pointless exercise.
  However, Mr. Cook seems to say 
  that it is the responsibility of both 
  players and GMs to curtail the trend 
  of exploiting loopholes. While this 
  is ultimately true, I think he fails to 
  recognize that this is the path the 
  current generation of gamers is being 
  down by game designers.
  This is the video game generation, for 
  better or worse, and one of the goals 
  of any of the current roleplaying video 
  games is certainly to find and exploit 
  advantageous rule combinations. I am 
  not talking about hacks, but there is 
  seemingly always some combination 
  of classes or skills or items that is 
  “broken.”
  I think if you want to curtail this 
  trend, you have to look first to the 
  designers and publishers. Not because 
  loopholes exist—as you said, they 
  always will—but because they are 
  helping to condition us that exploiting 
  them is a worthy goal.
  —Jonathan Brown 
  New York City, NY
  Jonathan, I have to disagree with you on 
  this. 
  The current generation of RPGs are not 
  video games; they are tabletop roleplaying 
  games with dice, battle maps, and all 
  the rest. Heck, the Pathfinder RPG is 
  an extreme example of literacy at 500+ 
  pages. And frankly, the urge to find power 
  combos has always been with us (just ask 
  Skip Williams about power gamers in 2nd 
  Edition sometime). 
  The current generation of RPG designers 
  would be foolish not to consider that yes, 
  video games are competing for our time 
  and attention with tabletop games. To 
  blame the designers and publisher for 
  giving people what they want seems to 
  run against the tide of human nature. We 
  may say we want fruit and salads, but 
  most of us prefer cookies and cake when 
  it’s time for a midnight snack.
  Retailers in Germany?
  I kindly ask if there are any distributors 
  or retailers in Germany to buy your 
  printed product? You know PDF is fast 
  and handy, but sometimes, a printed 
  magazine is just better.
  —Reto 
  Wiesbaden, Germany
  KQ is distributed to the UK and to 
  Poland, but not yet in Germany. The 
  publisher is certainly considering wider 
  global distribution and welcomes 
  inquiries. It certainly would be 
  appropriate for the country that gave us 
  the word “kobold” to have kobolds lurking 
  in a few of its game stores.
  Exceptionally Epic
  Hey just wanted to thank you for 
  putting out such a great magazine. 
  In an exceptionally epic issue, I was 
  particularly inspired by John Wick's 
  novel take on the uvandir. His twist 
  on our preconceptions of dwarves was 
  pretty awesome and, by far, one of my 
  favorite articles on a PC race.
  Also, the "Ecology of the Vampire 
  article, which initially made me want 
  to cringe in fear of more Twilight-
  induced ridiculousness, was well-
  written and gave insight into some of 
  their more nasty habits.
  Thanks for being one of the reasons 
  I'm always excited to check my mail!
  —Joe Smith
  Anaheim, CA
  Glad you liked issue #11. Maybe we could 
  run the Twilight-flavored vampire article 
  for you in April....
  <
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    9
  NOBIS
    
  obis is a world unlike any 
  other. The City-States teem with 
  adventure, danger and political 
  strife. Noble freedom fighters, 
  secretive underworld powers and 
  scheming politicians threaten to tear 
  the world apart. Will you ﬁ ght for 
  the cause of freedom or will you 
  choose the path of tyranny?
  Visit pantheonpress.com, 
  DriveThruRPG.com or your 
  favorite gaming store to get the 
  City-States campaign setting today!
  Check out Atomic Array episode AA024 
  to learn more about the world of Nobis 
  and Pantheon Press, LLC!
  N
  PantheonPress3_forKQ.indd   1
  9/1/09   4:54:39 PM
  
  10					Kobold Quarterly 12
  … there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock 
  of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, 
  monotonous clang; and when… the hour was to be stricken, 
  there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was 
  clear and loud and deep…
  And Darkness and Decay…held illimitable dominion over all. 
  —Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death
  I am the shroud. I am the temple bell. I am the grave come to 
  claim you. 
  —Telkari to the lich-king Gautrenault
  T
  ake any road from birth you like. All lead to death. 
  This is the law of the universe. This is the law of 
  Telkari, marut inevitable and punisher of all those 
  who deny the grave.
  Wherever Telkari treads, church bells toll, and death strikes 
  with black metal fists. In its presence, hourglasses drain 
  and doom pools in the soul. To see Telkari is to confront 
  mortality. No one escapes the clockwork juggernaut. No one 
  hides from death forever.
  The undead and the reborn fear the marut. All creatures 
  should, for madness wells in Telkari’s clockwork depths. 
  Something ancient and foul selects its targets. Something 
  that weaves blasphemous symbols in gold filigree over its 
  midnight armor. Something that whispers with the voices of 
  stillborn gods.
  History of Telkari
  The lich-king Gautrenault had long denied the grave, and 
  for this violation of universal law, he deserved oblivion. To 
  deliver his death sentence, Telkari was “born.” In a blast of 
  steam, the black metal marut rose from the cradle-forge.
  Over the next 165 years, Telkari killed the lich six times. 
  Each time the lich’s phylactery eluded the inevitable, and 
  each time the Gossamer Lich-King rose again. In a rotting 
  belfry, Telkari cornered Gautrenault for the seventh time. 
  The lich’s lips pealed back in a corpse’s smile, the ancient bell 
  rang, and the lich vanished. Telkari set its harmonics to the 
  bell’s haunting knell and plane shifted after its prey.
  A second later, Telkari splashed into a mud-rut road of a 
  cemetery plane. Misty, autumn rain fell on its shoulders. 
  In every direction, it saw a bleak and colorless graveyard. 
  Ground-hugging fog rolled into open graves and billowed 
  around crumbling mausoleums. In the grey beyond, a vine-
  gripped tomb of titanic proportions loomed. The Gossamer 
  King darted inside it. Telkari followed, and shadows 
  gathered behind him like procession of mourners.
  The marut’s steel footfalls echoed through the mausoleum’s 
  cavities. In the final blackwashed chamber, Gautrenault 
  waited. Behind Telkari, two glass cylinders, each 15 feet 
  across, stretched from floor to ceiling. Inside them, strips of 
  flesh floated in a dark suspension of bile.
  As Telkari entered the chamber, something enormous 
  stirred in the cylinders. Telkari and Gautrenault watched 
  as the atrophied face of a stillborn god flattened against the 
  inside of each glass. Overlarge eyes and shark’s teeth were 
  By Tim & Eileen Connors
  Art by Ben Hodson
  Lords of Law
  Telkari, 
  Inevitable 
  of Death
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    11
  pronounced on the bulbous heads 
  of the atropal twins. The sight of the 
  atropals’ torpid bodies and blank stares 
  sent a wave of destruction through the 
  room.
  The lich-king Gautrenault shattered. 
  His skeletal body fell into 1,000 
  roaches that rushed in all directions 
  before crumbling to ash. Colloidal 
  gold spilled from Telkari’s eyes, and 
  golden full plate armor fell from its 
  black metal flanks. Somewhere a death 
  knell rang, and Telkari the marut 
  exploded in a shower of gold and silver 
  clockwork parts.
  The atropals destroyed Telkari, and 
  over the next 3 years, rebuilt it. While 
  the atropals’ blank fish eyes stared 
  from their great flasks, the voices of 
  children whispering the same ancient 
  chant crept from the shadows. Tiny 
  hands restored Telkari’s pistons, gears, 
  and actuators. Gears cast from temple 
  bells retimed its escapements. When 
  the black metal plates finally fit over 
  its clockwork form, they housed 
  something new, something wrong. 
  Now Telkari walks as before—only 
  now, it sees clearly. While other 
  maruts rightfully punish those who 
  cheat death, they fail to see the full 
  picture. Time and again, the gods 
  have destroyed the earth and given 
  it rebirth. Therefore all living things 
  are guilty of denying the grave. All 
  living things dare to affront the gods, 
  thus all living things deserve oblivion. 
  Indeed, the gods who allow this cycle 
  of rebirth, they too must die.
  Targets, Enemies, and Allies
  Telkari is now an agent of the 
  Stillborn’s destruction, bringing 
  death to creatures of their choosing. 
  Machines, being neither alive nor 
  dead, are exempt from punishment, as 
  are the stillborn gods themselves who, 
  by Telkari’s twisted definition, were 
  never born at all.
  All living creatures are subject to 
  confrontation, but Telkari follows 
  a precedence order. Stillborn-
  selected targets sit at the top of its 
  list. Liches, vampires, and revenants 
  who extend their lives through the 
  power of undeath follow. Clerics 
  and the fallen heroes they raise from 
  the dead are next, followed by druid 
  reincarnationists, necromancers, and 
  those who cheat death in the timeless 
  sanctuary of the Astral Plane. Telkari 
  recently slew a common sexton in 
  the process of digging up a man 
  prematurely buried.
  Telkari has an affinity for creatures 
  and artifacts that consume souls 
  utterly. Barghests and spheres of 
  annihilation seem fitting punishments 
  for those who enjoy a second life at 
  the expense of universal law. However, 
  punishing offenders with oblivion has 
  drawn the wrath of Adriel, Archangel 
  of Hope (see Kobold Quarterly #4): 
  thus far, Telkari has escaped her slaying 
  arrows with repeated plane shifts. On 
  the other hand, the Deities of Light 
  favor Telkari when it crusades against 
  the undead. 
  Titivillus, Scribe of Hell (see 
  Kobold Quarterly #1), occasionally 
  slips Telkari the names of souls who 
  made pacts but continue to escape 
  eternal torture by denying death. 
  When Telkari destroys them, Hell 
  takes the souls it is due.
  Appearance
  Few woodsmen will ever witness 
  a more alien sight than Telkari’s 
  massive metal frame crushing leaves 
  and snapping saplings as it marches 
  implacably forward. Most terrain 
  yields to the single-minded juggernaut. 
  Telkari never tires and never rests. Its 
  feet fall like a heartbeat that suddenly 
  stops when it has finally caught up 
  with its quarry.
  When Telkari stands still, the 
  constant whirring and clicking of its 
  clockwork innards murmur out from 
  its glowing eye sockets. Thick onyx 
  plates armor it, replacing the golden 
  full plate that other maruts wear.
  The cemetery plane constantly 
  corrodes all things, an effect that 
  has revved Telkari’s fast healing into 
  cancerous overdrive. Its fast healing 
  now weaves, tears down, and re-weaves 
  gold and silver filigree covering its 
  black metal surface. Minute influences 
  exerted by the atropals underlie the 
  pattern of the fractal wiring. In places, 
  the filigree is as layered as metallic 
  brain coral, and in others it whirls 
  into blasphemous symbols. Zobecks’ 
  clockwork oracle has predicted “an 
  inevitable decorated with mazes whose 
  solutions reveal silent mysteries and 
  prophetic apocalypse.”
  Telkari’s overactive fast healing also 
  raises patches of white-hot barbs on its 
  limbs. Occasionally, it grows superficial 
  limbs and tumors, and less often, 
  useful tools and weapons.
  Telkari typically approaches and 
  tears into its target without warning 
  or preamble. On the odd occasion 
  when it speaks, its sonorous voice 
  reverberates from the depths of brazen 
  lungs. Telkari’s sentences are pointed 
  and clear, its requests are commands, 
  its questions demand immediate 
  response.
  Powers
  A palpable aura of doom precedes 
  Telkari. Its ominous presence fills 
  nearby minds with dread and the 
  assurance of death. Despair crushes the 
  strong. Suicide tempts the depressed. 
  Tears burn tracks down the faces of all 
  around it. 
  Telkari’s penetrating eyes detect 
  undead creatures and recognize 
  living creatures who were once dead. 
  Whenever it sees such a creature, 
  colloidal gold drips from its sockets 
  and violent vibrations shake its core. 
  Nearby metal shakes at the same 
  frequency, and foes find it difficult 
  to hold onto anything metal. Nearby 
  gongs and bells toll mournfully.
  The Clockwork Plague
  Telkari’s most devastating power is not 
  under its control. Long-term exposure 
  to the cemetery plane’s corruption 
  has thrown its fast healing ability into 
  overdrive. Telkari never stops healing, 
  and the effect is contagious.
  Whenever Telkari lands a blow, the 
  needle-thin barbs that cover its limbs 
  spray off in a barrage of darts that 
  embed themselves deep in the flesh 
  of nearby victims. The embedded 
  
  12     Kobold Quarterly 12
  barbs heal the victims’ wounds at a 
  breakneck pace, replacing torn tissue 
  and pierced organs with functionally 
  equivalent clockwork parts. 
  The fortunate survive as half-
  machine abominations. Each time 
  they are wounded, clockwork parts 
  replace ever more flesh. Metallic pins 
  drill through ligaments and anchor to 
  bone. Caterpillar gears snake through 
  blood vessels. Actuated pistons stretch 
  flesh beyond its tear point. Victims 
  with natural fast healing experience 
  excruciating pain as their bodies 
  become a battleground of flesh versus 
  steel. The metal also resists the fluid 
  motion that allows shapechangers 
  to morph into other forms. Such 
  creatures quickly slice themselves to 
  ribbons.
  Telkari 
  CR 16
  Marut, Inevitable (LN)
  Special Abilities
  Telkari has all the special abilities of a 
  Marut, plus the following abilities:
  Clockwork Plague (Su) Whenever 
  Telkari lands a blow or stomps its 
  foot, wire needles spray from its bulk 
  as a ranged touch attack against all 
  creatures within 15 ft. The needles 
  inflict 1d4 hp damage. A damaged 
  creature that fails a DC 15 Fortitude 
  saving throw contracts the clockwork 
  plague. The clockwork plague grants 
  the victim fast healing 5, but all hp 
  healed create an expanding network 
  of transdermal clockwork parts. Keep 
  track of the cumulative “clockwork 
  hp” healed. To excise the metal and 
  reduce the accumulated clockwork 
  hp, magical healing must accompany 
  aggressive surgery and a DC 25 
  Heal check. Success reduces the total 
  clockwork hp by the magically healed 
  amount. Failure adds 1d4 clockwork 
  hp to the victim’s total as the existing 
  clockwork parts spike into surgeon’s 
  cuts and root themselves in new 
  wounds. At the GM’s discretion, 
  desperate victims can forgo the 
  magical healing and the Heal check by 
  amputating the affected limbs, which 
  crawl away as clockwork animated 
  abominations. Once the clockwork 
  hp equals zero, the victim no longer 
  hosts the clockwork plague. Once the 
  clockwork hp total equals the victim’s 
  hp total, the victim dies.
  Create Spawn (Su) A victim of the 
  clockwork plague transforms into a 
  clockwork creature when it dies. It 
  retains the victim’s body type, grows 
  thin barbs on its surface, and gains 
  the clockwork plague special ability. 
  Medium or larger victims with 15 or 
  more HD become marut inevitables 
  with the same stats, programming, and 
  flaws as Telkari. 
  Smaller or weaker victims become 
  “clockwork zombies.” The clockwork 
  zombie gains the construct type and 
  construct traits, replaces its existing 
  natural armor with +1 natural armor 
  per HD, loses its Intelligence score, 
  and adds +1 to its CR. Any non-
  mindless creature infected with the 
  Telkari’s Stillborn Lords
  In	a	corrupt	age	before	the	present,	the	primeval	goddess	Lokkei,	disgusted	with	
  the	depravity	and	disinterest	of	her	worshippers,	condemned	the	earth	to	imminent	
  destruction.	She	became	pregnant.	Twins	of	Ruin	quickened	in	her	womb.	
  A	fraction	of	Lokkei’s	clerics	embraced	the	endtime	and	courted	her	by	exalting	
  Lokkei’s	unborn.	The	rest	of	the	world	trembled,	repented,	and	prayed	with	a	fervor	
  that	shook	the	heavens.	Lokkei’s	heart	softened.	Mercy	coursed	through	her	blood	and	
  poisoned	the	twins.	The	apocalypse	was	averted,	and	her	twins	were	stillborn.
  Lokkei	took	the	fetuses	to	a	cemetery	plane.	High	atop	the	Mount	of	Stillborn	Gods,	
  she	transported	the	great	palace	that	would	have	been	theirs.	She	blackwashed	its	
  baroque	interior,	erasing	the	grandeur	that	would	never	be.	The	palace	became	the	
  twins’	mausoleum,	and	deep	in	its	heart,	the	Twins	of	Ruin	still	float	in	their	glassy	
  cylinders.
  Lokkei	decreed	that	while	the	Stillborns’	bodies	remain	whole,	nothing	living,	dead,	
  or	undead	may	escape	the	cemetery	plane.	Perhaps	she	knew	that	the	destructive	
  power	she	invested	in	them	would	someday	breathe	undeath	into	the	twins’	
  malformed	bodies.	If	so,	such	prescience	saved	the	world	again,	for	the	twins	indeed	
  rose	as	atropals	who	want	nothing	more	than	to	escape	their	prison	and	realize	their	
  fate	as	wellsprings	of	divine	destruction.
  The	atropal	twins	intend	to	use	machines	to	fulfill	the	destiny	of	their	conception—to	
  destroy	all	things.	Inevitables	are	the	perfect	agents	of	that	destruction.	Absolutist	
  and	merciless	by	nature,	machines	like	Telkari	enforce	absolute	law	with	absolute	
  destruction.	
  The	atropals	need	to	gather	enough	worshippers	to	realize	their	destiny.	For	now,	
  they	send	Telkari	around	the	cosmos,	displaying	their	symbols	of	power	on	its	filigreed	
  chest,	pruning	those	who	may	one	day	stand	against	them,	and	collecting	the	souls	it	
  destroys.
  Their	mother	Lokkei	is	long	since	dust,	her	faith	forgotten	by	all	but	the	dustiest	of	
  historians.
  Caulbearers in the  
  Real World
  In	less	than	1	in	1,000	births,	a	
  child	is	born	in	a	caul.	In	medieval	
  times,	caulbearers	were	thought	to	
  be	destined	for	greatness.	Midwives	
  rubbed	the	caul	onto	paper	and	
  presented	it	to	the	mother	for	good	
  luck.	Sailors	paid	great	sums	to	possess	
  one	as	a	talisman	against	drowning.	In	
  Scotland,	caulbearers	were	considered	
  psychic	or	fey.	In	Egypt,	caulbearers	
  were	predestined	for	the	cult	of	Isis.	
  In	Slavic	countries,	caulbearers	might	
  become	vampires,	particularly	if	they	
  ate	a	piece	of	their	caul	after	birth.	
  In	the	rare	event	of	twin	caulbearers,	
  angels	were	said	to	mark	and	shield	the	
  babes’	souls.
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    13
  clockwork plague can command 
  a clockwork zombie by making a 
  successful touch attack to mesh gears 
  and issue command.
  Doom Aura (Su) The inevitability of 
  death precedes the marut in a palpable 
  aura of doom. All within a 25-ft. 
  radius suffer crushing despair (DC 18) 
  and shed burning tears that fuel the 
  effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
  Grave Sight (Su) The marut is aware 
  of undead creatures as if using detect 
  undead (CL 14th). Grave sight also 
  reveals any living creatures who were 
  once dead. While such a creature is 
  revealed, Telkari’s internal vibrations 
  cause the metal weapons of its melee 
  opponents to vibrate (-2 circumstance 
  penalty to hit).
  Cults and Followers
  A menagerie of cults and followers 
  revere Telkari. Where it rid a village 
  of a vampire’s predations, the parish 
  idolizes the metal giant as a patron 
  saint. Where hags witnessed it slay 
  a raised paladin, the coven seeks the 
  power behind its filigree sigils. Its 
  hourglass icon is familiar to many 
  creatures, good and evil alike.
  On the outskirts of Zobeck, a cabal 
  of spider thieves (rogue clockwork 
  arachnids) have found purpose in 
  Telkari’s mission to kill. These assassins 
  call themselves the Widowers as much 
  in reference to their killing sprees as to 
  the black widow hourglass scratched 
  into their abdomens.
  The most bizarre followers of Telkari 
  are the so-called Caulbearer’s Cradle, a 
  society of apocalypse preachers whose 
  children were born in cauls (amniotic 
  tissue that veils their faces). This 
  secret society reveres the legendary 
  Stillborn and their chief lieutenant 
  Telkari. The society believes that fate 
  has assigned high-ranking positions to 
  their caulbearer children. While the 
  caulbearers are too young to question 
  any of this, they do exhibit powers 
  such as prescience and the ability to 
  influence the weather. Dark omens 
  surround the cult, but its obvious 
  powers bring followers flocking to the 
  Children of the Caul. 
  The Cemetery Plane
  The cemetery plane is an endless, 
  bleak, and colorless graveyard. 
  Muddy roads ramble between ancient 
  tombstones, and misty rain never 
  ceases. Melancholy and numbing 
  loss well in the hearts of visitors. 
  From below the surface, masticatio 
  mortuorum—the sound-dampened 
  screaming and chewing of buried 
  corpses—calls to the traveler’s feet.
  Regardless of one’s position, a 
  slight upward grade proceeds in 
  all directions. Ever in the distance, 
  silhouettes of mourners stand with 
  heads hung over grave mounds, and 
  the weeping of the bereaved never 
  quite masks the faint laughter of 
  children that never were.
  The cemetery plane has the following 
  traits:
  Mildly divinely morphic—The atropals 
  can alter objects, creatures, and the 
  landscape in subtle ways.
  Minor negative-dominant—The 
  cemetery plane deals 1d6 points of 
  damage per round to all creatures 
  except undead. Any creature that dies 
  crumbles to ash. Its soul appears as a 
  wisp of smoke that thins and joins the 
  fog. No mortal magic can retrieve it.
  Inescapable—While the atropals 
  “live,” no living, dead, or undead 
  creature may exit the plane by any 
  mortal means without their consent.
  Telkari’s Accomplishments 
  and Goals
  Normal inevitables lack ambition 
  and organization. Their considerable 
  synergistic potential is unrealized 
  because they do not ally. Under the 
  influence of the Stillborn, Telkari is 
  changing that.
  Like imprisoned crime bosses, the 
  atropals are building an army under 
  Telkari’s trusted hand. They feed 
  Telkari preferred targets, and Telkari 
  assigns them to a host of clockwork 
  agents who track the targets down. 
  Subservient maruts greet their targets 
  with deathblows. Demonic retrievers 
  abduct victims to the cemetery plane 
  where they join the fog as worshippers 
  of the Stillborn. While the current 
  pantheon of petty gods squabble, the 
  powerbase of the Stillborn swells.
  In the mortal world, Telkari’s 
  influence manifests itself in surprising 
  ways. Telkari knows it cannot stop 
  everyone from using healing magic to 
  stay alive or to return from the dead, so 
  it attempts to remove the temptation 
  presented by the possibility. Its agents 
  steal key material components that 
  make these spells possible, typically 
  diamonds from resurrectionist temples 
  such as Lada or Perun. Telkari pays 
  these diamonds to a network of body 
  snatchers to steal the corpses of heroes, 
  patron saints, and others likely to 
  rise again. Where theft is impossible, 
  agents use lye to reduce the body to a 
  coffee-like liquid.
  Among the goals Telkari has yet 
  to realize is a diplomatic envoy to 
  convince souls not to return to their 
  bodies when summoned by raise dead, 
  resurrection, and reincarnation. It has 
  a stopgap measure—a loyal covey of 
  nighthags and extraplanar thieves who 
  abduct souls on their way back to 
  earth.
  Telkari’s Lieutenants
  Telkari commands three, very 
  different lieutenants.
  Gsoden. Telkari dispatches Gsoden, 
  Masticatio Mortuorum in 
  the Real World
  In	European	folklore,	masticatio 
  mortuorum refers	to	a	phenomenon	
  whereby	corpses	eat	their	burial	
  shrouds,	fingers,	arms,	and	nearby	
  bodies.	Serious	seventeenth	century	
  scientists	researched	the	subject.	In	
  1679,	theologian	Philip	Rohr	published	
  “On	the	Chewing	Dead”	and	aligned	it	
  with	a	primitive	form	of	vampirism.	In	
  1734,	the	German	doctor	Michel	Ranft	
  published	A Treatise Concerning the 
  Screaming and Chewing of Corpses in 
  Their Graves	in	which	he	acknowledges	
  the	supernatural	nature	of	the	
  phenomenon	and	denies	medical	
  science’s	ability	to	explain	it.	
  
  14					Kobold Quarterly 12
  a greater barghest (maximum HD), 
  and his pack of soul eaters to devour 
  death evaders utterly. Gsoden’s blue-
  tinged fur and black metal claws are 
  trademarks of a pack inflicted with the 
  clockwork plague. Their DR has saved 
  the aggressive pack from becoming 
  clockwork creatures altogether, but 
  most range from ¼ to ½ machine. 
  Axial pistons control Gsoden’s left eye, 
  and a wound filled with notching gears 
  stretches from maw to ear on one side 
  of his snarling bat face.
  Celon-Ras. Whenever Telkari needs 
  a diplomat, it calls up the twisted 
  soul of lieutenant Celon-Ras (male 
  human Pal 15), a paladin evangelist 
  and vampire hunter. The persuasive 
  Celon-Ras displays poise of speech and 
  mind, and his heart yearns to promote 
  law and order. 
  His insanity manifests in his 
  absolutism, intolerance, and severity. 
  The knight inquisitor is not above 
  torturing those who do not confess 
  and repent, for “all must be done to 
  save a soul.” For the irredeemable, 
  death by any means is fair punishment: 
  “Oblivion at a barghest’s maw is 
  a mercy, for it saves the sinner the 
  eternal pain of Hell.” Self-importance 
  and misunderstood scripture have 
  conspired to convince Celon-Ras that 
  Telkari is an angel of judgment and 
  that Gsoden is an angel of death. 
  Salamanca. Telkari also commands 
  an army of clockwork zombies through 
  the meshed-gear control of Salamanca, 
  an advanced demonic retriever infected 
  with the clockwork plague. Salamanca’s 
  clockwork zombie horde includes four 
  planetars, 65 retrievers, thousands of 
  formians, and a multitude of others. 
  From a clockwork aboleth snaking 
  through the sea to a clockwork brass 
  dragon seized up by desert sand, 
  Telkari’s soldiers can be found around 
  the world.
  Adventure Seeds
  Most low to mid-level adventurers 
  learn of Telkari through the actions of 
  his cults, followers, and henchmen. 
  Winter Dismembered. A blizzard 
  has driven ravenous, half-mechanized 
  wolves down from the mountains 
  and into the hamlet of Ironshod 
  Hollow. When the heroes arrive, a 
  bloody blacksmith has just completed 
  sawing off half the townsfolk’s limbs 
  in a desperate attempt to stop the 
  clockwork plague from spreading. 
  Outside, howls announce another 
  attack, and dismembered limbs claw 
  their way from the town’s refuse pit to 
  join the fray.
  Widowers. The theft of the Great 
  Stross Clock’s ever-wound spring 
  leads the heroes into the warrens 
  beneath Zobeck’s Kobold Ghetto. 
  Deep underground, beyond tunnels 
  protected by razor wire webs and the 
  kobolds’ own traps, the Widowers 
  and their enslaved smiths hammer out 
  the last leg of a gargantuan clockwork 
  spider. Thanks to the ever-wound 
  spring, the spider twitches to life, 
  clambers to the surface, and begins 
  laying waste to Zobeck’s houses of 
  resurrection.
  Clockwork Vampires. Every few 
  years, the proud hometown of paladin 
  evangelist Celon-Ras digs up its dead 
  to check for incorruptibility and 
  vampirism. This year, they found 
  twelve well-fed corpses (puffed by 
  gases) with long teeth (receding gums). 
  Into the corpses’ hearts and eyes they 
  drove the iron stakes and pins that 
  Celon-Ras left behind—stakes and 
  pins unknowingly infected with the 
  clockwork plague. Three days later, 
  clockwork parts animate the corpses. 
  Beheaded. After 30 years in exile, 
  Baron Herzig reclaimed his ancestral 
  lands by force. Since his return last 
  month, he has been beheading three 
  “traitors” daily. His punishment is not 
  entirely merciless. As an indulgence, 
  Herzig tolerates High Priest Dregouth’s 
  offer to cast raise dead on “those whose 
  magnanimous donation proves their 
  spiritual worth.” The heroes must stop 
  Herzig’s butchery, decide Dregouth’s 
  fate, and contend with a party of 
  Celon-Ras’ apprentices who slaughter 
  those recently raised.
  Mid- to high-level adventurers 
  typically engage Telkari or its 
  lieutenants directly.
  Caulbearer Dragons. With their 
  hair blowing in an unseen wind, the 
  children of the Caulbearers Cradle 
  announce the imminent birth of 
  twin death dragons—the symbolic 
  rebirth of the Stillborn and sign of 
  the endtime. Storms rage around 
  the blank-eyed children. Unless the 
  heroes prevent the dragons’ unholy 
  birth, shadow hurricanes and negative 
  lightning rip through the country as 
  the cemetery plane and Material plane 
  slowly converge at the mountainside 
  town of Medvedja.
  Cemetery Crèche. Zobeck’s 
  clockwork oracle envisions “a 
  clockwork army to rival the legions 
  of angels.” In the fog-laden fields of 
  the cemetery plane, the foundations 
  for a new crèche-forge are underway. 
  The heroes must destroy the heavily 
  guarded inevitable factory. If they 
  ever hope to escape the cemetery 
  plane, they must also destroy the twin 
  atropals. 
  <
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    15
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  16     Kobold Quarterly 12
  C
  airl Walker stumbled back in panic as the monstrosity 
  rose out of the water. Droplets rained down as the 
  creature heaved itself up, tentacles flailing. They had 
  warned him of the swamp, its hidden dangers and unnatural 
  beasts, yet he had never anticipated such a thing as stood before 
  him. It towered as tall as the trees, and its mouth was like a 
  fanged pit. 
  Cairl looked right and left, thinking that if he could just rush 
  far enough away from it, he could evade it. He was wrong. Before 
  he could run the creature’s tongue unrolled from its mouth, 
  a fifth tentacle that lifted him in the air. In seconds, he had 
  disappeared down the cavernous maw, another victim of the 
  froghemoth.
  Sages spend long hours speculating on the history of the 
  bizarre creature commonly called the froghemoth. Some 
  learned scholars insist such a monstrosity must be the result 
  of arcane experimentation. Others point out that it can 
  be found in the deep places of the earth, suggesting some 
  eldritch mutation shaped by dark energies seeping in distant 
  caverns. Yet the bizarre tale of the froghemoth does not 
  begin either on or under the earth. 
  In truth, the monster is a child of the stars; a creature 
  inadvertently brought to the known world aboard a doomed 
  vessel in an age long past. Its home world a hot, swampy 
  land filled with volcanoes and violent lightning storms. 
  Though the froghemoth was biologically well suited to its 
  new, gentler environment, as a race, the creature became the 
  servant of a restless anger; some say they are homesick. 
  Today, the monstrous aberrations have expanded their 
  range across the planet, both above and below the ground. 
  They make their homes wherever the water is warm and 
  fresh and they can lie comfortably submerged, waiting for 
  an opportunity to vent both anger and hunger.   
  Physiology
  While froghemoths share some similarities with mundane 
  frogs, those who have studied the massive amphibians realize 
  the similarities are largely superficial. While a froghemoth 
  at rest – with its webbed rear feet and tough, warty skin  – 
  might be mistaken for a great frog, once the creature begins 
  moving, any observer can tell the two are entirely distinct 
  creatures.
  Locomotion
  For one thing, froghemoths are not natural jumpers. 
  Swimming is their preferred method of locomotion. In the 
  rare cases when a froghemoth is encountered on dry land, 
  the great beasts often crawl: their tentacles grasping ahead, 
  pulling their massive bulk slowly forward as their rear legs 
  push. Such movement is deceptive, suggesting clumsiness 
  rather than mere laziness. A froghemoth can stand and walk 
  bipedally, and in battle, it is found upright more often than 
  not. The sight of such an abomination walking is even more 
  disturbing than a four-legged motion might be.
  Froghemoths are amphibious. In their early lives, they 
  are aquatic, but as adults they develop powerful lungs and 
  breathe air. The four upper appendages of a froghemoth, 
  though often called tentacles, are properly considered arms. 
  Like your tongue or the arms of an octopus, the arms of the 
  froghemoth are muscular hydrostats. That is, they are limbs 
  comprised entirely of muscle and contain neither bone nor 
  major blood vessels. These limbs are strong and flexible, 
  capable of strangling and crushing massive prey.
  Senses
  The head of the froghemoth is dominated by a single 
  central eyestalk possessing between one and three keen eyes. 
  The number of eyes seems to make little difference to the 
  ocular abilities of the froghemoth, which are impressive. 
  The pipe-like nostrils of the froghemoth are also 
  distinctive to the monster. The tips of these nostril tubes are 
  often frilled, so when the froghemoth is submerged, with 
  only eyes and nostrils above the water, the nostrils resemble 
  floating vegetation. Froghemoths can collapse these tubes, 
  retracting them into their skull, and will often do so when 
  moving over dry land. The ears of a froghemoth are internal, 
  designed for listening below the water, rather than above it.
  By Jonathan McAnulty
  Art by Michael Jaecks
  Ecology 
  The Ecology of  
  the Froghemoth
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    17
  Teeth and Tongue
  Inside the froghemoth’s mouth 
  we find two more items worth 
  mentioning. The first is that, 
  unlike most amphibious creatures, 
  froghemoths have razor sharp teeth. 
  As the froghemoth typically swallows 
  its food whole, its teeth are mainly 
  defensive. Nevertheless, in areas 
  lacking small prey, a froghemoth is 
  quite capable of tearing apart larger 
  creatures and swallowing them 
  piecemeal. 
  Secondly, the mouth of the 
  froghemoth contains a long, elastic 
  tongue, perhaps the most frog-like 
  quality of the beast. This tongue 
  is fastened to the front of the 
  froghemoth’s mouth and is normally 
  kept rolled up inside the creature’s 
  head, though it can reach down 
  its own throat with its tongue to 
  dislodge food or items stuck there. 
  When hunting, the froghemoth uses 
  its tongue as a fifth limb, attacking, 
  grasping, and pulling victims into its 
  mouth to be swallowed.  
  Adventurers report that froghemoths 
  often lick objects of interest. It uses its 
  tongue to examine potential food and 
  new objects–even, at the appropriate 
  times, potential mates. Indeed, the 
  creature uses its tongue for smell, taste, 
  and touch since the tips of its arms are 
  not particularly sensitive.
  The final physiological feature of the 
  froghemoth worthy of discussion is its 
  nervous system. The nerves and spinal 
  cord of a froghemoth are prodigious 
  in size and conduct massive amounts 
  of electricity from brain to limb. These 
  powerful electrical charges allow the 
  monster to react with a speed that belies 
  its size. This also explains the creature’s 
  curious reaction to electrical attacks. 
  Though the nerves of the froghemoth 
  can absorb and conduct any amount 
  of electricity, electrical attacks from 
  outside the body confuse the creature’s 
  muscles as they try to distinguish 
  between the charges sent from the 
  brain and the foreign signals; thus, the 
  apparent slowness of the creature when 
  struck with electrical attacks.
  Life Cycle
  Froghemoths dwell in fresh water 
  environments in warm and hot 
  climates. Generally, they make their 
  homes in swamps, but they can also be 
  found living in the shallows of a warm 
  lake or along the banks of a slow-
  moving river. Each froghemoth has a 
  territory of four to nine square miles, 
  which it considers its own. For most 
  of the year, it instinctively avoids the 
  territories of other froghemoths. 
  The exception to this rule is during 
  the mating season. Froghemoths feel 
  the compulsion to mate in the early 
  spring or during particularly rainy 
  spells, and they leave their homes in 
  search of a mate, often wandering 
  many miles. This accounts for most 
  froghemoths encountered out of the 
  water. 
  Although froghemoths hunt less 
  during the mating season, they are 
  more aggressive, and they often 
  form mating pods of two to six. 
  Froghemoths are hermaphrodites and, 
  
  18     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Life cycle of the Froghemoth
  A Froghemoth eggs
  B Woghemoth
  C tAdhemoth
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    19
  following their two-week long unions, 
  each of these mating aberrations lays 
  between 10 and 100 eggs—in the still 
  waters, no more than 6-10 ft. deep. 
  Eggs Hazards and Hatching
  The quirks of the froghemoth’s nervous 
  system are most readily apparent in the 
  beast’s juvenile forms. The froghemoth 
  eggs, each about 1 ft. in diameter, 
  constantly release pulses of electrical 
  energy into the water around them. 
  Combined with the slimy gel holding 
  the eggs together, this pulse makes 
  froghemoth eggs a very real hazard 
  for any creature passing through the 
  waters nearby.
  The eggs incubate for two months 
  before they hatch, releasing newborn 
  froghemoths into the world. Newborn 
  froghemoths are ravenous, and they 
  consume their eggshells, then the 
  slime holding the shells, and then any 
  unfortunate creatures caught in the 
  slime. This is not the end; they then 
  turn on each other. Coupled with the 
  willingness of older froghemoths to 
  eat their own young, this cannibalism 
  helps insure their numbers are never 
  too great.
  Woghemoth
  Froghemoths pass through two distinct 
  larval stages before they are considered 
  mature. The first larval stage is 
  called the woghemoth stage. (The 
  waggish scholar who first studied the 
  froghemoth and was thus responsible 
  for naming them originally called this 
  stage the pollywoghemoth but later 
  generations shortened the name.) 
  The woghemoth looks a bit like a 
  pale eel with two rear fins and four 
  pectoral fins. It mindlessly hunts 
  anything that moves, using its unusual 
  electrical abilities to help it stun 
  potential prey. 
  Tadhemoth
  After about 6 months of growth, the 
  woghemoth enters its second larval 
  stage, that of the tadhemoth.
  At this point, the pectoral fins have 
  become stubby tentacle looking arms, 
  and the tongue of the tadhemoth has 
  developed enough for it to pull food 
  into its fanged mouth. 
  Normally, by this stage the juvenile 
  froghemoth has lost the ability to 
  discharge electricity. As the tadhemoth 
  grows, its rear fins morph into legs, its 
  tail shortens through apoptosis, and its 
  tentacles thicken and lengthen. 
  A froghemoth reaches maturity by 
  3 years of age although the creature 
  continues to grow all of its life.
  Froghemoth Eggs
  The small globes, just visible under 
  the brackish water, are black, leathery 
  looking, and approximately a foot in 
  diameter. Piled in a heap, they seem 
  held together by a yellow slime. A fish 
  trapped in the slime quivers spasmodi-
  cally every few seconds, near death and 
  in obvious distress.
  Froghemoth Eggs (Hazard) 
  CR 2
  600 XP
  Froghemoths lay 10-100 eggs at a 
  time, and the eggs are held together 
  with a glue-like slime that serves three 
  functions. The slime reacts with the 
  water the eggs are laid in, producing a 
  brown aquatic cloud extending 15 ft. 
  from the eggs, similar to muddy water. 
  All perception checks made to spot 
  items in this cloudy water take a -8 
  circumstance penalty. Spotting the eggs 
  requires a DC 20 Perception check. 
  The slime’s second function is that 
  it traps potential food. Any creature 
  – other than a froghemoth – coming 
  into contact with the slime is held fast. 
  Breaking free from the slime requires a 
  DC 15 Strength check. 
  The slime’s third function is to serve 
  as a conduit for the egg’s electrical 
  charge. Every 5 rounds, the eggs release 
  a charge. Any creature within the slime 
  when this charge is released must make 
  a DC 14 Fortitude check or suffer 1d4 
  Strength damage. Each egg has 6 hp 
  and hardness 2. In a group of fewer 
  than 10 eggs, the electrical discharge is 
  not strong enough to affect creatures of 
  Small size or larger.     
  Woghemoth
  In addition to the two long, feathery fins 
  streaming from the rear of this eel-like 
  monstrosity, four fins radiate from the 
  pectoral area of the pale-white body. 
  Though eyeless, the creature flashes 
  unerringly through the water towards its 
  potential meal, opening a mouth filled 
  with razor sharp teeth. As it swims, 
  electricity crackles along its fins.
  Woghemoth 
  CR 1/2 
  XP 200 XP
  N Small vermin (aquatic)
  Init +3; Senses tremorsense 30 ft.; 
  Perception +6
  Defense 
  AC 16, touch 14, flatfooted 13 (+3 
  Dex, +2 natural, +1 size)
  hp 6 (1d8+1)
  Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1
  Immune electricity (partial); Resist 
  fire 5
  Offense
  Spd 5 ft., swim 30 ft. 
  Melee +4 bite (1d4) 
  Special Attack electrical discharge
  Statistics
  Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int —, Wis 
  12, Cha 8 
  Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 12  
  Feats Weapon Finesse 
  Skills Perception +6, Swim +12; 
  Racial Modifiers +5 Perception 
  Ecology
  Enviroment temperate marsh  
  Organization solitary, pack (1-6), or 
  hatchlings (10-100) 
  Treasure none
  Special Abilities
  Electrical Discharge (Ex) As a 
  free action, once every 3 rounds, 
  Electric Froghemoth 
  A	rare	few	froghemoths	retain	an	
  electrical	attack	into	maturity.	When	
  these	froghemoths	hit	with	their	
  tentacles,	they	release	an	electrical	
  discharge,	which	can	stun	an	opponent.	
  In	addition	to	the	normal	damage	
  done	by	the	tentacle,	the	target	of	one	
  of	these	attacks	takes	2d6	points	of	
  nonlethal	damage	and	must	make	a	DC	
  15	Fortitude	save	or	be	stunned	for	1d6	
  rounds.	This	save	DC	is	constitution-
  based.	Such	froghemoths	have	a	CR	
  of	14.	
  
  20					Kobold Quarterly 12
  a woghemoth can emit a powerful 
  electrical discharge. This must 
  originate in water but affects 
  all creatures within 15 ft. of the 
  woghemoth. Any creature struck by 
  the discharge takes 1d6 nonlethal 
  damage and must make a DC 11 
  Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d6 
  rounds. Woghemoths, tadhemoths, 
  and froghemoths are immune to these 
  electrical discharges. The save DC is 
  Constitution-based. 
  Slowed by Electricity (Ex) While 
  woghemoths take no damage from 
  electricity, electrical attacks other than 
  their own confuse them, and they 
  become slowed for 1 round.
  Tremorsense (Ex) A woghemoth 
  can sense any movement in the water 
  within 30 ft.  
  Tactics
  Woghemoths employ straightforward 
  tactics and attack almost anything that 
  moves through their waters, including 
  (in times of poor hunting) each other. 
  As they charge in, they release their 
  electrical attack. 
  As soon as they are injured they flee, 
  but combatants should not be fooled 
  into thinking a fleeing woghemoth is 
  defeated. They mindlessly charge in a 
  few seconds later, as soon as they have 
  built up another electrical charge. 
  Advancement and Growth 
  Woghemoths begin life approximately 
  2 ft. long. If they are not eaten by their 
  siblings or by predators, they grow 
  about 1 ft. per month until they reach 
  8 ft. long. For each foot of growth, a 
  woghemoth gains another HD and an 
  additional point of Strength. 
  A 3-HD woghemoth is a Medium 
  vermin: its bite attack improves to 
  1d6 damage and it loses a point of 
  Dexterity. As a woghemoth grows, its 
  skin darkens and its pectoral fins begin 
  the process of elongating into tentacles, 
  but regardless of their appearance, 
  these appendages are useless in combat. 
  Tadhemoth
  Like some strange tentacular shark, the 
  tadhemoth darts towards its prey. Its eye 
  fixes straight ahead, and its tentacles lash 
  out at the frightened target, grabbing and 
  pulling its meal towards its fanged maw.  
  Tadhemoth 
  CR 5 
  XP 1,200  
  N Large aberration (aquatic) 
  Init +6; Senses Perception +14
  Defense 
  AC 19, touch 11, flatfooted 17 (+2 
  Dex, +8 natural, -1 size) 
  hp 43 (8d8+8) 
  Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +7 
  Immune electricity (partial) Resist  
  fire 10
  Offense
  Spd 10 ft., swim 30 ft. 
  Melee +11 bite (1d6+5/19-20 plus 
  grab), +7/+7 tentacles (1d4+2 plus 
  grab), +7 tongue (1d4+2 plus grab) 
  Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with 
  tongue) 
  Special Attack swallow whole (2d6+3 
  damage, AC 16, hp 10)
  Statistics
  Str 20, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 
  12, Cha 9 
  Base Atk +6; CMB +11; CMD 23  
  Feats Improve Critical (bite), 
  Improved Initiative, Multiattack, 
  Power Attack  
  Skills Perception +10, Stealth +10 
  (+18 in marshes), Swim +17; Racial 
  Modifiers +5 Perception, +8 Stealth 
  (in marshes) 
  Special amphibious 
  Ecology
  Enviroment temperate marsh  
  Organization solitary or pair  
  Treasure none
  Special Abilities
  Amphibious (Ex) A tadhemoth 
  can survive either in or out of water 
  although they have more difficulty on 
  dry land. 
  Slowed by Electricity (Ex) While 
  tadhemoths take no damage from 
  electricity, electrical attacks other than 
  that of a woghemoth confuse them, 
  and they become slow for 1 round, as 
  if affected by the spell slow. 
  Tactics
  Tadhemoths hunt with slightly 
  more intelligence than their more 
  juvenile counterparts. Though they 
  will still attack anything they think 
  they can eat, they are more stealthy 
  and cunning in their attacks. The 
  tadhemoth’s preferred mode of attack 
  is to approach potential prey from 
  behind. 
  Once prey has been ensnared and 
  swallowed, the tadhemoth will attempt 
  to break off any combat, retreating to 
  deeper waters to swallow and digest 
  its meal. As tadhemoths fight only 
  for food, they break off any combat 
  in which they take more than 50% of 
  their hp in damage. Tadhemoths rarely 
  attack entities that they remember as 
  seriously hurting them, preferring to 
  seek easy prey. 
  Advancement and Growth 
  As tadhemoths age, they continue 
  to grow, reaching maturity at three 
  years of age. A tadhemoth gains an 
  additional HD every 3 months. As 
  they grow, their rear fins morph into 
  legs and their tail thickens. At 12 HD, 
  their land speed improves to 20 ft.
  <
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    21
  N
  ovember 21st was one of the most surreal days of 
  my gaming career, for it was on that day that I 
  experienced da Vinci Arts Middle School’s stage 
  production of my adventure, “Burnt Offerings,” the first 
  adventure in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
  The Pitch
  I’d seen photos of the set and costumes ahead of time, 
  but I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Three cars full of 
  Paizo employees and significant others made the day-trip 
  down to Portland, but while everyone else spent the day 
  eating Voodoo Doughnuts and playing videogames and 
  shopping for books and stuff, I couldn’t stop wondering 
  what that night’s performance was going to be like. Had I 
  known when I was writing “Burnt Offerings” that it would 
  eventually be adapted into a play to be performed by a cast 
  of almost 50 very talented actors, I’m relatively certain I 
  would have panicked and never finished the adventure in 
  the first place. Fortunately, the idea of someone adapting an 
  adventure into a play never crossed my mind.
  So when director Tom Beckett contacted me with his 
  idea to turn “Burnt Offerings” into a play, I was honored 
  and surprised and curious and maybe even a little skeptical. 
  “How can you turn an adventure that features as much 
  Burnt Offerings 
  on Stage
  By James Jacobs
  Photos by Steve Hammer, Danica King
  Kobold Diplomacy
  mature content as “Burnt Offerings” into a middle school 
  play? How would you stage the huge fight scenes? What 
  about the sets? The costumes?”
  The Results
  As it turned out, Beckett and his incredible cast and crew 
  knew all the answers to these questions and more—the play 
  was absolutely stunning!
  From the stage dressing to the costumes to the props (real 
  metal weapons!) to the special effects (they included the 
  giant hermit crab!) to the acting (including songs!) to the 
  directing, it was all jaw-droppingly amazing to see what 
  Beckett and his crew created. Looking at the program, I see 
  that there were almost 50 roles in the play—and at times, 
  it felt like half of them were all on stage at once! The fight 
  with the giant hermit crab in the Thistletop dungeons 
  was a particular highlight, as was seeing Sandpoint’s own 
  Ameiko Kaijitsu (played by Alexa Lyford) unleash some 
  bardic performances on the guitar just before a zombie 
  attack. Or seeing elven ranger Shalelu Andosana (played 
  by Zoe Lindsey) whirling around on stage in several huge 
  fights wielding a pair of starknife-like double daggers in 
  each hand (and without accidentally stabbing anyone). Or 
  seeing a whole swarm of kids dressed as goblins wielding 
  The citizens of the town of Sandpoint prepare for the annual Swallowtail Festival under the guidance of Mayor Kendra Deverin. 
  CREDIT: Steve Hammer
  
  22     Kobold Quarterly 12
  real dogslicers racing around in pure 
  pandemonium and mayhem. Or tragic 
  Nualia (played by Aja Wald) begin her 
  transformation into a demon. 
  The Adaptation
  I was incredibly impressed by one 
  thing in particular, namely how Tom’s 
  adaptation of the adventure kept many 
  of the more mature elements in place. 
  They were suitably downplayed in 
  some areas, but I never really felt like 
  anything was missing. In fact, some 
  of Tom’s additions to the story (giving 
  Belor Hemlock a son who wants 
  to become a hero, or adding a few 
  Skinsaw cultists to the dungeons of 
  Thistletop) were really cool, and I wish 
  I’d thought of them to put into the 
  adventure myself!
  Also cool: they gave me my own 
  dogslicer. Canines beware!
  <
  Nualia Tobyn in the act of convincing Tsuto 
  Kaijitsu to betray the town of Sandpoint. 
  CREDIT: Steve Hammer
  Erik Mona, James Jacobs, and Jason Bulmahn pose with 
  "Burnt Offerings" cast members. CREDIT: Danica King
  Burnt Offerings program
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    23
  James Jacobs wields a bouquet of roses 
  against Malfeshnekor the barghest.  
  CREDIT: Danica King
  A pack of excited goblins in the act of setting 
  the town of Sandpoint on fire. 
  CREDIT: Steve Hammer
  The villains of the play lay their vile plans for 
  Sandpoint. CREDIT: Steve Hammer
  
  24					Kobold Quarterly 12
  W
  e’ve all been there; the dice have been cast, the 
  emails containing pages of flavorful backstory 
  have been sent, and you’ve arrived at the gaming 
  table chagrined to discover that the miracle-throwing paragon 
  of faith you’ve imagined has been shoehorned into being just 
  another armor clad cleric. Sometimes the traditional cleric just 
  doesn’t match the image we have in our heads, even with the 
  right domains. 
  An exception that proves the rule, the druid peeled off as 
  its own class long ago, a wonderful addition to fantasy RPG 
  canon that remains, in essence, a “specialty priest.” So why 
  not do the same for other priestly concepts? 
  Consider the potential for a cleric-thief.  Using only 
  multiclassing rules, most players will find a clunky  
  approximation, but sometimes, approximations just aren’t 
  good enough. Who needs a thugee kit when you can just 
  build a thugee outright?
  Rather than build these classes with wholly new special 
  abilities, like the druid, these Pathfinder Roleplaying 
  Game classes have been "remixed" from existing classes 
  to ensure maximal balance, compatibility, familiarity, and 
  ease of use. With a scattering of new features, these classes 
  showcase the effectively modular nature of the existing 
  classes. 
  Sohei (Sacred Fist)
  To fight is to pray. For you, martial prowess is more than 
  utility or beauty; it is belief, and no other communion can 
  raise you closer to the godhead. Combat is a hymn to your 
  god’s glory and the sacrament by which you profess your 
  faith’s virtues. You are the fist of your god, wrought from 
  blood and discipline. To exert, to bleed, to defeat, to die: 
  these are your prayers. Others will witness your sermon on 
  the field of battle.
  Role. You lack some of the raw melee potential of the 
  monk, but you expand the monk’s impressive versatility 
  with your spell casting. Your healing, speed, and versatility 
  make you ideal for support and skirmish operations. Squads 
  of sohei make excellent guards for temples, and individual 
  sohei often accompany the faithful on holy quests or 
  pilgrimages.
  A monk build that:
  Loses... 
  Gains…
  Flurry of Blows 
  Spells (as cleric)
  Bonus Feats 
  Orisons (as cleric)
  Still Mind 
  Extension of Self (new feature)
  Wholeness of Body 
  Alters…
  Diamond Soul 
  Unarmed Damage
  The sohei is built from the Pathfinder Roleplaying 
  By Scott Gable
  Art by Cory Trego-Erdner
  Base Class
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    25
  Game’s  monk class. Only those 
  features that have changed are listed 
  below. (Note that some of the monk’s 
  features were lost as detailed above. 
  Additionally, alignment restrictions, 
  HD, and skills remain the same as for 
  a monk, unless otherwise indicated.)
  Class Features
  Weapon and Armor Proficiency. 
  In addition to the monk’s normal 
  weapon and armor proficiency, you are 
  proficient with one additional simple 
  or martial weapon.
  Spells. You cast divine spells 
  drawn from the cleric spell list. You 
  cannot choose spells opposed to 
  your alignment. You prepare spells in 
  advance and must have a minimum 
  Wisdom score equal to 10 + the spell 
  level to prepare a given spell. The DC 
  for saving throws against your spells 
  is 10 + spell level + your Wisdom 
  modifier. You can only cast a certain 
  number of spells each day (see “Spells 
  per Day”). You also gain bonus spells 
  Sohei
  Level
  BAB
  Fort
  Ref
  Will
  Special
  Unarmed 
  Damage
  AC 
  Bonus
  Fast 
  Movement
  1st
  +0
  +2
  +2
  +2
  Extension of self, orisons, stunning 
  fist, unarmed strike
  1d6
  +0
  +0 ft.
  2nd
  +1
  +3
  +3
  +3
  Evasion
  1d6
  +0
  +0 ft.
  3rd
  +2
  +3
  +3
  +3
  Fast movement, maneuver training
  1d6
  +0
  +10 ft.
  4th
  +3
  +4
  +4
  +4
  Ki pool (magic), slow fall 20 ft.
  1d8
  +1
  +10 ft.
  5th
  +3
  +4
  +4
  +4
  High jump, purity of body
  1d8
  +1
  +10 ft.
  6th
  +4
  +5
  +5
  +5
  Slow fall 30 ft.
  1d8
  +1
  +20 ft.
  7th
  +5
  +5
  +5
  +5
  1d10
  +1
  +20 ft.
  8th
  +6/+1
  +6
  +6
  +6
  Slow fall 40 ft.
  1d10
  +2
  +20 ft.
  9th
  +6/+1
  +6
  +6
  +6
  Improved evasion
  1d10
  +2
  +30 ft.
  10th
  +7/+2
  +7
  +7
  +7
  Ki pool (lawful), slow fall 50 ft.
  2d6
  +2
  +30 ft.
  11th
  +8/+3
  +7
  +7
  +7
  Diamond body
  2d6
  +2
  +30 ft.
  12th
  +9/+4
  +8
  +8
  +8
  Abundant step, slow fall 60 ft.
  2d6
  +3
  +40 ft.
  13th
  +9/+4
  +8
  +8
  +8
  2d8
  +3
  +40 ft.
  14th
  +10/+5
  +9
  +9
  +9
  Slow fall 70 ft.
  2d8
  +3
  +40 ft.
  15th
  +11/+6/+1
  +9
  +9
  +9
  Quivering palm
  2d8
  +3
  +50 ft.
  16th
  +12/+7/+2
  +10
  +10
  +10
  Ki pool (adamantine), slow fall 80 ft.
  2d10
  +4
  +50 ft.
  17th
  +12/+7/+2
  +10
  +10
  +10
  Timeless body, tongue of the sun and 
  moon
  2d10
  +4
  +50 ft.
  18th
  +13/+8/+3
  +11
  +11
  +11
  Slow fall 90 ft.
  2d10
  +4
  +60 ft.
  19th
  +14/+9/+4
  +11
  +11
  +11
  Empty body
  2d12
  +4
  +60 ft.
  20th
  +15/+10/+5
  +12
  +12
  +12
  Perfect self, slow fall any distance
  2d12
  +5
  +60 ft.
  Sohei Spells per Day
  0
  1st
  2nd
  3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  1st
  3
  1
  2nd
  4
  2
  3rd
  4
  2
  1
  4th
  4
  3
  2
  5th
  4
  3
  2
  1
  6th
  4
  3
  3
  2
  7th
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  8th
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  9th
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  10th
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  11th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  12th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  13th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  14th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  15th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  16th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  17th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  18th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  19th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  20th
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  
  26     Kobold Quarterly 12
  per day for a high Wisdom score.
   You meditate for your spells, 
  requiring 1 hour of contemplation 
  each day choose your spells. You may 
  prepare and cast any spell on the cleric 
  spell list, provided you are of sufficient 
  level and the spell is not opposed to 
  your alignment.
   You do not gain domains, extra 
  domain spells, or spontaneous casting.
  Extension of Self. You have trained 
  extensively with your chosen weapons, 
  and they have become an extension of 
  your own body. For any class feature 
  that requires an unarmed strike, you 
  can instead use a weapon with which 
  you are proficient; this includes for the 
  abilities unarmed strike, stunning fist, 
  ki strike, and quivering palm.
   For any attack, you are capable 
  of combining the qualities of your 
  unarmed strike with those of a 
  wielded weapon with which you are 
  proficient. You may choose to use the 
  base damage of either your unarmed 
  strike or your weapon. In addition 
  to being bludgeoning damage, each 
  attack also takes on the qualities of 
  the weapon. Just like your unarmed 
  strike, your weapon is treated as both 
  manufactured and natural (although 
  stacking limitations for enhancements 
  still apply).
   For example, if at 6th level you 
  wielded a +1 flaming adamantine 
  dagger, on all successful hits, you 
  would deal your unarmed damage 
  (1d8) in place of the dagger’s 
  base damage (1d4) and treat it as 
  adamantine, bludgeoning, and 
  piercing; you would still add in 
  the extra damage from the +1 
  enhancement and flaming property. 
  Orisons. You can prepare a number 
  of orisons each day (see “Sohei Spells 
  per Day”). These are not expended 
  when cast and may be used again.
  Unarmed Damage. Your unarmed 
  damage increases slightly faster than 
  that of a standard monk (see "Sohei"  
  table).
  Phantom  
  (Sacred Palm or Cultist)
  The gods have enemies everywhere. 
  To safeguard your ideals, you must 
  act before they do, commit any deed, 
  no matter what, to defend the faith 
  from those who prevent your faith 
  from creating its earthly paradise. You 
  must fight from the shadows: always 
  vigilant, always wary of treachery, 
  always seeking advantage. Your 
  accomplishments often go unsung, 
  but that’s necessary. You risk your life 
  constantly, uncovering dirty secrets 
  and carrying out the jobs others can’t 
  and won’t do. Your place in paradise 
  is assured; it isn’t a sin when your god 
  commands you to act in his name. 
  Phantom
  Level
  BAB
  Fort
  Ref
  Will
  Special
  Spells per Day
  0
  1st
  2nd 3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  1st
  +0
  +0
  +2
  +2
  Aura, channel energy 
  invisibility, orisons, 
  sneak attack +1d6
  3
  1
  2nd
  +1
  +0
  +3
  +3
  4
  2
  3rd
  +2
  +1
  +3
  +3
  4
  2
  1
  4th
  +3
  +1
  +4
  +4
  Sneak attack +2d6
  4
  3
  2
  5th
  +3
  +1
  +4
  +4
  Channel energy 
  invisibility sphere
  4
  3
  2
  1
  6th
  +4
  +2
  +5
  +5
  4
  3
  3
  2
  7th
  +5
  +2
  +5
  +5
  Sneak attack +3d6
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  8th
  +6/+1
  +2
  +6
  +6
  Channel energy greater 
  invisibility
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  9th
  +6/+1
  +3
  +6
  +6
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  10th
  +7/+2
  +3
  +7
  +7
  Sneak attack +4d6
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  11th
  +8/+3
  +3
  +7
  +7
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  12th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +8
  +8
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  13th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +8
  +8
  Sneak attack +5d6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  14th
  +10/+5
  +4
  +9
  +9
  Channel energy mass 
  invisibility
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  15th
  +11/+6/+1
  +5
  +9
  +9
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  16th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +10
  +10
  Sneak attack +6d6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  17th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +10
  +10
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  18th
  +13/+8/+3
  +6
  +11
  +11
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  19th
  +14/+9/+4
  +6
  +11
  +11
  Sneak attack +7d6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  20th
  +15/+10/+5
  +6
  +12
  +12
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    27
  Role. You lack the full arsenal of 
  your god’s spells, but can channel 
  power in ways that better suit your 
  sneaky nature. Along with your 
  improved skills and ability to dispatch 
  foes quickly, you are a master of 
  espionage and excel at jobs that 
  require stealth and secrecy. Squads 
  of phantoms are often used for 
  infiltration missions. Phantoms make 
  especially good “cultists.”
  A cleric build that:
  Loses...
  Armor Proficiency 
  Domains
  Gains…
  Skills (as rogue)
  Weapon Proficiency (as rogue)
  Sneak Attack (as rogue) 
  Alters…
  Saving Throws
  Channel Energy (new feature)
  Spontaneous Casting
  The phantom is built from the 
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game’s  
  cleric class. Only those features that 
  have changed are listed below. (Note 
  that some of the cleric’s features were 
  dropped as detailed above. Alignment 
  restrictions, HD, and skills remain the 
  same as for a cleric, unless otherwise 
  indicated.
  Class Features
  Skills. Each level, you gain skill 
  ranks equal to 4 + Int modifier (instead 
  of the cleric’s usual 2 + Int modifier). 
  In addition to the cleric’s class skills, 
  you also gain 5 additional class skills 
  chosen from the rogue’s class skill list 
  at character creation.  
  Weapon and Armor Proficiency. 
  You replace the cleric’s weapon and 
  armor proficiency with that of the 
  rogue.
  Channel Energy (Su). You channel 
  the energy of your faith inward, hiding 
  yourself from view.
   Each time you channel energy, you 
  spend a swift action and gain the 
  effects of invisibility (as the spell) for 1 
  turn—from the start of your turn until 
  the start of your next turn or until 
  you perform an act that would end 
  the spell. You may use your channel 
  energy a number of rounds per day 
  equal to your phantom level + your 
  Charisma modifier. This is a swift 
  action that does not provoke an attack 
  of opportunity. You must be wielding 
  your holy symbol, but you need not 
  brandish it. These rounds do not need 
  to be consecutive.
   At 5th level, you can choose to gain 
  the effects of invisibility sphere (as the 
  spell) by spending an additional use 
  of channel energy for each round. 
  Emissary
  Level
  BAB
  Fort
  Ref
  Will
  Special
  Spells per Day
  0
  1st
  2nd 3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  1st
  +0
  +0
  +2
  +0
  Domain, orisons, 
  trapfinding
  3
  1
  2nd
  +1
  +0
  +3
  +0
  Evasion, rogue talent
  4
  2
  3rd
  +2
  +1
  +3
  +1
  Trap sense +1
  4
  2
  1
  4th
  +3
  +1
  +4
  +1
  Uncanny dodge
  4
  3
  2
  5th
  +3
  +1
  +4
  +1
  4
  3
  2
  1
  6th
  +4
  +2
  +5
  +2
  Rogue talent, trap sense 
  +2
  4
  3
  3
  2
  7th
  +5
  +2
  +5
  +2
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  8th
  +6/+1
  +2
  +6
  +2
  Improved uncanny 
  dodge
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  9th
  +6/+1
  +3
  +6
  +3
  Trap sense +3
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  10th
  +7/+2
  +3
  +7
  +3
  Advanced talents, rogue 
  talent
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  11th
  +8/+3
  +3
  +7
  +3
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  12th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +8
  +4
  Trap sense +4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  13th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +8
  +4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  14th
  +10/+5
  +4
  +9
  +4
  Rogue talent
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  15th
  +11/+6/+1
  +5
  +9
  +5
  Trap sense +5
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  16th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +10
  +5
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  17th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +10
  +5
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  2
  1
  18th
  +13/+8/+3
  +6
  +11
  +6
  Rogue talent, Trap sense 
  +6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  2
  19th
  +14/+9/+4
  +6
  +11
  +6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  20th
  +15/+10/+5
  +6
  +12
  +6
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  
  28     Kobold Quarterly 12
  For example, with a Charisma of 16 
  at 5th level, you would have 8 uses 
  of channel energy per day and, so, 
  could gain invisibility for 8 rounds or 
  invisibility sphere for 4 rounds or some 
  combination in between.
   At 8th level, you gain the effects 
  of greater invisibility (as the spell) 
  when you channel energy instead 
  of invisibility with no added cost. 
  This enhancement does not extend 
  to others. For example, if you are 
  currently under the effects of greater 
  invisibility and then channel an 
  invisibility sphere, those in range are 
  engulfed by a normal invisibility sphere.
   At 14th level, you gain the effects of 
  mass invisibility (as the spell) instead of 
  invisibility sphere when you spend an 
  additional use of channel energy for 
  each round.
  Sneak Attack. You gain the rogue’s 
  sneak attack ability. However, you gain 
  +1d6 damage every 3 phantom levels 
  instead of every 2 levels.
  Spontaneous Casting. You gain 
  spontaneous casting as the cleric, but 
  you suffer no alignment restrictions. 
  For example, a good phantom may 
  sacrifice a prepared spell for an inflict 
  spell while an evil phantom may 
  choose cure spells. You need not 
  choose one or the other at character 
  creation but can choose at each instant. 
  Otherwise, the ability is the same.
  Emissary (Sacred Voice)
  Words are the greatest tool of faith 
  and it's deadliest weapon. You put 
  a face on your god, bringing the 
  message to the people. Your faith is 
  often a person’s first direct experience 
  with your god. Your dedication is 
  inspiring; your passion is contagious. 
  You influence the actions of others and 
  gather momentum for your cause. You 
  are the lifeline to the followers of your 
  god. They look to you for guidance 
  and support. 
  Role. You lack much of the rogue’s 
  punch in combat, but your skills and 
  spells make you incredibly versatile. 
  You are well suited for diplomatic 
  missions and are an incredible support 
  mechanism, using your healing, 
  trapfinding, and other abilities to 
  full effect. Emissaries are often the 
  negotiators and evangelists for a 
  religion.
  A rogue build that:
  Loses...
  Sneak Attack
  Master Strike
  Gains…
  Spells (as cleric)
  Orisons (as cleric)
  Domain (as cleric)
  Alters…
  Rogue Talents (halved)
  Advanced Talents (halved)
  The emissary is built from the 
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rogue 
  class. Only those features that have 
  changed are listed below. (Some of 
  the rogue’s features were removed as 
  Sage
  Level
  BAB
  Fort
  Ref
  Will Special
  Spells per Day
  0
  1st
  2nd
  3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  1st
  +0
  +0
  +0
  +2
  Aura, bardic knowledge, 
  domains, living symbol, 
  orisons
  3
  1+1
  2nd
  +1
  +0
  +0
  +3
  4
  2+1
  3rd
  +2
  +1
  +1
  +3
  4
  2+1
  1+1
  4th
  +3
  +1
  +1
  +4
  4
  3+1
  2+1
  5th
  +3
  +1
  +1
  +4
  4
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  6th
  +4
  +2
  +2
  +5
  4
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  7th
  +5
  +2
  +2
  +5
  4
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  8th
  +6/+1
  +2
  +2
  +6
  4
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  9th
  +6/+1
  +3
  +3
  +6
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  10th
  +7/+2
  +3
  +3
  +7
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  11th
  +8/+3
  +3
  +3
  +7
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  12th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +4
  +8
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  13th
  +9/+4
  +4
  +4
  +8
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  14th
  +10/+5
  +4
  +4
  +9
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  15th
  +11/+6/+1
  +5
  +5
  +9
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  16th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +5
  +10
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  17th
  +12/+7/+2
  +5
  +5
  +10
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  2+1
  1+1
  18th
  +13/+8/+3
  +6
  +6
  +11
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  2+1
  19th
  +14/+9/+4
  +6
  +6
  +11
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  3+1
  3+1
  20th
  +15/+10/+5
  +6
  +6
  +12
  4
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  4+1
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    29
  detailed above. Alignment restrictions, 
  HD, and skills remain the same as for 
  a rogue, unless otherwise indicated.)
  Class Features
  Spells. You cast divine spells 
  drawn from the cleric spell list.  You 
  cannot choose spells opposed to your 
  alignment.
   You prepare spells in advance and 
  must have a minimum Wisdom score 
  equal to 10 + the spell level to prepare 
  a given spell. The DC for saving 
  throws against your spells is 10 + spell 
  level + your Wisdom modifier. You can 
  only cast a certain number of spells 
  each day (see “Spells per Day”). You 
  also gain bonus spells per day for a 
  high Wisdom score.
   You meditate for your spells, 
  requiring 1 hour of contemplation 
  each day choose your spells. You may 
  prepare and cast any spell on the cleric 
  spell list, provided you are of sufficient 
  level and the spell is not opposed to 
  your alignment.
   You do not gain extra domain spells 
  or spontaneous casting.
  Domain. You can choose a single 
  domain from the cleric domain 
  list. You may not choose a domain 
  that requires a class feature that the 
  emissary does not possess, such as the 
  Sun domain. This feature functions 
  exactly like the cleric class feature, 
  though you neither gain extra domain 
  spell slots nor are required to prepare a 
  domain spell.
  Orisons. You can prepare a number 
  of orisons each day (see “Spells per 
  Day”). These are not expended when 
  cast and may be used again.
  Rogue Talents/Advanced Talents. 
  You retain the talents and advanced 
  talents abilities of the rogue, but you 
  gain them every 4 emissary levels 
  instead of every 2 levels.
   You cannot take rogue talents or 
  advanced talents that require the sneak 
  attack feature.
  Sage (Revolutionary)
  Knowledge is everything. It sustains 
  the faith, informs tradition, and guides 
  the faithful in all their decisions. 
  Knowledge–true knowledge, that 
  is–can never be confined with ink to 
  dry parchment, consigned to dust on 
  a forgotten bookshelf. No, knowledge 
  is alive–and you are living proof that 
  soul and blood are the only vessel fit 
  to contain holy writ. Revered elder 
  or precocious youth, others come to 
  you with their questions. You teach 
  by word and action. You are a catalyst 
  for change, applying the wisdom of 
  history to the hopes of the future. You 
  are the compass, always ensuring that 
  the faithful are aligned with your god’s 
  demands. You are the promise, keeping 
  your god’s truth alive.
  Role. You lose much of what 
  keeps a cleric in the front lines, but 
  your expanded knowledge and spell 
  abilities make you more formidable 
  in the periphery. You are well suited 
  to a support role and are often touted 
  as a pinnacle of godly achievement. 
  Sages are living symbols of their god’s 
  faithful.
  A cleric build that:
  Loses...
  Armor Proficiency (medium) 
  Channel Energy
  Saving Throws (good Fort)
  Gains…
  Bardic Knowledge (as bard)
  Domains (gains third)
  Living Symbol (new feature)
  Skills (as bard)
  Sneak Attack (as rogue)
  The sage is built from the 
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game’s cleric 
  class. Only those features that have 
  changed are listed below. (Some of 
  the cleric’s features were removed as 
  detailed above. Additionally, alignment 
  restrictions, HD, and skills remain the 
  same as for a cleric, unless otherwise 
  indicated.)
  Class Features
  Skills. Each level, you gain skill 
  ranks equal to 6 + Int modifier (instead 
  of the cleric’s usual 2 + Int modifier). 
  In addition to the cleric’s class skills, 
  you gain 5 additional class skills 
  chosen from the bard’s class skill list at 
  character creation.  
  Weapon and Armor Proficiency. 
  You are proficient with all simple 
  weapons , light armor, and shields 
  (except tower shields). You are also 
  proficient with the favored weapon of 
  your deity.
  Bardic Knowledge. You gain the 
  bard’s bardic knowledge ability.
  Domains. In addition to the two 
  domains you already have, you may 
  select a third.
  Living Symbol. While within 30 ft. 
  of you, others of your faith can use you 
  as a focal point for channeling energy. 
  You are a living holy (or unholy) 
  symbol.
  <
  
  30					Kobold Quarterly 12
  The small council of Zobeck sat stiffly at the banquet table 
  within the manor of Winter’s Kiss, their glass goblets filled with 
  a silver-pale liquid that smelled like sorrow. Tied bleating to the 
  center of the table was a forlorn goat.
  Across from them sat His Excellency Glaninin 
  Thelamandrine, Ambassador-In-Extraordinary of the Winter 
  Court to the Free City of Zobeck, fingering a translucent dagger. 
  His servants were little more than shadows and moonlight.
  Ondli Firedrake, High Priest of Rava, cleared his throat. “The 
  council has concerns about the tariffs levied by Her Majesty the 
  Queen of Night and Magic…”
  The goat screamed like a child as the ambassador gutted it on 
  the table.
  “We taught your ancestors to fear the dark,” the ambassador 
  said softly, cutting bloody slabs of meat from the still-quivering 
  beast. “When your world was young and this city not yet a 
  dream, your women left us offerings of milk in hopes that we 
  would pass their children by. I grow weary of your bluster; speak 
  not of tariffs and taxes, chattel.”
  He paused.
  “I trust you like your meat rare.”
  T
  he Shadow Realm is a place of winter shadows and 
  wan summers—a home to elves as unforgiving 
  as a blizzard. They are the twisted servants of she 
  who claims both Night and Magic as her demesnes, both a 
  goddess and a queen. Her Moonlit King is rarely seen but 
  feared even among the shadow fey. 
  Within her palace of glass and dreams, she sits on a 
  mirrored throne attended by 1,000 lords and ladies with 
  alabaster skin and hearts of ice. The queen dreams of 
  conquest, blood, and loss; she remembers too many worlds 
  that once were hers and are hers no more.
  The Winter Court sits and waits, trapped within a world 
  stitched together by memories of a past that never was. 
  Unseelie ships sail seas of fog, and fey hounds lurk near 
  crossroads and echoes of forests in hope that something 
  warm finds its way between the worlds. Each summer is 
  weaker than the last.
  But where once there was despair, she and her children 
  now hope. The world of men remembers them and comes 
  to trade. For the isolated and dangerous fey of the Shadow 
  Realm, this is the greatest opportunity in many years.
  Mankind seeks to bargain, and the Winter Court loves 
  nothing so much as a bargain. The humans entreat the 
  fey to return with them to their wondrous, vibrant, city 
  to stimulate commerce, and they offer the Winter Court 
  desires in exchange.
  And the Winter Court knows much about desire.
  These humans talk of caravans, nursery rhymes, blood 
  sacrifice, and ambassadors. They speak of mutual profit, 
  normalized trade relations, and the chance to heal the 
  breach between the fey and other peoples of the mortal 
  world and the dark creatures such as the shadow fey. They 
  speak so much that never do they notice the desperation of 
  the alabaster fey, or the way their living breath thaws the 
  ceaseless snow.
  By Neal Hebert and Jon Cogburn
  Art by Stephanie Law and Hugo Solis
  Worldbuilding
  ImpossIble Caravans 
  and UnseelIe 
  ambassadors
  IntrodUCIng the WInter CoUrt
  30
  Kobold Quarterly 12
  Antonidas Jabber was a young highwayman, brash enough 
  Antonidas Jabber was a young highwayman, brash enough 
  Antonidas Jabber was a young highwayman, brash enough 
  to get rich and smart enough to never get caught. He loved 
  to get rich and smart enough to never get caught. He loved 
  to get rich and smart enough to never get caught. He loved 
  knives, cheap beer, and cheaper women; all traits that 
  knives, cheap beer, and cheaper women; all traits that 
  knives, cheap beer, and cheaper women; all traits that 
  endeared young Jabber to the even younger—and vastly 
  endeared young Jabber to the even younger—and vastly 
  endeared young Jabber to the even younger—and vastly 
  richer—Tuck Marick, the youngest son of the merchant house 
  richer—Tuck Marick, the youngest son of the merchant house 
  richer—Tuck Marick, the youngest son of the merchant house 
  of Marick with an allowance whose size beggared description. 
  of Marick with an allowance whose size beggared description. 
  of Marick with an allowance whose size beggared description. 
  Jabber and Tuck were fond of songs and stories, and while 
  Jabber and Tuck were fond of songs and stories, and while 
  Jabber and Tuck were fond of songs and stories, and while 
  engaged in a bender of heroic proportions, they decided that 
  engaged in a bender of heroic proportions, they decided that 
  engaged in a bender of heroic proportions, they decided that 
  the minstrels’ tales of callous fey were all so terribly one-
  the minstrels’ tales of callous fey were all so terribly one-
  the minstrels’ tales of callous fey were all so terribly one-
  sided; nobody who spun straw into gold and turned frogs into 
  sided; nobody who spun straw into gold and turned frogs into 
  sided; nobody who spun straw into gold and turned frogs into 
  princes could be all bad. 
  princes could be all bad. 
  princes could be all bad. 
  At the very least, they thought, there was money to be made 
  At the very least, they thought, there was money to be made 
  At the very least, they thought, there was money to be made 
  trading with the Winter Court. Though Zobeck boasted many 
  trading with the Winter Court. Though Zobeck boasted many 
  trading with the Winter Court. Though Zobeck boasted many 
  wonders—and its university many mages—the city’s market 
  wonders—and its university many mages—the city’s market 
  wonders—and its university many mages—the city’s market 
  for myth was undercapitalized, and Jabber and Tuck were 
  for myth was undercapitalized, and Jabber and Tuck were 
  for myth was undercapitalized, and Jabber and Tuck were 
  notoriously bullish. 
  notoriously bullish. 
  notoriously bullish. 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    31
  Kobold Quarterly 12    31
  A Visitor’s Guide to Zobeck, an Excerpt
  A Visitor’s Guide to Zobeck, an Excerpt
  A Visitor’s Guide to Zobeck, an Excerpt
  “It’s said that a true merchant of the Free City would sell his own mother into slavery 
  “It’s said that a true merchant of the Free City would sell his own mother into slavery 
  “It’s said that a true merchant of the Free City would sell his own mother into slavery 
  for two coppers. That’s false, of course: he’d need at least two gold. Two coppers 
  for two coppers. That’s false, of course: he’d need at least two gold. Two coppers 
  for two coppers. That’s false, of course: he’d need at least two gold. Two coppers 
  would only get a kobold a dance with mum.
  would only get a kobold a dance with mum.
  would only get a kobold a dance with mum.
  “Though Rava the Gear Goddess remains the ticking heart of Zobeck’s Temple 
  “Though Rava the Gear Goddess remains the ticking heart of Zobeck’s Temple 
  “Though Rava the Gear Goddess remains the ticking heart of Zobeck’s Temple 
  District, economy and trade are the soul of the city proper. Loud caravans trample 
  District, economy and trade are the soul of the city proper. Loud caravans trample 
  District, economy and trade are the soul of the city proper. Loud caravans trample 
  through the city gates day and night; barges and river-runners keep the dockhands of 
  through the city gates day and night; barges and river-runners keep the dockhands of 
  through the city gates day and night; barges and river-runners keep the dockhands of 
  the Free City in constant motion. Whether carrying dwarven steel and iron from the 
  the Free City in constant motion. Whether carrying dwarven steel and iron from the 
  the Free City in constant motion. Whether carrying dwarven steel and iron from the 
  Cantons, the spices of Reth-Saal, or stallions of questionable pedigree, the Free City is 
  Cantons, the spices of Reth-Saal, or stallions of questionable pedigree, the Free City is 
  Cantons, the spices of Reth-Saal, or stallions of questionable pedigree, the Free City is 
  where fortunes can be made.
  where fortunes can be made.
  where fortunes can be made.
  “But while cantonal steel, spices, and stallions have their charm, nothing draws the 
  “But while cantonal steel, spices, and stallions have their charm, nothing draws the 
  “But while cantonal steel, spices, and stallions have their charm, nothing draws the 
  eye so much as the monthly arrival of the glass merchants of Taggerole. Though many 
  eye so much as the monthly arrival of the glass merchants of Taggerole. Though many 
  eye so much as the monthly arrival of the glass merchants of Taggerole. Though many 
  caravans brave the Shadow Road, none of the imitators have a patch on this Zobeck 
  caravans brave the Shadow Road, none of the imitators have a patch on this Zobeck 
  caravans brave the Shadow Road, none of the imitators have a patch on this Zobeck 
  original.” 
  original.” 
  original.” 
  —Darian Darkfyre
  —Darian Darkfyre
  —Darian Darkfyre
  They welcome the return of the 
  Winter Court. And the Winter 
  Court welcomes them in turn. If it is 
  ambassadors the humans want, then 
  ambassadors they shall receive. 
  Caravans of the Shadow Road
  With Tuck’s fortune and Jabber’s brass 
  balls, the pair commissioned a mule 
  train and wagons to drive the Shadow 
  Road. The wagons would travel by way 
  of blood and poetry gathered from the 
  poorest and most desperate minstrels 
  of Zobeck.
  It was impossible. It shouldn’t have 
  worked. But it did.
  Though the first emissaries to the 
  Winter Court returned to the Free 
  City in pieces over a period of six 
  months, the youths-turned-merchants 
  persevered. The pair commissioned 
  a promising young linguist of 
  the Arcane Collegium, Matthias 
  Yronwood, known for his controversial 
  publications on the intricacies of 
  shadow fey speech. Soon enough, 
  Yronwood’s research on the shadow fey 
  conversation between man and fey in 
  moderate safety.
  Before the year was out, the first 
  glass caravans returned to Zobeck 
  from the far-off shadow kingdom. The 
  profit margin was enormous, given the 
  fey’s belief that haggling for gold—as 
  opposed to the sublime intangibles 
  of mortal memory and human 
  degradation—was beneath them and 
  tongue and insights into fey customs 
  counterbalanced Jabber’s brashness and 
  Tuck’s money.
  With Yronwood’s guidance, the 
  young factors established trade routes 
  and even spoke to the Winter Court—
  still ruled by the Goddess of Night and 
  Magic—without offending the nobility 
  in attendance. Yronwood established 
  protocols to ensure negotiations and 
  
  32     Kobold Quarterly 12
  the simple fact that the Winter Court has little use for 
  money. 
  Gold changed hands, of course—just not nearly as 
  much as Jabber and Tuck feared. The alabaster fey happily 
  took gold for the children’s toys and journeyman’s work 
  the caravans seemed so interested in (such as ghostly silver 
  lutes, goblets of spun ice, or essence of blizzard), but the 
  rarest items were sold only for happy memories, years of the 
  human haggler’s life, or sex. Given the beauty of the Winter 
  Court, the last was the most freely traded; when asked why 
  such a premium is placed on congress with mortals, the fey 
  invariably replied, “It warms us.” 
  For the first 10 years, Jabber and Tuck controlled the 
  market for Winter Court moonlight steel; to this day, 
  their original caravan—The Chartered Merchants of 
  Scathesidhe—commands the most intricate wares direct 
  from the Winter Court’s capital city. Other caravans now 
  brave the Shadow Road each year, returning with riches 
  and wonders never before seen, but for moonlight steel and 
  mirrors, Zobeck has the market cornered.
  Bazaar of the Otherworld
  While the cantonal dwarves of the Ironcrags are known 
  for their skill with metal, the Winter Court prefers ice, 
  air, and strangely spun glass. Often painful for mortals 
  unaccustomed to the rigors of gripping ice—all agree that 
  the translucent weapons and wondrous items are marvelous 
  to behold. 
  Beautiful without exception, shadow items like these draw 
  intrepid adventurers seeking them upon the newly returned 
  caravans from Taggerole.
  Moonlight Steel Weapon 
  Level 3+
  Composed of ice and air, this weapon emits an unearthly chill.
  Level 3
  +1
  680 gp
  Level 8
  +2
  3,400 gp
  Level 13
  +3
  17,000 gp
  Level 18
  +4
  85,000 gp
  Level 23
  +5
  425,000 gp
  Level 26
  +6
  2,125,000 gp
  Weapon Any melee
  Enhancement Attack rolls and damage rolls
  Critical +1d6 cold damage per plus
  Property All damage dealt by this weapon is cold damage. 
  Power (free; daily)  Cold
  Until the end of your next turn, targets you hit with the 
  moonlight steel weapon take an extra 1d8 cold damage and 
  are slowed until the end of your next turn. You take 5 cold 
  damage.
  Level 13 or 18 2d8 cold damage; ongoing 10 cold damage
  Level 23 or 28 3d8 cold damage; ongoing 15 cold damage
  Sustain (minor): The effect persists. You take ongoing 5 cold 
  damage until the effect ends.
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    33
  Zobeck remains the Winter Court’s most important 
  trading partner despite the growing glut of embassies. The 
  shadow fey insist that the Free City is the most highly 
  sought posting. This seems likely given the stature of the fey 
  appointed to the post; the sages of the Arcane Collegium 
  have found references to the five ambassadors sent to House 
  Stross—the ruling family before the revolt—in fey verse 
  dating back at least 8 centuries.
  Adding the Winter Court to Your Campaign
  Adding a race of pale-skinned fey with evil intentions smack 
  dab in the middle of your ongoing campaign is not as hard 
  as one would imagine. Thankfully, given the court’s constant 
  expansion from the shadow realm, it’s fairly easy to integrate 
  them into a campaign story arc with a minimum of fuss
  Perhaps the Winter Court is newly arrived in your 
  campaign’s home city. Then again, maybe they’ve been there 
  for decades. Or maybe the PCs wake up one day and learn 
  from everyone they meet that the Winter Court have always 
  maintained an embassy in this city, despite the PCs’ clear 
  recollections to the contrary.
  But regardless of how you decide to integrate them into 
  Gloves of the Memory Thief 
  Level 3+
  Composed of widow’s sorrow and spider silk, these thin 
  gloves would be the height of fashion at a young nobleman’s 
  masque—and highly out of place anywhere else. The gloves 
  throb with need whenever someone nearby remembers a 
  time of happiness and warmth.
  Level 3
  +1
  680 gp
  Level 8
  +2
  3,400 gp
  Level 13
  +3
  17,000 gp
  Level 18
  +4
  85,000 gp
  Level 23
  +5
  425,000 gp
  Level 26
  +6
  2,125,000 gp
  Item Slot Hands
  Property Gain a magical enhancement bonus to Bluff and 
  Insight checks.
  Power (standard; daily)  Charm
  Can only be used against a target successfully Bluffed. 
  Charisma vs. Will; if you hit, the target is dazed, and you 
  can spend a healing surge
  The Winter Court’s Ambassadors
  The Queen of Night and Magic and her Winter Court 
  needed no convincing to open trade with the Free City; 
  however, to maintain appearances, they feigned reluctance 
  when petitioned by Matthias Yronwood. The Winter Court 
  demanded their first embassy on mortal soil nearly 10 years 
  after trade between the worlds began, and they wanted it in 
  Zobeck.
  Zobeck’s council, happy with the influx of trade, 
  acquiesced. Aware of the premium the Winter Court places 
  on protocol and decorum, the city also secured Yronwood 
  a position at the collegium and placed him in charge of 
  relations with the fey.
  He took to the work with vigor. Mere months after 
  Gilgalline of Whisper’s End, the first Ambassador-
  In-Extraordinary to Zobeck, arrived in the Free City, 
  Yronwood ratified the Yronwood-Gilgalline Accord of 4021 
  A.S. by the fey reckoning. This accord—the first of six—
  codified the new understanding between man and Winter 
  Court fey, delineating in absurd detail the rules governing 
  all interactions between the races.
  Gilgalline consulted with none of his kind before 
  committing the shadow fey to the treaty. As ambassador, 
  he spoke for the Queen of Night and Magic; his decisions 
  were hers. It took many meetings to impress upon him that 
  Zobeck, by contrast, could not speak for all mankind. 
  Once Gilgalline understood, nothing more was said and 
  trade continued, but within a few years, word trickled into 
  Zobeck that cities abroad were entertaining requests from 
  the fey to establish a diplomatic presence within their walls. 
  There were soon as many ambassadors as major cities, from 
  Harkesh to Bemmea. 
  Kobold Quarterly 12    33
  Winter’s Kiss
  Winter’s Kiss
  Winter’s Kiss
  For the past 14 years Glaninin Thelamandrine, the Winter 
  For the past 14 years Glaninin Thelamandrine, the Winter 
  For the past 14 years Glaninin Thelamandrine, the Winter 
  Court Ambassador-In-Extraordinary to Zobeck, has eschewed 
  Court Ambassador-In-Extraordinary to Zobeck, has eschewed 
  Court Ambassador-In-Extraordinary to Zobeck, has eschewed 
  the traditional sort of embassy, one open to receive guests. 
  the traditional sort of embassy, one open to receive guests. 
  the traditional sort of embassy, one open to receive guests. 
  Instead, Thelamandrine has preferred to establish his 
  Instead, Thelamandrine has preferred to establish his 
  Instead, Thelamandrine has preferred to establish his 
  household—called Winter’s Kiss—in a location and manner 
  household—called Winter’s Kiss—in a location and manner 
  household—called Winter’s Kiss—in a location and manner 
  most decorous for a fey of his station: hidden from man 
  most decorous for a fey of his station: hidden from man 
  most decorous for a fey of his station: hidden from man 
  through glamour and misdirection.
  through glamour and misdirection.
  through glamour and misdirection.
  Winter’s Kiss can currently be found at the estate of the spice 
  Winter’s Kiss can currently be found at the estate of the spice 
  Winter’s Kiss can currently be found at the estate of the spice 
  merchant Enneas Thel located at the court called Alchemist’s 
  merchant Enneas Thel located at the court called Alchemist’s 
  merchant Enneas Thel located at the court called Alchemist’s 
  Folly, in Zobeck’s College District. Winter’s Kiss has resided 
  Folly, in Zobeck’s College District. Winter’s Kiss has resided 
  Folly, in Zobeck’s College District. Winter’s Kiss has resided 
  there since the ambassador grew bored with its previous 
  there since the ambassador grew bored with its previous 
  there since the ambassador grew bored with its previous 
  location in the Temple of Volund—or more specifically, in the 
  location in the Temple of Volund—or more specifically, in the 
  location in the Temple of Volund—or more specifically, in the 
  shrine to Ninkash—4 years ago. 
  shrine to Ninkash—4 years ago. 
  shrine to Ninkash—4 years ago. 
  Thel doesn’t seem to have noticed the change. However, once 
  Thel doesn’t seem to have noticed the change. However, once 
  Thel doesn’t seem to have noticed the change. However, once 
  a lively man, Thel has—by complete coincidence, surely—
  a lively man, Thel has—by complete coincidence, surely—
  a lively man, Thel has—by complete coincidence, surely—
  suffered from constant lethargy and foul humors for the past 
  suffered from constant lethargy and foul humors for the past 
  suffered from constant lethargy and foul humors for the past 
  four years.
  four years.
  four years.
  His servants, however, are convinced the manor is haunted. 
  His servants, however, are convinced the manor is haunted. 
  His servants, however, are convinced the manor is haunted. 
  Serving girls and scullions complain that they can’t sleep with 
  Serving girls and scullions complain that they can’t sleep with 
  Serving girls and scullions complain that they can’t sleep with 
  so many wolves howling inside the forest that they swear has 
  so many wolves howling inside the forest that they swear has 
  so many wolves howling inside the forest that they swear has 
  arisen outside the estate. On the contrary, as Thel himself 
  arisen outside the estate. On the contrary, as Thel himself 
  arisen outside the estate. On the contrary, as Thel himself 
  contends, the house is surrounded by paving stones and the 
  contends, the house is surrounded by paving stones and the 
  contends, the house is surrounded by paving stones and the 
  closest tree stands more than a mile distant. 
  closest tree stands more than a mile distant. 
  closest tree stands more than a mile distant. 
  The valet complains constantly of acting as a manservant to 
  The valet complains constantly of acting as a manservant to 
  The valet complains constantly of acting as a manservant to 
  his master’s… difficult… gentlemen guests. Even the cooks are 
  his master’s… difficult… gentlemen guests. Even the cooks are 
  his master’s… difficult… gentlemen guests. Even the cooks are 
  furious, threatening to quit en masse because they are being 
  furious, threatening to quit en masse because they are being 
  furious, threatening to quit en masse because they are being 
  driven to distraction by outrageous demands for custards 
  driven to distraction by outrageous demands for custards 
  driven to distraction by outrageous demands for custards 
  spiced with statue’s breath and daffodil laughter. 
  spiced with statue’s breath and daffodil laughter. 
  spiced with statue’s breath and daffodil laughter. 
  Thel has no patience for his servants’ idle chatter and is 
  Thel has no patience for his servants’ idle chatter and is 
  Thel has no patience for his servants’ idle chatter and is 
  considering firing the lot of them for less superstitious help.
  considering firing the lot of them for less superstitious help.
  considering firing the lot of them for less superstitious help.
  
  34					Kobold Quarterly 12
  your game world’s history, there are two obvious ways to 
  work the Winter Court in immediately: as antagonists or as 
  benefactors.
  Antagonists
  Things have gone to hell ever since the Winter Court sent 
  its ambassador. Beggars are found crying on street corners 
  each morning, cold as ice and unable to remember how 
  to walk or speak. Children are missing. Rumors abound 
  that the richest men and women of the city have taken up 
  residence within the embassy and have been convinced by 
  the ambassador and his retinue to join them on the greatest 
  hunt the world has seen since man discovered iron.
  The sunlight’s dimmer, now; people aren’t saying much, 
  but they can’t stop peering into the shadows around the 
  city. Those animals that aren’t trying to escape their pens 
  and leashes are hiding, afraid of what’s coming. Children 
  hear bells, laughter, and singing outside their windows each 
  night, and beg their mothers to let them play with the fair 
  folk outside.
  Something has to be done. Surely, there are heroes who 
  will step forward to do it.
  <
  Glaninin Thelamandrine
  Fey Ambassador 
  Level 12 Elite Controller
  Medium natural humanoid (eladrin) 
  XP 1,400
  Initiative +10 Senses Perception +12; low light vision
  Winter’s Majesty aura 5; each creature within the aura 
  that makes a melee or ranged attack against Glaninin takes 
  5 cold damage before the attack roll is made and takes a -2 
  to the attack roll
  HP 246; Bloodied 123
  AC 26; Fortitude 24, Reflex 24, Will 24
  Resist 10 cold; Vulnerable 5 fire
  Saving Throws +2
  Speed 6
  Action Points 1
   Glassteel Blade (standard; at-will) ★ Weapon
  +17 vs. AC; 2d6 + 5 damage
   Icy Stare (standard; at-will) ★ Cold
  Reach 2; +16 vs. Will; 1d8 + 5 cold damage, and the target is 
  knocked prone until the end of Glaninin’s next turn
   Unmaking of Ice (standard; recharge on 5, 6) ★ Cold
  Ranged 20; +16 vs. Will; one persistent effect either 
  on the target or controlled by the target is dispelled 
  (some possible effects that can be dispelled include 
  zones, summoned creatures, stances, polymorph effects, 
  charm effects, and temporary bonuses to attack rolls and 
  defenses); if multiple effects could be dispelled, Glaninin 
  chooses; this power can also be directed at an ally (with no 
  attack roll needed) to end an ongoing effect
   Wrath of Winter (standard; recharge on 5, 6) ★ Cold
  Close blast 3; +14 vs. Will; 3d8 + 5 cold damage, and the 
  target is knocked prone and weakened (save ends both)
  Fey Step ★ Teleport
  Glaninin teleports 5 squares
  Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Elven
  Skills Acrobatics +4, Stealth +9
  Str 16 (+9) Dex 19 (+10) Wis 17 (+9)
  Con 19 (+10) Int 14 (+8) Cha 22 (+12)
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    35
  Kobold Quarterly 12    35
  Player Handout
  
  36     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Hound of the Night 
  Level 5 Skirmisher
  Medium fey beast 
  XP 200
  Initiative +4 Senses Perception +10; low-light vision
  HP 46; Bloodied 23
  AC 20; Fortitude 18, Reflex 20, Will 16
  Resist 5 cold; Vulnerable 2 fire
  Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
  Speed 6
   Jaws of Winter (standard; at-will) ★ Cold, Weapon
  +12 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3 cold damage
  ❖ Deft Strike (standard; encounter) ★ Cold, Weapon
  The hound can move 2 squares before this attack as a free 
  action; +12 vs. AC; 1d6 + 4 cold damage.
  ❖ Setup Strike (standard; encounter) ★ Cold, Weapon
  +12 vs. AC; 2d6 + 4 cold damage, and the target grants 
  combat advantage to the hound until the end of its next 
  turn
  Fey Step (move; encounter) ★ Teleport
  The hound can teleport 5 squares.
  Hunting Bite (free 1/round; at-will)
  The hound deals an additional 1d6 damage to an enemy 
  that it has combat advantage against.
  The Deep Well
  The hound has 10 healing surges.
  Tumble (move; encounter)
  The hound can shift up to 3 squares.
  Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Elven
  Skills Acrobatics +4, Stealth +9
  Str 13 (+3) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 13 (+3)
  Con 14 (+4) Int 10 (+2) Cha 10 (+2)
  Equipment moonlight steel collar
  Winter Mage 
  Level 8 Controller
  Medium fey humanoid 
  XP 350
  Initiative +4 Senses Perception +5; low-light vision
  HP 48; Bloodied 24
  AC 21; Fortitude 19, Reflex 21, Will 23
  Resist 5 cold; Vulnerable 2 fire
  Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
  Speed 6
   Glassteel Blade (standard; at-will) ★ Weapon
  +12 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3 cold damage
  ◦  Bolt of Frost ★ Arcane, Cold, Implement 
  (standard; at-will)
  Ranged 20; +13 vs. Reflex; 2d4 +9 cold damage
  ☀  Unmaking of Ice ★ Arcane, Cold 
  (standard; encounter)
  Ranged 20; +12 vs. Will; one persistent effect either 
  on the target or controlled by the target is dispelled 
  (some possible effects that can be dispelled include 
  zones, summoned creatures, stances, polymorph effects, 
  charm effects, and temporary bonuses to attack rolls and 
  defenses); if multiple effects could be dispelled, the winter 
  mage chooses; this power can also be directed at an ally 
  (with no attack roll needed) to end an ongoing effect.
    Arctic Gale ★ Arcane, Cold, Implement 
  (standard; encounter)
  Area burst 1 within 20; +11 vs. Reflex; 1d6 +9 cold damage
    Arctic Gale ★ Arcane, Cold, Implement, Zone 
  (standard; encounter)
  Area burst 2 within 10; 2d8 +9 cold damage; a blizzard 
  erupts as a zone in the designated area and continues until 
  the end of the winter mage’s next turn. The zone grants 
  concealment, and any creature that starts its turn in the 
  storm takes 5 cold damage.
  Fey Step (move; encounter) ★ Teleport
  The winter mage can teleport 5 squares.
  Snowed Under (free; encounter)
  The winter mage can extend an effect on an enemy to end 
  at the end of the winter mage’s next turn rather than his 
  current turn.
  The Deep Well
  The hound has 6 healing surges.
  Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Elven
  Skills Arcana +14, History +14
  Str 12 (+5) Dex 16 (+7) Wis 12 (+5)
  Con 10 (+4) Int 20 (+9) Cha 16 (+7)
  Equipment component pouch, spellbook, wand
  Symbols
  Symbols
  Symbols
   melee basic attack
  melee basic attack
  melee basic attack
  ❖	
  ❖	
  ❖	melee attack
  melee attack
  melee attack
  ◦	
  ◦	
  ◦	ranged basic attack
  ranged basic attack
  ranged basic attack
  ☀ ranged attack
  ranged attack
  ranged attack
   blast
  blast
  blast
  	
  	
  	close burst
  close burst
  close burst
   area
  area
  area
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    37
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  2010...
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  38     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Book Reviews
  All tomes reAd by cAndlelight
  by William Banks, Christopher Paul Carey,  
  and Pierce Watters
  Steppe
  Piers Anthony
  Introduction by Chris Roberson
  Planet Stories/Paizo, December 2009
  Trade paperback, $14.99, 220 pages
  Review by William Banks
  The beauty of SF is sometimes that 
  sometimes you live long enough to 
  see its predictions come true; this is 
  the case with the massive, galactic 
  game of Steppe that is the central 
  conceit of this novel. A much-
  advanced civilization snatches nomadic 
  tribesman and warrior Alp from 
  Central Asia into the future to… play 
  the game of Central Asian nomads 
  seeking to conquer the world. 
  At several points I had to check 
  the copyright date, because the book 
  neatly predicts some emergent human 
  behaviors of large groups in a massively 
  parallel game of violence and conquest: 
  newbie zones, a learning mechanism, 
  staging areas. The competition heats 
  up and grows seriously, and Steppe 
  expands beyond the initial a sense of 
  LARP or MMO-style competition to a 
  struggle for survival. 
  The story spins out smoothly and 
  Anthony keeps the plot moving; the 
  young nomad Alp quickly adapts to 
  his surroundings and turns some of his 
  historical knowledge to good use, while 
  at the same time learning the strengths 
  and weaknesses of the far future 
  opponents, making and breaking 
  alliances, and engaging in the action 
  and dalliances of a true pulp hero. 
  Steppe was written rather late for its 
  pulp flavor (1976), but it holds true 
  to that era of wild adventure and truly 
  shines in its mixing of history and 
  SF. It’s one of the rarer Piers Anthony 
  volumes as well, and may well be 
  unfamiliar to fans of the Xanth series. 
  The only downside is the occasional 
  section of longwinded historical 
  background when the author can’t 
  resist talking up who conquers who; to 
  Anthony’s  credit, the reader will care 
  more about the characters than the 
  history.
  This is a light read in the classic 
  Anthony style; good for younger 
  readers but also for adults who might 
  want to ride the grasslands at the head 
  of a conquering horde. 
  Boneshaker
  Cherie Priest
  Tor Books, September 2009
  Trade Paperback, $15.99, 416 pages
  Review by Christopher Paul Carey
  Since being suggested as a genre over 
  twenty years ago by science fiction 
  author J. K. Jeter, steampunk has most 
  often been associated with steam- and 
  clockwork-tech fantasies set in alternate 
  timelines based on the nineteenth-
  century British and European 
  imperial social order. Cherie Priest’s 
  new zombie-steampunk mashup 
  Boneshaker—the flagship novel of Tor 
  Books’ meticulously executed attempt 
  to relaunch to a mass audience the 
  once-esoteric genre of airships and top 
  hats and windup robots—bucks the 
  trend by clothing itself in a somewhat 
  more crumpled and perhaps grittier 
  attire: that of Civil War Americana.
  Set in the Pacific Northwest in an 
  alternate 1879, the story follows Briar 
  Wilkes, a single mom whose inventor 
  husband, Leviticus Blue, disappeared 
  after running amok in his Incredible 
  Bone-Shaking Drill Engine, having 
  reputedly used the digging machine 
  to heist a chain of bank vaults. When 
  her teenage son Zeke runs away 
  to look for evidence of his father’s 
  innocence, Briar finds herself behind 
  the forbidden barrier walls of zombie-
  infested Seattle. It’s a simple mother-
  attempts-to-rescue-kid plot, but Priest 
  employs three things to make it work: 
  non-stop action; the down-and-dirty, 
  lived-in feel of her world building; and 
  deft, well-established characterization. 
  Combine all that with the mystery of 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    39
  Leviticus Blue and the first installment 
  of Priest’s Clockwork Century series is 
  off to a satisfying start.
  While it’s still too early to say 
  whether the new wave of steampunk 
  fiction will take root among a broader 
  readership, we may have a glimmer 
  of the retro-future’s direction in 
  Boneshaker: the weighty philosophical 
  sophistication and sly wit of steam-
  classics such as Gibson and Sterling’s 
  The Difference Engine and Di Filippo’s 
  The Steampunk Trilogy may well give 
  way to an emphasis on straightforward 
  rollicking adventure. To be sure, a fun 
  array of the genre’s escapist tropes fills 
  Boneshaker to the brim, from air pirates 
  to brass goggles to characters with oil-
  oozing mechanical body parts. Don’t 
  be surprised if Priest’s new novel goes a 
  long way to positioning steampunk as 
  the new paranormal romance. 
  This Crooked Way
  James Enge
  Pyr, October 2009
  Trade Paperback, $16.00, 412 pages 
  (including sources and background)
  Review by Pierce Watters
  In Blood of Ambrose by James Enge, 
  we first meet Morlock Ambrosius. 
  Morlock is son of Merlin Ambrosius 
  and Nimue Viviana. In the second 
  book, the recently released This 
  Crooked Way, Morlock Ambrosius 
  continues his adventures, bringing 
  new energy to the field of Sword and 
  Sorcery.
  Recent reviews have compared James 
  Enge to Fritz Leiber. However, this 
  reviewer sees Enge’s world as being 
  closer to Jack Vance meets Elric. Not 
  a bad thing to be. Due to its episodic 
  nature, this second book is even more 
  reminiscent of Jack Vance’s The Dying 
  Earth.
  Morlock is a sorcerer, a Maker, of 
  great age and much experience. He 
  has a misshapen back. Many folk are 
  trying to kill him. In This Crooked 
  Way, we see that Morlock is beset by 
  the magics of his father, Merlin, while 
  Morlock tries to free his mother by 
  helping her to die.
  Morlock carries a magic sword, 
  Tyrfing, which has its way with victim’s 
  souls in a manner not unlike Elric’s 
  Stormbringer. He rides an enchanted 
  horse, Velox, but the horse is mainly 
  off stage in this edition. What happens 
  to Velox you wouldn’t wish on an orc.
  But do not mistake James Enge for 
  imitation anything. He is his own 
  man, Morlock is a new character, and 
  both are welcome to field.
  Now, one of the nice side benefits 
  of reading James Enge, especially if 
  you game. The book is chock full 
  of monsters, many of them new 
  or different enough to be of some 
  fascination. As Morlock Ambrosius 
  makes his way through the book and 
  across the landscape of the world of 
  Laent with its three moons, there 
  is hardly a page where something 
  exciting is not happening. Morlock 
  can barely lay his head down at night 
  without someone or something trying 
  to chop it off or bite it off.
  Enge hits the ground running and 
  the pace is relentless. It is great fun 
  for fans of the genre and for anyone 
  who enjoys a unique character and a 
  rousing tale. Highly recommended.
  <
  
  40					Kobold Quarterly 12
  G
  ame balance is one of those 
  things that game designers, 
  aspiring game designers, and 
  hard-core players talk a lot about. In 
  many ways, it’s easy to see it like the 
  Holy Grail, Tanelorn, or some other 
  quest object that heroes strive for but 
  few ever reach. Like such quests, it 
  may be that the value is in the quest 
  itself rather than the end goal. In other 
  words, it’s the journey and not the 
  destination that counts.
  If we’re going to examine game 
  balance in a roleplaying game, however, 
  the first question that needs to be 
  raised must be, is “game balance” even 
  possible? Is there such a thing? I think 
  if we’re going to examine this topic 
  honestly, the answer is actually no. (Or 
  rather, yes, but not in the way that 
  most people mean—I’ll get to that in 
  a bit.)
  That’s right. I’ll say it. In the sense 
  of roleplaying game rule design, game 
  balance is a myth.
  But how can I, a game designer with 
  more than 20 years experience, write 
  such sacrilegious words? Let’s really 
  look at what we mean. Say that the 
  most brilliant of all game designers put 
  together a game with the goal of true 
  game balance. He’s smart, so he keeps 
  it simple. He carefully designs every 
  class/feat/skill/superpower/whatever in 
  the game so that it is perfectly balanced 
  with every other class/feat/skill/
  superpower/whatever. He still has the 
  problem of the game being out of his 
  control. Some players are “min-maxers” 
  and simply take what he’s created and 
  find the loopholes that others won’t, 
  creating unbalanced options and 
  characters that are better than others. 
  OK, let’s assume the game designer 
  is so talented that he covers up every 
  loophole and plugs every hole, so 
  whether you’re a newbie or a talented 
  rules-exploiter, there’s no combination 
  of options that’s better or worse than 
  any others. (In effect, the designer’s 
  made it so that all choices result in 
  virtually the same character.) Now the 
  game is truly balanced, right?
  Except that, it’s still a roleplaying 
  game. It’s still open ended, based 
  on the player’s imaginations and 
  the GM’s prerogatives. What the 
  characters choose to do is not going 
  to be balanced. Some will choose 
  to ignore their combat options and 
  focus on their character backgrounds 
  while others use their abilities to their 
  fullest. Even if everyone around the 
  table had exactly the same character, 
  how the characters are played will be 
  ultimately, unbalanced. Worse, a GM 
  might (accidentally or intentionally) 
  allow one player special privileges that 
  unbalances the game. Or even if the 
  PCs are all more or less equal, he might 
  throw challenges against the players 
  that are so insurmountable or so easily 
  overcome that the game isn’t fun. It 
  doesn’t even hold the players’ interest. 
  There’s no amount of game mechanic 
  balancing that can overcome such 
  problems. 
  But What is Game Balance?
  At this point, some readers may be 
  thinking that I’m being pedantic, just 
  arguing semantics But since the game 
  is meant to be played, ignoring how 
  players use rules when striving for 
  game balance is an exercise in futility.
  When people talk about balance in 
  game design, they are often talking 
  about two fairly different things. The 
  first is balance between characters. The 
  idea is that all of the characters should 
  be “balanced” with each other, thus 
  giving every character equal power. 
  The second is balance between the 
  characters and the rest of the game. A 
  character that gets an ability that allows 
  him to overcome challenges easily that 
  should be difficult (or impossible) 
  is called unbalanced. Likewise, the 
  reverse, challenges far too difficult for 
  the characters, is also unbalanced. The 
  first could be considered a measure of 
  fairness and the second a measure of 
  fun.
  The first case–character vs. character 
  balance–can be boiled down to how 
  much one player (not character) can 
  do in comparison to other players. 
  The ultimate currency in a roleplaying 
  game is “time to shine.” A character 
  designed to be a terror in melee gets 
  to shine when his character cleaves 
  through a number of foes in battle. 
  A character skilled at locks and other 
  devices shines when he opens a locked 
  door or disables the mechanism forcing 
  the walls to close in on everyone. And 
  so on. One could certainly argue, then, 
  that a game that’s balanced gives every 
  player/character a moment to shine 
  and that these moments are about 
  equal in time, importance, and fun.
  A common mistake, then, is to 
  balance characters based on a single 
  option—combat prowess for example. 
  If all characters have to be equally good 
  at the same thing, you end up with 
  The Myths and  
  Realities of Game Balance
  By Monte Cook
  Game	Theories
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12				41
  characters that are mostly the same. 
  This is fine, but you risk a certain kind 
  of dynamism with that approach. 
  Since you’re only focusing on one 
  aspect, you’re not really balancing the 
  game, you’re balancing one aspect of 
  the game.
  Nevertheless, most games make 
  certain options far more interesting, 
  appealing, or exciting than other 
  options. This then, could be 
  considered to be unbalanced. I’ll 
  start by pointing the finger directly at 
  myself. The 3rd Edition of the world’s 
  most popular roleplaying game made 
  combat exciting through a number 
  of different options and mechanical 
  subsystems. A player could devote 
  a lot of time developing characters 
  good at certain aspects and not others, 
  and finding new and intriguing 
  options. A player interested in locks 
  and mechanisms essentially had two 
  skills to focus on, both using the same 
  mechanic. While the melee fighter’s 
  moment to shine might last an hour or 
  more with involved round-by-round 
  detail, the lock expert makes a roll or 
  two and is done.
  Of course, this was intentional. We 
  knew that most players were interested 
  in combat, and combat makes it easy 
  to produce exciting action sequences 
  that arechallenging and engaging 
  for a whole group of people around 
  the table—much more so than 
  picking a lock. If we had decided to 
  make every activity as involved as 
  combat, it would have made the game 
  cumbersome. Still, this all means that 
  as game designers we intentionally 
  “unbalanced” the game in favor of 
  combat. We left it up to the GM and 
  the players to balance combat with 
  non-combat activities as they wished. 
  For some, the game would be nearly 
  100% fighting. For others, interacting 
  with NPCs, with the environment, or 
  with each other would equal or even 
  outshine battles, but that wasn’t a 
  matter of balance for the rules.
  The second type of balance, dealing 
  with characters and challenges, may 
  seem related, having to do with 
  characters being either too powerful 
  or not powerful enough. At its core, 
  though, it is a different issue because 
  it has less to do with the players and 
  more to do with the GM. 
  After all, it’s the GM who is 
  responsible for providing challenges 
  for the characters–and the GM has no 
  boundaries or limitations. When GMs 
  complain about unbalanced characters 
  running roughshod over their 
  campaign and how that’s the fault of 
  the game, there is a misunderstanding 
  of the role of the GM. You don’t bring 
  a knife to a gunfight. If the PCs wipe 
  the floor with the vrock, give them 
  six vrocks to fight next time. Or a 
  nalfeshnee. 
  No, it really is that simple. For 
  every spell, there’s a counter. For every 
  monster, there’s a tougher monster. If 
  the players raise the ante by creating 
  too powerful characters, the GM can 
  simply use the sliding power scale of 
  the game (which has no upper limit) to 
  bring things back into balance.
  What ’s more, the GM is also the 
  arbiter of the rules at the table and 
  can disallow options. Ultimately, it’s 
  the GM who truly understands what’s 
  going on at the table, not some game 
  designer thousands of miles away. 
  No matter what the designer does or 
  doesn’t do to balance the game, it’s a 
  moot point. An illusion at best. It’s 
  what the GM does that provides the 
  balance.
  The Gamers’ Social Contract
  So here’s the real secret of game 
  balance: there is such a thing, but it 
  has very little to do with rules and 
  game designers. It emerges from the 
  cooperation of the people sitting 
  around the table. It comes from the 
  players and, in particular, the GM. It 
  all has to do with mutual trust.
   When people sit down at my 
  game table, I expect two things from 
  them. The first is that everyone is 
  responsible for making the game fun 
  for all involved. I’ve written about this 
  before. The second is to trust the GM 
  to provide a fun and balanced play 
  experience. This is the gamers’ social 
  contract: the agreement that everyone 
  makes, consciously or unconsciously, 
  at the beginning of every game session.
  With the idea that the two axes 
  upon which the wheel of balance 
  turns are time to shine and reasonable 
  challenges, the GM can provide 
  both in a way that the rules never 
  could. A really good GM can run a 
  balanced game where one player is 
  a 20th level demigod and another is 
  a 1st level farmer. All he has to do is 
  make sure that each player has fun 
  and each character has something 
  interesting and challenging to do. I’m 
  not contending that it’s easy—on the 
  contrary, it’s very difficult. That’s why 
  good game designers try to provide 
  tools for GMs to make running a fair, 
  balanced game easier. Well-designed 
  rules make it easier for the GM to 
  judge what he should and shouldn’t 
  do, and maybe even protect him 
  so that when he makes a mistake, 
  the game doesn’t go wildly and 
  immediately off the rails. 
  For the GM to provide this, however, 
  the players have to trust him and 
  have to agree not to use their own 
  position at the table to undermine or 
  circumvent his actions or otherwise 
  spoil the game for others. So it’s not 
  just about the GM. It’s about the 
  entire group.
  Getting players and GMs to 
  understand the social contract is the 
  key to true game balance. The first 
  rule of every RPG should be, “don’t 
  be a jerk.” This rule, if adhered to 
  perfectly, would likely eliminate almost 
  all balance problems of any stripe. The 
  players should trust the GM to ensure 
  that no matter what happens and no 
  matter what choices they make, the 
  game will be fair and fun. The GM 
  should be able to trust that no one’s 
  going to intentionally try to break the 
  game, and if the GM determines that 
  something is going to undermine the 
  fairness and fun, he can overrule it.
  A roleplaying game, sitting on a 
  shelf, is a rudderless ship. It’s not until 
  a GM and players use it and inject 
  their own balance that the ship can be 
  steered to go where it needs to go. 
  <
  
  42					Kobold Quarterly 12
  By John Wick and Jesse Heinig
  Art by James Keegan
  Wicked Fantasy
  Elves: The 
  Fallen Ones
  M
  an’s first encounter with the elves was the source of 
  what historians would later call the Great Forest 
  Wars. Lumber was essential to building the Kingdom 
  of Men, and when they reached the deep forests of the world, 
  they found the elves waiting for them. The wars lasted an entire 
  generation but eventually ended with the elves seeking peace. 
  They gave no mention as to why, but 100 years later, their secret 
  was out.
  The elves were losing their souls.
  Birth of the Great Trees
  When the uvandir broke through the soil, bringing with 
  them their strange magic and strange gods, they transformed 
  the world forever. One change that was not immediately 
  noticed by men was the birth of the Great Trees. These 
  immense timbers reached up higher than any mundane 
  tree, covering the sky with limbs and leaves, plunging the 
  deep forests into darkness. And for some reason no human 
  scholar can determine, the Great Trees had souls. Guardian 
  spirits. How unfortunate that mankind’s first encounter with 
  these spirits was during expeditions to chop timber.
  The Great Forest Wars lasted for nearly a generation and 
  ended with the elves suing for peace. Mankind had nearly 
  killed all of the Great Trees with fire, axe, and saw, but 
  King Aseph was a wise man, and he recognized the need for 
  peace. The elves retreated into the deep woods, and men 
  expected to never see them again.
  But this was not the case. Hundreds of elves came to 
  the borders of the Reign of Men seeking asylum. These 
  wandering spirits, the fallen elves, had lost their trees during 
  the war. Their trees were dead, but they survived, clinging 
  to life as it fled from them. They were tall, beautiful, and 
  elegant… and dying. Disconnected from the source of 
  their lives, the lost elves were like ghosts trapped in a dying 
  prison. Knowing their own demise, most fell to utter 
  despair. Opportunistic men captured them and put them to 
  work in brothels and dens of inequity. Others wasted their 
  lives in taverns drinking until they died. However, a few—a 
  very few—recognized the opportunity they had, to live a 
  brief life full of experience, joy, and wonder.
  Fallen elves die when their time is up: gorgeous, ethereal, 
  wise, and clever beyond their years, going to the grave like 
  children robbed of their potential. For a single generation, 
  they lived among men, and by the time that generation grew 
  to adulthood, the fallen elves were gone. Ghosts of the war, 
  it was as if they never were.
  But that was not the last men heard of the elves.
  The Dance of the Fallen
  Whenever a True Tree dies, it leaves its guardian spirit alone 
  in the world. The spirit dies quickly thereafter, but in the 
  time it has left, the elf has the opportunity to live a life 
  of celebration and song. Or a life of pitiless despair. Or a 
  combination of both. Most elves seek any experience they 
  can find. They seek out a lover who will break their heart, so 
  they may feel the longing of desire, the passion of love, and 
  the desolation of heartbreak. They join an army, so they may 
  feel the terror of warfare and the bond of camaraderie. They 
  seek fortune, so they may throw it away. They drink and 
  make merry, so they may suffer the next day. An elf seeks all 
  experiences, so he may die with a head and heart full of life.
  Iron
  Over the years, men have learned much about the elves. One 
  unfortunate truth—for the elves, at least—that has come to 
  human attention is the relationship between elves and iron.
  Here’s a familiar story. An elf strays from the forest. He has 
  heard stories of these men, and he wants to get a good look 
  at them up close. He comes to the local city—where his bare 
  feet cannot feel the earth below for the cobblestones—and 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12				43
  he is surrounded by scents and sights 
  that blind his eyes and capture his 
  heart. These men are ! He stops in a 
  tavern and has his first drink of wine 
  or mead or some other sweet thing. 
  He eats meat. The smell of fresh baked 
  bread. The kiss of a beautiful girl. Her 
  skin under his fingertips. She lures him 
  upstairs, and with his head full of wine 
  and his belly full of food, he follows 
  her.
  And in the morning he wakes with 
  an iron band around his ankle. He 
  cannot leave. He belongs to the men 
  who bound him. A beautiful male elf. 
  How many noble women would pay 
  well for a night with a beautiful male 
  elf? How many noble men? And what 
  would they pay? What would they pay?
  Iron does not cause elves discomfort. 
  A weapon made of iron will not cause 
  a deeper injury. Nothing as mundane 
  as that. Iron an elf to you. Makes him 
  yours. Yours to do with as you wish.
  Once the iron band is on his ankle or 
  wrist or neck, the elf loses connection 
  with his tree. Both he and the tree 
  begin to die. How many elves have 
  been captured thus? How many men 
  have gone into the deep forests armed 
  with torches, swords, and iron bands?
  Many. Far too many.
  You would think the elves would 
  declare war on the Kingdom of Men 
  again for such atrocities… but they 
  have not. They know better. They 
  remember the days of the axe and fire. 
  They know the men are too many, 
  and the decadent days of the Reign of 
  Men means the king will do nothing 
  to help them. Those who are captured 
  are dead, as are their trees. Even with 
  their number dwindling, the elves have 
  no choice but to stay in the forests and 
  wait. Wait for the day when men will 
  come with their iron and make slaves 
  of them all.
  Elf Racial traits
  •   +2 to Dexterity and Charisma, -2 
  Constitution (Elves are lithe and 
  beautiful, naturally alluring and 
  innocent, but their frail forms house 
  a spark of life that burns bright and 
  brief.)
  •   Medium in size
  •   30 ft. movement
  •   Grand passion elves feel mighty 
  emotions far more strongly than 
  other races (All morale bonuses 
  granted to an elf gain an additional 
  +1 to the bonus; this increases by 
  another +1 for every 4 character 
  levels. For example, a first-level 
  bard’s inspire courage ability 
  normally grants a +1 morale bonus 
  to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, 
  and saving throws against fear. An 
  elf instead gains a +2 bonus on all 
  of the appropriate rolls and another 
  +1 for every four character levels, 
  gaining +3 at level 4, +4 at level 8, 
  and so on.)
  •  Low-light vision
  •   Graceful years elves still connected 
  to their trees do not age (They 
  never gain bonuses or penalties 
  from aging). Those elves separated 
  from their trees by iron or by 
  the death of the tree age and die 
  quickly; as they age they become 
  increasingly ephemeral, pale-skinned 
  and achingly beautiful. They also 
  learn quickly and develop strong 
  intuition to help them through 
  their short, vibrant lives. As a result, 
  elves start as young adults with an 
  age of 1 year, and advance through 
  one age category every 3 years, 
  finally dying of old age 3 years after 
  reaching the venerable category. An 
  elf never suffers penalties to ability 
  scores from aging but does gain the 
  bonuses. (In general, elf characters 
  should start as young adults and 
  progress through their aging during 
  the course of play, accruing bonuses 
  over time, rather than entering play 
  as experienced elves with additional 
  ability score bonuses.)
  •   Sylvan harmony an elf may always 
  make Knowledge (nature) checks 
  when checking for information 
  regarding forests and woodlands (An 
  elf’s base Survival check DC to live 
  off the land in woods or forest is 0, 
  and the elf may support other people 
  with the usual modifiers.) 
  •  Tree speech as spirits of the trees, 
  elves can communicate with trees 
  through a sort of limited empathy 
  (An elf may use Charisma-based 
  skill checks with trees to interact and 
  gain rudimentary information, such 
  as whether a creature passed close 
  to a tree, what sort of weather has 
  passed through the area, or when the 
  last woodsman or fire came through 
  the copse. While trees have only 
  the most rudimentary of senses and 
  cannot move or fight on an elf’s 
  behalf, a tree can certainly explain 
  if someone carrying flame passed 
  by and in what direction, or tell 
  if a buried treasure is hidden near 
  its roots. Most trees start with an 
  attitude of indifferent to the elf; trees 
  in particularly haunted, dangerous 
  forests may start as unfriendly. An elf 
  may also use tree speech to interact 
  with intelligent plant creatures 
  (those with an Intelligence score of 
  2 or more) but takes a -4 penalty on 
  the skill check. Elves with the animal 
  empathy class ability also add the 
  animal empathy bonus to all tree 
  speech skill checks.)
  •   +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, 
  and Spot checks (An elf who merely 
  passes within 5 ft. of a secret or 
  concealed door is entitled to a 
  Search check to notice it.)
  •   Automatic language Common and 
  Sylvan; Bonus Languages: Draconic, 
  Goblin, and Orc (Elves do not have 
  their own language, but do speak the 
  language of trees and woodland fey.)
  •   Favored class Druid (A multiclass 
  elf’s druid class does not count 
  when determining whether she takes 
  an experience point penalty for 
  multiclassing.)
  The Curse of Iron
  Iron holds a special power over elves. 
  It is iron that cuts down trees and iron 
  that makes the weapons of war and 
  the implements of craftsmanship that 
  demand the wood of the great forests. 
  Though iron is not anathema to elves, 
  it has a binding property that no elf 
  can deny. Once an elf is encircled in 
  iron, that elf’s connection to her tree is 
  severed. The tree withers and dies, and 
  the elf joins the tree in dying.
  
  44					Kobold Quarterly 12
  A simple band of iron is sufficient to 
  sever an elf from her tree. A manacle 
  about the wrist, a chain about the 
  waist, or a circlet on the head or neck 
  can all cause this strange disruption 
  that brings a lingering death. The iron 
  must be in physical contact with the 
  elf but once the circle is complete, the 
  elf’s fate is immediately sealed. Some 
  crafty men have tried laying circles of 
  iron filings around groves of trees, or 
  lining their buildings with iron nails 
  in an attempt to trap elves, but such 
  circles are too large. Binding an elf is a 
  personal matter—one circle, one elf.
  Naturally, elves fear this sort of 
  binding, but men are cunning. Once 
  severed from the trees, the elf has 
  no recourse but to live out her life 
  with the most passion and the most 
  vigor that she can muster before she 
  inevitably wilts.
  Elves bound in iron have a strong, 
  almost instinctive tendency to flinch 
  from confrontation and to obey 
  commands given to them. The shock 
  of disconnection from the tree renders 
  an elf nearly dumb with terror. 
  Humans use this disorientation to 
  render the elf pliable; by the time the 
  elf reasserts her will, the conditioning 
  to serve is already in place, and the 
  elf has nowhere to go, no money, no 
  friends to call upon… only a few elves 
  manage to escape this sort of slavery 
  and strike out in the world to make the 
  most of their few remaining years.
  Treewhisper Feats
  Elves communicate naturally and 
  effortlessly with their personal trees, 
  but some elves have an even stronger 
  communion with the great forests. 
  These elves, the tree whisperers, move 
  effortlessly through woodlands and 
  dance in the shadows under the leaves, 
  a fragile reminder of the beauty of 
  unspoiled places—taken away all too 
  easily by axe and progress.
  Forest Dancer [Treewhisper]
  In the deep woodlands, you move with 
  grace and ease that no human could ever 
  match.
  Prerequisites elf; Move Silently 4 
  ranks
  Benefit You never treat undergrowth 
  or forested terrain as difficult terrain 
  (similar to the woodland stride class 
  ability of the druid). Additionally, 
  while you are in forest, woodlands, or 
  sylvan terrain, your base land speed 
  increases by 10 ft.
  Startouched [Treewhisper]
  When the stars come out at night, you 
  are there to greet them, and they bless you 
  with their grace in return.
  Prerequisite elf; Perform (dance) 4 
  ranks
  Benefit While outdoors and 
  aboveground at night, you gain a +2 
  bonus to all saving throws.
  Branch and Briar [Treewhisper]
  The trees recognize you as one of their 
  own, and they lurch to protect you.
  Prerequisite elf; Forest Dancer, 
  Survival 2 ranks
  Benefit While you are in or adjacent 
  Wicked Fantasy is a re-invention of the 
  core fantasy races by unorthodox de-
  signer John Wick. Put some wicked spin 
  on your next character or campaign.
  to a space that contains a tree, you gain 
  the benefit of soft cover, as if standing 
  behind an ally. The tree reaches out 
  to interpose its branches against 
  opponents, even if it is not between 
  you and your enemy. Any ability that 
  negates soft cover benefits (such as 
  the Improved Precise Shot feat) also 
  negates this bonus. Dead trees do not 
  provide this benefit. Intelligent plant 
  creatures (such as treants) only provide 
  cover according to the usual rules for 
  using allies as cover.
  Greenwarden [Treewhisper]
  You inherit the tough limberness and 
  sun-loving skin of the trees from which 
  you came.
  Prerequisites elf; Branch and Briar, 
  Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks
  Benefit You gain an innate +1 natural 
  armor bonus to AC for every 4 ranks 
  of your Knowledge (nature) skill 
  (maximum +3). Additionally, as 
  long as you spend at least 8 hours in 
  sunlight each day, you do not require 
  food and you automatically heal as if 
  gaining the benefits of long-term care 
  from the Heal skill. You still require 
  water or other liquids, and sleep, as 
  usual.
  Iron-Biter [Treewhisper]
  You escaped from the iron shackle, 
  and now you understand the secret of 
  iron—and how the mightiest tree can 
  grow into iron, rust it, wear it away, and 
  finally burst it.
  Prerequisite elf, must be separated 
  from tree by the curse of iron
  Benefit You gain DR 1/nonmetal. You 
  add your character level to all checks 
  made to overcome the Break DC of 
  any metal binding, such as a manacle, 
  lock, or chain.
  <
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12				45
  Dwarves of the 
  Ironcrags
  by Wolfgang Baur
  ORDER YOUR COPY AT KOBOLDQUARTERLY.COM
  RAIDERS, BRAWLERS & TRADERS
  Open Design and Zobeck are trademarks of Open Design LLC.
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  G A Z E T T E E R
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  Dwarven Secrets Revealed
  History and Society of the Ironcrags 
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  New Cults
  Kariv Life and Culture
  Six Dwarf-centric Monsters
  and much more! 
  
  46					Kobold Quarterly 12
  B
  oon traps represent an exciting 
  albeit underused element of 
  the dungeon crawl. Unlike 
  traditional traps that hinder or harm 
  intruders with poisoned darts, bolts 
  of lightning, and crushing walls, 
  boon traps challenge adventurers by 
  bolstering monsters with healing, 
  magical protection, and other benefits. 
  Designing and Running  
  Boon Traps
  Lurking in hidden crevices or 
  emblazoned on foul idols, boon traps 
  lie in wait for adventurers or monsters 
  before springing to life. Mechanically, 
  boon traps behave identically to 
  standard traps. They only differ 
  from normal traps in that, rather 
  than dealing damage to or imposing 
  conditions on adventurers, they target 
  monsters with a beneficial effect 
  that automatically hits. These effects 
  might include restoring hp, increasing 
  defenses, recharging expended powers, 
  or even granting extra actions.
  Because of the fantastic nature of 
  boon traps, they are often magical, 
  though mechanical devices of this 
  sort—such as nozzles that spray 
  monsters with healing mist—are not 
  unheard of. Boon traps tend to fit 
  the warder or lurker roles: they fill a 
  defensive niche or act intermittently 
  during an encounter. The GM might 
  also upgrade a boon trap to elite 
  by increasing skill check DCs or 
  augmenting the trap’s benefits. 
  Boon traps function best when 
  carefully paired with monsters that 
  synergize with their effects. A trap 
  that allows nearby monsters to shift, 
  for example, works well with a group 
  of monsters that deal extra damage to 
  enemies they have combat advantage 
  against. A trap that restores hp, on 
  the other hand, would be less effective 
  when included in an encounter with 
  several minions. Boon traps, when 
  combined with appropriate foes, 
  traditional traps, and even other 
  boon traps, make for an effective, 
  memorable addition to any encounter.
  Overcoming Boon Traps
  Boon traps are threatening to 
  PCs primarily because they make 
  monsters a deadlier presence on the 
  battlefield. Once triggered, boon 
  traps are relatively easy to spot, and 
  an adventuring party would be well 
  served to deactivate them as quickly 
  as possible. Like other traps, boon 
  traps can be disabled with the Thievery 
  skill, and Arcana may also be useful 
  since many boon traps are magical. 
  Characters that are unable to disarm 
  or dispel a boon trap should find ways 
  to keep monsters out of its area of 
  effect by exploiting terrain features or 
  using forced movement powers and 
  immobilizing effects.
  At the GM’s discretion, players 
  might also attempt a skill challenge 
  to commandeer a boon trap during 
  an encounter. Using skills such as 
  Arcana, Dungeoneering, Religion, 
  and Thievery, clever characters can 
  take control of a boon trap and use 
  its effects to their advantage. Players 
  also might try converting a boon trap 
  into a source of recovery or protection 
  that they can return to later in the 
  adventure, or they may opt to lure 
  wandering enemies into an area where 
  they can take advantage of the trap’s 
  benefits. 
  Boon traps are often part of a 
  dungeon’s architecture—and thus 
  immobile—so PCs shouldn’t expect 
  to be able to carry them around like 
  they would a magic item. Damaged 
  or disarmed boon traps are similarly 
  of little value to adventurers, though a 
  generous GM may allow characters to 
  repair or reset a boon trap with one or 
  more skill checks and a few pouches of 
  gold.
  Example Boon Traps
  Listed below are four sample boon 
  traps spanning all three tiers of play. 
  Insert these as they appear into an 
  ongoing adventure, or use them as 
  inspiration for boon traps of your own 
  devising.
  Resounding 
  Proclamation 
  Level 3 Lurker
  Trap XP 150
  A thunderous edict resounds from a 
  stone face, rousing nearby monsters to 
  greater ferocity.
  Trap An inanimate object, such as 
  a bust or stone face, heals nearby 
  monsters with a magical phrase (in a 
  language of the GM’s choosing).
  Perception No check is needed to 
  notice the inanimate object.
  Additional Skill (Arcana)
  DC 22—You recognize the object as 
  Traps and Tricks
  Spiked Pits, Poisoned Arrows, and 
  Healing Words
  By Scott A. Murray
  Art by Olaus Magnus
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12				47
  the focus of a resounding proclamation 
  (trap).
  DC 27—Your knowledge provides a +2 
  bonus to Thievery checks to disable the 
  trap.
  Additional Skill (Insight)
  DC 22—You notice that enemies near 
  the object glance back toward it when 
  wounded.
  Trigger When a monster within 5 
  squares of the focus is first bloodied 
  in an encounter, the resounding 
  proclamation trap activates
  Attack 
  Immediate Reaction 
  Close blast 5 
  Target One or two bloodied creatures 
  in blast
  Effect The target regains 10 hp
  Special A creature must be able to hear 
  and understand the language of the 
  phrase to be targeted by the trap.
  Countermeasures
   You can engage in a skill challenge 
  to deactivate the trap’s focus: DC 22 
  Thievery; complexity 1, 4 successes 
  before 3 failures. Success disables the 
  trap. Failure causes the trap to act 
  each round as a standard action with 
  initiative +3.
   You can attack the focus (AC 15, 
  other defenses 12, hp 40). Destroying 
  the focus disables the trap.
   If bloodied and you can hear and 
  understand the language of the phrase, 
  you may benefit from the trap’s effect 
  while within the blast
  Upgrade to Elite (300 XP)
   Increase the DCs for Arcana and 
  Thievery checks by 2.
   Increase the maximum number of 
  targets to three.
  Icon of 
  Fiendish Recovery 
  Level 7 Lurker
  Trap XP 300
  A menacing arcane symbol augments 
  a dungeon guardian’s recovery from 
  devastating wounds.
  Trap An icon painted onto a mural or 
  woven into a tapestry allows nearby 
  monsters to re-roll failed saving throws 
  against ongoing damage
  Perception
  DC 19—You notice the icon.
  Additional Skill (Arcana)
  DC 23—You recognize the nature of 
  the icon.
  Trigger When a monster within 5 
  squares of the icon fails a saving throw 
  against ongoing damage, the trap 
  activates.
  Attack 
  Immediate Reaction 
  Ranged 5 
  Target One creature
  Effect The target may re-roll the failed 
  saving throw with a +2 bonus to the 
  result
  Countermeasures
   If adjacent, you can disable the 
  trap with a DC 23 Thievery check or a 
  DC 19 Arcana check.
  Eye of Searing 
  Shadow 
  Level 16 Elite Warder
  Trap XP 2,800
  Wisps of shadow snake from the iris 
  of a large painted eye, bathing nearby 
  monsters in a cloud of corrosive gloom.
  Trap: A large eye painted or 
  embossed onto a surface cloaks 
  monsters in burning shadow, granting 
  them concealment and dealing damage 
  to adjacent creatures.
  Perception
  No check is needed to notice the eye.
  Additional Skill (Arcana)
  DC 27—You recognize the nature of 
  the eye.
  DC 32—Your knowledge provides a +2 
  bonus to Thievery checks to disable the 
  trap.
  Initiative +12
  Trigger The trap rolls initiative when a 
  creature enters one of the 8 squares of 
  pressure plates at the room’s entrance.
  Attack
  Standard Action Ranged 10
  Target: One creature
  Effect: The target gains total 
  concealment until the end of the trap’s 
  next turn. Creatures ending their turn 
  adjacent to the target while it has 
  concealment take 10 fire and necrotic 
  damage and ongoing 5 fire and 
  necrotic damage (save ends).
  Countermeasures
   You can engage in a skill challenge 
  to deactivate the trap (DC 32 
  Thievery; complexity 1, 4 successes 
  before 3 failures). Success disables 
  the trap. Failure causes the trap to act 
  twice each round.
   You can block the source of the 
  shadowy wisps with a large solid object 
  (such as a bookcase or an iron door 
  torn from its hinges), preventing the 
  trap from acting.
  Sigil of Haste 
  Level 24 Lurker
  Trap XP 6,050
  Crimson energy flares from a twisted 
  symbol above, transforming a lumbering 
  beast into an ephemeral blur.
  Trap: A magic symbol burnt onto a 
  smooth surface increases the mobility 
  and ferocity of nearby monsters when 
  threats draw near.
  Perception 
  DC 28—You notice the glowing sigil.
  Additional Skill (Religion) 
  DC 32—You recognize the nature of 
  the sigil.
  Trigger: When a character moves 
  within 5 squares of the sigil, the trap 
  attacks. The trap activates again when 
  a new character enters the area, or if a 
  character leaves and then re-enters the 
  area.
  Attack 
  Immediate Interrupt 
  Close burst 5
  Target: One creature in burst
  Effect: The target gains an extra move 
  action on its next turn. The target 
  also gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls, 
  defenses, and speed until the end of 
  the trap’s next turn.
  Countermeasures
   If adjacent, you can disable the 
  trap with a DC 36 Thievery check or a 
  DC 32 Arcana check.
  Upgrade to Elite (12,100 XP)
   The trap’s target gains an extra 
  standard action on its next turn instead 
  of a move action.
  <
  
  48					Kobold Quarterly 12
  48					Kobold Quarterly 12
  Kobold Quarterly 12
  Undead Rule
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   More than 30 New Monsters of the Underworld
  The Princes of Murder and Death await your visit. Pick up the Imperial Gazetteer today.
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  Kobold Quarterly 12				49
  O
  ne of the most interesting 
  elements a GM can use to 
  spice up a combat encounter 
  is to weave a skill challenge right into 
  the action. 
  Combat skill challenges provide a 
  perfect mechanic to establish alternate 
  victory conditions for encounters and 
  to create tension by forcing PCs to 
  do two things at the same time. They 
  also allow greater opportunities to add 
  story and setting elements to a battle.
  Two Types of Combat  
  Skill Challenges
  Depending on the encounter’s 
  objectives, combat skill challenges 
  commonly come in two varieties. 
  In the first type, PCs must perform 
  a task while opponents try to stop 
  them. For example, PCs must close a 
  portal to another plane while a horde 
  of minions attacks tirelessly. This is 
  referred to as a hindered task.
  The other type of combat skill 
  challenge directly impacts combat 
  or provides an alternate victory 
  condition. For example, if the PCs 
  rearrange certain runes to form a 
  floor pentagram, they can contain a 
  ravening demon without having to 
  fight it to the death. 
  The significant differences between 
  these types warrant presenting each 
  type of challenge separately. 
  Type 1: The Hindered Task
  When designing a scene where PCs 
  risk their lives while completing a 
  complex task, choose a task the PCs 
  must accomplish and think about how 
  combat will disrupt it. Build the skill 
  challenge as a non-combat encounter 
  initially, but focus on challenges of 
  lower complexities, such as those of 
  complexity 1, 2, or 3 (or from 4-8 
  required successes).
  While not the main goal of this 
  type of challenge, find ways to 
  translate a PC’s successful skill roll 
  to an interesting and minor effect on 
  combat. For example, if the task is to 
  close an eldritch portal, each successful 
  Arcana check could create an energy 
  backlash that the PC redirects toward 
  a nearby monster: pushing it a few 
  squares, dealing damage, or knocking 
  it prone are all possibilities. 
  Choose a wide enough range of skills 
  to allow many characters to participate. 
  While most of the party will focus on 
  fighting each round, don’t force one 
  character to spend all his or her actions 
  on the challenge while the others are 
  busy fighting monsters.
  When creating high-level skill 
  challenges, you may want the PCs to 
  invest standard actions in the process 
  of completing the challenge. However, 
  helps making skill checks minor 
  actions when you want to players to 
  focus just as much on combat as on 
  the skill challenge. 
  Don’t forget to account for the skill 
  challenge’s XP value when calculating 
  an encounter’s total XP budget. 
  Finally, PCs need reasons to fight and 
  perform the challenge simultaneously; 
  otherwise, crafty players may realize 
  the benefit of focusing on combat 
  before performing the task. Constant 
  monster reinforcements or challenges 
  with time limits, such as when the PCs 
  must win the challenge in a certain 
  number of rounds or fail, create a 
  greater sense of urgency. 
  Consider these examples of hindered 
  combat skill challenges:
  u  A slowly descending ceiling 
  threatens to crush everyone. While 
  PCs attempt to disable the trap’s 
  mechanism and slow the ceiling’s 
  drop, slithering vermin crawl 
  through cracks and attack.
  u  The party must perform a ritual to 
  cleanse a corrupted altar while it is 
  lit by the full moon. The PCs must 
  purify and consecrate a bloodied 
  altar while crazed cultists try to 
  delay them until the moonlight 
  drifts off the altar. 
  u  After having traveled the world 
  to recover the seven lost idols of 
  Khors the Sun god, the PCs must 
  place all of them on the seven altars 
  of daylight in less than 1 minute. 
  Of course, the undead servants 
  of the Night Goddess rise up to 
  prevent the completion of this 
  ritual.
  The Spirit Bond 
  Skill Challenge
  You participate in a ritual to unbind 
  a faltering divine energy source from 
  the Crystal Nexus, a massive pillar of 
  enchanted quartz that protects the 
  surrounding area from the encroachment 
  of chaos. At the same time, you seek out 
  a willing nature spirit and attempt to 
  convince it to join with the nexus. While 
  the nature spirit binds itself, you re-
  weave the freed divine energies to create a 
  protective enchantment.
  Encounter Builder
  Spice Up your  
  Combat Encounters: 
  The Combat Skill Challenge
  By Phillipe Menard
  
  50					Kobold Quarterly 12
  Setup To successfully initiate and 
  participate in the ritual, the PCs must 
  be within 5 squares of the Crystal 
  Nexus
  Complexity 3 (requires 8 successes 
  before 3 failures)
  Primary skills Arcana, Religion, Nature
  Arcana or Religion (standard action)—
  Manipulating one of the different 
  surrounding energy flows, you attempt 
  to release the divine power and re-
  weave it as a protective enchantment 
  around the nexus (up to 5 successes 
  at moderate DC or greater can be 
  obtained with these skills)
  (Easy DC)—Recover a failed skill 
  check
  (Moderate DC)—Success
  (Hard DC)—Success. As a free 
  action, you can use an encounter 
  power of the appropriate power 
  source (arcane or divine) without 
  expending it. Alternatively, you 
  may create a new arcane or divine 
  effect equivalent to an encounter 
  power of your level or less with the 
  GM’s approval; all such effects end 
  at the start of your next turn.
  Nature—Opening a channel to the 
  Spirit World, you seek a nature spirit 
  and convince it to join the Crystal 
  Nexus (up to 5 successes at moderate 
  DC or greater can be obtained with 
  this skill)
  (Easy DC)—Recover a failed skill 
  check
  (Moderate DC)—Success
  (Hard DC)—Success. As a free 
  action, you can use an encounter 
  power of the primal power source 
  without expending it. Alternatively, 
  you may create a new primal effect 
  that is equivalent to an encounter 
  power of your level or less with the 
  GM’s approval. All effects end at 
  the start of your next turn.
  Special—Until the challenge succeeds 
  or fails, defeated monsters are replaced 
  on the round following their deaths; 
  they come out of the rock and lava 
  surrounding the nexus 
  Success The spirit creature is bound to 
  the Crystal Nexus, and all PCs recover 
  hp as if they had each spent a healing 
  surge. No new monsters appear for the 
  remainder of the encounter.
  Failure The ritual fails. The divine 
  power source remains connected to the 
  nexus; no new monsters reappear until 
  the characters restart the ritual.
  Type 2: The Alternative 
  Victory
  A great way to provide an alternate 
  path to victory for an epic combat 
  encounter without resorting to a 
  grind is to use a second kind of 
  combat skill challenge. This type 
  allows PCs to affect combat in ways 
  that attack powers can’t. By providing 
  an alternative to chipping hp totals 
  down to 0, you can run faster combat 
  encounters or use larger and more 
  numerous threats than what the PCs 
  typically handle. 
  For such combat skill challenges, 
  design your combat encounter first. 
  As you build it, consider ways that the 
  skill challenge could bring the party 
  closer to victory. For example, if you 
  are staging a semi-aerial encounter 
  with air archons and other flying 
  monsters, the skill challenge could 
  revolve around the PCs repairing, 
  starting, and controlling gigantic 
  steam-powered fans. Once all fans are 
  activated, the party can push monsters 
  into another area, thus winning the 
  encounter. 
  As with other types of skill 
  challenges, you must also plan for 
  the consequences of failing. If you 
  made the combat encounter harder 
  to compensate for the skill challenge, 
  failing should not lead to additional 
  negative consequences for the party 
  since they’ll still have to achieve victory 
  the good old fashioned way. However, 
  if the party is well able to handle the 
  combat encounter , failure should 
  give the opponents some advantage. 
  For example, opponents could spend 
  a healing surge or an elite or solo 
  monster could get additional attacksas 
  free actions.
  Such challenges should probably 
  not provide full XP rewards based on 
  their complexity since they provide an 
  alternate way to win the encounter. 
  However, the PCs should get full XP 
  for all combat opponents involved 
  in the challenge if they achieve their 
  objective. 
  Here are a few examples:
  •  A restless dead noble haunts his 
  crypt, sending out his spectral 
  guardians to kill anyone in the 
  surrounding lands. The PCs are 
  sent to put the spirits to rest by 
  discovering proof of some great 
  injustice done against the noble. 
  Through negotiation and bluffing, 
  the attacking undead are stunned 
  by the revelations, then convinced 
  one by one to leave and move on to 
  the next world.
  •  When a gigantic construct ravages 
  the countryside, PCs armed with its 
  construction plans climb onboard 
  the colossus, battle various inherent 
  defense systems, and use feats of 
  strengths, agility, and thievery to 
  shut it down section by section. 
  Weakening the 
  Silvered Bulette 
  Skill Challenge 
  A mad wizard enchanted and 
  empowered a bulette with a series of 
  sloppily drawn silver runes all over its 
  body, transforming it into a solo monster. 
  The runes grant the creature an extra bite 
  attack per round, a fiery breath weapon, 
  and give it the typical solo abilities 
  (additional hp, action points, and saving 
  throw bonuses). When the fight starts, 
  the PCs realize that they can unmake the 
  enchantments on the bulette. 
  Setup You attempt to identify the 
  structure and, if possible, the functions 
  of the various silver runes covering the 
  bulette’s body to deactivate them and 
  weaken the creature.
  Complexity 2 (requires 6 successes 
  before 3 failures)
  Primary skills Arcana, Dungeoneering, 
  Insight, Nature, Perception
  Arcana, Insight, or Perception (minor 
  action)—Studying the complex layout 
  of silver runes on the bulette’s body, 
  you attempt to perceive a pattern to 
  the runes and a flaw in their structures, 
  hoping to determine what type of 
  enchantment the runes grants the 
  creature. These skills do not count 
  toward overall failure for the challenge.
  (Moderate DC)—You spot a 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    51
  possibility to interfere with the 
  Runes. Does not count as a success 
  for the skill challenge, but PCs may 
  now attempt to deactivate the rune. 
  (Hard DC)—You identify an 
  enchantment linked to the rune 
  and its weakness. Roll on table 
  below. 
  Arcana, Dungeoneering, or Nature 
  (standard action)—Drawing from 
  your knowledge of magic, nature, and 
  underground creatures, you try to 
  sabotage the power behind a specific 
  set of Runes
  (Moderate DC)—If the targeted 
  rune’s function is unknown, roll 
  on the table below to see what part 
  of the enchantment is disrupted, 
  re-rolling if that enchantment has 
  already been ruined.
  Success The Rune is deactivated and 
  the monster loses the power or feature 
  indicated on the table
  Silvered rune  
  disruption result (d6):
  Lose ability to make more than one 
  melee attack per round
  Lose solo Saving Throw Bonus (+3)
  Lower all Defences by 2
  Lose Breath Weapon
  Lower HP by ¼
  Lower HP by ¼ 
  Adding Story and Setting to 
  Combat Skill Challenges
  Both types of challenges can also be a 
  great occasion to weave story or setting 
  elements into your combat encounters. 
  You create tasks based on the objectives 
  of your adventure or on established 
  elements of your campaign world. 
  Utilize familiar locales and known 
  NPCs within the challenge. In fact, 
  protecting non-combatants is a great 
  example where PCs must taunt and 
  intimidate monsters to prevent them 
  from attacking the fragile NPCs. 
  As another example, PCs may have 
  to assuage some belligerent spirits 
  by deciphering ancient carvings to 
  re-create and chant a lost prayer to the 
  Goddess of Peace and Gentle Repose 
  before the sun sets in 10 rounds. 
  Or PCs must negotiate entry into 
  a besieged frontier post, held by a 
  stubborn dwarf commander who has 
  a weakness for elven wine while the 
  party fights against wave after wave of 
  frenzied Crimson Paw gnolls. 
  By adding such details to your 
  combat skill challenges, they become 
  more meaningful and help immerse 
  players in the game world beyond 
  simply fighting opponents. 
  Combat skill challenges make 
  encounters more exciting and increase 
  the number of choices available to 
  players. They allow more combat 
  encounters to enhance and further 
  story arcs, making battles more 
  memorable and enjoyable. Give it a try!
  <
  
  52     Kobold Quarterly 12
  W
  hat do you know about 
  ninjas? They’re the 
  archetypal unstoppable 
  force, utterly silent and deadly, 
  completing their mission and leaving 
  before any soul knows they were there. 
  They have supernatural powers, control 
  over the elements and darkness. They 
  are beings more of shadow than of 
  flesh. If you’re unlucky enough to see 
  one, you’ll be dead before you can 
  understand what you saw, let alone put 
  up a fight. 
  And that is exactly what they want 
  you to think.
  Real ninjas were peasants in feudal 
  Japan, too poor to join the elite 
  samurai class. Unlike the famous 
  ninjas of pop culture, they were too 
  poor to buy swords. In fact, they 
  took on assassination missions out of 
  desperation. They could not afford 
  samurai armor or high-quality weapons 
  –and without them they could not 
  possibly defeat a samurai in a fair fight. 
  Samurai trained since childhood to be 
  warriors, and most ninjas were farmers 
  by trade. They were outmatched from 
  the start.
  How often have you sat there, dice in 
  hand, knowing that your GM wouldn’t 
  let you win easily? Maybe, like the 
  ninjas, you couldn’t get the equipment 
  you needed. Maybe, like the ninjas, 
  you just didn’t have the levels. Maybe 
  you knew that failure wasn’t an option. 
  Real-life ninjas were underdogs, and 
  they rose above it to become legendary 
  assassins. How did they do it?
  There never were any supernatural 
  abilities. There never were legendary 
  weapons. However, ninjas had one 
  overwhelming advantage; they had 
  ninja tactics, and these tactics made 
  them history’s most famous assassins. 
  Whether or not you’re playing a feudal 
  Japanese campaign, make ninja tactics 
  work for you, too.
  Ninja Lesson #1: A Little 
  Infamy Goes a Long Way
  The ninjas we know today never really 
  existed, but those myths didn’t happen 
  accidentally. The superhuman ninja 
  speed, the mystical powers: these were 
  all just myths created by the ninjas as 
  an elaborate system of psychological 
  warfare. If your opponents are scared 
  half to death of you before even a 
  single encounter, half of your work is 
  already done.
  A good reputation will fight your 
  battles for you. If your party carefully 
  cultivates a strong reputation, some 
  problems in the game world solve 
  themselves. 
  Ninja misinformation cuts both 
  ways. In addition to building a 
  fearsome reputation, ninjas were 
  also extremely secretive about their 
  techniques, and their mundane 
  weapons and tactics were explained 
  away as magic. They would lose their 
  mystique if the enemy knew that 
  they left animal footprints with the 
  aid of specially carved shoes rather 
  than transformative spells or that they 
  incapacitated opponents by striking 
  pressure points rather than with magic.
  In game and out of game, never show 
  your hand. Like a ninja, keep your best 
  tactics and plans hidden from players, 
  GMs, and characters until the right 
  time comes. 
  Ninja Lesson #2: Make the 
  Most of Everything 
  Myths about the ninja disappearing in 
  a puff of smoke come partially from a 
  little weapon called a mestubishi. It was 
  made from a small, hollow vessel, like 
  an eggshell or length of bamboo, filled 
  with pepper, metal filings, and sand. 
  When the ninja wanted to make an 
  escape, the contents of the mestubishi 
  were flung into the opponent’s eyes, 
  blinding them. It was a brutal little 
  piece of weaponry, and it was cheap, 
  made largely out of readily available 
  materials. Ninjas were peasants, after 
  all, forced to find jobs as assassins and 
  thieves in order to make extra money. 
  They couldn’t afford to be extravagant 
  or wasteful. They carried poisons 
  made from items and animals found 
  in their surroundings, such as deadly 
  tetrodotoxin from the pufferfish or the 
  extract of the death cap mushroom. 
  Never underestimate the little things. 
  Just because it doesn’t have an entry in 
  the rulebook, don’t dismiss an item as 
  useless. You never know when even the 
  most mundane of items or the weakest 
  of spells can become useful. By making 
  intelligent, thoughtful use of the items 
  on hand, you can gain an advantage 
  even in adverse situations. Lay simple 
  traps made of ropes and pulleys. 
  Character Class
  Lessons from the Shadows: 
  History’s Greatest Assassins
  By Catharine McDonald
  Art by Michael Wolgemut
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    53
  Poison drinks. Carry some wine in case 
  you need to make a friend.  
  Ninja Lesson #3: Survive
  Ninjas were masters of stealth because 
  they had no choice; in a head-to-head 
  confrontation with the better-armed 
  and better-trained samurai, they 
  would have been slaughtered. Instead, 
  they waited in the shadows, evading 
  detection until the perfect moment 
  to strike, avoiding combat and only 
  attacking, even with weapons like the 
  metsubishi, when there was no other 
  option. To win their battles, ninjas 
  understood that they needed to choose 
  those battles carefully. They used 
  poisons and pressure points to disable 
  opponents they couldn’t fight directly.
  Sometimes, it’s all right to be 
  a coward. If you approach every 
  situation head-on, it’s only a matter 
  of time until you find yourself 
  outmatched, and it won’t end well 
  when you do. If you want to survive 
  against the odds, you need to be a 
  ninja; you need to understand that 
  there’s more to a battle than direct 
  force. Disabling opponents is often 
  just as good as killing them; aim to 
  break limbs if you need to run. Not 
  all characters will agree with this since 
  guerilla tactics are often considered 
  the domain of the party thief, but it’s 
  about more than running away when 
  you’re outmatched. It’s about living to 
  fight another day.
  In their day, ninjas weren’t the 
  mystical, lightning-fast death 
  machines that we imagine today. They 
  were hungry, poor, and desperate. 
  But their desperation bred tactical 
  superiority that could overwhelm even 
  the strongest foes. A ninja’s greatest 
  weapon was the mind, and it can be 
  yours, too.
  <
  Kobold Quarterly 12    53
  
  54					Kobold Quarterly 12
  T
  he contraption of St. 
  Heviticus guides the hands 
  of gearworkers, firm in 
  their faith, struggling to bring to life 
  intricate clockwork creations. A strong, 
  mummy-skin tea brews, granting those 
  venerating the Red Goddess prophetic 
  visions. The bones of St. Maurice, 
  carried by warriors facing the threat of 
  the deep empire, keep the foul ghouls 
  at bay. These are the relics of Zobeck!
  Hidden in darkened shrines and 
  catacombs beneath gilded altars, the 
  relics of Zobeck’s multitude of saints 
  linger in sacred monstrances and 
  philatories as physical embodiments 
  of the power of the faithful and the 
  miracles of prayer. Of the many saints, 
  there is St. Gregario for alchemists 
  and St. Charon for gravediggers. 
  Dwarven airship captains curse their 
  crews in the name of St. Kalimachus, 
  and the taverns of the Gullet hang 
  empty mugs to honor St. Emeric. 
  The Kariv crabseers invoke Mother 
  Crab, also known as St. Caruth, who 
  gives her name to their art. Minions 
  of the Mouse King pay homage to the 
  Thousand-Mouthed St. Norvegicus, 
  to whom commoners pray to relieve 
  toothache. Some ironies persist as 
  well, such as St. Agnetta, who receives 
  homage from the courtesans of the Red 
  Houses though she herself was chaste. 
  Even the wisest scholars have a 
  difficult time explaining the source of 
  divine energy that powers the relics of 
  these holy patrons. Unlike common 
  magic items, infused with arcane 
  and divine energy through elaborate 
  rituals, no man’s hand creates the 
  spontaneous divine spark that gives a 
  relic its miraculous power. The power 
  of faith and veneration somehow gives 
  rise to a relic’s holy energy. Yet the 
  process is unpredictable, and no one 
  has ever witnessed the birth of a relic. 
  For instance, a family may find that 
  generations after their grandsire cut a 
  souvenir finger from the corpse of St. 
  Lodovico, martyred patron of portals, 
  the shriveled and morbid keepsake 
  prevents the picking of nearby locks. 
  Or the finger may simply remain a 
  curiosity of faith, and powerless.
  True relics, the bodies and 
  personal items of saints are so 
  precious as to rarely be entrusted to 
  individuals except in the most dire of 
  circumstances. They are usually held 
  within lordly castles and secured deep 
  in temples of the faith. 
  Lower-class relics, such as scraps of 
  cloth and small items of jewelry, can 
  be imbued over time with a divine 
  spark, and many of the world’s rings of 
  protection and cloaks of resistance have 
  origins in such association. Below is 
  but a small selection of the thousands 
  of hallowed objects found in Zobeck 
  and the powers these bones, ashes, and 
  other fragments grant to those who 
  deify their source. 
  The Ark of St. Bellandrus
  Once a source of tremendous power 
  for House Stross, this ark is a large, 
  solid gold receptacle that acts as a 
  massive arcane battery. Now held by 
  the Arcane Collegium, the ark contains 
  the single remaining bone fragment 
  of St. Bellandrus—the most powerful 
  sorcerer to ever attend the college. A 
  prideful and petty child, Bellandrus 
  was disintegrated by jealous rivals, 
  and this remnant retains a powerful 
  spark of his arcane energy. The ark 
  weighs 1,500 lb., and two people with 
  a combined Strength of 30 can carry 
  it as a heavy load. With anything less, 
  the bearers stagger around clumsily; 
  they lose Dexterity bonuses and are 
  restricted to 5 ft. of movement per 
  round.
  The influence of the relic within 
  causes the ark to amplify arcane 
  energies. Any arcane spellcaster 
  touching the ark may draw from the 
  power of the relic, applying any one 
  of the following metamagic feats to 
  spells cast while remaining in contact: 
  Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend 
  Spell, Maximize Spell, or Quicken 
  Spell. This power works up to 10 times 
  per day. 
  The jealousy of Bellandrus infests the 
  ark, however, and once a spellcaster 
  removes his hand from the device, all 
  remaining spells or spell slots disappear 
  from the user’s memory. Previous 
  attempts to translate the relic into a 
  smaller, more conveniently portable 
  reliquary failed. However, this power 
  may have inspired the many metamagic 
  rods since manufactured by the college, 
  which are all said to contain the 
  Sanctus et Virtus: 
  Relics & Reliquaries of Zobeck
  By Brandon Hodge
  Art by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
  Wondrous Items
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    55
  dust of Bellandrus collected after his 
  disintegration.
  Brandea of the Pillar Saints 
  In protest against of the despotic 
  regime of House Stross, six hermits 
  now revered as saints perched atop 
  skinny, stories-high pillars outside the 
  walls of Zobeck. Preaching from that 
  height, they made a public display of 
  morality and rejection of the earthly 
  greed and corruption of the nobility. 
  Martyred by House Stross, their 
  deaths sparked a seed of dissent that 
  would lead to revolution. Grateful 
  citizens regularly honor their crypts in 
  the Shrine of Martyrs in the Temple 
  District. 
  Stored in close proximity to the 
  saints are small bone boxes containing 
  portions of silk, known as brandea, 
  carefully snipped from the death robes 
  of the saints. After lying for a time 
  in contact with the holy stylites and 
  properly prepared, these brandea are 
  thereafter treated as relics. Conferring 
  the martyrs’ belief that earthly 
  ambition is corrupt and all should 
  aspire to heavenly ideals, these small 
  snippets, if worn as a tied cloth ring, 
  confer an immediate feather fall effect 
  on the possessor and can confer levitate 
  on command. 
  The Clockwork Mummy of 
  St. Heviticus
  The incorruptible body of St. 
  Heviticus still rests where the dwarf 
  hermit expired—hunched over 
  ascribe’s desk deep below the Temple 
  of Rava. However, his well-preserved 
  corpse is now almost completely 
  hidden by a nest of complicated gears, 
  golden levers, pneumatic ink pumps, 
  and pulleys. 
  Responsible for the design and 
  construction of the Clockwork Oracle, 
  the dying hermit produced a final 
  set of schematics: meticulous plans 
  for the preparation of his own corpse 
  that involved the incorporation of 
  enchanted gears and blessed cylinders. 
  Acolytes transformed the saint’s body 
  where it expired, turning his secluded 
  alcove into a marvelous contraption to 
  venerate the divinely inspired inventor. 
  His humble desk became a shrine.
  The grand contraption can be reset 
  and wound but once a month, and 
  it operates for one week. During this 
  time, the contraption produces a single 
  set of plans for miraculous mechanical 
  wonders, usually clockwork familiars, 
  advanced scullions, clockwork 
  hounds, and steam golems, providing 
  the gearworker guilds of Zobeck 
  with technology that grows more 
  complex each year. Considered relics 
  themselves, these meticulous technical 
  drawings provide a +10 bonus to all 
  Craft (clockwork) checks to produce 
  the creation presented. 
  Alternatively, during this week the 
  machine can scribe up to 20 spell 
  levels of scrolls per day from the 
  school of clockwork magic (see the 
  Zobeck Gazetteer). Pious prayers to 
  Rava for the bequest of some specific 
  technology are often heard by the saint 
  if made in his presence although access 
  to the chamber is granted rarely and 
  only in times of great need. 
  Holy Gears of Rava
  Once per decade, acolytes replace the 
  worn gears of the Clockwork Mummy of 
  St. Heviticus, sharpening and recycling 
  the sacred components and donating 
  them to the production of scullions 
  and clockwork familiars, granting these 
  gifted creations enhanced sentience, 
  adding +4 to the clockwork creature’s 
  Intelligence and Wisdom. 
  The filings and shavings from 
  these recycled gears are meticulously 
  collected and worked into small 
  amulets, worn by the faithful as an 
  encolpion that grants +5 to Craft 
  (clockwork) checks 3 times per day. 
  The Mummified Monks of 
  Marena 
  Scattered throughout dark sanctuaries 
  and hidden cellars in lower Zobeck 
  are two dozen or so self-mummified 
  monks of the Red Goddess. Typically 
  older male followers of the goddess 
  who have outlived their usefulness as 
  subordinates to the priestesses of the 
  faith, they end their own lives in a slow 
  sacrificial suicide by eating only harsh, 
  mildly poisonous strands of cavelight 
  moss. This diet preserves their bodies 
  to a remarkable degree in a foul 
  mockery of holy incorruptibility. 
  Periodically displayed as a testament 
  of loyalty to the Red Goddess, the 
  relics bestow gentle repose on any corpse 
  within 30 ft. During such displays, 
  Marena’s priestesses remove patches of 
  parchment-like skin from these perfect 
  specimens, which is a rare prize among 
  the faithful (see Mummy-Skin Tea of the 
  Red Goddess). 
  Mummy-Skin Tea of the Red 
  Goddess
  A potent concoction is brewed from 
  a fine, brown powder ground from 
  thin strips of parchment-like skin 
  meticulously removed from the 
  preserved bodies of devout monks. 
  Any imbiber must make a DC 18 
  Fortitude save. If this check fails, the 
  imbiber is deemed weak by Marena 
  and automatically suffers a debilitating 
  enervation with no further effect. 
  For those who survive the harsh gaze 
  of their goddess, the tea gently lulls 
  them into a trance of dulled sensation 
  but heightened consciousness lasting 
  2d4 hours. During this time, the drink 
  imbues false life (1d10+10 temporary 
  hp), and the imbiber can sense sickness 
  and injury as if under the effects of a 
  deathwatch spell. 
  This euphoric state is recognized and 
  respected by all undead, and all checks 
  to rebuke undead while so affected 
  gain a +4 sacred bonus. In addition, 
  imbibers gain the ability to speak with 
  dead, able to ask three questions of any 
  corpse they encounter.
  The Resurrection Relics of 
  Perun 
  Long ago, the spear-maidens of 
  Perun walked the streets of Zobeck in 
  corporeal form, sent by the god of war 
  to bring justice to the young city in a 
  time of great suffering. These angelic 
  maidens fought bravely through 
  dismemberment and death, each 
  time selflessly reborn to wage war on 
  injustice, fighting until their earthly 
  
  56     Kobold Quarterly 12
  incarnations finally failed, and they 
  passed into true death with honor. 
  These spear-maidens continue to 
  serve their god in the mortal realm 
  via the relics venerated in Perun’s 
  temples. While their bodies are kept 
  in deep catacombs, the spear hands 
  of several maidens rest in elaborate 
  gilded reliquaries, depicting scenes of 
  great victories. Once per week, a Holy 
  Hand of the Spear Maiden can bestow 
  a powerful blessing on heroes not yet 
  meant to die—their quests unfulfilled. 
  Any priest using the hand of the 
  maiden to guide a hero’s soul back 
  to their body with a raise dead spell 
  can treat the spell as a more powerful 
  resurrection, for the breath of Perun 
  fills the subject’s lungs with vigor to 
  fight for justice anew. 
  In addition, druids can utilize a Holy 
  Hand of the Spear Maiden to direct 
  reincarnation spells, guiding Perun’s 
  notice to the desired species they 
  wish the recovered soul to inhabit. A 
  living member of the desired species, 
  who cannot have recently performed 
  any unjust acts, must be present. The 
  artifact has no effect on those dying of 
  old age. 
  St. Norvegicus, the 
  Thousand-Mouthed King 
  Unique among patrons, St. Norvegicus 
  is not a single individual, or even 
  human, for that matter. Rather, 
  St. Norvegicus is an accumulated 
  and growing mound of relics—the 
  desiccated remains of dozens of rats 
  and mice, intertwined and knotted at 
  their tails. Indeed, the city’s mice and 
  rats believe this mound contains the 
  interwoven corpses of each and every 
  past Mouse King of Zobeck. 
  Kept in a golden idol shaped in 
  the form of multiple rearing rats, 
  ownership of the relic serves as the 
  true badge of authority for all serving 
  kings and enables them to consult the 
  collective ancestral wisdom of their 
  predecessors reliably 3 times per day. 
  This consultation adds +10 to any 
  Knowledge check as the mummified 
  relic erupts in a chittering chorus. 
  Due to the sometimes-treacherous 
  relationship between generations 
  of kings contained in the relic, any 
  consultations beyond the first three in 
  a single day have a cumulative 20% 
  chance of providing misinformation or 
  outright falsehood. When jealousy and 
  ancient rivalries rupture into argument 
  in this way, the relic goes silent for a 
  month or more. 
  In addition, the relic commands the 
  obedience of all rodents. They pay it 
  homage and whisper it information 
  from throughout the city, feeding the 
  knowledge of the relic. It can call 2d6 
  rat swarms in urban environments, 
  which arrive within 1d2 round to do 
  the bidding of the sitting Mouse King.
  When a Mouse King passes, the body 
  is recovered and moved to the center 
  of the relic. In this strange ritual, the 
  relic animates in a ravenous display of 
  gnashing teeth, consuming the spirit 
  and knowledge of the deceased king 
  before absorbing the body, adding 
  another corpse to the relic’s growing 
  collection. 
  Thigh Bone of St. Mauritz 
  Frumarch
  A giant of a man and a dedicated 
  hunter of the undead, the paladin St. 
  Mauritz Frumarch infamously died 
  not at the hands of the quarry that was 
  his lifelong pursuit but in the jaws of a 
  great drake that threatened Zobeck in 
  the year 562. Though little remained 
  of his body, adventurers later recovered 
  both of the saint’s thighbones. 
  Hard as iron with wrapped grips of 
  moldering shrouds, each bone acts 
  as a +1 undead bane club and displays 
  an extraordinary power to ward 
  off ghouls, who well remember the 
  sting of the paladin’s holy crusades 
  against their kind. Whenever the 
  wielder attacks, charges, or otherwise 
  threatens a ghoul or ghast of any sort, 
  the creature and other such creatures 
  within 30 ft. must succeed on a Will 
  save (DC 10 + 1/2 wielder’s HD + 
  wielder’s Charisma modifier). On a 
  failure, ghouls or ghasts with 4 HD or 
  less become panicked for 4d6 rounds, 
  and those with 5 HD or more become 
  shaken for 4d6 rounds. 
  One of the bones can be found in 
  Lada’s healing school to the south 
  of Zobeck, while the other can 
  often be found in the hands of good 
  adventuring parties, on loan from the 
  church when Zobeck faces the threat 
  of the ghoul empire. 
  Adventure Hooks
  Kobolds of the Geargrinders Guild, 
  fed up with Rava’s monopoly on the 
  dissemination of technology, attempt 
  to sabotage the Clockwork Mummy 
  of St. Heviticus. The PCs are hired to 
  perform the deed or investigate the 
  disappearance of the missing gears. 
  When ground to a powder, the 
  poisonous bark of the yam yam root 
  is deceptively similar to that used to 
  brew Marena’s Mummy-Skin Tea and 
  is a key ingredient in the manufacture 
  of dark reaver powder. The adventurers 
  are called to investigate a series of 
  mysterious poisonings of the followers 
  of the Red Goddess. 
  Ghouls are stealing true relics 
  and corrupting them in unholy 
  rites, staging elaborate feasts of the 
  mummified flesh in hopes of absorbing 
  the power they believe lies within. The 
  church of Lada requests the party’s aid 
  and loans them the powerful Thigh 
  Bones of St. Maurice.
  The Mouse King is murdered, and 
  the adventurers are caught in the 
  ensuing power struggle (See Tales of 
  Zobeck, “Tale of the Mouse King”). 
  They must return his entire body to 
  the relic’s care.
  The PCs seek to bring a companion 
  back from the dead and to gain the 
  blessings of Perun’s relics. However, 
  there is a price to be paid. (See 
  Kobold Quarterly #10, “Back and 
  Better Than Ever”).
  An army of gnolls advances on 
  Zobeck, and spellcasters are called 
  to repel the invaders with incredible 
  arcane blasts from the Ark of St. 
  Bellandrus.
  <
   
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    57
  A 
  bane to all <<cough cough>> sentient creatures <<wheeze>>… Let me start over <<wheeze>>... Disease leaves no 
  one unscathed <<cough>>... Oh gods, I think I’m gonna hurl…
  Except for filth fever, all diseases in 4th Edition are scaled for characters level 9 and higher. But even GMs of 
  heroic-tier games should have a bit of variety to throw at PCs. Since disease is often an afterthought, added to an encounter 
  just for a bit of variety, each entry includes a way to incorporate the disease as an adventure element.
  Chimney 
  Level 1 Disease
  A nuisance at most, sufferers exhibit a loud, dry cough, and breath that smells like soot.
  Attack +4 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 13, maintain DC 10, worsen DC 9 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect The target 
  takes a -5 penalty to Stealth 
  checks until cured.
  < > Final State The target takes a -5 penalty to Charisma-based skills and 
  checks. Any creature that spends more than 10 consecutive rounds within 3 
  squares of the target is subject to an attack of chimney.
  Vectors Just before an audience with the Lord Mayor on an important matter, a party member contracts chimney, possibly 
  sickening his compatriots—and even worse—the mayor.
  Tumbledown 
  Level 2 Disease
  Often spread when the target swims in or drinks tainted water, the disease causes severe vertigo and makes it impossible for the 
  sufferer to stand.
  Attack +5 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 14, maintain DC 10, worsen DC 9 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect The target takes 
  a -2 penalty to Acrobatics and 
  Athletics checks until cured.
  < > Whenever the target takes a 
  full move action, it must make a 
  DC 13 Acrobatics check or fall 
  prone.
  > Final State The target falls 
  prone, and it can move only by 
  crawling.
  Vectors Local neighborhood rogues, the Bright Boys, have contracted a case of tumbledown. A rival gang intends to exploit 
  the situation to take over the Bright Boys’ home turf. While gang wars are not usually of great concern, the interlopers are a 
  violent, brutal mob, rather than harmless cutpurses and cat-burglars.
  Dark Rot 
  Level 3 Disease
  Some say this disease was created in Morgau as a means to speed the living onto the land of dead. Dark Rot appears at random, so 
  its contagion is still not fully understood.
  Attack +7 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 15, maintain DC 10, worsen DC 9 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect Until cured, 
  the target takes a -4 penalty 
  to death saves.
  < > Final State When the target is reduced to 0 hp, it takes 5 damage. Also, 
  whenever the target receives or grants healing with the divine keyword, the 
  second party is subject to an attack of dark rot.
  Vectors A party member contracts dark rot from the Golden Priest, an itinerant disciple of Lada. They must find him before 
  he spreads the disease any further. 
  Skinpaper 
  Level 4 Disease
  The sufferer’s skin becomes dry and rigid, tearing open at the least scratch. The final stage causes the infected person to suffer 
  horrible wounds when injured.
  Attack +7 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 16, maintain DC 12, worsen DC 11 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect The 
  target takes a -1 penalty 
  to AC. This effect lasts 
  until the target is cured.
  < > The target gains vulnerable 
  5 to damage from attacks that 
  target AC or have the weapon 
  keyword.
  > Final State The target gains vulnerable 10 to 
  damage from attacks that target AC or have the 
  weapon keyword. If a single attack causes more 
  damage than the target’s Constitution score, the 
  target becomes bloodied if not already.
  Eight Plagues and Diseases
  By Stefen Styrsky
  DM Tools
  
  58     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Open Design is a trademarks of Open Design LLC.
  TM
  p r e s e n T s
  Sharpen your sword and your wits
  Designed for and fully compatible with 4th Edition D&D levels 12-15.
  Heavily playtested and reviewed by dozens of experienced DMs.
  Courts of the Shadow Fey is an exciting adventure that propels your campaign into the 
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  Wolfgang Baur, the adventure places equal emphasis on combat and role-playing as the characters 
  navigate a deadly web of courtly intrigue and seduction.
  Courts of the Shadow Fey includes:
  All-new details about the Shadow Realm
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  Detailed palaces and planar encounters
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  New shadow monsters and demons, like the Demon Lord of Roaches
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  Shadow power-source magic
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  New quick-resolution dueling system
  •	
  Status rules for social duels and prestige treasures
  •	
  Patrons see the adventure in draft and playtest form—and can contribute to it as credited designers.
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  C 
  F
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  hadow
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  a d v e n T u r e
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    59
  Vectors Sir Count Ovalbloom has discovered a fantastic way to satisfy his bullying, violent nature without greatly 
  endangering himself. An agent contaminates a PC’s drink or food with skinpaper just before Ovalbloom feigns some affront 
  to his honor and challenges the PC to a duel.
  Bloat Gloom 
  Level 5 Disease
  So named because the target’s face and limbs swell noticeably, the disease deadens pain from physical injuries and makes the sufferer 
  oblivious to the severity of his wounds.
  Attack +8 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 17, maintain DC 12, worsen DC 11 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect The target takes 10 necrotic damage when 
  bloodied. This damage lasts until the target is cured.
  < > Final State The target cannot use 
  healing surges unless it is bloodied.
  Vectors The latest batch of pilsner from the Brewer’s Sisterhood is contaminated with bloat gloom. A caravan transporting 
  three large casks into the Iron Crags must be located and stopped before any dwarves are sickened.
  Bonewrack 
  Level 6 Disease
  Spread through insect bites, this disease causes horrible joint pain. A confounding illness, bonewrack seems to get worse just before 
  the target recovers.
  Attack +10 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 17, maintain DC 12, worsen DC 11 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < After each short or extended 
  rest the target gains ongoing 5 
  necrotic damage (save ends).
  < > Initial Effect 
  The target is 
  slowed until 
  cured.
  < > The target takes 10 
  necrotic damage which 
  cannot be healed until the 
  target is cured.
  > Final State The target 
  takes a -2 penalty to 
  initiative rolls and -2 to 
  speed.
  Vectors An army of ogres and giants lays siege to a new dwarf colony in the Ironcrags. The defenders believe themselves safe 
  behind their gates until bonewrack spreads among them. Someone must break through enemy lines and return with help.
  Blue Ague 
  Level 7 Disease
  Carried on the foul vapors from sewers or through food, this disease befuddles the mind, causing the sufferer to act as if in a torpor. 
  Attack +10 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 18, maintain DC 14, worsen DC 13 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < The target can gain combat 
  advantage against a foe but 
  cannot make opportunity 
  attacks.
  < > Initial Effect Until 
  cured, the target cannot 
  gain combat advantage 
  against a foe.
  < > Whenever the target takes 
  more than a single action in a 
  round, it suffers a -2 penalty to 
  attacks until the end of its next 
  turn.
  > Final State 
  The target is 
  dazed.
  Vectors Before raiding each town and village, slavers from Reth-Saal dump blue ague into the local water supply to make 
  their victims more compliant. Unfortunately, the PCs are in the village when this happens.
  Angel Fire 
  Level 8 Disease
  This disease is so named because the sufferer’s flesh burns with radiant energy that only worsens in the presence of healing magic.
  Attack +12 vs. Fortitude 
  Endurance improve DC 19, maintain DC 15, worsen DC 13 or lower
  The target 
  is cured.
  < Initial Effect The 
  target takes a -2 penalty 
  to Fortitude defense 
  until cured.
  < > When subjected to 
  divine healing, the target 
  takes ongoing 5 radiant 
  damage (save ends).
  > Final State When another creature within 5 
  squares of the target is subject to divine healing, the 
  target gains ongoing 10 radiant damage (save ends), 
  and the creature subject to the divine healing suffers 
  an attack from angel fire.
  Vectors Angel fire is the splattered blood left over from a fight between immortals. It remains potent for eternity and collects 
  on magic items, especially ones with divine properties or effects. Any creature handling the item is subject to an attack of 
  angel fire.
  <
  4 More Diseases
  Four	more	diseases	will	be	posted	on	koboldquarterly.com,	including	the	Fugue	and	
  Iron	Rot.	Take	a	look	and	let	us	know	what	worked	with	your	players.
  
  60					Kobold Quarterly 12
  D
  agon, Orcus, and Pazuzu are 
  names that ring throughout 
  the cosmos. Their deeds and 
  legacies are a source of awe and horror 
  for those mere mortals who inhabit the 
  worlds of the Material Plane, yet these 
  dark luminaries of the demonic race 
  are not the only powers of the Abyss 
  to work their malefic designs upon the 
  cosmos. There exist an uncountable 
  number of worlds where demon 
  lords, such as Dagon and Orcus, are 
  merely footnotes in a textbook. On 
  these worlds, horrifying demons like 
  Balaphwr, Thazrinu, and Ulbastor hold 
  sway, and their names are whispered 
  with exactly the same dread and 
  admiration.
  Agoziel,  
  the Ravenous Flame 
  CR 31
  CE male demon lord of accidents and 
  disasters
  Abyssal Realm. Anaphexaton, the 
  Shuddering Rift (a vast chasm of 
  shifting stone and smoldering flame 
  surrounded by shattered monuments)
  Unholy Symbol. A broken mirror 
  revealing a fractured demonic 
  reflection
  Domains. Chaos, Destruction, Evil, 
  Fire
  Favored Sacrifice. A humanoid 
  roasted to death over an open pit of 
  burning flames
  Favored Weapon. Greatsword
  Typical Worshippers. Nihilists, 
  madmen, and vandals
  Abyssal Herald. Riftwing (half-
  fiendish ancient red dragon) 
  Description
  Agoziel is a huge reptilian humanoid 
  covered in deep red scales, his hands 
  ending in wicked claws of black metal 
  Vilest Evils of the Abyss
  By Phillip Larwood
  Art by Michael Wolgemut
  Bestiary
  and his lizard-like tail studded with 
  vicious spikes. Burning orange flames 
  wreathe his terrible horned visage, 
  obscuring the worst of his crocodilian 
  face from view, and bright azure runes 
  of annihilation adorn his muscular 
  body. 
  Agoziel revels in destruction and 
  mayhem, typifying everything that 
  demons stand for. He exults in every 
  crumbling building, broken tree, or 
  scorched body that is the result of an 
  accident or calamity, and he works to 
  bring about disasters and catastrophes 
  to sate his unspeakable appetite for 
  chaos and bloodshed. Ultimately, 
  Agoziel sees no difference between 
  a terrible accident and a calamity 
  engineered by unscrupulous mortals 
  and willingly aids such individuals in 
  their endeavors. While he is just as 
  happy to see a child struck through 
  the eye by an errant arrow or a person 
  trampled to death under the wheels 
  of a carriage, he prefers disasters of an 
  epic scale, including large forest fires, 
  earthquakes, or outbreaks of disease.   
  Adventure Hook
  Cultists of Agoziel have discovered 
  a dangerous artifact known as 
  the Burning Eye of Thasaidon and 
  are planning to use it to start a 
  catastrophic forest fire in the heart 
  of the nearby elven nation. Someone 
  must stop the cultists before they can 
  succeed in their plans. 
  Akyishigal,  
  the Skittish One 
  CR 27
  CE male demon lord of cockroaches, 
  disease, and roachlings
  Abyssal Realm. The Reeking Vortex (a 
  vast whirlpool of garbage and effluent)
  Unholy Symbol. A cockroach with a 
  grinning human face
  Domains. Chaos, Destruction, Evil, 
  Trickery
  Favored Sacrifice. A humanoid buried 
  up to his neck in garbage or mud who 
  has his eyes and tongue eaten out by 
  cockroaches or other vermin     
  Favored Weapon. Sap
  Typical Worshippers. Evil humanoids 
  (kobolds and goblins in particular), 
  roachlings (see Kobold Quarterly 
  #8), and disenfranchised slum dwellers
  Abyssal Herald. Yoth-Khur (fiendish 
  roachling mystic theurge)
  Description
  Patron of all that is foul and 
  disgusting– and lord of the roachlings 
  –Akyishigal is a relatively new demon 
  lord who revels in the excessive 
  quantities of waste and garbage 
  produced by human civilization, and 
  his cult often tries to halt any attempts 
  to clean up city streets, garbage dumps, 
  or sewers. Cultists of Akyishigal enjoy 
  spreading diseases and polluting 
  sources of fresh water in the name 
  of their demon lord and share an 
  affinity for creatures such as monstrous 
  cockroaches, keeping them as pets and 
  guards in their sewer lairs. 
  Akyishigal appears as a gigantic 
  black cockroach covered in thick layers 
  of filth. His legs are covered in long 
  serrated barbs and end in twitching 
  talons, and his face is that of a sinister 
  roachling with oversized mandibles 
  dripping with caustic venom. 
  Adventure Hook
  An aspect of Akyishigal emerges 
  from a planar rift and arrives on the 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    61
  mysterious Isle of the Gugs located 
  somewhere in a vast subterranean sea. 
  The demon lord is intent on acquiring 
  something hidden deep within a 
  claustrophobic edifice known as the 
  Tower of Grasping Shadows but must 
  first contend with the aspects of several 
  other demon lords who are seeking the 
  same thing.
  Balaphwr, the  
  Disobedient Prince  CR 30
  CE male demon lord of regicide and 
  treason
  Abyssal Realm. The Furious Reaches 
  (a jagged plateau of petrified trees, 
  careening waterfalls, and glowing bogs)  
  Unholy Symbol. A bent crown 
  dripping blood 
  Domains. Chaos, Evil, Madness, 
  Strength
  Favored Sacrifice. A noble or city 
  official beaten to death by an enraged 
  mob (spurred on by cultists behind the 
  scenes)  
  Favored Weapon. Halberd
  Typical Worshippers. Rebels, 
  anarchists, and dissidents fed up 
  with corrupt institutions or over-
  complicated bureaucracies
  Abyssal Herald. Balaphwr trusts no 
  one to act as his messenger, preferring 
  to use an aspect instead
  Description
  Balaphwr appears as a gargantuan 
  mollusk with an iridescent black shell. 
  From his shell, dozens of thrashing 
  scarlet tentacles emerge, covered with 
  gasping toothless maws, hooked spikes, 
  and staring emerald eyes.  
  Balaphwr is the demon lord of rebels, 
  traitors, and anyone else trying to 
  overthrow lawful organizations and 
  governments. He enjoys transforming 
  law-abiding citizens into violent 
  anarchists, and finds it particularly 
  amusing to turn people against 
  good-aligned rulers or officials by 
  manipulating events behind the 
  scenes to make them look guilty 
  of crimes they didn’t commit. His 
  greatest triumphs normally involve the 
  complete destruction of a city-state 
  or kingdom and the bloody execution 
  of its rulers. Balaphwr’s hatred and 
  contempt of authority figures extends 
  to the other demon lords of the Abyss, 
  and he is constantly hatching plots to 
  overthrow them. Of late, Balaphwr’s 
  attention has been fixed on the demon 
  lord Kostchtchie (see Green Ronin’s 
  Book of Fiends) whose dominion 
  over chaotic evil frost giants fills the 
  Disobedient Prince with rage, and it 
  is only a matter of time before the two 
  demon lords come to blows.  
  Adventure Hook
  A large city is on the brink of 
  starvation, its granaries destroyed 
  by fire and its food shipments 
  disappearing even as a 
  terrible winter grips the 
  land. As the city struggles 
  to survive, food riots 
  break out, and people 
  begin to call for the 
  government to stand 
  down. Unbeknownst to 
  the city’s rulers, the riots 
  and the food shortages 
  are directly linked. A 
  particularly powerful and 
  well-organized cult of 
  Balaphwr is responsible 
  for burning down the 
  granaries, attacking the 
  food shipments, and 
  instigating the violence 
  and discontent.
  Karduluu, the Solace 
  CR 26
  CE male demon lord of alienation and 
  loneliness
  Abyssal Realm. The Final Gaze (a 
  desolate bodak-haunted wasteland)
  Unholy Symbol. A faceless mask
  Domains. None
  Favored Sacrifice. None
  Favored Weapon. None
  Typical Worshippers. Karduluu 
  accepts no worshippers, believing itself 
  to be the only creature in existence 
  Abyssal Herald. Karduluu has no 
  herald
  Description
  One of the most bizarre demon lords 
  of the Abyss, Karduluu’s appearance 
  depends on the number of creatures 
  in his presence. In the company of 
  two or more creatures, he is both 
  invisible and immaterial, manifesting 
  as an unsettling aura that fills all living 
  creatures with a nameless dread. If 
  only one creature is nearby, however, 
  his body slowly comes into focus, 
  bleeding into reality to appear as a tall, 
  gaunt bodak with dead white skin and 
  staring black eyes.
  Karduluu’s name, moniker, and 
  symbol have all been given to him 
  by sages who have studied his abyssal 
  layer and lived to tell the tale, usually 
  because they kept the company of 
  a creature immune to the demon 
  lord’s alienating influence. No one 
  has ever been able to communicate 
  with the demon lord to define his 
  true intentions, but he seems content 
  to isolate mortals and drive them to 
  madness and despair. Those solitary 
  souls he focuses his attention on 
  invariably commit suicide and become 
  bodaks or disappear without a trace, 
  while those groups who feel his 
  terrifying attentions and survive are 
  often emotionally and mentally scarred 
  by the experience.   
  Adventure Hook
  A famous sage and patron of the 
  PCs has disappeared somewhere 
  in Karduluu’s realm and the sage’s 
  daughter asks the PCs to find him. 
  Once they arrive, the PCs discover that 
  their patron has been transformed into 
  
  62     Kobold Quarterly 12
  a bodak and must find a way to restore 
  him even as an invisible force hunts 
  them through the lonely forests and 
  empty deserts of the layer.
  Thazrinu,  
  the Golden Slayer 
  CR 28
  CE female demon lord of camouflage 
  and stealth
  Abyssal Realm. Urnax (a land of 
  pitiless black rock and acidic slime)  
  Unholy Symbol. A golden horn
  Domains. Chaos, Darkness, Evil, 
  Trickery
  Favored Sacrifice. A humanoid 
  released into an isolated location and 
  hunted to exhaustion by Thazrinu’s 
  camouflaged cultists 
  Favored Weapon. Dagger
  Typical Worshippers. Babau demons, 
  assassins, serial killers, rogues, hunters, 
  and rangers who specialize in tracking 
  down and killing sentient prey
  Abyssal Herald. Larger than Life 
  (morose gargantuan babau demon)
  Description
  Thazrinu is a cautious demon lord, 
  using guile over raw power to survive 
  in the Abyss. In many ways, Thazrinu 
  behaves more like a devil than a 
  demon, with a host of contingencies 
  and fallback plans that show 
  meticulous planning and forethought. 
  Despite her many devilish qualities, 
  Thazrinu is still a demon at heart and 
  enjoys spreading chaos and indulging 
  in senseless slaughter, both for those 
  fiends she lends her services to and 
  for her own demented and twisted 
  amusement. Thazrinu is the adopted 
  queen of many babau demons and 
  epitomizes the murderous and stealthy 
  qualities of her minions. She relishes 
  stalking and terrifying her prey before 
  dispatching them and often delays 
  killing them simply to heighten their 
  terror and her own enjoyment of the 
  chase. She is most happy when she can 
  pounce on a victim from the shadows, 
  pin them down, and slowly rip out 
  their throats while staring into their 
  dying eyes. 
  Thazrinu appears as a comely 
  looking babau demon covered in 
  sticky red slime with a horn of solid 
  gold sprouting from her head (many 
  demonic sages see this as a sign of her 
  sovereignty over other babau demons). 
  Her slime gives off an intoxicating 
  stench that beguiles those who inhale 
  its jasmine-scented fumes, and she is 
  said to possess the power to change her 
  form at will.
  Adventure Hook
  Thazrinu has been paid by Orcus to 
  hunt down and assassinate a senior 
  cleric of a good-aligned sun god, 
  arriving on the Material Plane with a 
  retinue of babau demons to carry out 
  the task personally. The cleric realizes 
  his life is in danger and approaches the 
  PCs for their assistance, hinting that 
  the horn of Thazrinu’s head is the key 
  to a great treasure.
  Ulbastor, the  
  Wounded Sovereign 
  CR 27
  CE male demon lord of injury and 
  mutilation
  Abyssal Realm. Tzelmuth, the Tangled 
  Abattoir (a blood-soaked pyramid of 
  hanging knives and tangled limbs)  
  Unholy Symbol. A laughing 
  decapitated head
  Domains. Chaos, Death, Destruction, 
  Evil 
  Favored Sacrifice. A humanoid 
  that is flayed alive and then ritually 
  dismembered with their entrails spread 
  out in a fan shape before their bodies
  Favored Weapon. Saw-toothed blade 
  of any kind
  Typical Worshippers. Murderers, 
  sadists, and torturers (Ulbastor’s 
  cultists usually sport deformities or 
  self-inflicted injuries and are often 
  enthralled or sexually aroused by 
  amputees)
  Abyssal Herald. Asiroch 
  (sadomasochistic three-armed marilith)  
  Description
  Ulbastor is a tall, emaciated 
  humanoid demon. Open suppurating 
  wounds cover his sickly yellow body, 
  and his wings are a shattered mess of 
  broken bones and twisted flesh. His 
  right leg and left arm are both missing, 
  and from the amputated limbs dribbles 
  a foul corrosive puss. In his good 
  hand, he holds a massive saw-toothed 
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    63
  blade of glowing green steel, and his 
  mockery of a face is filled with jagged 
  black fangs. Ulbastor seems completely 
  unaffected by his terrible injuries, and 
  laughs whenever he is wounded. 
  Ulbastor is a fairly straightforward 
  demon lord who is obsessed with 
  carnage and bloodshed. The sound 
  of tearing meat, crunching bone, and 
  spurting viscera is sweet music to his 
  ears, and the only colors he enjoys 
  are those synonymous with gore and 
  bodily secretions. Ulbastor does not 
  care how or why someone is mutilated 
  or disemboweled; his only concern in 
  that someone ends up lying in pieces 
  on the ground or trying to scoop their 
  intestines back into their stomach. 
  His devotees share his passion for 
  mutilation and are some of the most 
  deranged cultists anyone is ever likely 
  to meet. 
  Adventure Hook
  The cult of Ulbastor is looking for 
  fresh recruits, targeting despondent 
  war veterans who have lost limbs, 
  and building up their power-base. A 
  veteran who lost an arm in a recent 
  conflict comes to ask the PCs for aid, 
  only to be killed by a fellow disabled 
  soldier who has been thoroughly 
  brainwashed by the cultists. 
  Uvapula,  
  the Beast Whore 
  CR 29
  CE female demon lord of bestiality 
  and gluttony
  Abyssal Realm. The Palace of 
  Moaning Flesh (an immense palace 
  filled with steaming indoor gardens 
  and bloody banquet halls) 
  Unholy Symbol. A writhing panorama 
  of animal and humanoid bodies
  Domains. Animal, Chaos, Charm, 
  Evil
  Favored Sacrifice. A young man or 
  woman forced to endure copulation 
  with an animal before being killed 
  (and sometimes eaten) by the cultists
  Favored Weapon. Heavy flail
  Typical Worshippers. Decadent 
  nobles, debased druids, and the 
  occasional lycanthrope
  Abyssal Herald. Imahtu (lascivious 
  wolf-headed succubus)   
  Description
  Uvapula appears as a morbidly obese 
  woman with the head of a monstrous 
  black mantis, her eyes glowing with 
  a baleful green light and her dainty 
  hands ending in long red nails sharp 
  enough to eviscerate stone. Her 
  glistening flesh is constantly anointed 
  in pungent oils, and a shameless 
  diaphanous gown of bloodstained 
  silk barely conceals her corpulent and 
  otherwise naked body from view. 
  While this is her true form, she is often 
  depicted as a plump yet beautiful elf 
  woman in the houses of those nobles 
  who worship her. 
  Just like other demon lords who 
  represent the baser instincts of man, 
  Uvapula cares only for her own 
  gratification, indulging in carnal 
  and cannibalistic acts with a variety 
  of demons, animals, vermin, and 
  humanoids to slake her lust. She often 
  devours those she has just shared an 
  intimate encounter with, biting off 
  their heads mere moments after they 
  have serviced her. 
  Uvapula can usually be found 
  surrounding herself in an orgy of 
  feasting and fornication, forcing 
  creatures to copulate and feed on 
  one another for her own libidinous 
  enjoyment. She is easily enraged by 
  those who refuse to give into her 
  heinous demands, and she quickly 
  makes them the centerpiece of her 
  orgies. Uvapula and Socothbenoth (see 
  Green Ronin’s Book of Fiends) have long 
  been foes, but their one union produced 
  the horrific demon Dagdagiron (a 
  nascent demon lord of incest who 
  takes the form of a flayed adolescent 
  humanoid of indeterminate sex).
  Adventure Hook
  The bodies of several horribly 
  mutilated prostitutes have been 
  found throughout the city with 
  body parts chewed off as if by some 
  ravenous beast. Closer investigation 
  into the deaths reveals that some 
  of the prostitutes were cultists of 
  Socothbenoth. This heralds an 
  escalation in conflict between the 
  cult of Socothbenoth and a pack of 
  werewolves who worship Uvapula. 
  Unfortunately, normal prostitutes are 
  being caught in the crossfire, and the 
  entire city is on edge.
  <
  
  64					Kobold Quarterly 12
  OPEN	GAME	LICENSE	Version	1.0a	
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  may	publish	updated	versions	of	this	License.	You	may	use	
  any	authorized	version	of	this	License	to	copy,	modify	and	
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  with	any	of	the	terms	of	this	License	with	respect	to	some	or	
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  extent	necessary	to	make	it	enforceable.	
  15.	COPYRIGHT	NOTICE	
  Open	Game	License	v	1.0a	Copyright	2000,	Wizards	of	the	
  Coast,	Inc.	
  System	 Reference	 Document.	 Copyright	 2000,	 Wizards	 of	
  the	Coast,	Inc.;	Authors	Jonathan	Tweet,	Monte	Cook,	Skip	
  Williams,	 based	 on	 material	 by	 E.	 Gary	 Gygax	 and	 Dave	
  Arneson.
  Pathfinder	 RPG	 Core	 Rulebook.	 Copyright	 2009,	 Paizo	
  Publishing,	LLC;	Author:	Jason	Bulmahn,	based	on	material	
  by	Jonathan	Tweet,	Monte	Cook,	and	Skip	Williams.
  The	Book	of	Experimental	Might.	Copyright	2008,	Monte	J.	
  Cook.	All	rights	reserved.
  Tome	of	Horrors.	Copyright	2002,	Necromancer	Games,	Inc.;	
  Authors:	 Scott	 Greene,	 with	 Clark	 Peterson,	 Erica	 Balsley,	
  Kevin	Baase,	Casey	Christofferson,	Lance	Hawvermale,	Travis	
  Hawvermale,	 Patrick	 Lawinger,	 and	 Bill	 Webb;	 Based	 on	
  original	content	from	TSR.
  Kobold	Quarterly	issue	12,	Copyright 2009,	Open	Design	LLC,	
  www.koboldquarterly.com.	All rights reserved.
  Coming Next Issue 
  Behold the rites of Spring, when a young gamer's fancy turns to thoughts 
  of firearms and variant PC races! Yes, once again kobolds anticipate your 
  seasonal needs.
  What? No? Apparently humans have other needs in the springtime. Humans 
  are strange, but KQ will cater to your whims.
  •   Sex and Romance in RPGs - Lust and love in RPGs:  threat or 
  menace? A semi-serious look at the other half of the "sex and violence" 
  equation. 
  •   Power of the Gun - We love things that go boom here at KQ, and 
  not just deadlines. A direct hit, as it were.
  •   Variant Tengu for Pathfinder RPG - The crazed birdfolk get a 
  makeover from master Larwood. Not to be missed!
  •   4e Mythos Gods - The dark side of religion with 4E cults and powers 
  for the Things From Beyond. Awesome 4E baddies.
  •   Plus New Gear for Adventurers, magical and otherwise!
  What else might we see in the Spring? Maybe druids, new shadow magic, a 
  shifty warlock, maybe another Pathfinder RPG race or class. Our inbox in 
  full of surprises after the solstice break, and we promise to cook it up as a 
  kobold feast by the time the equinox rolls around.
  
  Kobold Quarterly 12    65
  War Wagons  
  of the Magdar
  By Wolfgang Baur
  The	Free	City
  T
  he rolling hills and grasslands south of Zobeck are 
  the provinces of the Magdar Kingdom: a place 
  rich in traditions of chivalry and warfare, where 
  the good king Stefanos holds tourneysevery summer and 
  hires a great many mercenaries from the Ironcrags when war 
  threatens. Indeed, the Magdar must fight often to defend 
  their borders both to the east against the wild tribes of the 
  Rothenian Plain and to the south against the akinji, the 
  skirmish troops, and the dragon-blooded sorcerers of the 
  Mahroti Empire. Thanks to this constant conflict, one of the 
  greatest weapons of the Magdar is the war wagon.
  Most armies travel with a baggage train: the dwarves 
  prefer mules, the Rothenian centaurs manage on their own, 
  the armies of Morgau and Doresh rely on zombies, but all 
  carry their weapons, food, tents, and other supplies in some 
  form. The Black Army of the Magdar, however, turned this 
  logistical need into a fortification on the open plains where 
  it most often faces its enemies. These war wagons are easy to 
  circle into a tall wall of iron-reinforced wood, a lager against 
  attack almost as good as a wooden palisade.
  The war wagons are two things to the infantry of the 
  Black Army: crossbows and even ballistae can be mounted 
  and fired from behind their protective firing slits, and they 
  provide defenses kept strong by sharp-eyed gearforged or 
  mountain rangers. This army’s tools and discipline make it 
  doubly effective; they are no peasant army but a professional 
  corps that serves the kingdom year in and out. 
  Copper-Clad Bulwarks 
  The wagons themselves are built in Cronepisht though 
  they often use iron wheel rims from the Revskaya Foundry, 
  leather yokes from Ironcrags, and oxen from Magdar’s best. 
  The army paints its war wagons in the red, green, and yellow 
  colors traditional to the land from Sveretska to Cronepisht. 
  Their wood is oak or ash, enchanted and strengthened by 
  alchemy.
  On the open plains, when the elementalists unleash 
  the jinn of thunder and lightning, of wind and fire, the 
  copper-sheathed bulwarks of the war wagons are a vital 
  bulwark against their magic. The copper is grounded against 
  lightning and proof against fire, and the cover they provide 
  is crucial. Better still, a wagon fortress protects all those 
  within it and provides ready-made lookout points; guards 
  standing atop the war wagons can see further and spot 
  enemies sooner.
  To keep the wagons from being overturned, the front 
  and rear wheel of neighboring wagons are built to slightly 
  different widths; this allows the soldiers to chain them 
  together when formed up into a tabor (or wagon-camp). In 
  addition, some of the larger wagons are fitted with ballast 
  stones in a compartment under the wagon. This lowers their 
  center of gravity and making them almost impossible to 
  capsize. 
  The Mahroti Empire has attempted to build its own war 
  wagons, employing them in a similar way. However, the real 
  strength of their army is in the akinji light cavalry and the 
  elemental-fortified skirmishers, and neither of these groups 
  can maneuver in the disciplined ranks required to make 
  the most of mobile fortresses. The Mahroti wagons, called 
  arbasi, are relatively small in number and are roofed in tin. 
  They have the unusual habit of removing the wagon’s wheels 
  at night, to secure them.
  Company Wagons
  Not all wagons are owned by the Magdar Kingdom or the 
  wild amazons of the Duchy of Perun’s Daughter. Many are 
  outfitted in the Zobeck Gear District for use by mercenaries: 
  the pike and crossbow companies of the Ironcrags, the exile 
  companies fled from Krakova, and the amazon companies 
  of Perun’s Daughter. These are called company wagons, and 
  they travel in small groups of two to 10 wagons, depending 
  on the size of the adventuring company or mercenary 
  company that uses them. 
  They provide all the same advantages as those provided 
  to the Magdar army with one further consideration: drawn 
  by powerful oxen and fitted with strong axels, the company 
  wagons can carry a great deal of treasure from adventuring, 
  plundering, or banditry. Though the ballast compartments 
  of the war wagons are usually filled with stones, a successful 
  company wagon will sometimes say, “We carried gold and 
  silver ballast, so rich were we!”
  <
  
  66     Kobold Quarterly 12
  Cartographer: Jonathan Roberts
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/3rd Party/4th Edition/Open Design/Kobold Quarterly 12.pdf