Book #20 is a special item, it gives information about the Wand of Belfal, which was created by the Wizard Belfal of the Shining Sands to destroy the Lich Sidifi. (a recurring NPC in one of my campaigns.)

Book names and descriptions for Cave study: (D30 to find book)

1-Unexpected Similarities in the Sensory Systems of the Ogre and the Pegasus
• This book is reasonably easy to understand. Perusing it will show that it has no useful information. Though flawed, one can definitely see that the ideas within are very insightful.

2-Examining the Military History of the Dutchies: Knowledge:History +1
• This book is muddled beyond belief due to terrible diagrams. A talented person may be able to derive some understanding from the book and find it is reasonably useful. After a quick examination, one will find that the contents contain some original thought.

3-Peacetime Use of Longswords
• This book is all but impossible to understand mostly due to a complete lack of any kind of useful references. If someone somehow manages to make sense of it, they will find it has little useful information. The suffering reader will discover, with time, that the contents are derivative.

4-The Acolytes of the Awe-Inspiring Fertility Gods
• This book is muddled thanks to the bad illustrations. After some effort to read the book, one can find it has no useful information. To make things worse, one will eventually discover that the contents are derivative.

5-A Criticism of the Frontier’s Minor Inventors: Knowledge: Invention +1
• This book is easily understandable thanks to wonderful organization. It’s easy to determine that it has little useful information. Though flawed, one can definitely see that the ideas within are very insightful.
• Examining the book, one will find: Bookmarks marking pages that seem to have some errors in them. Pieces of paper with notes, in incoherent writing, that comment on errors in the book.

6-The Well-Known Invocation to the Revenge God
• This book is not very clear. After some effort to read the book, one can find it has little useful information. To make things worse, one will eventually discover that that the majority contents were obviously taken from a few other works

7-The All-Knowing Wine Goddess’ Legend
• This book is muddled because of a meandering writing style. With time, intellect, or both, one can make sense of the book, and it will reveal it is extremely informative. Unfortunately, the contents are original.

8-The History of Remedial Magic – Mages will be able to learn from this without a teacher
• This book is easy to understand because of the well-done illustrations. It’s easy to determine that it is reasonably useful. After a quick examination, one will find that the concepts in the book do show a lot of original thought.

9-The Great Animal Goddess’ Facts
• This book is quite clear thanks to the well-done illustrations. A short look at the book will show that it has a lot useful information. Despite its good traits, the contents are not very original.

10-Maintenance of the Sling and Crossbow
• This book is easy to understand. This clarity allows one to determine that it has a lot useful information. Despite its good traits, the contents were probably taken from several works.
• Examining the book, one will find: Folded-down pages marking pages with similar information. Written notes, in an archaic tongue, commenting on informative information in the book. Some document listing supplies in a recognizable, but foreign language can be found in a hidden compartment.

11-The Migration Patterns of Ettins: Current Fallacies
• This book is of above-average clarity. It doesnt take much effort to determine that it is extremely informative. Delighftully, the ideas within are very original.

12-The Book of Magical Art – Magicans can learn from this
• This book is reasonably easy to understand thanks to the good diagrams. A small study will show it has little useful information. Though flawed, one can definitely see that the contents contain some original thought.

13-Dissimilarities in the Social Heirarchies of the Roc and the Minotaur
• This book is easy to understand. It doesnt take much effort to determine that it is reasonably useful. Perusing the book reveals that the ideas within make you see things differently.

14-The Social Heirarchies of The Jabberwock
• This book is impressively clear due to wonderful organization. The book’s well-done nature allows one to easily find that it is extremely informative.

15-A Peacetime Comparison of Daggers and Swords: Blacksmith+1
• This book is of average clarity despite a meandering writing style. Perusing it will show that it is reasonably useful.

16-Unexpected Similarities in the Digestive System of the Dragon and the Drake
• This book is of average clarity thanks to the excellent, well-planned chapters. With a bit of reading, it will be revealed that it has little useful information. One may be deterred from reading it, but it is evident that the contents have a few areas of deep insight.

17-A Tome of Classic Conjuration – Useful to mages
• This book is muddled thanks to a meandering writing style. After some effort to read the book, one can find it has a lot useful information. Unfortunately, the contents show some plagarism.

18-Defending Against of Ancient Illusions – Useful to mages
• This book is clear because of the well-done illustrations. With a bit of reading, it will be revealed that it is reasonably useful. After some reading, it is apparent that that the majority of the contents were obviously taken from someone else’s work

19-The Territory’s Ancient Organizations
• This book is hard to understand. With time, intellect, or both, one can make sense of the book, and it will reveal it has little useful information. The suffering reader will discover, with time, that the contents are original.

20-An Encyclopedia of the Recent Philosophical Wars of the Capitol – has information about the Wand of Belfal: The Wand of Belfal was created by the Wizard Belfal of the Shining Sands to destroy the Lich Sidifi
• This book is impressively clear mostly due to incredibly well-done and helpful illustrations. It’s easy to determine that it is reasonably useful. Perusing the book reveals that the contents are plagiarized.

21-Similarities in the Living Habits of the Phoenix and the Wyvern
• This book is easy to understand mostly due to the good references. It doesnt take much effort to determine that it has a lot useful information. Unfortunately, the contents are less than original.

22-The Domestic Use of Glamours
• This book is of average clarity despite the bad illustrations. Perusing it will show that it has no useful information.

23-The All-Powerful Justice Gods’ Rituals

• This book is all but impossible to understand because of a complete lack of any kind of useful references. If one miraculously managed to understand the book’s contents, that person will find it has a lot useful information. Despite its good traits, the contents are derivative.

24-The Agents of the All-Seeing Mystery God
• This book is muddled because of the poor diagrams. After some effort to read the book, one can find it has little useful information. To make things worse, one will eventually discover that the contents are not very original.

25-Similarities in the Uncommon Areas of Habitation of the Sea Serpent and the Tarasque
• This book is muddled. With effort, one will be able to understand the book, and will find it is extremely informative. Making it even more of a find, the contents have a few areas of deep insight.

26-An Examination of the Wartime Use of Crossbows and Longswords: Blacksmith+1 for those who have 3 or less points
• This book is of average clarity because of the good diagrams. With a bit of reading, it will be revealed that it has little useful information. To make things worse, one will eventually discover that the contents are plagarized.

27-A Study of the Legendary Clerics of the States: Adds Knowledge:Religion +1
• This book is clear despite a meandering writing style. Perusing it will show that it is reasonably useful. Perusing the book reveals that the contents were probably taken from several works.

28-Heretics Against the Fortune Goddess
• This book is muddled. With effort, one will be able to understand the book, and will find it is reasonably useful. After some reading, it is apparent that the contents seem to have been stolen from another work.

29-The Stiletto and Scimtar: An Extensive Legendary History
• This book is easily understandable due to extensive references. This clarity allows one to determine that it is reasonably useful. Perusing the book reveals that the contents are plagarized.

30-The Agriculture God’s Stories
• This book is muddled. With effort, one will be able to understand the book, and will find it is reasonably useful.

The village consists of two Inns, one right at the Intersection called Ebony Hearth, the other on the “edge” of the village on the Southern Road named simply “South Inn.” The South Inn is the bigger and better of the two, while the Ebony Hearth serves low quality food and is quite drafty.

There is also a Stable that buys and sells horses, manufacturers and sells tack, and repairs wagons. The stable has room for up to fourteen animals. Two of  the stalls are frequently occupied by animals from a local farmer that are for sale.

Next to the stable is a small blacksmith shop. The blacksmith, Olward Spothearted is young and has mediocre skills. He reluctnalty took over the shop from his father who died in an accident before passing on many skills .

North of town is a large graveyard. Most of the gravestones are worn and unreadable. There are roughly ten thousand gravestones still present, but there is evidence that  more are missing. Local rumors say that it’s the final resting place of a great army. Local rumor also states that the graveyard is home to witches, goblins, vampires, ghouls and all sorts of other beasts. Yet there has not been an actual sighting of any such things in known history.

Next to the graveyard entrance is a small church. It has room for about twenty worshippers. Near the entrance is a small room for a priest. One wall has a built in bookshelf and another has a small fireplace setup for cooking and heating. The church is kept clean, but is not dedicated to any one god.

North of the Graveyard lives Nelshell the Witch. She is little more then a hedge wizard who knows some herbs and healing. She lives very simply, her hut is dug into the side of a hill. The front walls are old sticks and branches laid next to each other. The door a simple piece of scrap canvas to keep out the weather.

On the Southern side of town, past the South Inn are two tobacco farms. The smaller one on the west side is about two acres in size. At each corner of the field is a small, ancient, statue of a man with a long mustache in prayer. The statues face inwards. A small farm house is next to the field, but as far away from the road as possible.

Across the South Road is a larger farm of ten acres. No farm house or statues are in evidence, and the overall field feels shabby then the one across the road. There are evident gopher and squirrel holes, along with many weeds.

Adventure Seeds:

But this is one of the most useful random generators I’ve found for OS X. A lot of the variables can be tweaked to get a custom town. It seems to work great under Leopard, and being as old as it is – most likely works fine under Tiger.

Download it here: Town Generator

Torchwood – United States

A new rift has opened up in whatever major city you’re most familiar with. Captain Jack is in town to check it out and see how big it is. Unfortunately he finds that it needs a 24/7 team to watch over it. This is where the PCs come in, they can either be drafted or coerced by Captain Jack, or be members of a secret military organization or even private company dedicated to such things. This could be a Bureau-13 type setting with aliens time-travel, and unexplained monsters, and the very occasional siting of the good Doctor. Having this be over seas from the main part of Torchwood gives the characters the ability to get some occasional help or specialized equipment when needed, but not be totally dependent on them plus gives a measure of autonomy.

Roadmarks

Based on the book of the same name by Roger Zelazny, Roadmarks is the story of a couple who travel a road through time. Characters can be police from some where in the future tasked with patrolling the road. Or they could be hapless travelers from any era who turned off on the wrong road and ended up here. Perhaps they’re looking to just get back, or possibly they’re trying to make a profit off the road.

Space 1899

This was a game system from the 1980′s that had a great background, but wasn’t too popular for some reason. The discovery of liftwood allows the building of ships capable of space flight. This fueled further colonization of not only Earth, but Mars which was essentially a Colonial-era Africa in Victorian times. Using the D20 Past rules, some various D20 Steam Punk settings, and a bit of research into Victorian eras a great game could be built.

Zompocalypse

Zombies have risen, and are eating brains. Use D20 Modern and a basic Zombie template. The Zombie outbreak could be a localized event or a world wide event. This would be a great setting to play boringly “normal” characters who have been trust into an extraordinary  situation. The area of conflict can be an entire town, or an office building, mall or school. Characters have to use makeshift weapons and depend on whatever supplies they can find. This could be a one off game, or an entire campaign as the PCs explore and father clues to find out how the got Zombies started.

As can be seen, most any setting can easily be created in the D20 system. So go take advantage of it! And have fun!

Garnoc himself is getting on in age and currently has two apprentices working for him, twin brothers named Markoos and Harkoos. These apprentices stand to jointly inherit the shop when he dies. Although both are very skilled and handle the bulk of the orders coming through the shop, Garnoc has not yet sponsored them to the Guild.

The shop is on the corner of Dragon’s Rest and an unnamed alleyway. It’s a small two story affair that is well kept up. In the back it shares a common area with several other shops and houses. It also shares a dirty stable with the inn next door, although Garnoc does not have any animals at this time.

When entering from the front door, gloves are neatly arranged on shelves. They are sorted by material, size and color. Each pair is left unfinished so that they can be custom fitted to the customer. A glass case against one the interior wall also serves as a sales counter. Displayed inside are some of the more exotic materials, including a set made from black dragon leather. All gloves are masterwork in quality but confer no other game stats unless created to do so by another NPC or PC at DM’s discretion. Prices range from 7gp for basic leather riding gloves to 600gp for the black dragon ones.

A door way covered with a simple curtain separates the front from the workshop in back. It is about twice the size of the front showroom, about fifteen by thirty feet. Bolts of leathers of all types are neatly shelved (about 6000gp worth) along one long wall. A work bench lines the other side. All tools are in their place and the only scraps are from projects currently in progress. At the far end is a small stove for heat. Closest to the door is a comfortable chair for clients to sit in while their hands are measured for custom orders.

Small stairs near the stove lead to the upstairs. It has been divided into four rooms. The twins share one, Garnoc has another and the other two are full of miscellaneous household supplies and broken tools from the shop below.  Garnoc has about three hundred gold hidden in his room (search 15) in various sized coins. It is protected by a magic trap (disable device 25) that freezes (DC:30 save) any would-by thieves.

Garnoc is about 65 years old. He has a full head of greying hair but walks with a slight stoop. He is always immaculately dressed in one of six nice suits that he owns. All are several generations out of style. Over this he wears a leather apron when working in the shop.

Stats: male human commoner; CR 3; HD 3d4+3; hp 11; Init +0; Spd 30 ft; AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10 BAB +1;  (1d10+3/x3); AL LG; SV Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +0; Str 8(-1), Dex 10(+0), Con 12(+1), Int 11(+0), Wis 9(-1), Cha 14(+2).

Skills and Feats: HIDE+0, SPOT+2(3), LISTEN-1, MOVE SILENTLY+0, climb+6(4), craft(leatherworking)+6(6), appraise+4(2), use rope+3(3).

Markoos and Harkoos are identical twins. Both are dark haired, about five and a half feet tall. Their age is somewhere between fourteen and seventeen, but they’re not sure. Their parents were killed by bandits and the twins found themselves in a strange city with no support. Even Garnoc is not sure why he took them in, but they have proven to be well worth his trouble. He looks upon them as the sons he never had and is extremely proud of it, although does not show it, merely commenting upon their skills and efficiency.

Twins stats: Human Male, Com1; CR 1; HD 1d4+1; hp 5; Init +0; Spd 30 ft; AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10 BAB +0; Melee club +3 (1d6+2); AL LG; SV Fort +1, Ref +0, Will -2; Str 14(+2), Dex 10(+0), Con 13(+1), Int 12(+1), Wis 7(-2), Cha 16(+3).
Skills and Feats: HIDE+0, SPOT-2, LISTEN-2, MOVE SILENTLY+0, craft(Leatherworking)+6(4), escape artist+2(2), heal+1(4),  swim+4(2); simple weapon proficiency(club), track.

Adventure seeds:

• Garnoc had a falling out with the guild sometime ago. Due to his skills and Noble patronage it has not affected his business much, but with his increasing age and closing retirement the Guild is looking to change that.
• The twins recognizes one of the bandits who killed their parents in a nearby tavern. The man has recently moved into the city, reformed his ways and taken up an honest trade. But the twins want revenge for what he did.
• A single glove was found at the scene of a horrific crime. It is clearly one of Garnoc’s creations. The problem is he never sold that pair. Or perhaps he simply does not remember who he sold them too.
• The night before Garnoc is set to sponsor the twins to the Guild, he dies. Some of the more jealous Guild members see this as an opportunity to take over the profitable and reputable shop. Markoos and Harkoos are distraught over this news and vow to fight however they can, but being merely apprentices, they have no standing in the Guild.
• A mysterious woman brings in an a piece of extremely rare leather and asks for a pair of gloves. He does not give a name, but leaves an address in the Mage’s district to deliver them too. That night the shop is broken into and only that piece of leather is stolen. The Constable reports that magic, rather then thief skills were used.

Newhaven Crossing is the most North Eastern of the Twelve Ring Cities. Situated on the coast at the Wineworm River it has become an important trade route up and down the coast, and across the sea. It has a large undercity with connections to the Underworld. It’s primary import is Wine from the Arabel area, (the most North Eastern of the Ring Cities,) along the Wineworm river. It’s major export is fish, along with timber from the Northern Forest. It is rumored that anything can be found and bought – or sold some where in Newhaven Crossing though.

The core of the city surrounds the old fort, which has been renovated and upgraded many times. There are about five thousand troops stationed in the fort at all times. Another five thousand patrol and maintain small forts in an area to the north that covers 100,000 square miles. To the south of the fort is the dock area, where there is room for up to 100 ships at a time. Ten naval ships are stationed there to keep the peace, enforce rules, and stop the occasional Northern pirates that may end up this far south.

The Handmaidens of Lady Helena maintain their headquarters in Newhaven Crossing. Other deities with temples in the town include The Brothers of Talric and Nanreen, Goddess of Merchants.

Interestingly, Marcus talks about how this is an attempt to legitimize MarkeeDragon.com in the eyes of the game companies and push them towards supporting in game RMT services much more then they do now.

The full announcement can be found on the Markee Dragon YouTube site or on the front page of MarkeeDragon.com.

Manor’s Mindsight

Alteration

Level: 5

Range: special

Duration: 1 Turn/lvl.

Area of Effect: Creature Touched

Components: V,S,M

Casting Time: 6

Save: None

By means of this spell, a wizard gains the ability to “see” everything within a range of 20′ plus 10/ per two levels of the caster, regardless of intervening objects of any sort. No actual sensory organs are needed for the spell to function, and thus the mage may be blindfolded or in a completely dark room while using the mindsight spell. Furthermore, everything within the radius of the spell is perceived simultaneously; hence there is no need for the mage to look up or down to “see” objects above or below him.

Mind sight does not light a darkened area, though, so the mage would still perceive a dark room as a dark room, not a lighted one. The mage may overcome this obstacle by using the mindsight spell in conjunction with a darksense, infravision, or ultravision spell.

When using Manor’s Mindsight, a mage may not perceive illusions or phantasms for what they really are (unless his intelligence would normally allow him to distinguish between the illusion and reality), nor may he distinguish between magical objects and non-magical items, or make distinctions of alignment. Similarly, the mage cannot see traps, tricks, pits, magical symbols, or other invisible or magically concealed items or objects, unless he would be able to detect such items normally. A mage may surmount the problem by casting spells such as detect invisible, detect evil, detect magic, etc. previous to the actual casting of mindsight. These spells may be used with mindsight even if the radius of such spells are not equal to the radius of the mindsight spell.

The mage maintain the mindsight spell without concentration, and may move, cast spells, and engage in other activities while mindsight is in effect. If the mage wishes to view anything through the spell, however, he must concentrate and is then unable to move, cast spells, or engage in any strenuous activities. If the mage is attacked while concentrating on the mindsight, the spell is not ruined and the caster may resume viewing after combat is resolved. The material component of the spell is the preserved eye of a blink dog, which is reusable.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a backup of it as I thought I did. So everything on this site is reset. Period.

Sorry.