Swords Against Madness

Rayya, Olan, and Miria set out to acquire a magic dagger from a local miser to use against the immortal space barbarians known as the Gorum. This drags Miria into the religious cold war that runs through the Island’s culture.

This episode includes a brief battle using the deadly and fast grappling rules from Swords & Wizardry, and I opt to use the more granular B/X Morale Rules. Much of this episode is dedicated to exploring the nuances of the Island’s culture as produced by consulting the Mythic GM Emulator.

NPC VIllain: Kalmek: HD 2; AC 9 [10]; Atk: Shillelagh (1d6); MV: 12″; AL: C; ML: 7; CL/XP: 2/30; Str 12 Int 11 Wis 8 Dex 10 Con 11 Cha 8

Kalmek is a local miser who has lived off of his Grandfather’s adventuring loot for decades. He thinks himself better than the Islanders and derives all self-worth from his influence in The Church and the legacy that has let him live in luxury.

Miria awakens in a hut at the edge of the ruined village, covered in blisters, and discoveres that she may well be living on borrowed time, and so is the A.I. on her ship, The Empyreal’s Coin. As a madman plots her death, she stands before the council of the village to tell them a terrible truth about their beliefs…

In this Episode, we establish some custom rules for radiation poisoning, and give Miria the strongest possible incentive to see her escape this planet. Her vessel’s AI might be able to help, except it only has 16 minutes of operational tiem remaining. Olan and Rayya become her reluctant guardians, and the Mysterious “Master” awakens the Gorum to slay Miria before she interferes with his machinations.

Brutal and vicious, the Gorum are members of an immortal legion created for an interstellar war. They were found too uncontrollable, and often too stupid to be useful, and were banished to prisons across the cosmos. No matter how many times one is cut down, unless their brain is destroyed by a directed magical attack, they will always return to life in 1d6 turns, often more hideously scarred and insane. If they are left bored, hungry, or thirsty for too long they enter into a state of suspended animation that breaks when the opportunity to sate their appetites presents itself. The Gorum always roll twice for every saving throw and take the better result. They are not affected by poison or any effect that causes instant death.

I am extremely blessed to have Simon Williams, creator of the epic solo RPG / Storytelling podcast Legend of the Bones as Empyreal.

Miria, a smuggler awakes next to her sinking starship on a strange world, alone, with holes in her memories, and only the clothes on her back and her wrist computer. If she’s going to survive, she is going to need to find a way past the strange alien cephalopods circling her vessel like hungry sharks…

Episode 1 of the podcast introduces us to Miria at level 1, and has her survive the crash of her starship the Empyreal’s Coin. We encounter a monster called the Psi-squid, and eventually meet Teo helpful characters: Olan and Rayya, who believe Miria is there to fulfill a prophecy, something she partially verifies with the ancient Trassi incantation “Bah wheep graghna wheep ni ni bong“. We also get a glimpse of a potential enemy known only as The Master.