The exact location has yet to be determined.

• Dr Wills opened negotiations with Émeric de Troeven (son of slumlord Prince Frédéric) to procure a spot in Glantri City's swampy, lower-class Low Waterside district for the next three months. This provides an established structure to move the younglings into right away, and allows for easy access to city services and for staff to find their own housing off-site. Long-term, however, it's by far the most expensive to maintain due to rents, and is fraught with the potential troubles of exposing the younglings to Glantri's dark underbelly.
• Audrey, for her part, hoped to scout out a location in or around the Briouze itself, which would be cheap and especially well suited to the swampfolks' skills and disposition. But it would be a hard sell for staff and would be troublesome to guard and supply. It would also demand the complications of either raising a new structure in the swamp, or of moving into the original lizardfolk lair and trying to keep it secure despite its isolation from civilization and proximity to monsters.
• Martín and Roland proposed putting it on Rouvière land, using the recently opened quarry as a pond for the amphibious younglings. This keeps the younglings handily under Company protection. Unfortunately, all available manpower is tied up with castle construction. And while Rouvière is not as expensive as Glantri City nor as isolated as the Briouze, it's not as close to useful services as Glantri City, nor as salubrious to amphibious folk as the Briouze. And while it doesn't have urban cutthroats nor swamo monsters, it is directly threatened by Sir Furcas' forces.

Feel free to discuss next steps here!

Encouraged by Renee’s uncharacteristic initiative, Martin will gift the Magician 1000 gold pieces to pursue his research, and volunteer his services in procuring “research material” from his underground contacts, as well as his insights into their effects and services as a test subject (my hope is that the glyphs he transcribed and MLB's toxicology will suffice as spell notes/research materials and get him to the 500gp/level + 3d6 check territory).

As a final entreaty for anyone still reading this – we’re a light on spellcasters these days so Martín and Roland have been bringing our hireling wizards. They’re around level 4 - quite squishy and not particularly useful (no offense). If any PCs would be willing to give or loan some "magic user items" (wands, scrolls, tomes, protective items) this should help improve their impact and keep them alive to get better spells!

The ring of the silver sun: An ivory ring inlaid with a silver sunburst. It acts as a ring of protection +1 and shrouds the wearer in silvery continual light. Once per month, it can protect against a single level-draining effect by unleashing a blast of positive energy; this exhausts all of the ring's powers until it's had a month to recharge.

The lucky sword of One-Eyed Felice: A short sword +1 with a pair of dice engraved on the forte. It scores a critical hit on a roll of 7 or 20.

Antidote potion: Neutralizes poison.
Curative potion: Cures disease.
Potion of diminution: Shrinks you to 6" in height.
Potion of healing: Heals 2-7 points of damage.
Potion of innocuous polymorph: Polymorphs you into a chosen animal that has no more than 1 hit die.
Village hero’s potion: Raises a level 1-3 fighter, dwarf, or halfling to 4th level for the potion’s duration.

Arrow of law: +5 "to hit" and damage against demons and undead.
Arrow of pass-wall: As the pass-wall spell.
Arrow of the ram: As the ring of the ram.
Arrow of silence: As the silence 15' radius spell.
Climber’s arrow: Embeds itself into wood or stone and trails a climbable rope.
Firework arrow: As the pyrotechnics spell.
Magefire arrow: Turns into a single magic missile, as per the spell.
Nimbus arrow: Illuminates the target as the faerie fire spell.
Quickjump arrow: Teleports the archer to wherever the arrow strikes, as the dimension door spell.
Rust arrow: Destroys a target's metal armor.
Threefold arrow: Splits into up to three arrows to attack that number of targets.
Web arrow: As the web spell.

Last night generated my idea for Roland's. And, now 8th level, my cleric gets one, too. Here are two ideas.

Roland:
Following the mutual slaughter against the Eyedrinker Tribe, the double-size Roland, Lord Zanzibar &c picks up the Potion of Growth he threw down to expand his size. Enveloped within his massive hand, he sniffs at the thing, then sips the dregs. Faint reason thuds into the fighter's scant brains: This was no potion at all! It was… water!

Roland, Lord Zanzibar, Ant-Man, &c could double his size, as per a potion of growth - once per day - all along! The Sword Princes of Neutrality have conferred this upon him, doubling his neutrality upon the world for a little time. As neutral as they are, they didn't bother to tell him!

Audrey:
I've been bouncing some ideas around. One idea was projecting a permanent Protection from Evil, 10' Radius effect, as per an AD&D Paladin. But then I realized I get an extra 1st/2nd/4th level spell now and that 4th level spell can just be used for that purpose.

Other ideas include permanent Bless effects, something to do with Negative Plane Protection or Restoration (e.g. allowing saving throws for companions), access to one of the 6/7 level Cleric spells in later editions like Flame Strike, Heal, or Blade Barrier. But I'm now thinking:

Summon Valkyries/Sisterhood Spearmaidens.
Seff is associated with the feminine spirits of vengeance and honest battle, who collect the dead and select the slain. This would work like a Horn of Valhalla, where instead of generating Viking-constructs, it generates ghostly forms to aid in combat selected from the sect's ancient orders. Something like 1d4+1 spirits of, say, fifth level, with plate/shield/spear, magical striking properties but no bonuses, who last for a certain number of rounds or until dissipated/slain, who can become intangible and move over water/through allies. Maybe 1 turn/level.

Thoughts?

The catch is they're rescued from a friend's flooded basement, so they've been exposed to dampness and probably mold, therefore not appropriate for someone with a known allergy to mold. I've got a reasonably sensitive nose though and they seem okay now. I have wiped them down, sprayed suspicious spots with alcohol, and they've been open and airing for months, so they're about as safe as they're going to get, short of baking them in the sun for a week, which isn't a bad idea if you have a terrace or backyard.

Take one or all.

One of her servants delivers a note to the Company lodge. It says, "Salutations to the Company of Crossed Swords. I offer my services in the compounding and identification of alchemical substances for reasonable rates. In addition, I would pay well to acquire certain formulae that you may come across in your travels. Do not hesitate to visit me to discuss the matter further. — Zenoiste."

Several matter have become clear:

• I need more practice.
• There is a breakpoint between realistic and comic faces and it is best to pick a horse early on.
• Hands and feet are hard without reference.
• Everything else is hard without reference as well.
• I don't know how to dress my people. I can draw it if I knew what they where wearing.
• I am taking faith in doing pencil as best as possible and then letting any potential inks find their way later.

No feedback needed, but I am always up for XP.

-GG

I haven't looked at all of them, but just glancing at them there should be some ideas to mine:

Mountebank
Tucker's Kobold
Witch Hunter
Merchant Prince

And many others, even a Bene Gesserit Sister, an alteration of the Cleric that could be put to use in the Temple of Trianoma. Take a look.

How about allowing Fighters to adjust CON during character creation? As it stands, no class is able to do this.

edit: By which I mean, did you guys have a name for that place, or will all names I put forward be equally unrecognizable?

Last night we discovered a wand of magic missiles on the body of a dead magic-user. Pritchard Hood would like to make use of it (assuming the rest of the group is amenable). It was described as only having a few charges left, however.

I have looked through the B/X rules and found no information on recharging wands (and no Wand of Magic Missiles, for that matter), other than the fact that yes, wands can be recharged. The rules are frustratingly vague on this point.

Is there a house rule for how it is done? Can one simply cast "Magic Missile" into the wand every day, and thereby regain a charge? Is there a "wand charging" kiosk at the Glantri City International Airship terminal?

I would appreciate any clear ruling on this. Thanks!

The example he uses is a lightning/storm/crow-based magic, where Shield causes ethereal crows to flap around the caster; or Light, which crackle out of clouds with faded electricity. An example recently from Glantri is when blizack decided Goldfinch shot magic missiles in the form of eldritch, streaking birds.

We've started developing cool ways clerics turn undead - why not prompt creativity with the basic mage spell list, too?

Are there deposit banks, appearing in European metropoles in the 12th and 13th centuries? Do the various princes back notes of credit in their principalities? Are there merchant banks supplying exchange between population centers? Is it a system of uninterrupted Lombard banking, or have powerful mercantile families seen the profit potential in deposit banking?

This would involve some material planning, in terms of what we want to do as a group. Bandaged Hanna is out of comission for 1d4+3 sessions (or whatever), but may be allowed to travel. And LoBo likes the idea of a change of scenery. Everyone would be invited, but many questions must be answered. How long would such a trip take? Would Quendalon wish to run some brand new sessions in a new territory (or territories)?

I'll leave this there for LB to expand upon.

• I produced a pencil illustration of a fantasy village that I called Pigdivot but never got around to writing up.
• Quendalon pointed out the Art First/Writing Second request on the Fight On! publication forums in which random artwork is posted and a writer volunteers to write up to create a joint article for an issue of FO!
• CrusssDaddy picked up the map on the forums and delightfully decided to write it up.
• CrusssDaddy (Chris) asked me to give him a couple of "easter egg" items to write into the text and I supplied him with details on The Boss and Bill the Mule.
• Bossly influences are hard to explain simply in a short article and sound crazy when explained over email. An immortal mule named Bill is a far easier egg to plant.
• There is now a request for artwork featuring Bill the Immortal in the upcoming issue of FO!. Anybody want to supply an illo? See the bottom of the request list.

http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fanzine&action=display&thread=5048

"It's a good-sized medieval house, meaning it's relatively small by modern standards. Two floors, about the size of an ordinary suburban house, a small basement. The town is too small and primitive for sewers, and there are no nearby catacombs that you are aware of."

If you look on the map, towards the south side of town, we are on the edge of the ruined area, it is the L shaped house, just south of map key (24), right next to the town wall. Quendalon has indicated that the wall has been repaired since this map was made. We also have a pavilion, and four 4 man tents set up. I'm assuming these are set up in the clearing.

At some point it might be cool to do a detail map of the compound. The place is not huge, but it might be a good waste of money carousing opportunity. That being said, it's not a terribly impressive place, an we may want to hold out our real efforts until we can get ahold of a small keep or tower. I still have ambitions to clear ravaroth out of the old Hazart place and take it over.

EDIT: I've had at least one report of the map embed on the Malinbois page being funky. Please PM me if you have the same issue (or just fix it if you are smarter than I).

Roll 2d8!

Playing a magic-user myself, I'm beginning to see why Gygax et. al. made them as weak as they did (especially at early levels). The point of the M-U is not to be a one man army, but to be the special effects crew: the guy who saves the fighter's bacon with a show-stopper attack when things turn ugly. Pritchard Hood doesn't feel underpowered, especially since reaching second level. It's amazing the power differential and how quickly it demonstrates itself.

So maybe M-Us don't need any additional abilities. But the question of ritual magic does raise one point that's been bothering me. My character happens to know Hold Portal and Read Languages. These are intriguing and fun spells that could add a lot to the adventure, and there are plenty of other "utility" spells like them. I will never, ever bother to memorize them, however, or at least not until I have so many spell slots I need to think about how to fill them. Right now, twice a day, I can do something cool. I have no incentive to waste either of those chances on being able to read ancient hieroglyphs in some musty tomb—even if doing so might reveal why the dungeon was built in the first place, or give us important clues on where the treasure is. It's just not likely to be as important as my ability to drop a room full of orcs when we get caught flat-footed, or earn myself a free hireling with Charm Person.

So—I'm not actually proposing a rule change here, just offering some food for thought. Maybe there's a way to integrate this without overpowering the M-U. What if I could trade one of my spell slots in mid-stream? Basically it would work like this. I would memorize Sleep and Charm Person first thing in the morning before the adventure begins. Later that day, having encountered nothing but skeletons and zombies (immune to my spells), I come across a fragment of a map clutched in the fingers of a dead explorer. It clearly is meant as some direly important warning, but it's written in Late Dynasty Gibberish. What if I could choose to "forget" one of my spells, in exchange for very slowly piecing together a Read Languages enchantment? Say it takes me half an hour to cast, instead of being instantaneous like memorized spells. That leaves us vulnerable to wandering monsters, but it also allows the DM to advance something like a plot without having to provide Elfish-to-Aztec dictionaries or Black Prisms of Disfiguring Translation. And I get to find out that the dead guy wanted us to tell his wife he loved her.

Then, later, when we run into the room full of orcs, I won't have my Sleep spell anymore. And I can regret the whole thing.

Again, just brainstorming. But I think this would add something to the game, without making it overly easy.