Mu-Pan

Mu-Pan – Encounter XIV

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Do you like crane maidens?

Well, probably not these crane maidens …

1226. Warm springs flow from the mountains here, a cluster of largely dormant volcanoes. The gorges that lead into the wooded valley are crusted with mineral salts, but the go uncollected, for the gorges are sacred to the demon god Chiyou and visitors are not permitted in the valley.

At the heights, there is a large pool of warm water surrounded by junipers and dusty purple thistles. The pool is inhabited by 1d6+4 vapor cranes. In the center of the pool there is an ancient marble cistern filled with warmer water and five crane maidens, sisters and daughters of Chiyou. The crane maidens are not physically very powerful, but they have two unique powers. When their eyes grow scarlet, they cause the water to boil (1d6 damage per round). When they glow purple, the water becomes as solid as concrete for 3 rounds.

| Vapor Crane: HD 5; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 bite (1d4+5); Move 6 (F12); Save 12; CL/XP 6/400; Special: Scalding to touch, steam cloud (1d6+5) in cone or 15-ft radius.

| Crane Maiden: HD 2; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 strike (1d4); Move 15 (F30); Save 16; CL/XP 4/240; Special: Magic powers, change into crane (heals all damage, 2/day), magic resistance (30%).

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Image by Hsu Roh Ling

Mu-Pan – Flock of Cheonma

/ jstater

Short encounters tonight, so I’ll post two …

1025. A flock of seven cheonma have made an aerie for themselves on the high peaks here and are under attack by a pack of five griffons. The cheonma are hard pressed and they have already lost two foals to the depredations of the griffons.

| Cheonma: HD 4; AC 6 [13]; Atk 2 hooves (1d8); Move 24 (F48); Save 13; CL/XP 4/120; Special: Flight. Cheonma are Mu-Panese pegasi. They are eight-legged horses with wings on their feet.

| Griffon: HD 7; AC 3 [16]; Atk 2 claws (1d4) and bite (2d8); Move 12 (F27); Save 9; CL/XP 8/800; Special: Flight.

1027. A gang of 20 gyres is occupying a cave here, using it as a base of operations as they raid down the river into Yun territory. The leader of the gyres has a single white eye and particularly long canine teeth. He wears a golden ring on one of those teeth (worth 15 gp) and can cast 1d6 levels of sohei spells per day. The gyres wear coats of leather scales and wield masakaris and kamas. If encountered in their lair, there is a 2 in 6 chance they are drunk on plum wine. Their treasure consists of 340 sp and 1,130 gp in leather sacks. The stripped bones of two unlucky farmers are piled in the back of the cave.

| Gyre: HD 2; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 bite (1d3) and 2 claws (1d4) or weapon (1d6); Move 15; Save 16; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Frenzy (2 attacks per round for 3 rounds, then fall unconscious).

Mu-Pan – Hermit of Yarni-Zai

/ jstater

Man I love writing this stuff – just letting my mind wander, maybe feeding it with a few random seeds. Here’s another one from the mountains around Tsanjan …

0937. A small village of fishermen live in this hex in a gorge with steep, 90-foot tall sides. A river moves slowly through the hex on its way to the Tsanjani Plateau. The fishermen dwell in something that resembles a Chinese lantern composed of rattan and attached to the walls of the gorge with iron spikes. Each lantern-house measures about 6 to 9 feet in diameter and houses three or four villagers. The fishermen can be seen at odd intervals dangling their feet out their front doors casting long lines into the river below. Hatches in the tops of the lantern-houses lead to ladders composed of iron spikes, allowing the villagers to climb to other lantern-houses or to the top of the gorge.

Below the lantern-houses an idol of Yarni-Zai has been carved into the gorge wall. The grave creator of beasts and men broods over the slow river, which the villagers believe was originally a beautiful maiden that won the heart of the deity but refused him. A hermit priest sits in the lap of the graven image, meditating, answering the questions of the villagers and curing their ills as best he can. The hermit has no name, and asks nothing but an offering of rice or fish in his begging bowl.

The villagers are armed with yami and haikyu, though their lack of money keeps the bandits away and their somber attitude and resignation to the indignities of the world make them unlikely targets even for chaotic adventurers.

| Hermit, Druid Lvl 6: HP 12 [23]; AC 9 [10]; Save 9; CL/XP 7/600; Special: Spells (3rd), speak to animals, plants and monsters, shapechange. Begging bowl, prayer beads.

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Image from HERE.

Mu-Pan – Wang Liang

/ jstater / 3 Comments

0824. A stone tower made of golden bricks leans over dangerously from the side of a low mountain covered in a tangle of brambles. The tower is the lair of a wang liang and his foot soldiers, 40 oni-yama. The wang liang owns an enviable library of bamboo scrolls on every imaginable subject, though every single one of them is filled with nothing but lies and half-truths. One of the scrolls contains a number of spells that appear to be one thing but are in fact another: Charm person (actually light), invisibility (actually levitate) and alter time (actually lightning bolt).

Mu-Pan – Clockwork Monastery

/ jstater / 6 Comments

Another one from Mu-Pan. You’ll notice I haven’t done the treasure yet. I use an excel document to randomize treasure. The tables are based on those from Swords and Wizardry, and yesterday I was too lazy to open it up and generate the goods, mostly because Open Office doesn’t handle it as well as excel does and I usually work on my laptop. I know – who cares. Anyhow …

0718. A cliffside monastery in this hex was abandoned about 30 years ago when the monks were masacred in an attack by oni-aka goblins. Twenty of the goblins still dwell in the place, though they avoid the shrine. The goblins are led by Iki-Urha, an ogre with rust-colored, heavily creased skin and a bulbous nose.

The monastery shrine was dedicated to the concept of Law. The rear wall of the shrine, which measures 15 feet by 15 feet, is covered with bronze clockworks that approximate the movements of the cosmos – at least those of Nod and the planets Luna, Mercurii, Veneris, Martis and the Solar Sphere. The shrine is protected by four giant, clockwork owls perched on bronze bars that run the length of the shrine.

The goblins and ogre have desecrated the remainder of the monastery. The ogre has a single prisoner, a musician named Zeaho. Zeaho is the last survivor of a party of adventurers that sought out the monastery under the direction of their lawful sohei. Zeaho is a hengeyokai that can assume the form of a hare.

The ogres and oni-aka have a treasure of XXX in a large, locked chest.

| Oni-Aka (20): HD 1; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 weapon (1d6); Move 9; Save 17; CL/XP 1/15; Special: Resistance to fire (50%).

| Clockwork Owls (4): HD 4+1 (19, 15, 14, 9 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 2 talons (1d6), bite (1d6+1); Move 6 (F30); Save 13; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Immune to sleep and charm, resistance to cold and fire (50%).

| Zeaho, Hengeyokai Bujin Lvl 4: HP 14 [22]; AC 9 [10]; Save 13 (12 vs death & poison); CL/XP 4/120; Special: Follow through. Pipe (a lute).

| Iki-Urha, Ogre: HD 4+1 (17 hp); AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 tetsubo (1d6+3); Move 9; Save 13; CL/XP 4/120. Tetsubo, nine-ring broadsword (belonged to Zeaho).

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Image of bakeneko and tanuki by GENZOMAN at DeviantArt. Much to see in his gallery.

Mu-Pan – One-Eyed Boys

/ jstater / 2 Comments

One more before I post the update to Megacrawl 3000 …

0443. Three one-eyed boys (hitotsumi-kozo) dwell in this hex in a cave studded with sapphires (worth 100 gp each, a total of 23 are present). The cave is set in the side of a long hill, the base of which is cluttered with goji berry bushes. The one-eyed boys gather the goji berries and mash them into juice that they ferment in clay pots buried in the floor of their cave.

Although removal of the sapphires is very tempting, it is a dangerous thing to do. If a sapphire is plucked from the wall of the cave, a blue ray erupts from the wall and strikes the person holding the sapphire (no roll needed). The ray always strikes the person in the forehead and sets up a communication between the thief and something from beyond the void (per the contact other plane spell). The experience leaves most people a bit jumbled (1d8 points of ability damage spread between intelligene, wisdom and charisma as the player prefers). This damage can be healed with magic (restoration), but will not heal naturally.

If all of the sapphires are stolen from the cave, the rays create a portal through which 1d6+4 star warriors emerge. The star warriors are hairless humanoids with translucent, sapphire skin and eyes and wearing long, metallic coats of miniature scales (the material is aluminum – light weight and quite strong) and carrying two war hammers each. The star warriors track down the sapphire thieves and return them (the sapphires) to the cave. The thieves are either killed or they are taken back to the cave and taken through the portal.

| Hitotsumi-Kozo: HD 3; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 weapon (1d4); Move 9; Save 14; CL/XP 7/600; Special: Bad luck, frightful appearance, ray of enfeeblement, silence, true seeing.

| Star Warrior: HD 5; AC 1 [18]; Atk 2 hammers (1d6); Move 12; Save 12; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Track sapphires unerringly, immunity to cold, ESP at will.

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Also – to avoid confusion when talking about the Cloud Dragon, Gold Dragon etc kingdoms and the monsters of the same names, I’ve given the kingdoms alternate names:

Jin – Gold Dragon Kingdom
Meng – Mist Dragon Kingdom
Ying – Shadow Dragon Kingdom
Yun – Cloud Dragon Kingdom

Of the kingdoms, Meng no longer exists (at least, not in a normal way), its citizens now serving as the empire’s merchant class based in the coastal cities.

Mu-Pan – Red Goblins

/ jstater

0421. An army of 270 oni-aka (red goblins) raiders has encamped in this hex. The army is preparing to sack the city-state of Pantung [0322]. The raiders are working on behalf of a cabal of villains (an ogre magi, sorcerer ox and evil naga, themselves the puppets of an oni. The raiders are under the command of the hobgoblin marshal Valtrahar. Valtrahar rides atop a palanquin carried by four ogres. He wears a black bronze jingasa with a porcelain mask that bears starched whiskers. He is accompanied by a hired shugenja called Imyneda, a melancholy woman with fulvous skin, gray-green eyes and dark brown hair in braids. Imyneda has a large woman with a round, bland face who complains incessantly as she rides along on her yak. The army has three trebuchet pulled by teams of yaks.

| Valtrahar: HD 6 (34 hp); AC -1 [20]; Atk 1 weapon (1d6+1); Move 9; Save 11; CL/XP 6/400. O-yoroi, no-dachi, tanto.

| Imyneda, Shugenja Lvl 5: HP 13 [20]; AC 9 [10]; Save 11 (9 vs magic); CL/XP 4/120; Special: Spells (3rd). Bo staff, tanto, spellbook.

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Picture found HERE.

Mu-Pan – Pantung

/ jstater

The fun of randomizing hex contents is, of course, that I don’t know what’s going to pop up and I have to try to make it fit (or delete it and pretend it didn’t come up). In this case – surprise, there’s a city in the high mountains!

0322. Pantung is an outpost city-state of 12,375 souls constructed between three dormant volcanoes. The clever engineers of Pantung have dug into the volcanoes, constructing large vents from which pour air and water warmed within the volcanoes. This has made the valley of Pantung warm all year around, despite being located at such a high elevation. The borders of the kingdom are protected by walls of ice that slowly melt and are re-built through the year.

The city-state itself is constructed on a radial pattern. The buildings are made of thick, cream-colored stone, much of it excavated from the aforementioned vents. Doors in the city-state are barred at night, for the citizenry fear the hobgoblins and yeti of the mountains. The city’s wall is 30 feet tall and has four large tower keeps protecting it. Each 1,000 foot section of the wall (there are 16 such sections) and the battlements of each tower are patrolled by 1d6+6 handgunners accompanied by a sergeant-at-arms and possibly (10% chance) a low level shugenja. Each tower has a number of war engines that launch flights of iron war rockets. Three paved roads lead from the city state, one into Tsanjan, the other two into Mu-Pan. These roads are lined by asters ranging in color from white to golden yellow to bright purple.

The primary business of Pantung is copper mining (the city-state has small mines up to 3 hexes away) and banditry. During the winter months, dozens of bandit gangs retreat into the mountains to stay in Pantung, bringing rich tributes of coins and slaves to the nu-gong. The bandit chiefs are treated as visiting royalty. The bandits never prey on the citizenry, who appreciate their bawdy tales and ample coin. The fields around Pantung support cherry and plum orchards and grazing for a breed of rugged mountain pony. The primary coin of Pantung is made of bronze (i.e. copper piece), and the average earnings of a commoner is about 2 cp per day.

Pantung is ruled by Nu-Gong Oonichay, a respected shugenja with ties to the black magicians of Tsanjan. She is assisted by a cabal of 4 noble houses, each headed by a master alchemist. Oonichay is a calculating and domineering. She has pale skin, hazel eyes and dark, brown hair that is bobbed short. Oonichay is an accomplished dancer (she was brought into Pantung as a dancing girl for the former gong). She has a small-featured, delicate face that never betrays her thoughts. She wears a cloak of gray and black vulture feathers (from the bearded vulture of the Tsanjan Plateau). Her palace is in the city-state’s center, surrounded by the legendary fruit market. The palace dungeon is a thing of legend.

The city-state’s alchemists are respected (and, to some extent, despised) throughout Mu-Pan. They put most of their efforts into discovering the elixir of life, but also produce copious amounts of black powder (mostly to fuel the iron war rockets and handguns that protect the city from invasion)

Pantung’s patron deity is Roon, the god of going. Roon’s grand temple is overseen by 10 female nsiain (Mu-Panese druids) and 300 lay brothers and sisters, most of them piao-ke (guides, former bandits). The worship of other deities is frowned upon in Pantung, and proselytizing is illegal. The nsiain of Pantung take vows of poverty (though their temple is quite wealthy) and celibacy. The temple’s wealth is used to maintain the roads (and the flowers, the aster is sacred to Roon). Priestesses wear robes of green sackcloth marked by dozens of white hand prints and carry tetsubos. They bleach their palms white. Holy days are observed by the people and priests with pilgrimages to visit shrines (actually noble crypts) in the mountains. The highest virtues preached by Roon’s church are kindness and charity, the most terrible sins blasphemy and envy.

Pantung has a shady tavern located just inside the east gate. The Golden Staff is run by Isekonall, a friendly, optimistic man who hails from the northern steppe and speaks with a thick accent. Most of the crowd in the Golden Staff is shady – bandits and slavers, for the most part. The place is usually crowded and noisy. The plum wine and short beer that Isekonall serves are a bit overpriced for their quality, but the four rooms (actually a loft partitioned with paper screens) are cheap (and mostly occupied, 1 in 6 chance of a room being vacant).

Some of the more interesting folk of Pantung include Newarada, the strinkingly beautiful high priestess of Roon that is really a disguised man (a ninja of the Black Dragon Kingdom who has played the role for over a decade, he is involved in many assassinations), Snomonchond, a flamboyant master alchemist and open heretic (he worships Sol Invictus, whom the Motherlanders call Apollo Helios), Hagravet, the well-connected captain of the guard who keeps company with Snomonchond, Zajinnes, an arrogant master alchemist and rival of Snomonchond who has a family closet full of skeletons and an unhealthy fixation on Hagravet, and Aschansary, a young official implicated in a bribery scandal – she’s had bad luck with former allies and finds it difficult to place her trust in others.

Ruler: Oonichay, Nu-Gong (Duchess), Shugenja Lvl 8
High Priestess: Newarada, Druid Lvl 8
Population: 12,375
Domain: 10 hexes
Size: 1 mile diameter
Arms: Three black dots on a field of white

Mu-Pan – Lord of Arising Smoke

/ jstater

Two more for wondrous Mu-Pan. I have decided to use the Gods of Pegana as the Gods of Mu-Pan. Should be fun. One of those Pegana gods also shows up in Hexcrawl Classics #1.

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0232. A sect of lawful sohei dedicated to Kilooloogung, the Lord of Arising Smoke, has been established here in a deep valley rich in iron deposits. The mines are now worked by the lay brothers of the fortress monastery. The monastery is constructed of fired bricks. Each brick is stamped with a holy symbol and glazed red. A slow fire fed by fragrant herbs and woods is maintained at all times in the center of the monastery, the smoke escaping into the sky via three towering bronze chimneys made to look like dragons.

The abbot is called Jeneozen, a charming fanatic with dark yellow-brown skin and blue-gray eyes. Jeneozen is suffering under a curse that forces him to eat almost constantly, but still he loses weight. Once healthy and hale, he has become drawn and weak. The only cure for his condition, he believes, is a bitter, Y-shaped root from the Shadow Hills. Jeneozen commands ten lesser sohei.

Despite the dedication of the ten sohei of Kilooloogung to Law, the lay brothers of the monastery are a shifty lot – smugglers of dangerous narcotics from the high plateau of Tsanjan into the Celestial Hills. The lay brothers of the temple serve a hanu naga called Sebuthop of the Golden Scales (HD 6). She dwells in one of the abandoned iron mines, one that connects to a deep thermal vent, making it steamy and choked with fungal vines.

The monastery treasure horde consists of 19,300 sp, 730 gp.

| Sohei of Kilooloogong, Lvl 2: HP 2d6 [2d6+2]; AC 6 [13]; Save 13 (11 vs death & poisons); CL/XP 3/60; Special: Banish undead, spells (1st). Haramaki-do, sode, tetsubo (1d6), 3 darts, prayer beads.

| Jeneozen, Sohei Lvl 10: HP 8d6+2; AC 5 [14]; Save 5 (3 vs death & poisons); CL/XP 10/1400; Special: Banish undead, spells (5th). Haramaki-do (made of shark skin), sode, suneate, tetsubo (1d6), 3 darts, prayer beads.

0307. The mountains here are lightly forested with black alders. The slopes are home to thousands of locusts. A river of acid spills from a weird cave and down a series of waterfalls into a hole in the earth. Weathered granite pillars rise from the acid river at odd intervals. Above the cave from whence the river flows there is a small, shallow cave. Some ninjas of the Black Dragon Kingdom are trained here. The ninjas must leap from pillar to pillar, making their way up the river to the shallow cave to claim a random object. The object must be returned to the Black Dragon Chan within 3 months of the beginning of the test to pass. Those who fall into the river are either disintegrated by the acid or fall into the bowels of the earth. Those who fail to return to the Black Dragon Chan are hunted down and killed.

The cave and river are always watched by a dozen shadows, the souls of deceased ninja. Intruders into the gorge are attacked by these shadows at dusk or night, but not in the daytime. There is also a 1 in 6 chance that a band of 1d6 ninja are encountered in the gorge. If there is a single ninja, you can assume they are taking the test.

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Image from Stravag via DeviantArt.

Mu-Pan – Loutish Hunters

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Missed a day, so two Mu-Pan encounters today. Just click on the Mu-Pan tag at the end of the post to find other posts, including a map.

0129. A small village of loutish hunters is located in this hex, surrounded by a stone wall and four stout towers. The hunters are mainly trappers, setting snares in the mountain passes and wooded crevasses in the spring and summer and then retiring into their village to smoke their pipes and chew eat pickled meat. The villagers are skilled gamblers and even more skilled archers. Their greatest treasure is an opal jar that contains the imprisoned soul of an oni. The jar is kept in the crypt of the former ruler, a tsanjani monk that made a habit out of chaining the maidens of the village to the walls of his shrine and watching them slowly starve. The villagers do not miss the man and have done their best to prevent the tsanjani from discovering the death of their reeve.

0213. A large village of tsanjani peasants cultivates edible fungus in the steamy caves that line the walls of the valley. Pungent streams of piping hot water emerge from these caves and spill into medicinal pools, eventually finding their way into a gentle stream that flows into the valley of the qal. The village is surrounded by an ancient, weathered stone wall caked with sulfur. The village is ruled by an overbearing magistrate of the tsanjani named Quatherennee. Quatherennee has pale yellow skin, stubbly gray hair and steel-gray eyes. The village is defended by two companies of men-at-arms (archers and heavy infantry) as well as semi-tamed white babboons. The babboons are chained near the village’s large iron gate and outside the magistrates court. Patrols of warriors always use one or two babboons as scouts. Visitors can hire out Shoolinsth the piao-ke (armed escort) to guide them through the mountains.

| Shoolinsth, Bujin Lvl 5: HP 12 [32]; AC 3 [16]; Move 12; Save 12 (11 vs. death & poison); CL/XP 5/240; Special: Follow through. Hanburi, sode, kota, do-maru, suneate, nodachi (1d6+1), tanto (1d6-1), daikyu (100′, 2 shots per round, 1d6), 10 leaf head arrows, 10 armor-piercing arrows, 3 frog crotch arrows.

| Quatherenee, Aristocrat: HD 3 (8 hp); AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 weapon (1d6); Move 12; Save 14; CL/XP 3/60.