Joe B.

troik tue: D66 encounters on the streets of bookholm

required reading here

. 11-36 . 41-66
11 The Shadow King1 41 A smarmy Hogling2 hawks GOSSIP RAGS3
12 field trip; 4D6 Hackonian4 schoolchildren 42 A tattooed Melusine5 offers haircuts for 3p
13 4 Semielephants6 hawking HONEYED TOAST7 for 1p 43 A Bookhunter8 wants porters for an expedition, offers 50p a day if you look capable
14 A Lindworm9 stricken by writer's block weeps and tears at his clothes in the street 44 A Shark Grub10 hands off books (hollowed out, full of PHOGARS11) to a grubby Vulphead12
15 Runaway two-ton printing press on wheels, chased by 5 panicked Bluddums13 45 A Wolperting mercenary14 and a Bookhunter8, about to duel
16 A dark pop-up tent. The Uggly15 outside says that for 15p you, too, can see a page from the CODEX NEFARIUM, one of the most infamous books on the Golden List 46 Lindworm9 bachelor party, uncharacteristically rowdy, tramples an open-air chapbook stall
21 Two beat-poets engaged in a rhyming duel. This is hour six. A huge crowd places bets 51 A public panel hosted by 2 awkward Norselanders16 to promote their new book, The Bookholmian Manifesto
22 2D6 illiterate Bluddum13 youths, bored and destructive 52 An affluent Yeti17, fanned and paraded by dwarves, on his way to a rare book auction
23 100 Fangfangs18 cause a riot, all trying to fit in the same late night coffee house 53 Valuable books sail through the air -- a Hogling2 book dealer just broke up with her girlfriend, and it's not going well
24 6 venomous Animatomes19 chase 2 wounded Bookhunters8 from a sewer grate 54 A Vulphead12 pickpocket attempts to steal books and/or money from the party
25 A troupe of makeup-splattered Melodromedaries11 flyering for their new show 55 A Nocturnomath20 offers 100p if you let him test his miniaturization ray on you
26 A draconic rumble, the clatter of cobblestones, and plumes of yellow paper-dust fill the air. A sinkhole has opened into the Catacombs. 56 A distraught Gnomelet21 beseeches passers-by to venture into the Catacombs and retrieve Smythy, her pet Crat22. Pays 300p on completion
31 A Demidwarf advertises his fresh mulled coffee stand in booming operatic tones. 61 6 Bookhunters8 pilot an armoured wagon loaded with rare tomes
32 Twelve hipsters recruiting for their puppet play rendition of the Battle of Nirn Forest 62 A shady, cloaked Bookemist23 accompanied by five Bookhunters24 who move like zombies
33 A Wolperting14 maiden sprints through the streets, shedding romantic poems. Her jilted lover gives chase. 63 Five skinny humans selling zines (secretly recruiting for an insurrectionist movement)
34 A young, scruffy Hogling2 gives out free copies of an exposé on anti-consumer publishing practices 64 Three masked figures firebomb the shop of a Nocturnomath20 scholar!
35 3 Bookhunters8 attempt to kidnap a helpless Gnomelet 65 A family of affluent Bluddums13, looking lost
36 Green noxious flames! A Bookemist's23 secret lab explodes. 66 Mile-long shadow. A titanic Bollogg24 is headed for Bookholm!

Skill/Stamina/Armour/Initiative/Damage

  1. The Shadow King. 10/30/3/4/As Gargantuan Beast. The fabled terror of Bookholm's underworld. A mountainous apparition of razor-sharp, Bookemistically treated paper shards. Invisible in shadow, save for the constant sombre sigh of ancient rustling paper. special: conflagrates in direct sunlight, causing damage as Fire Bolt +2 to self and anything nearby each round.↩

  2. Hogling. 6/10/1(bristles)/2/As Modest Beast Boar-headed dwarves. Ubiquitous in the publishing industry. Their business lunches keep Bookholm's cafe scene afloat.↩

  3. GOSSIP RAG. Test your Luck when reading today's edition. success: a useful rumour. fail: a rumour about you or the party.↩

  4. Hackonian. 5/6/0/1/As Unarmed. Small, cute dwarves, triangular in aspect. They enjoy a universal and well-deserved reputation for kindness, friendliness, and pacifism.↩

  5. Melusine. 5/6/0/1/As Unarmed. Hairless dwarf, gifted with scissors and razor.↩

  6. Semielephant. 6/20/0/1/As Large Beast. Half-elephantine creatures famed for their gatronomic prowess.↩

  7. HONEYED TOAST. 1-in-6: Deadly bee stinger left in the toast; Test your Luck vs. an hour of paralysis, 2D6 DMG↩

  8. Bookhunter. as Knight of the Road. Professional delvers of the Catacombs for rare and exotic books. Almost all are brutish, nasty, and traitorous, with the exception of the famed Vulphead explorer Colophonius Regenschein.↩

  9. Lindworm. 5/12/2(scales)/2/As Knife (claws). A clade of snooty saurians known for their devotion to the literary arts. Their ancestral home is the desert fortress, Lindworm Castle. special: May fly into a Dinosaur Rage once a month; Skill and Stamina are doubled until the bloodlust is sated.↩

  10. Shark Grub. 6/20/0/1/As Large Beast Prehistoric mixture of shark and tardigrade. Can breathe either water or air. Slow and clumsy on land. The Smykes are an infamous dynasty of Shark Grubs, blessed with big brains and black hearts.↩

  11. Melodromedary. 8/7/0/2/As Large Beast. Close cousins of Bactrian camels, sentient and capable of travelling on two or four legs. Their humps swell with emotions collected from media or social interactions, and are painful unless expressed on paper or in speech.↩

  12. Vulphead. 6/10/0/2/As Weapon. Bipedal fox-people. Famed for their cunning. Most famous among them in Bookholm, the uncommonly erudite Bookhunter Colophonius Regenschein.↩

  13. Bluddum. 5/15/0/1/As Modest Beast. Stocky, furry, vaguely resembling sentient bears. They have a reputation for stupidity and criminality. Not always necessarily true.↩

  14. Wolperting. 8/12/0/3/As Knife(teeth and claws) + Weapon. Bipedal canines with miniature deer-horns. They have the noses and instincts of a hound, with the speed and reflexes of a flighty deer. They are the best swordsmen in Zamonia. Stunned by strong smells e.g. rotten eggs or perfume bombs. special: Once a Wolperting has your scent, you must Test your Luck or be trackable by it for the rest of your life.↩

  15. Uggly. 8/10/0/2/As Weapon. Witches blessed with a truly revolting visage. Oft feared and reviled. special: knows read entrails and 1D6 other random spells.↩

  16. Norselander. 7/8/0/1/As Unarmed. Lanky, Scandinavian, antler-headed trollfolk. Naturally predisposed to politics.↩

  17. Yeti. 6/20/0/2/As Large Beast. Tall, white-furred humanoids from the Himalayas. Impervious to altitude and the cold.↩

  18. Fangfang. 6/14/1/2/As Shield (antlers) Ten foot tall, moose-like creatures. Boisterous males gather in large groups and engage in meatheaded breeding-ritual driven revelling.↩

  19. Animatome. 6/6/0/3/As Modest Beast. The fabled Living Books of Bookholm's underworld. Equipped with vicious venoums and barbaric barbs. special: On a damage die roll of 6+, the target takes 1D6 damage on their next turn, and hallucinates for the next hour.↩

  20. Nocturnomath. 10/7/0/2/As Unarmed. Nocturnomaths are the preeminent thinkers and scholars of Zamonia. Most possess more than one brain. Some exceptional cases, such as the world-famous Professor Nightingale, can possess as many as seven. special: To determine how many brains the Nocturnomath has, roll 1D6+1. Assign each brain an Advanced Skill, in which they count as having a rank of 2. The Nocturnomath also counts as a Trainer in each of these skills, and can Train another instantly via the touch-transmission of Nocturnomathic bacteria.↩

  21. Gnomelet. 5/4/0/2/As Unarmed-1. A species considered diminutive even by dwarves. They have an unfair reputation for puniness and cowardice.↩

  22. Crat. 6/5/0/4/As Small Beast. Talking cats, possessive of a great intellect. Some have blue fur. Talented at stealth and climbing. They find the herb CRATMINT irresistible.↩

  23. Bookemist. 8/11/2(rubberised robes)/2/As Weapon/Spell. Secretive seekers of forbidden truths. From their labs that pierce many floors down into the Catacombs, they experiment on and with books, paper, and language itself, melding these substrate with the (often amoral) techniques of the Alchemasters. special: Knows 1D6+3 random spells.↩

  24. Bollogg. 6/100/0/2/As Gigantic Beast+2. The greatest of the giants, they regularly exceed a mile in stature. At such altitude, the Bollogg's head is too oxygen-starved to be of any use, and so it removes it and leaves it somewhere in the countryside. From then on its body wanders aimlessly, driven solely by the autonomic whims of its spinal cord.↩

#troika-tuesday #zamonia