Free to Download: Signs and Portents 82

The Mongoose Publishing team have released the latest edition of their free to download e-zine: Signs and Portents.

This month is called “Sex, Dice and Gamer Chicks”. That’s because James Desborough and Jonny Nexus are just about to see their Sex, Dice and Gamer Chicks book hit the shelves.

The Mongoose supplied summary is below along with our e-reader and download link.

Traveller
A sneak peek at character creation for Darrians.

RuneQuest II: Clockwork & Chivalry
Adventure and source material for the forthcoming setting for RuneQuest II.

Traveller
Augmetics and prosthetics for Traveller characters who have foolishly
engaged in combat.

Chthonian Stars
A preview of the worlds and Solar System of the forthcoming Traveller
setting.

Conan
Faith and Blood, a complete scenario for Conan, where the players will
search for a lost city.

Traveller
The Armed Free Trader, a complete new ship for explorers.

Here’s a teaser chunk of text from the download. It’s not all in-house ads for future Mongoose products.

The Naked and the Dead
By Ken Walton and Peter Cakebread

An adventure and source material for Clockwork & Chivalry

Here is a new Profession (Iconoclast) and a new Faction (Adamite) for Clockwork & Chivalry, plus an adventure (which can best be described as a deadly romp) set in a small village somewhere in Parliamentarian-controlled lands. The adventure stands alone but can easily be slotted into The Alchemist’s Wife, the first volume of the Kingdom & Commonwealth campaign, due out in August. Games Masters will need the RuneQuest Core Rulebook from Mongoose Publishing and the Clockwork & Chivalry Core Worldbook from Cakebread & Walton and Cubicle 7.

The Dead
The Adventurers are travelling together through the Parliamentarian lands when they come upon a small church on the outskirts of a village. Read or paraphrase the following to the players:

You have been travelling along the country lane for a couple of hours when you come to a small stone-built church with a square tower, set in its own graveyard, a few minutes walk from the next village. The door is ajar and you notice that all of the windows appear to have been smashed from the inside, leaving shards of coloured glass scattered on the grass.

Have the Adventurers make Perception rolls; on a success they will notice that it seems very quiet – there are no birds singing and the sound of bleating sheep, which has been a constant background to their journey, is now absent. At the side of the path leading up to the church door, several dead songbirds lie on the ground with their legs in the air. There is not a mark upon them.

Assuming that the Adventurers decide to look in the church (it doesn’t matter if they don’t, they can come back later), this is what they see:

When you enter the church, a scene of utter devastation meets your eyes. The windows are all smashed; the altar rail has been toppled and lies chopped and splintered on the floor; and several painted statues of saints have been cast down from their alcoves and are now broken. An intricate mural of the Last Judgment has been defaced with whitewash and there is a scattering of bent golden candlesticks and a crumpled communion cup near the altar. Sprawled in the aisle is a middle-aged Priest, obviously dead, with a look of utter horror on his face.

A Culture (Own) roll will tell the Adventurers that the damage is probably the work of Iconoclasts (see the Profession description at the end of the adventure) – though they are not known for killing Priests in cold blood.

The Priest has probably been dead for a day at most, though there are no wounds on him, only a look of complete horror on his face.

Searching the church further will reveal little of interest, except in two places:

Office: This is probably the Priest’s vestry; there are several ornate silk priestly robes hung up here and a desk, its drawers open and contents scattered about the room (only boring notes for sermons and the like). There is also a bookshelf, which looks as though it has been emptied recently; a couple of books of theology are scattered on the floor but the rest are gone.

Laboratory: An unusual feature in a church, this is obviously an Alchemist’s laboratory. It too has been smashed, the contents of flasks and bottles puddle on the floor. In the middle of the room is a smashed crate with soiled straw in the bottom and a scattering of corn, as though some animal or bird had been kept in it. A Difficult (-20%) Perception roll will allow an Adventurer to find two unbroken Potion jacks, containing a Bladesharp Potion (Magnitude 6) and a Cure Disease/Poison Potion.

Backstory
This is what has happened. Yesterday, a Puritan Iconoclast by the name of Zeal-for-the-Lord Harrison and a couple of his assistants, visited the church and began smashing the place up. They were especially incensed that the Priest (the Reverend Richard Holmdyke, a Laudian) was dabbling in Alchemy – a mostly respectable Profession in Royalist lands but outlawed here. They smashed up the laboratory, including the crate. Inside the crate was a Basilisk (see Clockwork & Chivalry p.100), which the Reverend had recently bought, at great expense, from a gypsy. The Basilisk fled from the violence of the Iconoclasts into the church hall, only to meet the Priest coming in the other direction. Killing the hapless vicar with its deadly gaze, it fled into the countryside, where it has been killing things ever since.