Envelope Musings

Sometimes you get that creative bug. For me, it struck at about 11 a couple nights ago. I grabbed a miniature manilla envelope I had gotten from the dentist’s office months prior, ripped it open, and began sketching the art for the Duelist class. About an hour later, the whole envelope and then some was filled with sketches, class ideas, and musings. I give you the Envelope Musings, a sequel-in-spirit to the Orb 18 (thanks again to the almighty Phlox, whose genius and madness knows no bounds!).

DUELIST CLASS

You have created, received, or stolen an epic weapon. This weapon defines you, and thrusts you into the role of an epic hero. What is King Arthur without Excalibur? What is Thor without Mjolnir? Damocles without his Sword? And you too join these mythological ranks.

DUELIST SKILLS: Standing your ground

1 Name one of your weapons. It occupies CHA slots now, being so legendary it is a facet of your personality and reputation. You gain a +1 to hit with it per Level, and it counts as magic.

2 Your weapon becomes truly mighty. Scribe an elemental rune of your choice into it, damage it deals will be of that type.

3 When openly brandishing your weapon, you have advantage on CHA all rolls except to calm creatures down or convince them of non-hostility.

4 You can never be disarmed of your weapon, and it can never be destroyed. In addition, it gains a unique and epic property.

CLASS IDEAS

Halfling Bear-Rider (an observation: any Class can be made cooler by adding an ancestry to it, particularly a juxtaposition)

Drug-Wrestler (an example: Elvish Drug-Wrestler makes this a LOT cooler-sounding)

Whistler (Orcish Whistler? Hell yeah! Give it to me! Okay, I’ll stop now.)

Shitty Bard (with a recorder or a slide whistle or kalimba or something)

Landlord

Roofer

Maintenance Person

Mural Artist

Space Pirate/Star Commander

Kalidescoficer (make projectors! Throw swirling beams of rainbow! Disorient with holographic illusions!)

Anti-Prospector (you go into the mines to see if you should STOP digging. You sense when the earth is angry, and what dwells in her veins...)

Mortician

Tentacle-Priestess

Jury-Rigger (quick! I need a rubber band, two paper clips, and the deed to the castle!)

Laser Druid (you found a vine-choked laser rifle in the woods and just assumed it was a gift from the forest. Now you have a laser gun and the power of nature on your side!)

SETTING TIDBITS

INSeCT-sANTA

From your diamond chrysalis deep within the earth, you emerged. You know the black sands and thin waters of the ocean below, but the light above hypnotises and enthralls you. The infants above celebrate the cold with rituals you seek to learn and assist with, so the cold may be kind to you when you devour them.

Coal you do not know, but diamonds you do understand. Toys are strange, but maggots are close. They speak of elves, and you have met the drow from deep below, so you understand what you must do. Sand and claws you both know, so you ritualistically bathe in the black glass sand on the shores of your chrysalis before you emerge onto the surface, silently bestowing your charms with the help of your thrall-elves and bearing your claws to anyone that sees you. Soon, the cold will learn to love you, and you may eat them all.

ADVENTURE HOOK: A small hamlet is plagued by Insect Santa and their dark elf thralls. The PCs must piece together the mystery of what is happening and stop Insect Santa from finding a magic artifact that would blanket the world in ice and snow. A terrifying parody of christmas explodes into nightmarish horror all around, alone in the blizzard...

CLASS IDEAS: One of Insect Santa’s drow minions, either one currently connected to Insect-Santa or a defective reject. Perhaps even Insect Santa itself…

MAKE SOMETHING: A roll-table of Insect Santa’s gifts. Insect Santa’s lair and stats.

tHE WOOdS ARE ALiVE

The mountains and the forests were always enemies from the beginning. Their tectonic battles wage over eons, so slow that only the Elves have any hope of tracking the progress of battles and skirmishes.

Deep below the forest, stone from the stars shatters and blooms outwards. The particles condense into cells condense into fungal clusters condense into the folded fractal forest above. The startstone is the home-hub of the greatest tactician of the forest-mountain wars ever. And the Claws grow from the wet soil, and the mountains quiver in fear.

ADVENTURE HOOKS: Perhaps the characters see the fungal meteor fall from the sky, and hear of the mountain’s rumbles following. Perhaps the characters see the great and foetid Claws, reaching into the tortured sky, eagerly waiting to taste the blood of the stone. Perhaps they are drawn to the startstone below the forest, and hypnotized into joining the great battle. Perhaps the forest seeks to conquer the cities next...

CLASS IDEAS: A druid, in fearful worship of the Claws. A fungally-corrupted soldier of the forest. The mountain’s retaliation. Perhaps you could even play as a Claw…

MAKE SOMETHING: Describe the Claws, what they do, how the common folk interact with them. Write up a forest/mountain battle report, either from the perspective of the forest, the mountain, or the elves watching onwards. Describe the home planet of the fungus, and why it’s helping the forest.

“As the stars churn in the unblinking velvet sky, a dead man walks the earth.”