Showing posts with label Sorcerer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sorcerer. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 May 2020

Token Quick Megadungeon



Ok im interested in megadungeons again so here is an 80s style faction filled wonderland. I have another one based on a more open plan I like more but this was fun even if a bit slow.....let me know if any big errors with numbers of if this is any good.

This is in a ridge of rock dividing separate wilderness areas
NW entrance through an ancient graveyard with stone age and ancient tombs
NE entrance is ancient brick-built by kobolds over time and now worn smooth
SW entrance is in a hidden rock-carved temple of the fire devil cult
SE entrance is a series of cliffs with rock art and caves

As many rooms are close monsters will support each other if they hear fights or scream or will retreat to a position they can gather in force. As monsters gather if alerted and encounters should increase in fame dungeon area.

I'm mean with magic and treasure but feel free to add more and pocket money on all intelligent beings.

d20 Rumours

1 Hunters say there are cliff caves with rock markings in woods to the SE
2 Some sort of fire cult who wear hoods have a secret temple in the area
3 Some old haunted graveyard of the old ways is to th NW
4 Kobolds live in a damp brick cave and come to steal sheep and chickens
5 Dark elves and goblins used to live in these parts leaving rock ravings
6 Goblins sometimes sell "goblin food" and magic mushrooms out behind tavern at night
7 Another house burned down killing a whole family
8 A pack of ancient ghouls in furs with tusk necklaces that locals fear
9 The last witchfinder declared this town was a common cult pilgrimage
10 Wizards come to these parts looking for ruins and old stone carvings
11 Giant toadstools have sprung up near the creek 
12 I have seen giant flies up in the hills and one stole a baby once
13 Soldiers once killed a coven of cultists in the village and their bodies were burned
14 The local village idiot was an adventurer but now he eats bugs and likes flowers
15 Two were gangs fighting on the crossroads by night, both wearing strange robes
16 They say cultists and witches are common in these parts but nobody knows why
17 I saw a drunk talking to a campfire, I guess he was a madman
18 Keep away from the cliff caves there are lots of grumpy bears up there
19 Lots of wandering priests pass through looking for evil and some will help you
20 Lots of men have fled the hidden caves some had nightmares and all lost friends

d12 Cultists

1-6 Fire Devil Cult - devil worshippers allied to LE fire elemental lords. Their priests are actually sorcerers and they thrive off vice and charging other evil pilgrims visiting the Old One's temple areas. AC clothes HD d4 Dagger attack many know a 1st Lv wizard spell
7 Sons of the Old Ones - want to wake the old ones temple to help end the world. This evil priesthood find other evils here trite and simplistic but possible pawns. 
AC clothes HD d4 Dagger attack many know a 1st Lv spell
8 Brothers of Braxus - worship a goat demon who teaches evil wizards, a group will have a goat folk warrior with them with a huge flail to scourge enemies. AC clothes HD d4 Dagger attack many know a 1st Lv spell and goatmen AC leather and 2HD jump extra ten foot
9  Blackbriar Coven - witches here to study elder lore and find evil relics to get revenge on witch hunters in the region. Most leaders are women wizards and all have cat familiars. Men act as cult assassins often magically enhanced by the coven. 
AC clothes HD d4 Dagger attack many know a 1st Lv spell
10 Daughters of Darkness - sisterhood of evil priestesses want to unite dungeon to terrorise region with undead and darkness. AC chain HD d8 Mace attack many know a 1st Lv priest spell
11 Brotherhood of Bones - necromancers and priests of darkness united to restore ancient empire of evil. AC clothes HD d4 Dagger attack many know a 1st Lv spell wizard or priest
12 Black Lotus Monks - sent by mysterious international drug cartel to recover relics for the secret masters of the order who rule kingdoms by spies, blackmail and addiction. AC as leather HD d8 Two unarmed attacks d6 armour actually agility based

Encounters

d12 Ancient Graveyard
1 Skeletons with spears D6 
2 Warrior Zombies d4
3 Giant Rats 2d4
4 Stirges d4
5 Shadows D3
6 Wight 
7 Spectral minion of angry barbarian
8 Spectral minion of a weeping mourner
9 Spectral minion of a child with doll watching
10 Giant owl tries to snatch a small person or pet by surprise
11 Jackals digging for dead 2d6
12 Ghouls d6

d12 Ancient Catacombs
1 Carrion worm

2 Lone limping zombie
3 Giant rats 2d4
4 Kobold scouts d4 with darts
Shadows D3
6 Giant spider
7 Giant tiger beetle
8 Constrictor snake
9 Skeletons with spears d6
10 Warrior zombies d4
11 Wight
12 Ghouls d6

d12 Ancient Tombs

1 Cultist on way to meeting 2d4 commoners with daggers
2 Grave robber gang of bandits 2d4
3 Zombie centaur warrior with huge club
Zombie gladiators d4
5 Skeleton hoplites with spear shield and fancy helmets
6 Living stone statue
7 Gargoyle will pretend to be architecture if senses intruders 
Evil priest or necromancer looking for undead to enthrall
9 Spectral minion of gladiators fighting each other
10 Spectral minion of old man in toga bleeding
11 Medusa doing her rounds
12 Raging mummy furious with intruders

d12 Kobold Brick Caves

1 Kobold child looking for pet or toy
2 Kobold carrying chamber pot to empty, will hurl t foes and flee
3 Kobold eating a turnip or rat on a stick
4 Kobold elder with walking stick limping 
slowly
5 Kobold doggies having a run attack intruders and bark d4
6 Kobolds armed and searching 2d4
7 Kobold suicide bomber with grenaide and lit fuse
8 Kobold wizard Lvd4 visiting with a d4 guards
Kobold priest or shaman Lvd4 visiting with a d4 guards
10 Mimic here to eat kobolds pretending to be a treasure chest
11 Spectral minion of eyeless adventurer sobs to go home
12 Spectral minion of adventurer torn apart by dogs


d12 Fungus Caves
1 Fungus pygmies d6 curious and vewy fwendly and poison to eat
2 Kobolds gathering food d4 with sickles, 1in6 have a d4 Lv kobold druid with them
3 Cultists exploring d4
4 Fungus coated zombies d4
5 Fungus coated skeletons with axes d6
6 Giant carnivorous beetle
7 Giant gekko hiding up high
8 Carrion worm dragging a kobold will drop for more victims
9 Madman as thief Lvd4 with mushrooms growing from skull 
10 Gas spore bobbing in breeze could go off any moment
11Giant crickets will chirp noisily attracting a d10 reroll on this table
12 Shrieking fungus d4 will scream noisily attracting a d10 reroll on this table, kobolds and cultists will flee for reinforcements 

d12 Secret Temple
1 Cultist pilgrims with souvenirs often assume strangers must be ok in the dungeon 2d6
2 Fire cult warriors (1st Lv) with naginata and chain alert for intruders
3 Senior fire cult sorcerer 4th Lv with favourite 1st lv student
4 Invisible imp will report to masters then return to harras party
5 Cultists eating fried chicken and mushrooms d4+1
6 Cultists d6+2 escorting d3 sacrifice
7 Pet fire-lizard hunting temple for kobolds that sometimes sneak in
8 Kobold spy sells drugs to cultist while keeping eye on cult
9 Cult assassins all thieves, 4th level master and three 1st Lv students sneaking about 
10 Cult eunuchs and love slaves strutting about 2d4
11 Cult slaves doing chores keen to escape d4
12 Visiting 4th lv evil priest and d4 cultists

d12 Old One's Temple

1 Gelatinous cube
2 Grey ooze
3 Green slime
4 Cultist 2d4 looking about in wonder
5 Artistic cultist here to d4 1=draw 2=write poem 3=documenting temple features 4=making rubbings from relief wall art
6 Gibbering mouther
7 Giant toad 
8 Faceless gargoyle
9 Carnivorous ape
10 Shadows d4
11 Ghouls 2d4
12 Alien humanoid wizard formed of worms 4th Lv

Locations

Ancient Graveyard
A blasted cliffside area with dead grass and bone fragments. Harmless grass snakes and huge spiderwebs are common but harmless. It is also windy here and misty in mornings 

01 Old barrow with stone slab sealed door. Magical darkness inside and three wights guarding a silver hoard and some magic items in their crypts
02 Old barrow with stone slab sealed door, with six separate sealed cells each with some undead d4 1=mummy 2=wight 3=d4 ghouls 4=2d6 skeletons with spears. Each holds a d6 copper metal grave goods worth 40gp each and gold torc worth 120gp
03 Local ghouls drag their meals hear to eat and six average ghouls live for an ancient clan mother who is double normal HD and regenerates as long as not in sunlight or fire or holy damage. When clan attacked her cried call a d6 reinforcements in a d6 rounds 
04 Ancient headstones carved with sophistication unknown in these parts
05 Ancient monoliths with symbols of the elder clans and gods and beasts

Ancient Catacombs
Local tribes used stone-lined tunnels as a burial place, putting skeletal or cremated bones under the stones. SOme wall niches contain human skulls, The chambers were reserved for leaders and great magicians of old and are all sealed with stone slabs and clay
06 Dark openings into stone-lined tunnels
07 Sealed tomb of the mummified queen in a crypt with +1 spear and zombie dire wolf pet, gold torc worth With +1 protection
08 Sealed tomb who is closest when seal broke takes 4d4+4 to save for half from a fire ward, Inside a wight with a burning spear +1+d4 flame damage and a silver torc worth 350gp
09 Breaking seal awakens a spectral minion youth warrior demands to fight to the death for his +2 shortsword that makes user resistant to acid and poison gas laying with his bones
10 Two ancient jack-o-lantern golems guard remains of an earth priestess with a +2 stone sickle and four 2d4 healing potions
11 Disturbing awakens a vindictive revenant who will reform each full moon to hunt and kill those who robbed it and if ongoing may call on demons for aid using ancient relics it can locate. in grave Is a +2 ivory boomerang and four javelins of lightning
12 Bone room an open doorway. Thousands of bones some huge with a 300gp broken mammoth tusk near the top. Disturbing bones awakens a skeleton plus as long as one is standing at the end of the round a new one forms ready to fight next round a d6 boat tusks worth 10gp are buried deeper and perhaps more 
13 Dozens of niches in walls have skulls in them. A black altar stone has an empty niche. By placing skull in hole cast speak with dead with the owner of the skull but works once per day
14 Megolceros giant elk skull with huge antlers arranged as part of a hunters shrine with some flint tools left as offerings
15 Baby mammoth mummified on floor with offerings of grain and a d6 ivory trinkets worth 30gp each 
16 Stone chamber of prehistoric art depicting men with horns fighting tentacle horrors
17 Dead zombie humans and torn apart kobolds and their pet dogs lay scattered from a battle once here
18 A pile of ancient funeral urns smashed and mummy bodies smashed up and searched here, several dead kobold vandals lay twisted and a neat pile of stacked linen-wrapped kobold corpses all died from wounds with undead or disease from mummies. There is a secret door to the kobold kingdom in the brick tunnels at the back of the room

Ancient Tombs
Built-in a style of an unknown high civilisation thousands of years ago. Stone precision-cut bricks with painted plaster over some sections. Wall art and relief carvings often depicting the coming of the end times and the grim reaper harvesting the dead in hundreds (Kronos). Also, depict strange ancient people feasting and bulls
19 This carved rock tomb was once sealed but has long been broken open (from the inside). Inside is rubble, dirt, bones and occasional bugs and grubs and rats
20 These tomb chambers all feature the art of occupants life and a sarcophagus for one or two persons. d6 1=looted full of rubbish 2=d6 ghouls eating here 3=d3 spectral minions 4=hellhound appears in a flash of sulphurous smoke 5=wight 6=d4 shadows also each has a treasure and d12x1000cp d4x1000sp d6 1=silver torc worth 350gp 2=+1spear 3=+1 bronze shortsword 4=copper armband of protection +1 5=silver protection from evil torc 6=copper shield+1 
21 Scene of gloomy underworld full of miserable shades eating dust and dung while various monsters roaming murder them
22 Shrine to Nergal the death god here commemorating a death knight hero slaughtering city of innocents. Undead wounded in area come in here heal as once a day the filthy unholy water fountain heals them d6 per day (d6 to any living touch it once). Anyone breaking or defiling shrine release a insect swarm as spell for 2d4 rounds in chamber
23 Scenes of a mural depicting heroes and great ones who are among the few who join the gods as their slaves forever. Depicts gods known and forgotten
24 Great tomb chamber with statues of shedu and columns where a sphynx lives. It will insist you trade or play chess or drink with it to pass its a pretty relaxed sphynx that knows lots of ancient lore
25 Tomb here long empty and looted but depicts king kero smiting enemies with piles of severed heads. Under the altar which would take at least 8 men to move is a panel with 3333gp a golden goat fleece (includes skin and head and horns) that can cure disease once per week and can be worn like a cloak with a hat. While worn wearer immune to disease

Kobold Brick Caves

Build into rock and lined with red clay bricks but the kobolds did so long ago that now the walkways are worn smooth and water has covered some areas with slime and worn into the brickworks. The kobolds harvest this slime for soup. The kobolds follow a king and these keep pet dogs and bats. Bats warn kobolds and this process is hard to notice while kobolds get flaming oil and set their traps. Kobolds use rusty iron arrows dipped in urine, save if any damage left untreated or instead of healing overnight lose a d3 plus repeat the save each day until succeed or die. Kobolds here are eaten monsters and hate cultists so they might make a deal or tax you for free passage. If feeling high alert they put traps about. Their children have big eyes and ears and look adorable
26 Worn ancient red bricks go into the dark with green slime and red stains where water has flowed for generations. Crickets and chittering bats within can be heard and smells of burned flesh

27 Dozen kobold guards, some form a line while others will throw darts from behind while one rings a brass bell alerting every kobold in area. The snarl at unescorted visitors and point to room 39. Cooks in 28 might help
28 Kobold kitchen where six kobold cooks with huge knives and cleavers chopping up a cultist they caught following a diagram in kobold recipe book, "how to serve man". They are going for a mushroom and man stew with leftovers in pies if you ask. The cooks if they hear guards fight will try to escape to rest of tribe or might throw pots and pans a bit first
29 Kobold sweatshop making evil medallions and idols to sell to all the cult pilgrims who visit. Other goods include fake potions and fake evil saint relics 8 kobolds in desks but they are arthritic and chained to their desks so other kobold tribes cannot steal them. There are brick moulds here they fight to protect as sacred to the tribe
30 The common room where kobolds eat and relax as a family with children. Depending on the time of day. d6 Kobold adults are armed, d6 dogs, d6 elderly and 2d6 children. They are chewing on bones together or playing knucklebones often  
31 Four kobold heroes (double HP) and their d4 children and d4 dogs. If they hear a fight they come running
32 Kobold hero one of the seven sons of a kobold god incarnate lives here when not adventuring and is the tribal champion. He is 4HD with a ball and chain and +1 damage bonus. He wears boots of spider climbing and can shoot three d4 darts per round and does double damage +4 to hit like a thief backstab.  At zero HP he teleports away thanks to the heroes god to fight again another day
33 Courtyard with a fountain where kobolds fetch water and wash clothes dumping wastewater in a drain. A d6 kobolds are here working but if they hear a fight will flee. A d4 kids play in the drain and wells too big for humans or kobolds
34 Brick storage room with stacks of lumber for repairs and building jobs for human cults. Their is a large cold kiln and a pottery wheel and a collection of clap pots and figurines
35 Jars of pickled vegetables, dried meat and beer are stored and prepared here
36 Boxes of turnips, parsnips, acorns and cabbages are stored here for winter supplies
37 Raised wooden beds with mushrooms the kobolds farm, very delicious
38 Two cages in here, one with frozen human carcases without heads or limbs on hooks and the other is a frost salamander keeping the room frosty. If a secret lever is not set opening the meat store cell opens the salamander cage. If you deliberately set it free it goes looking for kobolds to eat
39  Dozen kobold guards, some form a line while others will throw darts from behind while one rings a brass bell alerting every kobold in area. 
40 Kobold Temple with a great statue of the kobold great grandfather who stole the gods gold and meat and taunted the other gods. Valuable fragile kobold urns with heroic painting on them are worth 300gp each and there are a dozen of them. The idols eyes look exotic but are bottles of green acid with light spells. If they break 2d4 acid sprays everywhere 
41 Kobold priest room where he makes potions usually at any time has a 2d4 healing potion, poison to make a well bad, berserk potion save or die from heart failure makes drinker insane killer. The priest id 4th Lv and has two pet dogs. There is a secret door to the kobold elite escape corridor leading west
42 Kobold workshop for traps mostly for animals and fish. Mantraps are set to snap a human weight victim and do a d4 + save or trapped or use a light crossbow to fire a bolt with 2d4 poison tip or pendulums with swinging spiked poles. If there is a battle in the entry of the dungeon others come here and plant traps around the dungeon 
43 Kobolds here watch the corridor from niches with hand axes and the main room has a cart with four light crossbows operated by a crew of four kobolds that can fire once every second round. They watch the corridors leading away from the kobold dungeon. They also guard the throne and hold the throne room doors. These kobolds have tin pot helms with brushes and adorable lil chainmail shirts and iron shields
44 Throne room where 4HD kobold King with a +1 war hammer, his bugbear champion and four 1HD kobold elite guards. In a crisis, many kobolds come here and barricade the room with furniture. There are 3 400gp tapestries of kobold history here and a cut-glass chandelier worth 800gp hangs over an ogre skin rug. The kings crown is worth 500gp
45 Kings office where does paperwork with two scribes and an accountant each with a desk. Leaders meet here to plan how to trick cultists with sham relics and how to eat them without being noticed and blame disappearances on other cults 
46 The royal nursery where 2d6 privileged kobold children play with nanny and granny 
47 King's bed-chamber where he sleeps with most of family and major servants. There is a secret door out of the room for emergencies. The bead has treasure stash under the goose-feather mattress with 4 chests including 800gp, 3000sp, four scrolls and four potions 
48 This room has the escape room with 4 holy water potions, bedrolls, rations and water plus 12gp ready for when the kobold elites flee hopefully with their loot until things cool down
49 Dogs cave with a stick fence with locked gates into other rooms. Four dog houses and six dogs live here trained to hunt and kill humans. 1in6 chance of a kobold with a bucket picking up poop with tongs
50 Kobolds play stickball here sort of cricket with more violence and screaming. Children play if adults not, a few dogs hang around too
51 Kobold alchemist here has three cast-iron black powder grenades with fuses and a bottle of acid and several child assistants. There is an exit to the fungus caves has bars with a gate and the key is kept by the alchemist a 4th level wizard and book includes alchemical secrets
52 Kobold alchemist has been working on improved animals in four cages. A four-legged dog, a two-headed kobold (one evil one good), exploding bat, and a human peasant with mole features (alchemists plan to breed a warrior abhuman race)
53 Owlbear on a chain is kept by kobolds as a guard. It really hates kobolds but screams hungrily at any strangers it sees

Fungus Caves

These caves are damp and smell of compost and spores. Large beetles and grubs crawl about and the areas have edible and poisonous fungus everywhere. Dim violet luminescent fungus has the caves dimly lit. The walls and air are moist and dripping with moisture. Nine out of ten fungi are poison if eaten d4 1=d4 2=2d4 3=2d6 4=4d6. The remaining ones are d4 1=delicious 2=heal d4 3=allow you to speak to dead as spell 4=have a prophetic vision then save or throw up and pass out for a d6 hours. Fungus pygmies are fearless, adorable and smile and babble and dribble. They taste terrible and are poison to eat. hey just want to have fun and make friends  
54 These forks have a d6 screaming toadstools here that quiver in fear alerting monsters in the area attracting encounter in a d4 rounds
55 Colony of 30 fungus pygmies having a party eating worms, bugs and poison fungus that looks like delicious cakes
56 Huge cavern full of multicoloured fungus, flowing spore tainted creeks and several dead bodies, human and giant bug and kobold half-eaten and mouldy. A cave fisher lives in roof as lots of creatures come to graze here. Large bugs and lizards size of babies and a few giant centipedes live here too. Dark elf in 57 might try and charm someone or call a warning to hide in her cave from the beast
57 Dark elf harlot lives here who has been charming cultists to visit her plying her with blasphemous scrolls and a pile of coins 678gp. She tries to charm anyone from afar and will act friendly even warning them about the monster in 56. She has a cave iguana familiar and a pet Imp who aid her. She also has a wand of sleep with 2d10 charges left   
58 A cave dryad allied to fungus and lives in trunk of a giant mushroom guards several adjacent caves with magic fungus. She has placed the traps in these rooms. She welcomes strangers but warns them to behave. She dislikes cults and likes the kobolds and will trade with those killing evil humans. A d6 cultists she has charmed now but she is bored with them. They came to steal the special fungus she keeps for her favourites. Any acting badly will have her lovers attack and she will charm newcomers (of any gender). Fungus pygmies 3d6 are here to worship her. They are immune to mould and will fetch shrooms the dryad asks for from 59
59 Cave has a d6 good mushrooms (in section header) and is guarded by yellow moulds and a shrieking fungus
60 Enchanted brain-like fungus has a sweet odour that makes all who save sit on the floor and wait to die so fungus can eat them. Anyone affected can be slapped or splashed with water and taken out to recover. A d6 cultists and a d6 kobold corpses are already jellified
61 A sparkling magic pool with fungus pygmies wallowing and playing in it. Any who drink it have protection from evil for an hour but it only works once per person. Taken from the pool it is just delicious water
62 A goblin camping here eating a fungus pygmy with a bottle of mushroom beer and a fishing rod and a pot with worms. Tiny fire frying slices of fungi head 
63 Cultists of several types in masked robes are drinking and comparing notes on their evil religions. The six surrenders promptly and will tell you anything they know but are recent arrivals. The fire cult is the biggest cult that charges other cults to come here
64 An old witch (4th Lv Wizard) with a d4 kobold helpers is here to make potions. She and the Dryad in 58 dont get along and she would love some shrooms from the Dryad. She will give a d8 healing potion per special shroom she get brought after an hour of cooking
65 Fungus here produces mass of froth which idiotic fungi pigmies like to frolic in. Humans touching it save or choke to death over a d10 rounds unless treated by a healer
66 Idol to the fungus mother goddess where kobolds have left some dead as offerings now ripe and blooming with colourful fungus. Bowls of mouldy barley grains are in a bowl. A squishy living rod can cast charm fungus once per day
67 A fungal creature from the void was wounded here and has fused into the local fungus. The winged horror is utterly alien and might not even seem intelligent, Requires magic to understand it's luminous glowing brain colony and clipping of its damaged nippers. Some cultists visit it for blasphemous wisdom of the outer void
68 Blue ropey fungus here has a cloud of spores, all exposed save or when you die arise as a fungi covered zombie. A stone symbol over the door covered by fungus stops planar beings passing this barrier
69 A glistening eyed crowd of fungi pygmies here will begin to worship any strangers who enter
70 A dozen mixed cultists lounge here eating and smoking mushrooms when off duty, a few fungi pygmies like to play with cultists when they are unconscious
71 Druid here tends shrine of the mushroom cult playing with fungi pigmies. She will protect them from harm and will always parley. She has a pet violet fungi guard
72 Ascomoid rolling around the room with clapping fungi pygmies, hostile to anything threatening fungi beings otherwise just stays near pygmies 
73 Colony of ochre slime with four ochre slime zombies, a rotting chest spills out 3000sp from a cult payroll that nobody is willing to risk recovering
74 Several crippled old senile cultists have been left here disappointed by the temple retirement home scheme they have paid a fortune for. One sure adventurer are nurses
75 An ogre has camped here to eat kobolds and cultists and is saving the old people of 74 for later because they taste and smell bad. Bones of kobolds and humans scattered around and a pot of soup is on fire
76 Nervous fire cultists here 2d4 making sure no monsters come out, all reading holy scripture of the fire cult (meaningless drivel). Will drop scrolls cast spells and flee if anyone unauthorised tries to enter the temple area
77 Filthy old feather mattresses here and some mouldy erotic parchments where slack cultists goof off from sacred duties. A d6-2 are here at any time
78 Psychomoid fungus here erupted from a kobold corpse and will attack any in the room. A +1 spear is in the rotting hand of a dead adventurer mostly decayed
79 A d4 gas spores floating here with small fungi pygmy child throwing rocks at them badly. The child would be unharmed if a spore explodes
80 
A dead cultist holding a strange green metal sphere found in old one's area. This will teach you a spell in return for an attribute point which can be transcribed into a spellbook. The spells are often old and strange but each one you learn need a save or will use again requiring a save again. Repeated till you resist or die to arise as a revenant. If the object is taken from the body it awakes wanting its precious back and will arise again to get it. The Sphere of Yoth is mentioned in ancient texts as were spells that first called beings from beyond that helped to ruin the world

Secret Temple

The decadent fire cult control this ancient fire elemental temple they found. Now they are a cult of sorcerers dedicated to evil fire elementals and devils. Most members are sorcerors often with a fire spell or magic missile. The fire devil cult mostly get high and have sex with the master but they make good business acting as an inn for other cults come to see the old one ruins in the heart of the dungeon. Cult leaders find kobolds pests for selling junior cultists cheap copied cult idols and texts undercutting the temple. Kobolds also sell drugs to the cult making them more hopeless and disorganised and addicted. Possibly cult masters might pay to have kobolds killed.
81 Four cult warriors with bows and two more on horseback with lances guard secret temple from normal people not dressed in cult robes
82 Great courtyard with elaborate temple carved into the rock with devils and fire-themed art. A 4th Lv sorcerer and four 1st level apprentices guard here with two wolves
83 An old blind fire priest sits here chanting. Has not stopped even to eat for decades
84 Guest room with a dozen packs in a pile and 2d6 sleeping cultists
85 A cultist here cooking a roast kobold with lizard stew and turnip chips. Cultists come here at meal times which are mostly porridge or mushrooms
86 Two secret doors are here. Four cultists greet newcomers here with necklaces of flowers and a bag of bread, cheese, garlic and a bottle of opium laced wine. One such gift bag is for all guest cultists and 20 in a box. If strangers come in one rings a bell and one runs for help. The welcome team also sell unholy scripture scrolls d10gp (12 different ones) or popular blasphemous books for 100gp (12 different books) or evil holy symbols 30gp and evil bronze figurines 10gp (12 to collect the set with sixty in a box but not one full set). A sign in common wars of inferior kobold made drugs and cult items  
87 Lovely garden open to the sky with a pool, feathered birds, scented trees and flowers. An old servant here hands out hookas, pipes or bottles of grog to any coming here to contemplate. She can arrange cult sex slaves ane eunuchs for a fee. One d4 cultists are here indulging and one cultist is having sex with a slave. After they complain it costs more if they cry. One cultist is unconscious the others barely able to stand or scream
88 Harem & Enach room where a d6 sex slaves and a d4 eunuchs are presently gossiping and drinking. Eunachs will grab 2-handed scimitars from the wall and they have 17 STR
89 Fire cultist room with four beds and footlockers and a mural depicting infernal gates of hell. A d4 cultists are resting at any time 
90 A great hall with a mural depicting elemental planes of fire and beings from there. Tables and chairs and empty wine bottles are here where a d6 cultists relax drinking
91 A 4th level priest and four 1st level acolytes have stocks and a-frames where they restain and flog cultists caught buying kobold trash or drugs instead of from the fire cult. Strangers or sounds from 90 will make these men spell up and attack
92 Cult Library guarded by an invisible imp will ring a bell for help and menace intruders to waste their time or lure away from here. There are thirty evil lore scrolls and twenty blasphemous books. Some are missing so remaining books are chained and locked. One is a 4th Lv wizard spellbook, one has names of devils and fire elementals to summon another detail another dungeon hiding an evil artifact from an ancient war. Four copy stands are here where cultists occasionally make tourist copies. Librarian notes indicate missing books and scrolls and name past masters who had these books
93 Lecture hall where 3d4 cultists listen to a 4th Lv master with two warrior guards
94 Collection of elder god clay idols found and restored on display
95 Mural showing cults celebrating as sun blackens and stars fall while void demons plunge to earth to devour souls of fleeing masses. A desk for the grandmaster is here a 7th level sorcerer with a 3rd level assistant performing morning paperwork running their cult bed and breakfast. Also work on occult research and a hooka with opium, hash and black lotus resin
96 Collection of ancient fossils found digging the temple of prehistoric plants, ammonites and trilobites. Stone to the flesh will restore these to life as they were petrified by outre gods long ago. One plinth has a huge footprint and a case displays huge teeth 97 Visitors books where guest cults leave cult pamphlets, initiate booklets and other mostly worthless trash books for future guests to read. Centuries of names are scrawled here on walls

Old One's Temple

Green luminous walls seemingly carved from jade, smoothed without any hard angles. Strange patterns are engraved in the walls and where you touch the walls remains brighter for a few seconds after. The air pressure in here seems higher, cold and misty air reduces visibility and makes fog comes from your mouth as you breathe. Everything here is magical. Sound is muffled almost like being underwater and sense of time is distorted. The floor is covered in compresses dead black and green organic matter that smell of rotting fish and eggs
98 Any passing this chamber save or lose 1hp from the nose bleed as pressure increases. A secret door here goes to the secret temple

99 Marine theme mosaics show fish folk with human thralls worshipping them while squid demons look on approvingly from the sea
100 A collection of broken ceramic fragments dug up from the gunge on floors have been assembled into shapes on several tables. One wall has drawings of patterns on walls trying to understand the lost language
101 Fallen broken statue, last person leaving room sees eyes blink (give them a note)

102 Clay cuniform marked cones in here some are stacked some broken. On a table, someone has been decoding language using spells revealing litanies of priests from ancients who found this ruin
103 Anyone stepping in feels heavier, STR feels half while in the gravity field. A broken abstract looking statue bleeds black liquid into a drain like syrup
104 Stacks of metal discs with grooves in them. The cultist was trying to make a box that could play them with failed prototypes and diagrams. If work completed play recordings of old ones ultratellurian voices that is brain damaging to listen too for long, save or alignment change 1in6 chance a grumpy lesser demon summoned if played
105 Row of twelve stone plinths supporting reptilian mummies of some unknown breed. Cultists fear them but if you risk a save vs mummy rot a 2d4x100gp. One mummy has a crown worth 1200gp that lets you commune with a prehuman snake god once a week
106 Room has a strange grandfather clock with many strange hands, various random chimes and has a puzzle-based lock touching it causes confusion if you fail a save. Inside the box is a gate to a primordial continent long ago with primitive plants and mostly giant scorpions and fish, air is difficult to breathe for long. Manipulating clock hands opens door to other strange places. If door closes with any inside they are lost in time and space
107 Strange rotting corpse in the metal suit with an unbreakable glass helmet. If disturbed insect swarm erupts from it and any killed will hatch a new swarm. The suit is like full plate with no weight, has 2 hour air supply, radio, diagnostic HUD. Sidearm is an advanced laser pistol with d10 shots for 5d6 damage beam. Each shot discards a spent molten power cell Recorded message on suit in alien language is last words of space explorer discovering alien relic
108 Shelves with 4d4 strange copper sealed jars with glowing brains inside. Prehuman writing on the jars. If ESP used brains are dreaming of flying in the void with winged alien fungi
109 Stone idol of a horrible toad demon
110 Stone idol of a tentacled cone-shaped being
111 Two sealed stone pits each with common scrawled note do not open. Inside each is a gibbering mouther that awakes from hibernation. They take a d3 rounds to escape a pit once awake. Each has a d4 strange alien jewellery worth a d4x100gp each 
112 Great temple with six cultists and a 4th Lv master worshipping a squid demon lord from the void. Anyone sleeping here has strange dreams of swimming under the sea. Behind the statue and altar area is an area priests would get ready to perform. Shelf with a bottle of rum, evil holy symbol, 4th level wizard spellbook, an amulet with a devils name on it
113 Several priests once lived in here, now broken boxes, old field stove, and some human skulls
114 A carrion worm nesting with five paralysed cultists carrying her eggs
115 Cultist meditating in the chamber, mind has gone and body starving
116 Collapsed shelves scattering green tablets breaking and mixing them up. Lost blasphemous tex among all this but a few years work. Useful for spell research. After lots of digging there is a green broach that can shoot a magic missile if sacrifice a d3 HP to the god of the gem
117 A repeating illusion of robed priests fleeing something, turning and screaming. A d4 real cultists are watching with great interest while eating magic mushrooms
118 A brazier here is cold but smouldering strange odour comes out. Next to the brazier is a stone capped pit long sealed. Any overcome by odour with failed save has visions of a frog cult orgy while their body tries to open the pit. Inside the pit, a living thing of darkness comes forth (wraith). Cults don't let pilgrims past here and several priests with spells can drive it back
119 Walking through here is like walking through syrup. Party don't notice but an hour has passed for rest of world, repeats each time room passed 
120 Piles of broken stone tablets thrown here in some past occupation
121 Stone device looks like sarcophagi. Anybody placed in it is dedicated and any life force is drained and increases the luminosity in the complex. With more souls other machines wake and more monsters appear through wormholes
122 Altar with gemstones and four tribal lizardfolk on a plinth frozen in stasis. If the control altar settings are manipulated d4 1=awaken and attack 2=devolve into eggs 3=die turn to skeletons then dust 4=evolve into giant lizards that attack
123 Strange crystal apparatus aimed at plinth. If altar stones manipulated ray shrinks anyone down to microscopic size where thay can battle microscopic fauna. If settings reversed giant spores and bacteria (and any adventurers shrunk) grow up and possibly attack. Ochre jellies quite common
124 Shelves with glass jars of monsters to be enlarged in room 123. Some monsters are plagues and dangerous. A bad wizard could use this to make many monsters
125 Room surrounded by statues of horrible outre forgotten gods most are alien and hideous
126 Jars in shelf here have firefly like light motes inside. They hold human souls processed to feed outer gods. Level draining undead are attracted to them. Wizards and evil cults will pay for them but if opened you feel rush of soul memories as it departs to the next life. 2d4+4 such jars. Each jar makes as much as light as a candle
127 Mirror here if looked in shows scenes of space moving behind the viewer
128 Magic sigils on the floor were used for summonings here long ago. There are four sealed pits each with a d6 zombies from failed resurrection attempts
129 Cylinders from floor to ceiling with bubbling green fluid inside and horrible mutants growing inside. Six tubes each with a bejewelled altar that can complete and decant the monster
130 Antechamber to temple guarded by a hideous reptile headed mummy wearing 800gp of gold
131 Great temple complex save or feel nausea like (stinking cloud). Two stone statues of lobster headed and armed naked women either side of the altar, awaken to attract defilers. The altar holds a crystal holding an imprisoned demon, holding it the demon will mentally offer one service if released. Once performed the task the demon is free to stay as it pleases. Wizards will desire this
132 Skeleton of a mad prophet here died inscribing a cursed scroll
133 A bejewelled glass lantern worth 1200gp on looks sits on a desk. If lit the lamp projects monstrous visions of titanic Kraken in the void devouring stars and battling gods. If fail saving throw will look away and forever lack curiosity at things humans were not meant to know
134 Crystal sarcophagi with a squid headed prehuman wizard inside like amber. A control altar if manipulated will revive the 9th level wizard who thinks naked apes are revolting pests. Holds a staff with spell charm crab three times a day (giant crabs or crab folk)
135 A altar has a hole in it with some flickering light coming out. If you look inside you can see your own childhood by tinkering with controls you can swap souls with your younger self
136 The great chamber with a seven-pointed star used to open a gate through to the outer void long ago to call beings from beyond. Summoned beings here cannot pass the diagrams in the room and have -2 to resist spells to banish or control them
137 This tall toom has a tall statue of a humanoid god in jade. If touched you can talk telepathically to the being trapped here aeons ago and longs to be destroyed. It will offer elder lore if you swear to destroy the statue releasing the soul 
138 If you enter the circle on floor of this room a luminous phantasm of the night sky appears. Using the control altar you can change the night sky time period and may learn some knowledge unseen. The machine highlights when certain stars are right or almost right for wizards to call on the void
139 If control altar is manipulated the room summons a monster, most of the slime or ooze type or alien demons from beyond
140 If Contol altar is manipulated an opposite alignment angry clone of everyone in the room appears in the circle in the floor of the room which is a great way to get extra treasure
141 Crossroads chamber with a well. Any drinking the well get a minor cosmetic mutation and the kobolds all know how to purify it. Water has a dim glow in a strange colour you can't quite name
142 A fungoid alien is partially dissected in a frame that maintains its life despite it's organs being outside the body. Only magic lets you comprehend the alien language using coloured lights on its brain cluster and nipping pincers to talk. It will beg to be killed which is easily done.It may share some exotic black lore if tormented or offered death
143 Chamber with glass shelves with green stone pots with exotic fleshy plants and crystals
144 Chamber wall art depicts squid demons from beyond batling crinoid alien plant things with strange wands and spells. As you enter first-person sure they saw something slimy ooze down a vent leaving some slime trail
145 A giant slug with a crystalline apparatus inserted in tits head with a human brain inside. This horror comes out to eat fungus and lives here sobbing to itself. If seen it attacks out of shame and hunger for flesh. Poor immortal mad human brain longs for death
146 This room has hanging from the ceiling 12 sheets of glass-steel each sandwiching a slice of a dinosaur so you can walk around and see all its insides. It is a very old extinct breed. This could be sold for valuable artwork if you could move it
147 Gateway mirror here activated with gems on control altar. If activated opens a gate to a top of a pyramid in a dinosaur-filled jungle far away
148 Mirror on wall lets you talk to alternate universe version of self but everything sounds and looks in reverse

149 Wall in incantation in an alien script. If somehow translated with magic and spoken by a wizard a phantasmal face of an elder squid demon will appear and establish a telepathic link to all who see it exhorting them all to prepare for the end of the world when the mad shall rejoice and dark gods awaken, after a d4 minutes vision stutters and stops this only works once a day and a d4 cultist are hanging here trying it out and chatting

Outside Caves
Cliff face with some rock carvings and bear claw marks. Game is good in area and bears common. Many caves in area have bears. Honey works well for distracting them

150 A plain cave in the cliff with bear scratches on the walls. The rich smell of mushrooms waft out

Monday, 13 January 2020

Anyaknor, remains of a elder ruined city





































By a great glacier in a mountain the glacier once ground away a cliff exposing some of this ruined city. You can randomly roo. 24 rooms here  for chambers in elder ruins. Use as a dungeon or say the dimensional properties are in full effect and each ten minutes what is through the doorway changes to a new one rolled on d100 table. After ten minutes or one turn the door blinks, to having a different room on the other side of the portal. Being separated in such a dimensional maze is dangerous.

Hoping on doing a void creature bestiary
Noticed lots of basic dnd monsters were nightmare and darkness related and they had a school of illusions that could access nightmare world. X4 & X5 module monsters for example.

Im using the Crawling Chaos book  here lots.
-Great items and monsters. Id use this book for relics mentioned in chambers.

d100 Unpleasant things left in chambers of the old ones

1 Various types of toxic mould colonies cover many surfaces
2 Slimes crawl and drip in area, slime zombies might also be present
Crawling with worms as a non flying swarm often in a pit or cluster or hole 
4 Pudding resting in a stone bowl but hungry
5 Shrieking giant fungus that makes loud screams if disturbed
6 Toxic giant fungus that sprays toxic spores or rotting touch
7 Fungus forest covered chamber, strange and weird
8 Gelatinous creatures oozing about
9 Piercer colonies or trapper or lurker above
10 Mimic often as some relic, idol, egg or alien casket
11 
Buzzing biting fly swarm living in carcasses and pools of rotten slime
12
 Giant flies tending maggots in filth or giant alien wasps with a nest 
13 Nest of giant beetles various types plus often eggs or grubs in lair
14 Spiderwebs and a giant spider colony or just one really big one, some are wizards
15 Carrion crawlers 1in6 guarding a corpse full of adorable babies
16 Hear rats scuttling about, colony of giant rats with human like faces that mutter
17 Giant leeches in a pool or hibernating on a pod awaiting living breath to awaken
18 Giant fleas (as stirges but hop) or several giant ticks
19 Hideous frightened mutant clan have hidden lair here
20 Lone mutant frightened has hiding place
21 Eggs most hatched and broken
22 Skin or chrysalis shed by some god awful thing that should not be
23 Spiderwebs often remains of bodies wrapped in cocoons
24 Large scales from some creature
25 Disgusting piles of faeces left by some horrid creature
26 Human bones chewed and broken in pile
27 Mummified creature left in chamber for a aeon turns to dust if touched
28 Slime trails around room floors walls and ceiling
29 Human husk with horrific expression
30 Cluster of biological slime covered sacks on ceiling
31 Mummy cases with undead mummies of alien wizards
32 Umber hulks scuttling about for food
33 Roper in slime encrusted shamber
34 Gibbering mouther under a ornate stone lid in a well
35 Giant slugs or flail snails
36 Giant worm such as a purple worm or remorhaz
37 Krinoid awakened from slumber or time travel error
39 Shoggoth sealed in pit with stone lid calling for masters it can kill
40 Malfera nightmare demon summoned long ago as guard sleeping as a statue
41 Campsite of some explorers mostly abandoned 1in6 a d4 survivors starving
42 Corpse with a backpack of explorer equiptment and a magic item
43 Graffiti left by some one recent in modern language, probably bad news
44 Dead donkey with piles of rope and rations, all have been gnawed at
45 Several dead warriors horribly killed by some means with looks of horror
46 Human corpse with top of head neatly cut off and brain missing
47 A mad survivor from adventurers is a untrustworthy cannibal cultist
48 Cultists left provisions, robes and some books here for safekeeping
49 Humans crawled here to die leaving a trail of blood and slime
50 A growing slimy mass has a human face, sometimes its mouth moves as if talking
51 A eye like growth in ceiling watches all, will telekinetically fly away if attacked
52 A crack or hole in a wall has a eye in it like some huge mollusc
53 Invisible floating eye follows visitors, someone scrying with magic to watch
54 A stone bell or gong chimes as you enter heard in adjacent rooms, random encounter attracted
55 Room has a horrible stench like a permanent stinking cloud spell
56 Hexagonal niches in wall with stcontents inside in stasis and unmovable
57 A relic or idol in a niche with a force wall and a small gem set control panel used to open it
58 Niches filled with gelatinous matter and preserved organs inside including brains, eys, livers, kidneys
59 A bowl of huge semiprecious stones and crystals
60 A pyramid of humanlike skulls collected over ages with fresh human one on top
61 Phantoms of dead mad explorers look hungrily at your flesh
62 Poltergiest throws things around room and rattles things to be scary
63 Shadows are trapped here in bottles or jars and very hungry
64 Wraith kept in a sealed jar with arcane symbols
65 Spectral minion of explorer who couldn't get out wants to help you be free
66 Fungal undead dusanu spreading diseased spoors lay in mounds of mould and fungus
67
 Mummy cases with abhuman mummy servants 1in6 are guarding the room68 Vampire drained last of  followers seeking eldrich magic, will awaken when living breathe in room
69 A undead colossus surrounded by scaffolding with magic ritual to awaken incomplete
70 A revenant stalks the halls killing ant mortals trying to outdo this former explorers deeds
71 A rock golem stands at ready mostly inactive, 1in6 are alive and on guard duty
72 Stone slab with tools and stone jars. The slab if inset crystals set will heat or cool food
73 Stone well with water that pours when you press a crystal or drains away with another
74 Ancient zombies in uniform awaiting orders some rotting away into skeletons
81 Control altar of stone set with gems, set temperature, light, and humidity in chamber to suit various beings
82 
Control altar of stone set with gems, if manipulated can send you back or forward in time one turn or out you in a time loop. Sometimes playing with it yourself from the future appears till you disappear
83 
Control altar of stone set with gems, if you manipulate yourselves appear from the future warning you to stop, they vanish and console explodes84 A scrying crystal (as a crystal ball) set into a altar with control crystals
85 
 A doorway with a control altar, manipulating crystals opens various gates to alien places and strange times
86 
 A slab fits a humanoid in a depression and a control altar, a skilled operator can heal or torture or turn the victim into an abhuman with a specimen to hybridise someone
87 
Greenstone ornate sarcophagi with control panel to awaken a long dead alien wizard
88 Broken altar if meddle with control crystals puts room in stasis for a hundred years
89 Gem studded control altar as manipulated some floor panels become transperant showing prisoners in stasis or corpses in them. With further manipulation the invisible floor vanishes leaving inhabitants accessible from above but at 20 foot most cant escape. Can be resealed also some cells have broken stasis preservation
90  Control altar of stone set with gems, if manipulated a large creature from another world appears in a summoning circle and most are hostile
91 The floor is see through glass and some huge amniotic horror squirms under the floor looking at you
92 A pool in the floor has a bubbling organic matter of the god Abhoth, things spawn then are pulled back in and consumed. Two giant mechanical tentacles in the ceiling are operable by a user with tentacles in a special panel to pull creatures out
93 A tower goes up to a clear dome with a huge crystal telescope grown here long ago. Through the telescope you see a titanic mass full of eyes watching the surface of the world, after a while it looks back at viewer. Steps in a spiral are crystals growing from walls
94 Floor shows map of the world, with control panel you can get closer maps in places but all text is an elder forgotten language. Will show ancient city locations and shows changes in map over the last few million years
95 A crystal flying saucer is here but only 1in6 are functional with a luminous glow and seating for 3 hovering a foot off the ground. Most are broken and on the ground and purpose is unclear
96 A crystalline chariot, if controls manipulated summons a pair of flying beast to propel it and they follow the consoles controls. There is a gate way arch and a console nearby that controls the gates entry. Thee chariot glows when in flight to impress primitives
97 A solar powered ornithipter that starts to awake when the circular hole on the rook lets in sunlight is console used. A d4 other broken dead ornithopters are in a corner
98 Crystal pyramid if touched lights up and allows telepathy with alien wizard far away, a whole network of them
99 Black monolith if you get close and it activates it evolves those who pass INT checks and those that fail are devolved evolved +2 INT -2 STR or if devolved + STR
100 Great metal mirror can commune with outer gods once a month. If they are displeased they bombard the chamber with mutagens

Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Lazy Sorcerer Origins for My Game


Spicy Soiree of the Saucy Sorceress.....ok so i really use a sorcerer class in my bx type games and I like it as a alt magic system. So as I'm using sorcerers as a more common magic to cover lots of roles. Almost any village might have one sorcerer possibly only a few levels and many keep it a secret or join up for a while with other sorcery groups for a while before going own way. Many 1st lv sorcerers keep it a secret and possibly family helped hide it. Especially where witches are feared or used as scapegoats.

Witches I mostly use as a legal term for unlawful user of magic not a class.
especially on your neighbours or kin. But most often they will be like one of these....
Cults are often referred too as witch cults because they have secret beliefs and goals and they cast spells on people. They have no official sanction or education and are not forsworn to possibly enemy powers.

Wizards
Wizards go to school and study hard often close with a master
Wizards need literacy or symbols or other symbolic marks making language
Wizards build towers and several of them make a school and lots make a university
Wizards work hard to study and use occult knowledge to learn more powers
Wizards use spell components while casting spells
Wizard familiars guide and encourage masters to follow extremes of alignment
Wizards establish guilds, magical orders and schools dedicated to occult science
Wizards think sorcerers are wasted talent and lazy idots

Sorcerers

Sorcerers innate magical spell powers are from bloodlines or making otherworldly pacts
Sorcerers need to learn to control and understand powers when young and awkward
Sorcerers are worldly preferring lives of indolence and vice cults in a pleasure dome
Sorcerers grow in power gaining new abilities after a fever and dreams
Sorcerers burn incense, use perfumes, drink and take drugs when resting to recover magic
Sorcerers familiars know their master body and soul belongs to the outer powers
Sorcerers start cults but after a while they burn out and split up and many go own way
Sorcerers think wizards are try hards and bossy bores

I'm still a bit vague here on power source in reality...
Are blood borne sorcerers ancestral patrons basically born with a patron
I do like letting wizards study sorcerers for new spells...
Sorcerers often talk crap about magic and make stuff up like con men as them mostly did not have a legit university schooling like a wizard has.

Instead of meditating quietly for 8 hours learning spells sorcerers might
-abuse of drugs of all kinds in a expensive binge
-ritual sex or orgies but this gets expensive
-chanting while drinking self unconscious
-meditating with mandalas and lots of trinkets
-
entering dream trances for otherworldly contact
-study an artwork or make a mandala in a trance
-dancing in a trance possibly with a simple instrument and chanting. Other art forms are possible
-eating and fasting are two extremes, depends if you want to be large or scrawny
-burn expensive oils, herbs, candles and incense and other offerings
-consult star charts and pour over occult books and wildly speculate or make up stuff
-starvation and physical ordeals like sitting on spikes or walking over coals
-dancing preferably to music possibly with chanting

Sorcerers might gain minor mutations based on patron with new spells like horsns, pointy nails, sharp teeth, skin colour....Also though gain tatoos or witches marks as you gain spells

d12 Backgrounds For Sorcerers. 

1 Born with a exotic supernatural being in your bloodline often related to the types of spells and alignment. You began to have dreams and found clues of your heritage and sought others like yourself. Many who taught you were charlatans and mystery cults before learning the basics of self control for yourself. Elemental, Diabolic, Demonic, Draconoic, Faerie are common lines. Your family of others with the bloodline are your clan allies
2 You joined a witch cult and you showed talent and got to make a pact with a planar patron being often a minor divinity, demon or spirit that guides you. These have strong alignments but it is possible to change patrons. Joining the inner circle you were driven out by rivals in the cult and have struck out on your own finding other outcasts to hone your craft
3 Powerful beings have inscribed to with symbols and magical tattoos. Others of your breed know of these tattoos and can add new ones or even change them. The loose organisations of tattoo sorcerers have various speculations on how it works, The process is very painful but not as bad as the first times something made marks on you.
4 You stumbled across books and whispers of strange rituals possibly from a cult but you went out on your own to make a pact with some being away from the controlling eyes of organised cults. More a loner but you did pick up some technique from  other loners you met. Your other world patron is not too demanding 

5 You joined a organised cult promising powers and love and euphoric states of ecstasy. But the master saw you had real talent and took you to the inner circle. Keeping you close with other talented youths for training you aided the master obtain sex, drugs and influence before the whole thing collapsed and you all had to scatter
6 You were given free schooling tests and more tests and a sect sent you to school recognising some ability in you. The school has trained and educated you to serve the nobility of the region but put the schools schemes first. Well versed in temple rites and titles and robes your sect eventually are out to see the world on your own
7 You were found among orphans and tested and taken to a mercenary sorcerers guild who trained you as a battlefield sorcerer. Assisting veterans you have seen war, looting and the harsh life of the military and privilege it earns. You have gone freelance to make your own fortune and see if their is more to profit
8 You contacted some being in your dreams and bargained your own pact with it. An obscure and secretive being it is only making small efforts in the mortal world and is happy for you to dwell in secrecy 
9 Children born under certain auspicious stars are taken or watched by a secret order and monitored to see if they have the arcane power within. The chosen ones are taken to the secret lodge and raised as agents in the orders cause. Sent out into the world to study it you may receive bidding from the order to do some strange bidding.
10 You were taken by an old sorcerer as a child and raised as their student. The teacher was mean but made your powers mighty enough to walk out of that secret hidden hall
11 You were selected to inherit a terrible power handed down from a old a dying sorcerer into you and other chosen through a ritual. The old sorcerer dies and power flowed into your peers and your body in a painful ritual. The sect that does this did expect you would be obedient and grateful for giving you powers
12 You were feared by others for your occasional odd abilities when a older sorcerer met you and took you away into a life of adventure that lasted years. They introduced you to elder powers within your blood. Eventually you realised they were abusive and patronising and you want your own path. They are displeased by your decision you are ambivalent and wary of their intentions. Its gotten awkward