Metal Adventure Seeds II: Powerslave

Powerslave: 
Setting: Traditional Fantasy

The modern Sultanate of Misri is one of the wealthiest and most sophisticated countries in the world, but it is built on the ruins of an even greater civilization, Imperial Karnak, where the Immortal God-Kings ruled from their palaces in the Thysian Delta. The last pharaoh of Karnak, Menkare, is notable largely for the sheer length of his reign, over three hundred years, accomplished by transforming himself into a lich. His terrible image covers Karnak, most notoriously at the Glowering Pyramid, which was once intended as a tomb but stood during his reign as a symbol of his ultimate conquest over death. 

The city has been littered with a strange rash of graffiti proclaiming the return of Old Karnak and the immortal triumph of Menkare. Strangely, this graffiti cannot be removed through normal means- and the terrified population refuses to divulge any information about a supposed cult of Menkare. The Sultan of Misri has posted a colossal sum to anyone who can discover the truth and put an end to these disquieting happenings. 

GM Notes: The entire area around the capital of Misri (also named Misri) is covered in magical ley lines that lead to the Glowering Pyramid, which was in the centre of the capital of Old Karnak. Menkare can use this ley lines in the city to cast spells remotely, though any saves required by the players will be at a +2 bonus if he cannot see them with his own eyes. Menkare himself is a lich with the abilities of an 18 hit dice illusionist and a 12 hit dice cleric. He can summon sandstorms at will (treat as insect plague spell, but 4x radius). His phylactery is located inside the body of a ten-year old girl in the city. His cultists have been faithfully implanting his phylactery inside ordinary people for centuries. 

Metal Adventure Seeds: Cowboys From Hell

Cowboys From Hell: 
Setting: Weird West

Bloodstone Mesa was once the most wild, lawless city on the entire frontier. The King's men do not dare enter the city. However, in recent days, a harrowing, brutal order has fallen the city as a mysterious trio of massive black-suited gunmen (led by a woman) have taken up residence. They ask no gold for their services, save for basic lodgings and they mete out no punishment but death. What the inhabitants of the town do not know is that their new "enforcers" are not humans at all, but devils from Hell who have been summoned to ensure that the valuable ores of the region are secured for a nearby diabolic empire. 

Bloodstone Mesa may have been chaotic, wild and unsafe, but it was also free. Thrasher, Reaper, Scorcher and the Red Angel place no value on free will and any who defy their iron law will meet death. The locals are willing to pay a handsome bounty to anyone who will rid their town of the infernal interlopers, but are too terrified of the devils to offer open assistance. 

GM Notes: Thrasher, Reaper and Scorcher are bearded devils who possess 8+8 instead of the ordinary 6+6 hit dice and who use firearms instead of the traditional glaives. Thrasher and Reaper use twin six-shooter guns and Scorcher uses a shotgun which inflicts half physical damage (from pellets) and half unholy damage (from hellfire). The Red Angel uses a bolt-action rifle. Thrasher, Reaper and Scorcher cannot summon bearded devils as ordinary members of their kind, but instead can call on a hellhound with the same chance of success. The Red Angel automatically kills any opponent with a critical hit from her rifle, regardless of hit points. They are all disguised as humans, but will shed their disguises in any climactic battle. 

Kobolds

Kobold:  (NE Draconic)
HD: 6-1
Armour: 14
Move: 30''
Attack: Weapon (-1 dmg for melee attacks)
Saving Throw: (fort/reflex/will) 16/12/16
Special Abilities: Fire Resistance 10
Intelligence: Average
Treasure: Basic

The lowly kobold is often neglected in comparison to more powerful and dangerous opponents, but this is a serious error, as kobolds are surprisingly clever foes who rarely face an opponent in direct combat, but use ambushes, ranged weapons and traps to wear down much stronger foes. Interestingly, as distant cousins of dragons, kobolds have an extremely high resistance to fire and can move through fire without any danger to themselves and as a consequence, they are extremely, some say, unnaturally fond of the most dangerous of the elements. 

Kobolds are commonly found in abandoned dragon dens, and worship any relics of dragons as religious fetishes. Kobolds are also commonly found in occupied dragon dens as well, serving as menial labour and devoted cultists to dragons. 

Imagine ravenous little dragon creeps crawling through the flames, steel stoked red hot, ready to tear you to pieces. That is pretty metal. 

The Fighter

The Fighter:
The name "Fighter" is really godsdamned unspecific. The iron truth is that few fighters would simply call themselves such, they are sellswords, knights, killers, heroes and brutes. A Fighter is one who trusts in cold steel over faith, over primal instinct, over stealth, over anything else. Fighters have no magical or mystical abilities and they don't need them. They may wield magical weapons, but the real metal is in their hearts and it is their skill that marks them as deadly. Even a fighter beginning their heroic journey is already probably a veteran of at least one brutal, bloody campaign, who has killed at least one other in combat. 

Whether they embrace their destiny as killers or resist it, whether they restrict their deadly skill to the wicked or slaughter as their twisted hearts desire, Fighters are killers. Killing is their business, and business is booming. 

Hit Dice: d10
Attack Bonus: As Fighter (+1 per round)
Experience: As Fighter
Skills: Fighters possess a diverse set of skills depending on their individual backgrounds, but should always be assumed to be able to swim, maintain any armaments or gear they use, basic riding skills. 
Armour: Fighters can use any armour they damn well like. They trust in iron, not magic. 
Weapons: Fighters can use any weapons they please. The whole thing about a Fighter is their ability to fight and arbitrary weapons restrictions are stupid. If a bow is what they need to kill yon barbarian, they'll shoot an arrow in that motherfucker's eye. 

First Kill: All Fighters have killed at least one foe in a combat situation. This is an official rules requirement. The player should come up with a relatively specific story of how it happened, and if a situation should ever closely match that first kill, a Fighter's instincts grant them a +1 bonus to attack, damage and saving throws in that specific situation, ie, a drunken brawl with a chair leg. GMs should make this happen occasionally. 

Weapon Specialization: At 1st level, Fighters choose a particular weapon type (ie, bows, heavy blades, polearms) with which they are especially skilled with, gaining a +1 bonus to attack and damage with these weapons. At 6th, 11th and 16th levels, this bonus increases by +1. 

Combat Dominance: At 2nd level, Fighters gain a second melee attack against opponents of 1 HD or less. At 5th level, this increases to foes of 2 HD, 3 HD at 8th level, 4 HD at 11th level and so on. This ability stacks with the Fighter's extra attack they gain at 8th level. 

Extra Attack: At 8th level, Fighters can make a second attack (either melee or ranged) against any opponent, because sometimes there's just a pesky bastard that need to die. 

Stronghold: At 9th level, a Fighter will automatically attract warriors as followers, including 1d6 1st level fighter underlings and d6 non-combat underlings (sexy lover, helpful servants) as they or their GM determine. 

The Barbarian

Who is the Barbarian, other than the most awesome motherfucker you can possibly be? Let's begin, perhaps, with what the Barbarian is not. The Barbarian is not a mindless machine of war- while they're rarely educated per se, the greatest barbarians are cunning warlords, not mere brutes. Conan relied almost as much on his guile as his strength and neither Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan would have gone very far without their primal charisma. A barbarian is a product of a brutal and harsh environment, someone who has learned to rely on themselves first and foremost, who has a healthy disdain for civilization, even if they may enjoy certain of its benefits (steady work, liquor, brothels). 

The Barbarian:
Hit Dice: d12
Attack Bonus: As Fighter
Experience: As Fighter
Skills: All Barbarians are skilled at foraging for themselves and orienting themselves in natural environments. The skills of individual Barbarians may depend by tribe. 
Armour: Barbarians can generally only wear light armours such as leather, studded leather or hide. 
Weapons: Any melee or thrown weapons. True barbarians generally eschew missile weapons, save for those tribes that specialize in mounted archery. 

Cleave: Any time a Barbarian fells an opponent in combat, they can immediately make a melee attack against another adjacent enemy. 

Primal Might: Barbarians know how to conserve their strength and can release it in shocking bursts of energy and might that shock enemies. Once per day per level, a Barbarian can take a+4 bonus on a Str, Dex or Constitution related check or saving throw. 

Primal Endurance: At 5th level, a Barbarian has enough mastery of themselves that they can call upon their final reserves of might and instead of falling unconscious at 0 hit points, remain standing and fighting until reduced to -10, at which point they die like anyone else. 

Stronghold: At 9th level, a Barbarian will automatically attract barbarian followers, who will serve the Barbarian as long as they prove a successful and capable combat leader. The barbarian can rely on d6 1st level barbarian underlings and d6 non-combat underlings (slaves, concubines) as they or the GM determine. 

Call to War: At 12th level, a Barbarian can call together followers for a specific purpose, either bondsmen or close allies and grant upon them the benefits of an additional hit dice (+1 to attack, saves, bonus to HP, but not other benefits of gaining a level) for a period of one week or until a specific task is completed. The Barbarian can give this benefit to up to one individual per level. 

Some Rules For Being Drunk Off Your Ass (Because Being Drunk Is Metal)

Adventurers are expected to be a hard-drinking, hard-partying lot, because how else would a bunch of glorious bastards get their R&R on after a long adventure killing awesome monsters and stealing treasure? With lusty wenches and alluring whores (of either gender, let's not discriminate amongst brothers and sisters in steel here) of course, but also with copious quantities of booze. Beer and ale are the most natural beverages, but sometimes you want to be classy and have some wine, or try one of those new and really powerful distilled beverages. 

The number of drinks you can have before it has mechanical effects are 2 + your Constitution modifier. If you're kind of a weakling and have a negative modifier, well, guess what, you can't hold shit. If you're a dwarf, half-orc or barbarian of any race, that two drinks is now four. You can make a Constitution save against poison to stop the effects of alcohol, but each drink after you start making saves makes for an additional -2 to the save. 

First drink: -1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Dexterity. +1 to Strength, Constitution and Charisma. Arguably positive. 

Second drink: -2 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Dexterity. +2 to Strength, Constitution and +1 to Charisma. Worthwhile tradeoff for some. 

Third Drink: -3 to Int, Wis, Dex. +2 to Str, Con. 20% chance of confusion as spell effect. 

Fourth Drink: -4 to Int, Wis, Dex. +2 to Str, Con. 40% chance of confusion as spell effect. 

Fifth Drink: -5 to Int, Wis, Dex. +2 to Str, Con. 40% chance of confusion as spell effect. Con save to avoid passing out. 

Sixth Drink: -5 to Int, Wis, Dex. +1 to Str, Con. 40% chance of confusion as spell effect. Con save at -2 to avoid passing out. 

Subsequent Drinks: Str and Con go to +0. Penalty to saves to avoid passing out increase by -2. After the ninth drink, people who pass out must make a Con save against death. Every subsequent drink inflicts a -2 penalty to that save. 

Dying in your own puke might not be very heroic, but it is pretty metal. Ask Bon Scott. 

A Sample Monster (That Is Totally Fucking Metal)

Erinyes: (LE Evil Outsider)
HD: 9+9
Armour: 19
Move: 30', fly 90'
Attack: 2x Weapon +4 (poison, paralysis for 1d4 hours)
Saving Throw:  (Fort/Reflex/Will) 10/6/8
Special Abilities: Covenant of Destruction, Hair Rope, Immunity (charm, fear, fire, poison), Shape Weapon
Spells: (at will) Fear, Hold Monster, Teleport Without Error, (once a day) Summon (50%, 1 erinyes)
Intelligence: Superior
Treasure: +1 magical weapon

The Erinyes are the enforcers of Hell's will, fallen angels sent screaming back into the world to track down those who attempt to renege on oaths sworn in the name of their fell masters, of those who pledge their souls but attempt to win them back. They are strong, possessing the equivalent of 18 Strength. They take the form of beautiful but terrible men and women and usually forgo all clothing , save for elaborate scars marking their previous victims as well as the inevitable gore that accompanies their dark deeds.

They have the ability to mark one soul as their chosen quarry, invoking a Covenent of Destruction, being able to track that soul across planes if need be, gaining the ability to plane shift as needed to reach their target. They wield ropes made out of their own hair which entangle foes, either to simply bind them or lift them aloft to their deaths. An erinyes can transform any enchanted weapon into any other variety of enchanted weapon, but generally favor bows and longswords. Their paralytic poison stops movement, but does not prevent sensation, allowing them to draw out the deaths of their charges as they please.
 
An Erinyes is vicious but cunning as well and can occasionally be bargained with, particularly if there is the promise of more slaughter to be had.