Pages

Monday, July 23, 2012

Thief, Organ

The Tale of Xedec the Unspoken Of
We figured Xedec came from the great slaughterhouses of the Southern City, sickly-thin and with that long black hair, but thinking now, it was more likely from the Anatomist-Poets that haunt the ports of the East.  Xedec never said.

When we cleared the udercrypts of great lizards Xedec worked a razor in them, pulling out yellow sacs and glistening blue orbs like fruit.1  We were thick with coin.  And when I lost my hand in a fray, Xedec sewed me another, just like new, if a bit paler.  I didn't care where it came from and Xedec never said.2

Later, after we'd lost hope and all our mules in the Caverns of the Screaming Men, Xedec worked a dark harvest on the small people we found there.3  They earned their name those hot nights.  We earned enough coin to buy more mules.

But the party bickered, leery of what they'd seen, saying that to open up the living is a foul deed.  Whether the cuttings would stop or not, Xedec never said, just made us tea.4  Those who talked of splitting up, woke hunched and pale the next day and then kept their word.5

With less of us it was hard fighting.  In the Halls of the Drowned Dead the wide stairs went on and down, on and down.  We fought for days, until finally, we were stumbling in our hunger.  And one morning we just slumped and wondered aloud what we should do.  Eat the rocks, Xedec said.  So we did.6

We found twelve rubies at the end of those stairs.  Well, thirteen, with that biggest, odd-shaped one that sat among the others like a mother.  Back in the Old City, we lost them one by one by one.  Where they got to in those sour taverns, as we made our way through rooms of laughing women--Xedec always close -- none could say.7,8

We finally went our seperate ways.  But that last night, while I thought on my dog's luck of a life, Xedec found me and asked my aid in working some small wound he'd got.9  And now I'm with him on a slant-sailed ship heading deep into the Southern waters.  I'll get my rubies-worth of coin when I do my job, and my job is to protect Xedec, which I'm now well suited to do.  I never asked how I came to have this huge, white frame, a head taller than before, all hair and mighty thews.  And Xedec never said.10
________________________________________________________________________

Now, play your own Organ thief.  As my Choose-Your-Own Rogue with a few additions:

Experience to reach level 2 is 1500 and doubles each level after.

An Organ Thief starts with an obsidian razor and no scruples.  They can identify the species, type, and health of any organ as well as judge wounds for severity.

An Organ Thief also gains a new ability at each level:
  1. Harvest 1d6 x100sp worth of organs from carcasses
  2. Replace amputated limbs
  3. Harvest organs from restrained victims
  4. Produce 1 dose of the drug Numb per session
  5. Harvest organs, unnoticed, from the slumbering
  6. Implant organs or objects in restrained victims
  7. Produce 1 dose of the poison White Honey per session
  8. Implant organs or objects, unnoticed, in the slumbering
  9. Implant organs or objects in themselves, with the aid of one assistant
  10. Remove, preserve, and replace brains
For the effects of removing organs on victims see here.  For the effects of adding organs see here.

Hope you like it Charlatan75.  Also, everyone should check out this, part of my brain-swapping inspiration.

9 comments:

  1. This is really cool and I am stealing it for sure. I actually had a villain npc that is sort of similar.

    He keeps dieing and showing up again in back up bodies he's constructed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent stuff... good inspiration for skills/abilities for Dirz characters in Cadwallon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I spent the weekend reading Clark Ashton-Smith and trying to think of some ways to continue the thread of sorcerous terror in a game I'm running. This is a perfect "non-magical" thread to weave in with the demonic soul-engine plot that's already going ("What? The disappearances havent stopped?")

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're sick, dude. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. This feels like a Nick Cave song made into D&D rules. Beautifully unsettling.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, everyone. I hope these bring some nice creepiness to your campaigns. And, I'm a gentle, quiet soul . . . it's this crazy blog community that's turning me Metal! Well, mostly.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds more like an evil wizard than a thief, interesting concepts, however. Goods seeds for a Frankenstien-esque adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, but he's not interested in learning anything. He just want to sell your liver, or maybe extort money out of you in exchange for getting it back :)

    ReplyDelete