Tremors Meets Shadowdark

 I've always loved the Tremors series (although I haven't seen the TV series, I didn't even know there was one until recently). I even love the later installments. Burt Gummer is a great character, over the top yes, but they turned a one-note character into something when they brought him back. Unfortunately what makes him so much fun doesn't work in a medieval fantasy environment so I left him out and stuck to the Graboids and there are a lot of them.

Yes they are more or less Bulettes but they have more character, and they really make you think, what would I do in that scenario which is what I really want from a horror movie (that is why I love Zombie movies). So here I present the Graboids for Shadowdark.

 

 

 

 

 

Army of Darkness Meets Shadowdark

I've always loved Army of Darkness. It has the right sense of humor and violence and really finished the trilogy  nicely. I even like both endings and find it hard to pick which I prefer. So it seemed a no-brainer to run it through AI and see what the system had to say.

 

 

 

By-Tor and the Necromancer for Shadowdark

 I'm a fan of Rush (the Canadian band) and for some reason I thought it would be funny to see what AI would do if asked to create Shadowdark statblocks for the the characters in the song The Necromancer from the album Caress of Steel. To be honest it's far from a favorite but what the hell. Here are the lyrics. 

I. Into Darkness
As grey traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow. Fording the River Dawn, they turn south, journeying into the dark and forbidding lands of the Necromancer. Even now the intensity of his dread power can be felt, weakening the body and saddening the heart. Ultimately they will become empty, mindless spectres. Stripped of will and soul. Only a thirst for freedom gives them hunger for vengeance…
Silence shrouds the forest
As the birds announce the dawn
Three travellers ford the river
And southward journey on
The road is lined with peril
The air is charged with fear
The shadow of his nearness
Weighs like iron tears
 

II. Under the Shadow 
Shreds of black cloud loom in overcast skies, the Necromancer keeps watch with his magic prism eyes. He views all his lands and is already aware of the three helpless invaders trapped in his lair…
Brooding in the tower
Watching o’er his land
Holding every creature
Helplessly they stand
Gaze into his prisms
Knowing they are near
Lead them to the dungeons
Spectres numb with fear
They bow defeated
 

III. Return of the Prince
Enter, the Champion, Prince By-Tor appears to battle for freedom from chains of long years. The spell has been broken…the Dark Lands are bright, the Wraith of the Necromancer soars away…in the night
Stealthily attacking
By-Tor slays his foe
The men are free to run now
From labyrinths below
The Wraith of Necromancer
Shadows through the sky
Another land to darken
With evil prism eye…

What I didn't expect is the line "the three travelers, men of Willow Dale" prompted the AI to ask if I wanted stats for them as well. I've cleaned up the statblocks a very little but 99% comes from the AI, which obviously has a sense of humor.

 

By-Tor and the Snowdog for Shadowdark

By-Tor returns, but this time he's the villain for some reason. I think Geddy admitted in his bio that they didn't realize this for years until some fan asked about it. So first the lyrics.

1. At The Tobes of Hades  


The Tobes of Hades lit by flickering torchlight

The netherworld is gathered in the glare

Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the northlight

The sign of Eth is rising in the air

By-Tor – Knight of Darkness,
Centurion of evil – Devil’s Prince

II. Across the Styx

Across the River Styx out of the lamplight

His nemesis is waiting at the gate

The Snow Dog – ermine glowing in the dampnight

Coal black eyes, shimmering with hate

By-Tor and the Snow Dog
Square for battle, let the fray begin…..

III. The Battle (instrumental)

i) Challenge And Defiance

ii) 7/4 War Furor

iii) Aftermath

iv) Hymn of Triumph

IV. Epilogue 

The battle over and the dust is clearing

Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell

Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing

By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell

Snow Dog – is victorious

The land of the Overworld is saved again

 

 

 

 

 

Free: GROUNDED, A Remix of 5E Backgrounds

 They had some good ideas with 5E Backgrounds but it was never really implemented correctly. So I worked on my own version but before I was really happy with it I soured on 5E in general and moved on to Shadowdark.

Included  are all the 5.1E races but not the changes that happened with 5.2. In fact while 5.2 de-emphasized race this one leans into it by attaching the Backgrounds and Personality, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw to race.

 So this is a cleaned up version of what I had released into the wild. Usable but a bit rough. Hopefully someone will find it useful. 

Grounded

Free: Medieval Court Intrigue Generator

 Too often when my players arrive in court I fail. A nearly empty throneroom with King/Queen and maybe an advisor or scoundrel trying to keep the party from the Royal. Watch a historical drama and it's not that way. Kings meet people at their pleasure, if the King is at a party they will meet people there, if they are out hunting they'll drag the person along. There will be others there listening in. I never really did anything with all that because I never really thought about it.

When I was working on Black Adder the AI asked about court intrigue and the results blew my mind. So here is the resulting Medieval Court Generator. Hopefully there is something worthwhile for everyone to use in there. If not, well it's free.

Medieval Court Generator

Free: Medieval Horror Generator

 While I was playing with AI and generating statblocks for movies and shows I found the AI would often request would I like a table to do this, or a table to do that. In most cases I said yes out of curiosity. Attached is a 24 page PDF I gave the creative name Medieval Horror Generators with a couple of pictures. It's got bits on creating Chaos Cults, Downtime activities that might be useful prior to tackling a Horror, a monster of the week generator, and a long list of bounties/beasts. It's free. Enjoy.

 Medieval Horror Generators