This is an outline of our first PDF book!
Wasted Souls & Twisted Dreams
Chapter 1: Hidden Evil
An introduction to what the book is about
Chapter 2: The Horde
Flavour introduction to Hordlings giving an idea of the Hordling mindset and existence
Chapter 3: Hopeless eternally
Individual Hordlings as examples
Chapter 4: March of the Horde
Hordling introduction adventures and adventure seeds
Chapter 5: Cauldrons and corpses
Flavour introduction to Night Hags giving an idea of their mindset and existence
Chapter 6: Nightmare ladies
Individual Night Hags as examples
Chapter 7: Dreams out of hell
Night Hag introduction adventures and adventure seeds
Chapter 8: Enter the Waste
Locations in the Gray Waste, related to Night Hags and Hordlings
Chapter 9: Rites of Denial
New spells, magical items and rituals connected to Night Hags and Hordlings
Chapter 10: Deeds better left undone
New skills and feats... better left unlearned
Some more info on how to contribute:
Chapter 1: I’ll write this up when all other chapters are ready
Chapters 2 & 5: These are meant to be something like the introductions in „Faces of Evil: The Fiends“. The only difference is, we don’t need to stick to one text, and the lengths may vary. We should stay at three or four entries per chapter, though. I myself will definitely write one per chapter.
Chapters 3 & 6: Every entry in this chapter should contain the following:
- Name, Location, Classes (if available)
- Character background including personal aims
- The Dark: Most important secrets of this character
- Statistics (optional): For Night Hags only if they differ from the standard Night Hag entry; for Hordlings a basic stats block containing ability scores and special abilities, immunities and vulnerabilities
Chapter 4 & 7: Adventure outlines should be at least one page long, but no more than three pages. Adventure seeds can be anywhere between a paragraph and half a page. These adventures are not yet meant to spill any major darks of Night Hags & Hordlings, they are meant to introduce players and DMs alike to the feeling of playing adventures in the Gray Waste, and of how to deal with our two featured races (and what to expect from them).
I myself will write up at least one adventure outline for each chapter. The Hordling adventure outline will be about facing a „real“ Horde, i.e. a ravaging mass of Hordlings out to destroy anything in their way... but, of course, with a twist.
Chapter 8: I like how Armoury99 wrote up locations in the following thread: /forum
We should stick to that format for future locations.
Chapter 9: Spells and magic items are written up in the standard 3.5 format. Please focus on evil magic; spells and items to counter the Horrors of the Waste will be published in future PDFs.
Rituals tend to be more vague than spells, while on the same time being more powerful. Descriptions shouldn’t be in stats-blocks like we know it from spells, rather they should include a flavour description ending with the following:
- Short summary of the ritual’s effect (one or two sentences)
- Necessary parts of the ritual (short list, like „Mistletoe and the finger of a god“)
- Premises and backfire effects: What needs to be done to find out about the rite, and what can happen merely by knowing the ritual
- Characters (optional): Individual characters that know about the ritual, or that can help in finding out or performing it
Chapter 10: Skills and feats of the nasty kind, which could be learned by Night Hags and Hordlings, or teached to characters that serve them or are otherwise linked to them.