36 character types (extracted from Georges Polti's "The Art of Inventing Characters")

Georges Polti (1867-1946) compiled long classifications of different types of literary devices. His most famous book is "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations", a description that was also taken as a prescription by future authors. He also did a similar work on character types, "The Art of Inventing Characters". In it, he outlines 36 types of literary characters.

36 you say?

THAT'S A D66 TABLE OF COURSE!

So I took the e-text of the 1922 English translation (available on archive.org!) and turned it into a random table. There are also freakin' subtables for each of the 36 entries, with a dozen or so types.

Warning: Mind, though: the source text is quite awful. It's essentialist, moralizing and misogynistic. It's naive in how the author thinks that a classification of things (including literary constructs) is the revelation of the true nature of the whole world, and a key to understanding human psychology.

Nevertheless, here's a random table!

Good for melodramatic RPGs?

			CHARACTERS
1	1	VESTA	The Pious
	2		The Wise
	3		The Faithful
	4	JUNO	The Jealous
	5		The Vengeful and Just
	6		The Strict and Severe
2	1	NEPTUNE	The Avaricious and Grasping
	2		The Despotic
	3		The Ambitious
	4	MINERVA	The Daring and Romantic
	5		Adventurers
	6		The Eloquent and Boastful
3	1	VENUS	The Seductive and Seducing
	2		Courtesans
	3		The Vicious
	4	APOLLO	The Impassioned
	5		The Chimerical
	6		The Intellectual
4	1	MERCURY	The Shrewd
	2		The Traitorous
	3		The Knavish
	4	JUPITER	The Arrogant and Insolent
	5		The Haughty and Dignified
	6		The Majestic and Protecting
5	1	CERES	The Generous and Prodigal
	2		The Gay and Sensual
	3		The Vulgar and Practical
	4	VULCAN	The Earnest and Serious
	5		The Deluded and Discouraged
	6		The Unselfish and Devoted
6	1	MARS	Murderers and Assassins
	2		The Violent and Rebellious
	3		The Bold and Fearless
	4	DIANA	The Tender and Sentimental
	5		The Weak
	6		The Pure

Subtables for each type:

[Actual Play] Third Time's the Stygian Charm! [LotFP]

A third (and for now - final) venture into the Stygian Library!
You can also read part one, part two.
Once more, I kept some of the basic room layout, but re-rolled Details, and randomized any new locations.

After the unsuccessful trip to the Library, the adventurers recuperated for a week, and decided to go back. And this time, they brought in a new team member as reinforcements (i.e. I had three players):

Krulo the Goblinboy, Elf 1 (former side-show attraction, former thief's apprentice, current free elf)
& Hurley the Laborer (retainer)
Machteld Mercki X, Magic-User 3 (Sorceress Supreme)
Ishimura Kobayashi, Fighter 1 (Machteld's bodyguard)

Prajna, Specialist 3 (Expert in medicine and ancient languages)

Downtime activities: A cousin or uncle of their previous laborer came to visit, demanding compensation for his beloved relative's death. Krulo, Machteld and Ishimura successfully avoided him - at least for now. No carousing or spell copying - the group was out of money. Krulo hired (and named!) a new laborer: luckily, word hasn't spread yet that "these adventurers kill retainers".

Back to the Stygian Library they went! Their goal was as previously: to find a valuable book on alchemy to sell to a rich patron.

0: Mausoleum + Vault
The Librarians took notice of the robbers' frequent comings and goings! The two regular doors leading out from the Mausoleum were replaced by a reinforced vault door (no more stealing oriental rugs from the tea room!) and a strong portcullis. After some hesitation, the group decided to take a road yet untraveled, and climbed up to reach the ventilation system of the Library.

1: Boiler Room + Too Small
The narrow duct took them to a hot and misty boiler room, where they could barely move. Wisely, they decided to NOT wait for the Ogre Spiders that usually reside in this area, and pressed forward.

2: Calculation Engine + Glass Tubes
The adventurers have seen some weird machinery in the Library before, but this one was new, a room full of turning cogs and gears, manned by two White Librarians. They approached cautiously (because the previous White Librarian they met tried to blind them), but these librarians turned out to be friendly and helpful! Their machine was a great Calculation Engine, that will one day hopefully replace the clumsy paper-based catalog of the Library.
By inputting a couple of questions, they adventurers learned some information about the alchemy book they were looking for. Krulo also tried to input a question about the identity of her mother, but the cold-cold machine had no answer for that...
While working with the engine, Machteld noticed something tugging at her backpack - and turned around just in time to see a looooooooooong and trying to snatch her spellbook!
The appendage (about 15' long) was quickly pulled back behind one of the towering machines.
The Librarians explained that this was the Snatcher, a mischievous creature of the Library, that steals things. The adventurers checked their bags, and found they were missing several items, including the trusty fire poker Krulo got from Johnny before Johnny died.
So they asked for permission to fight the Snatcher, which was granted - as long as they don't hurt the calculation engines!
An ambush was set: they returned to the machine, but left out some of their belongings as a lure. And soon the arm reached out again from the shadows - and here they all attacked!
The creature (a Bandersnatch) screeched, tried to retreat, but was cornered behind the engine stacks. Prajna shot at it with her sling, but missed, and the slingshot got stuck between two cogs, threatening to short the engine. Krulo almost got his fingers chopped off when he fished out the snag from between the gears... But at least they avoided the anger of the librarians.
The fight went on in the meantime, with Ishimura, Machteld and soon Prajna now going up in close combat against the shadowy creature. The Snatcher used its long arms to choke and slap them around, then when it felt overpowered, it grabbed one of the tubes on the ceiling, and jumped op high.
Ishimura, brandishing his magical spear, however, could reach it, and delivered a final blow.
The glass tube the creature was holding on to shattered, and black ink rained down on everybody!
But at least they retreived their belonging - and more! - a lacquered box containing ancient Chinese coins worth a LOT of money.
Before anything worse could happen, the adventurers proceeded to the next room.

3: Statuary + Glass Lamps
...which was a statue gallery, with very detailed marble sculptures. One statue depicted Rudolf II, the previous owner of the book they were looking for. A brass plate informed them that the alchemist Emperor donated his personal collection of books to the Stygian Library. Prajna touched the statue and asked a question about finding these books, and she was hit by a vision (her forehead ached like when eating ice cream!): she saw a set of book with special red leather bindings.

4: Spider Trapdoor + Lamp post
The next room finally had actual BOOKS! Lots of them, with labyrinthine stacks. They band split up, and started checking shelves to see if they have any books with the red bindings. Suddenly Machteld cried out - and disappeared. She just vanished. The others started searching for her, and noticed that the cobwebs and dust on the floor were disturbed in one place, and found that under the wooden floorboards there was an empty space...
They carefully pried it open --- only to be attacked by a spider the size of a small elephant!!!!
The spider already had paralyzed Machteld with its poison, and now was striking at the others with its mandibles. It attacked - then retreated back into its hiding hole in quick succession, then repeated the same move again and again.
Prajna hooked her whip (yes, she has a whip - she is a bit of an Indiana Jones character) around Machteld leg, and started pulling her out from under the spider ---- breaking the poor unconscious sorceress' ankle in the process...
The others attacked the beast with all they had, but it proved to be quite an opponent. Krulo helped Prajna hoist up Machteld from the space under the floorboard.
Ishimura decided that fighting the creature was of no use, and instead wanted to trap it. He convinced the scared laborer to help him: when the spider retreated once more into its hiding place, Ishimura and the laborer toppled a heavy shelf, blocking the spider's trapdoor. Good thinking, fellas! Then they toppled more shelves, just to be sure the spider stays down, and quickly moved to the next room.

5: Printing Machine + Gas Lamps
A printing machine, automated, currently copying a book written in Lengian hieroglyphs (which Prajna could actually read!). The original book was placed into a special slot on top of the machine. They adventurers screwed around a bit. First they replaced the book with a silver coin - the machine started printing the coin's image on paper (so many portraits of the Queen!). Then Krulo copied his hand, of course. Prajna joked about copying someone's butt, however she wasn't ready for it just yet.
While they were fooling around with the xerox arcane machinery, something strange happened. The air started to vibrate around them, and the spellcasters (Mactheld and Krulo) felt as if something was trying to intrude their minds... Then a couple of objects disappeared around them... Machteld felt that one of her prepared spells was now different, but decided not to try it...
Ultimately, they decided to move on.

6: Phantom Databanks + Turning Gears
More machines!!!!! What happened to good old fashioned books?!
These machined had glass jars slotted into them, each holding a moving, swirling, glowing white mist.
The contents of one of the jars became noticeably "agitated" when the characters entered, and Krulo, Machteld and Ishimura felt strangely drawn to this jar. They decided that it must be containing the soul of their fallen comrade, Johnny Tealeaves, who died in the Library...
Before touching the jars, they searched the room more thoroughly, and found a mysterious rare book, written in the language of Leng, which, if read, would be equal to being initiated into a mystery cult!
After this, they went ahead and unscrewed the glass jar that maybe contained Johnny's soul, and took it with them....

7: Auditorium + Vault
They entered a classroom, where three skeletons in coveralls were cleaning up after an alchemy lesson! Alchemy, finally!
One of the skeletons was quite the conversationalist, and confirmed that indeed the glass jar held a soul of somebody who died in the library. He also told that the Grey Librarians were capable necromancers. He explained that in this auditorium a lecture was held by a long-dead famous alchemist, whose soul was captured by the Librarians and now somehow made to give lectures to students.
Among the books that were scattered on the table, the adventurers finally found the exact one that they were looking for! Turned out, this book was the opus magnum of the alchemist who delivered the lecture.

The adventurers quickly snatched the book, backtracked, and exited the library - this time, they managed to not get killed (even their retainer survived!!), and also found plenty of treasure!

PS: Also, when they got home, and Machteld checked her spellbook, she found that a completely new spell appeared in it - it must be the result of that strange sensation she experienced back in the Printing Press room! Krulo entered his memory palace (Elves in this game don't have spellbooks, but meditate in a special mental place), and also found the strange spell inscribed in it - so now two characters hold the arcane power of Vanish!

[Actual Play] Back to the Stacks! The Stygian Library, Revisited [LotFP]

Picking up where we left off: a second run at the Stygian Library (see the first report here).

I broke the number 1 rule... You are supposed the generate the Library from scratch every time the players enter or re-enter. However, I decided to use last session's general layout, and only modify and "re-stock" it, as one would do with a regular dungeon. Overall, I think this was a good decision for the game, because the players were eager to explore the paths not yet taken.

So I kept all the Locations, re-rolled certain Details that made no sense anymore, and of course kept encounters, events, and new rooms completely random.

The session was shorter then the previous, because we had less time on our hands --- but also because we got close to a TPK and the group (wisely) cut their losses and retreated! But let's see how it went.

Krulo the Goblinboy, Elf 1 (former side-show attraction, former thief's apprentice, current free elf)

 & Unnamed laborer retainer...
Machteld Mercki X, Magic-User 3 (witchy type)
Ishimura Kobayashi, Fighter 1 (Machteld's bodyguard)

Downtime activities: After their last adventure, the group spent about 30-40 days in town, recuperating, copying spells, researching the weird items they acquired, mourning their fallen comrade. Krulo went carousing, and ended up with a cool tattoo (an upside-down cross on his temple). Having spent all their money on these activities and shopping, the group looked for new employment. They were approached by a professor, who wanted to procure a rare book on alchemy (which used to be in Rudolf II's occult collection).

So back to the Library they went!

0: Mausoleum

The library section / mausoleum was of course now void of treasure. But there were some new books on the shelves, mostly genealogical surveys and social almanacs. Krulo the Goblinboy wanted to look himself up (he is an orphan and knows nothing about his origins), and he found information about Courlandian nobility, to which he think he might be related (because Courland -> Krulo, that's his logic). There was a heartbreaking story about a young noblewoman disappearing for two weeks, then giving birth to a malformed son 9 months later.

But soon, a fight spilled over into the room!

Four huge spiders were terrorizing four obsidian monkeys. 

The group decided not to take sides in this melee, and retreated to a neighboring room, which they knew to be the cafe / tearoom.

1: Tearoom + Oriental Rugs

Like last time, the room had food and drinks laid out, however the expensive cutlery and porcelain dishes were replaced by simple ceramics and wooden trays... (looting adventurers! that's why we can't have nice things!). The group wanted to check under the floorboards again, because last time they'd found a potion hidden there, but this time only buzzing could be heard from under the floorboards, so they decided against opening up the hidden compartment again --- the memory of their encounter with the Paper Bees proved to be quite traumatic! So they rolled up a couple of rugs to take home later, and went into a new direction instead.

2: Skeleton Collection + Oriental Rugs
This part of the library is made for comfort! ...And for displaying bones... Glass cupboards with posed bird skeletons lined the walls. Machteld's meticulous search turned up an extraordinary book, which she felt was vibrating with inner power: a misplaced collection of spells! The group didn't linger here longer, and went to check what's deeper.

3: Ossuary + Gas Lamps

More bones and teeth in display cabinets! Sorted by type, size, origin... Lots of rare stuff, too, including dinosaur fossils. Krulo found a secret door, that lead onto a dark staircase. Machteld thought the rare fossils from the cabinets would make a good addition to her laboratory, and, using the Rust Moth antenna they salvaged last time, the group opened up the lock...

...and out came of the Bone Beast!

The whirling tornado of teeth and bone fragments caught the group off guard. The poor nameless laborer was torn to pieces almost straight away, and Machteld received a serious injury. Ishimura tried to fight them off, but his spear (despite being magical!) was of little use against the swarm. Machteld managed to cast Hold Monster, slowing down the tornado of death. This gave Krulo the opportunity to open the secret door, jump inside, and pull it closed. On the next round, Machteld nearly died as the bones and teeth slashed her neck arteries open. Gushing with blood, she stumbled towards the secret door, and Krulo managed to let her and Ishimura into cover. The Bone Beast started scratching at the door... So the group quickly applied some first aid to Machteld (there was one very lucky Medicine roll), and fled. 

The small, narrow corridor led to another secret door, which they carefully opened, only to arrive into...

0: Mausoleum

Yes, the secret passage led back to the entrance. The door opened behind the vertically propped up sarcophagus. From this vantage point the group saw the spiders finish off the obsidian monkeys, wrap them in webs. Only two spiders were left alive after the combat. The monsters wrapped their prey in webs, and carried two marmosets out of the room.

The group used this short time window to leave the secret passage, pick up the two remaining dead marmosets and two spider corpses, drag out three oriental rugs from the Tearoom, and leave this wretched place, licking their wounds...

Future plans include going back into the Library (they still have a month to fulfill the alchemist's request, and they are in a dire need for money!)...

[Actual Play] The Stygian Library [LotFP]

Finally! A test run of The Stygian Library!
Here's a recap, with Referee-side commentary in italics.

The game was ran using LotFP with some houserules (including the deadly wounds system from Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow) and VAM!-style magic. Setting - late 19th century historical Europe.

Source

Characters:

Two players, with a Level 3 main character and a Level 1 Henchman each:
Johnny Tealeaves, Specialist 3 (all-around bad boy)
Krulo the Goblinboy, Elf 1 (former side-show attraction, current thief's apprentice)
Machteld Mercki X, Magic-User 3 (witchy type)
Ishimura Kobayashi, Fighter 1 (Machteld's bodyguard)

The group entered the library through an old, forgotten wing of the British Library. The goal of the quest was the theft of a book with supposedly true information on lycanthropy.

(I set the difficulty of this task as 25. The players started at 17 due to the highly intelligent Magic-User.)

0: Mausoleum + Treasure Pile

The first room had shelves and shelves full of religious literature. In the middle, one shelf section was instead covered with a yellow curtain. The group carefully pulled the curtain, to reveal a vertical open sarcophagus with a skeleton inside. A small altar before the sarcophagus held artifacts and various offerings (a spearhead inscribed with runes, candles with magic sigils, a bunch of spell scrolls, unknown potion in smoky glass vial).
The characters started looting, but were interrupted as a fight spilled over from the next room. It was a whirling tornado of dust and a strange huge flying thing, a Rust Moth.
The Rust Moth avoided some attacks, then went straight for the biggest metal objects in the room, and ended up ruining Johnny's sword. Finally Ishimura killed it. The Dust Elemental didn't care about the group and swirled out of the room.
Johnny salvaged the Moth's antenna, after seeing that it had the ability to instantly turn metal into rust.

(A lucky start for the group, with a combination of two treasure-heavy elements. And a lucky reaction roll - after the death of the Rust Moth, the Dust Elemental wasn't interested in them.)

1: Auditorium + Candles
The group entered the horseshoe shaped stepped lecture hall from below. They instantly noticed a big rusty looking nest attached to the wall, which they carefully avoided. A quick search turned up a book, perhaps left behind by the lecturer? The books was locked, but Johnny used the Rust Moth antenna to "pick" the lock.
Their investigation was cut short by the emergence of another aggressive Rust Moth from the nest! Johnny tried to squash it with the heavy book, but missed. The moth ruined Ishimura's halberd blade, but the bodyguard managed to kill the creature with the blunt end.

(I added a Rust Moth nest on the wall, to explain the fight in the previous room. Then when the encounter roll gave an aggressive monster... I rolled Rust Moth again! Nice coincidence.)

1: Tearoom + Oriental Rugs
From the auditorium the group retreated back to the entrance area, and decided to explore an alternative path. They found a cozy little chamber with soft rugs, comfy armchairs, and food and drinks set up on tables. Kurlo the Goblinboy went straight for the food, rather incautiously... but turned out everything was perfectly edible and drinkable. The group stole some cutlery, and found a second potion in smoky glass vial under the floorboards.
They continued their journey deeper into the library.

2: Chapel + Fireplace
The next space was quite unusual: the interior of a sizable church without any windows. The chapel also had a fireplace, with a roaring fire. Johnny, the experienced burglar, assumed that although there are no windows, the fireplace's chimney MUST lead somewhere - but it's for a future expedition to find out where. Johnny also replaced his rust-eaten sword with a poker from next to the fireplace.
On the altar lay an extraordinary book written in Arabic or Persian - something the characters couldn't read just yet, but decided to take.
At this point, a figure entered, clad in black clothes: the first Librarian! The Black Librarian was neutral, didn't notice that the book was gone from the altar.

3: Reading Lounge + Phosphorescent Lamps
The room adjacent to the chapel was a reading lounge, illuminated by weird glass spheres. The players climbed up and cut down one lamp to use as lantern. They browsed through some of the books, but found nothing of interest.

4: Display Case + Stacked Papers
Display cases with minerals.
The players wanted to loot the cases, but 6 Black Librarians entered the room. One of them was injured. When asked, they told about being attacked by a dangerous Ogre Spider deeper in the stacks of the library. They came here to make medicine out of the minerals.
Johnny stepped forth and offered one of the unknown potions to the Librarians. The Librarians accepted it, and the injured one was healed!
As a token of gratitude, a Librarian agreed to lead the party to the Catalogue of Contents.

(For the event, I rolled an encounter with a creature at disadvantage. This became the 6 Black Librarians, one of them injured. I rolled a random creature to see what caused the injuries ( = Ogre Spider), and thought it would make sense that the Librarians came to the display cases to use the minerals as ingredients for an antidote.

Johnny's player did a very clever thing: offered the unknown potion to the Librarians, who are locals, and might know what it's for. Not only did the Librarians identify the potion as a healing serum, but accepted and used it. I thought this was clever enough, and as a reward the Librarian took the players safely 1d6 layers deeper, to the Catalogue of Contents.

In the adventure as written, the Catalogue is actually a rare occurrence - it's #2 on the Locations list, which means it's only accessible on Depth 0 or 1, with a very lucky roll.)

So the players ended up on Depth 7. While traversing the corridors, the Black Librarian also told the group about the various librarian orders.

7: Catalogue of Contents + Chained Books
A majestic, enormous hall, with chained books on the shelves, and the man-sized tome of the Stygian Catalogue in the center. The group engaged in research and learned that the book they are looking for is somewhere two layers deeper.
Then combat erupted: a Hungry Book broke its chains, and attacked a group of unlucky Black Librarians! The players joined the fray, and managed to subdue the book. However, the hungry tome did suck out the brains of one of the Librarians...

(This was the third time I rolled Black Librarians on the random chart!!)

8: Paper Bee Hive + Gas Lamps
The next room was a simple book storage, but with a huge papier-mâché beehive in the corner.
Disaster. The group went in with a lit torch, the bees got agitated and attacked the torchbearer (Krulo), stung him, Krulo went into allergic seizure, dropped the torch on stack of books and woosh! everything went up in flames. Johnny gave the second healing potion to Krulo... Then more bees emerged from the hive, and swarmed Johnny, causing massive poison damage and killing him. Johnny used his last "dead man walking" round for a kamikaze act, grabbed some burning books and threw himself on the hive, setting it on fire, killing the Queen inside. The others fled into the next room. The gas in the lamps exploded behind them...

(Before this encounter, I decided that the paper bees are obviously very much afraid of fire. I telegraphed the dangers of this room quite meticulously, asked the players what they think what might get the bees angry. When they entered with the burning torch, I rolled a reaction for the bees, and the bee soldiers attacked... Krulo's player said Krulo's first reaction was to drop the torch... the rest is history...)

9: Phantom Pump + Negligible Gravity
Not fled - the remaining explorers almost flew into the next room, propelled by the explosion and swimming in zero grav. The room was full of complicated, huge machinery manned by a White Librarian. The Librarian was very busy and very angry: it was trying to counter the consequences of the explosion via complex mechanical means. It gave the players 10 seconds to get out of the room...

10: Printing Press + Smoking
A room with a huge printing press. The room was also filled acrid smoke was from the still burning beehive room. Krulo almost died of smoke poisoning again, so he sneaked back to the machine room and hid behind a giant hydraulic arm.
The printing press was manned by two Yellow Librarians. They were busy creating replacement pages for a book... the very book about werewolves the party was looking for. Machteld risked choking in the smoke, and stayed behind for enough time for the Librarians to finish the work, and managed to sneakily snatch the tome when the Librarians went back to the printing press.

(There are so many coincidences when running the Library or the Gardens of Ynn! When the detail "Smoking" came up, I had no problem weaving it into the story, because it just meant the this was a consequence of the fire and explosion the players caused earlier.

At this point, the players were deep enough in the Library, and their progress meter also reached 25, so I gave them the book that was the object of their search.)

On the way back, they were attacked by the White Librarian, who cast a spell and almost blinded Ishimura (lucky magic save!). There was some more quick backtracking, and finally the three remaining adventures exited the deadly Stygian Library, with their desired book and a nice heap of treasure!

[Actual Play] The Gardens of Ynn [LotFP]

Ran a Lamentations game, set in 1897, for two players. Sent them into The Gardens of Ynn. Still love this module, it provides a totally new experience every time, random, but with a general overall consistency and vision.

Characters:

The Two-Gun Kid, a masked vigilante from the USA (Fighter 3), and

James, an occultist and dabbler in the dark arts from a noble family (Magic-User 3).

In the morning after a masked orgy party at a rich mansion, James wanted to try out a ritual, rumored to open a door to a magic garden. The ritual worked, and the door they drew with chalk on an ivy-wrought garden wall turned into a real doorway.

It led to small clearing, surrounded by trees. In the middle stood three glasshouses. One was like a tower. There were bodies of dead birds all around, without any injuries on them. The adventurers checked the first glasshouse and harvested some unknown herbs with bluish leafs. The second glasshouse's windows were covered with yellowish dust from the inside. When James opened the door, the gush of air sent spores flying from the inside, poisoning the players. At the same time, James noticed an object gleaming under the floorboards of the glasshouse. He made himself a mask against the spores, and retrieved an exquisite dagger with silver decorations.

They checked the glasshouse/tower next. Inside they found some small apple-like fruits with unknown properties. There was also a ladder leading to the flat roof of the tower. Two-Gun Kid climbed out first, and wanted to get a better look at the surrounding lands from this vantage point, but when he tried, he got a severe headache, and couldn't look over the treelines. James had a similar experience.

James went back to the spore-infested glass house, to search it better. He found some wide tracks, leading to the far corner of the house, where he found a small crystal bottle with an emerald liquid inside. Two-Gun Kid took a sip, and established, that, luckily, it was some sort of a healing solution - although it also made his eyes glow green for a few seconds. He climbed back up the tower, to check whether he can survey the land now - but again got hit by the migraine.

James searched the glasshouse some more, and heard a dragging/raspy sound from behind. Coming down from the tower, Two-Gun Kid noticed the statue of a beautiful nude male standing next to the spore-house's entrance - where no statue was before. James exited the glasshouse, and in this moment the statue came to life and attacked him!

Combat ensued. The animated statue (who was defending the lair he set up in the glasshouse) proved to be a very strong opponent, slamming his rigid marble body against the adventureres. Arrows and spear attack barely scratched its surface; but Two-Gun Kid's revolvers turned out to be quite effective, breaking off the statue's nose and splintering the marble. However, it was clearly not enough to stop the statue. James resorted to magick, and entangled the statue in a Web. They tried to destroy the immobilized statue, but it was rapidly breaking free. So the two adventurers jumped on their mule and horse, and fled deeper into the garden.

Unfortunately, during their flight they couldn't track where they were going, and got lost. The new place they happened upon was a small park, with several statues in the middle....... They wanted to go back right away, but the statues didn't animate... They cautiously circled around, and went deeper into the garden. They passed an ice-rink with a lamp-post standing next to it (knocked off a candle from it).

The next area was quite a surprise... The trail they followed lead to a bridge - which led to a small island just floating above the abyss! Cogs and gears and other parts of corroded (but still slowly moving) machinery were visible on the bottom part of the floating island. And there were some other floating islands nearby. The adventurers used a 10' ladder and ropes to slowly make their way to the next little island, to find that there was a huge turtle trapped between some grinding gears protruding from the surface. The turtle also had a bonsai tree growing on its shell. Two-Gun Kid managed to free the turtle from the trap, and tried to cut off the tree (which was rooted in the flesh of the turtle), but the turtle hissed and pulled away. The bonsai tree was part of its body now.

The next little island had a hedge or bush cut in the shape of a giant bird - a topiary; which, like the statue before, turned out to be animate! It was guarding its nest and eggs!

James risked going over his usual magic limit, and cast Web again - only to vomit up his own intestines along with the sticky web!! James fell unconscious from the pain. The topiary bird got caught in this mess, and tried to break free. Two-Gun Kid set the web on fire, *whoosh*, and the whole web and the bird caught in it went up in flames. The burning bird charged at the Two-Gun Kid, but was quickly reduced to a burning heap of twigs. The Two-Gun Kid found two eggs in the nest - who knows how an animate topiary can lay eggs? Then he carefully carried back James to their animals, and tried to backtrack to the garden's entrance.

He found his way back to the statue park, but lost the trail back to the glasshouses. He visited a few locations: a cluster of small ponds, a dark, dense forest, but decided not to venture deeper.

He happened upon a gazebo, with three dead bodies laying around it. He looted them, and also found many interesting expensive items in the gazebo: porcelain teacups, opium pipes, playing cards, velvet gloves...

He heard a strange, but beautiful voice, a mix between a choir and flutes. He noticed a group of strange cratures approaching: four plant-ladies, with huge roses in the place of their heads. He asked them for help, help to heal James. The four maidens approached James' body, entwined him in their twig-arms and thorny vines... Two-Gun Kids hoped that this was some sort of a healing magic. When the maidens were done, they retreated back to where they came from, leaving behind James' body - which now had beautiful roses growing out of it!!! But the Magic-User remained unconscious.

Two-Gun Kid decided to camp at the gazebo. Night descended, and there were creatures moving in the shadows, but didn't approach the gazebo. In the morning Kid searched around some more, and found another little crystal vial, with the emerald liquid he knew to have healing powers! He used it to restore James, and also himself... But alongside the healing, the liquid caused some weird changes: James gained the ability to smell magic, while Two-Gun Kid had sticky hairs sprout out of his body, like a spider, allowing him to climb up vertical surfaces.

To be continued...