Random aviary generator! BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS

I wrote a set of random tables for generating aviaries and populating them with birds. It runs the gamut from more or less "realistic" to the weird and surreal. 

The Ignatian Aviary was partially inspired by Ignacio who runs an actual play channel on youtube and an old-school blog. If you've seen any of his videos, you know that he has birds. It was also inspired by stuff like The Gardens of Ynn.

I won't copy the generator here, because it's a lot of tables... ~7 pages. But you can see them all in the PDF, and read an example aviary below!

Download PDF

Example aviary:

The aviary stands in the far reaches of the city’s public park. The aviary is an impressive structure, but the funds allocated by the city council are clearly insufficient. A single caretaker and the occasional scholar struggle to maintain order. The pavilions are small and crowded with flapping, cawing birds. The structures are in good condition, but the foul smell scares away most visitors… At least the place is guarded by night by a watchman with dogs.

The aviary consists of a central pavilion, surrounded by three smaller ones.

The Central pavilion, a large, rectangular, domed structure, built in trelliswork. The pavilion is overgrown with grass and plants. A fruit-bearing tree occupies the middle, with a small pond nearby.
Inhabitants:

• A single elderly vulture (an ex-hunting bird, now on “pension”), with grey and yellow feathers. Its wings are damaged, and it cannot fly any more. It munches on the fallen fruits.
• Nine tiny flightless magpies feast on the fruits. Their bodies are red with black and white highlights, and during mating season, the males walk around huffing and puffing their chests. One of the magpies has a chameleonic disguise. The locals think the magpies bring luck and are very-very tasty.

Pavilion “A”, a hexagonal building, domed, with plate glass walls. A barren, artificial glass box…
Inhabitants:

• Fifteen chicken-like birds from a far-away land. They flutter around in the pavilion, eating everything they are given. Their plumage shimmers in all the colors of the rainbow. When aroused or angry, they open their fan-like tails and wiggle their long necks. When the stars are right, eggs laid by these birds hold a great magical power…

Pavilion “B”, a rectangular, flat-roofed building; glass windows in a trelliswork frame. It’s disappointingly empty.

Pavilion “C”, a round building, like a small glass circus tent, divided into four equal segments. A small fountain provides refreshment to two pairs of birds, inhabiting opposite segments:
Inhabitants:

• A pair of larger than average exotic, weirdly elongated hummingbirds, with eye-pleasing patterns: white, with blue highlights and green spots, but no other qualities to talk about. They like to eat fruits.
• A pair of enormous exotic ducks, about 4’ high. They lost their wings during transportation, and now have mechanical replacements. Despite their size, they survive on a diet of insects. The male is of a plain grey color, but performs elaborate mating dances to attract the glowing white-grey female. The female, surprisingly for a duck, sings, and its voice lulls people to sleep.

Have fun, keep on flapping & cawing!

[Monster] A Hybrid Beast of Ynn

Long time, no post... So here's a random monster, straight from the Gardens of Ynn! With a little illustration.

The Hybrid Hydra

Base shape: Horse
Head: Hyena (extra bite attack, +4 d8)
Additional features: Two extra heads (Duck, Stag (extra antler attack, +4 d6))

HD 4, HP 24, Armour as leather, 3 attacks: claw / bite / antler (d6/d8/d6), saves as Fighter 4.

Machen's "The White People" and The Gardens of Ynn

Just a quick follow-up: another quote from "The White People". This time a good fit for the Rose Maidens in The Gardens of Ynn...

"What would your feelings be, seriously, if your cat or your dog began to talk to you, and to dispute with you in human accents? You would be overwhelmed with horror. I am sure of it. And if the roses in your garden sang a weird song, you would go mad. And suppose the stones in the road began to swell and grow before your eyes, and if the pebble that you noticed at night had shot out stony blossoms in the morning? "Well, these examples may give you some notion of what sin really is."

Cheat sheet for The Gardens of Ynn

Ran another session in The Gardens of Ynn, for some new people. I'll try to write up a play report, but in the meantime, I wanted to share the little cheat sheet I made:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vke9ZNFHGlz5z3gd2gLLabsxrhBLxgJ4

I copied most of the tables (but not the descriptions) out of the book, slightly edited and organized them; and added references to page numbers. This way when you roll up a location, you know right away which page it is at in the book.

Sheet 1: Locations, Details, Events
Sheet 2: Encounter tables, Ynnian alterations
Sheet 3: Cosmetic alterations, Treasure tables, Magic weapons
Sheet 4-6: Creature stat blocks, armor ratings, saves.

You can also use one of the Ynnian generators created by the people of the internet:
https://instadeath.blogspot.com/2018/04/gardens-of-ynn-generator.html
http://meanderingbanter.blogspot.com/2018/10/ynn-generator-and-tracker.html
2019.03.24: Additional generators and cheat sheets:
https://technicalgrimoire.com/generators

https://blog.thesconesalone.com/2019/03/the-gardens-of-ynn-referee-control.html

Have fun!

(c)

[Review/Overview] The Stygian Library by Emmy Allen

Emmy Allen released a new book, The Stygian Library. Emmy's stuff is always great (I'm really looking forward to trying the ice age weird fantasy, Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow), and, of course, she is the author of The Gardens of Ynn, which I'm a big fan of.

The Stygian Library follows the same structure: it is a procedurally generated environment, with plenty randomness, but also with a strong thematic coherency at the same time.

The Library is made up of randomly generated locations (mostly rooms). The player group begins on Depth level 0, then move deeper and deeper. For each step, the DM rolls a Location and a Detail, combines them. The Depth rating is always factored into the generation of the next room, so the Stygian Library gradually opens up, and the players are able to reach the more obscure and weird places.

There are also randomized Events and Encounters with the inhabitants of the Library. The Bestiary is quite extensive, full of library-themed creatures: animated books, origami golems, dust elementals, and, of course, the Librarians: they are divided into five color-coded orders, each with its own set of duties, spells, abilities.

I really dig the atmosphere and the tone of this setting. This is how Emmy describes it in the introduction:

Whilst some of the contents in this book can be portrayed in a rather dark light (it is, fundamentally, about necromancy), it’s not intended as a particularly grim setting. One thing that often strikes me about the fiction I enjoyed in my youth is how the dark and the whimsical so often go hand in hand. Not as a subversive contrast, but rather how the imagination (when allowed to wander) will flit between ideas that fill us with wonder and with dread. Like exploring an empty house, all it takes is a slight change in context (nightfall, say) to make the experience creepy.

So, The Gardens and the Library are built using the same principles, There is one major difference between the Gardens and the Library. Ynn is all about exploration, wonder and adventure. The Stygian Library offers the same "sense of discovery", but it is also vast (potentially infinite) repository of knowledge, so it is very likely the player characters visit it with a specific goal in mind.

Emmy presents a simple, but elegant subsystem for tracking the players' progress towards their goal. There is a Progress score, its initial rating is tied to the highest Intelligence rating in the group. The score increases if the group talks with somebody knowledgeable, or finds a book about the topic they are researching, etc., and decreases if the party is lost or misinformed. The DM sets the difficulty of finding the information (e.g. 20 for basic knowledge, 35 for dangerous obscurities). If the Progress reaches this value AND the group is deep enough into the Library, the precious information is found.

Furthermore, the presence of the Librarians, their active and engaged factions, also gives the Stygian Library a different, more "narrative" style, than the slightly more passive, dreamy, utterly lost inhabitants of the landscapes of Ynn.

So, overall, I think The Stygian Library is not only a great follow-up to The Gardens of Ynn, but also presents its own developments.

The only minus is that the .pdf is still just a simple text, without any hyperlinks or bookmarks... This book would benefit ENORMOUSLY from a well-marked structure. For example, it'd be great to be able to click a header on the Location Table, and be taken to the description. Maybe something for a future edition?

Get the Library here, it's $4. And check out this hilarious mind-bending play report!

[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...

[Magic Item] Whistle and I'll Come to You

During their side-track into the Gardens of Ynn, my players found a couple of intricately made, serrated obsidian arrowheads. The Ranger in the party wants to craft some arrows with them, so I came up with the following:

A Call to Death

Instead of the usual whistling sound, A Call to Death "plays" a musical note as it cuts the air. Birds of a certain kind heed this call and gather to the area. Originally these arrowheads were crafted for the Sidhe nobility. A single Call to Death was to be fired at the beginning of the hunt. Afterwards, the Sidhe would slaughter the naive, cheated flock.

[Actual Play] An excursion into the Gardens of Ynn [5e]

I run an 5e game for some friends. This weekend, some of the players were busy, and I decided to introduce a short side-excursion for my remaining two players. So I whipped out The Gardens of Ynn, written by Emmy Allen.

The Gardens of Ynn is a point-crawl setting, a very evocatively written weird pleasure garden of sorts. Everything is randomly generated on-the-go.

It was actually quite easy to weave this into the main story of our game. Without going into much detail: the characters were about to investigate some stuff in the city park anyways; they ended up chasing a creature into an old glasshouse; and further through a portal in a huge tree into the Gardens of Ynn.

Their zero-level entrance point was an Ivy-covered Lawn. I think it's good that the first point was something more 'mundane', with just some hints of weirdness. Enough to make them want to explore further, but without slowing them down.

They went deeper to level 1, to find a Fountain with Treasure. They didn't throw in any coins, but they did salvage some interesting items and old Fay money.

They ventured deeper, arriving on level 2.
I rolled Hothouses with Nests, and it was also time for an event, and I rolled "something's empty home is found". Already a nice combination. And then I rolled an encounter to see what lives here, and came up with Glass Birds! So some of the nests had broken glass eggs in them, to foreshadow this all.

They backtracked to the Fountain (1), and found a new pathway, which led them to another place on depth level 2, the Shadow Theater with a Dead Explorer (a decaying ranger) lying next to it. I made it so that the characters' shadows were always pointing towards the center of the theater, trying to crawl away... But the characters didn't linger here for too long, and they made their saves on the way out, so their shadows stayed with them.

For the next point in this crawl, I rolled Woods, Singing, and an encounter with a Glass Butler. In my interpretation, this became a clearing with a huge Aeolian harp (a wind harp) set up in it. The Glass Butler was stuck here eternally cleaning the instruments. Lucky for the players, the Butler was in an obedient mood, and tried to serve them food and drinks from an empty tray. The players tuned the harps and listened to them, asking some questions and gaining some Ynnian insight. The Butler didn't attack and try to harvest them for food this time.

They ventured deeper, to level 4, to a place with Gear-works, and here they encountered the strange creature they were following (spoiler - an ex-wizard turned nothic, who caused some of the arcane mayhem back in their homeworld). They interacted for some time, then the creature fled deeper into the Garden.

It was time to finish up the session, and I didn't want the player characters to be stuck in the Garden, so deus ex machina style the ground split (good thing they were in the Gear-works section!), they fell through a dark void, and landed back in the park they originally left from.

Both players enjoyed this excursion, and the Ranger said that he wants to find a way back to explore it some more.