The Stirge Mask

The Plague Doctor in my campaign had gained control of a local lord and turned his demesne into a giant blood transfusion experiment.

He was able to harvest massive amounts of blood because he had obtained an item legendary in Plague Doctor lore.

Modeling the Latest in Plague Doctor Fashion

The Stirge Mask

Function

This mask looks like a plague doctor mask with a long proboscis. It allows the wearer to control stirges. The stirges can be commanded to suck blood and to excrete any blood they have not yet digested from their proboscides (I look up the plural forms then used the most pretentious one).

The stirge mask can only be used by characters that can use magic. Good characters cannot use the stirge mask. Good characters that try to use the stirge mask must save vs. spells. If they succeed the are unable to use the mask. If they fail, they can use the mask, but they are now evil.

Function in Mass Combat

The Stirge Mask can control up to 100 stirge + 10 Stirge for every 2 levels of the wearer if the wearer is a Plague Doctor. The wearer cannot move or attack on a turn on which the stirge move or attack.

The Subjective Experience of Using the Stirge Mask

When a character dons the stirge mask, they feel an immediate connection with any stirges within 300' (including up and down). They can smell the blood that those stirges can smell and they desire it. They feel the stirges not as individuals creatures, but as a united entity lusting for blood. 

They control the stirges mentally, as if the stirges were limbs. There are no command words or things to be puzzled out. The wearer is instantly plugged into the consciousnesses of nearby stirges. The wearer controls the stirge not with commands but by willing the stirges with the same type of thoughts that the wearer would use to control their own hands. It feels weird at first. 

NPC Class: The Plague Doctor

There was an NPC in my campaign called the Plague Doctor. He had his own special NPC character class. Here it is:

The Plague Doctor sort of knows what he’s doing. He might be able to keep someone alive if they have enough hit points to waste on dangerous treatments. Honestly, The Plague Doctor isn’t that concerned about keeping people. He likes making money and experimenting on people.

Basic Stuff:

So it’s not surprising that the Plague Doctor can’t be any of the good alignments. He’s selfish. The Plague doctor uses the same saves and experience table as a magic user. He gets 1d4 hit points per level just like a magic user. He starts with spells just like a magic user. He’s not very good at magic though. In fact his prime requisite is charisma.

Abilities:

The Plague Doctor cannot caste spells. The Plague Doctor can only create scrolls using the same rules as magic users. When the Plague Doctor reads a scroll he always lights incense. This has no effect on the spell but the Plague Doctor doesn’t really know what he’s doing so he won’t read a scroll without the incense. Your Plague Doctor might have some other quirk for reading scrolls, but there is always a quirk.

The Plague Doctors primary skill is bleeding patients. At level 1 the Plague Doctor can attempt to cure disease by bleeding. The Plague Doctor cuts the victim for 1d4 damage. The chance for him to cure a disease is:

The Damage Dealt * 5%

The Plague doctor can make as many cuts as he deems necessary before rolling to cure someone but only gets one roll.

At Level 3 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to alleviate (not remove curses) through bleeding. The Plague Doctor makes a cut dealing 1d6 damage and halts the disease for as many days as hit points lost. Making additional incisions will not increase the length that the curse is alleviated.

At Level 5 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to perform blood transfusions. The Plague Doctor finds a donor and slowly drains their blood dealing 1d6 damage to their constitution. The donor’s constitution recovers by one per day. The Plague Doctor can lower the damage dealt by his blood lettings by 1d6 points if he performs a blood transfusion.

Cursed victims can become addicted to blood transfusions. Every time a curse victim gets a blood transfusion they must save vs. spells. If they fail they will require a blood transfusion every day or lose 1d4 constitution points. This loss is permanent.

At level 7 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to develop plagues. The Plague Doctor can create a Plague that he is immune to that will cause a Plague with a mortality rate of:

5 * Plague Doctor’s Level

The Plague will affect:

d100 * Plague Doctors Level

The Plague Doctor’s most important ability is Inveigle. Inveigle allows the Plague Doctor to worm his way into patronage relationships. Any time A Plague Doctor treats a patient and his charisma + damage dealt by his procedure is higher than the patient’s wisdom + Patient’s level, he Inveigles the patient to support him gaining 100 gold * Plague Doctor’s level per month. In exchange the Plague Doctor provides useless draughts and tinctures.

How Does a Plague Work?

First you roll to see how many people are affected by the plague. Then you roll to see how long the plague lasts. A plague lasts 2d4 days. At the end of the 2d4 days you roll against the mortality rate of the plague (d100). If you roll over the mortality rate the plague is over. If you roll under the mortality rate the plague has spread and you roll again to see how many people are affected. The length of the plague stays the same.  Either way the amount of people die at the end of the life cycle of the plague as determined by the mortality rate.

Example:

The Plague Doctor wants to start a plague because he wants to charge people money to cure the disease. He is level 8; that means his plague has a mortality rate of 40%. The dungeon master rolls d100 to see how many people are affected and gets 67. Sixty-seven people come down with the plague (The Plague Doctor poisoned the well or something).

Then the dungeon master rolls 2d4 to see how long the plagues life cycle is and gets a 5. The plague does kills or goes away in 5 days. At the end of 5 days the plague kills 40% of 67 people or 27 people.

Then the dungeon master rolls against the mortality rate and gets a 23. OH NO!!!!!!! Practice good hygiene people. The plague spreads this time to 34 people. After five days 14 of those people die and we check to see if the plague has spread; this time the dungeon master rolls a 73 and the plague fizzles out. WASH YOUR HANDS EVERYBODY!

How Does The Plague Doctor get Experience?

The Plague Doctor gets experience for every point of damage and every point of constitution loss he causes:

Points * level of victim / Level of Plague Doctor

He also gets experience for every patron he obtains:

100xp * level of patron

After Reading All This the Spellcasting Ability Seems kind of Out of Place, are There any New Spells that are Something the Plague Doctor Would Use?

Level 2: Blood Talisman

This spell transforms a victim’s blood into a talisman that will allow the Plague Doctor to communicate with him. Any one holding the Talisman within 10’ of the person whose blood the talisman was made of can communicate telepathically with the Plague Doctor

Level 2: Soma

This spell will put people who the Plague Doctor has taken blood from to sleep. It will affect all donors within a 15’ radius that is placed up to 20’ away from the Plague Doctor. No saving throw. People affected by this spell will not wake up during bleedings or while ‘donating’ blood.

I Bought a Drawing Pen But I am Still Trash

 Last Sunday I ran an adventure. Afterwords my player, +Paul Haupt III made this map.

 Here are the relevant sections from the my map that I made.

It is a joke compared to the map Paul made. If there is some touchy feely rpg message to all this it is that you don't need to be able to draw cool maps to put cool locations in your players' minds.

The bad news is I thought my map was pretty ok until Karel Hynek Macha gave me his sympathy (and laughed a me).

Here are some cool detail shots +Paul Haupt III  is also good at takin pictures of his pictures. I have a scanner that makes everything look like shit.

The Tomb was hastily assembled after a battle 

The doors are made from stuff found on a battlefield

Things don't always make sense because the tomb was dug 

by a dwarf that had gone crazy 

Then the enemy army just decided to bury some of their guys

there? Huh, Weird.

 The farther down you go the lazier the dwarf got. 

The mule was left by an earlier expedition. 

The Night Dorf Von Sedge's Stronghold Fell

The party wakes up in a jail cell with no equipment adventure. What's going on?

9th Level Fighting Man Dorf Von Sedge finished his stronghold in the town of Witherhelm relatively recently. Since then the peasants have been unhappy. He is eccentric and cruel. Things got worse for the peasants when Von Sedge took ill. He hasn't been seen in months and his doctor has taken over the administration of the Von Sedge's demesne.

One night the peasants revolt.

The party wake up in a dark cell; anyone with infravision is wearing a blind fold. They are groggy and have the impression that some sound awoke them. They are lying on filthy hay. If they look at their arms they are covered in cuts, some old and scarred, some fresh. They have memories of passing in and out of consciousness. 

The cell door is unlocked. They key is in the door. Here is the Map:

I spelled rack wrong (I jutst learned "wrack" is an alternative spelling for the verb only). The map for the top of the keep is on this page too. 

The Stirge Pit

Its a pit filled with  stirges, the plague doctor has a mask that can control the stirges. There is a lid. You can close it.

The Torture Room

That's the room with leech well. the room also has sharp knives that look like they would leave the type wounds that the pcs have up and down their arms (listed as daggers on the map). My players did not fill buckets with leeches and throw them at enemies; I was  disappointed.

The Guard Room

So obviously someone freed the PCs and killed the guard. When the party get here they can start to hear battle sounds. 

The Ground Floor

Everyone on this floor is pretty fighting the peasant uprising and it is easy for the party to sneak around

The Skeleton Archers

... are all shooting at roving bands of armed peasants. They will ignore the party unless attacked.

The Spy on the Wandering Monster Chart

This is the spy that freed the party. She is having a hard time escaping in the chaos. She may be willing to help the party kill either Von Sedge or the Plague Doctor.

Domesday Book and Records

Anyone that take the time to read these books will see that the peasants are oppressed. Anyone magic user that really studies them will notice that a lot of money was spent on black magic and alchemical supplies.

The Semicircular Room at the Bottom of the Map

This is the throne room. It is two stories with a balcony around the top. The Plague Doctor is here with four elite guards. Lucky sneaky parties can kill them from the balcony. If the Plague Doctor is threatened directly he will command the stirges to attack. If the Stirge pit was not sealed, swarms will appear in 1d4 rounds and attack peasants and PCs.

Plague Doctor LV 5

AC 7

HP 16

Mask of control Stirges

Dagger of Bleeding (save vs spell or bleed 1hp each round)

150gp

His hood can pull down to cover his face 

Bird Seed

Empty black bag

key to the lab

Guards LV 2 Fighting Men

AC 4 Chain and Shield

HP 10, 11, 6, 7

Swords

1 Javelin each

The Third Floor

I messed up making this map. I used tracing paper so it would have the same dimensions as the second floor and it made it hard to read.

Bed Baron

This is where Dorf Von Sedge is. He is bed ridden and hooked up to a brass IV poll that supplies him with blood stolen from the PCs. If the IV is disconnected he will die. He has a lot of hit points but can't really fight back.

Lab

So, there is a basilisk in this room. It is one of those rooster Lizard hybrid basilisks. The idea is that the Plague doctor pulls his hood down and uses the bird seed to lure the basilisk into the bag so he can lock it in a cage when he enters the room. My players never entered the lab. 

There is also a blood transfusion spell in the Plague Doctor's spell book that is used to keep people undergoing energy drain alive. I never wrote it out exactly.

The Note about the Tapestry

Hunting w/no shirt on - Dorf Von Sedge takes style cues from Putin.

The Top Floor

There is a wraith magically confined to a room on the top floor. Somehow he is bonded to Von Sedge, giving him the power to create skeletons and other things that were never really worked out. The wraith might bargain for his freedom or he might try to turn pcs into wraiths that are not magically trapped in the room. I still haven't decided if the powers that confine him to the room work on just him or on all undead. During play, he sucked the life out of a brave peasant . The rest of the party escaped.

The Uprising

I created several groups of peasants. During the adventure they broke into the castle and started fighting guards. There were also berserk peasants that would attack anyone. The party never found out what was behind those berserkers. The peasants were armed with items on the angry village chart i made:

Rioters HD 1d8

AC 9

dmg 1d6

Group 1:

hp    weapon

1. 8    club
2. 1    club
3. 2    torch + molotov cocktail
4. 8    torch
5. 3    hook
6. 2    knife
7. 6    pitchfork
8. 4    oar
9. 4    scythe
10. 3    butter churn

There was also a roaming group of zombies and some guards. In order to escape the players also had to find way to avoid the archers shooting from the stronghold. In the end they just ran for it and one of them was killed trying to escape.

The Cartographer NPC Class

This character class requires a lot of extra work by the DM. Any DM that allows PCs to hire cartographers is a really good person and probably too nice. 
          -Elminster

What's a Cartographer?

Cartographers make maps. Cartographers claim to be part of a guild but you will never be more than two in town at once. They must somehow all be connected though because if you kill one, no other cartographer will work for you. As Cartographers go up in level they tend to become mentally unstable due to all the stress of being in a dungeon.

A party can hire a cartographer to go along with them on dungeon expeditions. They cost 50 gold per level plus a 1/2 share of any treasure. They advance as thieves and save as thieves. They carry no weapons and cannot fight.

Using the Cartographer

Every turn the party spends moving in the dungeon make a mapping check for the cartographer. If the cartographer fails place a check mark on the map where the party is. At the end of the session make a map for charting the party's path. Alter the map where the Cartographer made mistakes by rolling on the screw up table and alter the players map according to the table. The Cartographer also has a passive chance to detect secret doors which is made every time the party passes a secret door. Higher level cartographers also get a passive chance to sense traps every time the party nears a trap. The cartographer doesn't know what type of trap. It's "just a feeling."

Can Players Kill the Cartographer and Take His Map?

In the dungeon cartographers right down the dimensions in a secret indecipherable code. After an expedition the cartographer returns to his home and translates his scribble into a map. This takes 1d6 days. If  a cartographer is killed in the dungeon only another cartographer could interpret their scribbles.

How Does The Mapping Check Work?  

Each cartographer has a Mapping Score that is determined by his intelligence and level. You add his Base Mapping Score and his Level Bonus to get his Mapping Score. Every time a mapping check is called for the DM rolls a d12 if the result is under the cartographer's mapping score the check has succeeded, otherwise; it has failed.

Here's the table for getting the Base Mapping Score 

Intelligence	Base Mapping Score
3	1
4-6	2
7-8	4
9-10	5
11-12	6
13-15	7
16-18	8

Here's the Table for the other Abilities. 

Rolls for secret doors and traps are made on a d6

Level	Level bonus	Find secret doors	Sense Traps
1-2	0	1	Nope
3-4	2	1-2	1
5-6	3	1-3	1-2
7-8	4	1-3	1-3

Where's The Mistake Chart?

Here it is:

roll 1d10

1. Extra doors
2. Missing Passageway
3. Left and right confused
4. Room missing
5. Room too big
6. Room rotated 90 degrees
7. Extra room
8. Passage 10 to 60 feet too short
9. Passage 10 to 60 feet too long
10. Extra secret door

 What was That you Said About Cartographers Becoming Mentally Unstable?

After every expedition the Cartographer must make a wisdom check. If the Cartographer fails the check he gains a neurosis. Here is the list of Neuroses:

1.     Alcoholism

Cartographer will try to sneak booze if no one notices and stops him he will drink until he becomes useless -1 to Mapping score for every wineskin in excess of 2 consumed.

2.    Solipsism

Cartographer no longer believes that anyone else but himself is real. He becomes reckless as by his logic he cannot die since that would cause the whole universe to cease to exist.

3.    Paranoia

Cartographer's fearful attitude gives all other hirelings a -1 to morale checks

4.    Religious Fervor

Cartographer will not shut up about god; make an extra wandering monster check every turn.

5.    PTSD

Every time there is a wandering monster or loud noise the cartographer must make a saving throw vs. turn to stone or curl up in the fetal position

6.    William S. Burroughs 

Cartographer keeps trying to shoot apples off other hirelings' heads

EXTRA:
       Cannibalism
(this replaces a neurosis the Cartographer already has from the list when rolling) Gaze long enough into some monsters and the monsters gaze into you (or something).  Cartographer will biter other hirelings if not kept closely watched. This could lead to fights or lower morale.

Conclusion

I have not had a chance to introduce this into a game yet. I am not sure if it creates too much extra work for the dm. I will probably need to make a therapist class if this is successful.