Weird Effects of Zartarian Ruins
At the time of the Zartarian Empire, sorcerous arts were at their peak, and many marvelous buildings were erected with arcane enhancements and enchantments. However, as the ages passed and the cataclysmic end of Zartar, these places were ruined and the sorcery that embedded them corrupted and warped.
Now, the foolish individuals who venture these locations sometimes endure weird effects and face dire consequences when the dormant spells inside the ruins are awakened. When characters leave a Zartarian ruin, the Referee can ask for a Luck roll, and of they fail, an weird effect can be applied.
d20
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What Strange Thing Happened?
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1
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Time passes slower inside the ruins. For each day (full or not) inside them, roll a d6: (1) Two days have passed outside; (2) a week has passed outside; (3) a month has passed on the outside; (4) a year has passed outside; (5) a century has passed on the outside; (6) a millennia has passed outside.
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2
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Exiting the ruins creates duplicates of the characters inside it. These duplicates are sure they are the true characters and will do whatever they can to take their place.
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3
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Upon exiting tre ruins, the characters are placed in another world where the Zartarian sorcerers opened gates to. The Referee can use this to take the campaign to his favorite game setting or experiment with other great OSR settings such as Midderlands, Carcosa, A Red and Pleasant Land, Vornheim and many others.
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4
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As they exit the premises of the ruins, the adventurers notice they somehow exchanged bodies. Their minds are their own, but their bodies have changed to one of the companions they have the strongest feelings for (for good or ill).
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5
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For some strange reason, the characters seem to perceive the world in a completely different way than anybody else. Whenever it’s daylight to them, its night to others and vice versa.
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6
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A tormented ghost now follows the characters around. It will continue to do so until the cause of his torment is dealt with (maybe vengeance, maybe the players took something from him).
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7
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An ancient sorcerer placed a curse on the treasures hidden in the ruins. Those carrying these items will be affected by the curse until they return the items to the place of their rest. The nature of the curse can be determined by the referee or rolled here (roll a d6: (1) They cannot gain sustenance from food, and will slowly starve to death; (2) anyone who sees the treasure taken will be consumed by unrestrained greed and will attack the characters to take it for themselves; (3) unnatural bad luck reduces the Luck score of everyone by one permanently; (4) Each character is overtaken by their darkest flaw and must pass a Willpower test to resist these urges; (5) characters have constant nightmares depicting terrible things associated with the items; (6) characters will slowly turn into the thing they took from the ruins.
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8
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The characters memories were left in the place of the treasures they stole. The Referee may ask for a Luck Roll to determine if the characters remember any piece of information and knowledge they used to know.
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9
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An alien intelligence which was dormant inside the ruins is implanted inside the characters. It will bide it’s time until it finds a suitor. When a character reaches a score of 0 on its Luck, it will try to dominate it. It plans on bringing forth its compatriots to Anttelius (or may have some other nefarious objectives).
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10
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A forgotten god is now observing the characters and will determine whether they will aid or hinder the characters with itself powers and followers. The Referee may determine which god it is or randomly generate one according to the tables at the Cults and Religions chapter.
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11
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The characters appearance change slightly, assuming the traits of an animal, demons, undead or something else this is disturbing to them.
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12
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Everyone forgets about them. The memories of the people who knew them are stolen and stored in strange vats in the bowels of the earth. Friends and allies have no idea who they are, but neither does enemies.
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13
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The demons of hunger imprisoned in the ruins have invaded the characters hearts and now crave human flesh as the legendary vampires of Zartar. For each they they do not consume at least a pound of human flesh they must make a Physique test with a Difficulty equal to the number of days without eating it or suffer 1d6 points of damage to their Physique.
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14
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Strange entities from the abyss infect the characters with a void disease, making them somewhat allergic to daylight. They only feel comfortable in the shadows for now on, and suffer a Negative Die to any Attribute Test made in bright daylight.
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15
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Strangely enough climate changes around the characters. In a sunny day, dark clouds follow the characters wherever they go. In a rainy day, a storm forms around them. Whether usually worsen near them, making them highly undesirable.
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16
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Characters age in an abnormal rate, each day counting as, roll a d6: (1) a mont; (2) a semester; (3) a year; (4) five years; (5) 10 years; (6) 50 years.
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17
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For some unknown reason the characters travel to the past. They arrive at the same place but (roll a d6): (1) A year in the past; (2) ten years in the past; (3) a hundred years in the past; (4) a thousand years in the past; (4) ten thousands years in the past; (5) a hundred thousand years in the past; (6) a million years in the past.
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18
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The dark energies of the chaos sorcery evoked by the Zartatians cloud the characters’ eyes. They become unable see something others can see normally, such as a color, an object, symbols, blood or something else. The Referee can roll a d6 for inspiration: (1) a color; (2) gold; (3) blood; (4) weapons; (5) faces; (6) the dead.
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19
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As they exit the ruins, the characters realize they have shifted into the sinister landscape of the Shadow World. Ghosts, shadow spirits, the undead and things much worse inhabit this plane.
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20
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As the characters leave the ruins, they enter in the mirror dimension, where everything is inverted. Allies become enemies, left becomes right, good is evil.
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How the characters ultimately deal with these issues and how to reverse them is up to the Referee. Players might come up with interest ideas and these can spark new adventures.
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