assorted dungeon statuary

There is always a need for strange statues in a dungeon.  Don't blink.

1. Alabaster elfmaid with mouth open in song fills 30' radius with unearthly music, calms 2d4 hit dice of listeners to inaction.
2. Bronze bull with sharp horns gives +1 to AC for 9 – level hours if an offering is made to it.
3. Copper wizard with staff lights unlit torches within 10' every 2 hours by harmless electrical discharge.
4. Crystalline woman in court dress when not looked at to reflect the mood of those within 30 feet.
5. Gem-eyed demon bearing a brazier illuminating up to 90' radius in torchlight.  Gems are 100gp each. 
6. Golden child offering blessing gives +1 to all saving throws for 9 – level hours if offering is made to it.
7. Iron warrior woman with battleaxe gives +1 to hit for 9 – level hours if an offering is made to it.
8. Leaden, shapeless many-eyed thing causes nausea in observers, irresistable to oozes or slimes.
9. Many-tentacled horror causes dread in observers.  If given to an undead they leave with it. 
10. Marble angel with elephant head gives +10' movement for 9 – level hours if an offering is made to it. 
11. Silver youth with snakes in hands cures 1 hit point every 2 hours resting within sight of the idol.
12. Verdigris man with octopus head gives +1 to damage rolls for 9 – level hours if offering is made to it.

food as set dressing

Peasants breaking bread (Wikimedia)

Over at Cirsova, a food and fantasy blog carnival runs until the 21st. Food can evoke emotion and conjure sense memory.  Responses to those emotions and sense memories are typically visceral. Dietary habits for people are primarily beholden to environment and agriculture.  Culture and religion may shape this further.  There are other factors involved of course.

• Exploration, conquest and trade may introduce new food.
  The popularity of garum (a pungent sauce made of rotted saltfish) among the Greeks, Romans and the Byzantines enabled trade across the Mediterranean and as far as Roman Britain.  The New World brought potatoes and tomatoes to Europe.  Chocolate (chocolatl) was another export that found favour with the Spanish.  Wars have been fought over salt and pepper inspired epic exploration.
  
• Immigrant populations may bring their own foods and spices. 
  The popularity of curry in Britain, or variations in Minnesota lutefisk follows immigrant influence; if your game has an invading population or a neighbouring culture, their food and drink influences yours. Elven baklava may be served with coffee and a pipeweed hookah in a free port tavern where halflings and elves have neighbourhoods in a Moorish-based settlement.
  
• Wealth and status brings a better class of food - usually.
  Access to certain ingredients (salt) and spices may require wealth.  Peasant staples are transformed by quality of ingredients.  Breads may have finer flour or more wheat.  Now add to this other dishes.  Laws mark foods (rabbit or venison) as noble perogatives.  Roasted meat means fresh good-quality meat, more likely noble fare.  Some noble delicacies however, are less than desirable.

In some settings, there is sufficient civilisation to ensure fine fare.  Courtly food may be about theatrics as much as taste.  Serving swan to royalty is mostly ostentation.  A high-fantasy equivalent may serve dressed cockatrice to nobles.  Magical augmentation of the meal is another option.  These combinations create meals worthy of fairytale.  A truly imaginative chef may have opportunities for extraplanar travel.

Other locations may have limited opportunities for the gourmet adventurer.  The dungeon expands culinary horizons out of necessity.  Roasted cave fish, select mushrooms and dwarven spirit may keep you happy (and off iron rations) for a little while until the wood runs out.  In the deeper underworld, your host might serve chilled goblin brains served in a trephinated skull.  Similar perils face those in desolate wilderness.  Arctic glaciers and burning deserts are not plentiful larders and eating sentients is an occupational hazard.

The discovery of exotic foods and drinks made fortunes.  Enterprising adventurers may find themselves in wars over spices.  If they inspired Marco Polo and Vasco de Gama to cross half the world, your lot might go some distance.  Royal charters, trading company monopolies, dragons with alternative hoards - all can provide unique adventures for characters. 

eggs is eggs, innit?

Czech decorated eggs courtesy of WikiMedia

Table V: A dozen dungeon eggs

1. Alabaster egg plays magic tinking chimes for 1d6 rounds when sat on it's end and spun clockwise.
2. Cock's egg laid by an enchanted rooster, this tainted item spawns a basilisk if incubated by a snake.
3. Duck's eggshell grenade filled with powder.  A successful to hit roll on a foe with eyes blinds them for d4 rounds.
4. Goose eggshell holds magic dust that reveals invisible objects, turning them pearlescent for 9 rounds.
5. Jewelled lacquered egg crusted in semi-precious stones worth 1d6 x 100gp.
6. Painted ceramic egg with formula for a 1st-level wizard spell in tiny writing.
7. Pitted egg of smelted iron, weighs 3 lb, workable into iron or steel or a meal for a rust monster.
8. Puzzle egg of brass and iron (needs Open Locks roll to open) contains a gem worth 100gp.
9. Quail's eggshell filled with a dose of dust causing inhaler to breathe water as air for 9 – level rounds.
10. Rubbery black egg useful as diversion.  If thrown, it does 1 + Strength non-lethal damage.
11. Tarnished silver egg contains 8 ounces of high-quality snuff (8gp) kept in perfect condition.
12. White, smooth egg, left to it's own devices a baby amphisbaena will hatch in 1d6 hours.

the joys of public domain day

May (Eric Ravilious woodcut)

Apart from being New Year's Day, with resolutions, regrets and recaps of the last year it is also Public Domain Day.  A celebration of the commons is vital in this time of litigious technologists.  Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables argued passionately for the promotion of public access to works.

This is because the public good is our primary concern, and I declare this [as an author], the people’s rights come before ours.

      -- Victor Hugo, Discours d’ouverture du Congrès littéraire international (tr. Kerton) taken from The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture

 Among those entering the public domain this year are:

• A.E. Waite, writer and occultist (co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, said to be inspiration for Ephraim Waite in Lovecraft's The Thing at The Doorstep) whose works on western occultism and Freemasonry survived a feud with Aleister Crowley.
• Ernest Bramah, who is credited with the quote "May you live in interesting times." and whose Kai Lung and Max Carrados stories are wonderful inspiration and whose Secret of the League inspired George Orwell's 1984.
• L.M.Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and numerous short stories.

The beauty of the public domain is that it offers a wealth of resource for creators to use.  It's worth taking a look to see what inspiration may be found.  The idea of detective mysteries with occultist themes and red-haired orphans in Victorian times does appeal.  Wonder what you'll find?