Update:
About a week ago I sat down to review my outline and all of the accumulated files and discovered, much to my chagrin, that I had more than 225 pages of material. Ordinarily I'd be thrilled by this kind of progress, but after writing the CCD I decided I really don't want to deal with anything over 180 pages. Anything larger than that and I risk giving my computer a digital aneurism every time I open the Word file or the Serif Page Plus layout software that I'm using to stitch all of this together.
Yep... I did it again...
I seem to have written two books at the same time. One is about spells and patrons, and the other is quite obviously about runes*. So I started editing in earnest. After excising most of the runic material from the Liber Arcanum I found that there are now approximately 150 pages. I left in the expanded rune lists for Fey and Mortal runes, and a couple other goodies. Now there are 42 general access spells; 5.5 patrons...
I should explain: Aristemis and Delvyr are full Patrons each with 3 unique spells and such. However, I also have added a few 'lesser patrons' as I call them. They are based upon the ideas laid down for Ithha in the core rules. I expanded his entry (the 0.5) and filled out the Elemental Court by adding
Kandyri-sek Princess of Elemental Flame,
Brinae Princess of Elemental Water, and
Hraalvid Prince of Elemental Earth**. None offer unique spells; but they do offer dedicated elemental spell lists that the Aeromancers, Pyromancers, Aquamancers, and Geomancers can study. The Elemental Lords and Ladies also offer unique powers and abilities to the favored amongst their patronages.
All of this is finished in 1st draft form, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through a 2nd draft of the individual files, shuffling their levels a bit, and then handing these files off to a couple of readers who are familiar with the DCCRPG environment. I decided that I can wait a little on the rune project to accelerate the completion of the Liber Arcanum. Whilst finishing the 2nd drafts and awaiting feedback, I wrote up a module to help me alpha-test the LA material and I'm running the third session later today/ early tomorrow (I have a weird schedule).
It's working title is:
"The Elemental Palace of Olembar' Vek" I'm running this first series of games as close to orthodox DCC rules as possible; which means almost no house rules. I've started off by running it as a solo adventure for a 5th level wizard, just to set a benchmark on its level of lethality. The test character was originally a cut-purse and since this is to be a solo adventure for now; I've allowed her to have
Sneak Silently and
Hide in Shadows as a 1st level thief. She also has the
Pick Pockets skill of a thief equal to her wizard levels, because the Player wrote it into the back story that this wizard has kept up on these older skills since they help to further her acquisition of spells and power and keep her in good standing with several of Kassantia's Thief Guilds; she also has the potion making spell and rolls 1d30 when casting the Wizard Staff spell. {She rather enjoyed trolling for mercurial magic and actually got: 98 'natural born talent' for the MM effect on the Wizard staff spell. However, she can't cast her magic missile spell without it costing her 1d4+1 points of damage unless she can find a volunteer to take the damage for her.
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
} She has Delvyr the Luminous as her Patron and I let her start with a Staff and a small horde of potions.. and she came up with a devilishly clever reason for her character's involvement in this 'module'. She wants to write it down, so I won't be saying too much more about the specifics except that I've also removed some of the aspects of my version of Aereth; taking it back to a more generic form, though I've kept some of the geo-political & timeline stuff that I've written. The game is set ostensibly, at the height of the Crestine Empire's Golden Age. Starting in Kassantia a year before Emperor Ostadt II is kidnapped at the start of the civil war that leads to the Interregnum. However, the adventure module is written from the point of view that it can be set in any world and in any coastal environment.***
More later
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* The runic lore will now be spun off into its own work tentatively titled "The Book of Lost Runes" which stands at about 80% completion of its first draft, as well as the map and an outline for its 'test-module'.
**While the entry for Ithha mentions the Earth Elemental Grom, I was unsure if this character would be available or already had been defined in a module or something, so I when with Hraalvid. I have accounted for Grom as a separate faction within the Elemental Court of Earth... because what's a Courtly structure without some intrigue and politics?
*** I can say that the character rolled a modified 34 on the check to construct her Staff, and the rest of the treasure she's acquired over the years has gone into making potions, though she has a dagger that will return to her after it is thrown. The very first spell casting roll by the character to attack something was a natural 20; and the first save by this critter was also a natural 20.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
here we go again. There has already been a TPK and things just get stranger from there.