Etikett: DND

The Moon is home to a great variety of creatures, most of which are indigenous to its eldritch orb, but some stem from Earth or other nearby planets, and others originate on strange worlds never touched by the light of the sun.

Common plants of the moon

Many of the lunar plants release swarms of pollen or seed capsules that float on the winds in search of a place with enough moisture to take root. They use wings to maneuver and possess rudimentary sensory organs to navigate and avoid hazards. They serve as the primary food source for a variety of winged insects and predatory plants.

The Alabaster Meadows that surround the Moon’s black seas gain their name from the thin white grass that grows there. 

The mandool trees have fat, round, bottle-shaped trunks that grow to between 12 and 16 feet high and 4 to 6 feet in girth. The grey bark is covered with webbed silver patterns. At the top of the trunks grow short branches with large silver leaves. They usually stand solitary, surrounded by an expanse of grass. The sap of the mandool is sweet and can be fermented into wine.

The druz trees have slim, tall, bone-white trunks that often reach up to 30 feet and are crowned by cone-like bundles of branches packed with small golden leaves. They cluster together, forming copses and small woods. The druz produces nutritious nuts that are enjoyed by both lunarians and batkin.

In the Grey Wastes and the Pale Highlands grows the hardy sark bush. This small plant with rough grey leaves is a rather sad sight, but beneath the ground, it hides an extensive system of roots that dig deep and grow fat with moisture. The sark is very important to nomadic tribes, but many inexperienced travelers have suffered a slow and painful death after failing to filter out the poison from its water.

The yhrn is a tough vine, covered with sharp barbs, that grows in the Grey Wastes and the Pale Highlands. Nomads chew on their roots to increase alertness and dampen feelings of thirst and hunger. 

The insidious gargar, which grows in the Grey Wastes and the Pale Highlands, looks like a dark grey shriveled sphere, perhaps 1’ or 2’ large, and covered in long, fine hairs. When a flying seed or small animal passes within 5’, the gargar opens wide and shoots out a long, thin, sticky tendril to catch its prey. It then closes its shell again to savor the nutrients of its little morsel. 

Common animals of the moon

Animal life on the moon encompasses the same basic ecological niches that are found on Earth, and many other worlds – from micro-organisms and the maniform crawling things in the soil and the silt to herbivores, carnivores, and scavengers adapted to life in the ocean, sky, and among the different kinds of terrain on land. Many lunar animals belong to either a class with arthropod-like characteristics, a family that shares features with annelids as well as mollusks, or a category that shares traits with both reptiles and mammals.

Aerial jellyfish are shaped like globes or saucers. They are filled with gas bubbles that allow them to float through the air. They drag tentacles behind them, which they use to snare their prey.

Gazelopes are slender four-legged herbivores with white, grey, or golden skins and a short proboscis. They are bred as both riding animals and for their meat. Wild gazelopes and those bred for war have long curved or spiral horns, while the other domesticated variants have none.

The vanak are the lesser cousins of the gazelopes, comparable in size to ordinary domesticated goats. These herbivores travel in herds of between a handful and a score. Vanaks are kept as livestock, and wild herds are hunted.

The vashoon are herbivores native to the Alabaster Meadows. They have short legs with sharp claws for digging and are covered in armor shells. Their narrow, wedge-shaped heads end in funnel-shaped snouts that are used to sniff out food. They are considered to be exceptionally filthy animals.

The aihor are twelve-legged serpent-like predators that can become up to 5’ long. They live in the Alabaster Meadows and eat small animals and aerial seed pods.

The Billhog is a lizard-like beast named after its sharp bill. In the Lunarian city-states, they are kept as domestic animals by the plebeians, who eat their eggs and meat. These usually docile animals can be goaded into a frenzy. Young animals can be trained to guard and fight. They can also be taught to perform tricks and parrot simple phrases.

Myrmonts are a kind of immense giant ants, comparable in size to a rhinoceros. They live among the mountains and are used as mounts and pack animals by the Lunarians.

Antorox are distant relatives of myrmonts, who rarely grow bigger than two feet in length. This predator hunts by hiding in the undergrowth to shoot itself as a projectile at passing prey, launched with the force of its strong hind legs. The javelin-shaped shell of the antorox is patterned and colored to blend in among leaves and fronds and is sometimes used for making jewelry or decorative clothing.

Sligs are six-legged vermin that come in packs (treat like Normal Rats). They are common pests in all lunarian cities. Unlike their terrestrial counterparts, sligs are eusocial and live in hives where a queen gives birth to sexless workers and warriors.

Ikosu, aquatic beings resembling a mix between fish and arthropods, inhabit the lunar seas, streams, and lakes. Their streamlined, elongated bodies feature a protective carapace, stalked antennae, mandibles, and compound eyes. The undersides exhibit six swimming legs, complemented by a horizontal tail fan for steering. These diverse species vary in size from one inch to an impressive 70 feet and play a significant role as a food source.

Many terrestrial birds, such as swans, swallows, nightingales, and woodcocks, migrate to the Moon for the winter. As the seasons pass on the Earth, the Moon is home to birds hailing from many different regions. The journey through the aethers of space takes between one and two weeks. How this habit once started is a mystery, but the bodies of migratory birds are sufficiently infused with aether to allow them to fly in the Moon’s thin atmosphere. Messages can be carried by the birds between the Earth and the Moon, in the manner of homing pigeons.

Unlike the satellite we know, the world of Warlords of the Moon is filled with living plants, animals, and a multitude of diverse cultures, but it is also a distinctly different place from Earth. Conditions such as gravity, the rhythm of day and night, and seasons do not work like we are used to. The player characters are certainly not in Kansas anymore! 

Low gravity

The Moon’s gravity is only one-sixth of what visitors from Earth are accustomed to. As a result, earthlings possess the ability to jump distances of up to 20 feet and reach heights of up to 10 feet. Fighters can utilize their jumping ability to execute charges. When swimming in the dark lunar seas, earthlings can leap out of the water like dolphins.

Day and Night and the Lunarian Calendar

Since the Moon spins on its axis in the same amount of time as it revolves around the Earth, the sun remains in the sky for 14 terrestrial days and beneath the horizon for an equal duration.

During the day, temperatures fluctuate between 40 and 70 ℉ (5 to 20 °C), but they drop even lower at night, ranging from 20 to 5 ℉ (-5 to -15 °C). In mountainous regions, temperatures can be 10 to 20 °F (5 to 10 °C) colder than in the plains.

This lunar great day (or terrestrial month) is known as a ”shesh” in the Lunarian language. Daytime is referred to as ”asesh,” while nighttime is called ”nesesh.” Since time immemorial, a sesh has been divided into 28 ”ul” (or terrestrial days), each further subdivided into 24 ”hla” (terrestrial hours), named after the 28 Moon gods and the 24 glorious aspects of each deity. A cycle of twelve shesh is named imshesh (corresponding to a terrestrial year), and each shesh of the cycle is named after a particular kind of lunar creature. 

For simplicity, we will adopt a geocentric perspective and use the terms year, month, day, and hour when discussing these units of time, but adopting lunarian terminology that emphasises the astronomical and cultural particularities of the moon can lend a distinct character to the campaign.

Thin atmosphere and harsh climate

Instead of terrestrial air, the Moon is enveloped in an invisible and immaterial aether. Most matter on the lunar surface has become so infused with aether that it can be affected by the movements of this finely attenuated liquid. Thus, waves disturb the face of the lunar seas, and winged creatures can soar across the lunar skies.

The lunar climate is harsh and dry; on average, the Lunar Realms receive about 18 inches (460 mm) of precipitation each year. Rain is nearly unheard of, but the cold lunar nights sometimes bring a light dusting of snow that coats the ground.

Combustible materials on the moon contain roughly the same degree of phlogiston as on Earth, allowing fire to burn with a comparable intensity in the aetheric atmosphere.

The aether does not constrict the flow of the breath, but most terrestrial visitors to the Moon experience varying degrees of aether sickness, with symptoms including shortness of breath, palpitations, and vertigo. The Referee may require the player characters to make a Saving Throw versus Poison to perform physically demanding actions. Typically, these symptoms subside after a few days as the body adapts to the extraterrestrial atmosphere.

The Aether Winds

Strange winds sweep across the Moon from the depths of space. Roll 1d12 to determine the current wind. For each ul (or terrestrial day), there is a 1-in-6 chance that the winds change.

1. The Blood Wind: All attacks deal +1 HP of damage.
2. The Beast Wind: The risk of random encounters increases by 1.
3. The Nightmare Wind: A Save vs. Spells is required to get a full night’s rest.
4. The Wind of Madness: The risk of random encounters is doubled, but there is a 50% chance that the encounter is an illusion.
5. The Death Wind: There is a 1-in-6 chance that newly deceased creatures are reanimated as zombies.
6. The Wind of Chaos: All spells are cast as if improvised.
7. The Wind of Sorcery: All spells are cast as if the spellcaster has 1d6 additional levels.
8. The Wind of Truth: Everyone gets a +1 bonus to search rolls and is only surprised on a result of 1 on a 1d8.
9. The Wind of Friendship: +1 to all monster reaction rolls.
10. The Blight Wind: Fumbles occur on a result of 1 or 2 on 1d20, and 1d100% of the party’s rations are spoiled.
11. The Wind of Fortune. Critical hits occur on a result of 19 or 20 on a 1d20, and the party gains a 10% bonus on all XP acquired during this wind’s presence.
12. The Wind of Power. The PCs gain an extra hit die (HD) during this wind’s presence.

This blog is dedicated to the creation and publication of Warlords of the Moon, a sword & planet-style campaign setting for the Old-School Essentials roleplaying game. 

As suggested by the title, it is set on the moon, but this is not the lifeless satellite we know in reality. Inspired by Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars, HG Well’s First Men in the Moon, and HP Lovecraft’s Dream-Quest for Unknown Kadath, this is an ancient and dying world of decadent city-states and savage wastelands, haunted by weird entities from the abysses of deep space. In this world of rayguns and swords and sorcery, player characters can be visitors from Earth, members of the moondwelling species, such as the humanoid lunarians, the winged batkin, or the insectoid selenites, or even cats or robots.

Written by Swedish OSR-creators Mattias Närvä and Terje Nordin, Månens krigsherrar was originally published as three booklets.

• Book 1 En ö i etern (”An Island in the Aether”, cover by Björn Ramsten) described the bright side of the moon with over 130 places, along with stats for important NPCs and new creatures, as well as mysterious lunar phenomena such as the aether winds. 
• Book 2 Kristalltornens stad (”The City of Crystal Towers”, cover by FSF-Ink) detailed the largest city on the moon, Issum, with its history, laws and government, interesting locations in the various city sectors, gangs and cults, and the dungeons beneath its streets. 
• Book 3 Ranshais grottor (”Caves of Ranshai”, cover by Björn Ramsten) included the city-state of Orob, a major dungeon beneath the mountain of Ranshai, and details about the eldritch horrors lurking on the dark side of the moon.

The updated and expanded English edition will contain everything from the Swedish one, along with many new adventure locations, classes, monsters, and spells, as well as new art by FSF-Ink.

Follow this blog for further news about this project! 

Old-School Essentials is a trademark of Necrotic Gnome. The trademark and Old-School Essentials logo are used with permission of Necrotic Gnome, under license.