Update: Our Award-Winning Vintage One-Page Adventure

Long-time readers and followers of our blog know that back in 2011 Chris K. held an impromptu contest on his Hill Cantons blog and our weird little one-page adventure won. Ever since then it has been available from our Free Stuff folder at Box, but no longer. We've added a cover, as shown above, and uploaded it to DriveThruRPG / RPGNow where it can be found at either site for Free.

Nothing has been changed. It remains the same vintage adventure into Unspeakable Old School Randomness intended for use with Swords & Wizardry (White Box). It's just available from a different source now. Enjoy!

Wermilith

"I don't care how much they offered you for it--get rid of that damned thing!"

Gnosiomandus

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The first Wermilith was discovered just prior to the Second Cloud Incursion, although there is an unverified allegation that was put forth by Gnosiomandus that one of his students uncovered a Wermilith prior to the First Cloud Incursion. Since Gnosiomandus left Wermspittle some time ago and is not expected to return any time soon, if ever, there has been no progress whatsoever on ascertaining the veracity of this claim and it has been deemed academically spurious and inconsequential by the Council of Unnatural Affairs.


What Is Known

1. The myriad 'eyes' covering each Wermilith seem to be similar to Purple Amber. In fact the first ones to be examined were mistakenly thought to be simple votary carvings and when an 'eye' was removed it was discovered that these things are in fact some sort of fossil or pupal-state living creature.
2. Wermiliths have so far proven to be impervious to acid, fire and electrical discharge.
3. Anyone sleeping within 300' of one of these things tends to be harassed by nightmares that defy description even by trained oneirosophists.
4. All conventional divination and prognostication magics reveal only that the Wermiliths are deeply enchanted, oneirically toxic, and do not originate on any of the Known Worlds nor any of the common Adjacent Worlds. More than that cannot be reliably verified as those attempting deeper inquiries suffer various and sundry backlash effects including but not limited to madness, being rendered comatose for weeks at a time, or loss of all memory.

What Might Happen Around Wermiliths...

1. Roachers appear to be drawn to a particular Wermilith, entering into a strange trance-like state as they mindlessly skitter around it at a distance of 30' to 90'. Masses of up to a hundred of the creatures have been reported and they are doggedly persistent. Only extremely bright lights, actinic weapons or fire has so far driven them off, and that only temporarily.
2. A nearby Wermilith has attracted the attention of an Ungezeifer who has sent (2d4) Cacozombies to retrieve the thing. If the Cacozombies are destroyed, another (3d4) will follow in under an hour. If necessary another 3d4 Cacozombies will attack whomever possesses the Wermilith every 1d4 hours until, after the fifth wave, the Ungezeifer will come calling personally.
3. (1d4) War-Grubs of Nhorr guard the entrance-way to a mostly abandoned tenement where a spell-caster has been experimenting with a recently discovered Wermilith. It is unclear whether the spell-caster summoned the war-grubs or if they came at the service of someone...or something else. Could the Wermiliths have some sort of connection to Nhorr?
4. An Interstitial Insectoid wishes to sponsor a small group of dedicated professionals to recover a Wermilith from a rival Thysanurian anti-librarian. If the group could be so kind as to eviscerate the Thysanurian in the course of the recovery effort there will be a bonus. Unfortunately the Thysanurian not only knows the group is on their way, it has known for at least a week and has taken what it feels are appropriate counter-measures...
5. A local sorcerer and collector of peculiar antiquities, Julixian Vall, has discovered that his recently purchased Wermilith is in fact a fake. Now (1d4) Octovoidal Transvectors are hunting him with bad intent. He didn't look closely before, there wasn't time, but glued inside the remaining fragment of his fake Wermilith is an octagonal talisman cast from some sort of gray metal. Perhaps the creatures will leave him be if they are offered the talisman? Will he willingly part with the new-found talisman? Will your group leave him much choice in the matter? [The creatures will attack anyone who attempts to assist the targeted sorcerer.]
6. One of your group has met a pretty young thing who does everything in their power to convince your group to help them retrieve their master's rightful property...which turns out to be a Wermilith...and the Eloi is actually an infected thrall in service to a Fungal Tyrant.

What People Are Saying: Rumors

1. Wermiliths are some sort of weapon sent into Wermspittle by the Purple Hordes to prepare the way for their masters to finally claim the city for the Purple Clouds.
2. These are some sort of secret Pruztian counter-measure originally meant to be deployed against some other secret Franzikaner uber-weapon during the last war.
3. These things are the vengeful spawn of some hideous god-thing that is a rival to the Purple Clouds...either that, or they are residual fragments from the Nightlands.
4. Wermiliths have no connection to the Clouds, but rather are semi-living relics of some lost civilization yet to be discovered out past the boundaries of the established camps in the Purple Forest.
5. Everyone else is completely wrong, these things are merely astral anchors intended for use in plumbing the depths of the Violet Abyss and were crafted by some long forgotten cult that was wiped-out decades ago.
6. These aren't werms at all. They are in fact seeds. Unreal seeds that will eventually sprout into horrid things that will seek to kill or enslave us all.
7. Some disgraced Franzikaner Noble bred these creatures as a way to preserve the souls and memories of his lineage in the face of the Revolution and one day soon the Wermiliths will awaken in order to facilitate the return of these despicable aristocrats.
8. These are merely the precursors of an invasion by forces never before seen among the Known Worlds.

What People Are Doing...

1. The Council of Unnatural Affairs has posted a reward for the recovery of any further Wermiliths, Details of the reward are vague and subject to negotiation, but the Council has a reputation for being generous to a fault, so this does little to dampen anyone's enthusiasm.
2. Curiosity Seekers have started to scour the less-traveled and picked-over areas of the cities looking for Wermiliths. So far only a few have disappeared.
3. Three Verminista warlords have denounced the Academy and its puppets for attempting to thwart the will of their so far unidentified benefactor. Each of their stories conflict significantly, so few take them seriously at this time.
4. So far every Nomad that has seen as much as a photograph of a Wermilith has closed-out all their accounts and left the city as quickly as possible.
5. A band of Cuckoos has taken out an ad in the Whisperer to announce that they've uncovered a cache of no less than six Wermiliths. They are attempting to set up some sort of auction to determine who will get access to the newly uncovered Wermiliths.
6. There have been reports of a Deep Purple Smog prowling the Near Deeps close to Schroedinger and Cave's shop. Local Authorities claim it is an entirely unrelated incident, but others aren't so sure...

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"If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them."

Helena Blavatsky

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Glushigon's Mask

Glushigon's Mask

Psyche:  6, INT:  11, Willpower: 20 , Morale: starts at 3 (see below)
AL C, AC 4, HD 4 (withstands 22 hp damage before teleporting away in a cloud of Black Smoke)
Communication: Telepathy (only with wearer).
Languages: Aklo, Samakt, Ardushaim (Middle), Vruskive (Formal), Choft, Indruge (runic form), 1d4 random, additional languages picked-up from former hosts.
Detection Powers: See Invisible, Detect/See Magic, Read Languages, all at will, while mask is worn. Wearer cannot attack or perform spells while using these abilities.
Spell-Like Powers: Resist Black Smoke (special), Condense Black Smoke, Craft Black Ink, Cause Fear (twice per day), Sottrix's Six Clouds (once per day).
Other Powers: Wearer is rendered immune to Fear Effects.

When first encountered anyone inclined to attempt to take-up the Mask must make a Reaction Roll as though they were a potential retainer. A negative result causes the Mask to remain inert and disinterested in the character. Any further attempts (limited to one fresh attempt every week) will require some sort of sacrifice or offering before-hand. All subsequent failures at this Reaction Roll will result in the Mask spewing forth a toxic cloud of Black Smoke with a cumulative 20% chance of it teleporting away.

On a successful Reaction Roll Glushigon's Mask will allow the character to don it. The Mask grants the wearer AC 4, as though clad in fine Chain-Mail, whether they wear armor or go naked; it is of no matter to the Mask. While wearing the Mask, one need not fear the Black Smoke, as the Mask grants a limited immunity to it as well as a sort of mastery over the dreadful stuff. The Mask consumes Black Smoke, causing it to condense into a glossy black fluid that the Mask transmutes into a magically efficacious, but no less highly toxic Black Ink. The Mask will, if requested (and perhaps offered some sort of incentive), teach the wearer some version of a spell that will mimic one or more of its spell-like powers, including a means of crafting the Black Ink.

The Mask is notoriously fickle and will require regular 'readings*,' as well as occasional fumigations in the smoke of dried cave-squids, the rendered fat of octopoidal-beings, or equivalent substances derived from similar creatures...or by immersing it in a cloud of Black Smoke. The Mask suffers a -1 penalty to Morale for every day it feels 'neglected.' Each 'reading,' or fumigation will restore 1d4 all-too temporary points to the Mask's Morale. Even on the best of days, the Mask suffers the loss of 1 Morale point, mostly due to its innate pessimistic outlook. Should the Mask's morale drop below 3, it will teleport away in a cloud of Black Smoke.

Should a wearer of the Mask discover themselves suddenly an ex-wearer, they immediately suffer 3d6 points of damage as the accumulated traces of Black Smoke saturating them is released. They retain any spells taught to them by the Mask, but suffer a permanent -2 penalty to all Saves versus Black Smoke or other, similar Vaporous Horrors or gas attacks.

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*By 'readings,' the Mask is referring to scrolls or texts of copied and transcribed spells that are given over to it. By 'reading' these spells, the Mask consumes them, effectively destroying the scroll, or removing it from a spell-book. These spells are permanently lost, though it is conjectured that the Mask does in fact retain the spells deep inside itself, but no one has unlocked a reliable method for getting the thing to share any of these spells, despite several fairly clever attempts.

Bloodseers of Wermspittle

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Whispers echo softly from the damp walls of alleys even the ragged, leprous Refugees from Kerinam avoid. Soft, sibilant and insistent, few heed these minor nuisances. They are easy to ignore in a place rife with real threats and worse perils prowling about the streets freely. But occasionally, for whatever reason,  someone leans a little closer, takes that one little step further... 

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The Blodseers are not creatures of the flesh to be hacked or shot. They are subtle, insidious projections from some distant plane*. Their presence is barely felt, rarely recognized in Wermspittle. But every now and again some unfortunate soul wanders into contact with them, almost always by accident. More often than not such encounters appear to be random in nature, much like stepping on a land-mine in one of the cordoned-off ares of Greenflower Street Park. And always--always--the Bloodseers are only ever encountered in certain alleys well away from the abbatoirs and Killing Floors of the Butchers. No one knows why.

What is Known
The epithet 'Bloodseer' was first given to these beings when it was ascertained that they saw all living beings in terms of their circulatory systems--they literally only saw the blood coursing through veins and arteries. Aside from this bit of trivia, little else is actually known or confirmed regarding them. Very few people have any dealings with these entities, and those who have encountered them are loathe to repeat the experience.


Encountering Bloodseers
Coming into contact with the Bloodseers results in the contactee experiencing slight discomfort, typically a brief sensation of nausea or disorientation. The majority of documented reports insist on the experience having a 'strange sense of pressure that fluctuated throughout their bloodstream.' Most victims retain little, if any memory of what exactly occurred during their contact with these entities, a fact that has stymied many a would-be researcher.


Bloodseer Encounter After-Effects

1. Victim suffers effects of Fear (as spell) for 1d6 minutes. They suffer a permanent -1 penalty to Saves regarding all Fear-related effects henceforth.
2. The contactee's blood-flow has completely reversed itself. There seems to be no ill effect, but they now can Detect Mirrors at will and have to re-learn how to read again as 'all the writing appears backwards'.
3. Victim experiences Confusion (as spell) for 1d4 turns upon taking damage. They are also 'contagious' and inflict Confusion upon anyone they touch or come into contact with during the duration of their own confusion. This contagious form of hysteria fades over time, and the effect will be all but eradicated after 2d4 episodes. Those 'infected' with the confusion are not contagious. Usually.
4. Whenever the victim suffers damage they must Save or experience the effects of a Ventriloquism spell. they also harbor an unreasonable fear that the effect might become permanent.
5. After taking more than 3 points of damage through bloodloss, the Contactee experiences a period of ESP (as spell). This effect is extended by 1d4 additional turns per each point of damage by bloodloss they suffer while under the effects of the spell.
6. The victim's blood is now invisible.
7. Subject suffers effects of Feeblemind (as spell). The condition may be permanent, however, when they take damage, they come out of the spell's influence. Possibly, if they were to take enough damage, a little at a time, they would be able to throw off the Feeblemind effect, perhaps even permanently.
8. When exposed to blood, the victim must now Save or else enter into a trance and undergo a limited form of Contact Other Plane. They will be asked 1d4 questions in some incomprehensible language that gives them a lingering headache. If they do not respond, they suffer 1d4 damage. If they attempt to understand or to communicate with the entities impinging upon their awareness, they must Save or collapse into a stupor for 1d4 hours, after which time they will gain the ability to understand the language being used by these entities.

All who are 'contacted' by the Bloodseers suffer a permanent penalty of -8 to Morale whenever they contemplate re-entering the particular alley where they encountered these entities.


Rumors, Suspicions, and Peculiar Circumstances

1. There are never any Bloodseer encounters near any of the Butcher's Shops, Delicatessens, or processing facilities. Many believe this has something to do with the Butchers. Perhaps they know some way to ward off the Bloodseers. Or perhaps the act of exsanguination is distasteful, possibly even damaging to the Bloodseers? Inquiring busy-bodies want to find out, so they have kidnapped a few Refugess and/or Unfortunates and dragged them through various alleys in search of the Bloodseers in order to find out just what happens when they cause their victims to bleed out.
2. Eramikus Jarl, a minor academician of little standing, has put forth a mostly ignored hypothesis that the Bloodseers arein fact performing a highly esoteric form of divination, that they are in actuality 'reading people's circulatory systems in order to glean some meaningful information from the currents, eddies and flow of the blood.' So far Jarl's work has been silently ignored by the mainstream, which has forced him to go to outside established academic channels. His weekly column is now featured in several of the less reputable Low-Street Gazettes and other such scandal sheets and tabloids. His work in this area has also resulted in a rash of would-be test-subjects and others fleeing from the alleys. If this continues, it might spark riots as those exposed to the Bloodseers will not willingly return to the alleys.
3. A fragment of a document referred to 'X11-J' was recently recovered from a boarded-up old private archive by a small group of Foragers. This document seems to have something to say about the Bloodseers, but none of them can decipher or translate it. The Foragers are divided over whether to sell the thing, or to bring it to the Academy, possibly in hopes of a reward.
4. Ujjonima, an Expatriate Merchant-Duke from Androvia has given away all his prize possessions to a group of Refugees and taken-up the role of an eremite. Normally this sort of mental breakdown wouldn't merit more than a brief mention in one of the papers, but this is something more than just a rich man's collapse into some form of mania or madness. It is rumored that Ujjonima encountered a Bloodseer, and that he has now devoted his life to understanding the mystical implications of the communication that took place. He intends to leave Wermspittle and go out into the Plateaus and find a cave to spend the rest of his days in contemplation. So far he has not found a Guide willing to deal with a crazy, destitute beggar-prophet.
5. Junikor of Galeph, a defrocked surgeon reputedly involved in some sort of unnatural experiment or relationship with an albino penguin he keeps penned in his attic (the gossip gets ugly and crude fast), has just published a report of his recent effort to remove a particular gland from the brain tissue of a cadaver and by employing a combination of galvanic and other techniques, to make a sort of 'blood detector' from the lump of distressed tissue. In the course of his work, he claims to have stumbled upon a means to detect Bloodseers. With a bit of experiment and refinement, Juniko expects to be able to establish some form of communication with the Bloodseers. There are those who greet this news with some curiosity. There are others who are grimly determined not to let this happen at any cost. Some of those opposed to this line of research are cultists and their ilk, but not all of them. some sort of well-funded cabal is very determined to prevent any such effort to succeed.
6. A group of Butcher Boys have been spotted prowling along alleys known to be places where Bloodseer encounters have been reported. They are out hunting. They intend to capture a Bloodseer. they want to know how these things perform their divinations through skrying people's bloodstreams. such a trick would be very valuable to their masters.

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* Maundrey's Crypto-Apothecarium (First, Prijja Edition), carried a forty-six page appendix that covered the Bloodseers in extensive, some would say exhaustive detail. Sadly this section was removed by the editors for all subsequent editions. It was in this appendix that the plane of the Bloodseers was identified as Gulkaddra. A set of seven glyphs were also provided for contacting, binding, repelling, and warding against the Bloodseers, but it is rare indeed to find all seven glyphs intact any more, since the Great Library Purge under Commandant Montag. This expurgated 'Appendix M' has become a notorious bit of spurious apocrypha, with many forgeries and very few actual surviving versions available even to the most discriminating, and wealthy collectors. Copies of the First Edition that still retain the appendix intact go for considerable sums when they reach auction, though few ever make it that far. Agents representing various interested parties have been known to make discrete offers or even more convincing threats prior to any such public sale. Still and all, given all that, no one ever seems to ask what such a thing is doing in a medical treatise concerning banned formulas, contraband serums and the like.