Padre
Member
I managed after some searching to find the file with information about my pygmies. This I will modify to create the the tribe now led by a necromancer. This is Gamesmaster information, lifted from a scenario I wrote for the UK Student Nationals in 2009 (or was it 2010?), and so reads not like a description from a story, but like instructions on how to play them, revealing stuff even the pygmies do not know.
'When two tribes go to war'
The Pygmy tribes of Bubagwa
The Dabangiya Tribe
Home = Hoogup mountain (AKA Mt Tronar - Estalian name)
God = Brobok
Cannibals
The Doyagbo Tribe
Home = Cajalli mountain (semi-dormant volcano)
God = Besbak (the fire demon)
The pygmies guard the approaches to their own mountains, to prevent enemy pygmy warriors trespassing and thus insulting their god(s). They also trap animals in their regions, for food and for domestication or enslavement, setting up large snares (being intended for dumb animals, these are fairly obvious to watchful, human eyes).
The Dabangiya priests are capable of riling up their god Brobok, thus urging minor eruptions and lava flows, though they do so very rarely as Brobok does not seem to care where he directs the lava flows. The Doyagbo priests, however, are apparently much more favoured by their (newly resurgent) god. This is because in reality a wounded fire demon of dwells inside mount Cajalli, at full strength only when he bathes in the lava, and as such able to splash about and direct the lava as he wishes. The Doyagbo have assumed this fire demon must be the embodiment of their ancient god.
The Fire Demon
Hattratadallagar now lives in the lava pool at the top of Mount Cajalli. He is an outcast from his own fiery, subterranean realm, unable to return due to a magical barrier beneath the molten rock he dwells in. Nor can he leave the other way, simply walking or flying out into the outside world – for whenever he tries to leave the volcano, he starts to cool and so solidify!
Hattratadallagar was banished along with his greater demon master, but now all that is left of the greater demon is the statue down in the jungle between the two volcanos. Believing the magical barrier only extended beneath Mt Cajalli, and impatient to escape, the greater demon stubbornly attempted to make his way through the jungle towards Mt Hoogup, where he hoped he would find an unguarded way into the underworld, and thus escape his banishment. He could not go beneath the ground in the magma itself because that is where the magical barrier banishing him lies, thus his attempted overland route. The greater demon had no wings and the journey was too long. As he made his fateful journey he began to solidify (subject to instability) and thus finally turned into the statue that stands in the Doyagbo Pygmies' sacred glade, the focus of all their recent religious and cannibalistic rituals.
Although (unlike his master) Hattratadallagar has wings, he can’t fly to Hoogup because the act of turning to stone would have a rather deleterious affect on the old flying trick. For some time now he has thought that if can get the Doyagbo priests to incant the right magics and rituals, he could absorb the spiritual strength of the mountain and thus maintain his fiery form in full vigour outside of the volcano – long enough to investigate the other volcano and see if there really is a way out of this realm. If not, then he intended to carve out his own little realm, ruling the pygmies and turning them into his chaotic servants. (He doesn’t know, however, that although cruel and wilful, the pygmies – like their northern Halfling cousins – are remarkably resistant to the taint of chaos.)
About 18 months ago Hattratadallagar espied a flying creature made of metal and wood, and apparently invigorated by gushing steam, flying around the other volcano. It occurred to him that perhaps this might provide a means by which to quickly cross the gap (even as he is turning to stone) and drop himself into the other volcano. So he has made his desire to obtain the flying creature known to his Doyagbo priests. He wants them to ensare it and bring it home. Annoyingly, however, it is the Dabangiya - not his own tribe - who have mastered the art of capturing and taming terradons (which only nest on mount Hoogup). All that his servants the Doyagbo can do is escalate the war against their rivals, launching more raids towards Hoogup & encouraging the Estalians to attack the Dabangiya. By doing so, maybe they can get close enough to catch the flying creature their master desires.
Thus the escalating guerrilla war between the Estalians of the coastal settlement & both pygmy tribes. The Estalians’ main source of gold and gems is upon the slopes of Mt Tronar (Hoogup). The Doyagbo are secretly attempting to encourage the Estalians to direct attacks on the Dabangiya, by making it appear that the Estalians are being attacked by the Dabangiya and not them, thus most the actual fighting between Old and New worlders takes place in the Dabangiya’s lands around Mt Tronar (Hoogup).
Pygmy Religion & Magic
The pygmies have relatively powerful witchdoctors, whose power is drawn from ancestor spirits and one of two sibling gods – Brobok & his wicked brother Besbak. The latter god is a cannibal who is forever trying to catch and eat his sibling (and in fact has done so many times in the religious stories, but his brother is always born again of the mountain). The gods are made of fire, born of fire, and each sprang from a different mountain. One sprang from the father mountain, the other from the mother mountain. These beliefs originated hundreds of years ago when other demons emerged from the volcanoes, and the two newly arrived demons fit the Pygmies’ expectations perfectly. Besbak (the greater demon) even sent an aspect of himself to attack his brother’s realm, then left a magical statue on the border of his own realm to watch the foes’ lands.
The witchdoctors also employ the aid of benign ancestor spirits, but only when the spirits volunteer. Hostile spirits are less often called on by the Dabangiya – only when offensive action is required – but the cruel Doyagbo are less reluctant to call on them. To summon angry spirits horrible actions are necessary, such as destroying parts of corpses as spell ingredients. As pygmy spirits are stable only near their remains, pygmies are buried around their villages or sacred sites, so that they can protect them after death. Occasionally, the bodies of very important or powerful pygmies are not buried, but are mummified (after a fashion) and placed in boxes with long pole handles so that they can be moved by living pygmies and manifest wherever they are taken! Hostile spirits tend to haunt more barren places, perhaps where they were killed in a violent death, in places that the local pygmies avoid, but they are also deliberately buried near sacred place to act as guards.
Benign spirits will often come to a pygmies aid unbidden, provided their remains are close by, but Shamans can call on spirits for aid and then command them. If they are in the right place the spirits will come, if not, then they must use magic to summon them...
Ancestor Spirits
Appearance: Benign - Invisible in daylight, translucent in darkness. Hostile - Glowing pygmy forms.
Traits: Subject to instability unless within 48 yards of their remains. (p.215; D6 score of 6 = roll on chart). Cause fear in living creatures (as ghost, p. 252: Cl test @ -10%, if fail – run!), & terror in pygmies.
Special Rules:
Cannot be wounded by non-magical weapons.
Cannot cause damage (except through magic) but if strike an opponent they must pass a cool test or flee/collapse in fear. If prevented from fleeing, then another strike will force another Cool test which if failed leads to heart failure and death!
Can move small objects like Elemental spell “Move Object” [aerial drafts to slam doors or move light objects, moving objects of less than 10 encumbrance up to 12 yards] so that they can make missile attacks with stones or small knives BUT they lose 2 wounds every time they attempt this!
If hostile spirits meet benign they often attack them.
////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel*
SPIRIT 4 / 33 / 17 / 0 / 3 / 11 /3/ 1 / 18 / 18 / 18 /18 / 18 / 10-40
[*10 = hostile, 40 = benign]
Tactics:
Spirits will often just chase threats away, but if the situation warrants (e.g. it is a repeated threat, or a particularly dangerous one, of a threat which has already killed pygmies) then they will attempt to corner the foe (hopefully nearby) so that they can kill them. Many pygmy villages have concealed pits around them which of course the populace all know to avoid, which have no spikes in the bottom, but have soily walls which can easily collapse if one tries to climb up. If a foe is driven to fall into one of these then the spirit can attack and kill them while remaining 24 yards to its own remains. These pits are them often used to bury pygmies later.
Priests
////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel
Priest 4 / 20 / 30 / 2 / 3 / 6 / 40 / 1 / 35 / 45 / 40 / 50 / 40 / 30
Concealment rural; Silent move rural - modify listen tests by -10%; Orientation; Cast spells (to level 3); Herb Lore; Meditation; Magical sense; Astronomy; Magical Awareness
Spells:
Petty
Butterfingers (cause drop – 3MP, 12 yards, target needs to pass Dex test to avoid. RoS p. 172) Danger Sense (6th Sense, RoS p.172)
Flight of Amar (float for 1D10 seconds, RoS p.173)
Knock Down (8 yards, MP 3, human sized or less, must pass I test or fall, then if fail Dex test or drop RoS p.173)
Fire
Piercing Bolts of Burning (MP 10, 26 yards, ingredient = volcanic rock, D6 Str 3 hits on each target hit by 6 yards swathe of bolts, RoS p.197)
MP = 30
Control Spirits:
MP = 1/spirit to summon; 2/spirit to dispell. 24 yards range for controlling or dispelling. Ingredient = bone of a pygmy to summon (usually fingers or toes), drop of living pygmy’s blood to control or dispel. Hostile spirits can resist (if choose) testing against their WP. Spirits appear within 6 yards of summoner, and do the summoner’s bidding until following daybreak. [See p.14 of WD article Floating Gardens re: control of numbers of spirits, or contest between shamans.]
PYGMY WARRIORS
/////////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel
Brave /// 4 / 20 / 30 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 30 / 1 / 30 / 30 / 20 / 40 / 30 / 40
Chieftain 4 / 42 / 54/ 3 / 4 / 7 / 44 / 2 / 35 / 50 / 36 / 55 / 44 / 45
Braves Acute Hearing; Concealment Rural; Follow Trail; Blowpipe
Chieftain As above + Acrobatics; Disarm; Dodge Blow; Strike Mighty Blow (+1 damage), Strike to Stun (+20 chance to stun, no -20 WS, pp.57 & 125)
Blowpipes
Str 1, poisonous, each hit = Poison test (p.81): 1st failure = Stupidity (p.71), 2nd = Drowsiness (p.82), 3rd = Paralysis, 4th failure = death. Effects last D4x10 turns.
Dwarf Boar
6 / 33 / - / 3 / 3 / 8 / 32 / 1 / - / 10 / 14 / 14 / 14 / -
Frenzy; Infected wounds
'When two tribes go to war'
The Pygmy tribes of Bubagwa
The Dabangiya Tribe
Home = Hoogup mountain (AKA Mt Tronar - Estalian name)
God = Brobok
Cannibals
The Doyagbo Tribe
Home = Cajalli mountain (semi-dormant volcano)
God = Besbak (the fire demon)
The pygmies guard the approaches to their own mountains, to prevent enemy pygmy warriors trespassing and thus insulting their god(s). They also trap animals in their regions, for food and for domestication or enslavement, setting up large snares (being intended for dumb animals, these are fairly obvious to watchful, human eyes).
The Dabangiya priests are capable of riling up their god Brobok, thus urging minor eruptions and lava flows, though they do so very rarely as Brobok does not seem to care where he directs the lava flows. The Doyagbo priests, however, are apparently much more favoured by their (newly resurgent) god. This is because in reality a wounded fire demon of dwells inside mount Cajalli, at full strength only when he bathes in the lava, and as such able to splash about and direct the lava as he wishes. The Doyagbo have assumed this fire demon must be the embodiment of their ancient god.
The Fire Demon
Hattratadallagar now lives in the lava pool at the top of Mount Cajalli. He is an outcast from his own fiery, subterranean realm, unable to return due to a magical barrier beneath the molten rock he dwells in. Nor can he leave the other way, simply walking or flying out into the outside world – for whenever he tries to leave the volcano, he starts to cool and so solidify!
Hattratadallagar was banished along with his greater demon master, but now all that is left of the greater demon is the statue down in the jungle between the two volcanos. Believing the magical barrier only extended beneath Mt Cajalli, and impatient to escape, the greater demon stubbornly attempted to make his way through the jungle towards Mt Hoogup, where he hoped he would find an unguarded way into the underworld, and thus escape his banishment. He could not go beneath the ground in the magma itself because that is where the magical barrier banishing him lies, thus his attempted overland route. The greater demon had no wings and the journey was too long. As he made his fateful journey he began to solidify (subject to instability) and thus finally turned into the statue that stands in the Doyagbo Pygmies' sacred glade, the focus of all their recent religious and cannibalistic rituals.
Although (unlike his master) Hattratadallagar has wings, he can’t fly to Hoogup because the act of turning to stone would have a rather deleterious affect on the old flying trick. For some time now he has thought that if can get the Doyagbo priests to incant the right magics and rituals, he could absorb the spiritual strength of the mountain and thus maintain his fiery form in full vigour outside of the volcano – long enough to investigate the other volcano and see if there really is a way out of this realm. If not, then he intended to carve out his own little realm, ruling the pygmies and turning them into his chaotic servants. (He doesn’t know, however, that although cruel and wilful, the pygmies – like their northern Halfling cousins – are remarkably resistant to the taint of chaos.)
About 18 months ago Hattratadallagar espied a flying creature made of metal and wood, and apparently invigorated by gushing steam, flying around the other volcano. It occurred to him that perhaps this might provide a means by which to quickly cross the gap (even as he is turning to stone) and drop himself into the other volcano. So he has made his desire to obtain the flying creature known to his Doyagbo priests. He wants them to ensare it and bring it home. Annoyingly, however, it is the Dabangiya - not his own tribe - who have mastered the art of capturing and taming terradons (which only nest on mount Hoogup). All that his servants the Doyagbo can do is escalate the war against their rivals, launching more raids towards Hoogup & encouraging the Estalians to attack the Dabangiya. By doing so, maybe they can get close enough to catch the flying creature their master desires.
Thus the escalating guerrilla war between the Estalians of the coastal settlement & both pygmy tribes. The Estalians’ main source of gold and gems is upon the slopes of Mt Tronar (Hoogup). The Doyagbo are secretly attempting to encourage the Estalians to direct attacks on the Dabangiya, by making it appear that the Estalians are being attacked by the Dabangiya and not them, thus most the actual fighting between Old and New worlders takes place in the Dabangiya’s lands around Mt Tronar (Hoogup).
Pygmy Religion & Magic
The pygmies have relatively powerful witchdoctors, whose power is drawn from ancestor spirits and one of two sibling gods – Brobok & his wicked brother Besbak. The latter god is a cannibal who is forever trying to catch and eat his sibling (and in fact has done so many times in the religious stories, but his brother is always born again of the mountain). The gods are made of fire, born of fire, and each sprang from a different mountain. One sprang from the father mountain, the other from the mother mountain. These beliefs originated hundreds of years ago when other demons emerged from the volcanoes, and the two newly arrived demons fit the Pygmies’ expectations perfectly. Besbak (the greater demon) even sent an aspect of himself to attack his brother’s realm, then left a magical statue on the border of his own realm to watch the foes’ lands.
The witchdoctors also employ the aid of benign ancestor spirits, but only when the spirits volunteer. Hostile spirits are less often called on by the Dabangiya – only when offensive action is required – but the cruel Doyagbo are less reluctant to call on them. To summon angry spirits horrible actions are necessary, such as destroying parts of corpses as spell ingredients. As pygmy spirits are stable only near their remains, pygmies are buried around their villages or sacred sites, so that they can protect them after death. Occasionally, the bodies of very important or powerful pygmies are not buried, but are mummified (after a fashion) and placed in boxes with long pole handles so that they can be moved by living pygmies and manifest wherever they are taken! Hostile spirits tend to haunt more barren places, perhaps where they were killed in a violent death, in places that the local pygmies avoid, but they are also deliberately buried near sacred place to act as guards.
Benign spirits will often come to a pygmies aid unbidden, provided their remains are close by, but Shamans can call on spirits for aid and then command them. If they are in the right place the spirits will come, if not, then they must use magic to summon them...
Ancestor Spirits
Appearance: Benign - Invisible in daylight, translucent in darkness. Hostile - Glowing pygmy forms.
Traits: Subject to instability unless within 48 yards of their remains. (p.215; D6 score of 6 = roll on chart). Cause fear in living creatures (as ghost, p. 252: Cl test @ -10%, if fail – run!), & terror in pygmies.
Special Rules:
Cannot be wounded by non-magical weapons.
Cannot cause damage (except through magic) but if strike an opponent they must pass a cool test or flee/collapse in fear. If prevented from fleeing, then another strike will force another Cool test which if failed leads to heart failure and death!
Can move small objects like Elemental spell “Move Object” [aerial drafts to slam doors or move light objects, moving objects of less than 10 encumbrance up to 12 yards] so that they can make missile attacks with stones or small knives BUT they lose 2 wounds every time they attempt this!
If hostile spirits meet benign they often attack them.
////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel*
SPIRIT 4 / 33 / 17 / 0 / 3 / 11 /3/ 1 / 18 / 18 / 18 /18 / 18 / 10-40
[*10 = hostile, 40 = benign]
Tactics:
Spirits will often just chase threats away, but if the situation warrants (e.g. it is a repeated threat, or a particularly dangerous one, of a threat which has already killed pygmies) then they will attempt to corner the foe (hopefully nearby) so that they can kill them. Many pygmy villages have concealed pits around them which of course the populace all know to avoid, which have no spikes in the bottom, but have soily walls which can easily collapse if one tries to climb up. If a foe is driven to fall into one of these then the spirit can attack and kill them while remaining 24 yards to its own remains. These pits are them often used to bury pygmies later.
Priests
////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel
Priest 4 / 20 / 30 / 2 / 3 / 6 / 40 / 1 / 35 / 45 / 40 / 50 / 40 / 30
Concealment rural; Silent move rural - modify listen tests by -10%; Orientation; Cast spells (to level 3); Herb Lore; Meditation; Magical sense; Astronomy; Magical Awareness
Spells:
Petty
Butterfingers (cause drop – 3MP, 12 yards, target needs to pass Dex test to avoid. RoS p. 172) Danger Sense (6th Sense, RoS p.172)
Flight of Amar (float for 1D10 seconds, RoS p.173)
Knock Down (8 yards, MP 3, human sized or less, must pass I test or fall, then if fail Dex test or drop RoS p.173)
Fire
Piercing Bolts of Burning (MP 10, 26 yards, ingredient = volcanic rock, D6 Str 3 hits on each target hit by 6 yards swathe of bolts, RoS p.197)
MP = 30
Control Spirits:
MP = 1/spirit to summon; 2/spirit to dispell. 24 yards range for controlling or dispelling. Ingredient = bone of a pygmy to summon (usually fingers or toes), drop of living pygmy’s blood to control or dispel. Hostile spirits can resist (if choose) testing against their WP. Spirits appear within 6 yards of summoner, and do the summoner’s bidding until following daybreak. [See p.14 of WD article Floating Gardens re: control of numbers of spirits, or contest between shamans.]
PYGMY WARRIORS
/////////// Mv / WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Dex / Ld / Int / Cl / WP / Fel
Brave /// 4 / 20 / 30 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 30 / 1 / 30 / 30 / 20 / 40 / 30 / 40
Chieftain 4 / 42 / 54/ 3 / 4 / 7 / 44 / 2 / 35 / 50 / 36 / 55 / 44 / 45
Braves Acute Hearing; Concealment Rural; Follow Trail; Blowpipe
Chieftain As above + Acrobatics; Disarm; Dodge Blow; Strike Mighty Blow (+1 damage), Strike to Stun (+20 chance to stun, no -20 WS, pp.57 & 125)
Blowpipes
Str 1, poisonous, each hit = Poison test (p.81): 1st failure = Stupidity (p.71), 2nd = Drowsiness (p.82), 3rd = Paralysis, 4th failure = death. Effects last D4x10 turns.
Dwarf Boar
6 / 33 / - / 3 / 3 / 8 / 32 / 1 / - / 10 / 14 / 14 / 14 / -
Frenzy; Infected wounds
