Elf Ruler Tables

The uwen or wood elves do not have kings and queens as humans do. Their enclaves are led by a council headed by an orlophyn (male) or alphyra (female), this figurehead remains in position until they die or perform so poorly that they are abandoned by their supporters.

An orlophyn or alphyra is also the enclave's strategic leader during times of open conflict, and held responsible for tragedies that befall the community. In effect they are the executive of the enclave - ultimately accountable, if not directly responsible, for the enclave's success or failure. The particulars of elf society should be covered in a future post.

Roll the coolest dice on the following tables to randomly generate launching points for an elf ruler's personality and the events during their rule. For simplicity the table was written for an orlophyn, simply swap he/she/him/her/brother/sister, etc, where appropriate for the leader you are creating.

D12	Positive Traits
1	He was very strong
2	He was known for his wisdom
3	His courage was beyond doubt
4	He was very compassionate
5	His every promise was an oath
6	The realm was always his first concern
7	He was open-handed and generous
8	He had great faith in others
9	He had many varied interests
10	He was a dedicated patron of the arts
11	He was creative and free-thinking
12	He was a kind and dedicated lover

D12	Negative Traits
1	He was hedonistic and over-indulgent
2	He was extremely vain
3	He boasted constantly
4	Rarely was he not quarrelsome
5	His oaths were quickly forgotten
6	He was overly-critical of others
7	He was possessive of his daughters
8	He was dismissive of his sons
9	He pursued only his personal ambition
10	He was a coward in personal combat
11	He could not abide women
12	He was arrogant beyond measure

D12	Alliances
1	He welcomed an outsider to the council
2	An old woman led him to victory
3	He tamed a giant eagle
4	He called a tribe of giants his allies
5	A human king often treated with him
6	Other leaders sought his counsel
7	Amongst his friends was a great mage
8	He arranged a truce with a dragon
9	He had a personal spy/assassin
10	He submitted to an arranged marriage
11	He spoke with a being on another plane
12	He united two feuding elven enclaves

D12	Betrayals
1	His council was woefully incompetent
2	His lover tried to kill him while he slept
3	His firstborn tried to have him killed
4	His brother slowly grew to hate him
5	His apprentice became his nemesis
6	The council turned on him as one
7	He left his cohort of bodyguards to die
8	He paid to have his lover assassinated
9	He personally assassinated his rival
10	He served poisoned wine to an emissary
11	He banished his eldest brother
12	He arranged for his advisor to disappear

D12	Conflict
1	Twice he was forced to reclaim his realm
2	In combat he was blinded in one eye
3	In a single battle he lost everything
4	Assassins hounded him for a full year
5	He was suddenly attacked by an ally
6	He forced a wild beast to withdrawal
7	He brandished an enchanted sword
8	He killed a great number of his own kind
9	By single combat he averted a war
10	His enemies' hatred for him only grew
11	He relied on the spirits to aid his battles
12	He defeated a great enemy by trickery

D12	Secrets
1	He had travelled in the darkest passages of the earth
2	He killed his lover and hid her body
3	He was forced into a profane bargain
4	He was cursed and never spoke of it
5	His ascension to leadership was illicit
6	His sister was afflicted with lycanthropy
7	He was indebted to a greedy dragon
8	He knew the location of an old relic
9	He and his sister were lovers
10	He sought to learn forbidden magic
11	He orchestrated an internal conflict
12	He made a bloody sacrifice to a demon

D12	Triumph
1	He found a great, forgotten treasure
2	He banished an ancient demon
3	He made peace with an old enemy
4	He introduced new things to his people
5	From humble origins he attained power
6	He reclaimed lost territory
7	His firstborn was especially talented
8	He cleared his once-blackened name
9	He brought great wealth to his people
10	He lifted an old curse
11	He discovered the cure to a grave illness
12	He orchestrated victory from secrecy

D12	Loss
1	He could not prevent his lover's death
2	His greatest heirloom was stolen
3	His children all died before their time
4	His firstborn was exiled for a terrible crime
5	His firstborn was held for ransom
6	For a year he was enthralled by a mage
7	He very weak after fighting a beast
8	He was imprisoned for a year
9	He was captured and held for ransom
10	He was killed in battle
11	He was assassinated
12	He suffered a horrible, painful death

D12	The Spirits
1	He often communed with the spirits
2	He formed a cadre of close priests
3	He commissioned newly built shrines
4	He renewed his peoples' faith
5	He claimed to have profound visions
6	He engaged in darker spirit rituals
7	He preferred earthly concerns
8	He personally executed cultists
9	He tore down old religious monuments
10	He discouraged relying on the spirits
11	He was a well-known sceptic
12	He prayed only when he was alone

D12	Magic
1	He was a legendary sorcerer
2	His spells mostly concerned the weather
3	His magic could influence others
4	He was an accomplished illusionist
5	He was a capable enchanter
6	He could speak with animals and plants
7	He was a terrible student of magic
8	He was very dependent upon familiars
9	He learned dark magic from a demon
10	He distrusted those who studied magic
11	Magic was to be his ultimate undoing
12	Magic saved him as a child and as a adult

D12	Outsiders
1	He had an irrational hatred of humans
2	He refused to treat with the dwarves
3	Non-elves disgusted him
4	He made enemies of other elf enclaves
5	He hid the enclave from outsiders' eyes
6	He demanded tribute from all envoys
7	Secretly he took a human lover
8	He sent aid to a besieged dwarf fortress
9	He invited beastmen to the enclave
10	His firstborn took a human lover
11	He visited foreign lands many times
12	He sent many spies to foreign lands

Demons: Motivations

Everything alive on the material plane has an energy or soul fire. Some call in mana, some call it arcane power, some call it the Breath of Creation. Whatever you call it, it suffuses through everything in the world - rocks, trees, clouds, soil, birdsong, tides, you name it, it's overflowing with the stuff. Most living beings don't recognise this because they're constantly surrounded by it. It's like the air you breathe - you're only really aware of it when there's too much of it or when you're in danger of running out.

This is the same energy that magic-users learn to channel. It is, for all intents and purposes, limitless, but most magic-users can only channel so much of it before they risk breaking down the barriers between their life force and the life force around them; as a sorcerer grows in power, their capacity for this energy grows, and so they are able to command more arcane power without the danger of a fatal magical overload.

There are beings, on other planes of existence, that feed on this energy. Their method of feeding is usually what separates them into semi-distinct categories. These categories are neither complete nor wholly reliable; the chaotic nature of these beings means that placing them into well-defined castes is often an exercise in futility.

Bone Demon

Although they are usually more than a match for a skilled human combatant, bone demons are relatively cowardly, preferring to approach their opponents when numbers and circumstances are firmly in their own favour. Bone demons are torturers and tormenters, feeding on life energy through pain and grievous injury. They will spend days inflicting agonising procedures on their victims before flaying them and draping the skins over their distended bodies like a tattered, bloody cloak.

Every victim that a bone demon tortures to death allows the bone demon to grow more spurs, spines, and sharp ridges on its body. The oldest and most successful are roiling, shivering masses of bone, horn, and keratin.

Defiler Demon

The pious hermit, the dedicated soldier, the steadfast lover; these are the targets of the defiler demon. Defilers are especially powerful demons that require their victims to significantly change, abandon, or reverse their ethics before they can devour their soul fire.

As their methods require a great deal of time and manipulation, defilers often act as patrons to other intelligent creatures, using agents and proxies to slowly change their victim's environment until their values are called into question. A defiler's allies, however, will often find their own behaviour changing subtly over time until they cannot remember the reason they sought out a demonic pact to begin with; defilers always have more than one "project" running at any given time, and those who considered themselves the demon's agents eventually become its victims too.

Interestingly, defilers not only corrupt the faithful and the resolute, but also seek to redeem the damned and reform the condemned. Demons do not share the same concepts of morality as most civilised people, and a defiler only cares that its victim's values are abandoned, not if those values benefit others or not.

In extreme cases, a defiler's plotting has caused a chain reaction of abandoned ethics or ideals, causing an entire community to become vulnerable to the demon's attacks.

Devourer Demon

Also known as frog demons, thanks to their wide mouths, bulging eyes, and warty skin. Devourer demons are lazy, obnoxious, and demanding. They enjoy keeping terrified slaves as a nearby source of labour and sustenance. They draw life energy from intelligent creatures simply by devouring them whole, swallowing their victims into their rocky, crushing stomachs. They prefer their victims to struggle during the process, but not to the point where there is a possibility that their meal might actually get free.

Devourers are amongst the mosk likely demons to make bargains with intelligent creatures, often promising great power in return for a cult of devoted worshippers or a steady stream of victims. As with any other demon, however, their promises are usually empty or lacking in true substance.

Devourers grow larger and larger with every victim they devour, mutating unpredictably as they grow so that the most successful devourer demons look almost nothing alike, sharing only a few fundamental similarities.

Fury Demon

The furies are hideous, swarming horrors that crawl and fly in boiling crowds, searching for anything that might make easy prey. They attack with innumerable teeth and claws, ripping and tearing at their victims. Of all the entities listed here, they are the simplest, drawing life force from living things simply by invoking panicked terror and then shredding a target to bloody ribbons.

A swarm of fury demons has a strange hive mind, and can almost be considered a single creature. New furies emerge from the bodies of their victims as the swarm tears at them, swelling the swarm until, mercifully, it turns on itself and the furies begin destroying one-another. At the end of this frenzied bloodbath, a lone fury demon will emerge victorious and skitter away to begin anew.

Ice Demon

Cruel hunters, ice demons pursue their quarry for hours, days, sometimes longer, before cornering them and confronting them with certain death. The ice demon's intent is to have their prey so weakened by their ordeals that they surrender to their fate. The stronger the quarry at the beginning of the hunt, the greater the fall, and the sweeter the demon's crop when it is finally harvested.

They are called ice demons because they prefer uninhabited stretches of wilderness as their hunting grounds, places where the environment will make life as hard for their prey as possible, compounding the growing sense of helplessness that develops as the demon closes on its prey. Stories of these hideous creatures stalking haunted glaciers or ice fields seem particularly troubling, although their are stories of similar demons chasing their prey through the desert or on the open, featureless ocean.

Ice demons gain more and more control of their environment the more victims they successfully hunt. Those that escape their native plane and settle elsewhere become masters of haunted glaciers, treacherous reefs, and unegotiable tundra.

Seducer Demon

Also known as succubi, stories about these demons are often wildly exaggerated. The easiest way for a succubus to draw on the life force of a living creature is if that creature is experiencing an extreme emotional outburst or climax: overwhelming joy, murderous rage, mindless hatred, relentless sorrow, soul-crushing despair, or heedless lust. When an intelligent creature is going through one of these extreme emotional experiences, they essentially let their guard down and the demon can drain them of life energy until the victim is nothing more than a dried husk.

Naturally, the stories that people cling onto are the ones about an unearthly-beautiful demon floating through a bedroom window at night, but these are no more or less common than the seducer's other methods. Having sex doesn't actually help the succubus at all, but seducing someone does - it will tempt its quarry to their extent for lust, before tricking them into a secluded meeting place...

This means that phlegmatic people are sometimes easier targets for the seducer than more labile targets. If a hedonist is constantly having the time of their life, it might be hard to top that with an experience that will cause them to lower their defences and allow the seducer to attack them.

After draining their victims, a seducer demon can then steal that person's likeness and transform their appearance to resemble them. A veteran succubus might have dozens of forms to choose from when infiltrating a new community or settlement.

Shadow Demon

Also known as serpent demons, due in no small part to their legless, scaly bodies, and cold, reptilian eyes. Shadow demons are only partly corporeal, and are able to possess other creatures in order to whisper in their ear, so to speak, and influence their actions.

Shadow demons are hateful creatures that press their victims to betray their friends, allies, and loved ones. Then, gloating in victory, it violently devours the heart of the creature it was possessing and goes on a bloody rampage.

Each heart so devoured adds to the size and bulk of a shadow demon; the oldest, most cunning of their number are huge specimens capable of wrapping their dark, scaly bodies around entire castles, crushing the masonry within its coils.

The Rival Adventuring Party

Meeting a rival adventuring party in a dungeon is always interesting, but I prefer to pump the rivals up into a full-blown expedition with sentries, camp followers, a clerk, a paymaster, a logistics chain, etc. It feels more like a Tomb Raider, Uncharted, or Indiana Jones adventure and the PCs have to race to get the Collar of Amredes before the (possibly better funded and equipped) competition does.

It also adds some opportunities for roleplaying since members of the rival expedition might not be immediately hostile, or may be convinced to parley rather than immediately draw steel.

Expedition Leader

Roll a D6 on this table to determine who leads the rival adventuring party through the dungeon. The expedition leader will determine the basic strategy for moving through the dungeon, depending on their personality and preferences.

1. The Brawler. Veteran of half a dozen wars, the brawler married a guildmaster's daughter and used the wedding dowry to raise a small army for the expedition. Tough and charismatic, he personally inspects his hirelings and their equipment, demanding discipline and high performance. He pays his mercenaries and camp followers well; he knows that the dungeon's ultimate treasure is far more valuable than gold or silver…

2. Hearts and Minds. This strategist knows that he can pass through the dungeon quicker if he has the cooperation of the local population. He will make gifts, promises, and gestures of goodwill to the dungeon's denizens, forging alliances with the strongest and turning the locals against the PCs…

3. Caesar. Preferring to rely only on the loyalties of his allies and hirelings, the Caesar enslaves and decimates the dungeon's inhabitants whenever his forces come across them. It means that the locals will be less powerful, suffering under the Caesar's yoke, but it also means that the PCs could find a way to incite a rebellion…

4. The Zealot. Motivated by her faith, the zealot leads her expedition with an unshakable fervour. She may be a religious figure or simply loyal to a powerful guild or patron, but her primary characteristic is her dedication to the cause. She may not pay her followers too well, but they all (okay, most of them) follow her because they believe in the same cause she is championing…

5. The Historian. The rival party will loot treasure and seek out artifacts, but they do so in order to preserve them. The historian might be a wealthy eccentric, learned scholar, or the agent of a well-informed collector; whatever the case, the historian will want to avoid damaging any statues, shrines, murals, tapestries, mosaics, and even trap components that their party finds…

6. The Reclaimer. This expedition leader has a history with the dungeon and this is not the first time she has been here. The reclaimer might once have been an inhabitant, might have built the dungeon or had a hand in building it, might have designed some of its traps, or might have been a prisoner here; maybe she led a previous expedition to the dungeon and had to withdraw for one reason or another. Whatever the case, the reclaimer is back, and her knowledge of the dungeon's layout, hazards, and inhabitants will allow her to move quickly through the areas she is familiar with. Whether her history with the dungeon is widely known or not is another matter, and it could be something she is open about or something she prefers to keep to herself…

Warrior

Roll a D6 to find out who the rival party's main source of muscle power is. The warrior also determines what the rival party's minions are like and how they fight.

1. The Old Ally. One of the PCs has history with this character - they might be an old friend, ally, mentor, student, or partner, and now they're in the employ of the rival party's expedition leader. The related PC might know the old ally's tricks and weaknesses, but the old ally will also know theirs, and if their identity is not immediately revealed there might be a moment of hesitation as the PC realises who they're fighting. The old ally's warrior continent's theme is very flexible, depending on who they are and how they are known to operate.

2. The Tank. A heavily-armoured knight with a massive metal tower shield; this guy can take a lot of punishment and will try to corner the PCs while his armoured henchmen move in to flank them. He may look like a knight, but all notions of chivalry have been abandoned and the tank now fights only to rid himself of the curse that traps him inside his armour…

3. The Sniper. A one-eyed elf* banished from her enclave for killing her brother, the sniper is an excellent shot with his specialised bow, and an expert in camouflage and moving stealthily. The sniper's small cadre of elite marksmen act as a screen and bog-down her targets so she can flank the enemy and strike from an unexpected direction…

4. The Martial Artist. Maybe he uses a stick or some nunchaku, or maybe he just uses his hands and feet; whatever the case may be, this unorthodox fighter can kick arse without relying on traditional weapons and armour. The martial artist's students mimic their master's fighting style and might even be a horde of ninjas…

5. The Berserker. A strange mushroom-based concoction sends this mighty warrior into a foaming rage during which he has the strength and endurance of a half-company of normal fighting men. His warriors are all from the same tribe, and many of them partake of the frenzy-inducing mushrooms, making them much more dangerous than they would first appear…

6. The Duellist. This swordswoman is a show-off, happiest when she is chastising her enemies and humiliating them in front of her sycophantic gang of well-dressed swordfighters. She fights with a broadsword in one hand and a sword-breaker in the other, preferring light armour that allows her to dance around her opponents…

Thief

The rival party has a specialist when it comes to locks, traps, and fiendish puzzles. Roll a D6 to find out what sort of thief they have brought along.

1. The Kobold†. This thief is very good at sneaking around unnoticed and lifting artifacts without setting off the death-traps protecting them, but they are bullied and mistreated by the rest of the expedition…

2. The Dwarf‡. An outcast from his clan, this thief is an expert at detecting traps but takes longer to disarm them because he prefers to keep their components intact as part of his personal "hurt locker…"

3. The Acrobat. Able to dodge, tumble, wall-run, slow-fall, and find a handhold on almost any surface, this thief specialises in taking routes others might not consider…

4. The Poisoner. Although she was hired to disarm traps, she also covers her party's progress with traps of her own. Her poison dart, poison gas, and contact poison booby traps will cause their victims to become disorientated, begin hallucinating, or fall unconscious…

5. The Slave. Bound by a spell** of mind-control, this thief is not wholly in control of their actions. They are magically compelled to follow the orders of the other rival party members, whether they want to or not. The slave's skills are invaluable to the party, so they will not send him on suicide missions, but equally they do not treat him like an equal and he would not be here of his own free will if he had the choice. The PCs may find an ally in this thief if they can free him, although they may have to convince him that they will ultimately honour his reclaimed freedom…

6. The Demolitionist. Using black powder, alchemical explosives, or perhaps even a team of capable sappers, the demolitionist excels at noisy and potentially-catastrophic methods of dealing with obstacles in the party's way. Missing eyebrows, his hearing in one ear, and perhaps a few fingers, the demolitionist is an eccentric character and will be dangerous to face in combat if the PCs decide to confront him…

Mage

If you have wizards, mages, magicians, and sorcerers then consider also rolling a D6 on this table to see what sort of spellcaster the rival party has brought along for arcane firepower and utility.

1. The Secret Cultist. Unbeknownst to the expedition leader, the mage is one of the Sons of Akrimesh, and part of the dungeon has something to do with Akrimesh's resurrection (a mana sink, an artifact, or perhaps Akrimesh's burial site itself). The mage will betray the expedition leader when the time is right…

2. The Exotic††. This mage is either a creature the PCs have never seen, or one they have only seen very few examples of; a dark elf, a half-dragon, one of the slugmen of Yoon Suin, whatever might make the PCs perform a double-take when they first encounter the mage…

3. The Necromancer. The ability to communicate with the dead has allowed this sorcerer to interrogate historical figures and deceased locals; as a result, the expedition is unusually well informed on the dungeon's layout, secrets, and hazards. Not everyone likes working with necromancers, but the expedition leader has avoided conflicts breaking out amongst the party so far…

4. The Beast Master. Dogs, panthers, crocodiles, hawks, evil eyes, you name it the beast master has charmed and repurposed it. The PCs will have to be on the lookout for both murderous beasts and unassuming animals that could be spying on them and informing the beast master of their movements…

5. The Prophetess. Able to see into the future, the prophetess is likely to foil a number of the PCs' plans to outmanoeuvre the rival party. If she is going to be heading off the PCs at every turn, however, there should be something in the dungeon that will allow the PCs to mask their movements or fool the prophetess for long enough for them to eliminate her…

6. The Enigmatic. This sorcerer keeps their face hidden behind a gilded mask, beneath a voluminous hood, or within an unusual helmet. Their identity is never directly given by any of the other members of the rival party, and many seem somewhat resentful of the enigmatic mage's presence; it is clear that, were it up to the expedition leader, the thief, the warrior, and most of the camp followers, the enigmatic mage would not be here. Some invaluable alliance, unbreakable pact, or unfortunate necessity ties the mage to the others, and the mage is keen to remind the expedition leader of "our bargain," "the knowledge I possess," or "what will happen if you renege on our agreement…"

* If you don't have elves, feel free to replace the sniper with your own Robin Hood.
† If you don't have kobolds, use a halfling. If you don't have halflings, use something else.
‡ If you don't have dwarves, I'm sure you can think of something appropriate.
** If you don't have spells, try a more mundane form of leverage such as hostage family members, blackmail, or an addictive substance that the expedition leader keeps a small supply of.
†† If you don't have dark elves and slug men, someone from a far-flung continent will do.

Alchemical Formula Generator

Below is a series of tables for creating randomly-generated alchemical recipes. You might use them as plot hooks (the recipe for the potion to heal the king) or to inject some interesting consequences into your game (imagine a world where healing potions can only be made from vampire blood) or you could roll on the table for new potions invented/commissioned by the player characters.

The tables below assume a fairly typical fantasy setting with elves, dwarves, vampires, sorcerers, dragons, magic crystals, etc. Specific ingredient names can, and should, be changed where they are inappropriate for your setting. If you have no dwarves in your game, for example, rename Dwarven Powder to reflect its otherwise foreign origin.

Roll on the potion, oil, or explosive table as required (depending if you want to drink, apply, or explode the concoction when it is finished). Where a table has more than one column of results, roll on each column separately. You may want to roll on the Uncommon Formula Table if you want something unconventional. Finding or preparing some of these ingredients may be an adventure in itself.

1:1 POTION

D6	Potion Base	Ingredient
1	water	plant
2	alcohol	animal
3	milk	mineral
4	plant oil	special condition and roll again
5	fruit juice	special ingredient
6	special potion base	roll two results

Alcohol: roll a d6: 1-2 weak (cider, beer, mead); 3-4 medium (wine); 5-6 strong (spirits)
Milk: you can assume this is the milk of the most common dairy-related animal in the region, or you can roll on the animal table below
Fruit Juice: this might be more or less difficult to source depending on the climate and time of year

2:1 OIL

D6	Oil Base	Ingredient
1	common fat	plant
2	rare fat	animal
3	plant oil	mineral
4	tree sap	special condition and roll again
5	beeswax	special ingredient
6	special oil base	roll two results

Common Fat: lard, goose fat, butter, etc.
Rare Fat: bear fat, whale blubber, gelatinous cube jelly, etc.
Plant Oil: oil pressed from sunflowers, olives, coconuts, etc.

3:1 EXPLOSIVE

D6	Explosive Base	Ingredient
1	sulphur	plant
2	saltpetre	animal
3	ash	mineral
4	coal	special condition and roll again
5	dwarven powder	special ingredient
6	special explosive base	roll two results

Sulphur: if sulphur seems too mainstream, substitute with any relatively-abundant element of your choice
Saltpetre: game mechanic-wise, this is essentially souped-up sulphur - more reactive but not as common, possibly requiring a mixture of more common elements
Ash: you might require ash from a specific source (burned oak wood, ash from a blacksmith's forge, ash from a dragon's breath victim, etc.) or just any old ash
Coal: coal from the earth or charcoal, either will do so long as it can be used as fuel in a fire
Dwarven Powder: an alloy of minerals available only at remote sites, such as dwarf fortresses, elven enclaves, or from foreign merchants

4:1 UNCOMMON FORMULA

D3	Delivery	Ingredient
1	inhaled	as potion
2	dissolved	as oil
3	ingested	as explosive

Inhaled: includes incense, candles, snuff, pipe weed, etc.
Dissolved: must be mixed with water, then applied to the body, item, or area; includes soap, tablets, liquid solutions, tea, etc.
Ingested: roll a d6: 1-3 formula creates tiny pills; 4-6 formula creates cakes or scones
Feel free to add your own unusual formulas; alchemical butter, alchemical tattoo ink, alchemical bubble bath, alchemical injections, the list is surely endless...

1:2 POTION BASE (SPECIAL)

D4	Special Potion Base
1	pure alchemical base
2	strong acid
3	king's blood
4	ghostly tears

Pure Alchemical Base: a liquid from distilled alchemical ingredients, which can only be created by a skilled alchemist in a well-equipped laboratory or workshop
Strong Acid: might eat through certain containers, or cause troublesome fumes; roll a d6: 1-3 acid; 4-6 alkaline
King's Blood: accessing this ingredient might be seen as a hostile action (which might genuinely be the case) and would require earning (or bypassing) the trust of one or more very influential people
Ghostly Tears: come on, that ghost has been through enough, do you really want to make them cry ghostly tears into your reagent bottle? If you do it too much, the ghost will run out of emotional energy and dissipate, which means you'll have to go find another ghost and find out what gets an emotional reaction out of them - or worse, the ghost will stop being melancholy and start to get vengeful…

2:2 OIL BASE (SPECIAL)

D4	Special Oil Base
1	pure alchemical paste
2	dryad sap
3	kraken blubber
4	ectoplasm

Pure Alchemical Paste: the base requires a distilled form of paste, something that only a skilled alchemist can create with good equipment and high-quality ingredients
Dryad Sap: the base requires a substance that can only be obtained through favour or diplomacy, such as the heart-sap of a dryad's favourite tree which is spoiled if the tree is tapped or cut into
Kraken Blubber: the base must be made from the rendered fat of a unique monster such as a mutated troll, overgrown sea monster, or other forgotten beast
Ectoplasm: this base is found only where the veil between worlds is thin, allowing entities not native to this plane to pass through

3:2 EXPLOSIVE BASE (SPECIAL)

D4	Special Explosive Base
1	pure alchemical powder
2	ground unicorn horn
3	volcanic ash
4	the sands of time

Pure Alchemical Powder: a mix of high-quality alchemical ingredients, mixed into a fine powder; this can only be made by a skilled alchemist with a well-stocked laboratory
Ground Unicorn Horn: the processed body part of a legendary creature that would be difficult to find, very difficult to acquire, and would potentially make the PCs a lot of enemies in the process; this includes a specific dragon's bones, the elf queen's unicorn's horn, the claws of the emerald sphinx, etc.
Volcanic Ash: the fresher the better
The Sands of Time: found in an enchanted hour glass, in the ruined city of Quattarn, at the bottom of Surra's Lament Lake, guarded by a tribe of xenophobic fish-people

5:1 INGREDIENT: PLANT

D8	Plant Type	Special Properties
1	aquatic	remote
2	fungi	toxic
3	root	hallucinogenic
4	flowering	sentient
5	fruit-bearing	protected
6	leafy	mobile
7	thorny	reclusive
8	parasitic	defensive

Aquatic: seaweed, pondweed, coral, etc.
Fungi: mushrooms, toadstools, mould, lichen etc.
Root: includes tubers
Flowering: includes grass and moss
Fruit-Bearing: includes fleshy fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans, etc.
Seeds: includes spores, seed pods, etc.
Leaf: includes ferns, bushes, trees, etc.
Thorny: a plant adapted to defending itself from grazers
Parasitic: grows as an attachment to another plant
Special Properties
Remote: can only be found atop distant mountains, in the burning desert, on a lone island in the middle of the ocean, etc.
Toxic: roll a d6: 1-2 irritant; 3-4 debilitating; 5-6 deadly
Hallucinogenic: could be entertaining, dangerous, or both
Sentient: it might be persuaded to give you what you want, or it might simply scream as you harvest from it
Protected: roll a d6: 1-3 protected by animals; 4-6 protected by sentient beings
Mobile: it was here yesterday, I swear!
Reclusive: only bears its fruit (or whatever) during the full moon, on the warmest day of summer, or after devouring a flesh-and-blood creature
Defensive: roll a d6: 1-2 lashing tendrils; 3-4 toxic fumes; 5 thorn projectiles; 6 psychic trilling

5:2 INGREDIENT: ANIMAL

D10	Creature Type	Extract
1	abomination	bone
2	fey	internal organ
3	humanoid	skin
4	magical	egg
5	undead	sensory organ
6	extra-planar	extremity
7	giant	secretions
8	beast	tooth
9	ooze	blood
10	dragon	product

Abomination: a creature so strange and horrible that it can truly be described as an abomination
Fey: these creatures might not be especially difficult to overcome, but finding and catching them is often a greater challenge
Humanoid: orcs, goblins, serpent-people, fish-people, people-people, beastmen, etc.
Magical: this category includes creatures that rely on magic to function, are highly magical in nature, or were created by magic, such as elementals, golems, etc.
Undead: vampire saliva, zombie brains, mummy wrappings, there are lots of potential ingredients amongst the walking dead
Extra-Planar: roll a d6: 1-2 divine; 3-4 demonic; 5-6 other
Giant: trolls, ogres, forest titans, giant spiders, etc.
Beast: non-sapient creatures like dire wolves, brightly-coloured frogs, chimeras, stegosaurus, etc.
Ooze: all those treacherous puddings, oozes, slimes, cubes, etc.
Dragon: this could include dragon-like creatures of a lesser form, depending on your campaign material
Extract
Bone: roll a d6: 1-2 whole; 3-4 powdered; 5-6 marrow
Internal Organ: roll a d6: 1-2 heart; 3 liver; 4 gland; 5-6 brain
Skin: includes hide, shell, hair/fur, scales, and feathers
Egg: includes embryos for creatures that do not lay eggs
Sensory Organ: creature's primary sensory organs, includes eyes, ears, nose, fingers, antennae, etc.
Extremity: includes toes, hooves, tails, and claws
Secretions: includes dust, slime, ooze, venom, webs, saliva, etc.
Tooth: includes fangs, beaks, tongues, etc.
Blood: includes resin or other fluids for creatures with unconventional body compositions
Product: something created by the creature such as honey, dung, pearls, kidney stones, etc.

5:3 INGREDIENT: MINERAL

D4	Mineral Type	Properties
1	precious	requires special preparation
2	enchanted	unstable
3	extra-planetary	perishable
4	crystallised element	illegal

Precious: rare and expensive, includes diamonds, rubies, emeralds, etc.
Enchanted: naturally infused with magic
Extra-Planetary: this mineral, salt, or stone can only be found on Mars, in craters formed by meteorites, or by visiting asteroids in the dark void between worlds
Crystallised Element: base element (earth, air, fire, water, etc.) crystallised by magic into a pure form
Properties
Requires Special Preparation: must be cut to a specific shape, treated with acid, or specifically processed in some way
Unstable: don't drop it or it might explode!
Perishable: the ingredient will decay rapidly
Illegal: the mineral might be dangerous, taboo, restricted to a specific social class, or simply taxed so heavily that only certain people can afford it

5:4 INGREDIENT: SPECIAL

D4	Ingredient
1	spiritual essence
2	emotional essence
3	conceptual essence
4	philospher's stone

Spiritual Essence: roll a d6: 1 a soul or spirit in full; 2-5 one twelfth of a soul; 6 roll a d100, the formula requires this percentage of the alchemist's soul
Emotional Essence: extracted agony, bottled joy, powdered rage, etc.
Conceptual Essence: an enemy's forgiveness, a lover's scorn, a king's humility, etc.
Philosopher's Stone: a near-unique reagent prized by all alchemists, this might include an enchanted bottle, an alembic made from the bones of a god, or time spent cooking in the fires of creation

6:1 SPECIAL CONDITION

D6	Condition
1	illumination
2	celestial event
3	temperature
4	extra-planar assistance
5	mark of death
6	touched by the gods

Illumination: roll a d6: 1-3 must be kept in the dark; 4-6 must be constantly exposed to light
Celestial Event: must be created during a specific celestial event, roll a d6: 1 full moon; 2 lunar eclipse; 3 equinox; 4 solar eclipse; 5 solstice; 6 planetary alignment
Temperature: roll a d6: 1-3 must be kept cold; 4-6 must be kept warm
Extra-Planar Assistance: roll a d6: 1-2 divine; 3-4 demonic; 5-6 other
Mark of Death: the formula can only be prepared by someone who has died (undead, resurrected, etc.) or is very close to death (i.e. mortally wounded, terminally ill, an extremely old mortal, etc.)
Touched by the Divine*: roll a d6: 1-3 formula must be blessed; 4-6 formula must be cursed


Example: An alchemist wants to create a healing potion. They roll on both columns of the potion table and get a 2 (alcohol) and a 1 (plant). The alcohol description requests another roll which comes up as a 2 (weak). Rolling on both columns of the plant table we get a 4 (flowering) and an 8 (defensive), we roll for the defensive description and get a 3 (toxic fumes).

From this we can say that the healing potion requires a base of kvass, a weak alcoholic beverage made from bread; and that the main ingredient is the bright red petals of the kuryamma flower, a beautiful plant but one with a deadly perfume that paralyses any who come too close (turning would-be grazing animals into the flower's fertiliser, perhaps) - much more interesting than just 25gp worth of ingredients.

^{* Normally I would prefer to avoid mixing alchemy and religion, so I was tempted to leave this one out; but I also like the idea of PCs sneaking into a temple to steal a dead saint's thigh bone so they can use it in their new bomb recipe.}

Dwarven Weapons

"A dwarven adventurer? Sure, I know him! His name's Thurin, he's over there at the bar getting rat-arsed drunk. See that axe of his? Almost as big as him, right? Amazing craftsmanship, sharper than anything you've ever seen. He slew the silverscale serpent with it two weeks ago. Went into the forest with his companions and chopped its head clean off!"

Most of what you know about dwarven weapons and warfare is wrong. You have been sold an erroneous stereotype that was formed by observing criminals and outcasts.

Tunnel Fighting

A warrior's equipment will be influenced by his environment. Vast open plains? Horse archers. Lightly armoured infantry? Curved swords. Big, stone castles? Trebuchets.

If dwarves live in fortresses carved or built into the living rock, and their enemies are the orcs, goblins, and other subterranean nasties that are after their shiny stuff, then the dwarves will be doing a lot of fighting in some cramped spaces.

The dwarves are often outnumbered by their enemies; couple this with the difficulty of digging through solid rock and you have no reason to build broad, tall chambers with vaulted ceilings where your warriors can be overwhelmed. I'm not saying that dwarf sites won't have impressive artificial caverns and galleries, but they were not designed as the staging areas of the dwarf military.

Corridors, tunnels, bridges, and bottlenecks, those are the sort of place a dwarf wants to meet the invaders. These spaces deny the enemy their weight of numbers. Consequently, these are terrible places to try and swing an axe.

Spears

The rigid corridors of a subterranean fortress are the perfect environment for a formation of speardwarves.

A small unit of dwarf warriors armed with spears and shields could hold a corridor against a huge number of goblin invaders. Speardwarves can be arranged shoulder-to-shoulder and stacked behind one-another, forming a phalanx. This is even more effective underground than it is on the surface, as a phalanx in a corridor cannot be flanked.

Shortswords

Things don't always go to plan, of course. The formation could be broken by a lucky arrow or javelin; a troll might crush a speardwarf as it falls; an orc might go berserk and flail its way into the line despite normally-fatal wounds. That's why the dwarves carry shortswords.


A dwarven shortsword is a straight steel blade designed for stabbing and thrusting. The cross-guard doesn't need long quillions for parrying, so it probably looks similar to a Roman gladius. If the phalanx needs to advance for any reason, the third or fourth rank can also draw their shortswords to finish off any wounded enemies they pass.

Despite being stabbing weapons, the edges of dwarven shortswords are often quite sharp. It is sometimes necessary to hack bits off monsters found underground; such as the tendril of a cave clam or the vines of a karkeela plant.

Expedition Parties

Dwarves who leave the corridors of their home to explore the caves and caverns beyond would have to leave their shields and spears behind. Anyone who has been caving can tell you that natural subterranean passages are difficult and awkward to move through. One of the last things you want to carry around with you is something like a spear that will get stuck on corners and ledges, or a shield that will make letterboxes and shafts more difficult than they already are.

Exiles and Axes

But despite all this, if you meet a dwarven warrior abroad in human lands, he will probably have an axe rather than a spear or shortsword. Why is that? Well that dwarf, Thurin, has two dirty secrets.

First, Thurin is an exile.

Dwarf society is very strict, and there is very little leniency in their punishments. Those who endanger the community are cast out, essentially excommunicated from dwarf society. These pariahs might choose to wander the surface or the underground, but they are rarely permitted weapons or armour when they leave - it's all too valuable to be left in the hands of an outcast.

Most of these dwarves die, expiring of hunger or thirst in the wilderness, being poisoned by an unknown plant or fungus that they were desperate enough to eat, or they wander into goblin territory and never make it back out.

Thurin's second secret is that his axe is not of dwarven craftsmanship. It was made by an orc.

Thurin is one of the lucky few exiles who leave the mountainhomes and survive the wilderness long enough to reach lands settled by humans. That's not because he didn’t see any orcs, goblins, or giant eagles that were trying to eat him, it's because he's a survivor and he was willing to improvise.

During his journey down from the mountains, Thurin was fortunate enough to spot a patrol of goblins before they spotted him. He hid amongst some rocks or under a scraggly tree and waited until they passed, then he followed the goblins at a discreet distance until they made camp on a relatively flat ledge by a scree slope. The goblins posted a sentry but Thurin was careful not to be detected. He found some good-sized boulders and rolled them off the slope and into the camp while the goblins slept. He slid down the scree in the confusion, grabbed the first weapon he spotted amongst the rubble, and used it to kill any goblin that refused to flee.

That weapon? It was an axe, made by an orc a couple of years ago and lost in a skirmish or hunting expedition, later found by one of the goblins and treasured as an artifact beyond the abilities of the finest goblin weaponsmith. Orcs are actually not terrible at forging metal weapons, and axes are perfect for their fighting style. The axe was much better than the goblin weapons, so Thurin kept it and used it to fight his way to human lands, where he told people that he was a famous troll slayer searching for gold, glory, and a good death.

Ranged Weapons

A dwarf's stocky build does not lend itself easily to a bow, and the potentially cramped conditions that a fighting dwarf might find themselves in means that a bow might not see a great deal of utility. They are also made primarily of wood, which is usually a semi-precious commodity underground (subterranean mushroom tree wood does not make good bow limbs).

Crossbows are a better alternative, and can be made partially or wholly out of steel. Metal crossbows tend to be narrower, allowing them to be carried more easily through tunnels and caves. They don't generally need to boast long effective ranges, as they will most likely be used to shoot retreating goblins, wound subterranean game, or kill/wound monsters that live underground.

Gunpowder

You may see depictions of dwarves adopting gunpowder weapons such as bombs or muskets. Dwarves are handy and industrious, why wouldn’t they come up with finely-crafted wheel-lock muskets, right?

Consider, again, the environment that dwarves tend to fight in. Gunfire or explosions in underground tunnels would be disastrous for anyone involved, not to mention any dwarves living nearby. The noise alone would be terrible, rendering anyone in the area deafened (most combatants would probably lose a degree of their hearing at least temporarily.) Explosions would be extremely dangerous, threatening to weaken or destroy the structural integrity of dwarven tunnels. And finally, black powder firearms create a lot of smoke. That smoke doesn't have anywhere to go underground, so a dwarf musketeer would probably end choking on the fumes from his own weapon, along with his comrades and, if the smoke built up or migrated to the fortress, potentially his family and friends back home.

A dwarven exile might, however, find they have a knack for adapting human muskets, or might develop rifling for black powder weapons created on the surface.

Conclusion

Axes are still fairly poor weapons for dwarves. Their shorter limbs mean that they have shorter levers to employ in swinging motions. I imagine most dwarves use saws to cut down trees and giant mushrooms, rather than lumber axes. There are still dwarves who use axes, hammers, and other unconventional weapons, of course; they may be outcasts, not welcome amongst civilised dwarves, but perhaps it's their unorthodox fighting styles that draws attention to them and makes the stories about them so much more interesting.