Seraphim's Gate Rooms

 

Seraphim's Gate is a strange, twisted place, an otherworldy cancer manifesting itself into an everchanging maze, getting more elaborate as you go deeper within. Shallow layers resemble what you could find in a humble abbey; near the center, it's a exaggerated gothic mess. Here are some of the rooms you can find within. To roll for them, roll 1d10 and add the number of layers you are in. You start at layer 0.

1. Garden: Sad, withered plants looking out onto a sad, withered wasteland
2. Kitchen: Sparse, with most of the food having rotted away. Has a couple knives, if you're desperate for weapons
3. Wine Cellar: Plain stone floors, 1d12+2 large casks of wine.Only 1d4-1 of them is actual good wine, the rest having been severely watered down by holy water, milk, honey, and/or blood
4. Sleeping Quarters: Simple bunk beds lay in rows. Hidden under a mattress is  1. A dagger  2. A bottle of whiskey  3. A pouch of 1d20 gold  4. Cheap erotica
5.  Base Camp: Several fine tents in a cleared out room, with the few remaining contents shoved against one wall. Steamer trunks are filled with fancy clothing, high-quality alcohol and tobacco, rapiers, flintlock pistols, and occult notes.
6. Crypt: Dark and dusty. Dead wrapped in white cloth are interred in stone niches. One of them is new, bearing distinctive wounds, as if they were killed by a random creature within.
7. Chapel: A humble chapel, with 1d6+2 rows of pews and a bare stone altar. The decorations remaining on the walls look old and faded.
8. Bell Tower: A spiral staircase winding around a central shaft, the top of which has a giant bell. If rung, it automatically triggers an encounter. It can also be cut to crash through the floor, creating a shortcut 1d4+1 layers lower, and attracting an encounter from that layer as it investigates.
9. Great Hall: A massive hallway that extends into the horizon. High visibility, and very easy to get flanked and cornered.
10. Confessional Chamber: Rows of confessionals set across the walls. The first character to go inside one and speak hears  1. The slurred advice of a Drunken Visionary  2. Strange, chiming angelspeak  3. Blasphemous scripture from a Penitent Demon  4. The gnashing jaws of a Confessional Mimic!
11. Library: 1d4 stories high, and filled with books on religion, philosophy, and the occult. Behind a bookshelf is a secret chamber that  1. Has a spellbook within it  2. Leads 1d2+1 layers deeper  3. Hides a bulky Golden Flame machine designed to speak to spirits  4. Has an encounter from 1d3 layers deeper hidden inside.
12. Statuary: A room filled with statues of saints and humanoid angels. They  1. Each have offering slots, with 1d20 gold in each one  2. Contain the bones of actual dead saints  3. Will animate to punish anyone who uses violence within
13. Fountain: A fountain centered around a statue of an angel gifting water to begging men and women. The water  1. Turns anything dipped within to gold  2. Can render those soaked in it invisible to holy creatures  3. Is contaminated by milk and honey  4. Is so holy that everything that isn't angelic is dissolved by its touch
14. Anchorite's Hideout: What can only be described as a tiny, spartan stone house built into the cathedral. The exit is sealed and must be broken down, and the anchorite within is  1. Dead  2. Is mad and babbles in angelspeak  3. Will give well-meaning advice  4. Will give treacherous advice
15. Saint's Shrine: A large altar and surrounding artwork dedicated to a specific saint, with gifts lying on it. Depending on whether the altar is offered to or looted/desecrated, the saint will bestow an oddly specific blessing or curse related to its portfolio/quickly-scanned Wikipedia page 
    
    
    
16. Reliquary Chamber: Filled with holy artifacts, dead saint parts, and the like. Among all the religious bric-a-brac is a magic item
17. Choral Chamber: A semicircular room, with raised seats for choir singers. Those who try to sing inside  1. Manifest a choir collar  2. Cause ghostly singers to appear alongside them  3. Are filled with a sense of inner tranquility  4. Attract a Castrato Choir
18. Sacred Flame: A chamber centered around a stone basin with a golden-white flame burning inside. Those who stoke the flame are rewarded with its loyalty, while those who try to extinguish it are attacked by a Sacred Flame Elemental
19. Prayer Labyrinth: A massive labyrinth design, spread across the floor. Those who follow the path the entire way have one question vaguely answered. Those who cross any lines are struck down with holy fire.
20. Organ Room: A pipe organ dominates one part of this room. Playing it is very loud, and triggers an encounter roll, as well as  1. Giving one the ability to understand angelspeak  2. Causing 1d20*50 gold to blast out of the pipes  3. Deafening the player  4. Shaking the chamber hard enough to make it collapse
21. Grand Cathedral: 1d20+10 rows of pews, elaborate altar, stained glass windows, grand gothic excess. High traffic, so you'll always have an encounter here.
22. Ossuary: A crypt for saints, where everything is made of bones. Should one disturb the valuable-strewn graves, all centered around a magic item here, the bones will lash out to attack, and assemble themselves into guardians
23. Outdoor Grotto: A room open to the starry night sky, far lovelier looking than actual night. A grove of trees ring the room, guarded by an invisible angel wielding a flaming sword that punishes anyone who sins within the room
24. Bridge: A long bridge, connecting two huge floating chunks of cathedral across  1. A massive, Blame!-esque expanse of more cathedral on all sides  2. Empty void  3. Blue skies  4. Blinding white light. In any case, don't fall!
25. On a 25 or over, you suddenly exit onto a ledge near the top of a blasted crater. Far down, the wracked, dying body of Araquiel can be seen, chunks of cubic gold weeping milk and honey.

5G Bestiary #2: Blood

Art Source Here

 Bloodtanks: Vampires and blood go together like peanut butter and chocolate. The decadent ones (and that's a lot of them) have great blood fountains, mix it into perfumes and makeup, bathe in it, and do all other sorts of ridiculous, wasteful things. But blood collection is messy, and you can't sit in a bathtub of blood for forever. That realization caused a particularly bloodthirsty vampire to invent the Bloodtank. With this wonderful invention, one could float in a tank of blood, controlling hypodermic needle-tendrils to quickly and cleanly extract more supply. The main "drawback" if the users even realize it, is that all that blood puts them in a constant blood high, making them constantly spacey. If you destroy it, well, then, be prepared to deal with a pissed-off naked vampire going through a blood withdrawl.

HD: 5  AC: As Chain  Speed: Normal, but hovers above the ground

Damage: 1d6, from blood-draining needle, and drains 1d3 strength until the next rest. Regain 1d2 of that strength every day/rest.

Blood Soak: The Bloodtank can vent a small amount of blood to make the surrounding ground slippery

Outer Shell: If destroyed, you still have to deal with the vampire inside

Wants: To keep its tank full and its brain nice and fuzzy, to get any parts need for repairs/tune-ups

There are occasional rumors that some Bloodtanks are designed to slot into larger Bloodmechas as a cockpit; however, this is ridiculous fearmongering, and you shouldn't have to worry about it.

Bloodmecha

HD: 6  AC: As Plate  Speed: Fast, and can scale walls

Damage: 2d6 from needle-tendrils, and drains 1d4+1 strength 

Ripper Claws: Deals 1d6 damage, and gives a -1 penalty to armor each time it hits

Outer Shell: If destroyed, you still need to deal with the Bloodtank inside

Drunken Visionary

There are many different kinds of liquids inside Seraphim's Gate. Milk, honey, holy water, and the blood of both men and angels all flow throughout in artificial creeks eroded into the cathedral floors. Occasionally, one can find a monk or nun drinking from one of these. Their clothes soaked with all these liquids, they're thoroughly drunk with the holy power within them, experiencing swirling holy visions. If you ask nicely, they may help you find the way, describing two separate, nearby locations, and their details and inhabitants in vague, cryptic descriptions of their hallucinations.

(Many thanks to Daemons and Deathrays, for inspiring the first creature, and for being the first RPG blog I ever stumbled upon.)

The Grotesque Grimoire of GLOGgish Ghouls and Goblins #1: Gundead

 When you really think about it, being shot is a brutal way to go. A tiny chunk of hot lead, ripping through skin, muscle, fat, and bone at over 1.5k miles an hour. Headshots, especially, are nasty. It isn't like a game or movie, where it's a small, clean hole; no, when you shoot someone in the head, bone sprays out and brain splatters. Is it any wonder that, when a weapon causes this much violence, sometimes it hungers for more?

When a gun kills enough, when it sends enough souls to heaven or hell or wherever else, it occasionally becomes aware, a Gundead. It gains a mind and personality, and the power to overwrite the minds and personalities of others. Gundead are always arrogant and bloodthirsty, though this manifests in different ways. A shotgun might be brutal and vulgar, a sniper rifle would be cold and distant, a revolver might have a superficial sense of honor, and so on. Whatever the case, they'll try to make the rest of your life short and painful.

Gundead have 1 HD and no physical stats. Their host has HD, AC, and physical stats appropriate to what they were before they were overwritten. Although they speak through their host, they try not to reveal their true state, so that they aren't immediately destroyed. If a person picks up a Gundead, they must make a CHA save, or have their movements hijacked by the Gundead. If they fail a second save the turn after, their mind is overwritten by the Gundead's; even if freed, they'll still keep lingering personality traits.  

Wants: To kill for fun, to do it in the most impressive/brutal way possible, to boast and be flattered

Greater Gundead: Sometimes, a Gundead is wielded for so long by a single body that they begin to favor it. Even if the body is killed, rather than find a new host, they'll command it to rise again. Eventually, the body will become a walking skeleton, still clutching its gun. These Gundead can only be killed if their host is destroyed, and the host can't be destroyed unless it is turned to ash and scattered to the four winds.