So you've been swallowed by a giant monster

There is a bit of a tradition amongst some bloggers to exchange posts as "gifts" and prompt to creativity.  I took part this year, and Kwub  made the following Christmas wish:

“So You’ve Been Swallowed by a Colossal Creature” dungeon room feature table or encounter table

Your party has heard of the legends of a great Sea Serpent, who's bellies is full of treasures.  Unfortunately for you, the Serpent was far greater than you anticipated, and has swallowed your party whole.  Lost in a labyrinth built for digestion, the heroes seek a way out... 

From "Uriah Jewett and the Sea Serpent of Lake Memphemagog" (1917)

Let's make this an encounter table.  Roll a 1d8

1:   2d6 Goblins.  

These goblins have been in the Creature for generations and consider it their entire universe, and have no interest in leaving.  Roll 1d6 or decide their attitude:

- Lone goblin survivor, afraid and cowardly

- Goblin ambush - goblins gotta eat!

- Willing to trade

- Cautious and fearful

- fighting something else

- Goblin cookout - fish tacos! 

These goblins use crude spears as weapons, and have a keens sense of smell.  They know things about this environment (although not how to escape).  However, for each useful piece of advice a goblin knows, the goblin will also give 3-4 recommendations that the goblin firmly believes in but is nothing but superstition.

Each goblin has a 10% chance of having a Serpent Pearl. 

2:  the Serpent Pearls

The legends of the great riches of the Sea Serpents has a core of truth - the Serpent Pearls.  You have found a clutch of 3d6 such pearls.  These pearls are larger and more irregular than oyster pearl and are worth 1d20 gp each; alchemists, adventurers, wizards and the sorts may be willing to pay more.  10 Serpent Pearls fill an encumbrance slot.  

It is known by some that the core of a Serpent pearl is always a small, hard object that was not digested properly.  90% of such objects have little or no value, however 9% contain a gem or jewel worth 1d100 gp (if a 100 is rolled, roll again and multiply by 10), and 1% contain a small magical items such as a ring or amulet. Unfortunately, investigating the nature of the core requires the destruction of the pearl.  There are no known reliable method of determining what is inside the core without destroying the pearl, which has lead some to speculate that the Serpent Pearls may be sovereign against divination magic.... 

3:  A black bear.

You know what to do.  

4:  Digesters (1d4) 

These creatures are part of the Sea Serpent's digestive system.  They appear as greenish squat worm, perhaps 8-10 feet long and over a feet in diameter.  They hunt on sight alone, and will pursue moving things doggedly, but lose interest rather quickly if their quarry is out of sight.  If attacked, they will emit a shrill keen, which will attract 2d4 more digesters within 1d6 minutes.

Digesters' only weapon is an acidic spray, that does 1d10 dmg in a 20 foot cone.  They can do so several dozen times in a row before their secretions get exhausted.   Once their acid has caused a foe to fall, they will spray said foe again numerous times to ensure a complete digestion.  This obsession may give the victim's allies a chance to flee.  

Digester 

4 HD, AC as leather,  

Attack:  1d2 damage (weak bite) or 2d6 acid spray in 20 foot cone

Speed:  as standard human

Size: large

Morale: 9

Treasure:   A digester has a 4/6 chance of containing 1d8 Serpent Pearls.  Cutting one open and digging out the pearls takes 1d6 minutes...

5.  Wounded fish

This large sea creature is wounded but still has some fight in it.  

Digester 

3 HD, AC as chain/scale

Attack:  1d8 dmg (tail slap) 

Speed:  as a crawling toddler 

Size: large

Morale: 12 - will fight to the death

Treasure:   it sweet delicious flesh

6:  The dungeon Merchant

How did he get here?  Where is he getting his wares?  Is this even a dungeon? Nobody knows!  But you are sure glad he is here.

The dungeon merchants has 1d10 rations for sale, 1d10 torches, 1d6 potions of healings and 1d4 randomly determined potions.  He will buy dungeon pearls for 50% of value.  If attacked, the dungeon merchant hurls an object to the floor and disappears in a puff of smoke.

Stats can be found here.  For better dungeon merchants, please consult the following.

7: The "Visitors"

This group of four adventurers was swallowed by the serpent nearly 30 years ago.  They still seek treasure, but have been here so long they have become part of it.  They may be willing to help the party, but this help won't be free.

Turmak,  dwarf ranger.  Turmak has completely forgotten his old life outside the serpent.  He is vaguely aware that there is an outside world, but sees this as irrelevant.  He no longer walk but glides on the fleshy surfaces of this strange inner world, covered in mucus.  He rarely speaks - he knows what to do - and has forsaken most tools.  He wears mostly ropes and pouches.  In battle, he throttles with strong, gnarly hands and bites with his sharpened teeth.

Vruss, the tortle druid.  Vruss is in many ways the leader of the expedition - their magical powers were instrumental in surviving the early days of their expedition, and Vruss now has reached a level of deep communion with their environment - they see this inner world as a sacred place.  In combat, they use spells of poison and acid.

Fennel, the elven thief.  Unlike some of her companions, Fennel  has not embraced her environment.  However, she is wanted for regicide in the capital, and is willing to spend a few human generations here to let the heat die down.  The three decades has worn her down however, and her mood has become very brittle as a result.  In battle, she uses a short bow and bone arrows coated in poison.

Morgell of the Rings, the human mage.  Morgell supports the group with various utility magic.  He is here on a quest - he has it on good authority that one of the pearls in the Serpent contains a ring of wishes, which he intends to use to bring his dead twin sister back to life.  He has developed a test to determine if a pearl contains a ring.  So far he has found dozens of mundane rings and 3 magical ones - a ring of free action, a ring of protection and a ring of the ram.  Morgell is starting to get old, but he has not given hope yet.  In combats he uses web spells and the aforementioned  ring of the ram.

8:  The Parasites (1d12+1d4)

These worms have evolved to reside and thrive within the digestive track of the Great Serpent.  They seek to find living prey and devour it before it can be digested by the Serpent, giving little in return.  They are pale pink, a lamprey-like mouth, about the length of a human and 4-5 inches in diameter.  They approach with stealth, and try to overwhelm a straggler.  They show little fear.

Gut worms 

1+1 HD, AC as leather,  

Attack:  bite, 1d6 dmg.  They will inject eggs into dead bodies.

Special defense:  if grappled, restrained by a net or a spell etc, they will secrete thick mucus to escape

Speed:  as standard human

Size: medium

Morale: 8

Treasure:   None.  Their flesh is foul, but their skin may be turned into armor, if tanned properly. 

Lastly, I can't help but note that with a bit more work, this encounter table could be expanded, modified, into an *adventure* - Kwub's concept would lend itself very well to a "depth crawl", a bit like the Stygian Library.  Add more encounters, wonky treasures, spooky "rooms", and a way out... 

P.S.  I also received an entry.  I wanted a list of goblin relatives.  Instead I got ... *this* astounding Goblin Market. It is an *impressive* piece of work, very creative and substantial.  The writing, the lore, the quality of the items... 

UVG-Troika! damage conversion - take two (and two important questions)

Hello

I recently posted a damage conversion from UVG to Troika!  Unfortunately, I screwed up.  My players protested even before the play-test, I looked at it again, and I realized something fundamental.  Specifically the damages rolled on an 1 are WAY too high.  If you look at the existing weapon damages in Troika!, on a 1 you do 1-4 points of damage, with the sole exception of dragon fire (which is 6).  If you look at my first attempt, you will note that for several weapons, damage on 1 are WAAY above this.

Sausage indeed...

The value you get on a 1 is pretty important because it represents "grazing" damage and, because of armor, it comes up not that rarely (armor imposes a penalty on the 1d6 roll).  It's also important as a determinant of the effectiveness of a weapon vs heavily armored foes.  So I have to re-do this.

First, I'm tweaking my basic patterns:

AVG 6 (base step is 2)	-1	2	3	4	5	6
FLAT (can opener, sword)	4	6	6	6	6	8
Average (spear based)	3	4	6	6	8	9
Wild (ax derived)	2	4	6	6	8	10
superwild	1	3	5	7	9	11
Spike	2	2	4	6	8	14

You'll note that the roll on a 1 or less for the average damage is no longer 4, but 3.

The second thing is that the damage on a 1 must NOT change when the average damage is scaled up.  So if I have an average damage of 7 (not 6) I would go +1 to everything *except* on a 1.  The extra missing damage would go on the 6 instead.  So an average spread, average damage 7 would look like:

3 5 7 7 9 11, instead of 4 5 7 7 9 10 (the old method)

On an average damage of 8, the extra goes on the 4, becoming

3 6 8 9 10 12 , instead of 5 6 8 8 10 11

This may have to be adjusted for individual damage patterns of course - for example on the "flat" pattern that extra is applied to the 6 twice.

Once we reach an average of 9, we create a new set of patterns.  You'll note that the damage on 1 has gone up a wee little bit, but not much.  This means that damage will go wilder as it goes up - a pattern that already happens in Troika!

AVG 9 (base step is 3)	-1	2	3	4	5	6
FLAT (can opener, sword)	5	9	9	9	9	13
Average (spear based)	4	7	9	9	11	13
Wild (ax based )	2	6	9	9	12	16
Superwild	2	5	7	10	13	17
Spike	3	4	6	9	13	19

Again, if you need a higher damage you increase damage but *not* on the 1 d6 value.  And when we reach average 12, a new set of patterns is needed.  Note how the minimum damage has crept up, but again not too much.

AVG 12 (base step is 4)	-1	2	3	4	5	6
FLAT (can opener, sword)	6	12	12	12	12	18
Average (spear derived)	5	10	12	12	15	18
Wild (ax derived)	3	8	12	12	16	21
Superwild	2	6	10	14	18	22
Spike	3	5	8	12	16	28

So let's apply this to UVG guns...

UVG PISTOLS	-1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Inquisitor squirt gun	2	2	3	4	5	8	10
Revolver	2	3	4	5	7	9	12
Porcelain Prince Pistol	3	6	8	9	10	12	14
Ultra Blaster	5	10	10	10	10	15	18
Blue God Blaster	5	12	14	15	17	21	25
UVG RIFFLE	-1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Heavy Crossbow	4	5	7	8	9	9	12
Scavenger bolter	2	5	7	7	9	12	15
Redland District SMG	2	4	7	10	11	14	17
Violent Cat Riffle	4	9	10	10	12	15	20
Vome Slagger	2	6	8	11	14	19	24
black city matter disruptor	2	7	10	10	13	18	22
Satrap gun	2	8	11	12	14	19	22
Voice of Death	3	6	9	13	17	30	35

This isn't perfect, but it should be a lot better.  There are probably slight tweaks here and there that would make that much smoother, but it's a solid step forward. It feels more in line with existing Troika! weapons, although some of them hit *very* hard indeed. I admit that I may have pushed the damage too high - playtest will reveal this.  But now that I have my patterns down, adjusting them should be fairly easy from now on.

Lastly, the important question.  In Troika, you have skills tied with specific weapons - spear, hammer, knife.... but when it comes to ranged weapon, there are only 4 - bow, crossbow, pistolet, fusil.  So I assumed that if  you had pistolet, you were proficient in all pistols, and fusil in all rifles... but now I am not so sure.  With that interpretation, it will push people towards pistols and rifles.  

Another thing I was thinking about is the importance of melee combat in Troika! Whenever someone attacks another, there are no "misses" - either the defender gets hurts *or* the attacker get hurts (baring the occasional ties).  This makes fights go quickly, it's a very cool aspect of the system!  But in a ranged battle, especially if everyone has cover... fights can go long because there is a lot of of missing going on.  I wonder if this needs a fix or not... 

 "this post is an independent production by me and is not affiliated with the Melsonian Arts Council"

Troika UVG! Further conversion notes

Hello

So as I mentioned a while ago, I'm running a UVG game with the Troika ruleset.

I'm not going to do play session reports, but here is what has happened over the last oh, 6 sessions or so:   So far they've gone to the Last Serai, managed to make a killing on vodka, and are regrouping at the violet city for a new voyage.  They have befriended a porcelain prince, the chicken warrior has accidentally joined a revolutionary group AND another porcelain prince is after his body, the inquisitor has a low-grade vome infection and they now have 2 motorcycles.  The group is very keen on finding a Behemoth pearl for Cubina - for some reason they really latched on this side quest hard.  Maybe because they all tried to save the were-pug and failed badly on their rolls?  But I already have plans for this quest now.  I didn't know where campaign was going to go, and it may still veer off in different directions, but well the players have a goal and that's great.

Play-testing is very important, and I thought I should report on my rules finding.

First, my conversion table is... a bit harsh.  It works OK with luck checks but not so much with skill checks, so I've tweaked it:

LUCK BASED			SKILL BASED
2d6	1d20		2d6	1d20
Fumble	Fumble		Fumble	Fumble
-6	1		-6	1
-5	2-3		-5	2
-4	4		-4	3-4
-3	5		-3	5-6
-2	6		-2	7-8
-1	7-8		-1	9-10
0	9		0	11-12
1	10-11		1	13-14
2	12		2	15-16
3	13		3	17-18
4	14		4	19
5	15-16		5	20
6	17-18		6	21+
7	19
8	20
9	21+
Critical Success	Critical Success		Critical Success	Critical Success

It's not perfect, but it's better.

Second, the gun damages is *wild* in Troika! and I have a few thoughts about that.

A: armor is *essential* - even a little bit will greatly enhance player survival.  It can also enhance the survival of villains (but don't give every mook armor).

B:  A better "fix" would be to revise damage... but that's a lot of work, and I'm going to wait for that, because it would mean looking at *all* the Troika! weapon damage.

C:  I will allow players to spend 500 XP to gain 1d3 stamina UP to a maximum of 24.  After that, it's 1000 XP.

Third, a new weapon - the humble revolver:

	1-	2	3	4	5	6	7+		# shots	Weights	range	base cost
Revolver	2	2	3	4	7	9	13		6	1/3 stone	near	75

Lastly I will note that I am collaborating with David Schirduan (ie Technical Grimoire), we are exchanging notes on play tests etc, and he will be publishing a new version of his conversion guide - as he is infinitely better at layout than I am, that should be a far better documents than my rambling blog :P .  We aren't aiming on having identical rules, but I'm confident that our mutual work will make each version better - peer review isn't just for science..   Also, Coins and Scroll is forging ahead full metal on UVG, so read his blog!

Troika! - UVG - Rules conversion notes and new Backgrounds

So I decided to run the very intriguing UltraViolet Grassland setting by Luka Rejec, using the very zany Troika! ruleset.


At first I thought this would be easily accomplished.  The flavor of Troika! and the UVG setting really do merge well.  The inventory system is *remarkably* similar.  And there is a *very* useful rule conversion document at the Technical Grimoire.  Easy Peasy right?

Well... not 100%.   First there are some lacks in the conversion document - things that were not addressed.  Second, I feel that some changes to the Troika! rules should be made both for UVG but also "in general".   I intend for this post to be a "living document" - I'm going to add to it as I go along.

GENERAL TROIKA! IMPROVEMENTS.

 I've made some comments about the Troika! rules in the past, and now that we've played several games, I feel confident in making the following changes:

1:  Troika! characters can be rather incompetent, and this is *especially* true if you have a base skill of 4 (the range is 4-6).  I had implemented a rule with a skill range of 5-6, but it still left the characters with a skill of 6 quite better than the characters with a skill of 5. 

To help this, I've split the basic Skill into 2:  Physical Skill and Mental Skill.  When creating a character, the player assigns one with a value of 5 and the other with a value of 6.  There is no need to assign advanced skills to mental of physical, rather which one to use will depend on the situation.

Example:  Colonel Sanders has a physical skill of 6 and a mental skill of 5.  He also has an advanced skill of sword of 2.  In a fight, a physical challenge, he would have a total sword skill of 8.  However, if he was trying to see if a new sword was a good purchase; it would be a mental check, meaning his total sword skill would be 7.

2:  Luck is very important in Troika! To "even out" luck scores a little bit, starting characters roll luck as 6 +2d3, vs 6 + 1d6.

3:  To generate new characters in an existing game, so that they aren't too far behind the others, the following procedure is followed:
:  Get a new character randomly (either using the existing Troika! characters or using the 1d40 table in UVG - the GM will then have to make one).  
b: The player can improve the advanced skills by 3 points, spreading as they wish but without increasing any advanced skills above 3
c:  The player can add one new advanced skills at a rank of 1


UVG CONVERSIONS

1: One of the big challenge is food and healing.  Troika! characters heal fast, eating food (provisions - which they can carry up to 14 unit in a strange "parallel" inventory) heals 1d6 and sleeping heals 2d6 stamina.  But in the UVG there are frequent misadventures (you step on a nail, you lose 1d3 life type of deal).  If these were easily fixed, they would become almost meaningless.  Also, supply management on a caravan becomes a lot easier if people can carry 14 meals for "free" on top of their equipment.

So clearly the inventory and the healing system have to be tweaked.

After speaking with David Schirduan about this issue (thanks David!) we came up with the following fix:

Traveling in a caravan is *not* restful stuff.  You need a week off in a safe place (or being taken care of by someone else during a halt) to gain sleeping-based healing.  One could also posit that the UVG's conditions are not entirely friendly to human life - people heal slower than in other places?  The same rules apply to luck "healing".   edit: I note that there is a "rest after a week of travel if nothing happened" and I would allow that too, but it's not reliable.

As far as eating food and inventory, first of all the parallel provision inventory is gone.  1 sack = 1 weeks of supply (mostly food). 1 day of food = 1 ration = 1 stone.  Eating your normal amount of food keeps you healthy but doesn't heal you.  Eating more heals 1d6 per ration - and you can't eat more than 3 rations a day (there are limits on how much  you can gorge  yourself).  This limits healing to 2d6 stamina per day *and* makes healing via food a difficult choice - you need those supplies to reach your destination!

I was a bit hesitant about this - this *really* limits healing in the UVG!   However, there are still ways to restore luck (pocket gods) and the UVG has the VC Healing Lotion for 40 cash as a further source of healing.   So I think it's livable.  This hasn't been play-tested, so I will update as we find out how well this works.

2:  There are a number of 1d20 "skill check results" table to see what you get after a relevant skill check (market research, carousing etc).  While these tables are well done, they aren't "standardized" - meaning on one table you have a result on 1-2, another result on 3-6, while another table has a result on a 1, on 2-3, on 4-7.... this makes converting from 1d20 to 2d6 *really hard*.  If there was one reason above all others to not use Troika! for UVG, this would be it.  David was stumped by this challenge, and so am I - it seems I'm going to have to convert each bloody table at a time.

Edit:  I tried converting these one at a time and it's ridiculous.  What I've done is created a table that convert the results.   Now, it won't fit all times - and when it doesn't, just roll!  Or pick.  Whatever.   I figured that the worst someone could fail by is rolling an 11 with a skill of 5, and the best is rolling an 11 with a skill of 12.

Are the numbers right?  I don't know.  I'm a bit concerned about charisma check being luck checks (luck tends to be higher than advance skills) but the best way to find out is to playtest it - and now we will, because I can move on from trying to make dozens of bespoke tables!  Will tweak as needed, but for now:

2d6	1d20
Fumble	Fumble
-6	1
-5	2-3
-4	4
-3	5
-2	6
-1	7-8
0	9
1	10-11
2	12
3	13
4	14
5	15-16
6	17-18
7	19
8	20
9	21+
Critical Success	Critical Success

So double 6 is a fumble, double 1 a critical success.  0 would be rolling equal to your skill/advance skill rating.  -1 is missing the roll by 1, +1 is making the roll by 1 etc etc.

EDIT PART DEUX:  I redid the table, go see it here!


UVG BACKGROUNDS

There are 40 proposed backgrounds in the UVG, and I'm not going to convert them all!  But here are 2 that are being used in our game:

Dwarven Wine vampire priest

Why are you in the UVG: Nightly dreams of a lost world
what do you have: Grey cube that weighs five times more than lead

Background:  You are a priest of a sinister cabal of Wine Vampires.  The Wine Vampires suck alcohol from the blood of the inhebriated, and control a very significant network of vinyards.  Vampire Wines are renowed; rich and ruby red, revitalizing for they grow from source-rich soils infused with the flesh of creation.  They increase in value further west you go (ie deeper in the UVG). 
Nominaly, you are claiming to your superiors you are working to expand the markets west.  In reality, you have been troubled by nightly dreams of a lost world, which you feel compeled to find.

Advanced skills
SPELLS:
- Tempting Goblet 2
- Skeletal counsel 1
- Iron hand 2
- Leech 1
Advanced Skills
- Vintner 2
- Crossbow fighing 1
- Metalworking 1
- Marketing 1

Possession:  Grey cube that weighs five times more than lead (encumbrance: 1 stone)
Crossbow, 20 bolts
Fur robe (light armor)
beret
iron short sword
Brass Chalice
1 casket (1 "sack") of vampire wine (trade good)
3 bottles of vampire wine
pouch of grape seeds. 

New Spell:
Tempting Goblet (2):  Splash wine on a foe, and the loss of such a fine vintage will demoralize them.  The foe received a -1 skill penalty to all skill checks (including attacks) *and* a -2 penalty to luck/skill checks to resists effects until the wine dries


Undercover rainbow inquisitor

Why are you in the UVG: Portents of a deadly machine demon
what do you have: Platinum necrogoggles that reveal undead

Advanced skills
Disguise 2
Linguist 2
Pistol  2
History 1
Tracking 1
Sneak 1
Awareness 1
Old Tech 1

Possession:
pistol: Inquisitor Squirtgun
Platinum necrogoggles that reveal undead
Ballistic Linen Suit (light armor), only 1 slot equipment (vs 2)
30 squirt round
5 tiny vials of acid
5 tiny vials of holy water

Inquisitor Squirtgun 2 2 2 4 6 8 12  (when empty)
The squirtgun is a pistol that holds 5 shots and fire liquid-filled rounds.  It is not a particularly powerful weapon by itself, however when the round is filled with a suitable payload it can be more dangerous.  Use of a noxious substance such as acid adds a flat 2 to the damage, other subtances may be more harmful or inefective.


edit:  I've been asked if this has been play tested - this is being play tested now.  I have a game ever 2 weeks and we had our first UVG session already.  So if this doesn't work, this will be edited, there will be a new post etc :)

Lastly, I would be remis not to note the great UVG resource that Coins and Scrolls is.

(Required disclaimer: this post an independent production by me and is not affiliated with the Melsonian Arts Council.)

Bears!

The Bear is a very important "monster" in the OSR, because it is a "teaching" monster.  Sure you could fight the bear and perhaps lose a party member or two, but it's much better to avoid it or bribe it with food instead.  Particularly devious parties will even trick the bear into fighting their enemies for them.   Learning how to deal with a bear is an important rite of passage for gamers.

(I'll note that the bear stats can be re-used for a *lot* of monsters, but that's a topic that has already been well covered by other bloggers).

Ok, so now your players know how to deal with a bear.  Can you still use bears as a GM or is it boring?  Of course you can!

The local villagers approach the party because they are having a bear problem.  What is going on?
Roll 1d8:

1.  A single bear has been spotted by villagers in the woods; it is acting erratically and looking "not natural".  The bear is actually a bear-shaped robot piloted by tiny space gremlins who are exploring the local fauna and flora.  They didn't do a good job disguising in their exploration craft.

2. The bear has been eating moths in the mountains to fatten up, as bears do.  It has found a large batch of dream moths.  He is now stalking the dream world and giving the locals nightmares.

3.  An alarming number of bears have been spotted in the woods and people are disappearing.  A virulent case of bearantropy is to blame - merely being in contact with the bear is enough to catch it, with an onset of mere minutes.  The PCs must found the original carrier and cure it to break the curse  so they can return everyone (and possibly themselves) to normal.

4. An alarming number of bears have been spotted in the village. The 14 bears are intelligent and armored.  They are a mercernary band on break between jobs, and they are eating a *lot* of food. The locals are very nervous
 
5.  A bugbear had a bad encounter with ogres and has lost all its belongings, including its clothes.  It's quite embarrassed by the whole situation.

6.  A wizard has been polymorphed into a bear and is trying to get help to turn back into her original form.

7.  A particularly clever local bear feels it has been born into the wrong body and dreams of being human.  It is trying to fool humans into turning it into an humanoid.

8.  There is no bear.  The locals are cannibal cultists who wanted to lure the PCs into the wood to hunt them down and eat them.  The forests is filled with traps and ambush points.

edit/PS:  someone said I should do tigers and bears.  Well I can't possibly do tigers better than this.  Brace yourself!  http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2013/11/inventing-tiger.html

10 Slugmen encounters

My "best tables of OSR" post has been a huge success, but it made me realize something - I have not written a *single* table of my own for this blog that I can think of. I must remedy this at once!

So I give you 10 slugmen you might encounter.

roll 1d10

1. Huki Eki, House of Quartz, Grain negotiator.
Slender, twitchy, prefers jade ornaments. Followed by two servants and a guard.
Huki Eki has recently purchased the book "Causality: a rebuttal" by Lug the Mad. It is said that whoever reads the book goes completely mad and comes to a tragic end. Huki Uki really wants to read it, but wants to test its safety first. If the party refuses, the slugman will try to hire them to find someone who will.

2. Bagga Vo, independent, alchemist.
In patched red robes and hematite beads. One of their eyestalks is longer than the other, giving them a questioning look. Has a stout human servant armed with a club.
If one of the PCs is a foreigner of an "exotic race" (ie, not a dwarf, human, slugman or crabman), they invite the party to their "palace" (a modest tower) to discuss. They want to extract a bit of blood from the PC in question in exchange for 100 rupees. The PC's arrival in the Yellow City has been noted and some covet their blood. By making it available to purchase, demand is met and violence is averted (this is not a threat!). Proposes weekly sessions.
If no PC are of an exotic race, Bagga Vo has heard rumors of an *elf* (astounding!) having reached the Yellow City and will offer 100 rupee them to find said elf (unharmed and not inconvenienced!).

3. Polaha U, of Ras Bolon, righ hand man of Fo Kulo
Large, confident, armed with a large axe and well armored. Alone
Polaha U is looking for smuggling opportunities in the Yellow City. There are heavy duties on goods coming in and out of the Yellow City, but the nearby river port of Ras Bolon has no such tariffs, only a few bribes to pay... there is money to be made.

4. Kapo Shofi, independent, head auctioneer, Holy woman of Va Qabu, the little dog of dream and sleep.
Old and very tall, presents as female. Wears gold jewelry. Followed by a slugman clerk and 3 armed guards.
She will approach rich/powerful looking PCs and invite them to attend the next auction at the Gold Auction House (an opulent place where magical doo dads and rare artworks are purchased and sold) in the Golden Triangle district. If the PCs look poor (but adventurous), she will let them know that the Old City has much odd but valuable treasures to be found, and that they can make significant amounts of money auctioneering off their finds at her auction house.

5. Kavela, House of the Sea, Golemologist.
Identifies as male, wears several medallions of various metals. Accompanied by his friend Chit Du Ban, a human holywoman of the Crane of Dawn.
Kavela is loudly and excitedly speculating about a new theory of apotheosis and how it could be tested. Chit Du Ban is urging him to keep it down, and that such talk could be considered heresy - best kept for the offices of the Society...

6. Ui Ga, Independent (formerly House of Brass)
Unusually dark colored and wears yellow silks. Alone
Ui Ga is one of the head warlocks of the Topaz Order. They are seeking warlocks of the Kraken, which are quite illegal in the Yellow City. If the party has been using strange magic, the slugman is investigating the party discretely. Alternately, they are looking for mercenaries to take out a suspected cell of Kraken cultists.

7. Uki Le, House of Leaves, rent collector
Sickly looking and with few ornaments. Alone, armed with a kris.
Uki Le is bitter about their lot in life. They have no magic or scholarly talents, went missing for two years without their house noticing (it wasn't voluntarily) and made an oath to an angry warrior to help feed poor children in the Narrows but lack the funds to do so. They are looking for fulfilment, magic and money, in that order.  Perhaps if they somehow got some grain from the Great Granary...

8. Papali, House of the Sea, captain
Stout but quick footed, wears a leather cape, followed by a couple of sailors.
Papali is on the look out for sell-swords willing to bolster his ship's defences as he goes for a *discrete* trade run in unguarded waters. Pays wells. Has no magic but skilled with a cutlass.

9. Wu Yi , House of Quartz, holyman of Boxeos (the north wind) and head Granarian:
Large and well armored, followed by workers from the Great Granary.
Wu Yi overlooks the Great Granary on behalf of the House of Quartz. The house is known for infighting, and they fear that rivals in the house will try to embarrass them by having an incident at the Granary.  They have increased security and are looking to bolster it further. Unbeknown to anyone in the city, squid men are planning an attack.

10. Fihame Yi, House of Brass, mage and mineral trader
Average height, richly dressed, constantly eating dandelions, accompanied by at least 6 guards and a few servants. Identifies as male
Fihame Yi usually keeps an eye on the house of White and Black, but today he is trying out his new Giant Leopard Worm steed. It is *not* going well, and the appearance of the PCs have agitated it further. He will blame the PCs for any damage and demand compensation .