Good Goldenagers!

Calling in from a heat wave here in Korea. Folks saying it's going to be a heat dome. Anyway, hot hot hot.

<<Backers: you can skim to the backers only bit for PDF & high resolution links!>>

I planned to send this update a week ago, but my beloved child picked up another virus at childcare, passed it to me, and this Tuesday I went to the doctor who asked, "Oh? Has the throat infection not cleared up?"

To which I replied, "No, this is a new one."

And after an examination the doctor responded, "Oh, this isn't a throat infection, it's a sinus infection. Ten more days of antibiotics."

This is the sixth time I'm sick since March this year. Sixth time. Third time I need antibiotics for an infection. I'm honestly getting on first name terms with so many doctors, it's ridiculous.

But, enough about yellow slime!*

When I wasn't too sick, I tackled the second adventure - the Hollow House. The premise is, simply enough, that the heroes acquire a house as a base of operations and a kind of shared character. There are two parts to the adventure: 1) acquiring the house (so, the adventure bits) and 2) managing the house by the characters.

The second part I already had (but not laid out), while the first part I needed to write. So I did.

I knew the house had to be a real character after all that. Something visual to grab the players and make them want to deal with it. I also wanted it different from the Castle of Living Stone, so I took a different approach: I drew the whole thing by hand.

And here it is with labels and such.

So, the adventure part is rounded out, with a lot of places for the players to fiddle with in the vicinity of their house. But where are the rules?

Ah, yes, well, you see ... the part about being sick again. I didn't get around to fixing its layout and adjusting the text to fit the adventure. Because I wrote those rules last year, I need to go through them with a comb to make sure they fit the adventure. However, here I was, Friday fast approaching and I asked myself: do I wait until this whole chapter is perfect and I share it then ... OR ... do I do the smart thing and share the first fifteen pages right now?

So, you're reading Part One of Hollow House and Part Two comes as soon as possible. After that, I'm going to tackle the remaining four-of-six lands and get their layout spruced up ... and then we'll be able to have a mega-teaser. Something like the first 200 pages of the book all in one PDF.

Send me all your psychic immune system boosters, please, because this stuff with waking up at night for babies and chain-fighting viruses is rough.

>----<

Right off an overheated keyboard,

—Luka R,
Seoul, Hot Summer 2025

>----<

*
Yellow Slime
ARMOR CLASS: like jellow
MOVEMENT: very slow (ambush drop)
HIT DICE: 4+4
THAC0: 13
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 (plop!)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d10+2
SPECIAL: acid attack, wind division
SIZE: stringy net (10 spans across, 6 head-sized globules)
MORALE: fearless (11)

Wind Division: When struck by winds, breaths, blows, and sneezes, it divides into 1d4+1 smaller jellies (2 HD each).
Acid Damage: Metal gear splashed by the yellow slime suffers 1 damage per round until cleaned. If you don't feel like tracking gear life scores, just roll 1d12 for each piece of gear each round. If you roll the damage it suffered or less, it falls apart.