On Monday night, my mother passed away.

I mentioned earlier this month that she caught a very nasty flu at the end of December. After twenty years of fighting metastatic breast cancer, the complications from the flu finally pushed her body too far. After a brief period where I thought things were turning around again, everything collapsed very, very fast and very, very suddenly.

You can find the obituary I wrote for her here.

Between the flu and my mother’s illness and her death, I have simply dropped the ball on these updates. I have also, behind the scenes, been fumbling and delaying my interactions with the artists trying to finish up the last of the work for the book.

I’m sure many of you will say that this is “perfectly understandable” (because I’ve had several people already say that to me). But this is a project which is radically overdue and this is the first time that I feel like I, personally, have been screwing it up instead of just trying to stay on top of a bad situation. I’m also not really clear of this situation. The memorial service was yesterday, but next week will bring its own challenges as my brother and I work out way through her estate.

This is all combined with the fact that I really thought I would have a substantive update for contributors by December 1st or, at the latest, December 31st. And those dates (which I was treating in my own head as deadlines of a sort) have, obviously fallen by the wayside even before the added shittiness of the last month happened.

So here’s the deal: Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be taking an honest stock of where I’m at and where this project is at. At that point I’ll be making a serious decision about whether to start refunding money or not. (My hope, obviously, is that I can get things pulled back together.)

NOTE: If you’re one of my artists reading this, please continue working. You’ll be getting paid regardless of what happens with the project.

Also: Apparently the comments on the site collapsed again during my absence. They’ll be reopened within the next 10-15 minutes.

The basic function of a drug is similar to a poison: They have a type (contact, ingested, inhaled, injury), a Fortitude saving throw DC to resist their effect, an initial effect, and a secondary effect. However, drugs also have the following statistics:

Buzz: The length of time the buzz from the drug lasts. The initial and secondary effects of the drug end when the buzz comes to an end. (For example, a PCP might inflict a Wisdom penalty as its initial effect and grant temporary hit points as its secondary effect. After the PCP’s buzz of 2d6 hours comes to an end, both the buzz and the temporary hit points go away.)

Addiction Threshold: The number of doses that must inflict the secondary effect of the drug before the user risks addiction. Once the user reaches the addiction threshold, they must make an addiction save. If a user goes one day without using the drug, reduce the current tally of doses by 1 to a minimum of 0.

Addiction DC: The DC of the Fortitude save required to resist addiction. On a failed save, the user becomes addicted to the drug (see below).

Recovery Threshold: If a user makes a number of successful withdrawal saves equal to the drug’s recovery threshold, their addiction is broken. They no longer suffer the effects of addition, but a recovering addict suffers a -4 penalty to future addiction saves against the same drug.

Compulsion DC: If a character addicted to a drug has the opportunity to take the drug, they must make a Will save against the drug’s compulsion DC. On a failed save, they must take the drug. If a character is currently suffering withdrawal, they take a -10 penalty on this saving throw. If the character is currently buzzed on the drug, they gain a +2 circumstance bonus on this saving throw for every dose of the drug currently affecting them.

ADDICTION

If a character becomes addicted to a drug, they must stay buzzed on the drug. When the buzz comes to an end, withdrawal begins. Withdrawal acts just like a disease with an incubation time of 1 day. Once per day, the victim must make a new saving throw against the withdrawal or suffer the withdrawal damage of the drug.

SAMPLE DRUGS

ABYSS DUST: Abyss dust is alchemically distilled from snakeweed (see below), although few associate the innocuous effects of snakeweed with this powerful narcotic. Abyss dust looks like ashes, with a rich black and gray color. It is administered through inhalation or smoking. Some hardcore users like to mix their abyss dust with snakeweed, claiming the snakeweed “takes the edge off” of some of the more extreme hallucinations.

Price: 1 gp
Effects: Inhaled DC 13, buzz 3d4 hours, initial effect Hallucinations (-4 on all action checks), secondary effect -1d4 Wisdom
Addiction: Addiction DC 13, threshold 3 doses
Withdrawal: Withdrawal DC 13 (fatigued, 2 Str, 1d4 Wisdom), Compulsion DC 10

BARBARIAN’S BLOOD: A recreational drug also known as “the red burn” and “veinglory”. Users of the drug are marked by a deep reddening of the skin and a significant protrusion of the veins. They experience a psychotropic dissociation in which physical pleasure is heightened and pain is experienced as pleasure.

Price: 2 gp
Effects: Ingested DC 13, buzz 1 hour, initial effect -2 penalty to Wisdom, secondary effect 2d4 temporary hit points
Addiction: Addiction DC 8, threshold 1 dose
Withdrawal: Withdrawal DC 15 (2 Str and 2 Con), Compulsion DC 15

SHADEBANE: Shadebane comes in the form of a pale, silver-grey powder. Water is added to this powder and it is then smeared on the skin. The user experiences hallucinations which give the impression of gifting them with visions from beyond the grave. Regardless of the truth or fiction of these visions, users of shadebane are intensely unpleasant for undead to approach. Undead within 5 feet of a shadebane user must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 12) or become sickened (even if they would normally be immune to the sickened effect). Long-term users of the drug, however, become obsessive with death. They often begin collecting memento mori and are drawn to graveyards and others places of death. With prolonged use, these morbid obsessions can lead to suicidal, homicidal, or necromantic inclinations.

Price: 15 gp
Effects: Contact DC 13, buzz 1 hour, initial effect Hallucinations (-1 penalty to all action checks), secondary effect sicken undead (see text)
Addiction: Addiction DC 12, threshold 4 doses
Withdrawal: Withdrawal DC 12 (1d6 Wis, 1d6 Con), Compulsion DC 12

SNAKEWEED: The sunburst flower is found growing in many ancient ruins throughout the Serpent Islands. The trances produced by smoking the dried leaves and flowers of the plant became a popular, casual intoxication among the pirates of Freeport and spread to ports throughout the Southern Sea. When dried, the stuff is simply called snakeweed by most, and while it can be psychologically addictive it is relatively harmless by itself. When smoked, snakeweed produces a feeling of serene calm, a deadening of pain, and slight euphoria. Heavy doses produce an incapacitating euphoric stupor, and sometimes inspire dreams of shadowy, serpentine forms and vast cities beneath the waves. In Freeport, it is commonly used by the poorer citizens and sailors as an escape from the drudgeries of everyday life.

Price: 2 sp
Effects: Inhaled DC 11, buzz 1d3 hours, initial effect +1 to Will saves, secondary effect -1 Wisdom
Addiction: Addiction DC 5, threshold 12 doses,
Withdrawal: Withdrawal DC 5 (insomnia, -1 penalty to action checks), recovery threshold 5, Compulsion DC 5

This material is covered by the Open Gaming License.

There we go.

I told you those riders and goblins would appear.

We’re still in the holding pattern of “nothing new to report” updates, but finished pieces of art are hitting my desk with startling regularity at this point. On the other hand, one of my artists is currently in the process of getting uprooted out of his second apartment in as many months. (Which sounds like a complete nightmare.)

So… two steps forward, one step back.

I am very tempted to say at this point that we are perilously close to the point where I would have the art in hand necessary to start the final layout pass on the book. (After which we would have another pass to lay in the SRS, then a final digital proof, and then the additional proofing steps required for the physical book.) But I remember that the first time I was tempted to say something like that was in December of last year just after I finished revising the Grimoire… and then all my artists disappeared. So, like I said, still in a holding pattern here.

This is another “holding pattern update” for Legends & Labyrinths: I’m still not at the point where the production of the book is entirely in my hands (i.e., I’m still waiting for artists to deliver finished pieces), so I’m still not willing to start making guarantees and promise release dates (having been met with so many disappointments and setbacks over the long history of this project).

But I am, as promised, waving my hand in the air and saying, “Still here.”

Meanwhile, I have now seen work-in-progress pieces featuring the adventuring parties of both of the Legend in Your Own Time groups. Well, sort of. One of the pieces currently only has the horses and wolves the characters will be riding. But I’ve been promised that the characters will appear in the final piece! 😉

(And since this was WIP was actually delivered to me a couple of weeks ago, I should be seeing the finished piece within a few days.)

Two weeks ago, I promised to continue posting “holding pattern” updates to let people know that I hadn’t suffered a Michael Vick-style concussion and forgotten what Legends & Labyrinths was.

Well, we’re still very much in a holding pattern and still at least a few more weeks away from entering the actual Final Countdown for Legends & Labyrinths. (And that’s assuming that some new disaster doesn’t strike.)

But things are progressing and additional art updates are hitting my desk with heartening regularity. To tide you over, here’s the latest work-in-progress update on “Adventurers at Rest” (the piece I showcased as concept art last time):