Spirit-Guests of Master Katawa's Bath-House

This was a cute little project of mine once upon a time, a Ghibli-esque bath-house inhabited by many spirits of all shapes and sizes, consumed with either having a great time, or commiting acts of sabotage and intrigue against each other. It spiralled out of control somewhat, so here's the one part that is so-far complete; a guest list!

More to come, hopefully.

Guests of the Bath-House

At any given time there are 2d4 dozen general patrons of the Bath-House going around their much-less-important business. For each dozen general patrons, there is an exceptional Guest, who are found on the list below.

Why are they here?
If you feel it appropriate, you could also roll the Guest an Ulterior Motive as well. Probably at least 2 or 3 Guests should have Ulterior Motives at any given visit.
1 - Just passing through, thought they would grab a drink
2 - Having a meal in the Food-Court
3 - Come for a Bath and a Meal, a nice day out really
4 - A few days rest and relaxation
5 - Come to sort out a little business in a neutral area
6 -  A deep cleanse (and they mean deep)
7 - None of your business!
8 - "Business"

Where are they currently?
These are general guidelines for determining location without context, they need not be proscriptive.
General Patrons (i.e. non-specific Guests) roll d4.
Guests with INF 1 roll d6.
Guests with INF 2 or 3 roll d8.
Guests with INF 4+ roll d10.
1 - Enjoying a nice Sake
2 - Enjoying a relaxing Bath
3 - Wandering the Gardens
4 - Receiving a Deep Cleanse
5 - Sleeping the Sake off in a Pod
6 - Having a meal in the Food Court
7 - Speaking with the Complaints Statue
8 - Engaging in business in one of the Meeting Rooms
9 - Sorting out a discrepancy with Administrator Goro
10 - Talking with Katawa himself!

*Sidebar - Ulterior Motives*
Ulterior Motives
1 - To steal from another guest.
2 - To discover the truth of the Bath-House's heating.
3 - To break into Katawa's office and read a document.
4 - To rob Administrator Goro's safe.
5 - To learn another Guest's secret.
6 - To break up talks between two other Guests.
7 - To ruin another Guest's reputation.
8 - To hunt down a Guest who knows their secret.
9 - To hunt down Katawa and have a stern word with him.
10 - To find the Complaints Statue's records.
*Siderbar ends*

Guest Stats
There are 5 stats for guests.
Hit Die [HD] - A relative counter of how tough they are.
Number [No.] - A count of how many of them there are, in absolute number or dice.
Affiliated [Aff] - The chance in 6 of each guest knowing anything about another guest, the more it passes by, the more they know. Also the odds of knowing who you should talk to about a specific problem you might have.
Relation [Rel] - How friendly they might be with the party (to begin with at least).
Influence [Inf] - How much everyone else in the Bath-House will want to speak with them.

Guest List
1 - The Mantis Ambassadors
      Long, thin, elegant. Soft of speech, harsh of word. Straight to the point. Superior, but are too polite to admit it. They speak for the Insect Queendoms.
HD - 3 No. - 2d4 Aff - 4 Rel - 3 Inf - 4
Secret: Plotting a war to elevate Queen Chitin to Arch-Fae status.

2 - The Dark Apostles
      Soft and rounded in places, thin and curved in others, like they have been molded by great fingers. Large, haunted lantern-eyes. Dread adherents of the Void-God-Who-Is-Devoured
HD - 1 No. - 3d6 Aff - 2 Rel - 3 Inf - 1
Secret: If you propitiate them properly, they can eat someone totally and unacceptably. (No-one is truly safe from them, but by no means is the doom of particularly powerful beings guaranteed either.)

3 - The Flame-Bellied Djinn
      An agent of Mechanus, the city of law and Djinni. His belly is a great barred furnace, smoke constantly pools in his mouth and ears, curls from his nose. Boistrous, laughs from the belly.
HD - 6 No. - Unique Aff - 3 Rel - 3 Inf - 2
Secret: Spying on the other realms to assess if any are approaching Mechanus' technological level.

4 - Grande Toade
      A huge, boil-covered toad. Long fu-manchu style moustache, great bushy eye-brows like feathers. Apparently some sort of royalty, or perhaps semi-divinity. Uncertain. Never elaborates.
HD - 4 No. - Unique Aff - 2 Rel - 2 Inf - 3
Secret: Grande Toade is a manifestation of the True God of all Amphibians, who dwells partially beneath the lake the Bath-House sits upon.

5 - Reynardine, the Were-Fox
     Seducer of women, seducer of men, seducer of trees and water features, seducer of... well just about everything. A bit of a foppish rake, but looks just fabulous without fail.
HD - 3 No. - Unique Aff - 4 Rel - 3 (5 for characters with 15+ cha) Inf - 2
Secret: When a 1 is rolled on an Affiliation roll for another guest, Reynardine has had a secret dalliance with someone close to the guest.

6 - A Squadron of Locust Knights
      Members of the warrior caste of Sahandralar, the great democracy. On some sort of quest, but they've been on so many damn quests no one cares any more. Boistrous, but honourable.
HD - 3 (and 1 captain of 5) No. - 3d6 Aff - 2 Rel - 5 Inf - 2
Secret: They are exiles from Sahandralar, and cannot return until their great deeds outweight their hidden shame.

7 - Mogirus, the Bear
      He's a big bear. Smart enough to come in every so often for some fish and a wander, but otherwise, just a bear. Despite this, all the other guests are convinced there is something more to him.
HD - 3 No. - Unique Aff - 0 Rel - 3 Inf - 2
Secret: Is literally just a bear, there is nothing special about him.

8 - The Sturgeon Scholars
      The most pre-eminent scholars from the Benthic Colleges, with doctorates in all manner of subjects and passing interests in everything left over. As far as they know at least. Snooty. Intolerable.
HD - 1 No. - 2d4 Aff - 3 Rel - 2 Inf - 3
Secret: Stole much of their original research from a rival school, who they bully into silence.

9 - The Beetle Brethren
      Adherents of the Holy Order of Mistress Moth. Thick, hempen robes and swinging fire-fly censers. Speak only in chittering, though they can speak human perfectly well. Just want to be left alone.
HD - 1 No. - 3d4 Aff - 3 Rel - 1 Inf - 1
Secret: Mistress Moth is dead, and they have killed her; they feasted on her semi-divine flesh.

10 - The Many-Armed Scroll-Keeper
       How many arms does he have? Many. How many scrolls does he have? Many. How many long centuries has he kept to his sacred task? Many. How many more questions will he have to answer before you get he picture and bugger off? ... (sigh) Many.
HD - 2 No. - Unique Aff - 1 Rel - 2 Inf - 2
Secret: He keeps all the secret knowledge he collects, he does not burn it like he says he does.

11 - The Owl-Sages
       Bedecked in fine robes and adorned with fine jewelry. Know much of the secret things of the world. They have many books they read at night that keep their secrets safe.
HD - 1 No. - 2d8 Aff - 3 Rel - 3 Inf - 3
Secret: They bought their knowledge from a Demon of the Moon, at a terrible cost that they have yet to pay. 

12 - A Maniple of Centurion's Rose
       Boistrous and unruly, they speak through pheromones and generally get up to little more than fighting and brawling. Easily coaxed into drinking competitions.
HD - 2 No. - 5d6 Aff - 1 Rel - 2 (4 if drunk) Inf - 1
Secret: They bear a magic book which contains a number of rituals for opening Secret Roads of magic. They use it as a seat for the Rose-Captain.

13 - A Random Hag
       Even hateful demon-women of the woods need to pop in for a deep-cleanse and a few tots of sake every so often. Be reasonable please.
HD - 3+ No. - 1 Aff - d4 Rel - d4 Inf - d4
Secret: Depends on the Hag, usually is a magical power, with a terrible cost.

14 - The Prince of Bats
       Long eared, wet-nosed, sniveling, squeaky voice. Much maligned, but put up with due to his powerful connections. Exceedingly nocturnal, and very nosy.
HD - 6 No. - Unique + 2d4 Bat-folk attendants Aff - 4 Rel - 1 Inf - 4
Secret: Plots to kill his father and become The Dread King of Night.

15 - Long-Ears and Long-Whiskers
       Human in shape, yet animal in aspect, and a powerful spirit of the woodland in nature. They clad themselves in a human form to better facilitate negotiation about the well-being of the forest in which it lives.
HD - 4 No. - Unique Aff - 3 Rel - 1 (but pretends it 4) Inf - 3
Secret: Secretly despises "civilised" cultures, but will never let you know it. Dreams of putting them back in their place.

16 - A Dryad Bacchinalia
       The best party you've ever been to, the worst hangover you've ever had. Some of its tame, some of it is jaw-droppingly decadent and depraved. Not good at tidying up.
HD - Between 1 and 3 No. - 10d10 Aff - 1 (with a +1 for each party the Guest has attended with the Dryads, if in doubt, roll d4) Rel - 3 (6 when drunk) Inf - 2 (6 if they're out for a party)
Secret: They stole all their membership from village orphans and changed them into the psuedo-spirits they are now.

17 - The Rat-Nobles
       Refined, cultured, well-groomed. Always out on some kind of urgent (but never too urgent) business, always far too busy to talk to you (but never busy enough to rush).
HD - 2 No. - 3d4 Aff - 4 Rel - 1 Inf - 4
Secret: They pray that no one ever finds out that really, they aren't all that important, all that rich, all that cultured. They pour their hearts into the deceit.

18 - The Brewer Dogs
       Punks in leather jackets, festooned with silver spikes, make a killer pale ale. Out for a good time, and hoping to bump into a great business opportunity while they're at it.
HD - 1 No. - 3d4 Aff - 3 Rel - 4 Inf - 2
Secret: There is only a limited supply of their precious ale. They don't know how to make more. They dread the day it runs out.

19 - A Bone Scrivener
       Something like a cross between an owl and a centipede that wears heavy cloaks so that you are never quite sure what it really is. An oracle whose preferred medium should be obvious, the older the better.
HD - 3 No. - 1 Aff - 5 (but the costs are always high) Rel - 3 Inf - 3
Secret: The price it paid for its powers were its family's lives. The guilt wracks it terribly.

20 - Carved-From-Stone, the Giant
       Barely fits within then Bath-House, has to bathe in the hot springs beneath, makes the whole place smell slightly when he does, is not well liked for that reason.
HD - 8 No. - Unique Aff - 2 Rel - 2 Inf - 1
Secret: He is a cousin of the Spirits of the Hot-Springs, which is the only reason Katawa still allows him to come to the Bath-House.

21 - Big-Headed Carlos
       His head is far too big for his small, stupid body. He is not stupid, though everyone assumes he is. He knows far more than he lets on with his stupid, gormless face.
HD - 3 No. - Unique Aff - 4 Rel - 3 Inf - 1
Secret: None, but when he is affiliated with another Guest, he knows their secret too, and looks out for any chance to leverage it for his own gain whilst also maintaining his charade.

22 - Many-Legged Karthus
       He is a spider, who is also a man. Somehow, try not to think about it too much, dear morsal, you get all tough and stringy when you get stressed. Long thin grins, like, all the time.
HD - 4 No. - Unique Aff - 2 Rel - 3 (5 for delicious looking PCs) Inf - 2
Secret: He is terribly lonely, and wishes only to find a mate.

23 - Rot-Grub the Stinky
       Bloated body, buzzing wings, wrist-rubbing, wheezy voice. A consummate sycophant, and totally oblivious to the fact that everyone hates him. Never realises that some of the things he's heard are actually quite important...
HD - 2 No. - Unique Aff - 2 Rel - 4 Inf - 1
Secret: None, but when he is affiliated with another Guest, he knows their secret too, but doesn't know that its important.

24 - Stone-Antlers and his Family
       A great elk with flinty protrudences, he is haughty and proud. Disinclined to conversation, but can easily be coaxed into opportunities to show off his powerful physicality. Family are quiet and subservient to the overbearing father. They wish to be rid of him.
HD - 4 (1 for family members) No. - Unique +2d3 family members Aff - 4 Rel - 1 (3 for the family) Inf - 3
Secret: Stone-Antlers is quite unaware of all the enemies he has accumulated, and his family would eagerly sell him out to any one of them.

25 - A Gaggle of Goblins
       Immature, inept, inexplicable. They cause trouble wherever they go, and by their gobliney nature, they spontaneously generate more of them from the dark and damp corners.
HD - 0 No. - d6d6 (d6 more appear each day) Aff - 2 Rel - 2 Inf - 1
Secret: None as such, but if more than 100 goblins are ever present in the Bath-House at one time, the entire place will just become utterly infested, and it will resemble a battle-ground more than a recreational establishment.

26 - The Kindly Ferret Maidens
       Just absolute sweethearts is clean white dresses. Virtuous to a fault. Courteous to the extreme. Everyone loves them, no-one has any reason to dislike them at all. Often go around the Bath-House handing out small plates of cookies. Delicious cookies.
HD - 3 No. - 2d6 Aff - 4 Rel - 2 Inf - 4
Secret: Actually deadly assassins. Very rarely are they here on business.

27 - The White Bride and the Black Widow
       Two who seem similar in look, but are altogether opposites. One is delighted, one is devastated. Its not often that your expectations align with the reality. Perpetually awaiting their big days, supposedly related to some incredibly important people, but no-one can ever agree on who.
HD - 1 No. - 2, Unique Aff - 3 Rel - 4 for the Widow, 2 for the Bride Inf - 4
Secret: The Bride killed the Widow's husband, which put in her current predicament.

28 - Songbird the Beautiful
       Wears her wings like robes and her feathers like jewelry, her song is exquisite, he laughter like sunshine. Everyone knows she's a spy, but she's just so charismatic that they don't care. She's never here to spy on them after all, she told them herself!
HD - 6 No. - Unique Aff - 6 (though you'd never bother a lady about her work would you?) Rel - 4 Inf - 6
Secret: Its always a secret just who it is that she really is here to spy on.

29 - THE BULL
       THE BULL IS BIG. THE BULL IS MEAN. THE BULL WILL TOLERATE NO WEAKNESS. THE BULL WILL TOLERATE NO WEASEL WORDS. THE BULL IS TRUE! THE BULL DECLARES IT SO!
HD - 6 No. - Unique + d6 Minotaur attendants Aff - 3 Rel - 2 (5 for tough types) Inf - 2
Secret: THE BULL is slowly dying, his invincibility wears thin.

30 - A Visiting Fae Lord
       Roll on your favourite table for Fae Lords!
HD - Lots No. - Unique (usually) Aff - 6 Rel - d6 Inf - 6
Secret: Depends on the Fae Lord

3 comments:

  1. Awesome! It is quite ghibli but it is also feels pretty Western fairytail or folklorish which I quite like. The aesthetics blend together nicely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! That's pretty much the vibe I was going for.

      Delete
  2. Got to bring this to the table last night, players loved it - most of the evening was taking advantage of the facilities and diverting anyone who tried to disturb them (the ran into The Bull, and peripherally some Owl Sages and a Random Hag)

    ReplyDelete

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