S- Soviet, Shrek, Students, Stone Seneschal

Back in the 1980, to paraphrase possibly the last great American president ever, there was an evil empire that the American's were ever vigilant against. There was an ever present fear of the third World War. GDW gave gamers a name for the result of that and it was Twilight 2000. Sadly this war did not give us two headed talking badgers. It gave  us a dark and sobering look at what the war might really be like and lead to. Now we all know that Twilight was simply the end of American literature and the twisting of teenage culture but I digress! Twilight 2000 gave us a world where the third world war had was happening in the year 2000. The game has gone through at least three versions. This is a supplement for the first edition of the game. It serves as a guidebook for the various vehicles in the Soviet/Warsaw Pact war machine. There was a version for American Vehicles as well. All of these supplements are worth having as is almost everything for every edition of T2K.

Movie:

Shrek is a movie that I would not normally think I would have ever recommended. I normally do not like and in most cases won't even see animated movies. I barely even watch animated TV shows with Family Guy and sometimes The Simpson's being exceptions to that. Shrek caught be by surprise as did another movie I mentioned....Aladdin. I know it might not be serious enough for many gamers to draw ideas or inspiration from but it has all the elements. A damsel in distress, the plucky sidekick, an evil curse and the bad boy turned reluctant hero and oh yeah a dragon. I won't even suggest that this is as good as The Princess Bride but I put it in the same ball park... well maybe the same neighborhood where the ball park is. The story is good, it has humor and barring the talking donkey, animals and inanimate object it could be a traditional fantasy story....it's a fun fairy tale and if you can't get something from it then maybe you should just go back to your swamp!

Plot:

Students from a far eastern realm arrive at the same village where the player characters happen to find themselves. They are in search of their Master and mystical mentor Lhao Ni. It seems that five years ago Lhao left with a scroll he had discovered had information on part of an ancient item of unimaginable power his order had been trying to complete. The order was just now able to decipher the information on the scroll and come hunting for their master. The scroll suggested it was in the general vicinity of this area. Doing research will find people who remember a strange older "mage" type who was here maybe five years ago. There were language issues but they did determine he was looking in the old ruins about five miles east of town. Perhaps the players will look on their own trying to find the relic or assist the students. They are looking for a powerful beneficial item.....but beneficial how and to who?

Magic: 

Stone Seneschals are small pale gray man shaped items usually no more than 5 to 8 inches in height. If examined for magical nature it will radiate a faint aura of magic but nothing that suggests what it might be. Unless it is found with the command information it will require a cleric to cast Speak With Dead to discover the activation phrase. This will also provide information on the abilities of the Seneschal. The Seneschals are actually physical manifestations of being from the Plane of  Nirvana and are here to serve anyone who is lawful in nature. On demand the owner can bring forth Tenser's Floating Disc with a weight limit of 9000 gp. The owner can also call upon an unseen servant no less than six times per day. The owner can also once per day have the the Seneschal call forth a version of Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound that will serve for up to eight hours. The Seneschal will not work for a character who serves chaos and if any such person posses the item they must make a save versus Death Magic. If they fail they will love 1-3 points of intelligence and wisdom until the item is given up. These losses are cumulative and if either attribute ever goes below three the character will suffer a radical alignment shift to LN and their stats will be restored.