The Flesh and the Devil Can Wait

caro et diabolus expectent

Every reality has its edge cases. The joints of creation don't fit smoothly together, and in the gaps terrific power waits to be seized. There are Secrets As To The Workings Of The World, and only through the World can one know them.

No one can be told what THAUMOS is. You have to see it for yourself.

The first time a wizard spends dawn to dusk in a given hex, they may open themselves to inspiration. If they do, they have a 1-in-6 chance of learning a new Secret.

If inspiration strikes, either roll to determine the Lore...

1. Fire
2. Flesh
3. Beasts
4. Heavens
5. Dream
6. Sea

...or let the wizard choose. 

If the Lore was randomly determined, roll 2 dice and learn the Secret that matches [SUM]. If it was chosen, roll 1 die and learn the matching Secret.

Each Secret occupies a Knowledge slot, of course.

Thoughts

Although THAUMOS is woefully under-playtested, already I fear that the acquisition of new Secrets will be too slow. Currently the only way to learn them is through tutelage by those who already know--even ignoring the clear chicken-and-egg problem, this hardens the borders of acceptable playstyles for those who hope to gain more arcane power. Shall a Lore be forever closed to the Cabal because they slew its only practitioner? And what of those Secrets unknown to any NPC?

These rules aim to kill two birds with one stone. They provide a way to learn Secrets without needing a mentor, while at the same time encouraging exploration. In many hexcrawl games, travel is motivated by the search for new dungeons to delve and treasure to plunder. 

For wizards in THAUMOS the treasure is power, and that too can be plumbed from the world itself.

-V

Adventure Location: the Oubliette

Campaigns often peter out before they reach the dizzying heights of power at the highest levels. Part of the reason for that is the dearth of prepared material for that tier of play--GMs are forced to invent challenges out of whole cloth, challenges worthy of the demigods that the adventuring party has become. They can simply run roughshod over the mortal world, it's true. There's some fun in beheading every king who disrespects you. 

But even high-level characters occasionally want a challenge: not just a huge monster with enough HD to threaten them, but an adventure environment that feels epic. Here's one: an extradimensional prison where criminals who offended reality itself are kept isolated, their very memory excised from history. It's designed for use with the excellent (and free!) Godbound by Kevin Crawford, but should be easily adaptable to any spiritual descendant of D&D.

The Oubliette

Overview

• A shard of the former Hells, the Oubliette is an extradimensional dungeon that once held history’s worst criminals, those whom the universe deemed so evil they should not persist even in memory
• It was ruled by Zabut, a dark god of crime and punishment who was killed in the opening salvos of the Mortal War
• Since the breaking of reality, the Oubliette has drifted through the Uncreated Night, gradually decaying
• The Oubliette can only be approached from above. It only exists from that angle; attempting to maneuver around it causes the whole structure to fade away
• A great treasure lies deep in the shard’s bowels: the Theurgic Invocation of the Throne known as Directed Convulsion of Law

Inhabitants

• Leibuzar the Forgetter / Razubiel the Rememberer
• Archdevil/archangel of Zabut
• Communicates not through words or even telepathy, but pure mental conveyance of meaning and intent
• 3 actions per round, can teleport 120’
• HD20, AC 5, 5+ Sv., 2x1d12 straight (mind kill)
• Theurgy: Bright God’s Canticle (Gate, always active)

LeibuzarabuzieL

• Neferna dar Ix
• Once a mighty brown dragon, ruled a massive empire rife with pointless human sacrifice and atrocities
• When she was slain by her own spawn, Zabut judged her soul deserving of excision from history
• Now she rages fruitlessly in the lowest reaches of the Oubliette, at once the dungeon’s most dangerous prisoner and its second-most powerful guardian
• Since the shattering her soul has begun to fade, and she has difficulties remembering where she is, or even that she is dead
• HD15, AC 2, 8+ Sv., +10 3x1d10 straight (bite, claw)
• 5 Effort. Corona of Fury (7d8 flensing sand), Thrall-Making Shout (Command)
• Wing buffet: Hardiness save or be hurled 30 ft. away
• Acts twice per round

Neferna Dar Ix

Locations

1. Control Pyramid
• Shattered floating rock mote, a great pyramid of purple stone cracked open atop it
• Empty corridors wind through the edifice, leading to dusty chambers and strange dead ends
• Brief exploration leads to cracked and faltering Celestial Engine at the center
• Powers the excision of large parts of history
• 1 Shard of Heaven to repair
• Breaking yields 3 Shards, but restores all excised history
• Cyclops civilization on the Hurricane Isles
• Brown dragon dynasties of the Oasis States
• Time of Fire and Madness
• A thorough search also recovers an uncut gem that glows with orange light (the Dungeon Key)
2. Funnel Mouth
• Deceptively slippery slopes are easy to climb down, but almost impossible to climb up
• LeibuzaR waits in a ritual circle of orange light at the bottom of the pit
• If the PCs wield the Dungeon Key, he greets them as servants of Zabut
• Otherwise he is singing the Bright God’s Canticle, and follows them around without answering queries (whether they pass or fail their save) until they provoke wrath by releasing a prisoner or entering area 7
• Bare stone corridors lead in both directions
• Path to 3 echoes with the clamor of many voices
• Path to 4 has sound of rushing wind and distant moan
3. Isolation Cells
• Vertical shaft is enchanted, step out into empty space and will yourself up or down
• Each cell is blocked by a barrier of impenetrable (but translucent) green energy (Theurgy of the Gate)
• Approaching with the Dungeon Key causes a mote of orange to appear in the center
• Touching the Key to this mote dismisses the barrier (though the mote remains)
• Touching Key to mote again restores the barrier
• Prisoners are rarely lucid; some are so far gone they’re nearly intangible
• Marblejaw, the cathedral killer. Pale white gargoyle who laired in a temple and slaughtered every congregant therein once per century, on the dot, for four hundred years. Was finally destroyed through intervention of an angel
  
  
  
• Cyriaque, nihilist philosopher. Wrote a treatise so convincingly grim that it drove all who read it to suicide. Black-haired and resigned to his fate
  
  
  
• Mathoulda XI, the flayer queen. Delighted in having her foes’ skin made into leather. Imperious and senile
  
  
  
• Urarin Bahassi, the filivore. Mage who lived for centuries through the Excision of Days, exclusively using his own children as victims. Silver-tongued, painfully lucid
  
  
  
• He Who Looked Beyond, alienist wizard. Fashioned an arcane telescope to see outside reality. Things move beneath his flesh. Was not sane even in life
  
  
  
• Lucien Embon, the thief of stars. Plucked a constellation from the sky (through means unknown) to gift his lady love. Doe-eyed, naïve
  
  
  
• Tsilavina Pascale, empress of the dead. Incubated a zombie plague that wiped out half a continent, then ruled an empire of rotting flesh-puppets. Smirking, convinced she’s the smartest person in any conversation
  
  
  
• Breaker-King Hau, last of the Cyclops monarchs. Led his entire civilization to heights of depravity that saw them cut out of history. He feels his people returning to the world, and rages that he is kept from joining them
  
  
  
• Ivica the Desecrator, heretic of Lom. The Oubliette’s most recent arrival. Broke off from the atheocracy for her belief that religion should be befouled, not destroyed. Committed sacrilege at over five hundred temples, including an ancient ruin dedicated to Zabut
  
  
  
• Temji Opener, long-clawed Nephilim. Can open Night Roads with the flick of a finger; responsible for the fall of the Bleak Reach
  
  
4. Soul Vault
• This cavernous chamber swirls with a misty mass of undifferentiated souls, those faded enough to lose their individuality
• Entrance blocked by a barrier of impenetrable (but translucent) green energy (Theurgy of the Gate)
• Approaching with the Dungeon Key causes a mote of orange to appear in the center
• Touching the Key to this mote dismisses the barrier (though the mote remains)
• Touching Key to mote again restores the barrier
• Cavern walls are pockmarked with tunnel entrances that lead into area 5
  
  
  
5. Ghostmaze Labyrinth
• Twisting tunnels wind through the rock, stalked by individual spirits
• For each hour spent wandering:
• 2-in-6 chance of being assailed by a wraith
• HD4, AC 3, 13+ Sv., Spirit save or be possessed (taking damage allows another save attempt)
• 2-in-6 chance of finding the barred tunnel that leads to area 7
6. Neferna’s Crypt-Prison
• Cavernous space full of half-real pyramids, dunes, and oases conjured by Neferna’s fractured mind
• She demands obeisance and worship
• If pleased, she may show the entrance to area 7
• If angered, requires a sacrifice to her glory (someone for her to eat)
7. Manuscript Archive
• Laid out on a stone table is a crumbling scroll that bears the Theurgic invocation Directed Convulsion of Law
• The affliction of the Oubliette has caused some of the writing to fade, but with three months’ study the invocation can be learned
  
  
  

Thoughts

The major draw here is the Invocation of the Throne; those are devilishly hard to get your hands on. The various imprisoned NPCs are mostly there for flavor (Neferna being the clear exception), but what flavor they have! Drop them into your own campaign as villains and see what havoc they can wreak.

Still, the point of this dungeon isn't the treasure, or even the inhabitants. It's the vibe. When your characters have the power of demigods, they need adventure locations worthy of demigods. They shouldn't be defending hamlets anymore, they should be cruising through the Uncreated Night in their flying pirate ship, fending off Misbegotten leviathans and making deals with fallen angels.

More of this to come.

-V

Six Gods

KENUT is god of rain, plants, the sun, farmers, drought, and the sky. His priests slather their skin with wet red clay so that they may walk naked beneath the radiance of noon.

Burn a bushel of unripe wheat at the height of day to remind Kenut to send the rain.

BRELL is the god of sand, cattle, the wind, and scorpions. His voice is in the driving sandstorm, his pleasure in the meat of a fattened calf, his wrath in the sting that comes unseen. Aspiring priests of Brell sting themselves with a deadly scorpion, then eat the heart of a cow. If they finish the heart, they are favored and will not die. A priest in a venom-trance can read patterns in falling sand. 

Drive a cow into a scorpion nest, and the rest of your herd will be safe from sandstorms.

UYMARA, called the night eater, is god of dawn, dusk, the sun, things that hunt at night, and lizards. At dawn, she is the eater of night. At dusk, she is the night that eats. Uymara’s priests gorge themselves on lizard meat until they retch, and read the future in their own bile.

If someone is too sick to move, leave them on a palette beyond the light of the campfire overnight. When dawn comes, Uymara will have taken the sickness or their flesh.

HORBAN is the god of fire, the night, childbirth, midwives, and death. His priests are inducted into the night mysteries: a novice must spend the night outside around a campfire, an adept must spend the night outside alone with only a torch, and Horban’s chosen spend the night outside alone with no fire at all.

Leave dead bodies to cool overnight before burning them, or the soul will not be released. Pass a flame under the feet of every newborn child, that Horban’s fire may enter them (lest they be cowards).

GERGIN VOS is the god of blood, marriage, travel, and war. He is called the arrow that shows the way, the maker of cities, the red blade. Priests of Gergin Vos find omens for travel and war in their own pain, and they carry bronze ritual knives for the purpose. Elders among them have scars on every patch of skin.

For betrothal: prick the lovers’ fingers and mingle with a silver bowl of sheep’s blood. Everyone in both families must drink from the bowl.

SUY-LA is the god of the outsiders, also called the betrayer, the hunger, or the hatred. Foreigners claim to worship many gods, but these are all secret faces of Suy-La. 

Strike down servants of Suy-La wherever you find them.

In praise of abstract inventory

The year is 2019. COVID is but a twinkle in the eye of some far-off bat or pangolin. A gaming group is huddled around a table, playtesting a new science-fantasy RPG.

After an opening vignette in the big city, the band of bold explorers head out beyond the environmental shields, into the toxic wasteland where a few minutes without your rebreather can spell doom. Their destination: an ancient underground laboratory, newly accessible after a recent earthquake. They and their employers hope that the facility contains valuable technology from a time before the divine Judgement that left the world broken.

As they approach the entrance--more of a cave, really--the party is set upon by rabid subterranean beasts. They gun down the animals in short order, and advance to the mouth of the tunnel. One of the characters, a young Primas-ika mercenary, steps forward and shines the beam of their flashlight into the depths.

"Wait a minute," the Narrator interrupts. "Since when do you have a flashlight?"

"Uh, I have a whole spelunking kit," says the Primas-ika's player. "We all picked them up back in the city."

"Read the item list," says the Narrator. "A spelunking kit has rope, pitons, bandages, and a blanket. No flashlight."

The player is incensed. "What kind of spelunking kit doesn't include a light source? I mean, come on. We all knew this adventure was going to be underground. Would I really have left on a month-long wilderness trip to explore a bunch of caves, and not have brought a flashlight?"

"If it's not on your character sheet," the Narrator says, "you don't have it."

At the risk of angering the OSR-verse, I don't care for this kind of situation. There are games where careful inventory management--making sure you have exactly the right tool for the task at hand--is a core part of the fun. That's fine. But it's not the kind of game I want to make.

But how to get around this problem? If the exact words on their character sheets don't control which items the party has access to, what does? When a player says they're taking out their reinforced handcuffs, ten feet of titanium chain, and eight-inch iron stake, should a Narrator protest or shrug their shoulders?

No one is well-served if every interaction with inventory turns into an argument that grinds the game to a halt.

SUPPLY

Yubaba redeeming SUPPLY

My preferred solution is one I first encountered in the game Marrow. I don't know if they invented it or not, but like the Picasso of the tabletop I have stolen the concept.

SUPPLY is quantum inventory, the equivalent of a blank tile in scrabble, an item whose nature is uncertain until it is needed. Marrow phrases it like this:

SUPPLY. Spend SUPPLY to have something clutch, but ubiquitous; a coil of rope, a flask of oil, a piece of jerky. Spend SUPPLY to negate a wandering monster encounter; your torchlight repels the darkness and frightens the monsters therein. Spend SUPPLY to rest easy for an evening; a full belly and a roaring fire is enough to soothe your aches.

"Clutch, but ubiquitous" is such a turn of phrase I want to weep for joy. A rope, when chasms yawn. A ten-foot pole, with pressure-plate traps ahead. A flashlight, at the threshold of the ancient cavern.

Put it in your game. It's great.

Going Further

So is that it? Have we reached into the social web of indie RPGs and plucked out the perfect bandage, fit to pack away this problem with a bow and never think of it again?

Well, ok, no. That's never how it works. Adding any amount of subjectivity to the rules is tricky business. What counts as "ubiquitous?" Rope and torches, sure, but what about those reinforced handcuffs? No? But maybe the character is a bounty hunter--surely they'd have such paraphernalia to hand. So the argument begins again.

The confrontation at the beginning of this blog post is just a symptom of a larger, eternal quandary: how to make sure that both players and Narrator feel like their respective conceptions of the game world are being respected. SUPPLY is a piece of the puzzle, but it's still just a patch over that fundamental tension. Is the responsibility of the Narrator to adjudicate game reality as they see it, or to aim for outcomes that will be satisfying to the players?

Ok, this post isn't really about abstract inventory anymore. But hark! I am not some armchair philosopher, tossing out thorny issues just to make my readers squirm. Balancing consistency, believability, and fun is a hard problem, true.

But I think I've solved it.

Stay tuned for more on how my next system, THAUMOS, turns GMing on its head...

Magic is a bug, not a feature

There's a certain charm to the aesthetic of magic school: apprentice mages in clean, neatly-pressed robes, learning formulaic spells from textbooks not unlike our own. From Harry Potter to Strixhaven, it's a powerful image that's endured for good reason. Most all of us in the RPG community have gone through formal schooling, so we can immediately grab hold of familiar tropes and orient ourselves by our own experiences.

I just don't much like what that paradigm says about magic.

Cover art from Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Unearthed Arcana

Ok, so we all know magic items should feel magical, there's nothing more sterile than a +1 sword, yadda yadda. It's easy to lose the wonder of sorcery when you're talking about physical objects; they quickly start to feel like ray guns, or washing machines, or toaster ovens. 

Clarke's Third Law works in reverse here: "Sufficiently systematic magic is indistinguishable from science."

Now hang on a second. That last paragraph doesn't mention magic items at all. It applies just as well to spellcasting as it does to Potions of Stone Giant Strength. The tradeoff of standardizing magic, of having every hedge-mage and warlock draw from a universal list of spells, is that the mystic becomes a bit... cheap. It's hard to maintain a feeling of wonder around sorcery when it gets debated in the same register as card games. "You still play mono white? Well, nobody can accuse you of making it easy on yourself." "Why'd you take fire bolt? Eldritch blast is just better, especially at higher levels." Doesn't exactly bring to mind the mad wizards of yore.

At the risk of veering into the weeds, this is NOT a post about metagaming. The above exchange about fire bolt vs. eldritch blast could very well happen in-character, in the halls of some prestigious magical university (minus the part about levels? eh, who knows, wizard school is weird). The point is, when magic gets systematized, it's a short step to it being trivialized.

The key here is understanding. If everybody knows what a pyromancer does, her craft is no more awe-inspiring than a farmer's. On the other hand, in a world where nobody knows what makes crops grow, farmers might be viewed with amazement and suspicion. 

Wizards are supposed to be extremely cagey with their lore, right? In most fiction, at least, going up to an archmage and asking how to cast fireball is not going to end well. Learning anything at all takes years of trust, usually built up through apprenticeship--and sometimes even that's just a ruse to get free labor! 

So why are spellcasters so hesitant to share knowledge? To some degree, this behavior is inspired by real-world history. Alchemists synthesized phosphorus almost a century before the chemistry was understood, but they kept it to themselves because each one thought it was a key step on the path to turning lead into gold. In the context of a competition--a race--it makes sense to keep your cards close to your chest.

That's one reason why magic-users might not want to teach their craft to others. A well-heeled apprentice is a ready-made rival, one who knows all the tricks you taught them. Unless you have a very good motivation to pass on your secret knowledge--maybe because you're dying--you probably aren't going to feel the urge to give away your biggest advantage in life.

We see this particular pattern a lot in fantasy literature, but it seems inherently unstable. All it takes is one clever apprentice to steal her teacher's spellbook, and the cat is out of the bag. In a world with the printing press, this problem is even worse: pretty soon every library in the kingdom will have your book of spells and rituals shelved in the reference section.

I prefer a different solution. What if something about the nature of magic prevents it from being shared and spread like other forms of knowledge? After all, sorcery is supposed to play with the fundamental threads of reality. What if those threads object to being played with?

I've already written about one form of this idea, so-called monosophia. Magical secrets act like unique items; telling someone else erases the knowledge from your mind. You don't teach your apprentice fireball until you're absolutely sure that you will never want to cast it again.

The title of this post, though, is inspired by yet another possibility. The idea of a "wizard school" is predicated on the assumption that magic is a feature of reality, a fact about the way the world works like gravity, electricity, or heat transfer. We can set up a formal institution to study it, learn more about it, and refine our understanding--and thus, mastery.

What if, instead, magic is a bug?

The world of video games shows us many examples where clever players exploit flaws in the game-world programming to perform otherwise-impossible feats: clipping through walls, flying through the air, dodging bullets at point-blank range. They find edge-cases in the rules of reality, then pull hard enough on those edges until something breaks.

Of course, when exploits like that come to the attention of the game developers, what do they do? They patch the bug. Sometimes, they ban the players caught using it from the server, either for a period of time or permanently.

If you're a wizard, magic is a bug, and the developers are the gods, this should make you very nervous.

One may tend to accumulate glitches

Why do we find mages living in isolated towers in the abandoned places of the world, rather than ruling over vast kingdoms with their supernatural powers? Maybe because flaunting your reality-hacking skills like that is the best way to get smitten with divine lightning, and every trace of your existence expunged.

Why are sorcerers so hesitant to share their secrets with an apprentice? Perhaps you want to be completely sure that your protege is not going to rush out and get caught cheating by the moderators of the universe. It could be that once one reckless mage brings a spell to the attention of the gods, they start combing through history to find if anyone else has been breaking that particular rule. 

That would also explain why there are so many wizard-specific spells: "Melf's acid arrow," "Bigby's grasping hand," "Aganazzar's scorcher," etc. Finding your own personal exploits ensures that you won't get caught up in a purge initiated by some other mage's overconfidence.

It would even give us a reason for Gandalf-style wizards, wise men who seem to know more than they're letting on, but never actually use magic except in the direst circumstances. You can blind the Fell Beasts or shatter your rival's staff, but each time you do it's a roll of the dice on attracting the baleful gaze of some great System Administrator. By playing outside the rules, you also lose the protection they offer.

That sums up the old-school wizard archetype pretty nicely, doesn't it? Those who willingly jailbreak themselves from the constraints of reality, and in doing so renounce the safety of the chains that others wear. You very rarely hear about bakers being eaten by inter-dimensional ghouls, or having their souls sucked out by demons they accidentally summoned, or turning themselves inside out.

Then again, would you rather spend a long life making bread, or a short one gazing upon the skein of the universe laid bare?

Hexcrawl: The Southern Coasts

Luke Gearing's masterwork Wolves Upon the Coast has put me in a hexcrawl kind of mood.

The game I'm working on right now is called THAUMOS, and it puts the players in the boots of quite potent wizards, working with their retainers and lackeys to gain power and influence across the land. To make that sort of game work, you need land!

The idea is that the party will start in Fort Bergengard (0601), a gaggle of apprentices sent south by their master to annex this region to his dread empire. The map is divided into three city-states (from east to west: the Flowerlands, the Duskenlands, and the Crownslands) hemmed in by mountains, swamps, ocean, and the cliffs of a high plateau.

Magic items shown in bold are all drawn from my list of 50 System-agnostic Magic Items. Spells used and Dooms suffered by NPC wizards come from the various Lores of monosophia.

Made with HexKit

0101: Failed Mine

A lonesome peak leans at an unnatural angle, supported by inner veins of iron melted and cast by some unnatural primordial force. A band of entrepreneurs from Dancing tried to start an iron mine here, but they were slaughtered by goat-men. Their families would be grateful for their remains.

0201: Goat-man Nomads

Fear of Henstooth has driven this clan of goat-men west across the White Snake River. Soon, they will be forced around the northwest corner of Snakehead Lake and come into direct conflict with the Triplets.

0301: Grey Hills

Here the wizard Henstooth jealously guards the Midnight Tower, built of deep blue stone on a confluence of ley-lines. She harries scouting parties from Dusk with bands of wolves and bears, herself taking the shape of a giant vulture. She knows that Smoker could crush her if he made a concerted effort, and fear is consuming her. Henstooth wears Grandmother's Jaws.

0401: Skaffenfals

Here Bear River plunges a full bowshot down a granite cliff. Rival clans of eel-men live at the top and bottom of the falls.

0501: Screamer

A winged terror lairs in these peaks. survivors are never clear on its exact nature, only that it has vast wings and emits piercing shrieks. Screamer was once a wizard, a survivor of the third Doom of Beasts who slew the Ur-Predator and claimed the ultimate hunting form.

0601: Fort Bergengard

Gateway to the north, a stone-and-steel cork plugging the only pass through the mountains. Lady Ghaith, disdainful of everyone and everything to the south, commands. She would very much like to be rid of the creature Screamer that lairs to the west. She wields Aigenthwait.

0701: Apex Temple

Steps carved into the mountainside lead to a peak with a perfectly flat top, as if cut by some massive blade. Every full 24 hours spent here staring up at the sky carries a 3-in-6 chance of learning a new Secret of the Heavens, and a 1-in-6 chance of instant death as the sky claims an offering. Deliberate sacrifice may draw the eye of a prince of the upper air.

0102: Goat-man Raiders

A party of a dozen goat-men is scouting new homelands for their tribe. They have been happily pillaging the outlying farms of the Triplets for a few weeks. Their leader, Ouluo, wields Corbie's Claw.

0202: Snakehead Lake

White Snake River does not lose its strength as it passes through, a strong current down the middle of the lake. The rest of the waters are milk-pale and placid. The lake is unnaturally deep, but any straight length of wood touched against the bottom becomes an implement of power. Further contact between such an implement and the water of the lake dissolves the wood like sugar.

0302: Dusk

Ring-city surrounding the Dusktower (pale purple stone). Confluence of ley-lines. Home of the wizard Smoker, although he spends half his time at the Noontower. Administrated by Blackfingers, a failed apprentice who uses his magic to hunt sedition. Smoker's moniker comes from the interaction between his robes and the 2nd Doom of Fire.

0402: Curds

Town with an economy based on beef and dairy, sometimes called "the milk-jug of Dusk." Ruled by a plutocratic council of five cheese-lords. The town's mascot, Dun Bess, is missing.

0502: Bearbridge

Town of farmers and fishermen, sitting at the eastern end of the bridge from which it takes its name. Trade has slowed in recent years as the relationship between Dusk and Bloom has cooled. However, enterprising merchants from Curds still make the long trip over the pass to the North, and for that they must pay the toll at Bearbridge. The local leader One-ear, a massive and jovial man, does his best to retain the favor of both nearby cities. He carries Bullkiller and knows Secrets of Flesh (1, 3, & 9). He uses his detached ear to spy on his fellow villagers.

0602: Floral Banners

The Brass Maiden's armies muster here, churning the fields to mud. Lord Dhommen (wears the Champion's Helm) commands troops who are growing weary of waiting for orders. He is unsure whether the Maiden intends to strike east towards Dusk or north toward Fort Bergengard.

0702: The Devilspipe

Fume-spewing volcano. Lair of the wizard Flamewatcher (Fire 1-12, Flesh 2, Sea 11). Every week spent studying the volcano grants access to a random Secret of Fire (do not re-roll duplicates). Flamewatcher suffers from the 3rd Doom of the Heavens, and so cannot leave his mountain lair. He will share all his lore in exchange for a cure. Flamewatcher shares the volcano with a phoenix who pines for him with unrequited passion.

0103: Dancing

Farming village cradled in a bend of the Black Snake River. Glanneth leads, a hero after killing four goat-men with Fletcherskip. Makers of animated straw-men, and eager to sell them as porters.

0203: The Triplets

Borders between the towns of Thatch, Lure, and Rye have blurred over the years, with a tangle of bridges built across the Black Snake and White Snake. However, the three towns remain stubbornly independent, maintaining separate governments and codes of law despite their ties. Bad blood among the ruling class has prevented them from mounting a campaign against either the Snakehead Bandits to the east or the goat-men to the northwest. Notable figures include Snowhead, a white-haired young urchin who scams newcomers using the Peddler's Pouch.

0303: Snakehead Bandits

A group of mercenaries has taken to preying on caravans between Dusk and the Triplets. Thus far, Smoker has been stretched too thin to deal with them, but the bandit leader Brell (bears the Soulclaw) knows his luck is bound to run out.

0403: Glass Tree

The road skirts near the forest here, and when the moon is high at night a strange glow can be seen through the trees. Hidden in a secluded glade grows a tree of glass, heavy with many-colored fruits and emitting a soft melody. The tree is guarded by razor-limbed glass dryads. Plucking a fruit causes the branch it grows on to shatter, spraying razor-sharp glass three paces in every direction. A fruit so plucked can be used as an orb, serving as an implement of power, although humming the tree's melody in reverse will destroy it.

0503: Ruins of Flussgard

A once-mighty fortress, reduced to rubble. The vaults below are full of traps and murder-golems, guardians of the Golemlord's treasure that have long outlasted their master.

0603: Bloom

The city of flowers. Ruled by the Brass Maiden, who wears Shae's Mantle and wields Dominion. Greydorre and Golden Grass have shielded her from the passage of years, but their power is stretched thin. She is secretly desperate for a more permanent solution to mortality.

0703: Wolf Lake

Packs of wolves roam the northern and western banks. To the southeast, clear waters gradually choke on brown mud until they blend into the swamp.

0104: Pitchfork Tower

A slender spire of dark stone rises right at the edge of the high plateau, visible from below for miles around. Two-thirds of the way up, the tower splits in three, a seemingly-impossible architectural marvel. Two rival sorcerers dwell within, locked in a bitter struggle over the third tine.

0204: Yoxosotinax

Small village hidden by a dense wall of pine trees. The villagers are all of Üxan ethnicity and speak no Thraish. They do not remember how their ancestors arrived here. Led by Gurüm, a simple shepherd who came to power when he discovered the circlet Authority.

0304: The Knotwood

The trees here grow tangled together, forming a three-dimensional maze of wooden bridges, platforms, and tunnels. "The Green Prowler," a Woken Tree, hunts bearers of fire or steel. Protruding from its body is the Oakheart; ripping the staff free turns the monster into an ordinary tree.

0404: Ash Town

Small hamlet, kept alive only by the patronage of the wizard Smoker (he rests here when traveling between Dusk and the Noontower). Also notable for its fine guard dogs, of which there are 1d6+2 available for sale at any given time.

0504: Claybone Fields

The site of an ancient battle between Üxan colonial forces and the armies of the Golemlord. The smashed golems are inert, but the many human bones rise each night into a skeletal parody of martial array, dressed in corroded Üxan mail, their spears thirsty for living blood.

0604: Mintford Ferry

The currents of the Wolf River are strong and unpredictable between Wolf Lake and the junction with the Bear River. The only safe way to cross is on the ferry, run by an old man named Mint. He is secretly a minor wizard (Sea 4 & 9), and he occasionally demands extra payment halfway across the river, sinking the boat and swimming to safety if refused.

0704: Julip

Village nestled in a stinking swamp, center of a network of marsh-dwelling families. Led by Aila, who metes out justice using the axe Rexxenvalt. The tail from a blue-headed swamp rat can be made into an implement of power, although the touch of blood will dissolve it.

0105: Jungle of the Mushroom-People

The dense jungles of the high plateau house a civilization of their own, fungal rather than mammal. The human inhabitants of the plateau have treaties with the mushroom-people, but strangers not making the proper obeisance will be drugged and collected for domestication.

0205: Sheer

Town, guards the base of the only descent from the high plateau for a hundred miles. Padrix (wears the Horatian Greaves) commands the guard force. He obsessively studies what little is known of the civilization on the high plateau, and has become enamored of their strange culture.

0305: Black Snake Bridge

The old stone bridge collapsed a year ago, and workers from Crowns have built a makeshift string of barges to take its place. The collapse was engineered by conspirators from Fetchport, who hope that without a river crossing Crowns will lose its grip on the lands east of the Black Snake River. Work is led by Ethal, who wears Grogangrip.

0405: Kettle

Fishing town named for a nearby rock formation. Led by Elmore, an ancient man who secretly harbors anti-Crowns sympathies. A unit of elite soldiers from Crowns is stationed here, under the command of Wexxen. Their nominal mission is to assassinate the wizard Smoker as he travels between Dusk and the Noontower, but they have so far been content to laze around terrorizing the locals. Wexxen carries Glassrazor (a gift from Thraix), but he is too afraid to ignite it.

0505: The Noontower

Bone-white stone, built on a confluence of ley lines. The wizard Smoker spends half his time here, the other half in Dusk. The tower is tended by Smoker's apprentice Meadow. She uses the Bow of Years to send messages directly to Dusk. If she calls for help, Smoker will arrive in eight hours, having used the Demon Bridle to ride a horse to death and beyond.

0605: Ruins of Darxax

Cliff-city. The only foothold Üxan ever gained in the North. Destroyed two generations ago by the forces of the Golemlord, who lost his own life in the siege. Now it is nothing but an enormous tomb, haunted by a single surviving murder-golem which bears the stone Claywaker in its forehead.

0705: Wheel-on-the-Island

Town of sailors, merchants, and corsairs. Thraish, Üxan, and the sailors' argot Salt are all spoken here. Stammer, a minor wizard, rules by acclaim of his fellow captains--word of his brilliance in fending off raids from Nüx has spread as far as Crowns. However, he has fallen in love with the Brass Maiden, and some are beginning to doubt his ability to protect Wheel's independence from Bloom. He wears the Galilean Boots.

0106: Vlaagos

Cliff-city. Despite its poor harbor, ships are constantly docked to trade for the fruits, spices, and ointments of the high plateau. The ruling class are giants, eight feet tall and hairless--the result of careful breeding and a strict chemical regimen that begins in the womb. Led by Uldraa, a wizard who knows the secret of commanding lightning (Heavens 11). She carries Might.

0206: Fetchport

Once a city, killed by its proximity to the more prosperous Crowns. Clinging to life on fishing and what little trade passes down from the high plateau through Sheer and Vlaagos. Led by Rexxa, a fiery young woman who killed her predecessor in a duel. She carries Cloudcutter.

0306: Crowns

Thriving port city, ripe with trade from Üxan via Kaxarax. Ruled by triumvirate of merchants-lords: Lenna, Thraix, and Dhommas. Lenna is the sister of Stammer, and hides her use of Dream-magic to gain influence. Thraix  is a retired pirate; he wears Raker and suffers crippling insomnia (Lenna has stolen the sleep from his eyes). Dhommas is a charlatan-turned-prophet, whose latest pseudonym comes from the magic ring he wore until it was recently stolen (he is desperate to get it back).

0506: The Dawntower

Pale yellow stone, built on a confluence of ley lines. Üxan soldiers guard it, led by Rü, a skilled hypnotist. They have no wizard to claim the tower, but they will lay down their lives to prevent a foreigner from controlling it.

0606: Nüx

Colonial Üxan outpost, lifeline to Darxax before its fall. Ruled by Darüx Sotin, Darüx Gum's cousin. Sotin is an expert hypnotist but a poor leader: recent failed raids against Wheel-on-the-Island have his commanders muttering mutiny in the taverns.

0207: The Isle of Scales

Temples to a long-tongued god. Men born with webbed feet and gills. Women who give themselves to the creatures of the deep. A king who feasts on human flesh. Here one may learn Secrets of Flesh and Sea, but at what cost?

0507: Karaxax

Colonial port of Üxan. Hemmed in against the bay by a petrified forest. Ruler is Darüx Gum, a scholar and master hypnotist. he pays lip service to Üxan, but secretly yearns to rule the island as a king. Gum wields the Papermind.

0607: Locust Temple

The living god of a long-vanished insectoid civilization waits within, chitin and mandibles untouched by the eons.

Random Encounters

Anywhere

1. Mortally wounded warrior, kept alive only by the magic of his shield, Baisgard. He is beyond any help save powerful Secrets of Flesh.

2. Red-haired horseman from the north named Groge, riding Nornthunder and bearing the Witching Lamp. He is seeking revenge against the wizard Stutter, who seduced his son and then mutilated the lad when she grew bored. Stutter has changed her name to Lenna and now rules the city of Crowns.

3. Simple swineherd named Sack on his way to market. Among his sows is Squealer. He’s happy to show off her unique talents.

4. Cow thieves. Two young men (Orff and Blister) from Curds, traveling with the stolen Dun Bess. They did not think their plan through, and they are getting hungry. Eager to accept coin or food for access to Bess’ magic milk.

5. Dhommas, an ambitious thief from Crowns. He stole the ring Dhommas from its former bearer during a parade, and he has been on the run ever since. Recently he discovered the utility of the ring’s power, and he has acquired a following of young women who see him as an instrument of divine love.

6. Gopher, professional message-carrier and herald. Talks a mile a minute and will do anything for a quick coin. Wears Rennershoon. Roll to see which of the nearest two settlements he has news from.

Duskenlands

7. Catira “Cattie,” a young woman from Ash Town. Having grown up a witness to the power that Smoker wields, she is determined to become the Brass Maiden’s apprentice and acquire power of her own. However, she has gotten hopelessly lost, and has no idea how to get to Bloom. Accompanied by an extremely loyal war dog and the Crimson Hound.

8. (Night only) War party of lost skeletons from the Claybone Fields. Seeking their comrades, but they have no sense of direction.

9. The wizard Gutter, a drifting and gurgling sack of flesh. Traveling with him are Sigil and Mocker, his two apprentices. Sigil bears Scriber; Mocker wears the Skaldenface. They are headed for Snakehead Lake so that the apprentices may fashion implements of power.

10. Emissaries from the Triplets, on a quest for help with bandits and goat-men.

11. Spies from Bloom, badly disguised as merchants.

12. Smoker, traveling.

Crownslands

7. Fetchport saboteurs searching for ways to strike at Crowns. Led by Rexxa, carrying Cloudcutter.

8. Foragers from Yoxosotinax. 2d6 peasants equipped for hunting and gathering.

9. Merchants from the Triplets. Among their mundane wares is the Sunheart Gem.

10. Soldiers on patrol out of Crowns. They want a bribe to let travelers pass unmolested.

11. Charmiir, a noble scholar from the high plateau, sightseeing. He is seven and a half feet tall, hairless, and rides in the Silk Chariot. Because of his poor eyesight, his attendants constantly narrate to him. He scorns interpreters, preferring to communicate using the Whispering Twins.

12. Annara, seeks allies in her vengeance quest against Thraix, one of the three rulers of Crowns. She wears the Cattenails.

Flowerlands

7. Floral deserters. 1d6x4 hungry soldiers, halfway to turning bandit. 2-in-6 chance they are led by a skilled swordsman with a vigor slot.

8. Merchants from the North. Carry news across the border.

9. Alaith, an expert duelist traveling in search of a worthy opponent. She wears the Footpad’s Foe and uses Paxcord in her off-hand to destroy her opponent’s weapon.

10. Spies from Dusk, badly disguised as pilgrims.

11. The Seeker in Blue. Wears the Blue Cloak and carries Maidensborre. Believes he is chosen by the divine, as he has used the sword nine times and never yet been found unworthy.

12. Nollen the Bard. A traveling storyteller madly in love with the idea of the Brass Maiden. Twice he has been turned away from her court; execution awaits him should he appear at the gates again. He plays Homesinger and draws with Soultracer.

Border Regions

7. Screamer.

8. Goat-man foragers. 3d6 +10 peasants.

9. Goat-man warriors. 

10. (If within 2 hexes of the Grey Hills) Midnight tower light patrol: 2d6 wolves.

11. (If within 2 hexes of the Grey Hills) Midnight tower heavy patrol: 1d6 bears.

12. Henstooth circling above in giant vulture form. If she spots a group headed towards the Midnight Tower, she will send more and more beasts to harry them until they turn back.

Üxan Colony

7. Basilisk

8. Feral mindhunter hounds (2d6)

9. Üxan patrol from Kaxanax: hypnotist, 3d6 warriors, and 1d6-1 mindhunter hounds

10. Üxan patrol from Nüx: hypnotist and 2d6 warriors

11. Treasure-hunters from the mainland, led by Giant, a very small man who wears the Horatian Greaves

12. Omen of insectoid divinity

Open Sea

7. Üxan ship Sükanüx out of Nüx, badly damaged after a failed raid against Wheel-on-the-Island

8. Roundship Woolspade out of Crowns – carrying textiles and salted meat to Kaxarax

9. Ship Ochre Run out of Vlaagos – carrying spices and unguents to Crowns

10. Corsair galley Mossbone out of Wheel-on-the-Island

11. Narcissistic whale demanding flattery

12. Wizard from the Isle of Scales, riding a leviathan

For aesthetics' sake, here's a copy of the map without all those hex numbers in the way. I love the look of these old-school tiles, but I guess if I ever want to publish this map I'll have to draw my own. That'll be a different kind of adventure!

The Lore of the Sea

The Depths are Silent:

The Depths are Hungry

Monosophia

The depths are home. You...

• (1 Secret) ...breathe water as air of the same purity.
• (2 Secrets) ...move with dolphin's grace when submerged.
• (4 Secrets) ...have whale's sight beneath the waves.
• (8 Secrets) ...suffer no harm from crushing depths or frigid water.

Secrets of the Sea

1. Drink seawater until you retch. Your bile is foulest poison, with a [DICE]-in-6 chance to risk death if applied topically, or [HIGHEST]-in-6 if ingested.
2. Simultaneously tap the surface of two basins of seawater. Until they are spilled, each shows the reflection that should appear in the other. Range is limited to...
• (1 die) ...a whaleslength.
• (2 dice) ...the distance a tuna can swim in a day.
• (3 dice) ...the breadth of an ocean.
3. Hum a tune from the abyssal plain. All who hear it, unless they know Secrets of the sea, are afflicted with nausea. [HIGHEST]-in-6 chance that they double up vomiting.
4. Stir  a body of water to induce a current therein: extending within shouting distance, with a strength [SUM] times your own.
5. Call out and indicate a point within a stone's throw. All water (up to [SUM] times your body's volume) within shouting distance rushes to that point in a single heartbeat.
6. Make eye contact with someone and snap your fingers. Their lungs fill with water, doubling them up with a fit of coughing. [DICE]-in-6 chance they risk death.
7. Salt water is driven away for [SUM] paces around you, up to [DICE] dozen paces high. Walk dry-shod across the seabed.
8. Call up the Ocean Below. Saltwater infiltrates the soil for [SUM] dozen paces around, turning dirt to soupy mud. Nothing will grow here for years to come.
9. Apply black sludge to a person or object. For [SUM] hours, water for them has the consistency of air (though this does not let them breathe it). The target may be no larger than...
• (1 die) ...a tuna.
• (2 dice) ...a whale.
• (3 dice) ...the leviathan.
10. With an agonizing grown, your body distorts into an amorphous sack of liquid. You can squeeze into any space larger than an eyeball, but your oozing form is extremely fragile. Changing back is exhausting, and any given attempt has only a [HIGHEST]-in-6 chance of success.
11. Place your hand on the chest of a willing or helpless subject. The water leaves their body in a puff of steam, instantly mummifying them. Submerging the remains in saltwater reverses the effect and revives the subject. The mummy will crumble after...
• (1 die) ...a moon.
• (2 dice) ...a year.
• (3 dice) ...an eon.
12. Stand on the seashore and loudly demand judgement. After [SUM] minutes of such invocation, a wave arrives to punish you for your sins, large enough to...
• (1 die) ...kill you and all those within shouting distance.
• (2 dice) ...uproot trees; wreck a fleet.
• (3 dice) ...shatter stone; wipe a city from the map.

Marks of the Sea

1. Barnacles cover half your face
2. Faint noise of waves is always audible around you
3. Any place you linger for more than a few minutes grows damp: condensation on walls, clammy skin, smell of mildew
4. Prominent gills open on your neck
5. Your fingers are webbed
6. You sprout a beard of waving tentacles

Dooms of the Sea

1. Whenever you are not wet, cracked skin causes you terrible pain
2. Your legs fuse into a flipper tail
3. You lose the ability to breathe air, and sunlight sears you. At the bottom of the deepest sea-trench grows a mollusk whose touch can reverse this doom