February Update
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 06, 2022 at 11:40:09 AM
New almanac entry
The Wider World and Other Wonders continues to widen with lore about the Stone Lords, who carved cities out of the landscape itself and "sang stone, crystal, and glass into impossible shapes" before the corruption and (very literal) collapse of their empire. Included here are a number of tables to aid the GM in generating sites and dangers associated with these ancient archons of geologic wonder and manufactured horror. Here's a brief description of how I just used these tools to develop bespoke material for a Stonetop campaign:
I need a Stone Lord location for the PCs to explore in the Steplands, so first I roll on the Sites table and get a ruin. Rolling on the ruin subtables for structure, purpose, architectural elements and condition, I get "large, open space," "dwelling (home, barracks, dormitory, prison, etc.),"crystals/makerglass: catching light/wind, humming/glowing, chiming/gonging;" and "shattered and laid waste by time, war, or vandalism; mostly buried, overgrown, collapsed; its purpose unrecognizable."
Okay, so it was once a home of some kind, I'm thinking some Stone Lord's estate or rural residence, removed from the nearest city or settlement, exposed to the elements for so long that only fragments of masonry remain, and these are easily mistaken for natural parts of the landscape. What is clearly not natural is the single obelisk of makerglass, several hands in diameter and maybe fifteen feet long, thrusting out from the earth at a low angle. When the wind sweeps across the rocky hillside, the obelisk resonates at a subsonic frequency and glows faintly white; the stronger the wind, the brighter the glow.
Because I see the Construct tables in the Dangers section of the Stone Lords entry, I decide that whomever called this place home had some kind of fabricated servant or device to aid and abet their lifestyle. For purpose, ability, size, power, sapience, and condition I roll "defense/companionship + construction/labor/convenience," (sounds like an all-around helper) "nothing of note, just animated stone + ranged/area attack," "like a human child (small), "stores power, but must return 'home' to recharge,"beast-like: can take basic direction, complete some complex tasks independently;" and "no power/power source failing + trapped/pinned/buried."
It's the size of a human child, but I feel like I don't want it to look like a human; maybe like a beetle, a scarab, or a worm or centipede? I decide the split the difference and imagine a beetle-like construct made of stone with a long, segmented body and a dozen sets of legs. It's run out of power and is trapped somewhere... well obviously the makerglass obelisk is its charging station! The beetle-child got stuck some distance away when it ran out of juice; it's mostly-buried in centuries of sediment, but still points toward home. I decide that its defense mechanism ("ranged/area attack") is a burst of concussive force accompanied by a blinding white flash and alarm chime. What will happen if the PCs bring it close to the obelisk? That's the kind of thing we'll play to find out.
New arcana
Okay, okay, you can strike that makerglass chime, just please not while I'm anywhere in the vicinity. But, I really do not think it's a good idea to talk to the chthonic spirit in that "fine" clay urn you just found, regardless of what recipes it promises to teach you. Do you even know what "chthnoic" means? I've said my piece, make up your own mind.
New art
Lucie breathes more life into the setting with images for Lygos and the South and the North Manmarch, entries which are now fully illustrated.
Until next time,
Jason
