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Showing posts from November, 2014

Transformative Events

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I was really struck by the ingenuity of the section of Gormenghast when the castle floods - it's a great way to take a familiar landscape and completely transform its appearance and the way the characters interact with it while still retaining the essence of the setting. So without further ado, here's a list of transformative events in Strigastadt: 1: Deadly Winters Like an exaggerated version of living in Minneapolis, the winters heap such an incredible amount of snow in the streets and on the roofs that both become infeasible methods of travel. When the first snows fall folks will erect sturdy wooden hyphens between the isolated structures that are not connected by covered tunnels of masonry, side-routes through other structures, or by upper levels of the ancient tunnels that lie beneath the streets. Travel via the winding and indirect interior byways is much slower and at times buildings that face each-other across broad avenues will have such a roundabout path between t

Spirit Generator

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Lost control during a risky seance? Found a room of Strigastadt not as empty as it appeared? Here is a generator for the spirits so encountered. of rank (up to 4) and in number. Note: determining what will appease a spirit is a task most easily accomplished by mediums or those otherwise connected to the realm of the dead. Even then it is a taxing and risky business.

Shaggamaws

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Feverlings derive a large part of their subsistence from residues of the chaotic energies which gave them form, whether absorbed directly from errant currents or scoured with rough tongues from the bottom of abandoned flasks and cauldrons. A perhaps more expedient method of gathering these vital energies would be to move a step up the food-chain, from gathering to preying upon those that do. On occasion this idea will occur to a feverling and lead them to acts of cannibalism. Feverlings who feast on others of their kind grow rapidly and out of all proportion to their kin, often ceasing to be recognizable as being of the same brood or even species. If the offending member is not slain, either out of collusion or cunning on its own part, the creature will grow into a dangerous being known as a shaggamaw (stats as ogre + a 1d8 bite option), its maw widening terribly as its bulk increases. Small bands of such creatures can form for mutual protection and to aid in predation, and on rare o

Feverlings

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 Sorcery is an imposition of the imagination onto reality. When the imagination is warped by mind-altering states, those with sorcerous gifts are particularly dangerous and unpredictable. Feverlings are occasional by-products of failed invocations and the accidental probings of the unconscious while the sorcerer is suffering from fever. They are physical manifestations of fever-dreams, creations of chaotic energy. Painting by Jody Siegel of one of his Shrikes  Also known as "Sorcerers' Children", feverlings are compelled to serve the being from whose mind they have sprung. Some sorcerers will deliberately ingest substances to induce a fever-state and call into being these servants, but this process is dangerous and easily results in a more calamitous failure. Feral broods of feverlings are frequent hazards when exploring realms once inhabited by sorcerers. Feverlings mature from their awkward larval form within a year, becoming lesser feverlings (stats of a goblin)