Sunday, 16 March 2025

The Moon Realm

Since posting about the DAWN REALM a few months back now I've had a rethink about how to approach the spirit realms that sit parallel to the Here & Now. For all the novelty of "switching codes" when dipping toes into other places (and the notion that stripping the character down to its essence could be represented at the table i.e. by taking elements from the character sheet and writing them out afresh) the reality is it's disruptive to play. This isn't necessarily bad, but I'm much less convinced it adds anything to the experience than I was previously.

It also reduces the amount of player-facing chaff and allows them to get down to what the game's really about: exiled stone-age psychonauts exploring the spirit realm, just like Dungeons & Dragons [is/used to mostly be] about dungeons and dragons. 

A map of the Moon

Fly me to the Moon

Travel to the Moon Realm requires:
  • a heroic dose of sleepflower (potentially lethal, also moreish)
  • a small dose of sleepflower in a special ritual orchestrated by an experienced spirit-talker
  • some other rite, dance, music or entheogen as yet undescribed
Travel to the moon is not physical. Whether the moon visited is the actual moon in the sky is not really that important. the point is that it feels real. While the body lies slumbering in the Here & Now, the spirit wanders the realm of dream.

In any event, at some point someone saves vs. paralysis ("moon"): the result does not determine whether the imbiber reaches the moon... rather, it determines what happens when you get there.




Arrival at Lunar Sea

Let me live among the stars

Those who fail their save:
  • materialise in their moon body naked and unarmed
  • are bereft of any of their positive traits i.e. qualities
  • cannot bring any spell-spirits with them (except for those of the moon bound to them)
Furthermore, all encountered native spirits react with disapproval: roll 3d6 and combine the lowest two.

Those who pass their save:
  • materialise in their moon body clothed however they wish: they may also bring one item held in their hand in the Here & Now
  • may leave behind nay negative traits i.e. flaws
  • bring any spell-spirits bound to them 
All encountered native spirits react with approval: roll 3d6 and combine the highest two. 

Gravity and movement work in the the same way as in the Here & Now, though time is a bit wonky (see Navigating the Moon, below). In their moon bodies, pariahs have no trouble breathing. The landscape is one of whites, creams, blues and greys: smooth deserts of dust, imposing mountains, kasts and mesas of moonrock... all criss-crossed by rivers of liquid silver. 

Though no sun shines from the indigo sky, this is not a world of darkness. Instead, all possess their own luminance... or perhaps are lit by a flat, ubiquitous light like that of an overcast day. There are no shadows, except for those lurking in the caves of the Phantom Watchers. 

Pariahs always arrive at one of the 6 minor sites toward the "rim" of the world: roll 1d6 and count clockwise from the top. Usually the name of this site is also random: only sites previously visited remain in the same place, and only if visited on consecutive trips. 

The Minor Sites

  1. Caves of the Phantom Watchers: the bastard of children of the Great Deceiver, born aeons prior to the Age of Chaos. The Titans rent their spirits from flesh, and they fled to a cold rock in space to watch the world from afar.... now that rock is alive with the dreams of higher beings, most fled to the depths of space. Only a few linger, lurking in lightless caves within the lunar rock. 
  2. Garden of Statues: where incubus/succubus can be experienced from the opposite side of sleep. Here dwells Medusa, mother of all gorgons, drawing dreamers to her sculpture park. 
  3. Grove of the Silk Factory: where dreams are tied up and transformed. Those spirit moths that ascend from the Here & Now have laid eggs of their own, birthing a new generation of memory eaters
  4. Parliament of Owls: a dense forest of tall trees, wherein dwell the moon-owls. Some have been corrupted by the Phantom Watchers, and journey to the Here & Now to whisper alien mischief 
  5. Palace of Water: wherein dwells the husband/wife of the Ocean Lord/Lady of the Sea, an alabaster palace within a labyrinthine night garden of fountains, rills, pools and cascades. Home of the tide clock. 
  6. The Temple of the Jackal: where the Great jackal sleeps, feasting on the souls offered to him by the jackalweres of the Here & Now. He is able to remove the curse that his children inflict, but requires acts of devotion by return

Pandius: the BECMI City of Immortals on Mystara's moon, pictured because I spent a long time looking for this picture yet it's not as good as I remembered

Navigating

What a wonderful night for a moondance

Pariahs wander the surface of the moon in turns. A turn has no fixed relationship to earthly conceptions of time: it feels like a day, minute, hour or a lifetime. But in one turn pariahs may move to the next hex or explore the hex they occupy. Ordinarily pariahs return to the Here & Now after 6 turns.

There are four main type of terrain, each with distinct inhabitants and hazards. Terrain does affect movement. It does affect visibility.

Pariahs are aware of the terrain in all six adjoining hexes. Additionally:
  • Pariahs in the lunar desert can see as far—in any direction—as the nearest area of broken land
  • Pariah in the lunar broken land can see as far—in any direction—as the nearest area of hills
  • Pariahs in the lunar hills can see as far—in any direction—as the first mountainous area  
Wherever pariahs are—and regardless of what is visible—they feel the pull of the Silver Lake in their waters, instinctively knowing the shortest route to it. Conversely, they feel a distinct melancholy when heading in the exact opposite of the lake's centre, i.e. towards the "rim". Pariahs travelling to the edge of the map or the rim cannot see beyond its edge: it appears as though the surface curves upwards, inception-like. However, travel beyond the edge brings the pariahs around to the opposite side (see illustration below).

Diagram demonstrating where you end up after falling off the moon


In an ordinary trip the pariahs would not get any further than the Silver Lake (or the nearest major site) before being returned home. However, pariahs will find ways to circumnavigate this inconvenience through the use of artefacts, alliances with native spirits and accumulating knowledge about the Moon.

Encounters

Come a little bit closer/ Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin'/ We could dream this night away

Roll 1d12 every turn, modifying the result by the terrain: +4 for broken land, +6 for hills, +8 for mountains.

  1. Shooting star, flying in the direction of the Caves of the Phantom Watchers
  2. Distant howl of a wolf, emanating from the Forest of Wolves
  3. Crater: record of a deep impact, additional turn to circumnavigate, or spend a turn investigating. There is a starmetal object at its centre 
  4. Nightmares: 1d4 silver mares with glowering, crimson eyes. Very aggressive, they feed on the terror of dreamers: their breath induces paralysing terror (range 15', save vs moon) lasting the duration of the trip. While dreamers are their preferred "prey", they will beat pariahs into  submission with hooves before bringing their breath weapon to bear. Willing to trade dreamers for a ride upon their back (move 2 hexes/turn towards nearest major site)
  5. Dried up river bed. It leads to the nearest major site, but pariahs move 2 hexes per turn 
  6. Mesa: great, flat-topped and easily-scaled hill, grants commanding views (treat as hill).
  7. Night Striders: herd of 2d6 enormous, spindly legged creatures striding across the lunar landscape. They move a rate of two hexes per turn. They are heading towards a randomly determined location: roll 1d8 and reference major site below, on a 7 or 8 they are heading towards the Silver Lake.
  8. A wind blowing across the dust, carrying with it a song from the Chamber of Melody 
  9. Sleepflower Eaters: a party of 1d6 psychonauts, from a community within 96 miles of the pariahs. They are all armed.
  10. Snow Hares: brilliant white hares (1d4). If captured, they can function as spell-spirit. They do not wish to be caught, are fast and expert at hiding,
  11. Herd of ancient Memory Beasts: 1d8 furry tardigrades as big as mammoths, heading to the Grove of the Silk Factory to die. 
  12. Dreamers: a bizarre riot of colour in this desaturated moonscape. 1d6 ordinary humanoids of the Here & Now, enjoying ordinary mortal dreams (secret fears, buried guilt, suppressed desires, forgotten memories, everyday anxieties, incomprehensible amalgams of all the above). 50% chance of any dreamer being known by at least one pariah.
    Their dreams are enacted by silver ghosts (1 per dreamer), gently feeding on their psychic energy to bring these dreams to life. Dreamers can be shaken from their slumber and interrogated. Silver Ghosts don't like this and attack anyone doing so.
  13. Poppy-in-the-cracks: inexplicably, a single sleepflower grows in the otherwise barren wastes. Eating it increases the duration of the pariah's trip by 1d6 turns (there are no other effects)
  14. Ghost Bats: giant cyclopean albino bats (1d10), can only be harmed by silver or enchanted weapons.
  15. Moon baboons: 2d6 predatory, brain eating baboons that have ended up the moon somehow. Wield clubs. Can grunt simple phrases, open to negotiation.
  16. Spirit-Owls: moon spirits in the form of 1d6 giant owls. 50% chance they are corrupted by the Phantom Watchers.
  17. Poppy sprites: similar to tree sprites in appearance and function, these beings are always found in vast fields of sleepflower. They defend their patch jealously, but share the secrets of their medicine with those who are humble 
  18. Milk Whale: a colossal, seemingly intelligent sperm whale, with a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead and a pyramidical white hump. It sails across the sky like a great balloon, though is able to travel any distance across the moon in one turn. Provides lifts to those who are willing to give memories, dreams and spell-spirits (1 hex per gift).
  19. Silver Jaguar/Lion/Tiger/Bear: a gargantuan manifestation of whatever is the most recognisable terrestrial apex predator in the pariah's homeland. Predictably haughty, they are unimpressed by "interlopers" i.e. mortal psychonauts. However, their favourite food remains Phantom Watchers, who are terrified of this being.
  20. Crashed spacecraft: high up in the mountains, the remains of a spacecraft. Is this real or a metaphor for something? Can the moon be reached by physical means? Is it really a "place"? Where did it come from? Can the PCs repair it and fly it home? What happens if they travel to the Here & Now in physical form? All excellent questions, none of which I am prepared to answer today.

The Major Sites

  1. Caves of Secrets: where hidden things may be revealed
  2. Chamber of Melody: where music can be stolen
  3. The Forest of Wolves: the only place where wolves ar efound (on the moon), the home of the true lycanthropes
  4. Garden of Sleepflower: where dreams are grown and harvested
  5. The Villa of Ormen: the dancing temple of the Yellow One, a gateway to his own moon. https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/02/city-of-hundred-gods-pt-310-further.html
  6. Palace of Memory: where nothing is forgotten, and new ways of remembering can be learned
Major sites provide pariahs with knowledge that can alter the landscape and change their experience of the moon, including extending their trips and rendering aspects permanent. Major sites also impart knowledge and power relevant to the Here & Now. We shall return to them soon.

Not listed as it is not a starting point though it is the most major site of all: The Silver Lake. This at the centre of the map, and is discussed below.

The Silver Lake

And true love lives/ on lollipops and crisps

The "waters" of the Silver Lake are fed by two rivers, though their own sources are obscure. It's colour and consistency is similar to pure mercury, though it's not toxic. In fact, drinking the water induces a powerful (though short-lived) sense of euphoria, accompanied by a strong desire to immerse oneself in the Silver Lake itself. Drinking additional draughts reduces the sense of euphoria each time, but the desire to swim in the lake grows ever stronger. This desire to swim is not sated by swimming in the river.

Full immersion in the waters of the lake (up to the neck) is powerfully healing, with a new effect every turn spent immersed. Read in sequence, don't roll:
  1. HP is restored to maximum
  2. If HP is already at its maximum, any fatigue is removed
  3. If the pariah is not fatigued, one lingering wound or infection is cured. Lost limbs are not restored
  4. If the pariah's wounds are fully healed, one burden is removed. Otherwise see above.
  5. If the pariah is fully relieved of all burdens, an affliction of a curse is removed (excluding spirit-touched, this remains). Otherwise see above.
  6. If all curse afflictions ave been removed, the curse itself is now completely lifted. If any banes (minor curses) have been imposed on the pariah, these too may now be removed. Otherwise see above.
  7. Once the pariah is no longer cursed or suffering a bane, the Lake destroys one spell-spirit bound to the pariah that is not of the moon. 
  8. If the pariah is no longer bound to any spell-spirits (apart from those of the moon) AND if the pariah so desires—any sensory damage is restored.
  9. If the pariah suffers no damage to their senses—or has no desire to restore impaired senses—they receive inspiration from the moon itself (see below)
HOWEVER, immersion in the waters is not without risk. After one turn immersed, the pariah is overwhelmed by a powerful desire to submerge themselves forever within the waters of the lake, though they are able to resist this urg for now. After two turns this urge intensifies, and they must save v. moon to remain in control of their senses, This continues until they leave the lake or fail the save: once failed, the pariah's spirit is absorbed by the lake. They awaken in the Here & Now as a Nameless One.
  
Once a pariah leaves the Silver Lake, they no longer feels its pull. Re-entering the water has no effect on them for the remainder of their trip. They magic is restored after they've returned to the Here & Now.

Moon River

Wider than a mile.

As mentioned, two rivers feed the lake. The current is slow and gentle, and pariahs may swim as effectively as they can in the Here & Now. It is wide, however, and swimming across to the other side takes an additional turn. Roll 1d12, referencing below once a turn. Add +1 to the roll if adjacent to hilly terrain, +2 if the river flows forth from mountains.

  1. Crystal ship: a vessel from a dream of a future that may never come, single masted with sails of silk, operated by ghosts drifting silently across the water (moves 3 hexes/turn along the river, 2 hexes/turn in flight)
  2. Sleepflower Eaters' vessel: a re-appropriated crystal ship, operated by stone age psychonauts who may or may not approve of the pariahs.
  3. Sawn piece of timber, 9 feet in length, about a foot across, 2 inches thick
  4. Solitary dreamer (see encounters, above), swimming backstroke
  5. Abandoned coracle, no paddle.
  6. Shoal of 2d20 foot-long, brilliantly silver fish. Can also fly.
  7. 20' long eel (stat as anaconda), sapient, hungry
  8. 1d6 dreamers (see encounters, above) drifting down the river in coracles
  9. Basket adrift on the silver rive. Inside (1d6) 1-moon spirit in the form of a baby owl; 2-3a memory-eating silkworm the size of a human baby; 4 1d100 ultra-dense moon rocks with  total combined weight of 400lbs; 5 a cat dressed in human clothes; 6 a human baby
  10. A nightmare: a huge silver mare with glowering, crimson eyes riing from the waters. See encounters, above.
  11. Cascade or ford permitting the river to be crossed with ease.
  12. The Moon Dragon: a colossal, serpentine dragon at home in both water, air and land but preferring the liquid silver routes through the lunar landscape. Similar in attitude to the apex predator above (see encounters)
  13. Grotto: a spring emerges from a hole in a cliff face before joining the river. The opening reveals a grotto, inside which are (roll 1d6) 1— a family of 2d4 Moon baboons (see above); 2— elaborate carvings revealing a forgotten legend, story or song (study to receive lunar inspiration, below); 3-4— 2d4 sleepflowers, if eaten they extend the trip by 1d6 turns (no other effects); 5- a human spirit-talker from a community within 24 miles of the pariahs in the Here & Now ; 6— a solitary Phantom Watcher
  14. Beautiful waterfall: immersion in the cascade has an identical effect to bathing in the Silver Lake. A failed save vs Moon leads to them being obliterated by liquid silver, their spirit carried away by the river, all the way back to the Silver Lake.

Killing (on the)Moon

In starlit nights, I saw you/ So cruelly, you kissed me/ Your lips, a magic world/Your sky, all hung with jewels

Violence is resolved as it would be in the Here & Now. Spirits reduced to 0 HP are absorbed back into the crystal lake, emerging at a later date in a new form. Pariahs reduced to 0 HP must make a Save vs. Moon: 
  • if they succeed, they regain 1 HP but their saving throw worsens by 1. 
  • If they fail, cross-reference the number rolled against the spiritual fallout table (below)
  • If their save worsens to 20, the pariah becomes a Moon Spirit and cannot return to the Here & Now
Spiritual fallout
  1. Second wind: all HP restored, save worsens by 1
  2. Revived: regain 1 HP, save worsens by 1
  3. Bursts into 1d12 identical homunculi: collect to restore (could take a minute each)
  4. Lingering: HP remains at 0, save worsens by 1
  5. Immediately awaken in the Here & Now, full HP
  6. As “5” plus the effects of low dose of Sleepfolwer
  7. Awaken in the Here & Now with 0 HP and lose the memory of an NPC
  8. As “7” plus the effects of low dose of Sleepflower
  9. As “8” also gain a bane of Moon (see below)
  10. Awaken in Here & Now with curse: spirit-touched
  11. As “10”, also attracts 1d4 Moon spirits (possibly aggressive)
  12. Awaken in Here & Now with curse: lycanthropy
  13. As “12” but a werewolf is present
  14. Awaken in Here & Now as a Nameless One 0 HP
  15. As above plus effects of powerful dose of Sleepflower
  16. As “15” but also gain a spell spirit
  17. ...or more: physical body transforms into a statue, permanently

Lunar Boons & Banes

These are magical enchantments that can be given to pariahs by spirits of the moon

Boons
  1. Conjure a moon spirit every full moon
  2. Dream of a compelling tale never before told
  3. Dream of a masterpiece of music
  4. Dream of a masterpiece of rock art or tattooing
  5. Dream of a masterpiece of sculpture or carving
  6. Gain a bonded spell-spirit of Moon
  7. Gain a mental or spiritual quality
  8. Gains an item of pure silver
  9. Ghost walk as the spirit-touched on moonlit nights
  10. Improves save vs. Moon by 1d4 (no lower than 3)
  11. Instinctively know patterns of all tides
  12. Learn ritual: Show me then the truth of its nature
  13. Learn ritual: access Moon realm without entheogens
  14. Night vision: 60’ by moonlight, depending on moon
  15. Parliamentary parlance: able to speak with owls
  16. Receives an enchanted item
  17. Summon a giant owl (1 passenger) any moonlit night
  18. Summon a loyal wolf on any moonlit night
  19. Telepathy 1d6 rounds once/day
  20. Understand the proper preparation of sleepflower
Banes
  1. Bad luck: -1 on all rolls.
  2. Bat swarm descends on pariah every night
  3. Cannot speak except to howl at the moon.
  4. Curse of lycanthropy
  5. Curse of the sleepflower addict
  6. Detested: nocturnal creatures react with disapproval
  7. Fall into an enchanted sleep for 100 years
  8. Fingers turn all touched into mercury
  9. In love with the moon
  10. Lose a random craft or performance skill permanently
  11. Moonlight causes 1SD damage/turn
  12. Moth swarm (confuse not bite) descends nightly
  13. Paralysed by fear when glimpses the moon
  14. Permanently floats an inch from the floor
  15. Petrified 1d6 turns, permanent unless save vs. Moon
  16. Petrifying gaze: victims permitted save vs. Moon
  17. Possessed by Moon spirit
  18. Significant NPC ally loses memory of the pariah
  19. Soul wanders at night, unable to sleep
  20. Suffers mutation

Lunar Inspiration

The truly magical inspiration only our Moon can provide. Eight examples below, list not exhaustive.

  1. The Crying of the Sea with its Meaningless Voice
    The moon has taught you that the terrifying ocean is actually a little baby, which is powerful knowledge. If you embrace this knowledge then the ocean may not harm you: you cannot drown, and no creature of the ocean is able to cause you injury. Even the Ocean Lord/Lady kneels at your feet.

    But you cannot walk the Here & Now with this knowledge indefinitely: at the end of one year, you must decide whether to return to the Silver Lake or else become the new Ocean Lord.

    Alternatively, the knowledeg may be rejected: you next awaken in the Here & Now with the impression of having been shown something truly revelatory, but you are incapable of articulating that fact. Instead, compose a haunting piece of song or poetry.

  2. A Legend Forgotten Now Retold
    Somehow this tale from the days of humanity's emergence from chaos was lost: but no more! Now, when you recite it, something awakens deep within the epigenetic memory of those who listen. You have the power to command armies and build nations on the back of a once lost—but now found—reskin of the monomyth.
     
  3. Lunarchitecture
    The moon is made of rock, and this rock can be cut and hewn and assembled in ways that would surprise the greatest of the Here & Now's primitive engineers. Choose a hex upon the moon for the site of your own palace: henceforth, your trips always begin from this point, and its location remains fixed. Each time you return the palace grows more elaborate (think: a new dungeon level each trip), and more loyal spirits and dreamers have come to live and work in your magnificent lunar city.

  4. Manifestation on the Moon
    The art of lucid dreaming enables you to manifest normal sized objects by expending spirit dice, the larger/more complex the object the more dice are required. An ordinary tool or weapon would take one die, a small coracle maybe 3. This takes one turn. You can also sacrifice the spirit/hit dice of others to achieve the same result.

  5. Monument to the Moon 
    You have received a vision of a great temple to the moon, which you must build on the Here & Now. An order of priests will grow around this monument, with you as the head of that order. Your spiritual and temporal power will only grow henceforth.
     
  6. The Nightflower
    You and only you have been granted a unique insight into how a common honeysuckle or other nightflower can be combined with sleepflower to greatly extend the duration of trips to the moon without any negative side effects. 

  7. Song of the Stars
    The melody you have received is utterly unique and as powerful as you wish. Choose what you want to do with this gift: it could function as a the Forgotten Legend, above, or it could be sung to open doors between worlds. Perhaps singing it summons a powerful entity from the moon or beyond. It is yours to do with as you wish, but be warned: once heard by others, it is yours no longer.

  8. Spidersilk
    A dream of a particular breed of spider has given you special insight into their hopes, fears and desires: you understand how to address them in such a way that these spiders will now weave for you. Light and soft as silk, but terrifyingly strong: you have just introduced a revolutionary material to the proto-Neolithic world.

Concluding thoughts

Obviously this is a "primer" for an entire parallel game world rather than a conclusive micro-setting, but I think there's enough here to run at least 2 "trips"—not least because the duration is restricted. In fact, I really think that is a strength of these kind of psychedelic excursions, and I have a much clearer idea of their value and use in the world of pariah since writing this up. In short:
  • The psychedelic trip is a kind of time-restricted dungeon delve
  • The treasures are either a) healing or b) knowledge
  • Pariahs can carve out their own corners in these worlds which they can return to, almost like old-school domain play
Two things I'd love to develop further arrive courtesy of Max Cantor's Weird and Wonderful Worlds. They are:
  • Concept crafting
  • Existential ecology
Max has been trying to impress the conceptual relevance to psychedelic gameplay of the former since... ever (!) and I'm still working on how to squeeze it in. I'd always seen it as particularly relevant to Dawn (especially since watching Scavengers Reigh) but it's an absolute shoe-in for the dream logic at play on the moon.

As for existential evolution, Max has devised a generator here but I'm thinking about it very specifically with regard to the lunar ecosystem. This is not an "ordinary" world, it's one built on dreams and memories and there's evidently some kind of cycle at work here. There are dreamers and predatory creatures and inspiration, and it all forms an interwoven fabric that PCs can come to understand through repeated trips. 

This was a very satisfying realisation that occurred about halfway through typing out this brain splurge, so I'm not sure how it's going to develop further but I'm excited to have that fermenting away.

There's a few references to moon-based songs in the above: some are pretty obvious, but there's one which doesn't quite make sense at first glance... can you guess which one it is?

Finally, an abridged version of this post is to be included in next month's update to the Complete Pariah Sandbox, available here:
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/complete-pariah-zini

~

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