City of 100 Gods 4/10: The Last Ladders

These are the final wards of The Ladders, the City of a Hundred Gods' warren of slums lying beyond its perimeter walls. Movement through the district is brought to life by day and night encounter tables in this post. Initial thoughts for abstracting the map and navigating the city are here, but this is up for revision. 

The setting assumes PCs are outcast hunting gatherers visiting a Neolithic proto-city, but this could easily be re-skinned for an antediluvian/weird bronze age sword-and-sorcery game

The walls of Ichan-Qаl’а, Khiva, Uzbekistan

 31. The Kite-Flyer (Cloud Temple)

White Chalk: Crow Moon 2/12 (Almanac 25)

The Crow Moon is the second month of the year, according to the Neolithic farmers of the White Chalk Coast . Each month I attempt to update this pariah almanac, with the end result being a calendar for an entire year, alongside supporting encounter and foraging tables, which in turn reflect the seasonal changes.

The first past in the series is here:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/02/white-chalk-almanac-25.html

The firs month is detailed here:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/03/white-chalk-cold-moon-almanac-25.html

Further context is provided here:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/05/white-chalk.html

I've decided to structure the post with the most specific information up front.

Crow by Leonard Baskin (illustration from Ted Hughes' collection of Crow poems)

The Crow Moon is a month of bitter hope. While there are signs that the Spring Princess is on her way (notably the white snowdrops and purple crocuses), it is still a month of frost and snow and cold, wet winds. So optimism is tempered, and prudence prevails. The month is named for the proliferation of jackdaws, magpies and carrion crows feasting on the worms, emerging from the cold ground with faint hope in their tiny hearts.

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:

White Chalk: The Cold Moon 1/12 (Almanac 25)

Each full moon I intend to publish an update to the White Chalk sandbox here on this blog, describing the calendar year of a fantasy proto-Neolithic somewhat parallel to the world in which we live. At the time of writing we have already experienced 2 full moons (14th January 2025 and 12th February 2025), so I have 2 further posts due prior to March's full moon.

To begin I have drawn just one six-mile hex, divided further into 1 mile hexes. You can read an introductory overview in this post:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/02/white-chalk-almanac-25.html

Draft planisphere for the first month of the year, discussed below

The Cold Moon rise with bitterness: though the shortest day—the solstice—is already passed, the worst of winter is yet to come. The peoples of the Chalk Coast brace themselves for battery by the cruel winds of the north.