Cast of the Crystal Seas: Analicia

Analicia is an elf, but quite dissimilar to those of legend, for she is a member of the Varanesi clan. The Varanesi elves are renowned artisans, merchants and patrons of the arts. They are wealthy and powerful, with a reputation for snobbery and haughtiness. They are also known to employ subterfuge and even violence to protect their interests.

Analicia showed early promise as a carpenter, and given the long lifespans of elves, had plenty of time to refine her craft. In fact, in the century or so that has passed since she was born, she has become obsessed with crafting wood. Under the tutelage of Don Amatus, a senior artisan of the the Varanesi, she has achieved a mastery that is famed throughout the city and beyond. However, she also has other talents.

Another senior Varanesi, Donna Serafina, saw that Analicia would make an excellent… operative. She thought Analicia would be useful in the more clandestine activities of the clan, as she was graceful, agile and intelligent. Analicia was trained to be a spy and a thief, and until she reached adulthood (and could assume the title Donna herself) was obliged to follow this life path.

On reaching her first century, Analicia - now Donna Alicia - was excited to be setting up her own workshop and becoming fully independent… but the senior clan members had other plans. They ordered Analicia to continue her work with Donna Serafina. Analicia was disinterested, and showed them disrespect by disobeying their orders. Nonetheless, her decision was tolerated, and she was free to set up a business of her own, although she was stripped of the honorific Donna and went back to plain old Analicia.

For the first few years, things went very well for her: her craftsmanship was in high demand by many wealthy families in the city of Freeport, and she found many patrons willing to sponsor her artistic pursuits. Tragically,her success was short lived following a devastating arson attack that saw the culmination of her life’s work - her workshop and all its contents - utterly destroyed. Filled with guilt and shame, as well as anger, she returned to the clan leaders for help in rebuilding her business and locating the perpetrators of the crime.

Now, Analicia finds herself in an uncomfortable bind: the clan elders have reluctantly agreed to assist her, but her earlier rejection of them still hurts, and so to save face she must agree to work for Donna Serafina once again… and her first assignment is very odd indeed. Analicia has returned to the life of a rogue, in the employ of the elven Varanesi, and is now sailing on a ship to  a strange southern city, with a dwarven cleric called Horace...

Cast of the Crystal Seas: Horace

Dwarves live a long time, and although they age at a similar rate to humans, they are not considered to be adults until their fiftieth year. Even by these standards Horace - not his real name - was a slow developer. He was naive and a little clumsy, but unusually outgoing, a trait associated amongst the stoic dwarves with vacuousness (“Empty vessels make the most noise” is a common dwarven proverb). The dwarf now known as Horace also loved hearing a good story and this, combined with his inherent superstition, made him a  good fit for the role of temple hand. Assisting the dwarven priests, he eventually came to learn a fair bit about medicine and the treatment of minor ailments. But he constantly wondered what else might be going on in the wider world.

Growing up Horace’s most exciting memories were of the hardy human traders who would make the trek to the dwarven lands during milder weather, exchanging human goods for dwarven craft items. The humans always seemed happy and cheerful next to his own compatriots, especially, he noticed, when they were leaving. Horace thought that humans must therefore come from a most wonderful place, and longed to one day visit.

When Horace reached his 48th year, he was presented with that chance: before being accepted as a mature, adult dwarf, all dwarves are expected to spend two years exploring life outside their settlement. Most only venture to the next fortress, a few take part in “the circuit” and attempt to visit every fortress in the dwarven realms… but Horace knew what he wanted to do: travel to the city of Freeport.

After one year, Horace returned to the dwarven realms utterly disgusted: he had witnessed dwarven artifacts selling for thousands of gold pieces, subsidising the lavish lifestyles of wealthy merchants. But his disgust was with his own countryfolk for being so naive, not with the human merchants, whom instead he decided to emulate. For the remaining year prior to obtaining adulthood, the dwarf now known as Horace travelled the dwarven realms, disguised as an elderly priest, exchanging worthless knick-knacks he said had magickal healing properties for valuable dwarven craft items, which he then sold in Freeport. Thus he was able to maintain a lavish lifestyle in the city at the expense of his own people’s credulity.

But in spite of himself, Horace had fallen for a young dwarf-maid named Tatiana, and knowing that he would be unable to seduce in his guise as an elderly priest, attempted to woo her as himself. However, he embellished a few facts here and there about his age and social standing, and with his powers of persuasion won the family around and were engaged to be married. He decided to travel back home to secure his family’s favour, besides which his two year sojourn almost up. But trouble soon caught up with him.

Tales of Horace the fraudulent priest had soon become widespread, once it became apparent his “remedies” were useless as well as worthless. The Dwarven Church stated that they had never even ordained a Priest called Horace, but tales were already circulating of a much younger dwarf by a similar name living it up in the human city of Freeport. Our hero might have got away with it, too, were it not for one intrepid human trader who had ventured far into dwarven territories in search of his “friend”. He attempted to bluff his way out of it, but in the end his ruse was uncovered: the dwarf we now know as Horace was outed as a fraud, a charlatan.

The case was unprecedented, and whilst the dwarven elders debated what to do, Horace was incarcerated in a cell high above the community, open to the elements. Here he grew bitter and resentful. Two years passed before he was summoned from his oubliette to appear before the council, and when the sentence was passed that he was to be stripped of his name and banished from the lands, he cheered out loud, such was his resentment of his own people.

Dwarven guards were summoned to escort him to the border, but along the way he was granted one chance to say goodbye to his family. AShamed, in spite of his indignance, he decided not to face them, instead requesting that he be permitted just to pass by the home of his once betrothed, Tatiana, from whom he had not heard anything since his arrest. Peeking in through the windows of her family home, Horace espied the young maid looking old beyond her years, playing with a baby dwarf: his baby dwarf. He cried to be allowed inside,but the guards dragged him away.

Only then did the true horror of his crimes hit him: not only had he destroyed his own life, but he had brought shame on his once wife, and was now so dishonoured that he was incapable of redeeming her or his child… he wept real tears when the guards cut off his beard, and commanded that he never again set foot in dwarven lands.

So Horace followed the path that had been set for him before, and seeking to redeem himself, became a cleric. The Holy Order of the Knights of the Diamond Sigil took him in, on the condition that henceforth he live only for others, and if requested for aid, he provide. When the Old College and the clan of the Varanesi were looking for assistance, they turned to The Order,and the Order sent them Horace.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD... back in the sandbox

And we're back...

...and this time we have a new sandbox to play in, and some people with whom to play! The Fells was never fully realised, instead I've started afresh with this very close approximation of the Nile Delta, the Indigo River region.

The world was developed originally as a backdrop for an ongoing project of mine (a kind of sorcerer's apprentice meets Persephone and Pluto RPG maker MV project called "Changeling Bride") and was a little "thin", so with the help of Bat in the Attic's great sandbox creation guide, I managed to throw something together in about a week.

The setting has been adapted specifically for D&D 5th edition, but was originally intended as a low-magic, low monster frequency environment, although that has been adjusted slightly. Since this is now a live campaign, I shall not disclose any more. However, if you are keen, here's a graphic of the quabalistic cosmology I'm attempting to cobble together to cover the structure of the entire multiverse within which it is situated!

Building a Sandbox Campaign, Part 9: Magic and the Fells

One of the cornerstones of The Fells as a campaign world was that there was to be an actual, physical in-game divide between the mundane world of civilisation and the magical wilderness of adventure. Since I've now reached the stage where I have a map, I should like to take a moment to explore where that barrier lies and the effect that it is.

The Fells campaign is loosely inspired by the sidhe of Irish mythology, and  the broader, Germanic-Celtic folklore of northern Europe. A common feature of these myths is the idea of a faery kingdom or fey realm, to which mortals might be transported, either willingly or unwillingly. Further myths and legends abound concerning ancient sites and faery rings that act as a gateway between the two realms. In the realm of The Fells there are points where the Otherworld of the Ao Sith and the mundane world are one and the same. At these points, there is no divide between the mundane and the magical.

It makes sense to me that such points would correspond with the sites I've selected for various adventures (lairs & ruins), so I shaded these off on my hex-map accordingly. Of course, some of those lairs might be home to more mundane creatures, but I can change my map later. I've also decided that some of these lairs are locations of veritable fey dominions, and so the surrounding hexes for certain locations are shaded, too.

Now, in the post concerning campaign tone I wrote that as well as a mundane and a magical realm, there should also be a hinterland between the two. In campaign terms, this represents a point where the Otherworld's influence is strong, magic works and fey creatures can travel, but it is the two realms are still essentially separate from one another.

Using my hex map above, I then began to shade in all hexes abutting a fey hex, identifying them as on the fey "hinterland". I then shaded in a few extra hexes to link areas together, producing this quite pretty map below.

PCs wandering through this map never leave the mundane world: instead, the pass through parts of the mundane world which are also part of the Otherworld, or are particularly close to it. The two worlds are parallel, but largely independent: entering a magenta hex does not mean the character is free to explore the realm of the fey, that would require special enchantment. Likewise, a fey creature can never leave the Otherworld: they might sometimes wander into areas were the mundane and the Otherworld are the same, or close to one another, but if they wander into a mundane hex, they vanish from view. This reinforces my conceptualisation of fey creatures described in this post.

The hinterland squares have special characteristics, for here the Otherworld can be seen but not touched. Henceforth it shall be known as the halfworld, for although it is mundane it is neither here nor there. Here. inhabitants of the Otherworld appear like wraiths or shadows and, if they desire, may fully manifest in this magical part of the mundane world. They may just as easily leave, whereupon they once again take on a semi-corporeal form, appearing as harmless ghosts.

This gives all fey a horrifying power of mundane creatures: they may enter and leave certain parts of their world at will, steal from or harm its inhabitants, then return to somewhere humans will never be able to reach them.

Magical creatures are often protected by an immunity to conventional weapons, and in the Otherworld the majority of creatures experience a boost to their immunity, so that a creature normally vulnerable to silver weapons will only be vulnerable to a +1 magical weapon and so on. Fey creatures without invulnerability can only be hit by silver or magical weapons in the fey realm. In other words, a fey creature is at full strength in the Otherworld, but whilst in the Halfworld it is weaker and more vulnerable.

eg. Naimbh the Bold encounters a band of malevolent redcaps whilst exploring a strange forest in the Halfworld . They attempt to lure her into the Otherworld realm by taunting and attacking her. Because they are not very powerful, she is able to wound them with her mundane sword, Brechwingamen, so the Redcap hop between worlds in the hope that she will not kill them.

They successfully lure her to a point where the Otherworld and Mundane are one [a magenta hex]; here, there powers are augmented and Naimbh's sword appears to pass through them without causing any damage. Remembering the legends concerning such creatures, Naimbh pulls a silver dagger from it's sheath and is able to inflict harm on them.

Overpowered, Naimbh flees, with some of the Redcap in pursuit. They follow her for many miles, but as soon as she leaves the Halfworld, they are unable to maintain chase: fey creatures may not enter the mundane.

Spell casting and magical powers are also affected by the location of the creature. Magic in this campaign is drawn entirely from the Otherworld, and so is at its most potent in that realm. In the mundane world it is subject to severe restrictions. In the Halfworld, where the influence of the Otherworld is strong, magic follows conventional game mechanics.

The full details of the effects on spell casting are listed below:

The Mundane

• Magical scrolls require an additional round to activate. All spell scrolls will have a 50% chance of summoning a creature.
• Rods, staves and wands require an additional round to activate. All spell like effects will have a 50% chance of summoning a creature.
• Potions either operate at 50% efficiency or have their duration reduced by 50%.
• Katadru (cleric analogues) and other faith-based casters are unable to cast spells;
• Magic users and Keiwosithe may cast spells but with the following restrictions:
1. At first level they may only cast read magic.
2. At 2nd level the may cast read magic and one other first level spell with a 50% chance of failure
3. At 3rd level they may cast read magic and one other first level spell without restrictions. All other 1st level spells have a 50% chance of failure. They may not cast any second level spells.
4. At 4th level they have the same restrictions as 3rd level, but may cast one 2nd level spell at 50% chance of failure.
5. At all subsequent levels the pattern continues: they can cast one spell without random failure at each spell level they know, apart from the highest level. They are unable to cast any spells of their highest level unless they are "usually" able to cast until they learn one more spell at this level, which will have a 50% chance of failure.
6. All spells, once cast successfully, have a 50% chance of summoning a creature.

The Halfworld

• Magical items and spell casting function as usual,

The Otherworld

• Katudru and other faith based casters awaking in the Otherworld may prepare two additional spells for each spell level they know, apart from spells of the highest level they can cast. They may prepare one additional spell of their highest spell level. These spells are lost if they leave the Otherworld.
• Magic users and Keiwosithe entering the Otherworld automatically gain the ability re-cast one already-prepared spell at every level they have memorised. Additionally, they may spontaneously cast one spell they know (but not necessarily prepared) at each level they can cast except for their highest level spells. This ability is lost if they leave the Otherworld, and not regained until 24 hours after they have left.
• Magical items function normally.

Example:

Gwyn is a sixth level Soit-alo. She begins the day in a woodland in the mundane world, and prepares three first level spells (read magic, magic missile and Sleep), two second level spells (Invisibility and Detect Evil) and two 3rd level spells (Fly, Dispel Magic).

Whilst in the mundane, Gwyn may cast read magic without restrictions. She may cast one other first level spell without restrictions, and one with a fifty percent chance of failure. She may cast one second level spell without restrictions, and one with a fifty percent chance of failure. She may only cast one of her third level spells, and it will have a 50% chance of failure.

Gwyn casts no spells until her party enter the Haunted Forest, which is located in the Halfworld. Here, she may cast her spells with no additional restrictions. During an encounter with a group of bandits, she uses magic missile and sleep.

As her party venture further into the wood, they become aware of an unusual magical presence. They have entered the Otherworld. Shortly, they are ambushed by a group of goblins. Gwyn is able to re-cast one of her spent first level spells, and may cast one each of her second and third level spells again. She may also cast one first level and one second level spell she knows spontaneously for as long as she remains in the Otherworld.

Next time, I will be looking at providing further detail for the base town, Mutshud.