Search Results for: the sleeping ones

The Sleeping Ones

Brass Tacks / aberrant, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, devil, DnD, dungeons and dragons, fiend, Sleeping Ones, villain, villains / 2 comments

February 25, 2014

A block of villains! I’m going to begin a few posts here that will all be about potential villains my campaign world might have. I’ve talked about the importance of having some bad guys who are pure evil in a world of gray. First up, The Sleeping Ones.

I’ve mentioned these creatures a few times in the past. They are half-aberrant, half-devil beings that have the alien mind and feeling of entitlement to Canus of the former, and the cruel and cunning mind of the latter. Indeed these creatures are tough, smart, and powerful. They also hold a belief that Canus was a land their ancestors dominated long ago before it was stolen from them by lesser beings. They wish to take back their world back from these unworthy usurpers.

A History of The Sleeping Ones

Long ago when the metallic dragons fought the aberrants for control of Verda, the dragons summoned legions of devils to aid them in their cause. Some of these devil escaped the dragon’s thrall and sided with the aberrants. The devils and aberrants produced a horrific offspring, with the abilities and strengths of both of their bloodlines. To their parents and dragons this race was called morchia.

As it became clear the metallic dragons and tieflings we’re going to achieve victory, the pure-blood aberrant and devils sacrificed themselves so their beloved children could retreat to Verda’s Underdark. Still many morchia died in the final days of The Dragon Aberrant War. Those that lived, recovered and began to form their own society deep below Verda.

Thousands of years later the morchia came forth from The Underdark of Verda. They fought with tribes of monstrous humanoids and humans on the surface slowly reclaiming their lost lands. The morchia were called The Awakened Ones by the tribes who did not know the history of these strange creatures. The tribes knew only that the beasts had awakened from somewhere deep within Canus, hence their new title.

While the morchia were powerful, the tribes were far more numerous and their superior numbers helped them survive – for a time. It became clear that eventually The Awakened Ones would win out against the tribes.

However, the tribes were not Verda’s only inhabitants. The tieflings saw the way the war was going and for a time remained safe in their Spires. But the tieflings feared correctly they would be the next to fall if something was not done. So they began to research all of their tomes. They search every last aberrant ruin they could find. They spent all of their energies trying to find a solution while the tribes of Verda were slaughtered.

Finally, the tieflings used ancient magic unlocked deep within the ruins of Verda, and combined these old rituals with spells taught to them by the dragons. The ritual took hold of the morchia and opened the ground beneath them. As The Awakened Ones fell deep into The Underdark, a deep slumber overcame them. The powerful ritual, referred to as The Reckoning Spell, consumed many tieflings in the process of its casting, but the morchia had been defeated. Any that had not fallen to the ritual were quickly killed off or ran deep into Verda’s jungles. The tribes took to calling their defeated foes The Sleeping Ones – a warning to themselves that these creatures might someday return.

The Sleeping Ones Today

The people of Verda have a long memory as far as The Sleeping Ones are concerned. Nightmarish tales are passed down through generations about the horrors the tribes endured at the hands of these beasts. Most of the people in the tribes have never actually come face to face with these creatures, but they still speak their name in a soft whisper. These tales are not the kind used to scare naughty children. Oh no, they are the kind that make grown adults retch and cry out in the night.

The tieflings broke apart and hid the scroll that detailed the components of The Reckoning Spell. They thought a tool so powerful should be one difficult to retrieve and one they be tempted not to use. Now the scroll lies in five pieces in various parts of Verda. A piece might be entrusted to a tribe chief of an obscure but powerful clan or deep within and ancient ruin or somewhere in Verda’s uncharted territory. Each piece’s location is known only to one tiefling. Thus the knowledge is spread across five individual tieflings and their identities are known only by The Grand Council. They only come together and reveal their information if The Grand Council calls upon them, which has not happened… Yet.

Some of the morchai escaped into the jungles of Verda and remain alive and awake. These villains rarely show their faces though sometimes an individual will cause mischief. Enslaving a tribe to cause havoc and destruction is a favorite activity of these vagabond morchai. They also search for ancient artifacts left behind by their ancestors, slaughter lesser beings to prove their dominance, and seek others of their kind to keep reproducing.

There is a darker truth being uncovered in Verda. Many morchai have come together and plan to wake their sleeping brethren. They believe The Reckoning Spell can be reversed and have made it their mission to seek out the scroll and revive their kin. Then with Reckoning Spell in hand, they will lay waste to the lesser beings on Canus and take back their home.

Abilities and Appearance

The morchai runs the gamut in appearances. They all have features that point to their devil ancestry – horns, tails, claws, sharp teeth, and fiery eyes. Their more random features are the aberrant ones. Some have the tentacles of a mind flayer or otygyuh, or the eyes of a beholder or mouths of a gibbering mouther or the beak of a grell, etc. Some have more than one of these features. The combination of these alien and devilish features is grotesque and at times mind-bending.

As far as powers go, The Sleeping Ones are resistant to fire and poison and damage from non-magical or non-silvered weapons. Those resistances come from their devilish lineage as well as a claw attack and a flame projectile attack.

From the aberrant side, The Sleeping Ones have a powerful domination ability that allows them full control of an individual’s body. Since their appearances vary based on their aberrant lineage, so too do their powers. I can roll on the table below to generate these random abilities.

Roll 1d12 and add an ability to the base morchai.

Tentacles (grant a grab attack that deals damage)
Eye rays (multiple eyes grant the creature a few unique eye ray attacks)
Beak (granting a bite attack)
Gibbering mouths (horrendous sounds may nauseate enemies)
Mind blast (an attack that can stun enemies)
Extra crab claw (grants a grab attack that can be used as part of another attack)
Flesh wings (grant a fly speed)
Shapeshifting (can shapeshift into any creature of the same size)
Sonic scream (attacks all enemies within a particular radius)
Enormous maw (can swallow creatures whole)
Supersized (creature is one size category larger and gains a trample attack)
Roll twice on this table, if this result comes up again, roll three times on the table.

Become a Patron!

If you like what you’re reading please consider supporting me on Patreon, supporting me on Ko-fi, follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

Morchia

Brass Tacks / aberrant, Aberration, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, devil, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Monster, monster creation, rpg, tabletop, tabletop rpg, TRPG, Underdark, world building, worldbuilding / 9 comments

October 23, 2014

Author’s Note: The updated version of the monster below can now be found at the Free Game Resources page of World Builder Blog. Thank you for all your feedback and please keep it coming!

Deep beneath the surface of Canus, the progeny of an ancient alliance between aberrations and devils slumber, waiting to be awakened. The morchia, cast down and unconscious by The Reckoning Spell, have hate boiling in their sleeping hearts for the world their parents said would be theirs. Simply put, you’re not an aberrant or a devil, they hate you. The exception is of course, tieflings, whom they hate beyond measure, despite the infernal influence on their heritage. Of course, some morchia escaped the influence of The Reckoning Spell, and still wander Verda’s jungles, scheming and plotting the ways they might be able to free their kin.

… plus this!

Morchia Redux

I’ve mentioned the morchia before, and I also created their statistics using the final D&D Next playtest packet. Just like The Lingering Havoc, blazing wraiths, icebreaker sharks, gaping maw, sand krakens, and mystauk, I’m going to now give you my proposed morchia statistics for fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons rules.

I am keeping the random variability of the morchia as I push forward. I like that their devil traits are consistent and their aberrant traits are more of a variable. I hope you think it’s fun as well! Check it out below!

Morchia

Large monstrosity, neutral evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 142 (15d10 + 60)

Speed 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	11 (+0)	18 (+4)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +3, Wisdom +4

Damage Resistances cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons that aren’t silvered

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities poisoned

Skills Deception +7, Insight +6

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Deep Speech, Infernal, telepathy 60 ft.

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Aberrant Trait. All morchia have at least one feature trait which can be determined by rolling on the Aberrant Feature Table below.

Devil’s Sight. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the morchia’s darkvision.

Magic Resistance. The morchia has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Actions

Multiattack. The morchia can make two attacks, or one attack and uses Hold Monster.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Hold Monster (3/day). The morchia casts hold monster. The spell save DC for this spell is 15.

Aberrant Feature Table

d20	Time	Phyiscal Feature	Effect
1	Bonus Action	Tentacles	Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
2	–	Ooze Feet	Aberrant Ground. The ground in a 10-foot radius around the morchia is doughlike difficult terrain. Each creature that starts its turn in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn.
3	–	Mouths All Over	Gibbering. The morchia has mouths all over its body which babble incoherently while it can see any enemy that isn’t incapacitated. Each creature that starts its turn within 20 feet of the morchia and can hear the babbling must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the creature can’t take reactions until the start of its next turn and rolls a d8 to determine what it does during its turn. On a 1 to 4, the creature does nothing. On a 5 or 6, the creature takes no action or bonus action and uses all its movement to move in a randomly determined direction. On a 7 or 8, the creature makes a melee attack against a randomly determined creature within its reach or does nothing if it can’t make such an attack.
4	–	Third Eye	Antimagic Cone. A third eye on stalk atop the morchia’s head emits a 60-foot anti-magic cone, as in the anti-magic field spell. At the start of each of its turns the morchia decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active. The area works against any of the morchia’s own abilities.
5	–	Covered In Mucus	Mucus Covered. The morchia is covered in a transformative mucus. A creature that touches the morchia or hits it with a melee attack within 5 feet of it must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is diseased for 1d4 hours. The diseased creature can breathe only underwater.
6	Action	Purple Eyes	Enslave (3/day). The morchia targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be magically charmed by the morchia until the morchia dies or until it is on a different plane of existence from the target. The charmed target is under the morchia’s control and can’t take reactions, and the morchia and the target can communicate telepathically with each other over any distance. Whenever the charmed target takes damage, the target can repeat the saving throw. On a success, the effect ends. No more than once every 24 hours, the target can also repeat the saving throw when it is at least 1 mile away from the morchia.
7	Action	Forked Tongue	Moan. Each enemy within 60 feet of the morchia that can hear the morchia must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of the morchia’s next turn. If a creature’s saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the morchia’s moan for the next 24 hours.
8	Action	Black Scales	Phantasms. The morchia magically creates three illusory duplicates of itself. The duplicates move with it and mimmic its actions, shifting position so as to make it impossible to track which morchia is the real one. Whenever any creature targets the morchia with an attack or a harmful spell while a duplicate remains, that creature rolls randomly to determine whether it targets the morchia or one of the duplicates. A duplicate has the morchia’s AC and uses its saving throws. If an attack hits a duplicate, or if a duplicate fails a saving throw against an effect that deals damage, the duplicate disappears.
9	Action	Exposed Brain	Devour Intellect. The morchia targets one creature it can see within 20 feet of it that has a brain. The target must succeeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw against this magic or take 22 (4d10) pyschic damage. Also on a failure, roll 3d6: If the total equals or exceeeds the target’s Intelligence score, the score is reduced to 0. The target is stunned until it regains at least one point of Intelligence.
10	Action	Protruding Forehead	Mind Blast (Recharge 5 – 6). The morchia magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or take 22 (4d8 + 4) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
11	Action	One Large Eye	Rotting Gaze. The morchia targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw against this magic or take 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.
12	–	Webbed Feet	Regeneration. The morchia regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point.
13	Action	None	Shapechanger. The morchia can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
14	–	None	The morchia gains a fly speed of 40 ft.
15	Action	Third Eye	Petrification Ray. The morchia targets a creature within 90 feet. The targeted creature must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature begins to turn to stone and is restrained. It must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified until freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.
16	Action	Third Eye	Sleep Ray. The morchia targets a creature within 90 feet. The targeted creature must succeeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or fall asleep and remain unconscious for 1 minute. The target awakens if it takes damage or another creature takes an action to wake it. This ray has no effect on constructs and undead.
17	Action	Third Eye	*Paralyzing Ray.* The morchia targets a creature within 90 feet. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
18	–	Black Eyes	Telepathic Probe. If a creature communicates telepathically with the morchia, the morchia learns the creature’s greatest desires and one fact or secret about the creature.
19	Action	None	Invisibility. The morchia can cast invisibility on itself at-will.
20	–	–	Roll twice on this table. If you get this result again roll three times and so on.

So what do you think? Sound off in the comments below and let me know if you like the morchia!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends, share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

Prepare the Invasion

Brass Tacks / Creatures, D&D, D&D 5e, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, DnD 5e, dungeons and dragons, mind-control, monsters, morchia, mystauk, rpg, tabletop, tabletop rpg, Underdark, world building, worldbuilding / 3 comments

July 22, 2014

It’s RPG Blog Carnival time once again! This month’s theme – invasive species! If you’ve been following my blog you know that this is one of my most very favorite subjects. Big shout out to Garrison James over at Hereticwerks for this badass theme of amazingness!

Invasive species have spoken to us as enemies and engines of conflict for a long, long time. Aliens are the obvious example – Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Independence Day, and The War of the Worlds are good examples of little green men as invaders. Yet, the idea of invasive species goes beyond aliens. Monster movies like Godzilla and Cloverfield could be considered to have the invasive species theme. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds clearly has it. What about microorganisms? Even Y: The Last Man could be considered a story with invasive species. Heck, we see it in our real world all the time! Kudzu in Georgia, African hippos in Colombia, and Burmese pythons in Florida are all examples of real world invasive species.

Even the tagline for *Cloverfield* ads played on the idea of invasive species.

Anyway, you get the idea. It’s a topic central to many great stories. If you’ve been following World Builder Blog the last few months, then you already know two of its iconic invasive species. Today I’ll be presenting you with the Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition statistics for the half-devil, half-aberrant morchia and the mind controlling, parasitic mystauk.

Morchia

The morchia are known as The Sleeping Ones, since The Reckoning Spell put a majority of them literally to sleep in the Verdan Underdark. Still, some of the beasts have escaped the tiefling’s ritual. These half-aberrant, half-devil monstrosities live to punish all other sentient races who would call Canus home and claim a piece of it for themselves. They have a particular hatred for metallic dragons, whom they see as the oppressors and murderers of their parent races, and for tieflings, who use The Reckoning Spell against them.

Morchia are often hatching plots which involve the destruction of a local people or settlement. While they rarely work with native races of Canus, they will work with aberrants, devils, and weak creatures who are subservient to them. Those lesser beings who know their place will be rewarded.

Because of their aberrant heritage, every individual morchia has a distinct and unique appearance. Some have tentacles, others many stalked eyes, others have multiple, sharp-toothed maws, and so on. Some have many aberrant features, but all have at least one.

Morchia share a common set of traits given to them by their fiendish parents. All morchia have a set of horns upon their heads, clawed fingers, and a fierce, spear-tipped tail. They also inherited some of the devil’s resistances.

Morchia

Large monstrosity

Armor Class 16

Hit Points 157 (15d10 + 75)

Speed 4o ft.

Senses darkvision 100 ft.

Str 22 (+6)

Dex 17 (+3)

Con 21 (+5)

Int 18 (+4)

Wis 17 (+3)

Cha 15 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Con +7, Wis +5

Alignment lawful evil

Languages Common, Infernal, Undercommon

Traits

Damage Resistance: The morchia is resistant to cold, fire, poison, and damage from nonmagical weapons except those made of silver.

Magic Resistance: The morchia has advantage on saving throws against magical effects.

Telepathy: The morchia can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet of it that can understand a language.

Actions

Multiattack: The morchia can make two claw attacks, one claw attack and one hurl flame attack, or two hurl flame attacks.

Melee Attack – Claw: +8 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one target). Hit: 14 (2d8 + 6) piercing damage.

Melee Attack – Rend: If the morchia hits one creature with two claw attacks on the same turn, it may use rend against that creature as a bonus action. +8 to hit. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 6) piercing damage.

Ranged Attack – Hurl Flame: +6 to hit (range 100 ft. one target). Hit: 21 (6d6) fire damage.

Aberrant Traits

Every morchia has at least one aberrant trait (and many have more). Roll on the chart below at least once to give the morchia a special ability. Unless otherwise specified, the GM determines the exact nature of the morchia’s physical feature. For instance, if a morchia has the four tentacles feature, these tentacles can grow from their head, back, waist, or anywhere else the GM chooses. GMs may feel free to plunder abilities from other aberrant creatures rather than use the table below.

d12	Feature	Effect
1	Four Tentacles	When using multiattack, the morchia may make tentacle attacks in place of a claw of hurl flame attacks. Tentacle: +8 to hit (reach 15 ft.; one target). Hit: 11 (1d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled. Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained. The morchia has four tentacles, each out which can grapple only one target.
2	Multiple stalked eyes	The morchia may use its action to fire 1d4+1 eye rays. Use the beholder eye ray ability to determine the effects.
3	Constantly speaking mouths grow all over the morchia’s body, constantly speaking infernal incantations	The whispers drive fear into the hearts of the morchia’s enemies. The creature gains a fear aura. Fear Aura: Any creature which starts its turn within 5 feet of the morchia must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. Failed Save: The creature is frightened for 1 minute. Successful Save: The creature is immune to this morchia’s fear aura 24 hours. In addition, as a bonus action the morchia may attack an adjacent creature with a bite attack. +8 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one target). Hit: 12 (1d12 + 6) piercing damage.
4	A foul smelling, purple ooze exudes from the morchia’s pores and absorbs harmful magic	The morchia is immune to spells of 6th level or lower, but can choose to be effected by any spells cast upon it.
5	The morchia can float above the ground, propelled by an unnatural force.	The morchia gains a fly speed of 40 ft. It cannot be knocked prone and continues to float, even when stunned or knocked unconscious.
6	The morchia’s forehead protrudes, a signal that its mental prowess is beyond that of other morchia.	As an action, the morchia can use Dominate Person: The morchia chooses one target it can see within 50 feet. The target must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. Failed Save: The morchia has access to all of the target’s thoughts and memories, and the target is charmed for 1 day or until the morchia or one of the morchia’s companions harms it, or until the morchia is killed. While charmed, the target must obey the morchia’s commands. The morchia can have only one creature charmed at a time. If the charmed creature takes any damage, it can make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw to end the effect. A creature remembers being charmed by the morchia. Successful Save: The creature is immune to the morchia’s dominate person ability for 24 hours.
7	The morchia grows cat eyes upon its hands, which can emit a mental blast.	The morchia emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Mind Blast: Each creature in the area must make a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw. Failed Save: 22 (4d8 + 4) pyschic damage, and the target is stunned for 1 minute, but can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the stunned condition early on a successful save.
8	Purple, protruding veins	Once per day, the morchia can enter a Pyschic Rage: For ten minutes, the morchia does an extra 10 damage on all melee attacks and has advantage on melee attack rolls.
9	The morchia has black claws, which are always sharp and stronger than adamantine.	When the morchia successfully uses its rend attack, the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, or die instantly as its body is torn to shreds.
10	Third eye	The morchia’s third eye emits an anitmagic field (as the spell) in a 150-foot cone. All spells, magic items, and magical effects within the area are suppressed – even the morchia’s own abilities (if applicable). At the start of each of its turns, a morchia decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active (the morchia deactivates the cone by shutting its third eye).
11	Acid drips from the morchia’s mouth.	The morchia gains two new actions a bite and an acid spray. As part of its multiattack it may use its bite in place of a claw or hurl flame attack. Bite: +8 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one target). Hit: 16 (3d6 + 6) piercing damage and 7 (2d6) acid damage. Acid Spray (Recharge 5-6): The morchia can breathe acid in a 30-foot line. Each creature in the line must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw. Failed Save: 21 (6d6 damage) acid damage. Successful Save: Half damage.
12	The morchia has two aberrant features.	Roll twice on this table.

You're gonna need these eye rays... — You’re gonna need these eye rays…

Mystauk

Mystauk – terrifying mind-control parasites which latch onto the brain after entering the skull via the ear, nose, or mouth. Mystauk have only instinct, until the attach themselves to another mind. As host-less bugs they have a speed of 20 feet, fly speed of 30 feet, 1HP, AC 14, and a +6 bonus to Dexterity (stealth) checks. They have advantage on Dexterity (stealth) checks when hiding in dense foliage thanks to their green coloring.

When a mystauk crawls into a host’s head, the host must make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw, or the mystauk infects the host. A successful save means the mystauk must leave the hosts head and cannot try to infect that host for another 24 hours. The mystauk has no other attacks.

When attached to a host, the game changes for the mystauk. They are able to fully access the host’s brain, making the parasite smarter, while making the host’s body faster and stronger. The mystauk fully controls the actions of the host until removed.

Historically, mystauk are only known to infect humanoids. Sages and scholars theorize that other species have brains too simple or too complex for mystauk to conquer and humanoids make the perfect host for them so they do not bother using other creatures as hosts. Others believe the mystauk have infected all manner of creatures, even dragons, the world just has not been made aware of such developments, because the mystauk are too deceptive.

A mystauk adopts the abilities and proficiencies of the host. All of the host’s ability scores become 20, as the mystauk is able to unlock the host’s brain and body’s full potential. For the same reason, the mystauk adds the host’s proficiency bonus to all saving throws. The mystauk is also proficient in the Charisma (deception) skill once it has a host as it has access to all of the host’s thoughts and memories. The mystauk can communicate with the host, but the host cannot hear the mystauk’s thoughts unless the mystauk wants it to.

A mystauk can tell when another inhabited host is in their presence and can communicate telepathically with any other awakened mystauk within 25 feet.

If a successful feeblemind spell is cast against the mystauk and host, the mystauk detaches from the host’s brain and cannot reattach itself to that host for another 24 hours. If the host dies, the mystauk detaches from the brain.

Screen Shot 2014-03-03 at 11.52.39 AM

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

The Aberrant Alliance

Brass Tacks / aberrant, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dungeons and dragons, monsters, morchia, rpg, ruins, Sleeping Ones, tabletop, tabletop rpg, Underdark, Verda, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

June 5, 2014

On Tuesday I wrote a post about a great antagonist for an Exploration Age campaign, The Servants. Well today I’m going to be talking about another villainous organization to be added to the Exploration Age roster – The Aberrant Alliance.

Aberrant creatures are one of Exploration Age’s main baddies. Just check out my previous posts about The Sleeping Ones, aberrant ruins, and The Underdark to get an idea of integrated these creatures are into the world of Canus. Well, you’re about to find out that the aberrants aren’t alone in their quest to reclaim the world for themselves.

There are a few humanoids all over the world who believe the aberrants had their homes taken from them unjustly. These people also share a belief that aberrants are the true masters of Canus and all other creatures should be subservient to them. They are dangerous, for they value the lives of aberrant creatures above their own.

History of The Alliance

Historical records are vague, but it seems The Aberrant Alliance has been around as long there have been humanoids on Canus. For thousands of years, this group was actually several, small cults which would meet under the cover of night in secret places and perform rituals to communicate with aberrant creatures. These creatures would often take pleasure in simply causing strife and chaos in the lives of humanoids by ordering these self-proclaimed servitors to steal, lie, and murder in their communities. Other aberrant creatures took greater advantage of the situation, ordering these humanoids to do tasks which might help the creatures return to the surface and reclaim pieces of the world for themselves. These cults would destroy weapons, create teleportation circles, weaken the local military, and recruit others to prepare for the arrival and takeover of a settlement by an aberrant creature. These attempts were thwarted or the aberrants were removed from power when an uprising was successful, but even in the early days, many lives were lost to these cults.

It was the aberrants, after regrouping themselves in The Underdark, who united these cults under one banner. They learned humanoids all over the map had been contacting and aiding them. So they deemed all of these cults together The Aberrant Alliance. The cults would no longer serve the individual needs of a single aberrant creature, but serve all aberrants in their quest to reclaim their world.

Structure of The Alliance

I want YOU to join The Aberrant Alliance.

Today, The Alliance is still setup in small, individual cults or chapters, but each serves a greater purpose than its own needs. Each cult has a leader, chosen in a bloody contest every year. The cults capture an innocent person from a nearby settlement, release that victim into the wild or a dungeon somewhere and hunt the individual. Whoever makes the kill wins the contest and is the cult’s leader. Anything goes in this contest, so potential leaders must be willing to put their own lives on the line to hold the coveted position.

Each cult can communicate with a variety of aberrant creatures who give them orders, one of which is a cult’s designated point of contact. These aberrant creatures communicate with one another and organize the activities of the cults. Rather than random bands of murderous lunatics, the cults of The Aberrant Alliance are a unified organization to be reckoned with. Two or more cults may join forces to complete a larger mission, and they can count on one another for support when the going gets tough. Likewise, a member of an Aberrant Alliance cult who is traveling can count on support from Alliance members in other cults.

Cultists whisper about The Great Aberrant, some terrifying creature who is the organizer of all which The Alliance accomplishes. He has never been seen by the humanoids but has promised to show himself to them when the time comes for the aberrants to reclaim Canus.

Plots of The Alliance

The Aberrant Alliance has one ultimate goal – restore the societies of the aberrant creatures to their days of glory and enslave all humanoids so they may serve aberrant masters. They do this several ways…

Recruitment – The more individuals they can get to join The Alliance, the better. The argument is simple – aberrants had this world taken from them by dragons. The aberrants did not start that war, they merely fought back to keep their land. Now there are fewer dragons than ever before. Humanoids never could have risen against the aberrants in those early days. Things should never have been this way. It is unnatural. Hard to believe for some, but the argument works with others (especially after a well-cast charm person spell). The Alliance has begun targeting the influential leaders of the world, some of whom are unwilling recruits subject to the incredible psionic powers possessed by some aberrants.
Influence Leaders and Cause Strife – Nothing would help the aberrant cause more than the crumbling of humanoid civilizations. Through influencing leaders, aberrants can cause bad policy decisions to be made, which in turn can cause war, famine, and unrest. Meanwhile, rioting and other forms of violent unruliness caused by members of The Alliance will give the aberrants advantages in weakening the civilizations of humanoids.
Secure The Underdark – The citizens of Quatus must be the first to fall. If the aberrants claim their resources and control The Underdark, they can then conquer the surface. Underdark humanoids are some of the most important members of The Alliance.
Kill Dragons – Though there may not be nearly as many on Canus as there once were, the dragons are powerful and wise in their old age. As many as possible must be vanquished before the inevitable rise of the aberrants. The Aberrant Alliance is often contracting and recruiting dragon-slayers.
Wake The Sleeping Ones – Half the world only recently learned of the morchia, half-devil, half-aberrant creatures slumbering in the Verdan Underdark. The West Canus aberrants only learned themselves. These children of the mostly extinct East Canus aberrants could be valuable allies in the coming uprising.
Encourage the Discovery and Use of Ancient Aberrant Technologies – By funding expeditions into certain aberrant ruins, The Alliance helps ensure that humanoids have become reliant on aberrant technology. The aberrants know all the weaknesses behind these technologies and so should the time come for the aberrants to rise, the humanoids’ reliance on firearms, airships, and more will be used against them. Of course, the aberrants are wary of the certain ruins being explored by adventurers who might find a something of their own to use against them. So The Alliance directs adventures to the ruins they want to be explored, and defends those with secrets that should remain hidden.

An individual cult could be working toward one or several of the goals above. In general the members of The Aberrant Alliance try to keep their activities and motives private, unless they have no other choice.

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

1,000-Year Digestion

Brass Tacks, Inspiration / Bantha, Blog Carnival, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, desert, digestion, DnD, dungeons and dragons, gaping maw, Jawa, Rancor, Return of the Jedi, RPG Blog Carnival, RPGBA, sarlacc, Star Wars, Star Wars RPG, Tatooine, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

May 27, 2014

I have to admit, I was stumped. This month’s RPG Blog Carnival theme – Star Wars. Don’t get me wrong, I love (the original) Star Wars. I’ve played many a Star Wars RPG, read many a Star Wars book, been Luke Skywalker many a time for Halloween… The list goes on. Heck, I even produced Star Wars! The Musical when I was in college.

Still, l just could not come up with a way Star Wars related to what was going on over here at World Builder Blog. I thought and thought and then gave up. Maybe I was just going to be a disappointment to the RPGBA and bow out this month. I felt like a lameo.

Then I realized I had to stop being so literal. Star Wars is in space. Exploration Age is more of a medieval fantasy world (though Space Exploration Age sounds incredible! Hmmm…) So what ? Story is story and fantasy is fantasy. There are so many things in all of our games that could be inspired by Star Wars. The posts I’ve done on mounts, the empires of Bragonay and Parian, airships, and more share aspects with Star Wars. Heck there’s more to come that has yet to be revealed relating to smugglers and ancient orders and who knows what else! Star Wars has all that a bag of chips. So I was a fool.

Well today, I’m going to talk about my favorite Star Warsian beast and how I can fit it into Exploration Age. It’s not the rancor, though he is a close second. This beast is native to Tatooine, one of the greatest places in the Star Wars universe. I’m not speaking of banthas or Jawas. No, no! I’m speaking of the sarlacc.

What are Sarlaccs?

According to Wookiepedia, sarlaccs are essentially large, plant-like omnivores that grow downwards into the earth and outwards forming ever deeper and wider living pits of teeth. They live for 20,000 to 50,000 years, but their Exploration Age equivalent will have immortal lifespans.

The sarlacc has crazy tentacles that can grab a creature and pull it toward it mouth. Since the sarlacc doesn’t move it doesn’t need to eat terribly much, but it can fit a lot into its huge stomach and will eat anything it can which happens to approach because in the desert who knows when your next meal will be?

The beaked, snake-like tongue doubles as its mouth opening. The sarlacc devours pray through its tongue. Once a victim is in the stomach, spines laced with neurotoxins paralyze the victim so it sarlacc can digest in peace over the course of 1,000 years.

Why Sarlaccs Rock

Sarlaccs are ferocious, hungry, and torturous. They slowly digest victims over the course of 1,000 years after devouring them in the grossest and most horrific way possible – via strange snake-y tongue. In terms of tabletop roleplaying, the sarlacc scene in Return of the Jedi is one of the best designed set piece encounters ever! Sarlaccs are like an enormous desert Venus flytrap that eats several people at once. Suck it, Audrey II.

Also, if we look at Expanded Universe lore, sarlaccs can be escaped, but only if you’re a BAMF like (non-canonical spoiler alert!) Boba Fett so sarlacc s are terrifying, but not wholly insurmountable villains.

Sarlaccs in Exploration Age

Ok, so how do I work sarlaccs into Exploration Age’s story? First, they’re going to need a different name, because copyright. How about gaping maws? Get it? Because their mouths are… Of course you get it. It’s painfully simple. For that same copyright reason and for fun and simplification, I’m going to change a few other details here about the sarlacc. The gaping maw is inspired by the sarlacc, not an exact copy.

Well Canus is already a world full of interesting horrors, which includes many an ancient aberrant creature. Gaping maws certainly seem weird enough to be aberrants. There’s plenty of deserts on Canus, so maybe these creatures have taken root in the desert and when their brethren went underground they could not follow as they were too rooted in their pits. They did not represent much threat to the dragons, so they didn’t bother to kill the gaping maws.

The older a gaping maw is the bigger and deeper it is. They are stationary creatures with spiked tentacles that whip around and drag prey into their tongue mouths. They digest their prey very slowly, killing them over a slow and torturous digestive period which can last months.

Gaping maws are tough. The best way to kill a gaping maw is to attack it it from the inside, which is difficult since the noxious gases created by its stomach acids can paralyze a creature. Creatures swallowed by the gaping maw may resist its noxious stomach gas and try to attack it from within. The gaping maw may try and crush the creature using its stomach muscles if it attacks, but this is a last resort. It prefers to digest slowly and conserve its energy.

Gaping maws are asexual and reproduce every 100 years by releasing spores which burrow into the sand and take root, growing into young, then adult, then ancient gaping maws. Not many gaping maws get to mature however, since as babies they can easily be dug from the earth and devoured by various desert animals.

D&D Next Statistics

Using the last public playtest packet, here’s how I’d represent gaping maws in my game.

Gaping Maw, Young

Huge Aberration

Armor Class 14

HP 52 (7d10 + 14)

Speed 0 ft.

Str 18 (+4)

Dex 10 (+0)

Con 14 (+2)

Int 3 (-4)

Wis 9 (-1)

Cha 8 (-1)

Alignment unaligned

Languages –

Traits

Damage Resistance: The gaping maw is resistant to all nonmagical weapons.

Grappler: The gaping maw has advantage on attack rolls against a creature grappled by it.

Magic Immunity: The gaping maw is immune to spells of 3rd level or lower, and it makes saving throws against spells of 4th level or higher with advantage.

Regeneration: At the start of each of its turns, the gaping maw regains 5 hit points. If the gaping maw takes damage from a creature it has swallowed, this trait doesn’t function on the gaping maw’s next turn. This trait ceases to function while the gaping maw has 0 hit points.

Actions

Multi-Attack: A gaping maw may make four tentacle attacks or two tentacle attacks and one bite attack.

Melee Attack – Tentacle: +5 to hit (reach 20 ft.; one creature). Hit: 10 (1d10+5) piercing damage and if the target is Large or smaller, the creature is grappled. While using a tentacle to grapple a creature, the gaping maw can make that tentacle’s attack only against the grappled creature.

Melee Attack – Bite: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature). Hit: 15 (2d8+6) piercing damage.

Melee Attack – Crush: +5 to hit (all swallowed creatures). Hit: 12 (1d12+6) bludgeoning damage.

Swallow Whole: While grappling a Medium or smaller creature, the gaping maw can make a bite attack against the creature, and if the gaping maw hits, it also swallows the creature. A gaping maw can swallow 16 Tiny, 8 Small, 4 Medium creatures at a time. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained.

Swallowed creatures must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. Failed Save: The target is paralyzed for 24 hours. At the end of this period if the creature is still swallowed by the gaping maw they save again or remained paralyzed for another 24 hours. If the creature does save but remains swallowed it is subject to another saving throw 24 hours after the successful one. A swallowed creature’s maximum HP is reduced by 1 for every day it is swallowed. When it’s max HP is reduced to 0 the creature is completely digested and dies. A swallowed creature may attack the gaping maw. When attacked from the inside the gaping maw loses all resistances and immunities.

Encounter Building

XP: 340

Gaping Maw, Adult

Gargantuan Aberration

Armor Class 15

HP 88 (11d10 + 33)

Speed 0 ft.

Str 20 (+5)

Dex 11 (+0)

Con 16 (+3)

Int 3 (-4)

Wis 10 (+0)

Cha 8 (-1)

Alignment unaligned

Languages –

Traits

Damage Resistance: The gaping maw is resistant to all nonmagical weapons.

Grappler: The gaping maw has advantage on attack rolls against a creature grappled by it.

Magic Immunity: The gaping maw is immune to spells of 5th level or lower, and it makes saving throws against spells of 6th level or higher with advantage.

Regeneration: At the start of each of its turns, the gaping maw regains 10 hit points. If the gaping maw takes damage from a creature it has swallowed, this trait doesn’t function on the gaping maw’s next turn. This trait ceases to function while the gaping maw has 0 hit points.

Actions

Multi-Attack: A gaping maw may make six tentacle attacks, or four tentacle attacks and one bite attack.

Melee Attack – Tentacle: +6 to hit (reach 25 ft.; one creature). Hit: 12 (2d6+5) piercing damage and if the target is huge or smaller, the creature is grappled. While using a tentacle to grapple a creature, the gaping maw can make that tentacle’s attack only against the grappled creature.

Melee Attack – Bite: +6 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one creature). Hit: 21 (3d10+6) piercing damage.

Melee Attack – Crush: +6 to hit (all swallowed creatures). Hit: 18 (2d12+6) bludgeoning damage.

Swallow Whole: While grappling a Large or smaller creature, the gaping maw can make a bite attack against the creature, and if the gaping maw hits, it also swallows the creature. A gaping maw can swallow 32 Tiny, 16 Small, 8 Medium, or 4 Large creatures at a time. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained.

Swallowed creatures must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. Failed Save: The target is paralyzed for 24 hours. At the end of this period if the creature is still swallowed by the gaping maw they save again or remained paralyzed for another 24 hours. If the creature does save but remains swallowed it is subject to another saving throw 24 hours after the successful one. A swallowed creature’s maximum HP is reduced by 1 for every day it is swallowed. When it’s max HP is reduced to 0 the creature is completely digested and dies. A swallowed creature may attack the gaping maw. When attacked from the inside the gaping maw loses all resistances and immunities.

Encounter Building

XP: 3,920

Gaping Maw, Ancient

Colossal Aberration

Armor Class 16

HP 142 (15d10 + 60)

Speed 0 ft.

Str 23 (+6)

Dex 13 (+1)

Con 18 (+4)

Int 3 (-4)

Wis 12 (+1)

Cha 8 (-1)

Alignment unaligned

Languages –

Traits

Damage Resistance: The gaping maw is resistant to all nonmagical weapons.

Grappler: The gaping maw has advantage on attack rolls against a creature grappled by it.

Magic Immunity: The gaping maw is immune to spells of 7th level or lower, and it makes saving throws against spells of 8th level or higher with advantage.

Regeneration: At the start of each of its turns, the gaping maw regains 15 hit points. If the gaping maw takes damage from a creature it has swallowed, this trait doesn’t function on the gaping maw’s next turn. This trait ceases to function while the gaping maw has 0 hit points.

Actions

Multi-Attack: A gaping maw may make eight tentacle attacks, or six tentacle attacks and one bite attack.

Melee Attack – Tentacle: +7 to hit (reach 30 ft.; one creature). Hit: 15 (2d8+6) piercing damage and the creature is grappled. While using a tentacle to grapple a creature, the gaping maw can make that tentacle’s attack only against the grappled creature.

Melee Attack – Bite: +7 to hit (reach 15 ft.; one creature). Hit: 32 (4d12+6) piercing damage.

Melee Attack – Crush: +7 to hit (all swallowed creatures). Hit: 24 (3d12+6) bludgeoning damage.

Swallow Whole: While grappling a huge or smaller creature, the gaping maw can make a bite attack against the creature, and if the gaping maw hits, it also swallows the creature. A gaping maw can swallow 64 Tiny, 32 Small, 16 Medium, 8 Large, or 4 Huge creatures at a time. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained.

Swallowed creatures must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. Failed Save: The target is paralyzed for 24 hours. At the end of this period if the creature is still swallowed by the gaping maw they save again or remained paralyzed for another 24 hours. If the creature does save but remains swallowed it is subject to another saving throw 24 hours after the successful one. A swallowed creature’s maximum HP is reduced by 1 for every day it is swallowed. When it’s max HP is reduced to 0 the creature is completely digested and dies. A swallowed creature may attack the gaping maw. When attacked from the inside the gaping maw loses all resistances and immunities.

Encounter Building

XP: 20,010

So let me know what you think! Does it feel sarlacc-y and do you want to use one of these for your game?

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

The Underdark

Brass Tacks / collapse, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, disease, DnD, dungeons and dragons, rpg, tabletop, tabletop rpg, tunnels, Underdark, underground, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

May 6, 2014

I’ve spoken quite a bit about the world beneath the world in Exploration Age. Now, I’m happy to present you with a work in progress map of what the known Underdark looks like.

And here it is overlayed on the map of the surface of Canus — And here it is overlaid on the map of the surface of Canus

As you can see, most of the world of The Underdark is unexplored. What dangers, wonders, and rewards lie miles below the surface of Canus waiting to be discovered?

Why Explore The Underdark?

The unexplored Underdark isn’t solid rock. It is a world beneath a world about which a fraction is known. Here are just a few reasons one might want to delve into the most dangerous place in Canus.

Trade Routes There may be some way to get from Parian to Findalay to Verda without using a ship. If these pathways and tunnels could be charted perhaps a railway similar to the Jackrabbit could be built for faster, cheaper transportation of goods.
Gem Mining All permanent magic items in Exploration Age require gems to focus their power. Beyond that, gems also have their normal uses as decorations and displays of wealth and beauty. Right now only a few mines are worked on the surface and in the fortified zones of Quatus. The discovery of a mine would spell profit for any who could hold it.
Precious Metals While more mines for precious metals like copper, silver, gold, mithral, and adamantine exist on the surface of Canus than gem mines, most of those mines are in Bragonay. The other countries of Canus would love to discover mines of their own to take power from the dwarves, while the dwarves themselves would love to increase their holdings on precious metals.
Aberrant Technology Many aberrant ruins dot the surface of Canus, and their exploration has led to the discovery of many wonderful modern technologies. Those ruins are hundreds of thousands of years old, so imagine what the aberrants may have in their Underdark cities now. The danger of a recon mission into an aberrant city is great, but the rewards could be limitless.
Threat Removal Under Parian and Findalay the aberrants roam unchecked, while The Sleeping Ones plot their revenge in their dreams beneath Verda. These are threats which could strike the surface of Canus in the future – so isn’t it better to strike now before the incursions begin?
Fresh Starts Dwarves in Bragonay seek to escape the caste. Drow do not share the patriotism of their brethren. Shifters are tired of wandering. These are just a few of the folk who might strike out into the unknown Underdark seeking a new life all about basic survival.
Discovery for Discovery’s Sake Sometimes a person needs to climb a mountain just because it’s there. The Underdark is rife with the unknown. There are new people to meet, civilizations to be uncovered, creatures to fight, and experiences to be had. The draw of the unknown has a powerful pull on some curious humanoids of Canus. Many academics would also argue that learning for learning’s sake is what separates people from animals.

Dangers Below

Was ever a creature more appropriately named than the roper?

The Underdark is teeming with dangers unlike any on Canus’ known surface.

Aberrants The Underdark beneath Findalay teems with all manner of aberrant creatures looking to take the lives of the folk of Quatus. These aberrants abhor most humanoids and fight with a belief that their home was taken from them unjustly. Any adventurers who cross paths with aberrants would be wise to strike first or run with all haste.
The Sleeping Ones Beneath Verda lie the ancient aberrant-devil hybrids known as morchia. Though these creatures are supposedly slumbering thanks to The Reckoning Spell, there are those who claim to have seen morchia moving about in excursions into Verda’s underground. Other rare expeditions into Verda’s Underdark have been lost only to turn up somewhere else deep underground later, killed in a ritualistic fashion.
Beasts There are plenty of creatures in The Underdark who have always lived there. These beasts are as natural to Underdark tunnels as a camel is to a desert. Beware them when adventuring below ground. That’s their turf.
Other Humanoids Orcs, kobolds, goblinoids, troglodytes, and more have been known to call an Underdark cavern home. They’ve also been known to call other humanoids dinner.
Collapses The tunnels of The Underdark are not always stable and as such have a way of collapsing. If certain weak tunnels suffer trauma such as mining, battle, or even heavy travel the reverberations from these activities could cause a collapse.
Traps In several places, the aberrants, the morchia, the folk of Quatus, or other humanoids may have erected traps for battles imminent or long forgotten. Adventurers would be wise to examine where they step.

Diseases The Underdark isn’t the kind of place in which one wants to catch a cold. Strange diseases could ruin an individual’s health and mind in ways unlike any other. Here are a few examples of Underdark diseases:

Mushroom Mind The mushrooms of The Underdark are generally harmless, but there are those that should be avoided. None more so than the green-spotted murder mushrooms. Breathing in the spores this fungi produces gives them a chance to attach to one’s brain. From there the mushrooms grow within a person’s skull, slowly reducing their mental and physical faculties. Victims of this disease eventually get green spots on their scalp similar to those on the murder mushrooms. If a creature breathes in the spores he or she should make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails, he or she contracts Mushroom Mind. During each extended rest roll 1d6 on the table below to determine what happens. The disease may be cure by a restoration spell. A second casting of the spell also restores any ability score damage.

d6	Effect
1	Reduce victim’s strength score by 1d4
2	Reduce victim’s dexterity score by 1d4
3	Reduce victim’s constitution score by 1d4
4	Reduce victim’s intelligence score by 1d4
5	Reduce victim’s wisdom score by 1d4
6	Reduce victim’s charisma score by 1d4

Slug Snot When adventurers sleep in the open Underdark at night, they would be wise to plug their noses. Brown slugs called drunkbugs are known to crawl into a sleeping victim’s nose and travel down their throat into their stomachs. These slugs attach themselves to the lining of the stomach and secret alcohol, thus intoxicating the victim. The victim also produces an excess of mucus which is colored brown, hence the name of the disease. If a drunkbug crawls into a person’s stomach, he or she must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or contract the disease. For the duration of the disease the target is intoxicated. Each extended rest, the target is allowed a new Constitution saving throw to try to vomit up the bug and cure the disease. A lesser restoration spell can also cure the disease.
Wasting Away This is the most horrifying disease The Underdark has to offer. There are special patches of phosphorescent, psionic mold which grow only in the deepest tunnels of The Underdark. Breathing in the spores of the mold can cause Wasting Away which causes its victims to age one year per day. A victim may not realize he or she is infected until several days go by, thus they have aged several years. When breathing in the psionic spores, a creature must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or contract the disease. Once wasting away is contracted it can only be removed by a restoration spell and the aging process can only be reversed by a wish spell. Ageless creatures, such as elves, shardmind, drow, and warforged are immune to this disease.
Wiped Away This disease is caused by breathing in a magical mist which is created by The Void. Those who breathe in the mist must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or contract Wiped Away. Wiped Away is a special disease which magically influences any person who has met or heard of the victim. Over the course of ten days, the victim begins to forget who he or she is – as do the people around the victim. By the end of the disease it is as if the person never lived and he or she literally phases out of existence. This disease may only be cured by a wish spell.

The Void Scholars believe that there is something beneath The Underdark called The Void. This space is actually no space at all. It is absolute nothingness. It has the absence of being. There are a few places in The Underdark which are open pits into The Void. Spending too much time near one of these pits can make a person’s outlook become nihilistic to the point of insanity. This can be seen in the troglodyte clans who worship The Void. They sacrifice victims by throwing them into the Void Pits. Many of the troglodytes seek to end the pointlessness of existence by finding a way to set The Void free and destroy Canus. Those who fall into The Void are never heard from again and cannot be raised from the dead… Suggesting perhaps that either their soul is destroyed or they are alive somewhere within The Void or somewhere else.

Interesting Underdark Sites

When traversing the world beneath the surface, there are many fantastic and awesome sights upon which to look. Here are a few.

Dragon Chambers When the dragons were born out of the crust of Canus, legend has it they sprung forth as fully formed adults. There are impressions of scales, horns, wings, and tails in the tunnels and chambers of The Underdark to support these claims. Some chambers even have the shape and appearance of a dragon’s body and those are the Dragon Chambers. Depending on the dragon birthed in the chamber, spells of a certain energy type may be stronger.
Softstone In Underdark badlands, one must be particularly careful about where he or she steps. There are patches of ground known as softstone, which can swallow a creature whole. These patches are actually holes in the ground, filled with a stoney liquid that is a colony of carnivorous mold. It is essentially a camouflaged quicksand which devours its victims while suffocating them.
Infinite Tunnels Some tunnels in The Underdark seemingly go on forever. Others do go on forever. Canny adventurers may discover they are traveling the same stretch of hallway over and over again. They have entered an infinite tunnel, one which loops a constant mile or less stretch. One end of the tunnel connects to the next. Infinite tunnels share another common feature – all have the remains of at least one dead humanoid. These anomalies are usually caused by the spirit of a person who died in the tunnel with unfinished business. The characters must find a way to speak with the spirit and either agree to help finish its business or destroy it to get out of the tunnel. Those who agree to take care of the spirit’s business have a year to do so. If they do not they will suffer a horrible curse which turns all water and food in their mouths to dust until they starve to death. This will happen whether or not the creature needs to eat and drink.
Bloody Grounds These semi-magical patches of stone have absorbed the blood of great battles which happened upon them. While standing on the Bloody Grounds a creature delivers a critical hit on an attack roll of 19 or 20.
Ice Slides The fastest way to get from one place to the next in The Underdark are the Ice Slides. Scholars believe these ice-coated tunnels were made when white dragons dug their way to the surface using their breath weapons. The ice has lasted ever since. Travelers can go down these tunnels very quickly by body-sliding, but they will probably want to be sure they know where the tunnel ends. Some are short and will only take a person a few hundred feet down and others go for miles into The Underdark. Traveling up an ice tunnel is a different matter entirely. Travelers can only move at half speed while making their way up an ice tunnel, and are subject to a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check every hour. If they fail they make no progress on their journey that hour.
Underdark Ocean There is an underground ocean which seems to separate the West Canus Underdark from the East. The full size of this watery expanse has never been explored, for the darkness hides rocky stalagmites rising up from the depths. Not to mention the terrifying Underdark sea creatures waiting with hungry mouths for anything to eat. Dark krakens, deep crocodiles, aberrant merfolk, and more await unfortunate travelers. The dangers have made all attempts at scouting the Dark Ocean fail. There has not been an attempt to map it for nearly 500 years, when a drow explorer named Vasperio Dumasca set out to cross the yawning body of water. He and his crew were never heard from again, though they say if you stand on the coast you can hear their ship, Prime Voyager, ringing its bell. Others claim to have seen its ghostly visage far in the distance. At the bottom of the Dark Ocean’s freezing depths lie centuries old shipwrecks waiting to be discovered.

How’d I Do?

Let me know what you think! Is this Underdark dangerous enough? Is it different enough, but still recognizable? Does an underground ocean terrify you? I want to know what you think!

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Lifeforged

Brass Tacks / Bragonay, countries, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Lifeforged, slavery, slaves, warforged, wordlbuilding, world building / 5 comments

April 10, 2014

All creatures are free. All masters must die.

This is the motto of Lifeforged, a group of bandit terrorists living in Bragonay’s deserts. Many who cross paths with these ruffian warforged believe they are no more than deranged highwaymen. But those with a deeper understanding of Bragonay’s history know the truth. Lifeforged have much more than gold on their minds.

The Creation of the Lifeforged

Not so long ago Bragonians created the warforged to be the lowest rung on the ladder of their strict caste system. For years these beings did everything they were told without complaint. They were the perfect slaves, serving in all capacities from butler to soldier.

However, years after their creation warforged began to do the unexpected, thinking and feeling for themselves. At first the Bragonians dwarves were happy about these surprises, for it meant the warforged could be proactive in their duties and take initiative without being told to do a task.

Things turned bad for the dwarves when some warforged tried blackmailing their masters for a position higher up in the caste system. The dwarves were shocked by these actions, their creations were unruly. These warforged who tried to do such things were considered rejects and dismantled.

When other warforged heard of this they began to take action. More tried blackmail to earn a higher caste position while others turned to outright violence or attempted to flee Bragonay. Marrial’s Masters of None became involved, secretly helping some slaves escape. The problem became so great that the Bragonian Empress at the time made a law stating no warforged could advance beyond the slave level of the caste system. This enraged the warforged and a nation-wide revolt began.

During this revolt, many warforged fled from Bragonay and were accepted as members of other societies. Others stayed loyal to their dwarf masters and a large group formed an army. Those soldiers found themselves in Bragonay’s deserts. This was the perfect place for warforged as the hot sun does not burn them or make them thirst as it would any fleshy foes. The living constructs in this army called themselves Lifeforged.

Out in the desert Lifeforged was safe. This was their terrain and they held all the advantages. The Lifeforged army grew too bold and moved from mounting surgical strikes and guerrilla attacks to a full scale march on Bragonay’s capital, Kerdabi. The Lifeforged believed their hour was at hand since most of the Bragonian armed forces were abroad at the time, trying to invade other countries as part of The Fourth Great War. The Bragonians got word of the attack and secretly pulled their armies back. It cost Bragonay the war, but allowed them to keep their country.

In the Battle of Kerdabi the dwarves decimated the Lifeforged ranks, taking no prisoners. Any warforged who had revolted were considered faulty machinery and destroyed. Some Lifeforged managed to escape. A sizable force of Lifeforged still roams the Bragonian deserts, planning attacks, growing their ranks, and seeking support where they can.

All of this violence is based on one fundamental disconnect – warforged see themselves as living beings, and many Bragonians see them as machines. That is true of some Bragonians to this day.

Goals of Lifeforged

Today Lifeforged operates as desert bandits, attacking caravans and stealing the goods for resale, but they are hoping to grow into something much greater than they ever were. Here is the Lifeforged plan:

Gain Coin. The warforged do this by hijacking desert caravans as described above. If the caravans are Bragonian, and most of them are in The Wastes, Lifeforged will ransom any wealthy merchants back to their families, kill any dwarf soldiers, and liberate any warforged. Any foreign caravans that have their goods hijacked and are left with enough food and water to survive a journey back through The Wastes.
Increase Ranks. Lifeforged lost many of its soldiers in the Battle of Kerdabi. However, it has been slowly and steadily regrowing. By recruiting warforged from raided caravans, using surgical strikes to liberate the enslaved, and blackmailing Bragonians into freeing their slaves, Lifeforged’s numbers are approaching full-blown army status once again. Of course, these freed warforge are always given a choice, join Lifeforged or spend their newfound liberty in any other way they like. The only answer which is unacceptable to Lifeforged soldiers is a return to slavery. Surprisingly though, this is the choice of some recently freed warforged who find themselves on the wrong end of a Lifeforged sword.
Gain Allies. Free Aeranore has been known to run weapons to Lifeforged in exchange for coin. The Tiefling Spires in a rare public address welcoming Bragonay and Parian to Verda, condemned slavery. But the most direct support to Lifeforged comes from Masters of None. The Marrial-based organization sends all the aid they can, including soldiers who can be spared to help free any warforged. Lifeforged regularly sends appeals to other organizations and governments asking for aid and help, but because of their illegal bandit activity many refuse to help them.
Free All Warforged. This is Lifeforged’s penultimate goal. They would see an end to slavery of their brethren by any means necessary. Right now that means resuming a full-scale war with Bragonay’s empire once they have the soldiers and coin. Until that time they will be killing what slavers they can, intimidating and blackmailing others who own slaves into giving up the practice, and slaying those warforged who hurt the cause by choosing to remain slaves.
Free All Slaves. Once Lifeforged has freed Bragonay’s warforged, their next target is Parian. Parian practices slavery of all races, not just warforged, and their reign must also be stopped, by any means necessary.

Rumors

Several Bragonian inventors and smiths are working with Lifeforged. All of the dwarves’ superior weaponry is being assembled with secret weak spots that are known to Lifeforged and will be exploited in major battles.
Many warforged have migrated to Verda to begin a new life, but perhaps they have a more nefarious purpose. Some believe they are working with the tieflings to recover The Reckoning Spell and use it against the Bragonians.
Lifeforged is not at all what it seems. They are a group of warforged supremacists who believe constructs are superior to flesh humanoids. After they take Bragonay for themselves, the rest of Canus will follow.
The Empire of Bragonay is actually in league with Lifeforged. After The Fourth Great War Bargonay’s economy is suffering. Through Lifeforged, the empire is able to ease that pain and take what they need from merchants and get free handouts from Masters of None.

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Verda’s Tribes

Brass Tacks / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dungeons and dragons, rpg, tabletop, tabletop rpg, Tarrasque, tribes, Verda, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

March 27, 2014

I’ve made more than a few references to the tribes of humanoids living in Verda. There’s so many of them, it can be difficult to keep track. These tribes are made of humans, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, gnolls, and more. Many tribes are undiscovered deep in the unexplored areas for Verda. This allows me to work-in new races and elements as supplements for D&D 5 begin to come out. Exploration Age is not limited because parts of the world still remain a mystery.

Similarities Amongst the Tribes

There are two similarities that all of Verda’s tribes share. These elements are designed to help my players and I keep the numerous Verdan peoples straight in our heads.

All of the tribes are named after a beast, be it animal or other-worldly. e.g. Frog Tribe, Chimera Tribe, Remorhaz Tribe.
All tribes worship the same set of four gods, one for each element. These gods favor neither evil nor good, law nor chaos, so their word is interpreted in many ways.

This way we don’t have a collection of thousands of gods to keep straight and the tribes are conveniently named and easily identified by a symbolic beast.

The Major Variances

Verda’s tribes can fall into a few major categories:

Permanent or Nomadic – A tribe may have taken up a permanent residence in a ruin, natural holding such as a cave, or built their own permanent domiciles out of water material they had available. Many of Verda’s tribes have a more mobile life style, perhaps in tents or tepees. These nomadic people chase game and good weather, relying on both to sustain themselves.
Isolationist or Open or Hateful – Some of Verda’s tribes are happy with the arrival of Findalayans and Parians. These new visitors bring exotic gifts and make good trade partners. Others prefer to ignore these new arrivals, observing from a distance to see what they might do before rushing to interact. A third category of tribes is unhappy with the way Findalay and Parian have claimed pieces of their homeland and deal with the tribes as inferior beings. This third category has decided these newcomers are their enemies and need to be put down and sent home.
Small or Medium or Large – Most of Verda’s tribes are on the smaller side. Their populations are usually less than 100. The constant warring coupled with the recent plague and famine have kept the number of tribesman quite small. The medium tribes are between 100 and 200 people. Larger tribes can have as many as 500 members.
Warring or At-Peace – At any given time there is roughly a 50% chance that a tribe is at war with another tribe. The violence does not usually take place in full-scale battles, but is more like a gang war. Each tribe sticks to its territory and only commits violence when they cross paths with enemies. Some organize raids on their enemies, but rarely are these tribes looking at full-scale extermination of one another. These wars can begin as disputes over resources and game, to show superiority, or some other reason.
Racial Makeup – Most tribes are composed of humans, half-orcs, orcs, goblinkin, or some combination of all. There are other humanoids that also make up the tribes such as gnolls, ogres, and minotaurs, but there are fewer of these folk on Verda.

Minor Variances

Undead Wolverines shouldn’t mess with the tribes of Verda.

Those major details help me (or any other DM) quickly flesh out a tribe. The little details are then up to me. Things to consider that might help a tribe feel unique:

What natural game and plant life are around that the tribe might hunt and eat?
Does this tribe value strength at arms? Strength in arcane magic? Divine magic? Psionics? Unarmed combat?
Are men and women equals in this tribe? If not, which sex is the dominant one?
What do their living structures look like?
How do they get around? Mounts? Vehicles? On foot?

These questions are a great place to start when introducing a new tribe into the game!

Brief Overview of The Tribes History

The tribes have been on Verda almost as long as the tieflings. Their origins are unclear as they simply emerged from the The Sprawling Jungle, already worshipping their gods and divided into racially segregated tribe.

At first the tribes were racist and each believed its own to be the superior one. Many small and violent wars were had and smaller tribes ran to the outskirts of Verda, pushed away from the jungles by tribes with superior numbers. Even today, the tribes speak of The Beholder tribe which dominates the center of The Sprawling Jungle still pure in its strange racial makeup. They dare not head into the heart of the jungle, for there they may come face to face with the huge tribe that pushed all others further out into the world.

Over time, most other tribes softened in their views and accepted other races into their communities, even allowing marriage and mixed-race offspring to come into being. The tribes came together just as the morchia rose from the earth in an attempt to conquer Canus.

The tribes were great in number and for a long time they managed to hold out against the powerful morchia. Eventually though, their numbers dwindled and the morchia spread, even though warring tribes put aside differences to come together against a common foe. For over one thousand years this war raged, until the tieflings used The Reckoning Spell to end the war and drive the morchia back underground.

After that moment, the tribes always respected the might and power of the tieflings. When a tiefling comes into a tribe, they are treated with a healthy dose of respect… and fear.

The next problem for the tribes of Verda came in the form of the githyanki incursion. Githyanki, coming through a portal created by the tieflings, decided to take Verda as their own. They were less straight forward than the morchia, planting spies amongst the tribes and within the tiefling spires. Then the githyanki would strike suddenly and catch an entire settlement by surprise. The thriving tribes once again suffered many losses, until the tieflings opened a portal and made a pact with the githzerai. Together, the tribes, the tieflings, and the githzerai pushed back the githyanki. Today, the githyanki are still said to roam some of Verda’s mountains. The githzerai who did not return to their home plane retreated into the jungles and have not been heard from since after the war.

Since those two big wars, the tribes have continued their own skirmishes, survived The Tarrasque, harsh Winters, volcanic eruptions, and most recently a wide-spread plague. They are resilient people, smart, tough, and often they find pleasure in simple things like a good meal, a fierce battle, or a clever joke.

These guys deserve an “I survived The Tarrasque” T-Shirt.

The Tribes Today

Today, the tribes have become alerted to the presence of other folk in the world and across the oceans. Some of the tribes have gotten along and traded with the peoples of Findalay and Parian. As time has gone on, however, even the most open tribes have learned that these newcomers can be dangerous.

Many of the settlers have their own fear of the people of the tribes, since the orcs of their homelands are always murderous and fierce, or they assume that if one tribe takes pleasure and fun in killing they all must. Racism and assumptions about the tribes living life as uncultured savages have led to many misunderstandings, some of which have ended in violence.

The tribes present yet another layer and shade of gray to added to Exploration Age. They make wonderful NPCs and help make the world rich and complex. The people of the tribes also present an opportunity to play a different kind of PC than someone from Findalay or Parian. A PC could be naive, inquisitive, introverted, or suspicious. An expert in one land, and a stranger in another.

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Where do we come from?

Brass Tacks / canus, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dragon, drow, dungeons and dragons, dwarf, elf, human, human experience, timeline, warforged, world building / 0 comments

February 4, 2014

This weekend I sat down to make the timeline of major events in Exploration Age that lead up to the time of play. I found that I still had a lot of thinking to do. Mainly, how did Canus and the folk of Exploration Age go from literally nothing to being what they are now?

I don’t necessarily have to describe how the world came to be, since medieval fantasy RPGs are somewhat based on our own world’s actual past. Back in the day those folks weren’t sure how our world came to be (though they did have theories, but that’s another post). However, I do need to describe how the beings that populate Canus came to be where they are now. History is very important. Big actions have big repercussions that are felt for long periods of time. For instance…

During prohibition of alcohol, the American gangsters are born and continue to operate even after it becomes legal to drink again.
During WWII Germany invades the Soviet Union. After WWII, Berlin is occupied by the Soviets until 1990.
The Americas are discovered and a whole bunch of countries rush to colonize.

You get the idea. My point is – the actions being taken that greatly affect the folk of Canus are those which deserve to be written down on the timeline. The players are not going to care to read every little detail of when a specific plant came into being or care when a local organization of farmhands was formed. I only put that kind of thing in if I know it’s going to be important to the plot. The rest of the stuff, can be big, broad strokes to give your players the idea of the history of a people or government or culture, etc. Most of the time, these will be actions taken by a specific group or individual. The only time pure nature makes it on the timeline is for something really crazy – like a meteor causing the end of the dinosaurs, an earthquake swallowing a city, or ice covering the planet.

Remember that, in general, you care more about the history of the world than your players do. “Why do the warforged hate the dwarves?” they might ask. “Because they kept them as slaves,” you reply. For some adventures and for most players that will more than suffice.

Starting the Timeline

Before I began the timeline, I had to figure out how old Canus is, or at least how far back its significant history begins. Since I want the world to be frame by the Findalayan point of view, I decided that it’s been 700 years since Findalay’s Founding (FF), when all nations of Findalay officially recognized each other. Before that, Aeranore, Bragonay, Marrial, and Taliana all came into existence, but they constantly at war with one another. For thousands of years! So when they decided to put down the sword and begin trading, that was a big enough event for them to begin counting the years. Now that’s not to say there haven’t been disputes and wars in those 700 years, but each nation is now officially recognized by the others.

However, more important than those 700 years are the years which came before. Those years, Before Findalay (BF) have had a huge influence on what happens in the world today. So I wanted to go back and in broad strokes think about the world and how each nation of people got its start. How each race came to be and what actions led to where they are. And of course, since this is a fantasy setting, I wanted to make sure there was plenty of magical flavor to all of it, since that’s what we love.

Before Dwarves, Elves, and Humans

So before our PC races made it onto the scene there were great forces walking the earth, just like in the real world there were dinosaurs before us. I wanted Canus to do something different for originality’s sake, so I decided the first beings to populate its surface were aberrant creatures. Beholders, illithids, umber hulks – all the bizarro creatures that normally live underground, well their ancestors lived on the surface of Canus.

Just some mind flayers hanging out, thinking about their ancestors.

I like the idea of picturing these creatures’ surface-dwelling ancestors. I like thinking about what their great civilizations might leave behind. This gives us a way to spread similar, but mysterious ruins all over Canus. It also gives the aberrants a reason to abhor surface dwellers once they are driven underground (more on that below). That’s my first beat on the timeline and it has a bunch of question marks next to it, because no one sure how far back the aberrant civilizations go.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my dragons are pretty important to me. They’re old and mystical and have been around almost since the beginning. More importantly to me, chromatic and metallic dragons are part of the material world. Think about it, dragons have all this magic at their disposal and for the most part they choose to stay in the material world. They must really like it there. I decided that on Canus, dragons are drawn to staying in the material plane because they are literally part of the world. The first dragons were incubated in Canus’ core and birthed out of the ground. For whatever reason, the metallic dragons ended up in Verda and the chromatic dragons ended up in Parian and Findalay.

So the aberrants are doing their thing when suddenly the first dragons hatch from beneath the ground. The dragons think to themselves, “It’s time for us, baby. These crazy-looking dudes got to go.” War that rages for years with neither side having a clear victory. So second timeline beat – dragons hatch from the earth and war begins. This is around 500,000 BF. Broad strokes.

You didn’t know I was down here, didja? DIDJA?

Now, when the dragons hatched from the ground, the spaces and tunnels their bodies made became The Underdark. The chromatic dragons bled for their efforts, lacking the finer scales of their metallic kin, and their blood became the drow race. This is also part of the second beat.

Third beat on the timeline comes when the dragons gain their advantage around 300,000 BF. The chromatic dragons create a new race to aid them – the giants. With the help of the giants they destroy many of the aberrants and drive the rest into The Underdark. Meanwhile in Verda, the metallics have a different plan and open a portal to the Nine Hells calling forth devils to kill the aberrants. This only half works, as some of the devils create alliances with the aberrants, creating a horrifying half-fiend, half-aberrant race who eventually become The Sleeping Ones. In the fourth beat on our timeline, around 100,000 BF the devils who remain on Verda and side with the metallic dragons eventually evolve into the tieflings.

The pattern here with the beats is that they get closer together and more specific as they continue. More significant history exists closer to the time of the game. In-game there would also be better historical records for more recent events.

The PC Races

So you can see above where tiefling and drow came from, but we still have a bunch of races to define here. I’ll give you the bullet points for each.

Eventually, the giants get tired of their chromatic dragon oppressors and create the dwarves and gnomes to help them rise up. Their bloody revolution is not so successful and dragons and giants, now few in number are scattered across Parian and Findalay. Some gnomes and dwarves retreat to The Underdark and become duergar and svirfneblin. Some stay on the surface and begin to found their own civilizations.
The aberrants regroup for thousands of years in The Underdark and then invade the kingdoms of the drow. After a few thousand years of war, some drow grow tired of the war and retreat to the surface. These drow evolve into elves, the drow left behind feel betrayed and the hatred begins.
When the elves retreat to the surface some of the svirfneblin come with them, who evolve yet again over the course of time into halflings. So halflings and gnomes are related in this campaign.
Metallic dragons create the dragonborn race to help populate Verda, but the their allies, the tieflings become jealous and so the dragonborn are sent away on ships and eventually come to land in present day Marrial.
In a cycle of slave creation learned from their masters, the dwarves create the warforged.

I’m a big fan of evolution apparently.

It’s obvious there are some races I’m choosing to leave out of this list. I think the only races that need a big explanation are the ones that have their heritage impacted by their creation and evolution. Orcs, minotaurs, etc. formed organically over time and scientific evolutionary processes. Or magic if you like. Or divine intervention. Their origins are not as important as their actions, which do end up on Exploration Age’s timeline.

Human might be the most obvious race missing from the list, but that’s because I think the big questions of why are we here and how did we get here are part of the human experience. I think it will make the humans of this world feel natural and relatable to sort of just appear without fanfare one day and through survival, suffering, and hard work build a civilization.

Action!

So once the races are established the timeline gets pretty interesting. The Bragonay dwarves have all of Findalay under their control and then the other races begin trying to take their land in a crazy struggle that has alliances forming and breaking everywhere. In the midst of it all, earthquakes, plagues, inventions, magic, and the like happen. Meanwhile on Verda the half-fiend, half-aberrant problem persists with a host of other failures and successes on the part of its people. There’s some big events that lead up to the time of play, like the discovery of Verda that I’m excited to share in the future.

Looks like the world is coming together! I’ll probably divide the timeline up into different ages such as Aberrant Age, Draconic Age, etc. and have the time period of play be known as… you guessed it. Exploration Age.

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Outlining the Continents

Brass Tacks / age of discovery, Asia, continents, countries, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Europe, world building / 1 comment

January 23, 2014

So now that I have a central idea for my campaign world, it’s time to get just a little more specific. My first goal is to outline the continents of the world with just a few general ideas to help guide me as I start to write down the specifics.

In Defense of Outlines

I’m a big fan of outlining before I write anything for D&D. In general before I even begin a campaign I outline the major story moments I think could happen, revising along the way based on the actions of the players. Then as we get into those beats, I outline the smaller story arcs associated with them. And then before each individual session I write an outline of what I want to plan before I start writing flavor text, encounters and the like (it’s actually very helpful here because if I don’t always have time to get into detail with my quest prep, but a quick skeleton takes about 5 minutes and can help keep a session on track as I fake it until I make it with improv).

Creating this world won’t be any different from preparing the story for a campaign. I’ll outline the continents and then outline each country. Maybe I’ll even get into outlining the major cities and landmarks. If I just dove in to writing detailed description, I could get caught up in one continent for hours and forget the ideas I have that I’m planning for the others. Sounds crazy, but that’s totally a thing that happens.

I should mention, my outlines are living documents. As I write the detailed descriptions based on the outline, I will move things around, add ideas, and take out things that aren’t working. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s good to keep a document of inspiration and ideas, so anything that doesn’t work you can save in there. Just because an idea isn’t working right now doesn’t mean it won’t be great for something else later. You’ll be glad you did it rather than scratching your head trying to remember what that awesome idea you deleted 18 months ago was.

This is me more often than I care to admit.

The Outline of My Continents

Ok, enough English class, let’s get to the good stuff. While my players wanted a lot of history, they didn’t want too many nations because the game can get bogged down trying to keep track of all the different country relationships and names, so I kept the number of nations lower, but I tried to make them all feel different and relevant.

Since the Age of Discovery is our inspirational time period, I thought about how racially segregated our world was at that time. Similarly, I have segregated some of the playable races into their own countries while expanding on their cultures. That isn’t to say you wouldn’t find a dwarf living amongst humans and visa versa, but it is to say that these countries are majorly populated by the races with which they are paired.

1. Findalay – European Feel

Four countries and a blank spot:

–Aeranore

A feudal country, of mostly humans ruled by a king.
A nation mostly of farming folk.
The king has dukes answerable to him, who have earls, etc.
Some are good, some are corrupt.
Gnomes also live amongst the humans, serving as teachers, scribes, and advisors. They are few in number.
Polytheistic pantheon of gods.
The culture feels influenced by medieval Britain.

–Taliana

Ruled by the elf council – a group of elders elected every 100 years.
This country is a land of magic and secrets guarded by almost xenophobic elves.
The elves are in a constant religious war with their kin, the drow.
Nomadic halfling tribes also populate these lands and are tolerated by the elves, staying out of their way.
A nation of skilled artisans.
Duotheistic religion.
Culturally Taliana will be influenced a bit by the Ancient Roman Empire

–Bragonay

This nation of dwarves is led by an Empress and The Noble Families.
Part of their daily existence and political structure is a harsh caste system.
Everyone from the nobles to the poor peasants are in a constant game of subterfuge that the long-lived dwarves play out over centuries.
The dwarves are ever building bigger and better war machines, including warforged who serve as slaves in their armies.
Polytheistic pantheon of gods.
Vast desert that gives the dwarven culture here a bit of a Middle Eastern influence.

–Marrial

A democratic republic made up mainly of dragonborn though they are accepting and encouraging of other races becoming citizens.
This nation is a collection of islands, full of sea-faring folk.
Center for trade and commerce.
Dominated mainly by a monotheistic religion.
Culturally influenced by Viking culture

–The Damned Lands

South of The Deep Orc Mountains, the world grows cold and dark.
It is said that all manner of beasts walk these lands…
The ruins of an ancient civilization, its magic, and knowledge also lie somewhere beyond the peaks.

2. Parian – Asian feel

This entire continent is ruled by an Emperor citizens worship as a god.
They trade with the nations of Findalay.
The continent is mostly humans though other races have been sprinkled throughout.
Currently, one of its provinces has rebelled and it’s citizens are engaged in a civil war that takes place in crowded cities, swamp lands, mountains, and deserts.
Some areas are culturally influenced by ancient Chinese culture, while others are influenced by ancient Indian cultures

3. Verda – The New World

A huge body of land just discovered.
Many other nations race to claim land and colonies for themselves.
Tieflings are native here and live in cities that look like huge spires.
Packs of gnolls run wild.
The orcs here lack the blood lust of their Findalayan kin, and live amongst the native human tribes and even procreate with them.
Though primitive, it’s not all log cabins and tepees. Many tribes live in ancient ruins and some races have cities of their own.
Much of this land is uncharted and there are rumors abound about cities of gold, deadly monsters, ancient ruins, magic fountains, etc.

4. The World Below

div>

A huge Underdark exists beneath these nations with many of the usual dangers.
However, the civilized Underdark dwellers are not as evil as they classically are. Drow and duergar have a basic moral code and get along with each other and even the people of the surface. They often come up to trade with the various nations.
The drow are constantly at war with their elf kin however, due to the different gods they favor in their shared duotheistic religion.
Many see this underground world as a potential way to make trade routes and spy on enemies.
Due to a large underground ocean, the dwellers of the Underdark have just learned about Verda as well.
The natives of Verda warn travelers from across the seas to not venture below ground because entities known as The Sleeping Ones dwell there and devour any who come near.

So far, I’m looking pretty good. Jotting down the ideas as they come in an organized fashion. You can see that some of the countries and continents have similar descriptors that include race, religion, influences, etc. The bullet points don’t get too specific. They get enough of the idea down to help me remember for when I can really sink my teeth into writing out each country’s description.

A History Lesson

I also decided to write down a few historical bullet points that came into my head as I was outlining. I made a separate document for them that looks like this.

Past

Findalay

Many of the nations have been at war with one another at some point.
Most recently Bragonay had attempted taking over the other countries, which almost succeeded.
All have shaky truces currently.

Parian

The Emperors of old were noble and kingly, but 50 years ago a general killed the Emperor’s family and took his throne.
This is when the civil war began.

Verda

Human tribes have warred with one another, but mainly kept to themselves, except for trade.
A plague came through 10 years ago and wiped out many of the humanoids living there.

Very Past

Ancient Ruins

div>

Strange ruins from an ancient race can be found all over the world, from Verda to Parian.
The ruins seem to have been created by some race of giants that apparently ruled the world at one point and worshipped the Sun and the Moon.
Some of these ruins hold magic items, spells, runes and rituals.

So that’s the outline for my continents and countries. It’s pretty basic in its overview of things, but again, it helps me narrow the scope and gives me a good place to start as I get into detailing histories, economies, political structures, cultures, religions, flora, fauna, and the like.
Become a Patron!

Share this post: