Campaign Rumors

I wanted to run my new Land of Azurth campaign as more of a sandbox than my Weird Adventurs campaign (which tended to be more "mission style" as it was mystery oriented). I still intend for their to be mysteries in the current campaign, but they be more of an "easter egg" variety, by which I mean something cool if the players figure it out, but probably never essential to an adventure.

To this end, I borrowed a technique from Chris Kutalik over at the Hill Cantons, who runs the best sandbox campaign I've had the pleasure to play in: use of rumors, both as an adventure menu for players and to provide a window into ongoing background events in the setting. (Chris has a lot of other useful and stealable ideas of running this sort of campaign. Just check out this recent post.)

Anyway, here's the first set of rumors I gave the players at the end of the first session. This establishes the existence of the Publick Observator, which can serve both an in-game and metagame purpose:

In games where I have the time, I like to have the characters meet. It gives them a chance to get warmed up for roleplaying (and shows me how much they want to roleplay--which has implications for how I handle later sessions) and it gives them a chance to make up some background material that may be good grist for future adventures. I had asked each player prior to the first session to come up with a reason (or what they would give to others as the reason) they might be coming to Rivertown to seek an audience with Clockwork Princess Viola. One of the players suggest her ranger was coming to discuss a poaching problem--dovetailing nicely with one of the rumors I had thought of but not yet told the PCs about, of course!


This gave the them a good reason to select what they wanted to do next session. Of course, the other goings-on they chose not to investigate may not just go away. Some will have longterm consequences or will show up again, maybe with more dire connotations, next week. Over time, of course, these pre-session rumors will compete with goals and plans completely generated by the players.

Over the Garden Wall

Over the Garden Wall is a mini-series on Cartoon Network, running in 2 parts a night, every night this week, but I'm sure it will be repeated. Created by Patrick McHale (previously of Adventure Time), the series tells the story of two brothers lost in the woods--a magical forest, called the Unknown. There they meet talking animals, undead townsfolk, and avoid a dark Beast that people say roams the woods.

It's part Grimms' fairy tales, part Wizard of Oz (and maybe a bit Sandberg's Rootabaga Stories), imbued with great deal of folksiness. Where Adventure Time has rap and chiptunes, OtGW has parlor music and ragtime. Where Adventure Time has non sequiturs and weirdness, Over the Garden Wall has whimsy (not that it isn't weird at times).

Whimsy like a possum playing a dobro, which is just the right kind, I think.

If you like stuff like my Land of Azurth posts or Wampus Country, then you will probably like Over the Garden Wall. Even if you don't like those things, you probably should check it out just to see. Here's the first episode on Youtube.

Wednesday Comics: Artesia's Homeland

We'll pause in our story to get a little bit more of Smylie's great world-building. These two pages come from Artesia Annual #2, and give background on Daradja, the land in which the story began.

Warning: The text contains some spoilers for the series (though mild ones, I think). Read at your own risk.

Azurthite Bestiary: Hobgoblin

Art by Filip Cerovecki

In the Land of Azurth, hobgoblins are what comes from small folk or goblin warlocks who give themselves wholly over to some dark power. Exhorted to ever greater infamies in the name of arcane power, they barter their souls all at once or piecemeal, until they are dragged from this world to be fashioned into something more—and less—than what they had been. All hobgoblins are driven mad to one degree or another by their ordeal, but this only serves to increase their unpredictability and capacity for evil.

Hobgoblins have lairs in creepy locales, dark plots and sinister henchmen (villainous elves or dwarves, beast folk, clockwork monstrosities, minor demons or umber hulks are possibilities).

HOBGOBLIN
Small fiend, chaotic or neutral evil
AC 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 30 (7d6+6)
Speed: 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
STR 10(+0) DEX 14(+2) CON 12(+1) INT 14(+2) WIS 14(+2) CHA 16(+3)
Skills: Arcana +9, Intimidation +10
Damage Resistances cold, fire, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities poison
Conditioned Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Goblinic, Infernal

Chilling Laugh. The cackle of the hobgoblin causes any creature within 300 ft. and able to hear it must succeed at a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute.
Spellcasting. The hobgoblin is (at least) a 7th level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (DC 18). It has a number of spells like a 7th level warlock.
Exploding Death. If reduced to 0 hit points, a hobgoblin explodes--messily. Any creature within 20 ft. must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or get slimed with hobgoblin ichor or be stunned for 1 turn.
Respawning. A destroyed hobgoblin will reform with full hit points by the next new moon unless their soul is found and destroyed.  Their souls are always kept hidden but generally are close by.  They have the appearance of insects or other crawling things molded from congealed shadow--inky black, confection-sticky,and unpleasant in texture. These souls can be destroyed by fire or magic, but possessing one affords a means to leverage a hobgoblin to do the possessors bidding.

Actions:
Claws. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (2d4+1) slashing damage.

Night of Souls

An Allsoulstide Melaina charm

Melaina, the Faerie Lady of Souls, is most in the minds of the people of the Land of Azurth during the Allsoulstide celebration at the end of the harvest. Children go a-guising and receive treats in the form of skull-shaped cakes or candies. The nuns of Melaina paint their faces and perhaps dye their hair in honor of their goddess.

The Sisters of the Lady of Souls sometimes bestow skull cakes, as well, but theirs are of a magical sort and only doled as they divine the goddess wills. Ingesting one of these special cakes imparts the ability to speak with the departed, provided they are near an item or location tied to the soul, and the soul wishes to talk (reaction roll). The willingness of the one who ate the cake is not required.

On these nights, flickering will o' wisps abandon their usual places and appear in the streets of cities and towns and punctuate the darkness with their eerie, variegated glow. While not as overtly malevolent as the mad ones that haunt the wild or forgotten places, their purposes are inscrutable, though legends say they sometimes urge the living to discovery of old secrets.

Universal Monsters

I didn't really do any Halloween posts this year, so in grand tv tradition I'm going to rerun some Halloween specials of the past. Enjoy these monster meditations:

Frankenstein the gift of life keeps on giving.
The Mummy wrapped like candy, but not sweet.
Gill Man vs. Wolf Man head to head monster battle

Wednesday Comics: The Bearer of Bad Tidings

"Strangers in the Night"

Artesia #4 (April 1999) Story & Art by Mark Smylie

Synopsis: The troops give thanks to gods for the new day and the passing of the black sun. Stjepan, Atresia's brother, and his companions bring startling news from the south: The Thessid Empire has invaded the Middle Kingdoms.

We get a lot of background on the conflict:

The Middle Kingdoms have few allies. The League is holding back and Palatia, though a sworn enemy of the Empire, is mistrusted in the Middle Kingdom.

Artesia wonders if the Black Sun marked a defeat for the Thessids as it had before. Stjepan believes quite the opposite. Newly added to the Empire are the Isklids who worship Irre as the father of Islik from whom they claim descent.

It's a lot to take in. Their backwater homeland may be soon drawn into a war of great powers. Of course, Artesia and her lieutenants recognize Stjepan is a spy--they just don't know who he might be working for, as yet. It doesn't matter that he is Artesia's brother. The only blood that matters to her, she says, is blood that has been spilled. Her comrades are her kin, as far as she is concerned.

 The news has made their current conflict seem small. Some urge Artesia to take Dara Dess and depose Bran, others say she should march South. Artesia makes her decision:

She will parley with Bran. "The storm breaks and the wider world calls."

Things to Notice:

• Smylie gives us quite a geopolitical tour of the Known World (and a lot of hints at its history) in the guise of current events.

Commentary: 
Though events (and reputtation) have linked Artesia to war, this issue shows she's pragmatic. Despite Bran's betrayal, she intends to make peace to support the other Middle Kingdoms against Thessid-Gola.

Artesia's brother gets the spotlight in Smylie's novel The Barrow.