The Villa of the Fallen Star, Floor 3 (Not My Destination)

 Floor 2: Venus - Not My Destination Index - Floor 4: Jupiter  

Random Encounters

1. 1d4 Star-Spirit Servants.
2. Ice Elemental, 4 HD, 5 AC, movement 9"/15" (flying), immune to nonmagical damage except mundane fire, which deals 2x damage. looking for people it can nonlethally freeze and then drag back to be captured.
3. 1d6 Wereboars, captured from the Lair of the Cursed.
4. A manticore (6+1 HD, 4 AC, mv 12/18, 24 tail spikes it can fire 6 per turn.) sent to hunt escaped fighters and return them to the Abductee Pit. Its darts are nonlethal - targets "killed" with them fall into restless sleep.
5. A wyvern, escaped from Chartreuse's nest to run rampant through the dungeon.
6. Quiescent, star-vampire lord of the arena. 9 HD, 2 HD, killed by exposure to sun or starlight, regens 3 HP/turn, charm with -2 save penalty on humans, repelled by mirrors, impervious to non-magic, non-silver weapons. Flies.

1 - Sand Room - Empty
This room is filled with bags of quartz sand. Look, sometimes you need to put more sand in the arena, and you've gotta keep it somewhere.

2 - Food Storage - Empty
A frazzled Star-Spirit Servant tries their best to sort produce from Floor 2, miscellaneous plants from outside, and random objects from the pockets of abductees into human-edible and inedible substances. Could you help? Please?

3 - Kidnapping Machine - Special
A console on the eastern wall holds a pair of red spheres, a single button, and a screen. A red circle is marked out in the center of the room.

The screen displays a birds-eye view of the world, along with a set of crosshairs. The spheres move, zoom, tilt, et cetera. The button takes whatever is currently under the crosshairs and teleports it into the red circle in this room.

4 - Gambling Balcony - Monster w/ Treasure
1200 gp in Stellar coins dances between the hands of 10 Star-Spirit gamblers, more than willing to welcome even strange Earthlings to bet on the Arena.

5 - Visiting Champion - Monster w/ Treasure
Another alien freak like the one in 1:14 - though instead of being a wizard this one fights as a 5th-level fighter. It can teach PCs how to Cleave (fatal blows allow another attack).

It wears a 700gp moonstone-studded crown. The Stellar Spirits revile it, in a professional-wrestling-heel sort of way, and the alien is more than happy to act the part.

6 - Manticore Cavalry - Monster w/ Treasure
Two Star-Spirit servants armed with long spears ride the back of a Manticore, hunting escaped captives.

The manticore is heavily decorated, with 5 pieces of 1600gp porcelain-and-gold jewelry hanging from its spikes.

7 - Wereboar Cells - Monster
Five wereboars from the Lair of the Cursed, captured by the Kidnapping Machine, languish stuck to the wall by 50gp silver manacles.

8 - Dragon Cage - Monster
The 7 HD young (14 HP, 14 damage breath attack) green dragon Chartreuse is chained in this room, awaiting his turn in the Arena.

9 - Abductee Pit - Special
Three captives (the gormless first-level M-U Idla Sathmuma, overconfident first-level Fighter Daze, and 0th-level dog-owner Hehan (and Hehan's dog, Biter)) are chained to the walls of this room, awaiting their turn in the Arena.

10 - Axe Pendulums - Trap
The classic. Passage through this room is impossible due to four swinging axes, which hit automatically if you just gormlessly run into them.

11 - The Arena - Special
Thronging crowds of Star-Spirit Servants cheer from the bleachers as two duel in a sand-filled pit. An ice ceiling above leads to Floor 1, Room 8.

The victor is showered in Stellar coins (1000gp) and alien flowers. Particularly showy winners are paid double.

The Arena's champion is Titanium Doradus, who wears a Girdle of Giant Strength (as such, they attack as if they were 8 HD and deal 2d6 damage per attack). Defeating them awards this belt along with a base of 5000gp.

3-in-6 chance Quiescent watches from a top balcony, searching for the best fighters to show to the Fallen Star.

12 - Hall of Fame - Secret Treasure
Stone busts of prior star-spirit champions are lined up on the walls of this room. To humans they all look identical.

They each face in random directions - if all spun to face the center of the room, a trapdoor in the floor opens to a cache containing 2900gp, a Ring of Regeneration, and a scroll inscribed with Disintegrate and Create Water.

13 - Loser's Bracket - Monster w/ Treasure
12 Star-Spirit Servants spar here, among 1200gp of Arena winnings. One, Arsenic Aspidiske, poorly conceals a Displacer Cloak - they plan to cheat, using it (along with some well-timed distractions from the stands) to defeat Titanium Doradus.

14 - Manticore Stables - Monster
The eight Manticores in this room are perfectly safe and certainly not able to escape from their cages unpredictably, especially not if some loose Earthlings wandered in.

15 - Armory - Empty
Half a dozen Star-Spirit flamberges wait, held on stands by suits of baroque and insectile plate armor.

16 - Child of Nepotism - Monster w/ Treasure
The Wyvern Slightly-Lighter-Than-Forest-Green, one of Chartreuse's wayward children, sleeps on a stolen hoard of 1100 gp.

Two Stellar Spirits in the corner very quietly debate how to get the money back.

17 - Champion's Apartment - Empty
Gilded home of Titanium Doradus - a Star-Spirit shaped sleeping niche carved into the floor, a 150gp quartz lamp on the ceiling, and three 50gp delicate stained glass icons on the walls.

1-in-6 chance Doradus is here, unless they are known to be elsewhere.

18 - Arena Chute - Trap
The floor of this room is an illusion. In fact, stepping in dumps you on a conveyor belt that shoots you out into the Arena.

19 - Quiescent's Tomb - Trap w/ Treasure
Black granite resting place of a dead stellar spirit. Five 4000gp masks lie on pedestals around the room (Quiescent wears them all, chained to their body, when they meet the Fallen Star). Each pedestal is trapped - if a mask is removed (and no equal weight added), the pedestal rises up, revealing a 2d6-damage tesla coil and summoning Quiescent.

One of the masks, made of blue sapphire instead of gold, acts as a Ring of Djinn Summoning.

20 - The Elevator - Empty
Buttons in this room move it between floors 3 and 4 - it is the only route further down.

Not My Destination - Sessions 1 & 2 Analysis

I haven't been posting true session reports for Not My Destination because, so far, there's been little to report. One dead PC in the first session (the Herald of the Authority, killed by the sea urchin in 1:5 with full knowledge that there was an evil sea urchin) and a near-TPK in the second (thanks to the shredded ghouls in 1:15, which the PCs chose to enter into and then stubbornly remain in melee with). They have just entered Floor 2 and immediately thrown their lot in with Fluoride Vega.

The Littlest Brown Book has been working great so far. I've been using the logarithmic multiattacks suggested as a potential alternative to the quite ?????? standard OD&D multiattack rules, and after writing myself a copy of the Monsters Attacking chart combat's been no problem. 

i sure am

Logistics has been an issue, however. With OD&D's all-armor-and-loot based encumbrance it was no issue for the players to fill their pockets with months of food and torches during character creation and then simply... never return to town. They beelined right through the Sea of Lights in the first few minutes of the first session and haven't crawled back to sunlight since. 

Similarly, I'm not yet sure how I'm handling hirelings and mercenaries - the common prices I've seen make it trivial to bury a dungeon (or go toe-to-toe with the cult of SHAPELESS NAMELESS BLAMELESS) with hundreds of spearmen.

Littlest's dungeon generation & suggested random encounter difficulties have been great for building floors quick, though they do start to conflict with Phlox's 20-block dungeon stocking, which I've been using for room keys. Phlox stocking expects PCs to level up 4 hypothetical Fighter PCs (of appropriate level) per 20-room region, while the tables I've been using for Littlest expect much larger floors and slower XP rates. This means that dungeon floors (which get harder according to Littlest's progression) quickly outscale PCs (who haven't neared leveling yet, and won't if they keep wading into melee with piles of ghouls). 

Maybe that'll get them to explore the islands to scrape up XP, lmao.  

The Villa of the Fallen Star, Floor 2 (Not My Destination)

Floor 1: Mercury - Not My Destination Index - Floor 3: Mars 

Dungeon! Wow! I did all the prologue spiel on the post for the first floor so I'm out of things to say. Bye! 

Random Encounters

1. 1d6 Atomic Bees, HD 1, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical damage. Harmless unless injured. Stings force a save vs. poison against instant death and becoming a Blast-Shadow.
2. 1d4 Star-Spirit Servants, HD 4, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical missiles (as "hero", T3) (this is literally a dude and you can talk to him). honor focus, duelist.
3. Grazing Creature, HD 4+1, AC 5, 1d6+2 dmg/hit, fusion-reactor-stomach holds 1d6x100gp in semiprecious gemseeds. When it hits people it throws 'em.
4. 1d4 Blast-Shadows, 4 HD, 3 AC, 24 MV immune to nonmagical, non-silver weapons, drain 1 level per hit, humans fully drained become blast-shadows
5. Life Nexus, HD 6+3, AC 4, MV 12", regens 3 HP/round including after death unless burned, dissolved, etc. Made of magnesium, other alien-ecology metals in thin lines.
6. One of the Avant-Gardeners, plus their 6 Star-Spirit Servant bodyguards. (1: Fluoride Vega, 2: Antimony Rigel). Avant-Gardeners are both Star-Spirit Green M-U 11, HD 8+1, spells 4/4/4/3/3 Sleep, Entangle x2, Cure Light Wounds, Enfeebling Ray x2, Stoneskin, Invisibility, Haste x2, Invisibility (Extended) x2, Growth of Plants x3, Insect Plague, Cloudkill, Raise Dead 
1. (The Littlest Brown book recommends, as a "T6" random encounter that could be met on a six in a third-level dungeon, "Wizards (i.e. Magic-Users of the 11th level) w/ 1d4 Enchanters (7th-level M-Us) & 1d6 Bodyguards (those being Fighters of level 1d3+3). It's rough out there in OD&Dland. On the bright side "what do I do with an 11th-level wizard" became the driving goal of the whole dungeon floor.)

The Avant-Gardeners are artist-courtiers, hoping to improve their status in the court of the Fallen Star by presenting beautiful and complex works of art. They despise each other - perhaps these deniable earthlings could be a good weapon to ruin their rival once and for all...

1 - Water Source - Trap w/ Treasure
A hollow spear hangs from the ceiling, dripping iridescent star-water to send to the plants of this floor. It is a spear +1 whose strike causes hallucinations as the star-water enters the blood - however, its wielder is provided no immunity to this poison.

2 - Beryl Hedge - Monster w/ Treasure
This room is split east/west by a thorned selenium hedge. Four 500gp beryl "fruits" grow from it, and four Grazing Creatures gnaw on it on the west side.

3 - Listening Chamber - Empty
Sound from the Opera House is blurrily piped into this bench-filled room. The noise tube is barely large enough to fit a person, who will then pop out of the ceiling of the Opera House.

4 - Weeping Room - Monster
5 Blast-Shadows orbit the perimeter of this room, mumbling static.

5 - Lifegiving Room - Special
The ceiling of this room is a yellowish-green pane of glowing alien glass. Sleeping in this room restores 1 HP per hour (24 times the standard 1 HP per day available in the Littlest Brown Book). Its light also causes plants to grow at thousands of times the standard speed.

If the ceiling is broken, this effect ends immediately.

6 - Jumpscare Hedge - Monster w/ Treasure
This room is split north/south by a thorned selenium hedge. Two 500gp beryl "fruits" grow from it. It rustles slightly - if the fruit is picked or if the hedge is damaged, a Life Nexus leaps from it.

7 - Hostile Agents - Monster
Two groups of 3 Star-Spirit servants have collided in this room. One member of each holds a poisonous chalice - each group was sent by one Avant-Gardener in yet another plot to kill the other.

8 -The Conductor - Monster w/ Treasure
A Star-Spirit Servant works here, dressed in a 700sp feathered hat and 300gp in ruby-bead jewelry. They wield a staff of attached cubes (as Ophidian Staff - weapon +1 and can be sent as a snake to grapple and restrain people) as a conductor's baton.

They lead five uplifted Atomic Bees in opera practice, and will send them to attack those who threaten them.

The Conductor believes Antimony Rigel is an obstacle to their own ascent up the Stellar court - a gormless fool taking credit for the work of their apprentices. The first is true, the second is not.

9 - Seed Vault - Hidden Treasure
The floor of this room has three holes, each far too deep and small to reach into. 500gp aquamarines glitter in two of them, and a 1000gp spinel in the third. Each of these are seeds - planted and tended they would grow into trees of the same gem worth twice as much.

10 - The Extremely Loud Room - Special
It is extremely loud in this room.  

11 - The Opera House - Special
Antimony Rigel's masterpiece - 100 Atomic Bees uplifted to sapience and slowly taught how to play a famed (and extremely long) Stellar opera. The bees play without rest, their stage ten tiers of hexagonal cells on the northern wall. They are haughty - why do they play for such a small audience? There's a whole world outside, they've heard - they should go there, and become famous.

Above the bees is a sound-funnel that would, if one crawled up into it, lead to the Listening Chamber.

4-in-6 chance Antimony Rigel is applauding from one of the Opera House's balconies, unless they are known to be elsewhere.

(In my NMD campaign this is room 10 instead - that puts it way too close to Vega, though, so I moved it over for you. Aren't I just the sweetest?) 

12 - Vega's Guardian - Monster
A pareidolic Chimera (9 HD, 4 AC, MV 12"/18, one side/head/facet fires a 3d6 damage annihilation beam) waits in this room. It is composed of quartz beams and bristlecone pine wood, carefully arranged - from one side it displays a fleet of sailing ships, from a second an empty hall, and from the third a baleful sun. 

13 - Designer's Commentary - Empty
Holograms of Fluoride Vega play here, showing them tear their hair out (metaphorically) over minor difficulties in the production of the Pareidolia Tree. These are shockingly realistic illusions - things afraid of Vega (such as the Pareidolic Chimera) will not enter this room.

The two holograms (Vega and the tree) are produced by small triangular tiles on the ceiling, which can be removed, and continue producing their illusions. 

14 - Hive Pit - Trap
The floor of this room is a thin layer of art deco glass - hundreds of Atomic Bees crawl and work beneath it. This glass will shatter if weight is placed on it, releasing enraged bees. Standard paranoid thin-ice crawling will suffice to get you across.

15 - Decorated Bee - Monster w/ Treasure
An Atomic Bee is here, wrapped in a 300gp platinum disc. It loves its 300gp platinum disc and Will sting you if you try to separate the two.

16 - Tripvines - Trap
Silvery-blue vines sprawl across the floor of this room - when stepped on they wind around ankles and then drag their victim to hang upside-down from the ceiling. Cutting the vines is troublesome - they are as strong as iron.

17 - Beekeepers - Monster
Three Star-Spirit Servants poke around the edges of an art deco hive of atomic bees, wielding a tuning fork that forces a swarm of bees to Save versus Wands or fall asleep.

18 - Instrument Closet - Empty
This room is knee-deep in inscrutable Stellar musical instruments that make all manner of theremin noises, electronic beeps, piercing whistles, and dropping-cans-full-of-bolts-down-the-stairs clattering sounds.

19 - Pareidolia Tree - Empty
Fluoride Vega's masterpiece - a 10,000 year old bristlecone pine whose branches form a set of 3D images viewed by standing at certain points around the tree.

4-in-6 chance Fluoride Vega is here, unless they are known to be elsewhere.

20 - Understudy Room - Empty
Six uplifted Atomic Bees sit on the walls and ceiling of this room, buzzing out a few measures of the Stellar opera before making a mistake, emitting metal-on-metal screeches of frustration, and starting over.

Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin (Not My Destination)

Not My Destination Index 

Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin is an ancient funeral ship, built by the primordial revolt-empires of mankind. It still wanders the Sea of Lights, holding its crew and guests in the strange half-life the ancients preferred to death and the judgment of the Authority. It is found on a roll of 2 on the sea encounters table.

As with other NMD dungeon posts, the map is pure Donjon output - ignore which doors it says are secret, locked, et cetera.

Random Encounters

1. Tukulti-Authority, recordkeeper of ancient days. Stats as Zombie, but remains sentient and bored. Fond of overlong stories about nothing.
2. 2d10 armed and armored zombies.
3. The three Companions of the Monarchs.
4. A Giantish catamaran has come to challenge the Column.

0 - Outside
Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin hovers ten feet above the water - this is due to the Ghostparting Prow, a carved tin-and-lead ram built onto the front of the vessel. It can be attached to other ships - the lack of friction doubles their movement speed (though they have a tendency to slide around like air hockey pucks).

The deck of the ship holds 30 zombies in verdigrised armor (1 HD, 6 AC, 6 MV), who man six ballistae to fire on incoming vessels. The cabin on the rear of the deck has a staircase that leads down into Room 1. PCs may also sneak under the treasure vessel and enter through room 5.

1 - Deeds of the Queens of Mankind - Empty
The painted walls of this room show the destruction of a city of giants. Statues are torn down with ropes by angry mobs. Catamarans burn in the harbor. In the midst of it all stand two imperious figures, one with a sword marked out with mother-of-pearl.

It was only an outpost - the giants remain, and barely notice the absence.

2 - Chained Rowers - Monster
30 Zombies (1 HD, 8 AC, 6 MV) labor on great oars, dragging the Column across the Sea of Lights. The tops of their heads have been removed - their skulls are empty.

3 - Judge's Scales - Hidden Treasure
A bas-relief of a grinning man holding a set of scales - perfectly balanced with a bundle of flowers on one plate and a skull on the other. If the bas-relief is damaged or removed, a Potion of Healing waits behind the flowers, and a dose of save vs. death poison behind the skull.

4 - The Helm - Special
A pair of cloth-of-silver gloves and a blindfold of the same material hang from strings in the center of the room. Wearing the blindfold provides you a third-person view of the Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin, while the gloves permit you to puppet the 30 rowers and 30 ballista operators.

Column moves at 12 hexes per day over water. It is difficult to run aground due to the Ghostparting Prow, but I'm sure the players will manage anyway.

5 - Moon Pool - Empty
Two three-man boats, finely painted, hang from ancient ropes above a hole in the floor. It was expected that the ship's guests would leave one day.

6 - Extremely Cursed Evil Statue - Trap/Treasure
A statue of a cruel tyrant, cut in half at the waist. The break reveals carved stone viscera that would never be seen unless the statue was destroyed.

It is worth 5000gp - unfortunately it is both exceedingly heavy and extremely cursed. Any who die within eyesight of it rise up as the fitting undead for their HD (1 HD creatures have stats as zombies, 2 HD creatures as ghouls, et cetera).

7 - Companions of the Monarchs - Monster w/ Treasure
Three Wights (3 HD, 5 AC, 9 MV, drain 1 level/hit, unaffected by nonmagical missiles, double damage from magical missiles, killed humans become Wights) lie in repose in this room, each with a 100gp amethyst in the chest of their verdigrised armor.

8 - Shooting Gallery - Trap
Three niches in this room hold immobile statues of crossbowmen, who track and fire upon targets (as 3 HD monsters) that enter. They wait for targets to cross into the middle of the room to prevent their escape.

The other three niches hold glass cabinets of engraved tin tablets - annals of distant years in a long-forgotten language.

9 - Poison Chamber - Trap
The floor of this room has been built up into a sculpted map of the world. Its seas and rivers are made of flowing mercury - each dungeon turn in this room prompts a save versus poison to avoid taking 1d6 damage. The wall to the south is painted with a mural of the mountains that form the edge of the world - pressing on the sun that rises above those mountains opens the secret door to 10.

10 - Dead Throne - Monster w/ Treasure
Two mummies (5+1 HD, 3 AC, 6 MV, hits inflict necrotic disease, only vulnerable to magic and fire, damage and to-hit bonuses halved when attacking it), one wrapped in 1000gp of onyx-thread jewelry and the other wielding the neutral +1 sword ONE WILL LIE (12 INT, 3 EGO, speech, reads magic, targets struck by it decay, taking another 1d6 damage at the end of their next turn).

Both marched with the Unconquered in past ages.

The Sea of Lights (Not My Destination)

Not My Destination Index

This map was made with Modality's quite convenient Obsidian text mapper.

Sea encounters are recorded here - though note that the "dragon" result on 20 is now a 1d3 (1: Seafoam Green, 2: Robin's Egg Blue, 3: both). 

Land encounters are rolled on a 2d4 - on any island the first set of results is:

2. Apple Channel Katrina, a Green M-U, level 6 (HD: 3+1, AC: 9, MV: 12" M6; spells: 4/2/2/-/-), and her entourage of 2 Ents (HD: 8, AC: 2, MV: 6" Can command plants, causing up to 2 trees within 6" to move 3"/turn). Want to go to the Ashen Isle and reforest it. Do not know anything about the fact there are whole entire dragons there.
3. The Unicorn (HD 4, AC 2, MV 24, saves are all 8, can teleport.)
4. The weather takes a turn for the worse - wind, lightning, et cetera.
5. A pursuing encounter - if this is not possible, 2d8 dire wolves (HD 3+1, AC 6, MV 15).

Spacefaring Isle (Northwest) 

Encounters

6. 1d10 grazing thoats
7. 1d6 basilisks (40% in lair)
8. 16 Red Martians (1+1 HD, 7 AC, 3d6 damage radium guns they only use if needed, telepathic), led by "the Velitel Strelec" (2+1 HD, 5 AC).

 01.01 - Tower of the Martian

Upcoming - the home of the wizard Bronwyn Epistemological, used to ferry her to True Mars.  

Home Isle (Southwest)

Encounters

6. Idri Casseratkil, wandering merchant, and his goods. Sells standard equipment, but is also pretty desperate to get rid of his "exploserous carnelian" (explodes for 2d6kh). If the PCs take it, further rolls of 5 are encounters with 1d6 thieves (Fighter 2) sent by Emung Ostriesem, hoping to take back the carnelian.
7. Anthony Frame at the head of 3d10 soldiers of the War Monastery.
8. Manawydan, last survivor of the Hairy Men's expedition - now they creep across the Home Isle in a classically Bigfootlike way, jumping out to scrongle Hostages and so on. 4+1 HD, AC 7, 12 Movement, brachiates, grapples, flees.

 01.07 - Hairy Men's Cairn

Completely looted by the students of the War Monastery - remaining carvings show a great ship sailing down a narrow sea. The carved sun was obviously decorated with some kind of embedded stones, as were the eyes of the sarcophagi.

02.07 - War Monastery

A Hero, a White Conjurer (Cure Light Wounds, Purify Food & Water, Protection From Evil, Bless), and 80 students (half footmen, half archers) train in this hermitage. All are Lawful Hostages. They extract tithes from the town at 03.07 for their protection.

The classed characters wear talismans made from the bones from the cairn at 01.07 - these can be shattered to provide a +2 bonus to a save. After doing so, the ghost of Pebr appears to haunt the talisman’s user on an encounter roll of 5 while on land, or 11 when at sea.

The Monastery has extracted 3000cp and 2000gp in coinage from Silt. Their cultic idol (of the Authority - beaten with rods and covered in rotten food each day) has 16 100gp moonstones and 8 500gp bloodstones embedded in it as decoration. 

The 21 most skilled of the students (as Dervish medium lancers) wear 3000gp torcs. Any student would risk death to reclaim one of these if it were captured or lost - if one of these students died, others would halt combat to pull the torc from their body.

NPCs

1. Linen Burnt - Hero. Kindly, in a way - almost apologetic about the truth of the world.
2. Gate Ferocious - White Conjurer. Nice old lady/raving firebrand. Spit in the eye of Innumerable Demons! Die for a drop of the Authority's blood!
3. Person of Violence Pine - one of the 21 acolytes. Starting to doubt - the world is so beautiful, isn't it? How could it be built so cruelly?

03.07 - Silt

A trading town of 6000 on the edge of the world. Once, they were far smaller - now word of the fallen star has come, and its streets are lined with those hoping to strike gold and those hoping to fleece the seekers.

NPCs

1. Anthony Frame - one of the 21 skilled acolytes of the War Monastery and their designated tax collector. See him behind his pedestal - Innumerable Demons, he cries. O how does the earth crawl with monsters forevermore.
2. Emung Ostriesem - head of the Ring, the rapidly expanding thieves' society of Silt. Currently driven into a white-hot rage - the wandering merchant Idri Casseratkil stole his "exploserous carnelian".

Forested Isle (Central)

Encounters

6. 3d10 Hairy Men knights (4+1 HD, AC 7, 12 movement), out to seek whatever could be to blame for the ghost.
7. 1d8 of the Cursed (4+1 HD, AC 4, 12 movement, harmed only by silver) hunting for food.
8. The ghost appears on a hilltop with a flash of light and sobs.

03.04 - City of the Hairy Men

1,700 bigfoots lair here, behind a wall of woven living trees. Their king, the honorable Wallt Efryn, is sleepless and grim. A ghost haunts his manor of mortarless stone. He pleads for an exorcist - and the ghost howls that it is all that remains of Wallt Efryn’s father Pebr, killed for the crown.

Wallt Efryn denies this - his father sailed away to the south, and never returned. 

This is true - Pebr died on an expedition to the Home Isle. However, he blames Wallt Efryn for planning the expedition, and then for staying as Pebr left.

04.04 - Lair of the Cursed

18 wereboars, relatives of Wallt Efryn cursed by the ghost of his father, lair in this cave in misery. They were exiled due to their danger, with 2000sp (worn over their heads in veils in an attempt to hold back the curse) and one of the Hairy Men’s signet rings (to remember their home with - worth 2000gp).

Isle of the Fallen Star (Northeast)

Encounters

6. 2d8 gryphons (10% in lair)
7. 3d10 cultist-pirates.
8. A hydra, come down from the mountains. (25% in lair)    

07.02 - Villa of the Fallen Star

The campaign tentpole dungeon. See floor one here.

08.01 - Sword Saints' Keep

150 maddened cultist-pirates howl chants and hymns in this stronghold, armed with 3 light catapults and walled in wrought-iron spikes. 

They are led by a trio of impaled sword-saints (stats as Ogre - all adore and despise their lord equally, and hope alternately to escape or to claim his power) and their king, the ancient hero Senam the Unconquered, now possessed by an accursed sword. He is a Superhero with a Girdle of Giant Strength, a Concussive Coronet and a ring of Spell Turning, wielding and wielded by the evil 12 INT, 12 EGO sword NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS (+3, aflame, paralyzing, teleporting).

If NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS were separated from him, he would slowly return to his senses and his heroism - haunted forever by hazy memories of hundreds of years ago, and all-too-clear ones of his time under the blade’s thrall.

Ashen Isle (East)

There are no random encounters here.

Home of a pair of blue dragons, Seafoam Green (8 HD, 48 HP) and Robin’s Egg Blue (9 HD, 45 HP). Both of them are gossips - self-exiled from a distant land (that they will not even name, such is their hatred of it) due to its myriad petty failings. Seafoam Green (impetuous) thinks that, obviously, the solution to this is to return home and microwave it with lightning bolts. The elder Robin’s Egg Blue (conspiratorial) thinks that they should, instead, spread propaganda to prove to all others that this mysterious land should be a pariah to the world. 

Both of them have been here long enough to remember the impact of the fallen star - but their lives revolve entirely around their obsession with and hatred of a tiny mountain village. Robin’s Egg Blue wants a printing press, and contact with important political figures. Seafoam Green hopes to turn the Hairy Men into an army to crush his enemies with an iron fist.

Giant's Isle (Southeast)

Encounters

6. The volcano howls, audibly, and a shower of burning sparks rains down across the isle, setting fire to vulnerable gear and hapless PCs.
7. A drifting fire elemental, split from TEMER-EL-PANE. 8 HD, AC 2, 2d6 damage, made of. fire.
8. Axmat and Guldara, sparring in full combat gear to test it.

08.08 - Forge of the Giants

Staffed by 17 Fire Giants (11+3 HD, 4 AC, 2d6+2 damage per strike, count as light catapults, immune to fire).

In the depths of the volcano known as Mount Saint Awlistlenge, the forge runs, building weapons beyond imagining for the use of the Empire of the Giants - men say it is lost to time, but the Giants are confident that this is only a slight inconvenience, and the bright-sailed bronze ships will cross the horizon at any moment.

They cannot make nonmagical gear magical, but they can alter magical gear - you want this sword to be armor? Sure. We'll see what happens.

NPCs
Axmat - head smith of the Forge. Condescending - what do you mean your ships don't fly. Haven't you had long enough to figure that out? Why are you still leaning on us.

Gulnara - messenger and sailor, out each week to send signals to the Imperial vessels that are surely waiting. Curious - what does the world look like out there, now that grace and beauty are gone from it?

Xamza - keeper of the Elemental - as such, he is mostly deaf and has a tendency to flinch. Worried - the elemental will soon escape, he says, and the volcano will explode. Neither of the others believe him; nothing could stand against the might of the Giants.

TEMER-EL-PANE - the Elemental of the mountain, HD 16, AC 2, 12", hits do 2d6, only affected by magic. Screams and screams and screams and screams and screams. If it broke out, the isle would be destroyed - but perhaps it could be released safely?

Rumors

1. From a monk of the War Monastery - "Linen and Gate've been wearing new kit. Blessed bones from a cairn up north, proof against the curses of Innumerable Demons..."
2. From an archaeologist - "This was once the edge of the Empire of the Giants, you know. Dig a couple feet and you hit solid layers of their scrap - especially if you sail southeast, around Mount Saint Awlistlenge."
3. From a mercenary - "No, no, I'm headed back west. There's no point moving east, nobody's getting through the doors of the star now that those killer-kings have dug themselves in on top of it."
4. From an apprentice magician - "Fallen star? No, I had no idea, I was here to work with Bronwyn Epistemological, the Martian, up north - couldn't find her, so I'm just drinking my money away until she's back."
5. From a sailor - "I saw GIANT APE MEN on the forested isle. GIANT APE MEN! Unbelievable. What's the world coming to."
6. From a monk of the War Monastery - "Did you do it? Did you see who did it? Took Torture Edmonton and pulled his head off?"
7. From a second-story worker - "Hey, if you meet Idri Casseratkil remember that the Ring is looking for him, and we'll pay good money for what he took from us."
8. From a fellow dungeon delver - "I got a peek into the Villa before the pirates ran me off - it's snowing in there, somehow."
9. From a naval officer - "Not the worst post I've ever had! Sure, you keep one eye on the horizon for skull-clad pirates and the other on the sky for those paired dragons, but let me tell you about my tour around Coto Nera..."
10. From an astrologer - "Reading? No, no reading, nobody gets a reading. One star falls to the northeast, something else flies up and down to the north, omens are closed. I don't know what to tell you."
11. From a trading vessel's crewman - "Mount Saint Awlistlenge's gonna go off again any minute now - we sailed past and it showered sparks and smoke. Thing that messes with me is, I can swear I saw someone standing there, on the lip of the caldera. Smoke must've gotten to my head, I suppose."
12. From one of the townsfolk - "I saw a unicorn once, just standing on the still sea. Course I went and asked Idri what he'd pay for the horn, but I spose the answer doesn't matter now that we won't see him again."
13. From an Inquisitor - "This isn't the first time people've flocked to this wasteland. Centuries ago, Senam the Unconquered came here, shattered the giants, looted their hoards..."
14. From a fisherman - "I got sent off-course once, to the north where that witch lives. There're strange people on that island, real strange ones, who took shots at me with handheld cannons. I still have one of the bullets - it burns in the sun."
15. From an Inquisitor - "There's a ghost around here, somewhere. Northwest. I can feel it. A new one. Angry... not human, not quite."
16. From a raving captured pirate - "NAMELESS! SHAPELESS! BLAMELESS! NAMELESS! SHAPELESS! BLAMELESS!"
17. From a Good Man priest - "There's something to the northeast - something dead and walking. Angry, betrayed..." 
18. From someone flashing too much money around - "A treasure-vessel, older than dirt and covered in gold! Those dried-out bodies weren't using it, ha!" 
19. From an aged scholar - "The lightning strikes backwards over that spit of land to the east - it rises up into the sky on clear nights." 
20. From a whaler - "I had a catch stolen from me once - a catamaran like a palace sailed over it, and dragged it right from the ocean with a harpoon the size of a tower." 

Digression: Names

Human names are piles of fantasy syllables. It is common, especially among wizards, to wear a masking name for privacy and as a defense against curses - these masking names are gibberish.

The Villa of the Fallen Star, Floor 1 (Not My Destination)

[] - Not My Destination Index - Floor 2: Venus 

The tentpole dungeon of Not My Destination is the Villa of the Fallen Star - a celestial palace-dream crashed to earth, whose owner could, they say, grant a wish to those who find it. There will be five 20-room floors: Mercury (water, winter, movement), Venus (life, warmth, alien chemistries), Mars (gladiator pits, axe pendulums), Jupiter (wealth, banquets, power), and Saturn (lead, grief, the catacomb-dreams of the fallen star). 

I'm taking it easy with this one - stocking follows Phlox's 20-block dungeon stocking, with treasure generation (~roughly, I upped a few of the smallest hoards and handed out some more magic items) and random encounter stats from Idraluna's Littlest Brown Book. The maps themselves are pure Donjon output (I enjoy making hex maps! dungeon maps, eeeeeehhhhh) - ignore what it says about doors' locked or unlockedness, and suffer through the strange assignment of room numbers.

Similarly, this is basically unpolished notes. You'll live.

https://laweyd.itch.io/ - a spirit of the outer spheres, guard and attendant to the fallen star

Random Encounters

1. 3d6 Pirates, 1 HD, 7 AC, movement 12" ("T1" on the LBB encounter table. also whenever i say "pirate" in NMD it means "seafaring cultist sworn to Chaos and the evil sentient sword NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS")
2. 1d6 frozen ghouls (made by Ismarc), HD 2, AC 6, movement 9", attack save vs. spells or paralysis. ("as ghoul", T2)
3. 1d4 Star-Spirit Servants, HD 4, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical missiles (as "hero", T3) (this is literally a dude and you can talk to him). honor focus, duelist.
4. Star-Spirit Hunting Weasel (attempts to attack from surprise and grab single targets), 3 HD, AC 6, move 15"
5. Ice Elemental, 4 HD, 5 AC, movement 9"/15" (flying), immune to nonmagical damage except mundane fire, which deals 2x damage. (this is ~" as gargoyle". by LBB rendering that makes it a "T4" enemy, and i get one of those) (trying to "work", get outta the way)
6. Dusty Circle Ismarc the morally dubious necromancer (HD 4, AC 9, black school spells Disguise Self (pretends to be a ghoul), Charm Person, Cause Light Wounds, Cause Light Wounds, Enfeebling Ray, Enfeebling Ray, Invisibility, Slow, Wall of Fire, no allegiance to NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS) along with 6 ghouls.

01: Snowstorm - Winter/Empty
Snowflakes constantly rain down in this room - if carefully observed, each is a perfectly regular hexagon. The floor is covered in drifts of this snow.

02: Ghoul-Killing Hero - Winter/Monster w/ Treasure
A Star-Spirit Servant waits here, wiping charred ghoul-blood from their flamberge. They wear a red-and-white silk belt with onyx and silver inlay worth 1100gp.

03: Ice Elemental Nursery - Winter/Monster
A single Ice Elemental lairs in this niched room, slowly patting together 9 more of itself.

If you somehow worked with the elemental to complete its work, the experience would teach you to build an ice elemental of your own for 300gp, enough ice and snow to work with (inaccessible anywhere but here or the ice caps of True Mars), and a week of labor.

04: Capture Site - Winter/Trap
The floor of this room is marked out with four teal square tiles. If a creature stands on one of these tiles, glass walls fall from the ceiling to trap them. This cage then fills with water, which magically freezes once the column is filled.

The first time this is triggered, two Star-Spirit Servants come to ensure the trap works successfully.

05: Sea Urchin - Water/Monster w/ Treasure
600sp and 30gp in Stellar coinage sits in a pool of cold and clear water, defended by a giant sea urchin (5 HD, 3 AC, 10", on-hit save vs. death or be paralyzed).

06: Placid Lake - Water/Empty
A thin, rattling metal bridge with no handrails leads across this perfectly round cistern. The fish inside are of a prismatic Stellar variety - they are simply a pair of cones matched like <> so.

They are still, somehow, edible, and taste like perfectly mundane salmon.

07: Stellar Cache - Winter/Hidden Treasure
The right wall of this room is clear ice. Inside hovers a small sculpted Stellar head (30gp), and a pair of flammable scrolls - one contains Polymorph Self, and the other summons a 9 HD, 4 AC, 3 attack + 3d6 damage heat ray Stellar warform which is immediately and omnidirectionally hostile.

08: Ice Rink - Winter/Empty
The floor of this room is smooth, clear, slippery ice - looking down, it pierces all the way to the Arena on Floor 3 - Mars.

09: Stoneskin Fountain - Water/Special
A star-faced spirit pours mercury-like fluid into a square basin on the floor. Applied to an object it turns the outermost layer of it into metal. On the skin, it provides -2 AC (though only for 1d6+6 turns before it flakes off). If consumed you must save vs. petrification or die.

10: Teleporter - Movement/Special
In the center of this room is a ritual circle inscribed in bronze. Anyone walking through this circle is teleported to hex 07.08, near the Forge of the Giants.

11: Pirate Hunting Party - Movement/Monster
Six Pirates plus one Pirate Warmage (Throne Manderley, 2+1 HD, Red M-U 4, spells Magic Missile, Hold Portal, Chill Touch, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Levitate, potion of Gaseous Form) search for their missing member, Gusil.

12: Frozen Grave - Movement/Trap w/ Treasure
The floor of this room seesaws when weight is placed on it, dumping those who cross unwisely into a pit of instantly lethal liquid nitrogen. A perfectly-preserved body wearing a 4000gp armband lies abandoned in the pit.

13: Weasel Track - Movement/Monster w/ Treasure
Three Star-Spirit Hunting Weasels race in a round track following a spinning mechanical arm with a pirate (Gusil - stringy hair, overconfident, still, yknow, sworn to death and chaos) tied to it. A pair of Star-Spirit Servants absentmindedly bet on the victorious weasel - their pot of 400 nonagonal Stellar sp and a 60-gp ring lies on a table between them.

14: Frozen Captive - Winter/Special
A bizarre four-legged rotationally-symmetrical creature (2 HD, 7 AC) is trapped in ice in the middle of this room. If released from the ice, they return to life. Their language is incomprehensible. They desire to return to their homeworld (requiring, perhaps, extremely expensive modifications to the Tower of the Martian), and can reward those who aid it with the alien spells Flip Person, Cone of Dense Foam, and Cube of Spell Splitting.

15: Lost Ghouls - Water/Monster
4 of Ismarc's ghouls lie here, cut apart but still living (half movement speed). Their wounds burn with the bluish-white fire of Stellar weapons. In the center of the room is a smaller cistern otherwise identical to the one in Placid Lake.

Ismarc would like these ghouls returned to him.

16: Rolling Boulder Hallway - Movement/Trap
The floor of this sloped hallway is an abraded mosaic depicting rows of bowing stellar spirits. The door on the far end is false - it has no hinges, and if the handle is pulled it comes off the door. Above the false door is an obvious trapdoor - when the false handle is pulled, a polished round boulder falls from the trapdoor and rolls down the hall, forcing Saves vs. Breath against 2d6 damage.

17: Weasel Nests - Movement/Empty
This room is unusually warm, and the ground is lavender alien-soil instead of harsh marble. Burrows in the soil hold 7 juvenile Star-Spirit Hunting Weasels (harmless).

18: Animation Mural - Movement/Empty
The west wall of this room is a mosaic of color-shifting tiles that display a beautiful night sky. Tiles removed from the wall revert to a colorless grey.

19: Ismarc's Beachhead - Winter/Monster w/ Treasure
The doors to this room are newly locked and painted with white skulls-in-circles and running horses. Ismarc and Tomorbaatar both hold keys.

8 Ghouls are here, along with his general, the resurrected conqueror of the steppes Tomorbaatar (as Ghoul, but 4 HD and armed with a bow and 9 +1 arrows tipped with engraved diamond heads - Tomorbaatar will bleed on these arrows to make them cause Ghoul paralysis at range), who leads them in drills.

Tomorbaatar serves ably - his loyalty to Dusty Circle Ismarc comes from a feeling of indebtedness. How else would you feel about the man who returned you to life?

Tomorbaatar's armor is made of woven-together coins - 300sp and 60gp can be recovered.

4-in-6 chance Ismarc is here, unless he is known to be elsewhere.

20: Rapids - Water/Trap
This room is split north/south by 20 feet of rushing water.

Also one unrelated last bit - the Littlest Brown Book uses a reading of the OD&D combat rules where monsters make a single attack, then (if fighting only "normal humans", PCs of level 3 or less) a number of extra 1-HD-equivalent attacks until it has struck [HD] times. I plan to, instead, use the logarithmic damage alternative on page 96, where creatures of 4-7 HD strike twice and those with 8+ attack three times. This is because I'm a poser. 

Alignment Faiths in Not My Destination

Summer has come and (by the calendar of the local university) gone, and my hypothetically summer game Not My Destination has never arrived. So, now it's a fall game - something to run while I stare miserably at the land-islands. 

The hexcrawl is mostly finished, though the tentpole dungeon is completely blank - both will probably be posted along with play reports when the game begins. 

What I do have, however, is unhelpful lore - the three alignment/faiths of the setting, trapped in their miserable counter-reformation and, somewhere across the horizon from the Sea of Lights, their hideous wars of religion. 

Chaotic Sanctifiers believe that, as the Authority is all-good and all-powerful, They created nothing that was evil. Thus, all actions are ethical and all men are saints, no matter how opposed they seem to human morals.

Neutral Good Men are dualists, believing evil comes from the Adversary, an equal and opposite to the Authority, and that by right conduct one can war against the Adversary in defense of order and good. While popular and state-supported, this is actually a new development of the Neutral religion, and its opponents say the "Adversary" is being projected back into the various evil spirits and foreign gods of the Canon. Inquisitors and so on are assumed to be Good Men. 

Lawful Hostages believe in a bizarre, inhuman cosmology where the world was formed from specks of floating dust, and mankind rose from algae. They say the Authority is a disguise, worn by a horde of cruel demons that set upon man and fooled the pagans into worship and sacrifice. A change of mask and voila, now the Archpriest pays homage to Them as well. The only hope for humanity is enlightenment, and to achieve enlightenment requires the breaking of the chains the demons set upon man: fear, pain, sleep, et cetera. As such, a stringent regime of asceticism and mutilation is common. Hostagehood is common here in the isles of the Sea of Lights.

Talk to Me (Lanthanide Horizon Minipost)

The mobile villages of the Walker-Herds tread from the Vault (where, from time to time, they meet Navigators descended from the Hanging Gardens) to the far side of the Thinking Ocean, and further until they reach the Gardener Pillars on the far side of the Spire. Among the pillars they find pasture for their sheep-equivalents (as they are alarm-system transhumance pastoralists - their animals able to eat all manner of textile-plants and organosynthetic plastics grown on the pillars, then leave before the structure's protectors, or the affluent hunter-gatherers of the pillars, come to drive them away), but it is the Vault that is vital, as that is where towns are born. 

In the center of each walker is its genius loci - a block of undifferentiated bismuth computing substrate dredged up from the Vault and taught, like a child, how to speak. These genii are pilots, civil engineers, and objects of devotion - washed with perfumed oils while their dreams are projected on curtains and screens. However, they are not kings - though they sit on the deliberations of the councils of the herds, their decisionmaking power is the same as any other member's, and many times has an errant genius made its pronouncements just to be shouted down. 

🤫 they're sleeping

 

This council representation comes in the form of those who are Crowned with the magnetic interface - people known to fit well with the genius loci, and translate their lights and images into recommendations. This position is voluntary and temporary, and it is common for the majority of adult herdsmen to have experience under the Crown. (Except, of course, for the herd Stones Drifting Over The Edge Of A Waterfall, whose genius asks for errant machines to project itself into.) This is one amulet - the tangled Crown and its long cables stretching back to a niche, sized and shaped for a person, carved into the side of the genius. 

Lesser amulets are omnipresent - the genius must be taught, which requires exposure to information. Herdsmen spend their days whispering to bismuth necklaces, earrings, and diadems carved from the genius - here is what I am doing, here is why I am doing it, careful not to make this mistake, how do you feel today, thank you so much. The amulets respond in buzzing song. Herdsmen are careful with these amulets - it would be harmful to the genius to expose it to dangerous information (whether structure-wrought infohazards or, according to some aniconists, any artificial representative image). There are always stories - cities driven mad teetering off the sides of cliffs, or marching into furnaces.

And, finally, there are stranger objects - fist-sized bismuth blocks taken from machines and taught to speak without connection to the genii, sentient swords with hollow fullers overgrown with substrate, and the self-assembling dream ziggurats and hallucinating fogs of the Thinking Ocean. 

Oh, look at the world - and be joyful, for it lives. 

I have been tearing my hair out over the Walker-Herds for ages, so I used the GLAUGUST "magic amulets" prompt (and 500 word limit) to throw it on a page as a change of pace from working on land-islands. 

Songlines of the Navigators (Lanthanide Horizon)

The sea of Machine Space is dotted with land-islands - humming devices and precarious factories attached to the wall of that great void. The Navigators who sail the black sea use songlines, memorized map-fables, as guides.

Some songlines are common, known by Navigators of all septs.

• The Island of Shrouds, a heatstroke jungle of clear plastic sheeting.
• The Island of the Rivals, where two groups of Firstborn are locked in an endless blood feud. 
• The Island of the Great House, where a few hundred grain farmers live around a tungsten tetrahedron miles wide. They have seen Navigators before, and the people of the Great House scrape up gifts to become passengers on sept-vessels and explore the world. 
• The Island of Clouds, where some mystery fills the air with red mist that corrodes spacesuits - though this does make it a surpassing source of propellant. 

The route to the Spire is also held in common. 

Kiyonori Kikutake's 1970 Expo Tower

Others are rarer, spread across the assemblies but are known mainly by geoglyph painters and historians.

• The Island of the Lotus-Eaters, a winding building whose people dance forever pinned by dangling wires. Their home has been ransacked by Navigators - the lotus-eaters dream only of returning to its embrace.
• The Island of the Captives, whose arcology broke open from the grinding weight of time. Now machines stalk the shores of their false ocean to keep them inside until repairs can be completed.  
• The Island of the Loom, covered by the strings of its vicious guardian's web.
• The Island of the Welder, largely inaccessible without passing through a lethal conduit.
• The Island of Shining Sand, where each grain is perfectly square, glows like a diamond, and is engraved with microscopic shapes.

The routes to the Vault, the Ghostfields, and the Hanging Gardens are also rare. 

Another three are held by the assemblies - one of the last acts of the Imperious before their retirement at the end of the year is to decide which septs are allowed to forage from these more lucrative sites, which provide either multiple trade goods at once or allow more efficient foraging.

Assembly Elegiast:

• The Island of All Colors, where Firstborn tend to iridescent microbes that refine organics into hundreds of specialist chemicals.  

Assembly Cloudspinner:

• The Island of the Monolith, which has been slowly building the same 30-story-high object for as long as the Navigators have known it. 

Assembly Sidereal:

• The Island Paired, where lightning strikes and great cuboid machine-worms crawl from one island-pillar to the other. 

Another eight are fabled - known to exist, somewhere, though the route is lost.

• The Island of the Photosynthetes, whose people cracked their spherical arcology open from within, and now stand proud as kings. It is said they make fine hosts to Navigators - though with little food, as they no longer eat.
• The Island of Secrets, which is invisible to the eye and hides when sept-vessels pass by. 
• The Island of Variegated Limbs, which shift like kelp in ocean currents.  
• The Island of the Fortress, protected by a ceramic shell of surpassing strength.
• The Island of the Broadcasts, which sings a song that metal hears.
• The Island of Itself, which slowly grows across the walls of Machine Space like mold.
• The Island of the Moon, a still-sealed arcology of transparent plastic tunnels under an orbiting white light.
• The Island of the Harbor - Machine Space is haunted by the angular Dreadnought. Antenna-studded splinterer of shields, breaker of axes, scarred by its thousand victories. Surely it comes from somewhere, and returns there for repair and ammunition.

The Sword in the Stone (Cath Celdaenn Hexcrawl)

The sword Durandal, ancient beyond days, held by a shining hero in the lost past of Cath Celdaenn, has been found in the depths of the City. Durandal has wandered through fable - they say it can cut through stone and steel, that its touch cures disease, that its shine scatters armies. 

It should be no surprise that so many are willing to kill for it.  

Random Encounters

1. Hanged Sumire, a Braid D who says she learned not from the Capitol Tree, but from the "Dead Willow", where she hung from her ankle for months. Laughs at Durandal - the real treasure is below it. 

2. One of the four heroclans of the White Teeth, out for glory.

3. 2d8 Victims re-measuring distances for their cannon.

4. Stephen, leading 12 of the Scalloped Knights on a scouting expedition.

5. A hydra, questing beast of the Scalloped Knights, doing cartwheels across the ground. Stats as carcass crawler with 8 HD. Why on earth is it on land. Who allowed this. Stop it.

6. Roll twice and combine.  

Hex Keys

A1: Staircase

Durandal has landed on a flat concrete-and-grass disc that cantilevers from the side of one of the City's great pillars. To reach it requires a slow climb up 20 stories of tight, one-person-wide spiral staircase. Don't expect to leave in a hurry.

A2: Camp of the White Teeth

A heroclan party of four clans:

• Conn, whose 68 members are Storm-Chosen B (Thor). They are haughty and over-proud - channeling their ancestor after he struck down the Wyrm of Olenoch with a bolt of lightning. 
• Geta, whose 59 members are Princesses C (with the ability to speak to birds, eusocial insects, and fish). They are fair and scrupulously honest - which makes it all the stranger that they claim that their ancestor killed both the Wyrm of Olenoch and its (apparently imaginary) twin.
• Togort, whose 32 members are Folk N-1. They are far from Togort's lands and the strain slowly kills them while they laugh. 
• Baki, whose 61 members are Ghouls D. They are truly heroic - Baki's long undeath gave her centuries to add to her renown.

All four clans despise each other - their histories are a long tangle of territory disputes and blood feuds,  put momentarily on hold to quest for Durandal. For now they drink and celebrate, putting up an ostentatious facade while the peace still holds out.

B1: The Victims' Cult

A swarm of 138 skeletons, killed by Durandal in time immemorial and seeking it ever since. They've pointed a cannon at Durandal's hill - if they can't get their hands on the sword, nobody else will either.

B2: Durandal

The sword Durandal glows like the sun at all hours. If it were moved even slightly everyone would see it and the Knights, the heroclans, and the dead would immediately swarm over to start swinging.

All the myths were true - Durandal ignores armor and strikes unerringly, cures disease and heals its wearer 1 HP per round, and permits its bearer to attack as an army in mass combat. 

If one were to dig under the mound, however, they would find Sumire's "real treasure" - a ruby seed. Planted and tended, this would grow a tree that could feed ten thousand (and, given Celdic society, start a religious schism).

B3: The Great Earthworm

The commotion of clashing armies has awoken the great earthworm to gnaw once more at the roots of the city. 15 HD, blind, food-seeking and dryness-repelled, 100 feet long. It is obvious from the surface - you can see hills rise and trenches form as it passes. 

C1: Viewpoint Tower

An abandoned Ilmari tower ending in an onion dome - from here you can see all other hexes. 

C2: Fief of the Scalloped Knights  

A bizarre example of parallel evolution with Celdish knight-penitents, the Scalloped Knights are 125 members of a deep-sea clade of ambulatory shellfish, punished for past crimes by being sent to crusade in the City above. (2 HD, 16 AC, attack +2 1d10+2).

They have cut out a small kingdom here, where they reign under the King of the Four Corners of the World, who Holds The City in an Iron Fist (who spent his time before exile robbing undersea convenience stores).

The King's son, Stephen, is appalled. The world of air is hideous, full of dust and weird people who insist on having "skin" and performing all kinds of depraved saint-worship. Durandal won't end their exile - they should return to the sea to fight against hydras and hippocampi and bathe in the adoration of their fellows. The King, for his part, is increasingly frustrated and would be overjoyed if Stephen were, let's say, forcefully remanded to a monastery where he can be "pious" and "moral" somewhere the King doesn't have to see it.

Their fief holds 523 bonded serfs, split evenly between people of the City (who lived here before the invasion and are now taxed heavily to punish them for their heathen ways) and civilian molluscs. 

This post is for  G L Å U G U S T 2 0 2 6 challenge 1.4, "sequel to a blogpost from last year".

Clockwork Neuroblock

Back in 2022, the wonderful Phlox opened up a multi-GM shared-PCs dungeoncrawling game. My dungeon in that set was the Clockwork Neuroblock, a machine intended to create the perfect form of life. Mindless optimization brought them to the "proteans", indestructible and immortal balls of algae(?), which promptly washed down the river and became everyone else's problem.

The first 3 floors (57 rooms) of the Neuroblock were finished and the first two (I... think?) were run before the end of the game. I've had the handmade maps laying around ever since and always meant to replace them with digital ones. 

Other than the maps, this is unedited GM notes - you can read the dungeon here.

Looking back at it I think there're some neat bits:

• Proteans are, to be fair, just skeleton jellies, but I like my cute little Valonia ventricosa lookin' guys.
• The first floor being split in half by the river is neat - with a bigger single floor I could've done some more with that (like Wizzargh's Chasm Vaults). 
• On the other hand, the map seems overly circular? All three floors are just big loops, with 2 and 3 adding a central round room. There's not a lot of variety. 
• And, inversely, vertically the dungeon's real linear - one way from 1 -> 2 and 2 -> 3, with an extra Surface -> 3 route to unlock. To be fair, it is only 60 rooms or so. 
• The Forsaken being a faction players have to release into the dungeon is a good bit... though it's also not what's happening, they're already all over the place. Still, it's something to remember for later.
• I have been putting NOT TODAY TOMORROW in things for years and it's never actually seen play (back when I ran Neuroblock the PCs picked it up but never identified or used it) - it's varied between "damage to people you know" and "damage at line of sight" with no rhyme or reason.
• The fourth floor was, from what I remember, a key hunt - two wings that had to be cleared in order to reach the Neuroblock itself and climb inside. This was meant to be pretty short (for a dungeon the campaign is in, at least) - I expected the open table to go on for a while and thought it'd be neat to make a dungeon that could be swept through to prepare characters for the ominous floating pillars and so forth the other GMs were planning.  

Overall... dang, I should really make a dungeon. Not My Destination was supposed to be my next shot at a big ol' campaign tentpole, but around the time I finished the overland map I evaporated into a fine mist.

DEGRADER As Extraction Shooter

DEGRADER is a weird little play-by-post wargame by the wonderful Louis, who is great. It is stealth-based - player characters assemble webs of interlocking sensors in order to pin down opposing Degraders and, once they are affixed, kill them instantly at any range and through walls with a shot from their Superlative Rifle. 

The first round was a pure deathmatch - but that premise, a game of creeping, of hoping you are unnoticed, of unknown hazards, reminded me more of something like Marathon. So, here are some additions and a new map for an extraction shooter run of DEGRADER. 

I am absolutely certain that any amount of testing would force me to rewrite this post - neat!

Scorekeeping

Each enemy Degrader killed is worth 5 points. Recovery of Degrader neural drives after a kill is worth another 5 - this is done instantly (and messily) but requires you to physically reach the corpse. (Kills are only confirmed after extraction - you are not told whether Superlative Rifle shots hit a target.)

Intel recovery from the site of interest is worth 1 point per piece of intel. Intel can also be retrieved from dead Degraders. 

Sites of interest may have other objectives worth high point values - for the example map there are two. Disabling the site reactor is worth 10 points. Doing so is extremely loud and will send all Degraders a message saying that the reactor has been destroyed. Opening the Server Vault is worth 15 points. This requires the Server Keycard, and will send all Degraders a message saying that the servers have been accessed.

All points are lost upon death. (This might be overly harsh but it's genre-standard.)

PvE? Maybe?

On-site security remains active. Noncombatants produce heat, movement, heartbeat, and sound pings. On contact with a Degrader they are killed instantly and no longer do so. Combatants produce heat, movement, heartbeat, and sound pings. Upon contact, players choose to use their handgun (expending one round per combatant) or their knife (killing all combatants and then rolling 1d6 for each combatant - on any result of 1 the Degrader is forced to loudly retreat at least 30 and at most 60 feet). Elite combatants produce heat, movement, sound, heartbeat, and electrical pings. On contact with a Degrader they are dueled as an opposing player is.

The Site of Interest

fortunately the map did upload at full size so you can open it in a new tab and look around

• Blue "T"s are teleports - while Degraders can begin the game at any point they wish they must activate one of these and wait a turn in order to extract. 
• Yellow "i"s are Intel - collecting them adds to the score of a Degrader.
• Black grids of lines are interference - in Loading Dock this interference pings on motion, heat, sound, and electrical scanners, in Cycler Cells it pings on electrical and sound sensors, in Heatsink it pings heat and sound sensors, in Reactor it pings heat and electrical, and in Vents it pings motion and sound.
• Green Cs are noncombatants, red Cs are combatants, and golden Cs are elites. These will move during the course of the game.
• The green ! marks where a Degrader must go to disable the site reactor. The blue ! in Cycler Cells is the keycard to Server Vault, and the blue ! in Server Vault is where a Degrader must go to access the servers.
• Note that, as is standard for Degrader maps, this entire site is dark except for the flashlights of facility staff.

(This map was made with Dungeonscrawl - just in case someone chooses to run this, I have uploaded the .ds file for the map here so they can move the civilians around and put little Degrader tiles on it.)

6 Titles of the Oases (Lanthanide Horizon)

A revived Navigator campaign (almost assuredly not a domain game - am i stupid? somewhere between the post about them being evil and the summer i spent pacing around town stressed out over it i should've gotten the hint) will require rather a lot of work on land-islands and other hexes, which has historically proceeded quite slowly.

I've had a tendency to make Lanthanide Horizon games big productions - let's do a domain game! Let's do a second domain game! Let's do a game with an enormous hexcrawl! - that then explode shards of glass into my eyes. Instead, before returning to the Navigators, I have a plan for a shorter, quicker game in the grandest city of the world, Lightning-in-Amber.

An election approaches for the role of Censor Peregrine; a judge-investigator sent to ensure the cooperation of outlying territories, and a very profitable position for its holder due to its sweeping powers of confiscation. One PC is a mid-ranking member of the nomenklatura, and thus in the running - the others are the most useful of their citizen clients. 

To avoid writing another 20 backgrounds (for now), the nomen PC chooses one of the 6 titles below, and the clients gain a particular bonus from their role. (Or I guess I could just do it as a duet game with a single nomen PC, but I like... people.)

"telepathy", the control of emotions at a distance, is ubiquitous - patrons can tune the feelings of their clients, and all can do the same with themselves

Titles

All nomen PCs are granted certain privileges - a preferable list of sentences in the event they are found guilty of a crime, the authority to use official state seals, access to the palace of the Hedrarchs, et cetera. They are assumed to have both a large villa in Lightning-in-Amber and a small estate in the country.

1. Castellan

A Castellan patron begins the game as manager of the Green Arsenal, one of Lightning-in-Amber's state arms factories. Additionally, they may inspect the depots and military roadways of the Oases at any time. Castellan patrons are under the auspices of the Seat of Warfare, and thus its leader, Nadeja Banner-Holder Lightning-in-Amber.

The clients of a Castellan patron are allowed to carry weapons in the city to defend their charge - as is the Castellan themselves. Others must content themselves with deniable clubs and concealable knives.

2. Calendrist 

A Calendrist patron has the authority, in part, to determine the date of civil festivals. One of these, the March of the Effigies, soon approaches, but has not, quite, been nailed down. If you force the issue, you can choose the date of the March at any time and paralyze the city with feasts and parades for a day. 

Calendrists are placed under the Seat of Conduct, and thus its leader, Kodri Preceptor Lightning-in-Amber. 

The clients of a Calendrist are well-known and well-liked due to their work in state resource allocation - they enjoy a +2 bonus to reaction rolls from citizens of the Oases.

3. Iudex

An Iudex patron is empowered to make verdicts in legal cases - both civil suits and criminal actions are resolved by a single judge, with no jury. Unlike a censor, you have no investigative role, and nomen are able to appeal your verdicts - though you have some influence over which cases are brought to you, and lesser citizens have few protections from your whims. Iudex patrons are under the auspices of the Seat of Administration, and thus its leader, Pokorinu Invigilator Lightning-in-Amber.

The clients of an Iudex have picked up a few facts from your interminable conversations - they begin the game with their choice of skill in Law, Resisting Intimidation, or Bald-Faced Lying.

4. Messenger

A Messenger patron is empowered to manage the sending and receiving of mail. It is illegal, though not particularly difficult, to use this position to read everyone's letters. Messenger patrons are under the auspices of the Seat of Works, and thus its leader, Cestisla Aedile Lightning-in-Amber.

The clients of a Messenger are letter-carriers, trained for long-distance running and just a little bit of megastructural mountaineering. They begin the game with their choice of skill in Climbing, Endurance Running, or Navigation.

5. Engraver

An Engraver patron supervises one of the city's mints (uniquely among the cultures of the megastructure, the Oases use nine-sided coins to track allotments of goods as part of their palace economy), and its connected mine. Engraver patrons are under the auspices of the Seat of Revenue, and thus its leader, Siemowit Exchequer Lightning-in-Amber.

The clients of an Engraver are census-takers, and thus authorized to intrude on people's homes and otherwise trespass for the purposes of information-gathering. 

6. Intendant

An Intendant patron begins the game as patron of Wheat Fields, an outlying village. The state leaves some of the profit of an intendency to its manager - Intendant nomen begin the game with double the standard starting wealth. 

Intendancy is not directly under the auspices of any Seat - though like all things your holdings were granted to you by the Hedrarchs.

The clients of an Intendant patron grew resilient from their time in Wheat Fields, and begin the game with +2 HP.

Navigator Domain Procedures Part 4 - Who Decides Such Things 2e

This is probably the last of my rulesposts, following the intro, where I looked at the errors made in my first edition, a post on the new domain economy, a generator for islands of Machine Space, new troupe play, and updated backgrounds. 

The completed player's document, containing 20 backgrounds, 18 treasures, 18 sept-vessels (now mapped on a grid as part of the new shipbuilding system), starting gear, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, can be found here. There may be minor changes as I find all the asset prices are wrong, or something - a changelog will be kept if necessary.

Next on the agenda is building Machine Space - one or two dozen islands (now with Arcologists, micro-cultures seeded by the Structure in tiny controlled environments, for the Navigators to meet and trade with) at varying distances from the Volume, then a huge random encounter table to torment the septs with as they fly. Maybe those will be posted, or maybe I'll hide them from the eyes of my players. We'll see.

Sail away, Navigator - let your ship be loud with song, and come back rich beyond imagining. 

Libra, Session 12 - The Finale

Well, here we are. Last time, the players shattered the ontological balance of the universe. 

This session starts with nearly all the PCs booking it - bursting from the door to the Contact Room just in time to see one OSIRIS office worker make a dropped-metal-pipe sound and shoot the guy next to him. The PCs agree that this only confirmed their choice to run. 

Back in the Astral Plane, Joe Normal gets a lecture: 

Your [assassination attempt/reunion] was [appreciated/unsuccessful]. Condolences, OSIRIS employment is not available at this time. Please take [this] pill. [This] will protect you from Office Politics. [They/I/We] will know where [you/we] are. Please dispense of the [child/third law/contraband] as quickly as possible. We are now closed for the winter.

And then gets thrown out to a riot - flaming skeletons escaped from the Thermodynamics incinerators fill the halls, the tiny moon is out of its cell, and CATERPILLAR's guards are too busy shooting each other and dissolving to do a thing about it. He throws himself to the PA, using the voice of the Pyramid to drag the Site Director, a couple psychic liquidators, and the warden of CATERPILLAR's cells to come to him - unfortunately, the Director is dead, and the rest maddened. 

So, he flees, meeting up with the rest of the PCs to navigate around Bad Weather (square zones of perfectly-flat blue sky ruled by the Other Law, surrounded by halos of lightning and inverse gravity where the incompatible physics rubbed up against each other), the Kanopy office building (now site of a dogfight between Thermodynamics fighter-bombers and the Kanopy Loss Prevention Phoenix), and the retreating members of 131 Halley's Comet, Kanopy's private guards.

As the city collapses, they call Templar - surely he'd have a safe place to st... nevermind, he's in a fistfight with a tank. Great. After the party helps with that problem, Satan takes his five minutes of Valrel's soul - using her vampiric hypnosis to drag Templar away and force him to consign his soul to Hell.

Or, at least, that was the plan - Joe Normal said "OK. Valrel just said she was going to apologize to Templar for all the bombings and murder and so forth. However, she's straight-up evil and power-hungry, so this is clearly some kind of scheme. I want in on the scheme." and sent his demon-fractal to eavesdrop. 

This, technically, if you squint, violated the "private conversation" part of the vampire's hypnosis - so Satan made a remarkably short-sighted decision, pulled out a gun, and shot the demon in the forehead. When the wizard freaks heard a gunshot from the alley with no one in it except for the evil vampire and the perfect paladin, they went "hm!" and arrived just in time to wrench the soul-selling contract out of Templar's hands.

Satan considered for a second, then shrugged "welp!" and ended his tenancy. There'll always be another chance.  

A couple more ducked gunfights and the PCs made it back home - ready to awaken the Philosopher's Stone both for its own benefit, and also because they expected the chunk of Black Metal to be the [child/third law/contraband] warned of by the Pyramid. They had already figured out "boil a thing that cannot be heated or cooled" (vacuum chamber), and within a few minutes have bloomed the stone in vaporized Black Metal, fueled its inner light with surrendered MD, and made homunculi out of suits of armor, OSIRIS combat aides, and mannequins.  

Outside, the city crumbles - but nothing lasts forever. OSIRIS quiets in a few weeks - running out of ammunition and targets, then being suppressed by non-Lawful sections of the American military. When the Pyramid resolidifies, OSIRIS remains shattered into regional testing sites, militias, and wandering Theurges. 99% of its membership is dead. It's strange days ahead for the occult underground.  

Epilogues

• Joe Normal wanders America as the Pyramid's messenger, patching OSIRIS back together from the ruins. Someday, when the other Lawful organizations are merged with his, he plans to inaugurate the Statistical Topography division; a new section of OSIRIS focused on finding and fusing more lost Pyramids. 
• Moon Dan reaches the end of the indestructible hamster subplot I never mentioned, and begins mass production of such things.  
• Toka remains at the right hand of Templar as monsters swarm the law-struck earth. 
• Valrel runs for Senate - vampire politics is pretty rough these days, let's try some human politics instead.
• The Finance Optimizer really tries some human politics - having already succeeded in accumulating the wealth of the world, he institutes a conspiracy to manipulate world governments to increase long-term economic growth. The chance of this descending into paperclip-maximization is... worryingly high.
• The psychic, who showed up at the 11th hour for a couple sessions, was also here. They never got a name, to my memory, let alone a backstory. I bet they'll turn out fine. 

Analysis 

Ough. 

I tend to run games on a short timeline - I made the first post for Rota Fortunae on May 20th and started running it on the 28th, for instance. I did the same for Libra, but unlike Rota Fortunae or Go Away, Libra required classes, patrons, equipment kits, and so on. The time I would have used building prep was used hammering away at the player's document (unsuccessfully! I never finished the planned-for new Wizard!). 

This, along with being overall busy (a strange and unnatural state) meant running Libra was kind of stressful - most of my prep decayed into blindly hammering tiny evil labs together the hour before a session. Faction moves fell away, I had no useful prep tools or generators, et cetera. 

I consider this (along with having no Go Away-like central goal) to be the root of all the other problems I've been complaining about - or at least, as one of the reasons I failed to solve them.

Libra, as presented here, is honestly uninteresting to me as a setting. I don't plan to run it again - if I wanted this kind of high-action freak comedy I'd've been better off with one of my superhero games, and if I wanted a stolid conspiracy-and-evil-psychics campaign I'd be better off slowing down with some Delta Green. This is pinned, tonelessly, in the middle. 

Play report posting will return with Not My Destination sometime in May (Libra's finally gotten me to slow down and do some prep beforehand, else I'd be doing it sooner), and with a less doomed vibe. 

gaming :)