Why write posts that require effort and thought when you can propel your blog forwards on purely play reports and miscellaneous information soup?
Half of this is stuff lost in Discord posts, the rest dredged up from my drafts. Perhaps some of it will be Completed, someday.
but probably not
Thanatonauts and Their Designs For The World Of Humankind
Thanatonauts, those able to drag a piece of themselves into the lands of the Dead and back, have brought back daguerreotype images, anatomical sketches, and even interviews with the denizens of that blasted waste. Some take these odysseys (which, even with modern diving equipment, are still certainly not safe) just in the interest of scholarship, but a few hold more intense plans: "extractor" groups hope to find both a way to bring objects of the Dead back to Earth, and to find something in that land worth taking for the profit of themselves the world of the living, while "weaver" ideologues in thanatonaut leadership hope to open its gates to all - closing off the possibility of a heavenly afterlife for the certainty of the grey fields.
(an attempt to mess with that old fantasy standby, the evil necromancer cult - the 1800s tech level emerges from nowhere and returns to it)
BITTER WIND SIGNS [C-E 🟥]
The Organization is at its most dense in Washington D.C., unsurprisingly. There's a good dozen fireteams based in the city - proximity to headquarters sure reinforces that.
Last week, one team turned up dead - local police found a set of seemingly unrelated murders. Another team died earlier today. We've ordered the rest to go to ground, and we're providing you a list - safehouses, identities, crime scene documentation, all of it. Keep the rest of our fireteams alive, figure out what's killing them, and handle it.
This mission is CLOSED-EYE not only because of the need to avoid civilian notice, but because of the need to avoid opposition notice.
(what's happening to them? maybe a peer competitor has gotten hold of Organization documents and is going hunting. Maybe a fireteam has turned traitor, using their pre-existing relationships to stab the Organization in the back. Or, maybe one of the deceased brought something back from their last op...)
OMICRON VEGA RECIEVING [O-E 🟩]
A small town's been impacted by a large earthquake - the first earthquake in living memory, and the largest one to ever hit. Photogrammetry shows a chasm's opened on one end of town, and civilian calls to emergency services have reported something moving in there.
You're half disaster response, half caving expedition. Put out some fires, dig some people out of buildings, and deal with whatever's in that hole.
(big worms, i bet. seems like the kind of thing they'd do)
1dsome Modern Fantasy Weapons
1. production of Cartridge, Caliber 5.56 mm, Infernal, XM653 [No primer, Black-anodized case and bullet] ended in 2012 due to a lack of necessary specialist materials. Remaining ammunition is known to provide improved penetration (ignores the effects of armor on AC or DR, can pierce car doors, windshields, home walls, etc), incendiary capability (+1d4 fire damage, can set things on fire), and unexpected reactions with human physiology (human or metahuman targets killed with these cartridges exude a cloud of caustic black smoke which both cannot be seen through and deals 1 damage per round to everyone within, and also cannot be revived by any means).
2. Infolded Ballistic Armor, the first military use of infolding, where an object is placed in the same space as another object in three dimensions, but shifted in the fourth, showed promise, reaching NIJ level IV while remaining concealable, light, and flexible in 3d. However, as was later found in industrial application of infolding, the process decays over time without repeated exposure to the Chasm. Since that land was acquired by Romanian chemical company Sinteza, it is no longer available to outside powers. All known examples of infolded ballistic armor released their components into 3D as of April 2nd, 2019.
3. PG-7DS is the designation for a set of 40mm projectiles for the ubiquitous RPG-7 meant to improve its effectiveness against modern tank armor. Instead of a standard shaped charge, it contains a bound nature spirit. On contact with a target, the spirit is crushed, and as it dies it releases a flood of vines, stems, and flowers. Successful shots will cause this effect to spread into the tank, disabling sensitive components, starting fires, and injuring or killing the crew by piercing them with these plants.
These were abandoned due to moral radiation - as the bound spirits started to comprehend their confinement, proximity to them began to have deleterious emotional effects.
4. Unerring Stones, carved with weak glyphs (feather-type, class I) are common discoveries in conflict-prone areas from the Mesolithic to the present. These glyphs improve the accuracy and range of the thrown stone, and are easily replicated. While the glyphs have been used on other thrown items (bottles, hand grenades, etc.), stones are the most enduring of them, and thus the most often identified.
Of course, even since the invention of the bow these devices have been a weapon of last resort. Against a modern military, or even a gunman, their effect is negligible, and the standard glyph is too large to replicate on arrowheads or bullets.
+2 to-hit, 1 damage, range of 100 feet
5. The recently-rediscovered alchemical technique To Create a Killing Fire to Purge The Holy and Their Subjects has been declared illegal under the UN's Chemical Weapons Convention. Independent reporting alleges it still sees use by the U.S. military for defoliation and smoke generation.
The Astrologer
A GLOG class doomed to incompletion, and that honestly may not be very pleasant to play anyway
A: Invocation
B: ?
C: Alteration
D: Configuration
Invocation
Each morning, roll 5 dice of these types (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12). Each of these dice represents a celestial object, and their results present you with their Aspect for the day.
Once each day, you can Invoke the Aspects you have rolled, causing them to take effect.
d4 - The Peasant (Work, People)
1. Something lost will be found. Invoke this Aspect to learn the location of an object.
2. The people's hearts will be turned. Invoke this Aspect to automatically receive a Friendly result on a Reaction Roll with a group of low-ranking people (peasants, militiamen, etc.).
3. A moment of weakness will consume someone. Invoke this Aspect to make someone stop paying attention through a coincidence (dozing off, important message, etc.)
4. etc
d6 - The Tree (Nature, Survival)
1. Death will be averted by chance. Invoke this Aspect to allow a character to reroll a failed Save.
2. A path will be cleared for you. Invoke this Aspect to move twice as fast for one round as plants, stray rocks, and other obstructions clear themselves.
3. You will find a bounteous harvest. Invoke this Aspect when foraging to automatically gather the highest number of rations.
4. A grievous wound will be prevented. Invoke this Aspect to prevent a roll on the Death and Dismemberment table.
5. Nature revolts. Invoke this Aspect to halve someone's movement speed for one round as obstacles move in front of them.
6.
d8 - The Red Lion (War, Beasts)
1. A death, cruel and violent. Invoke this Aspect to add 1d4 to the damage of one attack.
2. A hidden enemy is revealed. Invoke this Aspect to bring an invisible or hidden creature into view.
3. A beast is tamed. Invoke this Aspect to automatically receive a Friendly result on a Reaction Roll with an animal.
4. Fear strikes into the hearts of men. Invoke this Aspect to force a group of NPCs to make a morale check.
5.
6.
7.
8.
d10 - The Magister (Knowledge, Magic)
1. Truth will be pulled from secrets. Invoke this Aspect to learn the use of a magic object.
2. A voice will be silenced. Invoke this Aspect to prevent the use of a magic spell or item.
3. Arcane effects will shake the earth. Invoke this Aspect to
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
d12 - The Emperor (Authority, Heroism)
Alteration
Once per day, you can choose to reroll the entire set of dice as the stars reveal new Aspects to you. You must take the rerolled set.
Configuration
Once per day, you can choose the results of one of your dice.
The Eyes of Dame Guendolen
The ranks of Knight-Exorcists maintain their frail connections to our world through their eyes. Under the sign of the Opened Eye they are focused here, on the material. Under the Third Eye they balance, barely, as their armor begins to weigh on them and threats of both here and Elsewhere loom. Under the Closed Eye they are pulled away, becoming incorporeal for a time to delve fully into the lands of the spirits.
(a knight-exorcist glog class has sat in my drafts for 4 actual human years, and i'm ready to admit it'll never be finished)
A Facebook Post
Something crawled up out of my basement and stole a bag of flour? My cat really didn't like it, but it didn't really do anything. Is there, like, a spray I can buy or something to get rid of it? I found a tunnel it dug through my basement, but I don't want to go through the effort of moving all my cardboard boxes.
thanks, bye
Aboard the Worldship
Legal disputes between
Skinborne vessels are related to the
ship, rather than the crew - by the time you see them next, it's certainly possible for the crew to have changed, and almost certain for them to have elected a new Select(wo/man) to represent them shoreside.
Among the clans that make their homes in the marshy Coolant Seas (as opposed to the Walker-Herds, who migrate between them), extra names are gifted on the night of the "new year" as a reward for valor or hard work. They are rarely referenced, though the number may be used in introductions (I am Benat [personal name] Itsasargi [Home of origin] of 6 [number of honorifics]).
Art in the hivemind
Sustainer Cells uses hierarchical perspective - priests, the honorable sleepers, and such are presented as physically larger than others, whether in painting or in theater. Satirical works invert this (keeping members of high positions still recognizable by their dress and facepaint) or exaggerate it (a single hand the size of a person reaching down from offstage in a play).
(Sunless Horizon hasn't been posted about much since late 2020, but it remains my favorite of my settings. Almost everything in it needs to be renamed, but that can come later)
The Clockwork Neuroblock
A ticking water-cooled superintelligence buried deep under the earth, commanded in ancient times to build the perfect organism. After creating thousands of lineages of horrors, the Neuroblock has finally succeeded - down in the depths writhe nests of immortal, indestructible Proteans, living forever on nothing but trickles of water and cave moss.
(3 of the 4 floors of this dungeon are done, but it hasn't been touched since a couple days of manic effort last year. Orbiters Local 519 kind of messed me up)
♑︎-♊︎-♃ "an animal with think", a person
♉︎-♍︎-♒︎ "road that doesn't move", a town - notably, can also be read as "water that doesn't move", a lake or sea
⚴-♉︎-♍︎-♒︎ "one part of a road that doesn't move", a building
⚴-♉︎-♍︎-♒︎-♊︎-♑︎-♊︎-♃-♊︎-♅ "one part of a road that doesn't move with animal-with-think-with-important", a palace
♃-♊︎-⚳-♆ "think about food and light" - to be happy
(i hesitate to call it "a conlang", since it uses roughly 20 symbols and has little in the way of grammar. it is a way for me to pass the time, and someday use for megadungeon puzzles)
G20(ish), Rendered in the Dead Language
☊-⚶-☊ ♊︎ ♋︎-♊︎-⚴ ♅-♋︎\ ♍︎-⚼/♌︎/♍︎-☊/♃-♉︎-♏︎/♃-☉/♏︎-♅ | ♅-♋︎-♅ ♊︎ ♅-♋︎ ⚶-⚶ ⛎︎/⚶-⛎︎/♍︎ ♉︎-♋︎
⚹ ♉︎-♌︎/♍︎ ⚼-♊︎-♋︎-♊︎-♋︎-♋︎-♋︎/♊︎ ♅-♋︎-♅ | ♅-♋︎ ♅ ♋︎-♊︎-♋︎
☊-⚶-☊ ♊︎ ⚼-♊︎-⛎︎-♊︎-⛎︎ ♌︎-♋︎ | ⛎︎ ♉︎-♌︎ ☊-⚶-☊/♍︎ ♉︎-♌︎ ⚼/⚶ ♉︎-♌︎ ⚼ ♋︎ ♊︎ ♌︎-♋︎
⚹ ♌︎-♋︎ ♊︎ ♉︎-♋︎/☊-⚶-☊ ♉︎-♑︎
you-away-from-you has five-and-one important-numbers: move-stone, safe, move-you, know-things-written-down, know-things-near-you, speak-importantly. important-number-importants have/are important number away-from-away-from three, away-from three, move to five-minus-five
in the future, unsafe, move rock-with-five-and-five-five-five, add important-number-important. Number greater than five-and-five
you-away-from you has rock-with-three-and-three safe-numbers. they unsafe you-away-from-you, move the unsafe rock, subtract the unsafe rock number from safe-numbers
in the future, safe-number with many-less-than-many, you-away-from-you not animal
(i don't even have an excuse for this - coming back six months later i barely know what i was on about)
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