Fire & Ice City Set

I wrote a city set for Anxiety Wizard's city generator. My goal was to make something with a primordial vibe.

City of Fire & Ice 

The Land of Fire was once covered with jungles teeming with life until the Seven Lich Kings came from the north dragging Winter with them, chained to their war mammoths, screaming blizzards and snowstorms. The frozen Kings chained Winter into the earth and the land froze. The Lich Kings forged blades of ice and hunted down the great dragons. The jungle people rose to face the frozen kings, but the frozen kings kept reanimating their fallen warriors and the free people were vanquished. 

But there is some hope, people are taking arms again and are gathering in the Volcano Cities of the Ember Queens. Former servants of the Lich Kings, trained to master fire, the servants of ember broke their bounds and forged their own glory, fire in their eyes and a cold blade in their fist.

Truths:

• Primordial heroic fantasy. 
• Fire: the city is build on the clift of a dormant volcano, thermal vents warm houses and buildings.  
• Ice: the city is build in the frozen south, once covered in jungles the southern land is now a frozen wasteland.
• Amazons: The Ember Queens and their amazon warriors rules over the city, women and men are welcomed as equals and are judged by their deeds and the valor of their heart.   
• Dwarfs: dwarfs come from the center of the Earth and are immune to fire. 
• Giants: giants never stop to grow and they live long. A teenage giant is a head or two higher than a human, venerable giants have a hard time fitting in the city. The bigger they grow the slower they become. 
• Lizard Folks: cold blooded, their kind face extinctinction, the volcano cities are their last refuges. 
• Nomadic tribes: the jungle tribes are now nomads who live in the frozen waste, hunting and fighting a guerilla war against the undead legion of the lich kings. 
• Once a verdan land: frozen traces of the past are everywhere, verdan spirits are wounded and angry, often taking the form of giant beasts.  
• The Lich Kings and their vassals: the Lich kings rules through their undead minions and their human servants. 
• The Ice Witches: some clever witches learned how to channel the freezing power that seep through the land. 
• Mammoths were the war beasts of the armies of the lich kings, the giants liberated them and adopted them into their tribe. The only mammoths that still serve the lich kings are undead ones.

Landmarks (d12) 

1. The Furnace: connecting with the underground lava pools and the dwarven kingdom, the Furnace is the royal forge where the finest weapons are crafted by the iron mothers and their apprentices (to help the resistance, dwarf matrons are now training non dwarfs apprentices). 
2. The Chimney: a high stone tower that let the extra heat of the volcano escape in the skies. The patterns painted on it walls cool down the fire spirits who try to escape through the chimney. Shamans sweat and dream in the surrounding saunas.   
3. Ember Palace: build with volcanic stones the palace of the Ember Queen look more like a feasting hall than a castle but it is still massive and impressive. The Queen rule with her adopted daughters.  
4. Lava pit: a stone dome build over a open sky lava pit, it redistribute the heat around the city. Dwarven ambassadors reside here. 
5. Wyvern Stables: build around a stony peak, these stables host the playful children of the Firebrands, the royal wyverns. Lizard folks take good care of the beasts. 
6. The Bone Arena: a jousting pit built with the bones of giant beasts. Those who enter the arena do it for sport and to perfect their art. Everyone who fight are celebrated during the night, until dawn. 
7. Ice Tower: home of the Ramorhaz, the head of the city Ice Witches. The Ramorhaz are not easy to deal with but they have stolen the secret of death and life from one of the Lich Kings. They keep ice worms as pets.   
8. Salamanders’ Bath: steam bath warmed by the natural heat of giant fire salamanders. Favorite place of the lizard folks.   
9. Warrior Academia. Learn the secret of Steel with one of the adopted daughters of the Queen, each teaching her own secret technique to any women or men who dare to challenge them. 
10. Frozen One. A ice mountain containing a titanic verdan or undead beast, found by the Ramorhaz and linked to the source of her powers. Ice witches often come here to commune with the beast.  
11. Mammoth Hall. Gigantic hall built by the giant folk to honor their mammoth friends, the hall commemorate how the giant liberated the mammoths from the Lich King and became their allies.  
12. Jungle crater, snow covered on the outside, humid and warm in the inside, this small crater harbor a thermotropic jungle garden. The gardener is a old and wizened lizard woman who remember the time of dragons, before the liches came and extinguished their fire. Now only the wyverns fly in the skies. 

Districts (d30) 

1. Dwarfs district: dwarfs love stone and lava, they are warm and fiery, mothers are sacred to them because of their devotion to the Magma Matter. Their stone houses are small, round and brightly painted. Surface dwelling dwarves are mourning a loved one or they took a human as a life partner. Half dwarfs are more often female (60%).   
2. Giants district: giant are big, hairy and love the cold waste. They enjoy the company of mammoths and other large beasts. They are joyful and love the company of humans. Most of them are males (70%) as many of their women warriors were killed by the Lich King’s legions. Teenagee giants sometimes mates with humans. They live in crude longhouses.
3. Nomads district: the nomad tribes once wandered the great jungle and learned how to wander the cold wastes but the legions of the Lich King force them to take refuge in the city. Their district is decorated with effigis representing vanished animals and verdant spirits. They still travel the land to hunt lost spirits and to lead their guerilla war so their houses are often empty. Each house is a refuge for a verdant spirit, a empty house can be used by anyone, doing so require a offering to the spirit that took refuge there. 
4. Red Guards district: the elite warriors of the queen and their family live there, their status grant them a bit of extra luxury but their halls are always open to strangers. 
5. Brewery district: humans, giants and dwarfs live and work together to craft the finest mead. 
6. Forge district: the apprentices of the Iron Mothers open their shops here. The population is quite diverse, free people, dwarfs, giants and strangers from distant lands. 
7. Cold district: this district is no longer connected to the heating vents, people use a central embers pit to warm and distribute ember stones. Life is more rude but some folks prefer it like this, especially by grey apes (yeti like sentient apes).  
8. Ice district: this district have been frozen by the Remorhaz. People fighting undead encased in ice can still be seen. Only reformed undeads who deserted the legions of the Lich King live there. People avoid the area. 
9. Fire district: the district was devastated by fire spirits or magic. Some of it ruins still contain magical hot ember. Some fire spirits built their lair there. Lonely dwarfs sometime settle there to harvest the magical ember. 
10. Adventurers district: strangers from distant lands gather here before leaving for dangerous dungeon delving expeditions, inns and equipment stores make good trades here. The best place to gather rumors. Local kids and teenagers know a lot about adventuring and make good henchmen. Old adventurers with a dead wish also volunteer sometimes, promising their shares to their family. 
11. Market district: a big market under animal skin tents. People trade all kind of food and handcrafted items. Ice age animals are also available.
12. Lizard folks district: the blue scaled lizard folks have a hard time enduring the ice age, they still dream about the time of the verdan beasts, the times of dragons’ fire, before the Lich Kings chained Winter to the land. They use ember stones and lava eggs to warm their grottos. They know rituals to change genders and are great tattoo artists. They craft wyvern scales armors and can teach how to ride these beasts. The city probably host the last survivors of their specie. Trangender folk from other species seek them to transition, they often settle in their district and learn their culture.    
13. Boneyard district: at first it was a mammoths boneyard but now everyone put their bones there, mammoths, giants, humans and others. Bonekeepers and their families live their, taking good cares of everyone’s ancestors.  
14. Pleasure district: these halls are for the art of pleasure, women and men can freely entertain each others, danse, chant, consume drugs and relax. The local artisans wear body paints and are well respected for their crafts. Drugs crafters try to maintain alive jungles flowers and their seeds. Trans people who mix their tribe’s ancestral knowledge and the secrets they learned from the lizard folks become the best drugs crafters. 
15. Mercenaries district: mercenaries from distant lands are often stranded in the cold wastes fighting futiles wars against the Lich Kings. A lot of them decide to take residence in the Ember Cities. The district is a rich mix of cultures.  
16. Refugees district: the northern tribes survivor fled before the armies of the lich king, some of them found refuge in the volcanic cities. Their customs are different but they know a lot about how to survive in the cold. 
17. Construction district: humans, giants and dwarfs work together on a big project that will become a new landmark. Teenagers are excited to learn the secret of architecture from the dwarfs.  
18. Rogue Queen district: no one trust her, she was defeated by the current queen in a duel, she have contacts within the undead armies, she fight dirty and is often petty. Her spies are everywhere. The current queen still have a weak spot for her. 
19. Volcanic mud district: a old jungle tribe know the secret of how to shape the volcanic mud and how to awaken it magical properties. Their member are secretive and badly understood but their healing techniques and enchantments are well respected.  
20. Tattooist district: tattooists are busy recording the history of the jungle people before the dream fade away. Their tattoos grant the memories of past lives. 
21. Cultists districts: people from this district worship a elder verdant spirit, it true form is forgotten and it dreams are getting disturbing, it shape have too many legs, hooves and claws.  
22. Obsidian district: the obsidian carvers know the old songs that make the dark stone stronger. In the oldest days the dark stone was the only material that could kill a dragon. There is a lot of pressure on the the younger generation to learn how to carve the obsidian stone but the young feel like this is useless since there is no dragons anymore.    
23. Disparate tribes district: survivors from discimated tribes are trying to live together. To do so they have to forget old grudges. 
24. Ice dwarfs district: these dwarfs came from the northern glaciers, they work to free winter from her chains but no one understand their language. The know how to smith ice into formidable blades. Fire dwarfs are uncomfortable around them. 
25. Burned ones district: a long time ago a tribe burned a godlike being and have been cursed to bear their scars. The elders try to attone themselves from the sin of their ancestors but the new generation don’t mind their scars and don’t care about the past. Some say that fire can hurt them but never kill them. 
26. Fossils district: the stones of this district contain many fossils, old lizard folks are carefully digging them out and are trying to speak with their spirits, some are trying to craft weapons or magical talismans with them.   
27. Destroyed district: a hate bearer undead infiltrated the district and exploded in a mass of hateful flesh that destroyed many houses. People are trying to rebuild but feel uncomfortable. Some bit of undead flesh still lurk in the ruins.   
28. Spiders district: spider necromancy is based on poison and is very different from the sorcerous necromancy of the lich kings. Like the lizard folk, the spider people need the warm of the city to survive. Old spiders enjoy weaving clothes with humans while gossiping.
29. Lava flow district. A long time ago the volcano covered a older town with lava, the district is built on these ruins. People do not dare to disturb the body of their ancestors who were encased in lava. Some of these bodies radiate heat and warm houses. 
30. Ice shard district: a gigantic never melting ice shard was found in the cold wastes and was brought into the district. People are chipping slices of it and carving them into all kind of items. Some say that the ice shards users are becoming a bit strange. 

Random Encounters (d100)

1. 2d4 nomads speaking about something strange they saw in the cold wastes.
2. 1d6 Red guards looking for a (1.criminal, 2.prisoner, 3.creature, 4.undead, 5.rogue guard, 6.runaway kid)
3. A zombie bitten and infected giant, scared and in pain.
4. 1d6 dwarf matrons looking for a escaped fire salamander or spirit.
5. A lizard folk in dreaming fever, dreams may become corporeal.
6. Human possessed by a winter spirit freeze everything they touch.
7. A escaped wyvern, nervous and hungry.
8. 2d4 drunk mercenaries looking for trouble.
9. A redguard with a bad reputation notice one of the characters. 
10. A reformed undead, tracked down by a 1d6 vengeful warriors.
11. 1d3 ice sorceress apprentices who lost control of a rogue ice spirit.
12. Iron maiden weaponsmith breaking up with her abusive girlfriend warrior.
13. A runaway fire salamander, curious and looking for eat sources to eat.
14. A mammoth mad with pain because of a embedded obsidian shard.
15. 1d3 human spies working for a undead general.
16. 1d6 smugglers with a cargo of trainted weapons.
17. A heartbroken dwarf drunk with lava mead, vomit fire.
18. A shaman looking for a cute spirit that can grow big and dangerous.
19. The Ember Queen trying to be incognito, looking for her adopted daughter who is in troubles.
20. Dwarf ambassador and her retinue of d6 dwarfs looking for a dwarf pariah who is trying to start a new life or to smuggle dangerous fire gems.
21. 2d6 smugglers trying to smuggle a baby wyvern but being too obvious about it.
22. Bad loser of a arena duel looking for more people to fight.
23. Happy winner of a arena duel noticing one of the characters.
24. Escaped ice worm leaving a trail of half eaten frozen victims.
25. Someone resuscitated by a ice witch, wandering the street confused, imbued with a temporarily incontrolable strength.
26. Runaway lizard folk youngling, tried to follow a vision, freezing to death.
27. Drunken warrior master boosting she can break any blade “show me yours!”.
28. Rogue verdan beast, blind and in pain, hunting ice witches and other magic users.
29. Lost baby mammoth looking for their giant friend (also a kid).
30. Lost jungle beast (panther, etc), freezing and angry, probably someone’s pet.
31. Dwarf mourning her daughter, crashing down in a fiery berserker rage.
32. A intersex half dwarf notice one of the characters.
33. Hyperactive teenager half giant notice one of the the character.
34. Sad giant, sitting in the street and refusing to move, old and gigantic enough to block the street. Local people are angry or scared for their houses.
35. Old nomad shaman and their apprentice looking for a missing verdant spirit (or the reverse).
36. 1d6 frustrated nomads who lost companions in the waste, discouraging other people.
37. Red Guard who lost a arm in battle, looking for work.
38. Someone need help to hunt down a companion who became a undead in the cold waste. 
39. Apprentice brewer looking for a stolen keg of magical mead.
40. Stranger from a distant land, looking for a lost compatriot.
41. Old grey ape (yeti) mercenary looking for work.
42. Grey ape (yeti) looking for companions for a pilgrinage to their destroyed home.
43. A reformed undead looking for protection and work.
44. 1d6 smugglers stealing magical embers.
45. A teenager or kid henchman looking for work, their parent was a adventurer.
46. Old adventurer looking for a group to loot a dangerous tomb.
47. 2d4 merchants arguing togethers, one of them ask a character to arbitrate.
48. Lizard folks funeral ceremony.
49. Trans person passing through a bad dream fever induced by the potion they took during their transition ritual. The bad dreams they perceive may become corporeal.
50. 1d6 bonekeepers looking for stolen bones. A rogue necromancer is suspected.
51. Drugs crafter looking for strange ingredients.
52. 2d4 nasty mercenaries looking for a deserter.
53. 2d6 refugees from the distant north looking for a warm place to sleep.
54. 1d6 dwarfs looking for a damaged construction golem.
55. A outcast Ember Queen and her beastfolk bodyguard, looking for allies or companionship.
56. 2d4 rogues are attempting a heist, one of them notice the characters. 
57. Lava mud elemental, confused, searching for the wounded person they were supposed to heal.
58. A elderly sorcerer lost control of a wood carved fetish that contain the spirit of an angry ancestor. 
59. 1d6 rogues are trying to take care of a infected companions but things are going badly. 
60. Tattooist possessed by a vampiric tattoo after using a cursed ink.
61. 2d6 Cultists looking for a runaway family member hosting the fragment of a ancient verdant spirit.
62. Corrupted verdant spirit tracking a target or cultists.
63. A kid is being laughing at for showing off a obsidian weapon they made.
64. Elders of different tribes arguing over if their kids can hang out together. The kids ask a character for help.
65. Ice dwarf try to communicate with a character. They follow them around if ignored.
66. Someone burst into flames, a shadowy figure observe from a distance.
67. A building is on fire, a burned one refuse to leave the inferno.
68. 1d6 lizard folks digging out a fossil. One of them seem sick...
69. A mass of forgotten undead flesh spill out of a abandoned building.
70. A hate bearer undead, soon ready to explode in a mass of undead flesh.
71. A undead infiltrator following a assassination target.
72. A undead spying pet observing a target.
73. A strange monolith appeared out of nowhere, people are gathering around it. 
74. A ancestral blood feud between two clans erupt in violence. 
75. Impromptu street market. People are trading local goods. 
76. 1d6 people are accusing a spider person of vampirism. 
77. Spider person need help to bring back a family member or lover who became feral. 
78. 1d6 bodies encased in lava stone move toward the characters or a NPC.  
79. Someone embedded by a magical ice shard is mutating into a frost giant or beast. 
80. Rangers discuss rumors about a gigantic undead mammoth.
81. Funeral procession with a long ritual to protect the death body from unlife. 
82. The earth rumble and shake a bit due to the volcano. 
83. 2d6 kids or teenagers are playing, their game may interfere with the characters’ activities. 
84. A caravan is getting ready to leave the city in 1d4 days and are recruiting guards. 
85. 2d4 elders are reading bones or other divinatory tools. 
86. 2d4 women are travelling together, one of them notice one of the characters.
87. 2d4 men are playing a traditional game, one of the notice one of the characters.
88. A pregnant woman is looking for someone. 
89. 1d6 warriors are mourning a recent defeat.
90. 2d6 warrior are celebrating a recent victory.
91. 2d6 lizard folks and 1d4 transgender humans are celebrating a ritual about dragons. 
92. A wounded wyvern and it rider crash down nearby. 
93. A snow storm hit the city for 1d4 days. The storm may be supernatural or not. 
94. A large group of refugees arrive to the city, a nearby outpost or city have fallen to undead legions. 
95. Nomads are talking about a strange crater in the cold wastes.
96. 1d6 Rangers are bringing back a undead prisoner in magical obsidian chains. 
97. Rumors about a incoming undead attack circulate. 
98. The temperature is colder than usual for 1d6 days.
99. The temperature is warmer than usual for 1d6 days. 
100. A rare celestial conjunction will happen tonight, celebrations and warding are planed. 

(when a NPC notice a character, this mean that they find them interesting, this can naturally mean different things)

Fantasy Calendar

Viditya discussed online about how he would like to see more calendar instead of maps in gaming material, so I wondered how to draw calendars that are as fun as a map to draw and to look at. I thought about how the ancient Mayan calendar is impressive visually and I tried to quickly draw something inspired by it circular shape.

I drew a central figure and I improvised around it. The calendar have 6 months of different length: 14, 24,29, 31, 41 and 46 days. A year is two cycles of these 6 months, the first cycle is named the young one and the second the old one. So for exemple you have the 5th of the Young Cold Star and the 5th of the Old Cold Star. 

The six months are represented in the vertical bar of the calendar: The Cold Star that freeze the land and crack the stones, the Breaking Stones who shake the land but free the warm iron, the Ember Steel who warm the hands but who wound the people, the Storm Tears who unleash passions but who make things grow, the Mother Grail who collect the tears and transform them into something new, the Born Fire who is full of life but short lived.   

• The two women heads represent the warm sun and her lover, the cold sun who was born like a boy but grew like a woman. 
• The two moons represent their dreaming selfs, one his cracked and bad dreams often escape from it. 
• The small star represent the cold star, a white dwarf that gravitate further away from the two lovers and who often try to separate them, she is often represented as a undead crone.  

I drew different icons that represent special events that are celebrated during the months.
More world building can be generated by defining the events that they represents.

Maybe we can use a random table for inspiration, the day is a celebration of a (d10):

1. natural cycle
2. unnatural cycle
3. historical event 
4. mythological event 
5. popular festival 
6. ancient ritual
7. human activity 
8. holy day
9. rite of passage or union
10. roll twice and combine the results

I like how crafting the calendar craft a cosmogony, I think there is a lot of space for experimentation when drawing calendars like maps. 

The wyrd tongue that walk on three legs

Contributions by: Tore N, Draugmith, Greg S, Nomad Galactic, Usedforscreaming. 

The creature is the divine child of a satyr like deity and a shadow that nested in the shimmering realm. One legend say that the creature was conceived when the satyr god seduced one of his priestess while she was possessed by the shadow. A other story say that the satyr goddess and the shadow felt in love but that their union and their offspring was cursed. Satyres try to ward off the creatures, some want to hunt it, other respect it divine heritage and secretly seek it blessing. 

(1) Wyrd skull 

The divine offspring is blind and can only perceive beings who memorized spells, it often use it shadowy hands (6) to feel it surrounding. The wyrd skull can cast spells stored in the skulls of wizards, see (4) and (5).

(2) Torso-tongue. 

These organs detect changes in kanna or magical energy. In this way the creature hopes to be lead back to its distant home where color has its origin, and where even the least creature lives on kanna.

(3) Veil tearing horns

These horns can tear through shadows, illusions or beings made of pure light or colors. 

(4) Head receptacle - Decayed skull 

The divine creature eats wizards, absorbs their heads into it's body. The head is still alive in a semi-comatose state, conscious of what happens but without free will. The goat can cast any spells the wizard had prepared at the time of digestion. Once expended, the head decays into a skull.

(5) Head receptacle - Empty

When empty a head receptacle can absorb a first or second spell and hold it to digest or release it later. Piercing the creature through one of it empty receptacles do a extra die of damage.    

(6) Shadowy hands

The divine child have long shadowy limbs that can stretch to grasp preys, within 15ft, no save is possible against their grasp. Their grip cannot be broken and the limbs cannot be cut. The limbs may be severed by tying a red ribbon around them. A severed limbs act autonomously and will meld itself to the nearest living thing, they favour ankles, wrists or necks to attach themselves.

(7) Triplicate goat-legs

They allow the creature to mimic the footprints of pair-bonded satyrs to avoid being tailed by hunters (or the satyrs themselves).

(8) Tail slicer

In addition to doing a small bit of automatic damage to anyone who flanks or backstabs, it has a small chance of severing the silver cord of anyone spying on it from the ethereal plane. The creature itself is not conscious of other planes, but the slicer knows. 

(9) Shimmering fleece 

The fleece shimmer near kanna leylines. Legends say that if woven into a garment the fleece can protect it wearer against magical attacks. 

Wanderstitches Character Class

Contributions by: Camilla Greer, Orb Experience, Michael T Lombardi, Sean Richer, Finn McCool, Mountain Foot, John Errwin, Anxiety Wizard, Trahan.

Instead of collectively keying a map we tried to key together a character class.
(This is not balanced, it probably require some jerry rigging to be fully playable)

Wanderstitches start with two abilities at level 01 and gain a new one each time they gain a level.

(1) Wanderstitch household hat - Traditionally hold two stitching needles gifted from your household. Wanderstitches trade these to make alliance between households. A household needle grant a advantage to craft a particular kind of item, like House Nest Maker are the best for crafting blankets.  

(2) Prismatic Buttons Lenses - Gives advantage to spot hidden. Once per day the wearer can see through normal or magical obscurement. These are crafted with buttons found in a dark place.

(3) Proving Buttons - While apprenticing, a wanderstitch takes only a button as payment. Once they have enough to finish a coat of their master's design, they may seek their own destiny. Wanderstitches can read each other's deeds in the buttons they collect. Spend as social currency (double or halve efficacy based on relevance of origin).

(4) Baubleshield - If the light is right it has a dazzling prismatic reflection, very disorienting. Can be repaired by adding baubles found during adventures. Select again to enchant the shield with a luck charm, each bubbles added while adventuring grant a one time lucky armor bonus of 1.

(5) Tethered Spears - Whenever you use throwing weapons for attacks and miss, you can always pull them back to you as long as it's not over the weapon's range. These spears can also be used as giant needles to stitches the clothes of giants (who have a hard time repairing their clothes with their clumsy fingers).

(6) Heartfelt Thread - This spool's thread can only be broken or cut by someone who has a true and abiding passion and only in the service of that passion. If the thread pierces someone's flesh, it winds through their veins deeper and deeper with every lie and mistruth they speak. This dangerous ability can only be selected after reaching level 03.

(7) Foot Training - Complex garments or spellweaves often require many hands. In a pinch, wanderstitches often train to use their feet. (Advancement: use feet as disadvantaged hands. Choose again to remove disadvantage)

(8) Cut the Weave - You can craft witch-scissors. With them in hand, forgo your attack to gain advantage on saves vs spells. If save succeeds, the spell is nullified. Spell-offcuts are volatile but make good barter. Witch-scissors lose their power if used to cut anything else.

(9) Animate Doll - Sometimes when children grow older and keep their childhood toys, their parents decide to get rid of them. By sewing the right button on a discarded doll a wanderstitch can animate it. Select again to create additional doll companions.

(10) Doll Weapon Needle - As literal toys the doll weapons aren't particularly lethal but they are very distracting and annoying. Certain unexpected creatures are said to be quite vulnerable to the weapons wielded by dolls, however. Any one poked by these weapons must pass a saving throw or cannot stop saying "OW!" until end of day.

...

Also check this older post for more exemples of whimsical super specific classes: Colorful Guilds

The Forgotten Garden

Contributions by: Cleo, 3toadstools, 𝓸𝓻𝓫 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮, Alex C, Etherik, Qwo and Alex T.

The garden vegetation spread over it crumbling pastel pink brics square walls.
The secondary entry is a small hole in the garden walls and is well camouflaged, it require a find secret doors test to be found.

(01) Whispering Tunnel
You can perceive movements behind the brambles, if you investigate you hear whisperings and glimpse a random encounter. This encounter will happen the next time one is triggered.

(02) Heart of Thorns
The branch walls of this area pulsate to the rhythm of an unseen beating heart. Thorns and spines protrude everywhere, making passage difficult. The slightest touch agitates the thorned branches tremendously, increasing the heart's rate.

(03) Chromatorose garden
Wafting from this room is a greenish gas, its thick and visibility is low. Within the room is a heart shaped wooden bookshelf (with 1d100 odd books on it). The greengas ward off the doppelgängers.

Rising above the greenish gas throne the chromatorose: the petals of this flower shimmer with endless colours. The gardener picks through the spines on stilts, pruning and watering, blindly and mechanically. At a first infraction he will gently shoo the characters away, but he is willing to die for his crop.

(04) Mimicry glade
A small glade with berry bushes which hum a song lulling you to sleep. When you wake up, there is a perfect doppelgänger of you present in the glade. Make a reaction test: on a negative reaction the doppelgänger secretly want to murder you, on a neutral reaction it is afraid of you and on a positive reaction it have a secret crush on you.

(05) Campsite
Acrid, yeasty odour, furniture of unfired clay and scrap metal, clockwork geegaws on tripods trained at the bramble "island" to the right. Campsite of A DISHEVELED MAN, who is convinced the rabbits living in the bramble "island" are more technologically advanced than they let on.

* He's been here for twenty years; has forgotten his name.
* Strong odour comes from his attempts to make bramble kimchi and bramble wine.
* Geegaws are motion-detecting clockwork cameras of his own design, hold three photographs.

Wants (descending order):
* to be proven right
* denizens of [2] and [4] to let him set up his geegaws there too.
* chocolate
* a new mirror
* other sundried supplies he can't improvise
Has:
* geegaw schematics, but not the parts to make more
* wine and kimchi (standard rations)

(06)
A sleeping young man is embedded in the brambles. He is not in a glass coffin, so the thorns have pierced his skin in multiple places, but no blood is coming out, instead the brambles have grown tiny red flowers.

(07) Reflecting pool
Brambles stalactites and stalagmites glisten with water around this still pool of water. if you have a light source and you look in the poll, roll 1d6

1-3 see yourself as others see you (this affect how your doppelgänger appear in area 04).
4-5 watch event distant in time or space.
6 glimpse misfortune just before it occurs.

(08) Serpents Den
On entering, a hive mind of poisonous snakes form into a gestalt giant serpent and demands knowledge of the occurrences of section 05. If given, they'll reveal a secret exit. If refused, they attack.

Random encounters (d10)

1. Whispering spiders (their poison make you perceive all sounds as deafening)
2. Crown of thorns: a vampiric spider like ball of brambles that pulsate like a beating heart.
3. Gardener apprentice: a small animal walking on stilts, speak common.
4. Lost doppelgänger (afraid of other doppelgängers).
5. Doppelgänger of the disheveled man (or maybe he is the original?)
6. Clockwork rabbit
7. Doppelgänger of the sleeping young man in area 06, want to murder other doppelgängers.
8. A living patch of light from a distant time and space, it can be subdued by the chromatorose.
9. Lone snake spying for the hive mind of area 08
10. Bramble sprite

Treasures (d10)

1. Secrets weaved in spider web
2. Ruby like blood drops
3. Tarnished silver jewelry
4. Vegetation mimicking pretty silver jewelry
5. Rare wild rose (1 moonlight, 2 bleeding, 3 blue, 4 sentient, 5 poison, 6 chromatic)
6. Magical fruit (1 healing, 2 dreaming, 3 doppelgänger mind melt, 4 shimmering aura)
7. Clockwork part, mastercraft work
8. Family heirloom
9. Gardening tool with engraved initials
10. Magic ring (protection against: 1 thorns, 2 sleep, 3 poison, 4 charm, 5 thirst, 6 life drain)

Spooky City!

I launched a collective Spooky City set for Halloween and Anxiety Wizard edited it and used it to post a introduction to his City Generator Kit.

I made a video where I generate a Spooky City using the set: Generating a Spooky City!

Here is the cleaned up map:

As a experiment I zoomed in a district and applied the landmark rules to create neighborhoods (this is how I generated the secondary streets). To color the neighborhoods I mixed the district theme with the themes of entries I rolled on the districts table. A other possibility would have been to roll random encounters for each neighborhoods to color them.

Retrieving the corpses of heroes and adventurers

This was written with B/X, S&W or Labyrinth Lord in mind.  

XP/level are awarded for the level of the fallen character. Level 0 character are considered level 1/2.

• Bringing back the corpse of a fallen comrade or follower: 200 xp/level
• Mounting a expedition to retrieve back their corpse: 500 xp/level (awarded when reaching the corpse, cumulative with bringing back their corpse).
• Being the ones who haul back the corpse: 10% of the total reward of the session.
• Bringing back their meaningful items and bequeathing them to their relatives or love ones: 50 xp/level for each item. (x2 for magical items, x5 for powerful items) 
• Marking their place of death: 50 xp/level   
• Slaying the monster that killed them: monster XP worth x2. 
• Slaying their undead form (if any): monster XP worth x2.
• Forgiving their killer if it was a accident or a misunderstanding by becoming their ally: 200 xp/level. 
• Proper funeral and burial in their hometown: 100 xp/level (need to spend as much gold)
• Carousing in their honor: 50 xp/level  by night of carousing (need to spend as much gold) or +25% to the carousing XP award if you use a carousing system.
• Funeral and carousing XP are worth half without the corpse.  

So if the group mount a expedition to bring back the body of their level 5 comrade: 

2500 xp for retrieving the corpse + 1000 xp for bringing it back + 250 xp for giving their blade to their son and +250 xp for giving their helm to their daughter, +250 xp for marking their place of death, +500 xp for a hometown burial, +750 xp and a big headache for 3 nights of carousing. For a total of  5500 XP for the group. 

When the group is mounting a expedition to retrieve the body of a fallen comrade or a hero, there is a 1 chance on a d6 by dungeon level that the dungeon influence spread to their corpse.  (By dungeon level, I mean the deeper into the dungeon). To be able to prep the encounter roll when the group decide to form the expedition but keep the result secret.

If the dungeon influence spread over the corpse, roll a d20 to determine what happened:

1. The corpse have been perfectly conserved, bringing it back will grant a blessing. 
2. The corpse vanished but one of their meaningful items remain behind as a magical item. 
3. Their ghost will help the group to retrieve their corpse. 
4. Their angry ghost haunt their place of death, blaming themself or their group for their death. 
5. Local creatures moved the corpse for a purpose of their own. 
6. Vegetation, moss, or mushrooms protect the corpse. 
7. A mimic consumed the corpse and absorbed their memory, they now believe to be the fallen person. They are helpful but they can sometime try to eat people and not remember the incident. 
8. The dungeon formed a shrine or tomb around the corpse, resting there grant a boon or blessing, taking back the corpse trigger a magical curse or trap. 
9. They have risen as a mindless undead that have as many HD as their level.
10. They have risen as a sentient undead obsessed with unfinished business. 
11. The corpse have been desecrated, consumed or mutilated and can not be brought back in it entirety. Bringing back their bones give half the xp. 
12. The corpse have been looted, local creatures or scavengers keep their meaningful items. 
13. When the corpse is retrieved, their ghost will help the group until their corpse is brought back home or buried. 
14. A dangerous worm or insect creature nested in their corpse. 
15. Their undead corpse will walk back home with the group, complaining about everything along the way. Once they arrive back home, their spirit will thanks and compliment the group then leave their corpse. 
16. Their corpse fused with the dungeon and became a "special" feature that grant boons and curses like a magical pool.
17. Their ghost befriended a fellow ghost and ask the group to also recover their friend's corpse. 
18. Their corpse is encased in a armor grew from the dungeon itself and is now a dangerous golem. The corpse remain intact inside the armor. 
19. They have been brought back to live, they reroll their HP, they are now cursed  with the ability of seeing the tormented spirits of the deaths. They are waiting for the group at their place of death, harrowed by ghosts. Maybe something in the dungeon can quiet the ghosts. 
20. They have been reincarnated as a young level 01 PNJ of a different appearance or gender, they keep their old stats but are now wiser and gain +2 to their WIS and gain a bonus of +4 to save against death. They are waiting for the group at their place of death. They may have learned something about the dungeon or gained a special insight. 

Dusty Blog

My blog is all dusty, I have multiple near finished blog posts but I never find the energy or the focus to finish them. I recently quit Twitter so this will maybe help me to post back again. It is not easy to exist in multiple virtual spaces, I am trying to post on instagram, facebook (for my non gaming friends), my patreon, on multiple discords and to publish videos on youtube, to stream a bit and to records episodes of my podcast. I guess that this is not much for some people but I often feel like I am too dispersed. Oh and I forgot that I am also trying to work on zines that I seem to never be able to finish. Shit, just before I transitioned I published around 5 zines on lulu, now nothing... -_-

Hopefully I will post back soon in the Cauldron. <3


-Ev

Tiny Goons mini adventure: The entity that cried nasty grublings.

• Oh no! Demon faced grublings are eating everything. (DS6 for a few, DS8 for a swarm)
• The tiny goons can easily track back their sulfuric and slimy trail to find from where they came. 
• On the road they encounter a few random creatures who are angry or sad because the demon grublings ate their stuff. 
• The trail lead to a Nasty-Gross entity that seem in pain, it is cursing nasty words and crying. It tears sprout grubling demons when they touch the ground! 
• The entity roots are chained down a hole.
• Someone is cooking down the hole and the smell attract the grublings down the hole. 
• Climbing down the hole the tiny goons encounter demon grubblings trapped in all kind of slimy traps (traps are DS6).
• At the bottom the goons find the Creepy-Gross Moleman Chef who chained the entity, he is preparing a delicious and spicy demon grublings soup! The Moleman Chef don't want to share the soup or to liberate the entity (DS10). He may offer to do so in exchange of a fetch quest to get exotic ingredients but he is lying and wont keep his promises. 
• The key to the chains hang from the roof. Climbing up there is not easy (DS10) 
• Other kinds of creatures are caged in the kitchen. The kitchen also contain all sort of pretty loot. A mutating and a rotting pepper (DS8) are guarding the kitchen. 
• Liberating the entity turn it into a Pretty-Gross entity and it will emit magical dust that can be collected or maybe it can even award it flaming heart.