June 8, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

GLORIOUS HANGOVER POST: The Sigil 6 Olde Gods

Last night the Sigil 6 sought out balance upon landing in Song, one of the last surviving Ten-Towns in this world, via Concordant Gem.

Sigil 6 Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
Chapter 2 Old Gods

PIC: Owl face with ram's horns - the Frostmaiden

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

Sigil 6 Subject Divider with rule of 3 Sword and Rule of 3 key in front of a pink and purple gradient in the color of the Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel colors...

I like to get a blog post down and out while the game is still fresh but this morning I realized I needed to say a bit more. A few of my favorite gaming things happened in this session and I want to discuss it.

When the players realized that the Frostmaiden couldn’t be reasoned with and wanted nothing short of hearing the last gasps of a frozen world, they were in a tough spot.

Kuru’s player said, “So, is this a simple assassination mission?”

No one liked that idea too much. Maybe it was because Outlands Expedition Teams had to answer to their community in Sigil after a mission and talk about why they made the decisions they did and how it protected planar balance. Maybe it was because Trundle was asked about how the team decided an action was protecting said balance and his answer was nuanced and eloquent. Maybe it was just because the Thursday Night Group isn’t fond of easy answers.

Then they did my favorite thing – they incorporated a detail from a game we played in this campaign 2 years ago as a tool to solve their current problem. They all remembered the Tree Goddess they pissed off in the Gate City of Xaos on the edge of the Outlands.

The Elder Ring, Dryad Crone, The Holy Willow

Roots, Seeds, Secrets

The first game was travel and getting used to the area. The second game I started with a bang. The Bandit God mugged one of the players at knifepoint while the kids of the town were watching a puppet show about Gith liberating her people from the cruel Illithid.

I decided the gods were weak and had trouble healing. They’d have 4d10 hit points and powers that went with their spheres of influences.

The Toad-Wizard-God tossed an acidic mist spell into the plaza, trying to kill the Bandit God and a brutal battle followed. I liked it. I haven’t run a good D&D combat in a long while and this one was fun.

At the end of the game, the players were gathered around Trundle as he tried to destroy the stone that had done the first murder in the gods’ dead world. It was a brutal death artifact. The Elder Ring approached. I rolled an encounter table and rolled a 10 – considers offers/leaves. She was not willing to jump them; they were right in front of the portal to Limbo. She asked them to give the stone to her. They refused.

She nodded and walked away.
from Feuding Gods in the Portal City of Xaos

Trundle has the Journey Word, which means he can get to just about any place they’ve been over the course of the campaign and he can get there fairly quickly. At first, I thought that his power made the Planes too small but actually it makes the entire campaign a giant problem-solving toybox. They reached deep in the campaign’s toybox for an old toy I had just about forgotten about.

So, we start next game with the Frostmaiden, showing up to the roofless cottage in Song (the Roc tore the roof off, you see), summoned by Jusko using his Command Word on the Roc (the beast failed its save, you see) just as Trundle, Shepherd and Kuru return from their field trip to rouse a Tree goddess from a dead world.

I have no idea what will happen next but whatever it is, it’ll be my favorite thing in gaming: the players taking the world around them, kicking it in the teeth and putting it all back together in interesting ways.

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June 7, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6 Olde Gods

Tonight the Sigil 6 sought out balance upon landing in Song, one of the last surviving Ten-Towns in this world, via Concordant Gem.

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

Godbound powers continue to have a profound effect on the game. “What does Auril, the Frostmaiden, want more than she wants to freeze the world to death?” Shit, nothing. That felt like a shitty answer. Why? The other seasonal gods were cruel to her in the olden days and now she wants winter vengeance.
Trundle has a power where he can know the fastest path towards something. He asked for the fastest path to The Elder Ring, a tree goddess they thwarted in their first sessions. Her druid sect can be found in a Gate-Town in the Outlands, Faunel – the town that leads to the Beastlands.
They split the party. Trundle, Kuru and Shepherd went through Trundle’s Well of Worlds to find the Elder Ring. We discussed the well’s vestibule, the entryway that leads to the worlds it has access to. When they arrived the Arch-Druid was defeating a young druid challenger who wanted the leadership role (“Wasn’t that a thing in AD&D? Or was that just monks?”) Trundle’s pitch for he Elder Ring to take root in the Winter World and provide a spring-like balance was so good, I didn’t ask for a roll.
The Elder Ring will take root in this Winter World but Trundle must craft the Arch-Druid a mighty weapon. Done deal!
Jusko, who elected to stay in Song alone, was attacked by Auril’s Roc and several squads of Auril’s Claws (elite rangers). The rangers nearly took Jusko down in the first round. He used his powers to cause winds to interfere with their bows and took to air with his wings. He used Command to demand the Roc fetch the Frostmaiden; failed save. We’ll start there next week.

Godbound powers mean nothing ever goes the way I think it will and I am constantly asked to think about bits of lore and information I had never anticipated. Thinking of this world’s gods as seasonal deities was an interesting spin brought about from Shepherd’s question about Auril the Frostmaiden’s drives and goals. This has spawned thoughts on the world beyond the Ten-Towns.

Jotting down favorite moments at the end of the game is a nice tradition.

I dig that they are looking for ways to make this world better without killing Auril and are using setting-bits that were established 2 years ago.

White board notes on the group's favorite moments.

Trundle’s speech to the Arch-Druid about why the Elder Ring should venture to the Winter World was just amazing.

I was glad to hear that Jusko’s fight with the winter goddess’ elite rangers and Roc was tense. I nearly dropped him in the first round. It was intense.

They fought a Giant Owl and then Auril’s Roc. The Giant Owl was rolled from the encounter table but the rangers and Roc were chosen as Auril’s reaction to the Sigil 6’s arrival (and Jusko using powers to change the weather to a chilly Autumn). “They have hollow bones,” became a phrase players said to offer confidence while combating these vicious giant birds.

2d6 encounter table Rime of the Frostmaiden way off book Sigil 6 Godbound edition 2Winter Storm 3 horde of Wolves 4 Yeti 5 Giant Owl 6 Rangers: Auril's Claws 7 Druids: Auril's Chosen 8 Scavengers 9 Frost Giant 10 Owlbear 11 Roc 12 White Dragon: Moonless Midwinter Night Need more details, roll 2 more d6. 1-2 soon to come / 3-4 on its way / 5-6 just passed 1-2 recovering / 3-4 hunting / 5-6 hunting you

Arch-Druid: “Surely you are not the Sigil 6 who stole the Elder Ring’s weapon, destroying the last remnant of the Goddess’ dead world…”

Shepherd: “That would be us.”

Each of the Ten-Towns is named for some piece of the world it safeguards. Song is home to the world’s not-yet-finished dirge but maybe the song will have some hopeful verses. Jusko took out his sitar and contributed, inspiring me to describe Song-folk’s singing and dancing.

Trundle is a dwarf who favors wood over stone, forest over tunnels. He threw his signature missile weapon, a hard wooden ball that we call, the bocce balls. After he and Kuru dropped a giant owl servant of the Frostmaiden, Song’s children went looking it and a child brought it back to Trundle and so he made her a little stone mouse for her trouble. It was a cute moment.

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May 29, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6 Arrive at the Radiant Citadel (Finally)

Tonight the Sigil 6 arrived in the Radiant Citadel and set out on a rescue operation to a frozen Winter World.

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

Hetty Wright, a Citadel clerk, interviews the Sigil 6 in the Passge of Respite and despite some uncomfortable interviews (Kuru and Hajek, I’m looking at youse)
Quarace, their Drider Agent from Sigil, welcomes the S6 to the Radiant Citadel. Jusko uses a new power to read her and sees her desire to do right by the Sigil 6 but also real fear and shame from her upbringing as a Drow assassin who failed and was turned into a Drider by Lloth. It was an interesting insight into a long-time NPC.
Shepherd and Trundle visit the House of Convalescence and do some healing. They see refugees from several worlds and get an idea of problems in other Concordant Worlds that orbit the citadel.
Kuru, using his magic-cutting flame dagger, and Trundle, using his firebrand shortsword, cut their way through the ice that had consumed the Winter World’s concordant gem.
Hajek found the HQ of Hajek Mercantile, the organization his family set up. Dozens and dozens of games ago, Hajek wrote his family name on a world being born. His power-hungry family now rule that world.

I thought we were going to arrive a month ago but due to a few cancelled games and taking 3 sessions on the Rock of Bral hunting Mind Flayers we had some delays. And that is fine. Honestly, if the players had decided to set up shop on the Rock of Bral and make that their campaign, I would’ve been fine with it (and I said so).

I did some prep!

I used my own brainstorm sheet, Context, Cool Shit and Consequences. It was helpful to have some important places from the Citadel written down. The Alexandrian’s name lists was really helpful too.

And I made an encounter table for Winter World (in which Rime of the Frostmaiden’s Ten-Towns are the last ten surviving towns in an ice-choked world and that world is a Jewel-World that orbits the Radiant Citadel).

And I will stat out the 3 incarnations of the Frostmaiden, making them less the horrendous Maiden/Lady/Ice Womb (not kidding) from the book and more into winter-things: Huntress/Death/Ice Storm.

“I’m getting Babylon 5 vibes from this thing,” Anthony said. Yeah, I see that.

We had a chat about our favorite moments after the game was over. Here are a few:

Trundle was the only person in the Citadel Intake interview who was reasonable and it was just a funny contrast. I loved Trundle’s description of how he ascertains what is balance in his service to the Lady of Pain.

The description of the Radiant Citadel was starting to make it a three-dimensional palce (yay!).

There was some excitement at the idea of using newfound Godfound powers to heal Quarace of her state as a Drider. Huh.

Some appreciation that Kuru’s aunties who had set him up as a Master Spy in the Hall of Whispers.

Enjoyed the high fantasy epicness of carving into magical ice that was encasing a gem ship.

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May 25, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6 Brains and Thorns on the Rock of Bral

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

The Sigil 6 used several Words and Powers to fly and then Shadow-walk into the Illithid’s subterranean lair under Prince Andru’s palace. The elvish mercenaries got a pair of lucky shots off and hit Shepherd.

One of the Mind Flayers was astral projecting to get reinforcements; its body was limp but its Mind Flayer comrade was nearby surrounded by wyverns with thrall-studs in their skulls to make psionic domination easier. It was a 3 round battle but the wyvern tail-venom was nasty; Trundle was dropped in the first round and Kuru followed soon after – but not before stealing the Mind Flayer’s ability to probability travel.

I need to ask Kuru to hold his action if he wants to steal an ability. I love that power but we’ve been using it like an interrupt, which is a bit powerful. Kuru’s ability theft meant the Mind Flayer couldn’t just walk away from the losing battle. And so it died. Once the Mind Flayer was dead it was an easy thing for Shepherd, still in a Mind Flayer body, to psionically order them to sleep.

Kuru grabbed the Mind Flayers’ treasure. They were running a little low on funds. Now they should have some more liquid funds.

I’ve been using the AD&D Monster Manual, Monster Manual 2 and Fiend Folio for the stats and such. For the wyvern’s poison tail venom, I went with a Hardiness Save, failure meant the damage was Straight d10 (which is BRUTAL) and success meant just a straight d6. This dropped 2 characters. If the players had tried to futz around with the wyverns instead of finding out early that Shepherd, in the Mind Flayer body, could easily mind control them once the other Mind Flayers were out of the picture it would’ve been a bad night for the Sigil 6.

I’ve been enjoying Godbound combats. They are fast, brutal and the players are using their powers in interesting ways. We got slowed down a bit by figuring out exactly how Effort works and when Effort is spent and when it is just making a power work and goes back to the character once that power is turned off. It is a process and that is fine.

They killed Shepherd, forcing him from the Mind Flayer body, after they were refusing to leave the Illithid shell and return to his angel-made flesh golem procured in Ravenloft. We rolled some dice on it but it was all in good fun and Trundle and Jusko rolled well – ending it quickly. The corpseflea made his way into his golem sleeve and apologized for how he acted. Shepherd’s new Fact reflects his time spent in the Mind Flayer sleeve and he took a new power that we are coloring as a Psionic Blast.

They used powers to look around Bral and see what was happening. They saw the Prince’s elf mercenary guards coming back to themselves and watched them kill Prince Andru, saying he had been in league with the Mind Flayers and had even given them access to Potions of Mind Control made to control elves. These elf soldiers were preparing to take over the Rock of Bral’s governance. No one was exactly comfortable with this. Trundle tried to get them to agree to turn the governance over to an elected republic but it was a failed Spirit Save. Nope.

They gave the Elf General (why didn’t I name him!?!) a letter of introduction to the Lady of Pain, hoping to set him up with Outlands Expedition Teams should they need more support. After getting some advice from their AWOL Githyanki ship captain, they overheard them talking about something called the Siege of Thorns. They found out these elves were on the losing side of a war in which their queen attempted to take control of the Radiant Citadel.

Inspiration for Elvish Empire is the Two Drakes‘ BBEG, Widow of Roses.

Kuru wanted to steal something from the Prince’s palace before they left. Part of me is tempted to roll some dice at the start of next session but I’d also like to get to the Radiant Citadel already. I’ll roll up some random treasure.

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May 11, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6: The Mind Flayer Hunt Gets Personal

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

Our game is switching from 5e to Godbound. The characters were up to 12th level and Godbound is a fun system for powerful D&Dish folks.

The group voted for the Winter World to be their next adventure and so I started prepping and daydreaming about how I’d alter Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They had killed a Mind Flayer that was living under the Rock of Bral last adventure and foolish me, I did not ask if that was the end of it.

It was not the end of it. Kuru’s run-in with an aboleth’s mind control has left its mark; he doesn’t like cthonic mind control beasts. Shit got personal. Then Shepherd, the Corpseflea, jumped into the Mind Flayer corpse. I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the treasure tables…

PIC: Monster Manual Mind Flayer, Monster Manual's Appendix Treasure Table and the DMG treasure Tables. TEXT: Randomly generated the treasure from the Mind Flayer. so much fun! 3000 Gold, 7000 Copper (coins from uncounted worlds) Potions of Plant Control, Invulnerability, Polymorph and Human Control (elves and half-elves). Scrolls: Find Familiar, Strength, Dig and one magic item, randomly generated which was - no shit A Bag of Holding

Nice thing about using the AD&D Monster Manual (and the Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio) is that I get to use its treasure tables. I rolled, not knowing that there is an automated option. I decided the Mind Flayer kept bodies whose brains it had eaten in its Bag of Holding, doing some light, non-necromantic hobby-mummification for fun.

It seemed like the Sigil 6 wanted to put an epilogue on the slaying of the Mind Flayer from last week, talk to Prince Andru of Bral, maybe get a reward and then leave. I had described Andru’s honor guard as haughty elves in red and gold livery. They were turned away at the bridge to the prince’s palace, leading them to believe that this Mind Flayer wasn’t working alone. Even Jusko’s Leadership Word couldn’t penetrate, furthering the theory that some greater power was behind it all.

Shepherd is a corpseflea, a little spark of sentience that can jump into corpses (taken from the cool af 5 Torches Deep: Heritage supplement). I was straight-up eager for him to jump into the Mind Flayer body. He did. I asked for a Spirit Save and it was a fail. He wouldn’t be able to jump out at will. I got to describe the sense of communal consciousness and connection to the other Mind Flayers in his pod, especially the two others on the Rock of Bral, who he had grown up with from tadpoles. Getting to describe shit like going from primate bodies to something really alien is fun.

My vision of Mind Flayers is that they operate on science fiction logic. When Shepherd-in-the-Mind-Flayer saw their Githyanki-renegate ship captain, he could see the botched breeding cycle of a fine servant species. I described his friends as deliciously sentient. He was able to access his memories easily, not getting vague flashbacks like when he is in primate corpses.

He reached out telepathically to another Mind Flayer and learned that when the first Mind Flayer whose corpse he was riding had died, one Mind Flayer went into the astral plane, seeking reinforcements. The conversation didn’t go well and the third Mind Flayer suggested Shepherd go to the Elder Brain to regain his connection and focus rather than seeking out this primate-like individualism.

Shepherd knew that when they went astral, their body was stowed in a secret area by some Mind Flayer thralls. They secreted back onto the Rock of Bral through Trundle’s almost-constructed Well of Worlds.

Behind the scenes, I rolled an Intelligence check for the third Mind Flayer. He succeeded. The Monster Manual said these things are geniuses. His friend is acting weird and reinforcements might be far away. They are surrounded by enemies. It moved the helpless Mind Flayer whose body was left behind while it went into the Astral Plane.

The thralls were a trap; they unzipped their skin and combined to become some combination of Voltron and John Carpenter’s The Thing. I statted it as a Hulking Abomination from Godbound, which suggested it have access to a Word – I chose Undying from Endurance. The fight was going rough and then Kuru, who can steal Gifts, stole the creature’s Undying. The beast flipped out and killed Kuru the next round but he had Undying. When Jusko finished the creature, screaming Kuru’s name like a killing word, Kuru popped back up, regenerating despite haven taken a cthonic tentacle through the skull.

It was a fun fight and I have just barely gotten my feet under me. This is going to be fun.

What now? Now I’m going to roll up the treasure of the remaining Mind Flayers on treasure tables B, S, T and X. Let’s see what these Lovecraftian assholes are working with.

We’ll get to the Radiant Citadel some day…I think.

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May 3, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6: Liberty on the Rock of Bral

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

TEXT: The Sigil 6
Liberty
on the
Rock of Bral

PIC: Blurry map of the Rock of Bral from the 2nd Edition AD&D supplement, The Rock of Bral

Tonight in our game with only half the group at the table, we took a detour to the Rock of Bral.

I was totally floundering. I narrated people gathering at the shipyards to watch some convicted pirates being put out into the void by the Rock of Bral’s ruler, Prince Andru in red and gold raiment made to look like some kind of Napoleonic era admiral with elf mercenary guards, also in red and gold.

Shepherd, being a Corpseflea in an angel-made Flesh Golem, climbed out to talk to one of the pirates, Half-a-Smile Harry Halton, who didn’t believe in any afterlife, since his death was surely the gods’ coin flip that allowed Prince Andru to win and Half-a-Smile to lose.

“If you can, go see the Radiant Citadel; it is the most beautiful place I have seen in all the worlds,” Half-a-Smile said to Shepherd before he climbed back to the Rock.

I have no idea what I wanted to happen with that pirate/prince execution encounter thing. I only know that when I pictured it and daydreamed about it the whole game jumped off from that moment. No idea what I was hoping for.

That is alright. We found our feet eventually.

The floundering continued through some shopping. They discussed robbing Prince Andru but decided against it. I was eager to give Godbound a whirl. Then Anthony mentioned that he wanted to look to see if any Sigil Outlands Expeditioners had left any travelling symbols carved into anything. I asked for a roll and I shoudln’t have done that. The answer to that question should always be, “YES, here’s an interesting detail about this place that you wouldn’t have otherwise known.”

It was clear that a Sigil-born Expeditioner had been press ganged onto a Spelljamming ship, made his way to Bral, uncovered the Mind Flayer on the underside of the asteroid city who was mind controlling the prince and died fighting the creature.

I grabbed the Mind Flayer from the AD&D Monster Manual and off we went. I upped its Hit Dice a touch and frantically looked up what Probability Travel and Body Equilibrium were as the crew planned. I’ll plan monsters a little more carefully but page 171 of Godbound has pretty clear guidelines for making monsters.

When the first round of combat made it clear that the Mind Flayer was outmatched, it phased out of reality into another plane of existence with Probability Travel. Kuru has a power where he can steal powers from other creatures but we had to work out if he had the Effort to do so. He did. Dex save to see if he can grab the power before the Mind Flyer phases out and he made it.

“Do you take on some characteristic of the creature whose power you steal? If so…what?”

“Oooh, I hadn’t thought of that. I like that. Yes…”

The Mind Flayer had 2 of 4 tentacles on Kuru’s head. The Halfling had taken on the Mind Flayer’s ocean creature-but-more-chemical smell from stealing its psionic power.

It was getting late and Trundle rolled a 1 to hit the Mind Flayer with his sword. I told him I’d let him roll damage but he’d have to swing through Kuru, doing whatever damage he did to the Mind Flayer to his comrade too. The math worked out and the Mind Flayer was defeated and Kuru was clinging to life.

Being able to grab monsters right out of the AD&D Monster Manuals and Fiend Folio is going to be just lovely. Looking forward to building monsters out a bit from Godbound’s guidelines.

Worth noting that Trundle grabbed a stone so that he could jump to the Rock of Bral from his soon-to-be-constructed Well of Worlds.

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April 13, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

The Sigil 6, Getting the Band Back Together

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

Tonight in our game the Sigil 6 see a comet that was their sign to meet up in Sigil, jump on a ship on the Astral Sea and head to the Radiant Citadel…

Kuru

Origin Halfling Ninja Village

Past Career Rogue Arcane Trickster

Relationship: Sigil 6, Council of 3, Cult of Songrim

Words: Deception, Fire and Theft

Shepherd

Origin Corpseflea – Bodychanger

Past Career Failed Soldier

Relationship Attuned to the Raven Queen

Words: Death, Health and Knowledge

Trundle

Origin Dwarven AWOL

Past Career Dwarven Ranger

Relationship Traveller

Words: Journeying, Artifice and looking like Health

Jusko

Origin Exiled from a Noble House

Past Career A knight, a thief, a prisoner

Relationship Welded to the Sigil Six

Words: Sword, Sky and Command

Helewynne

(Sorry, Aaron)

Bugwump

Normally, I jump in with both feet but for whatever reason, I wanted to re-read the Radiant Citadel info just one more time before the Sigil 6 arrive. In the past month I have started a new job and I’m still figuring out my week-night energy levels. I’m confident I can still run this game and want to continue but tonight I cut things short rather than press on. This new normal is causing me to be cautious.

Everyone was scattered. Each player told me where they were as we began.

Kuru was in front of three hobbit ninja grandmothers who run the village where he was born.

Shepherd was on the shore of the Astral Sea, watching a Corpseflea coming out of the sea for the first time.

Jusko was furiously packing in his beach apartment in Chult with new Chultan tattoos.

Trundle was figuring out the boundaries of his new Well of Worlds, wanting to learn what began the war between the dwarven citadel where he was born and the demons who have been laying siege to it for as long as anyone can remember.

Such amazing starting places.

Kuru was chided by the hobbit-ninja-grandma’s to take a spouse, build a home and settle down. When he refused, they gave him a letter of introduction to the Court of Whispers.

Shepherd, true to his name, guided the newborn Corpseflea to Sigil where this strange species has a small neighborhood. We got a cool guide to how they inhabit bodies and how Shepherd taught this newborn how to control it and find their place in their corpse. The newborn had a vague memory of emerging from some kind of cocoon.

Jusko wished Dacaad well and the Chultan leader gave him an ancient Omuan scroll about the Radiant Citadel. The ancient elders had hoped to move Chult to the citadel somehow.

Trundle’s quest took the most time. He found an ancient glyph carved in stone of dwarves building a prison and then the prison being turned into a temple and there was a Balrog, a Baatezu, a Pit Fiend – it was levitating a few feet from the ground, sword and whip on hooks nearby. It tried to convince Trundle to be a diplomat, talking about how it had taken control of the citadel as akind of demi-god and its Devil comrades did not approve. The Pit Fiend believed the Demons were spillover from the Blood War, sent to punish him for not returning to its duties in Hell. Trundle left, saying he would return to discuss this matter further – wanting the war to end.

We wrote up our new bingo board and just got some role-playing in as the group enjoyed being together again.

If you want to know more about our XP houserule, here’s more about that.

Next week: The Radiant Citadel, Angels, anarchists, rebels, Shadow of the Sun…

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March 30, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

Sigil 6 Session 0ish

We began the campaign in 5 Torches Deep, shifted over to 5e and now we are playing Godbound.

Read more about the Sigil 6 here.

The Sigil 6
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
Session 0 Godbound

With turquois lion standing on the title.

Tonight in our game…1 player had technical issues, 2 were pulled into late nights at work and so the 3 remaining worked on moving their characters over to Godbound. We are deliberating over how we are going to deal with hit points – starting hit points like a first level Godbound character or use their level as hit dice from the D&D game? We’ll talk it over next week when we have more of us at the table.

The last leg of your journey to the Radiant Citadel is uneventful on board the Hammerhead ship, The Long Rest. Captain Qairste, is an old salty Githyanki Marine, long-since gone AWOL from the Lich-Queen’s Imperial Navy. She loves talking to each of you about your adventures in Sigil, the city she plans to retire to some day.

What do you remember most about that long trip through the stars into the Astral Sea?

What part of your life/adventures do your dreams return you to?
Posted on the Thursday Night Delver’s FB group

I think Godbound will solve the 5e Hit Point bloat issues we’ve been having while giving the group lots of fun powers to play with. I’m excited to stat out some Demon Lords, Arch-Liches and Dukes of Hell to see how they shake out in combat. We’ve got some things to sussing out to do but I’m looking forward to both the process and getting to some play next week.

Dear Sigil 6,

I hope this letter finds you well. It is my hope that these words will help you have your feet under you when you arrive.

The Radiant Citadel is a city built around a massive Auroral Diamond, orbiting around this central city are Concord Jewels that lead to other worlds – and all of this is floating in the murky Astral Sea. It is a bright and shining place, with conflict and politics as one might expect. Most often, I am left with the feeling that these are good people, doing their very best with complicated situations.

Some of the Concordant Worlds

Yongjing – capital of the Great Xing, an impressive nation with a dynasty that has brought peace and prosperity after centuries of plague and uncertainty. Rumors abound that the White Jade Emperor’s reign will soon end, plunging Xing into chaos. This might be your first mission, depending on the timing of your arrival.

San Citlan – this world revolves around a city built at the confluence of ley lines with severe economic disparity and people with a strong bond with their honored dead. Shepherd should love it.

Zinda – a shining city full of guildhalls and universities in the midst of a dense jungle on the shore of a deep and dark ocean. There is a revolution brewing, rebels who call themselves the Bloodletters trying to seize power and opportunity from the Kings of Coin and their enforcers, the Silent Verse.

The Sensa Empire – a trio of city-states that runs on gold mines, held together by Empress Inaya. The arid landscape makes farming difficult but luckily, the empire’s gold allows them to import food. The balance between each city-state’s monarchies and the way they bow before the Empress is a complicated set of traditions and marriages.

Tletepec is a group of cities built among the forests that are surrounded by volcanoes, said to be the area’s heroes. The area’s history is a cycle of death and rebirth brought on by volcanic eruptions.

Atagua is a series of grasslands and wetlands with narrow tropical forests along the Holroro River. The people here are from a diverse range of cultures and work hard to communicate and keep the region from plunging into war.

I am missing some. Yallna is a world at war, with the Raven Queen and Orcus opening warring amidst a series of valleys where the long-departed Wizard-Kings left their towers and citadels.

And there is a young place, only a few years old, ruled by the ambitious Hajek family, whose name is said to be written on the foundation of the world.

I am missing some and haven’t even introduced you to the Court of Whispers, nor the Shieldbearers and the Speakers. We’ll talk when you arrive.

I hope your journey is restorative.

Quarace
In-game letter, also posted to the Thursday Night Delver’s FB group

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January 9, 2023 by juddthelibrarian

Svinifrilijihirim, Gnome City built around an arcane university

This morning I saw the following video:

And if you like that video, he has a patreon worth checking out.

Inspired, I jumped onto Affinity Designer and got started with the word GNOME, all jumbled up.

The letters to the word, Gnome, jumbled up so I can make a city as detailed in the video above.

I had an old blog post about Underground Cities and always liked the Gnome city built around a university, Svinifrilijihirim.

The spaces between the jumbled letters above are colored in. It almost looks like a city. Almost.

Time to name the districts.

Walls and towers are around the city. The districts are named: 5 Towers University, Chalk District, Wizardtown, Prrenticetown, The 3 Hells, Little Anvil.

It is beginning to take shape. 5 Towers is an homage to a wizard-ruled city I had in a high fantasy game I attempted to run with Ars Magica as an undergrad.

I wanted to flesh out the districts.

The five towers were the first buildings erected when this city was founded by five ambitious wizards long before the Elvish Civil War. They built the university and the city around that. The founding wizard's tombs were built in caverns, mushroom forests and waterfalls all around the city.
Today the university is known for educating the finest wizards and bards. The wizards go on to erect their own towers in the farthest reaches of the worlds, counsel governments, invent spells and gathering the most famous heroes to their adventuring fellowships. The bards go on to become the most adept spies, wise tutors and dynamic entertainers.
But the university can be an institution without pity. The streets of Deeptown have their share of lost former students, for whom a structured education in the Gnomish arcane tradition does not resonate.
5 Towers is almost a city within the city, with its own guard, laws and judicial system.
The five wizards, known as Tower Mages or Pentadi, set the tone for their college. There are traditional schools of magic but as new Pentadi take over, the university's philosophy of magical categorization can change over time as our understanding about how arcane laws change.

3 Hells is named for the 3 clans of Devil-folk, among the first refugees to find safety in Deeptown within the first century of its founding. Now 3 Hells' three largest populations are a noble-house-in-exile of Starless Elves, humans from a broken world and Forged-folk who left a world that did not consider them sapient beings. The tennement houses that folk who live in this district (often called Hellers or Trins) call home are a diverse mix of cultures and customs.
The neighborhood is very proud of its first Pentadi taking up residence in one of the university's five towers. Grishnali the Summoner grew up among the neighborhood's feuding Devil-folk and earned a coveted spot as a student in 5 Towers University. She is known for giving back to the community and is a major force behind the current peace between the 3 founding clans of Devil-folk who have been feuding since the neighborhood's founding.

Little Anvil is a one fortified castle with every aspect of Dwarven Society within its walls. There is a craft guild, a bank, a mercenary company and several mining operations. As agreed when the castle's foundation was first laid, almost fifty years ago, the guilds and companies hire from all over the city. This policy was enacted in hopes that Dwarven crafts would spread throughout the city's districts but that has not quite been the result.
The craft guild is an umbrella guild representing gem-cutting, masons and smiths. The bank is the most stable financial institution in Deeptown with investments and loans all over the city. The mercenary company is carefully regulated, never having more than three dozen armed soldiers in the city at any one time and with a percentage of any money earned going into the city's coffers; the company is known for its adept warmages. Critics say Deeptown profits from conflict and political instability elsewhere in the underdeeps.
As a neighborhood it is more walled off and isolated than the self-important university or affluent Wizardtown but pieces of Little Anvil's cultural touchstones make their way into the rest of the city - from finely carved gargoyles to seemingly bottomless pots of goat stew at many inns and pubs.

The Chalk district is where university students and wizards' apprentices live in ramshackle affordable housing. Cafe tables and some pub walls are made of a locally quarried slate so that students with chalk can jot down arcane equations and proofs.
Most residents of this district don't stay long, either graduating to Prenticetown or leaving Deeptown all together once their desired level of education and training is achieved. As a result, the only long term residents are bartenders, baristas, building superintendents and tutors.
This district ebbs and flows with the university's academic calendar. During tests and exams, tensions can reach a fever pitch. During university breaks, the district can seem like a ghost-town. When new learning periods begin, the streets are like a carnival as the students exude their hope and excitement.

When university students make the decision to continue their studies and become wizards with their own tome and wand, they inevitably end up in Prenticetown. Once a mercantile district full of warehouses, the buildings have become repurposed into housing with arcane laboratories. Due to the apprentice's more independent learning, they are less tied to any academic calendar. This district has a flourishing cadre of artists who are highly educated and often radically angry.
There is a new class of arcane practitioner growing in Prenticetown, a user of magic who don't find success in the university system and are creating their own networks of support and education. It is only a matter of time before Prenticetown creates its own institution of learning, a kind of revolutionary reaction to 5 Towers.

Wizardtown is an affluent series of cottages, towers and manors inhabited by well-to-do arcane practitioners and magic-users. There is a main avenue ,Staff and Tome Street, cuts a jagged line across the district; it is cobblestoned in a series of beautiful mosiacs depicting history's finest arcane discoveries.
The City Guard stay clear of the affluent district, allow the wizards' personal security forces and powerful wards to keep the peace. Some of the most powerful wizards in existence have homes here, so they have somewhere to stay when they are doing research in the university's amazing libraries.

Honey Fungus Street was not ony any map, named for a mushroom beloved by one of the city's first architects and city planners. When a fire started by a rambunctious student cleared away the buildings from this series of side-alleys, the rebuilding was delayed again and again due to a disagreement between the city and university governments about who was to pay for what. In that time, the Honey Fungus Street Market took hold and the rebuilding never occurred.
Now the market is a labyrinth of stalls and hastily erected tents where one can find any number of mundane foodstuff, arcane ingredients needed for potions and alchemy alongside virtuoso buskers and street performers. The market is the one place where everyone in the city rubs shoulders, where the arch-mage and the cutthroat and the tomb robber might listen to a fey-blooded violinist play a heart-breaking ballad on the edge of a gurgling city fountain.

Deeptown is nestled in a cyclopean cavern in the underdeeps. Keeping the city safe are not only wards but walls erected by mighty earth elementals.
Building a tower is serious business in a city governed by wizards. Only in Wizardtown, and even then only rarely, has the city's government issued the permits necessary to build a tower. The last such permit was issued almost a thousand years ago. Even purchasing a tower or living within one comes with close governmental scrutiny.
1 Mage's Gate
2 Merchant's Gate
3 Hammer's Gate
4 Axe's Gate
5 Exodus Gate
6 Scholar's Gate
7 Arch-Mage's Gate

I’d want to write up some questions about the setting.

What civil strife occurs when revolutionaries in Prenticetown put up their own tower?

When will the Little Anvil mercs attempt to take over the city?

Who in Wizardtown is going to get the next permit to erect their tower?

What will break the peace between the Devil-folk clans?

That is a fun bunch of color but I’m not sure I have the tools to play just yet. If I was going to run a game in this setting, I’d make a few d6 tables so I could roll 3d6 and make a quick 3 word inspiration tables for a quick student, quick apprentice, quick wizard, quick locals, quick refugees, quick Devil-folk. I’d write up the Pentadi and think about what they are studying.

But considering I watched a video about making a fast city on Sunday morning, this is a fine, fast way to flesh out a city that has been rattling around in my head for years.

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/bastion-free-library

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/the-floating-skulls-a-fictional-band-we-made-up-in-a-gaming-session

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/im-fine

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/chatwyn-and-sprunt-fan-club

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/ouroboros

December 8, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Kill Acererak 5: Afterglow Spending, Building and Partying

In which the Sigil 6 spend a dragon’s hoard in Greyhawk, Faerun and Sigil.

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Shepherd what have they been up to?

We discussed the party breaking out in the Free City of Greyhawk.

“How do people know?”

“The gods tell their priests and the priests tell the people. ‘For the next 6 days let us celebrate the end of the archlich, Acererak.'”

We didn’t play the party as much as discussed it. Rival opera houses, someone sticking their phallus in the chocolate fountain, Lord Silverfox’s manor burning to the ground.

The group decided they’d find and fund a Greyhawk 7, an adventuring party to carry on the Sigil 6 tradition in this world. Maybe we’ll play a game with these characters when someone can’t make it.

In Port Nyenzaru they founded a bank with half of their dragon’s hoard, headed by Tefnek’s sister, a capable assassin turned Merchant Prince. We’re going to read over old Dungeonomics articles and again, a fun adventure possibility if not everyone can attend – playing bad-asses defending their bank that is investing in Chult.

It felt like we were putting the epilogue in Book 1 and we’re heading into the final book. I’d like to get more into some in-the-character’s-boots playing and creative problem solving.

Quarace, the team’s handler, went ahead to the Radiant Citadel before them. I’ll write up a letter from her about the different worlds orbiting the citadel and we’ll jump in next game.