5e game: as told to the halfling bard Bebo

The oral record of the Kobold warrior Kensh Bloodspring

“The thing of it, you see, is that we don’t talk about it. Some things you never say, not unless you want to be Noticed. And there are things that - well, there are Things. It’s like them Adventurers, see? No one sane goes into the empty cities, down into the ruins and the tunnels that have never seen sunlight. No one at all goes into the old magic towers unless they want to die.

"But some do the former. Some seek treasures, follow myths, or they’re running from something bad. And so they go into the old places. And they change. I’m not saying goblins are *nice* - we ain’t got no time for nice, y’ ken, but spend enough time in those places and it twists you up inside. Everybody has some good in them, like everybody has some evil - or lots of it, depending. But too long in those places and there’s nothing good left inside you.

"And when they come back, they bring something of that awfulness with them. It’s why we kill them on sight. There are bodies even trolls won’t eat. We don’t have a word for it. Don’t want to give it power with a name. But Adventurers meet those things that look like goblins, and that sticks with them something fierce. And then they meet us, and treat us just the same. Not saying we’re favoured by the gods - nothing like that - but the gods listen to us the same as to everyone else.

"No god listens to those who dwell in the broken places. At least not any god we’d care to know.”

5e game: history & society

HISTORY

A long time ago, several mighty nations went to war. Their names have been lost to even myth but it was a mighty war between races that threatened to lead to all-out genocide. The problem is that each side, desperate for advantages, ended up encroaching on the homes of the few wizards in the world in their desire to gain weapons that could end the war. The eight wizards, roused from their studies, called upon their magics and ended the war.

This took them under an hour and reshaped much of the world at the time.

Even the gods took notice of that.

There are those who say the wizards were the progenitors of all modern races, or the first heretics. Some claim that races had gods of their own, until the wizards wiped them out. No one knows. What is known is that, in time, the wizards grew in power and ego and several of them banded together to challenge the gods.

The gods did more than take notice. The towers of the wizards were destroyed in the resulting conflict along with the eight wizards themselves. The downside of this is that the magic the wizards had stored and harnessed spilled out all over the world akin to a traumatological bomb going off. Magic ran wild and tree but was eventually tamed into varying different strands of power.

Centuries past, and magic continued to change. The great magics became lost and forgotten, some magics worked differently in differing areas but the vast storehouses of supplies needed for magic vanished as well. Some time ago there was, perhaps, a war against the gods. It’s not talked about by them, but since then there have been few empires of note and the servants of the gods are less seen in the world, apparently busy defending the seen and the unseen in other realms.

In game terms: Non-clerical spells above level 5 are almost never in use. Most everything higher is rumour more than anything else. Few warlocks, wizards or sorcerers become powerful enough to even learn or master such magics and most clerics and paladins etc. retire to teach the next generation of adventurers long before potentially reaching those levels of power.

SOCIETY

The world is currently made up of a wide variety of city-states of differing size and power. Some are impressive and widely known, others generally known locally. Cities are large affairs supported by towns which in turn are supported by villages.

Villages contain homes, small shops etc. Adventurers can expect to find basic supplies and rarely too much more in them. They’re way-points and rest-stops by and large.

Towns generally have an adventurer-based economy. Adventurers explore ruins, find treasure and bring it into the town, trading items with local merchants for things they need and heading out again. Trips into cities are rarer simply because city guards get twitchy around adventuring types and local laws and taxes tend to be higher. As well, some city-states only accept their own coinage while towns and villages are seldom as strict at all.

Adventuring In Society

In general, a surprising amount of the economy results from adventurers. Much of the easily minable and smeltable material has been accessed over the centuries, so the various treasures and trinkets recovered from the Underdark, dungeons, ruins and old cities are valuable more for raw material parts than anything else. Taxes on such items go to the local government, the city-state … and the various adventuring schools/training/hubs in the world.

There are not that many adventurers about, simply because it is that risky and dangerous of a business and few people have the stamina (or stats :)) to become one. A village might serve three bands of adventurers over the space of two years and consider that a large amount. The benefit of this is that the PCs are known (once they’re at about level 5 or so) to be Adventurers, Experienced and gain status from that.

Each class keeps the fruit of the training secret from others, but adventurers in good standing (and often recommended by a member of said class) can multiclass. Classes could be seen as akin to specialized and secretive guilds to some extent though characters pay no kind of tithe and aren’t expected to hide abilities/talents from allies though the unwritten rule is that one doesn’t question too much how another class can do certain things and so forth.

(Note: Ideally this means each player knows the Path their character is going to take in a class and it’s assumed the PC has been prepped/trained toward that in the run-up to reaching level one. This isn’t some hard or fast rule, however, mostly existing for flavour.)

Supplies

Adventurers trade items for other items. Depending on the groups rep and character, they get better deals etc. with merchants they trade with often and can use competing merchants for their advantage.

Potion Hut, for example, supplies only potions. Which means they have quite a few, but take less items in trade (beyond empty bottles, alchemical supplies, raw coins etc.)

Potion World has fewer potions (and at a slightly higher cost) but will trade for other items as well and, being the newcomer, make more deals if it means repeat business.

The surly shopkeeper is rare, in other words. Adventurers are good business and good for business, and towns and villages treat you accordingly. (Wiping out orcs/goblins etc. around the local area is, of course, a boon as well.)  PCs are expected and encouraged to trade for goods more than hold onto items and vendors in towns they frequent often can serve as banks as well - additionally, a lot of inns offer free room/board to adventurers. Especially at higher levels; would you say no to someone who can destroy your inn with a single fireball?

(Note: the game is not intended to be about Business (since that != dice fun, but it’s more that this aspect is some of the rewards the characters get for the risks they take.)

5e game: gods and magic

GODS

There are seven gods (two good, three neutral, two evil) but every god can embody any domain, An evil god with a cleric of the Life domain might be rare, but terribly useful for torture. The gods generally interact with the world via clerics and paladins - many of them are chosen by the gods to serve them and their magic often aids adventurers who protect the world from varied threats.  

It is said that there were more gods once, and a war, but this was long ago, even before the fall of the eight wizards, and has become mostly myth. The gods are all concerned with the preservation and safety of this world, though methods and motives differ among them.

Most villages and every city contains a temple to the gods, which is largely a gathering place for locals as well as training for clerics, paladins, scholars healers etc. Smaller towns have shrines to specific gods and shrines can be found commonly during travels. The gods are said to respond to prayers spoken in shrines more often and it is rare - though not unheard of at all - to get audiences with at least one god in such places.

OOCly the stories about there being other gods is represented by the fact that infernal entities, the language and realm(s) are almost unheard of. The inhabitants of those realms are often old gods and the servants of them seeking a war back into the world. Much of the celestial-class monsters and entities are pretty much in a constant battle with them on the higher planes. It is, perhaps, also why high-level adventurers are rare, since many tend to be drafted into this war and vanish from the normal world.

Atien and Caldor [Good]

Atien is the god of Creation. It was she who brought the world into being even though the power of all the gods is necessary to sustain it. She is deeply concerned with the preservation of the world and many clerics of the Life domain are drawn to her.

Caldor, her husband, is the god of death. It is he who made the world beyond this one for the dead, though little is known of it by the living. His rule of the afterlife is generally seen as benevolent since spells to bring the dead back to life exist. He is the most beautiful of the gods, and some say the kindest as well.

Muan, Ranbir, L’tosh [Neutral]

Muan is the deity of birth and agriculture. All cities have at least one shine to Muan and no two depictions of the god are the same.

Ranbir is the god of trade, luck, and travel, beloved and feared by merchants. Travellers who do not put some token into the common roadside shrines to the god tend to have more problems befall them than otherwise.

L’tosh is the goddess of knowledge, which some say compasses magic as well. History is within her purview and all scholars venerate her above the other gods.

Ashkatan, Seshan [Evil]
Ashkatan is the god of war. He can be called upon to make and end war, and tends to revel in chaos - though this includes disruptions to social orders and other acts more subtle than detractors of the god might suppose.

Seshan is the trickster, and doesn’t even call themself a god. Seshan appears as any species, neither as male nor female and pretty much takes the piss out of everything, though often with a dark intent.

Clerics serve one god of their choice (unless they are chosen by the god into service). The same applies to paladins.  

The nature of magic:

Wizardry remains the most common (and safest) application of arcane magic. Sorcerers are generally considered dangerous (and sometimes scary, esp. with the stories about wild magic) while Warlocks are less trusted because of the Pacts they make that are poorly understood by others, and sometimes even by the warlocks themselves.

Clerics are generally trusted - depending on the god they serve, of course, and the way in which they serve Them. Clerics can recognize other Clerics - and Paladins - on sight and know what god they serve, though it is rumoured that followers of Seshan can trick this ability if they have to.

Bards and Druids are said to have magic sourced in the world itself, though how that makes it different from divine or arcane magic is often a debate for scholars.

Other-Class magic is generally held to be the result of exposure to magic as far as the common people are concerned, rarer but generally considered less powerful or scary. Most people would be unaware a rogue or fighter could use magic at all in the general run of things - which can be quite useful.

In general, most villages have at least one healer and a few people with cantrips at their disposal though it is often just the mend one. Potion-makers are relatively common because of adventurers, however.

5e Game

PRELIMINARY POST

I have ideas brewing in my head for a 5e D&D campaign (some of them suiting D&D as a setting for specific reasons). As a brief overview of where the GM thought-process is going: level 1 PCs, characters made as a group during 1-2 sessions. Making PCs as a group helps avoid overlap in abilities and figuring out how you want the group to mesh together on meta levels etc. which can be pretty useful. Plan to run it in game1 via Sparkie so we’ll be going more Theatre of the Mind than using grids [unlike 4e, one can do this with 5e]. If you have a character concept that you feel NEEDS grids (for tactics or what have you) chat with me and we’ll work stuff out OOCly. Expect PCs to level every 1-2 sessions early on, 23-4 later on.
Note: if players avoid certain classes, supplements can be worked out. EX: Potion Hut and Potion World supply ample healing potions and will compete for the business of your adventuring party. NPC hirelings to cover a missing class/skill/talent the group wants is entirely possible as well. They may, or may not, be named Bob.

Campaign-wise: the world is made up of varying small city-states with 7 known god and the existence of spells above level 5 is the stuff of myth and legend. (Cue PCs eventually becoming, you know, myth and legend :)) As the world is built on the back of many other nations etc. - and perhaps even gods, but that would likely be heresy to voice aloud, there is very little ore, minerals etc. that is safe to mine. As such, most coinage, supplies, magical relics are recovered by adventurers and sold/traded to the world at large via larger towns and cities in essence. You are rare - because it takes a long time to train people to reach even level 1 and also because not all adventurers last/survive to higher levels - and rewarded for that rarity with boons, gifts etc. as the game progresses.

(OOCly, there are potential downsides: NPCs may think the PCs vastly more powerful than they are and you are going to run into ruins/dungeons/ancient keeps that are far above your paygrade at any point. Most of the ‘easy’ stuff will have been done by other adventuring groups over the last century or so.)

Flavour-stuff: Infernal entities (and the language) are almost unknown, along with most high level monsters, magics etc.  It’s been a few centuries since empires and kingdoms fell apart in various wars and left a series of city-states rather than vast kingdoms  or empires. Feywild and Shadowfell are locations in the world, the elemental planes are known to exist to the adventuring class, but details tend to be not well known. The Underdark has mostly been taken over by a great white wyrm and its allies, so the drow exist bitterly on the surface and there is one city-state that is mostly inhabited by goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and ogres.

Low Life: Character Listing

PCs

Andrea: Electronics-shop worker who can teleport
Esmerelda: Would-be rocker who can manipulate electricity
Selena: Ex-military shut-in with the power to Scare people.
Tully: Telepathic stripper.
Yu: Fixer who can blow things up.


NPCs

Arnold: Scientist as Energon who, thanks to Tully, is developing Theories about powers.
Austin: Addict/Mugger who gains a new power when hurt. Yeah.
Brice: Andrea's friend; can heal appliances but when angered takes on a persona of armour, a sword and firey wings.
Claire: Woman 'kept' at Energon by scientists; she drains life energy for temp. boosts in strength and speed.
Dennis: The brains behind Wes's operation. Scary-smart.
Gary: Runs the electronics shop; secretly knows when and where he'll die.
Grant: 'Friend' of Andrea's who is full of secrets.
Irving: Ryan's friend. Can See things, and is a witch.

Kazimir: Old Russiah man who was part of Cold-War experiments. 

Kevin: Bitter 20-something Selena met; can see into the future a bit.   

Kim: McDonalds employee who can teleport in shadows and is insanely quick. Owns a ninja outfit.
Leo: PI who 'died' Monday night and is now something like a ghost.

Marvin: Chunky 17 year old with climbing powers.   

Ms. Osborne: famous local gossip. 

Ryan: Tully's little brother. Can turn into a the cutest doggie you ever saw! (Like that, but a mutt. Also cuter :))

Sandra: Can command people to do things; whereabouts unknown.   

Spencer: College student who can fire devastating energy blasts.
Tyner: Wes's gang, can turn into fire and control it. Unstable.
Wes: Gang member who now runs at least four gangs. Very strong and tough.
Yavin: 'low level face exploder' who works for Wes.
Zac: Teenager who can create butterflies and fly using fairy wings.


British Operatives

Ches (mentioned)
Mal/Chai/Hod: young thug with power over the earth. Currently trapped in shadows.
Zach: old balding man.

Low Life: Introduction.

It is Wednesday morning in Clearview Estates. It isn’t like last Wednesday. Honestly, it’s not even like last week in all the ways that matter. Oh, it’s the same crap living conditions, the same troubles with the authorities, but there is something new. A frisson in the air. Stories that are half-doubted, but there are many of them, growing every day. People who are doing things that people can’t do. Fire in fingertips. Flight. A girl who walks through shadows as though they were doors. People who can touch walls and break them with no effort at all. Some stories are about saints and devils, but most are just about weirdness. About people being able to somehow make the impossible real.

And you are one of those stories. Perhaps it started early Monday morning, when everything began. Some people claim there was a light show or meteor shower, but no one is sure if that was true. What’s now is the stories began, and they’ve been building. Everyone knows one, or knows someone who knows some story they half-believe is true. The Estate is changing, but no one knows into what. No one knows why, or even how. Did the government experiment on people? Were there aliens involved? No one knows.

There seem to be no answers save for those found within. Gifts. Talents. Abilities beyond the ordinary. Some are welcomed, some shunned, some baffling or useless. But they mean the world has changed, in ways large and small, and no one can be sure where it is leading.

Only there have been more police cars around during the day – and even at night – than usual. As though the authorities are aware the zeitgeist has changed, but have no idea what to make of it yet.

It is a warm spring day, and the world feels as though it is holding its breath, but that could be your imagination and nothing more ....

GM Note: The first use of power(s) is often tied to emotion. Maybe trying to get someone to be quiet, shut off an alarm, deal with having forgot your keys: something triggers you, and power(s) manifest. You’ve no idea if you have more, or really how to test them, or how many people like this exist.

LOW LIFE: an RPG Campaign

(To ring in the new year; this probably wouldn't run until after Mid-Feb. since I won't be around for the start of that month.)

Low Life is centred about low lives, the disenfranchised and the unfranchisable. The PCs all live in a housing project that the police try to avoid when possible – it’s the kind of place where even those who live there would consider a carpet bombing to be a civic improvement, the sort of housing that it’s a crime to live in but somehow not a crime to own and rent out. Landlords are delinquent at best, malicious at worst, and it’s the last step before the streets for many families. The Everway Housing Project started life as an attempt to boost the lives of the destitute, back in the day when living in the projects just meant you were in a slump and being on welfare wasn’t seen as a moral flaw. Now it’s the kind of place the city likes to pretend doesn’t exist, one bad apple in a bunch scattered together like boils in the heart of what once was a vibrant downtown core. You live in a place of the violent and grubby desperation that lies under all the grandiose ambitions of the world, and you know just know wrong the american dream can be and just how ugly those who can help really act once the media can’t see them.

No one admits to living here if they can avoid it; many employers write off anyone who comes from it as a matter of course. If the police come, it’s in riot gear and in the knowledge almost no one is going to be stupid enough to try and video them. Not everyone is a criminal – far from it – but it’s easier to be one than anything else, and too easy to fall when you’ve got nothing left to live for at all. Most TVs have been sold to pawn shops, many others are broken as a result of items being hurled through them after seeing another report about affluenza or another TV show set in some mythical America that doesn’t exist at all.

Only something has changed. Perhaps an accident, or some government weapon. One day you were normal, and now – now you’re something more than human. You can do things other people can’t. Things out of stories and comic books, are an impossibility walking about a world of drab possibilities.

Longfellow wrote that ‘One half the world must sweat and groan that the other half may dream’... only now it is far more than half, and your groans have been among them. You have power. And those in charge are probably shitting themselves right now...

System: Unsure, at the moment. The Cypher System Superhero variant might work well because it would work better for more gritty games. I think? The OVA-Risus variant could work as well (and require less work on everyone’s part).

Note: PCs will have 1 or 2 powers. Power ceiling will be at weak-marvel range. In other words, you can have Invulnerability, but it will have limits. Be super strong, but only to so many limited tons of weight. Be fast, not still visible to people. Etc.

If you have one power, you can pass entirely as human if you want to. If you have two, you don’t pass as human anymore. (Exactly how far you want to take that is up to each PC; consider Nightcrawler in the x-men as a rough starting point – you need to hide your appearance.)

Optionally, you can have your power be stronger than the norm, but when you push it your appearance changes etc.

Theme/Tone: This game is about what happens when the least in society gain power, and how society responds. It is up to the players if their characters decide to be villains, heroes, or inhabit the shades of grey everyone else lives in their lives in. We live in a digital age, and that will affect everything for good or ill – you won’t be able to hide, but neither will the regular media be able to smear you quite as easily as they would otherwise.

Note: this will be a superhero-style game if players want that: my default assumption is that PCs will take steps to improve their own lives via power(s) – ideally with the aid of others, since they aren’t that powerful on their lonesome – and no one is going to put on suits to fight crime. Which doesn’t mean PCs can’t do that, only that it should be run by other players and such as well as to what tone people want the game to take.

The arc the campaign itself takes will be determined by the players and GM prior to the start of the game so that everyone is roughly on the same page. 

Numenera: Campaign Info.

                     The village of Milvane

Milvane is a large village of some 500 people in the kingdom of Thaemor. The kingdom is not known for its wealth and the long-term goal of Milvane is to supply wealth and for the town to grow into a city. The mayoral family take this quite seriously, seeking to attract adventurers to the town in order to make surrounding areas safer as well as use it as a base of operations with resulting tax breaks and so forth. To the end of growing the town, Milvane is famous – infamous in some cases – for a marked tolerance of mutants and mutations.

The mayor’s office is a hereditary position that the -Oscan family take seriously, each mayor in general running things for 20-30 years barring accident or assassination, and having/adopting 3+ children who decide with the rest of the family which of them will succeed as the next mayor and so forth. -Oscans have been the mayors for well over 300 years and in that time only one has been removed from office via assassination for being unfit; they’ve no desire for that to ever happen again and tend to be quite competent diplomats. All members of the family are required to serve in the town guard in some capacity during their lives, if only in administration or record keeping if they are incapable of other work.

Town guard: The town have a ten-member guard who work to keep the mayor’s peace and the roads clear. As the town has grown, a distinction has been made between the town guard proper and the border patrol, the guards who deal with weird monsters, weird buildings found near the village and so forth. The patrol is purely volunteer and quite dangerous. Members of the mayor’s family cannot be in the border patrol unless the family allows it (owing to a surplus of mayoral candidates or the disposition of said heir).

The Table: Named for a red table tinted with blue in the centre of town that is used for meetings, the Table is a town council (of which the mayor is part) who deal with the general running of the town. Local merchants can be members along with other prominent citizens, amounting to between 5-7 citizens at any one time. There is always at least one guard and at least one mutant on it. In general, those whose professions are considered vital to the town don’t have time to be members, so other members of their family speak in their stead; others who wish to be members with too much zeal tend to be politely declined. The Table have no power to overrule the mayor or guard.

        The table proper is an artifact of unknown provenance and material which appears to be a 7’ round table balanced on a .5 mm base that gets smaller as it goes down into the earth. All attempts to harm or scan it have failed and no one is sure how deep into the earth it goes.

The Justice: An appointed position, the Justice can sometimes be a member of the mayors family and is always a citizen in good standing. Their job is to mete out justice in disputes between citizens, with the authority to use the town guard to enforce this. The Table can overrule the Justice if need be, but this is seldom necessary. Justices serve 3-5 year terms and just deal with civil infractions, the guard dealing with murder, theft and the like.

        Thieves are required to pay back what was stolen; if a life was taken, the thief’s life is often forfeit. Repeat offenders for crimes can stand to lose hands, arms and so forth or be banished from the town. Banishment is also the punishment for excessive disturbance of the peace and the like, naturally.

The current justice is a Glaive named Bozek who was promoted from the town guard two years ago. The mayor is one Zia-Oscan who is noted for her deal in expanding the town to that of a city, as her father did before her. Her plans are generally considered more radical and much may rely on the success of the people she has hired to help benefit the town.

NOTABLE PEOPLE/PLACES

Lady Suskind’s Sanctuary: Lady Suskind is long since dead, but her Sanctuary lives on as the local apothecary and place of healing and rest. The Sanctuary accepts the grievously wounded and seeks to replace lost or ruined limbs with numenera and find ways to help people with crippling mutations. It is currently run by Abed and Odelar, conjoined twins who take quiet pride in helping anyone they can.

The Drill: a drill-shaped triangle, the drill extends up three stories from a base in the ground, is pale green and was clearly once part of some other machine. It has been in the middle of of Milvane as long as the town has stood and is used by the local Aeon Priests as their clave. The clave consists of 1 priest and two apprentices, the latter of which can often be found down the road at the Sanctuary helping the twins. The current priest is a dour woman named Jisell who sees this posting as a waste of her vaunted talents and gifts for deciphering numenera.

The Storehouse: the local store, a large single-room pale blue building whose interior is at least six times as large as the exterior. Exactly what causes this is unknown but the Storehouse consists of six rooms all at different temperatures and is used for storing many goods in the town.- The Aeon Priests have been refused permission to examine it in depth.

The Keep: the headquarters of the Guard/Border Patrol, this is a pale stone building that according to legend simply grew up out of the ground when the last Keep was burned down by a raiding party of abhumans over 200 years ago. The Keep is cool and solid, with cells and storage for all the Guard need. The rumours of alien whispers and laughter in it are mostly just stories to frighten new guards with.

The Dome: A single-room vast dome of a building, the dome has one entrance (which is always open), transparent walls in some places that serve as windows, remains at spring temperatures at all times and is the same colour as the Table, leading some to believe the two are connected. The interior is divided by flexible walls that were once called up out of the floor, though no one living now knows how. The Justice has their office in the hall along with the mayor, the mayor’s family living in the back end of the Hall proper.

The Smithy: Milvane is home to a famous shapesmith named Wohl who can shape armour and weapons from almost any substaine; the shapesmiths are famous for blue glowing metallic arms that they can shape into tools in order to cut, slice and shape various numenera into useful items. His daughter is currently in training to take over when he dies; one of his two sons also inherited the ability, but hasn’t the patience to be a shapesmith and is currently serving in the border patrol.

The Wailing Wall: the current primary defense of the town (after the Guard and the Patrol, naturally), the wall is a spell known to some of the town that, when uttered, calls up the spirits of the dead to defend the town against attack. It is known to only work if truly needed and was a recent discovery some 50-odd years ago. How often it can be used – and if the dead are willing to be used – is a closely guarded secret.

The Chamber: somewhere under the Keep lies a chamber full of active cyphers. The Chamber was found a few years ago and believed to be able to store cyphers without adverse affects: this belief turned out to be wrong as the cyphers in the chamber attained an alien consciousness that has forbidden entrance to their home ever since.

        Weird around Milvane

Thaemor is a poor contry and has no resources to keep more than major roads clear, and certainly none to clear out off ruins and explore the things that lie buried under the Ninth World. As such, Milvane has its share of strangeness to it.

Palot: A small ruin of a settlement consisting of 30-40 people a couple of hours south of Milvane, Palot is home to mutants, many of whom end up in Milvane. No one is sure why the rate of mutation is so high in Palot but those born in the area cannot conceive or produce progeny in any other area for the most part, which is one reason for the relatively steady population. Those with non-viable mutants or ones that are flat-out repulsive are generally not welcomed to Milvane, and some choose to remain in Palot believing it to be their destiny.

The Flowing Field: A farmers field south of the town; the farmer was tilling the earth when he struck some device that had been pushed up near the surface in heavy rains recently. The end result was that the field has turned into a flowing golden liquid that is unbearably hot but has done nothing to leave the bounds of the field. Attempts to harvest of communicate with it have proved futile.

The Glass Lord: a humanoid figure standing some 8’ tall, the Glass Lord is made of green translucent glass and claims these lands are his by right of blood and conquest. He is able to produce weapons of glass and even create servants from his own body but, being glass, they are easy to destroy. Every time he is destroyed, a new glass lord shows up some time later to make the same claim all over again. Destroying the glass lord has become a rite of passage in the Guard and the day after is as a local holiday.

Recent local news

There used to be a small moss-encrusted monolith floating in the air a couple of days south of Milvane. As monoliths go it wasn’t much to speak of: two people could barely fit on top and it was only 20’ tall though it did hover in the sky above the area. Someone, somehow, broke it and the pieces fell to the earth. The village of Dalmen that had been below it was simply gone -- replaced by a forest that grew up from the remains of the mossolith, as the locals had disparagingly dubbed it.

     The forest is full of old-growth trees and seems safe enough though not a single native species has moved into it in the three months it has existed. This is believed to have been behind the town council agreeing with the mayor that if anyone is going to explore Milvane in depth, it should be people with an interest in the town surviving the experience.

The armoured: a creature – 5’ tall, clad in a one-piece solid dark suit with no marks on it – has been seen north of Milvane, wandering about. The suit seems to be a weapon of some kind and defends the post, who appears to be searching for something though speaks in no known language and seems lost. Attempts to examine the armour or claim it have all failed thus far.

The Orgundith: No one has explored it yet (save for two guards who did not return); revealed by the recent rainfall, the Orgundith is a tunnel sloping down north of the town ending in a doorway made of alien material. Perhaps the oddest thing is that once it was revealed everyone in the area knew what it was called and roughly where it was; if this is an invitation or a warning remains to be seen.

Plague of Demons

To give the new side game a proper title.

The premise is that it's 1345, 2 years before the Black Plague strikes, and the current PC, Pam, is a demon hunter. Basically, many (if not all) plagues in history were caused by demons prior to this, and Genghis Khan's invasion was actually a demonic army, or at least had demons in it. Prior to this, demons had little knowledge of how to fight wars.

Pam is a demon hunter for the Order, an organization funded by the Church to protect Christendom -- and the rest of the world -- from the demons of Hell. Pam's family is well known in the church and produce many members of the order and high-ranking priests from the far-off land of England. She's joined the Order, been paired up with 2 other novices (Rose, a healer, and Bede, a thief/magician) who are seeking a supposed Necromancer or Sorcerer north of Rome and Saint Jude's Academy, where they get trained.

Normally, novices wouldn't be sent out on their own, but the Order seems to be short handed and their true mission is to find signs of demonic activity close to Rome. They've been ordered by Abbot Costello to not engage the Necromancer and asked by Gerard, the spear-wielding member of the Order who took them on their first mission, to find out if the Necromancer is a real one and if he can die.

At present they've reached the city of Reti and so far encountered people spell-bound to raise the dead, a sorcerer making a magical Gate and, currently, a weapon in Reti capable of killing Healers. The Necromancer seems aware of them and is throwing up roadblocks to slow them down, but to what end remains unknown.