Monsters, Horror, Gaming

Month: April 2021

Hexopoly

One of my players and playtesters (credited as sparkletwist in Genial Jack Volume 2) has programmed a fully playable version of Monopoly on Discord. She recently customized a version to play in the world of Hex, so I thought I’d share the rules. Having played this a few times now, I have to say I much prefer it to standard monopoly – spells add an extra dimension of tactical challenge, and some of the more unusual cards and features, like the Plasmic Woe potentially escaping and ending the game early, definitely enliven the usual Monopoly gameloop.

Everything below this point (including the wonderful art in a pastiche of my style, and the commentary on spell use) is sparkletwist’s content, lightly edited.

Rules of the Game

Unless noted, Hexopoly is played like standard Monopoly and all standard rules of Monopoly apply. All players in Hexopoly start with $2000 on Delirum Castle, and roll two six-sided dice to move around the hexagonal board, pictured here:

The board consists of the following types of spaces:

  • Property – There are twelve color groups representing land, as well as a group of four Marketplaces, and six Skycabs.
  • Delirium Castle – The starting space. Players also collect $300 each time they pass here.
  • Mooncross – The second corner. Players landing here collect a random spell card.
  • Nullworth/Spellcage – The third corner. Equivalent to Jail (and Just Visiting) in standard Monopoly. Magic may not be cast on this space, in or out of Spellcage.
  • Feypark – The fourth corner. Characters landing here may be given a gift, find a spell card, or be the victim of a strange fey enchantment, determined randomly.
  • Warded Ward – The fifth corner. Every time someone lands here, there is an increasing chance the Plasmic Woe will escape, immediately ending the game.
  • Go to Spellcage – The last corner before returning to Delirium Castle. It sends any player landing on it to Spellcage, just like “Go to Jail” in standard Monopoly.
  • Arcanum Tax – Replaces “Income Tax.” You must pay a tax of either 10% of your net worth or $300, whichever is lower.
  • Church of the Magistra – Replaces “Luxury Tax.” You must pay a tithe of $75.
  • Entropy and Bureaucratic Bijoux – Spaces where you draw a card and carry out its instructions, equivalent to Chance and Community Chest, respectively.

There are twelve color groups representing land, as well as a group of four Marketplaces, and six Skycabs. Rent for the colored properties works the same as in Monopoly, though the rents rise more slowly from group to group due to there being more properties. Brown, light blue, orange, red, dark green, and dark blue are unchanged, and magenta and yellow as well as the new purple, olive, light green, and pink groups have rent values interpolated from these.

Buildings cost $40 on the cheapest side of the board, increasing by $40 to $80, $120, etc., all the way up to $240 to build on dark green or dark blue. Buildings are salons (equivalent to houses), academies (equivalent to hotels), and universities, which can be built for the normal building cost by building again on a property with an academy. In addition to the normal limits on buildings, each color group may only have one university. The university rent is generally around $500 above the rent of a hotel.

Skycabs work like railroads, with rent instead being dependent on the number owned: $25 for one, $50 for two, $100 for three, $200 for four, $300 for five, and $400 for all six. Marketplaces work like utilities, where the rent is equal to the die roll times a multiplier, which also depends on the number owned: 4x for one Marketplace, 10x for two, 20x for three, and 40x for all four.

The biggest difference between Hexopoly and standard Monopoly is the use of spells. All players start the game with a random spell. You get an additional random spell card when you roll double sixes, or when you land on Mooncross, or on any university whether or not you own it. Some random Feypark events and Entropy and Bureaucratic Bijoux cards also grant spells.

Each spell card can only be cast once. Spells may be traded among players.

The following spells are available:

  • Charm – You talk your way out of paying rent owed.
  • Demonic Contract – A demon grants you $666, but you then lose $66 at the beginning of your next ten turns.
  • Haste – On the next roll, the target will roll three dice, and any pair of two counts as doubles.
  • Hexcrawl – Instead of rolling, advance 6 spaces.
  • Slow – On the next roll, the target will roll one die. Rolling doubles is of course not possible.
  • Mage’s Mansion – Add a salon to any property with space for one. The spell can be cast even if there are no salons available, nor does the property need to be in a complete group or built evenly. You need not even own the property, but it can’t be unowned.
  • Magic Missile – The target will lose between $20 and $50 [you could roll 1d4 to determine in an analog version of the game], and will roll 1d4+1 to move on the next turn. Magic missiles can also be cast at summoned monsters in order to get rid of them faster. Cannot be used during auctions.
  • Miasma – Places a miasma cloud on any property, which prevents rents from being collected. The owner must land there (or another property in the same group) to clean it up.
  • Mirror Image – Roll three different moves and you get to choose which one is the real you. The two illusions then vanish.
  • Polymorph – The target is transformed into a frog for 3 turns. Frogs neither collect nor pay rent, and cannot cast spells. They can engage in all other business transactions, because a frog buying real estate isn’t actually that weird for Hex.
  • Suggestion – Use to propose a “reasonable” trade that will be auto-accepted. A reasonable trade consists of a one-for-one exchange of property that does not break up a complete group, or a cash offer equal to the property’s value. This definition of “reasonable” of course can and should be abused!
  • Summon – Conjure a rampaging otherworldly beast that will move around the board causing costly damage to property— including yours, if it lands there. The Warders will eventually defeat it.
  • Teleport – Teleport directly to any property. You need not own it, but you will pay rent if you don’t. You don’t count as passing Delirium Castle.
  • Thieving Hand – Steal up to $200 (limited to cash on hand) from the target. Cannot be used during auctions.

Many winning strategies for standard Monopoly also apply to Hexopoly: you want to remain in Spellcage (jail) when there’s nothing left to buy, it’s still generally a good idea to build your groups up to three houses as fast as you can, the last property in each group has slightly higher rents so should be built first if you can’t develop the whole group, and there’s really no reason to unmortgage properties with trivial rents.

The board layout is somewhat different, though orange and red are still good investments due to increased traffic from players being sent to Spellcage and being let out. Of the other properties on this half of the board, yellow is still decent, and light green and pink are also about as valuable as yellow, albeit with somewhat higher rents and house prices. Light blue is slightly better than it is in standard Monopoly, since salons only cost $40 and the rents are the same. Purple and olive are a bit lackluster, but the houses are still pretty cheap; the rents won’t finish anyone off who isn’t already in bad shape, but the income can help you build and trade.

If you can get two groups, controlling one side or corner is good, as is holding one cheaper group and one of the more pricy groups, using the modest rents from the cheap group to pay for expensive houses on the expensive group.

Skycabs (railroads) aren’t likely to win the game by themselves, but, just like in Monopoly they can make a valuable secondary source of income, especially if you have a color group that you can’t develop due to lack of cash on hand. Getting four out of six skycabs is generally good enough (for a $200 rent) but if you can get all six, that’s even better. On the other hand, if you have only one skycab, it can make useful trade leverage to complete a group of your own, though you should avoid giving an opponent their sixth skycab if you can.

Marketplaces (utilities) are similar to standard Monopoly, but there are now four instead of only two, with rents of 20x and 40x the die roll for owning three or four of them. This means that if you own all four marketplaces, you collect an average of $280 rent, which also means that unlike Monopoly’s utilities, in Hexopoly, having the four marketplaces is a secondary investment equivalent to owning four or five skycabs. If a player can amass both a sizable number of skycabs and marketplaces, this is more dangerous than any single color group, even orange or red.

The biggest strategic change in Hexopoly comes, of course, from the spells. Here is a brief summary of some ways to use each spell effectively.

When to use charm is generally situational, but it’s best to save it for a rent that would impact you severely. If you can pay a $300 rent by mortgaging a couple of properties, that will probably be worth it instead of charming, especially if Hordewalk has a university on it. If you have one, you might also consider signing a demonic contract instead for one of these mid-tier rents.

Demonic contract gives you $666, which must then be repaid over time. This is actually a much better deal than mortgaging, though the steady cash drain can also ruin your day. It’s best to be proactive with demonic contract, as the trivial rents you collect each turn from single unmortgaged properties can go a long way to giving you the needed $66 per turn, but you can’t collect these rents if you’re already overleveraged. Also, pay attention to the demon’s face: he has a surly frown if you have enough cash on hand to repay your outstanding debt, and a wicked grin if you do not.

Cards like haste and slow are used to give some degree over movement, whether yours or that of an opponent. Haste is valuable for getting around the board quickly, and with 10 being one of the most common rolls, it might also be a good time to try casting haste if you’re on one skycab and hoping to buy the next one— or on an opponent, if you own the skycabs and not much in between! Slow is useful when an opponent is near one of your properties to give a greater chance of landing on it, or you can cast slow on yourself when you’re near a property group you’re hoping to buy.

Mage’s mansion builds a salon anywhere, but building a single salon won’t actually make you much money. If you can manage to get three of these cards, it might be worth developing a lone expensive property, but otherwise you should probably just save it to build a house on a group you’ve already developed. On the other hand, if things are going against you, might as well build that mansion!

Magic missile costs an opponent a bit of money, which is useful to annoy cash-poor rivals, but its real power is that it reduces the movement roll to 1d4+1, i.e., 2 to 5. The best time to fire a magic missile is thus when they are two spaces from the first property in a well-developed group you own— there is then a 75% chance they’ll land on it.

Miasma is useful for shutting down a high-rent property, and it can be even more valuable in collusion with another player who also has one; it is often a winning play to follow up another player’s miasma against a third player with one of your own on the same group.

Mirror image gives even better control over you move than haste or slow, and should be cast when you’re close to somewhere you really want to land, or somewhere you really want to avoid. You can also combine a mirror image with a haste or slow, giving you triple the potential value from the spell.

Polymorph turns you or an opponent into a frog, which cannot collect or pay rent. Polymorph is most often used offensively against a player with dangerous properties, but it can also be used defensively if you’re coming to a dangerous stretch of the board. It only lasts three turns, so try to time it so that it maximizes the amount of potential income lost for opponents, while not really harming your own prospects.

Suggestion lets you trade one property for another, regardless of what they are. Of course, this usually means completing a color group while giving an opponent a property they can really do very much with. On the other hand, if you’re on the receiving end of a suggestion, try to make the best of it. You’re going to have gotten something of a raw deal, but you’ll always gain something, so try to do what you can with your new gains, including trading it to another player. You can also offer the cash value of a property for a suggestion, which is a good way to pick up cheap property, as it ends up being far more valuable than its low retail price. Buying higher-end property like greens or blues is less worthwhile, and you’re better off making a trade.

Summon makes a rampaging monster appear at your current location which then goes around costing everyone money as it smashes up the board. The amount is randomized, but it is generally around $25 per salon, or $125 for an academy and $150 for a university. You generally want to cast summon if you have far less exposure than your opponent(s), and preferably cast it near their properties rather than yours. Also remember that you can shoot a summoned monster with a magic missile to try to get rid of it early.

Teleport lets you move to any property on the board, which has a number of valuable applications. If you own two properties in a group, you can teleport to the third one and buy it. Teleporting to somewhere near Delerium Castle is also possible, but it’s often a better idea to hold onto the teleport and try to fulfill a quest goal instead, especially if it is on a property you can then buy.

Thieving hand is pretty self-explanatory most of the time. The main thing to remember is that it is limited to cash on hand, so try to steal from a player who has at least $200. It may not always be most effective to steal from the richest player: often a player who has amassed a pile of cash doesn’t really have anything to spend it on. Stealing someone’s last $200 before they can build houses with it is sometimes a better idea!

Also remember that spells are commodities that can be traded, just like property.

Hexian Cosmologies

The Six Planes

Although a multitude of pocket-dimensions, demiplanes, pseudo-planes, and otherworldly subcreations have been documented by metaphysicians, mystics, and wizards, reality seems to consist of six primary planes. Although there are innumerable cosmologies, religions, and metaphysical models, relatively few dispute the reality of these six planes, though some may posit the potential existence of further planes of existence that remain inaccessible. The six principal planes are as follows:

Anathema

Little is known about the alien universe known as Anathema, homeland of the Unspeakable Ones and possibly the Librarians themselves. Some have suggested that this plane of existence is the source of all magic, and that spells are in fact spurts of this aberrant reality spilling into our own world. Whether or not this is true, Anathema is said to be so fundamentally different from our own existence that no sapient mind native to this reality could withstand its strangeness – even the best-honed mind would be reduced to madness in moments.

The Dreamlands

The world of sleep is sometimes called the Dreamlands, a plane of existence to which countless dreamers nightly travel. Most confine their explorations to the misty outskirts of this amorphous realm, but studied dreamers can journey further to discover such places as Dylath-Leen, Ooth-Nargai, Quiddity, Fiddler’s Green, Pegana, and of course the famous Plateau of Leng, that spider-haunted region of horror from whence the Lengians originate. In the Dreamlands, logic and sense are amorphous and the very physical substance of the world is malleable. Many gates and portals to the Dreamlands can be found scattered throughout the planes, including the Gate of Horn in the city of Hex.

Faerie

Faerie is the world of the Fair Folk, more properly known as Elfhame to its denizens. Unlike the Dreamlands, Faerie is subject to very strict rules – albeit rules that mortals find bizarre or nonsensical. Faerie is saturated with magic: indeed, the elves might be said to be made of magic. The capitol of Faerie is the city of Gossamer, which lies at the converge of its four principal realms – Logris, Annwn, Tír na nÓg, and Mag Mell – but Elfhame functionally consists of countless individual fiefdoms ruled by powerful nobles, though there are also various unclaimed lands given over to strange beasts. Pathways to Faerie are reasonably common but difficult to find unless one knows where to look. Several can be found in the Tangle, as well the Feypark of Hex, and in many other places throughout the Mortal World.

Jotunheim

The world of giants, Jotunheim was once accessible from the other planes, but has ceased to be so, apparently knocked loose from the rest of the cosmology, reputedly due to an ancient conflict between its denizens and the Fair Folk, the “Enormity Wars.” Said to be a place of impossible vastness and scale, Jotunheim is now but a strange memory; however, remnants of this plane can still be found in the other worlds, including various giant-folk, trolls, and other creatures. Many speculate that oddities such as the Godwhale Genial Jack or the gigantic die that makes up the Propitious Isle may have originated from Jotunheim, but the most obvious fragment is the island-continent of Terra Prodigiosa, where trees tower high as mountains and the mountains themselves pierce the sky.

The Material Plane

The Material Plane, or Mortal Realm, also called the Waking World, is the plane on which Hex resides – a vast universe, of which the planet of Og is but one of countless others. Some believe that the Material is but one of infinite variations of the same plane, repeating endlessly through time and space. A veil lies between the Mortal Realm and the Netherworld, the Ethereal, a realm of shadows and ghosts, but it is not a true plane – more like a kind of membrane or liminal state between planes.

The Netherworld

Also known as Hell, the Netherworld is the afterlife, the destination to which the souls of the departed arrive. Some virtuous souls (or those with sufficient leverage over the denizens of the Netherworld) may retire to the various Meadows of Rest or choose reincarnation or the comforts of oblivion. Most souls simply dwell in the Netherworld as citizens, some eventually earning passage back to the world of the living via reincarnation. The truly vile are condemned to the lower levels of Hell – some say by their own guilt rather than any cosmic law – where demons of various kinds act as tormentors of the damned. The Netherworld is ruled over by the Chthonic Gods, primordial deities of earth and death and bone.

Twelve Cosmologies

Metaphysicians in Hex have a number of different cosmological models. Their speculations are largely untested, although travel between this world and others is certainly known – conjuration magic, of course, largely depends on such travel. Most of the denizens of other worlds, however, have no greater understanding as to the nature of the multiverse than do the learned cosmologists or ontologists of Hex. The following thus represents the most commonly accepted hypotheses rather than established fact, and constitute only a smattering of the many models and theories denizens of Og, and indeed the six planes of existence more broadly, have posited.

Notably missing here is any form of Elfin cosmology. The Fair Folk lack all religion save for certain forms of ancestor worship; this distaste for matters theological seems to extend to metaphysics, and when asked about how the cosmos is organized or how it came to be, most Elves respond with perplexity and indifference, wondering how anyone could possibly consider the question important. It has been suggested this may be a side-effect of Elfin egocentrism (though saying as much is not recommended in earshot of the Fair Folk themselves).

Celestial Toad Theory

According to the Dagonians, the entire multiverse is in fact being born aloft through the void by the Star Toad, an unfathomably huge being who swims the astral seas and leaps from cosmic lily pad to lily pad. The planes are in fact the Star Toad’s young, who are currently eggs being borne upon her back. These eggs will eventually hatch, ending the universe as we know it and transforming it into a new and sublime form. This is what Dagonian mystics believe occurred to Jotunheim. In Dagonian lore, the Netherworld is a stillborn larva which will never mature to adulthood, while Anathema is a form of mutant, a “rotten child”; the Mortal Plane, the Dreamlands, and Faerie, however, are coequal sibling-planes who will eventually hatch together and ascend into the void to become Star Toads themselves. This process can be assisted by observing certain spiritual and ethical axioms.

The Cosmic Web

In Lengian cosmology, the multiverse was spun into existence by the Mother of Spiders, with the Dreamlands at its centre. The other planes are in fact morsels which have become snared in the Cosmic Web. Their destiny is to be consumed by the Mother of Spiders so that the Cosmic Web can be sustained. Jotunheim, in this cosmology, managed to wriggle free from the Web and has now passed on to some distant corner of creation, beyond the Mother’s grasp. One of the Sacred Secrets of the Mother’s worship – revealed only to certain of Her most devoted nuns – is that the Lengian diaspora throughout the planes will hasten the Devouring, as the Lengians are the Mother’s literal young, implanted into the planes; eventually they will eat these planes from the inside-out, like the parasitic larvae of certain arachnids and insects.

Cultivated Universe Theory

This theory, common among Transmuters and specialists in the Old City, argues that the multiverse was not actively designed in the sense posited by Magisterialists but was rather “grown” intentionally by the Elder Species, often the Librarians specifically. As evidence for this theory, Cultivars (as the theory’s proponents are called) point to various Librarian technologies which seem to indicate such Elders were growing additional universes in this one. Many believe that Anathema is a level “above” the other five planes, as the homeworld of the Elders, though some have also argued that Anathema itself was likely cultivated by some other, even older species, possibly with no point of true origin. Certain radical Cultivar theorists claim that eventually universe-creation could be revived on the Material or other planes, producing new universes – and that perhaps, eventually, another version of Anathema will be created, which will then give rise to another version of the Elder Species, who will then cultivate universes similar to the Material, and so on ad infinitum.

Demonism

When asked about the nature of the universe, Demons describe reality in vertical terms, with the Netherworld at the base of reality, the bedrock from which all else emerges. According to Demonic metaphysics, the Netherworld is the bubbling cauldron of everything, a steaming, sizzling sea of energy which gave birth to souls, eternal beings who gradually explored the Netherworld and then began to ascend – first to the Mortal Realm and Jotunheim, where they took on physical bodies like deep-sea divers wearing suits to explore the reaches of the ocean, then on to the more rarefied realms of Faerie and the Dreamlands, and finally to the terrifying Outer Realms of Anathema. Over time, however, this grand ascent will cease and reverse, with all creation collapsing back into the Netherworld once more, perhaps forever, and darkness and death will reign illimitable.

The Godhive

The waspkin have a monist view of reality which is interestingly both broadly congruent and distinct from views such as Tenebrous Idealism or Cultivated Universe Theory. Pantheists and panpsychists, they believe that all beings, objects, matter, and spirit are enmeshed in a complexly branching network which together forms a harmonious totality, comparable to an individual consciousness, but greater than any individual creature’s mind. The Elder Trees, in this cosmology, are not “gods” as such but embodied symbols of the divine immanence of Nature, making visible what is all around us – the truth that everything is connected, and that what seem to be individual beings are ultimately One, a unity which human translators term the “Godhive,” though the waspkin have indicated the term is a rather anthropocentric rendition. In this sense, the six planes are simply parts of the Godhive – the waspkin refer to them as “Cells.” The waspkin in fact suggest that the six planes may be only the most familiar Cells of the Godhive, and that other Godhives may also exist, themselves but Cells in an even larger totality, and so on in ever larger and grander structures.

The Great Game

Cultists of the Antinomian describe the universe as a fantastically complex game which the Antinomian himself invented, played by a host of gods at the Laughing Lord’s table. Proponents of this viewpoint point to the prevalence of randomness in the universe as evidence that reality itself is governed by celestial rolls of the dice. In this theory, all living beings are essentially game pieces being moved about the “boards” of the six planes for the amusement of the Antinomian and his guests, playthings for the Lawbreaker. This view has significant overlap with the claims of Tenebrous Idealism and the Universal Play model, though followers of the Antinomian suggest that given the status of the world-as-game, it behooves us to endeavour to amuse the Laughing Mad God and his friends as best we can, in hopes that we will not be discarded.

Magisterialism

Devotees of the Magistra argue that the universe is a simulation which they believe has been programmed by an intelligence which they call the Magistra, a remote over-goddess who almost never interferes in her creation save through occasional miracles, interventions by which she rewrites the cosmic code. According to this theory, the universe is essentially a gigantic machine, an analytical engine of astonishing complexity. Magic, in the view of Magisterialists, is a way of hacking the cosmic source-code of creation, reconfiguring it for new uses. Some believe that select consciousnesses who impress the Magistra with their creativity and ingenuity will be rewarded by transcending the simulation, having their consciousnesses implanted into new forms in the upper level of reality the Magistra herself occupies. A number of Magisterialists claim that Anathema itself is not a true part of the simulation but some manner of virus introduced into the system by unknown agents. Many gnomes also hold to versions of Magisterialism.

Mythosolipsistic Subcreationism

A popular recent theory among Hexian metaphysicians, Mythosolipsistic Subcreationism, or MSS for short, advances the suggestion that all planes of reality are fundamentally extensions of humanoid consciousness. According to this theory, the Material World is generated by our conscious minds, the Netherworld is a reflection of our elemental desires and drives, the Dreamlands are generated from our anxieties, fears, and secret wishes, Faerie is a distorted manifestation of our laws, narratives, and stories, and Anathema is quite literally a plane of madness. How then, to explain Jotunheim? MSS has struggled with this errant plane, with some believing it is a kind of tumour (“overgrown”) which was somehow excised, others insisting it never truly existed and that the Behemoth bones scattered throughout the world are a kind of prank on the part of the Elder Species.

Planar Budding Theory

Originally advanced by certain fungoid thinkers, Planar Budding Theory has gained traction among a group of Hexian metaphysicians as an alternative to other popular ontologies. Like MSS it centres the Material, but holds that other planes are just as “real” as our own and not dependent on consciousness, positing that the planes formed by a process called Planar Budding, wherein a plane eventually splits in two in response to some dramatic cosmic Event. These Events have included the emergence of life and thus of death, which led to the budding of the Netherworld from the Material; the development of consciousness and unconsciousness, which led to the budding of the Dreamlands from the Material; the appearance of language and narrative, which led to the budding of Faerie from the Dreamlands; and the development of war, which led to the budding of Jotunheim from Faerie. Anathema has been posited as another budding from the Dreamlands, but some Planar Budding Theorists hold it is a second “original” universe, or possibly that the Material itself was preceded by Anathema.

The Universal Play

Followers of the Queen in Yellow have suggested that the entire universe is an intricate play being conducted by a figure they called the Dramaturge, who is himself a servant of the Queen, his patron. According to this theory, all of reality is a kind of performance being put on in the Court of Carcosa for the Queen in Yellow’s enjoyment, sustained by the divine imagination of the Queen and her courtiers. Some believe the play to be improvisational (Libertarian Carcosans), while others insist it is rigorously pre-scripted (Determinist Carcosans). Both sects suggest that the world and all within it are part of a series of metaphors or allegories – that everything from the lowliest insect to the tallest mountain is a grand Symbol and can be read as such. By becoming aware of our parts in the Universal Play and working to make it more beautiful, we may be assured of the Queen’s favour when the Play ends and we once more become fully aware of ourselves as spirits in her Court.

Tenebrous Idealism

A theory favoured by many illusionists, Tenebrous Idealism suggests that the Material World – indeed all of the planes – is an illusion, a representation, and that some deeper, untouchable reality produced or preceded it. According to Tenebrous Idealism, all levels of reality are equally real (or rather unreal), potentially including the “worlds” created by works of art or secondary illusions. Unlike Magisterialists or Carcosans, Tenebrous Idealists are highly sceptical that the fundamental noumenal reality undergirding the world of illusions could ever be reached by denizens of the six planes, believing themselves and everyone around them to be creatures of shadow and thought, ephemeral constructs in the minds of unknowable gods, who may themselves merely be representations in the minds of some other entities, and so on.

The Worldstone

As the trolls tell things, the various planes of the universe were once one, bound together in a single conglomerate, a vast rock hurtling through space known as the Worldstone. Eventually, the Worldstone fragmented into six pieces due to the stirring of Yawp, the primordial ur-giant embedded within, who formed like a geode. The largest of these fragments became Jotunheim, which circled the others for a time before colliding with the shard of Faerie and hurtling off into space. The others now orbit one another but are destined to eventually collide and break into smaller components. In the long run, however, the various shards will again coalesce back into the Worldstone, eventually producing a new Yawp who stirs and begins the cycle again, repeating events in precisely the same order as before. Fate goes ever as fate must.

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