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Building Gossamer, Part 7 – The Verdant Quarter

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On July 19, 2021

In Roleplaying

The Verdant Quarter is now complete, meaning that the entire Gossamer map is likewise finished:

Link to a more detailed image of the Verdant Quarter.

Link to a more detailed image of the full city.

The Verdant Quarter is ruled by King Oberon, Lord of the Hunt, sovereign of the endless summer of Mag Mell. Everything here is green and growing, the blaze of summer sunshine shadowed by the forested hills beyond the city limits and the formidable Cloudcastle atop its behemothic stalk. Oberon himself visits the city rarely, being mostly engaged with various hunts, including the Wild Hunt itself when he joins his Royal cousin and rival Arawn, competing to see which can track down more damned souls, to keep the contract between Hell and Elfhame.

Cloudcastle

Arguably the most impressive fortress in Gossamer, Cloudcastle was not built by the Fair Folk but by the Giants of Jotunheim, who used the stronghold as a mobile battle station, raining down lightning and lobbing rocks at Elfhame below during the Enormity Wars. After the Second Battle of Gossamer, Cloudcastle was captured and turned against its creators; now that the Giant menace has been eliminated, the castle serves as King Oberon’s seat, allowing him to gaze down at Gossamer and Elfhame beyond from atop the vast beanstalk that connects sky and earth. Numerous small structures have since been built amidst the coils of the stalk – palaces and salons for Mag Mell’s elfin royalty and other members of the Seelie Court. The Castle itself is a thing of unearthly beauty, the roughness of its Jotun origins tempered by various additions by the aristocratic fey who now reside in its towers and courtyards, quite literally looking down on their subjects below.

The Fairest Fair

The largest bazaar in Gossamer and indeed in all Elfhame, the Fairest Fair is a sprawling marketplace where anything and everything can be bought and sold. Adjacent to the foreigner’s district of Sloomy and to the Leafroad, the Fair bustles with creatures from throughout Faerie and beyond. Goblins hawk rude pistols and clockwork traps, side-eyed by fatstidious gnomes selling pocketwatches and navigational instruments; shy Firbolg sell finely carved wood furniture cheek-by-jowl with pixie nectar-merchants and treefolk with stalls of their own fruit. Here one can find magical pearls stolen from the monsters of the Poison Sea by adventurous finfolk, musical instruments that warble with the voices of the damned, spellbooks from the wizardly metropolis of Hex, silks from the Dreamlands, relics of ancient Jotunheim, baubles from the glittering mines of the kobolds, and thousands of other oddities and absurdities. Also notable here are a number of enchanted fountains, most obviously the huge Giant’s Cup, a draught of which causes amusing (though temporary) increases in height and knowledge of the Giant tongue.

Glister

Sparkling and shimmering with a thousand iridescent colours, the beautous district of Glister is one of the most wondrous in all of Gossamer, a place of living crystal glowing with eldritch power, a testament to the raw power of the Seelie Court. The structures of Glister are a kind of reservoir of magical energy for the Fair Folk of Mag Mell and Tír na nÓg; in times of need, Oberon and others of the Court can draw on the swirling puissance contained within the endless crystals to produce spells of unthinkable power. Apart from functioning as a magical battery, the district also serves as the academic centre of Seelie Gossamer, with many young Fair Folk studying in the glittering halls of the Prism; others take “orders” at the shrines known as the Cathedral of Bliss or the Temple of Love and Beauty, dedicated not to gods or demons but to the grand abstractions that guide the lives of all Fair Folk in the southern realms of Elfhame.

Mistcliff

The Firbolg are generally a reclusive people, taken to hiding away in remote fastnesses and obscure havens. Those who dwell in Mistcliff are a rare exception – a tribe of giants sworn to the personal service of King Oberon, his royal woodsmen and gamekeepers. They tend to the surrounding forests and hills, ensuring that the Lord of the Hunt finds his trails well-stocked with beasts, protecting the woods from outside threats. Aloof from the bustle of Gossamer, they dwell in the district of Mistcliff, a village perched atop a craggy hill overlooking the Verdant Quarter below. From Hornhall rules Slánga, who still retains the title of King himself, though now a vassal of Oberon, who he acknowledges as High King, though that title is now dubious following the fracture of Elfhame into four realms. Here also can be found the Hall of Leaves, a sacred place kept by the Firbolg druids – an extensive library of Elfin history second only to the Library of the Dead in the Withered Quarter, where the uncountable volumes penned by the shades of Annwn gather dust.

Sloomy

Though an uneasy peace now lies between Mag Mell and Logris, things have not always been so. During the time known in Mag Mell as the Bad Dream, the Sleepless War, Mab and the most skilled sorceresses of the Unseelie Court tormented the Verdant Quarter with curses and spells, most spectacularly including the conjuration of Sloomy. Overnight, the houses and shops of the Quarter began to transform, becoming untethered from reality, flowing into shapes fanciful and strange, shapes drawn from the troubled dreams of those inside them. Mab’s spell created a kind of psychic bleed between Elfhame and the Dreamlands, a spillover that turned part of the Verdant Quarter into a waking nightmare. Evil dreams made flesh soon found their way into the streets, slaughtering those that dreamt them into existence in a bloodbath for which Oberon has never fully forgiven Her Moldy Majesty. Though peace has now been reestablished, Mab’s spell proved irreversible, and so the district of Sloomy still stands, a strange, amorphous pocket of Unseelie magic marring the otherwise pristine sublimity of the Verdant Quarter. Its denizens are no longer hostile to the Seelie, but the Fair Folk of Mag Mell visit the district only grudgingly, typically but passing through on their way to the Blooming Quarter. The place has instead become a kind of foreigner’s quarter for the Unseelie and for dignitaries from the Dreamlands, many of whom can be found in the House of Eyes, a palatial embassy of the plane of slumber. Many Lengians have also moved into the area, finding the neighbourhood a reminder of their homeland; though treated with suspicion elsewhere in Seelie Gossamer, here they have found work fashioning silk, rope, poison, and blades, and occasionally as spies for the various scheming nobles of the Court.

Stalkshadow

Beneath Cloudcastle lies the lush forest-land of Stalkshadow, dotted here and there with the homes and hunting lodges of Mag Mell’s elfin nobility. Most prominent of these is the Lodge, a trophy-hall for the notables of the Seelie Court, wherein are displayed the stuffed heads and polished skulls of drakes, chimerae, griffins, trolls, and all manner of other monster, including the beak of a kraken from the icy seas of Annwn. Traveling to the north along the twisting forest paths, the towering shape of the Big Bad Wolf, Vanargand, can be glimpsed, one of the huge hounds of Jotunheim, spawned by the Griefbringer herself, primeval mother of monsters. The beast devoured thousands of the Fair Folk and their servants during the Enormity Wars, but was injured by Finvarra and nursed slowely back to health by Nicnevan, then High Queen of Elfhame, after the battle. When the war was over, the Wolf remained in Elfhame, and though both Finvarra and Nicnevan have passed to Annwn, he still slumbers in Stalkshadow, stirring when roused by Oberon, who met him first as a child, to go hunting in the prodigious forest of the Vastwood to the south.

The Tiltward

Built to resemble one of the castles of the mortals, the Tiltward is technically a working fortress and has been used as such during various conflicts between the Faerie realms, but in truth it is more spectacle than stronghold. It was first established by Finvarra as a kind of toy castle after a particularly enjoyable sojourn to the Mortal Plane, where the Faerie lord discovered the strange sport of jousting. For several Elfin centuries afterwards, Finvarra insisted the entire Faerie Court attire themselves in the guise of mortal knights and ladies and to learn to joust and fight in their fashion. Though such affectations have fallen somewhat out of style in the other realms, they linger especially powerfully in Mag Mell, and Oberon himself has been known to participate in the elaborate tournaments held in the Tiltward. Special laws still apply to those in the district – all speech must be in what is now a very archaic dialect of the mortals’ “Common Tongue” (which itself has diverged into several languages among the mortals themselves), and “anachronisms” must be surrendered at the various gatehouses before entry; strict fines and worse can be levvied against those who refuse to play along.

Hexchess

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On March 1, 2021

In Roleplaying

Hexchess is a popular Hexian strategy game, playable by two, three, or six players commanding three, two, or one armies each, respectively. The board consists of a six-sided hexagon; each side has nine hexagonal cells. Pieces may either move orthogonally (crossing a common border between hexes) or diagonally (following the line between hexes rather than a common border). Conventional chess pieces would adapt to this such that pieces like the Rook can move only orthogonally, while pieces like Bishops can only move diagonally. The board looks like this:

DEMONIAC PATRON

At the beginning of every game of Hexchess, a die is rolled to determine which of the six Patron Archdemons of Hex will reign over the game. These Archdemons modify the rules to each game slightly:

Roll (1d6)Archdemon  
1Astaroth: An Archwizard is automatically “checkmated” once it has been checked three times.
2Belphegor: A piece being attacked by another piece of the same type becomes paralyzed until one of the pieces is captured by another piece or the line of attack is broken.
3Demogorgon: Once an Archwizard casts all of its spells, it can select six new spells.
4Lilith: When an enemy piece is captured, that piece can be deployed onto the battlefield as a friendly piece anywhere on the seven back-rank starting cells as a move, provided a cell is empty. Ghosts are immune, and Zombies and Ghouls must be permanently destroyed to be redeployed.
5Merihem: When a Ghoul captures a piece, that piece falls over as per a Ghoul or Zombie and can “rise” as a Ghoul controlled by the original Ghoul’s player. This includes enemy Zombies but not enemy Ghosts.
6Orobas: Zombies and Ghouls can move up to two cells orthogonally instead of only one square. They cannot capture en passant. Zombies must choose to move one or two cells forwards or at 60 degrees to capture – they cannot split their move between forward movement and capturing.

If a die is unavailable, the Demoniac Patron is typically determined by placing six Zombie pieces of the six different colours in a bag or hat and drawing one – white is Astaroth, black Belphegor, blue Demogorgon, pink Lilith, green Merihem, and gold Orobas. This method can also be used to determine who goes first in a game.

There are also many “heretical” variants of Hexchess played throughout the city with different patron Demons; these are typically used for friendly games only and agreed to ahead of time by all players involved, or drawn out of a hat.

CHECKMATING

When an Archwizard is checkmated, it and all its pieces are removed from the board. If playing under Lilith’s patronage, these pieces become available to be redeployed by the player who checkmated. If more than one player contributed to the checkmate, whoever has the most pieces checking the Archwizard claims the captured pieces. In the case of a tie, a die is rolled, and whoever gets the highest number claims the captured pieces (re-roll ties).

If an Archwizard could be captured due to a discovered check facilitated by another colour – say by an Imp or a spell removing defending pieces from one colour, freeing up an opportunity for another to capture – this does not count as an automatic checkmate. The Archwizard cannot be captured, only checkmated – if it can move out of danger on its player’s turn, it is still capable of escaping and therefore not checkmated. In other words, enemy pieces can only check an Archwizard, not capture it, even if that check is a discovered check assisted by another colour’s captures. Checkmate is always evaluated on the turn of the player potentially being checkmated, not before, allowing them a chance to escape via spells.

PIECES

Instead of the conventional chess pieces, standard Hexchess uses the following:

Zombie

Each player begins with six zombies. Zombies move up to one cell orthogonally and can only move forwards. They can only capture enemy pieces at 60 degrees to themselves. If a Zombie is captured, it is placed on its side. If a fallen Zombie’s cell is unoccupied, the Zombie can use its move to return to upright position, and subsequently can continue moving and capturing as per normal. An enemy piece occupying a Zombie’s cell can use its move to permanently remove the fallen Zombie from the board. A Zombie which reaches another end of the board is promoted to a Ghoul. Pieces can move through cells containing fallen Zombies, and fallen Zombies do not break lines of attack. Fallen Zombies are not affected by spells and do not provoke Ghouls.

Ghoul

Each player begins with one Ghoul. Ghouls move up to one cell orthogonally in any direction. If a Ghoul is in a position to capture, the only move it can make is to capture (the player can let it remain where it is, however). If there are multiple targets it must capture one of them if it moves. Ghouls die and return just as Zombies do.

Imp

Each player begins with two Imps. Imps can move two cells orthogonally or diagonally in any direction. An Imp cannot capture except by en passant – if a piece moves within one cell of it in any direction, it can “hop” over that piece to capture it. If an Imp captures one piece, it can continue to jump and capture provided there are sufficient enemy pieces to do so, but must stop moving as soon as it can no longer capture. Imps cannot land on an occupied cell, but they can hop over friendly pieces.

Ghost

Each player begins play with two Ghosts. Ghosts move diagonally as many cells as they like in any direction. If a Ghost is captured, you may sacrifice any other piece on the board (including a fallen Zombie or Ghoul) in order to return the Ghost to its starting cell so long as the cell is empty or there is an enemy piece on it. If an enemy piece is on that cell, the Ghost captures and becomes that piece, “possessing” it, and no longer returns to its previous cell if later captured. If a Ghost does not have an original starting cell (having been created via Polymorph, Doppelganger, etc), it does not possess this ability. Ghosts cannot possess one another and cannot possess Archwizards.

Fungoid

Each player begins play with two Fungoids. Fungoids can move orthogonally as many cells as it likes in any direction. If the Fungoid is captured, its capturer and all pieces on orthagonally adjacent cells, friendly or enemy, are knocked over as per Zombies or Ghouls, and can “wake up” as per Zombies or Ghouls.

Doppelganger

Each player begins play with one Doppelganger. The Doppelganger moves three cells orthogonally – two in one direction, and then one at 60 degrees. Upon taking an enemy piece, the Doppelganger moves and attacks as per that piece, until it captures a different piece. Like Imps, Doppelgangers can “hop” over enemy pieces, though they cannot capture en passant.

Familiar

Each player begins with one Familiar. The Familiar can move in any direction as many cells as it likes, orthogonally or diagonally, but cannot capture enemy pieces (it can dispatch fallen Zombies and Ghouls). However, the Familiar can be used to cast any spells the Archwizard has prepared as if it were the Archwizard, including any spells that directly affect the Archwizard or which affect pieces adjacent to the Archwizard. These spells are still used up.

Archwizard

The Archwizard is the “leader” of a given army. It can move one cell orthagonally or diagonally in any direction, can be checked and checkmated like a King in standard Chess, and cannot move into check. Each Archwizard also has a list of six memorized Spells, written on a sheet of paper beforehand. These are special moves; each time one is used, it is crossed off and is no longer available to the Archwizard. Players must secretly select six Spells before each game. Archwizards cannot affect one another with Spells. Spells include:

  • Banish: The Archwizard moves and captures a piece it attacks. That piece is removed from the game and cannot be returned through any means, even if it is a Ghost, Ghoul, or Zombie, and even if Lilith is the patron Archdemon.
  • Burning Hands: Up to three orthogonally adjacent pieces are captured, including any friendly pieces.
  • Charm: Move one of the enemy’s pieces instead of your own.
  • Deflect: A piece giving a check to the Archwizard or attacking the Familiar is instantly captured without the Archwizard or Familiar moving.
  • Haste: A piece orthagonally or diagonally adjacent to the Archwizard immediately takes two moves. This cannot be used to checkmate an Archwizard by “capturing” it but can put one in check.
  • Lightning Bolt: The Archwizard moves diagonally or orthogonally any number of cells and captures an enemy piece.
  • Mirror Image: Two other Archwizard pieces are placed in cells orthagonally or diagonally adjacent to the Archwizard. One of these is the real Archwizard, secretly noted down by the player. The other two are illusions which can move like the Archwizard but cannot capture enemy pieces or cast Spells of their own. If placed in check, they are revealed as illusions. These pieces do block the movement of friendly pieces and interrupt lines of attack.
  • Petrify: A piece orthagonally or diagonally adjacent to the Archwizard is permanently frozen in place. It cannot move or capture but can be captured.
  • Polymorph: Any friendly orthagonally or diagonally adjacent piece is transformed into any other piece aside from another Archwizard, or any enemy piece is transformed into any other piece aside from another Archwizard.
  • Reanimate: Instead of capturing a piece it attacks, the Archwizard converts it into a friendly Zombie.
  • Shield: All friendly pieces adjacent to the Archwizard cannot be captured next turn.
  • Summon: The Archwizard conjures any piece on an orthagonally or diagonally adjacent cell. This piece remains on the board until the end of the player’s next turn.
  • Stinking Cloud: All pieces on orthagonally adjacent cells, friendly or enemy, are knocked over as per Zombies or Ghouls, and can “wake up” as per Zombies or Ghouls.
  • Teleport: The Archwizard swaps places with a friendly piece.

A variety of other pieces are common additions to the game, especially its regional variations. For example, the Faerie version of Hexchess (“Elfchess”) involves a number of invisible Pixies who reveal themselves only after attacking, enemy pieces that be transformed into friendly ones unexpectedly (Changelings), swaps Ghosts for Treefolk that can “root” themselves to become harder to capture, changes Zombies into Goblins who lose the ability to return to the dead but gain the abiltiy to retreat when attacked, and many other substitutions.

SETTING UP

Hexchess is set up such that each army is positioned at one corner of the board. Place a Ghost in the corner square; widdershins, place the Archwizard, and clockwise, the Familiar. Place a Fungoid directly adjacent to each of these previous pieces along the edge of the board. Ahead of the Ghost, place a second Ghost, and then place to Imps to either side. Place the Doppelganger ahead of the second Ghost. On the fourth and final rank, place six Zombies flanking one Ghoul in the centre. The setup should look like this for each corner:

Repeat for the remaining colours and assign armies to each player. Each player now selects their six spells, written on a piece of paper and kept secret from the other players. At some more luxurious chance-houses, cards are used for these spells in lieu of a slip of paper.

The fully set up board should look like this:

The Sacred Cauldron, Part 2: Fair is Foul & Foul is Fair

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On February 9, 2021

In Roleplaying

As people seemed to enjoy the last one, here’s part 2 of the Sacred Cauldron Campaign, “Fair is Foul & Foul is Fair,” which details two short side-adventures. These are designed as interstitial adventures between two larger dungeon crawls, but would be easily removed from the larger campaign structure and used as self-contained adventures.

The-Sacred-Cauldron-Part-2-Fair-is-Foul-Foul-is-Fair-5Download

It’s possible that these may eventually get further tidied up, edited, re-organized, and released as zines or something similar down the line.

If you enjoy these and haven’t already be sure to check out Genial Jack Volumes 1 and 2, a city gazetteer and adventure module of nautical whimsy and terror set upon and within the eponymous Godwhale.

Jack is Back!

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On February 1, 2021

In Roleplaying

At long last, the second volume of Genial Jack, by Lost Pages Press, is available for purchase at DriveThruRPG.

Cover art by Bronwyn McIvor.

Genial Jack is a serialized setting of nautical weirdness and whimsy – cursed sailors, mutant shark-people, lost treasures, mysterious shipwrecks, mythic monstrosities, and, of course, Jack himself, a whale the size of a mountain. This 69-page (nice) volume details the endless darkness of Jack’s Entrails, the bizarrely brachiating intestines of the Godwhale: a living labyrinth filled with half-digested derelicts, fragments of swallowed islands, ambergris miners, strange parasites, and tatterdemalion outlaws on the run from Jackburg law. Within you’ll find:

  • A sprawling dungeon environment with 45 keyed locations suitable for a full mini-campaign within the Entrails, with multiple adventure hooks.
  • A gazetteer of Herniaheim, the rickety pirate town twixt the Small and Large Intestines.
  • Three detailed maps of the Entrails.
  • 16 new monsters and NPCs, including such horrors as the pestiferous thrushspawn with their swollen tongues, the toxically affectionate amoeboids, the true vampire squid, and the Dog-Nymph Skulla, the Swallowed Sea-Devil.
  • 8 new equipment items and 14 magic items, such as the corpse-locating Thanatometer, the obscenity-barking Rude Shield, and the Bristling Blade of the fallen hero Horkus the Hirsute.
  • Rules for the Gutgardeners, an order of druid-scientists able to commune with the “animalcules” in the microbiomes of living creatures.

Inspired by the likes of Gulliver’s Travels, the tales of Baron Munchausen, and New Weird urban fantasy, Genial Jack is written for 5th edition but easily adaptable to any fantasy tabletop game.

Reviews:

Questing Beast – “This is dungeon-crawling through the intestines – which sounds really gross, because it is.”

Halls of the Nephilim – “I’m pretty sure this release has cemented my resolve to run a nautical 5e game as soon as I can.”

Planet X – “I can’t recommend both Genial Jack books any higher. Jonathan Newell has created a fresh and exciting landscape for your #ttrpgs.”

I’m really pleased with how this volume turned out. There’s a mixture of whimsy and horror, the ludicrous and the grotesque – jaunty intesintal pirates, sea-urchin assassins, cannibals, gladiators, buried treasure, mutant parasites, ancient ruins slowly dissolving in Jack’s digestive juices, and much more.

Here’s a preview- the map for the pirate town of Herniaheim, where the Gutreavers hole up after their raids on the ambergris mines, drinking till they forget they live inside the bowels of a giant whale and gambling away their ill-gotten gains in seedy chance-houses and saloons like the Slippery Sea Slug and the Brown Pearl.

Many thanks again to my playtesters for this volume, both from the original Hex campaign crew and my old friends over at the Campaign Builders’ Guild Discord.

Building Gossamer, Part 6 – The Blooming Quarter

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On January 29, 2021

In Roleplaying

Link to a more detailed image.

Here’s the progress so far on the city as a whole – now 75% complete, plus a few details:

The Blooming Quarter is ruled by Queen Titania, locked in an endless springtime. Colours acquire a pastel quality here – something in the softness of the light, perhaps. The weather vaccilates between the amber glow of spring sunshine and refreshing rains to keep the greenery of the Queen’s gardens forever lush. Ugliness is illegal in the Blooming Quarter, and punishable with strict fines, deportation, or death for the most serious aesthetic offenses, for though her Vernal Majesty is usually tranquil and full of grace, her temper is swift and terrible in sight of any blemish on her perfect realm, as sudden and as destructive as a spring storm; some say that despite the pleasantness of her usual demeanour, she is just as mad as her sister, Mab, but merely hides her temperament better beneath a mask of sweetness and calm.

Braidwell

The streets of Braidwell are shadowed with the looping tresses and endless curls that spill from the Plaited Tower, wherein dwells the changeling princess Persinette, favoured of Titania. Now as ageless as the other Fair Folk, Persinette was cursed by Queen Mab, one of her many vicious pranks against her sister; the poor girl’s hair began growing at an extraordinary rate, all but immobilizing her. Though no cure has been found for the curse, Titania adapted, granting her adopted daughter a home in the Plaited Tower, where vast numbers of pixies endlessly tend to her hair, combing it through the tower’s windows and out into the streets. Here, an entire district has sprung up dedicated to harvesting Persinette’s locks, transforming them into everything from wigs to rope to bowstrings to pillow-stuffing. Much of Persinette’s hair is ultimately cut in the enormous industrial salon known as the Shed, a huge factory into which her tresses are forever fed.

Dewgarden

The orchards of Dewgarden produce some of the chief exports of the Blooming Quarter – an array of enchanted fruits and vegetables, imbued with the magic of Queen Titania to ensorcel those who eat them with a variety of effects, beneficent and otherwise. Take, for example, the toothsome Speechpeach, varieties of which grant the eater knowledge of foreign tongues spoken by those whose blood was used to carefully water it, or the hearty Mule-Cabbage, which transforms the eater into a beast of burden. Within Dewgarden can also be found the Royal Menagerie, where fabulous beasts from far and wide are kept for the amusement of the Fair Folk, and the Hothouse, a gift from Oberon as a token of the friendship of Mag Mell, where certain plants found only in warmer climes can be grown.

Gumdrop Village

Perhaps the strangest district in the Blooming Quarter if not all of Gossamer, Gumdrop Village is a neighbourhood crafted entirely from candy, from the gingerbread houses with icing mortar, to the chocolate bridges spanning the canals to the pink park of the Candyfloss Forest to the quivering sublimity of the Jelly Guardian, the gigantic, child-like protector of the Village. Gumdrop Village was originally created as a retreat for Queen Titania, a kind of toy-town and place of leisure dedicated entirely to luxury and enjoyment, where her Vernal Majesty might linger with a few select maidens or youths, strolling the toffee-cobbled streets, lingering to dip a jeweled chalice into a fountain spewing honey or chocolate or cream. Peopled by living candies known as Sweetlings who rarely leave its confines, Gumdrop Village has grown since its creation, becoming not only a tourist destination but a source of considerable income for Tír na nÓg; such was the enchantment used to produce the Village that the candy used to create it forever renews itself no matter how much is eaten, resulting in a never-ending supply of confections to sate the sweet-tooths of Fair Folk throughout the four realms.

Piping

Swathed in perpetual steam, Piping is a gnomish enclave, a place of invention and refinement where Fair Folk come to eat finger sandwiches and partake of the most excellent tea, brewed in the vast Temple of Tea at thee district’s heart. Filled with cafes and teahouses such as the teetering Carafe, Piping is a marvel of engineering, more than a little mad in its crazed massings of chimneys and churning gears, but just as beautiful as the rest of the Blooming Quarter in its own peculiar way. Every building here is lacquered, gilded, or burnished; many resemble gigantic teapots themselves. Notable structures include the Fractured Palace, destroyed and rebuilt during the War of the Trees, home of the Dactyls, a legendary family of gnomes whose allegiance with Titania stretches back for centuries.

Puckville

Robin Goodfellow began his life as a humble servant of Queen Titania. Said to possess more than a drop of goblin blood, he was often shunned and mocked by his fellows at the Seelie Court. Now, however, Robin has had his revenge, for over the centuries he has slowly built himself a fortune, trading favours, acquiring properties, and growing his wealth. Now he is the richest creature in Gossamer outside of the Fairy Kings and Queens themselves, a fabulously wealthy entrepeneur. Puckville is named after him, for he built most of the district with his own funds, and still owns the majority of the buildings here, growing ever richer from the rents. The jewel of the neighbourhood is, of course, Robin’s Casino, Puck’s grand chance-house, where almost anything and everything can be wagered on games of fortune so strange and intricate only the Fair Folk and a handful of demonkind can fathom them fully. Also of note here is the Moth, an opera house and theatre, rival of the Grove in the Wilting Quarter; the two great theatres have often been known to put on duelling performances, and Puck himself has more than once graced the stage in disguise.

The Rosemaze

A defensive fortification as well as a private garden, the Rosemaze surrounds the Florid Citadel, Titania’s palace in Gossamer. Though her Vernal Majesty spends much of her time elsewhere in her realm, the Citadel is her home in the city and headquarters of the Petal Guard. The Rosemaze itself is a seemingly infinite labryinth of twisting paths; many such lead to strange an unexpected places, including to other corners of Faerie, to the Dreamlands, and even to the Feypark in the city of Hex. The entire place is maintained by the Greenskeepers, an army of labourers – mostly pixies and goblins living in the Weeds – who ensure its eternal splendour. The Queen herself can often be found pacing the branching endlessness of the Rosemaze, pondering affairs of state.

The Weeds

The beautous folk of Tír na nÓg dislike hard labour, the toil and sweat by which their exquisite realm is maintained, for such drudgery callouses the hands, wrenches the backbone, and inflicts all manner of other deformations. Yet, this toil must be done, one way or another. The solution, Queen Titania realized, was to import the labour required. Many goblins, pixies, trollbloods, and other creatures from the Unseelie Court covet lies free from the cruelty of Mab and Arawn. Such immigrants are not normally granted citizenship in Tír na nÓg, for many are too ugly, according to Seelie standards, to ever join the Vernal Realm. However, an exception is made for those willing to dwell in the Weeds, a permanent labour camp and shanty-town at the outskirts of the Blooming Quarter. Here, the Queen’s Petal Guard issue no fines for aesthetic deficiencies – provided the inhabitants show up to work on time and perform their manifold duties diligently. A rambling warren of crime and poverty, the Weeds is a black spot on the beauty of the Blooming Quarter, but a necessary one; consequently, it has been nicknamed the “Beauty Mark.” Hidden amidst the district, it is said, is the secret headquarters of the Pest, an underground goblin liberation movement dedicated to overthrowing the Fair Folk’s rule altogether and establishing an independent Goblin Commonwealth in Elfhame.

The Sacred Cauldron, Part 1: The Barrow of King Finvarra

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On December 31, 2020

In Roleplaying

I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit of late, so to help make up for it, here’s a quick free adventure – essentially my notes for the first few sessions of the Elfhame campaign. This hasn’t been thoroughly proofread or polished, and it’s laid out crudely by me, but hopefully it’ll be of some interest!

The-Sacred-Cauldron-Part-1-The-Barrow-of-King-FinvarraDownload

Happy New Year!

Building Gossamer, Part 5 – The Withered Quarter

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On December 30, 2020

In Roleplaying

Gossamer is now half complete, with the Withered Quarter – the section of Gossamer which lies in Annwn, realm of eternal winter and land of the dead, ruled by the dread Arawn – now looming brumous and frostbitten east of the Wilting Quarter.

Link to a more detailed image.

Crookhollow

The sinister little village of Crookhollow is a settlement of woodwoses, a rare colony of mortals in Elfhame. Once denizens of the Gnarl, these woodwoses are unusually settled, unlike their nomadic kindred of the deep woods. The wildmen are worshippers of Arawn, lord of the dead, and practice regular sacrifices by fire, setting ablaze vast effigies containing captive enemies – often mortals kidnapped from the woods at the borderlands of Faerie. Such burnt offerings ensure a place of honour for the denizens of Crookhollow when they die, as they shrug off their rude hides and furs for the resplendant finery of the elfin dead, joining the Fair Folk in their subterannean palaces of stone to live afterlives of langour and gloomy opulence.

Drakesworth

Before Gossamer sprawled to its present size, the district now known as Drakesworth was a barren country shadowed by a dark crag, lair of the horror known as Svafnir, a dragon said to hail from the giant-world of Jotunheim. This monster, naturally, possessed a vast hoard of treasure, and slew all who tried to plunder his trove. The beast, however, had grown somewhat lazy over the long years, spending much of its time dreaming of its lost homeland on its bed of gold, and over time the city spread nearly to its doorstep. Eventually, the Fair Folk struck a deal with the dragon – rather than sending in an endless series of hopeless champions to slay Svafnir or steal its treasures, they would simply borrow from the hoard, repaying what they took with interest. Though initially sceptical, the dragon was intrigued. Thus the Hoardsbank was founded: now the foremost financial institution in Elfhame, the size of its assets having increased many hundreds of times over since its founding. Tunnels wind endlessly into the earth, filled with the gold earned by the bank, while Svafnir has recovered somewhat from his planesickness, taking to his new life as a moneylending wyrm. Some whisper that the dragon is the true master of the Withered Quarter, having grown far richer even the the Horned King. Whatever the case, Drakesworth is now one of the most salubrious districts in all of Gossamer, filled with fine buildings of stone and marble, the offices of much of the city’s professional class. Also within Drakesworth is the Temple of the Royal Sepulchre, resting place of the Royal Family of Elfhame. Here can be found the shades of the former monarchs of Faerie, resting after their centuries of rule, dispensing wisdom to heroes of renown and Faerie’s present rulers.

The Gnarl

Though currently in a state of uneasy peace, Annwn and Tír na nÓg have not always been so. During the War of the Trees, Annwn launched an invasion of Tír na nÓg, and Gossamer – usually neutral even during conflicts – became a battleground. After Queen Titania’s armies drove the Shade-Horde back into the Winter Realm, she launched a counterattack, calling on the forest itself to rise to her banner. Thousands of treefolk marched at the behest of the Queen of Flowers, invading Annwn. In Gossamer, this incursion was turned back at the Gullet and the central canal, but for all their efforts, the armies of Arawn were unable to fully repel the treefolk invaders. Thus the southern edge of the Withered Quarter has become the Gnarl: a sprawling wood in the heart of the city, full of twisting, labyrinthine paths, mossgrown ruins, and secret glades. Though most of the treefolk have since fallen back into slumber, some still stand sentinel against any future invasion, including their general, Grandfather Yew. Rangers sworn to Titania’s service, known as the Petal Guard, also patrol the shifting trails and lurk in wait should intruders seek entrance to the Blooming Quarter without leave. Within the depths of the woods it is said one can also find the tower of Myrddin, a mortal mage native to the wizardly city of Hex, whose manse has many doors and many manifestations, and whose knowledge of matters arcane rivals even that of the Fair Folk themselves.

The Grimdowns

On the surface, the misty mounds of the Grimdowns seem but a few snowy crags, topped with the tomb-markers of the dead. In fact, the district is by far the most populous in all of Gossamer, for each and every mound leads down into the grand Necropolis of the city, a seemingly infinite warren that sprawls throughout the Withered Quarter, deep into the earth, filled with the uncountable souls of the dead. All who die in Elfhame manifest as shades in Annwn, and many come here to the Withered Quarter for at least some of their endless days and nights. Despite its vastness, however, the Necropolis is a quiet, dusty place, for the shades lack the energy of life – without the thought of their own deaths motivating them, most shades are slow, contented beings, either tranquil or melancholic, mere echoes of their previous selves. Entry into the catacombs of the Necropolis is granted only to the dead; the living may visit the tombs and leave offerings, even trading certain objects with the dead, but they may not walk the unending tunnels or gaze on the subterannean wonders of the city of the dead that lies beneath their feet.

The Gullet

Before the realm of Annwn was ruled by the Dread Lord Arawn, the Horned King, it had a different sovereign: the dark being known as Crom Cruach, the Head of the Mound, the Devouring Worm, an entity said to be one of Chthonic Gods, demon-princes of the Netherworld, and rumoured to be brother of the Charnel Goddess Mordiggia. Crom Cruach’s rule ended many centuries ago during the reign of High Queen Nicnevan, when he was sealed deep in the bowels of the earth, buried alive by the Elves. Despite his defeat, however, Crom Cruach is still worshipped in the Withered Quarter by a small coterie of cambions, half-elfin and half-demon cultists. The Cult controls the district of the Withered Quarter known as the Gullet, whose buildings are older than almost any in Gossamer – warped and twisted into quasi-organic forms, their very stones seem to grow and reshape themselves like living things. Though the Cult of Crom Cruach acknowledge the sovereignty of Arawn, they keep their own laws and customs, and have been known to bicker with the neighbouring folk of Crookhollow, sometimes snatching woodwoses who stray too near to the tenebrous avenues of their fell domain.

Howling

Rising above the Grimdowns is the dark castle of Caer Sidi, fortress and home of the Dread Lord Arawn himself, Horned King of Annwn. Carved from never-thawing ice, this grim citadel has never been taken in war, manned by an unblinking garrison of the dead, the formidible revenant-warriors known as the Cauldron-Born, who were raised many centuries past by the Sacred Cauldron, one of the legendary Thirteen Treasures of Elfhame. The area around the castle is known as Howling, for it perpetually echoes with the bestial voices of the Cŵn Annwn, wraith-hounds of Arawn, who form part of the legendary Wild Hunt, which, as part of the terms of the peace with Hell, returns souls from the Netherworld who escape the bounds of Hell for Faerie or the mortal realm. Some claim that those who hear their fell voices lose a year of their allotted lifespan.

The Sty

Enclave of ogres, trolls, and their half-mortal kindred, the Sty is a ramshackle sprawl clustered on the western edge of the Withered Quarter, and one of the poorer districts in Gossamer. The district is named for the hogs raised and slaughtered in the abbatoirs here, chief industry of the neighbourhood. A rare few such swine are not killed, for all pigs are first subjected to tests when they are young to determine whether they possess oracular abilities; hogs born in the Withered Quarter, here at the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead, can sometimes exhibit divinatory power. Such beasts can prophesy the weal or woe of many things, and upon dying their entrails and bladders are inspected by the district’s sage haruspexes and choriomancers to discern secrets of great import. Also of note in the Sty is the gigantic mead-hall known as The Golden Hog, a gilded statue which some claim is in fact a petrified dire boar from Jotunheim; though a rough and tumble place, its feasts are the stuff of legend. Those who venture into the Sty are advised to go armed and in groups after dark, for bands of unsavoury giantkin such as the Needleteeth, the Rednails, and the Gutprickers roam the shadowed alleys at night and are rumoured to snatch the odd visitor for their stew-pots; separating the truth of such rumours from anti-troll prejudices is difficult, but certainly the neighbourhood has been the site of many blood-feuds and street-brawls.

Building Gossamer, Part 4 – The Wilting Quarter

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On August 7, 2020

In Roleplaying

After a couple of months of sporadic work, the Wilting Quarter is now complete, making Gossamer 25% done. Next up will be the Withered Quarter, Arawn’s domain, the wintry section of the city directly east of the Wilting Quarter, across the osseous Spinebridge. In upcoming posts, I’ll also be detailing how I populate districts with additional details; below is just a rough outline of the major landmarks and purpose of each neighbourhood.

Link to a more detailed image.

The Wilting Quarter is the section of the city ruled by Queen Mab, the Autumnal Sovereign, and thus lies in the realm of Logris. Its districts are dedicated to pleasures and skullduggery, dark delights and forbidden knowledge. Practices the Seelie Court find unsavoury can be celebrated openly in the Wilted Quarter; the laws are few and enforced but rarely by the Queen’s rancid guards, with most disputes being settled with jocular duels which become yet another form of public entertainment.

The Brambles

Originally grown as a defensive fortification to repel invaders from Mag Mell, the Brambles have become a den of iniquity and vice. Poisons are openly bought and sold throughout the district, most notably from the garden of Caprice the witch, which sprawls at the neighbourhood’s pungent heart – a verdant grove of hemlock and nightshade. Blades for hire and assassins can also be found throughout the Brambles, including the near-mythic Nettles, an ancient guild of professional killers whose opulent, temple-like headquarters lies just a few blocks east of the imposing towers of the Thorn Gate. Most infamous of the Nettles are the twin sprite assassins Hellebore and Belladonna, known for such gruesome escapades as the Pigeon Pie Massacre, in which the pair hid themselves in the hollowed-out ceremonial pigeon pie at a banquet in Mag Mell, only to spring from the crust and slay half a dozen elfin nobles before the wine was poured.

Goblin Town

As a rule, the Fair Folk shun most modern technology, scorning the steam-engines and clockwork used by mortals. Goblins, however, are a notable exception, and their shambolic ghetto in the midst of the Wilted Quarter is a seething, stinking swelter of acrid smoke and hissing machines. Though far short of the industrial capacity of cities like Hex and Erubescence, the factories of Goblin Town churn out all manner of strange devices, from repeating crossbows to fireworks to crude pistols to mechanical traps to clockwork toys. Many of these are built from scrap metal and other oddments salvaged from the junkyard in the southern part of the district, the city’s garbage-tip for inorganic waste. The west side of Goblin Town also features a number of fighting pits and monster-gardens, populated with creatures from the wilds of Elfhame and beyond; many such creaturea are bought and sold in the Beast Market.

Grosscastle

The Fomorians used to number among Mab’s favoured peoples: giants, originally hostages in the Enormity Wars between Elfhame and Jotunheim, become the soldiers and servants of the Unseelie Court. They lost their status when their chieftain, King Balor, sought to depose Mab herself and claim Logris for his own, a plan foiled by Mab, resulting in the exile of Balor and his people to the mortal realm. Their ancient fortress of Grosscastle, once the primary military fortification in the Wilting Quarter, now lies empty and moss-eaten, for Mab cursed the castle such that any who slumbers in its depths will be driven mad with nightmares, waking in a frenzy and attacking those about them as if they were monstrous imposters; such was the fate of many Fomorians who succumbed to the spell on the eve of Balor’s would-be coup. Though the fortress remains ungarrisoned, adventurers sometimes venture into its shattered halls in search of the forgotten treasures of the Fomorians, for the giants were renowned for their craftsmanship and magic, and many of their wondrous creations can still be found within the cyclopean bowels of Grosscastle.

Horripilation Circus

Elves and Demons have never quite seen eye to eye, not because of their differences but rather their similarities – a narcissism of small differences often intrudes on relations betwixt Faerie and Hell, and due to the Truce and the Tithe of Souls Elfhame pays the Archdemons, the two are largely content to ignore one another, save for the occasional bickering between Annwn and infernal psychopomps over the fate of certain shades of the dead. Of the various Elfin realms, however, Logris maintains the strongest relationship with the Netherworld, as evinced by Horripilation Circus: a demoniac carnival, put on as entertainment for Queen Mab, a kind of gift to the Lady of Logris from Hecate, one of the dethroned sovereigns of Hell usurped by the Commonwealth of Pandemonium. The circus is a multiversal menagerie involving conjured horrors, otherworldly delicacies, surreal magical specatcles, and a panoply of other pleasures both subtle and gross. Many of the performers are demons; others are damned souls, mortals who have made pacts with the fell powers, and other outcasts, grotesques, and oddities culled from the dark corners of the cosmos.

Rotting Hill

Queen Mab herself is often found in the Wilted Quarter. When Her Moldy Majesty is present in Gossamer, she dwells within the Putrescent Palace, a grotesque fortress perched atop Rotting Hill – a reeking mass of lichenous rock, fruiting bodies, and decomposing vegetation. The Palace itself is a madhouse: crazed corridors loop and twist at impossible angles, packs of wild dogs roam from room to room in search of carrion, inscrutable clocks count the hidden hours of Elfhame, and the mad, laughing, blood-stained Queen herself presiding over it all, along with her numerous fetches, supernatural doubles through whose eyes she sees. The dungeons of the Palace are said to be a labyrinth of impossible depth and complexity, a warren of oubliettes and torture chambers in which prisoners and gaolors hunt one another in bizarre cat-and-mouse chases, sometimes seemingly changing roles and identities as all sense and sanity break down.

Shroomsbury

A district of alchemists and physicians, Shroomsbury is absolutely infested with gigantic fungi of every conceivable variety (and several inconceivable ones), their spores used to produce medicines and potions, as well as many of the poisons sold in the Brambles and the drugs sold in Wormwood. The district is notable for Napping Nog, a giant attacker who was laid low by soporific spores, fallen into a seemingly eternal coma; fungi have grown over his slumbering body, which has also become the centre of its own small neighbourhood. A stonesthrow from Nog lies the Collegium Gargantua, one of Gossamer’s few institutions of higher learning, founded with the mission of studying the sleeping giant; the Elfin enchanters at the Collegium have performed a wide variety of experiments on their softly snoring specimen, including entering the creature’s dreams to quite literally pick its brains for secrets of the primordial Jotnar. At the southern edge of the district lies the Red-Juice Sickhouse, a kind of hospital and laboratory where patients are treated with cures generated from the bodies of fungoid nurses – often with bizarre magical side-effects, to the continued fascination of the Fair Folk chirurgeons. Patients have been known to emerge from the Sickhouse with broken bones set or illnesses treated, while also beginning to age backwards, or acquiring strange phobias, or losing their shadows. Some have reported continuing to grow far beyond the heights typical of their species; others have complaned of developing “backup” ears and eyes; of being afflicted with wereslug therianthropy; of losing their childhood memories in exchange for those of others; of discovering the physicians have produced clonal copies of their bodies for disreputable purposes; and a myriad of other complaints. Still, there’s no arguing with results.

Wormwood

Little remains of the enchanted forest of Wormwood that preceded the Wilting Quarter, but one small neighbourhood preserves something of its eerie charms. Gossamer’s pleasure district, the place is home to numerous theatres, most notably the magnificent open-air Grove theatre, where plays older than some planes are regularly performed with elaborate ceremony, along with the latest bawdy satyr-plays and other lewd comedies, often skewering Faerie’s elites. Taverns, drug-dens, and cafes also abound, many serving absinthe, the signature drink of the district, in honour of the Green Fairy, an ancient member of the Fair Folk who can often be found roaming the verdurous streets, bewitching passersby with intoxicating illusions. Undoubtedly the centrepiece of the district is the gorgeous Nymphaeum. To call this temple of sensuous delights a “brothel” would almost be slanderous, for it is a shrine to hedonism, run by the descendants of the nymphs and satyrs who once dwelt in the ancient wood and have now adapted to city life; the overgrown pleasure-palace is an opulent world unto itself, as expensive as it is decadently luxurious. Finally, Wormwood is also the location of the Nest, a wyvern-aerie. The beasts have long ago been tamed by the locals, becoming far smaller in size and less ferocious in demeanor than their forebears; indeed, it is practically a faux-pas for a well-to-do Elf not to own a jewel-scaled dwarf wyvern, used much as mortals do a hunting hawk.

Building Gossamer, Part 3 – Wormwood

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On May 24, 2020

In Roleplaying

Gossamer begins to take shape. I moved south from Shroomsbury into Wormwood and the eastern edges of the Brambles. With 8 pages done, I am now nearly halfway through the Wilting Quarter, and 10% through the city overall.

Wormwood is a sort of urban forest, and also a pleasure-district – a maze of roots and mossy bridges and winding streets, ornate spires emerging from a miasma of perfume and psychedelic mist, all of it overgrown with trees and foliage. As with Shroomsbury, I decided on a few landmarks. Firstly, I wanted a wyvern nest, the beasts domesticated so that their venom would be milked and diluted into one of many potent drugs consumed in the district, many others coming from Shroomsbury to the north. Second, a theatre – I went with an Elizabethan-looking structure, the Grove. Finally I put in the lavish, over-the-top Nymphaeum, somewhere between a shrine and a brothel.

The economic function of the Wilting Quarter is taking shape. Drugs, reagents, poisons, potions – the district is about transformation and liminal states, which fits with the autumn theme of Logris, the fairy realm of Mab. I’m thinking this theme will be echoed in a different way in the part of the city ruled by Titania, Queen of Spring, in the southeast, opposite Mab’s domain.

Next up will be finishing off the bottom corner and the Brambles, a thorn-swathed slum, district of assassins and thieves. It’s also going to include a sprawling witch’s garden where various poisonous herbs are cultivated.

The city as a whole now looks like this:

I was also thinking about how the Quarters will connect to one another – I may end up putting a big bridge between the Wilting Quarter and the Withered Quarter, the wintry section that will be directly east of this part. There’s a nice untaken spot off Deepshade square that would be easy to graft the bridge to without a lot of finnicky re-drawing. Once I’m finished with the Wilted Quarter I’ll likely move clockwise, moving through the Winter, Spring, and finally Summer sections of the city.

Building Gossamer, Part 2 – Shroomsbury

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On May 21, 2020

In Roleplaying

Four pages into mapping, the results look like this:

Even at this stage I needed to make some adjustments to the image – tiny misalignments, a paper slightly askew here, a scanning margin there, all meant that to make the images mesh I needed to expand and contract parts of the map, add a stairway here and a cluster of fungi there. This can be fiddly, but in some ways there’s a silver lining – these sorts of realignments tend to further disguise the gaps between pages and give the final result a slightly more organic look while still preserving the overall design.

With the images digitally sewn together, I then started adding names. I sometimes have a list of street ideas jotted down, but generally I make them up as I go. I named the giant (Napping Nog) and labelled a few especially important landmarks. There was some space left around some larger structures, so I decided retroactively to make these notable locations, labelling them the Wheezing Tower and the Collegium Gargantua – I’ll figure out details for these locations later, but the Colelgium will likely be a school focused on sleep-magic and psychedelic enchantments, while the tower might belong to a wizardly cabal. Making “discoveries” like this preserves a certain sense of spontaneity during the process.

Up next I’ll be starting a new district – possibly Wormwood, Rotting Hill, or the Brambles.

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