Friday 30 October 2015

Selling your Soul in the Underground

Expeditions to the Far Lands are terrible undertakings. Those wanting just to sneak a look are more likely to be tempted into the Underground, which connects everything. Some explorers just want to know what's out there, but others are hunting for Arcana.



Such devices might come from the stars, or the Far Lands, or the distinction might not even exist.

But then we meet all sorts of crazy beings that seem able to break reality without relying on a physical Arcanum. How does Average Joe Bastion get in on that sort of power?

It's been called Selling your Soul, but really you're just making a deal with an otherworldly being. Inhuman power in return for something they want.



When you go looking for such a deal, roll 3d10.

Who's Offering the Deal?
(Note: These things are off in their own distance places and times, able to reach you only through the Underground's disregard for time and space. If you need stats for them, remember that this is just a shadow of their real form.)
  1. The White Noise: A howling mass of flashing lights obsessed with purity. Terrified of contamination by touching lesser beings. 
  2. Huk Colony: Featureless humanoids with a collective, highly psychic, consciousness. Disgusted by emotions, including their own disgust.  
  3. Adol: A huge golden demon that wants to grant the desires of lesser beings as a penance for its previous sins. Asks only for something in return so that it may be passed on to another. 
  4. M-System: A huge network of computers that knows everything that's happening across all realities. Petty and vain. 
  5. Oot-bog: Sentient swamp that births disgusting gifts to those that feed it. Only requests payment through cryptic symbols in the moss. Takes forever to actually do anything.  
  6. Narin and Az: A titanic ape-like creature being groomed and caressed by a smaller mate. When not cooing over each other they want to take others to the peaks of pleasure. If you go along with this, they'll offer you a deal. 
  7. Fith-Halle: A mass of bloated corpses, conjoined at various body parts. All are silent except the speaker, who can sacrifice one of her conjoined bodies to grant a favour. 
  8. Slaughter: A flabby blue lion-like thing encased in silver armour. Will grant gifts only to be used in service of death. 
  9. Glass Heart: Speaks to those who enter her body. If she thinks your request is sincere, she will make you a deal. 
  10. Axigt: Serpentine, yellow bird, seemingly stretching on to infinity. Obsessed with enforcing punishment on broken vows, lies, and false intentions. 



What they're Offering
  1. Innate arcane ability. Start with Cantrips and 1st Circle, learning a new circle each time you please your master. 
  2. Monstrous wings and claws (d10). 
  3. Psychic ability.
  4. A blessing to the laws of probability. All your Saves roll 2d20 and keep the lowest result. 
  5. A cloned version of yourself that you control with a tandem ego. 
  6. A resurrection.
  7. Passage to a Far Land of practically unlimited wealth. 
  8. A target of your choice will get dragged to a hellish realm from their bed, damned for eternity. 
  9. Exemption from one immutable law (mortality, gravity, bureaucracy)
  10. A one-off time travel. 

What they Want 
  1. Your voice.
  2. Your soul for real. When you next take Critical Damage, they sense your incoming death and materialise to snatch you away.
  3. A gate opened up in Bastion. They tell you exactly what to do, but you'll cause a real mess if you do it.
  4. d6 innocents (children are best)
  5. Put something into Bastion's water supply that will cause a load of horrible things to happen. 
  6. A place in your mind. They want to observe things and will psychically lash you for d6 WIL loss if you get boring. 
  7. A load of bodily fluids, weakening your STR by d4 permanently. 
  8. A chunk of your brain, lowering your WIL by d4 permanently.
  9. Take this tiny creature with you and care for it until it grows into its adult form. If you lose the creature you'll be hunted down.
  10. Nothing for now. They'll be in touch with a completely unreasonable demand in a few weeks.

Monday 19 October 2015

The Far War

When people in Bastion talk about The War they aren't talking about some bloody mess come right-of-passage. The War is serious stuff.

No one power in Bastion has a chance of bringing the city under their rule, and even the most stone-headed armies of Deep Country bumpkins wouldn't last long against the city's guns.

So of course the great enemy of this terrible War is in some far off land. It might even be a coalition of far-land cities united against the dominant power of the world (clearly us).



There's a lot of uncertainty, but one thing's for sure is that you're with Bastion or the enemy. If we don't take the fight to them it's only a matter of time until there's an army at our door.

Recruits are conscripted, given uniforms, taken off to ships. Sometimes they come back with thousand yard stares. More often they don't. It's a great way to get rid of prisoners, orphans, and other surplus population.



For the common Bastionard, The War is the reason why your butcher can't get those good sausages anymore, or an excuse for the local militia to enforce a curfew at sundown.

If want to avoid going out to fight in the Far Lands you'll join one of the Home Defense Platoons. Bankers and bakers training each other to defend against an enemy they can't agree on. You get a fancy rank, regimental scarf, and some medals for long-service. You might even get to lynch some of your neighbours if they talk a bit different to you.



Officers are enforcers of War Law within the city, so you can count on them being total shits. They differ from Generals in that they consider any citizen of Bastion to be under their command and they have no actual thirst for battle.



So who are we fighting again? Roll 3d10.

First d10

  1. The Star-Duchy of...
  2. The Colossus named...
  3. The Mirror-City of...
  4. The Hidden World of...
  5. The Flesh Pit of...
  6. The Dead...
  7. The Fleet of...
  8. Terrible...
  9. Heathens of...
  10. The Godly...


Second d10

  1. Mock-
  2. Drek-
  3. Slag-
  4. Sly-
  5. Or-
  6. Dun-
  7. Fat-
  8. Luxi-
  9. Bad-
  10. Jerr-

Third d10

  1. -berg
  2. -stani
  3. -ich
  4. -a
  5. State
  6. -ania
  7. -lings
  8. -lackia
  9. -eria
  10. -olia

Saturday 3 October 2015

Two Weeks in the Far Lands

Right! I'm off to a distant land for two weeks, so don't take the lack of content here as my usual unreliability.

Back around the 19th with another IP-infringing OddMod for you all.