WITCH ASTEROID

 Scotty: Drim. Justin: Jubilo. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer.  Day 4, beginning of morning watch.  HEX J. Soldiers fanning the flames After resting in Finch's barrack room, Jubilo and Brooke are awoken by the thundering blast of powder. Dust shakes loose from the room. They find Captain Zaq has blown a hole in the wall of Once Rie in order to leave the fortress. Soldiers are already patching up the portcullis wall and fashioning a door in the new hole. Captain Zaq has a scroll he helped his father write. The trio descends one of the rope ladders. At the base of the stump the tide has risen. Drim has traveled from Learned's nest upon Jubilo and Callan's handmade raft. Drim was taught how to be “Slippery.” SLIPPERY: When a “Slippery” target is attacked, and the “Slippery” target does not deal damage this turn, all damage dealt to the target is reduced to a d4.   Callan still secures their skiff. Good Captain Fintan shouts at the crew and makes o...

 Calvin: Brooke. Justin: Jubilo. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer.  Day 3, beginning of afternoon watch.  HEX F. Fortress Portcullis Drim has decided he's going to stay with Learned instead of immediately traveling to Once Rie. First he has something to learn... Half an hour after the Witch Folk hunters travel north Jubilo and Callan arrive at Learned's nest on a shoddily-crafted raft. The two traveled throughout the night, staying away from the thundering scuttling of Granduncle Beg. Jubilo took after Callan and became exceptional at hearing. He also found out Callan is a bigoted Zum loyalist!  Brooke fills Jubilo and Callan in on the plan to overtake the fortress and hold Lord Zaq hostage. Jubilo comes clean that he is not Alaric the Theif and explains his real past as an entertainer. He adds that he's visited the fortress before and knows Lord Zaq: he performed for him many years ago. The team establishes a new plan to enter the fortress under ...

 Scotty: Drim. Calvin: Brooke. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer.  Day 2, end of afternoon watch.  HEX B. Galley on the water by the setting Sun The explorers see a war galley, marked with Lord Manishi Zaq's red wave emblem. Fifty feet away. The sun setting, casting the stream in purple silhouette as the tide lowers, approaching night. Twenty-one soldiers, strung and tied by their intestines like paper dolls, hang from the rigging of the war galley. Drim knows this to be the artistry of Krun. "Fuck that," says Jubilo, as he jumps overboard and swims for the nearby crowded woods. He slams his handshot pistol on the skiff seat to preserve it, leaving the weapon behind. Callan follows after Jubilo: "Aye aye, master!"  Brooke wakes up, fully rested. Brooke and Drim cautiously approach the galley. It's perched against a large flat stone, seemingly abandoned. The only noise the drip, drip, drip of the soldiers hanging above. Their feet nearly b...

 Scotty: Drim. Calvin: Brooke. Justin: Jubilo. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer. Day 1, afternoon watch. HEX A. Ilyra retires for the night and disappears into the city. The Vizier introduces Drim , a young, squat, handsome wilderness explorer. The Vizier dismisses the party and repeats that the skiff will be ready tomorrow. The party spends the rest of the evening at the markets.  Jubilo searches for an expert tracker and comes across Callan , an intense, wide-eyed man chewing on a metal toothpick. Jubilo and Callan form an unlikely, awkward bond and mentally (via imagination) sign documentation for the hiring of Callan. Drim buys some rope. Brooke buys a fishing rod.  Day 2, morning watch... Sun rising on the water The party meet at the palace bright and early. Callan is already there, eyes nearly bursting out of his head as he searches his surroundings. The Vizier has prepared their skiff earlier than expected. Jubilo "Alaric the Thief" at the prow...

 The Tide Returning, by Zedeck Siew. Running Cairn with home-brew. Treythan: Ilyra. Calvin: Brooke. Justin: Jubilo. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer. Day 1, morning watch. HEX A. The king's palace The Great Wood , a tidal mangrove forest populated by elder trees the size of skyscrapers. At the southern end of the forest lies the city and palace of Zum , a colonial-military-merchant population who has "co-habitated" with the Witch Folk of the Great Wood for the last few generations. Two days ago the Zum King (and his canny Scepter ) disappeared. A young wild woman with magical tracking abilities: Ilyra. A cautious and investigative bodyguard to nobility: Brooke. A legendary gentleman Zum thief: Alaric. These three are contacted by the Vizier to the throne, to meet at the Second Market Docks. A water wrestling match is overseen at the docks by Karor (sentient tiger) and Good Captain Fintan (greasy leather-clad stranger).  Ilyra watches the scene...

 I want an alternative to spell books. I like the image of a mage carrying around a bookshelf of reading material, Death Stranding -style. I like Dungeons & Dragons and Knave and Cairn. The cloistered scholar archetype is intriguing. But I still want a creative alternative.  How do wizards in traditionally wet or humid environments hold their magic? How does the magic-user in the wild — outside of their high tower, carrying all other manner of gear — find the cargo space to fit a few textbooks? And what really is magic?  Waves. Vibration. Sound. Magic affects everything. Naturally, the magical organ is the ear. It keeps balance. It filters these waves, intoning them within the body and solidifying their magical effect. Let’s create a “spell book” with these parameters. I’m going to call them “totems” instead. They are small, often hand-sized objects, perforated with holes that create unique sounds at specific volumes. Each totem holds one spell. Rolling a random spel...

Seek the Myths. Honor the Seers. Protect the Realm. Spring. One day until Sceptremass. Sir Baldric and Sir Brom part ways with Jabek, a captain of the warty guard, and decide to ride towards Fort Grasp; the Seat of Power of the Realm. Journeying North, they come across a group of shepherds at night. They speak of tigers killing sheep in the East. In the morning the Company gallops with urgency to the fort. The river joins trifold and the knights have difficulty crossing. Brom is across with ease, but Baldric must be aided by his squire Dorf. Afternoon on the day of Sceptremass. The Company approaches the colossal structure, noise and jubilation inside. A courtyard filled with guardsmen training, archery, sparring with hay dummies, dogs chasing carved sticks. They tie their poor exhausted horses up with a young squire named Spike. The Company enters the grand hall, tables set with food and drink. Two Sworn Bell Knights guard a locked door on the right. One of them, Sworn Bell Knight R...

  Mythic Bastionland, by the book. In the home-brew realm of Grasp. Treythan: Baldric. Christian: Brom. Seek the Myths. Honor the Seers. Protect the Realm. Spring. Four days until Sceptremass. Young Knights-Errant; Baldric the Gilded Knight , a beautiful force of violence in a short-and-shiny package, and his squire Dorf ; Brom the Rune Knight , a hulking thoughtful behemoth, and his squire Noll . Visitors from a distant Realm. They are instantly cursed by false paths amongst eastern bluffy crags. Dorf takes a watch all night and nearly depletes his Clarity to 0 (it is left at 1). The next day the Company runs into a logging team of warty guards captained by Jabek . He wears full plate with a frog helm, but is NOT a Knight. The warty guards mention “The Toad,” and how they’re gathering materials for his castle. The guards deposit massive logs beside the lake and depart on fat donkeys.  The Toad's shoddy castle The next day the Company come upon two scouts investigating the ...