WITCH ASTEROID

 Mythic Bastionland, by the book. In the home-brew Mystriver, the Realm Abandoned. Boo: Roose. Asher: Kirus. Seek the Myths. Honor the Seers. Protect the Realm. Late Winter. FIRST DAY. Mystriver, the Realm Abandoned Mystriver, the Realm Abandoned. Hard, frosted ground. Grass crunching underneath your feet. Trees and flowers frozen still. A heavy mist fills the air, fog clouding your distant vision. Dark shapes through the white, the earth and sky melting into one pale canvas. Knights-Errant; Kirus the Moat Knight , a smelly old man with too much honesty and a beautiful untrained horse; Roose the Tankard Knight , a talkative young fellow on a powerful charger. 3PM. The Company seeks the Myths. Kirus digs a hole into the packed ground and it fills with warm swampy water.  4PM. After traveling on their horses there are dark silhouettes in the fog. Singing, worshipping. Closer, six peasants chant and dance in a circle. They all hold brown bottles of hard liquor. The ground ever-...

 Scotty: Drim. Calvin: Brooke. Justin: Jubilo. Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed! Middle Month of Summer.  Day 5, beginning of morning watch.  HEX G. South of the Three Fingers Jubilo stares at the stars. "How can we save the Witch Folk of Cold Cave village ?" he asks the fire.  A scroll, the letter written by Lord Zaq, burnt to ash... A grave marker for Captain Zaq... A flag with the silver eye charred to a crisp... Captain Quill chokes underwater...  Drim sleeps. He dreams of home. His family, Witch Folk, to the north. A memory of meeting an old woman with only one arm. He is later told that was his grandaunt elder.  Brooke catches up to the war galley in the night: Learned lends him wooden stilts to traverse the mud and root. Brooke envisions Lady Ummul Gul. He isn't afraid. He welcomes the reunion. In the morning he plays cards with the soldiers who stayed up to celebrate. Callan fills Brooke in on the goings-on of the group, namely the death of Good Captain...

 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...

In Desul there are those who forsake the powers of magic. Whether in a religious extreme or a clinical obsession, they strip their own bodies of the potential for magic. This involves a surgical removing of the ears and the sensory organs just below the skin around the skull. These anti-magic deafs are nicknamed "Snails," for they move slowly. Most will crawl along the ground and lean against walls. This is because they have lost not only their hearing, but their entire center of balance. The surgery is ironically magical in nature and cuts the Snail off from vibrational frequencies, also limiting the Snails in their sense of touch as well. They experience injury, but they cannot feel pain. Their physical stamina is nearly limitless. They can crawl and crawl without ever tiring. A Snail's body will crumple and die before it gives up on its pursuit. They are completely unaffected by magical ability. A magical flame will have no effect on a Snail because the 'waves...