The Bright Spans Pt 1: History-like Stuff No One Reads

 This is another post previously on my other blog! At the time, I'd thought I would tip-tap some ideas down about one of the 7 worlds in my little RPG realm-hub. I had added Orbis to the other realms, all of which are in various states of completion. Tellas, my main campaign world, is very well defined, at least on the western and central portions of the map. Filios, where my recent Swords & Wizardry game was set, is currently a small region in the midst of a pretty solid world. Confluence at the "apex" of the 7 spheres is an area that I have a ton of generative content to use. Lots of lore and things to explore scattered about. The Fields of Fallen Petals, also known as Plains of Endless War, at the other end of the configuration is very ill-defined. But who wants to visit the Infernals and their war-mongery ways? They're gonna be the ones to win in the end I bet. I don't have any idea what's happening down there, other than warrior souls getting their war on to stay sharp for some sort of an armageddon. Um, Panglossia has some continents and some countries named. Cowboys and pirates and something something Empires. And, there's the vague idea for a sword-and-planet thing cause that's neat. 

I guess that's not seven, though it's too late to bother to count on my fingers, and besides, Tellas has another iteration 3000 years later (Gloom City which will probably have to be renamed grr!), and the whole shebang has, at the supposed end of the Universe, the last place, Terminus. (Hey, actually, my Mothership galactic slice doesn't go with any of this dorfy stuff, so that's a relief, I guess.)

 

[Addendum: Since all of this, Terminus has been given many more details, and something of a defined structure (it's weird, surprise!). And Filios has been made a region on Orbis connecting to the Bright Spans through the big deserty wastelands to the east, AND over the tundra and glaciers to the north.] 

Alright, but Orbis. Some sort of long ago, some sorcerer dudes, the most accurate diviners (a reputation of the ages!), predicted that the World would be torn asunder! At a particular time of the year, deep in a specific season! By a noble probably! A young lady of princessish background would definitely do it, since changing the world is what they do (when not being rescued, presumably). And they're the perfect conduit for world-shattering, since it is well known that slaying a fair young lady, or harming a maid of the gentle eventide, or generally mistreating princesses is bad lucking cursedry of the highest order.

At any rate, at some point the ancient scrolls got spilled on, a few were misplaced, others were white-outed in that ancient style of scraping (palimpsestery by a presumably well-meaning but bumbling clerk in a far-off monastery I'm sure; the sit-com nearly writes itself). So, the actual prophesy got muddled as these things are wont to do, and the specific season and circumstances were loooost to tiiiiiime.

This made the Elves unhappy, and eventually some of them had the realization that the time was drawing nearer. The oldest Elves had been alive around the time of the Grrreat Olde Sages, when those glorious worthies were looking at the stars, and throwing bones at each other, and sniffing toad powder, and whatnot. Some of them Elves had even been there to hear the bad news personally. But because they're elves, they couldn't be bothered to actually talk to the Tallmen, except when hooking up some toad powder for like mushrooms or something. They, too, didn't have the exact details.

So, the elvish solution? Kidnap princesses and lock them away in towers. Permanent sleep-spells. Bramble-thorns, lots of bramble-thorns. More Enchantments of Peaceful Repose type magics. Somehow convince dragons to also kidnap princesses, and get people to offer up princesses to dragons as festival sacrifices and all that. (And other monsters only dragon-adjacent most likely. Townsfolk don't know the difference, and crops is crops, after all.) Poison apples, too; those things grow all over the frickin' place. 

 

Well, while castles were being mightily enchanted and filled with fair maids and all sorts of nice things, those sorcerers and sortiledgers were boning up on formulaic magics, exact, duplicable incantationaries, and the copying and codifying of otherworldly forces. In short they were evolving into "capital W" Wizards. Wizards who certainly weren't going stand by and let any old group of horrible (and likely snooty) Elves take (the glory of saving the world) those princesses and lock them up! Why no, siree, they'd cast Great Magicks and Workes 'pon the land and change the veeerry course of the wooorld if need-be! And the top guy, the name that is passed down to us from this time as the fulcrum point of the Great Rectification, stabilizing the very future of the world Orbis, and saving all, is the wizard Balthazar of Azhonagh. He's the guy to blame, probably, for all that came next.

---

Okee! A bit more coming soon I hope. Something on the lands, something on the remaining history. Something else I'm sure, gabbling about this or that. There's some question as to the relative states of "souls" in the general groups of fae and their descendants and related types, especially elves, gobbos, and *gasp* orcs. Questions about what's going on more recently; it was, after all, called "Defeat All Wizards" in my initial notes. Lots of info on factions and countries and whatnot. The Saints and the Gods. Why I have too many megadungeons for any one person to ever even try to use! Hah. Really, I don't know if anyone likes world-buildy stuff, but, either way it'll be hanging out here.

 

Part 2 

You'll Be Eaten by a Grue d30 Table

 

For that moment when the torches have burned out, or the juncture when the session timer is up, see if the characters have met a terrible fate in the dungeon. In my Bright Spans game, if the players' characters are still in a dungeon at the time set for the game to end, they are subject to the whims of fate, and the horrors of the dungeon! There is no camping out in the dungeon (yet; there may or may not be ways around that later) so PCs are out into the overworld, and more specifically back at their home-base between sessions.

This was clearly stolen directly from a few locations, especially Jeff's Gameblog, and first posted on my old blog. Slightly reworked and placed here for my own benefit and also because I have to put this stuff somewhere. 

 

d30 ±2 per difference between dungeon level and level of the PC , ±4 for situationals (eg. being lost, the exit is like right there, etc.)

1. Gone Gone Gone: Did that character even really exist? No one is sure they did.
2. Dead: Obliterated, stuff scattered everywhere. Magic items, and more robust equipment now randomly located throughout dungeon.
3. Dead: Body is blown away, but stuff is salvagable at location.
4. Dead: Stuff is fucked, but body is locatable if that's your thing.
5. Dead: Got out with the body, 50% chance the items that were at hand (or belt ready or equipped) made it out, too.
6. Dead: Got out with the sweet equipment, but your dude was left behind at the location.
7. Dead: Dead but resplendent in full panoply. Get a good sendoff. (Them funerals better get a bit of an XP reward, right?)
8. Captured: Monster! Unknown situation. 25% chance infected!
9. Captured: Monster! Level known. 25% chance infected!
10. Captured: Monster! Type of monster known. 25% chance infected!
11. Captured: Monster! Level and type of monster known. 25% chance infected!
12. Captured: Asshole scumbags! Ransom note coming soon from rival adventurers.
13. Petrified: Escaping characters know what level.
14. Stuck: Pocket of slow-time, Screw you, elfs. 25% found a princess.
15. Stuck: Bramble zone. 25% chance infected. 50% found a princess.
16. Stuck: Sleeped. Everyone is asleep. 75% found a princess.
    
17. Lost: Go on the random encounter table. 50% chance infected.
18. Lost: Randomly determined static location. 50% chance infected.
19. Replaced: Wait, Lefty ain't right handed! (Best line, thanks J Rients.)
20. Brutality: Some body part is lost or damaged beyond usability; hit up that sweet random hit chart I know the GM has. You'll have to ask yourself if your dude is still viable.
21. Got out: with a sweet scar, and nothing else but the armor on your back.
22. Got out: with a sweet scar, and 50% of your stuff dropped.
23. Got out: with a sweet scar and all your shit intact. Nice. 
24. Got out: 50% chance infected. 50% each item is fucked or just gone.
25. Getting too old for this shit: Made it out, 50% each item gone. Retires.
26. Fly, you fools!: Choose another character to escape. 1-4 they escape, 5-6 you share their fate.
27. Fly, you fools!: Choose another character to escape: 1-4 you both get out with only armor and equipment at hand, 5-6 you share their fate.
28. Fly, you fools!: Choose another character to escape: 1-4 you both get out 50% items gone, 5-6 they escape, you roll again.
    
29. That was CLOSE: Nekkid(ish) but breathing the sweet air of not the dungeon.
30. No probs, really. What's the fuss?

Infected just means something got you. So, if there's mighty were-armadillos, you'll soon be shuffling along armoredly to sweet armadillo-y moonsong. If there's, say, candy zombies, well, get ready to emerge sweeter than ever. Otherwise, GM, pull out that bitchin' random disease, fungus, or potion effect table I know you got waiting for just such an occasion, and subject the (un)lucky character to some dungeony bullshit.

Oh, and give them one or two chances to escape if they got a "capture" or "lost" I suppose. Just use the same roll as up there, but only change to the new circumstance if the value is higher. I was going to say to just use the new value, but I think it might be interesting to leave the character languishing in their new circumstance. (Within reason: after a few failed rolls, or if the party just says "later" there are maaany possible outcomes. Revenge-bent monster overlord infected with dungeon fungus sounds legit, yeah?)