Tuesday 1 December 2020

Planescrap: Serene Night

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Here's the links to the planescrap primer:

1,2,

Other Realms: 

Pinnacle of Virtue 

Here's the Neutral Good realm.  


SERENE NIGHT


(The Ever Night Serene, The Night Serenity,Serene Night, Serenity, Starry Night)

Description:


The jewelled night skies of Serene Night are the destination of souls. Visitors and travelers will pass underneath , along the time deserts of Serene Night. A soft sea of purples, blues and reds: vivid colours despite the constant night sky.


These deserts are for forgetting and resolving.


Ruins and relics of war are laid down here to crumble, nemesis formed of tortured pasts are confronted, and mighty stone beasts are stalked in a champions trial. Amongst the sands emerge crumbled pillars, cracked monoliths, and stone oaths to irrelevant victories. Wonders as well as Endings. Forests of only bloom, forming in and falling in a hour. Spark showers pouring up to into the sky. Distant song and blossom.


The sky night here is festooned -- almost too brightly -- from the measureless stars and galaxial foam.


For the souls that come here as their finality, the skies have jeweled treasure ships, pearl palace moons, shoals of light and joy, winds of song and scent.

Traveling Through :


Vermin Road:

The route through Serene Night is safe but not entirely without risk or discomfort.

A characteristic melancholy can settle on travelers upon leaving, making them doubt their past lives and long for the feeling of joy that came with the nights wind here.


A profession is Scamps, mellow and merry fellows exists on both sides of Serene Night. The passage through can be greatly easen with someone of light and easy heart guiding the cavern.


A caravan where the travellers are bitter or resentful to each other will lengthen the time and worsen the winds. Such groups are the ones needing a Scamp to counteract this, but too much exposure to such fellows can render a Scamp cynical and jaded.

Travel Time to make it from Pinnacle to Blazing world:

Light-hearted party - roll d6 encounters, each encounter takes a Derive

Typical -- Roll d10

Belligerent -- Roll d20

Looking For Things:


how to find them

On the Dêvire encounter roll, if a 6 is rolled, it is found. Otherwise read result as normal.

After any Dêvire where Altruism, Reflection, Joy, or Justice is shown, treat a 5 and 6 as finding the thing. Continue to reduce the number required by 1 each time relevant positive trait


This Dērive of travel (d6):


1.Wind


2.Terrain


3.Encounter

4.Ruin

5 . Roll d4 twice and combine

6 Just sand and wind and stars

---encounter table



1 Loot lizards are looking for help (going to explore a ruin)

2 In trouble (in ruin)

3 Trading/ Stashing

4 Lamenting King

5 Lamenting King

6 Baku

7 Mockers rehearsing around camp

8 Mockers about to leave

9 Mockers returning

10 Vermin Road cavaren having crisis

11 Abandoned Verminn Road Caravan

12 . Perpetual con artist / merchant, lost from caravan, being pursued by Baku, will seek protection from party. Many promises of rewards, can fulfill some of them

13 knights / warrior servants who don’t want to be waiting with their king anymore. They don’t really believe in the cause any more and are arguing with themselves about better options.

14 A pool of liquid bliss, extremely dangerous

15 A night made out of birds, a day made of song (too quick night, day is loud and causes synesthesia)

16 Water pours down from the sky, turning the sand to a shallow lake. Ancient warriors emerge from the dunes, and abandon their blood and ancient weapons and armour in waters, then dissolve into the wind looking peaceful. Collecting the weapons risks being haunted by dreams of ancient massacres and besieged by surges of anger.

17 Mirage of lives the characters could have lived if they had chosen peace (for better or worse)

18 Choose a random player. An alternate version of them shows up for 2d6 rounds. Take the first major decision that character did and have the opposite decision get made. Extrapolate from there, and/or roll for personality, ethics, pragmatism vs. idealism, etc.
(
1 Extreme version of characters current

2 Slight inversion of characters current

3 Complete inversion of characters current

4 Same as characters
)
Any equipment taken, stolen, or traded from alternate replaces characters equivalent (if applicable). The alternate will desperately need to exchange at least one significant item with character. Other PCs cannot see or interact with alternate.

19-20 ruin stumbled upon or revealed

Table of Terrain


1 An empty city, seemingly build out of polished coral. Nothing has a roof and and forlorn looking single bamboos poking out here and there

2 A shallow lake ringed with red sand and wading black flamingo

3 What look like strange hills are great black bells, cracked open

4 Dead trees, partially wrapped in silk. Looks almost ritually wrapped, but not implausible that the wind blew the silk wrappings into and around the tree

5 Dunes flatten out into a playa, sand more compressed here and looking like black glitter

6 Monuments like massive lilies half buried, their stone crumbling and scented to the touch

7 A toppled aqueduct, stretching out for miles, neatly on its side, forming a helpful road to the finer sand here. Walking the sand means sinking up to the knee or waist

8 Driftwood houses, with stilt legs, migrating in unsteady purpose across the sand

9 A stronger wind here, exposing vast bricked plane, and assortment of discarded weaponry, seemingly from 2 different cultural groups. Most but not all beyond repair

10 Discarded weapons of titans, size of buildings, weirdly ornate, corroded and cracked

11 A dune is open, an arch with a stone king standing in its security. His face carved with a look of disbelief. The tomb empty, his jade mummified servants woke and walked out

12 Echo valley, if you stop and make no noise, you will eventually hear things people wanted to say to you but didn’t

13 A lake formed from weeping stars, drinking freshly from it will heal all hit point loss, bathing it will remove and fix any scars, limb loss, conditions, ailments, mutations, damage, or curses, but will take XP back to the amount needed to level up to their current level. This will be apparent to the bather before the XP loss happens. Lake will dry up by the next derive.

14 Giant Shells with sweet waters streaming out of them, each a different flavour

15 A forest jungle, just of flowers, is sprouting, blooming and fading to seed over 10 minutes

16 Sand makes sounds like gentle small bells as blows here

17 A dozen or so tall towers, seemingly built out of hubris and competition as much as brick, lying flat and half buried

18 Big black warm rocks, crowned with curling lichens and shy bright ferns

19 Numerous yardang, sheltering humble shrines to kindnesses

20 An acacia grove, with thyme like blossom. Each tree is growing out of a smiling wind-mummified monk or warrior



Ruin is..
(can be used as a split table or a single roll and read across table)
  1. Palace courtyard
  2. Statue garden
  3. A lot of arches, very decorated (apparently structural), though the arrangement and size range of them is difficult to extrapolate to an actual building
  4. Fountain complex and attached baths
  5. Roofless church
  6. Castle split in half like a egg
  7. Massive granite pillars, some standing, some toppled
  8. Steeple, ornate, rising out of sand. Nothing beneath it
  9. Burial ziggurat, opened up by a gravity defying dismantle process, like an elite jenga play
  10. Weird twisted domes, fallen open like decaying flowers
  11. Rows and rows of brick walls, like cells or close cottages
  12. A throne room, no other walls or structures to be seen
  13. Concentric circles, descending like steps. The top one big enough to fit a castle
  14. Half-built bridge, 3-4 different radical engineering approaches evident and somewhat conflicting
  15. Dam, sculptural (a great face or proud animal). Possibly too much focus on the sculpture and not the function. Empty on both sides now
  16. Numerous hemispheres, digging around the edges finds a half buried entrance. Each is actually studded with tiny holes, letting the starlight in and precisely charting various star maps
  17. A great ribbed structure, like the meeting hall for dancing giants. Only the ribs and centre brace remain
  18. A paved road, the bricks polygonal and interlocking with geometric flair
  19. The hull of a great ship, its means of propulsion still evident but confusing, like spiraling masts or wooden paddling hands
  20. The gargoyle festooned facades once lining a street, the backs long gone and street long gone
 
 
 
 
Additionally, with close inspection:
  1. It seems to be from some culture familiar to the players, but a more utopian version
  2. A relief or tile mosaic depicts a monster known to the players, and method used successfully against it
  3. This ruin seems to show a level of cooperation and harmony existed between 2 cultures that are currently at war
  4. A dedication in a known language gives a indication of the future merits (bad or good) of a ruler known to the characters
  5. A True Crown, callously discarded, tyrants that see it will be super desirous of it but while wearing it can’t conceal their true nature
  6. A skull or stone figure, in a very deliberate placing. If greeted politely, it will explain how the actions of the players are creating some problems they are not aware of.
  7. A couple of souls, wandering thoughtfully. They will readily talk about the context of ruins but will disagree on every detail, as one is a romantic and one a great cynic.
  8. Inspecting the nature of the ruin reveals a structural flaw, applicable to similar buildings
  9. A figure is depicted here and there as saintly being that helped a great many. They look like someone the characters know, someone currently insignificant and powerless.
  10. A rosetta stone, allowing translation of an otherwise unknown language
  11. Carvings and faded paintings depict a revealing currently forgotten historical event of significance like a usurpation or betrayal or shared heritage
  12. A seeming poisonous (and abundant) plant is shown here on these ceremonial bowls to be able to be prepared in such a way that its instead harmless and nutritious!
  13. A religious inscription that is quite different from the strife causing current reading of it
  14. Ghostly echos of children playing an unknown but simple game. Teaching this game to children will gain their favour and start a new fad amongst the youth
  15. This ruin is seemingly from a city known to the players that is currently thriving. Careful study will hint at the ecological disaster that is slowly threatening this city
  16. There’s some simple but ingenious engineering shortcuts on display that would be valuable to the right mind
  17. A symbol belonging to a religion or ruler is a constant feature, but it has been defaced where ever you find it. This religion or ruler current seems benign but there is hints that they could become lupine conquerors.
  18. Lewd graffiti makes a cutting observation about a current ruler. If passed on, it will spread rapidly
  19. In a humble clay pot is honey and a tattooed hide, the hide with a hero’s saga. The hero belongs to a current demoralized and scattered people, and they do not currently seem to know or remember this saga
  20. There is lot of art of cacao enemas on display here, its seems really good for health and mental vigour even the gods are doing it??

In addition Ruins have a 2 in 6 chance of having “treasure” stashed. However Loot Lizards frequent removal and replacing have made treasure often inconsistent and incongruous. Any unlikely treasure will have a Loot Lizard sign near it.

Stash :


Hidden by:


  1. Illusion
  2. Hollow pillar or statue
  3. Sinking Fountain
  4. Large stone slab
  5. Very fine sand
  6. Door inside dead tree
  7. Top of large, fixed in place, vase
  8. Fallen rumble
  9. Trapdoor
  10. Brambles


Guarded by:

  1. Mummified warriors
  2. Guardian statues
  3. Cursed Winds
  4. Dripping liquid bliss (exposure to liquid bliss must save or do nothing else and then save or suffer Disquiet (see winds)
  5. Narcissist Mirrors (Save or be trapped regarding yourself. Breaking the mirror when someone is trapped looking at it, causes Confusion as the spell on the freed person
  6. Time Catapult (flings people different amounts of time into the future or past)
  7. Rogue time shift (time flips back to when culture was around but back to the past when you are trying to act)
  8. Your age in child (at least 4 kids) versions of you, so a 20 year old would have four 5 year olds)
  9. Liquid amber, freezes anything it touches in statis
  10. Zeno’s hallway (you cross half the distance each time)


Treasures is


  1. Ancient but fertile grains in jars
  2. The best freshly cooked meal you’ve ever had. Will restore hit points but save or cause disquietude like the wind iridesceia, see below
  3. candy artfully disguised as a glittering horde of treasure
  4. Really complicatedly bad art
  5. Actual treasure
  6. A small horde but stuck together as one lump
  7. Small horde but erratic in time, sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes not there
  8. Wines and Meads and Stranger spirits. All very good
  9. Humble treasure, like a bunch of expensive looking stuff which is actually trash but a simple wooden chest that contains is actually extremely well made of very good wood and preserves stuff and smells good
  10. Scrawled on the wall is an angry rant from interned servants of the ruler. They have left with the treasure. Loot-Lizards have later added a “treasure,” it’s a pile of rocks that look like things.

WHO LIVES HERE:

Luminaire:


Above the desert -- among the many moons and noctilucent clouds -- are the aether seas where souls transform into forms of light and peace. The Luminaire are the guardians here, evolved imago that had especially grand and sweeping lives. They ride in “treasure ships,” glowing clouded ornate living barges, visions of a lovely decadence (think Taoist immortals or serene zen monks).


Can sometime be found having games or a picnic on the plains. There, characters can petition for their aid on something aligning to the Luminaire's philosophies

If faced with conflict, the Luminaire prefer to fly up out of range and rain blasts down on their foes.
Characters trying to intrude in the space above the plain will be politely told to turn back, and then blasted by beams of light and hurricane winds.

All have the following ;

-Fly at will

-Cast spells as 6th level cleric

And the following spell-like abilities (at will in Serene Night, 3 times a day elsewhere)


Control winds


Gust of Wind

-Resplendent Moonlight: 2 attacks per round, ignore armour, 1d12 damage, act as lightning, cold, holy, or fire damage, depending on what target is weakest to


This Luminaire (form + treasure ship + companions):


  1. Blue robes, with moving clouds across them, lovely mane of hair like the rays of the sun. Treasure ship is red wood carved like a dozen wings, and accompanied by 7 flaming cranes. Catching butterflies (escaped poems , in actuality) with a prim but kindly composure.
  2. A round golden man with ruby eyes, sailing in a walnut shell with a single feather as sail. He is playing some form of chess with a shiny chestnut bear, both are mercilessly mocking each other’s plays
  3. A dainty androgynous youth, seemingly made from glass, riding a broiling cloud and serving tea to iron mice
  4. A ebony-skinned granny with long, white eyebrows, flying in a humble fishing boat crowded with a number of grumpy frog servants passing her threads and such as she cross-stitches.
  5. A coracle made of fine glossy hair, paddled by a boisterous women with a snake body and mighty arms. A nervous cartographer is beside her, trying his best to tolerate her jokes and hectic flying.
  6. A solemn, masked child walking along the surface of a river that twists through the air. Accompanied (formally) by 6 eels.
  7. A paper-armoured knight-poet riding a clockwork rabbit. He build it himself! The rabbit needs adjustment, and the knight-poet often stops to do so.
  8. Mermaid, artfully sitting on a flying conch shell. Listening contently to the chatterings of her large parrot companions
  9. A silk junk, crewed by squabbling cats to the amusement of their captain: a fierce, 12-year-old, self-styled pirate
  10. A lithe amazon, riding a blazing orb. She is smoking a Hookah and deep in reading. A furred python is pestering her for treats

Interested in

1 Poetry

2 Games of chance

3 Games of strategy

4 Tales of love

5 Grand tales of battle and cunning

6 Riddles and paradoxes

7 Scatological humour

8 Drink, other intoxicants, and amusing stories

9 Song

10 Unusual plants

11 Unusual animals

12 Gossip, salacious especially


Special abilities (roll twice)

1 Drunken boxing

2 Alchemy (medicine)

3 Alchemy (mischief)

4 Making up new animals

5 Swording

6 Massive club, at least the size of them, if not twice. Can wield it as deftly as a fencer would a rapier

7 Master of a Guqin, both as an instrument and as weapon

8 Can weaken wall, demoralize, and cause uncontrollable laughter with their own bellowing laughs

9 Locating ancestors or relations

10 Magical hair, can act like whip or entanglement rope

11 Linguistic , knows some of most obscure languages around

12 Empathy + diplomacy, characters must save every round to take actions against them in a formal context


As a Patron:

1 Teach a science

2 Grace

3 Charm

4 Resist aging

5 Resist poison and disease

6 An animal, wind, or flower language

7 Healing alchemy recipe

8 Cloud step/lightness

9 Flattery

10 Inner peace

11 Navigation

12 Tactics

Baku


Baku: “made from the leftover parts of animals.” Long-legged and long-trunked; dream nomads and eater of nightmares. They rest here -- in secret places -- in between dream hunts.

They notice travellers, especially ones they’ve seen in people nightmares. They will then trit-trot in their loose-limbed way down from the noctilucent cloud nests, inviting a dream rider with them to see their tormentor humbled and small.

They are clever, conjuring illusions from the minds of those around them, and can vomit up night dregs of assorted terrors.

Rarely attacking outright, they prefer to stalk their quarry for a couple of days, spying on their dreams, obtaining images and phantoms to use to torment them.

They will start with pranks and tricks, images in the corner of the eye, and half-heard voices, escalating to a complete prevention of restful sleep and visions of mocking choruses. Those with no conscience at all will be pestered at worse (though someone sufficiently vile and weakened might be stomped in the sand. Baku are often too cautious for straight fight) but those with even a shred of guilt or shame will be left harrowed and changed by the time they’ve crossed the desert.

New Baku can be made regular animal style or a soul can be shaped into a baku. Souls that become Baku are from lost children, naive dreamers or others who have nowhere else to go. Nothing else in the realms can do both like this, and there are rumours because of this that the soul isn’t really being transformed but consumed or hidden somewhere.

Loot-Lizards


Where did the Loot-lizards come from? Are they lizards? Do they have a better name for themselves? They aren’t formed from souls nor the realm itself, but came from somewhere else. But where? They don’t seem to care themselves, instead monomaniacally focusing on treasure.

Treasure is understood by them as anything hidden by someone else. There seems to be rivalry between the various bands of Loot-Lizards, as the stashes they often find are each others. There is some kind of protocol about how long you leave something stashed before raiding it or how closely a band follows another band, but it’s opaque to the outsider.

Sometimes a band steals from another band with little fuss, other times a massive squabble breaks out, with a great deal of noise and irregularly-ritualized combat.

Each band can be recognised by its “flag,” both the one they carry (as a banner) and ones they use to mark places; a sign (often to taunt or deceive others). A flag can be anything, as long as it’s distinctive and able to be attached to a pole.

Most interactions with Loot-lizards happen when they are trying get assistance on a treasure hunt or when their interest is peaked by someone trying to conceal something. If you don’t want Loot-lizards to steal something, don’t act like its valuable.


Band’s Flag:

1 Giant Red frilly underwear. Sign is red cloth

2 A dog hide, tattooed with a magic spell. Sign is dog teeth

3 A grumpy but begrudging blue swan named Henry. Sign is blue feathers

4 Big brass tuba, played near-constantly. Sign is a crude drawing of a tuba

5 A large wooden phallus, sacred to some fertility ceremonial or mystery cult. Sign is seeds

6 Two dozen hats impaled on a spear. Sign is one of these hats, new hats always appreciated

7 A mummy tied to a pole. Expensive-looking funeral garb suggests the mummy was a very big deal. Sign is flashy funeral jewellery

8 Weathercock. Sign is roof tiles

9 A horned skull, covered in tar and somehow ever burning blue. Sign is little blue fires

10 Half dozen flags sewn crudely together. Sign is broken weapons or wooden carvings of weapons

11 A cracked window. Sign is pieces of glass

12 A wired together skeleton, marked and labelled as a teaching device. Sign is knuckle bones

The Mockers:


Saboteur Socratic Situationists. Militant artist-philosophers, pranksters with the martial chops to stick around to watch the fireworks. Like if art students joined assassin cults.


Encountered in Serene Night they will be preparing to leave on a Situation jaunt (a mission), rehearsing (which includes intensive combat training), or returning. They know of secret ways to travel from Serene Night to almost anywhere in the Vale of Tears and can make use of Dream Travel too. They will let outsiders join their jaunts if they seem of appropriate temperament and/or enthusiasm, possibly even trying to induct them their movement.


Masters of disguise but when not disguised are uniformed with (d12)


1 Bones and paper, stitched with vines

2 Masks are fake animal heads presented as real ones, or reals ones altered to look garish and fake. Brightly dyed, gewgawed eyes. Loose clacking jaws. The rest of the body is hidden between light-sucking black cloth, giving the effect of the heads float by themselves

3 Knee-length hauberk of coins, and helms completely given over to one spiralling horn

4 One half is the mocking finery of the rich and the other the scant raiments of the poor, the halves joining perfectly along the sagittal line

5 Animal hides, carefully treated and tailored into garments that are usually made from wool and hemp. Hides are from the absurdist breeds of dogs and cats

6 Wine-stained stolen flags, made into crude ponchos and mantles. Little worn underneath

7 Commedia dell'arte masks and an elaborate, deliberate yet chaotic festoonment of rags, scarves, wraps, and fluttering strips. Their persons completely concealed and their movements distorted and difficult to follow.

8 Cross gendered outfits, artfully studded with spikes

9 Funeral and grieving costumes, but garishly coloured

10 Like prostitute kings

11 Clothing awkward looking, like it was made small, for a doll, and then made large. Cloth masks, make up, and sometimes actual stitching, complete the look of being living ragdolls

12 Like ren-fair elves with long fake noses

1d12 Table of Plans/Activities

1 Kidnapping a peasant and a prince, brainwashing them to think they are each the other, putting them back, but letting the “switch” be discovered

2 Replacing obscure rite instructions with increasingly absurd ones. A long game, has been done for 2 dozen generations now. Rite is getting pretty weird

3 Polymorphing court into their pets and their pets into them

4 Stealing sacraments and ritual objects then forcibly marrying people to valued possessions of theirs. The legalistic nature of this culture means these marriages are actually binding and non-annulable

5 Taking ancient king back to his lands to watch him lose his shit at modernity.

6 Burning down record halls

7 Sabotaging every music instrument in a city to sound like a duck

8 Disguising as authorities and arresting farm animals

9 Holding a mock trial for the nature of justice itself

10 Assassination of tyrants elite guards, made to look like ludicrous accidents

11 Dressed up like farm animals and fighting on the side of a peasants revolt

12 Blockading themselves in a great library and refusing to let anyone in who is not drunk. The next day they will block themselves in a brewery, and refuse to let anyone in who cannot recite enough texts -- from memory -- to their liking.

Lamenting King:


changed by some combination of Hubris, guilt, and responsibility. Carrying artifacts inside them, like the true crown, grail, or excaliburs. Inner artifacts have different effects depending on if there were given or taken.


Form :
1 Big-browed Man head on Horse-lion, sinks heavy in sand with every step. Periodical deep bellows of grief, can be heard for miles

2 Armoured figure with pauldron and vambrace resting dove wings, gentle face. Weeps salty tears that quickly dry and leave flower like salt crystals formations, leaving a trial a kilometre or so.

3 Boar with Mustache curling the length of it, stoically plodding until it sees something solid enough to bash its head into at speed. Will then do so, before collapsing, exhausted.

4 Matron Astride A Swan, wing feathers are swords. Hovers slightly above the ground, the wings’ remiges ploughing deep furrows which fill briefly with blood.

5 Triad faced robed priest , holding a sleeping goat. He murmurs and sings to the immobile goat and sobs

6. Joyous fat figure carrying a conch their size again. He loudly sings and clumsily dances until he drops the conch. His face then falls into an expression of utter despair and remains still for a whole minute before snapping to and picking up the conch again.


Burdens:

Their burden is their regret and historical failure which they hold on to. It’s also literally a physical object inside them, termed a “grail.” If someone can convince them they are adequate and willing to resolve the matter troubling them , then they will give up the grail inside them.

The object will then have the properties listed as for “given”


They will monitor this person through their dreams, attacking them there if they seem to have betrayed them. If the burden is adequately resolved then they will crumble to dust. A Lamenting King not quite convinced might hold giving over their grail until proof is seen. One especially convinced might immediately crumble and not continue to monitor the convincer.


Alternatively if you physically best the Lamenting King you can just pull the grail from their remains (their stone crumbling easily once beaten) . It will then have the effects listed as for “taken.” Another option is convince the Lamenting King of their utter futility in ever resolving their burden or that in fact it is better to forget and forgive. They will then crumble to dust, giving up their grail.


If the Lamenting King goes with bitterness, then the grail is taken, if they go with peace the grail is given.



  1. Fantastic reforms to religion and state, didn’t last longer than their reign. Priests purged all mention. Stone king can’t rest until it makes back into history book. Their grail is a book, if given it will provide excellent advise on public policy. If taken it will advise the type of radical thinking that kicks off violent schisms for generations
  2. Started wars with all the neighbours in order to establish stronger borders. Neighbours united and erased kingdom. People now nomads. Can’t rest until people now have land to call home again. Their grail is an arrow. If given, arrow has the power to set any fortification on fire, regardless of material. Sight of fire will inspire all against said fortification, as the bless spell. If arrow taken, it will insure any defeated group will always have at least one survivor that will bitterly and determinately regroup, re-arm and return with a great vengeance. Arrow doesn’t have to be used to cause this effect. As long is it was carried at the start of the conflict.
  3. Radical wealth redistribution and destruction of enriched ruling class, it was great until leaders of revolution promptly installed themselves as new ruling class. Longs for utter desecration of their own and their fellow revolutionaries monuments. Grail is a hammer, if given it ignores any armour of anyone with more wealth than the holder but it also burdens them as much as the combined wealth of welder in silver. If hammer is taken same effect.
  4. Lead people to new lands of opportunity, but despite early peaceful interactions, kicked off genocidal colonisation. Now wants utter displacement of former people. Grail is a cloak, if given will shelter any number of people as long as they see the wearer as their leader. If taken, the wearer will have a +2 to Charisma (up to 18) but be unable to discern others concealed intentions (other than what the player can)
  5. Innovator in irrigation! The city-state thrived and then collapsed as everything turned to desert because there just wasn’t that much water to draw from. Now wants the land restored to its former green glory. Grail is a claypot of assorted pulses. If given, sowing the seeds will restore the soil that has been rendered infertile due to interference (rather being naturally infertile). If taken, these seeds will ruin the soil they are sown on, removing all nutrients and organic matter from the soil
  6. Extensive careful diplomacy lead to their kingdom surviving extensive interference by foreign powers, unfortunately then leading to completely assimilation and loss of sovereignty. Wants an independence movement kicked off. Grail is a drinking bowl. If given anyone sharing this cup will be unable to act against a fellow drinker as long as they continue to make reasonable conversation. If taken drinking from the cup causes the drinker to consistently underestimate their own abilities for the next month


The 6 Winds of Serene Night


As the compass points are meaningless here, these serve as 6 cardinal directions, with Pinnacle and Blazing World serving as another 2. No wind blows from those two directions, and this is used to navigate.


The winds bring with them significant emotion influences, scents, humidity fluctuations, and song from the night above. The effects of the winds are more severe on unhappy groups, listed here as “bitter party.” For purposes of this a bitter party is one where at least a 3rd of members significant distrust or dislike each other.

1 : Iridesceia

This comes with a pressure drop; a gentle coolness as curls around face and pushes past your legs. The sky seems to open up and song from above can be felt more than heard. Smells of night jasmine, pine, amber and firework and rain on stone. A feeling swells that there is something better than what you’ve known, and it’s real close.

The feeling is that there is some place better, kinder and truer and you are not there. 
It gives hope to some, bittersweetness to others, and some it ruins, dulling everything by comparison. Giving into it and relishing the feeling, will heal you but the Disquiet afterwards is a notorious hazard of Serene Night.
 Best push on and shake it off , like the pleasant dream that fades into disappointment. 
 
 Anyone who is subject to iridesceia can choose to heal up 5 hitpoints per level, or remove any lingering negative mental effective. 
If they do this (don’t tell them the negative drawback until after leaving Serene Night), after leaving Serene Night they are haunted by the disquietude caused by the comparison to what they heard there. 
 
They can’t get any beneficial effects due to mental, luck or morale states (bless, etc) and have a disadvantage on any rolls to determine hitpoints gained.
 
 If the party is a Bitter one this negative effect kicks in next Derive

2. Zopho

A low steady wind, a push of sea- mist and dust. The temperature drops to almost temperate. Introspection and jolts of memory come with the fog whorls. The smells is an odd mix of damp forest floor ,salt spray , and thyme.

Fumbles are also followed with doubt fueled introspection, causing the loss of the next rounds action, in addition to whatever else the DM rules.
 Bitter party: in addition to this 1 Level is drained for this Derive

3. Calima

A humid heavy wind, coming in big sweeps, like an oven door swinging open. A feel of being inside on perfect summer's day, with the same rising impulse to drop everything and dive into the nearest pool. The smell of sun baked grass and clay, cherry tree sap, and dogs.

Everything weighs too much unless you really need it, but also things loss power over you - new save attempt at any external compulsion effects such as Geas or Charms

If player chooses to abandon something they’ve used regularly up to this point , they gain exp = to its gold piece value. However the dm then takes their character sheet and the player tries to remember as much of their inventory as they can. Anything they don’t recall gets chucked as well. Fumble on 1,2,3 while encumbered

Bitter Party: as above but treat everything as weighing twice as much for encumberment purposes
 
4. Eos

Soft warm wind, leaves dew on faces, like tears. A warmth that surprises, like popping outside and discovering an unseasonable warmth. It rises and drops , like an animal running in joy. The smell is beeswax and baking. Violence becomes difficult, empathy easy. Resolves false guilt.

Any rolls to hit while Eos is blowing have Disadvantage. Any additional game mechanics that benefit the attacker caused by inflicting damage (like hitpoint drain) don’t happen.

Bitter Party: Take 1 hitpoint damage whenever you inflict damage on a being that feels pain.
 
5. Siroc

You hear this first in your ears , like a rush of blood. It’s sharp and steady, braces and focuses. It’s behind you, pushing you forward .Grains of dust zing into the eyes of cruel oafs, provokes and antagonises the bullying. The smell is iron and wood smoke.

Any NPC longing to right a wrong will attempt if possible during Siroc. Tensions between thugs and tyrants flare up now and old arguments come open with knives. The underdog will feel like they can triumph now or never .


-anyone turning on someone unjustly dominating them has free round of action and whatever surprise advantages your system uses.

Bitter Party: Cannot progress out of Siroc (e.g don’t roll another encounter) until someone makes a serious attempt to resolve conflict between party
 
6 Tramontane

Whipping , whirling wind, from behind , then below, then in front. Changing direction constantly , then stopping , then pouncing. Tugs and ruffles. Snatches maps out of hands , plays with hats, flips cloaks into faces.

The heat and dust seem pleasant somehow, the wind blowing cold then warm when it threatens to chill. Cardamom and lemon flower.

However prideful, suspicious people tend to take jokes badly during this wind, and anger easily.

-Anything that makes you happy but dumb (i.e booze) lasts for twice as long. Disadvantage to any rolls done to maintain concentration. Advantage to any rolls to taunt or provoke anyone without a sense of humour.

.Bitter Party:

Everyone counts as drunk. Anyone acting in anger fumbles their first action

Effects lasting for longer than the duration of the wind remain until the following happens and a successful will save is made:

-Reduced to zero hitpoints

-Accepted into new community or spend 1 Fugue with one already part of one

-Radical change or attempt at change made to life(as determined by DM)

-ego death amounts of substance abuse , fasting, or mediation



1 comment:

  1. I like this plane, it serves as a great transitive like the Infinite Staircase or River Oceanus - venture deep into the desert, enough to lose your way and come nightfall you can begin to traverse Serene Night. Very nice.

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