3DPBMCSHMtm: the hollow hills

Original image by
WintersKnight@DeviantArt

In this installment of 3DPBMCSHMtm, we head off to Altorr to talk faerie. The 'Fair Folk' play their inscrutable games of state.  Yet the Courts of Light and Shade are honoured by mortal king and commoner alike. Having helped cure the Demonplague they've earned it.  Yet these games have high stakes. They make heroes of ordinary people and paupers rich while breaking others on a wheel of fate and magic.

The Goblin Market

Most people deal with Faerie through the goblin market.  At dawn, the market opens under thickets and in caves.  At dusk, faegoblins grow bold and settle by river banks.  Pipe-music accompanies lilting song promising tempting wares.  Exquisite fruit, fine steeds and nonesuch jewels have lured many a customer into the market. Returning to the world, everything else seems drab. Visitors often begin pining until the market comes again. Some are so profoundly affected by this loss they waste away if denied the market's fruits.

Faegoblins are goblinkin with faerie ancestry.  Brilliant artisans, they are only rapacious in business deals. If a deal is spurned once the market appears, they get downright nasty about it.  Catcalls, threats and mob-handed brawls are known. Drawing steel will cause them to withdraw and seek help.

The Court of Light

To find the Court of Light, look eastward at dawn as fanfare announces the new day.  Then make an offering pleasing to the Court.  It rises from earth or water in stately ceremony.  Courtiers on white horses prance as samite palanquins blossom suddenly. Lords and ladies approach amid reverent hushes.  The Court enjoys hunting, sporting games and music.  The Court's justice is compassionate, if not always fair.

Pharisidhe resemble angular and graceful elves. Violet-eyed, smooth-skinned, of immaculate attire, and complection. Agile and beautiful, their Charisma bonus is added to Armour Class and saving throws.  Cold iron poisons them (save or take 1d4 Constitution damage) and they fear it greatly.  Their singing voices may fascinate the unwary.  When the Court is offended, pharisidhe close ranks.

The Court of Shade

To find the Court of Shade, look westward at dusk as cacaphony heralds the coming night.  Then make an offering pleasing to the Court.  It descends from air or fire amid debauched revel.  Grotesque riders on dark steeds menace as oxblood leather palanquins fall like autumn leaves.  Lords and ladies approach amid fanfare or fierce drumming.  The Court enjoys hunting, combat and debauchery.  The Court's justice is fair, if not always compassionate.

Kernasith also resemble elves, though rawboned and sinewy, as though carved from wood.  They grow spiralling, tined horns each century they live, elder kernasith look like they're wearing crowns.  They prefer immaculate garb yet find durable clothes comforting.  Kernasith always keep a blade handy and are superlative duellists among the fae.  They may move through undergrowth at normal speed and leave no trail, yet plants magics can impede.  Cold iron burns them as if red hot.  Each strike does an additional 1d6 fire damage to kernasith.  When the Court is offended, kernasith fight.

Changelings 

The 'tradition' of exchanging children with mortals is a diplomatic exercise for both of the Courts.  Such fostering is great honour to the fae.  There is a matter of timing of course. The Court of Light often chooses to save children facing certain doom or an evil upbringing.  The Court of Shade takes more indiscriminately and arbitraily.  Over time, the 'unearthly' child will manifest faerie traits.  Ransoming back a child is typical. That said, the Court of Shade won't always use a changeling from it's courtiers for this.  They claim this just adds spice to the game.

Real Like The Others

Other fey make appearances.  Diminutive faeries like atomie, grig, nixie, pixie and sprite make it difficult for easy identification.  While not quite as small, little people (brownies, korred and leprechauns) wield surprising power.  Dryads and quicklings represent intelligent plants as do nymphs.  Satyr and faun sport while stranger fey hide.  The more powerful fey are destructive and best left unless developing savage appetites or apparatus.

Transformation

The transmutation of one thing into another is a cornerstone of magic.  It is also magic faerie excel at.  From shapechanger pelts to fairy rings anchoring 'unplaces' to repairing broken things, magic is practical. Teleportation, telekinesis and magic of the mind are popular as is magic shaping nature or body.  Faeries love to enlarge, shrink, slow, speed or stop.

Glamer, illusion and dreamweaving.

Faerie is glamour, it's said.  Illusion and dream weaving are vital tools for deception, chicanery and misdirections called sways by fae tricksters.  Illusions that beguile are used in both Market and Courts to achieve diverse ends for all.  Disguises and invisibility add to deception.  More potent illusions draw on shadow or twist minds.  It is whispered the Court of Shade keeps illusionists for their entertainment and to teach lessons.

Under the influence

Faerie enchantment is a nuanced affair.  Magic is one tool among many.  By combining gift, magic, persuasion and performance the fae ensnare those they would need or desire.  Performance of any kind will be accepted if good by any fae, giving bards an advantage.  Food and drink are typically used by commoners.  Etiquette and gift are more for the Courts.  The beautiful may trade locks of hair or tears. Giving part of yourself to those knowing magic is a risky proposition often with unintended consequences.

3DPBMCSHMtm: gates, pools & windows

Portal Gate by Elartwyne@DeviantArt

In this part of the 3DPBMCSHMtm, some mechanisms of travel between the worlds are considered.  These are not the only ways to travel. Their relative scarcity outside Bellotra makes them noteworthy.

Gates in Theory and Practice

Gates are powerful magic indeed.  Bellotran lore on gates notes difficulty in their creation without aid from the Ten Thousand Worlds. Yet Bellotra is riddled with gates.  The nature of the gates may mean problems. Elemental Plane portals chance eruption.  Astral and Ethereal gates are unreliable due to planar weather.  Gates to other Material Planes are stable but inherently risky.  Gates to the Ten Thousand Worlds are paradoxically the most stable but least trusted.

They appear in a variety of forms.  Portals or doorways, geometric energy manifestations, even bizarre machines.  Other forms have been found elsewhere.  Yet the gate will connect two planes in space and time, allowing transit from either side.  Triggering actions may activate a passive gate.

Particularly ancient or poorly-maintained gates risk gate poisoning.  Arcane energy from elemental corrosion invisibly poisons users.  Steady exposure will slowly kill corporeal beings unless they are resistant to acid damage.  A poisoned gate inflicts one permanent point of damage each time it is used.  Poisoned gate damage requires potent magic.  Heal will only cure 1d4 damage of this kind.

Windows upon Other Worlds

For those without powerful magic, a simpler spell can create a planar window.  These are typically as large as a shield.  Windows seldom allow sound transmission (1 in 6).  Spells that expand sensory perception may be cast 'through' a window.  It is notable some windows open to disturbing vistas.

A few (1 in 12) windows are one-way and allow sound to travel through them.  These are prized by thsoe in the know.  Despite being invisible to mundane senses, they still attract attention as scrying attempts to the powerful.

Additional magics permit communication or travel through a window though the latter is often quite cramped for most spell casters.  Certain outsiders from the Ten Thousand Worlds use windows to speak via telepathy to their allies.

Table: Windows upon Other Worlds (roll d12)

1. One-way window that allows sound. 
2. Allows sound.
3. Allows sound.
4. Normal window
5. Normal window.
6. Colour shift towards red part of spectrum.  Violet appears black.  Infravision gets +10'. 
7. Colour shift towards violet part of spectrum.  Red appears black.  Low-light vision gets +10'.
8. Concealed by drape or soft furnishing. 
9. Guarded by beast with gaze attack (DM's call).  Doesn't work through window, good for a laugh.
10. Displays permanent illusion.  Roll 1d6.
1. Boudoir of pleasure slaves of various races lounging about indolently. 
2. Dusty outdoor gladiator training ground with gladiators practising their combat drills. 
3. Aviary filled with small birds of motley hue and a human skeleton stripped of all flesh. 
4. Log cabin with hearth filled with blazing log fire that never burns down.
5. Never-ending rain of neon-green runes into darkness.  Oddly soothing to watch.
6. Darkness with pearlescent runes that state
   "EMERGENCY BROADCAST NETWORK.  DO NOT ADJUST  YOUR VIEWSCREEN. WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL."
11. Sealed with cold iron shutters and locked  from other side.  Might be a challenge, that.
12. Disturbing vista.  This causes a saving throw or causes a viewer to become shaken (-2 to hit and saving throws) for 1d12 hours. 

Pools of Eerie Hue and Reflection

Pools are membraneous, blurry windows to other worlds.  Sound doesn't travel and the image is like a magic-eye painting.  The membrane feels warm and amniotic and can be breached by pushing against it for a round.  This lets you reach into that world and if you want, force your way into it.

From the other side, someone breaching looks odd. The membrane makes faces seem inhuman.  Once the breach completes, others can pull you through.  For some pools, this can be unfortunate.  Devils are fond of dragging unfortunates into their Hell via pools and then claiming the trespasser.

The membrane heals over after each breach, needing to be forced through each time.  The size of a pool is typically 1d20+12 inches across.  The membrane is impermeable to spells and effects.  Breaching allows the casting of magic into the otherworld.

Remaining in a breached membrane for longer than seven rounds attracts the attention of local wildlife. Creatures of animal intelligence or lower are hostile to any lasting breach and attack the breacher.  The animals experience a painful pulsing in their heads alleviated by the breach being sealed over.

Famous crossing-points

The following are referred to in various places. Musty academician texts in the Chained Library at Rulby. The Saffron Enchiridon displayed at the House of Mordiggian.  A remembrance wall along one of Nidal's Tunnels. Those who find these gates, portals and windows face wonderful opportunity and great dangers.

Green Chapel (Altorr)

Hidden in a forest, this overgrown chapel to Saint-George is festooned with saplings and brambles.  This has been abandoned for years.  Once breached, the nave is adorned with a portal made entirely of human skulls nailed together.  By pouring blood through the portal, a two-way gate to Bellotra is opened.  This gate leads to a crypt in the House of Mordiggian.  Furthermore, the crypt of the Green Chapel contains a second gate! A frost-rimed stone arch leading to and from a Carcetan tomb-arch in Klar Shkent.  Both gates enter darkened places.

Horns of Elbram (Bellotra)

In a public park, three marble crescents rise from a staired pillar five storeys high.  On ascending the stair, you have three openings. The northern one goes to an icy glacier under endless snow (the para-Elemental Plane of Ice).  Southeast takes you to a sandy beach with palm trees (Elysium) while southwest opens into an ancient coliseum under a grey sky (Hades/The Grey Wastes).  The name Elbram is lost in antiquity as is the reason for making the gates.  The gates are also one-way. Returning is an exercise for the traveller.

Machinery of Assilha (Bellotra)

Locked in a noble's basement, this ornate device is regarded as the pinnacle of gatecrafting.  Made of brass valves and panels etched with profane sigils,  it is 10' across.  Activation needs an Intelligence check.  Once this is done, travel is possible.  A second Intelligence check is needed to choose the desired location. Failing means a random location is determined (roll 1d6).

1. The Rock of Agonies in Altorr, where atonement for your misdeeds can be earned by being chained   to it for a lunar cycle.  Watch out for the roc.
2. A disused courtyard in The City of Brass. If visitors tarry too long, they risk arrest by an efreet for intrusion into a palace.
3. A long-forgotten atrium in the Elemental Plane of Earth.  Dusty, dirty and quiet.  Drag marks on the floor indicate heavy items were moved. 
4. A fast-flowing saltwater bore in the Elemental Plane of Water.  Entering enables the crossing of long distances at ten miles an hour plus the character's swimming rate.  The hard part is not being disorientated by buffeting currents.  Leaving the bore requires swimming at double the normal speed or sinking by weighing more than 500lbs.
5. A grey cloud island spinning slowly clockwise in the Elemental Plane of Air.  Heavy enough to support anyone without flight.  Chunks of purest silver can be carved from it's edges.
6. The northern edge of Ankanyn in Carcetus. This massive crevasse is home to shantak who launch    themselves from their edgeside nests to hunt and sing songs of doom into the abyss in Aklo.   

 The gate remains open until it is closed (this requires a successful Intelligence check)

Pit of al-Kaiss (Bellotra)

This gate is laid flat on a dais in an open courtyard in the fetid Rotten Burgs.  The gate falls into a massive, gullet-shaped pit on the Elemental Plane of Earth, studded with large quartz crystals.  It resembles nothing so much as the maw of a purple worm carved out of rock.  The Pit is used as prison and mine.  Convicts are sent in to carve out stone and quartz.  There is a 1 in 6 chance each day of an eruption.  1d6 boulders are hurled out in random directions up to 30' distance doing 2d6 damage to whatever they hit.

Sigard's Escape (Carcetus)

This is concealed in a permanent illusion of a ceiling cave-in surrounded by bubbling alkali puddles.  Walking through the cave-in reveals a chilly alcove.  This holds a sea-smelling verdant sphere of guttering illumination and scattered rust grains on the floor.  Entering gates delvers to an aurora-lit beach of ochre rust grains on an icy sea.  This southern rust beach on the Chill Sea of Bellotra is unoccupied.  Behind is a flickering red sphere.  This returns to before the verdant sphere.

3DPBMCSHMtm: flora and fauna

The 3DPBMCSHMtm rumbles onwards.  The three worlds have different ecologies and this significantly impacts upon the lives of inhabitants. These diverse ecologies sometimes intermingle by passing through gates or transportation by the curious or entrepreneurial.  This bleedover may have surprising consequences.  For the jaded who believe they've seen everything, sometimes Nature has a special surprise with them in mind.

Life on Altorr

A healthy respect for Nature, red in tooth and claw, is instilled by life in Altorr.  Here animals are sometimes deadly as warriors in battlelust.  The recurring presence of dire animals speaks of strange magics.  Plants often display cunning and formidable might.  The influence of Faerie and giants also tells.

Some animals are domesticated  of course.  Dogs, sheep, cattle and aurochs are abundant.  Horses are a sign of wealth for noble and merchant-prince.  Some dwarven clans prefer boar steeds.  Hawks and falcons are bred for courtly hunting.  Owls are favoured by academician wizards almost exclusively.

Predator and prey co-exist. Roc (and visiting shantak) hunt mastodon in mountain valleys.  Boar, elk and deer are found in the forests alongside bear, tiger, wolf and wolverine.  Unusual specimens including dire boar and great elk (megaloceros) are uncommon rather than unknown.  The druids keep watch over certain beasts.

Rivers teem with carp, salmon and trout.  Grizzly bear and giant pike keep fishermen moving.  The Sea of Stones is equally prolific.  Fish and turtle teem and feed shark, squid and giant snapping turtles.  Whales sound and battle giant squid in the deeps.

Plants are equally prolific.  The forests bloom until mid-autumn and harvest brings a profusion of fruits for heroes to enjoy.  Not everything is benign.  Archer bushes and yellow musk creepers proliferate at Clune and Negraglo, fed by battle-enriched soil.  Quickwood, shambling mound and treant are seldom seen yet nobody denies their influence.

The touch of faerie is evident.  Apart from talking beasts there are other signs.  Enigmatic 'forest god' animals with antlers and human-like faces, intellect and druidic powers are sung of.  Elves consider them an auspicious omen.  Those who speak Sylvan may be amazed at what speaks to them and what is said.

Giants may also affect animals, making giants of them. The dire curse has led to conflict between giants and druids alarmed by giant cave lions and other horrors.  The giants do not understand but respond with violence.  Consequently animals around Jotunfell are exempt from druidic bans.  Foolhardy hunters had best beware.

Life on Bellotra

There are few normal animals on Bellotra.  Many make suitable familiars for magic users.  Bats, cats, civet, frog, gibbon, lizards, mongoose, rats, snakes and weasels all serve.  Mouse deer, silk moths, muntjac and tigers are evident.  The majority of Bellotran wildlife is more esoteric, the product of centuries of magical experimentation. Predators like amphisbaena, aurumvorax, bulette, hydra, krenshar, owlbear, stirge, winter wolf and worg keep hunting lively.  Almost any magical beast has appeared in Bellotra equally spurred by arrogant experiment and jaded appetite.

In the canals, hippocampus sport.  In the Rotten Burgs, catoblepas wander like sacred cattle until a mob with ranged weapons mobilises.  Prevaling wind is often the deciding factor.  Hunters seek out dragonne, leucrotta and peryton.  The destructive impulses of all three motivate concerned parties.

Domesticated beasts are all about the status they bring and implied power of the owner.  Griffon, hippogriff and pegasus are steeds.  Shocker lizards are dangerous pets.  Al-miraj, carbuncle and zoog are sometimes bound as familiars.  Those Bellotrans aligned with the Ten Thousand Worlds have stranger pets still, celestial and fiendish beasts are just the beginning.

Out in the Chill Sea, there are monsters in the deeps.  The Chill Sea's fish resemble medieval bestiary images of what fish look like. Leviathans, mottled worms, sea serpents, and shoggoths keep the oceans quiet.  Tritons keep watch over the Chill Sea.  Of the denizens of the Ten Thousand Worlds, the tritons are most trusted by Bellotran sailors.
 
Plants are limited.  Herbs of assorted kinds, merillia, mulberry, oak, pitcher plant, rice and roses are grown. A few invader species have come over.  Archer bushes, shrieker (including breeds with beguiling song), tendriculos and yellow musk creeper are cultivated by decadent nobles.

Life in Carcetus 

In the sunless world of Carcetus, it's eat or be eaten and the ecology reflects that.  Insects and vermin grow to monstrous proportion.  Oozes creep silently after prey.  Fungi and lichen replace the plants denied sunlight.  Residents of Carcetus guard their few animals fiercely. Cave pigs (eyeless, albino pigs with sharp smell and hearing) and rothe are primary sources of meat.  Cave fish and swiftlets are bred.  The latter warn of poison gas.  Insects and arthropods are sometimes domesticated. Giant cockroaches, fire beetles, house centipedes and giant isopods have all served as pets and familiars.  Tunnels rarely allow steeds yet some races use spiders.

Insects and arthropoda of various sizes make up a significant share of the ecology of Carcetus.  Centipedes, spiders and scorpions form a common foundation.  The further down you go, the larger and more deadly they become to delvers and explorers.  Giant ants are a common competitor.

Oozes are the ultimate clean-up crew.  In Carcetus, ooze-spoor is a portent of opportunity.  In battle tunnels, gelatinous cubes are utterly impartial.  Others, like slithering trackers or shoggoths have more malign intentions.

Aberrations are the last fauna group in Carcetus.  Their bizarre natures limit easy comprehension and more cause raving insanity.  Simpler aberrations display surprising diversity.  Choker, decapus, gibbering mouther, grick, rust monster and vampiric mist showcase this diversity.

Fungi and lichen replace plants.  The lack of sun makes for exotic colours among the latter while the former run riot.  Shriekers are cultivated not just for food but also serving as security systems for the tunnels. Amblers, a mute shrieker are another source of food.  Prolific fungus provides food and in some cases light.

3DPBMCSHMtm: elemental infusions

Elemental Magic by
Randi 'Gheist' Thompson

Continuing the 3DPBMCSHMtm… As an interdimensional nexus, Bellotra suffers from elemental corrosion. This dissipation of matter into magical energies is prompted by a multitude of permanent gates.  Bellotra is fragile and its fabric frays, tainted by para-elemental and quasi-material manifestations.

A lucrative import business… 

This problem is typically mitigated by bringing in new matter from the elemental planes. Spell casters are paid handsomely for this.  While the Ten Thousand Worlds offer material Bellotrans refuse. They fear their world becoming another. Attempts to set decanters of endless water in fountains ended in theft.

The simple way is for people to go to an elemental plane via plane shift, retrieve material and return it.  Janni make easy coin this way.  Genies also create materials for clients.  This is tolerated, as extraplanar influence is undesirable.  Those who pay are usually bored nobles or rare druids.  The resulting material is mixed with native elements to bolster them against elemental corrosion.

More dangerous routes involve opening temporary gates.  This may lead to elemental eruptions, where the element being gated in surges uncontrollably into Bellotra.  Cyclones, wildfires, eruptions and tidal waves are all examples of elemental eruptions that bedevil unwary spellcasters.  Other methods are possible though at the DM's discretion.

By The Chill Sea

The Chill Sea becomes clogged with salt ice floes, some of which blaze with eerie corposante.  The few beaches on the Chill Sea also change.  Some are stained with rust while others develop 'deathbars'.  These piles of pale, greenish yellow minerals mix calcined baryta, nitre and garnierite.  Corrosively toxic, they cause chemical burns and a racking cough on inhalation.  Only the strangest beasts and appropriately clothed survive them.  Alchemists can make fortunes mining a deathbar.  Until shoggoths persuade them to move on. The nickel, alkalines and black powder are worth it.

The Canals & Rotten Burgs

Volcanic mud silts canals and releases brimstone vapours.    The rice fields grow fruitful with this mud so the poor dredge canals with noble assent.  Deadlier hazards like quicksand in the fens around the Rotten Burgs can turn a battle's tide.  Smogs form about the Rotten Burgs and noble towers.  Lifelong residents boast racking coughs.   These fade after a month of exposure to clean air and return after a month in the Burgs.

The Far Spires  

The mountains of the Far Spires contain active volcanoes, some sages believe their activity is increasing. Ghouls who explore the glass and steel spires for knowledge claim the volcanoes have damaged them. What strangeness lays within them?

Strange weather we're having… 

Roll d10 when adding flavour for the day.  All temperature variations are in Fahrenheit.

1. Ash clouds darken sky, outside illumination and low-light vision is halved for 2d6 hours.  Creatures visually affected by sunlight are not affected during this time.  Any rain during this time leaves ashen patina.  
2. Chill blue-grey mist hangs in air.  Temperature drops by  10 degrees.  Visibility limited to 300' in open ground or shoreline.  Lasts 3d6 hours unless dispersed by wind.
3. Dust storm blows through for 2d6 hours.  Visibility is reduced to 10', Listen and Spot checks take -4 penalty as do ranged attacks.  Unless protective masks, magics or other countermeasures are taken 1 in 6 chance of blinding for 1d6 rounds and taking 1d3 subdual damage each round. 
4. Freezing fog reduces visibility to five feet.  Those beyond 5' are concealed from sight (this also includes  infravision).  Exposed structures gain hoar frost. Lasts for 3d6 hours, dispersed by wind or large fires.
5. Hail storm rattles the area for 1d6 minutes.  1 in 6 chance of 1 damage to unprotected characters per round from large hailstones.  1 in 6 chance of rain following for 1d4 hours.
6. Haze fills humid air, tinting everything sepia.  Light and visibility is halved yet infravision is unaffected.  Temperature increases by 10 degrees.  Those not wearing protective masks take 1d4 subdual damage every hour.  Lasts 2d6 hours unless dispersed by wind.
7. Orange ball lightning of 1d8+8 inch diameter. Lasts 1d8 rounds, moves 3d6 feet in random direction each round and  1 in 6 chance of arcing to a character for 1d8+1 damage. Finds metal-clad characters attractive, vanishes silently afterwards.
8. Sleet storm reduces visibility and ground movement by half.  50% chance of extinguishing lanterns (75% chance for open flames).  Imposes a -4 to ranged attacks, Spot and Listen checks.  Lasts for 2d20 minutes.
9. Smog cloud blown by ill-favoured winds lasts for 1d4 hours.  Illumination is halved and visibility (including infravision or low-light vision) is reduced to 5'.  Those beyond 5' are concealed from sight.  Those caught in the cloud must save vs. poison each round or take 1d3 subdual damage. Protective masks can prevent this damage.
10. Violet corposante (St. Elmo's Fire) forms on pointed structures, providing candle-light illumination for those structures.  Lasts for 6d6 minutes then dissipates unless subjected to sudden moisture.

Beware the aurora vortex!

Deadliest of all manifestations is the aurora vortex.  Green and blue aurorae usually light Bellotran night skies. A crimson spot in the aurora presages a pillar of vacumn touching the ground like Death's finger.  This forms an cylinder in which the living are chilled and suffocated for a round.  Then air, smoke and dust howl into the void with explosive force, rending all but metal.  As likely as a lightning strike, they are drawn to significant electrical discharges.

Game effects of the aurora vortex

After lightning storms or more than 12 dice of electrical damage in one round, the aurora above the area turns red. The wise move quickly away.  The next round, a cylinder of vacumn 1d20+20' diameter appears from the heavens.

Those within the vacumn face a save vs. death to avoid  5d10 damage from lung collapse.  If successful 1d6 subdual damage is taken.  Those without lungs or gills are unaffected.  The intense chill causes 2d4 cold damage and freezes water in the area.  The area is silenced and all flames are extinguished.  Speech is impossible, spells with verbal components and all sound-based effects fail.

The next round, air and dust explosively fill the void from all directions at once.  The winds are tornado strength, doing 6d6 damage to the unprotected and hurling them 3d6 feet in a random direction.  Giant-sized creatures are knocked prone.  Attempts at Listen checks fail.  Buildings and other structures take damage.