A Continent of Banalities

Note: I go through character creation today. Scroll down to the second image if you just want to see the character. For today, and the coming days I’ll be making characters for ARC Doom. The game is about averting a fast-approaching disaster in a fantasy setting. I have written a convention scenario about saving the world by stopping a scoundrel from tampering with the creation of the world itself. Here’s the pitch: Oh no! The Pandemoniac has managed to break into the Prime Cell where the world is being made, and now they will subvert Creation from first principle! That blackguard!  Good thing for the cosmos that there are heroes such as yourselves to stop the scoundrel. Well, you will be heroes if you pull it off. If not you probably have a colorful future as chaos sludge ahead of you.  The pregenerated characters will have something of the mythical about them. They will be inspired by people from fairytales, and just-so stories, I think. Sometimes a bit of randomness is good...

Day 12 is kind of a cheat day. This Rats in the Walls character was made as a pregen for a convention game.  Evlyn Moreau , who played the character, drew her beautifully.  Life didn't turn out the way you’d planned. That doesn't mean it isn’t good, just different. You met Cora when you both studied to become a vet, and you had it all planned out. You’d run a vet clinic together somewhere in upstate New York. You could grow old with Cora, and never get tired of her beauty and her strident attempts to do right by all living creatures. Well, a man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps, as the book says. Cora had nephritis. She just figured that the joint and muscle pain was from work and exercising. Too busy with life to run to the doctor, your Cora. She was diagnosed, but too late. Thank you, Evlyn! Finishing your education seemed pointless at the time, but you did go to upstate New York. Silver Bay is a place where there aren’t too many distractions fro...

Csikaal, the End of Words [Inspired by a piece of Evlyn Moreau's art] Csikaal is a creature from the stars. That, at least, is the agreed-upon story. It is either a monster, robbing us of the means communication available to us, or a harbinger of the new way. Csikaal has a spindly body mostly hidden under a colorful robe made of a light shiny fabric. The head is crab-like and seems too large for the body. Its eyes are black like beetles and situated on long segmented stalks. It moves in blurry bursts of speeds or stands still like a statue. By Evlyn Moreau. Sign up to her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau/posts Csikaal has power over words. Any communication, whether verbal or written in a certain radius means whatever the creature wants it to. This includes the speech neccesary to use scrolls, shout orders, declare love or surrender. All in the hands of a creature as alien as the stars themselves. Some people have surrendered themselves to the new way of...

Note: the maggot has a guest starring role in my Esoteric Enterprises campaign. Players take heed.  The Prophet Fly and the Singing Maggot The adult prophet fly is about the size of a fat pigeon. After all there is enough rot and corpse-meat to dine on in our afflicted world. Workshy scholars with nothing better to do have determined that the prophet fly can see up to five minutes into the future. It deftly avoids calamities which no one could have foreseen, save through a miracle. This means that it is next toimpossible to catch, except in cases where the weather (which it can predict but not prepare for) has made the animal sluggish. Some cunning individuals have tried keeping it as a pet, tied to their person with the finest string. Using it to predict dangers to their safety has met with very limited success. It turns out that a bound fly’s instinct isto flee, prophet or not. The larval state is much more interesting. The singing maggot is ab...

...I know what haunts like Ahem, here's a table for generating a job ghosts might want your player characters to do. D20 Job (Ghost) 1 “(Faction) evicted me from my haunt. Help me get it back”. 2 “I cannot find rest! I will haunt you until you help me”. 3 “Ghost hunters are hunting me. Get them to go away” 4 “I am fading from existence but I’m not ready to go”. 5 “I would pay to feel in possession of a body again. Could you procure one?” 6 “Avenge my death!” 7 “I need you to see that my dependents are safe” 8 “My remains aren’t properly buried”. 9 “I escaped from a great black engine underground, but my ghost-kin are still toiling in there”. 10 “My love is still a...

(The following is inspired by a piece of art by Evlyn Moreau. Follow her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau/posts) Some say she is the mother of all bats, daughter of Luna, the warm embrace of night, or the promise of the world made bearable by darkness. Other call her vampire, mother of demons, sister of Lilith. Her worshipers flock to Conal County, Texas to worship at Bracken Cave, where her offspring hang by the millions. In Yunnan province, China she is the bringer of five blessings or disease. In Spandau Citadel in Berlin, her offspring is said to spell out her secret name as they swarm under the castle’s vaulted ceilings. Used with permission Whatever her true nature, she is a nurturing friend to all bats. Humans she tolerates, if they show respect and kindness to her charges Winged Embrace The simplest of the Mother’s blessings is simply her embrace. Thosewo invoke her will feel enveloped by mighty wings and clutched to a furry bosom. Th...

1) Remember that you are not alone. There are legions of people out there who suffer as you do. Strike up a conversation with one. 2) Say to yourself “I belong in the space I occupy. I push myself to new accomplisments”. 3) Get a parrot. It echoes your words without the burden of an intellect. 4) Take pleasure in your indistinct reflection in storefront windows as you pass by. Like a real person, you are in motion. You are accomplishing things. You do not obsess. 5) Avoid mirrors. They are likely to make you ruminate upon certain parts of your face. Remember: an imagined flaw is as painful as a real one. 6) Drink coffee. Fetishize it. Say things like “I need my coffee” or “I don’t know what I would do without coffee”. 7) Avoid prolonged contact with dogs (and certain breeds of pig). They pick up on so much. 8) Remember to cycle between over-preparedness and procrastination. You need both to maintain your position. ...

Hi! Remember I was writing a game of modern weirdness called Passing Strange? I almost did. Now I'm back at the keyboard, and what follows is a chapter on magick. Your fingers weave quick minarets. Magick is the way by which one bends the world to one’s will. Magick knowledge is hidden among a lot of nonsense, half-truths and ego, but it is there to be sought out and learned by everyone.  The step that opens the conjurer up to magic is one that must transcend routine, or exaggerate some facet of it. This is by no means a safe or certain process. Many search, but few find, and few things in this world are as dangerous as the seekers after wisdom. 5 Strains of Magick Magick is divided into five strains. Some call them traditions or schools, but whatever the name all true occult philosophers agree on this division. They are the basic components of the human condition (commonly called Heart, Soul, Mind, Flesh and Blood). It is not impossible to learn magick of sev...