Ardeyn is pronounced ARdon; “AR” like car, “don” like pun.
Ardeyn is a recursion of extravagant sorcery, mystic blades sheathed in living souls, and an evil god called Lotan the Sinner whose prison is the world. At its core, Lotan burns. Dragons, soulshorn, homunculi of the Betrayer, invaders from alternate recursions, demons of Lotan, and other insidious threats that hide in ancient qephilim ruins are everpresent in Ardeyn.
Once, Ardeyn was guarded from Lotan the Sinner by the Maker, his Seven Incarnations, and their angelic qephilim servants. But when they fell long ago, they left Ardeyn open to attack. Now mortals (humans and fallen qephilim alike) have taken up the fight to protect the place known as the Land of the Curse.
Very few people in Ardeyn, Earth, or other recursions know how Ardeyn actually came to exist. Unlike so many recursions around Earth, Ardeyn is not the result of fictional leakage. It is, instead, a construct of human ingenuity. A research group at the University of Washington discovered the Strange via an experimental quantum computer chip. That discovery “pinged” the dark energy network—and brought it to the attention of hungry planetovores.
If any other research group had disturbed the Strange, it might have been the end for the planet. But this research group was headed by a man named Carter Morrison—and luckily so, because Earth was saved by Morrison's quick thinking. When he realized that his experimental quantum computers unexpectedly created a connection to the Strange, he saw the danger, but more important, he also saw the solution: a set of formalized rules that could give order to the chaos and cancel out the accidental connection he'd made.
Morrison didn't have much time before the provoked planetovores began swarming up the connection toward Earth. The only set of formalized rules on hand was an online multiplayer computer game world called Ardeyn: Land of the Curse that Morrison had coded prior to his research appointment. So he dropped the entire codebase for Ardeyn down the entangled link into the primeval network.
His gambit worked, and the recursion of Ardeyn was born. Because the reality of the recursion demanded it and the underlying computational power of the dark energy network of the Strange allowed it, history crystallized thousands of years into the past, “recursively.” Morrison (and a few of his friends) stepped into roles prefabricated for them that stretched all the way back to Ardeyn's Age of Myth.
Though the creatures of Ardeyn were cut off from Earth, other recursions, and the Strange while Ardeyn's chronology was unsynchronized, a few entities of the Strange managed to “seep” the other direction and enter Ardeyn, including the kray and the Hulks of Kryzoreth.
In Ardeyn, Carter Morrison is known as Carter Strange (and sometimes as the Maker).
Despite the recursion's short history in relation to the Earth, it has a long, intriguing history that stretches back thousands of years, back to Lotan the Sinner and the Age of Myth. Although Ardeyn is only about a decade old, it was created with a “built-in” history stretching back several thousand years. To anyone inside the recursion, Ardeyn’s history is as real as actual history on Earth. It doesn’t matter that this history never “actually” happened, because everything that exists in present-day Ardeyn points back at this history, both in memory, landforms, and written lore of the recursion.
Ardeyn’s creation was unique in almost every way. Formed in an act of chaotic desperation, Ardeyn was purposefully sealed off so completely after it formed that it was chronologically unmoored from Earth, other recursions, and even the Strange itself. When its chronology was finally resynchronized (and translation became possible to and from Ardeyn), only about three years had passed on Earth. During that same time, almost two hundred years had passed in Ardeyn.
The Maker imprisoned Lotan within his own world-sized body for unthinkable sins committed in a higher realm, the n set the Incarnations to monitor the petrified shape, which came to be called Ardeyn. If one could pull back from the surface of Ardeyn far enough to gain perspective, one might see the outlines of the colossal, horrifying, fetal form of Lotan the Sinner. Should Lotan ever wake and shake off Ardeyn's soil and vegetation, the recursion would be utterly destroyed. The nexus of Lotan's consciousness, such as it is, burns in the Heart Core.
Some few unwisely choose to worship the evil god in hopes for great power, despite the danger that doing so could wake Lotan. Those who do are reviled and hunted down.
For ages, Lotan was kept imprisoned by the Seven Rules of Ardeyn: Commerce, Death, Desire, Law, Lore, Silence, and War. The Seven Rules had living incarnations—the Seven Incarnations—to oversee them. Each Incarnation, in turn, was served by a group of loyal angelic qephilim. Together, with the Maker and their qephilim, the Incarnations kept watch over Lotan's imprisoned form. During that time, all was peaceful in Ardeyn.
That peace ended when Lotan made an unexpected bid for escape, using dragons and newly created, lesser servitors of his own secret fashioning: humans.
War raged across Ardeyn, lasting a century, until one act finally turned the tide—humans developed free will, broke from Lotan, and swore themselves to the Maker. The dragons and Lotan's agents were defeated before Lotan's fiery heart could break its bonds, preventing him from reanimating his original body and destroying Ardeyn in the process.
The earthquakes from Lotan's body were a cataclysm that laid waste to the surface of Ardeyn. But something even worse happened— the seeds of resentment were sown and the repercussions would last longer than anyone expected. Those seeds remained quiescent for thousands of years, before finally sprouting, giving rise to the Age of Unrest.
Though the creatures of Ardeyn were cut off from Earth, other recursions, and the Strange while Ardeyn’s chronology was unsynchronized, a few entities of the Strange managed to “seep” the other direction and enter Ardeyn, including the kray and the Hulks of Kryzoreth.
The secret anger burning in War's breast over the pardon of the humans persisted for thousands of years. Then Carter Morrison changed everything when he and his friends saved Earth and stepped into the roles of the Maker and some of the Seven Incarnations.
Jason Cole was one of those friends. He stepped into the role of the Incarnation of War, but unfortunately, he felt trapped by Morrison's decision. That animosity, combined with the anger War still carried for the Maker, crystalized. Betraying his friendship, Cole (as War) murdered Morrison (as the Maker).
What Cole didn't realize was that destroying the Maker would also destroy the Seven Incarnations. Most of the other Incarnations died or disappeared, leaving Cole bereft of most of the power he'd commanded as War.
Now known as the Betrayer, Cole lives on, attempting to reclaim the powers of the Incarnation of War, or perhaps even those of the Maker himself. The Betrayer remains an entity worthy of fear, and many are rightly more frightened of him than of Lotan. After all, Lotan is bound, while the Betrayer is free, and he has retreated to his Borderlands fortress of Megeddon, where he plots in shadow to overthrow the land one way or another.
With the rest of the Incarnations dead or missing, Ardeyn has been in turmoil. Although the turmoil is lessening, the Age of Unrest rolls on, the future uncertain without the Maker or the Incarnations to directly watch over Lotan or to keep the vengeful Betrayer in check.
Other than Lotan, the Betrayer is the most feared creature in Ardeyn. As he should be—the Betrayer sees all of Ardeyn as a flawed construct that should be dissolved. He considers the people of Ardeyn to be mere shadows of computer code bereft of conscious spark. And, as a consequence, he doesn't believe that anything he does within his fortress is “evil” so much as a means to an end. He's not a bad guy—just a guy who got screwed, or so he tells himself and his closest confidants (which are his translucent-skinned lieutenants).
The Betrayer became as he was when the consciousness of an Earth human named Jason Cole was thrust into the Incarnation of War, as Ardeyn was compiled into the Strange. The mental dissonance between being a twenty-six-year-old programmer from Earth and at the same time a thousands-of-years-old divine Incarnation of Ardeyn was too much. The story of War was one of resentment toward the Maker for the Maker's acceptance of humans. That, combined with resentments Cole still carried from Earth, led to the Betrayal.
The Betrayer yet retains a residual sense of what it was to be War. As War, he opposed Lotan, and as the Betrayer, he continues to do so, reviling the burning entity perhaps even more vehemently than before, perhaps because the Betrayer subconsciously sees a resemblance he can never admit.
These days, the Betrayer splits his time between his various Foundries plus occasional trips into the Strange itself, where he seeks cyphers, new abilities, or perhaps even allies. Though he'd never say so aloud, the Betrayer's goals have gone beyond merely taking Ardeyn; if he could, Cole would take the Earth, becoming a homegrown planetovore.
| PCs who play qephilim
are usually of the Free Battalion, regardless of their type or focus, though a GM could decide otherwise |
Even without the Incarnations, the Seven Rules persist today, keeping Lotan imprisoned and the Strange fenced out, but everything is on much shakier ground. Today, the most visible signs that the Incarnations once walked Ardeyn are the qephilim.
Qephilim are a race descended from immortal angelic beings who served the Maker and his Incarnations. In the past, seven qephilim kindred groups each pledged to a particular Incarnation. During the Age of Myth, before the arrival of humans, magnificent qephilim cities dotted the breadth, interior, and even the skies above Ardeyn. But long before the Betrayal, Lotan nearly broke free. During this near-apocalypse, most of the qephilim cities were destroyed in the cataclysm. Afterward, qephilim numbers were a fraction of what the y'd been, so rebuilding was difficult. Later when the Betrayal occurred and the Incarnations failed, the qephilim became mortal, too. They faced three choices: become part of human society in Ardeyn, live apart from it, or enter the Strange in search of someplace new.
Each kindred is distinctive from the others in the coloration, size, demeanor, and distinguishing features of its members, but every qephilim has a mythlight: a glow of light usually no brighter than a candle that either hovers nearby or glows like a nimbus around a particular qephilim.
The qephilim kindred are as follows.
These warrior qephilim served the Incarnation of War. Many disavowed War and over time became known as the Free Battalion. Qephilim of the Free Battalion serve as mercenaries across Ardeyn, and (usually) pledge themselves to causes that serve the goals of civilization and the preservation of Ardeyn as a repudiation of the Betrayal. These mercenaries are often found battling sark, homunculi of the Betrayer, rogue soulmancers of the Court of Sleep, vermin from the Strange, demon infestations, and other threats.
Of all the qephilim, the Qephilim of Death (also called the Court of Sleep) retain much of the authority previously afforded them when the Incarnation of Death still walked Ardeyn. These so-called shadow-kin see to the dead of Ardeyn in the Night Vault.
These scholars and philosophers, who are also called keepers, maintained the history and lore of Ardeyn in secret libraries stocked with winding scrolls and lit by wandering soulglints. When the Incarnation of Lore disappeared, so did most keepers and, with them, knowledge of the locations of their hidden caches of lore.
Not much is known about themonitors, which is another term for the Qephilim of Silence, because they served merely to observe Ardeyn and report back only to the Incarnation of Silence. No one has seen a monitor in over a century—at least no one credible.
Trade and commerce in present-day Ardeyn don't seem much affected by the lack of an Incarnation to watch over the transfer of wealth. But the Qephilim of Commerce, who are also called the Court of Coin, are now much reduced in power and influence, and they still inhabit some of their ancient cities, built during the Age of Myth, under the warm surface of Oceanus's waters.
After the Incarnation of Law was slain by War, surviving qephilim of Law fled into the Strange, looking for a place of their own. None are believed to remain in Ardeyn.
Even when the Incarnation of Desire (also called the Incarnation of Love) was manifest, few ever saw a qephilim of this fleeting sort, and now they exist only as rumor.
When a qephilim loses its way completely, regardless of the Incarnation it or its ancestors once served, it becomes an animalistic savage that knows only anger and hunger. These fallen qephilim are known as sark. Some believe sark now serve Lotan's subconscious will and that a sark's unstoppable savagery is merely an extension of Lotan's desire to tear down the prison that holds him.
An option is to start a beginning player as an Ardeynic character instead of an Earth character. You could take that idea a step further and start all the player characters (PCs) in Ardeyn and present it to your players as a fantasy campaign where the PCs don't yet realize the true nature of their world. Then, after a number of sessions leading up to what promises to be an exciting finale, make the big reveal to the PCs regarding the true nature of the world. Of all the recursions described in this corebook, Ardeyn is rich and detailed enough to support this idea.
Sometimes things fall into Ardeyn from the Strange, breaking the normal rules that divide one from the other and manifesting as weather of a particular season. Strangefall is the term that can apply to any weather of this kind, but it usually refers to a fall of silvery particles that descend like snow during the wintry month of Graythorn. When large enough accumulations gather, infestations of thornwights begin to walk. Thornwights eat crops, animals, and any people that stumble into the growing patches, but during themonth of Char, thornwight groves dry out enough that they burn easily before too many pull free of their roots to roam without restraint.
Ardeyn's internal history has seen the rise and fall of civilizations, great wars, terrible defeats, and inspiring victories. Natives experience their world as an ancient and epic land. Most of them don't know Ardeyn is a recursion, except insofar as it was the creation of the Maker, a godlike entity of myth. Creatures of Ardeyn have lives, histories, and a subconscious certainty of their own reality.
The people of Ardeyn—humans, qephilim, and even more unusual creatures—speak the Maker's Tongue (which, to someone from Earth, sounds like English), though other languages are also used (including the language of dragons, and Qeph, the ancient qephilim tongue). The people possess consciousness and self-awareness, and most have the spark.
Unlike on Earth, all Ardeyn natives know about the Strange. Its existence is a visible reality; the Strange borders Ardeyn like a sea around an island. Near the edges of Ardeyn, the Strange is always visible, boiling behind the sky and over the side where the land falls away. Even in the central regions of Ardeyn, hundreds of miles from the Borderlands, those who watch for it may see a flash of those same iterative structures as night falls or day rises.
Ardeyn natives know that ferocious monsters inhabit the Strange, creatures fenced out of Ardeyn thanks to the Seven Rules, but they sometimes find a way inside anyway.
Just like on Earth, only a handful of Ardeyn natives are quickened. These select few know that other recursions exist beyond the world, including Earth, and some even understand the true origin of the Maker.
For most creatures in Ardeyn, life is usually far more mundane (barring the occasional dragon attack, kray incursion, or demon uprising). People spend the coin of the realm— bits of stamped gold called crowns—to buy and sell services. Shepherds tend flocks, hunters brave the wilds in search of big game, craftspeople in villages and cities fashion items of wood, iron, and stone, nobles look to their holdings and titles, and leaders (often, queens and kings) rule their hereditary lands.
On the other hand, sorcerers wield their soul magic, adventurers delve into dangerous deeps, heroes stand against the designs of the Betrayer and similar ilk, soulshorn seek to expand their undead power and domains, sirrush hunt for believers in ancient shrines, and more. For some, life is one great adventure.
Years, months, hours, minutes, and seconds are measured in Ardeyn as they are on Earth. The calendar, however, differs. The current Ardeyn calendar begins counting after the Maker was betrayed by the Incarnation of War.
Years after this date sometimes are appended AB (After Betrayal), though it's a bit unclear how long ago that event actually happened— people just call it about a thousand years because it's a round number.
The Ardeyn calendar is based on the weather and cycles visible in the surrounding Strange. This 396-day year has four “seasons,” each with four months that vary between 24 and 25 days. Each month has distinguishing characteristics, though some are more important than others. For instance, Graythorn marks episodes of Strangefall. Seed is the time when farmers traditionally plant their crops, while Gather is for the harvest.
| WINTER | SPRING | SUMMER | FALL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shiver | Hope | Bloom | Chill |
| Graythorn | Char | Suntide | Mistflow |
| Ice | Seed | Haze | Rest |
| Strife | Rain | Gather | Fear |
Ardeyn possesses a sun, seven moons, and a host of stars. The brilliant light that is Ardeyn's sun (sometimes called Flare) is actually a ball of sorcerous fire dozens of miles in diameter that orbits Ardeyn at sufficient distance and velocity to create a cycle of day and night.
The seven moons—each named after one of the Incarnations—are tiny (mostly empty) worlds in their own right; they circle Ardeyn in complicated orbits. The stars, visible at night, are farther out than both the sun and moons, though still within a few hundred miles of Ardeyn. Each star is an ancient, named qephilim of great power, set in the sky during the Age of Myth to watch over the world.
In Ardeyn, all know the names of the Maker, the Incarnations, and Lotan. The Maker is revered, as are his Incarnations, even though the Maker is dead and his Incarnations have long since died or disappeared. Those who worship the Maker and his Incarnations do not ask the revered to watch over them; instead they pray for them to return.
Here and there across Ardeyn, local “gods” exist, though they are usually powerful creatures (or particularly deceptive creatures, like sirrush) who have set themselves up as divine beings and demand the service of nearby creatures. In other places, locals might describe something they don't understand using the trappings of religion. For example, a village might worship a Hulk of Kryzoreth as a mysterious deity.
Ardeyn is irregular in shape, with a top, sides, bottom, and tunneled and vaulted interior (some say it is the shape of Lotan, encased in the stone of an imprisoning world). If one imagined that Ardeyn is a massive body pulled into a fetal position on its side, the n the inhabited side is the top, and it holds all the Daylands and the encircling Borderlands.
The Daylands are where most living creatures of Ardeyn abide. The Borderlands mark the transition from the Daylands to the cliff edges of Ardeyn, beyond which boils the Strange. The underside of Ardeyn is called The Fall. It's like a vast, jagged ceiling of stone with no floor beneath, and few creatures live the re.
The tunneled interior of Ardeyn, the Night Vault, is densely inhabited, if mostly by spirits of the dead.
The Daylands include several territories, kingdoms, and one queendom. Some Dayland territories are ruled, but a few are too wild for any one country to successfully monitor. Dayland countries with rulers are sometimes rivals, sometimes allies, but either way they are usually engaged with a level of trade with one another.
Dayland territories are generally more civilized than the Borderlands and the Night Vault, but in a land that hosts dragons, necromancers, and sark, any place is potentially dangerous. Road travel risks the notice of bandits, especially in the wilds, but roadless areas are hard to navigate.
The territories of the Daylands include the Queendom of Hazurrium, Mandariel, Kuambis, the Green Wilds, and the central sea of Oceanus.
The Queendom is the most populated Dayland and the most civilized. The Queendom's symbol depicts a silver circlet, which most people assume is a crown—they even call it the Crown Banner. The circular symbol of the Crown Banner actually depicts a ring passed down from the first Queen of Hazurrium to the current ruler. Called the Ring of Peace, the physical band is more than an implement of rulership; it’s a magic ring vested with various sorcerous properties, most of which have been forgotten.
The Queendom of Hazurrium hosts the largest fighting force in the Daylands. In addition to several contingents of peacemakers, the Queendom also maintains a contract with themercenary company comprised mainly of Free Battalion qephilim. The Free Battalion, together with the peacemaker contingents, provides the Queendom a military might more than rival to that of Mandariel, a balance of power that keeps both sides from open conflict.
The Citadel is the largest city in the Queendom, and possibly all of Ardeyn, and it serves as the capital city of the nation. More a hundred thousand people live in Citadel Hazurrium, which is built within a single immense fortress. Thick stone walls protect a many-storied interior of hidden verandas and porches, stairs and catwalks, and on top, the partly translucent Diamond Hall, where the queen holds court.
The majority of Hazurrium's neighborhoods exist scattered over multiple levels and beneath overhead stories. The streets and homes are brilliantly lit by day (and festively lit at night) by enchanted lamps that redistribute the light gathered by the Diamond Hall. As brilliant as sunlight, these “diamond lamps” allow for tree-lined streets and thick growths of flowering vegetation throughout the city.
The vertical manner in which the Citadel is laid out can prove difficult for newcomers to navigate, but after a traveler learns the trick of the central circular Grand Stair and the numbering system—Diamond Hall is on One, and ground level is on Thirty-Three—directions become much easier to understand and use. For example, the Common Market can be found on East Thirty-Three, whereas the Noble Market is scattered across Two, Three, and Four.
Citadel Hazurrium has several flourishing markets. From themultilevel Noble Market to the crop-laden Common Market to the Guild Market, Hazurrium provides particularly expansive (and pricey) shopping opportunities, thanks to a conflux of traders who range across the Daylands and Oceanus and several ARDEYN ARDEYN adventuring company guild halls, which bring in oddities and treasures from all over Ardeyn, and even a few from the Strange. A popular item in themarkets are Lorn chargers, great horses from Lornvale located in the easternmost fiefdom of the Queendom, and preferred by peacemakers and adventurers alike. The selection in themarkets in the Citadel is second only to those in Port Talaat.
Citadel Hazurrium is well known as a place friendly to adventuring companies, which is why several keep guild halls in the city, including the Black Moon Explorers and the Band of the Hand.
Adventuring companies usually form to spread out risk in return for a share of treasure gained during exploration. And in the Queendom, it's possible to gain an official charter toward that end. This is useful for adventurers, since it sometimes allows a group to make a claim on a particular location with the sanction of the Queendom to back up their interest. Granting charters is also useful to Hazurrium, because it allows officials to keep track of bands that might otherwise descend to the tactics of freebooting raiders. Different charters grant members different rights and responsibilities.
Most only go so far as allowing a guild hall to be established with favorable trade status. However, the charter for Black Moon Explorers allows officers of the guild to act with peacemaker authority.
The peacemakers are divided into three main contingents. The royal peacemakers are elite warriors, and they answer directly to the queen. They are the smallest contingent, but the most feared, and are housed in the Diamond Hall. The royal peacemakers are led by First Protector Navar, a qephilim of the Free Battalion and a sometimes-confidant of the Queen.
The city peacemakers serve as the lawkeepers in Citadel Hazurrium and are housed in small units all around the city. Finally, the legion peacemakers make up the Queendom of Hazurrium's standing army and are housed in subterranean barracks under the city. They train daily in parade grounds beyond the Citadel's gates.
First Protector Navar: female qephilim, level 6
The adventuring company known as the Black Moon Explorers was founded by three adventurers: Iron Stave, Syrengarii, and Lucious. Named after the group's original aspiration to travel to one or more of Ardeyn's moons, they mostly explore the Borderlands, putting down regional threats and plundering treasure from fallen creatures. Membership has expanded greatly in the years since the adventuring company got its charter from the Queendom, and indeed the group still accepts application for membership.
Lucious fell defending Citadel Hazurrium from a dragon attack. He is remembered fondly both as a hero and as a man whose kindness knew few bounds.
Iron Stave: level 5
Syrengarii: level 5
The Queendom is ruled by a hereditary lineage, but a queen may always adopt a daughter if the line seems in danger. The sitting queen is Elandine, daughter of Brandalun. Brandalun gave the throne to her daughter in her approaching dotage..then went missing, having apparently undertaken a selfappointed quest to find the parts for a mystical mechanism she learned about via a “vision sent from the Maker.” Queen Elandine believes her mother is senile and her vision a farce. That doesn't keep her from arranging (and on a few times, leading) expeditions looking for her lost mother or, as more time passes, for her mother's presumed remains.
Elandine: level 7; carries an artifact called the ring of peace keyed to her use. It grants +4 to Armor and provides a long-range attack rendering up to ten targets unconscious for one minute or a short-range attack against one target hat knocks it one step down the damage track.
Just outside of Citadel Hazurrium is a low wall that wends for miles to the west where the dead of the city—from the lowliest beggars to royalty—are interred in the narrow crypts that honeycomb the wall. According to local gossip, the souls of dead follow the path made by the wall up from the Night Vault to visit with their loved ones in dreams.
Unfortunately for many, rogue necromancers of the Court of Sleep, soul sorcerers without conscience, and others who would truck with animated corpses and the spirits of the dead find the wall a ready resource as well.
Peacemakers and Free Battalion mercenaries are assigned to so-called “Dream Patrol” to prevent such the fts and exploitation. They suffer from the same terrifying nightmares that usually afflict anyone who sleeps too near the wall, which means turnover is high.
A colossal series of flatirons—slabs of rock with clifflike faces—stands between 7,000 and 8,000 feet (2,130 and 2,440 m) high in the Nammu Mountains. One is sculpted in the shape of a massive humanoid with a drawn, broken blade. The humanoid sometimes “screams” mournfully as the formation exhales a tremendous wind from the open maw.
Explorations of the caverns hidden behind themouth lead back to a ruined undermountain city, possibly an ancient qephilim city of one of the kindred before the Incarnations failed.
In the last few years, no adventuring company that has entered the maw has returned, save one half-mad woman named Jorda Mamood. Jorda spends her days drinking quietly in the Citadel Hazurrium tavern called the Three Headed Dog. For the price of a stiff drink, she’ll tell the tale of how her companions can yet be found within the ancient city, victims of a soulshorn monstrosity that eats minds but leaves shambling bodies intact as servants and decorations.
Jorda Mamood: level 4
This range runs from the northern crown of Ardeyn down its western spine, through the Queendom, the Green Wilds, and into Kryzoreth. The mountains are tall and rugged, but offer several high passes.
Dragons, giants, and sirrush inhabit the high peaks and steep slopes. Abandoned qephilim ruins and mines are scattered throughout the range. A few of those mines are likely the lairs of sark.
Mount Merid is a dead volcano in the Nammu Mountains that serves as the secret lair of Merid, a dragon of famous deviousness. The volcano contains many entrances and exits, including a few that lead into the Night Vault, and possibly even one that leads to the core fires where the heart of Lotan burns. Merid never enters her lair by the same door twice, has traps hidden through the passages, and has set three young dragons and one sirrush to guard her hoard. Merid also employs human agents in Hazurrium who charter adventuring companies to explore distant parts of Ardeyn, only to return with more loot for her own hoard. Those same agents watch for others who might get the idea to come after Merid's treasure, and give warning.
Young dragons: level 4
Merid is hated and feared as much by other dragons as she is by humans and qephilim. She claims to be one of the First Brood, a dragon 168 who served as a knight of Lotan. Certainly her power seems more than equal to any creatures that have set themselves against her, but the wise consider it unlikely that she has survived the ages when no other creature, save perhaps Lotan himself, has done so.
In recent months, stories have begun to circulate that Merid is missing. Most assume that this is merely a ruse by Merid to lure more victims into her lair.
The city of Shalmarn is built over the ruins of a much older qephilim city on the crown of a high plateau. Many of the old structures have been converted into homes and buildings, though some are too fragile to be so used, while others remain resistant to exploration. It's not uncommon for relics of the previous city to be uncovered by current residents. For instance, on the outskirts of the city, a partly buried dome was recently breached. Within was a still-active magical ward that turned all who tried to bypass it into dust. Other discoveries have been less dangerous, and include a wealth of cyphers, magical beasts fashioned of clay, and even several spirits of long-dead qephilim that manifest to tell people their fortune.
Somewhere in Shalmarn is a metallic disc with crystal runes set around the exterior. Anyone or anything placed on the disc disappears, usually never to be seen again. Rumor has it that the disc magically delivers anything set upon it to one of the seven moons—possibly one that has air, possibly one that doesn't. An enterprising Shalmarn native called Lartric recently laid claim to the disc and uses it to dispose of all sorts of waste—for a small fee.
A human named Sayd Halmak is lord of Shalmarn. Halmak was installed by the old queen—Queen Brandalun—for serving loyally as her champion for many years. Halmak possesses a rune staff with a notable special ability—instead of being powered by the soul of its wielder, it absorbs the souls of nearby creatures when used offensively. Though the power of the staff is great, it always comes at a price, so he is loath to use it unless defending the interests of his city.
Lartric: level 5
Sayd Halmak: level 6; wields a rune staff
A wealthy merchant named Drazander from Citadel Hazurrium claimed control of a flying ziggurat where the Queendom skirts the Borderlands. The flying ziggurats are mysterious floating structures left behind by the qephilim of the Age of Myth. The few previously explored proved to be well-guarded and welltrapped tombs. With the aid of sorcery and a slew of mercenaries, the Sunflower Ziggurat was mostly cleared out within a month.
Drazander the n claimed it as his own, allowing him to expand his trade route into lands of ill repute. Topping the list of trade items were cyphers gleaned from Borderlands residents who collect the oddities that “wash up” on the edges of Ardeyn.
Then an unfamiliar plague struck the Sunflower Ziggurat. None of the healers, miracle workers, or soul sorcerers hired by Drazander provided any relief. The only cure seemed to be to leave the ziggurat itself, as if the structure itself was somehow the source of the infection.
The secret reality of the situation is that Drazander is an agent of the Estate from Earth. The ziggurat is one of a few locations controlled by the Estate in Ardeyn, done so to keep tabs on the recursion, and in the case of the Sunflower Ziggurat in particular, to watch for activity of the Betrayer, who is most active along the Borderlands. Whether the plague is an attack by the Betrayer or is the result of another malefic influence remains undiscovered, but if a cure can't be found, the ziggurat and the Estate listening post will have to be abandoned.
Drazander: level 5; Armor 2
Several red-skinned homunculi of the Betrayer were discovered and slain by peacemakers in the Citadel. Their presence suggests that the Betrayer has set up a secret listening post somewhere nearby. If someone were to find that base, the reward offered by Queen Elandine would be considerable—but how much greater would the reward be if someone knew where to find the base and take care of it himself? Qephilim Claim: A qephilim that some claim is a monitor—a Qephilim of Silence—makes daily appearances in the city, most often near themain gate. The monitor seems as if it wants to say something, but it always disappears before it can deliver its warning.
Missing Mother: The reward for information leading to the discovery of Brandalun, former queen and mother to the current, grows higher every week, and now includes crowns, artifacts, and cyphers.
Watchful Pillar: In Shalmarn, a dark metal spire near the city center grows eyes that ripen like fruit before they eventually fall off, blinking stupidly until they shrivel and die.
Singing Peak: One nameless peak in the Nammu Mountains is sometimes heard to sing in a language that is not the Maker’s Tongue.
Golem Smash: Along the road into Citadel Hazurrium from the west, a stone golem sometimes offers aid to those in distress. Other times it attacks with its smashing fists, leaving few survivors.
The Green Wilds is a forest territory of the Daylands whose massive trees commonly reach 500 feet (152 m) in height in the deepest portions, though some reach higher. The trees—a tumult of palms, sun oaks, and golden aspens—grow much larger than similar varieties in other parts of Ardeyn.
Mixed in among the more common trees are the occasional incredibly rare star saplings. Star saplings are slender trees with silvery bark and leaves that twinkle like their namesake at night. Every six months, these trees drop white pods, warm to the touch. If opened, a pod is about 50 percent likely to contain a luscious fruit with healing qualities. The other half release a blast of fire as a tiny seed jets up and away from Ardeyn, perhaps to find purchase somewhere out in the Strange.
Star sapling fruit: The pods that contain healing fruit restore 5 points to a Pool of the character’s choosing.
Sark have lairs within the Green Wilds, making it a dangerous place to wander, and the Green Wilds is also home to a few settlements of humans and qephilim who live high among the trees in treehouse communities.
The Green Wilds is also littered with ruins of the ancient qephilim that once lived beneath the canopy. As a result, treasure seekers are not an uncommon sight, but many of these are not looking for random treasure; they look for portal mouths that supposedly lead to a subrealm where stories say one ancient qephilim city still survives: a city of crystal and ancient glory, perhaps not even a place so much as a time.
Though the story of a portal to the Age of Myth sounds fanciful to most, it's true that portal mouths of various sorts can be found in groves of star saplings (which otherwise never grow in clumps). The star sapling groves are part of a lingering network that still functions for those who know the secret, and they can provide quick transport around the Green Wilds, and to other places where the star sapling groves grow around Ardeyn. The Stag Knights, a group headquartered in Telenbar, keeps the secret of the star sapling groves safe.
The largest sark lair in the Green Wilds is located in the petrified stump of a tree that, if the stump is anything to go by, must have been miles high when it lived during the Age of Myth. Now the cracks and tunnels beneath it swarm with bestial sark, who are as likely to sing and fornicate as to fall upon each other in a bout of sudden cannibalism.
The sark do not completely overrun the stump; one crack in the bark extends tunnel-like into the ancient tree's root system. Oversized spiders with too many legs and centipedes with children's voices lair beneath, and sometimes they emerge to hunt the sark. In the deepest reaches of the tunnels, a silvery, seed-shaped craft lies in a kind of magical stasis. Some believe that the item is a fragment of one of the lost Seven Sentinels, though others suggest that the object is an artifact of the Strange.
A particularly large sun oak within the Green Wilds is like a city unto itself, providing a home for as many as 2,000 people, though most people know Telenbar as the home of the Oracle of Ardeyn.
Ladders, rope bridges, and bending boughs allow access up, down, and across the great tree (and to a few surrounding satellite trees). Living in Telenbar requires a citizen to be unafraid of heights and a good balancer. Petitioners to the Oracle quickly learn this, often to their dismay, as they attempt to keep up with their hosts.
The Oracle is as much an office as a person. To take the office, a creature must show it has a proven power of precognition. In Ardeyn's past, the Oracle has been an old woman who stirs bird intestines, an immobile automaton with flashing lights, a qephilim that gazed into a crystal ball, and a young woman with a penchant for falling into a trance. The current Oracle, however, is different from all those who've preceded her.
She is a 30-foot-long (9 m) serpent who wraps herself around the topmost branch of Telenbar and sings her predictions to petitioners who bring her gifts. Unlike previous Oracles, this one goes missing from time to time, apparently traveling to far places, including her homeland, which is an uncouth-sounding place (at least to the ears of the humans and qephilim who tend her) called “Ruk.”
The Stag Knights are an elite group of human and qephilim hunters and trackers with a guildhouse in Telenbar. They know the secret of the star sapling groves, and by using them, the Stag Knights can quickly travel between two points within the Green Wilds (and to a few other locations around Ardeyn). The drawback to using the star sapling groves is that the portal mouths sometimes trigger on their own and draw terrible monsters from the Age of Myth into the present day, which the Stag Knights must the n run to ground. For some Stag Knights, it's a burden, but others look forward to each new hunt, despite the danger.
Just a couple of dozen miles (38 km) southeast of Telenbar lies a half-mile-wide clearing in the forest, surrounded by flowers and blooming foliage. The circle is tended by a female qephilim named Calandria. Calandria is distinguished by her mythlight, which sometimes flashes and thunders like a miniature storm.
Within the circle of her flowers stand two concentric circles of menhirs. The outer circle is only about 6 feet (2 m) high, while the inner circle measures nearly 30 feet (9 m) high. The outer slabs are blank and the inner thirteen slabs are each heavily carved with runes that glorify specific aspects of a storm. Calandria claims to be the Priest of Storms, and for a price, she will either quell a storm that's raging somewhere else in Ardeyn, or start one.
Calandria is not welcome in the city of Telenbar because she is a bitter enemy of the newest Oracle, and vice versa, though neither will reveal why.
Calandria: level 7; longrange electrical attack that inflicts 7 points of damage and ignores Armor
Lost Expedition: A small expedition of Stag Knights went to investigate a mass of writhing, plantlike material that was seen out in the Strange from a Borderlands-based spypost. They never returned. Though they were written off by the organization, the son of one of themissing wants help locating his mother.
Moon Harvest: An elderly human named Minu Cran wants to harvest seed pods from a particular sun oak in the Green Wilds, one that is supposedly 800 feet (244 m) tall. The seed pods are near the top, but from them a heavenly liquor can be brewed. Minu has climbing gear, but he needs protection from the tree squirrels that are as large and as vicious as umber wolves.
Grandmother Oak: An entity of roots and leaves wanders beneath the canopy of the Green Wilds, sometimes walking, sometimes popping up out of the ground like a quickly growing plant. Calling itself Verdant, the entity claims to be themobile avatar of one of the sun oaks in the forest.
Umber Grove: Near where the Wilds brush against the Borderlands is a mist-shrouded grove of trees the color of pitch. Or so say some Stag Knights. Sometimes the grove is the re, and other times, it can’t be found.
Oceanus is a territory of the Daylands and is comprised of the vast central basin sea of Ardeyn. Aside from its many watery wonders, its surface also serves as a trade route for many Daylands sailing ships, while beneath the waves all manner of sea life thrives. The remnants of the Court of Coin still inhabit one of their ancient aquatic cities in Oceanus, Juvanom, though most of the others are now drowned ruins.
A coastal city on the northern shore of Oceanus, Port Talaat is a city built on sea trade, and as such is one of the preeminent destinations on the shores of Oceanus. Seven great piers protrude into the waters, and almost all enjoy brisk trade, though one is set aside for shipbuilding. Another is exclusively leased by the Court of Coin, and it serves both as the Qephilim of Commerce's embassy to the Queendom and as their trade headquarters. Given that the Court of Coin prefers ships that travel beneath the waves, the pier was retrofitted with special accommodations for their submarine craft.
Beyond a press of warehouses, and nearly as many wharfside taverns, lies the rest of Port Talaat: a series of massive interconnected structures of sandstone walls, bamboo balconies, marble stairs, and open courts stretching in all directions. Wide streets separate one section of mazelike architecture from the next, but delicate bridges suspended by sorcery arch over the streets to connect rooftop bazaars.
Day and night, people throng Port Talaat from all over Ardeyn, some even hailing from the Borderlands and the Night Vault. Many speak the Maker's Tongue, but unfamiliar dialects are commonly heard. Trade seems to be the all-consuming passion of the populace, which is conducted from countless porches, stalls, carts, storefronts, hidden corners, private offices, and themany rooftop bazaars. Anything can be had in Port Talaat, both mundane gear and things hard to get elsewhere: love charms, strange beasts sold as pets, specimens from the Strange (including cyphers and sometimes more exotic bits), souls captured in glass, and possibly the rare artifact. In themarkets, no luxury is too exotic or fantastic to be bought or sold, and sometimes even enchanted items are on sale in a few specialty shops, though never cheaply. When a day of trading is finally consummated, sleep waits on a visit to the tavern courtyards where prodigious clay vessels sloshing with heady wine are consumed well past half-night.
Several trade concerns are either based in Port Talaat or have an outpost the re, including the Iron Road Traders and Jagger Shipping. The Iron Road is based in the Borderlands city of Cliffside (in Kryzoreth) and keeps a caravanserai on the outskirts of the city. Jagger Shipping, on the other hand, is a family business run by Zubrin Jagger. This business owns four trading vessels and does quite well. However, Zubrin is secretly addicted to a disquieting substance called spiral dust, which is being sold against the recent proclamations of the Port Talaat Constabulary. Zubrin is certain that if he stops taking the substance, he'll die. At the same time, he is secretly looking for a sorcerer willing to try to break him of the addictive curse.
Zubrin Jagger: level 6
Ardeyn natives usually encounter representatives of the Court of Coin only in Port Talaat, but the court's primary headquarters is actually located in the aquatic city of Juvanom. The submerged city is a collection of neighborhood-sized spheres lit by brilliant light, filled with breathable air, and laid out like religious shrines, though the only religion practiced in Juvanom is commerce. Each of the fourteen individual spheres is a separate prefecture under the authority of a prefect—a 172 ARDEYN ARDEYN prefect who is also a so-called Merchant Master of the Court of Coin. The main section of each sphere is devoted to trade, while quarters for inhabitants lie in the bottom portion of each structure. Every prefecture specializes in a certain segment of the Ardeyn market.
Humans are almost as prevalent in Juvanom as qephilim, but in most cases, the highest positions of authority in a given prefecture or in the organization of the Court of Coin itself remain in qephilim hands. The exception that proves the rule is Harker Molentha, prefect of Tharcept. Harker is an accomplished player of the lute, a singer with a voice that few can match, and a devotee of nightcap, a mushroom that grows in the Night Vault. Harker is always on the lookout for new connections or those willing to furtively supply him with additional supply of the green fungus.
When he's not performing, conducting business, or high on nightcap, Harker Molentha oversees Tharcept Prefecture. Tharcept Prefecture specializes in the sale of entertainments: musical instruments, songs, plays, and other goods that only the rich and idle have themoney or time for. The largest space in the prefecture is set aside for a massive stage, though many smaller performance areas exist. Given that much of Ardeyn is harsh and unsettled, one might imagine that Tharcept Prefecture would be the least rich of the floating neighborhoods making up Juvanom. Within the city itself, though, the sphere is a popular destination, given that by almost any standard of the rest of Ardeyn, every inhabitant of Juvanom is wealthy.
Harker Molentha: level 4, level 7 for all tasks related to performance and resistance to poisons
A deepwater current that swirls through the depths of Oceanus is called the Hydra Cascade. The Cascade is named as much for the violent nature of the current as it is for a submerged qephilim ruin that has the vague shape of massive hydra that serves as the terminus for anything caught by the current. Those caught in the grip of the current who don't win free before being drawn into the ruin are likely to be dashed across a series of pillars and abutments the re. On the other hand, no one who hasn't been sucked in by the current has ever been successful in finding the ruin.
The current is obviously magical, because mere feet beyond themain strength of the tubelike cross-section of water where the Harker Molentha: level 4, level 7 for all tasks related to performance and resistance to poisons “It's easier with only five.” ~Marhaban saying Salina: level 5, level 6 for all attacks and defense tasks current rages strongest, the surrounding water is calm. This phenomenon is why adventurers sometimes willingly allow themselves to be pulled in by the current with the ancient ruin at its endpoint, a ruin rumored to be rich in magic, treasure, and lost secrets.
The overflow from Oceanus spills out into the abyss of the Strange, creating a waterfall that extends for hundreds of miles, gradually thinning to so much expanding vapor. One of the most impressive sights on all of Ardeyn, the World Falls are not one for someone afraid of heights. Watching the plunging falls has a hypnotic effect that has drawn hundreds of people to jump who, prior to coming to the edge and gazing over, had no intention of doing so.
Just before escaping Ardeyn forever to irrigate another recursion or hydrate the inexplicable beings that exist in the dark energy network, the waters flow through a series of arches: qephilim ruins from the Age of Myth. Netters use these ruins to strain the outflow. Given the volume of water, the nets are always breaking, and restringing them is dangerous work.
Sometimes, though, the objects strained from the falls are so valuable that it makes all the close calls worthwhile. Netters and would-be netters flock to the city of Overlook, and much of the industry of the city supports (directly or indirectly) their efforts. Individual netters can lay claim to particular areas along the falls, but only as long as their nets are not broken. Given the nature of the work, competition can be fierce and sometimes cutthroat. Overlook isn't claimed by any larger entity, which means law there is often a bit fast and loose.
The Queendom and Mandariel rarely enjoy calm relations, despite the fact that they share a border. Instead, tension colors every interaction. It's more than just culture—the underlying reason for the conflict is that Mandariel constantly tests the boundaries of Ardeyn by sending ships out into the Strange to explore and salvage what it can find in the dark energy network. This practice is not only dangerous to those who personally voyage on such trips, it is also dangerous for Ardeyn as a whole: Who knows what kind of fell entity might be drawn back to Ardeyn by a chaos skiff trader? At least, that's how officials in the Queendom spin it, but most people in Mandariel see that as mostly propaganda. The Queendom just wants to hold on to its ancient prominence, and it does so by keeping the younger yet far more daring and innovative people of Mandariel down.
The capital of Mandariel, Marhaban is where the royal family rules and maintains its ancestral Ruby Palace on the shores of Oceanus. With the death of King Khousaf a decade ago, the Five Princes now share rulership. In the normal course of things, a new king would've been chosen by the Oracle of Ardeyn; however, for some reason the Oracle has not chosen a new king, and Five Princes struggle to share power. When King Khousaf died, there were Twelve Princes, and Mandariel was almost plunged into civil war.
Though the Ruby Palace is the most visible part of Marhaban, the most famous part of the city is the Champion Dome, where slaves, volunteers, and arena champions are pitted against each other, dangerous creatures of Ardeyn, and sometimes creatures found and captured in the Strange. Fighters can win large purses, but most of the crowns changing hands around the Champion Dome belong to those who bet on the fights. Two of the Five Princes (Prince Salman and Prince Bandar) are notorious for their gambling, but since each keeps a champion or two, they usually do quite well.
Many bet mongers work the Champion Dome, but one named Salina is usually the only one who'll take a chance with newcomers. Salina is a large, strong woman, and rumor has it she made her purse as a champion in the dome a decade earlier.
Salina: level 5, level 6 for all attacks and defense task
Port Jayeed is the most well-known (and perhaps only) port for chaos skiffs that sail the Strange from Ardeyn. Massive stone piers reach over the edge of the solid land, past the hazy interface and into the dark energy network. Most of the piers are set aside for trade, though a few are owned by shipwrights who keep busy year-round repairing older ships or working on new commissions.
Unlike many places in Ardeyn, Port Jayeed is an open city—crowns spend the same whether ARDEYN ARDEYN a buyer is an agent of the Betrayer, a slaver out of Kuambis, a glass pirate, an umber judge, or an adventurer. Despite the dangerous and daily transition between Ardeyn and the Strange, denizens of the network have never attacked or infested the city, not even the kray. It's whispered that a horrible deal was made to ensure such immunity, or that the town's mayor, Captain Tethis, is actually a kray thrall.
The ships built in and sailing out of Port Jayeed take many shapes, but almost all are rigged with sweeps of fabric that are akin to terrestrial ships. Instead of wind, chaos skiffs ride fractal currents generated by the neverending boil of the dark energy network. Riding those currents is made possible by the special sails spun from thornwight silk combined with sheer force of will of the pilot or captain.
Different chaos skiffs sail different routes. Some travel to various skerries surrounding Ardeyn to trade with residents, a few have found safe docking at one or two of themoons that circle the recursion (though sailing too close to Ardeyn—especially over it—risks a skiff being caught in Ardeyn's gravity, and from there a sudden plunge), but the most adventurous travel out into the Strange, looking for treasures. Things sought after include undiscovered recursions that have open borders, reality seeds, cyphers, violet spirals, and most rare and prized of all, entropic seeds. Sometimes chaos skiff crews trade with entities they find in the Strange (such as the Nmidon), run from or hunt creatures (such as the kray), or are devoured by them and never seen again (as is the case if they run into a planetovore).
A guild based in Port Jayeed known as the Kray Takers owns several chaos skiffs, but it enjoys a membership far larger than crew berths on those skiffs would allow. That's because individual members sign on to other ships that'll have them as guards against potential trouble out in the Strange. Most chaos skiffs have at least one kray taker on board, despite the fact that the odds that any given ship being attacked by a kray or another entity of the Strange are not especially high. As a result, most kray takers collect their fee without having to lift their lance. On the other hand, having able-bodied warriors versed in the ways of and kitted out for fighting kray can be worth their weight in gold if their services are required.
Many individual kray takers have earned colorful reputations for themselves, including Jaustin the Green, who once killed a kray with his mind; Kalloror Mashhur, who's said to be stronger than a golem; and Gladia the Lance, whose magic lance is tipped with a sentient and hungry spirit.
Shiphands Wanted: What's a chaos skiff without a crew? Ship captains in Port Jayeed are always willing to sign up crew for trips along the edges of Ardeyn, in an attempt to find those that do not suffer from Strangeblight, a common illness for those new to the relentless boil of the Strange. Champion Dome Think you've got what it takes to win a purse under the dome? Sign up and find out! Fight only as long as you want—leave at any time! At least, that's what bet mongers promise those who don't have enough crowns to cover the cost of their bet. Why put up coin when one can offer oneself in the arena?
Purple Masks: Thieves' guild members in Marhaban are seen to wear distinctive purple masks (if the y're seen at all). The Purple Masks are made up of assassins, spies, and thieves. Word on the street is that the Purple Masks actually work for one of the Five Princes, but which one is a hotly debated topic in the coffeehouses of Marhaban.s
Kuambis is a desolate desert waste, mainly known as a home to dragons, sark, and castouts. No single group or entity rules Kuambis, because the dry land is always being contested by battling dragons who keep humans, qephilim, and lesser dragons as slaves. Ruins and mysteries abound, because Kuambis was also the legendary site of many ancient battles during the Age of Myth. Most of the dragons of Ardeyn make their lairs in Kuambis because they wish to uncover the relics of their draconic ancestors and claim power enough to take all of Ardeyn for themselves. Without the Incarnations or the Maker to say otherwise, what's to prevent Ardeyn from becoming a realm of dragons? It's lucky for most creatures that dragons do not generally get along with each other, and that few wish to go back to serving Lotan, their master of old.
The Glass Desert sprawls across the southern Daylands in a contested region called Kuambis. The sere plain of reflective glass is covered here and there in drifting dunes of sparkling sand composed of ground glass particles, which are abrasive and dangerous if exposure persists. In fact, the desert is arguably one of the most treacherous stretches of land in Ardeyn. Even the weather can kill an unprotected traveler: when the winds blow, the dunes are taken up into the air. If creatures don’t take shelter quickly enough, their flesh is ground from their bones.
In addition, the Glass Desert is inhabited by pirates, spirits of those who died in the wind (sere spirits), and at least one dragon. A guild known as the Reclaimers is based on the northern edge of the desert where the waters of Oceanus meet the plain.
The Reclaimers want to eradicate the Glass Desert and return it to the glorious garden it was during the Age of Myth, when things were still pristine and new, before Lotan made his bid to escape. Legends tell of the Silver Sword, a blade of glass visible every nine years as a reflection in the desert’s surface. The sword can be claimed for a brief time by one who is worthy and used to shrink the borders of the Glass Desert. So the Reclaimers patiently wait out the decades and attempt to reclaim the artifact each time it appears. Currently under the leadership of Galeta Swan, the Reclaimers occupy a fortress on the northern edge of the desert, where the waves of Oceanus lap upon beaches made of jagged sand.
A couple of decades ago, the secret of the Silver Sword’s existence leaked. Now the Reclaimers must compete for the sword with glass pirates, random adventurers, and Calometh, a particularly vengeful umber judge from the Night Vault.
In her youth, Galeta was captured from the edges of the Green Wilds by glass pirates. She escaped slavery in Kuambis thanks to a talent for magic her captors never suspected. But rather than return home, Galeta instead swore to bring the Green Wilds to the desert, in a manner of speaking, by erasing the scar of ancient destruction the desert represents. Some people brand her as a driven fanatic, but others are drawn to her cause.
Galeta Swan: level 5; health 25; Armor 1; long-range cold attack inflicts 7 points of damage and freezes target from moving (but not taking other actions) until it regains at least 2 of those points
Calometh seeks the Silver Sword as vehemently as the Reclaimers do, but not because he wishes to return the ancient garden to Ardeyn. Instead, the qephilim believes that he can use the blade to sever the evil taint from demons—souls that have been stained by Lotan’s malice—so they can finally be judged by the Court of Sleep. That said, Calometh seems eager to “redeem” a soul even before it leaves a living creature’s body, just to get a jump on things, so to speak. The larger body of the Court of Sleep has labeled Calometh a dangerous lunatic and cast him out. Thus, he wanders the Glass Desert, killing glass pirates (and any other human he happens across) “for the sake of their souls” while he waits for the time of the next reflection of the Silver Sword.
Calometh: level 4; health 23; Armor 1 (can gain +4 to Armor for ten minutes); long-range spiritual blight attack from wand artifact inflicts 4 points of damage (ignores Armor)
Braving the inhospitable glass plain, a handful of pirate clans ride ships that skate on magic blades. Most glass pirates operate along the edges of the desert by sending sorties into the more habitable surrounding lands to raid for food, gold, slaves, and other valuables. Then they escape pursuit by fleeing on their special ships into the burning heart of the plain, where only the desperate and deranged would attempt to travel without similar means.
The pirates are anything but a cohesive force. Opposing clans compete for raiding territory. Truces usually hold, but when two ships of different clans meet, it’s even money whether it results in a skirmish or a parley. Likewise, conflict is common within pirate crews, where only the particularly cruel rise to the top of the command structure.
Two ships have acquired such a reputation that their names are sometimes heard far from the Glass Desert: the Nightstar, captained by a qephilim named Taimin, and the Revenge, captained by a qephilim named Siraja.
Taimin of the Nightstar: Taimin prefers to decorate himself with grandiose amulets, bracelets, and expensive layers of clothing. He gives his crew a lot of latitude in determining the hierarchy underneath him as long as squabbles don’t interfere with the smooth operation of the ship and their raids. Taimin’s favorite tactic is to decree death matches between feuding crew members. This policy is usually sufficient to deter those who’d otherwise bad-mouth their superiors—unless they’re willing to find themselves fighting for their lives at a moment’s notice.
Siraja has the full and feared reputation of a glass pirate, but the truth is that she’s only in the business of hunting other pirates. She keeps this practice secret lest the other pirates come together in a real truce to stamp her out. Siraja manages this facade by employing a network of tall-tale tellers who spread her supposed merciless escapades in taverns and markets across Ardeyn. This terrible reputation even cows some of the other glass pirates.
A secret even more dear than the true nature of the Revenge is the truth behind Siraja’s rise to her present position. Only a few people know that she and Carter Strange were allies for a brief time. She once helped him out of a particularly tight spot when he was at his most vulnerable.
Siraja: level 6; Armor 1; carries two grenade cyphers most of the time
Typical glass ship (with 15 or more crew): level 3; health 30; Armor 3; moves a long distance each round on a magic iron blade; melee ramming attack inflicts 10 points of damage after a move of at least a short distance; two long-range ballistae attack for 5 points of damage each
The Glass Desert is dangerous merely to visit. Heat, dehydration, and the particularly abrasive ground glass sand are the main culprits.
A character who spends an hour or more active in the Glass Desert during the day without sufficient water to drink—about a cup (0.2 L) of water per hour—takes 2 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) each hour after the first without water. This does not apply to characters who have the focus Abides in Stone or who otherwise don’t need water.
Even without wind, the abrasive ground glass sand is dangerous. Each ten hours a character spends active in the Glass Desert results in skin abrasions and inhalation of fine particles, which cumulatively inflict 1 point of ambient damage at the end of the period.
If the wind picks up enough to create a sandstorm, the danger becomes much more urgent. Characters should seek shelter immediately or face a flensing. In such a sandstorm, visibility is reduced to immediate range, and characters without shelter suffer 1 point of Speed damage (ignores Armor) each minute.
Several dragons inhabit Kuambis, and many more congregate there during the month of Suntide for the Harrowing. Supposedly, only one dragon lives on the glass itself, and it’s not a dragon in the truest Ardeyn sense. Instead of feathers, shards of splintered glass cover its body. More so even than normal dragons, the Glass Desert dragon is a creature of magic. As such, it is not merely a living creature, but the animate embodiment of an elemental disaster.
Learned sorcerers suggest that other “dragons of disaster” probably exist in Ardeyn, having been spawned by various unnatural catastrophes (or natural ones that were particularly violent). The disaster that spawned the Glass Desert dragon is the same event that created the desert itself, when Lotan slagged the Maker’s Hall during the Age of Myth.
In truth, there is no singular Glass Desert dragon. Instead, there is an entire brood of glass dragons, none as powerful as the whispered legends tell. Only one or two haunt the desert at any one time because most prefer to dive from Ardeyn’s southern edge and hunt the Strange. Several have created cavern homes in Ardeyn’s cliffside Borderlands region or out on one of the floating skerries. Individual glass dragons return to the plain every few years and bake in the unrelenting sun at the desert’s heart for a minimum of three days. They do so to maintain the link of continuity between themselves and the ancient disaster that spawned them.
The Glass Desert has witnessed many conflicts, going all the way back to the one that birthed it. Skirmishes between rival pirates, traders, glass dragons, and occasional travelers across the flat expanse have smashed hundreds of blade-skating ships over the years, scattering their dying crews across the merciless sun-baked plain. But sometimes, those ships return. Those that carried strong magical cargo or powerful individuals are most likely to come back as spectral ships visible day or night, with their former crew held in undead thrall. Sometimes ghost ships move like a normal glass ship, with sails rigged, and other times they appear as shadowed wrecks out on the glass. Those who encounter them are likely to be shanghaied as fresh crew. Would-be victims who are strong enough to escape might come away with amazing treasures hidden away in the holds of ghost ships that have been plying the desert for hundreds of years or more.
Another terrifying aspect of ghost ships is their ability to sail off the edge of the Glass Desert and appear hundreds of miles away in some other part of Ardeyn. This apparently occurs when members of a particular crew—now only spirits, or spirits inhabiting decaying flesh—originally hailed from that same location.
The Glass Desert is what most people believe to be all that remains of the Maker’s Hall, a vast castle of glass originally serving as the Maker’s citadel in Ardeyn. The Hall was slagged and melted when Lotan burned hottest in Ardeyn’s prehistory. Beneath the desert, in bubbles and hollows, adventurous types can discover amazing artifacts from the Age of Myth. But these are just the merest sprinkling of the treasures waiting to be claimed if one could find the surviving entrance to what remains of the Maker’s Hall.
Under the proper conditions, the Maker’s Hall is revealed as a reflection in the surface of the Glass Desert, an astounding series of mounting, shining ramparts that reaches (in the reflection) for the sky. A single entrance is visible in the glass, and here a visitor may attempt entry. Those who manage to get inside have a chance to seize the power of the Maker himself, and with that power, remake Ardeyn in their own image. The possibilities are stupefying to consider.
Lest your dreams grow too ambitious, know that entering the Maker’s Hall is almost impossible. Even if a seeker survives the threats of the Glass Desert and finds the correct location near the center of the plain, it is said that gaining entry (and surviving what one finds within) is possible only for those who can call upon spells of a potency rarely achieved in Ardeyn. Another rumor suggests that a seeker who has the mighty keys of an earlier age—a handful of rings that the Incarnations once used to spark their power—can also gain entry. Other stories say that perhaps a seeker merely needs to appear at the right spot in the Glass Desert at the right time, when the seven moons of Ardeyn are full during the final hour of the month of Fear, and other celestial objects are in rare alignment.
Beyond this, little is known, but much is rumored. The Maker’s Hall seems impervious to all magical attempts to divine what might lie inside, as well as attempts to use translation within it. The outer ramparts are said to be infested with a hive of ancient soul sorcerers who hope to one day find a route to the innermost chambers. Supposedly, one of the princes in Marhaban sent a party of salvagers to the Hall a little more than a decade ago, only to discover the right hands of the group members piled on his bedroom floor a few days later. One story describes how the Betrayer briefly gained entry to the Hall years ago, and his attempt to claim the power of the Maker nearly brought down the walls of Ardeyn as hordes of kray from the Strange threatened to consume every living thing in the recursion.
No credible accounts of the Hall’s interior exist, and tales from occasional survivors vary widely in regard to layout and architecture. Most people agree that soul sorcerers do infest the entryway, though many say they’re not living, but truly dead. That doesn’t make the sorcerers any less jealous of other explorers— only more vengeful.
Hall soul sorcerer: level 5; long-range spell attack inflicts 5 points of damage plus a curse on a failed Might defense roll (the difficulty of tasks attempted by cursed foes is increased by one step for one minute); some carry random cyphers
Red Bubble: Part of the ruins of an ancient qephilim city buried under molten glass when the desert formed, the Red Bubble is one of the most mysterious sites in the Glass Desert. The upper reaches of the ruin—slender, blackened towers—are visible to those who look directly down while passing overhead. The center of the encased area is stained translucent red, though movement within it is sometimes visible. At night, radiance occasionally leaks from the bubble up through the glass and shines on the surface. When this happens, unearthly music is also audible.
Glass Desert Dragon Bounty: The Queendom has posted a bounty for the Glass Desert dragon (either alive or as a carcass) to “permanently curtail its incessant raiding of Queendom shipping in southern Oceanus.” The posting promises to pay 2,000 gold crowns and doesn’t acknowledge the idea that there might be more than one such dragon. A group of Black Moon explorers led by Syrengarii is already hunting the desert, so if another group takes on the bounty, they will have competition.
Artifact of Note: A character learns that an artifact she has newly acquired (or perhaps long held) was at one point a much more powerful item. It could potentially be restored to its original state if brought to the Maker’s Hall and allowed to bathe in the fires of the Creation Forge once more—or so an oddly realistic dream leads the character to believe.
This sprawling citadel is surrounded by a shambling city of bandits, raiders, ruffians, s slavers, glass pirates, and worse. The Citadel is the one place in Kuambis where dragons cannot go, thanks to the Red Pact they swore long ago. The pact is why lesser races are so numerous in the streets. On the other hand, without the rule of law to tame the passions of the residents, the Citadel is a dangerous place to live. It's also the only place that offers select illicit items, slaves, certain dark sorceries, and, most important to the wider world, the Harrowing.
The Citadel is named for its yearly competition held during the month of Suntide. The Harrowing draws people from every part of Ardeyn, even those not normally willing to risk being robbed, taken captive, or killed in order to compete. Competitors who are rich enough hire bodyguards to protect them while they stay, but themajority of competitors are desperate dreamers without a handful of crowns to their name.
The Harrowing is a confrontation with dragons. The Red Pact that keeps dragons out of the Citadel has one exception—during the two weeks of the Harrowing in Suntide, dragons may enter, as long as they restrict themselves to the arena, and only if the dragon brings a prize worthy of fighting over—one from the dragon's own hoard. This prize is often a chest bursting with crowns, cyphers, and artifacts. A team of four mortal contestants fights the dragon, according to fairly loose rules of engagement. If the dragon wins, it can choose to take the survivors as slaves or eat them, and claim any gear they have for its hoard. If themortal team wins, they get the dragon's prize. The dragon almost always wins. The rare dragons that lose will submit rather than be killed, which means themortal team gets a great prize but creates a terrible enemy in the process. Every year, rumors go around that a wyrmtalker has entered the Harrowing, but so far, none of those rumors have proved true.
A wyrmtalker is a human who retains dragon rider powers from the Age of Myth. When Lotan fashioned humans to be his servitors, a select bloodline among them rode dragons to war, just as some qephilim rode dlammas. A dragon rider in full control of her powers could bring dragons to heel with a look, a whisper, or a touch. When humans turned against Lotan, the dragon riders gave up their mounts, and their numbers have dwindled over the centuries. Today, most who claim to be wyrmtalkers are charlatans or are lying to themselves, and if they are foolish enough to try their hands at the Harrowing, they quickly learn the error of their thinking.
The Ahlan Mountains run through Mandariel, Kuambis, and into the territory claimed by the Betrayer. Despite being home to at least one hydra, several bleak dlammas, and other dangerous creatures, themountains are mined for iron, precious metal, and gems. A trio of tall peaks known as the Three Sisters watches over the waterway and caravan route that leads south from the edges of Oceanus’s southern shore through a series of passes towards the Citadel of the Harrowing in Kuambis. On some nights of the year, stars descend and alight upon the peaks for several hours before rising again, but for what purpose no one knows.
The Borderlands (sometimes called Borderlands of the Strange) is a strip of land about a dozen or so miles (24 km) wide that encircles the Daylands. In the Borderlands, the Seven Rules begin to fail and land gives way to the cliffside faces of Ardeyn's edge. Beyond the edge, various discrete chunks of free-floating landscape called skerries float. Like the Daylands, the Borderlands contain several territories, though most are small and mean. The largest and most famous is known and feared all across Ardeyn: Megeddon.
The clifflike edges of Ardeyn lead to a long drop because Ardeyn is essentially flat, if thick. In most places near the top, the cliffs are splintered slabs of dark rock that measure Ardeyn's 100-mile (161 km) thickness. Though the cliffs are sheer at the top, the slope relaxes farther down, which means that objects and creatures that fall off the edge don't always fall into the Strange—though it may seem like it to those who stand upon the cliffs and peer down.
What actually happens is that dropped objects fall for a few miles (5 km), the n shatter upon a deeper portion of the cliff face whose slope has become less severe. If something survives the drop (or climbs down to the area where the slope relaxes, called the termination zone), it's possible to navigate the slope, though it remains incredibly steep.
Explorers and cliffwalkers of a guild called the Long Way Down climb the slopes regularly. Those who are unlucky or who don't take care roll and smash their way down to the termination line, a band around Ardeyn's sides about 50 miles (80 km) down. That's where the slope reverses and becomes negative; anything that falls off this final lip does indeed fall into the Strange.
The skerries are splintered pieces of the Borderlands that remain aloft within the surge of the Strange, despite having lost physical connection to the rest of Ardeyn. Some portion of the Seven Rules keeps them from being ground to nothing and washed away in the boil, but the hybrid nature of these islands makes them extremely dangerous places. Sometimes they are infested with planetovore influence, other times with particularly dangerous outlaws out of Ardeyn—only rarely is a skerry a place of wonder and joy.
Additionally, the weather in the Borderlands is atrocious. Temperatures are normally livable, but they can fluctuate widely. One day they can drop to freezing in minutes, creating blizzards. The next day, a furnace-hot wind threatens sunstroke for those without adequate cover. Whether hot or cold, the winds can blow up along the edges and swirl into vast tornadoes, 178 ARDEYN ARDEYN able to sweep anything and any unsecured structure to its doom.
Despite all these dangers, adventurers and salvagers are drawn to the Borderlands because they can collect cyphers there like others in Ardeyn collect seashells along the edges of Oceanus, if not so prolifically.
Megeddon is a territory of the Borderlands completely under the control of the Betrayer. Indeed, the entire territory is one massive, city-sized black iron citadel where the Betrayer and all his homunculi reside. Megeddon's symbol depicts a black circlet of spikes, which outsiders assume is a crown—a crown set in opposition to Hazurrium's, and so they call it the Traitor's Crown. The circular symbol of the Traitor's Crown actually depicts a ring quite precious to the Betrayer. Called the Ring of War, the actual band is vested with various sorcerous properties, though most of those powers were lost when the Maker was slain.
Megeddon is peopled almost entirely with copies of the Betrayer that he calls homunculi. Homunculi come in three grades: green (bestial ragers), reds (skilled in war, at a deficit in everything else) and a handful of clears (the Betrayer's lieutenants, who come closest to being perfect copies). Green homunculi ferocity and red homunculi skill-at-arms gives Megeddon a considerable advantage, even against nations that boast a much larger fighting force, such as the Queendom and Mandariel. Add to that the epic abilities of the Betrayer himself, and it's easy to see why Megeddon can keep enemies at bay.
Despite its impressive size, the fortress houses only a few thousand creatures, nearly half of them homunculi. The fortress floor plan is like a half circle, with thick iron walls that curve out into the Strange, as if it were a segment of a much larger fortress that was lost somewhere in the dark energy network. Metal towers bristle upon the ramparts of the remaining segment, looking out over the blasted Borderlands.
Only a few entrances are visible on the side of Megeddon that faces Ardeyn: three massive war gates are large enough to allow for the emergence of a dragon or a troop formation that is one hundred homunculi wide.
The fortress contains parade and training grounds, storehouses stocked with mundane weapons, barracks, and other needful things for a military base. A large section of the fortress called the White Zone is set aside for visitors.
Megeddon also contains vast, empty areas of rooms, tunnels, tanks, dead gardens, and plazas, suggesting the fortress may have once been a city of ancient qephilim repurposed by the Betrayer for his base.
Another section of the fortress is out of bounds for all creatures except the homunculi. It contains locked treasuries where magic weapons, artifacts, cyphers, and trophies from earlier conflicts are kept safe.
The basements of Megeddon are given over to the Body Vats, where copies of the Betrayer are grown and matured. On the levels above the Body Vats are the Foundries, some of which are tasked with creating weapons and armor to outfit homunculi, but others have more esoteric purposes. These Foundries are where the Betrayer's translucent-skinned lieutenants oversee reds in various experiments designed to boost the Betrayer's power back to what it was when he was War (or better yet, surpass that level of power). The Foundries include the Pit Foundry, which attempts to siphon energy from the Strange; the Soul Foundry, where soul fragments from slaves are scraped off for study; the Artifact Foundry, where artifacts from both Ardeyn and the Strange are studied and catalogued; the Contact Foundry, where new and better ways to connect to Earth and other recursions are explored; and finally the Xenobiology Foundry, where kray are kept on ice against a future need by the Betrayer.
A large section of Megeddon is like a small neighborhood in a larger city and contains living quarters and conference chambers set aside for embassies from other nations and powers. At any one time, a couple of thousand people who are not homunculi are living in or visiting the White Zone. These are traders (including Iron Road Traders), contractors, mercenaries, adventurers, slavers, information brokers, and embassies from other nations and powers (though few of these openly show the allegiance of their homeland). Here, trade can be had for visitors who are willing to risk being killed outright by suspicious homunculi.
The offices that interface with the September Project on Earth are always on-site. Couriers come and go through the September Embassy several times a day, translating into a secure chamber using a translation gate keyed to accept only those tattooed with the Traitor's Crown. The elaborate apparatus of the September Project on Earth mostly comes through the bottleneck of the embassy, which is staffed by a combination of red homunculi and slaves picked for their bookkeeping and organizational skills.
The human who oversees the office is a man from Earth called Jonas Gallway. In his translated form, he is a qephilim with a staff inscribed with magic spells. Gallway is efficient and hard-working, but like most of the humans working on behalf of the Betrayer, it's possible that he doesn't realize how far the Betrayer would go to gain power.
Jonas Gallway: level 5; his staff allows him to target two foes at the same time within long range—affected creatures take 7 points of fire damage, take 7 points of ice damage, or fall asleep for one minute (or until vigorously slapped); staff has a depletion roll of 1 in 1d20
Taking slaves betrays several of the Seven Rules at once, making “sinners” of every member of the handful of slaver guilds in Ardeyn. A few slaver guilds (including the Red Moon Wranglers and the Procurers) run a segment of their business in Megeddon, with the blessing of the Betrayer. The Betrayer allows slavers because he goes through experimental subjects fairly quickly; he needs raw material both for his Body Vats and his Soul Foundry.
The outlaw slaver Vera the Whip (a founder of the Red Moon Wranglers) is notorious in many territories of Ardeyn, though few enough would recognize her if they saw her. Stories of her exploits go beyond the believable, even for a magical place like Ardeyn. For instance, most doubt that she once lassoed the Red Moon with her whip. On the other hand, Vera's whip is an artifact from the Strange itself, and it has many properties that even Vera has yet to call upon.
The Red Moon is the popular name for the moon originally named after the Incarnation of War
Vera the Whip: level 6
Along the southwestern edge of the Borderlands lie the Hulks of Kryzoreth. The hulks are commonly considered to be vast, sentient bulks that are partly stone and partly alive. Their bodies form a series of rounded hills that, from a distance, resemble a pod of whales that has beached itself. The origin of the hulks is not certain, though they are not of Ardeyn. Most likely, they are remnants of a past planetovore's attempt to colonize. They could be inactive arcane superweapons, seeds of a new monstrous colonization, or something utterly alien. Whatever the case, they have not stirred; however, they do give a strange dream to those who live nearby.
The protective ridges of the hulks shelter some 10,000 people throughout the region. The residents of Kryzoreth rely on the ridges for shelter against the weather that scours the Borderlands (tornadoes never touch down within a mile of a hulk, nor do temperatures spike or plummet), and they also seem to gain special contentment from the dreams. Every native (and those who've gone native) all share the same apparent contentment, tranquility, and peaceful ways, and they attribute it to “the dream.” However, visitors to Kryzoreth characterize the dream they experience as an indescribable nightmare, and they usually try to avoid sleeping through the use of stimulant drinks or magic.
Kryzoreth families with the most gifted dreamers claim noble blood (though how the Kryzoreth natives measure “gifted dreaming” is uncertain), and these families dwell in hollowed-out cavities within the hulks themselves. How deep these cavities and tunnels run is unknown, though stories suggest that they allow one to walk into a literal land of dreams.
The Long Way Down guild keeps its headquarters in Kryzoreth in a city called Cliffside. The guild's members are called cliffwalkers. Cliffwalkers are usually not native to Kryzoreth, and they find the dreams disquieting, but they carry dreamstone charms fashioned by a member soul sorcerer to keep those dreams at bay.
The cliffwalkers are interested in exploring the sides of Ardeyn, because the percentage of cyphers that can be found around the termination zone (where the steep side-slopes of Ardeyn's cliffs become negative) is at least twice as high as along the Borderlands. The sale of cyphers is a lucrative business. However, cliffwalkers face not only the “final fall” in their work, but a host of monstrous creatures and extreme weather along the sides of the world.
The reason that Kryzoreth isn't cut off from the rest of Ardeyn is due to the Iron Road, which is a caravan and courier guild that originally made most of its crowns helping the Long Way Downers sell their collected cyphers in the more civilized regions of Ardeyn. The Iron Road (named for theiron shoes their mounts are shod with) run regular trade caravans from Kryzoreth through the Green Wilds, to Port Talaat in Oceanus and on to Hazurrium, next Mandariel, the n Kuambis, and back again to Kryzoreth in the Borderlands. Over time, they came to be counted upon as couriers, as associate traders to merchants unwilling to put up costs for their own caravan, and as road companions for adventurers wishing for a bit of extra security in return for serving as additional guards. It's rumored that the Iron Road also sends caravans to Megeddon and to the Court of Sleep.
The Iron Road maintains several caravanserai around Ardeyn. These elaborate roadside inns cater to all trade caravans (not just the Iron Road), and sometimes to lone travelers who have enough crowns. The structures are square with a wide central courtyard, which is where merchants set up stalls to trade their wares to other caravans. The roofed sections surrounding the courtyard contain accommodations, a common room, food stores, and other comforts of the road.
In addition to providing shelter, Iron Road caravansaries are rumored to be places of rest and celebration where odd items and experiences can be found or rented.
The Lone Daggers is a name that parents frighten their children with, and that nobles use to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. It is the most infamous assembly of assassins in Ardeyn, and its motherhouse is somewhere in Kryzoreth (though this is a secret known to only a few).
The members use the same dream-suppressing charms as the cliffwalkers and all others who stay long in Kryzoreth and don't want to “go native.” The head of the Lone Daggers, a qephilim named Taw, is a master of illusion. She can hide her presence, seem as another, and most potently, make a contracted mark believe that he is walking across a street, when in reality he is walking off the edge of Ardeyn itself.
Unscrupulous merchants, nobles with an eye to succession, necromancers who need more raw material, or villains who wish to put an end to meddling adventurers might hire a couple of Lone Daggers to take care of business.
Taw: level 5, level 7 in all tasks related to creating illusions
A stone statue of amazing size stands along the western Borderlands, gazing off into the Strange. Called the Seventh Sentinel because it is the only one of seven to survive into the present, the statue waits to defend the world.
Some say that the sentinels moved and fought during the Age of Myth, but the Oracle of Ardeyn believes otherwise. The Oracle says that the sentinels weren’t designed to fight Lotan, who was already bound into the form of the world of Ardeyn. Instead, they were set to watch for Lotan’s siblings. The Incarnations knew how to wake the sentinels, a secret that is widely rumored to have passed into the keeping of the Queendom. If true, it might explain why the nation of Mandariel has satisfied itself with border skirmishes and other machinations, and never quite declared open war on the rival nation to the north. For if the Seventh Sentinel were to rouse, it could lay waste to any nation in the Daylands or Borderlands, including Mandariel, and it might even vanquish the Betrayer himself.
No account save for the Oracle’s mentions anything about Lotan’s siblings. This has prompted some to accuse the Oracle of being wrong, or of knowingly inventing fabulous stories to further enhance her all-seeing reputation. One thing’s certain: If Lotan’s siblings—whoever or whatever that means—really do need to be watched for, a single remaining sentinel out of seven that once stood is likely not enough.
Rogue Homunculus: A translucent-skinned lieutenant of the Betrayer went rogue and blood-mad, escaped the Borderlands, and now roams other parts of Ardeyn, raining death and mayhem on anything that gets in its way. A reward is being offered for anyone who can stop it, though who is offering the reward isn’t exactly clear.
Stardust: In a mile-wide band surrounding the fortress of Megeddon, flecks of glittering material rain down, apparently from the stars themselves. Those who dare the ramparts of the terrible fortress can collect this supposed stardust. If dusted over a creature, the stardust grants the recipient 2 points of Armor for one day. The dust blazes and burns the entire time, dealing 1 point of damage per round until it’s entirely gone. Those using it in this way have the best success when they obtain some kind of fire resistance ahead of time. The Blood Mansion Nine sisters inhabit an old qephilim ruin at a point somewhere along the border between Kuambis and Megeddon. A whole family once lived the re—a family that apparently enjoyed the Betrayer’s protection for a few years, possibly for a service rendered by an ancestor. In one night of blood, the sisters murdered their father, mother, and brothers and, legend has it, swore a pact to Lotan. That was when the Betrayer reversed his protection and put a price on the Lotanists’ heads. Before the bounty could be collected, the Blood Mansion disappeared, though it reappears from time to time around the edges of Megeddon, as if never daring to stay in one place long. Travelers who oppose the Betrayer can find help from those who live within, but if the sisters truly serve Lotan, such service likely comes at a price too dear to pay.
The Night Vault is an extensive series of subterranean tunnels, caverns, seas and rivers, and vaults beneath Ardeyn. The tunnels and vaults are collectively called the Roads of Sorrow, and the Heart Core.
In the Night Vault, dead spirits wander, chased by umber wolves until collected by the Court of Sleep. At the center of the Night Vault, the heart of the Sinner is bound in chains in the Heart Core. Closer to the surface, other creatures inhabit the darkness.
The total area of the Night Vault, given its three-dimensional reach, is at least equal to all the lands of Ardeyn's surface, though few people realize it—usually because most don't like thinking about the Night Vault. Why? Because they don't like thinking about the place their immortal souls are eventually bound. Accessing the Night Vault isn't especially difficult—many surface caves, mines, and even deep tombs connect to older tunnels that become entries to the deeper passages.
If a creature from any recursion is slain in Ardeyn, unlike on Earth and most other recursions, the character may continue to exist as a spirit. Because of this, a PC has the potential to be rescued from the Night Vault and restored to a living body, if the PC's friends are resourceful or powerful enough to attempt such a task (a dangerous adventure, to be sure). If a PC dies in a different recursion or out in the Strange, though, even those native to Ardeyn do not enjoy the same possibility of redemption and renewed existence. Likewise, if someone travels to Ardeyn through an inapposite gate, their “souls” do not descend to the Night Vault when they die.
The Estate suspects that through the connivance of OSR, powerful quickened people on Earth who are sick with terminal illnesses might travel to Ardeyn before they die. s
The Roads of Sorrow are the tunnels and vaults that honeycomb the Night Vault. Along them are spirits, demons, umber wolves, and sometimes creatures and organizations native to the Daylands, including their ruins, lairs, and mines (some newly dug, but more often ancient delvings).
The Roads of Sorrow are mostly composed of mazelike tunnels and chill vaults. Along these winding paths, the spirits of the dead seem drawn. A spirit that finds its way into the Night Vault wanders the endless dark roads until it's either run down and devoured by a pack of umber wolves, or it descends deeper into the Heart Core, where the fires of Lotan engulf it, transforming it into an ashen demon pledged to the Sinner. The Court of Sleep interferes with that process, sending umber judges to walk the Roads to collect wandering spirits before they are snared by the Sinner.
Though the Court of Sleep is the most wellknown power in the Roads of Sorrow (and the Night Vault as a whole), other places with a reputation exist, including the Malah Sea and the Tomb of All Despairs.
The Halls of Adaman were quarried and carved by a coalition of the Qephilim of Lore and the Qephilim of Commerce. The halls, which were part city and part working mine, were renowned for their wealth and splendor, but that was long ago. Now the halls are home to evil. Sark, hydras, spirits of wrath, umber wolves, and demons dwell within. The treasures of the ancient qephilim remain within the Adaman, part of the hoards of the current residents.
A group of adventurer-prospectors known as Lost Coda has been scouting the halls and setting up mining operations, though it's hard going given the almost daily attack by creatures. Though not generally known, Lost Coda actually hails from Ruk. What they might be seeking isn't known, but their leader Kuvan Thema drives those who answer to him with an almost religious zeal.
Kuvan Thema: level 5, level 7 for all tasks related to persuasion, disguise, and deception
Many areas within the ruined Halls of Adaman remain sealed, having never been breached by the succeeding waves of creatures that claimed the area after the original qephilim builders left. When such areas are opened up, they often contain tombs of ancient qephilim still bearing their magical regalia, evil artifacts, creatures held in stasis as a prison, or treasuries. However, the Purple Room contains something less obvious but very deadly: a magical plague that is both lethal and sentient. To take effect, the words printed on the walls must be read (either aloud, or to oneself). The magical words are mostly nonsensical. But the entire passage is long and involved, requiring a few minutes to fully read.
This ominous shaft is 50 feet (15 m) in diameter. It pierces a portion of the Halls that was once a city; however, the surrounding qephilim structures appear to have been blown out and away from the shaft. Wind screams as nearby air is sucked into the rift. The shaft drops 300 feet (91 m) in depth, right through a translation gate that leads to a different recursion. The recursion is apparently decaying, its rules collapsing, and its environment toxic to quickened creatures. According to Estate records, the recursion accessible via the Screaming Rift offers no new foci for those who enter; instead, it translates them into the form of small insects that soon begin to lose their higher brain functions.
Most of the kingdoms and institutions of the ancient qephilim have crumbled, recalled only in legend and from the ruins littered around Ardeyn. Of those that remain, the Court of Sleep is by far the most mysterious and feared; it is the remnant of the Incarnation of Death's realm.
A central domed vault 300 feet (91 m) high is the physical “court” of the Court of Sleep, and there the business of the realm is conducted both day and night. An orrery of Ardeyn depicting the land's sun, moons, and some of its most prominent stars depends from the dome's ceiling. A host of subsidiary domed vaults, chambers, tunnels, and deeper catacombs connect to themain chamber.
The Court of Sleep is composed mostly of qephilim who are mortal, but who have learned something of the talents of their ancestors. The business of the Court of Sleep includes the collection of wandering spirits, and once collected, an assessment by spirit magistrates. A magistrate weighs the quantity of sin clinging to a soul, and from that measure, determines the spirit's final fate. Spirits generally face five different fates, but only four of those fates are chosen for them by a magistrate:
Most spirits end up as dream wanderers; they're not so good, so evil, or so remarkable in some other way that they require special handling. The spirit becomes a 184 dream wanderer when it is invested into one of the thousands of urns stored in the carefully delved Dream Catacombs situated beneath the Court of Sleep. A dream wanderer, once invested, wanders through generally pleasant dream realms and can visit still-living loved ones in their dreams if the loved one visits the place where the spirit's physical remains were interred (such as the Path of the Dead).
Someone with a power over spirits could call or remotely question dream wanderesrs. In addition, if a visiting petitioner can make a good enough case, a dream wanderer could be freed from its urn and given to the petitioner.
A very few spirits are so righteous or so important (or, as some whisper, paid such a large indulgence ahead of time) that they are selected for reincarnation. The manner of the spirit's reincarnation varies from spirit to spirit—some spirits return as newborns with past-life memories, others as adults in new forms, some as magical artifacts, and a very few just as they appeared before they died.
Spirits with too great a burden of sin do not become dream wanderers, nor are they chosen to be reincarnated for their good works. However, they are reincarnated, in a manner of speaking: they are imbued into relief-carved images along subterranean tunnels of the Roads of Sorrow and along the known passages leading into the Heart Core where Lotan's heart burns. Deathless watchers are the sleepless sentinels that guard against living intruders and demons, because both the living and the dead fear their scrutiny. Deathless watchers can't be called, but people with power over spirits can remotely question them.
Spirits heavy with both sin and residual power are dangerous—they are the ones most strongly drawn to Lotan, and they make the most powerful demons if they complete their journey. They also have a way of returning to life (or sometimes, unlife) to continue their evil ways. Because of this latter tendency, a certain section of the catacombs is set aside for them. Each prisoner has his own mortared cell, and each is imbued into an iron ball chained to the cell's floor. The imprisoned can't be called or remotely questioned by people with power over spirits.
Demons are the spirits that slip through the nets of umber judges and spirit magistrates and find their way to Lotan. They become nasty entities of irredeemable evil.
Those with a power over spirits can sometimes call or remotely question a demon, but demons are not simple spirits. To call one, even by accident, usually ends with the caller or questioner being possessed by evil.
Spirit pools are prized sources of free magic that condense in certain Night Vault chambers like pools of water, albeit water that glows with firefly essence. Caverns containing spirit pools are difficult to find but enormously valuable, which is one reason adventurers sometimes brave the dangers of the Night Vault. Living denizens of the vault (including the Court of Sleep) sometimes inhabit the areas around spirit pools to draw upon their magic.
Someone trained in using spirit pool magic can manifest several impressive effects while adjacent to one. Effects commonly include the ability to teleport between previously visited pools, and the ability to modify any task, attack, or defense roll by three steps to the user’s benefit.
Powerful NPCs sometimes build lairs within these chambers to capitalize on the benefits a spirit pool confers.
Living visitors, petitioners, and traders who come to the Court of Sleep have to stay someplace, and that place is a medium-sized dome carved with deathless watchers trained to let the living pass in peace, as long as they each carry a pass in the form of a special black stone. Lareb Nume, a qephilim who oversees Traveler's Rest, hands out these black stones to those who show up at the gate and ask for entry. A living traveler can safely remain in the Court of Sleep until the stone completely crumbles to dust.
Traveler's Rest is set up something like a caravanserai, in that traders create temporary stalls to sell food to petitioners and others with business before the Court. Some of the wares on sale can't be found anywhere else in Ardeyn, and they include additional dry stones, dream elixirs, spirit fobs, and death indulgences.
Traveler's Rest also boasts accommodations and a gathering hall, where visitors can mingle and hear proclamations by Court of Sleep officials, including Lareb.
The catacombs are hand-carved subterranean passages beneath the Court of Sleep. When a spirit is judged by a Court spirit magistrate and selected to be a dream wanderer, the spirit is invested into one of the thousands of clay urns stored the rein. Besides the urns set on the floor and in special niches throughout themultilevel passageways, the catacombs also host centuries of decorations, which include inscriptions, paintings, statues, ornaments, and other items that have accumulated. Most of these were used by petitioners and other visitors to identify, immortalize, and show respect to the dead.
Rumor has it that many of the inscriptions, paintings, and other decorations hold hidden messages, encrypted orders, and other secrets put there by certain Ardeyn organizations both long extinct and still active in a manner unlikely to be discovered (or erased) by others. If there is any truth to the rumors, the Court of Sleep doesn't seem interested in stopping the flow of information to new visitors and petitioners to the catacombs.
At the center of the Night Vault is the Heart Core. Finding it is not easy; the Court of Sleep blocks up nearly every access it finds down to the Heart Core, leaving just one open so it can channel traffic. This passage is continuously monitored by deathless watchers, whose regard is anathema to spirits of every sort, including those still inside living bodies. Other passages into the Core open from time to time, though by what process no one in the Court has quite figured out—it is presumed to be the will of Lotan himself. Searching for, the n collapsing, newly opened passages to the Heart Core is something that the Court of Sleep often pays various groups of adventurers to take on.
Lotan’s body isn’t in the Heart Core, because his body is the entire expanse of Ardeyn itself. Instead his heart burns there, secured with seven red-hot chains at the center of a magma sea. Lotan’s heart isn’t the rocky organ one might expect—instead it has taken on the semblance of a fiery monstrosity, vaguely humanoid, that spends its centuries straining against the chains. A black miasma of bodiless demons, visible as streamers of ashen smoke, swirl around the chamber, singing to their master in atonal voices meant to soothe Lotan. But Lotan can never be calmed, not until he achieves freedom—a freedom that would shake Ardeyn to nothing and launch Lotan into the Strange as a planetovoreclass entity with a direct connection to Earth. This would likely doom the Earth.
Sark Lair: A group of sark kept a lair deep in the Night Vault but ventured to the surface for raids at night. These sark successfully raided an Iron Road caravan carrying both riches and an idol of special power said to grant wealth. They carried it back down into their lair but were slain by demons drawn to the idol. The riches and idol lie somewhere below ground, waiting to be found by the brave or the foolhardy.
Nightcap Shrooms: Many types of fungus grow along the Roads of Sorrow, and many of them are poison, though some specimens are nutritious, and a few grant strange visions and temporary abilities. The most famous is nightcap, which if properly prepared allows a user to see a few seconds into the future. If improperly prepared or too much is taken, it drives the user insane.
Spirit of Incarnation: Many spirits wander the Roads of Sorrow, though one spirit is said to be the dead soul of the original Incarnation of Desire, who glows with the light that burns both living creatures and other spirits (including demons). If one could approach the spirit and wake it from its millennial trance, one's heart's desire might be granted.
In Ardeyn, artifacts are usually magical and sorcerous items created during the Age of Myth. While the y're in Ardeyn, they seem to equal (or sometimes surpass) the powers of cyphers, but just like mundane equipment, artifacts are not usually able to translate.
Artifacts are sometimes found in old ruins, in the possession of powerful NPCs, or as part of the hoard of a fierce creature. They can even be bought in towns, but this occurs much more rarely than most PCs would probably like. A few claim to forge new artifacts, though that number can be counted on one hand.
Level: 1d6
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Coil of rope
Effect: The coil of rope can be let out at a rate of 50 feet (15 m) per round; however, no end to the rope can be found no matter how long the user uncoils it. The rope retains its incredible length until recoiled or until it becomes depleted.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (check per hour the rope's length remains extended past 50 feet)
Level: 1d6
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Musical horn carved of dragon bone
Effect: When sounded, the horn attracts the attention of the closest dragon (if in a recursion inhabited by dragons). The dragon attracted is at least curious but not necessarily friendly.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+3
Form: A ruby eye lens on a strap
Effect: The wearer can see normally through the lens. When activated, the wearer can see ARDEYN ARDEYN objects up to 5 miles (8 km) away within direct line of sight as if they were within immediate range for up to one minute. If a wearer makes a ranged attack while the dragon's eye is activated, the wearer gains an asset to the attack.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A weapon that roars with red flame when activated, trailing a streamer of black smoke
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon. If the wielder uses it to attack a foe, upon a successful hit, the wielder decides whether to activate the flame. Upon activation, the blade lashes the target with fire, inflicting additional points of damage from the heat equal to the cypher level. The effect lasts for one minute after each activation.
Depletion: 1 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+2
Origin: Ardeyn (emergent)
Law: Magic
Form: Wand
Effect: When a character spends points from a Pool to trigger a special focus or type ability that is a direct attack, she can draw some or all of the points from the held wand instead. The wand contains a number of points equal to the artifact level, which return each day after the wielder's ten-hour recovery roll. A user can attempt to coax out additional points, but doing so requires a separate Intellect task whose difficulty is equal to the number of additional points being drawn from the wand. Coaxing additional points out of a magic wand can be done only once per day.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6
Form: A foam-green mask that covers the lower half of a humanoid's face, smelling of the sea Effect. When activated, the wearer can breathe underwater for one hour.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A mask that resembles a single large glass lens
Effect: This device possesses a few different optically related abilities.
Depletion: 1 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+4
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Glass orb
Effect: When the orb is activated, the user names a place in the same recursion and can see a vision of that place for up to one minute if shemakes a difficulty 2 Intellect roll, though some areas may be harder to view, especially if they are warded, which increases the difficulty. The user can see a vision from named places in other recursions if she succeeds on an Intellect task equal to the recursion's level+2.
Several orbs of far sight exist. Telepathic communication between orbs by their users is possible, and merely requires one user to open communication with one of the other orbs. However, this is dangerous because it lays open the user's mind to attack by unfriendly owners of other orbs. To attack the mind of another user (or attempt to implant a false vision), one user makes an Intellect attack against her. If successful, Intellect damage equal to the artifact level is inflicted on her, or a false vision is presented to her as if true, such as a vision of a city being burned when in reality it remains unharmed.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Upon depletion, the orb grows as black as pitch, and for the following seven nights, the user has nightmares of falling into the heart of that darkness. On the eighth night, the nightmares are gone, and so is the orb.)
Level: 1d6
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Night-black blade in which distant stars and nebulae are sometimes visible
Effect: This knife functions as a normal weapon of its type. However, if the wielder wishes, on a successful attack the special qualities of the knife inflict additional damage (ignores Armor) equal to the artifact level. If this damage reduces a target to 0 health, the target's soul is drawn into the blade. The soul remains trapped there for up to three days, after which time it is consumed. (Alternatively, the wielder can release the soul to whatever its fate would otherwise be.) As a separate activation, the wielder can ask three questions of a creature whose soul is trapped in the blade and not yet consumed. After answering the third question, the soul is consumed.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A green iron ring that appears like a dragon wound around the finger
Effect: When the wearer activates the ring, dragon wings unfurl from his back, and for one minute he can fly up to long range. The ring does not confer the ability to hover or make fine adjustments while in flight.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A staff scribed with sparking runes promising destruction
Effect: This enchanted staff (sometimes called an ashur) emits a crackling arc of lightning at a target within long range. Targets hit by the arc take damage equal to the artifact's level.
This device is a rapid-fire weapon, and thus can be used with the Spray or Arc Spray abilities that some characters have, but each “round of ammunition” used or each additional target selected requires an additional depletion roll.
An ashur sips vitality from its wielder's soul to spit its destruction. If a depletion roll indicates the ashur is depleted, the wielder can choose to substitute a portion of his soul energy instead of letting the ashur be depleted.
When the wielder does so, he descends one step on the damage track.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6
Form: A weapon with blood-red runes promising pain carved into themetal
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon of its kind. However, it always inflicts 1 additional point of damage.
Depletion: —
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A weapon with blue runes promising the inescapability of wounds carved into themetal
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon of its kind. However, attacks with the weapon are modified by one step to the wielder's benefit.
Depletion: — Artifacts that specify “weapon” can be any kind of weapon the GM chooses from the weapons described under Ardeyn Equipment on page 89. But if in doubt, it's hard to go wrong by choosing the form of a shamshir (scimitar) or talwar (great shamshir).
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A cape of black leather with a hood
Effect: When the hood of the cape is drawn over the wearer's head as an action, the cloak renders the wearer difficult to detect for up to one hour. While the cloak is active, all stealth and Speed defense tasks are modified by two steps in the wearer's favor, as are attempts to detect the wearer in any other fashion.
This effect ends each round the wearer does something to reveal its presence or position, such as attacking, using a flashy ability, moving a large object, moving quickly, and so on. If this occurs, the wearer automatically regains the cloaking effect by taking no action next turn.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100, but instead of the artifact being depleted, the wearer must succeed on difficulty 5 Intellect defense roll or become hidden so well that no one can find her ever again (not even the wearer herself).
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A central hilt with a shamshir blade extending from both ends
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon of its kind. However, the wielder can choose to make two attacks as her action on the same target or two adjacent targets. Doing so requires a depletion roll.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100 Cursed Soul Weapons: Some soul weapons are cursed so that when they are depleted, they require another soul to take the place of the one previously bound to the weapon. This means the current wielder's soul is forfeit unless she kills the nearest sentient creature.
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A sheath for a weapon, usually bladed
Effect: When a blade of any kind is sheathed in a soul sheath (which is tied to the wearer's soul), both become insubstantial. A mental command causes the blade and sheath to become substantial once more, and if drawn as part of the same action, the blade is briefly empowered: the wielder takes 1 point of Intellect damage (which ignores Armor), but the blade inflicts additional points of damage equal to the artifact level for ten minutes.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+3
Form: A weapon with steaming, bone-white runes that describe a soul-binding spell
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon of its kind. However, attacks with the weapon are modified by one step to the wielder's benefit. Using the weapon in this way does not require a depletion roll. A few weapons can speak in the voice of the bonded soul and have personalities of their own.
Soul weapons have a variety of potential secondary abilities, which depend upon the soul imparted to the weapon when it was forged. Use of a soul weapon's secondary abilities requires a depletion roll.
| Roll | Effect |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | On a hit, deal extra damage equal to weapon level of a kind specific to the weapon. Roll 1d6. Enabler
1 fire 4 acid 2 cold 5 flesh-decaying 3 lightning 6 thunder |
| 11-30 | The wielder can make a free recovery roll. Action. |
| 31-40 | Wielder gains +5 to Armor against a kind of energy specified in the first entry for one hour. Action. |
| 41-50 | The weapon acts as a spiritslaying weapon. Enabler |
| 51-75 | For one hour, the weapon is transformed into a creature whose level equals the weapon's level. The creature must obey the wielder's commands. Action to initiate. |
| 76-90 | The weapon can attack a target that the wielder can see within long range. It fires an energy ray of a kind specified in the first entry ARDEYNARDEYN that deals damage equal to the weapon's level. Action. |
| 91-00 | Attacks with the weapon are modified another step in the wielder's favor. Enabler |
Depletion: 1-3 in 1d100
Level: 1d6
Form: A weighty tome bound in amber filled with pages of spell runes
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook and succeeds at a level 3 Intellect-based task, she can attempt to trap a creature within long range inside a block of amber. Only creatures whose level is equal to or lower than the artifact's level can be targeted. A creature successfully caught is preserved in perfect stasis until the encasing amber is broken away (the encasing amber has 10 points of health per level of the spellbook artifact).
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Tome inscribed with a rearing dragon
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, he fashions and controls a hovering phantasmal construct of magic within long range that resembles a dragon’s head. The construct’s level is equal to the artifact’s level. The construct lasts for up to an hour, until it is destroyed, or until the user incants from this spellbook again. While the construct persists, the spellcaster can use it to manipulate large objects, carry heavy items in its mouth, or attack foes. To use it to attack foes, the spellcaster must spend his action directly controlling the phantom maw for each attack. Action to initiate.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6
Form: A weighty tome bound in bat wings filled with pages of spell runes
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook and succeeds at a level 3 Intellect-based task, he can attempt to affect theminds of creatures within long range who are within immediate range of each other. Those affected become terrified; they drop what they are holding and do one of the following: Roll Action 01-50 Flee for 1d6 rounds 51-90 Cower (losing their actions for 1d6 rounds) 91-00 Faint, remaining unconscious for one minute (or until roused by vigorous action)
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: A weighty tome filled with pages of spell runes
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook and makes a level 3 Intellect-based roll, she can summon an elemental of one specific kind (usually earth, fire, thorn, and so on). The elemental appears and does her bidding for up to one hour, unless it breaks the geas created by the book.
Depletion: 1–3 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Thin tome bound with plates of warm glass
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, she creates a level 6 wall of glass within short range that is 1 foot (30 cm) thick and up to 20 feet by 20 feet (6 m by 6 m) in size. It appears resting on a solid foundation and lasts for about ten hours. If the incanter succeeds on a second depletion roll, the glass wall becomes permanent until destroyed naturally. Action to initiate.<
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Slender book bound with a white cover that glows dimly
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, she collects available light into a beam of searing light focused on a location she can see within long range. The beam persists each round in which she uses her action to concentrate. The beam can set fire to flammable objects, boil water within a few rounds, melt certain metals after a few more rounds of concentrated attention, or attack a creature within range (dealing damage equal to the artifact level, plus an additional 3 points if the user is standing in full daylight when making the attack). The spell doesn’t work in full darkness.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A weapon with engraved glowing runes denoting spiritslaying
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal weapon of its kind. However, if the wielder uses an action to activate it, the weapon's spiritslaying magic is activated for one minute. During that minute, if it scores a hit, it inflicts normal damage on a fully insubstantial creature, plus 3 additional points of damage on all creatures.
Depletion: 1 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+2
Form: A tiny figurine of a winged qephilim
Effect: Once activated, the figurine's spirit emerges and becomes semisolid as a glowing, human-sized winged qephilim. It follows within 3 feet (1 m) of the figurine owner. Anything that attacks the owner is attacked by the spirit ward, which sends out a surge of flesh-rotting energy against all foes within immediate range, doing damage equal to the artifact level. Once activated, it functions for a day.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A lance scribed with runes naming the Seven Incarnations of Ardeyn
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal lance. However, attacks with the weapon against Strangers (creatures native to the Strange, such as kray) are modified by one step to the wielder's benefit; this effect does not require a depletion roll.
Upon a successful hit against a Stranger, the wielder decides whether to activate an additional effect. If activated, the weapon flares with an echo of the Seven Rules, inflicting 8 additional points of damage (ignores Armor); this effect does require a depletion roll.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 5
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Crystal fragment, usually set in an amulet, a staff head, a weapon hilt, or a ring
Effect: Someone with this fragment who has personally renewed it (see below) gains access to the following abilities. Anyone else with this fragment can use only the Repel Enemies function. Each use requires a depletion roll unless otherwise noted.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
The Soul Gem of Zeal is located in a hidden spot in Ardeyn under control of a group of people who call themselves the Swordbreakers.
Level: 1d6+3
Origin: Ardeyn (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Dagger with short curved blade and medial ridge
Effect: This dagger can be used as a normal light weapon. In addition, the user can activate the dagger as part of another action, gaining the ability to take another full turn immediately, but never more than once every other round. During the round in which the user slows apparent time around her, the difficulty of her Speed defense rolls is reduced by one step.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A cloak; when deployed, flaring wings form from the wearer's arms
Effect: The wings can be deployed as an action. The wearer can fly a long distance each round (a difficulty 1 Speed task). Each hour of use or new deployment of the wings requires a depletion roll.
In combat, the wearer can use the wings as a weapon, dealing 5 points of damage in melee.
Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100 Many spellbooks exist in Ardeyn, each the work of a famous (or infamous) sorcerer or group of sorcerers.
Spellbooks each have a listed effect, but spellbooks could also produce related effects if the GM allows. For example, the spellbook of the amber mage might also be used to create a block of amber large enough to seal a doorway.
Spiritslaying arrows and bolts can also be found.
Such items are usually part of a set of twelve pieces within an engraved quiver.
Level: 1d6
Form: A metallic blade at least 20 feet (6 m) long with mounting screws (usually found attached to the underside of craft suited to skating across the Glass Desert)
Effect: Glass ship blades vary in length, but the longer the blade, the larger the weight of a mounted platform that it can magically stabilize and hold upright. On a suitably hard and smooth surface (such as ice or the mirrorlike surface of the Glass Desert), the blade promotes travel and provides a bit of additional impetus if propelled by wind or other forms of locomotion. Using the blade in this fashion doesn’t require a depletion roll.
A glass ship blade can be keyed to a single individual—usually the person designated as the captain, if mounted to a ship. The captain can activate the blade (which requires a depletion roll) to coax a sudden acceleration out of it for up to ten minutes, useful for ramming enemy vessels or for moving a ship on windless days.
Glass ship blades are rare and quite valuable because no one knows how to make them. The ones that currently exist have been quarried from a qephilim ruin, and no one is sure of their original purpose.
Depletion: 1–3 in 1d100
Level: 1d6
Form: A night-black blade in which distant stars and nebulae are sometimes visible
Effect: This knife functions as a normal light weapon. However, if the wielder wishes, on a successful attack the special qualities of the knife inflict additional damage (ignores Armor) equal to the artifact’s level. If this damage reduces a target to 0 health, the target’s soul is drawn into the blade. The soul remains trapped there for up to three days, after which time it is consumed. (Alternatively, the wielder can release the soul to whatever its fate would otherwise be.)
As a separate activation, the wielder can ask three questions of a creature whose soul is trapped in the blade and not yet consumed. After answering the third question, the soul is consumed.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Plutonian iron is mined from underworlds in recursions that operate under the law of Magic. It has inherent antilife qualities even as an ore, which predisposes artificers to craft life-quenching weapons from it.
Level: 1d6+4
Form: A radiant talwar (large scimitar) forged from reflective metal
Effect: This weapon functions as a normal heavy weapon; however, attacks with it are modified by one step to the wielder’s benefit (which doesn’t require a depletion roll). The Silver Sword possesses the following supernatural functions, which do require a roll when activated.
Sever Glass: The weapon can cut through glass (and other amorphous solids, such as amber) as easily as scissors cut through paper for up to one minute per activation.
| A Stranger is the term for any
creature native to the Strange, rather than Earth or a recursion. |
Sever Stranger: A level 3 demon, spirit, inimical Stranger, or similar creature struck by the weapon is destroyed or banished. Each additional depletion roll risked per activation increases the maximum level of the target. Thus, to destroy or banish a level 5 target (two levels above the normal limit), the wielder must roll for depletion three times.
Splice Recursion: If the wielder uses Sever Glass to create a circle in the Glass Desert at least 100 feet (30 m) in diameter and then calls on this ability, that section of glass is dropped into a closed pocket dimension, and a section of lush forest or grassland (taken from a random recursion) appears in its place. Creatures inside the circle when it is completed are shunted to the pocket dimension.
Renewal: If the artifact is depleted, it disappears. However, it reappears nine years later as a reflection in the Glass Desert’s surface, which a viewer can claim by grasping for it and succeeding on a difficulty 3 Intellect-based task.
Depletion: 1–2 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A tome inscribed with a rearing dragon
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, he fashions and controls a “hovering” phantasmal construct of magic within long range that resembles a dragon’s head. The construct’s level is equal to the artifact’s level. The construct lasts for up to an hour, until it is destroyed, or until the user incants from this spellbook again. While the construct persists, the spellcaster can use it to manipulate large objects, carry heavy items in its mouth, or attack foes. To use it to attack foes, the spellcaster must spend his action directly controlling the phantom maw for each attack. Action to initiate.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A thin tome bound with plates of warm glass
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, she creates a level 6 wall of glass within short range that is 1 foot (30 cm) thick and up to 20 feet by 20 feet (6 m by 6 m) in size. It appears resting on a solid foundation and lasts for about ten hours. If the incanter risks a second depletion roll, the glass wall is permanent until destroyed naturally. Action to initiate.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Spellbook artifacts could produce additional related effects if the GM allows. For example, the spellbook of searing light might also temporarily blind a foe.
If a character has the Inks Spells on Skin focus, the GM may allow her to learn a new spell from an artifact spellbook. The GM and player must work out the specifics of the spell.
Level: 1d6
Form: A slender book bound with a white cover that glows dimly
Effect: When the user incants from the spellbook, she collects available light into a beam of searing light focused on a location she can see within long range. The beam persists each round in which she uses her action to concentrate. The beam can set fire to flammable objects, boil water within a few rounds, melt some metals after a few more rounds of concentrated attention, or attack a creature within range (dealing damage equal to the artifact level, plus an additional 3 points if the user is standing in full daylight when making the attack). The spell doesn’t work in full darkness.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20