Shanjin, part 3

 Monsters of Shanjin

*Ouph, Black 3HP

Magical, Intelligent, Organized, Horde, Tiny

Damage: 1d6 Close

    Diminutive cave-dwelling elf-like creatures, two apples tall with skin of black and eyes of opal. They can momentarily hypnotize those who look into their eye, which they usually use to make opponents expose their neck so they can go in for a coup-de-grace. They also grow hallucinogenic mushrooms in their underground gardens. They smoke these mushrooms in hookah pipes, which allows them to cast a realistic illusion spell with a puff of the smoke.

Instinct: To protect their home

• Project a terrifying illusion
• Hypnotize prey with their glowing eyes
• Attack en-masse

*Zavvo 20HP 1 Armor

Solitary, Stealthy, Devious, Large

Damage: Bite (1d8+3 damage)

Special Qualities: Surrounded by magical darkness

    A subterranean predator with the head of a bat, the body of a giant serpent, and wings like a vulture. Its body is cloaked in an aura of magical darkness at all times. Its bite carries a bacterial infection that causes bizarre, vampire-like symptoms.

Instinct: To hunt prey

• Attack from hiding
• Constrict
• When you are bitten by a zavvo, roll+CON. On a -6, you are infected with a disease that renders the skin pale and the eyes sensitive to light. On a 7-9, you are infected with the disease, but it clears up on its own after 1d6 days. On a 10+, you are immune.

**Occult Hand 6HP 1 Armor

Solitary, Magical, Stealthy, Devious, Terrifying, Tiny

Damage: Scratch (1d6 Close)

    The spectral hand of a phon who became lost in the caverns. Will clasp the hand of a living person wandering through the darkness and give the impression of a warm, reassuring hand of a friend or ally. They are insane with fear and jealousy for the living, and will try to separate their victims to lead them to the same fate.

Instinct: To take revenge on the living

• Impersonate a warm, reassuring hand
• Lead someone astray

Grabrocc 8HP 1 Armor

Group, Magical

Damage: Maul (1d8+1 damage, close, messy), Gravity Shift (special, near, forceful)

    A man-sized mammalian predator somewhat resembling a six-legged badger with black fur and stripes, claws and glittering eyes resembling one of the Heavy Elements. It has a unique ability to cause one target at a time to have their subjective gravity shift into another direction of the grabrocc’s choosing. It uses this ability to neutralize strong-looking opponents, or to deal significant damage from falling if terrain permits.

Instinct: To hunt prey

• Make prey fall against a far wall (1d4-1d10 damage, depending on how far the fall is)
• Move a threat out of range

*Topi 16HP 1 Armor

Solitary, Small

Damage: Tentacles (1d10, close, reach, forceful)

A hideous hybrid of octopus and spider. Looks like a black octopus, but with chitin, urticating hairs, and multiple eyes. Immobilizes its prey by shooting strands of black, tar-like webbing.

Instinct: To eat

• Entangle prey in black webbing
• Constrict prey in its tentacles

Fragment of the Destroyer 21HP 5 Armor

Solitary, Magical, Devious, Amorphous, Planar

Damage: Pseudopod (d10+1 damage, close, reach)

Appears as a churning ball of dark fluid. When the seal is broken, it becomes covered in mouths and eyes and expands.

Instinct: To destroy

• Corrupt the mind of a mortal
• Engulf
• Give a glimpse of destiny

*Adapted from Pars Fortuna

**Inspired by and vastly less interesting than a monster in Veins of the Earth

Treasure

Phon Security Force Trench Gun

(2 load, close, +3 damage, +1 piercing, messy, reload)

A short-barreled shotgun ideal for fighting in close quarters.

Bones of the Judge

1 load

A miniature clay urn patterned with a swirl of muted colors, containing the bones of a cremated black ouph chieftain. The bones rattle ominously whenever a lie is spoken within earshot.

Concluding Thoughts

I'm not actually sure if it's in good taste to post adaptations of creatures from other TTRPG books. I gave credit and plugs, didn't include any of the original text, and didn't monetize it. I figure that's enough for "fair use," at least. And of course, it's usually easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. If anyone more knowledgeable on this subject sees this, I welcome feedback.

Shanjin, part 2

The bulk of this post will be a cave dungeon that the players explored in the course of their adventure in Shanjin. To illustrate this, I have to share my process for making a practical, easy to make and easy to use cave map. This combines ideas from Veins of the Earth and Worlds Without Number, both of which are excellent and I highly recommend.

Easy Cave Maps

Caves are three-dimensional spaces which are not at all designed for human habitation. The first challenge is finding an efficient way to represent a 3D space on a 2D plane (i.e., a piece of paper). Veins of the Earth does it by taking a diamond to represent the cardinal directions and adding two more lines to represent up and down, like so:

The basic symbol for a room within a cave, according to Veins of the Earth.

On top of this, I added some additional symbols to the interior of the diamond so that I could recall the contents at a glance. My method for stocking this dungeon came from the room-stocking random tables in Worlds Without Number, so I use the same terminology for contents (creature, distractor, enigma, empty).

My system for adding "at a glance" information to a room symbol.

Using a combination of the random tables in Veins of the Earth and Worlds Without Number, I generated 10 rooms and drew connections between them, creating a pointcrawl.

There are three separate ways of drawing connections. A solid line is a "walk," meaning there's enough room for PCs to walk upright. A squiggly line is a "squeeze," meaning PCs have to slide sideways through a narrow passage. A dotted line is either a vertical shaft or a crawl, where they have to get on their hands and knees. The numbers on the lines indicate how much time, in minutes, it takes for the party to move between them, which is necessary for timekeeping. Vertical routes have arrows, showing that going down is faster than going back up.

Shanjin Caves

The map, recreated in Inkscape. I drew the original one by hand so I could put it in a binder.

For context, these caves are the monster infested tunnels below the mines of Shanjin, where the rebels are believed to be hiding. The players ostensibly agreed to hunt down the rebels on behalf of the authorities, but were actually going to smuggle them to freedom with the help of Romz deZemler.

Map Key

Room 1

Size: 1 room

Shape: Oval

Contents: Empty

Notes: First area of the caves accessible from the mines above. Empty ovoid shape, about 10'x10'. Smooth gray stone, small puddle in the bottom. Shaft in the top, walkable tunnel in the east.

Room 2

Size: 4 rooms

Shape: Wine bottle on its side

Contents: Distractor

Notes: Large cylinder, about 50'x10'. Big pile of phon skulls carefully arranged in a pile. Patches of glowing blue and green fungus look deliberately cultivated.

Room 3

Size: 3R

Shape: Crossed swords

Contents: Creature (treasure)

Notes: Big cross shape about the size of two buses intersecting. Floor and walls are covered with tiny huts of the black ouphs. Lit up by their bioluminescent mushroom garden in the middle. 2d10 black ouph warriors try to frighten intruders away with a terrifying illusion. Failing that, they attack. Center of community is a 2' tall goddess statue clutching a large emerald (700 coins)

Room 4

Size: 4R

Shape: J-curved slope

Contents: Creature (treasure)

Notes: 5'x10'x60' space shaped like a ski-slope. A zavvo lairs at the bottom. Trench gun found on the corpse of a phon security officer.

Room 5

Size: 3R

Shape: Giraffe

Contents: Empty

Notes: Roughly rectangular room about 25'x25', with a long tapering vertical shaft and pits in the floor.

Room 6

Size: 4R

Shape: Spread hand

Contents: Empty (treasure)

Notes: Big 40'x40' roughly circular room with little tapering tunnels branching off it. Small pile of rubble in the middle has nuggets of lustral (27 coins)

Room 7

Size: 2R

Shape: Saucepan with three handles

Contents: Empty (treasure)

Notes: 20'x20'x15' cylindrical room with entrances/exits near the ceiling. Lit up by fungus. Some kind of altar made by the black ouphs. Several tiny sarcophagi in the walls. The altar features the Bones of the Judge, a magic item in the shape of a multi-colored ceramic vessel filled with bones. Rattles ominously whenever a lie is told in earshot of it (300 coins).

Room 8

Size: 3R

Shape: Three tall thin cylinders

Contents: Enigma

Notes: Three tall, thin cylinders about 8' wide and 15' long arranged in a pyramidal shape. One has the west exits. One has the shaft going down. One has churning ball of dark fluid suspended in midair and surrounded by magical hex-signs of the black ouphs (fragment of the destroyer)

Room 9

Size: 3R

Shape: Hammerhead shark

Contents: Empty

Notes: 15'x40' rectangle tapering on either end. Windpigs sometimes gather here to eat mushrooms. Dirt and roots indicate surface is nearby. The eastern passage is the exit to the surface, and the rendezvous point.

Room 10

Size: 4R

Shape: Cow's udder

Contents: Distractor

Notes: 40'x40' room shaped like an inverse dome with a few pits in the floor. Glowing fungus, bracken, and a trickle of water. Refugee hideout.

Concluding Thoughts

I gave the players 8 hours of time to find the rebel base, with some threadbare instructions, take custody of the refugees, then escort them safely to the rendezvous point. The idea was to reach the rendezvous point when that side of Shanjin, a slowly rotating mountain, was under cover of darkness. In hindsight, 8 hours was a bit too long. They reached the goal with about 2 hours to spare in game time.

They also didn't explore most of the cave beyond where they needed to go in order to achieve their goal. Once they got all the refugees to area 9, right before the rendezvous point, two of the players split off to backtrack to area 9 and fight the monster there. One player ended up having his Last Breath, there, but he did get a cool gun out of the deal.

This is pretty long, so I think I'll put the monsters and treasure in a separate part.

Also, get Veins of the Earth and Worlds Without Number. They're both amazing tools and resources.

Shanjin, part 1

So, since the session reports for my Skycrawl campaign have moved on from the land of Shanjin, I figured now is a good time to share some of my prep notes for that area. Part of this is to showcase the power of Skycrawl as an inspirational tool, and part of it is to provide some potentially interesting ideas for others to use in their games.

And also part of it is to rationalize my neurotic drive to over-prepare for sessions. I probably have enough material to run several adventures in this place.

Shanjin

"Getting major North Korea vibes, here." -One of my players, I forget who.

Idea: Strip mine, second chance
Shape: Delve. Like a Mountain, but folk live deep inside, not on the surface
Size: IV (explorable in a few weeks, 1k-9k pop., 10-mile dia.)
Gravity: Heavy gravity
Atmosphere: ruins of a shattered land; picturesque clouds
Inhabitants: Phon
Sol: deep rose, indifferent, large
Orbit: Wild
Abundant Resources: Patience, Tack
Scarce Resources: Ships, Trade

(Note: The above entries are mostly what I generated using the random tables in Skycrawl. What follows is my interpretation of it, and the inclusion of hooks and points of interest)

Description

The homeland of the phon, Shanjin is a giant, rotating chunk of rock like a mountain. The outer surface is covered in fields where giant monocultures of grains are grown. The atmosphere around the Sol is filled with smaller floating rocks, many of which have been turned into more small farmsteads. The phon live in mining tunnels that run through the interior.

A typical phon stands between 3’6”-4’6” with a stout build, gray skin, black hair, and a pair of curved horns upon their foreheads. They are intelligent and industrious, but somewhat lacking in culture. They mostly wear uniform gray coveralls with web-belts for tools, with fairly little individual differentiation.

The phon live lives of long toil, constantly running through cramped tunnels at the orders of their handlers. They sleep in overcrowded barracks and own very little personal property. They are a technologically advanced society, and make use of rocketry and complex mechanics in their inventions. They are infamous for getting around with dangerous rocket-propelled jetpacks.

Several hundred years ago, the phon lived in a miraculous floating city on another world until they were displaced by a mysterious magical cataclysm. They found themselves hurtling through the Azure Aetern, until they collided with the mountain that they named Shanjin.

The ruler of the phon is called Governor Jeshun San-O, a cold, calculating and rigidly inflexible ruler. Beneath the governor are several ministers, who manage various districts of Shanjin. The governor nominates the successors to the ministers, and the ministers nominate the governor. The citizenry have no input.

The state religion of Shanjin is a cult of ancestor worship. In fact, the Priesthood of the Cult of the Revered Ancestors has access to a miraculous device called a thanophone that allows them to speak to the dead and guide them towards reincarnation. The phon have bent their every resource to reincarnating their ancestors through breeding programs.

The phon ships are ethanol powered rockets with machine gun turrets, and given their ever-growing population and the conflict between using grain for food and for fuel, they have only 12 operational ships.

Places

• The Temple of the Revered Ancestors – a gilt and gemstone-studded cathedral emblazoned with colorful paintings. Extremely gaudy. Self-important priests in elaborate robes perform mandatory services involving the use of the thanophone to interview revered ancestors.
• The Foreign Quarter – A “hotel” and a few small shops where foreign visitors are required to stay.
• The Nadir Port – A wide open tunnel mouth with several jutting piers extending from the “lowest” point on the mountain.
• The Mines – Where most of the phon work, extracting Heavy Elements and other, baser metals.
• The Unknown Depths – The darkest, least explored tunnels near the core of the mountain.

People

• Governor Jeshun San-O – Male phon, 58. Wears an immaculately pressed gray and black uniform with epaulettes. Cold, calculating, rigidly inflexible. Handsome, if sarcastic. Prone to pompous speeches.
• Captain Washu Cha-Jai – Male phon, 50. A muscular, brutish-looking phon with a face crossed with battle scars. Suspicious of everyone and talks fast.
• Foreign Liaison Tara El-Jo – Female phon, 31. Designated guide for the players
• High Priest Gi Sha-Wan – Male phon, 78. High Priest of the Cult of the Revered Ancestors. Short, even for a phon, and very thin. Has an oiled handlebar mustache and an elaborate priestly robe. Cowardly and sycophantic.
• Olvau Leingythni – Male Ice-Lord, 41. Merchant who peddles weapons and other military equipment. Covered in burn scars and wears a tasteless, obviously fake military-like uniform. Always grumpy and talks too loud.
• Kand Resto – Male Damyana, 33. Big game hunter on his way to somewhere else. Openly hates phons and phon culture. Unusually thin for a damyana, but still loves to eat and drink. Has oiled hair and well maintained hunting clothes. Friendly and outgoing to non-phon and loves to tell stories.
• Karasa Ganilla – Female Ornivir, 44. Merchant who peddles jewelry. Lean and muscular, with many fine examples of jewelry on her person. Affects noble speech, but actually not that successful. Bitter about the phon’s disdain for foreign jewelry.
• Romz deZemler – Male Lirovan, 36. Tall and athletic, with a mane of golden hair. Missing one ear. Wears a fine yet functional vest embroidered with battle scenes. Friendly, if sarcastic and cynical. Actually a smuggler, here to smuggle dissidents out of Shanjin.
• Shem Ong-Ya – Male phon, 25. Leader of the resistance. Muscular, brutish appearance and extremely thick eyebrows over wild-eyes. Wears a fraying and poorly maintained work uniform. Hates the Cult and the Governor, and leads a band of other disaffected youth from their hideout in the tunnels. Actually pretty lazy.
• Li Ing-Shu – Female phon, 20. Resistance messenger. Young, naïve, idealistic. Idolizes Shem. Intelligent, if naïve. Very thin, wiry build. Wears fashionable clothing fit for leisure, and favors wide-brimmed hats.

Seeds

• Dissidents have stolen a ship somehow and taken it somewhere. The phon value their ships, and the dissidents taking them is a horrible embarrassment.
• The resistance contacts the players and asks for their help.
• The lirovan smuggler Romz deZemmler asks the players to help him smuggle out some dissidents.
• Mysterious raiders have been attacking the outskirts of phon airspace. They belong to a yet unknown-race and seem to a part of some bizarre millenarian cult that worships Obscenities.

Design Notes and Closing Thoughts

Shanjin was the first land the players encountered, and as such it set the tone for the campaign and illustrates my approach to designing interesting civilizations. Shanjin is a place where you can resupply and repair your ship, yes, BUT...! I tend to give these civilizations an eyebrow-raising cultural quirk that forms the basis of conflict in the setting and tells the players to be wary.

"Shanjin" is Chinese for "Gold Mountain," according to Google Translate. I subscribe to the George R. R. Martin school of "don't overthink it" when it comes to names. There's a general Chinese/Korean Communist vibe here.

The concept of the "thanophone" was inspired by the time that Thomas Edison actually attempted to build a device to contact the afterlife. That's pretty whack. The whole idea of the cult of ancestor worship, and a whole society dedicated to serving dead people is sort of reminiscent of our own society, where older generations got while the getting was good, and pulled up the ladder after them. That's a Millennial mood, right there.

There's going to be a part 2 where I detail some of the crunchier session prep I did for this area, including a cave crawl, monsters and treasure.

Skycrawl Dungeon World - Session 3

Lost? Read this.

Click here for part 1. 

Click here for part 2.

Dramatis Personae

Player Characters

• "Hire" – a gruff, serious ranger-for-hire who wonders if he might be the only one actually paid to be here
• Van Krinkel – a near-sighted deep gnome thief who inexplicably found himself aboard The Ikaruss after a night of drinking, and has no memory of coming aboard
• Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
• Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire

Non-Player Characters

• Captain Jeremiah Hawthorne – minor gentry way in over his head

• Romz deZemler – a smuggler of the leonine "lirovan" race. Tall and athletic, with a mane of golden hair. Missing one ear. Wears a fine yet functional vest embroidered with battle scenes. Friendly, if sarcastic and cynical.

• Hagora deGurn – An elderly lirovan woman. A fortune teller and shaman, well loved and respected by the community of Kighara. 

• Godom deNilmid – A male lirovan with a chiseled appearance, freckled skin, black hair. Wears the distinctive wide-brimmed hat of an orcerer. He and his wife Dorala have combined the trades of orcerer, money-changer, minter, and apothecary.

• Brien Fancroth – A member of the "spindlefolk" race, of unnaturally tall, zero-G adapted people. Short black hair and black beard. Wears glasses. Doesn’t look half as ruthless and cruel as he is. Formerly a member of the Black Worm Pirates, condemned to die.

• Thrac, the Apothecary – A member of the amorphous, slime-like "ooleum" race. Blue body. Come to the Vasana Range with a handful of mercenaries, seeking poisonous ingredients for some sinister purpose.

Summary

The heroes began this session where they left off: preparing to rappel down a vertical chimney in the caves of Shanjin and transport the refugees to safety. The rappelling proceeded without a hitch, and they successfully located the exit.

However, they still had two hours before the planned rendezvous, so Hire decided to do some more exploration. Taiyo agreed to tag along, with the rest of the party remaining with the refugees. Hire and Taiyo head down a nearby passage and find a separate entrance to the pit of magical darkness that Wilkins and Van Krinkel encountered earlier. Hire charged forth and awakened the monster. Hire struck the monster, and it bit him in turn. Taiyo charged into battle after him. The monster fought viciously, and Taiyo frantically healed Hire to keep him alive, but he soon took his Last Breath.

Death appeared to Hire in the guise of his father, and told him that he must slay the immortal spirit Kurakka the Thunder Serpent in the Vasana Range if he wanted to live. Hire agreed, and thus came back to life.

Thus, they defeated the monster, dispelling its magical darkness and revealing it to be a bizarre man-sized serpent with the head of a bat and wings like a vulture. In its lair they found the skeletal remains of a phon security agent, and his still-serviceable trench gun.

Primitive screwheads, beware.

The party regrouped and met with their respective ships for the rendezvous, then set sail for the Vasana Range, the homeland of Romz deZemler and the lirovan race. Hire soon realized that the bite of the monster had infected him with a bizarre ailment, which caused his skin to grow pale, his eyes to turn red, and gave him a strong aversion to bright light.

After two days of uneventful sailing, the party arrived at The Vasana Range. The phon refugees were welcomed into the community, and Romz left the heroes to guide the refugees into their new homes. They got the measures of lazul minted into coins at the shop of Godom deNilmid, orcerer and apothecary. Hire was also able to purchase a remedy for his illness.

They then proceeded to the home of the village elder, Hagora deGurn, an elderly lirovan fortune teller and shaman. She listened to their plight and gave them her counsel. She also read their fortune, and while she predicted they would reach their goal, it would only be after terrible hardship. She saw a gathering darkness, and believed that their presence in the Azure Aetern was a portent of doom.

The heroes learned many things as they asked around town:

• The Vasana Range will soon hold its Great Hunt, where condemned criminals are hunted for sport.

• Kurakka the Thunder Serpent has been acting erratically lately. He has been running amok and spreading poison. Hagora asked them to seek him out and administer a potion that may heal him.

• A member of the amorphous oolea race and his four glasswing henchmen came to Godom’s shop and tried to order many suspiciously toxic reagents. Godom refused them and they left.

• There is a land of giant glowing clouds of nebula where new Sols are born, called “Sollifex Aether.”

• Talking to Sols is very difficult, but there is a land called Casarbon inhabited by a race of telepaths called the “zorakith.” They might be able to help commune with the Sols.

• The prophecy of a gathering darkness greatly disturbed Hagora. She advised them to seek out a stronger prophet than her in the land of Argus, home of the All-Seers, a race of angelic prophets.

Hire, having been charged with killing Kurakka the Thunder Serpent by Death, urged the rest of the party to accept the mission to save him, but did not disclose his true motives. With that, the party prepared themselves to venture into the interior of the Vasana Range.

TL;DR

The heroes led the phon refugees safely out of the cave and to the rendezvous point, but not before Hire had a brush with death from fighting a monster. He made a pact with death to kill the immortal spirit Kurakka the Thunder Serpent, and thus defeated the monster and found a trench gun.

The heroes then sailed to the Vasana Range, home of Romz deZemler and the lirovan race, and the phon refugees were successfully resettled. The heroes were paid and learned many interesting things while in town. In particular, they learned that Kurakka the Thunder Serpent was acting erratically, and that a member of the amorphous, slime-like "ooleum" race had been trying to purchase large quantities of poisonous reagents for some unknown purpose.

As Hire had made a pact with death to kill the Thunder Serpent, her persuaded the other heroes to take up a quest to administer a healing potion to him, not revealing his true motives.

Concluding Thoughts

And that concludes the Shanjin arc of the campaign. This was an interesting session, as many potential paths to the ultimate goal of finding a new sun were revealed, allowing the players choices for which direction the campaign would go in. I also learned that the Last Breath move can sometimes be used to urge players to go engage with some of the content you prepped instead of skipping over it. The Thunder Serpent quest was just one lead that I didn't know if they'd want to follow or not.

Skycrawl Dungeon World - Session 2

 Lost? Read this.

Click here for part 1.

Dramatis Personae

Player Characters

• "Hire" – a gruff, serious ranger-for-hire who wonders if he might be the only one actually paid to be here
• Van Krinkel – a near-sighted deep gnome thief who inexplicably found himself aboard The Ikaruss after a night of drinking, and has no memory of coming aboard
• Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
• Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire

Non-Player Characters

• Captain Jeremiah Hawthorne – minor gentry way in over his head
• Captain Washu Cha-Jai – A muscular, brutish-looking member of the short-statured, horned "phon" race. Has a face crossed with battle scars. Suspicious of everyone and talks fast.
• Karasa Ganilla – a dejected jewelry merchant of the bird-like "ornivir" race
• Kand Resto – a big game hunter and member of the black-skinned, red-haired "damyana" race
• Constable Shelim – a truculent phon security officer
• Romz deZemler – a smuggler of the leonine "lirovan" race. Tall and athletic, with a mane of golden hair. Missing one ear. Wears a fine yet functional vest embroidered with battle scenes. Friendly, if sarcastic and cynical.
• Shem Ong-Ya – Male phon, leader of the resistance. Muscular, brutish appearance and extremely thick eyebrows over wild-eyes. Wears a fraying and poorly maintained work uniform. Hates the status quo, and leads a band of other disaffected youth from their hideout in the tunnels. Actually pretty lazy.

Summary

With their ship badly damaged, the heroes were approached by a rocket ship bearing an insignia of a yellow-and-black 9-pointed star. A voice announced that they had entered the airspace of "The Phon Dominion."

Soon they were boarded by three diminutive humanoids, of a race known as "the phon." They were roughly gnome-sized, with curved horns on their brows, pointed ears, gray skin, and long black beards. They wore gray jumpsuits and body armor of soldiers.

Seeing their predicament, the phon captain, Washu Cha-Jai, agreed to tow their ship to the main settlement of the phon, Shanjin. In short order they arrived to find a massive, 10-mile-diameter mountain, slowly rotating around a small, red Sol. The outer surface was dedicated to farming, and the phon lived and worked in the tunnels dug within, where they mined out the precious Heavy Elements. They docked their ship, and Captain Hawthorne proceeded to negotiate how they would pay for repairs.

Meanwhile, the heroes were taken to "the Foreign Quarter," a resting place for foreign travelers. There they met interesting characters such as Karasa Ganilla, a dejected jewelry merchant of the bird-like ornivir race. Though she couldn't help, she referred them to another traveler: Kand Resto, a member of the black-skinned, red-haired "damyana" race.

Resto listened to their quest to find a new sun, and mentioned that his homeland, called "Trinellonde's Lantern," was a magical city built around a caged Sol. If they were to go there, he said, they might find a wizard who was an expert in the nature of Sols.

Captain Hawthorne joined them shortly thereafter, and he was accompanied by the phon Constable Shelim. Shelim informed them of a rebel group that sought to overthrow the established order, and had a hideout somewhere deep within the unexplored tunnels within the mountain.

Shelim offered to help the players repair their ship, AND outfit it with a special device called an "orchemical sieve," which is designed to siphon the valuable and mysterious "heavy elements" out of the air. In exchange, he asked the players to enter the monster-filled tunnels beneath the mines and kill the rebel leader, Shem Ong-Ya.

Afterwards, however, a foreign smuggler named Romz deZemler approached them and offered an alternative: he would forward the coin to repair their ship if they helped him smuggle a load of dissidents out through the caverns. The heroes had found Shanjin to be a dreary and oppressive dystopia, so they readily agreed to deZemler's terms.

As they sought the rebel hideout, they were attacked by a gang of four tiny elf-like creatures, two apples high with black skin and eyes of opal. They could hypnotize enemies with their gaze to make them hold still and deal devastating damage. The heroes were badly wounded, but survived.

They found the rebel base and met the rebel leader Shem Ong-Ya. He paid them in two measures of the valuable heavy element "lazul," as well as giving them custody of nearly two-dozen phon refugees. They made their way to the next cavern without incident, but soon found a hard choice: to reach the exit, they could rappel down a vertical chimney, but that could end disastrously for the elders and children among them. They scouted out an alternate path to try and find a way around, but happened upon the lair of a monster which cloaked itself in magical darkness. The heroes decided not to risk an encounter with an unknown monster and quickly returned to where they left the refugees.

Thus, the heroes prepared to rappel down the chimney, the success of this endeavor unknown.

TL;DR

The players found the land of Shanjin, home of the diminutive "phon" race. However, it turned out to be a dreary dystopia. They were enlisted by the smuggler Romz deZemler to help smuggle refugees out in exchange for him fronting the cost of repairing their ship.

The players found the rebel leader in the depths of the monster-infested tunnels, took their payment, and navigated their way through the tunnels. They were attacked by strange, tiny black elfin creatures, and they encountered an unknown monster that cloaked itself in magical darkness. Not wanting to face the monster, they instead opted to rappel down a vertical chimney to reach the rendezvous point, which would be risky for the women, children and old people among the refugees.

Concluding Thoughts

This was the session where I realized I have a tendency to majorly over-prepare. The characters ultimately explored less than half of the caves I mapped out.

And on the off chance anyone recognizes them, I did adapt some of the monsters from Pars Fortuna, by John M. Stater. I just happened to discover this book at roughly the same time I was preparing for this session and I was inspired. I ended up using the "black ouph" and the "zavvo" as described in his book.