Cth | Dayle's Magnificent Tapestry of Seeing | Briarwood | Well of the Winding Stair | White Deer
Welcome to the Sunday Supplement, Raging Swan Press’s weekly email for GMs. This week, we have one free download, one piece of legendry, one piece of lore and three miscellaneous campaign components for your game.
Should we develop any of these idea further? Comment below.
01: Markdown Files
Download
Markdown files are epic and jolly useful for the busy GM, and let’s face it, most of our lives are getting busier and busier. Don’t waste time messing about with annoying proprietary formats and cleaning up your imported text—just use Markdown files!
This week’s releases are for the GMs who don’t yet have the Dread Thingonomicon or the Dread Laironomicon. These markdown files include all the flavourful details in those books in an easy-to-use and manipulate format.
02: Cth
Ashlarian Legendry
This ancient and vast primordial being of god-like power is associated with the planet of the same name. It is older than humanity’s gods and more terrible, alien and implacable than any mere demon lord.
The Silver Tablets of Tragator, themselves unknowably old and bearing curious and archaic cuneiform writings of a most singular style, speak of Cth’s aeons-long slumber on a distant and frozen, night-drenched planet. Using potent sorceries and patient observations, the elves discovered—or more accurately—rediscovered this planet at the height of fallen Ilathyel’s glory. The elves named the planet Cth, after the supposed being that yet slumbers upon it. The Silver Tablets also name Cth as the “Ancient Enemy” and “the Destroyer” and speak in dread tones of it “swimming through the black seas of infinity between the stars”, and of “navigating the infinite blackness of the Beyond”.
In every generation, there are always those who feel the presence of Cth most keenly. Such rare individuals, normal sensitive artist types or coarse and degraded mongrels of the worst sort are often driven mad by the mere revelation of Cth’s existence. They form cults and worship Cth by trying to retrieve and reunite the various eldritch items associated with the Primal Horror that is Cth. Chief amongst these is the Crown of Cth, the Sceptre of Power and the Oblivion Shards—all that remains of the Orb of Oblivion shattered centuries ago by the arch-necromancer Väinö Tuiretuinen who stumbled upon the cult while searching for the long-lost, sand-swallowed ruins of Tragator. The cultists believe that if these items are brought together and a mighty blood-sacrifice is made, mighty Cth will awaken and destroy the world, sparing only his most devoted disciples.
03: The Briarwood
Ashlarian Lore
A great swath of tangled woodland lies north of the Ashlarian village of Woodridge, straddling a line of rugged, high hills. Thick grey fog often swallows the woodland, giving it an otherworldly, ill aspect. Local legends place any number of bogeymen, fey, intelligent wolves and worse in the woods. Narrow clearings filled with wild roses of red and yellow pockmark the Briarwood. These roses, wild and fecund, sport long, sharp thorns and, persistent rumours whisper, move about when no one is looking.
Persistent rumours speak of more than one overgrown, ancient ruin lost somewhere in the wood’s beshadowed depths. Gossips speak of the old gold coins of unusual lustre that Woodridge’s previous lord found therein and which his son still occasionally uses to settle his debts. They also mutter about the occasional disappearance of travellers and hunters when the fog rises thickly about the wood’s ancient boles. Howls have been heard deep in the woods, and, of late, werewolf attacks have become more frequent.
In the olden days, centuries before the coming of the Nenonens, a small clan of elves dwelt in the Briarwood. They struggled against terrible, evil creatures dwelling along the northern coast until their numbers dwindled and the survivors fled to south. Time’s inexorable progress has not yet destroyed all their settlements. The ruins of a few such places, now briar-choked and lost, still stand among the Briarwood’s most ancient trees. The few druids and their fey allies dwelling in the wood jealously defend such places.
04: Dayle’s Magnificent Tapestry of Seeing
Campaign Component (Wondrous Item)
Set in a gilt frame and comprising a multitude of silver, gold, platinum, copper and silken threads of many hues, Dayle’s Magnificent Tapestry of Seeing is a thing of wondrous beauty and wondrous power. Crafted by the half-elven artificer Dayle Adamar Krisidor, the tapestry took almost 20 years to complete.
Dayle wove great divination magics into the very fabric of the tapestry. Imbued with the powers of farsight, the tapestry is a potent scrying device that can reveal much. In a similar fashion to a crystal ball, it can display scenes of other places—its multitudinous threads rearranging themselves to reveal the desired scene or location.
A skilled and iron-willed wizard can use the tapestry to see events happening almost anywhere in the world. The tapestry also has a limited ability to pierce the weave of the universe and to scry—sometimes with but partial success—other planes of existence.
Some wizards who have used the tapestry assert that even greater powers lurk within. Some claimed to be able to see things that others could not see or to read the thoughts of those depicted within the tapestry. A few wizards have even managed to command the tapestry to show scenes that it displayed many years ago, giving rise to the suggestion that it might have a memory of sorts—and, perhaps, even sentience.
05 White Deer
Campaign Component (Animal)
White deer dwell in the frigid, snow-drenched woods and forests of the far north.
White deer are a rarity, and only occasionally are they glimpsed alongside their normal-hued brethren. These noble creatures are strong and powerful; some sport antlers over 12 feet across. Hunters stalk these majestic creatures, for their antlers are supremely strong and their fur is proof against all but the most intense, magical cold. Most such hunts end in failure; sometimes the hunters fail to return at all.
Some north-dwelling folk believe that white deer are the blessed servants of the god of snow and ice, and ascribe them magical powers over the elements and the natural environment. Goodly travellers of pure heart, beset by winter’s fury, have occasionally been rescued by white deer who either lead them to safety or—in extreme cases—lie down to warm a dying traveller with their own body heat. Some travellers also report white deer rescuing them from packs of starving wolves. Thus, in some settlements and cultures, hunting white deer is strictly forbidden.
06 the Well of the Winding Stairs
Campaign Component (Megadungeon)
The heavily fortified borderland fortress of Nalrazor boasts a singular feature—the Well of the Winding Stairs. Held by the descendants of Dumizil Shargal, the questing paladin-lord of Althar, the fortress has long been a bastion of strength and goodness and a bulwark against the lurking darkness of the Underlands.
The well and the stairs are far older than the fortress that has grown up around them. Fully 300 feet deep and 30 feet wide, the well is an impressive piece of engineering—even if one does not consider the Winding Stairs, a broad spiral staircase cut into the surrounding rock. Windows cut into the living rock provide a view of the well through the upper two-thirds of the stairs’ length. At four landings, stone gates block the stairs; all are heavily guarded and seldom opened.
Two donkey-powered cranes jut out over the well and are used to lower and raise the rowboats of those intent upon exploring the dark waters of the vast subterranean lake that lurks far beneath the fortress. This is Lake Gralzol. The sun’s rays only shine down the well’s shaft for a few brief minutes at midday, and it is only at these times that the garrison will raise returning adventurers to the safety of the sunlit world.
Numerous rocky, ruin-crowned islands dot the lake, and yet more drowned ruins lie beneath its still, black waters. Here lie the ancient bones of an unknown, fallen civilisation. At the lake’s centre, four stepped ziggurats emerge from its chill, ebon depths; swarms of the undead led by powerful, deathless priests able to channel elemental powers are known to lurk inside their fetid precincts.
Passageways radiate away from the lake, twisting, turning and burrowing ever deeper into the Underlands of the Ebon Realm. Unspeakable and innumerable dangers dwell within, and only the greatest and best-equipped heroes can hope to survive in its illimitable bounds for any length of time.
Ashlarian (proper noun) of Ashlar; Campaign (noun) a connected series of adventures; Component (noun) a constituent part; Legendry (noun) a collection or body of legends; Lore (noun) knowledge and stories about a subject
Thank you for reading the Sunday Supplement; I hope some of the above material makes it into your game or sparks your creativity.
Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles!
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