Play Report: High Times in the Fungal Core (Danscape ep 4 & 5)

Previously on the Danscape: Wolves, Amazons, and the newest incarnation of Lantern Boy. A double header this time. As usual, the crew of the Divided Survival Probability is:

• Waterblossom: eladrin magelander, organ farm escapee, frail bag of trauma (Michael K)
• Blake, former gigolo, social climber, space drug addict, exiled queen (FM Geist)
• Gavel, horrific space-wolf-man creature (Martin O)

Episode 4: A Requiem for Thimble Slim

With Blake in dire need of plastic surgery and Gavel cursed to space-wolfhood and use of a vocal synthesizer that replaces all curses with 'spaghetti', the crew makes their way to the myceliumated habitat of the Fungal Core, seeking out the aid of a diasporic amazon clan (known for their terrible, clashing-pattern fashion sense). They are aided by Ed, Sasquatch fighter (Sam P).

The coupon for plastic surgery is only good for part of the deal (and the curse must be broken by collecting the tongue of a noted astrologer), so Madam Ratsi (of Madam Ratsi's House of Fashion) says she'll cover the rest if the crew can put the squeeze on this flake by the name of Thimble Slim.

Tracking down Thimble Slim takes them around the Core, and we learn:

• The astrologer is currently dead, his tower blocked up.
• Street Mimes are allergic to water, and lay invisible eggs (Ed has one)
• Cordyceps-infested space pigeons are everywhere.
• Lantern Boy was left at the public library to learn the terrible secrets of warfare, at Blake's direction.
• A book on astrology is then checked out of the library.

They are eventually able to track down Thimble Slim to a seedy dive called the Red Heron Bar & Brothel. Some slick talking with the bouncer (who is all for teaching Slim a lesson) persuaded him to send Slick into the back alley when he came in.

The crew devours a bucket of pigeon-wings with blue moon cheese sauce while they wait.

After half an hour or so, the back door is thrown open and Thimble Slim is tossed out. He is then, through clever application of hot cheese sauce, forced to read through the book of Astrology. While slim's head is holographic, the stump of his neck still contained a tongue-like muscle-flap, which was then removed. What remains of his stuffing is beaten out of him for walking out on paying his bill.= at madam Ratsi's.

Returning to the salon, Blake gets his surgery. Gavel decides to forgo breaking his curse, and just gets full-body augmentation surgery so now he's some horrific bipedal space-wolf-man with a human head inside his mouth, spreading fear and terror wherever he goes. Ed gets a nano sleeve tattoo of fake advertisements. Lantern boy continues reading strategy books.

This section has probably my favorite bizarre-gross monster description I have ever used, as an exotic dancer in the Red Heron - a cross between a tube-worm colony and the Diana of Ephesus.

Episode 5: Stone Cold Fremen Lantern Boy

Some time has passed since the last installment, and the group has settled in, more or less, in the Fungal Core. The crew is joined by Waterblossom's friend from his brief cult interlude: Rob, the corrupted anti-mutant (Max Cantor).  Blake decides to become a queen. Gavel embraces his horrible space-wolf-man form and starts on the path of the Very Good Dog. Blake and Gavel inject themselves with spell tumors, no side effects yet.

Blake immediately casts Date Ward, preventing his death for the next four days.

News arrives that Salamander Lady and her resistance have made good on the weapon recovered in Episode 3 - the Aboleth is dead. The good news is overshadowed by the fact that Salamander Lady has thrown Blake under the bus and stolen all the glory and fame for herself.

More importantly, news arrives that FRIDAY NITE FITE-DROME is to be held at St. Pugilist's orphanarium. Lantern Boy, having been pushed onto the militant path, requests entry. Gavel and Blake agree and support the choice, Waterblossom gibbers helplessly.

Lantern Boy is signed up for the Dunkeldronk Urchins' Fighting Union and, through the combined power of studying military strategy and Gavels Really Good Dog moral support, beats the ever loving shit out of the first half of the fights and goes into halftime 5-0.

It is here that the crew see none other than a destitute and clearly traumatized Corrin Shen, who has falled all the way to betting, and losing, on underground orphan fights. Blake makes contact and advises him (as his doctor, Queen Doctor Glitterhammer) to bet everything on "Stone Cold Fremen" Lantern Boy.

The trio finish off half time by giving LB a hidden scalpel-shank, some space cocaine, and the Weird Chair (as provided by the spell of the same name)

Rounds 6-9 are once again a shoe-in (save a significant loss in Round 7). Round 10 reveals itself to be not against another orphan, but a tall, pale man by the name of Osric the Shrike. (Spoilers: he is definitely a vampire) Blake attempts to get the crowd riled up, and instead manages to trigger no less than 16 potential suitors, drawn to his beautiful queenliness.

Round 10 is simple - score three hits, and the money is theirs. Gavel uses his spell _Find Strike_ to determine that Shrike has been stabbed in the general heart region recently (this was to imply that his heart was on the other side - it did not actually matter, as we will see.)

Lantern Boy (now under the control of the players) decides to go in with the Weird Chair as a weapon. With each strike it blackens and twists out of shape, until with the third hit it shatters and summons a horrible bloodshot eye demon that droops down from the ceiling.

Everyone panics. Gavel throws down his own Summon, grabs Lantern boy, and attempts to flee, taking damage from the Eye's great tentacle eyelashes. Blake and Waterblossom fight back, joined now by the out of control blood demon that Gavel had summoned.

But a few fans of the hammer and some torpedo sharks are enough to take down the Eye. Waterblossom flees, and Blake remains behind to take advantage of Date Ward.  He manages to beat the blood demon to death, though is reduced to ground beef and salsa in the process.

With the money from the fights, the crew looks towards future investments: reconstructive surgery to fix Blake, a hydroponic drug garden for the ship, and potentially tracking down blake's potential henchman-husbands or going after Waterblossom's organ-stealing creators.

The question is no longer "how will Lantern Boy die?"

It has become "how will anyone else survive?"

YA HYA CHOUHADA

Beloch's Questions

1. Thimble Slim was wronged, and absolutely knows. Osric the Shrike, ditto.
2. Stealth and this party are not things that go together.
3. Corrin Shen, if he survived, made a whole lot of money off of LB.
4. After the Orphanarium disaster, unrest is spreading through the habitat as people turn up dead or mangled.
5. "We're horrible people!"
6. Lantern Boy is now a common name in the FITE-DROME circuit.
7. Revenge upon the organ farmers (Waterblossom), dealing with henchmen husbands (Blake), seeking out Blake's king to reclaim his kingdom (also Blake)

Play Report: I Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow (Danscape ep. 3)

Previously, on the Danscape: A cult is joined and a war is inadvertently accelerated.

Tonight's episode stars the original crew from the Kadesh Club:

• Waterblossom, eladrin magelander nee organ farm escapee (Michael K)
• Blake, a face-stealing traveler and former gigolo (FM Geist)
• Gavel, a traveler who just oozes everywhere. (Martin O)

With Waterblossom returned from the cult retreat house (head full of mindworm knowledge) and Gavel and Blake returning from the mother of all drug benders (heads full of drugs and drug accessories), the trio of the Divided Survival Power return once again to Lady Sidris' station.

Outside, the Aboleth has been raising dead and disrupting travel all throughout this corner of the cosmos. It seems dead-set on attacking and destroying old mindworm facilities and stations - a lucky break for everyone else, at least those not mind-slaved and zombified in its war effort.

From this chaos Blake receives a message from Salamander Lady. She has made quantum leaps up the social structure in the fashion world and has been utilizing her newfound wealth in philanthropic charity efforts to aid those fleeing the aboleth's warpath. As part of this, she has a task for the trio: retrieve a mindworm weapon from the old war, tucked away on a frozen shithole of a planet.

To aid the group, she provides the group with survival supplies and a cloning chamber for the ship. After some discussion they decide to clone Gavel's spell tumor and head off towards the Devoured Planet (because I just got Frostbitten and Mutilated and wanted to try it out.) Their target is an ancient tower of mindworm make.

What follows is a terrible trek up a frozen river, across wind-blasted icy hellscape. Gavel plays the world's worst game of I-Spy. Further incidents as follows.

1. Blake steals the severed head of an alien goat off the desecrated statue of an ancient king. He tries talking to it multiple times throughout the adventure.

2. An island in the river is revealed to be a giant bone sticking out of a mound of fatty flesh. Blake steals samples for potential cloning, and grabs a magical charm-shard to boot.

3. Crossing the river, the group sees a bluff with a gigantic monolith. At the base, a herd of boars: two large males, some females, and a bunch of boarlets. A standoff occurs, and turns to violence.

3a. Blake is gored with a critical hit while trying to stab his boar in its blind eye. He miraculously survives and manages to put a plasma bolt through its head. The boar's death throes drop Blake below 0, leaving him with a damaged eye (according to Emmy Allen's Horrible Wounds)

3b. Waterblossom attempts to stun the boars with Washington's Laugh. Both resist the merriment, but their teeth are turned to wood.

3c. Gavel realizes too late that he forgot to calibrate the rail-rifle that had been bolted onto his hover chair. Waterblossom offs the other boar by launching a selachian torpedo via Moses' Shark.

4. The boars defeated, the crew converse for a moment as to whether or not they should loot the grave goods buried beneath the monolith and potentially clone one of the ancient warriors. They decide against it. Blake fashions a boarhide eyepatch.

5. An hour's pause is made to avoid a trio of amazons passing by on wolfback.

6. The crew enters a forest near nightfall. With wolves howling in the distance, the crew takes shelter in a nearby cottage, which contains a young girl who is remarkably non-plussed by the fact that wolves killed her parents.

7. Blake climbs up to the roof through the chimney and takes potshots at the wolves for a while after sundown. The rest get fitful sleep as the wolves prowl and howl just outside.

8. Come morning, the trio head out. Girl (for that is what her parents called her) is renamed Lantern-Boy by Blake ("Oh hurrah, I am overjoyed, clearly this is not a portent of awful things to come." and given a lantern.

9. The tower is reached. The group enter and are swiftly separated in the darkness.

10. Blake glimpses a confused Donson the golem in the gloom, but rushes to aid the friend crying out in the darkness. Waterblossom likewise avoids temptation. Gavel beats the shit out of a little troll thing with a monomolecular greatsword. Eventually they all meet up with Lantern-Boy in the central chamber.

11. In the final chamber, they see mounds of treasure, an ancient mindworm crone, and the weapon. Blake is volunteered by Gavel and Lantern-Boy to partake in the challenge.

12. Blake attempts to seduce the amazon he is to fight with. She says 'after we fight'. Blake successfully grapples her, knocks her axe away, and puts a plasma bolt directly through her skull, tragically cutting many hopes and dreams short.

13. Blake and Waterblossom are granted vials of holy water by the crone. Gavel is transformed into a space wolf. The ship is called in, the weapon is retrieved, and there is great wonder about whether or not they should even bother breaking Gavel's curse, because now they can load up a space wolf with spell tumors. Blake sells boarmeat for a decent price and makes fancy leathers out of it.

Even as a space wolf, Gavel is able to smoke space opium.

I love this group.

Beloch's Questions

1. The wolves of the Devoured Planet have become Blake's major rivals. That his close friend and drug buddy is now a wolf is deeply traumatizing.
2. They managed to get to the tower without attracting the attention of the amazons. This may or may not last.
3. Lantern-Boy is benefiting for the moment. Her future remains uncertain, but she is currently not being eaten by wolves.
4. No major NPC deaths.
5. News of the weapon's successful recovery was passed on to Salamander Lady, which means it will become major news in the near future.
6. See above: as soon as this hits newstands, people will be having opinions. Mostly positive, considering what the aboleth is doing.
7. Gavel's wolf-curse  and whether or not it will be broken; Blake's hatred of wolves and trauma over killing the one woman horrible enough to understand him, plus fixing up his gaping chest wound.

Play Report: "Look, Ma! I Joined a Cult!" (Danscape Ep. 2)

Previously in the Danscape: The Kadesh Club is ruined by a very angry aboleth, Corrin Shen vanishes in the chaos, and the criminal underworld is thrown into disarray.

Playing this episode were:

• Waterblossom, eladrin magelander (Michael K)
• Eric, kenku necromancer (Type 1 Ninja)
• Ed, Sasquatch fighter (Sam P)
• Rob, corrupted anti-mutant (Max Cantor)

Blake and Gavel were, of course, celebrating their newfound gambling wealth by flying around in the Divided Survival Power and getting high as fuck.

Waterblossom, on the other hand, took a passenger liner out to a resort cylinder for some well deserved R&R. It was here that he met Eric Ed and Rob, who were likewise visiting the resort.

(According to the players, this particular cylinder was notable for its quiet atmosphere, the odd geometry of the buildings, the great variety of people, and the general belief among them that cats do not exist.)

While drinking at a lakeside pub late into the evening, the quartet takes to watching green glowing spheres shoot up from an island in the center. they dart about a bit before dropping into the water and fizzling out - other patrons, when asked say that it's just some will o'wisp activity and not worth much thought. The island's closed off to visitors anyway, some sort of environmental hazard.

There are thoughts of renting a boat to go investigate the island when the party is accosted by a friendly looking elf with a shaved head and white-and-purple robes, who is handing out earnest but poorly made pamphlets advertising a tent revival for the Society for the Elevation of Universal Cosmic Consciousness later that night.

The boat and spheres are quickly forgotten as the group heads over to the nearby park where the revival is being held. WB bonds with some cultists over their shared dislike of organ farming. The others help themselves out to the space buffet.

After a time, the cultists call for everyone to attend and the Grand Master guru Mundap takes to the stage. He gives a stirring sermon on the values of peace and harmony and unity and self-improvement, finally crecendoing in praise of the great Glow Sphere (just as one rises above the lake).

The congregation is led in a stirring rendition of "A Mighty Fortress is Our Glow Sphere". Afterwards, the quartet head right over to the signup table and put their names down. They've instructed to arrive at a cabin on the other side of the lake the next morning.

Some time later...

The four reach the cabin with a few other candidates, and are greeted by the firbolg Ters, whom they had met the previous night. They are taken into the cabin and oput through a series of personality and aptitude tests for hours. Rob flunks out, and lingers long enough getting snacks to attempt and fail to steal a small shard of whitish-orange stone that caught his eye.

The other three are not flunked out on the first pass, and are told to come back tomorrow to see what their final situation would be. They head back to town and meet up with Rob, in time to see the island shooting up more glow spheres (and faster) than they have yet seen.

The boat idea is brought back up, and they head out onto the water. There's no animal life to be found or heard on the island, but rippling shadows at the edge of lamplight have them all on edge.

They emerge in a clearing which holds a tower of the same kind of stone as the little idol in the cabin, and next to it a sort of squat pyramid with a wide, sigil-marked circular depression on one face.

At this point the shadow attacks, lashing out with sharp tendrils and injuring Rob, crippling his leg. WB uses his spell Soothe Open to open up the hatch in the pyramid and they clamber down before the shadow-fog can close in. Rob slips on the ladder and falls flat on his back dazing him.

The group find themselves in a small, nondescript room with a door. WB uses Soothe Open again, and after a few minutes persuades the door to open, just in time for them to see a humanoid figure in a bathrobe, with an ammonite for a head, pointing a gun at them.

There is an ineffectual firefight as everyone misses and Mr. Ammonite jumps behind the couch. Peace accords are made, weapons are put down. The complex is looking more and more like a bachelor-bunker. WB burns his last spell die trying to mind-meld with the creature and learns that it is has been here a crazy long time, and is pretty crazy himself. Mr. Ammonite latches his tentacles onto WB's skull and absorbs enough language to say DON'T PANIC via telepathy. Rob is laid on the couch and treated for his fucked-up leg.

From here there's some exposition. Mr. Ammonite has indeed been here for quite some time: the glow spheres are the harmless waste product of his power reactor. He has a crystal-uplink to the Overmind, but rarely uses it due to the whole thing being taken up with arguments about stupid elf cartoons like One Punch Elf and My Elf Academia. The cult outside seems to have knowledge of the Overmind, in some bastardized, secondhand way. Mr. Ammonite's people, the Cephalopodicephs, were once at war with the aboleths, long ago.

Driven by his guests, Mr. Ammonite logs into the Overmind for the first time in over a decade. The session ends with a map of remaining Overmind hubs displayed via projection. One of them, not too far away from the site of the Kadesh Club disaster, is glowing a bright, bloody red.

Beloch's Questions

1. No one has properly done them wrong at this point. Blake and Gavel are a different story.
2. The cult does not know that they have trespassed on the holy island.
3. The cult seemed pretty eager to have them involved as new members.
4. No one died this time.
5. They are on the cult's radar now.
6. The aboleth-flayer war seems now to be sputtering back to life.

For a session whipped up over lunch break with no sleep the night before, I'm happy with the results.

Play Report: The Kadesh Club

Playing tonight in the wonderful world of the Danscape Planejammer, we have:

• Waterblossom, eladrin magelander nee organ farm escapee (Michael K)
• Blake, a face-stealing traveler and former gigolo (FM Geist)
• Gavel, a traveler who just oozes everywhere. (Martin O)

We open to find the three crewmembers of the Divided Survival Power in a terrible pickle. They've been trying their hand at running tea and opium out of Yoon-Suin, but the most recent shipment ended up stolen to the last gram by one of Blake's many trysts.

The Lady Sidris, drow matriarch and crime lord, is not pleased with this at all. She wants her money. But, she decides that calling in a slave cleaning the floor of blood would be too much of a hassle - the trio is given a shot at clearing their debt: go to the Kadesh Club, and steal a book from its proprietor, famous genasi businessman Corrin Shen. "You'll know it when you see it, they are told."

Before they leave, Gavel and Blake spend all of their remaining money on opium. Gavel's species leaves sticky ooze everywhere, and so ends up outfitted with a Harkonnen gravity chair, after Blake persuades a lobster-alien dockworker to help them out with a bit of seduction and some drugs.

The Kadesh Club is a place for rich people to go slumming and engage in some war tourism. Being that it orbits around the gas giant Charnel House, where devilish and demonic fleets meet to do battle.  Unfortunately, the war has lulled for a bit, so no fireworks were on the docket.

A casino resort filled with rich people is Blake's natural habitat - he swiftly integrates himself into the posse of the rightes, strongest looking individual in the atrium, a golem anmed Donson who looks like he came right out Renaissance Florence. With WB and Gavel are volunteered to act as servants, Blake handily begins flirting with the golem, and everyone goes to the nearby Valhalla Bar.

(Yes, the one from the game. To complete my horrible reference hackjob, they all witness the manager tossing out Space Dandy and Meow.)

Drinks are had and information is gathered. (The drink list and descriptions from VA-11 HALL-A come in very handy) The crew learns that Shen is a collector of rare art and artifacts, and appears on the casino floor every night to welcome the guests.

The crowd moves on to the casino floor, and the trio start scouting out options. Shen's quarters are seen to overlook the floor, with a single guarded entrance on the stage. Gavel joins a blackjack table and a wins a small amount of money. Waterblossom mind-melds with a guard to steal information and learns that Shen is late tonight - the attempt to act as a desperately-needed crystals-and-chanting healer falls on deaf ears. Blake accompanies Donson to the dice games and scopes out the staff entrances.

Gavel finally finds himself in a horribly complex game that he only manages to survive in because WB gleaned info from the octopoid dealer, and then mind-melded with his fellow ne'er do well. One of the other players gets shot. A discussion with an elf about the benefits of terribly impractical clothing are had. Gavel finishes out his hand by cheating with one of his mutations, a micro-teleport, swiping an extra card and taking advantage of an obscure loophole to walk away with 1000 gold pieces.

At this point the lights go down, the spotlights hit the stage, and from the elevator comes the man himself, dressed to the nines. He gives his speech and goes about shmoozing. WB passes by and gleans images of an angry woman who looks something like a tropical fish from Shen's mind. Blake convinces Donson to buy them a suite in the resort, heads through the doors, meets a salamander lady, and does drugs in the bathroom with her while discussing their life story and hip new fashion tips.

As Shen makes his rounds, Gavel uses his spell-tumor to cast Resounding Command at a vat-cloned halfling creature, forcing it to push him directly into Shen. What follows is a grand display of bellyaching and faked injury the likes of which FIFA players would be awestruck to see.

A doctor is called for, but no need! Shen is, in fact, a doctor! Swiftly Gavel is grav-wheeled out of the main floor and past a staff door.

Meanwhile: Blake has decided to set up salamander woman higher up in the social world to have a contact for the future, and gives helpful fashion tips to get the most out of a wardrobe.

With nothing working, Gavel hands Shen a sending stone phone and groans that he must have his special doctor to have any hope of survival: one Dr. Muffin Glitterhammer.

The call distracts Blake from his fashionable dreams, but gets him swiftly whisked over to where the others are. Blake immediately goes whole hog on being a fake doctor, and we are treated to one of the greatest lines I have yet recorded as a DM.

"Cocaine gives me a bonus at being a doctor."

Blake demands an isolation room, far away from the peasants and their germs - Shen, displaying a great amount of generosity, volunteers his own quarters. The four take the service elevator up. WB is zapping Gavel all the way there with his color changing cantrip.

Shen's apartment contains a great many expensive art pieces, a ghost security system named Bauvert,  a large fish tank containing black water and abyssal icthians, and most importantly, the book.

Blake requests obscure items for the appropriate holistic treatment (blue cat milk, a ball of solid gold, 2 liters of plasma) while manuvering Gavel's gurney around to take a better look at the book. Thick as a DCC core, bound in blue leather, recursive MC Escher occult symbols all over, and claw marks from the inside.

Know it when you see it indeed.

With the materials delivered, Blake declares that the evil has been taken out of Gavel's body. Gavel uses this opportunity to feign a horrible seizure, driving the other three to be whisked away into another room.

Unfolding his handy boarding axe, Gavel smashes the book case as if by accident. Bauvert (who is basically just Poe from Netflix's Altered Carbon adaptation) descends from the ceiling and starts a banshee wail, summoning Shen. Gavel tosses his axe at the fish tank, leaving a large crack.

Something moves in the blackness.

With no time to waste, Blake sweeps Shen into the elevator for safekeeping as the cracks enlarge and more water pours out. WB and Gavel grab the book just as the tank shatters; dark water floods the room to reveal a fucking aboleth.

"It's like if AM was a jawless fish." - Me, describing the aura of said aboleth.

WB whips out his holdout blaster and shoots out the window. The two go flying out, using the gravchair as a way to slow their fall.

On the stage, Blake hands the overwhelmed Shen to some guards, telling them to get him to safetly. Looking up he is able to catch the descent of his two compatriots, followed by the emergence of the aboleth in a cloud of psychic force fields and unbridled abyssal hate.

Blake empties his gun at the creature, abnd while a few bolts manage to break through the shields, the aboleth is unaffected.

Needless to say, they get the fuck out of there.

Amidst the panicking throngs they do manage to spot the salamander lady stepping up and orchestrating emergency evacuation procedures. The manager of the Vallhalla bar is out front screaming "YEAH! RIOT!" and suplexes a fleeing noble on principle. Blake grabs seven gold pieces out of his pockets.

They bang up some other ships on the way out fo the parking garage, but Blake blames it on one of Donson's followers who was giving him the stink-eye.

Upon return, Lady Sidris' guards immediately take the book from them and declare the matter settled. The guard captain is persuaded to look into some backup IDs in case things go south.

And with that, Waterblossom collapses into a weeping, traumatized heap as Blake and Gavel do more drugs.

BONUS TIME; ANSWERING BELOCH'S QUESTIONS

1. Who did them wrong? Some of Donson's syncophants were definitely plotting something.
2. Did they do anything stealthily? Hell no. But also yes, in that no one knew it was them.
3. Who benefitted? Lady Sidris. Shen's other rivals. The Aboleth.
4. Aftereffects of death? Hundreds of the cosmic rich are now dead, meaning tabloid sales are UP, power grabs are UP, and worker revolts are UP.
5. Did the characters attract attention? A whole lot of it, but not exactly directly to them.
6. Desires / interests to hook players in future? Socialite nonsense is ace, use it.

Danscape Planejammer

Space is so cool.

When life gives you a book filled with superpowered monsters and high-magic weirdos, you put them in space. You can only have so many high-level wizards running around before someone builds a moon base. It's self-evident.

Mordenkainen's Tome got me thinking about 5e, and this is the result. If we're going to go high-magic multi-species cosmopolitan, then by Jove we are going all the way!

The planets below are listed in order according to distance from their sun.  Names have been changed to protect the delicate sensibilities of those poor IP lawyers, but you can figure them out.

Last note: you can help! 

Yes, you! Simply head over to this spreadsheet and add whatever pre-existing D&D species or original aliens you want. There are plenty of examples already there, and I'm planning on making some big old tables out of it, so fill it up till your heart's content.

The Cosmos

The universe consists of five primary parts: the Firmament, the Astral Sea, the Gods Themselves, the Twin Suns, and the Elemental Worlds. One might also find the City in the Center, the Great Machine, and the Clouds of Chaos within.

The Firmament

The wall between the universe and the unformed Outside. It is, to mortal knowledge, unbreachable by science or magic, but cannot provide complete protection against the eldritch influence of the Old Ones. Those who approach the Firmament without adequate protection will begin to suffer deleterious effects upon their mental state days before reaching the wall, increasing with great intensity as they approach.

The stars seen on the wall of the Firmament were once believed to be holes that led to the Outside; recent expeditions have indicated that they are bioluminescent organisms tens of thousands of miles across.

The Astral Sea

The medium which fills the cosmos, a mix of aether and phlogiston in which float the corpses of the gods, the Suns, and the planets.

Unprotected exposure to the Astral Sea is not recommended for those who are not constructs, undead, or obscenely powerful, as it will generally involve one’s lungs acting very much like a combustion engine.

The Gods Themselves

They are all dead. Clerical magic is derived from their remnant sparks. Their calcified, ossified, mummified, fossilized corpses float in languid orbits around the cosmos. Their hearts, burning still with phlogiston, can serve as miniature suns. Most of the cosmic population lives on, around, or inside these divine bodies.

The Twin Suns

The White Sun and Black Sun chase each other around a central point. Each harbors orbiting worlds

The White Sun

Empyrean

A golden fractal puzzle box, resplendent and radiant, within which are the tablets bearing the words of the deceased gods. The angels and their associates are quite proud of this accomplishment, though no known beings have ever laid eyes upon the tablets, and their writings are unknown. The Cosmos beyond the White Sun

Elysium

Breadbasket of the White Sun system, every spare square foot of the planet is devoted to food production. The grids of meticulously-kept fields and fish farms can be seen from orbit.

Homestead

Pleasant and pastoral, forever on the edge of the Industrial Revolution. Filled with a great variety of lands and cultures. Filled with legions of bright-eyed youths looking to make their fortunes in the distant reaches of the Cosmos. Considered a boring backwater by nearly everyone else.

Huxley

What happens when the unimpeachable State takes advantage of the population’s self-suppressing behaviors of pleasure-seeking, submission to authority, self-delusion and lack of long-term planning? Huxley happens. Do not stay too long, visitors are surveilled with vigilance.

Muirheim

A dyson tree grown out of an ancient comet. Home and crucible of the great ecological movements, a close ally of the Kingdom Animalia on Zoan. The laws of peace and care of nature are enforced without delay or indecision.

High Hrothgar

Chilly militarist fortress-world. Most of the planet’s industry is devoted to building war material to be used against the inhabitants of the Black Star. Technically aligned with Empyrean, the Hrothgari might be contracted by outsiders easily enough if the pay and glory is right.

Zoan

Untamed wilderness world, home to the Kingdom Animalia. Off-world access is limited to a single spaceport atop a high plateau: any of the beasts may leave as they will, but outsiders are not permitted farther than the port without permission of the Kings.

The Black Sun

Sheol

Wet, polluted scablands overrun with a singular species of underworld maggot. The planet is a soul-trap, stealing wayward souls mid-upload and embodying them in the gigantic larvae, to serve as a food source.

Tophet

A dumping ground for the Cosmos’ refuge. Continents of garbage, perpetually smoldering. Volcanoes oozing like zits. Unlikely home for high-end resorts and casinos, catering to the tastes of the decadently rich.

9 Rings

A police-state ecumenopolis split into nine rival princedoms. Billions live in the lightless hives below the infernal nobility, slaving and warring away in ignorance of any other world or any other life. Order is maintained by an impenetrable bureaucracy, and the Princes’ inability to overpower each other.

Xibalba

The moon of 9 Rings, used as a prison for those the Princes wish to torment beyond the cruelties of life on the city-world. Is ruled over by six houses of demons shipped in from Grinding-of-Teeth ages ago.

Charnel House

A scab-brown gas giant with a necklace of pocked iron moons. Constantly fought over by the forces of Grinding-of-Teeth and 9 Rings.

Grinding-of-Teeth

Homeworld of all demonkind. Scarred and broken continental shelves rise up above ocean bottoms now filled with everchanging jungles. The temperature fluctuates between boiling hot and freezing cold, the humidity shifts between oppressively liquid and dry as a bone. What water is left is mostly poison. Everything is attempting to kill everything else.

Wailing

A slightly large asteroid with a trace atmosphere, honeycombed with caves to the point that it is more like sponge than stone. The winds that flow through its inner halls form a constant keening moan, granting the place its name. The only people to live here are those who have managed to escape the other worlds of the Black Sun, but cannot find their way out. It is the last stop on a dead-end road.

The Elemental Worlds

Aeros

An immense, pale blue-white gas giant, around which the other Elemental Worlds orbit. In the calm upper layers there are many floating palaces and sky-islands, where those without wings, sails, or flight bladders may live.

The Big Empty

A delicate spherical framework of diamond and graphene. Transparent habitat-bubbles house the wealthiest inhabitants of the Elemental Worlds, who praise a life lived nextdoor to complete oblivion.

Thundercrown

A squat golden disc some thousand miles across. Its rim is thorny with thin protrusions. Lightning dances among its branches, arcing out across the aether to any ship that comes close. Exploration has been sporadic, and answers to its nature and origin few.

Pelagia

A water world, spotted with young volcanic islands and tossed about by great storms. Beneath the surface one might find coral reefs a mile deep, thousand-mile kelp forests, and the single greatest display of biodiversity in all the cosmos. Boat cities, tropical hideaways, seabottom stations, and ice-cap settlements

Nacl

A small moon of Pelagia. Its shallow seas dried up long ago, leaving behind a dry expanse of salt crust and the fossils of what once lived there.

Kettle

The second moon of Pelagia. A small rocky world with little atmosphere to speak of, its internal ocean strains to break free, and shoots up in great boiling geysers a hundred miles tall at times.

Fimbul

A world trapped in winter. There is just enough heat and light to support life, but the summer melts are still frigid to offworlders. Those who live here receive guests rarely, and with distrust.

The Pit

An oozy, muddy slimeball; a dense atmosphere of mostly water and soil that has been reduced to mostly muck. Avoided by all who enjoy living in places that are not constantly and aggressively moderately unpleasant.

Vault

The greatest source of mineral wealth in the Cosmos. Mining conglomerates and banking families keep their home offices in the badlands, overseeing the stream of gold and gemstones pulled up from the depths.

Terragio

A high-gravity terrestrial world, sculpted by the masterful hands of wind and water over millions of years.

Choke

The moon of Terragio, named so for its near-perpetual storms of red-brown dust. It is a place for desperate types who wish to remain unnoticed and unseen. A planet of dry wells and ghost towns.

Halo

Angelic travelers from Empyrean once settled here, but vanished generations ago. The world was shaped according to their whims and needs

Pyre

A desert world whose biosphere can exist without any water at all. The sands are brilliant bands of red and orange, and the skies are alight with hurricanes of fire.

Cinder

Ash and coals, nothing more. Smote to ruin for sins not even remembered.

Blacksmoke

A greenhouse atmosphere of boiling black smoke drives off most visitors. Some spacers tell of a world hidden beneath the clouds, but rarely when sober.

The City in the Center

The City sits in the very center of the Cosmos, at the point both Suns and Aeros orbit around. It is neutral ground, a hive of scum and villainy, the cage in which god-killers are kept, the gate and key to all the Cosmos, and so on. You know the deal.

The Great Machine

There was a third Sun, golden-yellow. The progenitors of Machine-Life saw that it was good, and took it for their own. It sits now nested within a sphere of metal and law, all of its energy feeding the lockstep legions of mechanical beings who inhabit its boundless depths and vast chrome continents.

Clouds of Chaos

A roiling nebula of cosmic amniota filled with teratomatous, unborn worlds. Immensely dangerous to those that pass through without defensive preparations. Tracking their movements through the Cosmos falls to the Free Navigator Network - make sure to have it on your spaceradio presets!