The Baleful Wanderer, Blood Moon, Well House, Cinderspire and Bibeldoop
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.
(I’d love to know what you think of this new format for the Sunday Supplement; please leave a comment below.)
01 (Download): March’s Inner Cover
March's new inner cover presents 20 more cool words and the names of 20 alleys and lanes for your game.
02 (Ashlarian Legendry): The Baleful Wanderer
When the Baleful Wanderer blazes across the night sky, doom comes to Ashlar.
The Baleful Wanderer—a Vile Star—returns to the world every 370 years and is much feared by the commonfolk—doom and disaster follow in its wake. The Vile Star was last seen in the night sky before the Time of Two Crowns when the Bloodstained Prince tried to usurp Ashlar’s throne.
It will next return to Ashlar on the 14th of Narberon (the eleventh month of the year and the last month of autumn) 577. Many learned folk eagerly await its appearance.
The Baleful Wanderer has many names. Ashlar’s commonfolk know it as Morden’s Dagger and believe that great and terrible magics can be wrought when it blazes across the night sky. The elves call it Cashael—the Herald of Tears—while the dwarves name in Thaun’s Ember and pray that it might one day fall to earth so they can mine its precious starmetals. Even the savage orcs have a name for it—Gal-do-Narga (or Nargen’s Claws). Finally, the dragons—the longest-lived of all the mortal races—know it as Ragothvoarex or Death from the Stars.
03 (Ashlarian Lore): The Blood Moon
Every year, on the 14th of Narberon (the eleventh month of the year and the last month of autumn), the moon bleeds, heralding the beginning of winter and the time of year when evil is in the ascendancy--or at least that’s what Ashlar’s superstitious commoners believe.
Even the wisest of sages do not know why the moon takes on its mottled blood-red hue every year in Narberon but many folk--both human and nonhuman alike--take it as a dire warning of the evil that will creep into the world during the dark, cold winter to come.
Peasants light great bonfires on the night of the Blood Moon to drive away evil spirits, while Ashlar’s priests are particularly vigilant for rumours of demonic possessions and haunting at this time of the year.
Many dark priesthoods hold the Blood Moon as a sacred night to be marked by sacrifices and certain other debauched practices. Necromancers and demonologists also view the night as a propitious time to perform their vile rituals.
04 (Campaign Component): The Well House Tavern
Standing in the oldest part of the town, the Well House tavern is known as somewhere decent folk do not go. Only those dwelling nearby drink at the Well House with any regularity; others rarely linger over their drinks or return for a second visit.
The same family, the Kuura, has owned the Well House for as long as anyone can remember.
The tavern is a curious composite of old architectural styles. The core of the building is centuries old, and successive owners have repaired or extended the place. Local legend places a crumbling stone well of unknown age and disputed depth in the tavern's cellar. A foul miasma is said to sometimes rise from the boarded-over well, which allegedly accounts for the occasions when the Kuura refuse to open for business.
05 (Campaign Component): Cinderspire
A pall of grey smoke perpetually hangs over Cinderspire Mountain’s hollow peak. The hills and lesser peaks surrounding Cinderspire are a desolate, ash-cloaked wasteland; nothing grows or lives there. Great clouds of choking, super-heated ash sometimes billow forth from Cinderspire’s Peak to blanket the surrounds.
The red dragon Greywing is known to dwell in the extensive halls cut into the mountain by a long-dead clan of fire giants, but he has not been seen for a decade or more. Some folk say the venerable beast is dead, while others believe he has entered one of the long sleeps for which his kind is well known. All folk agree, however, that Greywing had accumulated a huge hoard, and the prospect of it lying around unguarded has set many an adventurer's mouth watering with anticipation. Every year, a few bands of treasure hunters seek Greywing's lair. Thus far, none have returned.
06 (Campaign Component): Bibeldoop the Amorphous One
Only the mad and crazed worship Bibeldoop the Amorphous One. Implacable, uncaring and alien Bibeldoop exists only to consume.
An ancient slime-demon from the Time Before Time formed from the roiling chaos of creation, Bibeldoop is said to take the form of a gigantic, formless, mottled black, purple, and grey blob. Bibeldoop may be one of the oldest "living" things, and some sages believe it predates the gods themselves. It is the Great Enemy, the Elder Threat and the End of All.
Bibeldoop's malign hunger is insatiable, and its few worshippers believe it will soon emerge from the Abyss to consume the whole world, and they work to hasten that glorious day. When Bibeldoop emerges, it will spare only those who have given themselves wholly over to its worship. (Worshippers believe they will become one with Bibeldoop during the Great Consumption.)
Bibeldoop's deranged worshippers are wholly beyond redemption and are universally reviled. Bibeldoop has no known allies—even among the other demon lords—and is known to hold a particular enmity for Orcus.
Rituals and rites sacred to Bibeldoop are indescribably foul. They include consuming certain forbidden things and burning by fire or melting in acid living sacrifices in great pits.
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!