(3d40, p.7) Quickly generate a new hero to traverse the Ultraviolet Grasslands!(d40, p. 141) A hero learns a strange new skill specific to the wastes.(d100, p. 166-167) Generate an NPC’s occupation, name, story, and attitude.(d12, p. 135) You are more than a referee. You are the:(d20, p. 155) Do they live or do they die? Let the oracle decide.
(d20,
p. 145) Press “Exposure Level” if heroes are exposed to a source of
biomagical corruption to see how many mutations they have, then roll on
the tables below to determine those mutations.
(d14, p. 147) What is the reason for this journey?(charisma test, d20, p. 147)(charisma test, d20, p. 150)(3d12, p. 151) Roll for encounter intensity, dangerousness, and disposition.(Relevant Test, d20, p. 151) Determine how long a chase will last.(Relevant Test, usually Thought, d20, p. 152) Determine if there are discoveries nearby.(2d6, p. 152) Determine how far away a location is, and in which direction it lies.(Relevant Test, usually, Thought, d20, p. 153) Determine the results of foraging.
HISTORY AND CULTURE (d12, p. 156) Eras and times lost beyond the records in the Great Mist.(d12, p. 156) Scars of some incoherent disaster, rent in time.(d12, p. 157) Half-remembered times before the Rainbow Order was founded around the Circle Sea.(d12, p. 157) Fractured records of the last few centuries.(d20, p. 158)(d20, p. 159) LOCATIONS AND DISCOVERIES (d20,
p. 160) Determine the characteristics of a new discovery: distance
away, experience awarded upon discovery, shape, appearance, original
function, creator, discoverer, and current function.(d20,
p. 160) Determine the characteristics of a period or style: main
material, special material, descriptor adjective, culture type, and
period name.(d20,
p. 161) Determine the characteristics of a climate: calendar month,
night and day conditions, extreme weather, environmental hazards, bonus
weird stuff, and ease of tracking.(d20, p. 161) Determine the characteristics of local geography.
The grasslands teem with many different peoples. What do they say about each other? (d8, p. 162)(d12, p. 162)(d10, p. 163)(d10, p. 163)(d12, p. 164)(d12, p. 164)(d12, p. 165)
(d8, p. 168) Generate essential grasslands supplies.(d18, p. 168) Generate a useful toolkit.(d20, p. 169) Figure out what’s up with this epic vehicle.(d20, p. 169) Generate a hireling.(d15, p. 170) Generate a ranged weapon.
(d20, p. 174) Learn how much a trade good is priced in a nearby destination.
-Spend 1 day and cash equal to local expenses: learn the local price of a trade good.
-Spend 1 week and cash equal to 5x local expenses: learn the local price of a trade good in a chain of 3 destinations.(d20,
p. 174) Try to alter the local price of a trade good.
-Spend 1 hour and 1d6 cash on coffee and tea: locate a retailer and
haggle over one item or sack. Make a relevant test on the negotiation
table.
-Spend 1 day and 1d6 cash x 10: locate a bulk merchant and negotiate a
deal. Have fancy dinner and drinks. Roll.
-Spend 1 week and 1d6 cash x 100: locate a big shot merchant and
schmooze hard to make a deal happen. Roll with advantage.(d30, p. 175) Generate a bizarre trade good from deep in the grasslands. Trade Routes (d20, p. 176): Players choose how risky and profitable they want the route to be.
Make a relevant roll on the trade route table when the heroes create it
by completing an initial round trip with a full caravan, and every time
they collect profits. 5% per return trip, almost no risk.10% per return trip, trivial risks.20% per return trip, moderate risks.(d12, p. 177) Amusing encounters and obstacles that can occur during a trade run.
VERSION 0.3.6 MADE BY SAKER TARSOS ON BEHALF OF THE STRATOMETASHIP
UVG CARAVAN GUIDE’S DIGITAL COMPANION
(p.
9) This is the end of the Right Road. Humanity’s dominions wind down in
the purple haze that wreathes the sunrises of this western reach. No
roads, but caravans brave the Ultraviolet Grassland into the eternal
sunset of the Black City. Porcelain Princes and Spectrum Satraps oversee
great herds of biomechanical burdenbeasts that bring the odd fruits,
black light lotus, indigo ivories, rainbow silks, and sanguine
porcelains popular among the meritocrats of the Rainbow Lands. Many
voyagers are taken by the Vomes but nobody likes to talk of those lost
to the Ultras. (charisma test, d20, p. 9)(d6, p. 9)(d6, p. 10)(charisma test, d20, p. 12)(d8, p. 13)(d6, p. 14)(d12, p. 15)
(p.
16) The cratered viaduct of the High Road runs on crumbling pylons of
dying dryland coral across the pallid grasses. Beneath the halfpassable
testament to the follies of the Long-Long-Ago, the Low Road winds,
smeared threads of soil and loam and oil and blood ground into a hard
surface by the pounding feet, hooves, wheels and treads of pilgrims,
nomads, caravans, and vechs. (d6, p. 16)(charisma test, d20, p. 16)(d8, p. 16)(d5, p. 17)(d10/5d6/d6/d10/d20 aura test, p. 19)
(p.
20) The Limey Nomads’ lands are harsh and dry, forbidding to travelers.
Odd remnants from the misty period referred to as the ‘Best Forgotten’
Ages by the Saffron City’s Opiate Priests dot the plain. In spring the
Limeys graze west towards the Grass Colossus, returning east to the
Circle Rim for winter. (charisma test, d20, p. 20)(d8, p. 20)(d5, p. 21)
(p.
24) The unmarked white surface of the great citadel, uplifted like an
imprecation against the fanciful gods, serves as a reminder that not all
that has fallen has died. Four robed figures arrayed before the decayed
defense golems turn their faceless glazed masks as one. ‘This stair
leads to the High Houses. Only permitted penitents may ascend to serve
us there. Stay back, our Pillars of Power remain as potent as in your
forgotten Long, Long Ago,’ they speak in an impeccable chorus of
disparate voices. (charisma test, d20, p. 24)(d8, p. 24)(d14, p. 26)(charisma test [disadvantage if in debt due to carousing], d20, p. 27)
(p.
28) Scrub. Pallid soils of crushed ceramics. Drifts of porcelain
exoskeletons crunch and ring underfoot. The autumn and spring rain
showers bring sudden blooms of flowers and tubers, covering the pale
landscape in a rainbow of colour. The rim rises pale, like fossilized
porcelain ribs, from the dusty soil. Remnants of quarries from before
the days of the Porcelain Princes lie abandoned to Vomish lurchers (L3,
tough) while the Sanguine Porcelain Prospectors whisper of bat-lion (L2,
swooping) caves in the far rims. (charisma test, d20, p. 28)(d8, p. 28)(d4, p. 29) GLASS HOUSE OF A DEAD PRINCE (d8, p. 30)(d12, p. 30)(d30, p. 31)
(p.
32) The grass grows high, sparkling and lush. Rumors say it is watered
by sacrifice and an ancient Source Fac. Nomad Clans come here when
grazing fails elsewhere, but cluster in thornstone enclosures close to
the trail, driven to cooperation by the deadly machine-infested giant
beasts that regularly traverse the steppe. (charisma test, d20, p. 32)(d8, p. 32)(d4, p. 33)(endurance test, d20, p. 33)(d6, p. 34)(d10, p. 34)(6d6, p. 34)
(p.
36) Crossing a last purple ridge, the wide vale promises relative
respite from the harsh grassland. Trees dot the courses of two rivers
and, at their juncture, prehistoric ramparts of pitted ceramic, traces
of pre-wizard spell-arms on their ancient shellac surface. Inside, on
one of two hillocks, a great wicker-man of woven grasses, vines and
thorn bushes. Shamans of many clans make their meets here, teach their
memory chants, and welcome the Clan Mothers once a year for the festival
of the Circle of Grass. (charisma test, d20, p.36)(d8, p.36)(d8, p.37)(d6, p.37)
(p.
38) Three days out, you sight it. A metallic stepped tower, glinting in
the daylight, glowing a ghostly, coppery green by night. Two days out,
you smell it. Soft and seductive like cocoa. A day out, you hear it.
Drumming out a rhythmless, rumbling staccato. Closing in on the tower
you see three buildings, like hunched old men, clustered in the lee of a
cinder dune. Around the tower itself is a circle of gentle dust
floating in a massive static charge. Nothing living grows within that
circle but the Last Serai’s grand old harmonic rods draw energy from
that magical field, powering the great hold of the Porcelain Princes,
and selling power to the last trading house of the Violet City and the
final embassy of the Spectrum Satraps. (charisma test, d20, p.38)(d8, p.39)(d12, p.39)
(p.
42) Larger by far than the Ignored Tower in the Last Serai, a crumbling
verdigris obelisk rises from the bare bedrock, exposed by millennial
storms lashing the tired earth. Surrounded by wrinkled iron husks and a
veritable graveyard of Long Long Ago machine creatures. (charisma test, d20, p. 42)(d6, p. 42)(d7, p. 43)
(p.
44) A sharp, artificial canyon runs rough but true North-West towards
the Grass Colossus. The rough crags and cinder dunes, lit from behind by
the glare of static ghosts (L0, glowing), are littered with reminders
to not turn back: the flickering soul-echoes of travelers seduced by the
siren song of the Ignored Tower’s Face of Death. Travelers say not
every look at the tower from this angle brings death but most prefer not
to try. Four or five days along the passage, past a landslide, the Face
is mercifully obscured. The upland above the canyon is a pandemonium of
shattered rock and odd twists of stuckforce coated in millennia of dirt
and grime. Sages stroke their beards but cannot agree on the origin of
this hellish scape. Warning: the Death-Facing Passage is lethal and many
travelers journey with great hoods or safety hats so they cannot glance
above the horizon and catch sight of the Face of Death. (charisma test, d20, p. 44)(d8, p. 44)(d3, p. 45)
(p.
46) Rough, high steppe country, torn by the tracks of prehistoric
Behemoths, but relatively safe. The journey from the Grass Colossus to
the Behemoth Shell will interest every gentle-person naturalist. Due
west the rounded humps of great cedar-shaded hills rise, but the caravan
trails bypass them. (charisma test, d20, p. 46)(d8, p. 46)(d4, p. 47)
(p.
48) Beyond the Way Stone the steppe continues, flat, tasteless,
tonedeaf. The caravan trails have carved a route down to the bedrock and
the long-dry gully buttresses of gently crumbling livingstone attest to
the long-lost land of Umber, once rich from local deposits of titanic
biomatter which supported a thriving chitin-cap agroindustrial
aristocracy. (charisma test, d20, p.48)(d8, p. 48)(d4, p. 49)(d8, p. 50)(d6, p. 51)(d6, p. 51)(d4, p. 51)
(p.
52) On the way to the Serpent’s Stone the grasslands fold back and
forth on themselves like sinuous serpents undulating under the coating
of ash-white grasses waving in the gentle breezes. Little steppe rodents
peer into air, great eagles circle overhead, and for once, little trace
of the disgusting remnants of the Long Long Ago are seen. (charisma test, d20, p. 52)(d8, p. 52)(d5, p. 53)
(p.
54) What were these things? These mountain-sized calcite encrusted
creatures that suspended themselves on levitation lenses and drifted and
dragged themselves along the surface? Sages speculate demiurges might
have used them to sculpt the world, to deiform it closer to some divine
ideal. Most are gone. The logarithmically multi-spiralled shell of the
greatest of their kind slumps here, a lumpy, curling mountain like a
cross between a sea urchin and a conch. The Satraps may claim it but,
truly, it belongs to the Great Folk who live upon and in it, scurrying
like lice within its ageless bulk. (charisma test, d20, p. 54)(d8, p. 54)(d3, p. 55)(d12, p.55)
(p.
56) Beyond the Long Ridge the steppe flattens out and becomes a flat
ocean of white grass. From horizon to horizon, the world spreads flat
and still. In its depth lies a great stone marker; smooth, rising a foot
above the soil, and five hundred paces across. The entire surface
shifts in curiously fractal serpent patterns of chocolate and amber.
Compasses and guidestones swirl madly, then point themselves towards the
stone, helping voyagers in this swirling place. Smaller stone markers
dot the entirety of the white grass steppe, gently eroding and being
reclaimed, pointless memorials from the Long Long Ago. (charisma test, d20, p. 56)(d8, p. 56)(d4, p. 57)
(p.
58) The expanse of the steppe seems endless, from north to south the
flat land rolls on under the sky dome. The slow stars and the fast
glitter, icy and cold, and voyagers from the four corners approach the
Moon River with exaggerated care. The great shallows of the Moon-Facing
Ford mark the easiest passage between the light grasslands and the dark.
Weaker caravans – or those with something to hide – seek other, far
deadlier crossings. Why Moon-Facing? Because as visitors approach the
ford their mouths go slack and their faces rise to gaze upon the Near
Moon, suspended incongruously above the plain, half-concealed by the
curve of the world. (charisma test, d20, p. 58)(d8, p. 59)(Relevant Test, d20, p. 60)(d3, p. 64)(Aura Test, d20, p. 60)
(p.
62) Whispers only came to the Violet City of this oddity – a spherical
moon come to Earth, suspended less than a bow-shot above the ashen soil
of the Grassland. The mile-high sphere, dusty and cratered, mocks
astounded travelers. In the noon-daylight the Near Moon looms ash-grey,
the colour of a ghost’s ghost, but come sunset or if sunrise could
pierce the thick haze of the grasslands, it would burn with the colours
of a funeral pyre. Skyscrapers and towers and stairs of a half-dozen
fallen cultures slither out of the dank bogs beneath the Near Moon,
peopled by hermits, hardy soldiers, and ka-zombie keeping Moon-Lings of
quaint disposition. They bridge the airy void, coming within a ten-foot
of the Near Moon and its strange gravity. A ladder is enough to ascend
upon the surface of this orb, and many tourists have. Tour guides always
remind visitors to the Near Moon surface to use tethers and anchors.
Though the feeble gravity makes it possible to hop and crawl along (-d
to all Agility tests), jump too far and the normal gravity of the
Ultraviolet Grasslands will reassert itself. Small impact craters mark
where over-eager tourists have swiftly come down to earth. On the
skyward side this danger is reduced, though high jumps still end up with
visitors accelerating back into the Near Moon with some force. Sport
spear hunters of the odd moon creatures call it the ‘skypiercer move’
when they use the natural gravity to leap and give their spear thrust an
assist. (charisma test, d20, p. 63)(d6, p. 63)(d6, p. 63)(d6, p. 63)(d10, p. 65)(d8, p. 67)(d20, p. 67)(d4, p. 67)(d8, p. 68)(d20, p.68)(d20, p.68)(d6, p. 69)(d8, p. 70)(d20, p. 70)(d20, p. 70)(d6, p. 71)(d6, p. 72)(d6, p. 72)(d4, p. 72)
(p.
73) The High Moon Steppe and the High Horse Steppe are sliced asunder
one from the other by the deep valley of the Old River, the turbulent
outflow from the cold, deep Three Sticks Lake. Both steppes are as cold
and as cruel as their names suggest, studded with mesas, splinters,
boulders, and craters left over from the near cosmic forces that created
the Cantilevered Rim. Past the amalgamated skyscraper of Red Bear
Village the valley bursts open to the astounding sight of Glass Bridge: a
cathedral of glass that sparkles in the daylight and phosphoresces in
the ultraviolet mornings. (charisma test, d20, p. 73)(d10, p. 73)(d10, p. 75)(d20, p. 75)(d9, p. 76-77)
(p.
78) Three ragged villages cling to the steep shores of the cold, deep
lake, built on layers of older settlements from the Long Long Ago.
Caravans drag themselves around the harsh coastline, while smaller
groups cross on the improvised and salvaged ferries of the Stick Folk.
The lake itself is cold and full of fish, its bed – so it seems – thick
with waterlogged Vomes (L2, grappling) ready to emerge and drag careless
bathers into the ultramarine depths. Is there much to add? It is one of
the deepest and darkest lakes known to the Steppelanders, a vital
source of water and, even if one compromises comfort, respite in the
Three Living Villages. (charisma test, d20, p. 78)(d10, p. 78)(d6, p. 80)(d4, p. 81)(Aura Test, d20, p. 81)
(p.
82) A wide, high and dry valley, decked in pungent yellow stalks and
interwoven galls of the slow-dreaming distributed sentience of the
modified grasses holds sway here. The Gall Grass mind (L14,
postconscious) absorbs all moisture here and keeps the Hair Woods to the
south and the Higher Spinewood to the north at bay. Little survives in
the Gall Grass – thirst a constant danger but the mildly empathic grass
mind also keeps most predators at bay. (charisma test, d20, p. 82)(d8, p. 82)(d5, p. 83)(d6, p. 84)(d3, p. 85)(d6, p. 85)(d6, p. 86)(d20, p. 87)(d3, p. 85)
(p.
89) Fires of prismatic sentience gone mad light the crystal
excrescences that mark old Satrap experiments and settlements. Whether
the crystals are successes or failures, the Satraps do not tell. Black
glyphs mark the trails of nomads and adventurers from the Circle Sea,
while the Satraps follow light shows of bold, avant-garde design through
the pancake-flat terrain. A frosting of metallic salts kills the
grasses in great rings around the eerily unrusted corpses of grand
traveling machines from Long Ago. (charisma test, d20, p. 89)(d8, p. 89)(d4, p. 90-91)(Thought Test, d20, p. 90) Find the way out of the Maze of Light…(d12, p. 90) Many voyagers return from the Maze of Light with an unhealthy compulsion…
(p.
92) Light bends oddly here, the bark of the trees coated in a slimy
sheen. Long ago mad experiments created tree-silicon symbionts and now
most voyagers are cautioned to wear neutral-density eyewear lest the
strange geometries scald their minds. Distances break with confusing
abandon and smart voyagers stick to the ditch roads left by centuries of
heavy vechs. Fools wander off and are lost in the broken planes of
light. Nomads prefer to avoid these wooded, stream-carved lands
altogether. (charisma test, d20, p. 92)(d8, p. 92)(d3, p. 93)
(p.
94) A bone formation the size of a small mountain range erupts from the
ground, creating a landmark visible for a week and more in each
direction. The old, eroded bone range, garlanded in ancient longneedle
pines, is usually capped by snow-heavy clouds. The Satraps mutter
uneasily of the swift-breeding Marmotfolk that live upon and within its
bulk. (charisma test, d20, p. 94)(d8, p. 94)(d3, p. 95)(Thought Test, d20, p. 95)(d10, p. 96)(d10, p. 96)
(p.
98) A great avenue of fused terranova runs due north from the Ribs,
passing by the Spectrum Palace and disappearing into the Elfhaunted
north. The terranova road surface is a wondrous artifact of Long Ago, a
ruddy artificial stone that resists both weather and vehicles. Rows of
ritualistic metal trees were once arrayed along the length of the road.
Many have been removed and reused since the road was abandoned by its
builders, but hundreds remain, most decked with Satrap cages holding the
bones of Marmotfolk and other interlopers who threatened Satrap
dominance. (charisma test, d20, p. 98)(d10, p. 98)(d3, p. 99)(Thought Test, d20, p. 99)
(p.
100) The palace of the powerful Spectrum Satraps is surprisingly small:
a drum-shaped thing of dull metal and rivets, thirty meters lengthwise
and across, and a hundred meters around, in the shallow saddle between
two unremarkable hills. A single doorway of pitch black looms ominous
upon its southern face. Every night full-spectrum localized aurorae
light the sky above the palace – hence its name. Memories of grander
vistas and more imposing architecture seem to linger in the corner of
the eye, but never show themselves to the naked gaze. (charisma test, d20, p. 100)(d10, p. 100)(d10, p. 101)(d8, p. 102) Determine the characteristics of the Secret Empress(d12, p. 102) Determine the Domains of the Empress(d3, p. 103)
(p.
104) Striking out due west from the Ribs, the Iron Road is a series of
mammoth skeletal iron towers, red and rusting, like an army of giants
marching into the sunset. They continue for more than a week’s walking
and Spectrum scholars claim that in the Long Ago cable wagons flew from
one tower to the next, simulating the flight of an eagle or golden sky
barge. At irregular intervals grand arcologies in once-livingstone erupt
from the deep steppe, like immense geometric termite mounds. Dew and
earth saps collect in them, and hardy trees form eerie vertical forests
in the southern reaches of the Ivory Steppe. (charisma test, d20, p. 104)(d8, p. 104)(d3, p. 105)
(p.
106) The trackless deep plain is a sea of ivory grass that glows palely
in the dark. Great herds of grazing beasts and their predators make
their way across this plain in stately procession under the harsh
ultraviolet radiation raining down from the hazy sky. Eroded livingstone
stubs and glassy patches scored upon the ground are all that remains of
some older time, like long-healed scars on a mild-mannered old warrior. (charisma test, d20, p. 106)(d10, p. 106)(d3, p. 107)
(p.
108) Glazed gravel crunches under the great wagon’s wheels and the band
climbs onto the con tower to gaze at the sight of the eroded towers
lining the lip of the Chasm like so many shattered teeth. The Chasm,
forty miles wide, marks the western extremity of the Ultraviolet
Grasslands. Its depths are shrouded by a noxic haze. The projectors of
glittering force bridges rust on the precipices of the chasm, and only
one single archaic bridge of livingstone and dryland coral remains. It
stumbles from organiform pier to organiform pier, overgrown and
distended into a riot of towers and walkways. The old power generators
are long dead and the lights long gone, but the Dead Bridge still teems
with life – only now, instead of the engineer aesthetes of the
Glittering Heavenly Republic, it is degenerate Quarter-Lings and
crawling subhumans. (charisma test, d20, p. 108)(d8, p. 108)(d8/d8/d8/d8, p. 109)(d3, p. 110) DOWN IN THE CHASM (d8, p. 111)(d8, p. 111)(d8, p. 111)(d8, p. 111)
(p.
122) At its northern edge the Chasm branches and breaks out into
canyons, craters, and calderas. Many cultures have built staircases,
tunnels, hanging bridges, and cableways across the chaotic terrain. All
in disrepair, but travelers still descend them into the eternal twilight
of the Dark Light Path: a series of parallel grooves cut east to west
through the mesas and ridges, as though the fine-grained stone were soft
clay. The depths of the Chasm are forever shrouded in a noxic haze,
obscuring the passage of the sun, but they are not dark – the passage
walls glitter with phosphorescent shock gemstones and sparkling
thermovores move like stately half-floating crabs through the thick,
soupy air. (charisma test, d20, p. 112)(d10, p. 112)(d4, p. 113)
(p.
114) Beyond the Dead Bridge lays endless ruinland. For over a week the
landscape marches, a mind-numbing grid-work of abandoned houses, towers,
palaces, monuments, aqueducts, and roads. Slowgrowing ivy struggles to
choke the dead buildings and vacantmouthed ghouls (L2, hollow) chase
radiation ghosts (L1, glowing) dwell in this hollow place. Old death
lies over the gently collapsing land like a comforting blanket, keeping
out change, exhausting volition, tiring the rain itself. Deep ravines
have chiseled apart antique roads and blocks over uncounted years. (charisma test, d20, p. 114)(d10, p. 114)(d30, p. 115)(2d6, p. 115)(5d6, p. 115)(2d12, p. 115)(d5, p. 117)
(p.
118) Long ago somebody, somewhere thought it would be a great idea if
easily harvested protein grew on trees. Animals would no longer be
slaughtered for their life-giving flesh. Packaging and delivery would be
simplified. Whole industries and cultures would be disrupted and
innovation would create a thriving new proteinomic class. Then somebody,
probably a mad druid, thought exploiting trees for their meat was cruel
and gave them teeth, claws, and venom-laced root lances. If it sounds
like the Forest of Meat is a bad place to be, you might be right. The
carnibotanic disaster zone of the Forest of Meat creeps up on the
traveler slowly. The trees grow thicker and fleshier, leaves begin to
leer, birds fall silent, shrubberies click thorns like teeth, soil runs
red with slime, mushroom eyes open in sudden clearings and, by night,
howls of willow wolves (L3, fleet-rooted) echo across drinking bogs. (charisma test, d20, p. 118)(d10, p. 118)(d4/d6/d8/d10/d12, p.)(d3, p. 120)
(p.
122) The Omega. The Last City. Godspeed you, Black City. It hunches
upon the shore of an endless, oily ocean, a lacquered black chaos of
cubes that seem to slide one across another in almost-patterns that ever
so slightly fail to repeat. The corpses of fools who tried to walk into
the Black City lie in the toxic dust of the Pre-city. Hair stands on
edge with the background electromagnificent radiation. Five Grand
Portals with mirror-sheen surfaces float alone at the edge of the toxic
dust, each fifty-three meters tall, connected by a smear of black cubes
to the city proper. Every day, at 15:00, when the sun finally blazes
forth white and harsh after crossing the purple haze, a great tolling
resounds and the Black City hermits scurry from the Last Period to
announce the trading propositions and diktats of the Last and Most
Divine Secretary of the Black City. Every sixtieth day, the Grand
Observer of the Rotations of the Wheels manifests precisely 217 meters
north of the third portal to hand down a Prophecy Out of Time. The Grand
Observer never responds to direct questions, but sufficiently valuable
offerings placed upon the Three Stones of Donation dematerialize and an
hour later glossy Null Objects of Desire appear in their place. The
Grand Observer only ever manifests during the hours of daylight. A cabal
of local traders and hermits controls access to the Grand Observer.
Once every sixteen months, on a day no civilization celebrates anymore, a
Beam of Violet Light explodes into the sky from a series of
self-assembled towers in the Black City. It pulsates and twitches in
organic ecstasy for 53 seconds before fading for another cycle. Sages
are confused by this activity, but oneiromancers claim to receive
visions after witnessing it and groups of ecstatics and adventurers
regularly congregate to watch in a strange celebration in the middle of
the dusty land. (charisma test, d20, p. 122)(d12, p. 123)(d6, p. 124) Produce a strange space-time effect.(d6, p. 124) Six hermits haunt the black city. You meet one…(d20, p. 125) Place an offering and recieve the Black City’s payment…(6d8, p. 126) Find out the odds of recieving a gift this manifestation.(d12, p. 126) Discover one of the Null Objects of Desire…(d30, p. 127) Discover a Prophecy Out of Time.(d6, p. 128) Discover a strange, distant world.(d6, p. 129) Find out what lies through the Third Portal.(d6, p. 130) Determine the effects of the Noosphere Translation.(d10, p. 131) Determine the latest news on the Toxic Dust.(d10, p. 131) Memories harvested from the dust.(d8, p. 132) Determine the effects of the False Reality.(d6, p. 133) It will offer seekers answers for a price:(d6, p. 134) Meet a cosmic hero: