Black Pudding SPELLS

 If you haven’t checked out the Black Pudding zines, you’re really missing out on some fabulous art and very inspiring classes, spells, and monsters. I highly recommend it, and the PDFs are PWYW, although if I were you I would splurge on the Heavy Helping in print. Anyways, based off of this magic system here, I converted some spells. Here ya go!

d10 SPELLS:

MIRROR HEART (G): Touch someone to implant their aorta with liquid glass. If the caster or the target is inflicted WOUNDS, the caster chooses who takes them. (A heart dipped in silver)

SHIMMERWEB (G): 20 feet of razor-sharp silvery wire springs shoots FAR from you. It can’t be damaged by mundane weapons and lasts for a TURN. (A Drider tooth)

MERCURY TENDONS (R): You can move FAR in a ROUND, and can walk on liquids and up walls, for d4 ROUNDS. (A vial of quicksilver)

SILVER SALVE (M): Patch one SCAR for a TURN. (An angel’s wing)

TONGUE TIED (R): A target in FAR range can’t make noise for d4 ROUNDS. (Knot in an esophagus)

DEATH AUGUR (M): Learn d6 random facts about a corpse you touch. (Diamond skull ring)

DEATH DENIAL (A): Suffer no penalties from overfull CON for a TURN. (A scrap of a phsychopomp’s robe)

MENTAL FORTRESS (M): Suffer no penalties from an overfull WIS for a TURN. (A brick from someone’s mind palace)

PLAY DEAD (R): Die, and specify a time frame. There’s a TURNS-down-in-6 chance you’ll be permanently dead, otherwise, you come back to life when you specify. (Porcupine)

SINEWS (A): You have ADVANTAGE on STR and CON rolls, but everyone dislikes you, even your allies. (A 3-WOUND weapon)

MARROW Magic II: Electric Boogaloo

 MARROW MAGIC

For a long time I’ve been struggling with how to handle magic in MARROW. I’ve never found or developed a system where I was satisfied with the depth, flexibility, and consistency of a spellcasting system and how it fit into the rest of MARROW. Here’s my first draft at something coherent and usable.

CASTING A SPELL

To cast a SPELL, roll...

INT: If you’re using an object, like a spellbook or wand, to cast

WIS: If you’re calling upon another entity to use your magic

CHA: If the magic was inside you all along…

If you CRIT, you cast the SPELL successfully without USE. If you succeed, you cast the SPELL, but USE it. If you fail, the SPELL fizzles, but you don’t USE it. If you FUMBLE, the SPELL flops, you USE it, and things usually go sideways.

PUSH

Once you’ve cast a SPELL, you can voluntarily take STRESS to PUSH it. There’s no limit to the STRESS you can take, but be careful- PUSH yourself too hard and things might get out of hand fast! There are three axes upon which you can PUSH yourself: Duration, Versatility, and Intensity.

	1 STRESS	2 STRESS	3 STRESS
DURATION	+d4 TURNS/ROUNDS	+d4 days	Eternal
VERSATILITY	Tiny bend in use	Reasonable enough use	Vaguely similar at best
INTENSITY	Perceptible boost	Significant boost	Mighty power!
(Extra damage)	+1	+2	+4
(Decreased casting time)	Halved	Quartered	Instantaneous

You can also PUSH yourself to the limit, casting epic magics that define eras. Nothing is outside of your grasp, from time reversal to deicide to mass resurrection. However, when you do so, you die with no hope of return, or suffer a worse fate. There is no escape from the scales of death.

USE

Depending on the form your SPELL takes, USE looks different. Here’s some examples:

STR: Wands, staves, orbs, rods, scrolls, spellbooks, and all sorts of eldritch bric-a-brac can contain SPELLS in STR slots. Most of the time, they have one SPELL apiece, with as many as 3 or 4 in a more powerful object, like an archmage’s book. They also contain a set pool of USE upon finding (d20, if you’re in a pinch). You can also use that USE as STRESS in the case of PUSHING SPELLS the object casts. These objects FUMBLE like anything else!

DEX: Magical tattoos, hereditary witchery, and parasites from other dimensions all might be sources of SPELLS that occupy DEX slots. Whenever you take USE from a SPELL cast in this way, take 1 FATIGUE instead. If you FUMBLE, instead take d6 FATIGUE, or induce an arcane catastrophe.

WIS: Most SPELLS as people know them, memorized bundles of arcane energy, are stored in WIS slots. If an ABILITY grants SPELLS, this is the form they take. When a SPELL takes USE, it instead is destroyed, no longer occupying a SLOT- you have forgotten the ancient rune-words you need for your invocation.

CHA: Most of the time, SPELLS themselves won’t occupy CHA slots, but instead, many ABILITIES grant SPELLS in various forms. However, a SPELL so mighty that attaches itself to the magician’s identity, something as world-shattering as Wish or Apocalypse...

TOKENS

Every SPELL on Aeros has an associated TOKEN. It might be a common item (a penny with two “heads” faces, a cat’s whiskers), or something unique and magical (a cockatrice egg, the Apocrypha Orb). If you have the appropriate TOKEN while you cast a SPELL, make your casting roll with ADVANTAGE.

D10 random TOKENS:

1 A spool of silver

2 A dream about the ocean in a bottle

3 A Nemidian rune-rock

4 A red mole’s molehill

5 The sword of Khar Vendis

6 A green glass eye

7 A staff carved from the world’s oldest tree

8 An angel’s toenail

9 A child’s favorite marble

10 A lightning bolt

PROCEDURE

• Roll to cast the SPELL

• If you have a TOKEN, roll with ADVANTAGE

• Allies can roll INT to assist, if they succeed, you roll with ADVANTAGE

• Expend USE as needed

• If you failed your roll, stop after this step!

• PUSH yourself, if you dare

• The effect takes hold

VULGAR ARCANA

This is the equivalent of your basic SPELL list. Roll a d4 (for one of the four types of rune magic) and a d8 to determine a random SPELL. SPELLS are described as follows:

Spell Name. Spell description, in terse terms. (TOKEN here)

1 RAVEN

1 Swarm. A scratching mass of claws and craws deals 2 WOUNDS and causes a lot of havoc before scattering to the wind once more. (Stillborn animal with a conjoined twin)

2 Feather Cloak. This cloak woven from the blackness between the stars clads you for a TURN; while wearing it, you’re only perceptible by magical entities. (Broken humerus)

3 Word of Murder. Call out in blasphemous tones and point at someone. A feather tattoo appears on their body. It will kill them in 13 days. (The skull of a Demon Lord)

4 Bird Soul. Animate an object with the spirit of a dead bird for a TURN. Good luck getting it to do anything useful. (A tea kettle filled with boiling blood)

5 Crowsflesh. You take a half-avian form for a TURN, your toes morphing into claws and your arms into atavistic wings of jet. (A statuette carved from a petrified tree)

6 Warp. The flesh of your target blooms and calcifies under your touch, inducing a random MUTATION. (A Moon Orchid)

7 Cry. Your mournful laments are understood by all who hear, so long as they are utterly pessimistic. Choose one living creature, you two can converse for a TURN. (Tears)

8 Psychopomp. Kill someone. You can pull the soul of a FRIEND dead for no more than a day into that body. That body can never heal through natural means. (A golden scythe)

OTHER POSSIBLE SPELLS: Wardenship of the Flock, Bird Familiar, Beast Command, Growth

2 MOON

1 Terraform. Everything FAR from you becomes a lunar biome: salt spires, crater-valley, fungal pit, sulphur sea, sugar-hive, the Moon Monarch’s Manor, or another. (Moon rock)

2 Crown of the Lunar Queen. A halo of glowing moon rock appears above a touched target’s head; they obey your commands for d4 ROUNDS. (Crown of a dead ruler)

3 Moon’s Nimbus. Moonlight shines around you for a TURN. It acts as natural sunlight, and no creature can enter the light without your permission. (Blue flame)

4 Regality of Moths. For a TURN, people assume you’re important, and you can levitate a handspan off the floor. (A living moth the size of your head)

5 Bind Moon-Beast. 50% this is some wildlife, like a Trilobite or a Stone Flower. 40% this is an intelligent member of the Moon Court, like the Bubble Wizards of t’Keem. 10% this is the Moon Monarch herself, who can grant wishes or bestow knighthoods. (Mithril bell)

6 Phase Change. The moon immediately changes to your choice of phase, or if it’s during the day, a solar eclipse occurs, lasting a TURN. Don’t overthink it. (A silver blade)

7 Melancholy Melody of the Moon Monarch. For a TURN, the minds of all who hear you sing are filled with thoughts of the worst outcomes of their actions. (Musical instrument)

8 Lunar Lock. Spend d4 ROUNDS carving zodiac symbols on a doorway or entrance to make it impassable for a TURN. (A key made for no door)

OTHER POSSIBLE SPELLS: Lycanthropy, Meteor, Zodiac Invocation, Solar Wrath, Read Stars

3 GLASS

1 Lacerating Carapace. You get +1 DEF for d4 ROUNDS as your skin sprouts broken flesh-shards. When something CLOSE hits you, it takes 1 WOUND. (Trilobite shell)

2 Prism. Create a monochromatic illusion your size or smaller for d4 ROUNDS. (Prism)

3 Sanguine Signatory. Take a WOUND to write a command in blood. As long as it’s wet (usually a TURN), all who read it must follow it. (A Devil’s quill pen)

4 Oubliette. Open a portal to a random place in the cosmos; a target you touch is banished therein for d4 ROUNDS or until a countercharm is performed. (Gold manacles)

5 Invulnerability. Touch an object to make it impervious to damage or FUMBLES for d4 ROUNDS. If you touch a creature, they are petrified for the duration. (Adamant dust)

6 Mirror Walk. Shatter the fabric of space-time to teleport FAR or open a portal to a random part of the cosmos that persists for d4 ROUNDS. (A mirror containing a soul)

7 Ocular Pearl. Summon a small ball of glass. You can see auras while holding it, and can see through it remotely if it’s in the same HEX as you. (Diamond monocle)

8 Open Door. Millenia ago, before the Cataclysm, the Doors were a network of inter-cosmic portals. They probably still work fine. (Keystone of a wizard’s front door)

OTHER POSSIBLE SPELLS: Resonance, Eldritch Lenses, Reverse Time, Shatter Reality

4 ASH

1 Emberwind. Anyone caught in this cone of whirling cinders takes 2 WOUNDS, and anything flammable ignites. (Weeds from under the First Tree)

2 Blitzschreiben. Carve a rune of lightning into something. The next thing to touch it takes 2 WOUNDS and is deafened by a peal of thunder. (Lightning in a bottle)

3 Fever Dream. Touch someone to cure them of all their Addiction to a drug, or all of their WOUNDS, STRESS, or FATIGUE. They fall into a coma for 24 hours. (‘Shrooms)

4 Memento Ignius. Touch a fresh corpse and ask it a question; it must answer as truthfully as it can, though bodies know less than minds. (A 6-fingered cat’s paw)

5 Maelstrom. Control the weather for a TURN; you can make it as extreme or strange as you please. (The claws of a Wind Dragon)

6 Erode. Touch something inanimate; it crumbles, rusts, or otherwise decays. (Bone axe)

7 Creation’s Song. Spend d4 ROUNDS singing sacred, cosmically resonant tones to manifest a simple object made of one material that takes up one slot. (432Hz tuning fork)

8 Conduit. Your flesh invokes a long-forgotten primordial form; you become an Angel of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, or Air for a TURN, taking 1 FATIGUE after. (Burned effigy)

OTHER POSSIBLE SPELLS: Summon Mephit, Deaden the Ley, Call Colossus, Homunculus

CREATING AND RESEARCHING SPELLS: SPELLS can be researched with LONG EXPENSIVE PROGRESS. At the end of that time, roll INT. If you succeed, you have made the SPELL, and whenever you roll for a SPELL, you can choose that SPELL instead. If you fail, you know how to obtain the SPELL, but it won’t be easy. It may be contained in a wand sequestered in a distant crypt or locked in the failing mind of the Archdruid in the Maze, for example. You can research the location of a TOKEN for any given SPELL with SHORT PROGRESS, though if the TOKEN is a ubiquitous object, it won’t be very fruitful.

MAKING A SPELL

• There are no generic SPELLS. Every SPELL should have some unique dimension or bit of flavor beyond the lowest common denominator. For example, there’s no Magic Missile, but instead Screaming Skull, whose whispers of madness cause STRESS.

• 2 WOUNDS, d4 ROUNDS, and a TURN are good starting points. You want each SPELL to be capable of being PUSHED, so err on the side of weak.

• Chaos is your friend. SPELLS should shake things up when used, and be found randomly, with strange effects and narrow utility. What might the spell Hold Acorn do?

• Implications are your friend. A SPELL shouldn’t go for more than 2 or 3 lines. Assume that ambiguity can be cleared up by PUSHING the SPELL to get it to do what you want.

• As a rule, summoned creatures don’t have to like you by default. They behave as they normally would, which could create more problems than it solves.

d10 types of True Names

1 Polysiliballic fantasy nonsense chock full of apostrophes 

2 The one word that best describes your soul 

3 An intricate rune

4 The name of the person playing the character/NPC

5 A song

5.5 A limerick

6 A normal, modern name

7 Plug the race/class/name/species into Google translate, then put it through Russian, Japanese, Spanish, German, Swedish, and then finally back into a language of your choice

8 Choose a random word/name in the nearest book 

9 A number, the rank of your cosmic importance 

10 The letters you read when you close your eyes so tight the little white spots appear

Four Types of Old Magick

    Those who call to the stars above and look to the bones of the damned do not deal with runes. No, their magic cuts closer to the lifeblood of reality itself. These are the forces they invoke, and the magicks they wield. It is wild and strange and powerful, so pursue with caution. Each description is accompanied by 3 limited-use blessings. How they are granted, and the ramifications of their effects, are entirely up to you, but be warned, they may change your games and worlds forever.

Raven: They are the cries in the woods, mimicking the beasts and children. Icy black wings flutter as they soar in the warm night, flying as one. Their magic is of the beast, and of the night, and of darkness.

    Wings of Murder. Blades of the night sprout from your back. You can fly, and become invisible in darkness. In addition, your wings are sharp, and anyone killed by them will never come back by any means. However, you have attracted the ire of the winged folk, who will always cry out upon sensing your presence, and attack you if they feel good about their chances, which is rare.

    Forest Eyes. The beasts and plants bend to your will. You can command them to do whatever you so please, and can see out of their eyes at will, but every time you do this, your lifespan grows shorter and shorter.

    Crow´s Eye. You can see five seconds into the future. If you act on what you see, the timeline can change. Be warned, some events are fixed in time, and reality will lash out against attempts to interfere.

Ash: The lightning, the thunder, the forest fire, the storm, the flood. All of nature's primal fury. It all will begin in dust, and end in dust. This is the way it has been, and the way it will be.

    Holocaust. You can touch a spot and specify a time up to a year in the future. At that time, a bolt of divine fury will strike, and a wall of fire will burn outwards until it is stopped naturally or until it consumes a creature with a pure heart. This power has been rumored to consume worlds if not carefully contained.

    From Dust. Once, touch the remains of a creature. They will return immediately at full strength, against any odds or conditions, even the will of gods. Once you do so, your strength is sapped as long as they remain alive.

    Storm´s Avatar. Your blood is the wind, and your tears are the rain. You control the weather anywhere in the world at any time. In addition, if you die from unnatural means, the world is plunged into an eternal storm until your body is ritually consecrated.

Moon: The rays of darkened light from the Observer shine on the whispers in shadows. The Observer's grace is only rivaled by her cold majesty. Those who wear her crown are her penumbra, and walk the line between day and night, life and death.

    Lunar Crown. The Observer blesses you with a headpiece of polished moon rocks. It is unconsciously recognized as a symbol of great authority by all who behold it, even if they may not know what it is. Over time, it calcifies over more of your body, making you more majestic and better armored. Eventually, however, you will be trapped in a shell of calcified moon rock.

    Meteor. Once, you can call down a meteor. Its destruction is total, and it will carry with it vestiges of the stars above. When you do so, you ascend to the stars as an act of celestial balance, lost forever wandering the constellations and planets above.

    Hard Light. You can project this nimbus of astral light. Anyone entering the light´s path must choose to either retreat or be burned by this luminous halo. You can choose to negate this effect. Alternatively, there is an alternate version of this incantation that projects an aura that bolsters willpower and vitality within the nimbus.

Glass: Fractals carved in crystal, frozen doorways to other places and other times. A shimmering liquid light, colors pouring out like fish from a transparent stream. Their magic is is the mirror and the window and the door and the blade and the hourglass.

    Turn the Clock. Once, you can travel to any point in time. Anyone near you comes with you. You get approximately to where you need to go, and your travelling companions get approximately close to where you land. More precision may be possible with much planning and ritualistic study.

    Occulus. Your eyes are replaced with multifaceted crystals that can pierce illusions, lies, and facades. Eventually, you will go blind as you being to see through even what is real.

    Door to the Desert. You can open a shimmering gateway in the air to a vast desert, littered with portals. The portals lead anywhere and anywhen, but never go to exactly where you need or want them to. Once you step into the desert, the portal closes forever.

--

Here are some strange factions to introduce these magics into your world. Not much is known about them, and all reports and documentation of them are tinged by rumormongering and xenophobia. What mysteries of their mystic lore will be plumbed, and what revelations about the universe do they quietly safeguard?

The Heretics of the Wood dwell in the endless Vipernoss, its golden leaves cloaking their rituals and prayers. They venerate the creatures of the sky, looking upwards for their wisdom. They read omens in the clouds and the stars and the flights of the birds, and their idols are twisted and mutated animals stitched from the hides of the hunted.

The Blasphemers of the Sacrosanct Peak occupy a great mountain on the Xorshed Alps. They dwell the caverns and caves that riddle the slopes of the mountain they call the Progenitor. They delve into the earth below for their blessings, and eat the gems from their mines as a form of worship. They believe that if they delve deep enough, they will find the Sun Below, and it will grant them all their heart´s desires.

The Driftwood Papacy is a shadowy organization, dwelling entirely on the Arabus Ocean. No explorer has made it to their (rumored) fortress of floating flotsam and explored the greatest temple of their waterlogged faith, but it is said that a demigod lies slumbering in the lowest chamber, their waterlogged tomb lying at the convergence of many leylines.

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

GLoGtober day 11: Space

It began as many things do, with a wizard in a tower. A star, laid low by the stellar wars above, plummeted to the earth just as the wizard was looking through her telescope. The wizard spared no time in rushing to the location of the fallen star and imprisoning it in a Fractal Prism before taking it back to her tower. A star is a source of great power, and the wizard used this to lift her tower into the air, connected to the earth in mighty chains.

As the years past, the wizard grew bitter in her isolation as the planets churned in the velvet dark above. She decided to cast off her mortal flesh with the power of the star, separating her skull and alchemically transforming it into crystal so she could live forever. But this ritual caught the attention of nearby celestial bodies- the Aurora Borealis, ever hungry, seeks to devour the fallen star, the Dark Star seeks to take it as a prisoner of war, and the Moon seeks to protect and save the young star (or does she?).

As these celestial forces collide, the PCs, mundane farmhands, are thrust into a science-fantasy, folkloric, psychedelic Neil Gaiman fever dream. Will they escape the Chained Metropolis of the Crystal Skull?

WHY ARE THE PCs GOING TO THE METROPOLIS?

1-2 They simply got lost while doing some mundane task

3 They’re seeking the star as a gift for someone else

4 They think the ground-up Fractal Prism will cure Granny of her cough

5 The moon asked them to

6 A gaggle of witches has made their home in the Metropolis

HOW DO THEY GET THERE?

1 Getting lost in their hometown

2 Entering the hollow mountain

3 Jumping onto the North Star

4 Entering the cursed cairn right outside of town on Hallow’s Eve

5 Punching through the Glass Lake

6 Bargaining with the Nebula Troll for a ride on his comet

GENERATING THE METROPOLIS

Drop a small handful of dice on a piece of paper or whiteboard. Doesn’t have to be any particular number or size. Of these dice, half should be blue, half should be red, and exactly one should be gold.

The red and blue dice are standard rooms. The gold dice is either the room where the star is kept, or, if you’re running a multi-level dungeon, the entryway to the next floor. The number on the dice dictates not only the type of room it is, but the encounter you have in that room. Once you drop the dice, draw some astronomic-looking room shapes and connections, reference the encounter in each room, write it all up and tweak to taste, and get to gaming!

ROOMS

1 Skull Node. On a rune-covered plinth, a small icon of a crystal skull sits. If three of these icons throughout the Metropolis are destroyed or removed from the plinth, the chains holding the Metropolis in place break!

2 Stellar Crucible. This heated forge, painful and blinding to behold, has the power to melt down or destroy most anything, including a Fractal Prism...

3 Atheneum. Towering stacks of books spiralling off for what may well be miles. Gravity pulls whichever way you will it, and spiraling walkways cross the intersecting tunnels of books. Pull out a book at random and it will become useful later in your life.

4 Observatory. Looking through the massive telescope sees an impossible star feld, the center of which shows a pure black star eclipsed by the moon, surrounded by the shimmering green borealis. Perhaps the massive telescope could be exploited?

5 Lunar Node. This room has french windows that look out to a lunar landscape. Breaking the doors down is near impossible, you would need a key, or perhaps a poker heated in a Stellar Crucible, to walk on the moon. Hang on, is that a city on the horizon?

6 Gauntlet. An extension of the wizard’s will. Some form of complicated puzzle or fiendish trap hinders intruders, or perhaps guards some hidden passage or treasure.

7 Labyrinth. The Metropolis twists back on itself, winding in obfuscating loops and forking impossibly, all while illusory eyes blink from the walls. Close your eyes and walk straight to leave the terrifying maze, lest you meet the Beast Below.

8 Gallery. Art and taxidermy from across cosmic history are on display. Be careful, if you steal one of the priceless artifacts, perhaps one of the taxidermied monsters isn't as dead as you might suspect!

9 Illusion Room. The strongest will in the room dictates how this room looks. In each iteration, there is a single incongruous object hidden in the simulation- destroy it, and the illusion fades.

10 Wizard’s Crypt. A massive coffin in the center of the room contains a false version of the wizard, whose deeds and titles are inscribed all over the sarcophagus. The false version is a spell-slinging, mutant, undead monster, and attacks if the coffin is opened. Perhaps there is treasure in the alcoves, or in a hidden compartment under the coffin?

11 Spiraling Tower. A narrow spiral staircase swirls around a virtually infinite fall. At the very top of the tower is a skull node (see 1). This room works best when connected to many others and escape relies on dashing up or down stairs to evade a pursuer.

12 Key Room. Every key in the known multiverse has a copy here, so long as you know where to look. The directory, infinitely large, will not give the location of the key the reader seeks unless the wizard’s name is spoken aloud- could be a massive time waster. Then again, the keys it does give usually have some utility, no matter how obscure...

13 Metropolitain Madness. The wizard is mad, and this madness is reflected in the growing architecture of the place. Walls clip at odd angles, non-euclidean geometry hinders, furniture warps through 4d space, nothing makes sense.

14 Specimen Room. All species of all shapes and sizes are represented, frozen in pickling brine for alchemical and anatomical investigation. Empty aquariums lie about… perhaps another specimen could be added to the collection!

15 Portal Network. Filled with a dizzying array of doors, many of which are sealed with chains or marked off with chalk, each of them leading to disparate places not only across Prima Materia, but across the multiverse.

16 Alchemy Lab. Stocked with every piece of equipment imaginable and with shelves of alchemical formulae. Perhaps a valuable potion needs a resource from another room?

17 Feast Hall. The massive central table is piled with absolutely delectable food. Those who begin to eat cannot willingly stop until they burst. However, if they are led out of the room and out of sight of the food, their desire to eat fades. The food self-replicates.

18 The Quartz Computer. Hooked up to a dizzying array of cables and arcanomechanical circuitry is a massive, glowing chunk of quartz. It knows the Metropolis perfectly, and will help the PCs so long as they agree not to destroy any skull nodes (see 1) or steal the star. It is a potent foe- it can lock any door or activate any trap!

19 Shrine to the Arcane Mistress. This towering mass of candles is a shrine to the goddess of magic. If honored properly, the shrine grants permanent detect magic. If stolen from or disrespected, the candles animate into a wax golem, and the coins and gems scattered about melt into puddles.

20 Wizard’s Hoard. Go crazy. What sort of strange guard or puzzle defends this massive collection of sundry artifacts and hyper-powerful magics?

RED DICE: THE DARK STAR

Red odd: Dark Star Gions, foot soldiers of the Dark Star’s stellar armies. Look like multicolored platonic solids warping and shifting through space, inverting flesh on a touch. At large enough volume, sound can banish them back to the void between stars. 

Red even: The conniving, immortal Children of the Dark Star: Meridian (the Mithril Tower, always tells the truth), Mercury (the Blade of the Dread Pits, always lies), Magisterium (the Arcing Light, always silent). How can you stop that which cannot die?

Red min: The Dark Star rises, blazing red light through all the windows. It burns and melts flesh, but all illusions are made apparent in the eerie glow.

Red max: Make up your own sinister emissary of the Dark Star!

BLUE DICE: THE AURORA BOREALIS

Blue odd: Naergandra Nettle, a witch with stars in her eyes and a voice like hissing bellows. She commands magic, even other’s, intuitively, but is weak to iron and the sun.

Blue even: Refractor Automata, walking mechanical lightbulbs with a fraction of the Borealis trapped in their bulb, powering them. Fragile, but deeply intelligent, and always found in groups of 2d6+.

Blue min: The Borealis tries to manifest itself through roaring, electric wind that dispels magic and the potential to destroy magic items

    Blue max: Make up your own villainous agent of the Aurora Borealis!

GOLD DICE: THE STAR AND THE MOON AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Gold odd: The Headless Wizard, a shambling body with a paralytic touch and a gaping wound that spews poison gas

Gold even: The Crystal Skull, a flying, psychic entity capable of powerful magics

Gold min: Roll for one red dice encounter and one blue dice encounter

Gold max: Make up your own climactic encounter!

NOTE: If you’re doing the multi-level variant, hold off on rolling this or choose another encounter at random.

If the rooms are too busy for your tastes (as sometimes you get the blue/red/gold encounter AND an extra monster in the room), don’t hesitate to cut, alter, or add in your own encounters. This is a framework for fast and easy prep, but it’ll take a little bit of extra elbow grease to get it to work to your tastes and specifications.

TWISTS

1 The wizard genuinely seeks what’s best for the star, and the Fractal Prism is intended as a defense, not a prism

2 The Aurora Borealis seeks to put her back into the night sky, and the star is simply a draft-dodger

3 The Moon actually wants to eat the young star to regain her youthful beauty

4 The Dark Star only wants the Fractal Prism, if the star can be safely extracted, the Dark Star has no problems with letting it fly free

5 There is no star in the Fractal Prism, the wizard was bluffing

6 The Metropolis actually exists halfway into the Plane of Dreams, and if the star is taken, it will be fully pulled into that realm, never to return

Magisterium, Mercury and Meridian stand in front of the Metropolis of the Crystal Skull

Points to whoever can name what Neil Gaiman book I'm reading now.