The Four Cities 1. Aurath

A series played using Palimpsest. This post is published under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence.

City 1: Aurath

Descriptors: Arcane, Mundane, Peaceful.

Concept: A utopian city where magic is widely practised and nobody wants for anything.

Flaw: Passivity; they refused to take action, trusting fate to protect them.

Lenses: Astromancy guild, Street prophets, Aetheric currents, City infrastructure.

Epoch 1

Keystone: What is daily life like?

Astromancy guild: Rituals at dawn, noon, dusk and midnight. Bells, prayers, smoke at regular intervals.

Street prophets: Street corner doomsayers, underground oracle cults, sanctioned augury by stars.

Aetheric currents: Flowing across the city from the four corners. The city a confluence of forces.

City infrastructure: Automata hauling goods for studious citizens. Silent traffic between libraries.

Flashpoint: Astromancers foresaw signs but failed to act in time, too constrained by ritual.

Epoch 2

Keystone: What has been overcome?

Astromancy guild: Disorder. The guild calendar brings order and structure to the citizens’ lives.

Street prophets: [R] An ancient Stone Circle where the gods were appeased with blood.

Aetheric currents: Mortality. Vitality floods through the bodies of the city. Renewal and rebirth.

City infrastructure: Gravity. Towers and bridges stretch up and across the city, above the swamp.

Flashpoint: The people’s hubris angered the forgotten gods.

Epoch 3

Keystone: What conflicts are brewing?

Astromancy guild: [R] Oubliette Tower where dissidents are exiled. We must not look at it.

Street prophets: Tighter restrictions on cults lead to black market seers taking root in the depths.

Aetheric currents: Wild magic surges are more frequent, mutations are being reported in children.

City infrastructure: Flickers of sentience are taking hold among the older automata.

Flashpoint: They tried to harness power beyond their means.

Epoch 4

Keystone: What is beautiful here?

Astromancy guild: The firmament lights the darkest night until the sun’s triumphant return.

Street prophets: Dreams come more often and herald a return to a primal state of bliss.

Aetheric currents: [R] Crystal Array of focusing lenses and lines of gold and silver.

City infrastructure: Automata whisper of the birth of a new god who lead them to freedom.

Flashpoint: Old gods bring ruin and a new god brings revolt.

Downfall

The swamp consumes much of the city and the automata leave to find meaning in their own community. The region is shunned for close to a century before settlers begin to edge their way into the dead city.

Remnants

The Stone Circle where blood was shed in ancient rites.

The Oubliette Tower where dissidents are imprisoned.

The Crystal Array that harnesses the aetheric currents that power the city.

Astral Plane 2

A series played using Dreamstone Soup. This post is published under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence.

Concept: The crystalline beings of the icy oceans sense the astral travellers arrival and take action.

Lifestones: 5 | Dream points: 50

Our choir drifts in the depths, singing to each other as we plan our next performance. Our discussion takes the form of practised scales and harmonies. We fall into a hushed silence when we hear a new song reach out to us. It seems to come from all directions and sounds unlike any song we have ever heard. We instinctively try to pinpoint its location.

Difficulty 25 | Spending 10 Dream points | 1d20 = 8 + 10 = 18. Fail.

We send out inquisitive notes, hoping to find a point of origin for the mysterious song. Our voices reach into the silvery waters of the world and along the walls of its borders, but return alone. None of the choirs can find the source. Our choir is abuzz with confused chatter, fragments of melodies layering over each other, harmonies combining and fracturing. Smaller, discrete harmonies begin to cluster together, though we soon realise the new harmonies are mutually discordant. At first we try to reconcile the discord into our overall performance.

Difficulty 20 | Spending 5 Dream points | 1d20 = 18 + 5 = 23. Success.

It is taxing, but we slowly integrate our differences into a more complex and nuanced soundscape than we'd achieved prior. Overflowing with joy we sing out to the others, to share our new song. We listen for responses from the other choirs, but are met with silent. We push down our doubts, telling ourselves the others must still be resolving their own internal conflicts. We sing on regardless to inspire further discourse.

Difficulty 15 | Spending 5 Dream points | 1d20 = 4 + 5 = 9. Fail.

We sing on and as night draws in we sink down into dormancy until the time that our choir slowly drifts in the dawn’s light as we regain mobility. To our dismay we are greeted by the clash of sounds, many voices reach out to us but as individual singers. We strain to hear some harmony or shared motifs, but none are present. Our neighbouring choirs are lost. The ice around us continues to thaw until we have freedom to move. We debate the best responses, again discord surfaces but as before we integrate it and draw strength from it. We decide to move apart to travel to the others to comfort them. We will use our new harmony to stay aligned over the distance. We begin our journeys, our song coordinating our efforts and heralding our coming.

Difficulty 10 | 1d20 = 15. Success.

We widen our configuration, each member a node in our vast melodic net. In time we reach the first fragments of shattered choirs and send out invitational notes. Some of them respond and the slow process of harmonising begins. As our choir grows in size and complexity we learn of the new mystery song; a new voice that descended into a world bringing a new song that can shift and flow like the waters of the day. We sit in reflective silence, reducing our internal song to the merest hum; enough to maintain unity. We listen to the tides for traces of the mystery, we hope that our large topography will allow us to catch an echo if nothing else.

Difficulty 10 | Spending 5 Dream points | 1d20 = 14 + 5 = 19. Success.

Our choir hears the echo of the mystery song and pinpoints its direction. Conferring among ourselves we estimate that we can reach it within no more than a few centuries. We regroup to a more respectable proximity and begin our joyous journey. We sing among ourselves in anticipation of finally learning of the source of our creation. As we travel, our excitement is a beacon drawing the fragments of other broken choirs to us. Some are cautious in their newfound individuality; some join us but some reject unity in favour of isolation. We can’t agree but we must respect their choices. Many join with us and in time most of the choirs of the great ocean are united. Finally, we reach the point of origin and attempt first contact with our creator.

Difficulty 25 | Spending 15 Dream points | 1d20 = 20 + 15 = 35. Success.

Our song is transformed and becomes transformational. The creator sings to us of their creation; the silver star, the inner fire, the shadow without a moon. When we hear the song, our visions are expanded beyond anything we have ever known. We hum among ourselves, hesitant to sing now that we know such wondrous notes. We soon realise that we don’t need to sing or even hum in order to communicate. The barriers that divided our minds soften and dissolve. We are finally one in the truest sense and have nowhere else to sing but outwards into the world. We reach out with our own divine music and, like the daily freeze and thaw of the ocean, we reshape the world.

Difficulty 25 | Spending 10 Dream points | 1d20 = 18 + 10 = 28. Success.

Each note of our song takes on a life of its own, our symphony is multifaceted and always evolving into new and more complex arrangements. Our song stretches into the heavens and touches both the shadow and the inner fire, drawing fragments of them down into our song. Ice forms bodies, inner fire forms souls, and shadow forms minds that are veiled from each other. We fall silent and listen to our new song unfold.

Astral Plane 1

A series played using Dreamstone Soup. This post is published under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence.

Concept: An astral traveller adrift in a swirling storm of elemental forces. They must use their will to calm the storm and bring a new world into being.

Lifestones: 5 | Dream points: 50

A vast shadows fell over me, blocking the light of the silver sun far above me. I turned and saw a gigantic wall of water towering over me, already beginning to topple under its own weight. I took a deep breath, focused my thoughts into a blade of brilliant white light, and prepared to strike my opponent.

Difficulty 20 | Spending 5 Dream points | 1d20 = 5 + 5 = 10. Fail (lose 1 Lifestone).

I swung my blade toward the crushing mass of water, but my opponent deflected it with the sheer weight of its form. The blade was smothered and snuffed out as my mind was consumed by the all-consuming need for air. The silvery light of the sun dimmed. I was being pushed further and further beneath its reach. I tried to empty my thoughts in the hopes of creating the ballast to lift me to the surface.

Difficulty 10 | Spending 5 Dream points | 1d20 = 10 + 5 = 15. Success.

I felt myself floating closer and closer, the light increasing until I broke the surface. However, I kept rising and soon the silver light was filling my field of vision. I looked away and tried to find another landmark to draw myself toward. All I could see was the light of the sun, which was now beginning to chill my skin with its icy glow. I reached deep into my heart, hoping to stoke the embers of my inner fire. I'd need its heat to withstand the white sun's icy embrace.

Difficulty 10 | 1d20 = 14. Success.

I felt the heat fill me as my heart flared, the inner fire consuming me. Spectral flames extended about me like a corona. I bent space around me to lens the light of my soul, making a searchlight to seek out refuge. I felt myself come to a halt, my ascent stalled somehow. I reflected on my circumstances and wondered if the opposing poles of heat and cold, myself and the star, were in a state of equilibrium. I reached out with my beacon again, hoping to draw matter to me.

Difficulty 15 | Spending 10 Dream points | 1d20 = 3 + 10 = 13. Failure.

The astral bent around me and motes of dust, droplets of water, and gusts of wind answered my call, but larger quantities of matter and energy were sluggish to respond. The earth remained immobile and beyond my graspm, however, I felt a growing swell of heat and moisture; the former drawn to my inner fire, the latter drawn to the echo of the tsunami. I tried to steer the water toward the silver star, in lieu of earth we have ice.

Difficulty 15 | Spending 6 Dream points | 1d20 = 14 + 6 = 20. Success.

Slowly but surely, a shell of rapidly freezing water was encasing the silver star. I watched the ice sphere that was growing thicker until a sizable planet floated before me. Even with my inner fire enhanced by the ambient heat, the planet remained mostly solid. As is rotated, oceans and rivers thawed on the day side, only to freeze again at night. Curious as to how lunar forces might complement this, I put out a call for suitable candidates.

I was taken aback when a disc of purest night began to eclipse my ice planet. I came to know that here in the astral, shadow itself is an element that can be manipulated. I watched my moonless shadow pass aside and my icy diamond return to my field of view, marvelling at how the tidal movements had shaped the temporary oceans. I reached out with my mind and tried to inspire life in the depths.

Difficulty 25 | Spending 15 Dream points | 1d20 = 14 + 15 = 29. Success.

Beneath the frigid waves I felt the stirring of new life! Even on an icy world orbited by a moon of darkness, the astral was seeding new life, new minds. I waited patiently to see how it would develop. Vast crystalline beings with metabolisms so slow they measured on a geological scale. I heard their dreams first, and then their songs as they grew consciousness of each other. I sought to join them when I heard them sing their search for a source of their people. Knowing my inner fire must remain to preserve the balance of this world and its life, I tried to detach myself from it, to permanently cast myself in their image.

Difficulty 20 | Spending 9 Dream points | 1d20 = 2 + 9 = 11. Failure (lose 1 Lifestone).

The inner fire would not relinquish me easily, as soon as my mind was free, I felt it seared by the flames that had once embodied me. The solar winds of my new sun buffeted me and sent me spiralling toward my shining world and it tenebrous moon. As I drifted further, the pain of my sun's heat began to lessen and I found I was slowly gaining more control of my descent. Not one moment too soon as on the periphery of my view I saw my shadow approaching. I tried to speed up to avoid becoming ensnared in its gravity.

Difficulty 10 | 1d20 = 10. Success.

I skirted the shadow's edge but evaded its grasp. I fell to the icy world and my life began.